On The Contrary

Haredim for World Peace

noreply@blogger.com (Elli Fischer) — Wed, 22 May 2013 10:52:52 PDT

A quote from a responsum:

It is obligatory for every haredi to work toward world peace, so that innocent blood is not shed in the world, and war ceases.

Who wrote this and when? Check out my latest blog post at FindNeedles.

Hillel Praises; Shammai Appraises

noreply@blogger.com (Elli Fischer) — Tue, 14 May 2013 03:31:59 PDT

Hillel and Shammai are perhaps the most famous pair of rabbinic rivals in the Talmud. Their rivalry, and their differences in personality, are a theme that runs through all parts of rabbinic literature - halakha and aggada, Mishna and Tosefta, Bavli and Yerushalmi. Any discussion of Jewish attitudes toward pluralism and its limits begins with Hillel and Shammai.

This rivalry has been treated extensively, so I doubt that I would have much to contribute on this front. Nevertheless, I had an insight into their names several years ago (thanks, David G, for reminding me about that blog post), and I believe it to be a true chiddush.

The name Hillel is related to hallel - praise. The name Shammai is related to shuma - evaluation. In fact, the Modern Hebrew word for an appraiser is a "shammai". The personalities of Hillel and Shammai are thematized along these lines. While Shammai and his disciples are concerned with the true, present, objective value of something, Hillel and his academy have a more generous outlook; they are able to see how something might have greater subjective value or potential value.

In the audio shiur I posted yesterday (and in a latent form in this post), this difference is used to understand the divergent approaches of Hillel and Shammai when confronting the prospective gerim. Shammai kicks them out using a yardstick - a tool of precise quantification, symbolizing the standards that potential gerim must meet, but that these do not. Hillel, in my reading, perceives some nobility in their motives and is willing to act based on their potential.

A similar dispute appears in Avot De-Rabbi Natan 2:9. Shammai's academy had very strict acceptance standards, whereas anyone could study at Hillel's. According to that passage, Hillel's lack of standards was not predicated on the belief in universal Torah education, but on the notion that it is impossible to know what sort of background will produce the next rabbinic leaders. Both Hillel and Shammai want to produce greatness, but whereas Shammai insists that greatness requires certain raw materials, Hillel contends that one's present state is not a good predictor of potential. So he refuses to evaluate, and lets everyone in.

Perhaps the most poignant example of this difference between Hillel and Shammai appears in Sanhedrin 16b-17a. The disciples of Hillel and Shammai disagree about "how one dances before the bride." Beit Hillel maintains that one should always tell the groom that "the bride is beautiful and charming," whereas Beit Shammai states that one should tell it like it is. The dispute, according to the ensuing discussion, is about whether there is value in reinforcing the groom's subjective perception. For the Hillelites, the true "worth" of the bride is irrelevant; this is what the groom has settled upon, and it is proper and generous to reinforce his beliefs, even if they are erroneous on some objective plane. Beit Shammai is unwilling to violate its objective evaluation - that is, lie - to make another person feel good (an outstanding and hilarious dramatization of Shammai's dilemma can be viewed here).

A final example further illustrate this theme and may even locate the differences within the general demeanor of the two sages. In Beitza 16a, it is recorded that Hillel and Shammai took different approaches to Shabbat, and really to life. Shammai would constantly be on the lookout for delicacies that he could serve on Shabbat. Even if he already bought a fine beast, he would look for a better one and compare it to the first. The impression here is that Shammai's life was an unending series of appraisals and evaluations. He simply could not turn off his faculty of judgment; Halakhic Man on steroids or, if you wish, a life-long appointment with an optometrist ("Is this better, or is this? Which is better, this or this?"). Hillel, on the other hand, felt that as long as one was living life for the sake of heaven, there was no need for the constant evaluation; one could live life as it happened.

In this passage, Hillel's position is not articulated in the form of a dissenting opinion. His position is introduced by the phrase "Hillel had a different demeanor" ("mida acheret hayta bo"). Similarly, in his response (and later in the passage, his disciples' response), he does not directly dispute Shammai's incessant appraisal, but simply quotes Psalms 68:20 "Blessed be the Lord, day by day." "Barukh Hashem yom yom."

