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The View From the Other Side

rabbifink — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 18:33:22 +0000

A friend on Twitter linked to this video yesterday. I watched it and found it very fascinating.

Some of you might find it boring. But that is only because we have different interests. I love to see how people react to being questioned about their beliefs. I love seeing how people react to being informed about another’s beliefs. I love to watch people who don’t know that they are being watched.

If you are like me at all. You will like this video.

A young Israeli woman works at a hotel in London that serves kosher food and is designed for orthodox Jews. The conversations that she has with some of the patrons are enlightening. Some people make good impressions, others do not.

It’s a great reminder to orthodox Jews that we need to be educated on our traditions so that we do not make up nonsensical answers, use a condescending tone, make assumptions and just in general reflect positively upon orthodox Judaism.

(I wonder if it is legal to film people without their consent and then post the video on youtube…)

If you have thoughts on the video please share them in the comments.

‘

HT: @BethanyShondark

The Day After Thanksgiving: Some Thoughts on Yesterday’s Controversies

rabbifink — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 17:55:02 +0000

You might find it odd that the day after Thanksgiving I am writing about Thanksgiving. The truth is that I am not really writing about Thanksgiving rather some of the nutty things that happened this year on Thanksgiving.

Of course I am talking about some the controversies that arose regarding the celebrations of Thanksgiving that don’t fit the mold of the religious Christian Thanksgiving. Two incidents in particular created some buzz but I am sure there were others as well.

First we turn to the Butterball Turkey situation. One blogger called upon her readers to boycott Butterball because they dared to have their Turkeys Halal certified. This means that it is slaughtered in accordance with Islamic law. It is very similar to Shechita, the method of slaughter required by Jewish law. According to Ms. Geller:

“Halal turkey, slaughtered according to the rules of Islamic law, is just the opposite of what Thanksgiving represents: freedom and inclusiveness, neither of which are allowed for under that same Islamic law.”

First of all, Thanksgiving DOES NOT represent freedom or inclusiveness. It never has and never will. I can provide Ms. Geller with a hint as to what the holiday represents – it’s in the name. Oh yes. It’s thanks and appreciation.

More importantly, any religious ceremony is by default not free or inclusive. Jewish law, Canon law, Islamic law, any religious law that makes specific requirements is not (on the surface) “freedom”. They are restrictions. Moreover, religious law is never going to be inclusive. It calls for rituals that make the performer of the ritual a religious person and by default the one who does not perform the ritual irreligious. This can create a barrier between the religious and irreligious. All religions suffer this potential flaw.

Just look at my Tim Tebow post from a couple days ago: Tim Tebow’s Relationship With His God. Not everyone is so comfortable with Tebow’s religious proclivities. But have a look at the comment left by the Christian fellow in the comments. Do you think his religion is “inclusive” of me? (Or Ms. Geller?) Is that the sound of freedom? In Ms. Geller’s world that makes Tebow the commenter people who should not allowed to celebrate Thanksgiving. They are not inclusive enough.

Ms. Geller calls Halal slaughtering a form of torture. This is obviously offensive to all kosher eating people as well.

But the real point is that Ms. Geller is being as two-faced as one can be. By denying an entire group the right to have a Thanksgiving dinner, Ms. Geller is being as freedom hating and non-inclusive as one can be. But that was obvious.

Finally, I imagine that the reason Butterball markets Halal turkeys is because it is good business. To me, that’s just the free market that Ms. Geller loves so much.

Now we turn to controversy number two. The President gave the traditional Presidential Thanksgiving address and neglected to mention God in his words. The president dedicated this year’s holiday celebration to the troops fighting our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He also thanked the volunteers in soup kitchens across America. So what was the problem? He did not mention God. This is a terrible sin that violates the ancient and holy laws of Thanksgiving.

Never mind that in the Presidential Thanksgiving Proclamation he did mention God.

The omission set off a firestorm of vitriol toward the president.

A particularly bombastic twitterer called Obama a “militant atheist” for not mentioning God in the address. As irresponsible and insane of a statement it is to “out” someone as an atheist when they clearly are not an atheist, the tweet ignores the Proclamation and Obama’s 2009 and 2010 Thanksgiving addresses where he did mention God.

How is this reconciled? Was he a believer before but now he is all of the sudden a “militant atheist”? Or maybe he was a “militant atheist” all along but he has finally decided to own up to his true non-beliefs?

As far as militant atheists go, Obama would hardly be very successful. He goes to Church, says the appropriate God Bless Americas and to my knowledge has never engaged a believer in debate trying to convince the believer that belief in God is wrong.

Obama is not an atheist and certainly is not a militant atheist. This the kind of message that someone tweets to pander to right wing conservative Christians and bait left wing liberal non-Christians. It’s a call for attention. Well, he got it. Congratulations. But at what cost? Credibility. You can only say so many crazy things before everything you say is considered crazy.

All the silliness aside, I think that Thanksgiving is one day that should be enjoyed and celebrated by people of all faiths and people of no faith. That Ms. Geller and the bombastic twitterer feel that Thanksgiving must be celebrated in one way and in no other is a fallacy. Thanksgiving is the perfect time to push aside our differences and be thankful for the wonderful things in our lives to whomever or whatever we attribute them to.

The irony is that both Ms. Geller and the bombastic twitterer are Jewish and that they would prefer a Christian version of the holiday than a non-denominational celebration tells me that they have sold out the ever important freedom of religion and inclusiveness of America’s Constitution for the sake making friends in religious right.

Thanksgiving is for everyone. Let’s keep it that way.

Links: American Thinker, Twitter

Wake Up Happy and Try to Stay Happy

rabbifink — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 07:01:04 +0000

The Jewish People find themselves in the middle of the celebration of Sukkos. The Torah calls this holiday “The Time of our Rejoicing”. Sukkos is the holiday of happiness.

We are supposed to be happy on this holiday. Why?

When are you most happy? Why?

A recent article in the LA Times provides some fascinating data about our happiness.

Analyzing over half a billion messages on Twitter, a group of researchers at Cornell University have determined that people wake up happy. As the day progresses their moods gradually deteriorate and by the end of the day people much more grumpy. But for some reason, happy tweets popped up again around midnight completing a sort of bell curve of happiness.

Having access to this kind of human data is truly remarkable. There has never been an easier and more efficient way to cull massive amounts of thoughts, emotions, actions and fantasies from the human experience. The next stage will be to use all this data and gain a better understanding of the human condition. Figuring out that people are happier at certain times may not seem like an important discovery. Indeed, it may not be. But the way this information was mined, applied and its accuracy is the innovation here.

Sometimes the innovation is not about what the data says as much as it is about how the data was gleaned.

It seems that it’s not just the time of day that affects our moods, but the time of year also makes a difference. As the days get shorter from the Fall through the Spring, moods were worse.

Perhaps this is something the Torah considers with the holiday of Sukkos. Our moods are about to get worse. There’s nothing more harmful to a business than a disgruntled workforce. We are all in God’s workforce. If our moods are cheerful we can do God’s work so much more effectively. To help frame our disposition for the dark winter months we rejoice over the holiday of Sukkos.

Hopefully, some supercharged happiness during this holiday can propel our collective mood to a happier place than it would be if we just wandered through the calendar without planning and intelligence. Perhaps one day we will even be able to measure it. Until then, I think it is a safe bet that there is at least a bit of carryover and our time of rejoicing gives us the happy pills we need for the dark winter.

Link: LA Times

Anthony Converse: A Man of His Word

rabbifink — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 19:29:59 +0000

I saw this on Yo Venice and just had to share it with you. I know it is a week late and that is like 38 years in Internet time, but the story is somewhat alarming and totally heartwarming nonetheless.

As you may know, JetBlue offered flights from Long Beach to Burbank and vice versa during Carmageddon just in case someone really needed to get from one side of LA to the other.

Flying from one side of LA to the other is not the quickest of most efficient mode of transportation, even when the 405 is closed. Some bikers thought it would be fun to race the plane.

