Buy Me a Goose

There is a wonderful anecdote I found in a joke book.

It seems there was this parush (ascetic) who decided that he would bring his newborn son up to be a perfect tzaddik. So immediately after the child's bris, he isolated him in a room, and announced that only his mother would care for him. No other females were to come close to him - not the sister, or cousins, or anyone. When the child turned three and had his first haircut, new rules were made. Henceforth no female, including his mother, would be allowed to enter the child's room. Only his father and a rebbe would enter so as to teach him Torah. This regimen of pure Torah learning was carried on for 15 years. Even for his bar mitzvah, only a select group of ten men were allowed in to see him, to hear his drashah and to wish him mazal tov. When the young man turned 18, it became necessary to look for a shidduch. But before this could be done, he would need to go visit the rav of the town to obtain semichah. There was really no choice - he had to leave his protected premises and go see the rav. So, with a heavy heart, the father accompanied his son to the rav's house. As hashgachah (pratis?) would have it, on the way, they passed a group of pretty young ladies. "Tatte, father, what are those?" the young man asked. "Katchkes [geese]," his father replied, and they continued on their way. A few minutes later, the young man spoke up again, "Tatte?" he asked. "Yes...?" replied his father. 

"Buy me a katchke," said the son.

I take it as a parable for today's chevra. 

We grow up separated from the world, learning Torah in this idyllic, wonderful, separated existence. And then we meet the world, and want to buy katchkes...

The cognitive dissonance most yeshiva bochurim feel upon leaving the warm embrace of yeshiva is perhaps only matched by the rage and helplessness they feel to do anything about it. Some direct the cognitive dissonance towards the outside world, preferring to rant about "eisuv and his nisyoinois that ruin the fabric of yiddishkeit" while others turn it towards the "backwards, religious, crazy people who want to pretend there isn't an internet (or start things like the "Ichud haKehillos L'Maan Tohar HaMachane"). Either way, its an identity crisis that lasts a lifetime.

Perhaps the most striking indictment of Chareidi-ism (should such a thing, in fact, exist) is the fact that once discovering the katchkes, and realizing that all the wonderful holy brilliant self contained books they read don't stand up to reality nor prepare them for real life, instead of trying to cover lost ground and engage in reality, they condemn reality to some sort of mental institution in their minds. Perhaps instead of renting out Citi Field to figure out how to make the internet kosher, or spending $250,000 on a mechitza (one time use) for the Siyum haShas, we ought to ask WHY we are attracted to katchkes, and how we can live a normal, engaged, real life in a world where there are katchkes of all kinds, shapes, sizes, values, and ideals. 

Israel vs. America

After re-reading my last post, I came to a better understanding of my question.

Our Torah describes a certain life. Sefer Devarim is written almost as a constitution of sorts - it provides the legal framework, the rights of each individual, the separation of powers between the Religious (kohanim and Beis Hamikdash), Legal (Sanhedrin/court system), and Executive (the king) functions of the state. It subscribes to the "ish tachas gafno v'tachas t'einato" ideal of a landed citizenry who inhabit homesteads of their making within a greater system of individual and communal goals (the shevatim).
It is this life, I believe, we are meant to live.

Israel AND America fall short, for different reasons. They each (and yes, I am overgeneralizing here) aproach the fundamental "What does it mean to be a Jew" issue differently.
In America, we see ourselves as the continuation of the Jewish religion that began with Avraham Avinu. We have taught the world morality, monotheism, religious life; we are committed to being model citizens, an example of a g-dly people, and hope and pray each day for the time when all can see g-d is One.
We also see ourselves as Americans, as members of the democracy, as contributors to society, and as a part of the American people. We follow their sports teams, create businesses, run candidates for office, and partake in the public debate of values and ideals. However, culturally and religiously we are different, we revel in that difference, and it provides a key component of our identity as Jews.
Americans want their children to be successful as Americans as well as Jews.
In America, our Judaism is an identity component, a conversation piece, a religion. We talk about "staying sane in an insane world", we gapple with issues that arise from living in two different worlds at once (internet bans, shidduch system, movies, music, jobs, praying on airplanes, etc.). We try to define everything within halacha and live in black and white terms (muttar/assur) and build walls around our communities to block out the "outside world" and its bad influences. Our children grow up confused by the contradictory positions of their parents and learn to live this dichotomous life - or leave, either the religion or society.

In Israel, we see ourselves as a nation, with a rich national history that goes back to Avraham Avinu. We teach the world morality, we invest ourselves in maing the world a better place, and we try to create a fair and just society for all.
We see ourselves as Israelis, as a democracy in the Middle East; we identify with the West while also embracing our Middle Eastern roots and culture. We have sports teams, lead the world in hi-tech businesses, invent medical solutions that help all of humanity, and field an Army that is dedicated to the sacredness of human life (paradoxically). We debate nationally our own existence, the rights of those we may have displaced, the citizen fatalities on both sides of the conflict we find ourselves in, how to create a long and lasting peace with our neighbors, and how to balance the democratic ideals of the state with its religion. We believe we are different than the other nations, and we revel in that difference.
Israelis want their children to be successful as citizens of the world as well as Jews.
In Israel, our Jewishness is an identity component, a religion, a perhaps archaic tie to the "Mickey Mouse Rabbis" of the past. We grapple with issues of living in two worlds at once (Torat Eretz Yisrael, abolishing kitniyot, reinstating the korbanot we can, representing ourselves to the UN). We define everything in black and white terms (will of G-d, security, PR) and build walls around our communites to block out the outside world (terrorists, secular culture) and their harm. Our children grow up confused by the importance of a Land, and wonder if its price is worth paying - and leave for America, or leave the religion.


