Editorial & Opinion

Shavuot: A Holiday From Another Dimension

Dani Shetrit — Tue, 22 May 2012 22:00:00 +0000

Opinion

Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz

Special To The Jewish Week

Unlike with other Jewish holidays, the Torah does not specify a date for Shavuot; it is celebrated on the 50th day (seven weeks) after Passover. We moderns celebrate Shavuot on the sixth day of the month of Sivan (this year, May 27-28).

Equally strange, the actual date on which the Torah was given is not mentioned anywhere in the Bible. We know more or less when it was, but no exact date is given. This is true even though the dates of many other events, all surely of far lesser importance, are written explicitly in the Torah.

Shavuot

Not Hall Of Famers Yet

Dani Shetrit — Tue, 22 May 2012 21:56:14 +0000

Letters

Rabbi Paul Kushner

As one who grew up in the shadow of Ebbets Field, I must correct a statement that Gary Rosenblatt made in his excellent column, “Closer To Home: Of Baseball, Family And Faith,” May 18.

He included Carl Erskine and Gil Hodges [as Brooklyn Dodger players later named to] the Hall of Fame. Although Erskine is in the Indiana Baseball Hall of Fame and Hodges is in the Marine Corps Sports Hall of Fame, neither has yet been elected to Cooperstown. I can only hope that Rosenblatt’s gift for prophecy equals his talent for nostalgia.

Bellmore, L.I.

Defends Yeshivat Noam

Dani Shetrit — Tue, 22 May 2012 21:55:16 +0000

Letters

Yosef Rubinstein

As a parent with children at Yeshivat Noam, I found Hella Winston’s coverage of the arrest of a Yeshivat Noam teacher very upsetting (“After Arrest Of Teacher, Questions About Vetting,” May 11).

Culture As Sewage

Dani Shetrit — Tue, 22 May 2012 21:54:24 +0000

Letters

Rena Wilen

I am writing regarding Rabbi Avi Shafran’s Opinion piece, “Measured Insularity Does Not A Monk Make” (May 11), which refuted the Opinion piece of Rabbi Eugene Korn on an element of haredi Judaism (“In The Name Of Judaism, Haredim Have Turned Inward,” April 13).

Rabbi Shafran explained that haredi Judaism tries to avoid “the effluence of a coarse popular culture...”

Comparing American culture to sewage?

Palestinian Intentions

Dani Shetrit — Tue, 22 May 2012 21:53:29 +0000

Letters

Morton A. Klein

Your Editorial, “The Real Catastrophe Of The Nakba” (May 18), is right to state that “the catastrophe of the Palestinian people is that their leaders are grounded in victimhood.” As you argue, they would certainly have a state today had reason and compromise featured in their deliberations.

Narrative On Palestinians

Dani Shetrit — Tue, 22 May 2012 21:52:32 +0000

Letters

Irwin Wall

It is not true that “the Palestinians” do not accept the right of Israel to exist (“The Real Catastrophe Of The Nakba,” Editorial, May 18). Undoubtedly some do not, but some do, in particular those in the Palestinian Authority who have declared that to be so for a long time.

Crimes Against Children

Dani Shetrit — Tue, 22 May 2012 21:51:41 +0000

Letters

Gerald Jacobs

All Jews, and especially the Orthodox, should appreciate The Jewish Week’s continuing investigation and reporting on the abuse of children in our schools and communities. Sadly, that will not be the case. There will be the usual cries of Orthodox-bashing by the usual suspects.

Fulfilling Our Mission

Dani Shetrit — Tue, 22 May 2012 21:50:48 +0000

Letters

Richard A. Lopchinsky

Jayson Littman (“Confessions Of A Gay Zionist,” Back of the Book, April 20) states he has been able to rid his “heart of turmoil, self-hate, and questioning” while simultaneously asking God, while standing at the Kotel, “What do you expect of me?”

His seemingly simple story made me very sad.

Most boys in yeshiva consider their rabbi to be as good at guidance as a formally trained therapist, and this is usually not the case. And sadly in this case Littman did not get the help he could have used and could not feel God’s love.

Food And Identity

Dani Shetrit — Tue, 22 May 2012 21:49:50 +0000

Letters

Jay J. Rand

Your recent article, “The Gentrification Of The Gefilte” (April 13), would have been more appropriately titled “The Gentilification.” For Jews, “you are what you eat,” is at the core of their identity.

Pick up a Ukrainian cookbook, and you will find many of our own Jewish holiday staples such as pirogi, holobtzi, etc. A rabbi once asked why we have kosher Mexican, Italian and Chinese restaurants, yet don’t find those people looking to experience kosher cuisine? Well, why would they want to eat what they're accustomed to?

Prayer And Presence

Dani Shetrit — Tue, 22 May 2012 21:48:00 +0000

Musings

David Wolpe

Special To The Jewish Week

The Midrash teaches that when the Israelites left Egypt, God enveloped them in “clouds of glory.” When they wished for bread, God provided manna. When they craved meat, God sent quails. Once these wishes had been granted, the people began to doubt, saying, “Is God among us, or not?”
The point of the Midrash is that Israel could only feel God’s presence when they were receiving gifts. This is a common malady; many people pray for something and if they do not receive it assume that there is no God.

Midrash

Ruth’s Conversion Would Be Rejected Today

Dani Shetrit — Tue, 22 May 2012 21:47:00 +0000

Gary Rosenblatt

Editor And Publisher

At a time when we are keenly aware of the deep divisions within the Jewish community on issues from religious practice to the policies of the State of Israel, along comes the festival of Shavuot, the Feast of Weeks, with the most unifying theme in Jewish life: the giving of the Torah, the central, foundational text of our history and people, at Mount Sinai.

Ruth Shavuot The Book of Ruth

36 Under 36

Dani Shetrit — Tue, 22 May 2012 21:44:00 +0000

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

We are proud to publish our fifth annual “36 Under 36” special section in this issue, highlighting the achievements of a diverse group of young Jews — including artists, educators, social justice activists and philanthropists — making an impact, and a difference, in our community.

Take Me Out Of The Ballgame

Dani Shetrit — Tue, 22 May 2012 21:43:00 +0000

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

The notion of 40,000 haredi and chasidic men coming out on a lovely Sunday evening to Citi Field — a sell-out crowd — not to watch a Mets game but to decry the evils of the Internet makes the attendees of this week’s rally an easy target for ridicule to many people. After all, the Internet is a reality, and prayer and preaching won’t make it go away.

Mel Gibson And Judah Maccabee? Not A Good Mix

Dani Shetrit — Tue, 22 May 2012 20:51:00 +0000

Opinion

Daniel Libenson

Special To The Jewish Week

The recent exchange of accusations between Mel Gibson and Joe Eszterhas, the screenwriter hired to write a Judah Maccabee biopic that Gibson would direct, brings renewed attention to the very fact that Gibson has been planning to make such a movie in the first place. Let’s ask him not to.

Macabees Mel Gibson

The Torah of Chesed: Why I Became A Kidney Donor

Adam Dickter — Tue, 22 May 2012 19:22:00 +0000

Opinion

Devora Steinmetz

Special To The Jewish Week

Last Sunday afternoon, I was wheeled into an operating room in Beilinson Hospital in Petach Tikva, an anesthesiologist said laila tov, and a surgeon removed my left kidney, which was brought to an adjoining operating room and put into the abdomen of a twenty-three year old Israeli dental student from Georgia, FSU, whom I met for the first time three months ago.

Beilinson Hospital Carlebach Shul kidney donation organ donation Petach Tikvah