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Jewish stuff
Nov. 8th, 2020 08:30 amMy email inbox informed me as soon as Shabbos ended that two important, though in different ways, Gedolim passed away over Shabbos. R' Jonathan Sacks and R' Dovid Feinstein. BD"E
I've written reviews (more negative seeming than positive, on the whole) of two of R' Sacks's books. Re-reading these reviews, I don't think they give the full picture of my feelings about his writings. I thought R' Sacks was a genius and tzadik and I admired his Torah to an extreme degree, but as a result, I struggled deeply with his teachings and that is what is manifesting in these reviews.
My review of Arguments for the Sake of Heaven and My review of Not in God's Name
R' Feinstein was the son of R' Moshe Feinstein and revered teacher, posek and tzadik, who I am most familiar with by way of the inclusion of a number of his teachings in the Artscroll commentaries on Torah and prayer, which were often the good kind of surprising, the kind of surprising that makes you look more deeply at something that was too familiar to see freshly.
Both of them inspired me and their teachings will live on in me and in all of Israel.
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Meanwhile, the third Jewish email I got after Shabbos was from my father, updating me about the latest shul drama, which is that their Rabbi has asked for permission to work a part time job. The board initially was in favor until they learned that the job will be with an egalitarian/Open Orthodox institution, and now the congregation is going to have a big community meeting on Zoom in a couple weeks to argue about whether to let their Rabbi affiliate himself with such a controversial institution.
On the merits I am in favor, but I know the shul and I am worried about the community rifts this could exacerbate. My parents' shul is more or less the only Orthodox shul in town, and so opinion about these kinds of halachic innovations in the kahal is mixed, as I think it is across Modern Orthodoxy generally. Over the past couple years there has been a shift from 'more' to 'less', with various parts of the community finding other places to daven for various reasons, and it would not surprise me if the result of the community vote on this question led to people leaving the shul.
---
Meanwhile I gather the goyim got some good news themselves yesterday, nu?
I've written reviews (more negative seeming than positive, on the whole) of two of R' Sacks's books. Re-reading these reviews, I don't think they give the full picture of my feelings about his writings. I thought R' Sacks was a genius and tzadik and I admired his Torah to an extreme degree, but as a result, I struggled deeply with his teachings and that is what is manifesting in these reviews.
My review of Arguments for the Sake of Heaven and My review of Not in God's Name
R' Feinstein was the son of R' Moshe Feinstein and revered teacher, posek and tzadik, who I am most familiar with by way of the inclusion of a number of his teachings in the Artscroll commentaries on Torah and prayer, which were often the good kind of surprising, the kind of surprising that makes you look more deeply at something that was too familiar to see freshly.
Both of them inspired me and their teachings will live on in me and in all of Israel.
---
Meanwhile, the third Jewish email I got after Shabbos was from my father, updating me about the latest shul drama, which is that their Rabbi has asked for permission to work a part time job. The board initially was in favor until they learned that the job will be with an egalitarian/Open Orthodox institution, and now the congregation is going to have a big community meeting on Zoom in a couple weeks to argue about whether to let their Rabbi affiliate himself with such a controversial institution.
On the merits I am in favor, but I know the shul and I am worried about the community rifts this could exacerbate. My parents' shul is more or less the only Orthodox shul in town, and so opinion about these kinds of halachic innovations in the kahal is mixed, as I think it is across Modern Orthodoxy generally. Over the past couple years there has been a shift from 'more' to 'less', with various parts of the community finding other places to daven for various reasons, and it would not surprise me if the result of the community vote on this question led to people leaving the shul.
---
Meanwhile I gather the goyim got some good news themselves yesterday, nu?