Tzvee's Talmudic Blog הבלוג התלמודי של צבי

From our collaborator Reuven Brauner, here's a new edition of Megillat Ruth, called Hadgashas Hane'emar, a reformatting of the traditional layout of the Tanach that highlights all dialogue and "spoken" words, whether human or Divine, graphically separated from the remaining portions of the Biblical narrative.

The editor informs us that,

This format is aesthetic, easy-to-read, inviting, and novel. It follows the plain meaning and commonly-accepted ascription for each quotation. Tanakh study now is a more pleasurable and rewarding experience for everyone.

Students and readers will quickly appreciate this new and novel manner of study, and find how delightful the learning experience can be.

How "Rabbi" J. Ezra Merkin Bought His Co-op Apartment at 740 Park Avenue

2012-05-24T13:48:00.000-04:00

The J. Ezra Merkin of recent headlines and scandals -- known for eternity as a Bernie Madoff feeder -- and the Merkin family live in duplex apartment 6/7B at 740 Park Avenue.

A book by Michael Gross, 740 Park, is a fascinating account of rich New York through the prism of that single exceptional building.

We bought this book several years ago to read about the really rich folk in the neighborhood where we grew up, including Merkin's upstairs neighbor, our former Brown University buddy, Tommy Tisch (duplex 8/9B), and the rest of the club at the "tony" address.

There's barely a mention of Tommy in the book and the passage on Ezra, mistaken by the co-op board for a rabbi, is now, in retrospect, funny. Here's what Gross says on page 467 about how Ezra Merkin bought his apartment from Faith Perelman:

Faith dropped (Ronald) Perelman’s name, but stayed in 740 until she married plastic surgeon Peter Linden in 1994. The rich get richer; she made about $11 million on her (1978) $300,000 investment.

The buyer, Ezra Merkin was the son of Hermann Merkin, the child of a family of furriers who’d escaped from Nazi Germany. Hermann became an American intelligence officer, a private investor, and one of the philanthropic elder statesmen of New York’s Jewish community.

Like his father before him, Ezra is president of the Orthodox Jewish Fifth Avenue Synagogue, where Faith worshipped. Like Israel Englander, he’s a principal in a hedge fund.

Unlike his sister Daphne, a writer who publicized her rejection by the co-op board at 1075 Park Avenue (she claimed her essay on sado-madochism in a book titled Dreaming of Hitler inspired the turndown), Ezra Merkin is an intensely private man.

Aside from one 1991 tantrum against what he deemed Steve Ross’s mismanagement of Time Warner, neither he nor his Gabriel Capital Corporation is much in the public eye.

Some in the building even believe he is a rabbi. Which may explain why, when he appeared in a yarmulke for his admissions interview at 740 Park, Donald Rynne later told a realtor, board members thought he was a rabbi and were so afraid of offending him they hardly asked a question before accepting him.

Gross created quite a helpful web-site to back up the book, calling it, "Step Inside: 740 Park: the Story of the World's Richest Apartment Building" with a new blog entry there called, "The murky world of Ezra Merkin" and with links to 740 Park Avenue building resources like these:

Gross' blurb from the web site:

For 75 years, it’s been one of the most lusted-after addresses in the world. Even today, it is steeped in purest luxury, the kind most of us can only imagine. Until now. The story of 740 Park Avenue sweeps across the twentieth century, and Michael Gross tells it in glorious, intimate and unprecedented detail. From the financial shenanigans that preceded the laying of the cornerstone, to the dazzlingly and sometimes decadently rich people who hid behind its walls, this is a sweeping social and economic epic, starring our wealthiest and most powerful old-money families-–Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, Bouvier, Chrysler, Houghton and Harkness-–and today’s new-monied elite: Bronfman, Perelman, Kravis, Steinberg, Koch and Schwarzman. [Last updated 12/30/08 - Reposted.]

Detroit News: What is a Kosher Amigo Shabbat Scooter?

2012-05-24T13:37:00.000-04:00

The Amigo Shabbat Scooter is a clever invention. We had bought one for our dad in 2007. It helped him get to shul on Shabbat.

Kosher scooters help Jews keep faith

Mich. company's device gets disabled Orthodox followers to synagogue

ORALANDAR BRAND-WILLIAMS
The Detroit News

Wixom --Michael Balkin observes traditional Jewish practices, but walking to services has been difficult for the past 20 years.

A worsening neurological disorder has made walking more than a few steps nearly impossible for the 59-year-old West Bloomfield resident. But in recent years, things have improved for Balkin, thanks to a motorized -- and perfectly kosher -- scooter.

"Now I'm able to do whatever and go to Shul and do whatever I want and how I want," said Balkin.

Orthodox Jews don't drive vehicles or use anything motorized during the Shabbat, or Sabbath, which lasts from sundown Friday to nightfall Saturday. But a Bridgeport company has rolled out specially designed scooters that allow Orthodox Jews to follow their beliefs and still make it to the synagogue.

Amigo Mobility International Inc. began making the Shabbat-approved scooters five years ago. It uses a module manufactured in Israel and certified by the Zomet Institute, an Israeli nonprofit that specializes in electronics that meet Halakha, or Jewish religious law.