This "dispute" straddles the line between halakha and aggada. Shammai acted a certain way, and his disciples transformed their stories about him into a halakhic position. Hillel does not get drawn into Shammai's impulse for constant evaluation, and his disciples resist the temptation to transform stories about their master into actual halakhic positions. The poetics of this short passage indicate that the Bavli has indeed thematized the divergent tendencies attributed to Hillel and Shammai, and subsequently to their respective circles of disciples.

One might ask, so what? What difference does it make if the Bavli conceptualized Hillel and Shammai in this way? What is the aggada le-ma'aseh? As I noted in yesterday's post (and here I am indebted to insights of Barry Wimpfheimer as well as Moshe Simon and Chaim Saiman), I think this insight is significant because it externalizes a certain tension that every rabbi feels to a certain degree. On one hand, there is the impulse toward rule-making, and on the other hand is an impulse to accept every moment and every individual with a spirit of generosity, without trying to impose an existing set of rules and standards on it. The rabbis of the Bavli felt this tension, too. Thus, although they engaged in formulating and standardizing law, they also expressed reservations and resistance to that attitude. My contention here is that the Sages externalized these opposing tendencies through the figures of Hillel and Shammai, and that by showing Hillel to be their clear favorite, they, in some way, legitimated the resistance that has accompanied the impulse toward codification, standardization, and rule-making every step of the way.

A New Venture and a Pre-Shavu’ot Podcast

noreply@blogger.com (Elli Fischer) — Mon, 13 May 2013 05:55:24 PDT

It has been an eventful few weeks. After three and a half years, I am no longer working for Jewish Ideas Daily. The parting was amicable and we did not discount the possibility of doing some work for JID or its affiliated projects.

The work that I’ve done for them, specifically building a model to take in the entire sweep of Jewish and Israeli news, opinion, and analysis on a daily basis, has prepared me for the next step. Together with Dr. Judah Levine, who worked with me for JID, I have launched a new venture called FindNeedles. We serve clients by going through vast amounts of content to find the items that are specifically relevant to them. Our process combines the power of machine aggregation with the human intelligence of curation. You can learn more by visiting our site, www.findneedles.com . And here’s a sample of something we recently provided for a client.

Please get in touch if you think we can be of value to your business or organization.

A few weeks ago, I gave a shi’ur in honor of my grandparents, as I do every year. This year I explored the uneasy and blurry relationship between halakha and aggada, between law and lore. I used the well-known stories of the non-Jews who came to Hillel and Shammai with the intention of converting to Judaism. The central thesis (and chiddush) of the shiur is that the figures of Hillel and Shammai are typologies that externalize rabbinic ambivalence about standardizing and codifying practice. I further argue that this ambivalence persists even after these stories are domesticated by halakha – that is, that aggada resists domestication and occasionally succeeds in injecting something of life’s messiness into the halakhic codes themselves. In fact, I argue, the impulse toward standardization of conversion and the impulse to resist standardization, both of which are manifest in contemporary debates about conversion, are discernible within the Talmud’s discourse; looking only at halakha or aggada simplifies the picture considerably.

This reading of the stories in the Gemara and the subsequent codification is both indebted to and critical of a recent work by Barry Wimpfheimer called Narrating the Law. I hope to have occasion to flesh this out further in a review essay.

Since the subject matter pertains directly to the upcoming holiday of Shavu’ot, I thought it might be of interest over the next few days. The audio of the shiur is available here, and the associated source sheet is here.

Chag Sameach.

Blowing out the Candles for Shalom Bayit

noreply@blogger.com (Elli Fischer) — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 03:41:42 PDT

The Talmud says that the reason the Sages instructed us to light candles at the onset of Shabbat is shalom bayit, tranquility in the home. Of course, on the most basic level, this simply means that we should not sit in the dark on Friday night, since it is not conducive to the evening meal. Over time, especially when light became a permanent feature of homes, the act of lighting candles became ritual, something that one does even in a room flooded with light.

But what if lighting flames in the home harms shalom bayit?

This question describes what goes on in many families with autistic children, according to Frances Victory, who has interviewed such families for her dissertation. Here's her report, from the Jewish Week:

And during the interviews, some mothers of a child with autism said they could not light Shabbat candles because they were afraid their child would “play with it, blow it out, touch it, or throw things at it.” It never occurred to me that lighting Shabbat candles on a Friday evening might not be possible for every Jewish woman who wanted to.

I tend to agree with the mothers here. The underlying purpose of lighting candles is shalom bayit, and it would seem ludicrous to compromise shalom bayit - to introduce fear, anxiety, and danger - in order to light Shabbat candles. One may technically use electric bulbs - even fluorescent - to fulfill the rabbinic instruction.

