Texas Jewish Post (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 67, No. 25, Ed. 1 Thursday, June 20, 2013 Page: 20 of 28
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TEXAS JEWISH POST $ SINCE 1947
20 I June 20,2013
P.24.
Columnists
Summer days boil down
to Jewish values
core
Jewish education
is to develop a
sincere faith in
the holiness of
life and a sense of
99
responsibility...
Mordecai Kaplan
Jewish groups call for civility
in chief rabbi race
Rabbi Yerachmiel D. Fried, noted scholar and
author of numerous works on Jewish law,
philosophy and Talmud, is founder and dean of
DATA, the Dallas Koi I el. Questions can be sent
to him atyfried@sbcglobal.net.
Laura Seymour is director of camping servic-
es and director of Jewish life and learning at
the Aaron FamilyJewish Community Center.
Dear Readers,
Over the next few weeks I hope
to address a number of thought-
ful Jewish questions I received
from a young college-age student
from New Jersey. Here is #1:
Thank you,
Aryeh L.
By Laura
Seymour
ers will come home this summer
with positive role models, present
and past.
SHALOM
FROM THE
SHABBAT LADY
ASK THE
RABBI
See LIGHT LINES by Harriet P. Gross on
Dear Rabbi Fried,
Since 11th grade, I have been
bothered by the following ques-
tion. I believe God is the
only power and one is re-
quired to believe in Him
and only Him. A Chris-
tian believes Jesus is a
power and, therefore, we
are required to believe in
Him. The Boston bomb-
ers believe what they did
was right because their
victims don’t believe in
Mohammed. How do I
know I am not wasting
my life?
Questioning religion
at its very
By Rabbi
Yerachmiel
D. Fried
Just as we know the history of our
favorite aunt, we should learn the
story of “Aunt Ruth Bader Gins-
burg.” We realize that our entire
______ Jewish family makes us
I who we are and who we
| will become.
The information for
this summer’s weekly
columns comes from
“Jewish Heroes Jewish
Values — Living Mitz-
vot in Today’s World”
by Barry L. Schwartz.
Please feel free to
contact me to learn
more and to find ways
to share these lessons
with your children. JCC
camps will share and teach mitz-
vot throughout the summer, fo-
cusing on lots of great heroes as
well as practice being heroes for
the future. The hope is that camp-
wrote in Hebrew that it appreciates
what Stav has done “for the good
of the people of Israel, the land of
Israel and the State of Israel.”
The International Rabbinic Fel-
lowship, which represents 150 Or-
thodox rabbis mostly in the Unit-
ed States and Israel, in a statement
issued Monday “publicly reaffirms
its admiration and affection” for
Stav, saying he was “a scholar and
visionary.”
In a message on his Facebook
page posted Sunday night, Stav
thanked the public for the “thou-
sands of emails, texts and phone
calls I received today from rab-
bis, community leaders and many
of you, to strengthen me and my
family in light of the personal at-
tacks against me.”
Stav added that he was “torn by
the divisive atmosphere” around
the Chief Rabbinate election.
Tzohar, in a statement released
Sunday, said Yosef’s remarks tes-
tify to “the urgent need for change
across the rabbinate” and said he
should “repent and ask forgive-
ness.”
A date for choosing the next
Ashkenazi and Sephardic chief
rabbis has not been set, though
it must take place in the coming
weeks.
Dear Aryeh,
I think a few questions are im-
plicit in your question: Firstly,
how do we know Judaism and its
beliefs are any more compelling
or truthful than the others you
mentioned?
Secondly, if such diametrically
opposed beliefs could coexist un-
der the title of organized religion,
perhaps the entire institution of
organized religion is flawed?
Lastly, if the above are correct,
perhaps you are wasting your
time and life by investing it in the
beliefs and practices of Judaism?
Let us address these questions
in reverse order.
The notion of wasting your
life is a relative question. Even if,
for arguments sake, Judaism is a
complete fabrication, those who
espouse the mitzvos and Jewish
beliefs live a very fulfilling, ethi-
cal and enjoyable life.
We encourage marriage,
building a family, dressing nicely
and making a good living. The
laws limit your lusts and out-of-
bounds desires by a code of eat-
ing certain, healthier foods and
acknowledging God every time
we eat.
Enjoying life and all its bless-
ings are a theme of Judaism. One
would be hard-pressed to show
how such a person “wasted their
some guests.
