By Lurker that never comments

Every time Heshy decides to share with us some insight into his daily hashkafic struggles people go ape shit, they start to complain that he isn’t frum anymore and that his blog isn’t frum and that things have changed and as a diehard Frum Satire fan, I am sick and disgusted with all of you because Heshy was never frum and his blog was never  frum either, hell, if the internet and blogs aren’t frum in the first place how can Frum Satire actually be frum? It’s called frum satire because he makes fun of the frum world, although he only started writing satire in the past couple of years.

I started reading Frum Satire in the fall of 2006, I think it was a link from one of those long gone mommy bloggers to a post telling me he goes to shul for Kiddush and to look over the mechitza, finally someone just like me, right? Well if he’s going to shul for food and women he obviously wasn’t frum then.

You know what else?

Heshy never wore a white shirt, yeshivish style tzitzis, or a hat – automatically disqualifying him from ever being frum. He also taught us all how to navigate around shomer negia with his loopholes list, which wasn’t very frum at all. What about all this talk of frum porn? Frum Porn is an oxymoron, which makes anyone using the two words in the same sentence not frum. Just due to the fact that Heshy is in his upper 20’s and still single means he’s not frum, he just admitted the other day for the umpteenth time that he spends his days wasting seed so that he will be able to boil in it when he goes up to the beis din shel mala.

Don’t even get me started on his Sinas Chinam and Loshon Horah, anyone reading this blog is sinning and Heshy, in spreading his vile disgusting stereotypes and poking fun at Jews is all damning him out of frumkeit long before he decided to share with you his views on his hashkafa struggles. Do you realize how many people Heshy has pushed off the derech by spreading his filth, he’s been doing it since the middle of 2006, yet now, that he has decided to try and do his veahavta lareacha kamocha deal you have the gall to say his blog is changing, isn’t frum anymore and that it’s been going downhill.

Do you people actually think he isn’t frum? He seems a lot more frum than all of you people. Do you really expect Frum Satire to be stagnant and non-evolving?

• Letter to the editor: Wife Swapping in the frum community
• Frum Satire show in LA this Sunday
• Frum Satire was hacked yesterday!!!

This past Friday night, a local man saved his own life by restarting his heart during a traditional Jewish prayer service. The incident happened at a local Young Israel when a man was saying the Shabbat evening prayer and by accidentally started off with the weekday service rather than the Shabbat service, he reached the point at which you hit your chest for repentance from your sins, at which point he realized he was saying the wrong thing and changed, he had no idea this move would save his life.

“I could hear him from across the room, he has been orthodox all of his life, yet when he clops his chest for selach lanu, you would think he was a flaming Baal Teshuva (born again Jew) he clops so hard, I think he feels he needs to do it extra harder because he probably has a lot of daily sins to repent for” Steven Feingold was at the Young Israel at the time, and told the man he was in the wrong part of the prayer. (In orthodoxy this can’t actually be done during prayer and so something called Davanese was invented using hand gestures and words like nu and uh)It is quite common for Jews to mistakenly say the weekday service on Friday night, orthodox typically say these prayers three times per day and a quick changeover is quite sudden.

The man who saved his life only found out later, during a regularly scheduled checkup that he had a heart attack in the first place. He just thought he couldn’t breathe because of his embarrassment when the entire shul looked at him and started speaking davenese, wondering why he was clopping selach lanu on Friday night.

There have been several cases of men restarting their own hearts, but from an accidental prayer, that happened to be done by a super hard selach lanu clopper in unheard of. It is simply a miracle.

• Silach Lanu thoughts
• Feeling like an idiot during davening
• Judging BT’s by their body maneuvers during shul

I was sitting in Adath Israel in San Francisco this past shabbos afternoon in their weekday shul and it came to me that they had the best benches I have ever sat on, it then came to me that I have visited many shuls, and that I could come up with a best of list. Maybe I could figure out which shul has the best kiddush, worst mechitza and most unfriendly vibes, so based on my visitations here is my Shul Awards.

