The Evolving Jew

Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky is now purported to have stated that anyone who uses an iPhone is invalid as a witness, or as a mesader kiddushin. But why does Haaretz  report on this story  with the words "Prominent rabbi reportedly declares marriages and divorces witnessed by those who have Internet access invalid." Why "reportedly"? Why does Harry Maryles  write in The Jewish Press  that he's sure R Kanievsky was either misquoted or misled? Why isn't there a clear process of communication for "gedolim" to communicate to the Jewish world they supposedly represent? Why is everything hearsay? I know that the Charedi world doesn't work this way, but I wish there was a publication and verification process, like there is in the academic and reputable journalistic worlds. Otherwise, we depend on rumor and hearsay about what these rabbinic statements. We should not be having endless conversations about whether a famous rav actually said what he

http://evolvingjew.blogspot.com/2012/12/silent-nacht-holy-nacht.html

There's a new article on Huffington Post by Rabbi Shmuley Yanklowitz titled " 5 Reasons Being an Orthodox Rabbi Compelled Me to Support Gay Marriage " First of all, I want to say that agree with him 100%. But the point I want to make here is another one. We've seen this script before. Several times, in fact, over the last couple of years. A graduate of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah publicly declares support for something that Orthodoxy traditionally rejects. Orthodox Jewish social media then spends weeks obsessing over and over again about whether he can be called Orthodox or not. And in all the debate, virtually no ink is spilled on the actual issues he raised. And that's a shame. For the record, I support gay marriage, 100%. As a human being. As the right thing to do from my personal moral perspective. My religiosity is irrelevant to this issue. And whatever denominational label my coreligionists want to slap on me as a result is truly irrelevant to m

The unusual juxtaposition of Chanukah and American Thanksgiving got a lot of attention this year, and many people excitedly repeated the statistic that this won't happen again for another almost 80,000 years. What many people are unaware of, though, is the reason for this. It's not because of random coincidence. Rather, it's because of the slight "slippage" of the Jewish calendar relative to the solar year. The Jewish calendar is very slowly getting out of sync with the seasons. At the current rate, it'll take around 40 millennia for the holidays to end up in the opposite season from where they are now, and around 80 millennia to come back to their appropriate seasons. So in around 40,000 years, we'll be celebrating Pesach in the Autumn, and Sukkot in the spring. Tisha B'Av will be a marvelously short fast day, ending with an early sunset, and Shavuot will be associated with Christmas in popular culture. Thus far, most of our holidays and ritual

My hashkafa is closer to Conservative Judaism than Orthodox Judaism, yet I affiliate with Orthodoxy for the most part. I've often articulated it this way - aside from some small pockets  (think JTS or Hadar, etc)  in big cities (in which I do not live), nowhere can you find the living vibrancy that you can in Orthodoxy, nowhere else is there such a high level of Jewish literacy among many, not just a few, and nowhere else is there the mass observance of Shabbat & Kashrut. So I generally spend my religious time in Orthodox synagogues, though I reside at the very leftwing edge of that spectrum, and sometimes go to the local Conservative shul. But I particularly like this line by Sarah Miriam Liben, in her article on the gender divide in Conservative Judaism (men are becoming Orthodox) and her desire to stay true to her egalitarian Conservative Jewish ideals. Though she is talking about college campuses, I think this is applicable to the feelings of people like myself in the

It's very easy to attack or make fun of people's writing on the internet without thinking about them as real human beings, only caricatures. Rabbi Yair Hoffman wrote a piece on women's tzniyus the other day. He did put it out there, and he opened himself up to criticism. And cricize him many of us did. The piece certainly deserves strong criticism. I wrote a post myself, titled "Tziyus Fetish" This morning, Rabbi Hoffman himself commented on the post: "Actually I wikipedia-ed the information and never saw the issue of non-tzniyus drop-ffs myself. The information was brought to me by a number of women, a few of them. I wrote the correct halacha and do not appreciate the attacks on my character for simply writing halacha. I have been called a sexual pervert, a fetishist, and worse for this article - for simply writing halacha. I am not sure why people think that it is okay to do this. I am very disappointed." I obviously hurt the feelings of Rabbi

