I wear the uniform of the Alexander teacher. I wear the little hat and the fringes. I have the Alexander name. I abstain from the forbidden foods and observe the sacred holidays.
Despite my joy in playing dress-up, when the rubber hits the road, I’m pretty slovenly in upholding the sacred precepts of observation, inhibition and direction.
When I didn’t have a job, it was easy for me to lie on my back in active rest and to listen to learned Robert Rickover discourses and to imagine that I was pretty much the epitome of the F.M. Alexander way.
Then I took a job. A real job. Not an Alexander job. A job in the real world doing worldly things with worldly people. And then how quickly did I forget to inhibit. How quickly and unthinkingly did I respond to stimuli and soon I was regaling people with tales of my life in the industry and how I worked with all the legends and the time the director told me to give him a FIP and instead I gave him the real thing.
I had a teacher who said I was just looking for a way to identify myself in the universe. I wasn’t the real deal. I didn’t walk the talk. Sure, I took days off commemorating the Work’s birth, death and resurrection, but in my day to day behavior, I did not exhibit the grace that goes with the uniform.
I don’t have much of a core, so I grasp for traditions to steady myself and in the process despoil everything good I touch.
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A 30-year-old mother of four, aspiring model, and former member of Brooklyn’s Hasidic community is fighting for a divorce from her allegedly abusive husband and for custody of her children. “It was an arranged marriage,” Pearlperry Reich tells the Post, referring to her wedding to Sinai Susholz when she was 18-years-old. “We got married and right away we had issues.” Reich claims that Susholz “cut up her $4,000 wig and told her mother in front of their children that she was a “slut.” Susholz apparently has taken to Facebook to accuse her of “promiscuous sexual activities.”
Reich has moved away from Borough Park to New Jersey, but still keeps an Orthodox home for her children. “My dressing in pants and being openly non-conforming to their standards is NEVER in front of my children,” she wrote in an email to the Daily Mail. Shusholz’s attorney is arguing that because she is no longer personally observant, the couple’s children, ages 5 to 9, are at risk. “It’s not in the best interest of the children to raise them other than how they’ve been brought up,” the attorney says.
Nikki emails: Dear Luke,
I am modern Orthodox women from New Jersey who has over the years met the now fairly famous, or maybe rather infamous PearlPerry Reich from Lakewood a couple times and have friends in Lakewood who actually know her quite well. Honestly the first thing that struck me about the whole story was- How can she do this to her kids? I don’t give a damn how miserable she was, is that a reason to permanently scar and ruin her kids lives??
Rumors have been pouring forth. I have has no question that she is very troubled women. All you need to do is hear her say shes an x-hasid actress and a model even though shes in her 30’s, is married with four hasidic kids and has an open relationship with her boyfriend that looks like hes in 12th grade, watch her interview, and hear the horror stories about how shes been neglecting her kids, and you’ll start wondering if the rumors about her are only rumors or maybe there’s allot of truth to them.
In any case this women or I should say this story has been the butt of many jokes and articles on blogs over the last few months. The the daily texts jokes that’s being passed around are endless. Some made me laugh so hard I almost started crying, others made just plain cry. The following is gem someone emailed me that that they found on line:
**The following transcript is a work of fiction inspired by true events.
Names have been changed to protect the identity of the pure and innocent helpless children.**
Selfish and Abusive Mom’s Magazine [SAM MAG.]
recently sat down with Miss PPP Reich to hear her thoughts about her recent rise to fame.
S.M: Thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to speak with us. It’s really a privilege.
P: You’re welcome. It is a privilege, you have no idea how busy I am.
S.M: So let’s get started. I know this sounds ridicules but what’s your
real name? Is it Perry or Penina or Pairaleh or Porn…? Please
clarify.
P: I guess any of the above.
S.M: Which do you prefer?
P: It depends, I don’t like to commit to one, I have a problem with commitment.
S.M: So tell us about your background. You were brought up in Boro Park?
