The oldest yeshiva in America has a new administration. The Gifter family (which ran Telshe from 1964) is out in the cold.
The powers now at Telshe include jeweler Jonah Sheinbaum, and rabbis Levitansky, Goldberg and Greenwald.
Employees at Telshe are getting paid late, some a year late. Enrollment is down to 20 students at the yeshiva college and 79 students in the high school. Three years ago, the college had over 50 students and the high school had 155.
Rabbi Mordecai Gifter became the Ha Rosh Yeshiva (head of school) at Telshe in 1964 and started signing the checks to its employees. His son Zalman, a rabbi, began signing checks in 1994. Rabbi Mordecai Gifter died in 2001. Rabbi Zalman Gifter took over as rosh yeshiva.
Rabbis Levitansky, Goldberg and Greenwald took Rabbi Zalman Gifter to a Beit Din (composed of Rabbi Dovid Feinstein — son of Rabbi Moshe Feinstein — of the East Side, Rabbi Aaron Shechter of Yeshiva Chaim Berlin and Rabbi Yisroel Grumer, the chief rabbi of Cleveland) in 2005 and lost.
I guess it all depends on how you define gossip. Dennis Prager’s number one source for items for his show is the Drudge Report, the number one news and gossip website in the world.
On his radio show today, Dennis said: "Let me just say, and I’m going to sound like a devil’s advocate but I’m not. No one knows this wonderful Joseph Telushkin better than I do and cares about the subject almost as much as he does. Also, interestingly, as he can testify, of all the bad things I have to battle in my life, that is not one of them. I don’t have a particular interest in gossip. And the proof is that I never talk about scandals on this show. I have inordinately low interest in people’s scandals. It’s something I have to battle.
"Don’t go overboard where you won’t even talk to your husband about anyone in your life lest it be gossip or you won’t have intimate talk with your husband."
I’ve found that almost all men say they have little interest in gossip but in their behavior they demonstrate to the contrary. I doubt Prager is as little interested in gossip as he pretends. To have little interest in gossip is to have little interest in people. If you are strongly interested in someone or in people generally, then you will be interested in information and speculation about the people you care about.
Lawrence Grossman writes in the Forward: "Is it too much to hope that it also might encourage steps toward renewing respectful dialogue between Orthodox and non-Orthodox Jews?"
If all I knew about a person was that he had made a public call for dialogue, I would suspect he’d be less likely than the average bloke to grant me an interview. Why? Because people calling for dialogue tend to be prissy. They tend to react badly when they encounter a manly man such as myself who does not write op-eds calling for dialogue but actually seeks dialogue.
Jews are jolly lucky that they’ve got me to police them online or who knows how much mischief they’d create.
In the hands of Obama the potter, American Jews are but clay. In his recent telephonic pep talk to a reported 1,000 American rabbis, the president invoked some of the most memorable (and theologically challenging) passages from the Rosh Hashanah liturgy to support his health policy agenda. He spoke about the new month of Elul, the meaning of this time of year and, oh, by the way, the crazy distortions of all those who have dared to object to his massive experiment with one-sixth of the American economy.
Some good prep-work from Obama’s staff (“Sir, it’s pronounced eh-LOOL”), some happy talk, and the president apparently had these mostly left-leaning rabbis eating out of his hand. In these kinds of calls, there is always an “ask,” and Obama’s was simple: Proselytize to your congregants and tell them the good news about health care reform.
This is an intriguing prospect. What would happen if these American rabbis went back to their laptops, hit delete on the current drafts of their High Holy Day sermons and started afresh by reading the latest issues of the health policy journals? No doubt some have already Googled “health policy sermon” in the vain hope that there’s an easy solution to Obama’s challenge.
Rabbi Kanefsky writes in the Jewish Journal: "I cannot articulate for myself a convincing argument as to why the legal recognition of civil marriage should be withheld from citizens who, by dint of how they were born, are only able to form bonds of love and commitment with members of their own gender."
How about because no society in history has recognized civil marriage between two people of the same sex? We can now rewrite the rules of civilization because we are so sure we know better?
That’s chutzpah. To advocate for same-sex marriage is to say we know better than all civilizations that have gone before us.
Wow.
People who devote their lives to the study of sexual identity do not know when it begins, but the rabbi does? He apparently knows that some people are born with a homosexual sexual identity.
I believe it means there is no settled view on these matters.
Why is the rabbi who speaks for God and Torah articulating a settled view on sexual identity that is just not there? I hate it when rabbis speak out on matters about which they are ignorant. It does not just make the individual rabbi look bad, it makes religion look bad.
What about those two-thirds of identifying gay men who have had sex with a woman? Is the rabbi talking about them?