The scooters, which cost $2,500 to $3,500, are sometimes covered by insurance. Amigo sells the scooters at a a store in Wixom the company opened two years ago to meet the needs of the estimated 7,000 Orthodox Jews in Metro Detroit.

Scott Chappell, the manager of the Amigo Mobility Center on Wixom Road, said the company was approached by the local Orthodox Jewish community for a scooter model that could help homebound individuals to be able to get to the synagogue during Shabbat.

"It's designed in such as way that on Fridays and Saturdays, it's a special mode and during the week it is a standard mode," Chappell said.

The Shabbat-approved scooter carries a special black-and-white sticker that has to be displayed at all times so others know it meets Halakha law, said Chappell. "(Others) will see that it has been certified by Zomet."

Balkin said he has used the Shabbat-authorized scooters during his trips to Israel. He was happy that he was able to get one in the United States. Deborah Balkin says she's glad that the scooter has given her husband more mobility so that "he doesn't have to stay home on Shabbat."

"He can go to services," said a smiling Deborah Balkin. "We can walk to a friend's house on Shabbat. It keeps him from being isolated. One of the worst things for a person who is ill is to be isolated."

Iris Rosen, who is not Orthodox, but uses a scooter to get around, said she is happy to see the technology come to the United States.

"It's amazing. It's proven. It's approved by the Orthodox community. It's definitely, definitely a good thing," said Rosen, a Farmington Hills resident.

Rabbi Jason Miller, who has been studying the use of technology and Judaism, said the technology has allowed Balkin and others to be more physically comfortable and practice their faith "without violating the tradition."

"We should all see this as a benefit to our community no matter where you are on the observance spectrum," said Miller, also the rabbi of Oakland County-based Tamarack Camps and the spiritual leader of Congregation T'chiyah in Oak Park.

"There are many rabbis out there who would give him permission to drive to synagogue on the Sabbath but on a psycho-spiritual level for someone with his observance patterns they would still be uncomfortable with this leniency," said Miller.

"His (scooter) allows him to be part of the community on the Sabbath and to feel comfortable in knowing that he hasn't compromised his observance.

Help Yitz Reach His Triathlon Goal in Memory of Rabbi Zev Zahavy to Help Victims of Terror

2012-05-24T00:20:00.000-04:00

Yitzhak Zahavy's Team One Family Fundraising Triathlon Event
Help Celebrate Three Lives with Three Sports

Rabbi Dr. Zev Zahavy z"l
In memory of my father Rabbi Dr. Zev Zahavy (Yitz's grandfather) please consider donating to help Victims of Terror via this link: www.zahavy.org

My son Yitz says, "This year I will dedicate my race to my grandfather Rabbi Dr. Zev Zahavy of blessed memory. He passed away on May 1 at the age of 93. He was a great swimmer, biker and runner; he was a triathlete before there were triathlons. He was a strong supporter of my efforts to raise awareness for victims of terror in Israel. Thank you Saba you will be missed."

Yitz Tells What happened
On October 27, 2002 my platoon in the IDF was attacked by a hamas suicide bomber outside the city of Ariel. Three soldiers, Amihud Hasid, Tamir Masad and Matan Zagron, where killed saving my life and the lives of my fellow soldiers. The One Family Fund is helping their families cope with the difficulties of life without their loved ones.

Philadelphia Triathlon
On June 24th, to celebrate the lives of the three brave Israeli soldiers who saved my life, I will compete in the Philadelphia Triathlon. I will swim, bike and run to raise money for their families and for other families who lost their loved ones to acts of terror.

Helping Out
Please help support victims of terror and their families by donating as much as your can.

Please check out the story about my fundraising efforts last year in the Jewish Standard.

The Goal
This year my goal is to raise $5000.00, that is $1666.66 for each man who saved my life.

The One Family Fund
The One Family Fund is at the side of Israel's terror victims – be they civilians or soldiers- from the moment of an attack through the many years of recovery. OneFamily provides victims and their families with the emotional, financial, legal and material assistance they need to rebuild their shattered lives. Through hospital visits, camps, retreats, holiday programs and one-on-one assistance, OneFamily is helping more than 2400 families.

Pledge / Donate

Thank you for your generous help.

Was Christopher Columbus Jewish?

2012-05-21T22:12:00.000-04:00

Yes, Christopher Columbus was a Jew according to some historians.

Charles Garcia, writing via CNN, summarized the case for Columbus the Jew in a story on May 20, 2012, the 508th anniversary of his death, "Was Columbus secretly a Jew?".

The crux of the evidence is this:

Recently, a number of Spanish scholars, such as Jose Erugo, Celso Garcia de la Riega, Otero Sanchez and Nicholas Dias Perez, have concluded that Columbus was a Marrano, whose survival depended upon the suppression of all evidence of his Jewish background in face of the brutal, systematic ethnic cleansing.

Columbus, who was known in Spain as Cristóbal Colón and didn't speak Italian, signed his last will and testament on May 19, 1506, and made five curious -- and revealing -- provisions.

