Even Ho'Ezer Siman 66

Here is a quick outline of some interesting points we discussed re: denominations with regard to
Kessef M'dina vs. Kessef Tzori
KM vs. KTz

1. Value of coins covers:
A. Even Ho'ezer re: K'tubbah
B. Yoreh Dei'ah re: Pidyon habbein
C. Tangentially; Orach Chaim re: Machatzit Hashekel

2. Q: What is status of Machatzit Hashekel?
A: No D'oraito because we use half of KM as opposed to KTz

B. Not even a D'rabbanan because no B'rachah...
C. Ergo a Zecher l'mikdash b'alma
D. Contrast this to S'firat ha'Omer - which is also a Zecher per most Poskim - yet also has a B'rochoh. So it seems to be at least a full-fledged D'rabbanan or even a D'oraito according to some.

3. What kind of Kessef is a K'tbbah for a B'tulah?
A. Rabbenu Tam: 100% D'oraito ergo KTz

B. Rif, Rambam, M'Chabbeir and others: 100% D'rabbanan ergo KM

C. Rosh, Mordechai, and current Minhag Ashk'naz: while the Rabbanan created the k'tubbah, nevertheless they insisted on d'oraito money - KTz. Perhaps this is due to "assu hizzuk l'divreihem". Ergo it is a hybrid.

D. Sheetat Agudah / Maharil as quoted by Rema - needs more elaboration.

4. Pidyon Habbein -
A. Still Mid'oraito
B. Ergo requires KTz

Kol Tuv,
RRW

‘Modest’ Bathing Suits Make a Splash: Leggings, Sleeves, ‘Skorts’ - WSJ

http://www.wsj.com/articles/modest-bathing-suits-make-a-splash-leggings-sleeves-skorts-1437702924

Kol Tuv,
RRW

JVO Blog: The Distinctiveness of Judaism – Midat Sdom and Sodomy

Jewish Values Online (jewishvaluesonline.org) is a website that asks the Jewish view on a variety of issues, some specifically Jewish and some from the world around us -- and then presents answers from each of the denominations of Judaism. Nishmablog's Blogmaster Rabbi Wolpoe and Nishma's Founding Director, Rabbi Hecht, both serve as Orthodox members of their Panel of Scholars. Nishmablog, over the years, has also featured the responses on JVO by one of our two Nishma Scholars who are on this panel. 

Recently, the Jewish Values Online website has offered a new service -- a blog which presents comments on various topics within Judaism and the Jewish world. See
http://www.jewishvaluesonline.org/jvoblog/index?aid=0. 

Rabbi Hecht is now also a blogger on this site and will be developing a series entitled  
The Distinctiveness of Judaism, 

His Second post  
Midat Sdom and Sodomy 
is now available at http://jewishvaluescenter.org/jvoblog/midat-sdom-and-sodomy

Muslim women expresses her support for Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount

The Jewish Standard:

A Muslim women expresses her support for Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount and a peaceful coexistence between all peoples. Notable is the interviewer is Rabbi Yehuda Glick, the activist who survived being shot in an assassination attempt due to his Temple Mount activism. Since his recovery, Glick has redoubled his efforts at building bridges with moderate Muslims who seek a peaceful relationship between the nations.

http://www.facebook.com/JewishStandard/videos/10153149133413717/


Kol Tuv,
RRW

Tisha B’Av: A Tale of Two Temples

http://jewishlinknj.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=8934%3Atisha-bav-a-tale-of-two-temples&catid=156%3Afeatures&Itemid=585

Kol Tuv,
RRW

Were Jews listening in 1940?