I bet if you asked the Humbert Humberts of the world, they would say they were only capable of forming "bonds of love and commitment" with girls aged considerably under 18. Why is their sexual identity less worthy of respect and compassion?
My sexual identity is that I want to have sex with as many attractive females as possible. Why do I get no compassion and respect for this? Why not change civil marriage to allow me to marry as many women at the same time who will have me?
What about the overwhelming majority of gay men who do not practice monogamy? I don’t know of any poll or study that shows the median male homosexual having fewer than 200 sexual partners over a lifetime. It doesn’t sound to me like there are many gays looking to form lasting "bonds of love and commitment" with one member of their gender.
And what’s this "gender" talk? Gender is a societal construction. Sex is biological. So if a human being with a male sexual organ chooses to identify with the female gender, we should respect that? Let people classify themselves as male or female depending on their whim?
Oy, the word "gender" in this context makes me feel uncomfortable and I hate that.
I believe Rabbi Kanefsky was the only Orthodox rabbi in California to publicly oppose Proposition 8.
Rabbis are jolly lucky they’ve got me policing them on the internet. Who knows what kind of trouble they would get into otherwise?
PS. Here are two more sentences in Rabbi Kanefsky’s blog post that bother me: "Not because Orthodox Jews should oppose equality in housing and employment for gays and lesbians, the issue around which the movie is centered. Quite to the contrary, there is no basis in Halacha for favoring such discrimination."
I have not seen Milk (frankly, I don’t like to watch movies about male homosexuality because the subject creeps me out, just as I don’t like to watch movies about pedophilia or alcoholism or drug abuse or cutting or tattooing), but I suspect the equality matter regards making it illegal to discriminate against homosexuals in housing and employment. Does Jewish law say anything about this? A lot of things Jewish law opposes Jewish law does not seek the wider non-Jewish society to legislate. Does Jewish law want people put in prison because they won’t hire a homosexual or rent to a homosexual? That’s what you mean when you make such discrimination illegal. You are saying that policemen can come and take you away and put you in prison (if you refuse to pay a fine, etc) if you don’t do as I want. I fail to see this bullying as heroic or Jewish.
I just watched this hokey Christian melodrama about saving your marriage through practicing the 40-Day Love Dare.
If you want to save your relationship, try watching this movie together and discussing it. If you are not a Christian, skip the steps about accepting Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.
Dore Gold, author of the New York Times bestseller "Hatred’s Kingdom: How Saudi Arabia Supports the New Global Terrorism" and the president of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, will discuss his new book "The Rise of Nuclear Iran: How Tehran Defies the West."
One of Israel’s greatest living foreign policy experts, Gold has served as Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations and has been direct envoy to the leaders of almost a dozen Arab states. In his new book he brings his unique experience and knowledge to bear on the dilplomatic and military dimensions of Iran’s drive for nuclear weapons.
Carefully and systematically, Gold lays out a bleak case against the Obama administration "sticks and carrots" engagement policy and starkly lays out the consequences of failure: a "nuclear umbrella" for global terrorists, a Middle East dominated by Shiite hegemony and locked in a spiraling arms race a Western hemisphere increasingly subject to Iranian interference, and a ever-present genocidal shadow over the Jewish State.
Gold will present the catastrophic implications of a nuclear Iran, explain why the West’s current approach is doomed to failure, and offer a plan for concentrated action that can keep The Bomb out of the mullah’s hands. He documents how Iranian leaders having been "running out the clock" for a decade by overtly negotiating over its nuclear program while covertly weaponizing its nuclear material, until today the world is hurtling towards global nuclear crisis.
Children of Jewish Holocaust Survivors with the David Horowitz Freedom Center and Mere Rhetoric Media Welcomes Dore Gold: Wednesday, September 2, 2009 – 7 p.m. Luxe Hotel Sunset 11461 Sunset Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90049
Tickets are $10 per person SEATING IS LIMITED Pre-registration and Pre-payment are recommended for this event. For information call 818-704-0523 or email [email protected]
To the pros at the CIA…use your power to take down Barack Hussein Obama. He’s out to get because he hates America. You love America, that’s why you became heroes. Take this enemy of the state down!
Last night I said something both stupid and — in the writing of it — stupider still. I was never suggesting that the CIA shoot Obama, only that if Obama is coming after them to destroy their personal and professional lives for his own political ga…in, it’d be wise for them to make public information they must have on him and his ties to terrorists and corruption. In fact, that might even be their constitional oath.
I am so excited by this prospect of an invigorating start to my day — and by the after-fumes of my brilliant Dennis Prager post late Tuesday night — that I can not sleep.
