I remember I was at a Friday night dinner and we all went around the table introducing ourselves. This chiropractor introduced himself as "Dr….". Physicians and PhDs at the table did not introduce themselves as "Dr…" I’d never heard anyone introduce themselves before at a dinner as "Dr…"
I love it when people try too hard. I hate it when I try to hard. It always fails with the ladies.
I spent this past week at a Jewish retreat center where I encountered the difficulty of this challenge. At one point on the retreat I stepped into a Jewish renewal style Shabbat morning service, and found that there was very little traditional liturgy weaved into the davening. This type of formless prayer did not appeal to me. On the other hand, I had the opportunity to “daven mincha through Yoga,” as the program advertised it. To my surprise, I found that embodying, literally, the words of the mincha prayer to be an extremely uplifting experience. (The Yoga Mincha did not, of course, replace my regular traditional davening). We threw our hands up in the air in joy as we recited the word “ashrei.’ Then we went into a sitting pose at the word “yoshvei.” And then dropped our hands down, in a cave like manner, to create a home as we said the word “Vaytecha” (Ashrei Yoshvei Vaytecha—How happy or praiseworthy are those who dwell in Your house). Imbuing traditional liturgy with an entirely new element forced me to think about the words in a different way. I found myself reaching out to God “with all my heart, with all my soul and with all my might.” I was reminded of the experience Yitzchak might have had as he mediated in the field at evening time (Bereishit 24:63). Or the uplifting prayer of the Levites, who according to Psalms (150:3) praised God with the harp, lyre, and through dance. Spirituality takes on many forms. Tapping into ones spiritual self is the challenge.
Mr. Novak grew up Jewish and was in a Jewish fraternity in college, but, like Mr. Evans, he was critical of Israel. He prompted a firestorm when he said the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington in 2001 had been provoked in part by the United States’ closeness to Israel.
After largely ignoring religion and dabbling in Unitarianism, Mr. Novak, in 1998, at age 67, converted to Roman Catholicism. In a ceremony, Msgr. Peter Vaghi proclaimed that the “prince of darkness” had been transformed into a “child of light.”
Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York, who was in attendance, warned against jumping to conclusions.
“Well, we’ve now made Bob a Catholic,” Mr. Moynihan said, according to Washingtonian magazine. “The question is, Can we make him a Christian?”
Would he apply this to murderers, child abusers, pornographers, drug dealers, who exactly is deserving of this unconditional love?
From JWeekly.com: “I’m here to stand with the community, [in] solidarity,” said Rabbi Gedalia Potash of Chabad of Noe Valley. “We have to learn to accept each other unconditionally — it’s much more than embracing diversity. Only then have we learned what it means to be a Jew, the true message of Judaism. Any violence smacks in the face of the fundamentals of Judaism.”
Most striking of all, among those participating were representatives from the Orthodox community.
On Aug. 3, a vigil took place in San Francisco, co-organized by Congregation Sha’ar Zahav’s largely LGBT membership. Among those attending were Rabbi Yosef Langer of Chabad of S.F. and Rabbi Gedalia Potash of Chabad of Noe Valley, who said, “We have to learn to accept each other unconditionally.”
In a Washington, D.C., vigil, one Orthodox rabbi said, “It’s time to do some internal accounting,” referring to the role homophobia within the Orthodox community may have played in fomenting anti-gay violence.
It’s good to see Orthodox Jews expressing outrage over this sickening deed. However, it is possible that a few years ago we would not have seen them speaking at memorials for slain gays and lesbians.
Not that they would condone murder. But in the past it might have been an affront to their religious sensibilities to stand shoulder to shoulder with a community they cannot wholeheartedly endorse.
That no longer seems to matter as much in the wake of the Aug. 1 rampage.
As Israel’s minister of welfare and social services, Isaac Herzog, said, “Saturday night’s shooting of gay teenagers was an attack on our entire society and it demands that we immediately find a way to provide treatment to the entire community.”
He was right. No matter one’s feeling about homosexuality, or how one interprets Torah, no one in good conscience can even remotely condone the savagery committed in Tel Aviv. No Jew can stand idly by while innocent Jews are gunned down in cold blood.
A few paces behind me a flamboyant gay guy is on his cell phone yammering away to a, presumably, gay friend about, well, the fabulosity of gayness.
Gay guy is talking really loud and saying stuff like:
“It was sooo gay…”
“He was totally gay, he just didn’t realize it…”
“I used to be a clueless gay, but no more, darling…”
In-ter-esting: gayness, for some, is not just sexual orientation, not just a life style, but a religion.
I mention this because right behind Loud and Proud Gay Guy is a tiny, shriveled, ancient black lady who looks, I swear, like she’s about to have a coronary. Listening to gay guy is having a visible effect on her blood pressure. She closes her eyes, mumbles to herself, then turns and gazes pleadingly at an ENORMOUS black guy standing right behind her.
Enormous Black Guy looks like a gang-banger. He’s got the backwards baseball cap, the blinding bling around his neck, and masses of tattoos on his arms which are impossible to decipher because his skin is so black. It’s like one of those Malevich Black Square paintings.
Enormous Black Guy steps past Tiny Black Lady, gets right into the face of Loud and Proud Gay Guy.
Oh goody: conflict, drama.
“Yo, dude. Mah Aun-tie.”
Loud and Proud Gay Guy—thin as a stalk of wheat—finds himself face to face with a scary black guy who is, I do not exaggerate, the size of Rhode Island.
Loud and Proud Gay Guy into his phone:
“Sweetie, call you back.”
Enormous Black Guy nods, gets back in line behind his Aun-tie.