P: Yes. I grew up in Boro Park and had a great childhood. I went to a
Chasidiser Bais Yaakov, I’m not going to say the name because I think
they’re embarrassed.
S.M: Were you always into men growing up?
P: Yes and no. I was always into men, but lately as I grow older I have been more into boys.
S.M.: Like Shauly? Is it true that he’s 8 years younger than you?
P: This is an absolute lie that the frum community has invented. He is only 7 years younger than me.
S.M: So what happened after high school?
P: I went to seminary, dated a few guys and got married to my husband.
S.M: What happened to your marriage? You’re obviously very bitter…
P: From the beginning my husband was very abusive. He once even
sent me a text stating that I’m “playing with fire”. And one time after I
came home very late at night and he was watching the kids, he accused me of being a “slut” cus I was at a club with some friends.
S.M: So did you try working your marriage out?
P: Yes. Very much. The problem is he’s so full of hate, and he’s
bitter. We lived in Lakewood, then in Brooklyn, then in Lakewood again. I have been through so much. None of the neighbors wanted to let they’re kids play with my kids for ridicules reason’s like, gasp, failure to wear a wig, and wearing pants outside the house, and having many male friends. Some married some not Jewish. Back then, I did this at night and only when I went to clubs. Not in the frum stores. It was a secret. Obviously not a very well kept secret I admit. After everyone started calling me a slut, thats when I came out in the open. I mean Its sickening that people would be so closed minded. My children have been in and out of many schools. I have gone through hell, and why? All because the community is concerned about the fact that I don’t keep the rules. I refuse to give in to this pressure.
S.M: Many have claimed…
S.M.Um, excuse me I’m sure your texts are important, but could that hold off until after we finish this interview?
P. Sorry, go ahead.
S.M. Many have claimed that your failure to follow the rules is selfish
since after all your children are paying the bitter price. I mean is it all
worth it for a pair of jeans?
P: This is not all about a pair of jeans. Those are ridicules claims. It’s about pants, and shirts, and bikinis, and not wearing clothing at all. This is America, a free country. It’s not “only jeans”.
S.M: You’re a model and an actress, where have you acted and where have you modeled?
P: I took upon myself to come here today to speak with all of you,
which is a really really hard task for me to do, because I kept my
divorce secret due to trying to preserve the dignity of my children,…
S.M: What does have to do with the question?
P:… the fact that I came on here today was to represent millions and
billions of women going through what am going through today. Now: I…
S.M: You say you kept this a secret to protect the kids dignity. Do you still care about they’re dignity?
P: Yes. But I also need dignity. Telling me that I cant wear jeans,
that I cant get undressed and have my pictures online, that I cant live a life of variety when it comes to men, is taking away my dignity. That
is not a religion that’s a cult. What is written in the scripture is
completely negated. It’s like chocolate cake. They have one agenda, to
keep people in the system. In order to be in the system it’s impossible
to follow the recipe of the bible. The bible is humane. In the system,
if a women wants be married and sleep with other men she will have all
her tools taken away, she looses her job, she loses her kids…
S.M: Well…sort of. So both you and your son went on Dr., excuse me, both you and your friend went on Dr. Phil right?
P: Yes.
S.M: Both of you did not do too bad considering that you can’t really speak English. What country are you from and when did you migrate?
P: I was born in the state of New York in the Boro of Brooklyn, which for you information is one of the 48 states of America.
S.M: You have claimed your sub community is very closed minded and unaccepting, can you explain?
P: I find that most people in general are closed minded and very not understanding. It sickens me how most people out there cant accept other peoples views and are so not understanding. I simple don’t understand it. The frum community is the worst, If you don’t agree with them your automaticly labeled a title. They’re like the Taliban.
S.M: You say you like to follow the Bible only. Are you referring to the new testament or the old testament?
P: Um, The one that says “Ais La’sos Lashem”. I’m not sure if that’s in the newer edition or the older one. In any case the frummies, who claim to be frum have no respect for they’re own Torah. The part of Eis la’sos
Lashem they totally ignore, and negate. They don’t realize the
importance of this.
