The Evolving Jew

In a Facebook discussion, someone brought up a 2012 post of Eliyahu Fink's entitled " Dear Chaya " and I was looking through the comments and I noticed a couple of mine that were worth reproducing here. One commenter wrote: "The statement of  'women are second class citizens' , is absolutely against a true Torah ideology!!  ... as Jews we believe that women and men each have the equal opportunity to fulfill our DIFFERENT potential, not better, but different and unique!" My response was: "...that's a modern apologetic that all of us have heard ad nauseum.. And every person who presents it acts as if it's some giant revelation that those of us critical of womens' roles in Orthodoxy must have never heard before. Yes, it's become the defensive party line, but that doesn't make it any less a manufactured apologetic... just because you are happy with your role in Orthodox Judaism doesn't mean that you speak for all women ...

The New York Times printed a very nice obituary of Gil Marks , whose death is a great loss. I own and deeply value his wonderful "Olive Trees and Honey" cookbook. The current brouhaha is over this line at the bottom of the article: "Correction: December 11, 2014. An earlier version of this obituary misstated the location of Alon Shvut, where Mr. Marks lived. It is in the West Bank, not in Israel." I agree, the unnecessary correction does come across as insensitive, and would have better been left alone. However... 1) They probably got in trouble with some readers. I doubt they would have changed it without complaints. 2) Alon Shvut is in Gush Etzion, which, technically, is not part of the state of Israel, however much it feels like it and has been integrated. Yes, it was settled by Jews well before the state was established. Yes, in almost every proposed peace deal, it would be part of Israel. But legally, at least for now. it's an "administered...

In a Facebook thread, someone angry about the distortions he was fed by Judaism referred to "Chazal's crimes" and that their "lies" are what shaped most of the religion. This really bothered me. "Chazal's crimes"? Their "lies"? That's a worse distortion than what Chazal did. Were the ancient Greeks' misunderstandings about reality being composed of four elements "crimes" and "lies"? Was Aristotle trying to fool people when he maintained that the earth was at the center of the universe? They were men of their time who had at their disposal only the tools they were given. The very concept of empirical scientific proof hadn't been invented. They deeply believed in the divinity of the Torah and of the truth of the work they were doing. It's OK to still respect them and the remarkable work they did, while acknowledging that they were technically wrong. It's a distortion of history, shows a lack of ...

Back in 2007, when I started my first blog, my stated purpose was to start a new denomination. I figured that what constituted normative Orthodoxy had become too restrictive, and I wanted a big tent that could encompass basic halachic practice (shabbat, kashrut, etc) with the freedom of more egalitarianism, less dogma, compassion and acceptance of LGB's, etc. I'm thinking something similar now, more as a thought experiment this time, not to actually start a new movement. But I'm sick of all the scandal, the excessive chumrot, the heavy handed rabbinical control, the misogyny, the power plays, the conspicuous consumption, the condescension of anyone who doesn't seem "frum" enough according to others' social mores, the sexual shaming, the objectification of women, the worship of rabbis, the sheep-like adherence to "daas torah", the corruption of battei dinim and the Israeli rabbanut, the increasingly stringent demands of kashrut agencies, t...

There's far too much publicly available evidence now to hope that Freundel is innocent, that this is a misunderstanding, or that he was framed. He was visible on the camera numerous times, setting it up. The courts will eventually deliver a verdict, but at this point, there can be little doubt that Barry Freundel committed the crime. Now we have to ask ourselves some very hard questions. Many of us have blamed the occasional scandals of deviant individuals in the Charedi world on the cloistered nature of that world, and of the objectification of women that accompanies it. But Barry Freundel was a leading light of the Modern Orthodox world, which prides itself on opening up roles for women, where interaction between the sexes, while having careful boundaries, is acceptable. Where women are, supposedly, not objectified. Modern Orthodox women become doctors, lawyers, and professors. They are not cloistered in the home, told that their primary role in life is to become a mother. ...

There's been a lot of discussion over the last few days about the app being developed that might allow texting on Shabbat. Personally, I don't text much. I'm in my 40's, not my teens, and still prefer verbal conversation. But I can understand the appeal. There's definitely merit to the arguments that you can make texting halachically permissable. But the Shabbat observing public has halachic prohibitions, and then they have social ones. And for the past century, Shabbat has come to mean not using electrical or electronic devices. Personally, I'm very thankful for that. I happen to see myself as a pluralist, and I don't think anyone's required to keep halacha if they don't want to, and therefore certainly don't judge anyone for using a phone on Shabbat. Still, I would hate for it to become socially acceptable. It would change the entire flavor of the day. There's a social aspect to halacha, and social mores that have been established...