I listened to a debate between Christopher Hitchens and Dennis Prager. In the debate Hitchens who is a very smart man but really dumb makes very contradictory statements. He agreed that all men are inherently evil. However, he admits that people have a tendency to believe in something and in a higher authority.
Can any sane person who wishes to deny God explain this seemingly strange phenomenon? How did a seemingly purposeless being develop these contradictory feelings. On one hand he wishes to do bad and on the other he wishes to live for a purpose and believe in God. Hitchens tries to insinuate that people want to believe in a higher authority because of a weakness that humans have. But Hitchens doesn't bother trying to explain why this is a weakness and not a strength. I guess he feels that since its a great strength to deny God its a weakness that we want to believe in one.
It is very hard to understand his twisted logic for why would it be a strength to deny God if there absolutely no proof of God. So in a way he subconsciously admitting that there is overwhelming evidence of God but he has the strength to deny him and therefore its a weakness to believe in God. Further, if we are inherently evil why would we ever feel regret. From what source would regret come from. I never saw anyone claim that animals feel regret. Even if there are animal lovers who want to claim that they have regret there will never be any proof of that.
In reviewing common traits we have with animals you can see that they are always of the self serving variety. As my Grandfather put it "Every characteristic of man can be compared with some animal. Cunning, wickedness, slyness, selfishness, vengeance, greed, thrift, courage, timidness, loyalty, docility, boldness, imitativeness are all characteristics belonging to different animals, and are possessed by every person, in varying degrees". Yet Animals rarely deviate from their nature. Maybe in Hollywood they can make a Rabbit become bold and daring. But in real life you will never see a bold rabbit. Yet men can change their characteristics from moment to moment. They can be Angry and then forgiving. They can hate and love the same person at different times. Men also have characteristics that no animal has such as justice, righteousness, grace, mercy & sympathy.
All these different emotions, feelings & our intelligence can only be explained if we believe in God and that he created us for a purpose. The purpose was to choose between good and evil. God gave us a body for which gravitates after earthly matters. It is full of lust and cunningness. It seeks pleasure and contentment just like an animal. And he gave us a soul which gravitates towards towards loftier goals. It seeks righteousness and truth. Its seeks humility and subservience to God. Its our choice to follow our souls desires and subdue our evil inclination that distorts the truth.
Atheists rather live a life torturing their souls, risk severe depression so as not to have to be subservient to God which created them. Very sad for them.
Thursday, June 20, 2013
Monday, June 10, 2013
Evolution is Dumb
Watching debates on Youtube and reading various forums where Evolutionists debate creationists I have come to the conclusion that Evolutionists are smart dummies. The reason for this is simple. There are simple minded people that believe in God because you don't need more than a 25 IQ level to know if there is design there is a creator. Simple minded people don't care to use their intellect to further their knowledge to know why God created them and to know for what purpose they live. Therefore, they see no contradiction in following their hearts desires even if it contradicts God's commandments. They don't feel there is any hypocrisy in the way they conduct their lives. Therefore, they can believe in God and still do wherever their the heart desires.
However, smarter people realize that if they acknowledge God that would mean they cannot do as they wish. It means we were created for a purpose and that we are only in control of our destiny as much as God wishes. Although God gave us free will to choose between good and evil it doesn't mean he allows us to perpetuate any evil we wish. It just means that within the realm of our existence he gaves us a choice in which way we wish to pursue. A life full of righteousness or heaven forbid a life full of lust and cunning evil. The Evolutionists do not want to control their desires and subvert themselves to a higher authority so they use their intellect to contrive ways to deny God irrespective of its rationality.
If you try arguing with an Evolutionist you will immediately notice that they will never answer a question directly. They will dance around, skip, hop from one subject to another in an effort to run away from the truth so they are not influenced and have to acknowledge the folly of their thinking. They will conjure up any fantasy they can think of hoping that they will trip up the debater with some triviality so they can point and say see if the debater cannot answer some irrelevant fact it is proof that their theories are correct. In fact almost all the so called "facts" by the evolutionist claim as proof to their theories are unprovable. Since they will usually point to distances far in the past (Millions or billions of years) or to species that no ever heard of.
The truth of the matter is that there is really no point in debating people who will not use reason and are bent over backwards to deny God. The only reason for us to debate them is to show those who were brainwashed from K-20 to believe in Evolution but are not convinced of its rationality and want to hear with a clear mind the truth. They will easily see the truth and bask in its glory. May God show his true might and may it become clear to all the nations of the world his true Oneness and may the time come speedily in our days.
In the coming days I will highlight some claims made by Evolutionists and show how ridiculous they truly are.
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
Metzitzah B'peh
I thought that another way of putting the argument for Metzitzah bpeh is using the following analogy:
A person once went to Brazil to meet a tribe that never met with civilization. The chief of the tribe asked the visitor about life in the greater world. The visitor started describing the modern world with its phones, planes, trains, buses and cars. Fascinated, the chief asks the visitor but isn't these huge metal objects flying all around kill people? The visitor was taken aback by the question and answered meekly that yes people do die. The chief hearing this starts to get angry. Do children die too? He asks his voice rising ever so steadily. The visitor answers again meekly that yes even children die and for a fact over 1,000 children died in automobile accidents in the US alone in one year. The visitor tries to explain how vital these forms of transportation are but to these primitive people no answer would be a good answer. With raging fury they sent the visitor away saying they don't want to be part of a society that sacrifices their children for the comforts of a modern society.
So why don’t we ban cars, trucks, planes etc.? Since we know they are necessary and we live with its consequences despite the fact that over 1,000 children died in 2010 in horrible automobile accidents.
Now Bris Milah and Metzitzah bpeh has yet to positively linked to HSV but you want to ban since you don’t deem it necessary. But actually we as orthodox jews deem it even more necessary than cars, planes, trains and all the other dangerous new technologies that are out there. This practice signifies who we are. It’s our convent with God how can we give it up because some ignorant people deem it dangerous. We would sooner give up driving cars, planes and using phones than to give up this Mitzvah. We can still live without cars and planes but how can we continue as a nation if we drop the laws that has kept us intact after thousands of years in Diaspora?
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
An Amazon Reviewer on Deborah Feldman's Book on Satmar Hasidim
Long but worth it...
I want to preface this review by saying that I was raised in the same community and attended the same school as Ms. Feldman. I left the fold 32 years ago. Like any community sharing the same ethnicity, culture, or in the case of Satmar Williamsburg, a very pious enclave with a fierce commitment to upholding traditions and heritage in a secular world, has its flaws and problems. And as with any such community, Satmar can fall short of Hasidim's ideal. Having acknowledged all that, I find it astonishing though that there is not one good thing Ms. Feldman can say about Williamsburg and the Hasidic life.