One mother, however, figured out a way to preserve the customary candle-lighting while keeping her shalom bayit intact. Victory continues:

One mother of a child with autism said this:
“We do light Shabbat candles and she (her daughter with autism) takes great pleasure in blowing them out. We do let her do that. She walks away when we light the candles but she comes back down when we sing Shalom Alechiem.”

It is worth reading the whole article. It is enlightening.

Karpas Platters and Do-It-Yourself Marror (w. pics!)

noreply@blogger.com (Elli Fischer) — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 03:24:45 PDT

This is how we roll at our Seder.

For karpas, a vegetable appetizer in a dip, we use different kinds of vegetables and different kinds of dips. Each dip has some sort of educational of symbolic value. This year it's:

Strawberries and bananas dipped in chocolate. These are generally considered fruits, but in fact their berakha is "ha-adama. " Great teachable moment (I've heard that R. Teitz of Elizabeth, NJ used to do this, for that very reason).
Artichoke - same reason, and also because we're having Seder with my gourmet sister-in-law.
Potato latkes in applesause - that's just becuase it's fun and yummy.
Celery in peanut butter - celery is a traditional karpas food among Ashkenazim, and peanut butter is so that my kids have very clear memories that our family custom is to eat peanut products on Pesach and not treat them as kitniyot. (see Igrot Moshe OC 3:63).
Parsley in saltwater, because that's what my forebears did.

For marror:

I accept Ari Schaffer's contention that horseradish is a relative latecomer to the marror menu and is likely not a true species of marror. It is increasingly common for poskim to recommend making the berakha of al akhilat marror on something in the lettuce family (several Israeli poskim say this, and I've heard that R. Schachter and R. Willig at YU rule this way as well).
Nevertheless, I have horseradish with korekh. After all, the Seder is about preserving and continuing memories, and I do not want to forget - or want my kids to forget - the centuries of sojourning in those cold Ashkenazic lands.
So what do we make the berakha on? Prickly lettuce (lactuca serriola) and bitter lettuce (l. variosa). It grows wild, as a weed, all over the place. I found enough in my (admittedly overgrown) backyard for the Seder. This is a really interesting plant that has a long history and some fascinating medicinal properties.

Strawberries and bananas dipped in chocolate, ready for use as karpas

Lactuca Serriola growing, picked, and in my son's hands

Rav Eliezer Melamed on Kitniyot (and the elusive mung bean)

noreply@blogger.com (Elli Fischer) — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 10:30:20 PDT

Over the past year or so, one of the project's I've been working on is the editing the translation of R. Eliezer Melamed's (thus far) 14 volume Peninei Halakha series, which is fast becoming the Religious-Zionist Shulchan Arukh. Our original plan was to release the volume on Pesach in time for the holiday, but we did not complete the work in nearly enough time. It will appear next year instead.

Nevertheless, we have decided to release one chapter as a preview/teaser. Embedded below is the chapter on kitniyot. In the introductory letter, I note that a lot went into making this translation as precise and accurate as possible, and nowhere is this more evident than in the list of kitniyot species at the beginning of section 4.

I spend about a day researching the identities of each species listed by Rav Melamed (all of which appear in earlier literature). The most difficult to pin down is a species called sapir in halakhic works. It appears in several lists of kitniyot, but without any translation into any other language. I eventually found that it appears in Rambam's laws of kilayim in Mishneh Torah. From there I contacted a friend who is a botanist and a talmid chakham. He did not know the identity of this species, but sent me on to mishna Kilayim 1:1 which mentions it among several other species of legume. R. Ovadia of Bertinoro translates it as cicer - chick peas. This species already appeared on R. Melamed's list. Rambam, however, translates it into Arabic as ma'ash.

From there I consulted with an Arabic-speaking friend, who was unfamiliar with the word but helped me navigate Arabic-language websites. We eventually found that it refers to a species known as mash beans, or she'u'it mash in Modern Hebrew. The English equivalent is "mung beans", and a look at cognates in other languages shows that both "mash" and "mung" descend from the term for this bean in central Asian languages like Urdu and Farsi. Mystery solved.

I bring this up as an illustration of the degree of precision used by Rav Melamed, and which we used in rendering his works into English.

Chag kasher ve-same'ach, and stay away from the mung beans.
Without further ado, Rav Melamed's chapter on kitniyot.