Making other people happy is also part of the Torah. But nooooo, that part they ignore. Yes, very often Eis La’sos Lashem and happiness, simcha, is ignored.
S.M: Many have claimed that children growing up in frum schools with a
mother like you will ultimately lead them to catastrophic consequences. What’s your response?
P: I would tell them they should try to think out of the system and realize that I am a good mother. I only want the best for my children. It’s none of anyone’s business how frum I am.
S.M: There have been people coming forward recently claiming that you
have been leaving your kids at other peoples houses so you can go party. Recently the Department of Youth and Family Services (DYFS) of New Jersey had gotten involved. Can you address this?
P: I think that the fact that I have been putting my children in others people houses just comes to show actually how responsible I have been with they’re welfare. An irresponsible mother wouldn’t put her kids in a safe environment, Another thing is, these people are a bunch of turn coats all these years they claimed they were helping me, and now they are coming to testify against me. It’s disgusting.
S.M: They say they felt bad for you since they thought you were having marital issues, so they took your kids. They didn’t know
you were going to clubs and Rock concerts with various men.
P: It’s none of they’re business about what I do with my life! Why can’t these frum people understand that it’s none of they’re damn business what other people do.
S.M. Why do you post so many pictures of yourself all over?
P. (Laughing) You know of a better person to post pictures of?
S.M. There are so many pictures of you partying. How do you have so much time?
P. I don’t. I am actually very busy and a single mother of four. But I think everyone can find time for things that are important to them.
S.M: Why do you live in Lakewood, most of the people there are frum?
P:That is another lie the frum people want you to believe. Most of the people there are NOT frum. There are also Mexicans, and other’s too.
Also by living there I am making a statement. This is a free country, I can live where I want. I also like taking pictures together with my kids
by the lake.
S.M: Can you tell us about your new boyfriend?
P: Which one? Shaoly? We have an open relationship. He is a doll. He is a songwriter, composer and rock star. Unlike me, he is an atheist.
S.M: What do the two of you have in common.
P: Well he’s a composer and Rock star, I’m a model and actress. It’s like a perfect Hollywood match.
S.M: Like Madonna and Justin Bieber, accept Madonna looks younger than you?
P: Exactly. We hope to be on the cover of People Magazine.
S.M: What does it feel like to become famous like this so fast?
P: It’s amazing! It’s like a dream come true. We will actually soon be debuting in our very own reality show. There will be three people, we are looking for a fourth.
S.M. Oh, how nice. Good luck with trying to find that fourth person to watch. I’m a little surprised you already have three people willing to watch.
P. Come on, you don’t think its gonna be a huge hit?
S.M: We noticed you have sort of a fan club that is mostly male. Can you explain that.
P: I could… but I won’t (laughing), Seriously, I don’t want my kids to
read this one day and find out. They think I’m frum (laughing). Also men
are perverts sometimes. But I cant live without them (laughing).
S.M. We are almost finished could you please stop texting just until we finish?
P. Sorry. Texting is my second love. The first is Shaoly.
S.M: Can you talk to us about your physical appearance…
P: Sure! My favorite subject.
S.M: How much do you weigh without the makeup?
P: That’s a hard question… I never had that happen.
S.M: How about your hair. What’s your natural color.
P: Contrary to what my husband and my family want you to think, I’m
naturally blond (smiles). All my life since I was born I dyed it brown.
S.M: A couple of current events questions. Rush Limbaugh has recently
come under criticism for calling a women a slut and a prostitute in
public. Do you take offense to that?
P: I don’t think he was talking to me. So the answer no. Although I think that women probably learned
her trick on how to get some free publicity from me. Seriously.
S.M: Who are you endorsing for president? And Why?
P: I’m endorsing President Obama because he is the most pro Palestinian. And I have something for black men.
S.M: Any plans for yourself about running in the future?
P: Yes. I think I have a lot to offer this great country. But right now I have business to tend to at home, Shaoly and my career come first.
