Why don't Jews have confessions like with priests and stuff? I think they could be useful. 
-Sophie


What an interesting question! I think the most useful element of "confession" with a priest is that it is done in the presence of a person (even if one can't see who the person is). That adds a sense of shame/embarrassment for having done the sin because there is another *person* that knows about it, and it also adds some accountability because one will feel worse if they do it again, and need to confess to having done it again.


In Judaism, we actually do have "confession." We have the concept of vidoy-articulating our sins (to G-d, not to a person)-as part of the mitzvah of Teshuva. We often forget that Teshuva is a mitzvah temidi-a constant obligation--not one that just exists around the time of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. 


So why do we not say our sins to a person?
 1) To remind ourselves that it is GOD that we are "disappointing" when we sin, and not another human being. The "danger" of confession is that it is easy to make the mistake that it is the priest we are disappointing. But at the end of the day, who cares? We don't need to answer to human beings; we need to answer to God! That is definitely more challenging and scary, but that's the truth! 


 2) To emphasize that Judaism posits that we can each forge a PERSONAL connection with God. We do not need an intermediary. What an opportunity, to have a direct connection to God! 


 So, while confession in the presence of a priest may help one feel worse about sinning and may be more of a deterrent not to sin again, it ultimately misguides one to believe that she is sinning against the priest, and, if she hasn't already forgotten, that she can only connect to God through the priest.

The Pirkei Avot Challenge

A friend of mine showed me this video last night. Kyrie Irving, the NBA rookie of the year, dresses up as an old man and then joins a pick-up game of basketball. What quote from Pirkei Avot can be a message you take from this video? I presented this "Pirkei Avot Challenge" to some of my classes today, but let's see how the rest of you do.  If you get it right, you win a prize (probably candy from my office - sorry, not so exciting). Good luck!

A New Hatikvah?

Recently, my Jewish Philosophy class discussed the Middle East conflict and spent time playing the game Peacemaker, trying to create a peace treaty between the Israelis and Palestinians. Last class, we watched a video where Neshama Carlebach (at the request of the newspaper The Jewish Daily Forward) came up with a new version of Hatikvah, one that is a little more universal and that both Jews and Arabs living in Israel could relate to. In class, we debated our thoughts about this new version of Hatikvah. Is it important that Hatikvah be an anthem that all citizens of Israel feel comfortable singing? Or, is it ok for Hatikvah to be a uniquely Jewish anthem? Should it make a difference that many Jews feel very connected to the emotional words of Hatikvah and the fact that it mentions the connection Jews feel towards Israel and Jerusalem or is this exclusionary to a large amount of Israel's population who also feels connected to the land? Either way, it's an interesting discussion to be had - especially the week before Yom Yerushalayim! You can read more about it here.

Pesach - the Sequel

Today we celebrated Pesach Sheini by not saying tachanun.  Many have a minhag to eat Matzah as well (I got some at the barbecue I attended -- Thanks Rabbi & Mrs. S.).  The reason there is such a holiday is because back in the desert, Jews who were טמא on פסח, and couldn't bring the קרבן פסח asked למה נגרע? Why should we lose out?  One lesson we can take from their story is in their approach to מצות.  They viewed a mitzva as an opportunity, and the loss of that opportunity something to fight against.  There is great irony in that the chief celebration is omitting Tachanun.

At the same time its important to realize that all they did was ask.  They happened to receive the answer they wanted, so we can't know how they would have reacted had Hashem said no.  Also, it would be Hashem Himself turning them down.  Still, the question of למה נגרע can become a dangerous one depending on where the conversation leads.  At a certain point we have to remember that we don't understand everything.