In response to the recent New York Post article by Gital Dodelson, Rabbi Dovid Feinstein, who I think is Avrohom Meir Weiss' uncle, wrote a letter disingenuously titled "Set Gital Free", when his point is to provide excuses for Weiss' disgusting withholding of the get, and to blame the situation on Dodelson herself. But the point of this post is just to comment on one aspect of his letter that is only tangentially related to the main topic. He writes: "Right now, there are 3 lives that are being ruined, or are at least on hold. Just look at Gital, the poor Agunah, whose personal life is in limbo at the prime time of her life, wasting away years. The same for Avrom Meir, as I watch his younger siblings, with their families growing past his." (the third life he references is their child, addressed in the letter's next paragraph) This reveals so much about the perspective of the Yeshivish community when it comes to life goals. His life is being rui

Someone named Yossi left a comment on my Gital Dodelson post from the other day with this link , containing a defense of her ex, saying that Weiss had agreed to binding arbitration in May and that she was the one who abandoned that arbitration. The telling sentence is this: "If Gital really wants a Get - it is clearly available - but only through good faith negotiations." How is that not withholding a get, and using it as leverage? How is that not holding her hostage to get what he wants in the arbitration? In what world is it acceptable to withhold a get pending the resolution of arbitration? In what way does this make his actions any less appalling? The fact that halacha has left a loophole which gives men power over women in divorce is horrible. In the 21st century, any man who utilizes that mysoginistic power, no matter the circumstances, no matter who behaved badly in the divorce, deserves all the public shaming that can be mustered against him. Let him give th

Apparently, Rabbi Yair Hoffman has too much time on his hands. In an article in the 5 Towns Jewish Times , he calls attention to a serious problem, that of women dressed inappropriately when dropping off their sons at Yeshiva, because they are heading for the gym and are dressed for exercising. Among other things, he writes: "What further complicates the issue is that many women are entirely unaware of the problem. They do not know that it is the nature of a pencil skirt worn with leggings to rise above the knee." The problem, actually, is that Rabbi Yair Hoffman spends enough time thinking about this so that he knows what a pencil skirt is (I don't) and is familiar with the details of leggings "a nylon-lycra blend" and that pencil skirts are apparently made of spandex. He also apparently thinks deeply about the necessity of "a skirt that entirely conceals the shape and form of the thigh" When do we start telling the truth, that rab

She would desperately like to be something else. But the "agunah" label is what has unfortunately defined her for the last 3 1/2 years while her ex has denied her a get. She finally went public in the secular press. The result is this article  in the New York Post. Even well over a year before this article came out, Gital had publicized her case against her ex husband, Avrohom Meir Weiss, resulting in protests outside his home and condemnation of him and his prominent rabbinic family (he is a grandson of Rabbi Reuven Feinstein and a great grandson of Rav Moshe Feinstein), which has strongly supported him. So they put out this packet of information to defend themselves. I looked through the information there and here's the thing. Maybe she's the guilty party here in the custody battle. Maybe he's right that he was condemned unjustly for going to the secular courts, when she put him in a situation where he had no choice. Maybe neither of them are blameless in

Originally a comment I wrote on Facebook on R Gordimer's article against Chovevei Torah: R Gordimer is both right & wrong. He's wrong in that he has a narrowly defined view of what traditional halacha allows, and he's wrong in asserting that the innovations regarding women's roles are unjustifiable in the traditional halachic framework. But he's right that certain statements about Torah MiSinai and Mashiach would have been considered outside the pale in any generation. Personally, I'm very sympathetic to Rabbis Farber & Yanklowitz. Their viewpoints are in line with my own hashkafa. But I am fully aware that my hashkafa not only doesn't fit in with today's Orthodoxy, it doesn't even fit in to the Judaism of the Tana'im, Amoraim, Geonim, and Rishonim. Today's Orthodox Judaism is a very narrowly defined (and distasteful) crystalized version of certain practices and beliefs in traditional Judaism. YCT's problem is that th

This holiday, many visitors to Israel are preparing to keep 2 days of Yom Tov, in contrast to the Israelis around them. And many Israelis visiting or even living abroad are planning only one day of Yom Tov. Here's what I don't understand. If keeping the minhag of your home country is because of minhag avoteinu b'yadenu, then the current practice makes no sense. The reason that the Jews in Bavel (Babylonia) kept 2 days was because they didn’t know when Rosh Chodesh of that month really was, since that time was set by the sighting of the new moon in Jerusalem. Even with the signal fires, the messages wouldn’t always go through, sometimes because of natural occurrences, sometimes because of Shomronim (Samaritans) deliberately lighting false fires to confuse the dates. Well, why didn’t they just send a messenger? Well, obviously, a messenger couldn’t make the trip on time. If he could, there would be no need for the much speedier signal fire system. So what about a trav