S.M. And the kids?
P. They would be fine whatever I do. I’m not worried about them too much.
S.M: One last question. Why do you think there is so much negativity towards you?
P: The answer is obvious: They are all jealous of me. Every one of them.
S.M: Thank you for sitting down with us. We hope you come back.
P: Bye.
Obviously, Ken Jacobson makes his living by goading Jews to feel “overwhelmed demographically” by white gentiles. But the reality is that typical American Jews don’t feel all that overwhelmed. Their view tends to be that America has been very, very good to them and that they’ve been good to America. They tend to identify with their neighbors, their fellow American citizens, their fellow whites, their fellow “historic Americans,” white and black (e.g., Willie Mays is a hero to a lot of older Jewish guys), and so forth and so on. But, this healthy state of affairs is bad for the balance sheets of a few powerful organizations.
All this suggests that that fundamentalist frenzy of Ellis Island kitsch ethnocentrism that currently dominates acceptable thought about immigration has less to do with average Jewish-American citizens than it has to do with the déformation professionnelle of the leaders of explicitly Jewish organizations, of organizations such as the SPLC that are implicitly Jewish because, as Willie Sutton said about why he robbed banks, that’s where the money is; and the media types who interact with them.
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John Derbyshire says: “Here we are, we’re 50 years later, and we’ve still got these tremendous disparities in crime rates, educational attainment, and so on. And I think, although they’re still mouthing the platitudes, Americans in their hearts feel a kind of cold despair about it. They feel that Thomas Jefferson was probably right and we can’t live together in harmony. I think that’s why you see this slow ethnic disaggregation. We have a very segregated school system now. There are schools within 10 miles of where I’m sitting that are 98 percent minority. In residential housing too, it’s the same thing. So I think there is a cold, dark despair lurking in America’s collective heart about the whole thing. That’s one factor. Another factor is the Internet, especially YouTube. Now, you can log on any morning to the Drudge Report and see videos of crowds of black Americans misbehaving. Maybe there should be some videos of white Americans misbehaving, but there just aren’t that many. People are seeing these things and it’s fortifying that despair.”
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On Dennis Prager’s radio show April 18, 2012, Alison Armstrong said: “If a woman asks her man for something, he might go, we can’t afford that. Protect comes before provide. If he’s protecting his own resources, that will trump his desire to provide for her. She needs to honor that and not just think he’s a jerk.”
“When I asked my husband to put in a swimming pool, he just vetoed it and I thought he was a jerk. He calculated my $40,000 swimming was a $250,000 hit to our retirement fund.”
Dennis: “I think, am I protecting us? The issue of money is not what is spent but what is lost in protection.”
Alison: “A man will say no to something and a woman will think, he doesn’t love me. No. He’s protecting something. The no is always protecting something. It might be protecting his own energy. He’s got to get his tank filled before he can say yes.”
“It’s procreate, protect and then provide. Otherwise there’s nothing to protect and provide for.”
“When your man’s head is turned by another woman, it is terrifying to us. Why is it so terrifying to daughters when their divorced father gets his first girlfriend? Because it is procreate, protect and then provide, a man can’t help that his instinct will be first to protect and provide for the person with whom he is procreating. That is who he will protect and provide for first. Women know this instinctively. That’s why we’re so afraid of our man having intercourse with another woman.”
“If procreate is first, why not start the day that way? An intelligent wife doesn’t send a hungry man into the world.”
“When a man’s female type walks by, procreate breaks through the focus of providing and protecting. So when a man’s type walks by, it breaks through your focus. I’ve watched it happen to you during the show. You’re in the middle of providing your show when your type shows up on the TV screen… They put up a lot of your type on TV.”
Dennis: “On Fox News.”
Alison: “We were in a dialogue in one of our courses. There was a question a woman had for her boyfriend. ‘Why do you need so much sex? You went months without it when we weren’t together. Why do you need it so often?’ He was stunned. To him it was obvious, that protecting and providing requires energy, and he gets that from the procreating. It’s what fills the tank and provides the fuel for protecting and providing.”