Two of his wishes -- tithe one-tenth of his income to the poor and provide an anonymous dowry for poor girls -- are part of Jewish customs. He also decreed to give money to a Jew who lived at the entrance of the Lisbon Jewish Quarter.

On those documents, Columbus used a triangular signature of dots and letters that resembled inscriptions found on gravestones of Jewish cemeteries in Spain. He ordered his heirs to use the signature in perpetuity.

According to British historian Cecil Roth's "The History of the Marranos," the anagram was a cryptic substitute for the Kaddish, a prayer recited in the synagogue by mourners after the death of a close relative. Thus, Columbus's subterfuge allowed his sons to say Kaddish for their crypto-Jewish father when he died. Finally, Columbus left money to support the crusade he hoped his successors would take up to liberate the Holy Land.

Estelle Irizarry, a linguistics professor at Georgetown University, has analyzed the language and syntax of hundreds of handwritten letters, diaries and documents of Columbus and concluded that the explorer's primary written and spoken language was Castilian Spanish. Irizarry explains that 15th-century Castilian Spanish was the "Yiddish" of Spanish Jewry, known as "Ladino." At the top left-hand corner of all but one of the 13 letters written by Columbus to his son Diego contained the handwritten Hebrew letters bet-hei, meaning b'ezrat Hashem (with God's help). Observant Jews have for centuries customarily added this blessing to their letters. No letters to outsiders bear this mark, and the one letter to Diego in which this was omitted was one meant for King Ferdinand.

In Simon Weisenthal's book, "Sails of Hope," he argues that Columbus's voyage was motivated by a desire to find a safe haven for the Jews in light of their expulsion from Spain. Likewise, Carol Delaney, a cultural anthropologist at Stanford University, concludes that Columbus was a deeply religious man whose purpose was to sail to Asia to obtain gold in order to finance a crusade to take back Jerusalem and rebuild the Jews' holy Temple.

In Columbus's day, Jews widely believed that Jerusalem had to be liberated and the Temple rebuilt for the Messiah to return.

Scholars point to the date on which Columbus set sail as further evidence of his true motives. He was originally going to sail on August 2, 1492, a day that happened to coincide with the Jewish holiday of Tisha B'Av, marking the destruction of the First and Second Holy Temples of Jerusalem. Columbus postponed this original sail date by one day to avoid embarking on the holiday, which would have been considered by Jews to be an unlucky day to set sail.
(Coincidentally or significantly, the day he set forth was the very day that Jews were, by law, given the choice of converting, leaving Spain, or being killed.)

Columbus's voyage was not, as is commonly believed, funded by the deep pockets of Queen Isabella, but rather by two Jewish Conversos and another prominent Jew. Louis de Santangel and Gabriel Sanchez advanced an interest free loan of 17,000 ducats from their own pockets to help pay for the voyage, as did Don Isaac Abrabanel, rabbi and Jewish statesman.

Indeed, the first two letters Columbus sent back from his journey were not to Ferdinand and Isabella, but to Santangel and Sanchez, thanking them for their support and telling them what he had found.

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VIN: Rabbi Manis Friedman Says the Internet is not a Crisis for Judaism

2012-05-20T10:42:00.000-04:00

On the day of a major stadium rally that was called by rabbis to warn against the dangers of the Internet, a prominent Lubavitch rabbi says there is no "unprecedented crisis." VIN reports:

In an address to a group of teenage students, noted author, lecturer and educator Rabbi Manis Friedman dismissed the notion of banning the internet and rejected the idea that the Jewish community is facing an unprecedented crisis.

Speaking on May 2nd at the United Lubavitcher Yeshiva in Crown Heights, Rabbi Friedman called the internet the nisayon of today’s generation and advised students to do what Jews have been doing for years – stay strong and withstand the test that is being placed before klal yisroel...more...

Since we met him many years ago in Minnesota, Rabbi Friedman's trenchant observations have always made sense to us.

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Celebrating Yom Yerushalayim

2012-05-20T10:32:00.000-04:00

Today is Yom Yerushalayim. It is a Yom Tov. I recited Hallel in shul - with a berakhah.

This year 5772, a few weeks ago, I made a sad trip (with my brother, sister and son) to Jerusalem to accompany my father's remains on El Al and to inter him in his final place of rest at Har Hamenuchot in Givat Shaul, Jerusalem, gush yud, chelka bet, shura tet.

My father, Zev Zahavy, loved Israel, and especially Jerusalem. He owned two apartments there. He visited many times. He now rests there next to his wife and near his brother and his parents, all of blessed memory.

Here is how last year in 5771 we described our happier celebration in Jerusalem:

44 years ago in the Six Day War the IDF took the Old City in a fierce battle and united Jerusalem under a single government. From our point of view as a young Orthodox Yeshiva student at the time, this accomplishment was a great miracle. The old city of Jerusalem under Jewish control meant that the historical places of our people were again accessible to us, including the Temple Mount, or at least the Western Wall. A year later in 1968 we came to visit Israel and Jerusalem for the first time.