Throughout the years I have mingled with Hasidic, Modern Orthodox, Reform, Conservative and non-Jews. After leaving Bais Ruchel, I went to college and for many years worked and was quite exposed and participated as an American in secular society. In all honesty I have to say that I have yet to come across a community like Satmar Williamsburg with such tremendous and genuine outreach programs to its members, and, in fact, to the larger Jewish community. From a voluntary ambulance service that is second to none, from visiting hospitals and providing Jewish patients with home made kosher food, providing car services free of charge for patients going to the doctor or hospital as far away as Washington D.C. or Boston (including in snow storms, a case of which I'm personally aware of), are only a fraction of their outreach programs. Throughout the book Ms. Feldman doesn't even once mention the community's incredible benevolence.
I'd like to address a few things Ms. Feldman wrote that are distorted, deceptive and particularly a couple of things she writes which turns things on its head.
(1) When discussing Zionism Ms. Feldman writes as follows: "Contrary to what is commonly believed about Jewish support for Israel, the Satmar Rebbe insisted that we had to take it upon ourselves to fight for the destruction of Israel, even if it meant martyring ourselves to the cause". Now, there are lies and then there on lies. On a scale of 1 to 10 this one is a 25. Unlike Ms. Feldman I actually read the book Rabbi Teitelbaum wrote on his views on Zionism based on the Torah. I would say that even if the most ardent Zionist, secular or religious, were to read it, while he/she may still strongly disagree and believe that the creation of Israel was the best thing for the Jews, he would, however, provided that he's literate, agree that Rabbi Teitelbaum's book V'Yoel Moshe, in addition to his views why the creation of Israel is a violation of the Torah, is a lamentation on the enormous Jewish bloodshed spilled since Israel's creation. To be sure, Rabbi Teitelbaum was convinced that Israel will eventually be destroyed, however, through the hands of God. "It is clear that Israel will be destroyed prior to the arrival of the Messiah, but we need a lot of mercy from God, that [Israel's destruction] should only happen via the hands of God, not via the nations because should it happen through the might of nations, that would be a tremendous danger for all Jews, as is obvious." (V'Yoel Moshe, Yiddish edition, p. 71-72) When Rabbi Teitelbaum passed away in 1979, the staunch Jewish Zionist radio station in New York, upon announcing his death, said that "Today the most anti-Zionist and the biggest "Ohev Yisroel" (lover of the Jewish people) passed on". For Ms. Feldman to say that Rabbi Teitelbaum, this biggest "Ohev Yisroel" called upon his Chasidim to sacrifice their lives to destroy Israel is a deception that reaches a level of depravity.
In addition, on the subject of Zionism Ms. Feldman writes that her Bubby told her that the Zionists "didn't want to populate their new land with ignorant Jews from religious shtetls, . . . they wanted a new kind of Jew, educated, enlightened, devoted to the cause." Apparently, Ms. Feldman thinks this is outrageous. Bubby doesn't know what she is talking about. What's fascinating here is that not only is her Bubby right but her Bubby may have been unaware of the enormity of the contempt the Yishuv leaders harbored toward orthodox Judaism. Here are just a couple of examples revealing how far that utter contempt was. In his book From Herzl to Rabin - The Changing Image of Zionism, its author, Amnon Rubinstein, founder of the not only ultra secular party in Israel, but deeply anti-religious, Shinui, describes the ideology of the Yishuv (Zionist leaders).
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"It was permissible not only to break away from the Pale of Settlement mentality and to bring down the walls of the rabbinical establishment, but also to question everything that was sacred and hallowed in Jewish tradition. Thus, within Zionism there grew a non-Jewish, even anti-Jewish sentiment, stunning in its strength and in its longings for the pagan and the Gentile. True, this sentiment preceded Zionism, and the rebellion against traditional Judaism nourished both the Haskalah (Enlightenment) literature and the turn toward socialist and revolutionary activity among young Jews in eastern Europe . Zionism did not give birth to this mood - to a certain extent it was assisted by it - but it did give it a legitimate national justification that no socialist revolution could offer. Because of Zionism, an author could write in Hebrew, with a strong sense of nationalist pride, tracts castigating Judaism for real and imaginary faults, yet retain his standing as a Jew within the community. It was permissible to cast stones at everything sacred in the father's home and to admire that which was anathema to Jews throughout the ages. Facing the Statute of Apollo, written in 1899 by Saul Tschernichovsky, one of the greatest Hebrew poets, is a well-known example of this new defiance. The poet describes himself facing the pagan God, "the youth-god, sublime and free, the acme of beauty!" He refers to the eternal war between the pagan god and the Jews and proclaims: "I am the first of my race to return to you." He turns away from the old God and yields to the forces of "life and courage and beauty" mourning the wild god who had "stormed Canaan in conquest" only to be "tied up with the straps of phylacteries." . . .In this special atmosphere of the Yishuv, the discrepancy between past and present, between old and new Jews, seemed palpable and irrefutable. A succinct statement of this growing sense of alienation from the past is found in "The Sermon", a famous short story by Haim Hazaz, one of Israel's most illustrious writers, after the outbreak of WW11 when the Jews were already subject to Nazi terror. The hero of the story examines the nature of Judaism and Zionism and finally reaches the verdict . . . "Zionism and Judaism are not at all the same, but two things quite different from each other, and maybe even two things directly opposite to each other! . . . When a man can no longer be a Jew, he becomes a Zionist." Rubinstein then writes the Zionists loathing of the language Yiddish, the language of the shtetl, and therefore adopted that the people start speaking Hebrew only. "Hebrew represented the will to create a new people - a new nation, a new goy - who live in their own land and speak their own language. The Palestinian young Hebrew was the super-Jew, and the rise of the Sabra cult accentuated this divergence between new and old. . . . " To create this new super-Jew or Goy, the Zionists and to make Israel like any other nation "The Sabbath became a day of rest, to be dispensed with whenever necessary." It's worth emphasizing that Zionism did not have a problem identifying the Jewish nation with the Jewish religion. "That the Jews had a religion of their own was, by itself, compatible with the Zionist wish for normalization. After all, there were national churches in European countries, such as Greece, Rumania. . . there were the Anglicans and the German Lutherans; and even the universal faiths acquired in many countries a distinct national expression. Hence, with regard to the Sabbath, Max Nordau, who combined ardent Zionism with fiery atheism suggested that perhaps the Sabbath in the Jewish state should be replaced by the more universal Sunday, as is the custom of the Gentiles.
One final statement worth quoting summing up the Yishuv's abhorrence for shtetl Judaism was made by Yitschak Greenbaum at the height of the genocide in Europe: "One cow in Palestine is worth more than all the Jews in Poland". Incidentally, K. Tzetnik, famous chronicler of tales of the holocaust, who fainted and became critically ill after he began testifying at the Eichmann trial, offers corroborating evidence in his book about Auschwitz, "Call Him Feifel". There he depicts the figure of Eliezer Greenbaum, son of Yitzchak Greenbaum, who, thanks to his tactics of acting as informant and displaying cruelty -- to an extent which amazed even the Germans -- was elevated to the rank of the bloc commander.