“Women act with men in the reverse — please provide for me and then I’ll procreate with you. It’s like saying to a car, take me somewhere and then I’ll give you gas.”
“Men don’t know what sex costs women. It costs us biologically. When you ask your wife for sex, she’s checking her own accounts. She’s checking to see if she can afford it. Do we have what it is going to cost us? Sex costs a woman oxytocin. It leaves her feeling disconnected. Foreplay is the process of building oxytocin, which makes her feel like she can afford to have sex. That’s why she wants to snuggle. That starts building it again.”
“A woman with a full-time job outside of the home is not building oxytocin. She’s spending testosterone. She’s exhausted and disconnected at the end of that experience.”
On his radio show Friday, Dennis Prager got a call from a woman asking: “I was calling to get your opinion of breast augmentation?”
Dennis: “Here’s my question for a mature woman, not a high school girl: Why would there be a reason not to?”
Mary: “I guess the opinions of other people thinking you’re being vain?”
Dennis: “What does being vain mean?”
Mary: “That you are more concerned with your outward appearance than what you are inwardly?”
Dennis: “That’s weird.”
“If you shampoo and do your hair, are you not concerned with other people?”
“I don’t know a good argument against a mature woman getting breast augmentation unless she has beautiful breasts.”
Mary: “What about people who say, ‘You should just be happy with what God gave you’?”
Dennis: “I think it is one of the ten stupidest lines I’ve heard in my life.”
“What if God gave you essentially no breasts?”
Mary: “That’s pretty much what I’ve got.”
Dennis: “What if you’re born deaf?”
“I would ask somebody, ‘Why would God want to handicap me in attracting men?'”
“I think you care more about others if you do want to look good. Why should you brush your teeth as often or use mouthwash or deodorant? What does vain mean? Does it mean you care how you look? If so, I’m vain. I care how I look.”
“Exactly how you came out is how God made you and you should do no alteration? What about Siamese twins? Did God make them Siamese twins? Did God make people deaf? Did God make people with all sorts of impediments? It is an insult to God to say that the way you came out of the womb is what God wants. Did God make you a brunette?”
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* Most people today don’t give a flying fig about matters such as purity and impurity. And yet purity is what I want most in a spouse. I want someone who’s not been plucked and yet will be grateful to reap all the benefits I’ve gained through my varied experiences with many different races and religions.
* What is impurity? Rabbi Wein writes: “Impurity of heart and mind is what allows one to mock the righteous and ridicule the pious.”
I knew this talent agent (Shylar at Reb’s Pretty Girl International) in the industry who liked to watch Little House on the Prairie. That was his way of getting pure. In between booking girls for various scenes of degradation, he watched Michael Landon and co.
* Rabbi Wein writes: “We literally wallow in a sea of impurity of thought and evil behavior and we are bombarded constantly by messages and examples of gross impurity and maliciously evil behavior. And we are alone in combating these evils, since the impurity of society ridicules any public attempt at raising the level of purity of that society.”
Ain’t that the truth! I’ve seen so much filthy material on the internet. I even made some of it in my weaker moments. Maybe I’ll read some of the reviews on my past documentary efforts.
* Is it permitted to sing Gentile hymns in the bathroom? If they are about the God of Israel like Abide With Me? Do the goyim’s incorrect notions about the Almighty render it permitted to sing their songs in unholy places like clubs etc?
I think in my Gentile upbringing, it was discouraged to sing Gentile hymns in the bathroom.
* From a Torah perspective, is it good to spend as much time as possible alone (a la Rabbs) or as much time as possible with other Orthodox Jews (a la Luke)?
Rabbi Berel Wein writes: “The traditional translation of tzoraat as leprosy is undoubtedly misleading and inaccurate. The rabbis of the Talmud treated this disease as mainly a spiritual one, albeit reflected in actual physical symptoms. Slander, narrowness of vision, jealousy of others and bad character traits were assigned by the rabbis as being some of the potential causes of the onset of the disease.”