Yom Ha'atzmaut

In the spirit of Yom Ha'atzmaut, I wanted to share an incredible video which I showed my Gemara class this morning. It's called "The Volunteers: Answering the Call of History" and it tells the story of different young men and women who left their homes in the USA, England and South Africa to volunteer to help Israel in 1947-1948. They helped smuggle Ma'apilim (illegal immigrants) past the British, joined the Palmach and helped smuggle guns to the new Israeli State and put their lives on hold in order to help Am Israel and Eretz Israel. One of the people being interviewed talks about why he left Harvard Law School in order to smuggle immigrants into Palestine in 1947. He says that he couldn't continue life as normal in Boston knowing that Jewish History was unfolding in Israel and that he could be a part of it. I found this to be an extremely powerful statement and I think it sets a tremendous example of the personal sacrifices one can make on behalf of Medinat Israel. Chag Ha'atzmaut Sameach!

Yom HaZikaron

As we are about to start commemorating Yom HaZikaron, I wanted to share two stories that I found to be especially powerful: "The Club No One Wants to Belong To" and "Dudu and Moshe: A True Yom HaZikaron Story".

The Big Day

Here is some material posted in advance of שבת הגדול in years past.

We're just a couple of hours from שבת הגדול.  My daughter thought that it was שבת הגדה, which is not that far off, as one of the only minhagim for the day is to say a portion of the Hagada on שבת afternoon.  (It also makes a nice parallel to the commonly misstated שבת תשובה.)  You might also have thought that it got its name from the other minhag - that the Rav (or Gadol) gives a דרשה - a lengthy talk usually divided between lomdus, halacha and hashkafa.  Really it is called שבת הגדול - "the Great Shabbat" - because it is when the great miracles started in Mitzrayim.  That year, the 10th of Nissan, when the Jews took the קרבן פסח into their home while the angry Egyptian could do nothing but watch, was on שבת.
It is curious that we celebrate it on the day of the week (like Thanksgiving or Memorial Day), rather than celebrating the calendar date - like all other significant days in Jewish life.  The באר היטב asks the question, and points us to the חוות יאיר (I assume), which I haven't had a chance to look up yet.  If anyone knows the answer, please let me know.

And a response from Tzipporah Herzfeld:

So I don't know if this is the answer, but I read something that Rabbi Yossi Marcus wrote online that the 10th of Nissan, when we should be celebrating the mitzvah of the korban Pesach, was also the date that Miriam died. So we celebrate the mitzvah of the korban on the Shabbos before Pesach because the 10th of Nissan was established as an unofficial fast day to commemorate Miriam's death, therefore we shouldn't be celebrating anything on that day.

And the post-script:

• On the advice of our lunch guest, I found Tzipporah's answer to Friday's question in the ערוך השולחן.  He also gives another answer:  The splitting of the Yarden, a lesser miracle, also took place on י' ניסן, and we don't want to dilute the celebration of the miracles of מצרים by adding other miracles.  It was apparently quite a day.  It's interesting that we don't find a similar concern for אבילות on Tisha B'av or י"ז תמוז, where we have many reasons for mourning, some more powerful than others.  Even at the ליל הסדר, we associate the night with other historical miracles that occurred through the generations - see ויהי בחצי הלילה.
• An anonymous student also pointed out that the Drasha by the Rabbi (= Gadol) is one of the suggested reasons for the name שבת הגדול.

• Rabbi Zev Rifkin, a local Rosh Kollel spoke about בדיקת חמץ.  He asked, no matter how good a בדיקה we do, it's not fully sufficient - are we re-examining the oven?  So he defended the current "minhag" of doing only a cursory / ceremonial search, and says that once we have spent weeks cleaning and searching for chametz, all of the rooms in our home are בחזקת בדוק, and no longer require בדיקה at all.  If so, how do we justify our ברכה?  Isn't it לבטלה?  Therefore, he said that it is appropriate to leave a small section of your home uncleaned at all  (a cabinet, a knapsack etc.), and do that during בדיקת חמץ, in addition to the charade of finding the 10 pieces of chametz that are set out.  I mean to check with other Rabbanim to see if this is a mainstream view.

