tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23452023587832413862024-03-12T23:41:44.710-07:00Pesach Sheini“But it takes so little to help people, and people really do help each other, even people with very little themselves. And it’s not just about second chances. Most people deserve an endless number of chances.”
― Will Schwalbe, The End of Your Life Book ClubPesach Sommerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05429802587338023317noreply@blogger.comBlogger261125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2345202358783241386.post-56676381126167025332019-12-04T08:51:00.001-08:002019-12-04T08:51:34.447-08:00Secrets From the Shadow of God- A review of Rav Bezalel Naor's The Legends of Rabbah Bar Bar Hannah with the commentary of Rav Kook<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">With the
book launch for Rav Bezalel Naor’s “The Legends of Rabbah Bar Bar Hannah” based
on Rav Kook’s commentary, coming up on December 10<sup>th</sup> in Teaneck,
this is an opportune time to share my thoughts on Rav Naor’s latest
masterpiece. (Click <a href="https://m.facebook.com/events/534716887317862?acontext=%7B%22action_history%22%3A%22%5b%7B%5C%22surface%5C%22%3A%5C%22page%5C%22%2C%5C%22mechanism%5C%22%3A%5C%22main_list%5C%22%2C%5C%22extra_data%5C%22%3A%5b%5d%7D%5d%22%7D&aref=0&ref=page_internal">here</a>
to view the Facebook event page)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">This is not
my first review of one of Rav Naor’s sefarim. Most recently, I reviewed his Rav
Kook siddur. I’ve been blessed to not only learn from Rav Naor’s writings, but
also from him in person. It is no exaggeration to say that he is like no
teacher of Torah I’ve met before. While he is perhaps known as one of the
biggest experts on Rav Kook’s Torah, his encyclopedic knowledge covers much
more than “only” Rav Kook. He has published dozens of books on all sorts of
subjects, which cover all areas of Torah, both nigleh and nistar. Those of us
who have merited to learn from him in person, are continuously amazed by his
grasp of Shas, halacha, machashava and more.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Rav Noar’s
latest work is no exception. The Rabbah Bar Bar Hannah stories, found in Bava
Basra 73a-74a, are as wild as they are enigmatic. RBBH meets all sorts of
interesting people and sees mythic creatures. While the uninformed reader may
see these stories as “tall tales” or mythology, through the eyes of a talmid
chacham, they contain great secrets. Famously, the Vilna Gaon wrote a
commentary on these stories, which became well known through Rav Aharon Feldman’s
The Juggler and the King. Through the GRA’s grasp of all of Torah, these
stories are revealed to have the greatest depth. Long before he became the
Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi of Palestine, while still living in Eastern Europe, where
he served as a rav, a young Rav Kook also wrote a commentary on these gemaras.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Rav Naor’s
new book contains the commentary in Hebrew, as well as in English with extensive
endnotes, which k’darko b’kodesh, reveals Rav Naor’s encyclopedic knowledge,
and fascinating analysis. Rav Naor shows how a young Rav Kook already possessed
a thorough knowledge of nigleh and nistar, the latter of which he refers to
directly, something which is different from Rav Kook’s later works. As if that
wasn’t enough, there are 11 appendices included on fascinating topics including
Rav Kook’s thoughts on mussar, Chabad chassidus, his connection to the Ramchal,
and his understanding of what must happen for Moshiach to come.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">While I
loved nearly everything about this book, I was surprised by its cover, as well
as the artwork which accomplishes each new section of aggadeta. Rav Naor’s name
does not appear on the cover, and the title, referring to the aggdeta as “Legends”,
as well as the artwork might well lead to someone thinking that this is a
children’s book. Of course, it is anything but. It would be a shame if people
judged this work by its cover. It is the latest in the incredible writings of
Rav Naor, and as with all of his sefarim, it deserves to be studied by talmidei
chachamim.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; line-height: 107%;">I
am grateful to Alec Goldstein of Kodesh Press for making this </span>work
available to those who yearn for Rav Kook’s Torah.<span style="line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Pesach Sommerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05429802587338023317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2345202358783241386.post-6618890787147387832019-11-06T08:50:00.000-08:002019-11-06T08:50:54.749-08:00Hashkafic Man- An open letter to Rabbi Aryeh Lebowitz about producing the next generation of rabbis<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjca4gp9eh_5VjHzfa5NaWsyjO7bZNiMOv_mHZIhjfa6A1_DqFDKAPQoUpqSbe6Xa9LLYn8ixmIRG0fQBaQN9R4LPAMIQTQIRxAnjHyrCKnlC3DfxFY7H510RMDFAS4UkOAVFzxHK4rJ_s/s1600/Rav+Kook+books.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="330" data-original-width="298" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjca4gp9eh_5VjHzfa5NaWsyjO7bZNiMOv_mHZIhjfa6A1_DqFDKAPQoUpqSbe6Xa9LLYn8ixmIRG0fQBaQN9R4LPAMIQTQIRxAnjHyrCKnlC3DfxFY7H510RMDFAS4UkOAVFzxHK4rJ_s/s320/Rav+Kook+books.jpg" width="288" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Dear Rabbi Lebowitz,<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I recently read an <a href="https://blogs.yu.edu/news/lebowitz/">interview</a>
you did after you were hired as the director of the semicha program at RIETS.
One particular answer stood out. When you were asked about the importance of
investing in the rabbis of tomorrow, you said:</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial Black",sans-serif;">“<span style="color: black;">It’s actually pretty simple. To get the most “bang for your
buck,” it makes sense to invest time and energy in the influencers of society. <u>If
we want an educated and genuinely inspired community, it is critically
important to develop the kind of leaders that can help teach, guide and inspire
people in a meaningful way.</u> When I visit other communities, in the United
States and in Israel, I see my friends from my days at RIETS making a major
impact.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<u><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Black",sans-serif;">Thousands
of young men and women in yeshivot and seminaries in Israel are being
influenced by my RIETS classmates. Hundreds of communities, shuls and schools
are being lead today by my RIETS classmates.</span></u><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial Black",sans-serif;"> It follows that if we want to determine
the direction of the community in two decades from now, we should look at the
current students in RIETS.” </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">(Underline added)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Although
I am not a musmach of YU, I greatly appreciated this response. As someone who
was and continues to be influenced by many rabbeim from YU, as well as someone
with 20+ years in chinuch, I’ve thought a lot about what the next generation of
Jews needs. I would suggest that there is one critical change to the semicha
program which needs to happen in order for your goal to be achieved.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">While
there are many ways that YU semicha has changed over the years, and requires
more than “just” learning and mastering Gemara and Halacha, there is still no
requirement for YU musmachim to learn through at least one major work of
machshava. Please allow me to explain why I think this should change.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">While
there may have been a time when it was enough to teach students about the “What?”
of Judaism, that is certainly no longer the case. The Piaseczna Rebbe already
recognized 100 years that students needs had changed, and that students
required a different type of chinuch. If we want to produce students who are
loyal to the Ribono Shel Olam and his Torah, and are passionate about their
Judaism, we must also teach the relevance of the Torah which we teach. I have
personally seen how much students, as early as 7<sup>th</sup> grade respond to
the ideas of great thinkers like the Rambam, Ramchal, Rebbe Nachman, and The
Rav, and many others. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Although
there are certainly some musmachim who learn these or other thinkers in depth,
it has been my experience that many, perhaps even most, do not, never having
gone through an entire sefer of this kind in depth. I am aware that some YU
Roshei Yeshiva do bring some of this content into their shiurim, that is still
a far cry from having worked deeply through these ideas. It is not uncommon to
meet musmachim who can discuss a sugya in depth, or give a high level halacha
shiur, but who cannot give over hashkafic ideas on a similar level.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You
correctly note that we need an educated and inspired community. I would contend
that a requirement to learn, either in a formal shiur or an in-depth chavrusa,
at least one sefer machshava, will produce mechanchim (and rabbonim) who can
help produce that community.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sincerely,<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Pesach
Sommer</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />Pesach Sommerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05429802587338023317noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2345202358783241386.post-85626305111222640672019-10-23T08:55:00.001-07:002019-10-23T08:55:49.052-07:00What's In A Name (Part V)- Am I Still Pesach Sheini?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUqm2kOVC-UPlePN9OhkB8oD2exzoUWcPIn9IxtCJysRXCvKYkte570d2OpVoEbq94CxRWP5NfIfpjQFWWvL3g7wfmWOwpv3tIR67aU6mBtxHVjCx_nPHA-XOrwPoy7IJSNYEul6nnR2E/s1600/Theology.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="963" height="99" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUqm2kOVC-UPlePN9OhkB8oD2exzoUWcPIn9IxtCJysRXCvKYkte570d2OpVoEbq94CxRWP5NfIfpjQFWWvL3g7wfmWOwpv3tIR67aU6mBtxHVjCx_nPHA-XOrwPoy7IJSNYEul6nnR2E/s320/Theology.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">From time to time (although it's been a long time since the last one), I will be writing about my reasons for choosing "Pesach Sheini" as the name for my blog. The more I have thought about the name, the more I have felt that it chose me and not the other way around. What follows is the fifth installation. To read the first four click <a href="https://pesachsheini.blogspot.com/2014/04/whats-in-name-part-iv-so-how-was-your.html">here</a>. </span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;">Dear Rabbi
_________________,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;">After a
recent discussion by email, you sent me an email where you spelled out your
philosophical and theological views, and asked me to respond in kind; “</span><span style="background: white; color: #222222; line-height: 107%;">And you, Reb Pesach -- how do the pieces of your worldview
fit together?</span>”. I responded that I was not sure whether I wanted to try
and summarize my beliefs, but I would think about it. After much thought, I
have decided to respond, with one caveat.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #222222; line-height: 107%;">I cannot tell you how the pieces of my
worldview fit together, as a unified theory is not something I seek to produce.
I’m not sure if anything more than being mine, is what holds them together. One
thing which came across quite strongly in your email is that your beliefs are
long-held. I suspect, and please correct me if I am mistaken, that you could
have used the same words to describe your beliefs five years ago, and probably
much earlier than that. I cannot say the same for myself.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #222222; line-height: 107%;">When I first started my blog “Pesach
Sheini”, the name seemed to make sense. It was my way of saying that I had come
through a long, complicated, and painful religious struggle, and that what
emerged was a new me. While that was in many ways correct, I made the mistake
of thinking that whereas before I had subscribed to certain philosophical and
theological beliefs, which, like yours, I would call for lack of a better word,
rational, now I had new beliefs which no longer fit that term. What I did not
realize was that though I may not ever need a Pesach Shelishi, my new beliefs
were not just different, but were also much more fluid.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #222222; line-height: 107%;">By way of thinking about how to answer
your question, I took a look at the sefarim on my bookshelf. I not only noticed
the sefarim which get frequent use these days, those of the Piaseczna Rebbe,
Rav Kook, and R’ Hillel Zeitlin, I also noticed the sefarim which I haven’t
used much in a bunch of years, although they were helpful to me in the earlier
stages of “Pesach Sheini”. Among those sefarim were those from R’ Isaac Breuer,
Rabbi Eliezer Berkovits, and Rav Amital. This is not to dismiss any of them as
having importance to me. Rather I use to point out that my hesitancy in
answering your question is due to the fact that my religious understanding is
anything but static. In fact, if you had told a year or two ago me that ideas
from The Baal haTanya and Rav Hillel Paritcher would be part of my religious
experience, I would have looked at you like you are crazy. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #222222; line-height: 107%;">Please don’t mistake this as meaning that
there are no core beliefs. I would be surprised if the Piaseczna Rebbe and his
Torah ever stops being of great importance to me. I don’t think I could ever be
a chasid, but if the Piaseczna Rebbe was alive, who knows. The same goes for
Rav Kook’s and Hillel Zeitlin’s Torah.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #222222; line-height: 107%;">As for specifics, beyond the fact that my
worldview is mostly mystical, I’ll just share a few brief thoughts. While I
understand the reasons why you and others try to take a more rational approach,
that worldview has very little appeal to me. Ultimately, no how much we try to
rationalize religion, it is anything but rational. It ultimately stands on a relationship
with a God, who cannot be touched by the world of rational thought. As such, I
take God at his word in the Torah, as did the rabbis in the Talmud, that
tefillah is real communication, and that God is directly involved in our lives.
While you are correct to note that this approach raises questions, all
approaches do.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #222222; line-height: 107%;">To sum it up as well as I can, and I do
realize that I have left quite a bit unsaid, I try and stand in serious
relationship to HKBH, and believe with every fiber of my being that it is a
real two-way relationship. Does it all fit together? It does in the sense that
this is me. I have no desire to convince anyone else of the correctness of any
of my views and beliefs. My desire is nothing more than continuously try and
think about, develop, and grow in my relationship with God.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #222222; line-height: 107%;">Pesach<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Pesach Sommerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05429802587338023317noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2345202358783241386.post-4823427010048119642019-01-16T10:55:00.000-08:002019-01-16T10:55:57.368-08:00Daughters of Queens- On producing the next generation of religious women<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDxn2SIJn7ui8n6SAFP-2yqlmEb27FJCBjvEAemHszihB961Jnp49Mw296x_-NFtONtiUJW4DLoJnhlci99T_5QFtq1VLQZaXFomjdVsaW5QdMdeIfCyf8zlqDuCxvoR-LlXdH3ey510I/s1600/93+Queen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="546" data-original-width="970" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDxn2SIJn7ui8n6SAFP-2yqlmEb27FJCBjvEAemHszihB961Jnp49Mw296x_-NFtONtiUJW4DLoJnhlci99T_5QFtq1VLQZaXFomjdVsaW5QdMdeIfCyf8zlqDuCxvoR-LlXdH3ey510I/s320/93+Queen.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">There was
something powerful, and disconcerting (in a positive way) about watching <a href="https://www.93queen.com/">93 Queen</a> as one of only a handful of men in
a room filled, almost entirely, with Modern Orthodox women and teenage girls.
As I watched the movie, I often found myself thinking about what those around
me were thinking. I grew noticeably uncomfortable while seeing how the many men
in the movie often stood in the women’s way, often in a heavy-handed manner. While
the movie, which deals with the attempt of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_Freier">Ruchie Freier</a> and a group
of primarily chassidish women to start an all-women’s Hatzolah unit, was
excellent, and I highly recommend it, I’d like to address the movie from a
religious/sociological perspective. Specifically, I’d like to use my experience
to think about some questions I’ve been thinking about on women and orthodoxy.
