Oy Vey Sina

As the summer is here, I have been spending every Shabbos in the country. Like almost every other person in Boro Park, I have been making the trek on Friday afternoons from Brooklyn to various bungalow colonies in the Catskills. The particular bungalow colony where I have been spending my time is located a short 15 minutes walking distance from the village of Kiryas Yoel, which is a village of more than 25,000 Chasidic Jews (primarily Satmar) at the base of the Catskills.


This Sunday, after having a particularly warm Shabbos in the bungalow colony, I made the trip further into the mountains to visit the Aleksander Rebbe. Whenever I got to his bungalow colony and camp, I was greeted by the Aleksander Rebbe’s brother, Rav Burech Zinger, the rosh yeshiva of Yeshiva Tiferes Shmiel d’Aleksander. During the summer, the yeshiva continues to operate on the grounds of the rebbe’s bungalow colony. After walking around the grounds of the camp, I made it to the rebbe’s bungalow.

The rebbe came and met me in the side room of his bungalow, which houses his summer library. Because most people who don’t work in the city have been in the country for the past four weeks, I haven’t seen the rebbe and his family for more than a month. It was nice to be able to sit and talk with him about various topics of interest for both of us.


The conversation between the rebbe and me started out on the topic of respecting differences between varying groups in the Jewish community. In recent years, sizable numbers of Teimani Jews have come to America, seeking refuge from the Islamic extremism of many in their home country. Upon coming to America, they interesting often take up residence among the various Chasidic centers of the New York area. Because of the striking difference of their dress, many pressure them to dress like the Chasidim around them. The rebbe said that he makes sure the Teimanim in his yeshiva and at his camp are able to dress in their traditional clothes if they choose, allowing them a free and open environment to be themselves. The fathers of the boys have commented to him that this is the first place where they have seen someone so open to making sure that the boys are comfortable being exactly who they are. In addition to opening up ourselves to making sure that the Teimanim are comfortable being themselves, the rebbe also said that he would like to see all frum (religious) families in Boro Park and elsewhere open their doors to at least one non-frum family, draw them close, and show them what true Yiddishkeit is all about. He said that if every family were able to do this, it would show results beyond our wildest dreams.

After discussing various issues regarding kiruv and Jewish diversity, we began to discuss the various requirements of kibbud av, or bringing honor to one’s parents. We talked about the requirement, and whether or not it is different from the general requirement of respecting and showing appreciation to one who has done good things for you or taken care of you. We also talked about the issues surrounding adoption in the Jewish community. Because there are strict rules regarding touch between non-related members of the opposite gender, as well as restrictions on how and when people of the opposite gender may be secluded with one another, adoption creations many problems. Reb Moshe Feinstein zt”l, the leading American Jewish legal decider, was very much against adoption in the Jewish community due to the complications and possible laxities in halacha (Jewish law) that could result.

The day that I visited the rebbe happened to be the yortzeit (anniversary of the death) of the Nesivos Sholom, the previous Slonimer Rebbe. The Nesivos Sholom, in addition to many things, was very much into chinuch (education), and the general derech halimud in yeshivas and other Jewish schools. Because one learns the works of deceased tzadikim (righteous people) on their yortzeits, the rebbe had been learning various works of the Nesivos Sholom since the night before. It is not a secret among those in the Chasidish community that many educational institutions have serious problems with imparting critical thinking and intellectualism to their students. Also, many of those that succeed in doing this limit their student base to only the best and brightest students. The rebbe said that we must remember, especially in a time of such crisis as today, that those with the greatest struggle in learning are the ones with the most to offer, and that giving up on a single child is to give up on an entire future of fruitful years and descendents from that person.


The discussion with the rebbe led to very important lessons for today, as today is Tisha B’av, the day of mourning for the destruction of the beis hamikdosh (temple). The second temple was destroyed because of sinas chinam, or baseless hatred, between one Jew and another. Furthermore, the Gemara says that if we do not see the active rebuilding of the temple in our lifetime, it is as if we have destroyed it ourselves. If we as a people continue to allow sectors amongst us to treat other groups of Jews as inferior because of their practices and customs, and sit by while our children suffer in a failing education system, we fail at pushing our world to new heights to reach its potential. On this important day, may we truly move beyond our gashmius (physicality) so that we may soar to new heights, culminating with the rebuilding of the beis hamikdosh.

Eishes Chayil, Mi Yimtza?

