560) What Can We Learn From the Writing Style of Kabbalistic Source Books?

This is another guest post by Rabbi Boruch Clinton, and originally appeared on his B'chol D'rachecha site.

(I asked Rabbi Clinton to share his fascinating and original thoughts on the stylistic underpinnings of our mystical texts, not only because so much of his writing resonates with me, but also because I have never before seen a theory of mysticism expressed in such a forthright manner - Gavin Michal)

Many years ago, a Torah scholar speaking at a public gathering I attended said some strange things. Everything sounded fine until you spent a moment thinking about it. As an example, he insisted that “Rabbi S.R. Hirsch and the Baal Hatanya translated the word הלל identically.”

Now that’s simply untrue. R’ Hirsch’s translation of הלל is on the record and it bears no resemblance to the translation reported in the speech.1 It’s not as though there are any political points to be made here one way or the other, it’s just incorrect. I said nothing at the time, but I quietly wondered why that rabbi would have said such nonsense.

537) When Did We All Start Ignoring the "Sealing of the Talmud"?

This post, by Boruch Clinton, originally appeared on the B'chol D'rachecha site.

It’s popularly understood that the completion of the Talmud around 1,500 years ago marked a critical transition in halachic history. From that point on, halachic conclusions found in the Talmud were binding on all Jews everywhere and for all time.

526) Are There Controls and Limits to the Creativity of Minhagim?

This post, by Boruch Clinton, originally appeared on the B'chol D'rachecha site.

If we (theoretically) removed all innovations to the modern siddur which were added in the past 500 years, we’d probably spend considerably less time in shul. And from a halachic perspective, that’s a problem. So let’s talk about the prohibition of delaying a congregation (טרחא דציבורא).

We’ll begin with the Gemara (Berachos 12b):

בקשו לקבוע פרשת בלק בקריאת שמע ומפני מה לא קבעוה מפני טורח ציבור

The rabbis sought to include Parashas Balak in the recital of the Shema. Why did they not include it? Because it would delay congregations

It seems there was a compelling reason to add (at least) one more paragraph to the Shema, but it was ruled inappropriate solely due to the fact that countless Jews through countless centuries would be forced to spend more time davening. (Although we see from the subsequent Gemara that, had it been possible to add just the words “כרע שכב כארי וכלביא מי יקימנו" the minimal time delay would not have been a problem.)

510) L'shem Yichud: Do You Understand What You're Actually Saying?

This guest post by Rabbi Boruch Clinton originally appeared on the B'chol D'rachecha site.

Some days you just can’t open a regular Artscroll siddur without falling down a deep rabbit hole of theological controversy.

You’d figure that the siddur is the very poster child of consensus and ancient tradition. But you’d be wrong. There are, in fact, some odd expressions of extreme beliefs that many recite daily without giving it a second thought. Today’s example is the “l’shem yichud” attached to sefiras haomer (and to putting on tefilin). Artscroll even printed those in their Ashkenaz editions.

What’s the big deal about l’shem yichud? Well there is that famous Noda B’yehuda (חי”ד סי’ צג) who wasn’t at all shy about sharing his general feelings on the subject. But his forceful criticisms were largely focused on the chutzpa of later generations who felt that the mitzva observance of our ancestors - who simply made berachos and then did the mitzvos - was somehow incomplete. He did hint to something darker, but didn’t elaborate.

508) Assessing the Modern "Yeshivishe" Approach to Torah Learning

Tractate Eruvin from the famous Vilna Shas

This Guest Post by Rabbi Boruch Clinton originally appeared on his B'chol D'rachecha site.

Despite what you might think, I’m not going to talk about the way yeshivas largely ignore Tanach or - in many cases - ignore 90 percent of whatever mesechte they’re learning. There may or may not be justifications for such deviations from tradition, but no one’s going to argue that, two thousand - or even two hundred - years ago, abandoning whole curriculum categories was the way things were supposed to work.

Instead, I’m going to discuss the dominance of the Brisker “chakira” style of analysis. I should be clear that I have nothing against the style, and I don’t deny that many people get enormous pleasure from it. My only question is whether making that our primary focus is the best use of the limited time we have available for our learning.

483) What Are We Supposed To Be Doing on Tisha B'Av?

