He Madoff with all the cash.....

B"H

Bernie Madoff has been in the news for some time now. For those of you who don't know who he is, he has apparently been running a $65,000,000,000 (that's 65 billion dollar) ponzi scheme, an enormous shell game, a con of monumental proportions. In the process, he swindled a huge number of people and organizations, including many charities. I doubt he single-handedly created the economic turn down we are now experiencing, but I have a feeling he made a big contribution to the cause.

(It seems, from what I've been able to glean, this was originally designed as a small con, but it's been going on almost 20 years and mushroomed....)

In any case, it's hitting a bit of a crescendo with Madoff being sent to prison, away from his "house arrest" in his gorgeous, expensive penthouse apartment. Legions of "fleecees" (people who were fleeced by the billionaire swindler) were in the courtroom or trying to get into the courtroom when the judge sent him to prison.

But, despite my anger at this man, despite my embarrassment that he's Jewish, despite my strong feelings that he committed not only an enormous crime, not only a sin, but a huge Hillul Hashem (loosely, a black mark on the name of G-d by not reflecting G-d as good), despite all this, I get very little joy in sending Bernie Madoff to prison for the rest of his life.

Why? Well, probably because sending him to prison, from my perspective, accomplishes nothing except pure punishment. The Tora, in my opinion, supplies the appropriate response to this.

While I don't want to go into a long halakhic (Jewish legal) discussion about the ins and outs and specifics, Jewish law calls for the repayment to the victim of anything stolen, often having to repay double or up to 5 times the amount stolen.

I much prefer this as a solution for two reasons -- firstly, it takes the needs of the victim, someone largely ignored in the justice system, into account and makes those needs paramount. Secondly, this system makes robbery, thievery, burglary, a potential loss of income. How many movies, TV shows, books, plays have we all seen where someone makes a big "hit", was sent to prison, but hid the money and came out of prison to live well on the money "socked away". In Jewish law, however, this couldn't be.

In Jewish law, where the stolen money or goods end up is irrelevant. It's not THAT money that needs to be "returned" -- the perpetrator is required to PAY the victim. Part of the problem with the whole Madoff pyramid scheme is that different people got some money and who gets to keep what when. In the halakhic system, this would be irrelevant. All that would matter is who Lost money and how much they lost. That would be what Madoff would have to make good.

Selling Mr. Madoff's extravagant possessions might go a long way toward raising the money to pay the victims. But so would having him work to pay off the victims. I prefer having him work for money and having this money (or at least a huge chunk of it) go to pay his victims for what he stole from them. I prefer having him repay what he stole with interest.

Unlike a murderer, who can never compensate for the loss he has caused, Bernie Madoff can. He can return his ill-gotten gains to Hadassah, Yeshiva University and the scores of other people and organizations who swindled. I would feel as though justice had been done if Mr. Madoff can be in a different kind of prison, one where he works hard and earns money to repay his victims' losses. That is justice. Having him sit in prison with murderers and rapists may assuage people's feelings of vengeance, but it does nothing toward helping the people he swindled to rebuild their lives. And that, in my opinion, is a travesty of justice.

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The Slippery Slope to gods of Wood and Stone

B"H

I was talking with my friend today about Israel. She was telling me about how much has changed in Israel since I was doing my "year in Israel" (mind you, I wasn't 18 when I did this.... but I digress). She was bemoaning the "Chabadish Invasion" -- the ubiquitousness of Chabad all over the world (including Israel).

I need to tell you right off that I think Chabad has done a lot of good work. But I have a major problem with them. A large percentage of Chabad people are what my friend and I call "Jews for the Rebbe". The problem is Avoda Zara.

I was listening to a "Tora tape" (a download) by Rabbi Akiva Tatz. He was talking about how the world went from believing in G-d (Adam and Hava -- Eve) to idolatry in the space of 10 generations and then again from Noah to Avraham. He said something that made a lot of sense.