In K. Tzetnik's words, "Eliezer hated religious Jews with an abysmal loathing. His eyes would shoot flaming sparks whenever a religious Jew, and even more so a rabbi, fell into his clutches. And so, when he murdered a Jew named Heller, he summoned two other Jews from the barracks. `Who is the rav?' he asked. The one who was a rabbi had his bearded face covered with a rag, which had once been part of a coat sleeve. Fruchtenbaum (Greenbaum) measured the two men with a scornful glare, his features clearly showing how it irked him that such Jews still existed. He turned to the Shilover Rebbe and, in an anti--Semitic tone, rolled out a threatening `rebbetzin' from between clenched teeth, while his brain toiled to devise a method of death for the pair."
I'll share with you an experience I had many years ago with a cab driver who was the epitome of this new Jewish Goy the Zionists were looking for to settle in the land. I engaged in a conversation with this cab driver and for some reason, I don't know why because it's unusual for me to ask this question, nevertheless asked him if he was Jewish. His response was "No. I am a Hebrew". Being totally confused (at that time I was ignorant of Zionism) I asked him what he meant. He elaborated how he feels not only no connection to "Diaspora Judaism" the Jews from the old shtetl, with its Talmud and Rebbes, something out of the Dark Ages, he abhors it he told me. He is a "new" kind of Jew, he continued. "I am a Hebrew". Proud. Educated, Enlightened, An Israeli. I fight for my country. The Rebbes and shtetl he insisted were repugnant to him.
On prayers Ms. Feldman writes: "Girls don't go to Shul. We pray at home, or in school; it doesn't matter where and how. Only the men's prayers are regimented: only theirs count." Not only is it deceptive that girls/women don't go to shul, many in fact go every Shabbos. That is precisely why there is the Women's section in the synagogue. To say that only men's prayers count simply shows profound ignorance. When living in Williamsburg I have never once heard a teacher, rabbi or parent say that women's prayers don't count. In fact, from a very early age, we learned that women's prayers count very much. In Bais Ruchel we started each day with prayers from the Siddur and reciting the Psalms.
Where Ms. Feldman writes about Jewish Family Law learning about it prior to her marriage, she comes up with a whopper: "I can't help but stare accusingly at the pious married women pushing double strollers down Lee Avenue. 'Is this okay with you' I want to ask. 'Agreeing that you are dirty because you are a woman?" Let me say unequivocally: Women are not considered dirty in the Jewish community, including in the Hasidic community. Jewish family law forbids a woman to have intercourse when she is menstruating. She is not considered "dirty"; she is considered, according to Jewish Family law, to be "ritually impure." After she counts seven clean days from when she stopped bleeding she goes to a Mikvah. Thereupon she can resume sexual relations. To many, I'm sure, and obviously to Ms. Feldman, observing Jewish Family Law and attending the Mikva is horrifying; something from first century Judaism. I have to admit that I myself was actually quite surprised to learn that a number of Reform synagogues are building Mikvahs for women. One noted Reform Jewish Feminist explains why she goes to the mikva this way: "I always felt like it [the mikva] suggested a woman was unclean and that's why she had to come and immerse. But this is a completely different animal." She further says that she interprets the immersion in the mikvah "as an affirmation of her femininity and fertility. It gives me a chance to appreciate the miracle of my body. . . It makes me think about my three children, and the miracle that I was able to give birth to them, and I appreciate God's work." When I first learned about Jewish Family Law, I'll confess, I initially felt burdened by it. Less than a year into my marriage (am now divorced) I recognized that the Hilchas Nida (Jewish Family Law) actually shows Judaism's deep respect for women. The woman is not available to her spouse sexually at his whim. We are not sexual objects. Observance of Jewish Family Law, in fact, enhances the couple's sex life, where sexual relations is not about lust but genuine love. In addition, contrary to what many believe, it is also not merely about procreation. Otherwise sex would have been forbidden for menopausal women.
The examples I cited above in this book are only a fraction of exaggerations, distortions, and deceptions throughout the book. For those of you who are well read on the Holocaust and the historian David Irving and the controversy surrounding him, I'll say that Ms. Feldman does to the Hasidic community what David Irving does to the Holocaust. Without going into details, for those of you not familiar with the genre, suffice it to say that Mr. Irving is considered the worst of the holocaust revisionist historians. Why? Because unlike some others he does not say that it was all a fraud, one huge lie created by the Jews. What he does is mix some facts with fiction, exaggerates, distorts, and takes things out of context. What makes him particularly dangerous is that his books including the one on Hitler is loaded with footnotes giving it the veneer of serious scholarship. It takes a well-read person on World War II and the holocaust to see through all the incredible deceptions. Likewise, Ms. Feldman, because she is a former "insider" gives the impression that her book is based on facts; hence, giving it the appearance of authenticity, the guidebook to everything you always wanted to know about Satmar Chassidim but were afraid to ask. After all, she is an "insider"; she is a product of the community; you are hearing it straight from the horse's mouth. Had her book been one brazen lie from beginning to end, it would have easily been dismissed just like those writers who say that the entire holocaust story was fabricated by the Jews. Those are dismissed to the margins appearing mostly on white supremacist and Nazi websites pretty much denying them their 15 minutes of fame in the mainstream. However, just like David Irving, Feldman's book overall is a compilation of some truths, semi-truths, gross exaggerations, and outright deceptions -- between the comical and the depraved. And, like Irving, apparently by now she is getting more than her share of fame in the mainstream, including in Oprah's book club. The ability to find a mainstream publisher and appear on TV watched by millions of Americans to get exposure and win accolades for a book that is at best a mediocre piece of fiction, not particularly well written I might add, is breathtaking. American intellectual culture it seems keeps sinking into the abyss. Just when I thought we can't sink any further, I'm proven wrong. Apparently the abyss is bottomless.
On the subject of the holocaust, I think it's worth making a couple of observations in this forum. Let us take a look at who was considered a Jew under the Nazi regime. Was it only Hassidim and the observant? Perhaps a handful of their co-religionists who were conservative and reform? We all know that's hardly the case. But apparently Ms. Feldman needs reminding. There is also an interesting, and some would say very painful irony that the Nazis came to power in a country that were the first to embrace the "Haskalah" the "Enlightenment", the first to throw off the yoke of religious observance. The "Enlightenment" to be sure initially also helped bring about the mitigation of anti-Semitism particularly in Germany. When the religious Jews were escaping the pogroms in Poland, a large number of them escaped to Germany. The majority of German Jews when the Nazis came to power were secular. In fact, most of them considered themselves to be "Germans" first and "Jews" second. They not only considered themselves patriotic but in fact walked the walk. They served in the First World War many of them with great honor and distinction. The professions of medicine, law, and engineering became widely opened to them. They made major contributions to German science and played a significant role in the continued industrialization of Germany making Germany the most powerful country in Europe. When the Nazis came to power, Hitler and his henchmen told them they were living in a fantasy world if they thought they were now well integrated and assimilated within German society and are now full Germans. Hitler did not say, you made a mistake - You are Jews first and Germans second- you are Jews ONLY. It was an incredibly rude awaking. And because they were Jews ONLY, the ultimate Nazi policy was not that they therefore belonged in ghettos and deserved to be persecuted and hounded, and not even that they therefore deserve to be treated as slaves as in biblical Egypt,. No, they concluded which policy they finalized at the Wannsee conference on January 20, 1942, because you are Jews you have no right to life. The Jewish people under the Nazi regime were not only the Hasidim, the observant, the reform and assimilated, but even the baptized Jew who went to church every Sunday and prayed to Jesus suddenly found himself part of the hounded who deserved to be annihilated. Hitler went back three generations. It's also widely been written that many of them learned for the first time they were Jews when the Nazis were able to dig out a great great Jewish grandfather or grandmother. To reiterate: the Hassid and the baptized Jew were an equal in Auschwitz - equally loathed and not worthy of life. It's also been widely reported in a number of Holocaust memoirs that many converted and assimilated Jews said the Shemaya Yisroel before they died, perhaps for the first time in their lives. Somewhere in the deep recesses of their memory, perhaps from early childhood they learned this prayer. Over the years when people made some derogatory comments to me about Chassidim or observant Jews I try to remind them that in the 20th, century they were as loathed as their co-religionists.