Another guest post by Rabbi Boruch Clinton

We all know the things we can’t do on Tisha B’Av. But just not doing stuff can’t be the whole story. The real point, I suppose, is the mourning. But how does that happen?

The poskim (אורח חיים תקנ”ד) point to a custom to avoid labor (מלאכה) and business (בפרקמטיה). That, no doubt, is to keep us from being distracted from the mourning. We’re also expected to refrain from learning most Torah sources as it’s assumed those will give us joy.

The tefilos and kinnos are certainly there to help us focus on this specific flavor of mourning. But tefilos don’t take that much time, and the kinnos - even when properly understood - are relatively modern: it’s unlikely that any of them is older than 1,000 years, and it’s only very recently that we began reciting the “whole book” regardless of our individual family traditions. So how did our ancestors from previous centuries actually fill the day?

447) How Should We Respond to Tragedy and Crisis?

 Another guest post by Rabbi Boruch Clinton:

Image by Ri Butov from Pixabay

I’m almost jealous of Jews living in Israel during this crisis: they may face horrifying tests and mortal danger but, from what I’m hearing, they’re rising beautifully to the challenge. And, one way or another, they’re acting. They’re making a difference.

Thousands of miles away, my ability to act is limited. Sure, we can all offer financial support for the many emergency funds out there. But that can’t be enough.

390) A History of Torah Observance: The widespread rejection of Judaism is certainly tragic. But is it unusual?

Photo by Federico Di Dio photography on Unsplash

A Guest post by Rabbi Boruch Clinton

Some appear to assume that the current state of Jewish observance - where only a small minority of Jews are Torah-loyal - is an historical anomaly. The centuries and millennia preceding the European Enlightenment, so the thinking goes, saw more or less universal halachic compliance, and it was only through a combination of hostile external and internal 18th Century forces that we lost most of our population.

But I'm not sure that's true. First of all, mass defections seem to have been common through most periods of Jewish history. And second, Jewish life could hardly be considered "settled" during the early modern period (c. 1450-1800) that preceded the Enlightenment. In other words, while things may not be great right now, I'm not sure they were ever all that much better. There has always been free will and bad choices have always been an option.

385) Civil Infrastructure and a Torah State

A GUEST POST BY RABBI BORUCH CLINTON 

How should a Jewish state manage the mundane tasks involved with administering daily life?

This article also appeared on the B'chol D'rachecha publication. 

For any complex modern society, keeping the lights on and the chaos at bay is no simple job. Imagining how the Torah would expect us to handle things is not only an interesting daydream, but a question of immediate and practical concern for many growing communities - especially in Israel.

361) What Can't be Said: Social Engagement in the Torah World

 

"Microphone" by visual.dichotomy is licensed under CC BY 2.0 

 A GUEST POST BY RABBI BORUCH CLINTON: 

The internet crowd has been busy of late grappling with the question of how - or if - the exchange of information should be controlled. Should anyone be free to publish anything, anywhere? Is there an objective way to define things like "harmful misinformation" and even "truth" and "lies" so that filters could be applied fairly?

This post (which also appears on my Substack publication, B'chol Darchecha) will not address those questions, but they were its inspiration. So I'd like to explore how Torah law and practice might address the matter of free speech. How, in other words, citizens committed to Torah values might come to interact with each other. In a way, this post continues on from my Who Makes Decisions for a Jewish Community piece: that one deals with communal authority, while we're now going to think about whether that authority can be brought to bear on the way we share ideas with our peers.

353) Who Makes Decisions for a Jewish Community?

 

A page from the manuscript of Pitchei Teshuva by Rabbi Avraham Zvi Eisenstadt (1813-1865)

GUEST POST BY RABBI BORUCH CLINTON

In terms of Jewish law, exactly what is a kehila (community)? Jewish residents of modern cities like London or Toronto will generally identify with each other only in the loosest of terms. Formal relationships, in non-chassidic communities at least, are usually limited to synagogues and educational institutions of various kinds. 

But it wasn’t always that way. Kehilos in Europe often submitted to the authority of a single rabbi, rabbinical court, and council. It wasn’t uncommon for consumption taxes - typically on the purchase of meat - or membership dues to finance communal services. 

A model based on direct communal responsibility is probably closer to the Torah ideal. But that begs the question: who got to choose the rabbi and his court, and whose voice determined the tax rates everyone else had to pay?