A comment I left on another blog, on a post about another outrageous statement a Charedi rav was purported to say: ------------------------------------- I know that the Charedi world doesn't work this way, but I wish there was a publication process and peer review, like there is in the academic world. Otherwise, we depend on rumor and hearsay about what these rabbanim say. These endless conversations should not be about whether a famous rav said what he is purported to have said or not. The conversation should be about agreement or disagreement with these statements. It's ridiculous that so much time is spent discussing who said what. If a well known rav makes a statement, it should be unambiguous and he can then be called upon to defend or explain himself. Vague statements from behind closed doors reported by followers with agendas should not be taken seriously.

I'm still working on my longer post about my thoughts in response to the current brouhaha about divine authorship of the Torah kicked off by R Zev Farber's article on TheTorah.com . However, in the meantime, here's a couple of quick thoughts that were originally a comment to this post . Rabbi Farber and others have sought to provide support for their views by quoting medieval commentators, such as Ibn Ezra, who questioned the divine authorship of very small parts of the Torah. Criticism of this approach has been along the lines of this sentence, by Yossi Bloch, in his post referenced above: "There's a world of difference between saying that Abraham didn't have camels or live until 175 and saying that he never existed." I agree that denying a Sinaitic event, or denying the existence of Moshe or the factuality of the exodus from Egypt is an entirely different level of magnitude than saying that some verses, or chapters, or even all of Devarim were n

Today, Harry Maryles wrote about the "off the derech" phenomenon, which many have labeled a "crisis". Harry makes some good and compassionate suggestions, such as families remaining accepting of their children, no matter the path they choose. I'd like to look at this from another perspective, with just a few short points: Who says that Orthodoxy is the right path for everyone? Even if you believe it contains ultimate truth, one-size-fits-all is a very doubtful proposition when it comes to religion. Young, autonomous individuals should have the right to make their own choices, and those choices should be respected, not seen as mistakes that should only be tolerated in the name of compassion and family harmony. Here is my biggest point: by declaring an "OTD phenomenon", Orthodoxy lumps all young people who have left that sect into one group. It lumps someone like Abandoning Eden , a blogger who is a successful academic and has a happy marria

This week's parsha (Shoftim) ends with the halachot of Egla Arufa, which also make an appearance in Bereshit Rabba 94:3 ---------------- Scene: Roughly 2 millenia ago, a group of rabbis are sitting around somewhere in the ancient near east, getting drunk on some good wine R. Yankel: Dude, this is good (hic!) stuff! 45 BCE! A good year. R. Chazkel: Gimme some R. Yankel: Hey, have you ever noticed that Rav Mendel is cross eyed? That's why his class is so noisy. He can't control his pupils! R. Chazkel and R. Dovid: Groan! That's terrible! R. Zevulun: Hey, when Hashem wanted to have a flood but save 2 of every animal, he didn't know who to ask. Then his buddy said, "I Noah guy"! (R. Dovid looks daggers at R. Zevulun) R. Levi: Hey, I once heard a good one from Rav Yochanan bar Shaul... R. Chazkel: (interrupting) No, don't say it. His are the worst! R. Levi: Hold on, this one is good! You know how Yaakov knew that Yosef was alive on

So much of the reaction to R Farber's big essay  has focused on whether he can still be considered Orthodox or not, whether Orthodoxy should nor reject him, etc, etc. If R Farber isn't Orthodox, than I definitely am not. Not being a rabbi or a community leader, I don't really care what label people slap on my set of beliefs. I'd just like to see more focus on what R Farber actually wrote. Is it a viable theology or not? (irrespective of labels). I'm in the middle of writing my own essay in reaction to what R Farber wrote and some of the other reactions, as well as outlining my own theology and how I approach the challenges of Academic Biblical study. Look for it here in a few days.

What is it that makes liberally minded individuals become mild racists once they become frum? Does entering an insular community mean you leave your egalitarian ideals behind and suddenly believe the worst stereotypes about other ethnic groups? It's just sad.