Victor Klemperer, who was German and a baptized Jew, in his memoirs "I Shall Bear Witness", expressed his extreme dislike toward religious Polish Jews. While he did not write that they deserved to be persecuted, he did express that if Hitler despised these Jews, he could understand it. However, when it became clear that it wasn't only the observant that the Nazis loathed, but the secular and baptized Jews like himself, Klemperer expressed his horror, shock and outrage. Perhaps Ms. Feldman should put Klemperer's memoirs on her reading list.
A final thought on the Holocaust worth noting is the behavior of the Hasidim during this most horrific chapter in Jewish history. There is this misconception that unlike a number of secular Jews who actually took up arms to fight the Nazis, the Hasidim went like sheep to the slaughter. Aside from the fact that a number of Hasidim actually took up arms and fought with the partisans in Poland, a small number to be sure, most of them fought back spiritually and materially and with incredible dignity. This of course is not the proper forum to go in at length on the subject. But one important point is worth making. We know that there were the Jewish police in the ghettos to help keep order as the Jews were rounded up and the kappos in the camps, all Jews. Who among the Jewish population did the Nazis pick to lord over their Jewish brethren? In "Hassidic Responses to the Holocaust in the light of Hassidic Thought", author Pesach Schindler from Hebrew University quoting from Hillel Seidman's book "Warsaw Ghetto Diary" writes as follows: "The Germans exploited every means, organized every Satanic device in order to break the moral defenses of the Jew and to stimulate his most primitive senses. They initiated a difficult and inhuman war of survival so that a Jew could only continue to exist at the expense of another Jew. Yet the elements in the ghetto police, with exceptions, were not the highest caliber. At the time of deportations it [the Jewish police force] was composed of converts, assimilated Jews, radicals, dishonest individuals, those without moral scruples. . . It can be ascertained that the entire police force did not include even one observant Jew. . . This was also true in the camps. Among all the various overseers there were no religious Jews. This is confirmed by all who were in the camps."
Undoubtedly hundreds of thousands of secular Jews had the moral compass and did not become kappos. Apparently though it seems that for whatever reason observant Jews had an increased chance of finding and incorporating that moral compass while prisoners.
Finally, I want to mention something Ms. Feldman said not in her book but at meeting discussing her book. A woman got up and told her that she is secular and she knows very little about Hasidic life. She told Ms. Feldman that she found it strange that she seems unable to say even one good thing about her upbringing. Didn't you have a little fun at some point in your upbringing she was wondering. Ms. Feldman responded that it is the Hasidic men who have all the fun and proceeded to talk about Simchas Torah in Satmar. At first I thought she may actually say that she was sorry that it was only the men who danced with the Torah, not the women, the men who had all the fun. Just when I thought she may actually say something admirable about Hasidim, at least the men, she very quickly cured me of that illusion. She told her audience that Simchas Torah in Satmar is like watching people "clubbing on LSD." No doubt, she got a few laughs from the audience which apparently pleased her very much. "Clubbing on LSD"? Was she trying to suggest that Simchas Torah in Satmar is Woodstock with the Hasidic touch? Hippies in Hasidic garb? At times I wonder, with Jews like Feldman, who needs anti-semites.
I would like to share with you my experience of Simchas Torah in Satmar. Like the rest of humanity I have some painful and also a couple of beautiful memories from childhood. Admittedly being brought up in a community where from early on I felt I didn't fit in, for whatever reason I didn't have the constitution to live a Hasidic life and was looking for something different was at times very difficult and often quite painful. Despite the pain I can in all honesty say that I am actually grateful that I was raised in a Hasidic home for a number of reasons. One of them is that it gave me the opportunity and experiences I would never have had had I been raised in a secular or less religious home.
My most cherished memory from childhood is Simchas Torah in Satmar. The synagogue at the time I was growing up was quite old and was in desperate need of reparations. They were already in the process of building a new one but in the meantime used the old synagogue. I remember it quite fondly. The fact that it was slowly coming apart, somehow added to its warmth and charm. My earliest memory is when I must have been around 8-9 years old watching for the first time the Hakofes (the dancing on Simchas Torah) in Satmar. My recollection is that next to the women's section, there was a small room for children. The floors literally had holes in them where one was able see the floor below where the men were. I recall leaving the house early Simchas Torah to reserve the hole that afforded me the best view to watch the Hakofes. I spread eagle on the floor, and guarded my hole with the same fervor as the Brinks guard watching over his sack of cash and would under no condition move over to allow another kid to take my place fearing I would never get it back. I truly wish I had the requisite writing skills to share with you what that experience was like. Words fail me. I can't think of the words that would do it justice - I can't think of the words to relate accurately the incredible joy and beauty watching Rabbi Teitelbaum and his Chassidim dance. The men's section, a room that was supposed to accommodate perhaps a few hundred, held at least a couple of thousand. People were literally standing on top of each other. Yet when the Rebbe danced, somehow, by some miracle, the Chassidim created the necessary space and allowed the Rebbe to dance up and down the room with the Torah. It is no exaggeration to say that the walls were literally dancing along. It gave me the feeling of being physically transported to Mount Sinai observing Moses delivering the Torah to the Israelites. To me Rabbi Teitelbaum was Moses, the Chassidim the Israelites and the Synagogue, the holes in the floor notwithstanding was Har Sinai. Rabbi Teitelbaum was already in his late 70's and yet watching him dance with the vigor of a 20 year old was breathtaking. The joy I witnessed on the faces of the Chassidim, including my father, one had to observe; it cannot be described. Because without observing it, it cannot be believed. It's impossible to adequately relate the ecstasy one wouldn't think humans are capable of. That purity of faith, combined with that utter all-consuming most heartfelt gratitude to God for giving the Jews the Torah for which the Chassidim felt a love that I can only describe as other worldly, was a marvel to behold. What makes it all the more profound is that this was the Holocaust generation. Many of these Chassidim were in the camps. To be able to feel that kind of all-consuming joy, gratitude and the purest of faith despite the horrors, if nothing else, restores one's belief that God gave us each the opportunity and ability to restore not only one's equilibrium regardless of what horror one has endured but also the ability to love again, to experience joy again, to laugh again. While I admit that I would have to be born again to be able to acquire that purity of faith, I am nevertheless truly grateful that God put me in a community where I was at least afforded the opportunity to witness it. In that regard I continue to feel by far more fortunate than those who were afforded the best of the material world., the best money can buy, including the best secular education I was initially not afforded but eventually pursued.