Best benches: Adath Israel, San Francisco (weekday shul)

Most welcoming kiruv shul: Ohr Torah, Dallas Texas (walk into this shul and they come running to welcome you, invite you to lunch and it’s not just the rabbis it’s everyone)

Most welcoming yeshivish shul: Tie between Zerah Avraham, Denver Colorado and Agudah in St Louis (boths huls are black hat and both shuls are incredibly friendly towards any guest that walks in their day, people will be fighting over you for lunch and so on)

Worst mechitza for looking at the girls: 770, Crown Heights NY (imagine a balcony with a tall mechitza it’s just awkward, but fear not my friends, there is a viewing platform where the women model their hooker boots and $3,000 sheitles right outside)

Most boring shul: Tie between Young Israel of Monsey and Young Israel of Forest Hills, Queens NY (I think we could probably lump all Young Israel’s into this category)

Strangest Kabalas Shabbos: Aish Kodesh, Boulder Colorado (they daven earlier so they could do kabalas shabbos with instruments, up until lecha dodi, everyone get’s an instrument and it’s mad cool)

Best singing: Mission Minyan, San Francisco (Wrote about this here – but they have the best singing period)

Most uncomfortable seats: The main shul in Tannersville NY (Imagine inverted benches with very tall backs that allow for no bend whatsoever – they are yekkes so maybe that explains it)

Strangest mechitza: Tie between Lincoln Square Synagogue and Mt. Sinai both in NY

Most litvishe chabad shul: Chabad in Boynton Beach Florida (read my post here)

Oldest most smelliest bathrooms: Mishkan Tefilah, Providence Rhode Island (I am telling you it smells like someone died in the middle of a post cholent toilet sitting)

Frummest shul: Rudinsky shul in Monsey (no one would even think of talking in this shul, it actually is frum, I guess having a big Talmud chacham and good speaker helps)

Least amount of leg room: I have a shul in mind and I can’t remember it

Strangest mix of people in a shul that the Rabbi wears a streimel: Goldbergers, Baltimore Maryland (if you want to see some strange people, and even stranger BT’s go there)

Best after shul singles scene: Friday night at Oheb Tzedek, Upper West Side NY (everyone spills onto the sidewalk and the mingling begins – actually it began in shul)

Most comfortable chabad house: Chabad of Ann Arbor, Michigan (they have couches in shul)

Worst shul to go with a blue shirt on: Kokos shul on Park Ave in Monsey (I would like to add all of the basement shuls in Monsey to this list)

Best mosh pit in shul: Main Skvere beis medrish, New Square NY (naturally 5000 people crammed into a room is going to create a melee)

Hottest married women: Bais Shmuel, Crown Heights NY (I have been informed that the women were so hot that they don’t let them come to shul anymore, it was really the only place you could see women wearing sheitles, mini skirts and cleavage shirts with husbands in kapote’s and black hats)

Best herring: Shul on the Beach, Venice California (they had this homemade jalapeno herring and cream herring that was by far the best herring I’ve ever tasted)

Most unwelcoming out of town shul: St. Regis in Rochester NY (lived there for years and half the shul never said a word to me, but besides this point – I would watch guests shuffle in and watch in horror as people just kind of stared at them without going up and saying hello)

Best place to see violence at a hot Kiddush: The White Shul in Far Rockaway, NY (take a bunch of transplanted Brooklyn folks and put them in front of one table of food after a long ass davening)

Most likely shul to hear fire and brimstone mussar from the pulpit: Am Echad in San Jose, CA (the only shul I have ever been to in which the rabbi rebukes his congregants and flings fire and brimstone mussar during his speeches.)

Most awkward shul entrance: Tie between DAT in Denver Colorado and Lincoln Square Synagogue in NY (At DAT Denver Academy of Torah you walk in and everyone is facing the entrance, in Lincoln Square the glass mechitzas combined with the bimah in the middle of the layered ros of seating really make for an awkward time)

Only chabad house that davens nusach ashkenaz: Chabad on Campus, Albany NY (not only do they daven out of artscrolls, they daven ashkenaz, because the Rabbi says that’s what most people know and will do after they finish school so why change their minhag)

Most openly yechi middle of nowhere chabad: Calgary, Alberta Canada (yechi was yelled at the end of davening multiple times and I do believe it was the first time I heard it live)

Most unwelcoming chabad house: Anchorage, Alaska (we slept on their floor and all three of us felt very unwelcome – I have since learned that we were not alone in our thoughts)

Most complex mechitza:  Rabbi Taubs, Baltimore (it seems like they have an engineer design the thing so you don’t see the ladies come in or out)

Best dancing: Carlebach shul, NY (this is no kiruv circle dance where you hold some clammy kiruv rabbis dead fish for a couple of post lecha dodi ring around the bimahs)

Frummest shul with most modern congregants: Vorhand Shteeble, Upper West Side, NY (chassidish shteeble with regular upper west side attendees)

Best Shul Library: Beth Shalom, Rochester NY

Shul that is alive but shouldn’t be: Charles Street Shul, East Village NY (the language is Yiddish and everyone is over 80)