Peninei Halakha: Kitniyot by Elli Fischer

Ruth Calderon's Speech, Yair Lapid's Religion, the Temple Mount, and Tattoos

noreply@blogger.com (Elli Fischer) — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 01:25:11 PDT

Events in Israel and around the Jewish world remain as interesting as ever, and I've tried to contribute a bit by writing when I have the opportunity (i.e., when I'm paid to write; can't afford the lucrative work-for-free opportunities).

Having been inspired by Ruth Calderon's inaugural Knesset speech, I contacted several Jewish media outlets about translating the speech, and the New York Jewish Week agreed that it would be important to get this remarkable speech in front of the English-speaking Jewish world. The translation, like the speech, was shared far and wide and was adapted as subtitles on the original speech. Here is a link to my translation:
http://www.thejewishweek.com/editorial-opinion/opinion/heritage-all-israel

Yesterday's events at the Kotel have drawn, as usual, a global audience, but as many of you know I have long advocated viewing the struggle for women at the Kotel and for Jews on the Temple Mount as fundamentally linked. So in addition to the standard articles, we have this from Matti Friedman, exploring the increasing relevance of Har Habayit. He quotes me at the end of the article and links back to a blog post I wrote on the subject last year. Here's hoping that attitudes continue to deepen, soften, and converge.

Elsewhere on the Israeli scene, I analyzed Yair Lapid's well-known Ono College speech from over a year ago, in which he "conceded defeat" to the Haredim. It was a remarkable speech, which articulated a vision for a new type of Israeli secularism. In his tone, Lapid has certainly distanced himself from his father. But is that change merely tactical? Check it out:
http://www.jewishideasdaily.com/5979/features/yair-lapids-religion/

Finally, on a different note, I explore, in the New York Jewish Week, the ancient Jewish ban on tattoos. There is a talmudic argument about whether the ban is due to the perception of tattoos as a pagan practice or is simply not rational - whether as a taboo or divine fiat. I contend that this ancient argument continued through the medieval debate and continues to frame the contemporary debate as well. This was a fun article - it combines quotes from the Torah, Tanakh, Talmud, and Maimonides with references to Lenny Bruce, Amy Winehouse, Drew Barrymore, The Nanny, and Curb your Enthusiasm. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!
http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/short-takes/tattoo-stil-taboo

Work-Life Balance

noreply@blogger.com (Elli Fischer) — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 07:43:20 PST

I've been working from home as a freelance translator/editor/writer/researcher for over 5 years now. I've enjoyed much of it, but lately I have found that my work-life balance is completely skewed.

In simple terms, there are four competing demands for my time. There is work, by which I mean activity that generates or manages income in some immediate sense. There is family time. There is "down time". And there is writing the kinds of things that I really want to be studying and writing.

Ideally, I would love to get to a point where I could earn a living by writing the things I want to write. Realistically, very few people earn a living doing that. I would like to dedicate an hour a day to creative writing, but I find that the absence of any real division between work time and other time makes this virtually impossible.

So I'm on the lookout for a full-time position that would allow me to, for the most part, leave my work at work, and allow me to actually be at home when I'm at home.

I'm looking into various avenues, but the key will be to find something that can maximize my skill set - something that will take advantage of my skills as a translator and editor, my research skills, my varied interests, my critical and creative thought. I'm pursuing a few leads at the moment, but would be happy to hear other ideas.

Something to chew on (besides dried carob)

noreply@blogger.com (Elli Fischer) — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 15:05:07 PST

I've started writing somewhat regularly for the New York Jewish Week.
This week, I look at the custom of eating dried fruit on Tu Bi-Shvat and think about ways to "freshen" the custom to reflect the contemporary reality in Israel and abroad.

My first column, on rabbinic attitudes toward weapons, appeared a few weeks ago.
Enjoy!

A Note on Voting for "Threshold Parties"

noreply@blogger.com (Elli Fischer) — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 01:52:18 PST

Today's the day. I suppose most of my thoughts leading up to the election ended up on Facebook, not this blog. Alas, broken promises. Good thing I'm not running for office.