I could write an honest book, warts and all, of my upbringing in Williamsburg and Hasidim where I spent 24 years, but unlike Ms. Feldman I'm not seeking my 15 minutes of fame. Whatever warts the community has they don't need me to tell them what they are in a book or otherwise. They also don't need my expertise on how to resolve them. While I broke away many years ago, I am still in touch not only with extended family but a handful of friends. Trust me when I say, there are enough Chassidim, men and women, who are as bright and intelligent as I am, and some, far more, without college degrees. In fact, despite a college education and having a collection of several thousand books in which I've been immersed since I left Satmar, it's quite humbling at times to learn that even with limited secular exposure, some of my Hasidic friends, my friend Toby Baum in particular, makes me recognize just how limited my intelligence at times really is. So I continue to make an effort to increase my knowledge recognizing that I have a lot to learn not only from books, secular or otherwise, but staying in touch with some incredibly good, decent and dare I say once again highly intelligent Hasidic women.
One final thought: I was humored when I read Joel's critique of Feldman's book where he writes that while non-orthodox, he is grateful to Feldman because, he writes, "you awoke the inner Jew in me, as something in me desired to defend my people." I wonder whether it's only a coincidence that since following the media circus of Deborah's book, I started reading again books on Hasidim including the book I mentioned above by Schindler on "Hasidic Responses to the Holocaust". While I always had a great respect for the Satmar community, warts and all, despite leaving it behind 32 years ago, I wonder, whether like for Joel, Feldman actually awoke some remnants of Hassidim in me I was not even aware of. Food for thought.
Shifra Stern
Long but worth it...
I want to preface this review by saying that I was raised in the same community and attended the same school as Ms. Feldman. I left the fold 32 years ago. Like any community sharing the same ethnicity, culture, or in the case of Satmar Williamsburg, a very pious enclave with a fierce commitment to upholding traditions and heritage in a secular world, has its flaws and problems. And as with any such community, Satmar can fall short of Hasidim's ideal. Having acknowledged all that, I find it astonishing though that there is not one good thing Ms. Feldman can say about Williamsburg and the Hasidic life.
Throughout the years I have mingled with Hasidic, Modern Orthodox, Reform, Conservative and non-Jews. After leaving Bais Ruchel, I went to college and for many years worked and was quite exposed and participated as an American in secular society. In all honesty I have to say that I have yet to come across a community like Satmar Williamsburg with such tremendous and genuine outreach programs to its members, and, in fact, to the larger Jewish community. From a voluntary ambulance service that is second to none, from visiting hospitals and providing Jewish patients with home made kosher food, providing car services free of charge for patients going to the doctor or hospital as far away as Washington D.C. or Boston (including in snow storms, a case of which I'm personally aware of), are only a fraction of their outreach programs. Throughout the book Ms. Feldman doesn't even once mention the community's incredible benevolence.
I'd like to address a few things Ms. Feldman wrote that are distorted, deceptive and particularly a couple of things she writes which turns things on its head.
(1) When discussing Zionism Ms. Feldman writes as follows: "Contrary to what is commonly believed about Jewish support for Israel, the Satmar Rebbe insisted that we had to take it upon ourselves to fight for the destruction of Israel, even if it meant martyring ourselves to the cause". Now, there are lies and then there on lies. On a scale of 1 to 10 this one is a 25. Unlike Ms. Feldman I actually read the book Rabbi Teitelbaum wrote on his views on Zionism based on the Torah. I would say that even if the most ardent Zionist, secular or religious, were to read it, while he/she may still strongly disagree and believe that the creation of Israel was the best thing for the Jews, he would, however, provided that he's literate, agree that Rabbi Teitelbaum's book V'Yoel Moshe, in addition to his views why the creation of Israel is a violation of the Torah, is a lamentation on the enormous Jewish bloodshed spilled since Israel's creation. To be sure, Rabbi Teitelbaum was convinced that Israel will eventually be destroyed, however, through the hands of God. "It is clear that Israel will be destroyed prior to the arrival of the Messiah, but we need a lot of mercy from God, that [Israel's destruction] should only happen via the hands of God, not via the nations because should it happen through the might of nations, that would be a tremendous danger for all Jews, as is obvious." (V'Yoel Moshe, Yiddish edition, p. 71-72) When Rabbi Teitelbaum passed away in 1979, the staunch Jewish Zionist radio station in New York, upon announcing his death, said that "Today the most anti-Zionist and the biggest "Ohev Yisroel" (lover of the Jewish people) passed on". For Ms. Feldman to say that Rabbi Teitelbaum, this biggest "Ohev Yisroel" called upon his Chasidim to sacrifice their lives to destroy Israel is a deception that reaches a level of depravity.
In addition, on the subject of Zionism Ms. Feldman writes that her Bubby told her that the Zionists "didn't want to populate their new land with ignorant Jews from religious shtetls, . . . they wanted a new kind of Jew, educated, enlightened, devoted to the cause." Apparently, Ms. Feldman thinks this is outrageous. Bubby doesn't know what she is talking about. What's fascinating here is that not only is her Bubby right but her Bubby may have been unaware of the enormity of the contempt the Yishuv leaders harbored toward orthodox Judaism. Here are just a couple of examples revealing how far that utter contempt was. In his book From Herzl to Rabin - The Changing Image of Zionism, its author, Amnon Rubinstein, founder of the not only ultra secular party in Israel, but deeply anti-religious, Shinui, describes the ideology of the Yishuv (Zionist leaders).