A fellow named Anthony Converse tweeted that he would donate $100 to the LA County Bikers Coalition for every minute the bikers beat the plane. A newbie to Twitter, he didn’t quite realize what he had done. This was his first tweet ever.

As you may have heard, the bikers won the race. By an hour and ten minutes. Yes. An hour and ten minutes. Also, driving the side streets was faster than the planes and so was public transportation. Do the math and Converse is $7000 in the hole. He never expected to be giving $7000 to the LACBC. He couldn’t afford it either.

But Converse was not the kind of guy who says “just kidding” when he can’t live up to his promises.

He looked at his car and realized that he should sell his car to make good on his commitment. After all, the entire point of the bikers racing the plane was to show that more efficient travel is better for the environment, better for people and can be faster!

So he sold his car, paid the $7000 to LACBC and made an even greater point about keeping your word than about promoting alternative modes of transportation.

For that, Mr. Converse is a real All-Star.

Full story and more details: Yo! Venice!

Andrew Sullivan Sticks it to Gladwell and Rich on Social Media (and I absolutely agree)

rabbifink — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 19:32:13 +0000

(I don't know who to whom to credit this photo. Sullivan had it on his post.)

Everyone remembers the Malcolm Gladwell column about social media. It was the one where he said “the revolution will not be tweeted”. The basic premise is that revolutions need “strong ties” and the Internet does not create strong ties.

Everyone is also supposed to remember what I said about it at the time : Malcolm Gladwell Doesn’t Use Twitter or Facebook But He Is Pretty Sure They Are Useless.

Yet another luddite has weighed in on the issue as well. Frank Rich said this:

The talking-head invocations of Twitter and Facebook instead take the form of implicit, simplistic Western chauvinism. How fabulous that two great American digital innovations can rescue the downtrodden, unwashed masses. That is indeed impressive if no one points out that, even in the case of the young and relatively wired populace of Egypt, only some 20 percent of those masses have Internet access.

The recent protests and revolutions in the middle east should serve as a good case study for whether Gladwell / Rich is right or wrong. I have supposed that the protests were organized and galvanized via the Internet and in particular Facebook and Twitter. (See: The Future is Now (or coming soon)).

It turns out there is some data on all of this. Andrew Sullivan at the Atlantic has a some anecdotal evidence. (Theses quotes were compiled by Sullivan.) Here is what Facebook says about the revolution in Tunisia:

…several hundred thousand more users than it had ever had before in Tunisia, a country with a few more people than Michigan. Scaled up to the size to the U.S., the burst of activity was like adding 10 million users in a week. And the average time spent on the site more than doubled what it had been before.

Twitter helped also. From the NY Times Lede blog:

Less than two weeks ago, Slim Amamou, a Tunisian blogger and activist, was using his @slim404 Twitter feed to let friends know that the police had been to his house. Later the same day, after he was arrested, the 33-year-old computer programmer managed to turn his phone on and log on to Google Latitude to broadcast his location: inside the country’s feared ministry of the interior.

And on the role of the Internet and social media in general we have this from Slim Amamou, a Tunisian activist who is now part of their government:

In 2008, there were uprisings in Redeyef, similar to what happened in Sidibouzid. But back then it seems that the internet community did not reach a critical mass. And then at that time, Facebook got censored for a week or two. I don’t remember if it was related. But it was like a training for this revolution. People think that this revolution happened out of nowhere but we, on the Internet have been trying for years, together and all over the Arab world. The last campaign that mobilised people was for Khaled Said in Egypt, and we Tunisians participated. And you have to remember that Egyptians (and people all over the world) participated in the Tunisian revolution: they informed, they participated in Anonymous attacks and they even were the first to demonstrate for Sidibouzid in Cairo.

There is not much to add here. Sullivan did a good job making his point. It’s a point that I absolutely agree with.

Like anything, there is much good to social media. There is bad as well. It is a tool that can be wielded by the brave, courageous and honorable. It can also be used to hurt people, spread lies and inflict pain. There is no reason to fear social media. As usual we only need fear the idiots that use it to act like idiots.

Link: The Atlantic

The Tweet That Made Me Famous (and what I meant by it)

rabbifink — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 08:18:52 +0000

“I sat down to watch a bunch of commercials and there was a football game in between them! Hey Oh!”

Ya, so there were a few commercials during the Super Bowl. They were pricey and they were the ads that managed to get past the censors (See: Super Bowl Ad Censorship: A Good Thing)

For the record, my favorite ad was the Chrysler commercial about Detroit. I am a Los Angeles snob and don’t really think too highly of Detroit and its failed auto companies (sorry, not a fan of the bailout). I didn’t think the ad was the kind of ad that would have people buzzing the next day. And it hasn’t But artistically, it was magnificent. The videography, the theme, the narration, the music, the gospel choir, it was amazing. (Video below)

And I will not be convinced otherwise so don’t even bother.

The ad that has generated the most buzz (overwhelmingly negative) was the ad for Groupon. The ad begins with some beautiful shots of Tibet and its people. The narrator has a serious tone and he is telling the viewer that Tibet’s people and rich culture are being seriously threatened. Suddenly, the narrator’s tone changes and he tells you that despite their suffering he is enjoying $30 of food at a Tibetan restaurant for $15 thanks to Groupon. (video below)

The backlash was intense and immediate. People were outraged at the insensitivity to the plight of the Tibetan people. Groupon’s ad was maligned. I too found it distasteful.

But when I thought about all the anger directed to Groupon for their ad which was insensitive I began to wonder about all the other ads which were also crude and insensitive.

So I took to Twitter and tweeted:

Amazing. More people are offended by Groupon’s ads than the coarse objectification of women in EVERY SINGLE OTHER AD!

— Eliyahu Fink (Eli) (@efink) February 7, 2011

Pretty quickly, the Tweet was garnering some serious attention. To date (24 hours later) it has been retweeted (What is a retweet?) using the native retweet feature 52 times by people who I do not know. It has been retweeted the old-fashioned way by dozens more. I had struck a chord.

In fact the tweet was even picked up by Read Write Web on their blog: Why Groupon’s Super Bowl Ad Was So Offensive (According to Technorati, RWW is the 12th ranked blog in the world.) Pretty cool! And I was flattered.

Anyway, what I meant by that tweet was not that the Groupon ad was not offensive. Nor did I mean to say that I took offense to all the other ads. It was an observation.

What rankles Super Bowl viewers? An obtuse and oblique use of Tibetan suffering in an attempt at humor offended way more people than the ads that directly objectify women as sex objects. I am not about to start a crusade to rescue women from men who behave and think like the figurative Frat Boy. (Although, maybe I should.) I am simply pointing out that collectively we don’t care enough that women are portrayed in such a one dimensional sense.

Apparently, a lot of you agree with me.

I find it shocking that many reasonable thinking men and nearly all women put up with this form of advertising. The Chrysler commercial mentioned above used none of the cheap parlor trick that the ads that objectify women used. It was effective because it was artistic and related to our more sophisticated faculties as opposed to the animalistic urges which the other ads appeal to.

Haven’t we come far enough as a society that ads which objectify women and portray men as single minded neanderthals are passé? Not yet?

Can we get there soon please?

Here is the Chrysler ad:

Here is the Groupon ad:

If you want to see ads objectifying women find ‘em yourself…

LeBron James Knows Very Little About Karma and God

rabbifink — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 03:04:12 +0000

Last night, the Lakers pounded the Cleveland Cavaliers in historic fashion. The final score was 112-57. If the Lakers had one more basket they would have doubled up the Cavs. That’s just crazy.

One ex-Cavalier was enjoying the carnage. That would be one LeBron James. See, LeBron is supposedly very happy in his new Miami Heat jersey playing for a championship caliber team in South Beach. After all, it was his “decision” to go to Miami. But happy people don’t gratuitously “hate” on others.

Maybe LeBron isn’t so happy after all…

After the game, on his self titled, slightly narcissistic Twitter page called KingJames, LeBron tweeted this:

Crazy. Karma is a b****.. Gets you every time. Its not good to wish bad on anybody. God sees everything!

January 11, 2011 10:29 pm via ÜberSocialOrig ReplyRetweetFavorite

@KingJames

LeBron James

Now that’s a real mean spirited thing to say. Isn’t it?