The previous evening Yosef, a
former Sephardic chief rabbi of
Israel, said in a sermon that elect-
ing Stav as a chief rabbi would be
like “bringing idolatry into the
temple.”
“This man is a danger to Juda-
ism, a danger to the Rabbinate, a
danger to Torah — and I should
keep silent? They want to make
him a chief rabbi? This man un-
worthy of anything! Can they do
such a thing?” Yosef said.
AJC Executive Director David
Harris in condemning the “shock-
ing assault” on Stav by fellow Jews
called it “painful and inexcusable.”
“Whatever differences may ex-
ist among factions supporting one
or another candidate for the post
of Israel’s chief Ashkenazi rabbi,
they should be debated and re-
solved with civility, not resort to
violence.”
Abraham Foxman, ADL’s na-
tional director, called on “the
spiritual, political and social lead-
ership in Israel to speak up against
such attacks and to take every step
possible to promote mutual re-
spect among the various schools of
Judaism.”
In its letter, the RCA, an um-
brella group for Orthodox rabbis,
life!” If, however, Judaism is true
and one would neglect to heed
its commandments, the person
would be in far worse shape than
the first scenario.
The existence of contradictory
and even violent messages by or-
ganized religion should not come
as a surprise, especially consider-
ing how the religions you men-
tion were initially spread
“by the sword” more
than they were promul-
gated philosophically.
We often End that
the institution of gov-
ernment is abused and
utilized improperly as a
power ploy, casting as-
persions upon the indi-
viduals doing so, not on
the institution of gov-
ernment.
The Torah itself ex-
plains what sets Juda-
ism apart from other
religions when it relates, after the
Ten Commandments were given,
Hashem said to Moshe, “so shall
you say to the Children of Israel,
‘you have seen that I have spoken
to you from heaven’” (Shemos/
Exodus 20:19).
Similarly the Torah asks, “Has
a people ever heard the voice of
God speaking from the midst
of the hre as you have heard,
and survived?” (Devarim/Deut.
4:33).
The Torah is teaching that
what sets itself apart from other
religions is that it came as a direct
revelation from the Almighty to
the entire Jewish nation. This
is radically different than every
other religion, without excep-
tion, that claims to have had a
revelation from God to an indi-
vidual or small group of individ-
uals and that they are “passing on
the word” to the rest.
In fact, Christians and Mus-
lims believe that God spoke
openly to the Jews at Sinai; they
Just contend that He changed His
mind later and rejected the Jews.
Please contemplate these ideas
and let me know what you think!
“The aim of
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Jewish
groups are calling for civility in
the campaign for chief rabbi of Is-
rael after candidate David Stav was
harassed at a wedding and labeled
“a wicked man” by Shas spiritual
leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef.
The American Jewish Com-
mittee and the Anti-Defamation
League were among the groups
this week that came out against
violence and asked Israeli leaders
of all stripes to promote respect
among the factions.
The Rabbinical Council of
America and the International
Rabbinic Fellowship also sup-
ported Stav, the head of the Tzohar
organization in Israel for Modern
Orthodox rabbis.
Tzohar works to involve non-
religious couples and their families
in religious wedding ceremonies,
as well as in dialogue on other di-
visive issues in Israel.
On Sunday night, Stav was
Jostled and verbally abused at the
wedding of the daughter of Rabbi
Shmuel Rabinowitz, the rabbi of
the Western Wall.
According to reports, a group
of haredi Orthodox teens shoved
Stav during the celebratory danc-
ing and tried to make him fall.
Later he was attacked verbally by
This summer at J Camps,
we are learning values through
many ways. One way to see Jew-
ish values in practice is to look
at our Jewish heroes _______
and mentors. We know I
that “we are standing I
on the shoulders of the
ones who came before
us.” We must learn the
lessons from those who
came before us and then
strive to be the ones
who will shoulder the
next generation.
How do we make
Maimonides or Albert
Einstein or Hannah
Senesh come alive to our
children? By making them come
alive to us as parents and then in-
troducing them to our children as
“family” because these heroes are
indeed part of our Jewish family.
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Wisch-Ray, Sharon. Texas Jewish Post (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 67, No. 25, Ed. 1 Thursday, June 20, 2013, newspaper, June 20, 2013; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1305225/m1/20/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; .