In my next post, I hope to address a different aspect of the film.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">As a father
of three girls, and a teacher of many teens and pre-teens I constantly wonder
about the future of Orthodoxy in general, and Modern Orthodoxy in particular,
when it comes to women. What future is there for these groups (and others more
to the right as well) in terms of holding onto the minds and hearts of women,
in a world where women are more or less accepted as equals in pretty much every
area of society? To put it differently, why would girls and women choose to be
part of a world where they face restrictions of many kinds, when a world with
few limits exists around them, and is easily accessible?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">One
perspective is to push Orthodoxy as far as it will go (according to various
yard sticks) in an attempt to make it as egalitarian as possible. While I know
people who take this approach, it doesn’t seem to me to be such a successful
approach. No matter how liberal a yardstick one uses in attempting to move
halacha in this way, they are assured of falling far short of anything remotely
approaching egalitarian society. A lower mechitzah is still a mechitzah.
Partnership minyanim still show the fact that women can’t lead the most significant
parts of davening. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">93 Queen
seemed to gently suggest another possibility. What particularly moved me, and
stood out to me about the women in the film, was the fact that they had a
strong sense of knowing what they wanted, and what they had every reason to
expect to get, while at the same time feeling strongly at home in, and
comfortable with their community. As I watched the story unfold, seated in a
Modern Orthodox girl’s high school, I couldn’t help but wonder about how the
girls around me were seeing these women, as well as whether they could identify
with women who identify so strongly with their religious community,
restrictions an all. In particular, I found myself wondering whether there
could be aspects of the more yeshivish and even chassidish girl’s educational
system, which could be incorporated into the Modern Orthodox education system
(to be clear, I have similar questions about the boy’s educational system as
well).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I was moved
by the strong women portrayed in the film. As I watched, I couldn’t help but
hope that we in the modern world are providing a complex and nuanced enough
education to our daughters to allow them to look at women from a very different
part of the Orthodox world as heroes and role models. Where there are clear and
obvious ways where we will part ways in how we educate young women, I hope that
a high dividing wall is not being built to keep the two worlds apart.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Pesach Sommerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05429802587338023317noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2345202358783241386.post-54166388108199170442018-11-28T06:22:00.000-08:002018-11-29T09:24:48.421-08:00Ilu Haya Li- My pilgrimage to see Rav Dov Zinger<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_hr2W_l1OliY8qm5CeL7vXcIBXrpaPUgvG8BOiGIZgf4YVgWw-kHtYar5dmKS5UZWTfhYvVGxFiNHcESEaGn9dCdpUI47oHW09MBtAtJ0L15oQIfxRedS3MGBaL5OW29q1lDFTS31kiw/s1600/Rav+Dov.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="333" data-original-width="500" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_hr2W_l1OliY8qm5CeL7vXcIBXrpaPUgvG8BOiGIZgf4YVgWw-kHtYar5dmKS5UZWTfhYvVGxFiNHcESEaGn9dCdpUI47oHW09MBtAtJ0L15oQIfxRedS3MGBaL5OW29q1lDFTS31kiw/s320/Rav+Dov.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<strong><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="background: #fbfbfd; color: #003399; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">אילו היה לי רבי כמו שלכם הייתי
הולך אליו ברגל,</span></strong><strong><span style="background: #fbfbfd; color: #003399; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></strong></div>
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<strong><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="background: #fbfbfd; color: #003399; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">ובחזרה הייתי רץ לעבוד אותו יתברך
עם מה שקבלתי מרבי</span></strong><strong><span style="background: #fbfbfd; color: #003399; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></strong></div>
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<strong><span style="background: #fbfbfd; color: #003399; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 107%;">If I had a
Rebbe like yours, I would travel to him on foot,<o:p></o:p></span></strong></div>
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<strong><span style="background: #fbfbfd; color: #003399; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 107%;">And on my way
back, I would run, in order to serve The Blessed one, with what I received from
my Rebbe<o:p></o:p></span></strong></div>
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<strong><span style="background: #fbfbfd; color: #003399; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 107%;">Rav Avraham of Tolchin<o:p></o:p></span></strong></div>
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<strong><span style="background: #fbfbfd; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 107%;">I’ve
tried to write this several times over the past few weeks. I’ve written,
deleted, written again, edited, and edited some more. This is unusual for me.
Usually, I know what I want to say, and can find the words to do so. My
struggles to express what I want to, speaks to how deeply meaningful this
experience was for me. I almost wonder if my challenge in finding the right
words should be taken as an indication that I shouldn’t write about it. Some
things cannot be shared. Still, I try, with the hope that what I write may be
of use to even one person.<o:p></o:p></span></strong></div>
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<strong><span style="background: #fbfbfd; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 107%;">There
are many stories told him about a chassid leaving home for an extended period of
time to visit his rebbe in a far off location. These stories often end with the
chassid returning home having learned something of great importance. What is
often implicit in these stories is the fact that getting to the rebbe involves
all sorts of challenges including financial loss and time away from the family
and work, but that what he gains is worth far more than anything he loses.<o:p></o:p></span></strong></div>
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<strong><span style="background: #fbfbfd; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 107%;">I
don’t know how common it is these days for chassidim to make a pilgrimage to their
rebbe, but many people are familiar with the fact that each year, many Breslov
chassidim, chassidim of various stripes, and non-chassidim travel to Rebbe
Nachman’s kever in Uman for part or all of the Yamim Noraim. Among the
criticisms levied at those who go (and for good and bad, there are many) is
that they leave their wives and children home to spend the Rosh Hashana and/or
Yom Kippur by themselves. If I’m to be honest, as much as I would like to go to
Uman, this is the only reason which would prevent me from going for the Yamim
Noraim. Still, I’d like to share as much as I can find the words to do so,
about a recent pilgrimage of sorts that I made, as it leaves me believing that
certain tradeoffs may be worthwhile.<o:p></o:p></span></strong></div>
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<strong><span style="background: #fbfbfd; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 107%;">Less
than a year ago, I merited to meet and develop a connection with Rav Dov
Zinger, the Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivat Mekor Chaim, and author of <a href="https://www.korenpub.com/maggid_en_usd/maggid/book-categories/prayer/tikun-tfilati-1162.html">Tikon
Tefilati</a>, an incredible sefer on tefillah. In the brief time that we had
together it was clear that I had not just met a teacher, or even just a rabbi.
I had found a mentor, or to put it better, a rebbe. As you can imagine, I was very
happy to spend more time with him in Israel this past summer, and thrilled that
my son who joined me, was taken by him, and by his yeshiva as well. I left Israel
wondering when I’d get to see Rav Dov again. I was deeply excited when I was
invited by a friend to come to Cleveland for a weekend where Rav Dov would be
speaking and teaching.<o:p></o:p></span></strong></div>
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<strong><span style="background: #fbfbfd; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 107%;">I
won’t pretend that there were major obstacles standing in my way. My wife was
fine with my being away for a few days, and I received permission to miss work,
as I would be learning things which I could use in and out of the classroom.
Still, after agreeing to go, I discovered that from a family perspective, that
weekend was not an ideal one for me to be away. I even considered cancelling.<o:p></o:p></span></strong></div>
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<strong><span style="background: #fbfbfd; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 107%;">As
I drove west on route 80, I imagined myself as the proverbial chassid leaving
his little village to see his rebbe. The dark grey sky and stunning fall
foliage further lifted my spirits, something that even a massive storm which
accompanied me from one end of Pennsylvania to the other, could not ruin. As I drove,
I listened to Yosef Karduner soulful singing on my phone (click <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FapxsyhfwLY&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR0c5qWTB4L3mIV4X65s8mBIzMvOT-QVXyu91v-cCmb0xsRbhwwsOjvZK-Q">here</a> for his amazing rendition of the quote at the top of this post). I couldn’t help but
feel that this was all part of the pilgrimage. As excited as I was, I was alsonervous.
Was I getting my hopes up to high? Could this weekend be all that I hoped it
would be? <o:p></o:p></span></strong></div>
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<strong><span style="background: #fbfbfd; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 107%;">What
can I say? It was better than I could have possibly hoped. Not surprisingly,
the Torah was great. Each shiur and schmooze touched me deeply. I took copious
mental notes making sure that I could share his ideas with others. Still, none
of that was a surprise. I’d heard enough of Rav Dov’s Torah to know what to
expect.<o:p></o:p></span></strong></div>
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<strong><span style="background: #fbfbfd; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 107%;">What
made this experience so deeply meaningful was everything else. The conversations,
the hugs, the jokes, the non-verbal communication, the lesson in hisbodedus put
into practice late on a freezing night, and a wonderful walk in the woods, and,
and, and. <o:p></o:p></span></strong></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIlz8xfnFrkhSqFqxayQU_KleYMSqtdbvhfRSfNDENVJF4dyIsyuxVyvhkiMI38jlxtniRd3MxzT8wHer162QhlpmyidFdQqrJJua09KrlKCfLOEwlMe2xrsE1Z35HWEqXg2wiFfyDcfo/s1600/Rav+Dov+in+the+woods.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="586" data-original-width="437" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIlz8xfnFrkhSqFqxayQU_KleYMSqtdbvhfRSfNDENVJF4dyIsyuxVyvhkiMI38jlxtniRd3MxzT8wHer162QhlpmyidFdQqrJJua09KrlKCfLOEwlMe2xrsE1Z35HWEqXg2wiFfyDcfo/s320/Rav+Dov+in+the+woods.PNG" width="238" /></a></div>
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<strong><span style="background: #fbfbfd; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 107%;">I
can’t find the right words to describe it, and I’m not sure I should try. I can
only say that I imagine that many rabbeim have concentric circles around them,
with some chassidim all the way on the outside, while others get the
opportunity to discover a closer more intimate side of their rebbe. I don’t
think I can point to a specific moment, but at some point during our time
together I realized that it wasn’t just that I viewed Rav Dov as a rebbe, but
that he had allowed me access into a deeper more personal side of himself. <o:p></o:p></span></strong></div>
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<strong><span style="background: #fbfbfd; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 107%;">Of
course, at the end, in two stages, in Cleveland and New York, I had to say
goodbye again, for an undetermined amount of time. It was hard, and I was sad,
but it had to happen. Not just in terms of Rav Dov having to go home, but in
terms of the ratzo v’ashov, which doesn’t just describe the back and forth relationship
we have with God. There is an intensity I experience being in Rav Dov’s
presence. In those moments, I don’t quite feel like myself, as fear,
excitement, happiness, and trepidation combine to take me away from myself. I
don’t think I could handle like living like that all of the time, trying to
daven in his presence while trying to watch and not watch his davening, as I
hopelessly try to have kavana, or sitting at a meal hoping that my comments are
worth sharing, and my jokes appropriate, funny, but not crossing a line.<o:p></o:p></span></strong></div>
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<strong><span style="background: #fbfbfd; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 107%;">Most
of all, there’s a sense that when I’m with him, I’m not walking on my own, but
rather being held up like a child learning to take his first steps. It is only
by letting go, by letting there be some distance, that I get to be who I am,
taking the so many things I learned from him, not all of it Torah in its most
narrow sense, but all of it holy; and trying to implement it in my life.<o:p></o:p></span></strong></div>
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<strong><span style="background: #fbfbfd; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 107%;">While
I don’t pretend that my travels were particularly long or difficult, or my time
away a major sacrifice, I can still say that I strongly believe that whatever
was lost in my being away from home, is more than made up by what I returned
with as I came back home. I dare say that my time away has the chance to make
me a better husband, father, teacher, and Jew.<o:p></o:p></span></strong></div>
<br />Pesach Sommerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05429802587338023317noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2345202358783241386.post-91188001621480486552018-11-08T10:37:00.000-08:002018-11-08T10:37:01.167-08:00Can MO High Schools learn From The year In Israel? Some thoughts on the movie Unorthodox (Part III)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh75aQUwT_qXJGtibFdfP0Ky00UWhpgNSY8IgD_SK9WJcf75OGV_fYMJgn7E0Y05_U2Kuu5tYIhpaxE8Y0E8qP2zTF6P1vnnaJz3vrL735B6_CR91L1RAFGjyce9lv1jOWaq4ccU7qELjI/s1600/Students+on+subway.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="502" data-original-width="756" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh75aQUwT_qXJGtibFdfP0Ky00UWhpgNSY8IgD_SK9WJcf75OGV_fYMJgn7E0Y05_U2Kuu5tYIhpaxE8Y0E8qP2zTF6P1vnnaJz3vrL735B6_CR91L1RAFGjyce9lv1jOWaq4ccU7qELjI/s320/Students+on+subway.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">[This is the third
part of a three-part series on the movie “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lb_uwSN9L3k&t=379s&fbclid=IwAR2xyWCg80dm3gfz6MVQl_PMGNk0YBx1fdgy_8_dtZl1nJDOZdp2a0-idKg"><span style="color: #54823a; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Unorthodox</span></a>”.
In this post, I address ways for Modern Orthodox high schools to replicate some
of what makes studying in Israel so powerful. To read part I, where I addressed
how Israel schools have changed, please click <a href="https://pesachsheini.blogspot.com/2018/10/are-mo-students-still-flipping-out-some.html"><span style="color: #54823a; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">here</span></a>.</span></i><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> <i>To read part II, where I addressed how communities
can work to better serve high school students, please click <a href="https://pesachsheini.blogspot.com/2018/10/can-communal-change-lead-to-better.html">here</a></i>].<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“My So-Called Life” and “Freaks
and Geeks” are probably the two best TV shows I’ve ever watched about life as a
high school student, and its challenges, and I’m not alone in my praise. Both
were critically acclaimed, and developed cult-like followings after they went
off the air. Each, however, was off the air after only one season. There was
something that made people uncomfortable about the realistic portrayal of the
struggles of high school students. Viewers were hesitant to revisit their own
high school years, even through the lens of a TV show.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">If you know a teenager who
attends a Modern Orthodox high school, ask them how often they learn something
in their Judaic studies classes which seems relevant to their lives right now. Although
it has been a number of years since I taught high school, my guess is that most
students will struggle to come up with instances when Torah seemed relevant or
meaningful to them. While schools have done a good, or even great job of
improving their guidance departments to help those like Tzipi and Chaim, who
struggle with complicated issues in high school, on the Torah side of things,
the Judaic studies curriculum still often seems out of touch. Students continue
to spend the majority of their time studying and analyzing a small number of
texts.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">There are many aspects of the
year in Israel which cannot be replicated by high schools. Among them is the
time away from home, the older age of the students (at a time when they are
more reflective about life), very high-level rabbeim and morot, as well as the
atmosphere which exists in many Israeli religious communities. Still, there is
what to be learned and copied. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Many students encounter Jewish
thought for the first time during their year in Israel. One rebbe told me that
his students come back from Israel wondering why they never learned Rav Kook’s
Torah before. I do not blame him for not having taught it, but I do wonder why
it is that our students are not being exposed to his thought by <i>someone</i>.