Most unfriendly shul that I heard was friendly: Heritage Center, Kew Garden Hills Queens (I stayed for the entire davening and kiddush and not one person said a thing to me, pretty hard considering it was tiny and I was obviously the only guest)

Non-chabad shul with the most chabad siddurim and books: Beth Abraham Jacob, Albany NY (regular modern orthodox shul filled with tanyas, likutei sichos and tehilas hashems)

Most liberal orthodox shul I have seen: Beth Israel in Berkeley, CA (the women do pesicha and they give devar torahs)

Best weekly Kiddush: Kehillah Center, Toronto Canada (back in the day they had beer and wings every week) do they still do this?

Most interactive rabbi speeches: Am Echad, Sam Jose (these people seriously debate with the rabbi in the middle of the speeches)

Strangest Shul location: Chabad of Center City in Philadelphia (the shul is in a converted night club/ recording studio

Best beds in a shul: Chabad of Birmingham Alabama (they have these four post beds with down comforters it’s really something)

Loudest shul talker: Young Israel of Kew Garden Hills in Queens NY (there are several very loud talkers – the whole shul isn’t talking but by far the loudest shul talkers)

Most welcoming modern orthodox shul: Shaare Tefilah, Dallas Texas (Texas hospitality with a low mechitza and a very cool Rabbi who is into Wii)

Coolest Looking American shul: Bialystoker shul, lower east side, NY (has that grand old European, the picture at the top is of this shul)

• Observance level has nothing do with the friendliness of a shul
• Different ways to respond to shul talkers
• Shabbos at the Shul on the Beach in Venice California

The whole concept of being off the derech bothers me because in my opinion there is no right derech, if we call those who aren’t observant or don’t follow the ways that they were brought up in we feel the need to belittle them. Oh he or she is off the derech sounds really crappy and I decided to put in my two cents on this situation.

I am constantly questioning and have my moments, but I am orthodox and it suits me well, but unlike many orthodox Jews, I don’t think that orthodoxy or being observant is for everyone. Like many people I know, I was brought up to believe that orthodox Jews were right and everyone else was wrong, but I think that belief is wrong, I have met many people that aren’t orthodox anymore and are great people, they are good Jews and I am cool with that, but many people aren’t.

I know some of you are already screaming blasphemy and the off the derech crowd (I use the terminology because it works best – but I don’t like it) are cheering for joy. I don’t even like the term authentic when combined with religion, religion itself has evolved so many times that we don’t even know if we are practicing the right thing anymore, hence the reason that I don’t have a hashkafa, I work on things I think are important (good thing the sages view most of these things as important too) but the second someone calls me a Torah Jew or Authentic Jew I cringe – seriously – it makes me feel that all of the other Jews out there practicing in ways foreign to the average yeshiva bochur aren’t real Jews and that is wrong.

I guess I never really learned how to be such a fundamentalist that I discard everything else as hogwash when my own religious practice is built on some pretty shaky ground and I am sick of having it proved to me from the 600,000 person revelation stuff, I believe but don’t think everyone should have to or be disregarded and treated harshly because of their varying beliefs.

• Jewish or Jew or Judaism
• Jew In The City: Making Orthodox Judaism look normal
• Germies and orthodox Judaism do not mix

A woman was eating at her local orthodox Rabbis house this past week when the rabbi announced that they were going to sing a niggun because his shvigger liked when the boys sang at the meal. She stood up at the middle of the meal and demanded to know what he had just called her – he had no idea what she was talking about, but several of the young boys at the table couldn’t hide their laughter.

Inside sources are telling us that a complaint was filed with the ACLU and has been sent to various parties in involved in what appears to be a complete misunderstanding. Although Shvigger does indeed sound racist and is usually used a negative context it has nothing to with African Americans, it is merely the very frum way of saying “mother in law”, father in law is a shver – which actually translates as hard. While Yiddish for mother in law is Shvigger and although it is used in negative contexts such as “oh is that shvigger coming for dinner again” it is definitely not racist.

Niggun on the other hand merely means song. Once it is switched into plural it loses it’s racist tone, but unfortunately at this Friday night meal, one of the kids at the table jokingly forgetting who some of the guests were, responded to the rabbis request to sing a niggun – “what did you just call me?” at what point the poor woman got up infuriated and left the meal in a huff.

We have heard of similar cases, but nothing of this extreme. We will be bringing you updates on the story and whether or not orthodox rabbis will ban the terms shvigger and niggun.

