It Just Don’t Sound Frum: 1

There are many things that those Yeshivish types do and believe based on how “frum” it sounds/looks/feels.  This is so even if there are alternative, more convincing, viewpoints within the Jewish tradition or even if it put them directly at odds with the established halacha.  Some beliefs even have been magic-ed up from thin air or 16th Century Christianity.

These infractions can be saved until later posts as no doubt there could be counterarguments.  Instead, here is an example where there is absolutely nothing wrong with what Chareidim do, but is a clear case where you just can’t imagine them doing the opposite.  That is, they celebrate their Hebrew Birthdays and encourage Ba’al Teshuvot to do likewise.  A person’s ‘secular’ birthday- or ‘solar’ to be more neutral- is religiously meaningless.

Now, there is a view expressed by some of our sages that the opposite is the case.  For example, Ibn Ezra says:

[T]he beginning of each individual's year is from the moment he was born, and when the sun returns to the same point at which it was earlier, the person completes one full year

And as Saadya Gaon says:

A person's life is numbered according to solar years, as is the life of any growing thing, for example, trees and the like

This may be a minority view- I don’t know- and so is not something I advocate one way or another.  Rav Yaakov Emdem says G-d “holds” by both birthdays.  However, it “just don’t sound frum” to have a birthday according to a secular/non-Jewish/goyishe calendar.  It just seems to be a dilution of Yiddishkeit and assimilation into the surrounding culture.  As such, it is something to be avoided wherever possible.

Even were one to be convinced by Ibn Ezra, it just wouldn’t help you look frummer than other people to celebrate one’s solar birthday.  Here it doesn’t matter, but there are examples where what is frum collides with what Judaism teaches…..

Things that slightly annoy me 1

This ‘slight annoyance’ is something that has happened many times to me, including the other day.  Imagine the scene: There is a Big Issue seller who is asking passer-by after passer-by to buy the magazine off them and they just get ignored.  As such, you resolve to buy one off them, get your money ready and approach them.  After handing your money across, they reveal a single magazine in a ripped plastic bag and ask, “Do you want the magazine?… It’s just that it is my last one…”

Do I want a magazine?  I have no idea whether I want a magazine but I paid for one.  Firstly, for them to keep it is explicitly against the Big Issue rules which are written inside.  As such, I’m perfectly within my rights to take it.  Secondly, it is entirely against the spirit of the enterprise.  They are meant to be “working, not begging”- selling you an item you want and earning the proceeds, and not guilt tripping you into giving them money.  Whilst most people do get it just for charity and not to read, a transaction should at least take place.

Of course, however, you can’t in reality take the magazine.  Doing it after they have taken your money puts you in an awkward position.  I would like to say that I “don’t have the heart” to take it, and that I don’t want to be responsible for them to be without food for the day.  In reality, however, I think they are being a tad dishonest but am concerned with appearing to be a stingy Jew.  This really is something that to a large extent, really very “slightly annoys” me.

Leeds Jewish Welfare Board

Either you all are, or will be, sick to death about me going on about my marathon. Nevertheless, there is a shockingly long way to go towards reaching my fundraising target of £2000. As such, I thought I’d give a little information below about the charity I am supporting. If you wish to sponsor me, please go to http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/NeilClarke

Leeds Jewish Welfare Board are responsible for financing some of the most important work in the Jewish community of North Leeds. They ensure that every community member is looked after, regardless of their situation in life. Many of their services are also open to the wider non-Jewish community.

Here are some of their services:

• Older People's Services- activities and transport for those who are no longer able to cope with their normal activities of daily living or feel that they may need some support
• Manny Cussins Family Project- a range of activities and support to children, families and adults.
• The Rainbow Project- supports those with learning and physical disabilities through a wide range of residential, community support and day services.
• Moorcare-provide an accessible, personal and confidential home care service for adults living in their own homes. This covers the whole of the North East Leeds area irrespective of age, gender, race, colour, religion, disability and sexuality.
• Leeds Jewish Blind Society- offers social care support and advice for people who are struggling with visual problems together with access to helpful equipment. Now incorporates services for the hearing impaired

The Leeds Jewish Welfare Board are also responsible for running the Marjorie and Arnold Ziff Community Centre and setting up the Holocaust Survivors Friendship Association

Visit http://www.ljwb.co.uk for more information.

Good things about running

So, I’m running the marathon and the pretext is that I am running to raise money for the Leeds Jewish Welfare Board http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/NeilClarke).  When they emailed me saying that there were reserved places left for them, I jumped at the chance.  Now, they are a worthwhile charity and I would have been too guilty to a marathon without raising at least a little money for someone.  But really, I have been saying for a few years that one day I’d do a marathon, and regardless I wanted to get back running again.  This was a great opportunity to do both!