Happy people don’t usually speak that way. Role models certainly do not…

But I’m not here to tell you LeBron is a bad role model. I am here to say that, to use a metaphor, LeBron has mixed his metaphors.

Karma is a concept found in Eastern Religions. Most versions of Karma, of which I am aware, subscribe a natural order to the world. When that order is disrupted there is an automatic reaction to that disruption. So, if A harms B, a disruption is formed. Then, A may end of being harmed, but it was his own fault because his harm was a result of the disruption he caused when he harmed B.

God plays no role in Karma. It is a natural reaction.

LeBron is confusing Karma with Divine Retribution. Oops!

Worse still is the hubris in the assumption that whatever happens to the Cavs is because of their fans’ hatred of LeBron. They were scorned. Their hatred is not completely unwarranted. I am not sure why there would be any Divine Retribution for disliking LeBron.

One also has to wonder what LeBron thinks happened when his teams were summarliy eliminated from the playoffs the last few years. Was that Divine Retribution as well?

It seems to me that many athletes selectively blame and attribute God when it suits them. LeBron is thrilled that the Cavs lost last night so he thinks it was God. But when he loses I’m sure he doesn’t think that he lost due to some terrible things he did, of which there are plenty of documented episodes. It’s moronic to think that it is God deciding the games, but only when it suits you.

LeBron made three errors in that tweet. 1) It was nasty and mean spirited 2) He confused Karma and Divine Retribution and 3) He selectively attributed one event to Divine Retribution.

LeBron James: Still not a role model…

Whose Fault is a Dropped Game-Wininng Touchdown?

rabbifink — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 15:52:27 +0000

According to Steve Johnson, wide receiver for the Buffalo Bills, it seems that it is God’s fault.

The Bills played the Steelers very tough on Sunday. The Steelers have much more talent, a much better record and by all accounts should easily have handed the Bills their 9th loss (out of 11 games). But somehow, the Bills put together a rally and found themselves in a tie game at the end of regulation forcing overtime. In the NFL overtime is sudden death (during the regular season) which means that the first team to score, wins the game.

It was all tied up about four minutes into overtime when this happened…

The Steelers found a way to win the game in overtime and the Bills stumbled to 2-9.

After the game, Steve Johnson, the wide receiver who dropped the ball in the endzone, took out his frustrations on his Twitter account.

I PRAISE YOU 24/7!!!!!! AND THIS HOW YOU DO ME!!!!! YOU EXPECT ME TO LEARN FROM THIS??? HOW???!!! ILL NEVER FORGET THIS!! EVER!!! THX THO...

November 28, 2010 3:12 pm via Twitter for iPad ReplyRetweetFavorite

@StevieJohnson13

Stevie Johnson

I think, that translates into something like this:

Dear God,

I am your loyal servant. I pray to you. I praise you. I believe that everything I have is from you. So why did You cause me to drop that pass? Why did you let me down when I needed you most.

Love,

Steve

Almost immediately, the tweet ignited a firestorm. I’m not sure who was more incensed, the religious people or the not religious folks. Frankly, I can’t understand why anyone would be offended by an obviously dejected football player’s religious rant.

Yet, people were offended. People were uncomfortable hearing that God was responsible for the dropped pass and the lost game.

What is interesting to me is the implications of Johnson’s tweet. Most people don’t think twice when an athlete, or anyone else for that matter, thanks God when they accomplish something remarkable. Politicians winning elections, athletes winning games, business people making the big deal, chefs cooking the perfect dish or any of the millions of minute instances in our daily lives that religious people thank God for whatever they are feeling or experiencing. Ask an Orthodox Jew how they are doing and 99% of the time the answer will be something like Baruch Hashem, Blessed is God.

And it seems that we have no problem with this. But isn’t the implication of “everything good comes from God” that “everything bad comes from God as well”?

It is. It’s no different at all. If one attributes everything good to God, then one is forced to attribute everything bad to God as well. The Talmud says that the same one should make a blessing when something good happens, one should make a blessing when something bad happens.

And this is where Johnson veered off course. Johnson assumed that God would only do good for him. Johnson assumed that his prayers and his praise guaranteed his success. Of course, this is not the case. Subscribing everything to God requires one to accept that God has a Plan and one is subject to that plan regardless of whether one is satisfied with the outcome or not.

Truthfully, this conversation is probably moot. Judaism subscribes to a theory of Divine Involvement. There are various opinions as to how much Involvement there actually is in our lives. According to most, it is a lofty level indeed to merit the kind of Involvement that every moment of one’s life is directed by God.

For most of us, God remains hidden. We carry on our lives with the assumption that we do the best we can in the face of the myriad of options that present themselves to us on a daily basis. We say “Thank God” when good things happen, not to say that God is the only Party directly responsible for our good fortune, rather to include God in our success so that we do not forget that our existence is thanks to God.

One more thing. Even according to those who attribute Divine Involvement to more people, the Inolvement does not exonerate one for their actions. Involvement can move “pieces”, create scenarios, but our choices and our actions are still our choices and our actions. It is impossible to blame God for our misdeed. We make the choices. We perform the action.

In the end, Johnson clarified his position. He was merely trying to figure our what he was supposed to learn from his failures. I think he just needs to concentrate a little better on football and a little less on blame…

Maybe the Revolution in China Will Be Tweeted or YouTubed

rabbifink — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 16:37:14 +0000

With apologies to Malcolm Gladwell who writes that the Revolution will NOT be tweeted (Malcolm Gladwell Doesn’t Use Twitter or Facebook But He Is Pretty Sure They Are Useless) it appears that some revolutionary activity in China is being tweeted.

As reported on DigitalJournal.com (original source: Al Jazeera), a woman in China was forced to abort her 8 month fetus to comply with China’s One Child rule. The Chinese Government enforces its arcane One Child Law with forced abortions and fines. Aside from its obtuse totalitarian nature, the result, in a society that values men over women, is a huge gap in men and women which presents another set of social problems. (see: Scientific American)

This woman was dragged from her home and brought to a facility where her fetus was brutally aborted in its womb.

The story is disturbing from a human perspective but hopeful for the future. This abortion (if you can call an 8 month fetus killed inside the womb, an “abortion”, was performed by government officials. The woman is from a modern city and her family does not know how the information was leaked to a Chinese website similar to Twitter.com. Nevertheless, a subsequent interview with her husband on YouTube posted by Al Jazeera has over 30,000 hits and it tells their story.

Information cannot be controlled anymore. The Internet and its social media sharing sites give everyone with an Internet connection unbridled access to the entire world. A message can be broadcast and heard by an infinite audience.

In China, the stirrings of a revolution may be beginning with Twitter and YouTube.

Gladwell, take note.

Links: DigitalJournal.com, Al Jazeera.

Hat Tip: E. F. Shaar

Malcolm Gladwell Doesn’t Use Twitter or Facebook But He Is Pretty Sure They Are Useless

rabbifink — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 19:49:11 +0000

I am an unabashed fan of Malcom Gladwell. (See: Outliers: Section 1 (and my grandfather), Another Gladwell Gem | How David Beats Goliath and Manny Being Manny | Some ‘Gladwellian’ Insight.

But when the man is wrong he deserves to be called out.

In a recent New Yorker article, Small Change: Why the revolution will not be tweeted, Gladwell writes that we are told that the world is in the midst of a revolution. Twitter, Facebook, blogging et al have given the people a voice that they previously had not had. This will be the medium of social change for the next generation.

Gladwell vehemently disagrees.

In his inimitable style, Gladwell makes the case that there is a qualitative difference between strong-tie connections and weak-tie connections. He holds that strong-tie connections come from real life social interactions and friendships. Electronic relationships only create weak-ties. Further, he contends that the purported social changes that Facebook and Twitter have effected are bogus. (He might be right about that one…).

Gladwell then demonstrates that all social change generates from relationships. I agree. Read this post for more on that: Human Beings Are Social Beings).