 

A Nice Thought on the Parsha

In honor of '90s day during breakfast, there was no Mishmar AM today, so here is an idea about Parshat Tzav from my friend Rabbi Dan Lifschitz.

"Command Aaron and his sons, saying, 'this is the law of the olah-sacrifice...'"  (Lev 6:2)
The midrash on this verse comments:  "Command (tzav) is always a language of encouragement... the Torah had to give extra encouragement here because of the monetary loss involved."  Subsequent commentators have struggled to explain what the midrash had in mind.  Ostensibly, the mitzvah of the olah-sacrifice doesn't stand out as a particularly costly one; why does this mitzvah require more encouragement than everything else?
R' Yosef Shaul Natanson (cited by R' David Silverberg) explains that unlike other sacrifices, the olah had to be burned completely, requiring a large amount of firewood.  The Sages teach that the firewood on the Temple altar was actually unneeded, since G-d would always provide a miraculous flame.  Despite this, the kohanim were commanded to purchase and place it there.  Not only were the kohanim spending a lot of money for firewood to burn the olah-sacrifice, they were spending it on something seemingly superfluous.  That was the uniqueness of this "monetary loss;" unlike the mitzvah of matzah, where unless you buy or bake matzah you won't have it, the expenditures for burning the olah could feel like a waste of money, and that's why the extra encouragement was important here.
There is a general lesson for us to draw from this technical explanation.  In one sense, the firewood on the altar was not needed since G-d would keep the fires burning at any rate.  But in another sense, it was necessary for the kohanim to provide the wood in order to take an active role in sustaining their relationship with the Almighty.  G-d desires to be close to us, but for that to happen we need to put in effort too.  We have to make sacrifices (monetary or otherwise) and play our part.  These sacrifices need encouragement, but they are well worth it in the end.  Shabbat shalom.

This is a beautiful thought, that is particularly relevant to many of us.  People often wonder why Hashem needs our tefillot.  The answer is that He doesn't, but that they are essential anyway.
Have a great Shabbos.

What is so "Gadol" about this Shabbat?

This week is the Shabbat before Pesach. This Shabbat is called "Shabbat HaGadol." It is NOT one of the "arba parshiyot" (this used to confuse me a lot!), meaning that it does not have a special maftir, but it does have a special haftarah. Traditionally, shul rabbis give a lengthy d'rasha in the afternoon (The Shabbat HaGadol Drasha) dealing with some of the halachot of preparing for and observing Pesach.

I have long wondered why this Shabbat is called "HaGadol"; there is no other Shabbat HaGadol before any of the other chagim. One would think, if anything, that the Shabbat before Rosh Hashanah would be special The Shabbat before Rosh Hashanah actually passes unremarked. It doesn't even have "m'varchim hachodesh" (blessing the upcoming new month) that all the other months of the year have. Even though Sukkot also requires a great deal of preparation--building a sukkah, buying arba minim-doesn't get its own "Hagadol". (Remember that it used to be very difficult to build a sukkah and even more difficult to obtain an etrog.) It seems that not onlyLeil HaSeder is different from all other nights; why is Chag HaPesach so qualitatively different from all of the other Chagim in the Torah?

I know that there are many answers given. I would like to offer the following thought. Pesach was the first chag. It was the first time that we, as a nation, as people free from any master other than Hashem, were able to celebrate together. It was our "Birthday" so to speak. You don't remember the day you were born. You look back on it, however, every year and celebrate it. You anticipate you birthday. You think about how you will spend it, who will spend it with you, are you going to have a party, are you going to get presents. On the day itself, you can be the center of attention, and the day is punctuated with "happy birthday" wishes, maybe some cake, maybe some presents, but all around, a sense of celebration.