I suppose if someone is interested but is not "friends" with me on FB, they can subscribe to my public profile, as some 40 people have done. You'll be able to read and comment on the threads, some of which have been a lot of fun.
One final note that I think is of great importance, especially since popular blogs like Jameel's have taken the exact opposite line: a vote for a party that might not cross the electoral threshold is not a "wasted" vote, and is in fact the opposite - your vote may be worth even more than the average vote.
If the party you most identify with is so small that it has no chance of passing the electoral threshold, it might be wise to vote for a party that doesn't fit as well but that will almost certainly be represented. However, if you most identify with a party that is polling close to the threshold - at the 1.5-2.5% range, your vote is in fact worth double.
Chances are always pretty slim that your vote is the one that pushes your party's representation from X to X+1 Knesset Members. But in the case of the small party, your vote has the chance of pushing the party from 0 to 2 MKs.
The entire equation - figuring out what your vote might mean for how the excess votes are distributed at the end, how it impacts other parties, etc. - is pretty complicated, but the basic calculation, especially figuring that a particular party is already in a border area between representation and non-representation, obviously mitigates in favor of voting for the small party.
So if you most closely identify with Kadima, Am Shalem, Aleh Yarok, Eretz Chadasha (borderline - polling at 1.4%), or Otzma Le-Yisrael (I have not seen numbers for Da'am), then that is you should vote for. Doing so is no more a potential "waste" of a vote than voting for any other party, where your vote has just as slim a chance, if not a slimmer chance, of bolstering Knesset representation of that party.
Two side notes:
1) I am not endorsing those parties in particular (if it were even possible to endorse all of them without suffering from multiple personality disorder). I am merely pointing out that you should not consider a vote for such a "waste".
2) I am not taking a side on whether it is BETTER to have a multiplicity of small parties than a few larger parties. The bias of voters from English-speaking countries (and apparently Russians as well) is toward the latter, but over time, as I have come to understand Israel more intimately, I have come to embrace the multiplicity. See this article about Einat Wilf's new book, which makes that very argument.

Why is there no Knesset Party for English-speaking Immigrants?

noreply@blogger.com (Elli Fischer) — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 05:30:01 PST

Actually, there is.
Which one?
All of them.
That's the upshot of my latest post at the Times of Israel: Don't Vote for the Anglo Candidate

Comments on the Globes Interview with Moshe Feiglin

noreply@blogger.com (Elli Fischer) — Sun, 04 Nov 2012 07:30:00 PST

This interview with Feiglin is fascinating on many levels. A few comments are in order:
1) I think his views on non-Jewish citizens of the State of Israel are simply horrifying. He argues here that it's not racist to want to make them second class citizens because deep down they know that they're second class citizens.

2) I am extremely wary of someone - anyone - who confuses "my ideas about Judaism" with "Judaism." It's one thing to disagree with R. Elyashiv or R. Ovadiah on some issue within Judaism. It's another to imply that their views are not really the "Jewish" view.
3) I am in almost complete agreement with him about education: parents, not ministries, should have control over a kid's education, and vouchers would be excellent. The one place I part company is on the issue of a core curriculum. Free public education is predicated on the idea that it will make more productive citizens, and thus it is legitimate to condition funding on the teaching of content that will indeed accomplish that goal.
4) He seems to be an advocate of "compassionate conservatism", in which case the interviewer's invocation of Ayn Rand was pretty stupid.
5) I'm not sure how he squares his economic libertarianism with his views on unrestricted school vouchers. I can understand a perspective that wants to completely abolish public funding of schools. I can understand an argument that only core subjects should be publicly funded, and that parents should pay for discretionary education. I can even understand (but strongly oppose) a state that attempts to completely control all aspects of education. I cannot understand a position that is in favor of public funding of education but opposed to any sort of governmental regulation of how that money is spent. That's the worst kind of welfare statism, and completely inconsistent with everything else Feiglin says.

Israel Election Blogging?

noreply@blogger.com (Elli Fischer) — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 14:59:25 PDT

I love Israeli elections. It's like color war on steroids. The debate is really robust and interesting, though there's also a lot of garbage, and the media often plays a big role in shaping perceptions of particular candidates.

I find myself regularly commenting and debating such issue on Facebook, so I've decided to start re-posting some of my longer and more analytic comments here. I think it'll be fun if you want to stick around for the ride.

FULL DISCLOSURE: I view the Likud as my political "home" in Israel and have for several years now. Just a few weeks ago (before the merger with Yisrael Beitenu), I paid membership dues to the Likud for the first time. That said, no political party or politician will be a priori immune to praise or criticism here.