It got me thinking about why running was good for me:

• It suits my physical skills- I don’t have any physical skills!  All I have to is just keep on going. 
• Fresh air- gets me out the house and means that I spend at least some of each day outside.
• Rosy cheeks- I don’t know why but it’s cute.
• Improves my skin- oils and toxins are released from your pores when you sweat. So long as you wash yourself straight after the run, your skin improves.
• Helps me live longer- some people run marathons into their 80s.  I won’t.  But keeping body, mind and soul active is important to continued health.
• Helps drive away the yetzer hara- to be all wishy washy, my “energies” go towards a constructive purpose rather than idle thoughts.  Some of the same hormones are released as when, for example, you eat chocolate…
• Gives me a purpose- In a rudderless life like mine- this gives me an aim, one that is achievable and one that is largely in my control.
• Time management- in order to fit a long run in, I actually have to think in advance about what to do with my evening.  I probably do more in that shorter amount of time
• I feel less lethargic- activity breeds activity, while laziness only breeds more laziness.
• Washed Clothes- running means there is no wearing the same underwear or T-shirts two days in a row!  So, I wash everything regularly and thee are less piles in my house.
• Makes me ‘fit’- fit as in “yes you’re fit but don’t you know it” (oh, and the other kind). Toned muscles and slender stomach will make me irresistible(-ish).  All I will then have to work on is having a personality.

and many more…

Leeches Suck and ECT is Shocking

New Scientist had an intriguing article about Leeches and their use in modern medicine. Apparently, they are very helpful in preventing problems when limbs are reattached. They help remove excess blood that could be life-threatening, and also inject a chemical that prevent blood-clotting. Who would have thunk it?

These poor leeches, however, have a very disreputable reputation, and probably through no fault of their own. It is not as if leeches deliberately prey on human beings, hide in your cornflakes or wait on street corners for an unsuspecting vein to walk past. Who can blame a leech for not looking a gift horse in the mouth and gorging itself on blood until it is six or seven times its normal size? After all, humans in our decadent West gorge themselves on cupcakes until they are six or seven times their normal size!

Yet, one cannot blame someone who would be weary of the use of leeches as part of their medical treatment. For almost 2000 years they were used as a catch-all treatment by ‘doctors’ who may have killed more patients than they cured. This is nicely summed up from a scene from Blackadder:

Edmund: Never had anything you doctors didn't try to cure with leeches. A leech on my ear for ear ache, a leech on my bottom for constipation.
Doctor: They're marvellous, aren't they?
Edmund: Well, the bottom one wasn't. I just sat there and squashed it.
Doctor: You know the leech comes to us on the highest authority?
Edmund: Yes. I know that. Dr. Hoffmann of Stuttgart, isn't it?
Doctor: That's right, the great Hoffmann.
Edmund: Owner of the largest leech farm of Europe.
Doctor: Yes. Well, I cannot spend all day gossiping. I'm a busy man. As far as this case is concerned I have now had time to think it over and I can strongly recommend a [in chorus] course of leeches.
Edmund: Yes. I'll pop a couple down my codpiece before I go to bed ?

For much of the time, this proliferate use of leeches was based on the belief that our body was composed of four basic substances or humours (blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile) that corresponded to the four Greek elements (fire, earth, air and water). Disease was caused by an imbalance of these humours and significant blood-letting could redress the balance.

Now that, post 19th Century, we do not believe in this theory, how come we still have leeches being used in medicine? Sure, it is not done on the basis of a discredited theory and it would be wrong to discard something just because of a chequered past, but is anachronistic nonetheless. After all, surgeons have great trouble preventing the leeches from straying and there is no guarantee that they will latch on and suck. Equally, if they know the combination of chemicals that stop blood-clotting why don’t they administer it in a different way? And if they don’t, why are we comfortable administering something we don’t have an understanding of?

The same goes for ECT (Electro-convulsive therapy), a commonly used technique in the 1940s and 50s, that passes an electric current through a patient and produces a seizure in the patient. It was used to ‘cure’ a large range of mental illnesses, often without the consent of the patient and sometimes was administered as a form of abuse. Yet, this is still in use today!