I was discussing the term "Orthoprax" over on Sefer Hapanim and how I dislike it. It implies people that secretly disbelieve in all religion, but only stay publicly religious for social reasons or fear of condemnation. Because of simplistic thinking, many frum Jews place anyone who doesn't adhere to the Maimonidean dogma in the category of "orthoprax", and assume that those like myself who don't believe in a literal Torah MiSinai must all be secretly irreligious. A more fitting term might be "Observadox"

Some archaeologists claim to have found one of King David's palaces:  http://www.haaretz.com/news/features/.premium-1.536594 One of the biggest problems I've noticed in these archaeological wars is that there's very little consensus on scientific method, as opposed to, say, the field of biology. Half the archaeologists (who also tend to be the loudest) seem to come with many many preconceptions & agendas, and they make wild assertions, both in the biblical maximalist and minimalist directions. And these aren't armchair archaeologists, these are the people who are actually carrying out the excavations. So it's very hard to get objective information about what was found, to have a purely scientific perspective. Ancient texts, including Tanach, are, of course, relevant to ANE archaeology. But many archaeologists seem to have already made up their minds about the Torah and then interpret what they dig up in light of those preexisting beliefs. There's no obje

From 2010: http://evolvingjew.blogspot.com/2010/07/should-we-really-be-fasting.html

Someone on Facebook, while making a point, claimed Judaism was 3,325 years old. Because it was relevant to his point, I felt the need to respond. Here is what I wrote: Actually, what may have existed 3,000 years ago was a proto-Judaism, an Israelite sacrifice cult. YHVH had physical form and lived in various temples, which were eventually centralized in Jerusalem, mostly for political purposes. The Israelites descended from the hill-dwelling Canaanites. This way of life ("religion" wasn't a separate concept back then) was mostly concerned with ritual purity and sacrifice. Judaism itself wasn't really its own thing till late in the 2nd temple period. (The Maccabees were most likely Sadducee). Rabbinic Judaism was a remarkable achievement, something that was built to serve the masses who lived outside the land of Israel, even while the beit hamikdash still stood. It continued to evolve after the temple's destruction, and it still evolves today. That's the Ju

Egypt has a big problem. Morsi was elected democratically, fair & square. On the other hand, he's Morsi. A new uprising may bring him down, and most of us in the west won't be sorry to see him gone. But what's next? Do they go to new elections? What if the results of those elections is another Muslim Brotherhood president? Will there then be yet ANOTHER uprising? On the one hand, the people of Egypt deserve democracy, as do all people on earth. But what if that democracy keeps producing a theocratic regime that suppresses the rights of women and ethnic minorities? I don't envy the Egyptians their dilemma.

In a Facebook discussion, someone asked: " How would an Aish Rabbi respond to Devarim 22:28-29?" Here's the relevant verses (JPS translation): כח   כִּי-יִמְצָא אִישׁ, נַעֲרָ בְתוּלָה אֲשֶׁר לֹא-אֹרָשָׂה, וּתְפָשָׂהּ, וְשָׁכַב עִמָּהּ; וְנִמְצָאוּ. 28  If a man find a damsel that is a virgin, that is not betrothed, and lay hold on her, and lie with her, and they be found; כט   וְנָתַן הָאִישׁ הַשֹּׁכֵב עִמָּהּ, לַאֲבִי הַנַּעֲרָ--חֲמִשִּׁים כָּסֶף; וְלוֹ-תִהְיֶה לְאִשָּׁה, תַּחַת אֲשֶׁר עִנָּהּ--לֹא-יוּכַל שַׁלְּחָהּ, כָּל-יָמָיו.  {ס} 29  then the man that lay with her shall give unto the damsel's father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife, because he hath humbled her; he may not put her away all his days.  {S} This is obviously extremely offensive to our contemporary sensibilities, and, I would venture to say, offensive by any objective standards, even if earlier millenia did not recognize that objective truth. But in the Ancient Near E

On Facebook, in a Jewish group dedicated to debate and discussion between believers and non-believers someone asked: "How can a book such as this, written with misleading passages, be used as a guide?" I answered: Short answer? It can't. Not so much because of scientifically inexact passages, but more because of the commandments of slavery and genocide called for therein. That's why very few Jews today actually use the Torah as any sort of guide for living. Rather, they use a vast body of interpretations of the Torah as their guides, interpretations that span well over 2 millenia. It is upon those interpretations that Judaism rests, not the original document (which even has interpretations in the actual text). It's not about the foundational text, admittedly a composite document of bronze and iron age legends and laws, it's what we do with it. 