Anyone know how to import comments?

noreply@blogger.com (Elli Fischer) — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 00:52:14 PDT

The old comment host has shut down. I downloaded all of the old comments in a single file. Does anyone know how to easily import comments in a format that will automatically attach each one to the relevant post?

Thanks,
E

More Provocations

noreply@blogger.com (Elli Fischer) — Fri, 05 Oct 2012 01:35:55 PDT

Ha'aretz's "Anglo File" has an article in its weekend edition on Anglo (i.e., American, pretty much) opposition and discomfort with Modi'in's policy of barring non-residents from Anabe Park.

The article is here. Here's the bit where I'm quoted:

When Baltimore native Elli Fischer drove past Modi'in's Anabeh Park during the Sukkot festival this week, he witnessed firsthand an ultra-Orthodox couple being denied entry due to a controversial new policy that restricts holiday admission to local residents.

Fischer, himself a Modi'in resident, stopped his car and arranged to have the family of five admitted as his guests - but not before arguing with park officials.

"The policy is nothing but thinly veiled anti-Haredi bigotry," Fischer, a writer, translator and ordained rabbi, chided the park officials.

Last week, before the onset of the seven-day Sukkot festival, the Modi'in-Maccabim-Reut municipality decided to close the popular park to nonresidents of the three communities in its jurisdiction, citing "overcrowding." It's the latest volley in a saga that has pitted the municipality against the mayor of the neighboring Haredi community of Modi'in Illit, Yaakov Gutterman, who recently announced that its archaeological sites would be closed to non-Haredi visitors.

Fischer, 36, suggests the new policy is linked to an incident that occurred in the park during this year's observance of Passover, when a female performer at a concert was asked to step off the stage by Haredi members of the audience.

Nothing, he says, can justify the exclusion of citizens - a principle to which many among Modi'in's burgeoning Anglo community are particularly sensitive, he explains. "Americans in particular grew up with the legacy of the fight for civil rights as a part of our cultural DNA," said Fischer, who invoked the images of separate water fountains for blacks and whites in the United States. "I think it very much affects the way that we relate to issues of discrimination and bigotry, whether it's against Haredim, Arabs or African migrants."

ADDeRabbi, Agent Provocateur

noreply@blogger.com (Elli Fischer) — Fri, 05 Oct 2012 01:26:13 PDT

For those not following along at home, my fair hometown of Modiin has barred non-residents from visiting its spacious and beautiful Anabe Park during vacations and on Hol Ha-Mo'ed. This is a result of a pishing contest between Modiin's Mayor Haim Bibas and Modi'in Ilit's Mayor Yaakov Guterman, plus it plays into a strong anti-Haredi (and occasionally anti-religious) sentiment amongst a minority of Modiin residents (a political party, Modiin Hofshit, ran on an anti-religious platform and got only a few hundred votes for city council).

The new policy upsets me greatly, and I wanted to see how the policy was being implemented generally. As I got in line to enter the park, I could see that a few cars ahead of me the line was being held up by a Haredi family insisting on entering the park. Since the new regulations allow for Modiin residents to bring guests, I went and invited the family in as my guests. After a while, the guards let us in on that basis. Serendipitously, a reporter from Haaretz was there at the time. Her report is here (Hebrew) and here (English - paywall). The paragraphs relevant to my story are:

As the argument continued, a Modi’in resident, Eli Fischer, decided to see whether everyone was really being barred from the park, or only those in ultra-Orthodox garb.

“He’s my guest, let him in,” said Fischer, in an effort to help Tirnauer, at first without success. The guards checked Fischer’s identity card, and then started questioning Tirnauer and his family about their relationship. One of the ushers called a municipal security guard to help.

“He’s not really your guest, he’s here to make a provocation,” the security guard told Fischer. But Fischer persisted after the getting approval of his superiors the security guard allowed Fischer and his new acquaintances into the park.

“The park is empty, and I wanted to see what would happen, since according to the instructions that were publicized, [the park] is reserved for Modi’in residents and their guests,” said Fischer. “I don’t know why they were questioning me.”

The municipality said that the confrontation involving Tirnauer and Fischer was the first to occur since the instructions were issued, claiming it was a planned provocation by the media.
“During all the days that entrance to the park was restricted, there wasn’t a single incident, except for one in which a visitor who isn’t a city resident came with a reporter to create a provocation and get a headline,” the municipality said.