Of course, it’s not just about Rav Kook. Many students discover that they are
inspired by chassidus, or love the Ramchal during their year in Israel. How is
it possible that high students are not learning that many of their biggest
questions on faith have been addressed by many great thinkers? How is it, that
many students leave high school, and too often, observance, thinking that <a href="https://pesachsheini.blogspot.com/2016/03/what-are-they-leaving-on-re-evaluating.html">Tanach
and gemara (but only the halachic parts) are the only thing that Judaism has to
offer</a>?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Additionally, many yeshivot
and seminaries offer classes, chaburot, or speakers on issues dealing with real
life challenges, both as currently faced, or ones which are on the horizon. Students
discover that Torah speaks to real life as lived, and not just to hypothetical
situations as discussed in the gemara or Shulchan Aruch. In short, Torah goes
from a book of laws, history, and stories, to a Torat Chaim.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Learning these lessons are
important for a number of reasons. Why should only the students who go to
Israel get the benefit of Torah being exciting meaningful and real? In fact, I
suspect that were they given such exposure, more students would want to
continue their Jewish education. Even for those who would go straight to college,
I believe that fewer would be so quick to throw off the shackles of their
Modern orthodox upbringing, if Jewish life was made more meaningful in high
school.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">If I am correct that high
schools are not for the most part learning these important lessons, why is this
the case? In too many schools, the teachers are too monolithic. If every rebbe
attended one of several yeshivot in Israel or America, they are less likely to
be capable of delivering classes which move beyond the standard texts taught in
yeshiva. If every morah has a similar outlook on what a frum woman needs to be
like, they are unlikely to be able to reach the student who needs something
else.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“Unorthodox” did a really good
job of showing the value of the year in Israel, and how it can meaningfully
change lives. Rather than simply viewing it as a couple of hours of thoughtful
entertainment, let’s think about what practical ideas can be learned to help
all of our students think meaningfully about what it means to be a Jew, even
before they figure out what to do after high school.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />Pesach Sommerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05429802587338023317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2345202358783241386.post-54442055087083017062018-11-01T10:21:00.001-07:002018-11-01T10:21:19.573-07:00Finding God in the Lincoln Tunnel- a brief thought on my daily commute<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitX0DPU4T9dDGIZOLGm6TMV0AYntug1BepVqgBKS8meWJVkgaTCM5pXq6uBdEUmqX6YbmaJO9-lAVhRuX_QH0EuZOXJIZdnpst4x_FHh27QjykA5X3M7nw_h74MV0SDW94l2Xm8YTfoq8/s1600/Lincoln+Tunnel+Traffic.webp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="427" data-original-width="640" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitX0DPU4T9dDGIZOLGm6TMV0AYntug1BepVqgBKS8meWJVkgaTCM5pXq6uBdEUmqX6YbmaJO9-lAVhRuX_QH0EuZOXJIZdnpst4x_FHh27QjykA5X3M7nw_h74MV0SDW94l2Xm8YTfoq8/s320/Lincoln+Tunnel+Traffic.webp" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">I
was astounded upon doing the math, to realize that I spend nearly 20 full DAYS
a year driving to and from work. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">I'm
in the car on average 2 1/2 hours a day, and multiplied by 180, that means I
spend about 450 hours in the car. Not only in the car, but quite often in
traffic, covering a distance that in Iowa would likely take me 20-30 minutes at
most. It's pretty much the only part of my job that I don't love, but how do I
make peace with this?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">The
Piascezna Rebbe has a powerful piece in what is known as Aish Kodesh (he called
it Derashos Mishnos Ha'zaam) where he riffs off of the words:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">אל תחלוק על המקום</span><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">Do
not argue with, or maybe, don't dispute God. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">He
read these words to say don't argue on the place where you are. It's
particularly powerful as he said these words on a Shabbos, while in hiding from
the Nazis. He taught that wherever you are is a place where you are connected
to God.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">So
what do I do while I'm tired and stressed, and sitting in bumper to bumper
traffic? On a simple level, I try to listen to shiurim, podcasts and music, but
that only a beginning. That's just the Litvak in me worrying about bitul zman
and bittul Torah.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">Can
I really be at one with God in the ugly dreariness of the Lincoln Tunnel? Can I
be as connected to Him at that moment as I am while hiking in nature, spending
time with my family, or learning a piece of the Rebbe's Torah? Because if I'm
really to learn from the Rebbe, that is indeed what he taught. That the world
truly is filled with God's glory, and that if I'm not feeling it, it's not
because God is not there, but rather because I'm not opening myself up to him,
indeed to reality. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">It's
a battle but I try and speak with him while driving and to feel his presence
even as a taxi is cutting me off to get a fare.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">Both
meanings of the words <span dir="RTL" lang="HE">אל תחלוק על המקום</span><span dir="LTR"></span><span dir="LTR"></span><span dir="LTR"></span><span dir="LTR"></span>
are connected. If I can make peace with where I am, I am together with HaKadosh
Baruch Hu no matter what surrounds me.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Pesach Sommerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05429802587338023317noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2345202358783241386.post-26967095123171964532018-10-31T09:38:00.000-07:002018-10-31T09:38:17.548-07:00Can Communal Change lead to a Better Educational System?- Some thoughts on the movie Unorthodox (Part II)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGgwc3hUsHunJjemN2b8TLlifeuYYqbnB_tcmtV69vlgwvWeBb70p6n-F4NOXOjTCwPYy_YnwOWf-i0vb1bs6V03ng-4rrIN4FkNmawQ1v0tmk4FA6F2Ee5gAZXl5COJ0c_4fhyC67az8/s1600/Kohelet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGgwc3hUsHunJjemN2b8TLlifeuYYqbnB_tcmtV69vlgwvWeBb70p6n-F4NOXOjTCwPYy_YnwOWf-i0vb1bs6V03ng-4rrIN4FkNmawQ1v0tmk4FA6F2Ee5gAZXl5COJ0c_4fhyC67az8/s320/Kohelet.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">[This is
the second part of a three-part series on the movie “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lb_uwSN9L3k&t=379s&fbclid=IwAR2xyWCg80dm3gfz6MVQl_PMGNk0YBx1fdgy_8_dtZl1nJDOZdp2a0-idKg">Unorthodox</a>”.
In this post, I address ways for institutional coherence to lead to a change in
Jewish education. To read part I, where I addressed how Israel schools have
changed, please click <a href="https://pesachsheini.blogspot.com/2018/10/are-mo-students-still-flipping-out-some.html">here</a>.]<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Michael
(name and details changed) went to a well-known Modern Orthodox high school.
When I would run into him at local races, he always came across as a kind,
well-behaved, and thoughtful young man (athletic too). He also came across as
not particularly excited by religion. In fact, when he graduated from high school,
he was one of the few graduating students from his school who did not spend a
year studying in Israel. I lost touch with Michael after he went to college at
a large Midwestern university. I remember my shock when I next saw him, a
number of years later. I was in shul and I saw a young man whose long beard and
style of dress clearly marked him as Chabad. He looked familiar, but I couldn’t
figure out why. When it finally hit me that this was Michael, I went over to
say hi. We talked for a while, and he explained to me that he had connected to
Chabad through his campus shaliach, and that he was now learning in a Chabad yeshiva.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I thought
about Michael’s for quite a while. How was it that this young man who grew up
in a typical Modern orthodox community, and had spent 12 years in its schools,
and had graduated without a strong connection, had become so committed to a
religious life?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">In watching
Unorthodox, I again thought of Michael, as well as those who are similar to him
and went to Israel, as well as those who went straight to college. Where are we
as a community and an educational system failing? I do not ask this question
with an assumption that we can reach every child/student. Still, I wonder how
many Michaels and Tzipis there are who never discover that religious Judaism is
something they could live and love. In this post I will focus on the community,
and in the next post I will discuss the school system.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">What
Unorthodox makes clear is that part of the effectiveness of the year in Israel
in leading to stronger religious commitment (permanent or temporary) goes beyond
the classroom. May students see communities, both charedi and dati leumi, which
they perceive as being more authentically in line with the Torah they’ve
learned, than the ones in which they grew up at home. They see serious
tefillah, Talmud Torah, and shemiras hamitzvos in ways that they often did not
at home or in their communities. While their communities in the States (and
elsewhere) often felt “moderately passionate” to borrow a phrase from Rabbi
Lamm, in Israel they witness and experience real passion.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Even if one
accounts for some degree of over-idealization in the student’s experiences in
Israel, it is hard to deny that Har Nof and Alon Shevut are very different from
the average Modern orthodox community in Chutz La’aretz. Teenagers, who often
notice real or perceived inconsistency and hypocrisy are often left wondering
about the differences they perceive.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The question
which needs to be addressed is whether change can occur on a communal level, or
whether it is only the educational system which can help our students grapple
with their inner and religious lives. While in some cases the schools will have
to largely work on their own (and I will address this in the next post), I
believe that, in some cases, communal change is possible.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">While
institutional change is hard to bring about, communal change is even more
complex. In order for a community to evolve religiously various institutions
need to work together and come up with a shared vision. Schools, where students
are the focus, have to work with shuls where there are a much wider range of participants.
In doing this important work, they allow students to see in their non-school
life, reinforce what they are learning about in school. Absent this consonance,
students are left wondering why they should live what they are learning at
school.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">My sense is
that there are communities where the school-shul partnership is happening. One
such community is in Philadelphia where the Kohelet Foundation is making sure
that the various Kohelet schools are working together with the community. They
describe their mission as:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="background: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The Kohelet Foundation aims to strengthen and preserve the Jewish Day
School education model for our next generation of leaders by creating and
supporting Jewish communal responsibility for day schools among parents,
philanthropists, and the greater Jewish community.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; color: #1d2129; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; color: #1d2129; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Local educators and sought after
speakers not only address the students at school, but also speak to the parents
and other community members. This makes it possible for parents to grow along
with their children, and to create Jewish lives which are passionate. Communal
funders come to see how supporting different organizations, rather than
focusing on just one, can be more effective.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; color: #1d2129; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; color: #1d2129; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">While no school can ever force
parents to engage with the learning, it is advantageous for this to occur. Many
parents grow frustrated when their children get to Israel and “flip out”,
especially when their children not only become more religious, but also become
more “right wing” philosophically. This approach also addresses the concern
that change is too sudden and volatile. Slow, thoughtful growth, done along with
one’s family would benefit the community, family, and students. With this
approach, Israel yeshivas and seminaries could reinforce what the students
already possess, rather than try to get the students to change.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; color: #1d2129; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; color: #1d2129; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">While it would take complex change
for this approach to come about, I can’t help but wonder what Michael might be
like today if he had witnessed such an integrated approach.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Pesach Sommerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05429802587338023317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2345202358783241386.post-20223539854209763902018-10-23T09:59:00.000-07:002018-10-23T09:59:02.578-07:00Are MO Students Still "Flipping Out"?- Some thoughts on the movie Unorthodox (Part I)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioCpBdXs9HPv-AZgphZQYDMZFWf55pktb5hbhRUscXHYchWcZSqi8WvIbtOEt1CVS11SsflamaROFZ_LQLNWjNYVWIaMJuY1bkghaRkq487DDyZzW7k_E5SUaT9IkckfmYUTLJBuq6FMg/s1600/Unorthodox.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="1400" height="137" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioCpBdXs9HPv-AZgphZQYDMZFWf55pktb5hbhRUscXHYchWcZSqi8WvIbtOEt1CVS11SsflamaROFZ_LQLNWjNYVWIaMJuY1bkghaRkq487DDyZzW7k_E5SUaT9IkckfmYUTLJBuq6FMg/s320/Unorthodox.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I can’t stop
thinking about the movie “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lb_uwSN9L3k&t=379s&fbclid=IwAR2xyWCg80dm3gfz6MVQl_PMGNk0YBx1fdgy_8_dtZl1nJDOZdp2a0-idKg">Unorthodox</a>”
since I watched it. The movie, which is a documentary, follows the lives of
three Modern Orthodox teenagers from the time leading up to their post-high
school year in Israel, during the year in Israel, and in subsequent years as
well. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is narrated and directed by
Anna Wexler, who also grew up in the Modern Orthodox world, but did not go to
Israel, as she had left observance during her high school years.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">There is
much that can be learned from this film by Modern Orthodox parents, educators,
and rabbis, as well as those from other parts of Orthodoxy. I plan to do a
series of posts on this movie, as I think there is too much to cover in a
single post. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">In this
post, I’d like to focus on what has changed about the year in Israel since
2005, which is the year when most of the film takes place. Although there will
be few surprises in this post, I think it’s important to recognize how much has
changed, and why the year in Israel is less effective than it was; both during
the year itself, as well as in creating long-term change. In subsequent posts I
will address larger communal and educational issues, and where we might go from
here.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It is no
secret that the year in Israel has become pretty standard for many Modern Orthodox teenagers. In some schools, it is almost like a 13<sup>th</sup> grade,
as virtually all students attend. Even at schools where it is less automatic, I’d
assume that 40-50% of graduating students attend. One of the topics which has
been explored by many people is the “flipping out” which takes place for some
of the students who become significantly more religious than they were coming
into the year. Tzipi, one of the main characters in the film, goes through this
process herself. She is a very compelling character, and we watch her develop
religiously from the beginning to the end of the film. Even as we see that not
everyone goes through this process, the movie makes clear why the year can be
so transformational.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Although it
came as no surprise, I was struck by the reminder that the technology of the
time created a situation where all of the students were mostly separated from
their former lives, including parents, friends, and girlfriends. It was
difficult and somewhat costly to make calls. This isolation gave the students a
chance to disconnect from their former lives, and imagine a life which may be
different. In a world without Ipads, Ipods, WhatsApp, Netflix and more, the
year in Israel allowed for the quiet space to consider how things could be
different, as well as a lack of peer pressure from their friends who were not
in Israel.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">We no longer
live in that world. The ubiquity of cell phones and all of the other technology
means that current students are much more in touch with their former lives,
which includes positive and negative influences. One can virtually “see” their
parents or their boyfriend quite easily, sometimes several times a day. While
some yeshivas and seminaries try to limit the technology, the reality is that
it is very difficult to do so. Free time is now a time when students can watch
all sorts of movies and TV shows. Students can binge-watch a popular series
long after lights out.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">There have
been formal studies which confirm what I see anecdotally, which is that all of
this contributes to the fact that less “flipping out” is taking place. I would
also add that my sense is that even when change does occur, it often does not
seem to last in the long-term. I would posit that students are often being
pulled in different direction, leading to less change.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Why does any
