December 31, 2009 | 6:14 pm

Yeshivat Maharat: Facts on the Ground

Posted by Rabba Sara Hurwitz

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Yeshivat Maharat is a pioneering venture, founded in 2009 to be the first institution in Jewish history to produce Orthodox women rabbinic authorities.
Although there are currently many valuable institutions that provide a place for women to engage in serious study, our institution has gone one step further.  Yeshivat Maharat has a formal curriculum to train women to be rabbinic leaders, bestowing upon women the authority to be poskot (legal arbiters).  Yeshivat Maharat will advocate for women’s full participation in the community as spiritual leaders.

Yeshivat Maharat is dedicated to giving Orthodox women proficiency in learning and teaching Talmud, understanding Jewish law and its application to everyday life as well as the other tools necessary to be Jewish communal leaders.  “Mahara”t” is a Hebrew acronym for manhiga hilchatit ruchanit toranit, one who is a teacher of Jewish law and spirituality.  YM’s students and graduates will inspire the community to realize the benefit of having women in these roles, using their talents and skills which up until now have been excluded.
Yeshivat Maharat accepts women as students who self-identify as Orthodox and want to serve the Jewish community in a leadership position, specifically that of rabbinic leader. YM has an Open Orthodox philosophy. This includes a religious worldview rejecting the approach of daat torah which relies on a small group of Torah scholars to decide all religious, social and political matters; a belief that all knowledge is part of a sacred world so secular culture and knowledge should be embraced; open support for the modern State of Israel; expanded roles for women; pluralism and the importance of political activism.

Yeshivat Maharat was founded this past summer by myself and Rabbi Avi Weiss, after Rabbi Avi Weiss ordained me, following seven years of study under his auspices and working as part of his rabbinic staff at the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale. YM’s entering class consists of four women studying full time and two studying for their pre-requisites at Drisha Institute. Two of the full time students follow an independent course of study and work with rabbinic staffs in congregations in Chicago and Montreal. They “skype” in for classes. YM is training its students using the best of traditional and innovative methods- a true combination of the ancient and the new!
The Yeshivat Maharat program is a four-year full-time course of training.

          Coursework: The YM curriculum is modeled after other Orthodox ordination programs, with the goal of providing all the necessary skills to be spiritual leaders in the Jewish community. Each graduate must be expert in Jewish law, Talmud, Bible and Jewish Thought and have rhetorical facility and counseling proficiency.
            Internship: In addition to study, the students will be placed in an internship in a synagogue, school or communal organization. This practical, hands-on experience will benefit the student and the community while also helping community members become accustomed to the idea of women in rabbinic leadership positions.
Job placement: The Yeshiva staff will advocate on behalf of its graduates to place them in positions of leadership in synagogues, schools, campus organizations and community centers.
For the immediate future, the Yeshiva will remain a small program, limited to six women in each one of the classes, who are committed to Orthodox Judaism, have a strong background in Jewish studies, are already proficient in Talmudic text and who want to serve the community in a rabbinic capacity.

If you would like to apply for Yeshivat Maharat, please let me know.

December 30, 2009 | 4:19 am

Free God Now!  - posted by R. Yosef Kanefsky

Posted by Rav Yosef Kanefsky

“From the day that the Temple was destroyed, the Holy One, blessed is He, has nothing in His world, except for the four cubits of Halacha.” (Berachot 8a).

This soulful rabbinic reflection is both an expression of grief over Jerusalem’s destruction, and an affirmation of the religious power of halachik study. Only in the places and times where Halacha is being studied, can the Divine Presence that had formerly dwelt in the holy of holies, now be found.

I wonder whether this rabbinic teaching has been taken way too far in our contemporary context, to disastrous effect.

It goes without saying that we don’t actually believe that God has abandoned the vast swaths of world that exist outside of Halacha’s four cubits. Every morning we speak the sacred words, “The One who mercifully gives light to the world and all who inhabit it, and in Whose goodness renews daily the work of creation”. After every meal we acknowledge God who “sustains the entire world in His goodness”. And every Monday and Thursday we plead, “have compassion upon us and upon all of Your creatures”. On Friday nights we even call upon the entire Earth to sing to Him. We definitely believe that God is still everywhere, and that His care and concern continue to be universal.

