Integrity and modesty

Rabbi Yissocher Frand discusses honesty and integrity in business dealings in a devar Torah on this week's parsha.

This week's parsha contains Yaakov's famous dream of the ladder with its legs on the ground and its head reaching heavenward. The Angels of G-d ascend and descend the ladder. The Baal HaTurim makes the following interesting but almost inscrutable comment: The numeric value of the Hebrew word for ladder (sulam) equals the numeric value of the Hebrew word for money (mamon). This common "gematria" of 136 obviously teaches some kind of symbolism between the Angels ascending and descending the ladder and money. What is this connection?
Read more: http://www.torah.org/learning/ravfrand/5774/vayeitzei.html

Rabbi Yirmiyohu Kaganoff also discusses integrity in an article titled Parshas VaYaitzay - The Unfair Fare.

The NYPost has an article written by 14-year-old ella Epstein regarding her week living as a 1950s teenager, following the advice from “Betty Cornell’s Teen-Age Popularity Guide.”

Most days, I wear jeans, a sweater and Uggs. However, the book suggests something more polished — the illustrations show a fuller skirt with fitted sweater, so I relied on below-the-knee skirts, Peter Pan collars, sweaters and dresses — mostly in Betty’s suggested neutrals of navy blue, gray or green. She also instructs teens to wear saddle shoes to school, but my interpretation — Oxfords and short heels in brown and black — were a little strange for a modern teenage girl to wear. All of my outfits were accented with a strand of pearls because Betty says, “Fads come and go, but a simple string of small pearls is still a young girl’s best friend.”
At first I got lots of strange looks from my friends. Halfway through history class, someone asked me why I was dressed like a history teacher. There were a few whispers and some laughing, but I didn’t mind. The Oxfords were stiff and gave me blisters, so I had to ditch them in favor of ballet flats. Still, I felt really feminine since my usual jeans and sweaters aren’t very gender specific.
http://nypost.com/2013/11/06/my-week-as-a-1950s-teenager/

Looking at the photos accompanying the article, one immediately notices how the 1950s outfits are much more tzinusdik (modest) than those worn now.

Orthodox and Conservative

NYdailynews identifies the Orthodox Jewish man who was photographed when he let a passenger on a train sleep on his shoulder.

Harry Marylus writes about The Demise of Conservative Judaism.

 I feel sorry for them. The leaders of Conservative Judaism are scrambling to make sense of a Pew Research Center report that says their movement is shrinking...

JTS Chancelor, Arnlod Eisen spoke to this issue long before the Pew report came out. He blamed their problems on allowing people to drive to Shul on Shabbos – and the suburban sprawl their congregants followed as a result. That led to most Conservative Jews to feel that driving on Shabbos was OK in all circumstances.

Mr. Eisen now realizes that this was a mistake as it destroyed the sense of community that Orthodox Jews enjoy. By not driving to Shul on Shabbos, Orthodox Jews are forced to live near the Shul they attend. This creates a sense of community. People interact with each other -especially on Shabbos and Yom Tov. By contrast Conservative Jews do not necessarily live in Jewish neighborhoods and have no sense of community as Jews.

http://www.jewishpress.com/blogs/haemtza/the-demise-of-conservative-judaism/2013/11/06/

 

Benjamen Barer asks, "Why study an ancient religion?"

It is easy, in the time we live, to harbor the misguided feeling that anything that has not occurred in the last 24 (or maybe 48) hours is nearly irrelevant. Constantly craving the new, we are all pulled by an invisible string to answer, in the most satisfying way, 'what have you done lately?' Keeping me balanced, in large part, is a millennia-old religion.
Unlike the Facebook and Twitter generation, Judaism exhibits the opposite tendency. If something was not said or thought about two thousand years ago or more, it is probably a blip best ignored.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/benjamin-barer/why-study-an-ancient-reli_b_4215523.html?utm_hp_ref=religion

The newly hired columnist

FreeBeacon reports, "Newly hired New York Times columnist Alaa al Aswany’s “disturbing conspiracy thinking” about Israel played a role in World Affairs Journal’s decision to stop publishing his blog in 2012, according to sources at the magazine."
Continue reading: http://freebeacon.com/nyt-scribes-ex-editor-he-was-an-anti-israel-conspiracist/

Yesterday I caught an amazing article about Gershon Burd at Haaretz. Registered users can read it over here. Otherwise, it has been posted here, as well.