of this matter? If as many suggest, and this is mentioned in the movie, Modern
Orthodoxy seems to count on the year in Israel to help produce the next
generation of religiously committed adults, it is important that all of those
who wish to see the community continue to thrive recognize that other things
will have to be done to help bring this about. While good things do happen
during that year, we can no longer count on Israeli institutions to do what we do
not accomplish in Chutz La’aretz.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Do we want
to change, and how we might do so, are things I will address in future posts.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Pesach Sommerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05429802587338023317noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2345202358783241386.post-4371729122291928532018-09-13T10:01:00.002-07:002018-09-13T10:01:48.478-07:00The Unwanted Teacher- Some final thoughts on my hospitalization and recovery<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjoHjIgMHZU_1bXlHZf-IIDWjLGf54oKoKkwqqJcm-W9Kma3fIL8W9wMvw4Qw6KdDJu421GEtoNNjrZTm7wfYf8tb0HlQCC8jHP_YK_-imJIbi66BtKxg5sThRh5CeSMRCvmyYX7INRh4/s1600/teacher.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="840" data-original-width="1120" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjoHjIgMHZU_1bXlHZf-IIDWjLGf54oKoKkwqqJcm-W9Kma3fIL8W9wMvw4Qw6KdDJu421GEtoNNjrZTm7wfYf8tb0HlQCC8jHP_YK_-imJIbi66BtKxg5sThRh5CeSMRCvmyYX7INRh4/s320/teacher.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;">There’s a
part of me that just wants to move on from my experiences of the past two and a
half weeks. Yesterday, I went for my follow-up at the doctor and I’ve pretty
much recovered. Still, I know that completely moving on would be a mistake.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I need to
hold onto this experience. The pain, discomfort, and particularly the dis-ease
I had with being somewhat dis-abled, even for such a short period of time, all
of it can teach me something. It’s not just that I have to take better care of
myself, although that’s certainly true. Between the kidney stone, and the
return of my diabetes, there’s no more pretending that my health is fine. I can
no longer, kind of, sort of, almost, begin to get back to healthy eating and
exercising. As the Piaseczna Rebbe writes, my yetzer hara is trying to kill me,
and pretending otherwise is futile, even insane.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;">There’s
more, however. The issues with which I am dealing are not something rare and
unexpected. They are fairly common for men my age. What’s affected me more than
anything is the confrontation with the fact that I’m getting older. These
maladies are in line with the muscle soreness I get after long car rides, and
the general krechtzing I produce when picking things up off the floor. There’s
a certain phenomenon, prevalent in Western society, of claiming that age is
just a number. It comes with slogans like “Sixty is the new forty”. It’s cute
as far as it goes, but that’s it. Age can be slowed down a bit, but not
escaped.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;">If I’m
honest with myself, I’m almost certainly on the back nine of life’s golf
course. I don’t say that that to be maudlin or depressing. It’s important to
face the fact that I will not live forever. That I don’t have forever to fix
all of the interpersonal and religious flaws and weaknesses which I want to
address.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I’m not trying
to be melodramatic, or to make more of this than it is. It was pretty humbling
to hear from a college student who has had to do deal with something more
serious and of a much longer duration of time, who related to what I wrote,
after I shared my <a href="http://pesachsheini.blogspot.com/2018/08/a-different-type-of-preparation-how-my.html">initial
thoughts</a>. He shared his story, and it helped put things in perspective. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I see this
experience as a teacher, albeit, an unwanted one. Among the lessons I’ve
learned are to address my health, and to try and say <i>Asher Yatzar</i> with <i>kavana</i>,
while recognizing that I should not take the ability to stand before God, or
even the ability to stand pain free for granted. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Finally, it’s a reminder to not pretend that I
have forever to become the person I may yet be. I hope and pray that I’ve
learned what I need to, and in doing so, that I pass this test.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Pesach Sommerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05429802587338023317noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2345202358783241386.post-58907528261287511532018-09-05T08:18:00.004-07:002018-09-05T09:46:08.943-07:00To begin Again?- A different approach for Elul based on the Piaseczna Rebbe<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHj8dmxe5bhsiA8UEvX_rYfoZyZydpCDrC5LJR8nAa7OLP5riZMHsjhEehWD-ujG6UtfewKX_lMdaEl_RdFYkOd8xa2kdOGpfM7B1JnTQ7AUkrj2p6MqJmoEZ8aiOTJnA16ZNxW47VkP4/s1600/Begin+Again.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="600" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHj8dmxe5bhsiA8UEvX_rYfoZyZydpCDrC5LJR8nAa7OLP5riZMHsjhEehWD-ujG6UtfewKX_lMdaEl_RdFYkOd8xa2kdOGpfM7B1JnTQ7AUkrj2p6MqJmoEZ8aiOTJnA16ZNxW47VkP4/s320/Begin+Again.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">As we reach
the end of 5758, as the last few days of Elul approach, those of us who are not
so young, and who have seen their share of Elul commitments come and go, way
too often not successfully, have to ask ourselves, what we are doing here. Is
this just another charade where we say the necessary words of penance, and
pretend things will be different this time? Can we really approach the Yamim
Noraim honestly with a sense that we may yet become something more?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I have been
deeply affected, perhaps more than by any other sefer of the Piaseczna Rebbe, by
Tzav V’Ziruz. The short statements he wrote in his spiritual diary between 1926
and 1939 almost always speak deeply to me. Sometimes, his words feel like a cup
of cold water splashed across my face, forcing me to sit up and take notice.
They wake me up and bring to my attention ways that I think of the world, that
I might not even consciously be aware of, and how they affect my relationship
with HKBH. There is something about the nature of this work which has caused my
chavrusa and me to move more slowly than we did with his other sefarim, as we
try to make sure that we understand the full implications of his words.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">There’s
something else about this work that gives it such a hold over me. The Rebbe
wrote these words beginning in his late thirties until he was in his early
fifties. It is, if I may say so, the Torah of the midlife crisis. Torah written
for those who are not so young, and who have faced their share of failures and
disappointments. I suspect that a different sefer may have grabbed me, if I
learned his Torah when I was in my twenties. Which brings us to a small Torah
which my chavrusa and I learned this past Shabbos.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">In Torah 24,
the Rebbe speaks about the danger of having spiritual desires and aspirations,
without having a real plan for implementing them. While one might think that
spiritual goals are inherently valuable, he notes that without a way of trying
to concretize them, it is likely that they will never happen. Many years of
this leads to a sense of despair, that one will never get there. It may even
leave one convinced that it’s no longer worth trying to aim for religious
greatness.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Here I am
just about midway between the age that the Rebbe wrote the first and last words
in this sefer. As always, I wonder how someone of his greatness can know so
well what lies deep within someone like me. At times, I’ve dreamed big in terms
of learning goals, davening goals, middos goals, in a word of teshuva. I’ve wanted
to become more than I am, certain, or at least hopeful, that I’m nowhere near
where I could be. If I’m honest, most years my Elul plans come to naught. I
daven, I plead, I apologize, both to God and to other people, and, much more
often than not, little has changed by the end of the year. There are years
where I wonder if it’s even worth trying.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">In the Rebbe’s
words, I received a challenge. Marching orders as it were. I’m never going to
get my teenagers years back to redo. Same thing for my time in yeshiva and
kollel, or the early years of my marriage or as a father. Still, God willing, I
have many more years ahead of me. I can continue as I’ve always done, and foolishly
imagine that the results may be different. Or, if I’m brave enough, I can
continue to dream big, and this time try more carefully to come up with a plan.
To really work on it, so that next Elul, and, BEH, in ten years, twenty years,
and for as many years as I’m blessed with, I’m not left wondering what might
have been. Thanks to a small piece in Tzav V’Ziruz, I’m once again able to
dream, and to begin again<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Pesach Sommerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05429802587338023317noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2345202358783241386.post-66737882227253748212018-08-30T11:52:00.000-07:002018-08-30T11:52:25.857-07:00A Different Type of Preparation - How my stay in the hospital got me ready for Rosh Hashanah <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/wp-content/uploads/2005/06/sick-healing-mi-sheberakh.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="800" height="180" src="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/wp-content/uploads/2005/06/sick-healing-mi-sheberakh.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: medium;">What a difference a year makes.</span><br />
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<br /></div>
<div dir="auto" style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: large;">
Last year, at this time, as we approached the time for selichos, I was ready. I'd spent time going through Pachad Yitzchak on Rosh Hashanah, Rav Amiel's Yamim Noraim derashos, and some of Rav Kook's Orot HaTeshuva. I. Was. Ready.</div>
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<br /></div>
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This year, I did not prepare. I'd wanted to, but hadn't followed through as the trip to Israel I took with my son approached, and became a major focal point. I kept telling myself that I'd get around to learning and preparing (I sometimes mistakenly see those two as the same), but it didn't happen. The trip came along, went remarkably well, and I figured I'd get back into things during the week leading up to Selichos. I figured it would be a bit jarring to go from the high of trip to the mundane reality of "normal life", but I was ready for it. God had other plans for me.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div dir="auto" style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: large;">
If I thought that the difference between a trip to Israel and being home would be a bit challenging to navigate , going from my return home to the hospital in less than ten hours, was over the top. I had no time to come down from the high of the trip, or even to see each of our children who were home. Before I knew it, I was being rushed to the hospital by Hatzolah, as I writhed in pain.</div>
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<br /></div>
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When I was told that I had a large kidney stone, which would require me staying over in the hospital, and a medical procedure in the morning, I was rather devastated. I didn't have much time to process what made it so hard, but now that I'm home recovering, I do. </div>
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<br /></div>
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Beyond sleeping in a noisy hospital room, shared by a stranger on the other side of a thin curtain (with a mouth like a truck driver, and a predilection for fantasy football), and the pain of the procedure, there was something deeply humbling in realizing how little I truly control. Having researched and planned the trip to Israel, I felt good knowing I could put together such a meaningful and fun experience for my son and I. Now, I wasn't even in control of my body, or even where I slept. As I've recovered, simple tasks feel overwhelming. I continue to feel somehow let down by my body. Beyond the physical healing, it will take me time to get past this. </div>
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<br /></div>
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So here I am a year later, ready for Selichos in a very different way. Without the cerebral experience of opening a sefer, I'm aware of how little I control, and how much I depend on Hashem for everything. It's not the preparation that I would have chosen, but apparently it's the one I needed. </div>
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<br /></div>
Pesach Sommerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05429802587338023317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2345202358783241386.post-79630393737598111532018-05-23T06:16:00.001-07:002018-05-23T06:16:21.223-07:00Leaving Har Sinai- On the challenges of taking Matan Torah Into life<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXi9Ma1p7XlfYSMt4VIJ11fB3vVXIMF4NQNrQ1x7KfAdImm6FkF7XfVnSse4DhFl12xe6Bbf0bw8-0prhBMV0AOcYLm2q1-2McHxGSahnODQU0w7ijJFZjQflOZX_YlPQeiwoz126zstY/s1600/Dirt.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="460" data-original-width="860" height="171" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXi9Ma1p7XlfYSMt4VIJ11fB3vVXIMF4NQNrQ1x7KfAdImm6FkF7XfVnSse4DhFl12xe6Bbf0bw8-0prhBMV0AOcYLm2q1-2McHxGSahnODQU0w7ijJFZjQflOZX_YlPQeiwoz126zstY/s320/Dirt.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Thanks to a wonderful
shiur I listened to on Friday, I headed into Shabbos and Yom Tov with strong
expectations. Rav Ami Silver gave over a derasha from Derech HaMelech, which
the Piaseczna Rebbe first delivered nearly 90 years ago. I went into Shabbos
wanting to learn through the rebbe’s words on my own, as I strongly wanted to
internalize the message. It took a few times going over it, but eventually I
was able to reconnect with the message of the derasha. I was deeply moved by
the idea that Kabbalas HaTorah is something which re-occurs throughout time,
and that we need to see ourselves as having something worthy to merge with the
Torah, rather than accepting it passively. The part which touched me the most
was the idea that we must dig down within ourselves, in our own “dirt” to
discover that even there, we connect with the Ribbono Shel Olam.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Over the chag, I
continued to learn from the Derech HaMelech, as well as from Rav Kook’s Midbar
Shur. Combined with the time I spent with family, and the learning I did with
several of our children, Shavuos was a deeply meaningful experience. I truly
felt that it was a personal Z’man Matan Toraseinu.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Just as suddenly, as I
went from Yom Tov to chol, the experience disappeared. I remember the words,
and the ideas they conveyed, but I can no longer access them. Even as today is
Iseru Chag, the day when we are to bind the experiences of the yom tov to our
lives, the switch from kodesh to chol is too dramatic. While I try and pass it
off as being a product of physical and mental exhaustion, it seems to me that
something else is going on. As I stood at the base of Har Sinai, I could
imagine finding the holy within dirt, even within my own. Now, having traveled
on, my imagination fails, and this profound teaching has reverted to just an
intellectual concept.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I better understand how
40 days after Kabbalas HaTorah there can be a Cheit HaEigel. To receive the Torah
is an avodah, but to bring it with you from Har Sinai is a greater one, and
right now I don’t know how to do that.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Pesach Sommerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05429802587338023317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2345202358783241386.post-29357945163627297432018-04-30T12:21:00.001-07:002018-05-23T07:45:18.645-07:00Mati V'lo Mati- Experiencing chassidus through seforim and the academy<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigOWyNwCFV84njrnuYCSuskCYtby7wSVaSv2wthw5-NarXsKjckwTFKJR7zq2FR1XjefWqjmQnQl_m3MNx4av2n7we3XDl28RgJGHQNLCTiDQX-Quovqt5cEe1zY8NHmAoBrRmYgCY6O4/s1600/Academic+chassidus.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="505" data-original-width="1600" height="101" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigOWyNwCFV84njrnuYCSuskCYtby7wSVaSv2wthw5-NarXsKjckwTFKJR7zq2FR1XjefWqjmQnQl_m3MNx4av2n7we3XDl28RgJGHQNLCTiDQX-Quovqt5cEe1zY8NHmAoBrRmYgCY6O4/s320/Academic+chassidus.PNG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">One of the highlights of
my week is the 45 minute chavrusa I have before mincha each Shabbos afternoon
learning the Torah of the Piaseczna Rebbe. The combination of contemplating his
approach to chassidus, along with the timing so close to the end of Shabbos, a
time the Rebbe describes as having the high that comes from having
reached the highest stage of Shabbos, along with the sadness that it will soon
be over, has a profound effect on me. Temporarily transformed, Mincha following
this chavrusa is usually qualitatively different from the rest of my tefillos.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">It is not just the
chassidus of the Piaseczna Rebbe which draws me. In chassidus in general, I
have found a psychologically profound approach, which has become a lens through
which I see the world. The focus on interiority, and on finding Hashem in all
parts of my life, has transformed the way I understand Judaism. At the same
time, I not only do not consider myself a chassid, but I also find myself drawn
to various academic approaches to chassidus, works which often pull back the
curtain on that which I find so meaningful; analyzing, deconstructing, and,
well, in some ways, neutering it. After recently picking up Mendel Piekarz’s
book on Polish chassidus, I found myself wondering why I engage in two
activities which, although somewhat connected, are in many important ways so
diametrically opposed.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">It would be easy to say
that the academic approach adds to my appreciation of chassidus, helping flesh
it out in a way somewhat akin to utilitarian nature of secular knowledge in the
Torah Im Derech Eretz approach, but that would be letting myself off the hook.