Here is what gets my goat: Gladwell assumes that relationships created with Twitter / Facebook / blogging are weak-tie relationships. That is an assumption that many would disagree with. Further, he makes this assumption while sitting in his ivory tower of “old media”, writing for a magazine in a dying industry AND, here is the kicker – he DOESN’T USE FACEBOOK OR TWITTER!!! Gladwell has a twitter account, in fact he has two twitter accounts and he has 22 total tweets between the two of them.

Shorter Gladwell: “I don’t know how to use Twitter, ergo, it must be useless.”

Finally, the next social changes will almost certainly come via strong-tie relationships. However, social media has the ability to create strong-tie relationships if that is your goal and you use them to achieve that goal. Revolutions will inevitably occur. And invariably the revolutions will take place in real life and they will also take place in the digital world. Those who have strong-tie relationships in the digital world will utilize social media to help their cause and that will be a decided advantage over the cave dwellers and Luddites who listen to Malcolm Gladwell when it comes to social media.

Dogs in Judaism and an Apology to Bill Simmons

rabbifink — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 18:31:57 +0000

Yesterday I wrote about Mike Vick and the Bill Simmons article about rooting for Mike Vick. (Michael Vick, Bill Simmons, Forgiveness and Restorative Justice). There was a line in the Simmons article that made me a little upset.

If you read the article (Rooting for Michael Vick) and you are Jewish I hope you notice the same thing.

It seems that Bill Simmons was my neighbor for a little while. I live in the Hancock Park area of Los Angeles (and I am the Rabbi of Pacific Jewish Center in Venice Beach – we go to Venice for the weekends) and our neighborhood is sometimes called West Hollywood because it is right near WeHo. Simmons lived around here and he writes:

Not everyone likes dogs or sees them as companions, guardians or family members. I have friends who regard dogs warily and act rattled around them. Certain religions believe dogs are unclean. (I once lived in a West Hollywood neighborhood heavy with Hasidic and Orthodox Jews, some of whom could barely conceal their disgust with the Dooze [Simmons' dog]. A few even hissed at her. This drove my wife crazy, but hey, dogs mean different things to different people.)

That means my neighbors and friends “could barely conceal their disgust” and some “hissed at her”.

I find this offensive.

I wish Simmons had not written this line, but it was written and I know it is true.

First things first. I am NOT a dog lover. I am a recovering dog hater. In my youth I was genuinely scared of dogs. As an adult, I tolerate dogs. I have no affection for dogs and I find it somewhat curious when people have such strong relationships with dogs. I smile at dogs and their walkers when I see them walk past my home and I encourage my sons to pet the dogs. My in-laws have a dog and so do some of my orthodox Jewish friends.

Yet, Simmons is right. Most orthodox Jews have a revulsion for dogs. Few own dogs. Most orthodox Jewish kids are scared of dogs and unfortunately, it seems that some find it necessary to act inappropriately around dog owners.

Why?

More poignantly, is it a religious construct or is it a social construct?

I posed the question to my friends on Twitter and here a few responses:

@e_fink in ancient Israel dogs were despised; reflected in Torah etc @unclechaim @yeshivaguy @abrisker @yeedle @noahroth @marksofla @omtorah

October 5, 2010 2:51 pm via webReply RetweetFavorite

@DovBear

DovBear

@e_fink @unclechaim @yeshivaguy @abrisker @dovbear @yeedle @noahroth @marksofla @omtorah because pets are a total waste of money

October 5, 2010 1:39 pm via webReply RetweetFavorite

@samir

Samir

There was a problem with the blakbirdpie shortcode

@e_fink that pasuk says they didn't bark then mashma that other times they do bark and its scary :-(

October 5, 2010 1:47 pm via Twitter for BlackBerry®ReplyRetweetFavorite

@ABrisker

J.B.

@Eli4short @e_fink if a Jew isn't afraid of a dog, either the dog isn't a dog, or the Jew isn't a Jew. Half jest I believe.

October 5, 2010 2:44 pm via Twitter for iPhone ReplyRetweetFavorite

@yeshivaguy

Yeshiva Guy

Obviously, these answers are not very scholarly. But no one challenged the premise that orthodox Jews don’t like dogs.

However, I was sent three very good resources to find an answer to the question. (Thank you @unclechaim, @makeforyourself, @tbSE00 and @markkorman).

After doing some reading, this is what I have come up with.

Judaism does not regard dogs as “unclean” (unless you’re talking about eating them).

There is a prohibition against owning an animal that is dangerous. Many animals are dangerous when they attack others. Dogs are dangerous when they attack but they also can be dangerous in that they can scare people with their bark. A bark that scares someone is considered a harm. Since Jewish law prohibits one from causing any harm to another, dogs were shunned.

There are halachic authorities who say that dogs are intrinsically bad. The reasoning is either something like what I said above or some mystical reason.

There are plenty of halachic authorities that say that dogs are no longer dangerous animals and may be kept as pets.

So, there is a religious precedent to not owning dogs and it is now a social construct based on thousands of years of behavior. It is permissible to own a dog so long as the laws of pet ownership are followed but many choose not to have dogs anyway for social reasons. Further, most orthodox Jews have no idea why they don’t own dogs and assume it is for religious reasons exclusively.

HOWEVER, and this is a big however, there is NO EXCUSE for pestering owners of dogs, nor is there any reason for dog owners to sense that orthodox Jews hate dogs. It is offensive to them and should be offensive to any person who expects polite behavior. There is no religious reason to hiss at dogs nor is there any leniency for chillul Hashem (desecration of God’s name) when it comes to dogs.

I am upset that my neighbors made a bad impression of orthodox Judaism to Mr. Simmons. I apologize on their behalf and assure you it was mere ignorance, not spite.

Jewish Holidays Top Twitter’s Trending Topics

rabbifink — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 19:22:08 +0000

The Jewish High Holidays (or perhaps more appropriately High Holy Days) are now in the rear-view mirror. Rosh Hashanah was two weeks and ago and Yom Kippur was this past weekend.

I noticed something that almost all Jewish Twitter users must have noticed as the Holidays drew nearer. Google and Yahoo Search track the most popular searches for any given time period. There is much social commentary and benefit to observing what the most popular trends on Google and Yahoo.

Similarly, Twitter tracks the most popular terms found in Twitter Updates (not searches). This is perhaps even more telling as it tracks what people are writing about as opposed to what they are curious about.

The Twitter Home Page (before login) has a scrolling account of the hottest Twitter trends.

On the eve of Rosh Hashanah the number one trending topic was Shana Tova (Hebrew for – Have a Good Year). On the eve of Yom Kippur the top trending topic was Yom Kippur. These were worldside trends; not local trends for New York or Los Angeles (very Jewish cities).

I find it incredible that a miniscule population of Jewish people can have such an impact on the Twitter Trends. It is also remarkable that although the vast majority of Jewish people are not very religious, these Holy Days still carry significance for so many.

(Follow me and many other wonderful people on Twitter by creating an account at http://twitter.com and follow me and http://twitter.com/efink.)

Here is the proof:

Why Blogging Is Good

rabbifink — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 18:01:51 +0000

On Twitter, someone (HT below) linked to this Verizon ad. I confess to never seeing the ad on TV but I commend Verizon for putting their ads on YouTube. Sometimes ads are art. This is one of those times.

I also admit to using Verizon for absolutely zero services. I don’t like them very much, I think their logo is dated, their name is weird and their customer service is deplorable. But I know a good ad when I see one.

Do I think this ad translates into sales? Probably not.

It remains an excellent piece of art.

Before Web 2.0 (user created content on the web) the public were consumers and not producers of content. That meant that a very select group of advantaged people became the voice of the people. Their opinions were the only opinions that mattered. This goes contrary to the American spirit of “We the People”.

That has all changed. The people have a voice. That voice is important (and can be disconcerting when we lose it, see: Your Unique Voice and A Kafkaesque Experience). YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, (which will become YouTwitFace in the year 3000) Blogging and commenting are the voice of the people. It is an almost completely democratic universe. If your content is good, people will read it or watch or discuss it. It’s a win for everyone.

If you don’t get it – watch the ad.

This ad gets it.