But it’s impossible, of course, to reconcile this conviction that God’s eyes are everywhere and that His mercies are upon everyone, with the awful behavior of Orthodox Jews that has captured public attention over the past months and years. Unquestionably, many factors contribute to a religious person’s (a religious leader’s) decision to behave illegally and unethically. Greed and base temptation figure in prominently. But we shouldn’t underestimate the mindset which confines God to the beis hamedresh, to the four cubits of the yeshiva and to the “heimishe” community, to the exclusion of the wider world which is populated by those who do not enter the beis hamedresh, or who are not part of the halacha-bound fraternity.

You can’t launder money unless you’ve convinced yourself that God doesn’t really know from the IRS, and doesn’t really care about the beneficiaries of taxpayer-financed government programs. You can’t abuse and manipulate people who are hoping to convert to Judaism unless you’ve concluded that God looks away from the anguish of the non-Jewish “stranger”. You cannot protect men who are utilizing a “get” as an instrument of extortion against their ex-wives unless you believe that women – who in many communities are outsiders to the clique of the beis hamedresh - fall outside God’s concern. And you cannot underpay and otherwise maltreat Guatemalan workers unless you don’t regard them as being God’s creatures in quite the same way that you are.

It’s a disturbing and dangerous sort of arrogance that can arise from a misreading of the Talmud’s statement that God is only found within the four cubits of the yeshiva. If the great contribution that Modern Orthodoxy makes to Orthodox Judaism is to restore the God of Israel also to the world outside the Beit Midrash, and to speak with clarity about what needs to be fixed - dayenu. 

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December 29, 2009 | 12:45 am

Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word - Rabbi Barry Gelman

Posted by Rabbi Barry Gelman

The last two weeks have brought reports of very troubling allegations against Rabbi Leib Tropper, founder of Eternal Jewish Family (EJF), an organization that has sought to influence conversion standards.  http://jta.org/news/article/2009/12/17/1009796/eternal-jewish-family-head-resigns.

I am not the only one outraged by the recent events related to Rabbi Tropper, who has resigned from his position at EJF. While what he allegedly did (he has not denied it yet) is despicable, the EJF train wreck will actually get worse if all we continue to hear from the EJF leadership is silence.

I have heard number of Rabbis call for the disbanding of the EJF, while there are others who are hopeful that the EJF can recreate itself. One thing is for sure, EJF will never recreate itself if there is no apology. 

The current EJF rabbinic leadership must do three things:

1.        Repudiate the actions of Rabbi Tropper,
2.        Apologize for the chillul hashem created by the EJF due to Tropper’s actions, and
3.        Come clean about the various claims of financial “funny business” at the organization.

In the words of Marshal Goldsmith, a well-known leadership consultant, apologizing is “the most magical, healing, restorative gesture human beings can make.” He also explains that refusing to say “I am sorry” to someone you may have wronged is the equivalent of saying “I don’t care about you.”

Goldsmith makes the point that when one apologizes, one is in effect saying, “I can’t change the past. All I can say is I’m sorry for what I did wrong. I’m sorry it hurt you. There is no excuse for it and I will try to do better in the future.”

Whether or not the rabbinic leadership of EJF knew about Tropper’s misdeeds is beside the point. (I do find it interesting that so many find it impossible to believe that Tropper duped the rabbinic leadership of the EJF; as if to say that Halachik and Talmudic expertise makes one an expert in human psychology and immune to be tricked by a guy like Tropper.) What is important is that the EJF leadership must take responsibility for what Tropper did if they ever wish to move past this episode.

Finally, I share with you the following from Rabbi Jonathan Sacks.

God never asked us not to make mistakes. All He asks is that we acknowledge them when we make them, apologize, make amends, heal the relationships we harmed, and commit ourselves not to make the same mistake again. That is what turns failure into a learning experience. It’s the cluster of ideas the Bible calls repentance, atonement and forgiveness. It is what makes biblical cultures more humane than their alternatives.