What happened was that people started to think that G-d was too busy for their petty little issues. So they would say that since their problem was so small and simple they would just pray to an angel or an ancestor... this eventually translated into the mental creation of "smaller gods" which translated into people making images of these gods and eventually to them praying to the little gods.

This reminded me of what a friend of mine said to me once upon a time. She asked me why I didn't pray to G-d for help with my problems and I told her I didn't think they were important enough to bother G-d about. She asked me if I didn't think G-d could handle my little problems and I told her of course I thought G-d could handle them. I just didn't want to take G-d away from more pressing issues. But, she continued, didn't I think G-d could take care of all the issues? That made sense to me and I began praying to G-d directly about even the most seemingly insignificant issue in my life.

So what does this have to do with "Jews for the Rebbe" and other "cult of personality" groups? These groups offer up an intermediary. The problem with that is that G-d is available to everyone and when you begin to believe that you need an intermediary, you begin to fall down the slippery slope towards believing that your intermediary is a god. This is especially true if you have pictures of them hanging on your wall. It's a fine line between pictures and statues.

So what's the bottom line in all this? Trust in G-d and pray to Him/Her directly. Don't get bogged down in the whole "I don't want to bother G-d with my insignificant problem/issue". It puts you on the precipice looking down on the slippery slope to Avoda Zara.

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Like Lightning (barak in Hebrew), Barak is nice to look at but potentially dangerous

B"H

I have a friend who keeps sending me political e-mails. Up until recently, I was ok with that. But within the past few months, I have been getting e-mails from him telling me how wonderful Barak Obama is.

I do have a problem with this. Obama is not a friend of Israel and is not a friend to Jews. Quite honestly, it doesn’t matter to me how many nice things Mr. Obama has done in his life, it doesn’t matter to me how many of the issues we would see eye-to-eye about.

I am sure if you look really hard you can find stories about Martin Luther and Pope Pius XII that show them in a good light. You can probably find such stories about Torquemada and Queen Isabella. But it doesn’t matter to me how heart warming these stories are, these people are still anti-Semites, they are still Jew haters. Martin Luther said that Jews eat the dung of the devil. Pope Pius stood by when 6 million Jews were murdered. Torquemada was the early leader of the Spanish Inquisition, a 15th Century to 19th Century organization that murdered Jews (in Spain, Portugal, Italy and the "New World") and took their assets. And Queen Isabella, besides approving and supporting whatever Torquemada did, also was a party in expelling the Jews from Spain in 1492.

When I was in college, I took an art history class. One of the pieces we viewed and discussed was a relief from the Arch of Titus that portrayed the Romans taking vessels and other things from the Holy Temple in Jerusalem after they destroyed Jerusalem, burned the Temple and killed and exiled hundreds of thousands of Jews. When my instructor spoke about this piece she talked about the glorious victory Titus, the Roman general who destroyed 1st Century Jerusalem, had just experienced. I went over to her after class and told her about how this piece represents the saddest day on the Jewish calendar. When she put this piece on one of our tests, I spent the entire allotted time describing in minute detail how this frieze represented one of the most horrible destructions in Jewish history. I got full credit.

No matter how good a spin you put on evil it is still evil. No matter what nice things an anti-Semite might do, (s)he is still an anti-Semite.

It is the same with Barak Obama. No matter how you clean it up and spin it, Barak Obama is not going to be good for Israel. Barak Obama is not going to be good for Jews. So no matter how much I wish I could vote for someone who holds his economic and domestic political views, I can’t because being a Jew and supporting Israel are too important to me.

I have to tell you all, I am an unabashed Liberal. I believe in assistance for those less fortunate, I believe in higher taxes for the rich, I believe in a woman’s right to choose, I believe in women’s rights and gay rights and animal rights. I have never voted for a Republican for President. But, despite agreeing with a majority of the platform of the Democratic candidate for President, I can’t in good conscience support him. Why, you might ask? Because he supports the division of Jerusalem and he supports handing over to the Palestinians more land to be used to attack Israel. As Israel gets smaller and smaller and the PA territories (a.k.a. "missile launching pads" where the PA can launch missiles at population centers of Israel) get larger and larger, the Palestinians become more emboldened, asking for more and more.