He says he will go to dinner with anybody who has a solution to his problem.
Prager mentioned a book review in Sunday’s New York Times about "Germany 1945."Soviet soldiers pillaged and raped the most, but the French were not much better. The British and Americans, with fewer grievances, committed fewer atrocities."
It wasn’t values that stopped certain soldiers from raping? It was grievances?
What was the one group of Russian soldiers who did not rape en masse? Jewish soldiers. You’d think Jews would have a lot of grievances, but they had something more powerful — values.
Democrat politicians now claim they were never serious about the public option in health insurance. They just want more "competition."
Since when are Democrats in favor of competition? They oppose school vouchers. Do Democrats want more competition in education?
Democrats now say they don’t want to emulate Britain or Canada, but it is the Netherlands. Yeah, right.
"Everyone loves you at yoga," said my friend as we strolled to eat dinner at Nana tonight after class.
"What about at shul?" I asked.
"At shul, people are wary of you. But I’ve got to pass on a compliment. I went to the Purim party with a friend of yours and at one point in the night, she was discussing you with a group of women. And she walked away and then came back to them and said, ‘Women should pay Luke to have sex with them’."
It is located at 28400 Euclid Ave, Wickliffe, OH 44092. (440) 943-5300
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 (six boys first year, seven boys second year, four boys third year, and three additional) 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.
Rabbi Mordechai Gifter
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.
Rabbi Zalman Gifter brought in various rabbis such as Rabbi Rubkin, Rabbi Notice (Rabbi Meir Bloch’s grandson by marriage)…
Rabbis Levitansky, Goldberg and Greenwald took their case to a secular court and won. Two and a half years ago, they threw out Rabbi Zalman Gifter and the rabbis he had hired. They argued that the yeshiva should only hire rabbis who were graduates of Telshe Yeshiva.
In May, Rabbi Zalman Gifter’s wife was fired from Telshe. She ran the office for 26 years.
So what happens to Telshe Yeshiva if current trends continue and fewer and fewer kids attend? Well, I assume the Telshe charity boxes won’t close.
Telshe has two ninth grade classes. Each one has ten kids. I don’t know why they don’t just combine into one class.
Tenth grade also has two classes.
Rabbi Zalman Gifter was born and raised at the Telshe Yeshiva. He spent three years at the Brisker Yeshiva and half a year at the Lakewood Yeshiva. Then he returned to Telshe.
Jonah Sheinbaum runs a camp at Telshe Yeshiva during the summer.
Observant Jews are not supposed to sort out their problems in secular court. Rabbis Levitansky, Goldberg and Greenwald say they did not take Rabbi Zalman Gifter to court. They took the banks to court for honoring Rabbi Zalman Gifter’s signature.
The banks were apparently told that Rabbi Zalman Gifter had resigned from his job at Telshe Yeshiva. He did not know about this. Two days later, he went to the bank he’d been going to for 20 years, and the manager said, "Rabbi, what are you doing here? A group of rabbis came in here and said you had voluntarily resigned from your job."
The Telshe Yeshiva bank accounts were frozen. Rabbis Levitansky, Goldberg and Greenwald sued the banks to unfreeze the accounts and to give them control over the accounts. They won. Rabbi Zalman Gifter argued that the matter did not belong in a secular court.
A source emails:
This week a bochur (yeshiva student) was taking pictures of the inside of the Bais Medrish (study hall).
Rabi Dovid Goldberg saw him and told him to take the pictures so everyone will know how the Bachurim in Telz sit and learn. At that time rabbi Yossi Sova the 9th grade Rebbi was there so he went upstairs to the Ezeras Noshing and took pictures. The joke of all this is that the Beis Medrash had all the talmidim of Yeshivas Tifferes Avigdor run by Rabbi Yisroel Brog. The Telzer Hanahala made some kind of deal with Rabbi Brog to get his Yeshiva to use the Telz Bais Medrash in order to fill up the Building so when guests come they wont know the real scoop about Telshe and how many students are actually there.
Rabbi Brogs yeshiva has a larger enrollment of students than Telz, he even has students that left Telz and enrolled into Yeshivas Tifferes Avigdor. This goes to show you how well of a job the New Reformed Hanahala is doing with their teachings at the Yeshiva, that the students enroll into a tiny yeshiva on Telz Property.
The resident staff that lives on campus are afraid to speak out due to the new administration at Telz in control of the money will no doubt throw them out onto the street as their trying to do to Rabbi Zalman Gifter and his family.
Avrohom emails: “Telshe made a Kinus for Divrei Hisorerus lechovod Yenei Hadin. They spent over $4000.00 for advertisement, postage, and airfare for the two out of town speakers.
The city basically boycotted the event due to the fact that the whole thing was political disguised as a Hisorerus Leteshuva. Chairs were set up in the Ezras Noshim expecting a large crowd, but only five ladies attended. Only fifty men came from the city and even they started leaving in the middle of the program. The people at Telz are going around that it was a tremendous success. Its time for the Telz lie to stop! Ironically, Rabbi Dovid Goldberg told a yungerman that he was very concerned due to the Shlo Leshma goal of the event.
Hello Goldberg, Ausband, and Levitansky WAKE UP, the world at large is not so foolish. How many Bachurim do you have and what will be after Yom Kippur? You will need Rabbi Brogs talmidim to get a Minyan.”
That once again Rabbi Jack Sparks has found employment at, it is sad that there are people out there that will still jeopardize the safety of their children because they are to blind to believe the truth.
I was so glad when he finally got arrested, yet there he is again, getting away with it.
"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)