As much as there are times when the academic approach enhances my appreciation
of chassidus, there are many others when it detracts. Even as I try to avoid
those approaches which are more glaringly hostile, or coming with a strong
agenda, it is not always possible to know what I will discover before
proceeding. It is not always good to know too much about one’s heroes. In
certain respects, less is more.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">If I’m to be honest,
there’s a part of me that is relieved to have some of the chassidus I learn
demystified. I am deeply moved by much of what I learn, but I want it on my
terms. I’m not interested in fully diving in, something that at earlier points
in my life might have been tempting. While I have </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><a href="http://pesachsheini.blogspot.com/2015/03/the-golden-glow-does-philosophy-help.html"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">written
glowingly</span></a></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"> (if you’ll excuse the
pun) of someone who made the jump, I could never do so for all sorts of
reasons.The academic literature helps put a bit of a brake, or even a damper,
on some of my enthusiasm and passion. This helps create a “yes, however”
approach in me, which leaves me somewhere in the middle, simultaneously drawn
towards, and pulling away from the chassidus I learn, although not in equal
measure.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">The elusive balance
which I’d love to achieve is best conveyed in a delightful story told by Rav
Menachem Frohman about Professor Yehuda Liebes, which I encountered in a </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><a href="http://seforim.blogspot.com/2015/05/the-princess-and-i-academic.html"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">post</span></a></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"> by Rabbi Josh Rosenfeld on the Seforim blog.
Rav Frohman writes:</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I will conclude with a story 'in praise of
Liebes' (Yehuda explained to me that he assumes the meaning of his family name
is: one who is related to a woman named <i>Liba</i> or, in the changing of a
name, one who is related to an<i>Ahuva</i>/loved one). As is well known, in the
past few years, Yehuda has the custom of ascending ( =<i>'aliya le-regel</i>)</span><sup><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 7.0pt;">[21]</span></sup><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> on <i>La"g b'Omer</i> to the celebration ( =<i>hilula</i>)
of RaShb"I</span><sup><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 7.0pt;">[22]</span></sup><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> in Meron. <b>Is there anyone who can
comprehend - including Yehuda himself - how a university professor, whose
entire study of Zohar is permeated with the notion that the Zohar is a book
from the thirteenth- century (and himself composed an entire monograph:
"How the Zohar Was Written?"</b></span><b><sup><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 7.0pt;">[23]</span></sup></b><b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">), can be emotionally invested along with the
masses of the Jewish people from all walks of life, in the celebration of
RaShb"I, the author of the Holy Zohar?</span></b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Four years ago, Yehuda asked me to join him on
this pilgrimage to Meron, and I responded to him with the following point: when
I stay put, I deliver a long lecture on the Zohar to many students on <i>La"g
b'Omer</i>, and perhaps this is more than going to the grave of RaShb"I.</span><sup><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 7.0pt;">[24]</span></sup><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> <b>Yehuda bested me, and roared like a lion: "All year long
- Zohar, but on <i>La"g b'Omer </i>- RaShb"I!</b>"</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">(emphasis added).</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">I’d like to believe that
somehow I can simultaneously be deeply immersed in chassidus, letting it mold
and shape me, while at the same time imagining myself to be sophisticated
enough to know the difference between what nourishes me, and what I can
experience with a knowing wink, or even some skepticism or doubt. I don’t think
I’m there yet, but increasingly I believe I can almost make out my destination
from here.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">To join the discussion on Facebook, please click <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pesach.sommer/posts/10156345576570030?notif_id=1527081643299456&notif_t=feedback_reaction_generic">here</a></span></div>
<br />Pesach Sommerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05429802587338023317noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2345202358783241386.post-67218655436886954652018-03-20T12:03:00.001-07:002018-03-20T13:06:29.044-07:00With A Lot of Help From My Friends- NYC Half-Marathon Race Report<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAaujLf_1dgaWG4JWviCcgJU9oOGkuH9N1ayE7WLbybgU_YVohFDLJoLyfcHABLzKfTP58vl56A42T4-SQlC5t0lCbU_8mIpWr5DSCQdzhdoXRIVipTpRAXabSHnLReB07tuRY52oJbYI/s1600/Finishline.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="550" data-original-width="481" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAaujLf_1dgaWG4JWviCcgJU9oOGkuH9N1ayE7WLbybgU_YVohFDLJoLyfcHABLzKfTP58vl56A42T4-SQlC5t0lCbU_8mIpWr5DSCQdzhdoXRIVipTpRAXabSHnLReB07tuRY52oJbYI/s320/Finishline.PNG" width="279" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">After nearly three
months of training, and raising nearly $6200 to help purchase an ambulance for
Magen David Adom in Memory of </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://www.daniellamoffsonfoundation.com/"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Daniella Moffson z”l</span></a></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">, it’s race day!</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6rWjIDDs52YGq1H1K8nY-6H-KbIt8KvoGIMKUtJNTjAa1e-3JTXp4Jb60maZbT2PJwv-5VX88WFMpc-OLj7AoTj9bfVIjmhT55c5KYpWNRMHo9Y4F0LYEjPIMtpUbxnq6R_X13i_BDD0/s1600/Race+kit.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="619" data-original-width="485" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6rWjIDDs52YGq1H1K8nY-6H-KbIt8KvoGIMKUtJNTjAa1e-3JTXp4Jb60maZbT2PJwv-5VX88WFMpc-OLj7AoTj9bfVIjmhT55c5KYpWNRMHo9Y4F0LYEjPIMtpUbxnq6R_X13i_BDD0/s320/Race+kit.PNG" width="250" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">I’m nervous. While I’ve
gone as far as 9.1 miles on one of my training run/walks, I haven’t run more than 4
miles straight. I know I’ll finish even if I have to walk the whole thing, but
there’s a three hour time limit. Who knows? If I don’t finish by then, maybe
race sponsor United Airlines will pick me up on the course, and stick me in the
overhead bin on the bus.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<u><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Before the race</span></u><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">We get to the starting
line at the Prospect Park Zoo and it’s freezing. How cold is it? The polar
bears at the zoo are shivering. The penguins have started to waddle south. I’m
wearing three shirts. A long sleeve running shirt, the flaming pink team shirt,
and an NCSY sweatshirt from Vancouver which I’m planning on ditching if it ever
warms up.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">A random guy comes over
and says “Shalom”. How does he know I’m Jewish? Could it be the beard? It’s
only later on when I see a picture my wife took after dropping us off, that I
realize my sweatshirt, which I haven't worn in ages, has a giant Jewish star on the back.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtSNndSd7EW9uzhE3VOkCfut9tLUZ0l17fpmVMILgbulUjVSRiuEBE5D_SsD_uCLTD6Yf1sfUCNV-mi2UlbCP46bPtTfPRqhz6SvQdUQVUgdcGek5XFqKpAOxm4JvzV0wCVBGP52YqGNs/s1600/Sweathshirt.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="401" data-original-width="455" height="282" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtSNndSd7EW9uzhE3VOkCfut9tLUZ0l17fpmVMILgbulUjVSRiuEBE5D_SsD_uCLTD6Yf1sfUCNV-mi2UlbCP46bPtTfPRqhz6SvQdUQVUgdcGek5XFqKpAOxm4JvzV0wCVBGP52YqGNs/s320/Sweathshirt.PNG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">As I’m waiting to start
the race, I find myself wondering whether I’ll see anyone I know. Suddenly, a
Facebook friend dressed up as Ironman walks by. Little do I know that he is not
the last friend I’m going to see today.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<u><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Mile 1</span></u><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">We’re off! They say
failing to plan is planning to fail. I don’t know who they are, but I hope
they’re wrong. I’ve been so busy with so many things that I haven’t really
thought about what my approach should be out on the course, other than a
friend’s advice to walk the water stops. All I know is that the first mile is
downhill and ignoring everything I know about starting slowly, I let the
excitement of the race get to me, and I’m going too fast.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">I see someone in an old
Camp Simcha sweatshirt. Deciding to do some bageling of my own, I say “Go Camp
Simcha!”. Only when the lady wearing it, who’s old enough to be my mother,
turns around and makes clear she doesn’t speak English, do I realize she
probably got the shirt without working in camp.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<u><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Mile 2</span></u><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">It’s starting to warm up
a bit. I ditch the sweatshirt. As I take it off, I notice my bib is torn by
several of the pin-holes. I don’t want to lose the bib, which contains the
timing chip. Let me tell you that re-pinning on a bib while running is not as
easy as it looks. Ouch!</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">We pass BAM, the
Brooklyn Academy of Music. I think back to a night, probably thirty years ago
when my mom ob”m dragged us to see South Pacific, in an attempt to culture us. I'm not uncultured but all I remember from that night was a bunch of singing sailors/</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">We approach the
Manhattan Bridge. Having barely trained on any hills, I decide to walk. As I
do, I start cheering fellow runners who are running with Jewish teams, wearing
shirts for the always inspiring Team Achilles, or wearing shirts marking them
as survivors. As I get to the top, there are a couple of NYPD officers standing
near their motorcycles. I ask them for a ride.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">On the downhill part of
the bridge, I push it. I’m going pretty fast. Well, sort of. Somewhere out
there, not too far away, Rochie and some of the kids are waiting for me. I’m
really looking forward to seeing them.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<u><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Mile 3</span></u><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">We get to the Lower East
Side and start to see Hebrew and Yiddish signs on the wall marking many of the
old buildings. Naturally, I ask every frum guy I see “Which way to the nearest
minyan?”. </span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Someone random calls out “Go Pesach!”.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<u><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Mile 4</span></u><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNOiO_BtR7V5r8t-6sQPSBZLXL3wgWKs8R1Z-CRXunQPxJtq3r93enWWKVQ3R6NzaGxt7FJDCaqChjXwZGKtpmTLdtNfeBIldqIUakKjeYlv43O74sLB5osmUeItTbcha33dtAvRl1mpg/s1600/Seeing+the+fam.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="503" data-original-width="459" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNOiO_BtR7V5r8t-6sQPSBZLXL3wgWKs8R1Z-CRXunQPxJtq3r93enWWKVQ3R6NzaGxt7FJDCaqChjXwZGKtpmTLdtNfeBIldqIUakKjeYlv43O74sLB5osmUeItTbcha33dtAvRl1mpg/s320/Seeing+the+fam.PNG" width="292" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">I see Rochie and the kids, along
with a sister-in-law and niece who live in the area. I’m really excited to see
and hear them. After some hugs and kisses, I’m off. I’m sorry to leave. I’m
having a hard time with the running, and am pretty sure I’m going too slow.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">I look down at my shirt,
and see the picture of Daniella and remind myself why I’m doing this.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<u><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Mile 5</span></u><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">We get to the FDR Drive.
As usual, it’s crowded and I’m barely moving.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Random drivers going the
opposite direction honk to cheer us on. It really helps.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<u><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Mile 6</span></u><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">I look at my watch.
Surprisingly my pace looks good, even though I’ve been walking quite a bit. I
might beat the three hour limit.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">I see the UN. I’m really
tired and trying to conserve my energy, but I still manage to thumb my nose as
I go past. I can almost swear I hear them voting to condemn Israel.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<u><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Mile 7</span></u><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">We get off at 42nd St.
It is really cold. We pass Grand Central Station, and the thought occurs to me how much
faster I could get to the park by train. </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Lost in my thoughts, I
look up to see one of my favorite buildings, the New York Public Library, which
besides being a beautiful building, was one of my dad’s childhood haunts. </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">I have to admit, running
through Times Square is pretty cool. The cheering really helps.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQRl3Q6ini7818pQTe5qGjgVrs5sm8HaVglSVw7S8rr61zNdY7pC_TjNR7ABmM3FH9gfJOPdAGMh2hYryI3JLQulQBCR4jGyVjzvHO2TKujPDQ-DA682z316qmCGIlyE8_wA1q_RyJ3aE/s1600/Running+picture+1.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="339" data-original-width="298" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQRl3Q6ini7818pQTe5qGjgVrs5sm8HaVglSVw7S8rr61zNdY7pC_TjNR7ABmM3FH9gfJOPdAGMh2hYryI3JLQulQBCR4jGyVjzvHO2TKujPDQ-DA682z316qmCGIlyE8_wA1q_RyJ3aE/s320/Running+picture+1.PNG" width="281" /></a></div>
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<u><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Mile 8</span></u><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">I’m starting to think I
might finish in the 2:40s. I find myself sprinting.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<u><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Mile 9</span></u><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">We get to Central Park, which is one of my favorite places to run. At
this point, I’m past the longest training run I did. Incredibly, I’m still
feeling great. Somewhere in the back of my mind I start to wonder if a finish
in the 2:30s is possible.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">I look up and see the
Met on my right, and the </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"><a href="http://www.centralparknyc.org/things-to-see-and-do/attractions/obelisk.html">Obelisk</a></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> on my left and I start to cry. I’m thinking of
the times earlier in the year when I’d walk nearby, </span><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">desperate</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> to get any exercise, watching the runners zip
past, and wondering whether I’d ever run again. Incredibly, here I am.</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">I feel my Ramaz
wristband dangling on my arm and think of all the incredible support I’ve
received from so many people in the building which is just a few blocks to the east. From my colleagues who donated
way beyond what I could have imagined, to my students who cheered for me as I ran laps in the gym, to the guards and secretaries who frequently encouraged me and
asked about my training, they made me feel like they were all on my team.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<u><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Mile 10</span></u><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">The Reservoir, which is
my favorite running spot in NY is on my left. I can almost swear I hear <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marathon_Man_(film)">Szell</a>
asking “Is it safe?”.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">I’m cheering on my
fellow runners, and I realize I’ve become one of the most annoying people to
meet at this point in a race; the late-race peppy guy.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<br /></div>
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<u><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Mile 11</span></u><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Oh my gosh! I’m going to
finish in the 2:30s, unless...I try to banish the disaster scenarios from my
head.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Late in the mile I’m
walking a hill, and I hear someone call my name. There’s my friend Joe who I’ve
been wanting to run with for a while. He’s a really good guy, with a huge
heart, who’s been dealing with his share of challenges. “I’m running you to the
top of the hill” he tells me. It really helps. “Don’t go”, I want to say as we
reach the top of the hill.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<u><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Mile 12</span></u><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Suddenly I again hear someone
call my name and there’s Ehud, a friend of mine who’s a great runner, and an
even better person. He’s been following my race on an App and came to the park
to cheer me on. Thanks to my flaming pink shirt, he spotted me and decided to run
me in. He encourages me to give it all I’ve got. Despite his being capable of
running twice as fast as my current pace, he tells me I look great.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">People are cheering. “Go
Pesach!” I hear. I also hear “Go Pee-such!”. Whatever. I'll take it.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<u><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Mile 13</span></u><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">800 meters to go , then
400. Ehud points out the Israeli flag at the side of the course.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">There’s the finish line!