And yet, there are people like Barak Obama who believe that peace will come if Israel hands over huge chunks of their already depleted land to these war-mongering murderers. I suppose he’s right – there is no one more at peace than a dead person. And if Barak Obama has his way, all the non-Muslims in Israel will be dead. And that’s the sort of peace I, for one, will not be voting for.

For those of you who think Barak Obama is not an anti-Semite, think of what you would do if your Rabbi stood up one day on Shabbat and started saying, if reference to other groups, the sort of things Obama’s minister, Reverend Wright, said about Jews. I don’t know about you, but I’d be out of that synagogue so fast. And I certainly wouldn’t be an apologist and I certainly wouldn’t want to consider him my mentor.

Obama has a commercial where Israeli generals show their support for him. There’s only one problem – these generals were lied to, told this was a documentary, and their comments were taken out of context.

Obama believes in appeasement. He believes, as did Neville Chamberlain, that terrorists and dictators can be mollified by reasonable people showing their willingness to find a peaceful solution. But students of World War II and the recent handover of Gush Katif (Gaza) know that people like Hitler and the leaders of Hamas see appeasement as weakness.

Senator John McCain and Governor Sara Palin, on the other hand, stand strongly with Israel and Jews. Sara Palin was planning on going to the anti- Ahmadinejad Rally and released the speech she would have given (which was a very good speech, in my opinion). McCain and Palin are behind Israel and understand the security issues Israel faces.

While I hate the idea of becoming a one-issue voter, I feel I have no choice. I feel the Democratic candidate for President is at best naive about the situation in the Middle East (thinking Israel can just decide to resolve it by doing anything less than handing over the entire country to the Arabs) and at worst anti-Jewish. This one issue then becomes a matter of survival: Survival of our rights as Jews; survival of the American Jewish community; survival of our homeland, our lifeline, our soul – Israel.

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Bageling

B"H

While going through some old e-mail in a vain attempt to clear out some room from my 70+% full mail box, I found this hysterical article (I googled it to find a link -- this is a link to it:
Bageling Article
please read the article and then come back here)

This article reminded me of an experience that happened to me many years ago. When I was in High School, I used to travel on the bus to NYC. Being the only person from my HS who lived in my community, I spent long hours (the ride was about an hour in each direction) riding the bus solo so when I found out that a friend of mine, who took a different bus but one I could take too, though it would take me a bit longer in each direction, was also going to HS in NY, I changed to her bus so I wouldn't have to ride alone.

One Friday, while we were waiting to get on the bus (and the crowd was light since we got out early on Friday) we noticed a cute guy probably not much older than we wearing a Kippa. Being that we both found him attractive, my friend whispered to me, "we've got to talk about school but don't talk about your Mr. or Mrs. teachers, only talk about your Rabbi teachers." This seemed like a good idea to me, so that's what we did. She ended up having a bit of a fling (as in a Yeshiva girl sort of fling -- as in they sat together on the bus and "made out") with him and I ended up riding alone again (at least until his stop on the bus).

I guess that was one "bageling" incident in my life. I've definitely had others -- talking to friends in stores about shul and hagim (Jewish holidays) and Shabbat and the like within earshot of someone I know to be Jewish (or suspect to be Jewish and want to test).

A number of years back, when my hashkafa wasn't disappearing from the face of this earth, I thought about how I can look at a guy and know he's Modern Orthodox (if he dresses a certain way and wears a crocheted kippa, for example) but how would a guy know by looking at me (I rarely wear anything that would be pick me out as a Shomeret Shabbat Jew) that I was Modern Orthodox too (I don't look particularly Jewish, though I don't look particularly non-Jewish either). My idea was to create a necklace (I used "shrinky dink" for the job) with two letter shins on it (standing for Shomeret Shabbat). I thought if I were to wear it around, people would ask what it meant and the idea might catch on. It didn't. !