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach writes about the terror his family faced at the New Jersey Garden State Mall where his wife and daughter were shopping when a gunman started shooting.

I am calling my wife every few minutes. I am thinking to myself that America has gone crazy. This past Friday night, for Shabbat dinner, the main point of conversation of our guests was the terrible shooting in Los Angeles at LAX and the other shootings that week at schools. Now, we’re at the center of it. Could this really be happening?
http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3273796770070251781#editor/target=post;postID=9204153824064497778;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=0;src=link

In the wake of Knesset Member Avigdor Lieberman's acquittal, those close to him point to blessings he received from Rabbis. One person said that just this morning, shortly before the hearing, Lieberman sent a personal emissary to receive the blessing of Maran Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky who expressed, "Do not worry, everything will be okay."
http://www.kikarhashabat.co.il/המקורבים-חושפים-ליברמן-זוכה-בג.html

Kikar Hashabat has a segulah for riches over here.

Our own Thanksgiving

Rabbi Shai Held writes about the matriarch Leah naming her fourth son Yehudah.

A Talmudic sage makes a surprising, even jarring statement about Leah. R. Simeon b. Yohai says that Leah was the first person in the history of the world who ever expressed gratitude to God (Babylonian Talmud, Berakhot 7b). What could this possibly mean? Of course, other people before Leah had offered thanksgiving to God. According to Psalm 139, Adam expressed profound gratitude to God for how wondrously he was made (Psalm 139:14). What makes Leah's gratitude unique; what is it that establishes her as the first truly grateful person?

It is one thing to be grateful when everything is wonderful, when all of our dreams have been fulfilled and all of our hungers sated. But it is quite another to be grateful when life is complicated, when some of our most cherished dreams have remained painfully unrealized, when some of our yearnings are so intense that they threaten to burn right through us. Leah is the first person to feel and express gratitude even and especially amid profound sorrow and enduring disappointment.
Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rabbi-shai-held/holding-gratitude-and-disappointment_b_4220057.html

Malcolm Gladwell on faith and "desirable difficulty"

Did you ever have the experience of learning a new word, only to see it over and over again in the days following your seeing the word for the first time?

 

This weekend I visited a friend who was reading a book called Outliers by Malcom Gladwell, an author I had never heard of before. She proceeded to give me a synopsis, and recommended that I read the book. I read the first chapter, found it interesting and asked her if I could borrow it once she was done with it.

 

Imagine my surprise when I was perusing the Blaze this morning and found an article titled The Biblical Insight From a Writer at The New Yorker That Left Glenn Beck Stunned which details statements made by Malcolm Gladwell in an interview with Mr. Beck.

 

 

“Sometimes people of faith don’t always understand how powerful their faith makes them,” he remarked.  “…There were lots of committed Christians in France who didn’t have the courage to go up against the Nazis because they thought they were at a hopeless disadvantageous … It’s just this little group in the mountain who thought, ‘Woah, armed with the spirit of the Lord, we can more than hold our own against a bunch of guys with tanks.’”

Gladwell also proceeded to highlight how David’s slingshot was far superior for the task at hand than conventional weapons, like a sword and shield.

“David understands that with superior technology and the spirit of the lord, ‘I am not the underdog,’” Gladwell remarked. “With those two things on his side, he’s the favorite isn’t he?”

Continue reading and see statement about "desirable difficulty": http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/11/04/david-and-goliath-author-explains-how-disadvantages-are-often-advantageous/

Prayer and thanks

Huffington Post has a slide show containing 50 stunning synagogues. for those interested in architecture, click here to view them.

Speaking about prayer, in an article titled Israel MPs mull Jewish prayer at al-Aqsa site,  aljazeera writes, "The compound, which once housed the Jewish temples, is the holiest site to Jews and the third holiest in Islam." Thanks for acknowledging that the Temples were once housed at the site.