At 2 am, I hear sounds on the roof and grad my gun and wait for the man to come through my door.
It never happens.
I finally rise at 2:22 am and take a cold shower. Then I trim my bangs (it’s important not to go to sadhana with long bangs and I want to save the $16 of a new haircut).
Then I put on my sweats and a t-shirt and a long-sleeved shirt and grab my blue pillow and my yellow yoga mat and walk into the night.
An Asian girl driver stops for me to pass. It’s going to be a good day.
I arrive at 2:45 am. My normal spot is taken. Trauma!
I find another by the wall. As I set up, a bearded Sikh hands me a white handkerchief to cover my head. I look around. Everyone’s head is covered.
I am just wearing a yarmulke and a confused grin.
I put the handkerchief aside. I don’t roll that way. I am not a married Jewish woman. I am not a Sikh. I don’t have to cover my hair. I’m Luke Ford!
I lie down on my yoga mat and watch the man return. He’s insistent that I cover my head.
Oy, these Sikhs! I wonder if he’s wearing his little sword? Better obey.
This is a different rap than the evening yoga classes. This is a religiously serious gathering. It’s not dilettante yoga. It’s fierce.
I agree to put on the cloth but make him him tie it for me. After all, the Jews are the Chosen People.
I love the Japji. Men lead and women respond. It’s the way things should be. It makes everything easier for everyone in the long run. I chase you around the hovel until you submit reluctantly to my iron will.
I lie there and wonder if I was listening to Hebrew davening for the first time, would I find it equally beautiful? I suspect not. Most davening does murder to the Hebrew language.
The place is full — about 70 people, evenly distributed between male and female, young and old, Jew and Gentile.
We begin eleven minutes of chanting for world peace — guru guru wahe guru guru ram dass guru.
A guy with a guitar and a microphone leads us.
It’s a good tune. I dig it. I want world peace. I want to heal the shattered vessels.
I feel sad when the song ends.
It’s time for two and a half hours of long Ek Ong Kars. That’s a bit much for me. I don’t think I could chant it right once.
I lie down. I wish I had a blanket. Most of the yoga center is locked up. There is no access to the blankets. I wish I had brought a blanket. Half of the room is lying down and all of them are smart enough to bring their own blankets.
The chanting is amazing. Everyone is on the same pitch, making the same pauses, hitting the same notes.
I arrange my man purse and fold my pillow in half and put it on top. I lie on my side.
"Only two and a half more hours to go," I think. "This is hell. I’m cold. Would it be OK to leave? No. I’m going to experience the whole rotten thing. Oy, I wonder if one of these chicks would mind if I lay down beside her and shared her blanket? In exchange for my spiritual warmth, she could give me some physical warmth. I could really use some physical warmth right now, just some token expression of affection, it wouldn’t have to be much, nothing against the Torah. It would be for strictly medicinal purposes."
I long for Orthodox Judaism and its reasonable 45-minute morning prayers. This is ridiculous. I am cold. I am miserable. I am stuck.
No woman, no cry.
Oy, why do I have to be such a spiritual master?
Lord, take this cup from me, but not my will, but Thine be done.
Potty break. Mustn’t drink too much water. Didn’t want to have to thread myself again through the chanters and sleepers.
I drift off to sleep. I dream that Guru Singh has given me an assignment to stir three big pots of soup. I accept the job. As I stir, I notice a Balance bar in the soup. I stir it round and round. Chocolate-nut. Round and round. Round and round. Round and round.
The room spins. I am at the ashram in my dream. The prayers are done. A group of young men walk up to me. They appear to be Muslim. "Hey Jew!" one says. They start beating me up. None of the peace-loving Sikhs intervene. They just stand around and watch. I’m beaten to a pulp and left in a bloody mess outside.
Oy, oy, oy!
6 a.m. I awake to the announcement that everyone’s going to the ashram across the street. Everyone is welcome for breakfast. Please cover your head.
I walk outside and see my teacher. He’s glowing.
"How did you like it?" he asks.
If I answer truthfully, I’ll say, "Sadhana sucks."
Instead I say, "I’m going to bed."
Pithy but eloquent.
I get up at 9:25 am. I have a crick in my neck. I am sleep-deprived and miserable. I am ready to blog. World watch me roar!
Helen posts on my Facebook: "Good old Yogi Bhajan. I often find myself wondering, "What would Yogi Bhajan do?" Always the right thing, always the right thing…"
"This guy knows all the gossip, the ins and outs, the lashon hara of the Orthodox world. He’s an [expert] in... all the inner workings of the Orthodox world." (Rabbi Aaron Rakeffet-Rothkoff)