Anyway, I'd love to hear your "bageling" stories. Just use the comment section and let's see how many stories we can get here.

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Going on the At-tax

B"H

I come from a politically liberal family. And my Mother went to public school (in a time before Yeshiva day schools were as common as they are today, thank G-d, KI"H). So we always supported property taxes as a way to contribute to the public school system even if we ourselves were attending Yeshiva day school.

For better or worse, many people from my generation don't remember a time or didn't live in a place where the only schools available were either public schools, private schools (way too expensive) or Catholic (or other Christian) schools. They don't realize what the choices might be for them (and their children) if the public schools were to fold, to cease to exist.

I say this because I seem, on a semi-regular basis, to receive unwanted, unsolicited mail that usually comes in envelopes without a return address and almost always expresses the opinion that property taxes are too high and that everyone should fight having to pay them especially if they have no family members who attend public school.

I find these mailings distasteful. They show, IMHO, a side of people that doesn't see the larger picture and doesn't see a Tora point of view. The Tora always encourages us to be good citizens, to support community services. Even if there were no reason that any Jewish child would be attending the public schools, it should be our duty, nay, our privilege, to support the schools that are educating our Gentile neighbors. We should be participating in every way in this endeavor because it is to our advantage that they people of the world be educated (especially those educated in the truth).

So if you're out there and you're bemoaning paying property taxes to support a school your children don't attend, see it as an opportunity to contribute to a better community, a better society and a better world (and while you're at it, volunteer at the schools if you have the time -- it's more of an opportunity to educate the masses).

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Losing our religion

B"H

By heritage I'm mostly Ashkenzic. But in my heart, I'm Sephardic. I think it might have something to do with Sephardic ancestors or maybe it's that I'm drawn to the Spanish language (and, by extension, or perhaps it's Spanish by extension, Ladino). I've been in love with Sephardic (and Mizrahi) culture since I knew there was a difference between Ashkenazic and Sephardic.

The Sephardic (and Mizrahi) cultures grew around the Mediterranean area where the weather is similar to that of Israel. Ashkenazic culture grew away from the Mediterranean area, in the more Northern areas of Europe (like Germany, Poland, Lithuania and Russia, all in colder climates than Spain, Turkey, Morocco, etc. where the Sephardic culture grew).

Because of the change of venue, Ashkenazic Jews often had to come up with other customs. An example of this is Marror (bitter herb for the Passover Seder -- in the Talmud, romaine lettuce is the preferred Marror but because Jews moved to areas of the world where romaine lettuce would not be available in April (around the time of year Passover occurs), the current more popular Marror in Ashkenazic communities is grated horseradish root.

Unfortunately, Ashkenazim (and I am officially Ashkenazic) have a tendancy to be chauvinistic (in this specific case I don't mean sexist, even though a lot of Orthodox and "black hatter" Orthodox have a tendancy to be sexist too). That is, they think only their way is right.

Often, the Sephardic way of doing things is different from the Ashkenazic way. Sephardim follow the Shulhan Arukh, a book of Halakha (Jewish Law) written by Rabbi Yosef Caro in the 16th Century. It didn't take long for the Ashkenazic community to start adding on to this work.

The biggest issue in this regard is that since Ashkenazim are woefully uninformed about Sephardic customs, they often interpret Sephardic customs, culture and halakha as being inferior in some way to their "brand" of observance.

I see this happen in just about every Sephardic community -- Sephardim often have to defer to the Ashkenazic way of doing things. Sephardim, consequently, are forgetting their customs and observances.

Since the Sephardic way is often the way of the Mediterranean area and, hence, the original Israel custom, it is important that these customs be preserved. It is wrong for Ashkenazim to treat Sephardic customs as substandard. It is wrong for Ashkenazim to push their ideas and opinions on Sephardim. But it is equally wrong for Sephardim to allow it. Sephardim should stand up to Ashkenazim.

When Moshiah comes, he will be the one to figure out which is the appropriate custom. In the meantime, all customs and variations of Halakha need to be respected. Always.

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