• Don’t worry I’m not going to have sex with your daughter at the shabbos table
• Why can’t a woman be a rabbi according to orthodox Judiasm?
• Woman sues missionary organization that gave her faulty menorah

There’s been a lot of talk in the Jewish Blogging world about the following article written by Rabbi Steven Pruzansky in this past weeks Jewish Press. I have copied and pasted the article here with my responses to each of paragraphs I feel there needs to be a response. If you haven’t read Scwartzies article on the very same subject I would suggest you do.

A few months ago, football’s New York Jets willingly accommodated Jewish fans by moving their home opener from the evening to the early afternoon of the same day. That evening – Yom Kippur – would have presumably found thousands of the Jets faithful in synagogue and not at the Meadowlands or glued to their television sets.

My old dorm councilor and rebbe was a big Jets fan, he dressed in their colors on purim and was pretty much addicted to sports, I am sure he was pumped.

This altruistic act – moving the game out of prime time – speaks volumes about the Jets’ sensitivity to Jewish sensibilities (perhaps it even propelled them to a successful season), to the influence of politicians and civic leaders to cause a commotion over trivialities, and to our sense of acceptance in general society.

I seriously doubt it had anything to do with sensitivity to Jews, don’t you know it’s all about the bottom line. Happens to be I think it’s a huge chillul hashem to change a game just because of the Jews, that probably pissed a whole ton of people off who had plans and suddenly the game is changed.

From their perspective, it was a most decent and generous act. From our perspective, though, it is less salutary, and represented a triumph of Orthopraxy over Orthodoxy.

Orthopraxy on wikipedia.

While Orthodoxy literally means “correct belief” but in actuality encompasses an entire range of thought and behavior that is regulated by Torah, Orthopraxy (“correct action”) is much more limited in scope, requiring only the adherence to certain behavioral norms without any semblance of philosophical commitment to the system from which such behavioral norms emerged.

He is trying to say people that are socially orthodox, but he has to prove his mastery of Judaic philosophy.

Obviously, some of the obsession with sports is nothing less than silliness; who wins or loses – or even plays – does not matter at all in the real world, and sports and other forms of entertainment are just diversions from the more significant endeavors in which we are engaged.

I wonder if he knows that Micheal Moore says exactly the same thing. Did he just say other forms of entertainment? Like reading a newspaper possibly? I wonder if he realizes he is writing for a newspaper? Aren’t there a whole slew of rabbonom that say sports and other forms of entertainment are good so you don’t get burnt out on heavenly endeavors?

What happens, then, when the diversions become the essence, or at least a critical component, of a person’s life – so much so that one’s thoughts on Yom Kippur might have otherwise been on the game and not on life, family, health, sustenance and the fate of the world?

I don’t know about you but on Yom Kippur I am wondering if I am going to do by fire or strangulation. I also think about boiling in my own wasted sperms and for some reason I have this nervous smirk on my face when I look around and wonder if everyone clopping their chests is thinking about how fun those sins were.  Sure I’m thinking of riding my bike, eating some bagels and sitting down to a blog session – but my mind is occupied by sins and repentance.

That is a sad commentary on the spiritual state of some of our fellow Jews, and begs the question: Is it any less contemptible to spend three hours on erev Yom Kippur fascinated by grown men pounding each other in pursuit of moving an oval-shaped pigskin across a goal line than it would be to do the same on Yom Kippur night?

Not Really.

The first time I read this I saw “grown men pounding each other” and burst out laughing. I wonder if this guy realizes that there is something called Tivo, and that erev Yom Kippur is a pretty long day, all you really have to do is give tzedaka, get your crocs out of the closet and pound your face with brisket and soup. As I recall, I usually spend erev yom kippur dreading yom kippur, so I think a game might be a good thing to lighten the mood.

The only difference is that there would be no technical violation of the rules of Judaism to so while away one’s time on erev Yom Kippur. Nonetheless, the broader and more crucial questions are: Where was the person’s head, and heart, at that most solemn time? Where were his thoughts? Were they on repentance and introspection – a matter of the soul? Or were they just on weathering the impending 25-hour fast – a matter of the body?

You can tell this guy is a real Misnaged!

The answer is clear, as it was in Isaiah’s time when he decried the insincerity of fasting without repentance, of the tendency of some Jews to underscore some deeds and not others because none was internalized as the will of Hashem or as divine service:

“They pretend to seek Me every day, they pretend to desire knowledge of My ways . they inquire of Me about righteous laws, as if they desire the nearness of God” (Isaiah 58:2).