The Shabbat before Pesach begins the countdown, the anticipation for our national Birthday. We are getting excited (and overwhelmed) by what Pesach really means. Pesach is the freedom to practice our religion, have our calendar, serve our G-d, speak our language, use our names, and raise our children as free people to do the same. (Living in America, that freedom is sensed even more, because it is legal and protected by the government.) Even during the depths of all the horrible persecutions Jews have endured throughout history, they have still marked this Birthday and have praised Hashem for it. That really IS a "big deal".

The word "Gadol" refers to magnitude--it can be size, weight, height, numbers or importance. Perhaps this is why this Shabbat, the Shabbat the inaugurates the week of our Birth as a Nation (thank you D. W. Griffith for the title!) really deserves to be called "HaGadol."

Shabbat (HaGadol) Shalom!

Mrs. Leah Herzog

So What's Wrong with Cheating?

A question was asked to the blog: What is wrong with cheating?

I actually thought about this question for a while before I decided to respond. On its face, cheating, especially the more "benign" version that occurs on school-given exams, doesn't seem so terrible. As a matter of fact, one could even see cheating as a form of collaborating or helping. If we encourage group work in class, why not "group work" on exams or other situations where you are expected to do your own work? Who really cares if you cheat in elementary, middle or high school? It isn't going to hurt anyone...

But it does. And on so many levels.

First of all, cheating is theft. You are stealing from whoever is giving the exam, who is assuming that the work that has your name on it is, in fact, yours. In halacha, this is caled "g'neivat da'at". If you and your friend collude (agree) to cheat, you are both stealing from the examiner. You are both partners in crime. If you cheat off an unwilling classmate, not only are you stealing from the examiner, you are stealing from the other person. In American law, that is called intellectual property and lawsuits abound in this realm. It is theft, it is subject to prosecution, and, in this technological era, it is very serious business.

But on a deeper, more profound level, you are stealing from yourself and from the community as a whole. You are putting your name to something that you didn't do. You are taking credit for somthing that is not yours. You are lying to yourself, to your teacher and to everyone in your class. You are breaking a rule. Like them or not, rules are necessary to keep society functioning. There is a great children's book called "No Rules for Michael." Michael hates rules, so one day, his teacher decides that there should be no rules in the classroom or on the playground. At first, Michael is thrilled--he can take whatever he wants. But so can everyone else--he gets pushed off the swing, the tricycle, gets cut in line and ends up just as miserable as when there were rules. No one likes to be told 'that's the rule", especially when the rule doesn't work in your favor. But the rules that protect others also protect you. If you steal from someone else, then whey shoudln't they steal from you? That's what a society of "chamas" (like during Noach's time or Ninveh at the time of Yonah) is: a society where there is no respect for things (including spouses, property and lives) of anyone else.

I know, I know--cheating is not murder or adultery or even grand theft. Or is it? It has come out that Bernie Madoff starting cheating--and getting away with it--in high school. The Gemara talks about what happens when one does an aveira, even the most seemingly benign one: the first time you feel terrible, the second time you can rationalize and by the third time "na'aseh lo k'heter." So by the third time you cheat (or allow someone to cheat off you) it no longer seems like a big deal It no longer seems wrong. "Everybody does it." And until your spot on a team or in a college is taken by another cheater, it isn't. Until you are treated by a doctor or lawyer or other professional who has cheated through school, it isn't. Until you buy what you think is the "real deal" and then realize that it isn't, it doesn't matter.

Finally, this is what I tell my own children and my students: At the end of each day, the only one you have to answer to is yourself. You have to be at peace with the you in the mirror. If you can look at yourself in the mirror, look at who you are and what you've done that day, and can honestly say that you have done your best that day, then you can go to sleep content with yourself. If you feel that you haven't done your best, then you can strive to do better tomorrow. So if you can go to bed at night knowing that you have cheated, that you have taken credit for something that isn't yours, knowing that you'd be okay with having something of yours taken or taken credit for, then you can go to sleep.

If you can't, then strive to do better.