The Hebrew version also includes a Gemara that I cited for the benefit of the reporter, from Sukkah 27b:
"All Israel are fit to dwell in a single sukkah."

iBavli Out-takes

noreply@blogger.com (Elli Fischer) — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 01:04:23 PDT

The good folks at JRB have graciously allowed Shai and me to post some of the material (it was about half, maybe a bit more) that did not make the final published version. The excerpt he posted contains an extended musing on the arrival of digitization and media saturation as the twin axes of the information age, and what they might mean for Talmud study and authority.
Enjoy!
The Talmud in the Digital Age: Notes from the Cutting Room Floor

iBavli

noreply@blogger.com (Elli Fischer) — Sun, 09 Sep 2012 01:19:34 PDT

Shai and I look at what the digitization of the Talmud means, specifically reviewing ArtScroll's new Talmud app, at Jewish Review of Books. There was a lot of material that did not end up in the review, because this topic is extremely broad. Perhaps there will be occasion to expand on it in the future.

Thoughts on Yeshiva Student Deferrals

noreply@blogger.com (Elli Fischer) — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 03:36:49 PDT

As a taxpaying Israeli with two sons who will one day, in all probability, serve in the IDF (and also hopefully spend a good amount of time studying Torah seriously), I despise the fact that there are blanket military deferrals for yeshiva students. Its social and economic impact on this country are outrageous, as many have noted.

And yet, when I set out to study the history of these deferrals closely, I began to realize how difficult - even impossible - it would be to change this state of affairs. Many of us are used to thinking of Israel as an American or European style democracy, in which all are equal before the law. But Israel is not, and never has been, that type of democracy. From the earliest days of the state, it has been conceived as a form of consociationalism, in which Haredim were given a certain degree of cultural autonomy in return for their agreeing to join the state. The vast majority of the state, if it had its way, would abrogate this social contract, but can and should such an agreement be breached unilaterally? I tend to think not.

The Tal Law expires tomorrow. I do not know what the future holds, but I tend to think that the agreement will remain largely intact, and Haredim will continue to serve as a matter of personal choice and not as a matter of conscription.

My full analysis appears today on Jewish Ideas Daily.

Unrelated: here's a Times of Israel article on our Thursday Night event.

Utopian Musings: Jerusalem Hosts the 2032 Olympics, Commemorates Munich

noreply@blogger.com (Elli Fischer) — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 08:42:50 PDT

I scribbled something of a utopian musing on Israel and Palestine co-hosting the 2032 Olympics and how they would commemorate Munich's 60th anniversay. It's over at the Times of Israel.

Speaking of utopianism, here's an article from last week on Shimon Peres's Presidential Conference. Enjoy.

More utopianism? Take a look at this event that I am attending tonight and that I helped organize. Not too late to come on out if you're in the neighborhood.

Is utopianism even permitted during the 9 days?

The Cholent Pot: Between Melting Pot and Salad Bowl

noreply@blogger.com (Elli Fischer) — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 07:12:23 PDT

I've taken bits and pieces of old blog posts from here and tried to distill 6 years worth of lessons about being an American immigrant to Israel into a single blog post.For now it's over at TOI. I'll probably post it here in full over the next few days.

The Immigration Tightrope

noreply@blogger.com (Elli Fischer) — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 14:12:08 PDT

Readers may or may not know that the issue of illegal African migration to Israel has been on my mind for a long time now, and like everyone else I have no great answers to the dilemma. There is a fundamental tension between two basic instincts that are central to the Jewish state; almost every article I've seen on the issue espouses one of these instincts, but rarely both. Today's feature at JID is an article I wrote expressing the tension and looking for signs that the country is moving toward a responsible policy. If you find it to be a balanced and hopeful piece that does not shy away from criticism, if you think that taking a broad and complex perspective is important (and that my article succeeds in taking a broad and complex view) - then please share it. Maybe is there's enough optimism it will become self-fulfilling. Let's hope.

A separate issue involves the citizenry and how we relate to the migrants who are here, while they're here. As of now the country's record has been less than stellar. I'm trying to do what I can on the local level, and I hope to have an announcement about a larger-scale project soon, but this is probably a losing battle. I allude to some of the reasons in the article - basically, Israel hasn't ever worked through these issues before, so there is hope that with time and education things might still change.

This is the first of a series of posts and articles on the issue of African migrants in Israel that will appear in the next few weeks. Stay tuned.