In a discussion on Facebook, a friend (a non-believer, BTW) made an incidental argument that the Kuzari hypothesis a slightly stronger argument that other "proofs" for the Torah's authenticity. He does not believe that the Kuzari proof is any sort of "proof", but that since its claim is more philosophically based than empirically based, it's less disprovable, since empirical proof is not the currency of argument in the philosophical realm. However, the Kuzari hypothesis does rest on an empirical assumption of an unbroken chain of transmission of the mesorah since Mount Sinai. However, that very mesorah tells of several "re-introductions" of the Torah, such as Ezra's. Therefore, the entire "proof" is refutable in a somewhat empiric manner.

Sad - A Better Place, which was an ambitious project to introduce a very innovative business model for electric cars in Israel, is filing for the Israeli version of bankruptcy and liquidation. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/27/business/global/israeli-electric-car-company-files-for-liquidation.html I had high hopes for this back in 2010:  http://evolvingjew.blogspot.com/2008/01/israel-goes-electric.html Maybe it was just before its time. Maybe in another few years, someone will take another stab at it.

http://evolvingjew.blogspot.com/2009/09/god-does-not-exist.html

One side effect of "going public", so to speak, is that I'm looking back at a lot of posts that I wrote some 5 or 6 years ago, to decide if I want to publish them under my own name. In the process, I'm seeing how my thinking has evolved since then (which is appropriate, given the name of this blog). In a post titled "Women's ritual roles" , in March 2008, I praised the new partnership-type minyanim for giving women more of a role, and for taking up a time-honored tradition of "stretching (not breaking) halacha to enable women to expand their roles." Though I still greatly admire those minyanim for the work they are doing, I've accepted a more pluralistic perspective since then, and feel that there are multiple approaches to worship. I happen to affiliate with Orthodoxy, for the most part, but I have no problem with full egalitarianism. My way works for me, but halachic mores on shul seating and gender roles is entirely man-made, and eve

I've been blogging for over 6 years, under a variety of names, including Yehudi Hilchati, DYS, Rabba bar bar Chana, and Philo. This is a new blog in the sense that the site is new, and I'm using my real name, but I've imported most of my old posts. However, I don't feel comfortable posting them all at once, so I've kept them private and will gradually be making public the ones I feel comfortable sharing under my real name. That will eventually likely be most of them. But there may be a few posts where I've changed my mind from my feelings at the time, or ones that are no longer remotely topical, like posts about the 2008 presidential election. For the ones that I feel are still of current interest, I'll be putting up a new post pointing out the emergence of that old post, perhaps with some introductory comments. Hope this clears up any confusion! Thanks for reading.

I originally posted these under my blogging name "Yehudi Hilchati" in December 2007. My thinking on this topic has definitely evolved somewhat since then, as I no longer have a "salvage what I can of the dogma" attitude. But my basic overall perspective remains the same. I still see no reason not to see holiness and value in my Judaism. 1) Faith vs Evidence, posted December 24, 2007 2)  More on Faith vs. Evidence, Dec 27, 2007 3)  Answers to a couple of recent comments on Faith vs. Evidence, Dec 31, 2007

There's a new project out there called TABS, which stands for Torah and Academic Biblical Scholarship. It's got a lot of big name advisors, some of whom I've heard speak, and was founded by Marc Zvi Brettler and David D. Steinberg. The website, www.thetorah.com, seems to be a site for religiously committed Jews who nonetheless accept the scholarship of the documentary hypothesis. That's me, so I was very happy to discover it! The site is definitely a work in progress, but they do have a few things posted. One is an overview of the various different approaches for dealing with modern biblical scholarship. The list includes: Cumulative Revelation Myth of Origin Core Revelation The Maculate Torah The Interpreted Torah as Service of God Rejection of Dogma Sanctified by the Community Aspects Theory Liberal Supernaturalism The full list and accompanying descriptions of each approach is here:  http://thetorah.com/current-approaches/ My personal sympathie

Well, not really. I've been blogging since 2007, under a variety of names. But I'm leaving my pseudo-anonymity behind. Here's what I wrote on my old blog (of the same name, but on Wordpress) today: A new chapter for me I realize I haven’t posted much in the past couple of years. My heaviest blogging time was probably around 2008-2010. Lately, I’ve been more focused on what I love about Judaism, and a more positive perspective. That doesn’t change my opinions about the authorship of the Torah, or about issues that confront Judaism today. But I want to be able to have a public dialogue about these ideas and issues. I want to be able to chat in shul with a friend about something that excites me in the parsha and comfortably point him to a post on the topic on my blog. Yes, some of my ideas may be unorthodox (pun intended), but I’m at an age, and I live in a community, where I don’t feel like I need to hide certain ideas out of fear of possible repercussions. I am a rel