HT: HannabiNYC

What Does The Word 'Wife' Mean?

rabbifink — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 17:21:28 +0000

What does it mean to be a good wife?

That’s a question NY Times columnist (Lisa Belkin) wants to answer.

I posed the question to some of the mother / wife types that I know on Twitter and a very interesting conversation ensued. Jessica Gottlieb wrote a wonderful post in response to the article.

According to this NY Times columnist women don’t want to be called a wife anymore.

That is a pretty broad statement. Further, part of what is great about 2010 is that we are not contsrained to traditional notions and roles. But some, or many, still relish those traditional roles or have adapted more current ways of living those roles.

Belkin goes so far as to say that women prefer “partner” to wife. I think that is sad. There is a beauty in having a unique role. Whether it is husband, wife, child, parent or grandparent. It is important to know who we are, as opposed to giving everyone the same title. A wife just means a “female partner in a marriage”. What you do as a wife defines what wife means to you.

There is also something to be said for the fact that so many mothers / wives really identify as mothers. That is a good sign as far as parenting goes.

Using “partner” instead of “wife” makes the “female partner in a marriage” just another partner. Like a swim partner, or a business partner, or work-out partner, or ‘howdy partner’ partner, a female partner in marriage is nothing special. And it should be something special. We denote special things with special words. Wife is that special word.

That being said, there is an offensive way to use the word wife. You know those guys who say “the wife”? I think that is offensive. That objectifies the “female partner in a marriage” and that is not okay. I have never referred to my incredible wife as “the wife” and I cringe when another person refers to their wife as “the wife”.

If we can’t use the word wife properly, then I submit to Belkin, just go with the harmless, faceless, emotionless, “partner”. But if we appreciate the specialness of the word wife, use it and cherish it.

What Does The Word 'Wife' Mean?

rabbifink — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 17:21:28 +0000

What does it mean to be a good wife?

That’s a question NY Times columnist (Lisa Belkin) wants to answer.

I posed the question to some of the mother / wife types that I know on Twitter and a very interesting conversation ensued. Jessica Gottlieb wrote a wonderful post in response to the article.

According to this NY Times columnist women don’t want to be called a wife anymore.

There is also something to be said for the fact that so many mothers / wives really identify as mothers. That is a good sign as far as parenting goes.

Can’t We All Just Get Along?

rabbifink — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 01:12:31 +0000

Photo: Flickr/cortniedee.

A few days ago a photo was posted on Twitter by the NBA. Somehow, this photo has been on my mind since I saw it.

In sports, two teams oppose each other under the pretense that they are enemies. Their fans may even dislike one another, (see Celtics / Lakers, Yankees / Red Sox, UNC / Duke, etc,) but in the end, athletes are mostly friendly with each other. Even when athletes get upset or physical with one another, they can remain friends (see Kobe Bryant and Ron Artest).

In the real world, people have a harder time getting along. People divide along political lines, religious lines and country lines.

The natural state of people is almost to be at odds with one another. Peace is not just the lack of war. Peace is the active interrelation of two entities in harmonious activity. The opposite of peace is not war, it is merely lack of working together. It is pretty easy for two entities to ignore each other, but that is not peace. Peace is working together. Yet, peace remains so elusive on a grand scale and an individual scale.

This is something that is really hard for me. I honestly (perhaps naively) believe that almost all friction and disagreement is a result of misunderstanding and miscommunication. At our core, we know how to get along but the reality of society and our environment confuses us into discord. Maybe I am wrong, but this what I believe.

That is why seeing this photo was so stirring. It was a photo that showed that when the context changes, when our environment is different, peace is so easy. Sports provides the context for enemies to befriend one another.

Are there two greater enemies in the world today than Israel and Iran?

And yet, below you will see a photo of the best Israeli basketball player, who is now playing for the Sacramento Kings, Omri Casspi and the best Iranian basketball player, playing for the Memphis Grizzlies, Hamed Haddadi. They look like the best of friends. Yet, in their home countries people are dying for their causes in defiance of the opposing cause…

It is my fervent wish and prayer that we can find peace. Not just peace between nations with differences, but personal peace within ourselves and within our relationships and communities.

Just think of this photo the next time you are about to pass judgment or prolong a disagreement. We can all get along, we can all be a part of peace, we can all unite under the banner of the human race and be tolerant of whoever we encounter.

Tolerance. Love. Peace.

Please.

Matisyahu, NBC and The Olympic Winter Games Make A Great Team

rabbifink — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 23:25:57 +0000

I first heard of Matisyahu while working as a Campus Rabbi at USC. The Jewish students on campus were really into his music (this was ~5 years ago) and some of my students invited me to join them at a Matisyahu concert.

He was performing at the Knitting Factory in Hollywood which was right near my home. I went and it was really cool. The music was great, the message was equally wholesome and the connection that I got to build with my students was profound.

I liked it enough that I took my wife to a Matisyahu show at the American Jewish University a few weeks later. It was a bad venue for a concert. It was more like a movie theater than the right venue for a reggae concert. Still, we enjoyed the music.

I knew that Matisyahu had made it, when I was listening to my then favorite sports radio show, “The Loose Canons” on AM 570 in Los Angeles (oh how I miss those guys…) and they played Chop ‘em Down as their bumper music. That was an epiphany for me. At that point, Matisyahu has “made it” in my books.

If that wasn’t sufficient proof that Matisyahu had “made it”, I received another clue a few weeks ago. I was playing the NBA 2K10 video game and the background music was… Matisyahu!

I found a video of the NBA 2K10 playlist so you can see for yourself.

I thought that was pretty cool.

But today around the blogosphere and on Twitter the latest Matisyahu news is regarding the new NBC advertisement for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.

This is, by far, the best exposure that Matisyahu has seen in the public eye. The commercial is perfect. The content, the timing of the cuts, the slow – motion, the music and the message are woven together to create a really perfect ad. The emotion that the 30 second spot exudes are exactly what NBC wants you to feel.

I like NBC as a network and I hope that they can mount a comeback and become relevant again. This ad is a great start.

I am sure Matisyahu is proud to be part of such a great ad. I am proud to share it with you.

No God Is Top Trending Topic On Twitter

rabbifink — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 17:14:00 +0000

Twitter has a sidebar with the top trending topics on Twitter at any given moment.

As of this very second the #1 Trending Topic on Twitter is “No God“.

I just thought that was really interesting.

And that is a good reason for a “Fail Whale” to lead this post…

More discussion on DovBear.

Twitter Your Prayers

rabbifink — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 17:11:25 +0000

This Post Has Been Cross Posted to DovBear.

The morning before Rosh Hashana there is a custom to recite extended Slichos in Shul.

Led by Gary Dalin, the services this morning were wonderful. Thank you Gary.

The Slichos are mostly Medieval era poetry designed to arouse the soul within to make amends for all wrongs committed during the year. As we approach the judgment of Rosh Hashana we bolster our efforts in securing a good verdict with the extra Slichos.

As the Slichos are written using a complex, poetic formula it is necessary to use a prayer book with translated versions of the Slichos to help us understand what we are reading in the original Hebrew.

Sometimes, the translations are nearly as difficult to understand as the original. There was one very familiar word found in Slicha #38.

After Slichos this morning, Alan Danziger pointed out this little gem to me.

(Artscroll Slichos 389)

It seems that the Paytan (composer of the Selicha) was either on Twitter sometime before 1234 CE or was prophesizing ~800 into the future.

In all seriousness, Prayer can be effective through any medium. Whether you pray in your heart, with your lips, in print or digitally, the main thing is to be sincere and to use Prayer as a tool for developing a deeper relationship with God.

It is clear that from the Rosh Hashana liturgy that a primary task of Rosh Hashana is to anoint and accept God as our King. We use the Shofar and our Prayers to accomplish this goal.

There is a Mechilta in Yisro that says that gratitude for what God has done for us is the key to open the door for those feelings to penetrate and enable us to make God our King of our lives. Think about all the wonderful things that we have in life. Appreciate them and use those emotions to propel you to proclaim God as our King.

May we all merit to see the day that God’s dominion is clear to all.