I’m fighting back tears, as I high five the spectators.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">I cross the line without
pushing button on my watch hoping for a good picture by the course photographer
(PS they missed me).</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Ehud and I walk for a
while chatting and continuing to catch up.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">As we leave the park, I
spot the Moffsons and some of the rest of the DMF team. I’m so happy to see
them, and so honored to have been part of this incredible team which has raise
over $130K.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<u><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">What’s next?</span></u><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">This is what I’ve
started asking myself. A generous friend offered to pay for my entry to do
another half-marathon at the end of April, but with regrets, I passed. Another
friend told me that he’s glad the Running Rabbi is back. Truth is, I’m not. I’m
not really a runner yet. I can’t run hills, and I still struggle to run for too
long outside. I think I’ll do a 10K at the end of May, as I continue to train
and try to lose weight. After that, I might consider another half.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">For now I’m so thankful
for this experience for Rochie, the kids, and all the other family members,
friends, and colleagues who have helped me along the way. While I’ve been the
one doing the training, they’ve been the one to keep me going.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Pesach Sommerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05429802587338023317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2345202358783241386.post-64552517396206209522018-03-14T06:01:00.000-07:002018-03-14T07:07:22.157-07:00Hugging the Divine- Finding Hashem in the Torah we learn<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdek5JSmX6O6zBZ2lHjJrphRMzl5OSaCpOuN5cREu2mgKtTXWkqfmen_9sboiD0x3b-xO8ElEBuqWq_qrDL98uZCAFUSyJ3ARjy9jANApAT2zYxx8xhZ7KAS0Z9Bdv2MFprutGyC9NzQo/s1600/Child+hugging+parents.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="240" data-original-width="360" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdek5JSmX6O6zBZ2lHjJrphRMzl5OSaCpOuN5cREu2mgKtTXWkqfmen_9sboiD0x3b-xO8ElEBuqWq_qrDL98uZCAFUSyJ3ARjy9jANApAT2zYxx8xhZ7KAS0Z9Bdv2MFprutGyC9NzQo/s320/Child+hugging+parents.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">The rosh yeshiva who I heard speak this past Friday
night, was as brilliant as I’d been led to believe. Listening to him speak, one
could believe the possibly apocryphal story which I’d heard about him, that a
Soloveichik once said that they’d never met anyone else who who could think
like that who didn’t share their last name. Still, as I tried to follow his
brilliant analysis of a difficult Rambam, I felt like something was missing.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Thinking about it afterwards, I tried to reflect on how
the shiur which I’d witnessed was any different than what I would have
experienced had I listened to a lecture from a world-class physicist. While I
imagine that in the latter case I would have been less familiar with the
content of the lecture, I can still imagine that I could be mesmerized by their
brilliance. I found myself thinking of </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="https://www.yutorah.org/_cdn/_shiurim/Rabbi%20Moshe%20Lichtenstein%20-%20'What'%20Hath%20Brisk%20Wrought-%20The%20Brisker%20Derekh%20Revisited%20(1-1-2000).pdf"><span style="color: #1155cc;">‘“What” has Brisk Wrought?’</span></a><span style="color: black;">, an article Rav Moshe Lichtenstein wrote in the Torah
U’Madda Journal nearly 20 years ago. In the Article, he spoke about the
limitations of the Brisker Derech of learning, noting that they often stopped
at the “what” of categorization, without moving on to the why. It is for this
reason that while I’m often impressed by the analysis that comes from those
well-versed in the Brisker Derech, I’ve rarely found it religiously edifying.
In thinking about the rosh yeshiva’s shiur, I realized that for me, it felt
like the Ribbono Shel Olam was missing, or that if he was there, it was with a
separation of more than six degrees of separation with which we are all said to
be connected. It was as if I was discussing the method by which a beloved
friend’s favorite shoes are stitched, rather than talking about something more
directly connected to my friend. </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">The next day, given the opportunity to attend another
of the rosh yeshiva’s shiurim, I instead decided to learn with my regular
chavrusa.It wasn’t a difficult choice. While I can’t say when I will again get
the opportunity to hear a shiur of that caliber, it is during my weekly
chavrusa in the Torah of the Piaseczna Rebbe’s Torah that I often experience
the Divine. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">As we sat learning Mevo Hashearim, the rebbe quoted a
beautiful mashal from the Ba’al HaTanya used to explain why learning the
non-esoteric parts of Torah also has value. When one learns Torah of any kind,
one was is hugging Hakadosh baruch Hu who is found within the garments of
Torah. Even if a particular approach involves hugging Hashem through more
garments, one merely needs to keep in mind who it is who is wearing those
garments. Ironically, it was here, in a chassidic rebbe’s defense of learning
nigleh and not just nistar, that I found a way to frame the Brisker Torah which
I had learned on Friday night. Even within analyzing the categories of the
Rambam and focusing on a halacha which lacks practical application, one can,
with the right focus, hug HaKadosh Baruch Hu.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br />Pesach Sommerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05429802587338023317noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2345202358783241386.post-81076748266026025832018-02-27T10:16:00.001-08:002018-02-27T10:18:17.050-08:00More Than A Peirush- a review of the new Rav Kook Siddur<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXPSmwVTbtise0c1o8xKsJNuL8eYf3SJRGnChKV4z3QtbeYHGKqPIItXM6WTnwBoubngfeTqcoukmYQ8MS7Kz2L-Snke-E84Fz1NaGWBucRicTZAqYbVq18cNRN4hZO-jGlE1upzB-psU/s1600/Rav+Kook+Siddur.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="800" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXPSmwVTbtise0c1o8xKsJNuL8eYf3SJRGnChKV4z3QtbeYHGKqPIItXM6WTnwBoubngfeTqcoukmYQ8MS7Kz2L-Snke-E84Fz1NaGWBucRicTZAqYbVq18cNRN4hZO-jGlE1upzB-psU/s320/Rav+Kook+Siddur.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "cambria" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">“A
student asked his Rosh Yeshiva whether he should study Rav Kook’s perush to the
siddur. In his inimitable style, the Rosh Yeshiva replied” ‘Ach, it’s not a
perush to the siddur.’ Intrigued, the student asked “If not a perush to the
siddur, then what is it?’ </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "cambria" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">‘A
neshamah on paper.’”</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">While it has been
pointed out by both those who read the quote carefully, as well as those
familiar with the actual context, that Rav Yaakov Weinberg, the above quoted
rosh yeshiva, did not necessarily mean his words as a compliment, seeing Olat
Reiyah as less than a peirush on the siddur and only “a neshmah on paper”, I
believe that Koren, the publishers of the new </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><a href="https://www.korenpub.com/koren_en_usd/koren/tefilla/siddur-prayer-book/koren-rav-kook-siddur.html"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Rav Kook
Siddur</span></a></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"> were right to use this
quote. Regardless of the rosh yeshiva’s intent, Rav Kook did not merely write a
commentary, with all the limitations that this term implies. Instead he truly
bared his soul, and even more importantly, showed that real tefillah cannot
happen without each of us doing the same.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Until now, as with much
of his thought, Rav Kook’s approach to tefillah was largely off limits to the
English-speaking world. Rav Bezalel Naor, who wrote the commentary which
accompanies the new Rav Kook Siddur, has once again made Rav Kook’s ideas
available to a broader audience. As he has done with other of his published
works based on Rav Kook (his Pesach haggadah being another example), Rav Naor
has stayed away from a straightforward translation of Rav Kook’s sefer, in this
case Olat Reiyah. While this decision means that not all of Rav Kook’s ideas on
tefillah are to be found in the new siddur, it offers the benefit of being a
single volume which can be used for davening and not just just to study.
Additionally, Rav Naor does a masterful job taking Rav Kook’s difficult Hebrew
and deep concepts, and making them understandable. On top of this, Rav Naor
offers many of his own insights culled from his many decades of studying Rav
Kook’s ideas. </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">I was pleased that Rav
Naor decided to begin the new siddur with the translation of Inyanei Tefillah,
Rav Kook’s explanation of the idea of tefillah which appears at the beginning
of Olat Reiyah. In doing so, he offers the reader the ability to understand Rav
Kook’s unique approach to prayer, which he sees as latently always taking place
in the human soul, and becoming active during times of actual tefillah. With
this introduction, and the other ideas which follow, one understands why Rav
Kook could never have merely written a commentary on the siddur. For him, the
words we say when we stand before our Creator are not merely vortelach, clever
though they may be. Instead, they are words with which we express what lays
most deeply within ourselves, or perhaps more properly, who we are in our
deepest essence.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">[One note for those who
will want to use The Rav Kook Siddur along with Olat Reiyah. Rav Naor used an
earlier edition of Olat Reiyah, and as such, the pages listed in the footnotes
in the new siddur do not match up with the pages in the newer edition of Olat
Reiyah.]</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">For those who wish to
use this new siddur to not only study Rav Kook’s ideas, but to work on their
avodas hashem, they now now have a new powerful tool to use as they truly
engage in what is avodah shebalev, service of the heart. If Rav Kook truly
bared his soul in writing Olat Reiyah, Rav Naor’s new masterful siddur allows
us to see who Rav Kook truly was, and who we might be through the gradual
baring of our soul on prayer.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br />Pesach Sommerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05429802587338023317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2345202358783241386.post-31436730989497769962017-10-26T09:48:00.000-07:002017-10-26T10:49:28.868-07:00Aish Kodesh in its Historical Context- A review of Torah From The Years of Wrath 1939-1943<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQxDX17k8P1ghDBNOE7e-IpXHBbO_PY8oVNOc1OufPwc3JX49wfe6ZEZqSUCn2_CE6UPwywGkTxXMBx47AfP6uLiReRbuSTUcpNePlyQcZ9C80dqJAJCuVZE2jZPU-_z7YAuAhO1p8Csk/s1600/abramson.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1388" data-original-width="914" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQxDX17k8P1ghDBNOE7e-IpXHBbO_PY8oVNOc1OufPwc3JX49wfe6ZEZqSUCn2_CE6UPwywGkTxXMBx47AfP6uLiReRbuSTUcpNePlyQcZ9C80dqJAJCuVZE2jZPU-_z7YAuAhO1p8Csk/s320/abramson.jpg" width="210" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Without lifting up a gun or molotov cocktail, Rav Kalonymous Kalman Shapira, the Piaseczna Rebbe committed some of the greatest acts of heroism of World War II. While experiencing much personal trauma and suffering, the rebbe managed to offer words of encouragement and hope to unknown scores of Jews, religious and irreligious, chassidim and misnagedim alike, who, like him, were trapped in the Warsaw Ghetto. Those who have read the rebbe’s words of Torah delivered on many of the Shabboses and Yamim Tovim between the years 1939-1943, the written record of which miraculously survived after being buried in the ground before the ghetto was destroyed, have been inspired by his uplifting words delivered under the most trying of circumstances.Still, until recently, readers had an incomplete picture of his words.</span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-19453760-5993-4ab7-8f14-06f85f068811" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">After being discovered in the rubble of the Warsaw Ghetto, the rebbe’s derashos were published by some of his surviving students and chassidim in a work they titled Aish Kodesh. While they did their best to give over the rebbe’s words as accurately as possible, there were various typos and other errors that made it into the sefer. Recently, Dr. Daniel Reiser of Herzog Academic College and Tzefat Academic College published an incredible </span><a href="http://www.thelehrhaus.com/commentary-short-articles/2017/10/21/deciphering-the-rosetta-stone-of-the-holocaust" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">two-volume critical edition</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> of the rebbe’s derashos which is destined to be the one used by anyone interested in learning the rebbe’s wartime Torah. The first volume includes fascinating biographical information about the rebbe, as well as a fully corrected version of each of the derashos. The second volume has a facsimile of the actual pages which were buried by Oneg Shabbos, as well as a transcription in multiple colors of the rebbe’s words. Still, one problem remained. In delivering his words of Torah, the rebbe consciously chose to almost entirely refrain from mentioning the name of those who were behind the terrible suffering which he and his listeners experienced. With almost no exceptions, one who reads the rebbe’s words from this time period could theoretically be unaware of the particular tragic time period in which it was written. While his divrei Torah provide comfort and hope to those who are suffering, the reader is largely left unaware of the particular events which led the rebbe to say what he did each week.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">To fill this void, Dr. Henry Abramson, dean of Touro College in Brooklyn has written </span><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Torah-Years-Wrath-1939-1943-Historical/dp/1975983726/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1509033951&sr=8-1&keywords=torah+from+the+years+of+wrath+1939-1943" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Torah From the Years of Wrath 1939-1943: The Historical Context of the Aish Kodesh</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. As with Reiser’s books, Dr. Abramson’s book promises to be groundbreaking for both scholars and laymen alike.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">After an opening chapter which provides biographical information about the rebbe from before the war, there are three chapters each of which concentrates on a year from the war, what the rebbe spoke about at that time, and which events led to the choice of topic. Through Abramson’s thorough scholarship and compelling writing, the reader’s eyes are opened as the divrei Torah are connected to the rumors which might have been going through the ghetto that week, a new policy which led to additional suffering, or the narrowing of the parameters of the Warsaw Ghetto. Just to cite an example, the rebbe chose to speak about the walls of a house getting tzaraas during the week where the Nazis built the walls of the Warsaw Ghetto. This is just one of the scores of examples that Abramson’s scholarship has uncovered.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In addition to providing the background information for many of the derashos, Dr. Abramson also provides other fascinating information about the rebbe’s time in the ghetto. One of the highlights of the book for me was reading about the rebbe’s pre-dawn visit to the mikveh on erev Yom Kippur. Meticulously planned, the rebbe’s efforts to immerse in the mikveh came at great risk, as the Nazis had closed all mikvaos and threatened to kill anyone who attempted to immerse. Even for those who can’t fully understand what going to the mikveh meant for the rebbe, the details of his visit with the help of others, as well as what happened when he reached the mikveh (page 139), will leave the reader speechless.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The book concludes with a fifth chapter where Dr. Abramson addresses something which has long been a point of contention among scholars. As one reads rebbe’s words from during the war, one notices a shift in his outlook. While at the beginning of the war the rebbe seemed to see the suffering that he and his fellow jews were experiencing as fitting within traditional explanations for earlier tragic eras, where teshuva is required, it is clear that at a certain point he recognized that the level of suffering was way beyond that which could be explained by seeing it as a mere extension of earlier tragedies. The rebbe no longer suggested that those who were listening to him could change things by returning to God. Instead, he tried to figure out how a believer should view this sui generis experience. While unfortunately certain academic scholars have used this change to suggest that the rebbe (God forbid) lost his faith, Abramson shows the absurdity of such a claim (Rieser does this as well in the first volume of his work). He makes a conclusive case that while the rebbe struggled to make sense of the atrocities that the Jewish people were suffering, he remained what he had always been, a person with deep and enduring faith.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dr. Abramson has written a book which is destined to lead to an increase of study of the rebbe’s Torah and thought in both the academic and Jewish world. His is a work which while maintaining high academic standards and containing ideas which will advance the field, is at once also accessible to the non-scholar, and written in an engaging and compelling manner. Especially for the reader who is looking for a work which contains both Torah and Avodas HaShem, along with serious scholarship, I can’t recommend this incredible book strongly enough.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dr. Abramson will have a book launch for Torah From The Years of Wrath this Monday, October 30th at Touro College in Brooklyn. For more information, please click <a href="https://www.eventbrite.com/e/book-launch-torah-from-the-years-of-wrath-1939-1943-by-dr-henry-abramson-tickets-38392697592">here</a>. </span></div>