We were just in Jerusalem Israel to celebrate the wedding of the son of a friend and thought, how do we commemorate this special day? And we had to do most of the celebrating a day early, because we were returning to New Jersey on a midnight flight last night and would miss the main activities of the day today. Bad trip planning, but no matter, there were workarounds.

First yesterday we went with super-guide Asher Altshul to explore the city of David excavations just outside the old city. Asher showed us the site from top to bottom and provided rich up-to-the-minute explanation and interpretation. He took us to the Herodian excavations in the Jewish Quarter next and gave us his expert guidance capped off by a summary of his own research. A truly great way to make Jerusalem Day meaningful. We added a visit on our own to the restored Hurva Synagogue, a magnificent job of rebuilding.

We took the long way back to our hotel to avoid the traffic jams in the city that had already started in the afternoon prior to the holiday. That allowed us to see all of the impressive new construction of the past few years. Most obvious is the new light rail, completed but not yet open to riders. During the day the authorities run the rail on schedule throughout the city with no passengers. We guess this allows for the adjustment of the system to balance and assess the functioning of the system and it's impact on traffic flow. In any case when it opens in August it will take one of the world's oldest cities into a new era of technology and transportation.

But how we thought can we celebrate this holiday on it's eve before we embark to the airport? Our favorite hotel is just a few blocks from the Mercaz Harav Kook yeshiva. We decided to go there for maariv evening services. This venue combines the best of Zionist Orthodox fervor. Our friends warned us to get there early since it is always packed for the davening of Jerusalem Day.

We got there and waited in line to be screened. The man next to us in line turned out to be a classmate of ours whom we had not seen in 38 years. We got caught up quickly. The Yeshiva gatekeepers clearly wanted to let the students in first and waved them ahead of us. That seemed right. We did at last get in after careful screening, including a gunpowder check of our hands. Apparently Bibi Netanyahu was scheduled to appear to speak after services amid the night's festivities and that meant precautions had to be high.

The prayers were outstanding. A sea of white-shirted Yeshiva boys, led by a chazan, chanted a few Psalms and select verses of liturgy and said the regular evening prayers. It was moving.

We couldn't stay to hear Bibi. (Link to a report about his speech in Haaretz.) Our ride to the airport was waiting. We bought a knitted kippah on the way out of the Yeshiva.

To cap off the day, we discovered the free wi-fi at the majestic Ben Gurion airport. Thinking back to our first trip in 1968 we could not help but admire the amazing accomplishments of the past 44 years in Israel, from the airport and the light rail and so much more infrastructure, to the economic, social and political advances over the period, despite enormous obstacles.

Halleluyah. Happy Yom Yerushalayim!

Sent from my iPad

New Publication Soncino English Talmud Sanhedrin with Important Content

2012-05-18T17:36:00.004-04:00

Talmudic Books has published Soncino Babylonian Talmud Sanhedrin - the classic English edition of this important tractate.

My son Yitz reminded me that my father, Rabbi Dr. Zev Zahavy, who passed away on May 1, used to say that Sanhedrin was his favorite Talmud tractate.

Here is the book description, adapted from the Introduction:

The word Sanhedrin designates the higher courts of law which in the latter part of the period of the Second Temple administered justice in Israel according to the Mosaic law in the more serious criminal, and especially capital, cases. The main subject of this tractate is the composition, powers, and functions of these courts. Incidentally, as is only natural, it deals in some detail with the conduct of criminal cases; and in this way it forms, along with Makkoth, the chief repository of the criminal law of the Talmud.

When the Mishnah was compiled, towards the end of the second century CE, the Sanhedrin was already a thing of the more or less distant past. As an institution it does not seem to have survived the destruction of the Second Temple; it may even have been falling into decay for some time before that event. Consequently, the information about it given in the Talmud, in this and other tractates, has neither the fullness nor the precision that we could desire. Both Josephus and the New Testament contain references to what is called the "Synhedrion" of the Jewish people, which it is not easy to reconcile with what we are told about any of the Sanhedrin mentioned in the Talmud.

From this tractate itself we learn that there were two kinds of Sanhedrin — the Great Sanhedrin, with 71 members, and the Lesser, with 23. Both, according to tradition, were instituted by Moses, but the first date at which a Sanhedrin is mentioned as actually functioning is 57 B.C.E. In the Talmud the Sanhedrin is almost always spoken of as a purely judicial institution, and the name seems in fact to be interchangeable with Beth Din Haggadol…the great Court of Justice. The Great Sanhedrin met in the Lishkath Hagazith [Chamber of Hewn Stone] in the Temple at Jerusalem; the Lesser Sanhedrin [there seem to have been several of them] met both in Jerusalem and at other places. The Lesser Sanhedrin was also competent to try capital cases, but the Great Sanhedrin was the supreme Court of Appeal on all disputed points of law or religious practice.