Remembering Jan Karski, the Catholic spy who warned about the Holocaust

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/deaconsbench/2015/07/remembering-jan-karski-the-catholic-spy-who-warned-about-the-holocaust/?ref_widget=trending&ref_blog=diaryofawimpycatholic&ref_post=of-sheep-sheepdogs-and-self-love


Grunberg Film About Karski at the Museum of Jewish Heritage

http://www.jankarski.net/en/news-and-events/upcoming-events/grunberg-film-about-karski-at-the-museum-of-jewish-heritage.html


Kol Tuv,
RRW

Jerusalem Synagogue Desecrated in Alleged Hate Crime | United with Israel

United With Israel:

A synagogue on King George Street in Jerusalem, situated in the heart of the Israeli capital, was desecrated Wednesday night.

The curtain covering the holy ark that holds the Torah scrolls was burned, and a Nazi-like Swastika and anti-Jewish epithets were scrawled on the furniture. We are extremely disgusted!

http://unitedwithisrael.org/jerusalem-synagogue-desecrated-in-alleged-hate-crime/


Kol Tuv,
RRW

Hezbollah Lauds Nuclear Deal as US Surrender, Victory for Iran and its Allies | United with Israel

http://unitedwithisrael.org/hezbollah-lauds-nuclear-deal-as-us-surrender-victory-for-iran-and-its-allies/

United With Israel:

Let's put the nuclear deal in perspective.

Hezbollah is lauding the deal as a US surrender. They are calling it a victory for Iran and its allies. Hello? This is crazy! How much more proof do we need that this is a TERRIBLE deal?


Kol Tuv,
RRW

United with Israel: The Iran Deal – A Place for Camaraderie?

I, like so many others, have my reservations about the Iran deal but, in the end, I must admit that I really don't have all the facts. After all, I am not tied into all the underlying intelligence. There is one matter, though, of which I am certain -- this is still not a time for camaraderie. This is an issue I address in my latest blog on United with Israel at http://unitedwithisrael.org/the-iran-deal-a-place-for-camaraderie/. I am sure it will also be up on the UWI Facebook page in the near future. Please feel free to comment here or on one of the UWI sites.

Rabbi Ben Hecht

JVO: Media Violence

Jewish Values Online (jewishvaluesonline.org) is a website that asks the Jewish view on a variety of issues, some specifically Jewish and some from the world around us -- and then presents answers from each of the dominations of Judaism. Nishmablog's Blogmaster Rabbi Wolpoe and Nishma's Founding Director, Rabbi Hecht, both serve as Orthodox members of their Panel of Scholars.

This post continues this series on the Nishmablog that features responses on JVO by one of our two Nishma Scholars who are on this panel. This week's presentation is to one of the questions to which Rabbi Hecht responded.

* * * * *
Question:

The following question is based on an inquiry to The Ethicist column in the Sunday New York Times Magazine. When there are scientific studies that point to the media having an impact on violent behavior, is it unethical to write, produce or direct violent films and TV shows?

Rabbi Hecht's answer

In that your question regards the Jewish ethical perspective on these undertakings, what I feel I must first do is briefly digress and discuss what we may mean by the term Jewish Ethics. It actually has a compound nature.

A common assumption is the term Jewish Ethics simply refers to Halacha, i.e. Jewish Law. In fact, Jewish Law is actually only one part of Jewish Ethics. There are further layers to what we would term Jewish ethics which emerge from continuing discussions on a subject within a broader context. Terms such as lifnim meshurat hadin, beyond the strictures of the law, are sometimes employed to reflect these realms of Jewish ethical investigation. This term, however, only reflects one category of such extra-legal conclusions; there are many more. Jewish Ethics in reality is simply multi-layered on many levels.

The way many understand this layered approach to Jewish Ethics is by perceiving one standard – generally the standard of Halacha – as a sort of base requirement with the further standards reflecting higher ones to which a person should aspire. As such, the perception of many is that Jewish Law, in itself, reflects a lower standard that one must necessarily abide by while higher levels, beyond the law, reflect further and further declarations of what is really proper. This approach, however, is actually somewhat mistaken. While it is true that we find such examples of distinction in the call of Jewish Ethics -- cases whereby we are told that the average person should abide by one standard while a more righteous person should abide by another higher standard (with often a caveat that the average person should actually not, for various reasons, attempt to abide by this higher standard – that discussion, though, is not for now) -- the presentation of variant standards does not necessarily reflect this specific dichotomy in ethical conclusions. There are different reasons why Jewish Ethics may yield variant responses to an ethical question.