The Orthoprax are an informal, incognito group of unknown size and scope who, for the most part, practice halachic norms but do not really believe in God (or that He chose us as the nation that would carry His moral message to mankind) or understand what they are doing. They might not even believe in the divine origin of the Torah, but identify themselves with the Orthodox community for social, ethnic, cultural or even aesthetic reasons. We usually do not know who they are – after all, it is a matter of the heart – but we do know how and where to find them.

He is absolutely correct, the orthodox community is a very social animal. Take away the free food, random places to stay, overpriced tuition and three thousand dollar hair styles and you don’t have much left. Is there anything wrong with keeping the culture alive, what would we do if we didn’t have hot chanis, yeshivish fakers and flexidox people to make fun of?

They are the Jews who will come to shul – but barely daven. They will perfunctorily mouth a few words here and there while engaged in a persistent but likely not-very-stimulating conversation with their neighbors (people they would not talk to outside of shul for more than five minutes the rest of the week).

As Rabbi Groener of Far Rockaway says: At least they come to shul, imagine, they came to shul when they could have been doing God knows what else. I have heard quite a few chabad rabbis say exactly the same thing, this is where the chossid in me comes out – I think it’s better to come to shul and not daven than not come at all, that’s why I think they should have play groups for adults not just the kids. How cool would it be to play on gymboree plastic slides and eat animal crackers out of ziplock bags.

No wonder the Zohar (Parshat Terumah) labels people who talk in shul as atheists; they sit in the House of God but are oblivious to His presence. The words of the davening are either unfamiliar to them or do not resonate with them. Their only contribution to decorum is the occasional shushing of their children, a vulgar act of hypocrisy that, as Faranak Margolese noted in her book Off the Derech, is a major factor in turning off children to the life of Torah.

Let’s get to the root of the problem, why do you think people are talking? Could it be that shul is boring and the only time a week most shuls sing is lecha dodi and it’s always half assed. If shul were cool I bet you people wouldn’t talk as much. I’m not much a shul talker because I am judging people and thinking how I can make fun of them discreetly, and when I am bored I leave shul and read old copies of OU’s Viewpoint magazine.

The Orthoprax attend shul because it is a social expectation, and their conduct in shul reflects it.

He forgot to add because there is food, booze and cool seforim to read.

They are the Jews who are nominally shomrei Shabbat – they would never drive to shul, for example – but they will look for ways to swim or play tennis or baseball on Shabbat or encourage their children to do so, or leave the television on (or have the ubiquitous housekeeper turn it on) or read business newspapers on Shabbat, or perhaps even sneak in a business phone call or two when no one is looking.

He keeps taking all the negatives. How about – there are Jews that try to walk to shul even though they play tennis and leave the TV on over shabbos.

Their children will text each in stealth (texting being the preferred method of communication even between teenagers who are sitting next to each other). Their divine service is external; if no human being sees them sin, it is as if it hasn’t happened.

Sounds like every single person I know. Please tell me you never sinned in private.

That state of affairs was well known to Rabban Yochanan ben Zakai, who admonished his disciples that “their awe of Heaven should parallel their awe of men” (Berachot 28b), the latter being more pervasive and substantial. The Orthoprax will “observe” Shabbat - they will not mow their lawns or drive to the beach – but Shabbat as a day of communion with the Creator is almost non-existent.

Oh so now we have to eat wafers to celebrate shabbos?

They are the Jews who will dress the part – as if, indeed, there is such a thing as “Jewish dress” beyond tzitzit and kippah for men and modest clothes for all. But they will conduct their business without integrity, stealing, conniving, cheating Jew and non-Jew alike, underreporting their taxes, hondling with contractors after the work is completed, stiffing their employees of their due wages – and often professing that they are acting perversely for the glory of Torah or to benefit a favored charity.

So he’s lumping the frummie fakers in with the conservadox that are trying not to drive to shul on shabbos? Man I should get this guy to write for me.

The Orthoprax will do good works, but those are socially useful and divorced from any sense of divine worship.

Wow if orthoprax Jews were a race we could totally get the ACLU on this guy

Most recently, Orthopraxy underlies such phenomena as the female clergy, the Partnership Minyanim (in which women chant portions of the davening, and a quorum of both ten men and ten women are needed to begin services), and the integration of Christians into special worship services.

Indeed, but partnership minyans never claimed to be orthodox.