Gmar Chasima Tova to each and every one of you.

Authentic Judaism and Authentic Charity

rabbifink — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 15:32:10 +0000

This post is really two Public Service Announcements.

Please read both and if you are able to help in any way possible, it is much appreciated.

One great thing about blogging is the opportunity to connect with other people for the sake of an important cause. Today, I present you with two important causes.

First, there is a blogger who writes vitriolic, hate laced blog posts against anyone with whom he disagrees. He does so under the guise of Authentic Judaism. He makes no real arguments, just yells loudly at those he views as a threat (read: anyone who thinks differently than he). Apparently, he thinks that God spoke to him directly and gave him Torah and nobody else. A number of bloggers are trying to snatch the Google search result ranking from his blog.

I am here to help.

More importantly, DovBear is looking for some kind souls to help a family in desperate financial need. The economic downturn has claimed some more victims and from what I understand, their situation is dire. It is really easy to help, Just click here and click donate in the upper right hand sidebar and donate just a little money. Type in the amount you can give and indicate it is for #famliyneedsdough. If you can give just a few dollars it would make a tremendous difference to this family. Every penny donated will be given directly to the needy family.

I appreciate any relief you can provide.

Book Review | The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook

rabbifink — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 15:58:23 +0000

Yesterday I flew from New York to Los Angeles. We got to the airport just under 3 hours before our flight. This is a direct result of missing a few flights in the last few years. We always err on the side of caution.

I stopped in a Hudson Books to peruse the available reading material. Prominently displayed was a new book by Ben Mezrich called “The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and BetrayalThe Accidental Billionaires“. I am a big fan of Mezrich having read, Busting Vegas: A True Story of Monumental Excess, Sex, Love, Violence, and Beating the OddsBusting Vegas, 21: Bringing Down the House - Movie Tie-In: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for MillionsBringing Down the House (I recommend all those books). I took a look at the book and discovered it was about the founding and founders of Facebook.

I bought the book.

And so should you.

Why?

The book is interesting, tells a compelling story and most of all offers fantastic insight into our world. Facebook transformed the way we interact with each other on the web and in real life.

Before Facebook, the web was mostly information that someone else put on the web for you to learn from. The genius of Facebook is that it gave everyone the opportunity to share their lives with their friends on the web. Facebook is a web platform that is the really the voice of the people. Facebook wrestled the web away from corporate content providers and gave the power of the web to you and me and our friends.

Prior to Facebook there was MySpace. MySpace was and continues to be a big advertisement for one’s brand, band, etc. It is not a relationship building platform. Facebook is a place to meet and befriend people. It is your real life, just online. Facebook took the interactions of our daily lives and transported them onto a web page. That is why Facebook is not only the largest online community, but is also the most popular photo sharing site on the web. People share their lives in a natural way on Facebook.

Twitter really took the Facebook lesson of sharing and community building and over-simplified it. Twitter has also become wildly successful because it builds community.

Understanding our highly interactive online world is important and this book really illuminates that reality.

The other thing that made the book powerful was the struggle the founders of Facebook encountered while attributed credit to the creator of Facebook.

See, Facebook wasn’t revolutionary. It was just social networking done the right way. Other folks had thought of similar sites and other sites were launched and they failed.

The tension over whose idea Facebook was is something that happens all the time in our modern world. People think of ideas or concepts at the same time as others. One of those parties may be successful with their version of the idea and the other version may fail. When the failing version owners realize they have not succeeded oftentimes they get angry, they file lawsuits, they yell and scream and make themselves look bad.

Much of the book is dedicated to appreciating this complex dynamic and it is a valuable lesson in modern fairness.

I recommend The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayalthis book (click to purchase) to anyone wishing to gain insight and appreciation for our interactive, modern, web based universe. As well as people who just like reading a good book about a college geek who became the youngest billionaire in the history of America.

Elul Begins With A Warning | Anonymous Bloggers Take Note: Google Knows Your Every Move

rabbifink — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 21:32:05 +0000

A little while back I contributed a decent post to DovBear that generated an impressive response from legions of commenters on DovBear. The post was a comparison of anonymous vs. onymous blogging.

I argued that by blogging about important things anonymously, they are less effective and only perpetuate the near censorship of right-wing Orthodox Judaism. Some went on to call anonymous blogging cowardly.

In the discussion that ensued I conceded that quite possibly, better conversation can be had anonymously and I admitted that for a blog like DovBear, the unfortunate reality is that anonymity is the preferable choice.

Something left undiscussed was the reality that DovBear is not anonymous. Google, who hosts his blog, knows exactly who he is, where he lives and presumably, has access to all his email, searches and web history. Until a few days ago, one may have assumed that their information was safe with Google.

Not anymore.

A New York State Supreme Court ruled that Google was compelled to reveal the identity of a blogger using Google’s Blogger software. The blogger is question had posted defamatory comments about a fashion model that negatively affected her career. The model sued Google to uncloak the anonymous blogger and the court held that Google must comply.

Some may think I herald this as a victory for onymous blogging. Not so. If one is not comfortable blogging onymously his privacy must be respected. I urge people to choose to blog onymously, I am not on favor of mandating it and banning anonymous blogging.

The Bray of Fundie has an interesting post about his opinion on the ramifications of this ruling which is worth reading. Click here to go to to his excellent blog called HaMavdil.

(This is just one more reason to self host one’s blog. Technically the owner of a Blogger blog is Google and it is their information to share or withhold. A self hosted blog cannot be “outed” by Google as the blog owner is the rights holder to the information on the blog.)

But what of the courts decision? How does this affect the blogosphere? Some are calling it the “end of anonymous blogging”. That may very well be the case, but a new anonymous medium (twitter?) will crop up and still give voice to the anony-addicts out there. So really, the voice of the anonymous will not be quelled it will just need to move its home base.

The prospect of Google sharing our information is more worrisome than anything else. Everything we do is being recorded by Google. That can seem very scary.

Yet, when we reflect on this idea we can ask ourselves, is it so strange to us that our lives are being recorded by Google? Is it such a foreign concept that our every movement has meaning and does not disappear into the oblivion of infinite time and space?

Of course it is not. Our Rabbis teach us “V’chol ma’asecha b’sefer nichtavim”. All our actions are recorded in a “book”. Obviously, this cannot be a real, leather-bound volume published by Harper-Collins. I understsand this to mean that each of our actions has cosmic ramifications. Whenever we act, it affects us and the world is affected. None of our actions are meaningless that they would go “unrecorded”.

This is what Elul and the High Holidays are about. Realizing that our decisions and choices make real differences and hopefully adjusting our lives accordingly to make good and true choices.

The court decision in favor of the fashion model comes at a great time. We can take stock and learn a lesson about what it means for our lives to “recorded”; what it means to live life with the understanding that everything we do matters.

At some point we all will need to face our life’s choices. Let’s make the right choices.

Rabbi Zelik Epstein, Of Blessed Memory

rabbifink — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 16:34:47 +0000

Yesterday, the Jewish world lost a spiritual giant (good article worth reading). Rabbi Zelik Epstein, Rosh Yeshiva of Shaar Hatorah in Queens passed away. He was 97.

R’ Zelik was a relic of the past. He studied Torah in Europe with some the greatest Torah scholars of recent American Jewry, including Rabbi Moshe Feinstein and Rabbi Yaakov Kamanetsky.

Perhaps even more significantly, he was above the fray. He did not get involved in politics and instead, studied, taught and advised and preached Torah and its values.

Today the Jewish community mourns a man of integrity, scholarship and clarity.

Today, I mourn a man who taught my grandfather, Sidney Greenwald, over 50 years ago in the fledgling Beis Medrash Elyon. My grandfather was very proud to have learned from R’ Zelik.

Today, students of his across the world, in every imaginable profession and walk of life, mourn the loss of their teacher and spiritual guide.

Case in point: Native New Yorkers who listen to Sports Radio are all familiar with “The Fan” 660 WFAN. Anyone who has listened during the daytime has become familiar with “Davening Dov Kramer”, an orthodox Jew. Davening Dov has worked at WFAN for as long as I can remember. He has been a Kiddush Hashem showing the world a wonderful example of an Observant Jew.