Halacha, Jewish Law, actually reflects a micro analysis of a situation, defining what is right and wrong within the narrow context of the micro action in itself. Its focus is on the act in itself.  Further layers of Jewish Ethical investigation then often reflect upon the more macro considerations of the overall situation beyond the micro details of the act. This could include, for example, the ethical, psychological effect on the person doing the act. For example, within the technical, micro definitions of the law prohibiting the causing of pain to animals (tza’ar ba’alei chayim), if an act has tangible benefit for the human being it is permitted. As such, hunting when the human will gain benefit from the carcass is technically permitted under this rule. Rabbi Yechezkel Landau, Noda B’Yehuda, Yoreh Deah 10, however, still cautions that a Jew should, under normal circumstances, still refrain from such activities, especially sport hunting. This is because, beyond the micro parameters of the act, there is also the psychological effect on the hunter whereby he/she would become less sensitive to the very value of life. This is an example of a macro extra-legal Jewish ethical conclusion beyond the micro parameters of the act itself.  Such decisions, however, are much more fluid.

Since such secondary investigations are also inherently bound to the micro considerations of the initial, micro, legal analysis, they generally just expand upon the base halacha to go beyond its strictures. This generally would lead to stricter standards in consideration of the macro situation. The macro analysis may, though, also result, in certain situations, in the introduction of more lenient possibilities, in that this consideration of the macro situation may, through certain technical aspects of Jewish Law, have such an effect on the base law.

The Heter Shemitta would be a good example of this. Jews, in Israel, are forbidden to work their land in the seventh year (Shemitta). There was concern, in the late 1800’s, when Jews first returned to the land of Israel and began developing it agriculturally, that observance of Shemitta could possibly have a massive negative effect on this agricultural endeavour and cause great damage to the religious settlement movement. In response, some leading rabbis developed a halachic argument by which it would be possible for the people to work the land (by legally selling it to non-Jews) and thereby avoid this possible negative consequence. These rabbis still maintained that, in normal circumstances, the micro considerations of the law still would demand that the land not be sold and not be worked. It was only consideration of the greater macro concerns in this specific situation that led them to develop a permitted different response given the circumstances. (It perhaps should also be noted that other leading rabbis disagreed with their arguments on various different grounds and maintained that the macro concerns could not lead to this effect – see further, Rabbi Ezra Schwartz, Heter Mechira, YU Torah Online. These dissenters, though, should not be seen as disagreeing with the basic theory that there is a macro layer in Jewish Ethics. They simply did not agree that in this case the macro effect could affect the micro case.)

Turning now to our case at hand -- whether, given that media can have an impact on violent behaviour, it is unethical to write, produce or direct violent films and TV shows – the prohibition framed by Vayikra 19:14 -- which reads Lifnei iver lo titein michshal, “Before a blind person do not put a stumbling block” -- is generally understood to include an injunction against assisting or causing another to sin. See, further, Sefer HaChinuch, Mitzvah 232. As such, given that violent behaviour would generally be of a sinful nature, it would seem that it would be problematic for one to do something that could lead to such behaviour. The actual definition of this law in its purest, micro, halachic form maintains, though, that, to violate the prohibition, the one assisting another to sin must be an absolutely necessary component in the person’s sinful action. For example, for someone to be guilty of Lifnei iver, in its base form, in passing a piece of pork to another Jew who is forbidden to eat it, it must be that there is no other way for this other person to acquire this piece of pork. As such, in its most basic form, we can only say definitely that it would be wrong for one to write, produce or direct violent films or TV shows if there is no other way for a person to gain access to such items. That, though, is really only part of the consideration.