349) WHY BLOW 100 SHOFAR SOUNDS ON ROSH HASHANAH?

A GUEST POST BY RABBI BARUCH CLINTON:

Here's another example of the innovation-heavy Tzfas mindset at work in modern Jewish life.

The way most communities perform the mitzva of shofar on Rosh Hashana is an excellent example of the spread of the Tzfas ideology and mindset. Here, based on Shulchan Aruch Orech Chaim 590:1, is what the Torah requires:

כמה תקיעות חייב אדם לשמוע בר"ה, תשע; לפי שנאמר: תרועה ביובל ובר"ה ג' פעמים, וכל תרועה פשוטה לפניה ופשוטה לאחריה, ומפי השמועה למדו שכל תרועות של חדש השביעי אחד הן, בין בר"ה בין ביוה"כ של יובל, תשע תקיעות תוקעין בכל אחד משניהם: תר"ת, תר"ת, תר"ת

How many tekiyos must a man hear on Rosh Hashana? Nine, for it mentions the word “terua" three times (in the passages concerning) Yovel and Rosh Hashana, and each terua must have a simple sound (i.e., tekiya) both before and after it. And from tradition we learn that all teruos during the seventh month (i.e., Tishrei) are the same…tekiya-terua-tekiya; tekiya-terua-tekiya; tekiya-terua-tekiya.

346) IS DERUSH PART OF TORAH?

 

Did Yosef's brothers want to encourage their dogs to kill him?

                                     GUEST POST BY RABBI BARUCH CLINTON

Note: I'm unsure how to even translate the word "derush". Words like "research" or "investigation" come close, but the way it's used in Torah literature has a clear overtone suggesting greater authority. And then, as we'll see, there are two distinct ways the word is used even within the context of Torah.

What exactly is "Torah"? Are there limits to the kinds of explanations and interpretations that can reasonably be included and, by extension, connected with the Mt. Sinai revelation? It goes without saying that modern efforts to understand how Torah law (halacha) should be applied to our lives are legitimate parts of the process, as are ethical works (mussar) that are designed to inspire us to properly observe halacha. But is any derush-based interpretation automatically included? What about commentaries that claim to fill gaps in the Biblical historical record? Are they "Torah"? By what mechanism could they be included?

334) Torah Institutions and the Truth

 

A GUEST POST BY RABBI BORUCH CLINTON:

 

Rabbi Boruch Clinton is a regular contributor to Kotzk Blog. He is most qualified to write about Torah education and Torah institutions, having taught at both yeshiva and Bais Yakov schools for twenty years. He currently works as an information technology provider, authoring books and courses on cloud computing, technology security, server virtualization, data analytics, and Linux system administration.

 Do people running Orthodox communal institutions have a responsibility to the truth? By which I mean: is the active use of deception and misrepresentation reasonable when, say, you’re attempting to protect individual children and families from possible harms associated with school closures and pandemic-related shut downs?

The problem

Here’s what I’m talking about. During the COVID-19 pandemic, a number of Torah schools were faced with mandated closure alongside all the public and private schools in their city. Rather than shut down, these schools claimed to comply while, in fact, remaining effectively open in one form or another. They also issued vaguely worded communications to parents that, in plain English, suggested compliance while hinting to alternate guidance.

There is no question that remote schooling is, in nearly all cases, less effective, perhaps even disastrous. Nearly everyone agrees that children should be in school whenever possible. The issue I’ll be discussing here involves the use of deception to achieve that goal. Is such behavior within the bounds of accepted Torah tradition? And, from the perspective of a straightforward cost/benefit analysis, does it even make sense?

319) Some Perplexing Mourning-related Minhagim

 A GUEST POST BY RABBI BORUCH CLINTON:

LEARNING MISHNA:

Is there a connection between mourning and learning chapters of the Mishna? I’m not sure. But popular Jewish practice certainly assumes that there’s something going on. There’s no escaping advice to recite carefully chosen chapters during the course of shiva, and then to gather participants in an effort to complete larger segments before key subsequent milestones.

But why? Some will note that the words נשמה and משנה share the same letters. But then, so do השמן and מנשה (not to mention the verb “meshaneh” – to change). Others will quote “ספרים הקדושים” extolling the power such study has in positively improving one’s status in the next world. The only specific references I came across pointed to titles (אלף המגן ,יוסף אומץ ,תורה אור etc.) that could each refer to multiple lesser-known and relatively modern books. Gesher Hachaim mentions the custom but, uncharacteristically, quotes no sources.