Last night Dov sent me a Tweet, to check out a note he wrote on Facebook. Dov wrote a note on his Facebook Profile mourning the loss of his Rebbe. I highly recommend reading it in its entirety Facebook account required (if you don’t have one, send me an email and I will email the note to you directly). I would like to quote one small section that I found most powerful.

I had gotten into radio to be able to reach people through the medium I always loved, and had wanted to learn the business from the “pros” before going into “Jewish” radio. … I didn’t think leaving radio (at least temporarily) would hinder my original goal of positively influencing people via the radio, so wanted to quit my job, move back to Israel (again, I was single and in my late 20s) to learn full-time. I figured I could get free room and board if I did something like being a dorm counselor at a yeshiva for Americans, so would still have no expenses and be able to focus on my learning. Before doing what I thought was clearly the “frum” thing to do (stop working to learn full-time), I went to speak to Rav Zelik.

I told him my plan, but he said it wasn’t a good idea. He was afraid that making such a radical change was unhealthy, and there was a danger that after a while I would regret having done it. Instead, he told me that I should keep working at WFAN … and learn for semicha at night. I had been doing some volunteer work for a kiruv organization (JEP-LI), and they offered me a job that would allow me to work half a day and learn half a day. I asked Rav Zelig if that was an option worth considering, and he told me that if I thought I could get “sipuk hanefesh,” that I would be satisfied doing kiruv professionally, that I could do it, but otherwise, the less of a change in my life I make while studying for semicha, the better.

I had gotten into radio to be able to reach people through the medium I always loved, and had wanted to learn the business from the “pros” before going into “Jewish” radio. I had worked at a dance station (Hot 103), in the news dept. of a country-music station (WHN) and had worked on live talk shows and ball games for a few years. I didn’t think leaving radio (at least temporarily) would hinder my original goal of positively influencing people via the radio, so wanted to quit my job, move back to Israel (again, I was single and in my late 20s) to learn full-time. I figured I could get free room and board if I did something like being a dorm counselor at a yeshiva for Americans, so would still have no expenses and be able to focus on my learning. Before doing what I thought was clearly the “frum” thing to do (stop working to learn full-time), I went to speak to Rav Zelig.

I told him my plan, but he said it wasn’t a good idea. He was afraid that making such a radical change was unhealthy, and there was a danger that after a while I would regret having done it. Instead, he told me that I should keep working at WFAN (I was working Sundays thru Thursdays from 11am-7pm, with “Mike and the Mad Dog” Mon-Thurs, but because of Shabbos worked Sundays instead of Fridays) and learn for semicha at night. I had been doing some volunteer work for a kiruv organization (JEP-LI), and they offered me a job that would allow me to work half a day and learn half a day. I asked Rav Zelig if that was an option worth considering, and he told me that if I thought I could get “sipuk hanefesh,” that I would be satisfied doing kiruv professionally, that I could do it, but otherwise, the less of a change in my life I make while studying for semicha, the better.

This is a glimpse into the insight of a great man. Many people would have just assumed that more studying was an automatically better option. R’ Zelik knew his student and knew what was truly best for his situation.

This kind of indiviualized, custom tailored Judaism is something a bit lacking in our “one-size-fits-all” society. We need more Rabbis who can lead like R’ Zelik did.

It is in this light that we all mourn the loss of a true individual, a true Gadol, R’ Zelik Epstein.

A Happy 2009 Birthday

rabbifink — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 17:36:23 +0000

Yesterday was my birthday.

I am not huge “birthday guy”. I love my children’s birthday more than my own birthday and my mother loves my birthday more than I do.

A lot of people know my birthday. Co-workers, family and friends all know my birthday. This year I got a ton of birthday wishes.

But it was different.

One summer when I was in sleepaway camp on my birthday I got like 250 “in person” birthday wishes. The guy who made the breakfast anouncements said “the 100th person who wishes Eliyahu Fink a Happy Birthday gets a free soda”. Everyone wanted a free soda so throughout the day random kids were wishing me Happy Birthday. I like that. It felt good to be acknowledged (birthday or not…).

This year, I was not in sleepaway camp and there were no contests.

I got 7 in person happy birthdays.

I got 2 phonecall happy birthdays.

I got 8 Twitter timeline happy birthdays.

I got 3 Twitter direct message happy birthdays.

I got 2 SMS Text happy birthdays.

I got 39 Facebook happy birthdays.

Notice a trend?

Yes, technology contributed tremendously to my birthday wishes.

I don’t have any major commentary about this, I just think it is notable. Social networking plays such an important role in our 2009 lives. It is not going to change so if you are not yet on Twitter or Facebook or leaving comments on blogs, you are a little behind the curve.

That’s okay. I am not saying we all need to be ahead of the curve. What I am saying is our world is trending into a more digital era.

Be ready!

Onymous Blogging

rabbifink — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 16:51:22 +0000

This post has been cross-posted to DovBear. – more discussion there.

Social Networking has been around for a long time. The term is nearly two centuries old and the concept perhaps 30 times that.

With the internet explosion around the new millennium social networking became all the rage on the world wide web. MySpace and others blazed the trail. Now, blogging, Facebook and Twitter are an integral part of our social landscape.

Naturally, I was drawn to these new age ways of using technology to create social networks. I’ve been on Facebook since its inception five years ago and joined Twitter a while ago and have only recently begun to blog.

Over the last few weeks some incredible things have happened that are direct results of social networking online.

A couple of weeks ago a lovely woman came to our Shul on the Beach for Shabbos morning services. At the Kiddush (where incredibly, we do not have Kugel) she approached me and introduced herself as “Rena, I follow you on Twitter”. Immediately I realized it was @Tinsbar from Baltimore. Rena was in LA for a few days and decided to come check out our Shul. Rena enjoyed her time spent at PJC and we enjoyed her company. In fact one community member even got some footwear recommendations from Rena!

When I related this story to a Shul Board Member, he said this is the new wave of Shuls. We have moved from being just a “Brick and Morter” Shul to a “Click and Mortar” Shul.

About a month ago I posted the story of a penniless Jewish artist on the beach who was homeless. He needed some money and I was not sure if he was a good candidate for Tzedaka and I posted my moral dilemma on DovBear.

As reported last week, an anonymous donor (living miles away from Los Angeles) who read the blog post here on DovBear, literally saved this man from a dire situation.

On Twitter I follow a wonderful couple from Connecticut. She is a blogging convert and is now in the process of a more stringent conversion that would be universally accepted. He is a fellow blogger as well who blogs about his relationship with his Judaism.

He recently discovered the wonderful Jewish town of Waterbury CT. With a Yeshiva, Day School, Shul, Mikva, Kosher restaurant and very affordable housing, Waterbury is quickly picking up young couples looking to settle (slightly) out of town. I read all about that on his “onymous” (it’s a new word that means ‘the opposite of anonymous’) blog.

My sister and brother in law live in Waterbury, I told him to call my brother in law and check out Waterbury. They set a date and spent a wonderful afternoon together.

In short all of this great stuff occurred as a direct result of blogging, Twitter and social-networking 2009 style. These events also occurred in many ways as a result of “onymous” blogging. The charity case required someone be known (in this case, me). There is no way Rena would have found me if I blogged and Twittered anonymously. And if I was an anonymous blogger I never would have connected my sister with two fellow Jews looking for friends and connections.

These are the benefits of “onymous” blogging.

On the other hand (term of art – remember that discussion?), anonymous blogging and Twittering is also great. In particular I point to DovBear’s blog as a bastion of anonymity and great discussion that would admittedly never happen if we all had faces, names and families. The unfortunate realities of the Frum world as they are, almost force us cower in fear when we disagree with authority or tradition and we tend to hide behind familiar rituals, thus avoiding conflict and we are safe behind the veil of secrecy that is anonymous blogging.

Anonymity gives the silent, a voice. It gives us all a chance to be heard.