Pesach Sommerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05429802587338023317noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2345202358783241386.post-51727162236249963452017-10-17T10:11:00.000-07:002017-10-18T06:03:02.334-07:00On Being Godly- God's place in the life of an Orthodox Jew<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1PbJMZoPLEHmttsdXYFGCSfj24BTdDOuNPh7mu_GeWoGMquOs2G5QPQAE2Z9cJMZM1eWuKhnKq6cXR1X0Y1D-qi8nwrIkzDCA6QIqD77uPF9IyAbWMKZ3FWi_6adC2eSMhvsEodB2AAg/s1600/Religious.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="960" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1PbJMZoPLEHmttsdXYFGCSfj24BTdDOuNPh7mu_GeWoGMquOs2G5QPQAE2Z9cJMZM1eWuKhnKq6cXR1X0Y1D-qi8nwrIkzDCA6QIqD77uPF9IyAbWMKZ3FWi_6adC2eSMhvsEodB2AAg/s320/Religious.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It happened a number of times. I started to think about writing what I’m about to write, and then I decided not to. I wasn’t sure if this was a topic which I could address in a thoughtful, meaningful, and nuanced manner. Each time however, something occurred which convinced me that I had to write it. Yesterday, after this pattern was completed for a third time, I decided that I had no choice but to try. I am not sure if I will be fully successful in trying to express what I want to say. At the very least, I hope I will spur a larger discussion.</span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-0f072e8f-2b4f-1cf3-68ac-1098f72c97f1" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Orthodox world has a God problem.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Well, not exactly a God problem, as much as a language of God problem, or maybe a comfort with discussing God problem. Many of us, including our rabbis and teachers can easily discuss halacha and mitzvos, but somehow few attempt to discuss the encounter with God, in general, and their personal encounter with God, in particular.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Recently, a virtual friend bemoaned the fact that he could not hear a certain theologian who defines himself as halachic egalitarian in my friend’s own Orthodox shul. In the subsequent discussion I wondered aloud (assuming one can do that in a comment on FB) whether the problem was larger than whether this theologian, who I admire greatly, could speak in an Orthodox shul. Perhaps, I suggested, a big part of the problem is that there is a dearth of Orthodox thinkers who are openly willing to explore their faith in an open manner, and the fact that we need to look outside of our community to find those who are willing.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I would never question the value of learning and observing halacha. I strongly believe that halacha helps us encounter God in an embodied manner in all areas of our life. Still, I do wonder whether the fact that halacha plays such a large role in our lives, leads to the possible outcome that we get stuck in the details of the act, and lose the ability to feel, think about, and discuss the encounter with God which lays behind and within halacha itself. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">More recently, while driving, I listened to a </span><a href="https://soundcloud.com/upennjrp/sets/a-conversation-with-rabbi-josh" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">podcast</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> where my friend and colleague Rabbi Joshua Bolton, a Reconstructionist rabbi, who works with students at the University of Pennsylvania, described his religious experience, including his encounter with God. It was profound, holy, and powerful. It shook me to my core. Part of what bothered me was that I couldn’t think of the last time I heard an Orthodox rabbi talk so openly about what it means to believe. Somewhere in the back of my head I wondered how many rabbis </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">could</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> find the words to discuss it. At first I pushed off this thought by thinking that talking about God is not an Orthodox activity. Immediately, I thought about things I’ve read from Rav Aharon Lichtenstein, Rav Amital, the Piaseczna Rebbe, and Hillel Zeitlin where they discuss their encounter with God. My next question was, why is this not happening (more often?) in the Orthodox world?</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I get it. Not everyone is going to encounter God in the same way. Heck, when I listen to Rav Herschel Schachter address an obscure halachic topic for an hour, it is a deeply religious experience, even as I can’t fully explain why. Still, when was the last time you heard a rosh yeshiva or shul rabbi explain what they experience when they learn a Ketzos or a Rav Chaim? I can’t help but wonder whether part of the discomfort that many Jews express about the lack of meaningfulness of tefillah (see this recent </span><a href="http://nishmaresearch.com/assets/pdf/Report%20-%20Nishma%20Research%20Profile%20of%20American%20Modern%20Orthodox%20Jews%2009-27-17.pdf" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">study</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> for an example) comes from the fact that past a fairly young age, nobody talks about God anymore.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The final straw which convinced me to write this, came yesterday. This time, it was listening to Christian pastor Eugene Peterson address his </span><a href="https://onbeing.org/programs/eugene-peterson-entering-into-what-is-there/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">religious experience</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> on the NPR show On Being, a show which explores what it means to be human. I listened to him explain what he gets from reading the Book of Psalms. I heard him talk about how the experience of anger and frailty fits into his encounters with God. His experience was not my experience. In fact, his approach to religion, as well as his translation of the bible, do not fully resonate with me. Still, for 50 minutes I was enrapt. When the show was over I found myself wondering about which rabbis or teachers could so openly, comfortably, and compellingly discuss what they mean when they talk about God, and what they experience when they read Tehillim, forget something due to old age, or look in a baby’s eyes.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We are religious. We are observant. We learn Torah. We do mitzvos. Where in all of that, and in the world around us and inside of us do we find God?</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">To join the conversation on this blog on FB, please click <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pesach.sommer/posts/10155700554025030?comment_id=10155702445430030&notif_id=1508287447086965&notif_t=feed_comment">here</a>.</span><br />
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Pesach Sommerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05429802587338023317noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2345202358783241386.post-18226697048853524422017-10-10T07:34:00.002-07:002017-10-10T07:34:38.230-07:00Ground Ball Day- thoughts from an over-invested Red Sox fan<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0cLd1ZXNos7MxCf-UJRVPAH1DTl4IOIUyf1tj0_ByFgaS9LmSJE2HN9JoEJ57SeQ4L54cMA-pBMmq5xmAuG1UWgQ6tLgPw6MuG2_vBhPppWOiPLcXTgKOYEPmHu9KItPqqej3TUmTTIc/s1600/Punching+steering+wheel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="345" data-original-width="615" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0cLd1ZXNos7MxCf-UJRVPAH1DTl4IOIUyf1tj0_ByFgaS9LmSJE2HN9JoEJ57SeQ4L54cMA-pBMmq5xmAuG1UWgQ6tLgPw6MuG2_vBhPppWOiPLcXTgKOYEPmHu9KItPqqej3TUmTTIc/s320/Punching+steering+wheel.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As if I was stuck in a Bill Murray movie, yesterday I found myself in a scene I’d been in many times before. As Yogi might have said, it was deja vu all over again. I was driving home with one of my older sons in the car, nervously listening to the radio, as the Red Sox clung to a one-run lead in a do-or-die playoff game. Home run Astos. Instinctively, I punched my steering wheel, and trying to hold onto some level of fatherly dignity, I managed to say “Darn”, or maybe “DARN!!!”. When the Astros took the lead, a few pitches later, a lead they would not relinquish, I responded with another punch, and a synonym for the word darn, which also starts with the letters D and A, and rhymes with dam. So much for fatherly dignity. What made the experience so frustrating is that I‘ve gone through some version of this, many times.</span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-cd5ddf06-06b4-2fa5-3e5e-ebeeee0706fe" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I don’t have a TV and haven’t had one for many years, so on the rare occasions that I catch a Red Sox game, it’s on the radio, and being that I live in New Jersey, it’s mainly playoff baseball that I get to hear. Combine that with the fact that I rarely listen to the radio outside of the car, and you understand why my poor steering wheel has been victimized so many times. Of course, that doesn’t really explain why it’s been punched, because one can, or so I imagine, listen to one’s favorite baseball team disappoint them, without punching inanimate objects, or so I’ve been told.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Why is it that I can’t get past this? I don’t mean rooting for a team, which is, for the most part pretty harmless. I don’t pretend that I’m on a level where I have no time for leisurely activities, in fact, I’m far from it. Rather, what I’m trying to understand is why can’t I care less? What is it that makes me at 46, respond with only slightly more dignity than I did in 1986, and 1988, and…?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Here’s the thing. I’ve heard real-life bad and sad news on the radio, with nary a shot to my steering wheel. Terror attacks, tornados, grisly crimes, they all get, at most, some sort of intellectual response, with perhaps a shake of the head. Why do the Red Sox get more? All my attempts to answer this question feel insufficient. Childhood memories of games with my family, the joy of being part of a larger “family” might explain why I like baseball, but why does it have such a strong and emotional hold over me? As a rabbi from whom I’ve learned so much explained when I asked why he was no longer such a big sports fan, “There’s only so much love the heart can hold”. Which things don’t get my emotional energy when it is given to a sports team?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As with all scenes which we recreate in our lives, I’m convinced that it won’t go away until I figure out what I’m supposed to learn from this. I don’t think the answer lays in going cold turkey and stopping following sports, as I’m more interested in getting to the root cause of this. I have some time to think about it, but as a long suffering (and only rarely celebrating) Red Sox fan, I know they’ll give me many more chances to try and figure it out.</span></div>
Pesach Sommerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05429802587338023317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2345202358783241386.post-83332408663153466692017-09-25T11:10:00.001-07:002017-09-25T11:10:19.133-07:00Bnei Machashava Tova- My aspirations to grow with the help of others<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiefwMXdSHgKxODTQH7IM_JMFh5mIXh1TEcSUEwvQxF-1H6yBqoZ17xqRSBJBv6_WNQaoeZsjXVl5nbfZmU471_o7nuKWFVp-sAXXTL8Kmut67z8JKLM8DM14-AOrJUD0oV_b8cljPptXw/s1600/BMT.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="310" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiefwMXdSHgKxODTQH7IM_JMFh5mIXh1TEcSUEwvQxF-1H6yBqoZ17xqRSBJBv6_WNQaoeZsjXVl5nbfZmU471_o7nuKWFVp-sAXXTL8Kmut67z8JKLM8DM14-AOrJUD0oV_b8cljPptXw/s320/BMT.jpg" width="208" /></a></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What can I say? I’m not a Litvak. Each year, when I come to Shabbos Shuva, having left Rosh Hashana and on my way towards Yom Kippur, I have no interest in a Shabbos Shuva derasha which explores the intricacies of Migo for 58 minutes, with a two minute reminder that essentially says “Oh yeah, don’t forget do teshuva” (I say this not criticize anyone's approach, but merely to point out what doesn’t work for me). Alas, I have made my home in Passaic rather than Mezeritch, so that chassidic derashos about teshuva and our relationship with HaKadosh Baruch Hu are not to be found. It has been many years since I last attended a Shabbos Shuva derasha.</span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-98a633ac-ba39-2391-2293-b4a27cbab676" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This past Shabbos, a friend from a different shul mentioned that he would be going to hear Rabbis X’s derasha, as he thought it would be more inspiring. As I thought about what he said, it occurred to me that what I was missing was not just a live version of what I could get in the Piaseczna Rebbe’s Derech HaMelech, but even more so, is a live version of what I have found in his Bnei Machashava Tova, which I recently completed for the second time.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Each time I go through a small portion of the sefer which was written to create small groups of chassidim who work together to become truer Ovdei HaShem, I am left with mixed emotions; joy and inspiration at the ideas he writes about, mix with feelings of sadness as I can only imagine what being part of such a group would be like. To cite one example, his descriptions of Shaleseudos leaves me yearning for an environment where the singing and camaraderie would truly be m’ein olam haba.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">None of this is to suggest, God forbid, that I am not surrounded by those who aspire to greatness in their Avodas HaShem. I am fortunate to live in a community which has many Bnei Torah. At the same time, I’ve reached a point in my life where my soul yearns for a different kind of nourishment. While I’m fortunate to have a chavrusa with whom I learn Hachsharas HaAvreichim, which is a high point of my week, and to have friends in real life, as well as online who are into chassidus, most of the time I am left with the feeling of something akin to parallel play, like what young children do when they play next to each other, but not </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">with</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> each other, as each of us tries to grow in his own way.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Of course, part of my struggle comes from my own weakness. I am simply not capable of becoming who I want to be by myself. I want to learn together with others, aspire together with others, and grow together with others. I picture myself as part of a group of like-minded individuals with whom I could try and put the Piaseczna’s holy words into practice, meeting each week to learn, sing, and talk of holy things. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">That’s what I realized this past Shabbos. Not only do I wish I could have been present for the Rebbe’s teshuva derasha from 1930, but that afterwards, my friends and I could have gotten together to talk of what we learned and how, together, we could take steps towards living it.</span></div>