We owe to the anthropologist Ruth Benedict the fundamental distinction between shame cultures and guilt cultures. In shame cultures what matters is how we are seen by others. In guilt cultures like Judaism and Christianity, what matters is the voice within - conscience, what Freud called the superego, the moral values we internalise and make our own. In shame cultures a person is judged by the honour in which he or she is held. In guilt cultures there is no way of escaping the still, small voice that calls to us as it once called to Adam and Eve saying, “Where art thou?”

Shame cultures seem to lack the idea of forgiveness. If you’ve done wrong, the most important thing is to hope no one will find out. Once they do, there is no way of removing the stain of dishonour or the loss of face. Depending on time and circumstance, the shamed hero either goes off to fight and die in a distant battle, or flees to some remote country, or (in the old British theatrical tradition) disappears offstage to do the decent thing with a loaded revolver in the library of a country house. Shame cultures produce literatures of tragedy.

Guilt cultures produce literatures of hope. King David sins - seriously, as it happens - is confronted by the prophet Nathan and immediately confesses. So do the inhabitants of Nineveh when Jonah finally reaches them and tells them of their impending doom. They are given the greatest gift a culture can confer: the chance to begin again, not held captive by the past.

I urge to EJF leadership to take the path of guilt cultures.

P.B. = Post Blog

After writing this blog post a very sad realization came to me. In the blog I wrote the following: “What is important is that the EJF leadership must take responsibility for what Tropper did if they ever wish to move past this episode.”

After further consideration, I wonder if this will come to pass.  I fear that the Yeshiva world will let this latest scandal slide, like so many others, without calling their leadership to task or at the very least demanding an apology.

I pray that this time, things will be different.

For more on this:

While written before the EJF scandal, the following by Rabbi Avi Shafran certainly applies - http://www.5tjt.com/news/read.asp?Id=5315

This one should also ring true -  http://www.5tjt.com/news/read.asp?Id=5457

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December 24, 2009 | 6:18 pm

Mount Morayah: Fulcrum of Exile and Redemption, Sacrifice and Reprieve; other thoughts on unity

Posted by Rabbi Hyim Shafner

I am on Sabbatical in Jerusalem for 6 months.  Here is the first of several video highlights of the city/Divrey Torah I hope to do for the folks back home.

On a separate note I have been davening at a small hole in the wall French-Moroccan shul at which I was today number 10 and yesterday number 8 with no one to follow. I like praying with people with whom there is no expectation to speak andwho are so culturally different from myself. Today into this small room of 6:30am schacharit praying sefardim dressed in jeans and small kippot came a Chasid from a very different neighborhood dressed in black and while with long payot collecting money. With no questions asked everyone gave there few shekels. In some strange way I think the Orthodox Jews of Israel are actually more unified than those of the exile, though I know many feel differently.  Thoughts?

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December 18, 2009 | 5:01 pm

The Rule of Law is critical to the Survival of the Jewish State, by Rabbi Asher Lopatin

Posted by Rabbi Asher Lopatin

This morning I posted my underlying political views re. Israel.  I wanted to add one major point.  And it is so important that it is the one time, that I can recall, that I have talked what can be viewed as politics - Israel politics - from the bima, from the pulpit.  It is regarding the rule of law in Israel, and, specifically, following the law when it comes to the IDF.  I believe that in the case of Israel, not only is the rule of law critical to the moral, ethical and national fiber of the state, but it is crucial for the very survival of the Jewish State.  Therefore, it becomes a religious issue of “pikuach nefesh” making sure that the best defense of the Jewish People - the State of Israel - can operate safely as a state of laws.  That applies to soldiers in the IDF, even if their rabbis tell them otherwise, and to those building communities all over the land.  I would push hard to allow the greatest freedom of expression the law will allow - free speech is important - and for the greatest latitude in letting Jews live everywhere in Eretz Yisrael, the land that God gave us, but we need to follow the laws of Israel.