Speaking about thanks, I was impressed with Senator Joe Lieberman's expression of thanks and Hakarat Hatov for the Sheluchim and the Lubavitcher movement which have assisted him in various ways during his career. Click on my last post, Kinus Hasheluchim, to learn more.

Kinus Hasheluchim

Chabad Crown Heights info has a selection of videos and photos from the kinus shluchim. Click here to hear Senator Joe Lieberman speak, as well as others. Below is Rabbi Mordechai Abergel delivering a short speech. May I add "Amen" to his words at the end of the video.

Edie Littlefield Sundby discusses her options for health care.

For a cancer patient, medical coverage is a matter of life and death. Take away people's ability to control their medical-coverage choices and they may die. I guess that's a highly effective way to control medical costs. Perhaps that's the point. http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304527504579171710423780446

The Atlantic Wire writes about how Three Guys Built a Better Healthcare.gov.

Visit Jewish.TV for more Jewish videos.

Sold for a pittance

A collection of 1,500 artworks confiscated by the Nazis in the 1930s and 1940s has been found in the German city of Munich, media reports say.

The trove is believed to include works by Matisse, Picasso and Chagall, the news magazine Focus reports.

Some of the works were declared as degenerate by the Nazis, while others were stolen from or forcibly sold for a pittance by Jewish art collectors.
Continue reading: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24794970

Citing concerns over traffic and water pollution, a group of Jackson residents have banded together to fight the construction of an all-girls Orthodox Jewish high school in their neighborhood.
The Asbury Park Press reports that a coalition of neighbors have formed the Jackson Citizens Defense Fund and hired a lawyer to fight the plan.
Continue reading: http://www.nj.com/ocean/index.ssf/2013/11/jackson_orthodox_jewish_high_school.html

Karachi landmarks

Not many people know that a number of Karachi’s landmark buildings were designed by a Jewish architect Moses Somake (1875-1947).
...Reading a paper at Karachi conference here on Saturday, Gul Hasan Kalmatti, traced the history of Karachi’s Jewish community and recalled their contribution in making Karachi a vibrant metropolis.
...Kalmatti regretted that the synagogue known as the Magen Shalom Synagogue was razed to the ground in July 1988, paving the way for a shopping plaza – Madiha Square.
Read more: http://tribune.com.pk/story/626468/secret-histories-the-jews-built-karachi-but-we-built-shopping-plazas-on-their-synagogue/

A photo posted above the article contains a gravestone with the inscription, "In ever loving memory of our beloved son ENOCH who passed away on 11 December 1933, born 18 December 1910. 'God takes our loved ones from our homes, but never from our hearts.'”
As we enter Chodesh Kislev and read about Chanoch, who passed away in Kislev and doesn't seem to have left any children, perhaps someone would consider performing a good deed leiluy nishmato.

Three charged

In an image which will cause widespread outrage, two serving British soldiers appear to give Nazi-style salutes while standing to attention in front of the Union Flag.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2477639/SHAMEFUL-Fury-UK-soldiers-investigated-performing-Nazi-style-salute-Helmand.html

Police have charged three people over an alleged anti-Semitic attack in Sydney's eastern suburbs.
Four men and a woman were walking home from the synagogue in Bondi in the early hours of Saturday when a group of about eight young men began yelling anti-Semitic insults at them.
Continue reading: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-26/jewish-attack-antisemitic-bondi-charged/5047598

Shmuel Rosner discusses the end of Daylight Savings Time in Israel this Saturday night.

Most Israelis — 73 percent of them, according to a poll taken on May 30 — have been wanting to extend D.S.T. so that they can have light during more of their active hours, save on electricity and drive more safely. (Not all these expected benefits have been proved.) But ultra-Orthodox politicians have opposed the idea on the grounds that longer days make religious practices more burdensome.

 

Morning prayers can only begin with sunrise, but if sunrise comes later because of D.S.T. (this Saturday in Tel Aviv dawn comes at 6:53), some people might have difficulty completing their prayers and getting to work on time.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/26/opinion/international/rosner-israels-duel-on-the-sun.html?_r=0

 

Let's hope the implementation won't cause too much hardship for people who daven Shachris before beginning their work day.