* Rabbi Wein writes: “The Parsha of Metzora deals with the plague of tzoraat – according to the Rabbis of the Talmud, a product of the sin of slander and abusive speech. “Life and death are in the hands of speech and the tongue.” In a society where everyone demands the right to know everything about everyone anytime, it is difficult to promote the ideas of privacy, correct speech and avoidance of gossip and unnecessary curiosity about others.”
* Rabbi Wein writes: “Legend has it that the famed ARI (Rabbi Isaac Luria of sixteenth century Safed) was able to tell a person what one’s sins and spiritual defects were simply by looking at the person’s face.”
I think there are rabbis like that today. My father, the college professor, could tell by looking at his students which of them were masturbating. They’d have a sallow countenance and shifty eyes. I inherited this detective ability. On Monday night’s show, Justin will say a few words in the chat room about “shomer bris.”
* You can try to improve yourself all you want, but whenever you’re confronted with powerful stimuli, your habitual responses to stimuli will take over and your social position will remain unchanged. All of my life I’ve been in the least popular segment of the popular crowd or the most popular segment of the losers. And I’ve been pursuing self-help since about age 11. I’ll meet someone I want to impress and my face will give me away. I won’t be able to sustain my lies or self-delusion when I’m confronted with a truly righteous man.
* Rabbi Wein writes: “In Biblical times the Lord, so to speak, forced us by physical symptoms to come to the kohein and confront our true spiritual state. This was a blessing, albeit in disguise, for it allowed for the necessary diagnosis that could eventually lead to spiritual repair, improvement and advancement. This is the supreme task of the kohein in helping others achieve their betterment. It was therefore a spiritual experience of advancement for the kohein as well. Helping others always helps to cleanse one’s soul and advance one’s spirit.”
* Rabbi Wein writes: “One of the many explanations given as to the connection between lashon hara and tzoraat is that lashon hara attempted to “kill” and defame a person in private and secret – a discreet stab in the back tactic – so the punishment was a public physical disfigurement able to be seen by all.”
According to Rabbi Yaakov Emden, it’s not lashon hara (gossip) if you say it publicly.
* Rabbi Wein: “Lashon hara – evil, gossipy speech – dehumanizes us all. It takes a holy vessel, speech and communicative ability, and defiles it and turns it into an instrument of harm and tragedy.”
* “The Pianist is a 2002 biographical war film directed by Roman Polanski, starring Adrien Brody. It is an adaptation of the autobiography of the same name by Jewish-Polish musician Władysław Szpilman.” Much of the time I was watching this film, I was making out with my shiksa girlfriend of the time. What is it about Holocaust films that makes so many Jews horny?
The Pianist is often called a great film and yet the protagonist doesn’t change. You watch this whole long wrenching film and there’s no development in the main character. It’s not like he became religious or left religion. He didn’t decide he could no longer believe in humanity or in God. He didn’t decide to give up classical music because it led to Auschwitz and to decide instead to play nothing but rock n roll as a celebration of life.
* In the second season of Boardwalk Empire, *spoiler alert* this mother and son get drunk and go home and fornicate. And the whole time they’re locked in the clinch, the son on top, the mother tells the son, “This isn’t wrong.” The Book of Leviticus, however, would strongly disagree. A girl I used to date, she knew a brother-and-sister at yeshiva who used to bang each other. The whole yeshiva knew. I wonder what that would do to your shidduch prospects?
* Who should we blame for the declining birth rate of Jews? I say the primary blame is for Jews who don’t observe Judaism. Those who do, generally speaking, marry early and have lots of kids. Those who want lots of spare time to study poetry and Alexander Technique, these guys tend to not marry.