According to the Talmud, the two most distinguished members of the Great Sanhedrin were known as Nasi [Prince] and Ab-beth-din [Father of the Beth din], while there was a third known as Mufla [distinguished]. The last named may have been a kind of expert adviser; the other two titles seem to have been purely honorary, and not to have denoted any official position. Certain it is that in Josephus and the New Testament it is the High Priest who is spoken of as the President of the Synhedrion, and this in itself seems inherently probable. Josephus and the New Testament also picture the Synhedrion as an institution of some political importance; whether this institution was identical with the Great Sanhedrin of the Talmud it is difficult to say.

In the eyes of Christian students, Sanhedrin has always occupied a favored place among the tractates of the Talmud on account of the light which it is capable of throwing on the trial of Jesus of Nazareth. It is not without significance that when Reuchlin, the Christian champion of Jewish learning, searched Europe to find a copy of the Talmud, the only Treatise he could find was Sanhedrin. For the Jewish student also, in spite of the fact that its main theme was already at the time of its compilation one of academic interest only, it possesses a peculiar fascination, partly on account of the fundamental importance of the legal principles with which it deals, partly on account of the wide range of its digressions and the exceptionally high quality of its aggadic material. In particular in view of their influence on the teaching of Maimonides, may be mentioned its famous statement on the limits of monarchic power, with the consequent disputation on the reasons for the Mosaic laws, and the celebrated eleventh chapter. which is the locus classicus for the problem of Dogma.

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What does the Talmud say about Islam?

2012-05-16T21:35:00.000-04:00

The Talmud says nothing at all about Islam.

The Talmud was published around 499 CE and Islam was founded may years later, around 622 CE. The Talmud mentions Arabs in numerous places, but that has nothing to do with Islam, the later religion.

For some reason a recent story about the new Arabic translation of the Talmud, "Lebanon news -Jordanian center translates Babylonian Talmud into Arabic" tells us that Mohammad Najem, spokesperson of the Amman-based Middle East Studies Center, said about the Talmud translation project, "It is important to understand how Jews view Islam as well as their own religion." Given the historical facts, the implication of this statement makes little direct sense.

Remembering Our 1964 Red Citroen DS19

2012-05-16T21:25:00.000-04:00

In 2007 the NY Times reminded me of my 1964 Red Citroen DS19 with a picture spread of the author's car and a nice little story.

This essay is mentioned in the Times' spread.

The New Citroen
by Roland Barthes 1957

I think that cars today are almost the exact equivalent of the great Gothic cathedrals: I mean the supreme creation of an era, conceived with passion by unknown artists, and consumed in image if not in usage by a whole population which appropriates them as a purely magical object.

It is obvious that the new Citroen has fallen from the sky inasmuch as it appears at first sight as a superlative object. We must not forget that an object is the best messenger of a world above that of nature: one can easily see in an object at once a perfection and an absence of origin, a closure and a brilliance, a transformation of life into matter (matter is much more magical than life), and in a word a silence which belongs to the realm of fairy-tales. The D.S. - the "Goddess" - has all the features (or at least the public is unanimous in attributing them to it at first sight) of one of those objects from another universe which have supplied fuel for the neomania of the eighteenth century and that of our own science-fiction: the Deesse is first and foremost a new Nautilus.

This is why it excites interest less by its substance than by the junction of its components. It is well known that smoothness is always an attribute of perfection because its opposite reveals a technical and typically human operation of assembling: Christ's robe was seamless, just as the airships of science-fiction are made of unbroken metal. The D.S 19 has no pretensions about being as smooth as cake-icing, although its general shape is very rounded; yet it is the dove-tailing of its sections which interest the public most: one keenly fingers the edges of the windows, one feels along the wide rubber grooves which link the back window to its metal surround. There are in the D.S. the beginnings of a new phenomenology of assembling, as if one progressed from a world where elements are welded to a world where they are juxtaposed and hold together by sole virtue of their wondrous shape, which of course is meant to prepare one for the idea of a more benign Nature.

We are therefore dealing here with a humanized art, and it is possible that the Deesse marks a change in the mythology of cars. Until now, the ultimate in cars belonged rather to the bestiary of power; here it becomes at once more spiritual and more object-like, and despite some concessions to neomania (such as the empty steering wheel), it is now more homely , more attuned to this sublimation of the utensil which one also finds in the design of contemporary household equipment.

The dashboard looks more like the working surface of a modern kitchen than the control room of a factory; the slim panes of matt fluted metal, the small levers topped by a white ball, the very simple dials, the very discreetness of the nickel-work, all this signifies a kind of control exercised over motion rather than performance. One is obviously turning from an alchemy of speed to a relish in driving.

The public, it seems, has admirably divined the novelty of the themes which are suggested to it. Responding at first to the neologism (a whole publicity campaign had kept it on the alert for years), it tries very quickly to fall back on a behaviour which indicates adjustment and a readiness to use ("You've got to get used to it"). In the exhibition halls, the car on show is explored with an intense, amorous studiousness: it is the great tactile phase of discovery, the moment when visual wonder is about to receive the reasoned assault of touch (for touch is the most demystifying of all senses, unlike sight, which is the most magical). The bodywork, the lines of union are touched, the upholstery palpated, the seats tried, the doors caressed, the cushions fondled; before the wheel, one pretends to drive with one's whole body. The object here is totally prostituted, appropriated: originating from the heaven of Metropolis, the Goddess is in a quarter of an hour mediatized, actualizing through this exorcism the very essence of petit-bourgeois advancement.