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"It was permissible not only to break away from the Pale of Settlement mentality and to bring down the walls of the rabbinical establishment, but also to question everything that was sacred and hallowed in Jewish tradition. Thus, within Zionism there grew a non-Jewish, even anti-Jewish sentiment, stunning in its strength and in its longings for the pagan and the Gentile. True, this sentiment preceded Zionism, and the rebellion against traditional Judaism nourished both the Haskalah (Enlightenment) literature and the turn toward socialist and revolutionary activity among young Jews in eastern Europe . Zionism did not give birth to this mood - to a certain extent it was assisted by it - but it did give it a legitimate national justification that no socialist revolution could offer. Because of Zionism, an author could write in Hebrew, with a strong sense of nationalist pride, tracts castigating Judaism for real and imaginary faults, yet retain his standing as a Jew within the community. It was permissible to cast stones at everything sacred in the father's home and to admire that which was anathema to Jews throughout the ages. Facing the Statute of Apollo, written in 1899 by Saul Tschernichovsky, one of the greatest Hebrew poets, is a well-known example of this new defiance. The poet describes himself facing the pagan God, "the youth-god, sublime and free, the acme of beauty!" He refers to the eternal war between the pagan god and the Jews and proclaims: "I am the first of my race to return to you." He turns away from the old God and yields to the forces of "life and courage and beauty" mourning the wild god who had "stormed Canaan in conquest" only to be "tied up with the straps of phylacteries." . . .In this special atmosphere of the Yishuv, the discrepancy between past and present, between old and new Jews, seemed palpable and irrefutable. A succinct statement of this growing sense of alienation from the past is found in "The Sermon", a famous short story by Haim Hazaz, one of Israel's most illustrious writers, after the outbreak of WW11 when the Jews were already subject to Nazi terror. The hero of the story examines the nature of Judaism and Zionism and finally reaches the verdict . . . "Zionism and Judaism are not at all the same, but two things quite different from each other, and maybe even two things directly opposite to each other! . . . When a man can no longer be a Jew, he becomes a Zionist." Rubinstein then writes the Zionists loathing of the language Yiddish, the language of the shtetl, and therefore adopted that the people start speaking Hebrew only. "Hebrew represented the will to create a new people - a new nation, a new goy - who live in their own land and speak their own language. The Palestinian young Hebrew was the super-Jew, and the rise of the Sabra cult accentuated this divergence between new and old. . . . " To create this new super-Jew or Goy, the Zionists and to make Israel like any other nation "The Sabbath became a day of rest, to be dispensed with whenever necessary." It's worth emphasizing that Zionism did not have a problem identifying the Jewish nation with the Jewish religion. "That the Jews had a religion of their own was, by itself, compatible with the Zionist wish for normalization. After all, there were national churches in European countries, such as Greece, Rumania. . . there were the Anglicans and the German Lutherans; and even the universal faiths acquired in many countries a distinct national expression. Hence, with regard to the Sabbath, Max Nordau, who combined ardent Zionism with fiery atheism suggested that perhaps the Sabbath in the Jewish state should be replaced by the more universal Sunday, as is the custom of the Gentiles.
One final statement worth quoting summing up the Yishuv's abhorrence for shtetl Judaism was made by Yitschak Greenbaum at the height of the genocide in Europe: "One cow in Palestine is worth more than all the Jews in Poland". Incidentally, K. Tzetnik, famous chronicler of tales of the holocaust, who fainted and became critically ill after he began testifying at the Eichmann trial, offers corroborating evidence in his book about Auschwitz, "Call Him Feifel". There he depicts the figure of Eliezer Greenbaum, son of Yitzchak Greenbaum, who, thanks to his tactics of acting as informant and displaying cruelty -- to an extent which amazed even the Germans -- was elevated to the rank of the bloc commander.
In K. Tzetnik's words, "Eliezer hated religious Jews with an abysmal loathing. His eyes would shoot flaming sparks whenever a religious Jew, and even more so a rabbi, fell into his clutches. And so, when he murdered a Jew named Heller, he summoned two other Jews from the barracks. `Who is the rav?' he asked. The one who was a rabbi had his bearded face covered with a rag, which had once been part of a coat sleeve. Fruchtenbaum (Greenbaum) measured the two men with a scornful glare, his features clearly showing how it irked him that such Jews still existed. He turned to the Shilover Rebbe and, in an anti--Semitic tone, rolled out a threatening `rebbetzin' from between clenched teeth, while his brain toiled to devise a method of death for the pair."
I'll share with you an experience I had many years ago with a cab driver who was the epitome of this new Jewish Goy the Zionists were looking for to settle in the land. I engaged in a conversation with this cab driver and for some reason, I don't know why because it's unusual for me to ask this question, nevertheless asked him if he was Jewish. His response was "No. I am a Hebrew". Being totally confused (at that time I was ignorant of Zionism) I asked him what he meant. He elaborated how he feels not only no connection to "Diaspora Judaism" the Jews from the old shtetl, with its Talmud and Rebbes, something out of the Dark Ages, he abhors it he told me. He is a "new" kind of Jew, he continued. "I am a Hebrew". Proud. Educated, Enlightened, An Israeli. I fight for my country. The Rebbes and shtetl he insisted were repugnant to him.
On prayers Ms. Feldman writes: "Girls don't go to Shul. We pray at home, or in school; it doesn't matter where and how. Only the men's prayers are regimented: only theirs count." Not only is it deceptive that girls/women don't go to shul, many in fact go every Shabbos. That is precisely why there is the Women's section in the synagogue. To say that only men's prayers count simply shows profound ignorance. When living in Williamsburg I have never once heard a teacher, rabbi or parent say that women's prayers don't count. In fact, from a very early age, we learned that women's prayers count very much. In Bais Ruchel we started each day with prayers from the Siddur and reciting the Psalms.
Where Ms. Feldman writes about Jewish Family Law learning about it prior to her marriage, she comes up with a whopper: "I can't help but stare accusingly at the pious married women pushing double strollers down Lee Avenue. 'Is this okay with you' I want to ask. 'Agreeing that you are dirty because you are a woman?" Let me say unequivocally: Women are not considered dirty in the Jewish community, including in the Hasidic community. Jewish family law forbids a woman to have intercourse when she is menstruating. She is not considered "dirty"; she is considered, according to Jewish Family law, to be "ritually impure." After she counts seven clean days from when she stopped bleeding she goes to a Mikvah. Thereupon she can resume sexual relations. To many, I'm sure, and obviously to Ms. Feldman, observing Jewish Family Law and attending the Mikva is horrifying; something from first century Judaism. I have to admit that I myself was actually quite surprised to learn that a number of Reform synagogues are building Mikvahs for women. One noted Reform Jewish Feminist explains why she goes to the mikva this way: "I always felt like it [the mikva] suggested a woman was unclean and that's why she had to come and immerse. But this is a completely different animal." She further says that she interprets the immersion in the mikvah "as an affirmation of her femininity and fertility. It gives me a chance to appreciate the miracle of my body. . . It makes me think about my three children, and the miracle that I was able to give birth to them, and I appreciate God's work." When I first learned about Jewish Family Law, I'll confess, I initially felt burdened by it. Less than a year into my marriage (am now divorced) I recognized that the Hilchas Nida (Jewish Family Law) actually shows Judaism's deep respect for women. The woman is not available to her spouse sexually at his whim. We are not sexual objects. Observance of Jewish Family Law, in fact, enhances the couple's sex life, where sexual relations is not about lust but genuine love. In addition, contrary to what many believe, it is also not merely about procreation. Otherwise sex would have been forbidden for menopausal women.