On the macro level of Jewish Ethics, the problem in assisting others in a sin actually expands. There is a general standard that one should not be connected with sin and, as such, even if the other could get the piece of pork from someone else and, as such, in giving this person the pork one would not violate Lifnei iver from the micro perspective, the general Jewish ethical perspective would be that a person should still not be the one who gives the pork. On this macro level, though, other considerations, which would also not be considered if we only specifically looked at the micro act, may also enter and further complicate the analysis.

The fact is that, even looking at the micro act, one would consider various technical issues before arriving at a conclusion of the ethical nature of an act. For example, in looking at the question even on its most base level, what do we mean by impact? Does that mean that some people, a small percentage, are so affected by such media presentations or are the majority of people so affected? The answer to this question could even affect the micro halacha. For example, if you are passing the pork to a group of Jews and non-Jews, that could affect the base law. The presence of non-Jews in the receiving group could permit the action of passing. The result may be that it is on the more macro level that we are more stringent. On this level, we may still say that one should not pass the pork. On the other hand, though, on this more macro level, we may also consider the livelihood of the one who is distributing the pork. Consider a pre-school teacher who has to distribute non-kosher food to his/her group of students consisting of Jews and non-Jews. We may find a way for him/her to do so, although it would result in a sin being performed (the eating of non-kosher by a child is considered to be a sinful act although the child is not culpable for this behaviour) since to not do so may result in this person losing his/her job. Similar broad considerations would also have to be studied in this case of media.

So the answer to your question is actually not so simple. In a broad sense, we can say that since violent behaviour is generally sinful, there is a problem in undertaking activity that could lead to such behaviour. (Another factor would be if the subsequent violent behaviour is not sinful such as in self-defence.) Every specific situation, though, has its own set of circumstances and to declare, in definite terms, whether one should write, produce or direct violent films or TV shows must demand a look at the circumstances.

Crisis in Modern and Centrist Orthodoxy

IMHO:
Modern or Centrist Orthodoxy has a crisis to address

Today's secular culture and society is OTD! I thought the culture of the 50's 70's and 80's were highly compatible with core Torah values. The late sixties were an "aberration"

Today's culture is SO antithetical to Torah there seems to remain a black-and-white choice [Hobson's Choice?]

1. A Shift Right to Chareidi Insularism
2. A shift Left to Neo-Conservatism

And a vacuum gap in between.

Comment:
I don't think the NY Times has been compatible with any Traditional values for 80+ years. I just heard stories about their glowing praises of Stalin YSv"Z during the Show Trial era. We know of their scurrilous record during the Holocaust.

I think Bill Buckley had the NYT correctly pegged by the 1960's.


Kol Tuv,
RRW

JVO Blog: The Distinctiveness of Judaism – Introduction

Jewish Values Online (jewishvaluesonline.org) is a website that asks the Jewish view on a variety of issues, some specifically Jewish and some from the world around us -- and then presents answers from each of the denominations of Judaism. Nishmablog's Blogmaster Rabbi Wolpoe and Nishma's Founding Director, Rabbi Hecht, both serve as Orthodox members of their Panel of Scholars. Nishmablog, over the years, has also featured the responses on JVO by one of our two Nishma Scholars who are on this panel. 

Recently, the Jewish Values Online website has offered a new service -- a blog which presents comments on various topics within Judaism and the Jewish world. See
http://www.jewishvaluesonline.org/jvoblog/index?aid=0. 

Rabbi Hecht is now also a blogger on this site and will be developing a series entitled  
The Distinctiveness of Judaism, 

His first post  
Introduction  
is now available at http://jewishvaluescenter.org/jvoblog/the-distinctiveness-of-judaism.

Sing the 4th on the 4th

The Forgotten 4th Verse of "The Star Spangled Banner"
by Darin Southam - YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/embed/fnwUi8Y88HA?autoplay=1&FORM=VIRE4


The Star Spangled Banner
Ft McHenry ^ | 1814 |
Francis Scott Key

#1
The Star Spangled Banner
Oh, say can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

#4
Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heaven-rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!


Kol Tuv,
RRW