317) SHEMIRA: WHY PROTECT THE DEAD?

 

A GUEST POST BY RABBI BORUCH CLINTON:

As Rabbi Michal notes on his Kotzk Blog, many of the customs currently associated with death in Judaism were formalized only in the last few centuries. Reading that article got me thinking about some specific practises and their origins.

The first of those that came to mind was the protection (shemira) we insist in providing bodies before they reach burial. Besides the obvious fact that it’s perverse and cruel to just abandon a human body – especially that of a loved one – to its fate, is there any reason to continue watching it even once it’s safely reached, say, a hospital or funeral home morgue?

312) WHAT DOES MODEH ANI MEAN?

Modeh Ani mentioned in Seder haYom by R. Moshe ben Machir. Published in Venice 1599.

 GUEST POST BY RABBI BORUCH CLINTON:  (See  Boruch Clinton's Finding Tradition project)

What Does Modeh Ani Mean? 

                         מודה אני לפניך מלך חי וקים שהחזרת בי נשמתי בחמלה רבה אמונתך 

Those 12 words mark the start of each day for many Jews. It's a beautiful prayer and an expression of the many debts we owe to God. But three of those words might, on reflection, represent a significant theological innovation. 

Here's the whole thing translated: 

"I acknowledge before you, the living, eternal God, that you returned to me my soul, with grace and good faith." 

The three words in question are: שהחזרת בי נשמתי  - "that you returned to me my soul." Where's the innovation in that? 

Well for God to have returned our souls first thing each morning, He would have had to have first taken them. And, while relevant but ambiguous language can be found in a few midrashim (see עיון תפילה לספר  אוצר התפילות) I'm not sure we should be so quick to assume that death and rebirth is what literally happens each night. 

299) HOW WE CHOOSE WHAT WE OBSERVE:

A Guest Post by Rabbi Boruch Clinton

Introduction

Understanding the particular set of minhagim your community has chosen and how they came to choose it is a worthwhile goal. It’s also useful to try to know why it was just this rather than some other combination that, over time, took hold. In some instances, the narrative will revolve around achieving higher levels of adherence to halacha. Other times, choices are framed as the best options for solving looming problems. But there’s often no narrative at all. Some changes just seem to happen organically without any obvious community sponsor or plan.

Those are all ideas I try to address within my Finding Tradition in the Modern Torah World project. [See https://marbitz.com/home/rabbi-s-r-hirsch/finding-tradition-in-the-modern-torah-world/]

297) WHY BLACK HATS?

Guest post by Rabbi Boruch Clinton:

Why Black Hats?

This essay is part of the Finding Tradition in the Modern Torah World project.

Every now and then I try to understand the thinking behind various policies enforced by modern Torah schools. Here, I’ll discuss some educational and social implications related to the rules governing hats for bar mitzva boys. That's not to say that such policies are objectively harmful or wrong. Rather, that it’s always worth assessing them with fresh eyes.

First of all, so we can start off with a clear baseline, let me present some possible benefits of such policies:

• Wearing yeshivishe hats is part of an important mesorah and it's valuable to get boys into the habit of following such practices.
• Wearing yeshivishe hats promotes an elevated self-image that should lead to better behavior.
• Yeshivishe hats are key elements of a kind of yeshivishe uniform that expresses discipline and loyalty to community standards.
• Wearing yeshivishe hats is in itself a higher halachic standard.

Now I'll explore each of those benefits individually.

295) WHY DO WE SAY SELICHOS?

A Guest Post by Rabbi Boruch Clinton:

For the longest time I've struggled to understand the selichos recited in Ashkenaz shuls. I don't mean that I've struggled to translate their difficult words: that's a problem shared universally by everyone I've met and it's hardly unique to me. Rather, I mean that I've never been able to fully understand the role that certain parts of selichos are supposed to play in my teshuva efforts.

Let me be more specific. The extended passages filled with familiar verses from Tanach (like שומע תפלה ) or that closely reflect patterns already suggested by Chazal (like מי שענה, clearly based Taanis 15a) are all straightforward. Likewise, the confession ( אשמנו ). What we're supposed to draw from all those sections is pretty obvious.