* Rabbi Wein writes: “Compounding the problem is the high number of abortions undertaken by Jewish women every year, the numbers of these abortions being measured reportedly in the tens of thousands.” Too often, Jewish women use their vaginas as toys while Palestinian women use theirs as cannons. (Chaim Amalek)
One Jewish girlfriend of mine wouldn’t tell me whether or not she’d had an abortion. Another said if I got her pregnant, she’d just get rid of it. (I confess that made me happy because I could plook her all I wanted and not worry about fathering a kid. I was still young in my Jewish journey then, more Reform than Orthodox.) Another said that while she’d never had an abortion, every woman she knew had had one. “It’s just something that every woman goes through.”
One woman I knew threw a party after her abortion. Cold.
Rabbi Wein writes: “We may be heartened by the fact that in the religious Jewish community there is currently a high birthrate, 7.6 in the Charedi society and 4.2 in the Dati society. Eventually, this will cause a vast change in the life, politics and behavior of our country.”
* Rabbi Wein writes: “The Lord told us in advance that we would not be a people of great numbers – “for you are the smallest of all nations.” Nevertheless, we have an obligation to promote increased Jewish population and numbers. Family, children, generations, these are the values that Jews are judged by. It is our way of guaranteeing that the message of Sinai will continue to be heard in a world that so desperately needs to hear it.”
* Rabbi Wein writes: “Having children, how many, when, etc. is really a very personal decision. People from the outside have no right to interfere in other people’s personal decisions regarding so intimate a subject.”
* Rabbi Wein writes: “The laws of plagues, purity and impurity are purely chukim – laws that defy our limited rational capabilities to understand. But this is perhaps the very message that the Torah wishes us to learn and internalize. Much of life is not rational and does not fit into our accustomed schedules and plans. And even the most hardened secularist and/or rationalist must admit that much of life is inexplicable.” You’ll find this particularly true if you ever try to have a relationship with a woman, as I have tried and failed to pull off on countless occasions.
Rabbi Wein writes: “Weird things happen to all of us. There are forces in the world, dreams, inspirations, as well as strangers that suddenly appear that are present in our lives and are real to us though we have no idea how or why they influence us.”
“It is the unseen and intangible that truly carries us through life and its vicissitudes. And that is why the Torah devotes so much space and teachings to such a seemingly esoteric subject.”
* Robin Gibb came out of his coma and spoke to his family thusly, “Well, you can tell by the way I use my walk I’m a woman’s man no time to talk Music loud and women warm I’ve been kicked around, since I was born
And now it’s all right, it’s okay And you may look the other way We can try to understand The New York times’ effect on man”
* Rabbi Wein writes: “All halacha, or for that matter all systems of law in the world, is based on the concept of reasonable presumptions. In Jewish law this is called the concept of chazaka – the presumption that what was, still is. Thus halacha presumes that a husband to still alive even if he has somehow disappeared from sight. It presumes that things found in a certain place were at that place before and were not dragged there. It presumes that if there are no known faults in a person’s pedigree then that person’s pedigree is deemed to be faultless. There are many other examples of how chazaka works as an operating principle in Jewish law. In fact, the Talmud exclaims: “gedolah chazaka” – chazaka is a great and overriding principle of law. The basis for this halachic reliance on chazaka is found in this week’s Torah reading.”
“Presumptions in life are valid. People are judged on their past behavior, on family history, on pedigree and on past experiences. It is foolish to ignore presumptions that are based on legitimate grounds. One cannot ignore the realities that stare one in the face even if those realities do not conform to one’s ideology or wishful view of life. This applies in all areas of personal and national life. One cannot presume that one’s child will turn out all right if he or she is not given the basis of a strong Torah education. There is a chazaka that speaks against such wishful thinking.”
“One cannot wish one’s enemies away and become convinced that the tiger is no longer carnivorous. But the main lesson of chazaka is to be aware that human nature does not easily change and that what was is most likely what will be now as well. The lessons of Jewish history, of what works and what fails, form a strong presumption – gedolah chazaka. All of the “newness” of ideas in today’s Jewish society has, in reality, existed before and failed to contribute to Jewish continuity and national strength and security. The past is a hard taskmaster and a coercive instructor with regard to current choices…”
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