In truth, we have other things to worry about as well. As Tikkun Olam pointed out, we have Frum leaders blanketing all bloggers as a negative force, when we know that is ridiculous. There are some negative forces and many positive forces in the J-Blogosphere.

Worse is the fear we all feel of expressing our opinions. My opinion on this is transparent as I blog “onymously”. Speak your mind, challenge what you don’t understand but never lose the art of respectful questioning. I am (usually) not afraid to speak my mind and challenge what I don’t understand and thus I don’t need to be anonymous. Plus, I support many of the traditional ideals that “they” espouse. But, the crux of the issue remains the environment which we have created and now support that does not allow for us to challenge.

I say created, and that is self evident. I say support because we “give in” to the cyber bullies that force us to remain anonymous. How much greater impact would have as a group if those whom we challenge knew that we were real people? They should know that we have Yeshiva educations, wonderful families and jobs and we are frustrated with the status quo. But to “them” we are words on a computer screen, not people.

Words are cheap. Words have no soul when they are anonymous. If we want to be heard we need to be people. People have souls and people need to be dealt with. It is easy to ignore anonymous bloggers. People with souls demand attention and can affect change.

Should we strive to create a Frum culture that allows for challenging and questioning?

Are we helping the situation by blogging anonymously?

Do we lose a lot by blogging anonymously?

Do we stand to lose more by “onymous” blogging?

Where Is The Outrage? | The Plight of Middle Eastern Jewry

rabbifink — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 11:43:46 +0000

This post has been cross posted to DovBear – great discussion there.

Do Anglo/American Jews care enough about our middle-eastern Jewish brothers and sisters?

Yesterday DovBear posted a really great Op-Ed piece from the NY Times.

In fact. before checking his blog I even emailed the article to him as I assumed he would find it interesting.

Of course, I was too late as it had already been posted!

What occurred subsequent to his posting of the article was even more interesting.

But first let’s go to the NY Times column. An exiled Egyptian Jew recounts the persecution his family experienced in Egypt. His issue is that President Obama took the time to mention the suffering of Palestinians and ignored the suffering of middle-eastern Jews outside of Israel. A worthwhile read.

DovBear posted the article and it got very little attention from the commenters. As opposed to a three day running argument about Mesorah (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3) that got hundreds and hundreds of comments.

On Twitter DovBear posted this observation:

Egyptian Jew criticizes Obama in Times oped. TBF [to be fair], when was the last time any Ashkenazi Jew shed a tear for what happened to MidEastJews?

I responded with my experience:

R’ Herman Neuberger dedicated YEARS of his life to save Iranian Jews. TBF – he not only shed tears, but years and saved thousands.

Which DovBear countered with a hilarious (and sad) take:

kol hakovod [kudos] for your yachid [individual]. Average cholent fresser [eater] from flatbush doesn’t know and doesnt care.

It seems to me that DovBear is right. Where is the outrage from Ashkenazic Jews? Why does it seem like we don’t care?

The rest of this post is dedicated to bringing awareness to the plight of middle-eastern Jewry and an invitation for those of you may have first hand information regarding living as a Jew in Iran, Iraq, Egypt or any other middle-eastern country to contribute.

My first step was to contact a grandson of the aforementioned Rabbi Herman Neuberger.

Eli Neuberger relayed the following history of Iranian Jewry that is related to his grandfather’s involvement. (I have edited his comments for brevity, grammar and overall fluidity.)

The traditional Iranian Jewish schools were run by an umbrella organization called Otzar HaTorah.In the mid 70′s the Shah and his government decided to nationalise all religious schools, Jewish and Islam alike in order to curb the radical influence that was gaining traction amongst the Muslims. My Grandfather was approached by a Mr. Sasson from London, to travel to Iran to negotiate with the Government in order to minimize secular influence on religious studies.

While in Iran, my Grandfather visited the community in Shiraz. He thought that if a group of promising Iranians would come to learn at the Ner Israel Rabbinical College (NIRC), where he was the Dean. Then they could return to Iran and become the Klei Kodesh (spiritual leaders) that could lead the community.The first group arrived in 1977.

Meanwhile in 1979 the Shah was overthrown by radical Islamists.The students in NIRC could not expect to return home. At the time, many Iranian Jews were able to leave Iran and when they arrived in Austria, Italy etc. they were granted refugee status and were able to continue on to the US.

The situation became far more dire in 1980 when the Iran-Iraq war started.Boys as young as 12-13 were sent to the front lines to be used as mine sweepers. Many Jews were smuggled to Turkey or Pakistan. These trips were fraught with danger, even after they were able to leave Iran. My grandfather was instrumental in assuring good treatment in Turkey and safe passage to Europe. He made many trips to the corridors of power in DC to speak to Congressman,Senators and Diplomats to be able to insure this continuing clandestine exodus.

Many of the boys that made the harrowing trip came to study Torah in NIRC.

All this good work was done behind the scenes and with very little fanfare.

According to the never accurate Wikipedia, Rabbi Neuberger was instrumental in saving 60,000 Iranian Jews.

I contacted another friend of mine, Natan Davoodi. His family is Iranian (in LA they are called Persian).

He told me that as far as he knows the non-Jews only tolerate the Jews of they can exploited for the benefit of the non-Jew. That doesn’t sound very good.

I would be remiss if I did not mention Roger Cohen. A NY Times columnist, Cohen has a thing for the Iranians. He thinks all is honky-dory in Iran. He writes about it here and here. Absolute disgrace.

I would like to hear from you if you know of any injsutice to Jewish people in middle-eastern countries (outside of Israel). Just telling those stories will get the ball rolling.

We are all brothers and sisters and there is no excuse for ignoring their plight.

Your Unique Voice and A Kafkaesque Experience

rabbifink — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 18:26:08 +0000

Last week, Facebook disabled my account. No explanation, no reason, no apology, just gone.

There are terms that each member of Facebook agrees to abide by and I have not violated any of those terms. I have emailed Facebook asking for an explanation or at the very least an acknowledgement that my account has been disabled. So far… nothing.

If you are so inclined, send Facebook an email on my behalf requesting they reinstate my account.

It is incredible how I have come to rely on Facebook as a means to maintaining relationships. I have become accustomed to knowing how my friends and family are doing by reading their Facebook posts. Now I wonder what they are up to…?

Perhaps more profoundly, I have become accustomed to others knowing about my life. Incredibly, I somehow think that others may want to read what I find interesting and listen to my thoughts on current events and social commentary. Now, without Facebook, I feel like a radio show host with no microphone. My voice has been silenced and I do not like it one bit.

Facebook is a social networking site. I think that is a misnomer. Aside from providing networking, Facebook provides a platform. For now, I am without it.

The entire experience has been Kafkaesque and it feels strange to be stripped of your online identity. Thankfully, I have spread my voice out among a few channels. I am on Twitter. What is Twitter? Sign up and you will find out it is like Facebook but just the status updates. So there are no applications, groups or photo albums but there is much more updating. I recommend it for anyone in school or business. Follow my updates by clicking here.

Then there is this blog. I write, but does anyone read? Yes, there are some readers. Would I want more people to read and interact on the blog? Yes. So, if you enjoy the blog, spread the word and link to the blog on your Facebook account or your own blog.

I am happy to reciprocate if I find your content worthwhile.

It is clear, that we all need to be heard. In the 21st century we all have the opportunity to be heard, the harder thing is to filter the noise and find the music you want to hear.

This reminds me of a great Jewish idea. The Jewish people adhere to the precepts of the Torah. We all study Torah and we all find Its depth infinite. As infinite as the Torah is, every single person whe studies the Torah has an opportunity to create a novel idea in the Torah. This is called a Chiddush. Our tradition teaches us that each person can and does create one or several Chiddush thoughts in their lifetime. This is their idea and would have not been heard without that person’s thought.

Each person brings their personality, personal history and world view to their study. Thus, each person can create their own Chiddush which is theirs and always will be theirs. The Torah provides infinite opportunities for everyone’s voice to be heard, to be unique and to be eternal.

The internet is incredible. It has given a voice to anyone who desires to be heard and more importantly, gives all of us the chance to hear those voices. If you like my voice, share it with others.