There are far more controls to its use, is limited to fewer illnesses, and is more monitored. Interestingly enough, in my psychology course, I learnt that the research shows that ECT is (slightly) more effective in treating schizophrenia than any of drugs currently available. Schizophrenia has a mainly biological rather than psychological cause, and passing current through the brain ‘does something’ to temporarily reset the brain. However, the ‘does something’ is not very well understood. Are we really happy to administer this when we don’t really understand it or its long-term effects just because it seems to work? Couldn’t scientific and medical funding be better directed elsewhere?

This is where the chequered past of a medical method comes in. After all, which modern scientist would a priori think of leeches or electricity as a great way to solve illness based on what we know? We only use it because of a direct link to a past where medicine was more barbaric. After all, the farm that breeds the leeches has been in operation from 1845, when the theory of humours was still believed. Given that it is the only licensed farm, Blackadder’s criticism of Dr. Hoffman of Stuttgart is prescient.

Of course, it’d be all worth it if we could make it up to leeches as a reparation for a history where we have abused their talents! Their life starts well being fed on sheep blood served in a sheep-gut condom. Yum! Alas, as soon as they are used, the surgeon drops the leech into a tub of alcohol and thrown into “Medical Waste”. Neither the leeches or the humans are being given the chance they properly deserve!

G-d’s response to the Israeli Settlers

Finally, leaders of pro-Israel countries such as America are taking on the settlers. If only were it the case that a) more countries were strongly pro-Israel and b) countries that are, take a stand against the settlers. Thankfully Netanyahu, if only for reasons of self-interest, is playing along to a certain extent. As a result of this, Gush Emunim are revealing their true colours as some of the great anti-Zionists of our time. Not only are they intent on pursuing a course of action that can only lead to the destruction of Israel in the long-term, they are now advocating soldiers refuse to obey Israeli orders.

R’ Eliezer Melamed, a leading (and I use the words reservedly:) ‘Religious-Zionist’ rabbi has incited soldiers not to follow IDF orders to remove people from illegally constructed houses or settlements in West Bank. Due to this, his Har Bracha Yeshiva has been quite rightly removed from the Hesder Yeshivot programme that allows participants to spend part of their time studying and part of their time serving. People like this only support or see value in the State of Israel so long as it does what they want and serves their particular interests. They don’t support Israel; they only want Israel to support them.

His excuse is that the army is there to protect against its enemies and not against their own countrymen. Surely he cannot mean that the army can never be used against Jews. What if powerful Jewish drug barons started to run a well-armed drug empire from there neighbourhood? He can only mean the army cannot be used against Jewish interests and in this case, expelling Jews from their homes. Well, it is not their homes to start with! The ban is only applicable to new houses that are set up without permission. They are most definitely illegal according to the Israeli government and according to international law. Even (or especially) from the point of view of halacha, it is highly doubtful that Jews should be there in the first place.*

Maybe they would say (and I have heard many people say) that as Jews they say that the land is our natural inheritance given to us by G-d. ‘Greater Israel’ is our possession regardless of Israeli or international law; no-one else should have any of it; and no-one has the right to remove us. Well, fortunately G-d got his response in early (through the mouth of Ezekiel):

Then the word of G-d came to me saying, Son of man, They that inhabit these waste places of the land of Israel speak, saying, Abraham was one man and yet he inherited the land, but we are many; the land is given us for inheritance. Therefore we say to them, thus says the L-rd G-d: You eat with the blood and lift up your eyes towards your idols, and shed blood: and shall you possess the land? You stand upon your sword, you carry out disgusting deeds, and you defile every man his neighbour’s wife; and you shall possess the land?

The land is unequivocally not ours to do what we want with. We may say along with Leibowitz that: “To speak of the divine promise to Abraham and his issue as a gratuitous gift, to ignore the condition of the promise, and to disregard the obligations it confers on the receivers is a degradation and desecration of the religious faith”.

The settlers have an attitude that “it’s ours, not yours, so get out”. Yet G-d’s response is that if you do not conduct yourself with morality, you the ‘land will spit you out’. This shown by the first Rashi which Religious Zionists often use, but which says the opposite of what they want it to say. No human and no Jews has a ‘right’ to any the land- it is G-d’s land and plays by his rules. That is, it is only for those who are Yashar be’einei Hashem- straight in the eyes of the L-rd. According to Rashi, He can take it away from the Canaanites (due to their lack of morality) and give it to the Jews. However, he can take it away from them and given it to the Romans or Ottomans when the Jews weren’t moral.

In summation, let us quote the Netziv who talks about just this eventuality in the time of the Second Temple:

Regarding this came the justification of the divine judgment, because the Holy One, blessed be He, is a yashar, and He cannot tolerate righteous people like this unless they also function with decency in their dealings with the world

Apart from all the political reasons for being against the settlers, and the universal moral ones, let us say it is an affront to G-d.