These innovations blur or cross the line that defines halachic practice, and all, on some level, conflate self-worship with divine worship. All seek to make halacha “user friendly” and to render the Torah into putty that can be molded as the user desires – the Torah as akin to the American Constitution, which, Thomas Jefferson warned, could be twisted and shaped by unscrupulous judges “as an artist shapes a ball of wax.”

I am telling you this guy would have been in on burning the Rambams books. Halacha has to be user friendly, times are a changing, if we didn’t have any modern day seforim we would be able to do all the stuff we want to do on shabbos – but now halacha is user friendly.

Note how the proliferation of Orthopraxy transcends all the traditional (and artificial) divisions in Orthodox life. It compasses right wing and left wing, modern, centrist and yeshivish, haredi and non-haredi alike. And one might well contend that all the deviations listed above trample on the halacha and the sacred institutions of Jewish life, and therefore strip the “ortho” out of that “praxy” – they are not correct practices at all. But that contention is only partially true.

Wow what achdus, if only the rest of you haters will join in, maybe it will bring moshiach sooner.

There are those of us who have become quite proficient – crafty is a better word – in manipulating the sources, in finding obscure opinions that, interpreted innovatively, tend to justify precisely what we want to do. Such people no longer desire to ascertain the will of God, but rather to satisfy their own inclinations while remaining in “technical” compliance with halacha, very broadly construed. It is as if they have transformed the Almighty into a divine caddy who carries for us a bagful of clubs known as “halacha,” and they reserve the right to remove any club when they so desire, and use them any way in which they desire. Most lacking is the concept of the Jew as the servant of God.

I wish I had paid better attention in gemara shiur, I have always wanted to know the sources and not have to follow along like a sheep, but alas I can’t make a laining and need people to dictate my way of life.

The Orthoprax wish to remain part of the community, relying on general notions of tolerance and Western concepts of religion as a “private matter.” And they do remain part of the community – often integral parts of the community – but a community no longer defined by commitment to the fundamental principles of Judaism, by subservience to God, or by eternal norms and values.

So what do you supposed we do? Maybe we could bust out some Salem Witch Trial can of whoop ass on these orthpraxing Jews.

It is a social community, ethnically based and often geographically defined, but not a covenantal community. It is a community in which people perform actions that are roughly similar, but their hearts are not united. We certainly retain common enemies – Ahmadinejad is uninterested in these fine distinctions – but the nation of Israel should stand for something greater than that some evil people hate us.

Is there a value in Orthopraxy – in remaining part of a community of behavioral norms even if the philosophical commitment in lacking? Some point to a cryptic passage in the Yerushalmi, and in the Pesikta, citing, in Hashem’s name: “Would that they abandon Me and still observe My Torah!” As some explain, it is therefore better to observe the mitzvot even with a lack of faith than to observe only if fully committed. Undoubtedly, there is some merit to this – at least the individual practitioner remains tethered to the Jewish community, however tenuously. But that understanding is grievously flawed.

What about the whole concept of doing something for the wrong reasons will eventually lead you to do it for the right reasons?

You think there’s a shidduch crisis now? Get rid of the orthoprax folks and there won’t be anyone left.

Better understood, the passage (a rhetorical question) seems to be admonishing us that it is impossible to abandon God and still observe the Torah for long; we can indulge ourselves for a time, but eventually even the practice of mitzvot will wither without an internal commitment.

Or Chazal are teaching us stages of development: people may begin the observance of mitzvot without a full ideological commitment, or must continue even if such commitment occasionally wanes – but eventually commitment and practice must coalesce, and the observance of mitzvot must mature from mere deeds to the development of the complete Torah personality. If not, then our divine service remains stunted, and not a little phony.

I’m getting bored but I just have to split up these paragraphs.

Worse, our youth are very sensitive to this double game, and some become disenchanted. They internalize the corrupt idea that in Judaism externals count for everything and sincerity for nothing. Like Esav asking his father halachic questions in a fatuous attempt to demonstrate his piety, our children can learn to play the adult game just as well as we can: emptily mouth the words of tefilla, read parsha sheets at the Shabbat table while clueless to what they are reading, or internalize the idea that the most harmful aspect of sin is not the sin itself but getting caught. Once learned, that approach is not easily forgotten, until the child either finds better role models or discards his commitment entirely.

I remember when I was in high school, most kids would wait until 2 people were done with shemona esrei and then sit down. It seems that the only solution is forcing everyone into BT state. Think about it – we pull all the kids out of these shitty orthoprax yeshivas, send them to public school and then when they become orthodox because of the pintele yid they will actually be sincere.