NYT Misses a Big Part of Battir’s Cultural Heritage

noreply@blogger.com (Elli Fischer) — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 04:14:32 PDT

Yesterday’s New York Times had an article by Isabel Kershner on the efforts to get the village and area around Battir recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Battir is an Arab village southwest of Jerusalem that is home to an ancient irrigation and terracing system. Petitioners claim that this ancient system is worth preserving and is hoping to prevent Israel from building its security fence right through the area, which straddles the Green Line.

The villagers have petitioned the Supreme Court in Israel to have the barrier rerouted here to prevent the destruction of the striking beauty of the area and its ancient system of cultivation. A court decision is pending. The conservationists hope that a recommendation from the World Heritage Committee may help persuade the court not to reject the villagers’ petition…

“Nobody thinks that Israel’s security concerns are not legitimate or important,” said Gidon Bromberg, the Israeli director of Friends of the Earth Middle East, an organization that works to promote cooperation on environmental issues in Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian territories. But, he added, “there are alternative ways to bring about security without destroying 4,000 years of cultural heritage for the Israelis, the Palestinians and all of humanity.”

The article is fascinating, and Kershner is one of the better journalists writing in Israel for Western print outlets. Moreover, Battir would be an excellent choice as a World Heritage Site, though perhaps for reasons other than the ones cited by Kershner. There are some small bones to pick (for example, the article refers to the Green Line as an “armistice line”; one wishes that the arbitrariness and flexibility implied by that description would extend to all discussion of potential future borders between Israel and Palestine), but the biggest problem with the article is the egregious omission of perhaps the most significant chapter in Battir’s history.

Battir draws its name from Betar, the last Jewish stronghold to fall in the Bar Kokhba revolt. The fortress is identified with an area next to the present town called Khirbet al-Yahud – “the Jewish ruin.” The fall of Betar in 135 CE has been preserved in the archaeological and historical record as the final and utter defeat of the Jews, the last gasp of Jewish sovereignty for 1,800 years. Jewish memory – as preserved in the Talmudim and Midrashim – recalls Betar as a catastrophe of massive proportion whose implications for the future of Judaism exceeded even that of the destruction of the Temples. The rabbis viewed the fall of Betar, not the Temple, as worthy of adding a blessing to the Grace after Meals – a blessing that sought God in the minor miracles of an exilic existence and not in the divine flourishes of an integral Jewish civilization.

In fact, the Talmud offers an alternative explanation for the fertility of Battir: “For seven years [after the fall of Betar] the gentiles fertilized their vineyards with the blood of Israel without using manure.”

So Battir and its environs are certainly worthy of being marked as a significant site with Jewish as well as world culture. No doubt the ancient terraces are worth preserving. Yet if these hills are to be recognized as a World Heritage Site, they must be acknowledged, first and foremost, for its significance to Jewish history.

Cross-posted to the Times of Israel. Also, see Yisrael Medad's response to the NYT article]

30 Years since Israeli MIAs Disappeared

noreply@blogger.com (Elli Fischer) — Sun, 10 Jun 2012 22:07:45 PDT

My latest post at the Times of Israel marks exactly 30 years (on the Hebrew and English calendars) since the Battle of Sultan Yacoub, where Yehuda Katz, Zachary Baumel, and Tzvi Feldman went missing. Take a look.

I spoke about them a bit at the brit of my son, Zechariah Yehuda (whose name coincidentally is that of two of the MIAs - the two who attended yeshivot where I studied as well), 6 years ago tomorrow (Hebrew calendar); his brit was on the day that Gilad Shalit was captured.

Quoted in an Article on SSM in Israel

noreply@blogger.com (Elli Fischer) — Sat, 09 Jun 2012 12:36:43 PDT

I'm quoted in Michal Shmulovitz's article on same-sex marriage in Israel. I take the line (which I articulated more fully here) that Israel should have a civil marriage option, and that the civil option should recognize same-sex marriages.

The third-to-last paragraph of Shmulovitz's article is mind-blowing (yes, I know more and helped her with that paragraph; no, I'm not talking about it any further). The existence of lesbian couples who are keeping taharat ha-mishpacha (I wonder if they keep chumrot based on the chashash of poletet shichvat zera; by all counts, that should be, um, a non-issue) and covering their hair is the next step in the trend I discussed in my Orthosexuality article. Going back a bit further, to some much earlier musings on the subject of LGBT members of halakhic/Orthodox communities, I actually raised the question on this blog about whether same-sex couples should be encouraged to keep some form of taharat ha-mishpacha. Go figure.