------

* A Milchemet Reshut, such as a war of conquest, could only be sanctioned by a Sanhedrin, which we don’t have. Thus, when the six day war turned from a defensive war (Milchemet Mitzvah) into one of conquest, the government (and rabbis who supported it) broke Jewish law.

Who ‘really’ believes in the Chanukah miracle?

Or more specifically, which miracle do you believe in? And who cares if it didn’t happen? And what is really the message behind Chanukah?

I- Why celebrate the miracle of the oil?

We all know the old nutcracker about the oil that was meant to last for one day but ended up lasting for eight; allowing more pure oil to be made.  This, of course, provides a neat (if fictional) explanation of why Chanukah is eight days long.  Equally, I assumed that this was indeed the miracle that we are thanking HaShem for.  This, to my surprise wrong as explained in this post on the Hirhurim blog.  For example, Rav Shlomo Auerbach says:

"The primary purpose for lighting the Chanukah candles is in order to praise the Holy One Blessed Be He for the great miracles which He performed for our forefathers in the military victory. Therefore, when lighting the candles one is to concentrate on thanking God for the military victory."

It is the military victory that we thank HaShem for in Al Hanisim, Haneirot Hallelu and She-ashe Nissim blessing.

Yet it is entirely understandable how the military victory has got played down in Chanukah folklore for several reasons.  Firstly, the Maccabbees/ Hasmoneans (the military heroes) became Sadduccees who opposed rabbinic authority.  Equally, it was political infighting between the Hasmonean rulers that let the Romans in and led to the ultimate exile of the Jewish people.  It may be the zealots and ‘patriots’ who are the most vociferous in demanding action against and fighting our enemies.  [The Maccabbees certainly weren’t fighting for ‘religious freedom’ that some liberals claim Chanukah is all about].  Yet, religious or military zealots can never run or maintain a society.

As such, whilst the rabbis certainly appreciated what they did for us, were not so keen on glorifying the Maccabees per se.  We can hardly be simply celebrating the political freedom they helped us achieve when, for millenia, we did not have it.  It would be hard to be sincere about the military victory in exile, when it was they who helped cause the exile! This can also help us understand why the books of the Maccabees- pretty much the only source for the Chanukah story- were never incorporated into Tanach and remained part of the apocrypha.

Instead, the rabbis wanted to emphasise something spiritual instead.  They wanted a timeless message of eternal value, rather than a time-bound and ephemeral one.  This was found in the re-dedication of the temple.  After destruction by an enemy power and enemy ideology, we picked ourselves up and re-dedicated ourselves to G-d.  What’s not to celebrate?!?!?!? 

And they happened to celebrate it by telling a cute story about oil…

II- But who believes in miracles nowadays?

With the advent of Zionism, the military victory has again risen in provenance.  After all, this was the action of humanity- how humanity fought for themselves and not sat back in the passivity of exile.  Whereas the pious wait for miracles and allow themselves to be oppressed, the new and strong breed of Jew takes his destiny in his own hands.  And who believes in these fairy stories in the age of enlightenment anyway?  The precise problem with Chanukah is its miraculous nature and needs to be adapted.  Or so the narrative goes.

But honestly, when you closely assess it, does anyone really believe in this miracle of Chanukah?  Are religious people- or at least the more rational sort- hypocrites in talking about this stuff when it is not something they would be comfortable defending? And by rational sort, I don’t mean any particular denomination (I include vast majority of Chareidim).  Nor am I talking about heretical types.  I’m talking about G-d-fearing Jews who believe that the world and its happenings show signs of G-d’s involvement.  Nevertheless, they would find it hard to sincerely believe in something that their everyday experience tells them is ‘impossible’.  G-d directs things but doesn’t do so by performing cheap conjuring tricks.  Sure, they will come in different sorts of rationalisation about how we must believe the words of Chazal or how G-d can do anything.  But will this be anything more than an abstract principle?

There has been a fierce debate about this on comment posts to blogs.  Comments range from “I can't find anyone in my MO shul that really believes in the miracle. The most I could get was people who thought that it maybe happened” to “Don't be ridiculous. Maybe a few academic types might not believe in it but the vast majority in the MO world do.”  Some say that even secular people believe it whilst others think they treat it like Father Christmas. 