There is a bright side to all this, or at least elements of comfort. The rise of Orthopraxy is on some level just a reflection of the human condition. The criticism applies to everyone, bar none. We are all flawed and all sinners, and the revelation of the flaws of public figures – even religious figures – is usually just a matter of time.

This is called the part of speech he can quite when the shit hits the fan and he has to take some of what he said back.

“For there is no man so wholly righteous on earth that he [always] does good and never sins” (Kohelet 7:20) – and yet we are still stunned and shaken when it happens.

According to Tanya we are all rashayim.

We must distinguish, though, between personal frailties and systemic breaches. The “righteous” sinner (an oxymoron, but bear with me) stumbles because of human nature – an inability to control his instinctual drives – but confesses his sins, admits his guilt and does not seek to rationalize his wrongdoing.

There is, however, a “wicked” sinner, as well, who protests his innocence, who claims he has been misunderstood, who defends his actions on grounds that others are doing it, or, worst of all, that what he did is not sinful at all because the halacha changed, or should change, or he found an arcane but lenient source allowing him to do what he wants to do. The former is the position in which most of us find ourselves, and which is addressed by the commandment of repentance; the latter is a systemic violation for which there is no simple rectification. It is an act of spiritual gerrymandering by the sinner who has carved out for himself exemptions from halacha.

How do we triumph over Orthopraxy and reconnect our divine service to God? We can – must – infuse our mitzvot with a recognition of their divine imperative by returning to fundamentals. We should study ourselves, and teach our children, not only “how” we do things but also “why.” We all must learn the details of the mitzvot – from Shabbat to Pesach, from kashrut to monetary integrity, from the laws of Chanukah to the laws of Tisha B’Av – but also the framework of those mitzvot, how they combine to create a faithful, moral, decent servant of Hashem.

Have you noticed that the article doesn’t really talk about belief or philosophy – it makes the assumption that all of these people believe somewhat but not enough. I went to a yeshiva and they assumed we all believed in God, Torah and the Pursuit of Mitzvos – when it reality not many people did.

We must refine our davening so that – as Chazal ruled – it is better to say less with kavanah (a concentrated focus) than more without kavanah, and lose the notion that our prayer obligation is satisfied through the daily recitation of a certain quota of words. We must restore a sense of reverence and sanctity to the shul, or stay outside until we are ready. And before performing any mitzvah, we must pronounce, figuratively if not literally, that we are “ready and prepared to fulfill the commandment of our Creator.”

Won’t argue with that one.

Kabbalat HaTorah (the acceptance of the Torah) required naaseh v’nishma – the commitment “to do” preceded the commitment “to learn.” It preceded it, but did not vitiate it. Naaseh cannot endure unless there is an ongoing nishma – and Talmud Torah must encompass not only what we should do but also what we should think and how we should feel.

The greatest of all orthodoxies – those correct beliefs that govern our lives – is, then, humility – humility that will enable us to absorb the divine values of Torah and not those of modern man, and recreate a nation of thinking, rational, wise, intelligent, good and ethical servants of God, a light unto the nations.

Amen, now lets go watch some other entertainment.

Other more serious responses to Rabbi Pruzansky’s article around the Jewish Blogsphere:

This is what Modern Orthoprax talks about a daily basis so it has to good.

Rabbi Eliyahu Fink tackles the issues and he’s a pretty smart dude.

Drew from Jewlicious also puts in his two cents.

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This is an old rant I wrote a long while back that still rings true today

You may think your city is the worst, everyone always does, but let me tell you something from my personal experience, every city is bad. Every city has their yeshiva’s, semi kosher  vegan Indian restaurants, shuls with mechitzas that are- too short, see through, too tall, too thick, too thin. Shuls with too many women not covering their hair, shuls that make you cover your hair, shuls with too much talking, shulls with drunken Kiddush clubs, day schools that accept non-Jewish children, not frum enough day schools that hate frum folks, too frum day schools that won’t cater to your child, too much controlling chabadnicks, maybe a couple meshichists speak too much yechi for your taste, that donut shop with the controversial hechsher from a guy who sends his kids to coed camps. Or maybe you think all the frummies hate the modern folks, the chabadnicks get along with everyone but secretly disagree with the misnageds, or maybe the school board members are too frum and wont let their kids over at your house because they don’t keep triangle-K.

Or maybe your local butcher sells Hebrew national and glatt kosher meat, or maybe the local girls school has too few students and you decide to send your child away only to be avoided in shull, or maybe you adhere to a strict hashgacha and wont eat anywhere, or maybe your children are druggies/untznius/or just nebachs and you wont go to shull for fear of more “advice”.