The examples I cited above in this book are only a fraction of exaggerations, distortions, and deceptions throughout the book. For those of you who are well read on the Holocaust and the historian David Irving and the controversy surrounding him, I'll say that Ms. Feldman does to the Hasidic community what David Irving does to the Holocaust. Without going into details, for those of you not familiar with the genre, suffice it to say that Mr. Irving is considered the worst of the holocaust revisionist historians. Why? Because unlike some others he does not say that it was all a fraud, one huge lie created by the Jews. What he does is mix some facts with fiction, exaggerates, distorts, and takes things out of context. What makes him particularly dangerous is that his books including the one on Hitler is loaded with footnotes giving it the veneer of serious scholarship. It takes a well-read person on World War II and the holocaust to see through all the incredible deceptions. Likewise, Ms. Feldman, because she is a former "insider" gives the impression that her book is based on facts; hence, giving it the appearance of authenticity, the guidebook to everything you always wanted to know about Satmar Chassidim but were afraid to ask. After all, she is an "insider"; she is a product of the community; you are hearing it straight from the horse's mouth. Had her book been one brazen lie from beginning to end, it would have easily been dismissed just like those writers who say that the entire holocaust story was fabricated by the Jews. Those are dismissed to the margins appearing mostly on white supremacist and Nazi websites pretty much denying them their 15 minutes of fame in the mainstream. However, just like David Irving, Feldman's book overall is a compilation of some truths, semi-truths, gross exaggerations, and outright deceptions -- between the comical and the depraved. And, like Irving, apparently by now she is getting more than her share of fame in the mainstream, including in Oprah's book club. The ability to find a mainstream publisher and appear on TV watched by millions of Americans to get exposure and win accolades for a book that is at best a mediocre piece of fiction, not particularly well written I might add, is breathtaking. American intellectual culture it seems keeps sinking into the abyss. Just when I thought we can't sink any further, I'm proven wrong. Apparently the abyss is bottomless.
On the subject of the holocaust, I think it's worth making a couple of observations in this forum. Let us take a look at who was considered a Jew under the Nazi regime. Was it only Hassidim and the observant? Perhaps a handful of their co-religionists who were conservative and reform? We all know that's hardly the case. But apparently Ms. Feldman needs reminding. There is also an interesting, and some would say very painful irony that the Nazis came to power in a country that were the first to embrace the "Haskalah" the "Enlightenment", the first to throw off the yoke of religious observance. The "Enlightenment" to be sure initially also helped bring about the mitigation of anti-Semitism particularly in Germany. When the religious Jews were escaping the pogroms in Poland, a large number of them escaped to Germany. The majority of German Jews when the Nazis came to power were secular. In fact, most of them considered themselves to be "Germans" first and "Jews" second. They not only considered themselves patriotic but in fact walked the walk. They served in the First World War many of them with great honor and distinction. The professions of medicine, law, and engineering became widely opened to them. They made major contributions to German science and played a significant role in the continued industrialization of Germany making Germany the most powerful country in Europe. When the Nazis came to power, Hitler and his henchmen told them they were living in a fantasy world if they thought they were now well integrated and assimilated within German society and are now full Germans. Hitler did not say, you made a mistake - You are Jews first and Germans second- you are Jews ONLY. It was an incredibly rude awaking. And because they were Jews ONLY, the ultimate Nazi policy was not that they therefore belonged in ghettos and deserved to be persecuted and hounded, and not even that they therefore deserve to be treated as slaves as in biblical Egypt,. No, they concluded which policy they finalized at the Wannsee conference on January 20, 1942, because you are Jews you have no right to life. The Jewish people under the Nazi regime were not only the Hasidim, the observant, the reform and assimilated, but even the baptized Jew who went to church every Sunday and prayed to Jesus suddenly found himself part of the hounded who deserved to be annihilated. Hitler went back three generations. It's also widely been written that many of them learned for the first time they were Jews when the Nazis were able to dig out a great great Jewish grandfather or grandmother. To reiterate: the Hassid and the baptized Jew were an equal in Auschwitz - equally loathed and not worthy of life. It's also been widely reported in a number of Holocaust memoirs that many converted and assimilated Jews said the Shemaya Yisroel before they died, perhaps for the first time in their lives. Somewhere in the deep recesses of their memory, perhaps from early childhood they learned this prayer. Over the years when people made some derogatory comments to me about Chassidim or observant Jews I try to remind them that in the 20th, century they were as loathed as their co-religionists.
Victor Klemperer, who was German and a baptized Jew, in his memoirs "I Shall Bear Witness", expressed his extreme dislike toward religious Polish Jews. While he did not write that they deserved to be persecuted, he did express that if Hitler despised these Jews, he could understand it. However, when it became clear that it wasn't only the observant that the Nazis loathed, but the secular and baptized Jews like himself, Klemperer expressed his horror, shock and outrage. Perhaps Ms. Feldman should put Klemperer's memoirs on her reading list.
A final thought on the Holocaust worth noting is the behavior of the Hasidim during this most horrific chapter in Jewish history. There is this misconception that unlike a number of secular Jews who actually took up arms to fight the Nazis, the Hasidim went like sheep to the slaughter. Aside from the fact that a number of Hasidim actually took up arms and fought with the partisans in Poland, a small number to be sure, most of them fought back spiritually and materially and with incredible dignity. This of course is not the proper forum to go in at length on the subject. But one important point is worth making. We know that there were the Jewish police in the ghettos to help keep order as the Jews were rounded up and the kappos in the camps, all Jews. Who among the Jewish population did the Nazis pick to lord over their Jewish brethren? In "Hassidic Responses to the Holocaust in the light of Hassidic Thought", author Pesach Schindler from Hebrew University quoting from Hillel Seidman's book "Warsaw Ghetto Diary" writes as follows: "The Germans exploited every means, organized every Satanic device in order to break the moral defenses of the Jew and to stimulate his most primitive senses. They initiated a difficult and inhuman war of survival so that a Jew could only continue to exist at the expense of another Jew. Yet the elements in the ghetto police, with exceptions, were not the highest caliber. At the time of deportations it [the Jewish police force] was composed of converts, assimilated Jews, radicals, dishonest individuals, those without moral scruples. . . It can be ascertained that the entire police force did not include even one observant Jew. . . This was also true in the camps. Among all the various overseers there were no religious Jews. This is confirmed by all who were in the camps."
Undoubtedly hundreds of thousands of secular Jews had the moral compass and did not become kappos. Apparently though it seems that for whatever reason observant Jews had an increased chance of finding and incorporating that moral compass while prisoners.
Finally, I want to mention something Ms. Feldman said not in her book but at meeting discussing her book. A woman got up and told her that she is secular and she knows very little about Hasidic life. She told Ms. Feldman that she found it strange that she seems unable to say even one good thing about her upbringing. Didn't you have a little fun at some point in your upbringing she was wondering. Ms. Feldman responded that it is the Hasidic men who have all the fun and proceeded to talk about Simchas Torah in Satmar. At first I thought she may actually say that she was sorry that it was only the men who danced with the Torah, not the women, the men who had all the fun. Just when I thought she may actually say something admirable about Hasidim, at least the men, she very quickly cured me of that illusion. She told her audience that Simchas Torah in Satmar is like watching people "clubbing on LSD." No doubt, she got a few laughs from the audience which apparently pleased her very much. "Clubbing on LSD"? Was she trying to suggest that Simchas Torah in Satmar is Woodstock with the Hasidic touch? Hippies in Hasidic garb? At times I wonder, with Jews like Feldman, who needs anti-semites.