Pesach Sommerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05429802587338023317noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2345202358783241386.post-5653374972564816602017-09-18T12:04:00.000-07:002017-09-18T12:04:40.157-07:00Letting Go- On teshuva, religious experience, and the intellect<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKyqsl4B-y9ZepBtiJuPdPmWZ-UXj9LHA97fdPWJztp1FsJ6Z3szO16TURh6zlw2JC_p8JBaH4BIRTRihu2w45uknv4LHedUvdnAwwgndmYBU9dlrvfH-0fJHAIWemdFMZt5QiQRHJXxQ/s1600/Letting-Go.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="400" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKyqsl4B-y9ZepBtiJuPdPmWZ-UXj9LHA97fdPWJztp1FsJ6Z3szO16TURh6zlw2JC_p8JBaH4BIRTRihu2w45uknv4LHedUvdnAwwgndmYBU9dlrvfH-0fJHAIWemdFMZt5QiQRHJXxQ/s320/Letting-Go.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When I think about what I’m experiencing, I am scared. I feel myself changing, and that leaves me feeling vulnerable. I also find myself questioning the change and my motives. Is this real? Am I fooling myself? If I really change, what else goes along with it?</span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-9879ef95-965e-8021-5b47-6c462336a313" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For a while, I’ve associated teshuva with brokenness, and gravitated to Torah where brokenness and even darkness could be found either explicitly or implicitly. Rebbe Nachman and Rav Shagar spoke to me, while other more optimistic approaches like that of Rav Kook did not. The reasons for my preference were not hard to understand. In the battle between my father’s pessimism and cynicism, and my mother’s ever hopeful optimism, life had mostly pushed me towards the former. I struggled to not fall into skepticism, or even worse, cynicism. Little by little, I tried to stop dreaming dreams, fearing getting hurt once again, if like Charlie Brown I convinced myself that </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">this time</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> I’d succeed at kicking the football.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I can’t put my finger on why things changed this year, but somehow the dark shadows receded, and I found myself connecting to Rav Kook’s Torah. I felt hopeful, and started believing that I could really change in a way I’d long thought impossible. Still, I struggled to just go with it. The fears of what this change would mean to me and those around me, and whether what I was experiencing was real, attacked me, refusing to let me go without a fight. I felt like a faker, pretending to be what I am not. A friend’s recommendation to take things a day at a time rather than worrying about the future helped, but only partially. Then I learned a section in the Piaseczna Rebbe’s Derech Hamelech this past Shabbos which I think might allow me to take a big step.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the ninth perek of Derech Hamelech, the Rebbe gives strategies for working on Avodas HaShem. As with other places in his writings, he touches on the power of the imagination and how it can put you deeper in an experience than merely thinking about it intellectually. At one point he suggests a partial way to attack thoughts and feelings coming from the yetzer hara. Essentially, he suggests intellectualizing the experience. By looking at the thought and questioning where it comes from, the power of the feeling dissipates, as you stop experiencing it, and switch to thinking </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">about</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> it. In discussing this with my chavrusa, I recognized that this is the opposite of what the Rebbe suggests with davening, where he warns against intellectual thoughts and assessing whether davening is going well, as this prevents being in the tefillah. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Here, in the moment where an optimistic and hopeful teshuva feels possible, and my connection to God real, intellectual scrutiny will be destructive. Putting these experiences under the microscope will dry them up, sapping them of their power and vitality. For now, I will simply be in my experience of teshuva, and not worry about ramifications, authenticity, or what comes next.</span></div>
Pesach Sommerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05429802587338023317noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2345202358783241386.post-16671803456363444542017-08-31T13:13:00.001-07:002017-08-31T13:13:36.746-07:00Remains of the Summer<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEganFMRX_IGJymphFYU3BN4lRQQnqQa2B1WCoMZx6LtXihbZEwVBcwk2j6yyedKOAx-O8KnhgceMG4oIK-VWtyWoSMqFHEJujsRDutZt5qqnctS6CHUbfRiNcWYRY3WbCNYS6dOWBreuWM/s1600/Group+Hiking+picture.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEganFMRX_IGJymphFYU3BN4lRQQnqQa2B1WCoMZx6LtXihbZEwVBcwk2j6yyedKOAx-O8KnhgceMG4oIK-VWtyWoSMqFHEJujsRDutZt5qqnctS6CHUbfRiNcWYRY3WbCNYS6dOWBreuWM/s320/Group+Hiking+picture.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Earlier this summer I was given the opportunity to speak to a small group of people about how much of myself I bring to the classroom. I don’t remember the exact title, but that was how I interpreted it. How much of my personality, learning and reading interests, struggles, inspirations and aspirations do my students get to see? As summer vacation comes to an end , I find myself revisiting this subject in my mind as I wonder how much of my Grizzly Adams beard, my hiking,and my learning of Orot Hateshuva and the Torah of the Piasezcna Rebbe my students will see, and in what way.</span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-c362a20b-39ec-5700-a1e1-f3f06dce1ab3" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">On some level, it’s an easy question to answer. The hikes are over, my beard has been tamed, and I am unlikely to quote anything from Rav Kook or Bnei Machashava Tova this year. But of course, I am thinking of this question in a more conceptual manner. Of everything that I did and accomplished, as well as everything that happened to me this summer, what remains? Who have I become, and what kind of teacher will it make me?</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Of course, to attempt to answer this question I need to think about the different components of my summer and what they meant to me. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I haven’t been able to put into words why I let my beard go for five months. As I got comments and jokes from friends and people I know, I tried to think about why I was doing this. Over time, as the beard grew longer and more wild, I came to really like it, even as I couldn’t fully say why. At times I thought it represented a certain sense of unfettered freedom. At other times, I thought of it as being akin to orlah, just being allowed to grow on its own, free of any human touch. I grew used to absentmindedly tugging at the beard while I learned. In fact, it wasn’t until I trimmed it so that I would look more presentable upon my return to work, that I realized how much I had come to like having a long unkempt beard. Now that it’s gone, what of it remains with me as I return to the classroom?</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I think back to the hiking which started out as a low-key way to get back into exercise. It soon became something bigger than that. The opportunity to get out in the woods, breathe deeply, and see beautiful views, soon became a highlight of my week. Adding to it was the camaraderie, but it was also about the challenge; struggling to climb steep inclines, as I bumped and cut my legs, the cuts and bruises becoming battle scars of pride. The barbecues eaten at the end of some of the more challenging hikes, when my body was depleted, only added to the experience. So how does this all affect me as a teacher when I’m surrounded by the concrete and steel of Manhattan?</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Finally there’s the question of my learning, and how it affects me as a person, and as a teacher. Teaching middle school students it is rare if ever if I make reference to, or even more so show them some of the Torah of Rav Kook, the Piaseczna Rebbe, or Rav Amiel. Still, as I learned the Torah of these thinkers as well as others, I tried to think deeply, and tried to internalize their idea and imaginings. While some days it was just book learning, there were many times like I felt it was something much deeper, as my religious personality was rewired. So much of this makes it into the classroom consciously and unconsciously, often in ways where I likely don’t even notice. That’s without even getting into that magical night on a rooftop in the Bronx where a group of us stayed up late into the night studying a Torah of Rebbe Nachman....</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So how is the person I am now, different from who I was at the end of the school year in June? The only honest answer I can give is “I don’t know”. I do I know that without straying too far from home, I experienced something deep and wonderful this summer. Something I won’t soon forget. Something which I’m convinced will make me a better teacher.</span></div>
Pesach Sommerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05429802587338023317noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2345202358783241386.post-80374443322218142202017-07-11T12:08:00.002-07:002017-07-11T12:31:56.816-07:00Restored Faith In Oneself- Some thoughts on Rav Shagar's Faith Shattered and Restored<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://shagar.co.il/wp-content/uploads/shattered.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="550" data-original-width="550" height="320" src="https://shagar.co.il/wp-content/uploads/shattered.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As I think of Rav Shagar zt”l, there’s an image which keeps coming to my mind. A searcher is climbing a mountain looking for the guru who will help him find truth. He finally reaches a plateau, and sitting right there is the one whom he thinks will answer all of his questions. The guru, who much prefers solitude, agrees to let the searcher stay, but only on one condition. The guru will continue his own personal search for truth, and the searcher can listen to it all, but he may not ask any questions. After all, the guru himself is still searching.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">With the recent release of “Faith Shattered and Restored”, which contains the first attempt to bring Rav Shagar to an English speaking audience, Maggid Books is attempting to bring Rav Shagar’s ideas to foreign soil. The question is whether a thinker who is very much a product of Israel can be understood by the Anglo reader. A number of excellent reviews have already been written. </span><a href="https://levimorrow.wordpress.com/2017/07/02/rav-shagar-comes-to-america-faith-shattered-and-restored/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Levi Morrow</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, and </span><a href="http://www.thelehrhaus.com/culture/2017/7/2/the-earth-shattering-faith-of-rav-shagar" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Zach Truboff</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, have each written thought provoking reviews. Additionally, a fascinating </span><a href="http://www.timesofisrael.com/israels-paradoxical-man-of-faith-deconstructed/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">conversation</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> between the editor of the new volume, Dr. Zohar Maor, and its translator, Elie Leshem has recently been published. In a certain sense, one can ask what else can be said. Still, I’d like to approach things in a certain sense from where Morrow and Truboff left off, namely whether Maggid’s goal of bringing Rav Shagar’s ideas to an English speaking audience will bear fruit.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Before I begin, a few quick notes. I write this as the searcher who has found Rav Shagar. I am both privileged to be allowed to hear his thoughts, and sometimes confused by what I hear. Rav Shagar often seems to be </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">megaleh tefach u’mechaseh tefachim</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, hiding more than he shares. For me, Rav Yair Dreyfus, who was a </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">talmid chaver</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> of sorts of Rav Shagar, and the one with whom he started his last yeshiva Siach Yitzhak, is the peirush Rashi through whom I make sense of Rav Shagar. Additionally, for those who decide to read this fascinating work, I would recommend that you make use of Rav Shalom Carmy’s afterward, while reading the book and not after, either by using his words as an introduction to each chapter, or as its summary. It is not that Leshem did not do a good job translating Rav Shagar’s words into English. On the contrary, he did a masterful job. Still, at least for me, even when one knows the meanings of the words, it is not always easy to grasp Rav Shagar’s ideas. Finally, I will not attempt to summarize the specific essays in this book. Instead I will share more global thoughts which from having read this and a number of other of Rav Shagar’s works.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So with all of this, why should the thinking English reader try to make their way through Rav Shagar’s essays? It is not to find a systematic thinker. Consciously or not, Rav Shagar’s many essays written at various times before his untimely death, pull in various directions. The fact that the essays in this book deal with postmodern ideas do not mean that he was a postmodernist. In fact, Rav Dreyfus suggests that he was more of an existentialist. What one does get from reading Rav Shagar is someone who bares his soul, or at least does so as much as he can. To me, it is not surprising that Rav Shagar’s two essay volume on Likutei Moharan of Rebbe Nachman reads so clearly. Like Rebbe Nachman, Rav Shagar struggles between simple faith, and the many ideas and experiences which make this pure faith so hard to maintain. I don’t say this lightly, but of all the thinkers who Rav Shagar quotes, he seems to be kindred spirits with Rebbe Nachman.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">To give one of the more important examples of what made him so complex, Rav Shagar fought in the Yom Kippur War. He was the driver of a tank, and was badly injured in an attack which killed the other two men who were with him in the tank. He called that war his generations Holocaust, words which are particularly filled with pathos in light of the fact that his parents were survivors. Already pushed towards a silent pessimism by his parents, surviving the attack while his friends did not, pushed him even deeper inside himself.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It is this complexity which I think can speak so deeply and directly to those who are searching. His questions are powerful and raw, and yet at the same time he struggles with them without losing his, I can use no other word, frumkeit. In this he pushes back on those who think that serious religious observance, and deep inner conflict cannot go hand in hand. Additionally, he eschews any attempt to make the various pulls that he experiences fit together. For him, there is no “Torah and” or “Torah im”. No attempt is made to synthesize the various parts of himself. He is willing to be who he is, without any sense that his conflicting sides must be solved.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Finally, I would add that he pushes the reader to look deep within him or herself to try and be their own hero, rather than looking to him as a savior who will make that which cannot be perfectly joined be put together. This can be seen from the fact that he has become much more popular (in both senses of the term) in death, than he was when he was alive. In a sense, for his readers he is not the chassidic rebbe to whom one flocks to receive answers. Instead, through his words, his questions and struggles, one learns how to look deep inside themselves.</span></div>
Pesach Sommerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05429802587338023317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2345202358783241386.post-88463409089771571712017-05-03T07:43:00.000-07:002017-05-03T07:45:10.315-07:00Close Shave- Of beards, titles and sense of self<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKYmBpJksy6c4jtZ5DDm8FTh9UNrzkbI-1SFn7ZTGl6H_6rfoBA7CZqTK_h84SFeeIxQtvkyV7adZy0je7ZVUmpWB-_Foz54LgEk6L68kSDdhFk1wKL2gusIoDOdP4saqRi54-9KfIuGc/s1600/Mens-Electric-Shaver.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="176" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKYmBpJksy6c4jtZ5DDm8FTh9UNrzkbI-1SFn7ZTGl6H_6rfoBA7CZqTK_h84SFeeIxQtvkyV7adZy0je7ZVUmpWB-_Foz54LgEk6L68kSDdhFk1wKL2gusIoDOdP4saqRi54-9KfIuGc/s320/Mens-Electric-Shaver.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What is the connection between outer appearance and sense of self? Can we express in an action that which we feel on the inside? Does how we look help or hinder who wish to be, and what effect does it have on how others relate to us?</span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-a2128cac-cec2-a638-cd20-e347d5dc8def" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Usually, by this point in the cycle of Sefiras HaOmer, I am the point of wishing I could shave. The enjoyment of being able to sleep a bit later a few days a week has worn off, and the annoyance of itchiness and waking up with drool in my beard has increased. This year, I have wondered whether I should shave off my beard when Lag Baomer arrives.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It is not that I think a beard has any inherent religious meaning. I also don’t think it changes who I am as a Jew. Still, when I look in the mirror, I see a different person staring back at me. Part of this is the increase over the last few years, of white hairs in my beard. Each time I see myself in the mirror, I am reminded that I am getting older. While part of me wants to fight this sense of no longer being so young, I wonder if it’s not time to embrace, or at least accept it.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The excitement of seeing their normally clean shaven teacher with a beard has also worn off for my students. The sweet and funny comments which come from middle schoolers who are always ready to give style advice to their teachers are no longer made, as the novelty has worn off. I find myself wondering whether they see me as more rabbinic when I have a beard, and if so, whether that is a good thing. I am unsure whether being a rabbi helps or hinders me in my attempt to teach them about Judaism, and I am often convinced it’s the latter, as the title marks me as other, different even from the other adults they know.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What does it mean to look more rabbinic and why would I even want that? I already have a complicated relationship with the title “rabbi”. If I’m to be honest, I must admit that there are times when I enjoy being called rabbi, even as I feign humility and ask those who are not my students to call me by my first name. Other times, it legitimately feels like a burden, a title that I don’t always feel I deserve, one which doesn’t help with my Avodas HaShem.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There is, I believe, a reason why something as insignificant as whether to shave, matters to me right now. My relationship with Judaism, and I how I experience being religious, is not a linear one. I am not one of those people who long ago picked a “team” and knows where they fit in. Right now is one of those times where I feel like I’m in transition, where I don’t feel completely at home with myself, as what I learn and read, and how I experience God is in flux. So it’s not about the beard. It’s about identity, and a need right now, to see when I look in the mirror, some of what I’m experiencing inside.</span></div>
Pesach Sommerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05429802587338023317noreply@blogger.com0