©Roland Barthes from Mythologies Vintage ISBN 0 09 997220 4 1957

Is Caroline Kennedy's Husband Edwin Schlossberg Jewish?

2012-05-15T22:00:00.000-04:00

Yes, Edwin Arthur Schlossberg is a Jew.

All four of Schlossberg's grandparents were Russian (Ukranian) Jews born near Poltava and arrived in the United States at Ellis Island.

In 1986 Schlossberg married Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of President John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis at Hyannis Port when Caroline was 28 and Ed was 41.

Their afternoon wedding ceremony was held at the Church of Our Lady of Victory in Centerville, Massachusetts and did not include a mass.

How Jewish is Schlossberg? Nate Bloom refers to "American Legacy: The Story of John and Caroline Kennedy" by C. David Heymann as follows:

Heymann writes that Schlossberg was raised in a "devout Orthodox Jewish family" that belonged to a modern Orthodox synagoue in Manhattan. He attended Hebrew School and had a bar mitzvah ceremony.

Bloom adds some of the speculation regarding Schlossberg's current religious practice:

The harshest comment about Edwin Schlossberg and religion came from film producer Susan Pollock. She is a relative of Edwin's and has dined now and again with Edwin and Caroline. Pollack told Heymann that she believed Ed actually converted to Catholicism to marry Caroline and "I know he [Ed] takes Holy Communion which means he would have to convert?..."

UPDATE: See the comment below signed by "Edwin Schlossberg" denying the Bloom account. ["I have never had a conversation with Susan Pollack. I have not converted to Catholicism and have not taken Holy Communion.I am proud to be Jewish and am disappointed that this misinformation has been presented on this site and hope that you will remove it immediately." Edwin Schlossberg -- Posted by ES to Tzvee's Talmudic Blog at 3/10/2009 1:59 PM].

/reposted/

Shmuley Boteach Warns the Forward of Legal Action

2012-05-13T18:46:00.000-04:00

In February the Forward published an article about Shmuley Boteach's candidacy for congress in New Jersey. We did not like the article. We do not like the Forward. We consider it to be a high-school-quality newspaper with little original news reporting content of any value. The article about Boteach impressed us as an example of poor journalism, laden with suggestions and innuendo of wrongdoing, where none was merited.

According to a news report now (Boteach’s Battle Royale: Celebrity rabbi threatens to sue Jewish Daily Forward newspaper), Rabbi Boteach now has responded to the article with a lawyer's letter. Good for him. The article and a copy of the lawyer's letter was published in "The Washington Free Beacon" which we never heard of before but which describes itself as, "a nonprofit online newspaper that began publication on February 7, 2012. Dedicated to uncovering the stories that the professional left hopes will never see the light of day..."

Oh gee whiz why does he do this to us? We endorsed Shmuley's candidacy because we like the idea of a rabbi in congress. But by throwing in with the radical right wing, Shmuley is making it hard for us to continue to support him.

One thing for sure we disagree with. Shmuley chalks up the Forward's hatchet job on him as motivated by left wing political leanings at the paper. Oh gosh golly, we think of the Forward as a rightward leaning rag. Okay, we see that our perspectives differ.

We do hope this campaign will not get too dirty and that the Jewish press - especially the Forward - does not turn to raking muck to attack a hard-working serious and effective rabbi.

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Is the Internet Kosher?

2012-05-12T22:10:00.001-04:00

Is the Internet kosher?

Now, the hot dogs served at Citi Field can be judged kosher or treif.

The Internet cannot. It is a medium for communications and hence cannot be kosher or treif. Some rabbis are making a mass rally about the Internet the center of attention for their communities.

We wonder if the rabbis know that every month we give away 25,000 tractates of the Talmud on our web site www.halakhah.com.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the "Orthodox Internet Rally Divides a Community".

Previously the WSJ reported, "A group of ultra-Orthodox Jews have rented out Citi Field for a meeting later this month intended to draw thousands of men to discuss the dangers of the Internet and formulate a communitywide response. The event, set for May 20, has been publicized internationally within the Orthodox Jewish press and tapped into a world-wide debate over how to reconcile modern life with the Internet's perceived moral dangers."

In our Talmudic view, this event is a giant mistake. Nothing of value can be accomplished through a rally in a stadium to remedy a perceived threat to morality. And clearly the Internet is not the problem. If the ease of accessing pornography via the Internet is at issue, and we assume that is the main concern, then the pornographers who create the content ought to be the target, not the communications and delivery mechanisms of the Net.

It looks to us like the rabbis are making a statement through the rally, but the wrong statement. The event says to us that the rabbis fear that the beauty of the moral life of Torah cannot compete with the attraction of the depravity of the x-rated content of the Internet. A rally, like the one planned, is a sign of panic that the battle is being lost, not a sign of confidence in the strength and validity of Judaism as a moral system and beacon to the nations.