I would like to share with you my experience of Simchas Torah in Satmar. Like the rest of humanity I have some painful and also a couple of beautiful memories from childhood. Admittedly being brought up in a community where from early on I felt I didn't fit in, for whatever reason I didn't have the constitution to live a Hasidic life and was looking for something different was at times very difficult and often quite painful. Despite the pain I can in all honesty say that I am actually grateful that I was raised in a Hasidic home for a number of reasons. One of them is that it gave me the opportunity and experiences I would never have had had I been raised in a secular or less religious home.
My most cherished memory from childhood is Simchas Torah in Satmar. The synagogue at the time I was growing up was quite old and was in desperate need of reparations. They were already in the process of building a new one but in the meantime used the old synagogue. I remember it quite fondly. The fact that it was slowly coming apart, somehow added to its warmth and charm. My earliest memory is when I must have been around 8-9 years old watching for the first time the Hakofes (the dancing on Simchas Torah) in Satmar. My recollection is that next to the women's section, there was a small room for children. The floors literally had holes in them where one was able see the floor below where the men were. I recall leaving the house early Simchas Torah to reserve the hole that afforded me the best view to watch the Hakofes. I spread eagle on the floor, and guarded my hole with the same fervor as the Brinks guard watching over his sack of cash and would under no condition move over to allow another kid to take my place fearing I would never get it back. I truly wish I had the requisite writing skills to share with you what that experience was like. Words fail me. I can't think of the words that would do it justice - I can't think of the words to relate accurately the incredible joy and beauty watching Rabbi Teitelbaum and his Chassidim dance. The men's section, a room that was supposed to accommodate perhaps a few hundred, held at least a couple of thousand. People were literally standing on top of each other. Yet when the Rebbe danced, somehow, by some miracle, the Chassidim created the necessary space and allowed the Rebbe to dance up and down the room with the Torah. It is no exaggeration to say that the walls were literally dancing along. It gave me the feeling of being physically transported to Mount Sinai observing Moses delivering the Torah to the Israelites. To me Rabbi Teitelbaum was Moses, the Chassidim the Israelites and the Synagogue, the holes in the floor notwithstanding was Har Sinai. Rabbi Teitelbaum was already in his late 70's and yet watching him dance with the vigor of a 20 year old was breathtaking. The joy I witnessed on the faces of the Chassidim, including my father, one had to observe; it cannot be described. Because without observing it, it cannot be believed. It's impossible to adequately relate the ecstasy one wouldn't think humans are capable of. That purity of faith, combined with that utter all-consuming most heartfelt gratitude to God for giving the Jews the Torah for which the Chassidim felt a love that I can only describe as other worldly, was a marvel to behold. What makes it all the more profound is that this was the Holocaust generation. Many of these Chassidim were in the camps. To be able to feel that kind of all-consuming joy, gratitude and the purest of faith despite the horrors, if nothing else, restores one's belief that God gave us each the opportunity and ability to restore not only one's equilibrium regardless of what horror one has endured but also the ability to love again, to experience joy again, to laugh again. While I admit that I would have to be born again to be able to acquire that purity of faith, I am nevertheless truly grateful that God put me in a community where I was at least afforded the opportunity to witness it. In that regard I continue to feel by far more fortunate than those who were afforded the best of the material world., the best money can buy, including the best secular education I was initially not afforded but eventually pursued.
I could write an honest book, warts and all, of my upbringing in Williamsburg and Hasidim where I spent 24 years, but unlike Ms. Feldman I'm not seeking my 15 minutes of fame. Whatever warts the community has they don't need me to tell them what they are in a book or otherwise. They also don't need my expertise on how to resolve them. While I broke away many years ago, I am still in touch not only with extended family but a handful of friends. Trust me when I say, there are enough Chassidim, men and women, who are as bright and intelligent as I am, and some, far more, without college degrees. In fact, despite a college education and having a collection of several thousand books in which I've been immersed since I left Satmar, it's quite humbling at times to learn that even with limited secular exposure, some of my Hasidic friends, my friend Toby Baum in particular, makes me recognize just how limited my intelligence at times really is. So I continue to make an effort to increase my knowledge recognizing that I have a lot to learn not only from books, secular or otherwise, but staying in touch with some incredibly good, decent and dare I say once again highly intelligent Hasidic women.
One final thought: I was humored when I read Joel's critique of Feldman's book where he writes that while non-orthodox, he is grateful to Feldman because, he writes, "you awoke the inner Jew in me, as something in me desired to defend my people." I wonder whether it's only a coincidence that since following the media circus of Deborah's book, I started reading again books on Hasidim including the book I mentioned above by Schindler on "Hasidic Responses to the Holocaust". While I always had a great respect for the Satmar community, warts and all, despite leaving it behind 32 years ago, I wonder, whether like for Joel, Feldman actually awoke some remnants of Hassidim in me I was not even aware of. Food for thought.
Shifra Stern
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
We are being devoured
The fact remains that the power of evil has been gaining strength at an ever rapid pace. The world today is so entrapped in lies that it is almost impossible to rip away the layers of deceit in order to reveal the truth. Almost every leader is corrupt. Almost every public official has only his own political or non political position in mind without the least care for the consequences of his/her long term actions.
Americans today is divided by two categories. One is for the people the perpetrate the evil. They are the tempters of today's society. They look to confuse the citizens from seeing clearly between right and wrong. Then there are the good people that are being tempted. The latter group tries their best to be honest and truthful. But in a culture where bad behavior is rewarded and good behavior is punished, this group has been reduced to a mere minority. The temptations surround them on a daily basis and with a never ending seductiveness the evil tries with increasing success to lure its unsuspecting prey to its side. Once seduced the path back becomes increasingly filled with obstacles. It claims that you are evil and you have no choice but to embrace it. You are a liberal because you have succumbed. Of course this is a lie but when one side fights a war and one side thinks its a game than it becomes a mismatch.
It has become increasingly clear of the past decade that the left of this country will stop at nothing to destroy and demolish any good this country ever had. The freedom of religion we enjoyed for the past millennium will all be but a distant memory. Laws will be passed that claim to mean our good but will be inherently evil. And if we don't decide soon to fight back with all our strength we will succumb to ash heap of history called godlessness i.e. Communism, Socialism, Maoism & Nazism.
Many ask how do we fight back? There is only one answer. Pray, pray & pray some more. The only thing that could save us now is Divine Intervention.
May Hashem, the Creator of the Heaven and the Earth send Moshicah very soon and bring us back to Eretz Yisroel and restore the Holy Land to its former glory and let the whole world shout in unison "Hashem is One"
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
A Simpler Time
See attached.
Reminiscing to the ... "less distracting times".
(I'm not sure about "easier times"...)
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
do we know how to think for ourselves?
As Jews are we bought up in a system that brainwashes us? Do we know how to think for ourselves? Are we open to other opinions? Do we get defensive about issues we ourselves aren't secure about? I'm open to all opinions? Opinions from a yiddishe mamme, opinions from Baalei Teshuva & Geirim.
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