For the record, I have never cheated in my life. I can say that honestly. I make many, many mistakes every day and have made many, many, many over my life, but cheating is not one of them. I am proud of that.

Shabbat Shalom.

Mrs. Leah Herzog

Pesach on Youtube

Let's start with one that I love and post every year:

Aish makes a lot of videos - this one is particularly well done:

Here's one that was going around last year:

And one more on the symbolism of chametz an matza:

Hope these start to get you into the mood.

Congratulations!!! 25,000 Page Views

At some point over the weekend, we had our 25,000th page view.  To be fair, it's a lot more than that - they started counting about 5 months in, and those were some of the biggest months that we had around here.  Hope to re-post another of our greatest hits soon, as well as some pre-Pesach material.  Thanks to all of the contributors, and most importantly to you readers out there, and here's hoping we hit 50.000 a little faster.

More on Starbucks

Seeing Mrs. Block's post on Starbucks, and especially in light of the fascination my Freshman Gemara class with my own coffee habits, I wanted to chime in.  On the other hand, there are still two juniors who are doing their project for Hilchot Kashrut class on this exact topic, so I don't want to do all of their homework for them.  Here are some sources for further review:

• The CRC out of Chicago recommends avoiding almost all products at full service Starbucks stores, but is lenient regarding kiosk-type stores.
• Rabbi Aryeh Lebowitz is more lenient regarding the full service stores, but listen for details.  A quick word on this and other of his shiurim: Rabbi Lebowitz has a series of ten-minute shiurim on a wealth of topics that allows you to gain a real (if second hand and somewhat superficial) understanding for the minimal investment of just ten minutes - highly recommended.
• I found a website devoted to the kashrus status of Starbucks.  It allows you to enter in your kashrut criteria, which you should get from your own posek, and then adapts it to the facts as they are in Starbucks.  I can't vouch for their reliability, but at first glance it seems like they know what they are talking about.
• My understanding after a conversation with the OU a while back is that it depends on different types of dishwashers in different stores, but I need to refresh my memory before restating it authoritatively.

In the end, happy drinking and be careful out there.

Starbucks

An anonymous student asks "what exactly is kosher at Starbucks?"


Just like most things, it definitely depends who you ask. The Star-K (one of the major kashrus organizations in America) recently published an article and chart discussing this issue after having conducted their own research.

This is the link- www.star-k.org/Starbuckschart.pdf to the chart and from there you can click on their article.

I would ask you LOR, since I'm not sure everyone agrees with the Star-K's conclusions.

Screen Smasher

Rabbi Meir Orlian (Mrs. Orlian's brother in law), publishes a weekly column about practical חושן משפט (money & business) issues.  I often find them as part of a pamphlet that is distributed in some local shuls.  It is a very readable presentation of the rules working off of realistic, contemporary stories starring his hero, Rabbi Dayan.  Here is this week's installation about someone who caused his friend to damage his own laptop screen.  I think you'll enjoy it.

Size Doesn't Matter--Why Shavuot is Short

Ilana Techer, from the yellow (Regalim) team, asks:

Why is Shavuot so short compared with Pesach and Sukkot? This is especially puzzling since Shavuot celebrates our getting the Torah.

In the style of the Gemara, let me deal with the second question first. Shavuot actually does not celebrate Matan Torah. We do not know the exact date of Matan Torah, as it is not explicitly mentioned in the Chumash. What we do know is the Bnei Yisrael arrived at Har Sinai on Rosh Chodesh Sivan (see Shmot 19:1) and that Moshe went up on the mountain to speak with Hashem. There is a debate in the Gemara as to how many times Moshe went up and down, and whether each time he went up it was a separate day. Furthermore, Hashem tells Bnai Yisrael to prepare for "three days" and to be prepared for "the third day" (see Shmot 19). It therefore emerges that Matan Torah could have been the 5th or 6th of Sivan. Then it seems that Moshe added another day of his own; thus, Matan Torah was either the 6th or the 7th of Sivan. It is never explicitly mentioned. (Why this is so is a separate topic.)