There is much to be done to bolster morality in the world and to promote Judaism. A Citi Field rabbi-rally is not an effective means of doing either.

Yossi Abramowitz: Madonna is Jewish

2012-05-10T19:10:00.000-04:00

We've been posting for nearly seven years that one of our favorite pop singers, Madonna, is not Jewish even though some of her music makes allusion to the Kabbalah and she has been involved in Kabbalah studies.

Now Yossi Abramowitz in the Jerusalem Report, strongly insinuates that Madonna is Jewish in actual fact ("YOSEF I. ABRAMOWITZ hails the arrival of Madonna to Israel – and to Judaism").

Yossi writes a nice column, but we just don't buy the premise of this story, especially because he has not interviewed Madonna to ask her if she has converted to Judaism. Nice try though.

A Successful Kindle Direct Promotion for God's Favorite Prayers

2012-05-09T17:28:00.002-04:00

I allowed the previously scheduled Kindle Direct Publishing promotion for my book "God's Favorite Prayers" to proceed on Sunday May 2, even though I was sitting shiva for my dad. I thought he would have had no objection to that.

I expected that when Amazon made the book free for a day it would result in the download by readers of a few hundred copies. That would be a good way to build momentum for the volume within the KDP publishing program.

At the end of the day on Sunday I looked to see the number of downloads for that one day.

The number was 1,852. The book rose to number 131 on the overall national Amazon free Kindle book list. I was surprised and pleased.

Now I will monitor how this benefits the future sales of the volume, since that is the primary motive for participating in the promotional program.

Talmudic Books for Kindle on the Talmud, Bible, Kabbalah and Prayer
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My father's most valuable autographs

2012-05-09T17:12:00.000-04:00

During the shiva for my dad this past week, Rabbi Dr. Zev Zahavy, I showed many people an important part of our inheritance from him - five valuable autographs.

Now these are not autographs of Babe Ruth or Mickey Mantle or of presidents or anything like that.

These are the five signatures on my dad's klaf - on his diploma of ordination from Yeshiva University's Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, which he received in 1942.

The priceless autographs are by five great Torah scholars, Rabbi Binyamin Aronowitz, Rabbi Bernard L. Levinthal of Philadelphia, Rabbi Samuel Belkin, Rabbi Moses Shatzkes (the Lomza Rav) and Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik of Boston (the Rav).

Rabbi Yossi Adler looked at the klaf during the shiva and confirmed what I had been told, that it was rare to have five signatures on such a document. My own ordination has two (Rabbis Belkin and Soloveitchik).

I once asked my dad what it was like to go before these five great rabbis and be examined before receiving semicha - ordination. He told me, "They were tough. They made me sweat."

We greatly treasure this part of the legacy of my dad.

Rabbi Dr. Zev Zahavy Photos

2012-05-09T10:37:00.002-04:00

Photos
Rabbi Dr. Zev Zahavy

New York City

September 8, 1918 - May 1, 2012

Nine Minute Slideshow
edited by Barak

Sermons - View Online
Sermons - Download PDF
edited by Tzvee

Donate in Memory of Zev Zahavy

Rabbi Zev Zahavy z"l (update)

2012-05-01T15:23:00.000-04:00

I regret to inform you of the passing of my dad.

Rabbi Zev Zahavy z"l

Beloved husband of the late Edith Zahavy z"l; father of Rabbi Tzvee Zahavy '72R, Professor Reuvain Zahavy and Professor Miryam Wahrman; grandfather and great-grandfather, brother of May Chait and of the late Rabbi Noah Goldstein '51R z"l and Selma Guedalia z"l.

Rabbi Zev Zahavy was a wonderful son, husband, parent, grandparent, and great-grandparent. He served sincerely as a synagogue rabbi and worked diligently as a Judaic scholar and college professor. He was upright and honest in all his dealings. He loved his family and friends and his religion. He told wonderful stories and jokes and was an accomplished photographer and cartoonist. He enjoyed swimming and his summers at his home in Atlantic Beach. He cherished the State of Israel and his homes in Jerusalem which he visited with pride and enthusiasm.

He served as Rabbi in New York City at the West Side Institutional Synagogue, Congregation Ohab Zedek and as Senior rabbi at the Park East Synagogue. He worked as an esteemed Professor at the City University of New York. He was the author of books on cosmology and on kabbalah. More than 200 of his synagogue sermons were reported in the New York Times. He always inspired his family, his congregations and his classes with his unbridled idealism, optimism and good cheer.

The funeral took place at 10am, Wednesday, at the Park East Synagogue 163 E. 67 Street New York, NY. Additional eulogies and interment took place on Thursday at Har Hamenuchot in Jerusalem, (Gush Yud, Chelka Bet, Shura Tet) at 3:30 PM. Shiva started Thursday afternoon in Jerusalem at the Leonardo Inn Hotel. Shiva continued in New Jersey from Friday morning (5-4) through Wednesday morning (5-9) at Rabbi Tzvee Zahavy's home, in Teaneck.