It is often noted that traditional Jewish society is patriarchal, as the public aspects of the religion seem to be dominated by men. While it is true that public aspects of Judaism often include only men, and men themselves are required to participate in more religious acts than women, these rites and practices do not form the center of Jewish values and life. In Jewish belief, the purpose of a mitzvah (commandment) is to bring the person doing the act to a closer connection with G-d as a result of the Divine act. From a Jewish perspective, men are in more need of this connection and inspiration than women as men are innately on a lower spiritual level. As shown in Bereishis (Genesis), men were simply formed, while women were “built” (“v’yiven l’isha”). Chazal (ancient Jewish sages) note the connection between the word “build” (“banah”) and the word “binah”, which generally means “intuition” or “deep knowledge”, taking from this the notion that women have an innate knowledge of the world that men can only access through much trial and struggle. Because of their increased binah, women also have a closer natural connection to the shechinah, or the dwelling presence of G-d in the physical world, which itself represents the feminine qualities and values of G-d.

Though it may appear otherwise to many, women actually have a central place in Judaism and in the Jewish home environment. A women is meant to be the akeres habayis (foundation of the home), and while her role may not often be shown to the public, it is much more important than the role of men in our society. This is because the woman is responsible for the education of the children, who represent the next generation of the Jewish community. Without women, then, Judaism itself would fail to continue, and the community would find itself utterly lost. Because the redemption and completion of the world will come through the intense concentration and contemplation of religious life, which are taught primarily by the mothers in Jewish society, it is said that redemption itself will come because of the Jewish woman.


The differences between the outside world and the world of Orthodox Judaism often create many of the misunderstandings that lead to notions of Jewish religious sexism. Because the majority religion in America, and much of the western world, is one that does not include a complete lifestyle driven at every second by detailed religious laws, the services that take place during the week are perceived to be central to the religion. The same, then, is transferred to Judaism, with people expecting the daily services, culminating with the services on Shabbos (the Sabbath), to be the culmination of Jewish religious life and practice. In truth, though, the services were created as a way to induce communal activity and unity for the men, who are in much more of a spiritual struggle. The prayers themselves were created with a careful selection of verses from the Torah, in addition to other prayers written thousands of years ago by sages to force men to shift their concentration from the physical distractions to the spiritual realities of the world. Jewish prayer, then, is a sort of medicine for the male neshama (soul), and communal prayer serves as a sort of required group therapy. When seen from this light, women not often participating in public aspects of Judaism is a sign not of suppression, but of their spiritual elevation.

With this idea of public religious practice in mind, it is understandable why men serve as the spiritual leaders in Judaism. Those men who serve as rabbonim (rabbis) are meant to be men who have attained a piece of spirituality through long learning and struggle, and they then work to help other men achieve the same. If a women were to serve in this role, she would not have the same ability to help men elevate themselves, as she began her life at a higher spiritual level than many men will ever reach, and cannot begin to understand the complexities of the struggles than men face while attempting to overcome their spiritual shortcomings. For a woman to serve as the spiritual leader of a group, then, would mean one of two things: either the men of the community are not at all important (as we are only as strong as our weakest members) or this particular women is herself innately low and has had to struggle to meet her current (somewhat basic) spiritual level.


It is strange, then, that a “rabbi” who reports himself to be Orthodox has given a sort of rabbinic title to a women in his community, who also reports herself to be Orthodox. For the past several weeks, great debate has been going on in the more modern segments of the Orthodox community as to the religious basis and appropriateness of a women serving as a rabbi in the traditional Jewish world. The head rabbi of the religious school and synagogue that have been involved in the controversy is no stranger to Orthodox debate, as many of his previous opinions, comments, and writings have shown him to be on the extreme borders of what constitutes an Orthodox Jew. His latest personal “triumph” is simply the most recent in his long line of acts that call into question what it means to be an Orthodox Jew.

To be sure, women have played important roles as leaders in the Jewish community, specifically with regard to instruction (which has already been noted as the most important aspect of women in the Jewish community). However, in this case, something else must be at work. If she was simply continuing in the long line of Jewish educators that form the next generation of the Jewish community, I wouldn’t expect there to be such pomp and show associated with her addition to the staff at her particular congregation. The recent label of “rabbah” (supposedly the female version of “rabbi”) given to her by the head rabbi at her congregation seems to show the reality of the situation.


As a person of deeper leanings, I find this issue to have the possibility of saying a great deal about the state of the Jewish community today. If the rabbi in question truly felt that it was necessary to have a woman serve in a rabbinic role, and it was not simply a ploy to push the boundaries of Orthodoxy (which seems to have been the purpose of his previous controversial acts), this means that he feels that women (presumably particularly Modern Orthodox women), by virtue of their connection with modern society and the outside world, have come to think of themselves as on par with men in their low state of spirituality. If this is actually the case, and the women in these communities have been spiritually impacted by their closeness and intense involvement in modern society, the solution to the problem is hardly a legitimization of this fact by asserting the need for women in rabbinic roles, but in a reevaluation of just what side Modern Orthodoxy is on: the side of Judaism or the side of the rest of the world.