Shavuot, on the other hand, is clearly the 50th day after the first day of Pesach (see Vayikra 23:15). In the Torah, Shavuot is a harvest festival, culminating the period when the an Omer (specified measurement) is waved and a Karban Omer is brought. It signifies the end of the spring harvest and it is celebrated as Mikra Kodesh (no m'lacha), with the regulatory karbanot. In addition, Bikurim, the first and choicest "fruits" of the harvest, are brought to the Kohen, who recites a special t'filla over them. We celebrate Shavuot to thank Hashem for a successful harvest and to publicly proclaim our dependence on Him for our survival. There are many parallels between Sukkot and Shavuot, as well as between Pesach and Shavuot. Some opinions see Shavuot as the culmination of Pesach. Some see Shmini Atzeret and Shavuot (also called Atzeret) as parallel.

There may be a practical reason why Shavuot is only one day: it is the middle of the busy spring/early summer harvesting and plowing seasons. The barley harvest is done and the wheat is being planted. Pesach is at the end of the winter, and Sukkot is at the end of the harvest. In both cases, we have the seven days to celebrate. Hashem is careful with the kavod of His nation, so Shavuot is only one day.

Finally, we know that in the Torah, size doesn't matter. It is quality rather than quantity that matters. A one day chag is not less kadosh that a seven day chag.

Go Regalim! (And Shabbat and Yamim Noraim!)

Mrs. Herzog

מלחמת הצבעים II

Two years ago we had Color War at a similar time, and I noted how ויקהל - פקודי were appropriate Parshiyot for it.  Here's the highlight:

 I once saw (I can't remember where) a nice explanation about why the main cloth colors were red, blue & purple.  He pointed out that red represents humanity, and blue symbolizes Hashem.  The purple is the combination of the two - the areas where we meet.  There is much rich Torah content to our next couple of days, highlighted of course by our 5th (now 7th!) annual  Chazara Bowl.  

Is it permissible to teach non-Jews Torah?

Everyone agrees that for the possibility of conversion it is mutar. L'shem learning,
Tosafot says that it is always assur. Rambam and Meiri write that it is only assur when the non-Jew is using it to start a new religion. The Seridei Eish has famous teshuvah where he relies on this view to allow Torah lectures in university to non-Jewish students. The Midrash Tanchuma Parshat Noach suggests that only Torah Shebe'al peh is assur because of the covenental relationship between Hashem and Klal yisrael, but Torah She'bichtav is mutar.

Adar Madness: A Postscript

A really nice article on the final game of the tournament.  Some highlights:

When someone peddles the script of Mirwis, Zach Yoshor and Isaac Buchine's run, they'll be asked to change the ending to something happier. The team that stood up for the Sabbath — and religious tolerance — the one that wouldn't stop believing even after it was told it would have to forfeit twice cannot get all the way to championship game and then lose, can it? 

No one in TV or the movies is ever going to accept this.

But in some ways, it's an even more perfect ending. For this was never about winning it all. It was about getting the chance to compete...

          My 6- and 4-year-old sons will likely never be regulars at a synagogue.

But I would have loved for them to see this Beren Stars team.
In victory. And even more in defeat.
Even as they wrestle with the emotions of falling just short in the big game, Mirwis and Co. could not be more complimentary to Abilene and its "stifling defense" and "great players."

Once again, yasher koach.  As a probably too big sports fan, it's nice to see a real kiddush Hashem on the court.

Bayamim Hahem, Bazman Hazeh - Update on the Beren Academy Basketball Team

They can play!  This is a wonderful resolution to the story, now they just have to win it.

And thanks Rachel for the passionate & insightful comment (see below).  I guess that's what happens when I don't edit my own writing, but I certainly did not mean to minimize the magnitude of what they did.  It's a great and inspiring story.

Go Stars!