Our rabbis had an ambivalent - to say the least - attitude towards the Hashmonaim who did not always stick to Jewish law.  They are still heroes, but their state did not last. I hope, and pray and plan to work hard to make sure the the Jewish state that we have in our days lasts a lot longer, and one of the key ways of doing so is by making sure that all those who live in her holy boundaries, heroes or not, obey the law.

Shabbat shalom, Chodesh Tov and Chanuka same’ach,

Rabbi Asher Lopatin

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December 18, 2009 | 9:31 am

Rabbi Asher Lopatin’s Political Positions on Israel

Posted by Rabbi Asher Lopatin

A Summary of Rabbi Asher Lopatin’s Political Views

1) Israel is the historic and eternal homeland of the Jewish People, and Zionism is the modern expression of that national, religious and moral expression of the Jews’ connection to the Land of Israel.  The State of Israel is a Jewish State, with all the moral, ethical, national and religious responsibilities that term calls for.
2) The State of Israel is the bulwark defending Jews in Israel and all over the world: its existence and security is critical to the survival of Jews everywhere.
3) No part of the historic Israel should be off limits for Jews; Jews should be allowed to live and build communities wherever feasible in the Land of Israel.
4) Jerusalem has been the political and spiritual capital of the Jewish people since the days of King David.  It has been reunited and restored as the Jewish capital and will, God willing, remain so for all time, under the sovereignty and protection of the State of Israel.
5) A strong Israel Defense Force, stationed everywhere Jews live or can live, is the best strategic guarantee of peace and security for all the inhabitants of Israel.
6) Zev Jabotinsky, the great Revisionist Zionist, laid out goals which are true and necessary today, and I adapt those goals to today’s situation:

a) The State of Israel needs to be a refuge open for Jews from all over the world and encouraging aliya
b) The State of Israel needs to maintain a Jewish majority – ideally built from gathering Jews from around the world
c) The Arabs living in the Land of Israel, and everywhere, need to know clearly that the Jews are in Israel to stay, that we intend to remain the majority and that the State of Israel will do whatever is necessary to provide for the security and continued existence of the Jews in Israel.
d) The needs -  social, economic and national -  of the indigenous Arabs of Israel must be addressed, but only within the framework of the security and continued existence of the Jews in the State of Israel.
7) The best thing for Judaism in Israel is to look into the separation of “church and State” which works so well in America to allow for passionate religion while maintaining religious diversity.  The free market of religion is a power engine to provide for people’s spiritual needs.
8) The free market in general, including free trade, is the bulwark of a strong, innovative and diverse economy.

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December 17, 2009 | 1:34 pm

Judith the Jewess

Posted by Rabba Sara Hurwitz

Mahara”t Sara Hurwitz
The Book of Judith is associated with Chanukah. And yet, the book is not canonized as part of Tanach, and therefore, is not studied with any frequency.  There are several reasons given for why the book was not canonized.  The main one is that the dates, names and places are unrecognizable.  This could mean that either names are disguises or, more likely, they were chosen to alert the reader that the Book of Judith is a literary tale of fiction.  The story begins “In the twelfth year if the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, who reigned over the Assyrians in Nineveh.” The date, time and place are illogical, giving the impression of beginning a literary story.

I would like to suggest that whether the story occurred or not is irrelevant.  Despite the fact the book of Judith was not canonized, I believe that there is still much to learn from her. You see, Judith in Hebrew is Yehudit, or “the Jewess”, implying that Judith embodies many of the women of Tanach. She is no one and everyone. Indeed, the story is ripe with textual references to the other woman of Tancha. Judith is called Yifath To’ar and Yifat mareh, beautiful and well favored, just like Rachel (Genesis 29:16). She is considered a person of “good understanding” as is Avigail (I Samuel 25:3).  Judith takes off her sackcloth of mourning, and dons feminine sensual attire, as did Tamar (Genesis 38:14).  She summons the leaders of the community, just like Devorah summons Barak to her (Judges 4: 6).  She insists on eating her own food for kashruth reasons, just like Esther, who also only ate her own food (Yalkut Shimnoi, Esther 1053). She prays like Channa (I Samuel 2:1).  She kills Holofernes, in a similar way to Yael (Judges 4:21).  And she sings and praises God with instruments, just like Miriam (Exodus 15:20).