NY Times: Rabbi Zev Zahavy call for Fair Immigration Laws in 1952

2012-04-30T23:33:00.000-04:00

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

NY Times 1953: Rabbi Zev Zahavy Calls for National Civil Rights and Ten Commandments

2012-04-30T23:32:00.000-04:00

55 Years Ago: Rabbi Zev Zahavy Calls for Iraq Peace

2012-04-30T23:31:00.000-04:00

From the archives of the New York Times...

200 of My Dad's Sermons Reported in the New York Times

2012-04-30T23:29:00.000-04:00

Collected news reports of some 200+ of the sermons of Rabbi Dr. Zev Zahavy from the Times.

Times: Religion, Religion, Religion

2012-04-29T00:41:00.000-04:00

Religion items of note in the Times this weekend:

OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR "God and Man in Tennessee" by AMY GREENE

"EARLIER this month state senators in Tennessee approved an update to our sex-education law that would ban teachers from discussing hand-holding, which it categorizes as “gateway sexual activity.” The bill came fast on the heels of a new state law that effectively allows creationism to be taught in our classrooms. Though he voiced misgivings, our governor, Bill Haslam, refused to veto it..."

IT IS FICTION -- In the Magazine, "My Son Went to Heaven, and All I Got Was a No. 1 Best Seller" by MAUD NEWTON puts 'nonfiction' in quotes - finally somebody is pointing out that the book is on the wrong list - and she opines towards the end about a book by Todd Burpo that has been a 'nonfiction' bestseller: "...In the Middle Ages, Christians’ near-death narratives explicitly involved harsh judgment and infernal torment. All of that awaits the ungodly in Colton’s 'nonfiction' story too. You just don’t notice it at first, what with Jesus, his rainbow steed and the seraphim..."

The Book Review section has Barnard professor RANDALL BALMER at first dissecting Ross Douthat's book and then turning his review into a syllabus. The review part informs us that 'Ross Douthat’s contribution to this genre, “Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics,” laments the departure from what he calls “a Christian center,” which “has helped bind together a teeming, diverse and fissiparous nation.” Absent a national church, he argues, Christianity “has frequently provided an invisible mortar for our culture and a common vocabulary for our great debates.”'

Update on the awful review of Peter Beinart by Jonathan Rosen, the author's reply:

To the Editor:

Jonathan Rosen didn’t review my book “The Crisis of Zionism” (April 15); he evaded it. At my book’s heart is this claim: While the Palestinians absolutely bear part of the blame for the lack of a two-state solution (I call Yasir Arafat’s role in the second intifada a “crime” and Palestinian terrorism “grotesque”), settlement building imperils Israel’s future as a democratic Jewish state. Does Rosen agree? He doesn’t say. Does he agree that American Jewish organizations should be more willing to publicly challenge Israeli policy when it violates the promise of “complete equality of social and political rights . . . irrespective of race, religion and sex” in Israel’s declaration of independence? He doesn’t say. Does he agree that some of the most committed younger American Jews are alienated by the organized Jewish community’s unwillingness to permit a truly open debate about Israeli policy? He doesn’t say.

Instead, he calls my book simplistic. In fact, it contains a detailed, multicausal account of the failure of the peace process between 1993 and 2009, and the most in-depth account yet written, based on dozens of interviews, of its failure in the Obama and Netanyahu years.

Rosen’s review deals with none of this complexity. But there are simple truths as well as complex ones. One of those simple truths is that holding territory in which one ethnic group enjoys citizenship, the right to vote, free movement and due process while another ethnic group is denied those rights is unjust and corrosive of a country’s democratic fiber. Evading that basic truth does not constitute intellectual sophistication. It constitutes moral abdication.

PETER BEINART

Manhattan

Talmudic Books for Kindle on the Talmud, Bible, Kabbalah and Prayer

The Kindle Edition of the Classic Soncino Talmud in English

Link to the Soncino Talmud in English Online at Halakhah.com

2012-04-29T00:08:00.000-04:00

The Soncino Babylonian Talmud English translation is online - at a site that is not anti-Semitic or polemical.

Download the Talmud in English free at http://www.halakhah.com/

TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH WITH NOTES, GLOSSARY AND INDICES UNDER THE EDITORSHIP OF RABBI DR. I. EPSTEIN B.A., Ph.D., D. Lit. FOREWORD BY THE VERY REV. THE LATE CHIEF RABBI DR. J. H. HERTZ. INTRODUCTION BY THE EDITOR. THE SONCINO PRESS, LONDON.

Contains the Sedarim (orders, or major divisions) and tractates (books) of the Babylonian Talmud, as translated and organized for publication by the Soncino Press in 1935 - 1948.

The site has the entire Soncino Talmud edition in PDF format and about 8050 pages on line in browser compatible HTML format, comprising 1460 files — of the Soncino Talmud.

Please add a link to the site http://www.halakhah.com on your web site or blog.

2012 updates:

A newly formatted 2-column PDF version of the Soncino Talmud has been added at Halakhah.com.
A Kindle edition of the Soncino Talmud is available from Amazon.com: The Kindle Soncino Talmud in English