The legacy of the Jewish People is the near inability to reach any sort of concesus as all about anything. We embrace each individual's right to an opinion, and look at concensus as the deciding factor only because of the imperative to have a conclusion in practical matters. Whether this is expressed in a Beis Medrash or in Knesset elections, we believe the only way to live is one where you are alive - "u'bacharta b'chaim l'maan tichyeh" is not a pun or nonsensical non sequitur, it is a definition of the Toras Chaim we are meant to live by, live with, and partner in creating through Torah sheBaal Peh. The "third dimension" of life, the "electricity" we feel when we know we are alive, the "being there" in the moment where our decisions matter and we are engaged in creating ourselves together with the Creator - this is the background, the context, the basis of Torah, and of Judaism. And it is this path that leads to that idyllic life of "ish tachas gafno v'tachas t'einato".

So to revisit the question - when looking to plant roots, which one is a better option? What is a better recipe for our children to find their way under their vine and fig tree?

Aliyah, continued

To elaborate.

The Jewish enterprise is still mainly undefined. The unconscious debate between nation and religion, past and future, the struggle for an identity, still rages on.
When deciding where you want to put down roots, where you wish to plant your seed and grow, where you want to flower into yourself...what do you do? How do you decide between a life in Israel and its national significance which enriches each individual, or a life in the United States and the religious freedom to build your identity in a world of possibilities?
Is comfort something to consider in life? Is identity? Is belonging to something bigger than you are? Can you live in a rat race to simply make ends meet? Is there a value in religious life? In national life? Is the enterprise in Israel a lasting one, worth investing your very life into?

What kind of children are we meant to leave behind? What are we leaving them, our grandchildren, our future? What is that future - a Land and nation, or a religion and culture?

And what do you do when you dont know what to do?

What goes up must come down?

Aliyah.

A dream, a nightmare, a "ממש an avoideh zarah if there ever was one", כנגד כל התורה כולה, nice thing, not necessary, idealistic, fantasy...

What is it about the Land that exerts the magnetic force that it does? Is that magnetism enough a reason to uproot your family and go? Does it matter if it is not?

How has the Land become something political, unnecessary, a place for teens to get spiritual before returning home? Is that the נחלה that we were given? On the flip side, is missiles, governments made of apes, rock throwing, town dismantling, Supreme Court "judicial activism" our נחלה either?

Forgetting the big things, the grand plans and claiming to know the Knowledge of the One on High. I am only concerned with the individual and his life.

So what do you think...? Go, don't, why/not....

The Seat Belt

The previous rather open ended post raised a question about past and present, and the tendency that Yisrael should have.

The blog's introduction mentioned the concept of "Hit'halech Lifanai V'heyei Tamim" and the idea of life as journey and becoming rather than being.

The Jewish people hear that message in many different and interesting ways. There's the world changing innovation coming out of Israel, the moral and ethical "light unto the nations", the religious imperative that Judaism is (and its launching of the main world religions), the concept of "Tikkun Olam" that graces the mission statements of charitable organizations everywhere...to name a few.

So I would like to give a parable to further open up the discussion, if I may.
There was once a man driving a car along a cliffside highway. A group of ruffians and hooligans, lying in wait along the road, began to pelt his car with stones. One of the stones hit the driver through the windshield, and the car tumbled down the embankment, tossing over and hitting the mountainside on its way down. Miraculously, the driver survived, nestled in his air bag and seat belt. The young punks continued to stone the car, but eventually they were chased away by the locals. As they left, they yelled that they'd be back.
The driver, however, decided to stay in the car. After all, that's where he was safe.

For 1000 years, the Jewish People had stones rained down on them by the local thugs, and hunkered down in their cars for safety. It is only now that for the most part, the hooligans have left. And so now we can actually ask ourselves - where do we want to go? What do we want to be?

Some of Yisrael doesnt want to go anywhere. Some deny "going" in its entirety. Some would rather go anywhere, because they want to break with their past. Some think that we have already gotten where we want to go, and all that is left is to wait for the world to catch up and understand. Some want to culturefy our religion. Some want to religify our culture. Some want a hodgepodge mixture of both. Some want to be a (Western) nation like any other.
And some dont care at all, and intermarry out, in their effort to run away.
Oh, and each has politicized their view, and define Yisrael by it, and therefore think that only they are Yisrael. [The others are heretics, fanatics, heathens, terrorists, backwards, secular, automatons, mistaken, apostates, etc.]

But we are all Yisrael. And we can finally have a real and meaningful dialogue on where we want to go.
Or, do we all want to stay in the car, clutching the seat belt?

Holding On or Springing Off

Which is the dominant force of Judaism today?

Open ended question, if there ever was one. I know :)

To be more specific, what are we supposed to be doing - holding onto our past, or springing off of it into the future?

Beginning

There's always something particularly hard about beginnings. כל התחלת קשות, as חז״ל put it. Perhaps the reason for this is just simply that beginnings are times of facing the unknown, and therefore ourselves. And seeing our predefined self isn't fitting, our "who we are" isn't making sense, is perhaps the hardest thing to face.
Because we all think we know who we are...but maybe we don't, because maybe we can't; each beginning in our life is simply another part of our ultimate becoming. And because we think we're human beings, not becomings, we can't stand beginnings at all...

 It is truly a funny thing that in religion, all the things we see as endings (marriage, תשובה, the responsibilities of adulthood, to name a few) are really beginnings. It is the process in life, the journey of life, the mission of התהלך לפני והיה תמים that we define ourselves as כלל ישראל by, that ultimately is who we are.

So here's to process, to journeying through life in search of what it means to Be and Becoming so. Anything less, any artificially defined stopping point, is a violation of the תורת חיים we live by (and are). And here is to beginning this blog as a part of that Living Torah for all those who participate in it.