So Judith is a composite of many of the women of Tanach.  The story draws upon the very best characteristic traits of the Biblical women. And so, we study her because she is the Jewess, breaking the mold of any one women while at the same time willing us to aspire, on Chanukah, to combine all the elements of traditional women into one unified whole.  A composite of who we can be.   

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December 16, 2009 | 4:47 am

More on “The Ever-Narrowing Orthodox Mind”. Posted by R. Yosef Kanefsky

Posted by Rav Yosef Kanefsky

I thank all of my friends and new friends who have shared comments on the “Ever-Narrowing Orthodox Mind” (You can see many of them at

http://morethodoxy.org/2009/12/09/the-ever-narrowing-orthodox-mind/#comments

There are numerous ways in which I’d like to engage and respond, though I’ll begin with two:
(1) providing sources in opposition to two of the closely-related non-dogmas (with more to come in subsequent posts)
(2) addressing the question as to whether it any longer matters that opinions on these issues range dramatically in our classical sources, given that “most Orthodox Jews today” believe the alleged dogmas.

In the previous posts, I asserted that Orthodox Jews need not embrace the following two ideas, as many of our classical thinkers did not embrace them either:
(1) Every calamity that occurs on Earth is the result of an express Divine decision as to how and when it should unfold, and that God directly decides who shall survive it, and who shall not.

(2) When tragedy strikes, this is invariably the fault of somebody having sinned.

The classical thinkers I had in mind include both Ramban (Nachmanides) and Rambam (Maimonides). In his commentary on Humash (Braishit 18:19) Ramban writes that God only extends providential protection to the righteous. “God’s Providence in the lower world is general , and even human beings are subject to random events (“mikrim”) … Only for His righteous ones (“hasidav”, like Abraham, who is the subject of the commentary), does God devote His heart to know them in detail”. Ramban’s comment is a milder version of Rambam’s, as it appears in the latter’s Guide for the Perplexed, 3:51. There, Rambam limits personal Divine Providence to people who have achieved perfect intellectual apprehension of God, and even for these, only when they are actively engaged in thinking about God. When distracted, they become “a target for every evil that may happen to befall” them.  The writings of Ralbag (Gersonidies) go even farther than Rambam’s. The Midrash too reflects this opinion in the voice of Resh Lakish, who taught that God had to give up on properly guarding over the righteous in this world, although He will certainly reward them in the next world. (Eicha Rabba, 3:1, “Oti Nahag”) In the views of these indisputably “Orthodox” thinkers, random events all too often do in fact overtake ordinary, or even extraordinary, human beings.

Equally if not even more mainstream is the Talmud’s discussion about the permissibility of healing people who have taken ill. (Bava Kamma 85a) The Talmud considers the possibility that healing should be prohibited on the grounds that a person’s illness is presumably an act of God, Who is afflicting the person on account of his or her sins. (See Rashi’s commentary.) But the Talmud then cites a Biblical verse permitting healing nonetheless. While there are many nuances in the interpretation of the Talmudic conclusion, one way or another, the Talmud is stepping away from the premise that illness is the direct outcome of sin.

It is not difficult to marshal sources which oppose alleged dogmas which are really not dogmas at all. The more difficult task, I have discovered over the last week, is to convince people that the exercise is worth it.  Whether believing that contemporary Orthodoxy has effectively rejected all of the above thinkers, or believing that tampering with people’s security dogmas undermines their piety, folks have expressed that we should throw in the towel. There are at least two reasons why we must not. The first is that people’s beliefs affect their attitudes and actions. Think about attitudes we saw in our community years ago – and sometimes still today - toward people who contracted AIDS. Think about the claims made by Orthodox rabbis concerning why New Orleans was almost wiped out by Katrina, or why some people survived on 9/11 and others did not. And think about how these kinds of attitudes belittle us as a religious community, and turn us away from people in need.

And the other reason is simply that when you love something, it kills you to see corrupted and warped. It one’s Orthodox commitment means anything, it means wanting to see it healthy and productive, being the source of blessing it is designed to be.

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