Maybe the local vaad refuses hashgacha to a local pizza store because it is a hangout on moztoi shabbos, or maybe the vaad just controls everything. Maybe your new eruv was made by someone who only half the community holds by- you know who you are. Maybe the yeshiva is disliked in your town (very common) or maybe the yeshiva alienates all the people who don’t adhere to its strict policies, or maybe the local lesbian reform Rabbi bashes the gay hating orthodox folks, or maybe Jews are really bored with their lives and just like to argue. 2 Jews 3 opinions you know……

Now here is a list of places I have lived or been that claimed that they had the most problems of any Jewish community. Albany, Buffalo, Rochester, Washington Heights, Cleveland, Detroit, Denver, Los Angeles, Scranton PA, Pikesville MD, Providence RI, Monsey, Jerusalem, Miami, Salt Lake City, Chicago.

I cannot say who was the worst but many people will agree that every community has their problems and it all depends on willingness to shut up eat your flippin’ donuts and go about your business. Yeh I am sure its more detailed than that but since I don’t have any kids in school I guess that it’s my world view.

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Did you know that modern orthodox Jews dislike black hat Jews more than black hat Jews dislike the modern orthodox? I was just as shocked as you when I found out the news, it was reported in a recent survey of the orthodox Jewish community, that although black hat Jewish dislike of the modern orthodox community is more outwardly shown, the modern community harbors far more hate for the frummies than they like to show in real life.

According to the survey, modern orthodox hatred of the black hat community is deeply rooted and philosophical in nature. Unlike the black hat community which is based on much more external factors, hence the name “black hat”, the modern community hates that they don’t support Israel, college attendance or mixing of the sexes. They claim that these factors have caused the dwindling attendance at the Israeli Day Parade, a rise in the amount of late night tzedaka solicitations and the shidduch crisis.  While the black hat community merely stares at you or lowers your shidduch market value when not wearing their uniform, they don’t necessarily hate you, they just think you aren’t as frum as them.

According to Rabbi Feferkorn, one of the most anti-modern orthodox Rabbis we could find, “the modern community appears to be lovers of all people – but in the end they harbor these feelings and only bring them up around other men in kipah srugas and women in pants.” They would never say such things in public, they have to keep up their fake political correctness.

Modern orthodox community leaders have yet to deny the veracity of this survey, but many in the MO community have said that the survey was focused on areas in which the populations do no mixing at all and therefore people are more likely to be afraid of what they don’t know.

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By Mordechai Lightstone

We all float in various social circles online – we have our friends in real life who was almost never say hi to online, we have our friends online that we almost never give a second glance in real life, we have our friends that we know only online . . . the list goes on.

Then you have the internet pushers. The people you haven’t sent more then a LOL to via IM or facebook in the past six months, who one day message you out of the blue . . .
For a vote.

As Lubavitcher I found it particularly hard. I know the struggle the Shluchim have, their need for money and media attention (to enable said donations) to help their holy word . . . but these days it seems like everyone and their mother in law is up for an award.

First there was the girl whose magazine was up for an award. So we all voted. Why not? To help another Jew, how could you say no?

Then things were quiet.

Suddenly this past year EVERYONE has something brewing. There were the Community Heroes, all 700 Chabadniks and the odd MO rabbi or two, that need our vote. But no simple vote, we had to vote twice every day for what felt like 3 months. And when they won? It was only the first round.

Then came Friendship Circle the other month for the Chase million dollar give away. This time we didn’t have to vote everyday . . . but it seemed like everyone else wanted us to vote ever day. Suddenly friends I didn’t speak to in years were IMing me to vote. It was insanity – my Twitter stream looked like one long string of #VoteFCs and links to Rabbis rapping about special needs children.

The causes are great – but why, for G-d’s sake, must the voting be so spam like?

Now my work up for @lubavitch is up for a Shorty Award in Nonprofit – and I’ve become the nudge. Classmates, social media contacts, cousins, my shver and shvigger . . . no one is safe. So now I’ve become the pusher.

And it occurred to me – the Jewish media and j-blogsphere noted after the Community Heroes contest, that the number of Lubavitchers in the finals was a sign that we are Social Media mavens. But the truth is, we’re not – were just bigger nudges and nudniks – skills honed from our youth asking people if they’re Jewish and if they’d like to put on tefillin.
Thank G-d Satmar isn’t on the web, or we’d never be safe. Oh and would you guys mind voting in the Shortys?

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