My own personal opinion is that most people have not put that much thought into it!  They don’t really disbelieve it or really believe it either.  They don’t self-consciously treat it like Father Christmas or a fairy tale, nor viscerally feel the miracle as ‘reality’.  Nor do they care.  The story is told and the message is derived from it.   Religious Jews quite sensibly ask “What can I learn from this?” and “What were they trying to teach?”  and find the more philosophical or historical questions relatively unimportant.   If pressed, there would be  a variety of different responses but people will gladly get back to giving a dvar Torah.  Their other answer will be, at most, a hurdle to be cleared and a conundrum to be solved and have no real bearing on their practice or their emunah. 

I include myself in the above category.  Whether it is historically accurate is not something I have put a great deal of thought into.  There is no reason to deny that it happened but if it didn’t happen: Nu? A Kasha! Time to tell the story!  

But what’s the good of a story that is not (necessarily) true…

III- The Oil Miracle? Nope, never heard of that!

Funnily enough, this particular miracles has no particular Jewish provenance.  It is one story amongst many as why we light the candles and celebrate for eight days- and a late one at that!  It is mentioned in the Talmud but there is no mention of it in earlier sources.  It is not in the book of the Maccabees nor is it talked about in early Rabbinic works. 

As for the question as to why we light the candles, we have an earlier explanation that has got nothing to do with the miracle of the oil.  For example in Pesikti Rabbati it says:

"Why do we kindle lights on Hanukah? Because when the sons of the Hasmoneans, the High Priest, defeated the Hellenists, they entered the Temple and found there eight iron spears. They stuck candles on them and lit them."

And in Megillat Ta’anit:

"Why did the rabbis make Hanukah eight days? Because . . . the Hasmoneans entered the Temple and erected the altar and whitewashed it and repaired all of the ritual utensils. They were kept busy for eight days. And why do we light candles? Because . . . when the Hasmoneans entered the Temple there were eight iron spears in their hands. They covered them with wood and lit candles on them. They did this each of the 8 days."

The reason in common with the oil story is that it is all about the rededication of the temple and the re-establishment of our religious service in opposition to the will of the Greeks.  This motive is also readily apparent for the reasons given why Chanukah is eight days long.  A reason given in the books of the Maccabees themselves is that it is a direct imitation of Sukkot (+ Shemini Atzeret) which the Greeks had very recently stopped them celebrating.  Everything the Greeks had tried to quash was re-established and through human endeavour and dedication!

Believing is a particular miracle of course or events does not touch on the truth of Chanukah… 

IV- The Miracle and the Message

This is why we technically only celebrate the miracle of the military victory.  It was miraculous because it was not the Maccabees but the right hand and outstretched arms of Hashem that won the war.  This might, wrath, and violence is- and rightly so- only the domain of Hashem.   We do not celebrate the violence itself but lies in what the miracle allowed us to do.  Only through the miracles of a military victory could the Jews complete their mission but this was not itself physical or military, but spiritual.  It was not in G-d’s hand but in ours, so that we could dedicate ourselves to Hashem. 

Even in the miracle of the oil, we rationed out the oil over the 8 days.  There was no passive waiting around for a miracle but instead, we made contingency plans. We put our effort in and G-d miraculously rewarded us by keeping them alight the whole day. So even here where there IS a miracle, we don’t thank Hashem for it.  We thank him for the miracle (victory) that allowed us to sanctify his Name.

Yet, I feel the point is even more special with the non-miraculous stories.  It is not a miraculous intervention to return us to the same point we left off at.  No, everything that was bad was turned around and used by us as a renewed opportunity to do good.  Yes, the menorah was completely destroyed but the they dedicated the spears to be  used as a menorah.  Yes, they couldn’t celebrate Sukkot that year but they used it as an opportunity to dedicate 'even ‘secular time’ to G-d.

This message even comes through in the time of year and how long Chanukah is.  It happens around the Winter Solstice, about which the Talmud says:

R. Hanan b. Rabba said: [The festival of] the Kalends [Roman New Year] is observed on the eight days following the [Winter] Solstice; [the festival of] Saturnalia on the eight days preceding the Solstice. As a mnemonic, use "From the back and the front you have afflicted me", etc. (Tehillim 139:5).

The Romans and the Greeks celebrated eight day festivals and ‘established them for idolatry’, whilst the Jews came along and established a Winter Solstice festival and ‘dedicated it for the sake of heaven’.

I think this is the supreme highlight of Judaism.  We could take the form of the  Roman “symposium” and turn it into a Seder night, and take the “Afikoman” (after dinner debauchery) and turn it into a praise of G-d (hallel).  Where our enemies see the physical world as detached from the service of G-d, we use as a dediation.  So who cares whether oil lasted for eight days or not?  At Chanukah we thank G-d for the miracle, but it is we who light the lights!