change? what change?

Aside from the quality of the photographs nothing has changed. Is this positive? Decide for yourselves. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0q0apw585c...the same thing is happening currently in New Square, New York, http://failedmessiah.typepad.com/failed_messiahcom/2011/06/new-square-victim-to-file-lawsuit-monday-against-skvere-rebbe-123.html

Poland cira 1920

United States, 2004

Did someone wink?

Ultra-Orthodox newspaper Hamodia has refused to run an ad of the Osem food company due to the model's "mischievous eyes". The ad was prepared as part of an advertising campaign for the company's new pretzel snack. It shows a haredi man winking as he hands the snack to the readers.

This is a complete overreaction. After studying the photo, I cannot see a wink. It can be deduced that the haredim are simply scared of the bright colours. 

A source linked to the newspaper explained that the sight of an adult man winking does not match Hamodia's educational line. "A secular wouldn't understand," he argued. "Our newspaper is first of all an educational tool. The wink, along with the position of the presenter holding the snack in his hand, is unacceptable. "We expect a grownup person to provide a more educational example, to sit and read a book or something. In the past the newspaper used the same claims to reject an ad showing a person drinking coke." 

Moreover, the source added, the newspaper loses NIS 30,000 a month due to its insistence not to publish the word "computer". What tzaddikim! With frimmer yidden like these the moshiach will come in our days.

Real Original. (a great name for a fresh juice brand)

Parents in Jerusalem rallied on Sunday against the haredi separation barrier built between secular and religious kindergartens. The parents of children who attend Pashosh kindergarten in Kiryat Hayovel protested against the separation fence established between the secular kindergarten and the haredi kindergarten Etz Hadaat next door.

It does not stop there. Separate buses, trams, benches. There is even a separation barrier in between the men and women at the synagogue! What has the Jewish world come to.

History repeats itself.

Rabbi Yankel Meir Geisserhacht, a controversial figure both in the haredi and Modern Orthodox worlds is in the process of reformulating the Nuremberg Laws to make them applicable to the non-haredi sector.

Whatever Works

Rabbis have announced that from the start of the new Jewish year, men and women will not halachikly be allowed to be buried one next to another.  Rabbi Yaakov Meir Zelig surmised these rabbis’ opinions by stating, “every year we strive to become better yidden, this is something that must change. What sort of message are we sending to our children to allow such behavior. Personally, I feel like a hypocrite when telling my son not to sit next a lady on the bus whilst planning on being buried next to my wife! What will I respond if my son realizes this hypocrisy. What could I say?”

Rabbi Yechiel Neiserschmidt has a differing of opinion. In his sefer Kodesh Ha’bayis V’chu”tz, with haskomos from some of the greatest gedolim of our generation, he claims that not only religion on earth has moved to the right but also Olam Habah, which traditionally has always been a mixed event has become separate.

Modern Orthodox rabbis strongly contend this reasoning. They claim that there is no issue of ichud and shomer negia regarding souls. A soul is not bound by the rules of human nature, subsequently allowing the soul access to any room, nook or cranny irrregardless of walls and doors. Due to the fact that these primary issues regarding mixed societies do not exists olam habah will continue to operate as a ‘mixed society.’

In opposition to this Rabbi Yechiel Neiserschmidt and the haredim have threatened to pull out of the existing olam habah and create their own paradise with rabbinic supervision, separate seating and glatt kosher meals. 

A study conducted…

A study conducted by the Agency for Jewish Continuity reported last week that a Modern Orthodox girl or female in general is more likely to receive a reply by swearing whilst walking past a haredi male on Shabbat rather than saying Good Shabbos or Shabbat Shalom.

Immediately after the haredim were informed of this factually proven scenario they held a melaveh malkah in honor of the commitment the yidden have shown in this time of adversity. Rabbi Yechiel Teichmansell announced, “that we, as true authentic yidden are closer than ever in bringing the moshiach. May we continue in reducing conversations with women and hopefully one day, through technology be able to reduce conversations with the female gender altogether.”

According to an anonymous source, Modern Orthodox rabbis are preparing to release a pesak halacha banning men from replying to Good Shabbos or Shabbat Shalom from women on the street. It must be made clear that this is not due to a halchik consideration but rather to gain acceptance in the haredi world. 

Where does the truth lie?

The coat of arms of the priestly Rapaport family first appeared as a colophon at the end of Avraham Menachem Rapa of Porto’s Mincha Belulah (Verona, 1594). Instead of a motto, a banner proclaimed the author’s name above and below the shield which featured a pair of hands raised in priestly benediction in the upper half, while below was depicted a crow on a branch, a reference to the author’s family name. The shield is flanked by two heraldic ‘supporters’. The ‘supporters’ feature two female torsos rampant facing away from the shield. They are nude from the waist up.

It was by no means rare to encounter nude women in Hebrew books between the sixteenth and the early eighteenth centuries, even prominently displayed on the covers. Nevertheless, nowadays such nudity proves unsettling to the Orthodox public.

The coat of arms clearly shows two topless women. This cannot be mistaken. However, when Mincha Belulah was reprinted the ‘supporters’ were modestly transgendered and piously rendered with beards! 

I am looking forward to the reprint. Black hats will most definitely feature and potentially streimels. One question still remains, why aren’t the ‘supporters’ wearing tzitzus and a yarmulke?

When interviewed, Rav Aaron Lichtenstein was offended by the fact that the ‘supporters’ were given beards. He responded, “I know that Judaism today is summed up by the size of one’s hat and length of one’s beard but look at me, I am clean shaven and whose daughter did I marry?” Rav Lichtenstein was referencing the fact that he is married to Rav Yosef Dov Soloveitchik’s daughter, the seminal figure of Modern Orthodox Judaism.

I have been drinking this for 3 months with no results, I think i might sue...what has the religious world come to?

I apologise for flooding my blog with images, nevertheless this one was too good to pass up.

No Jew would have ever fallen for such 'holy wine' in pre-war Europe. What has the religious world come to? Anyone who would have tried to sell this stuff would have been thrown out of the beit midrash for good reason. It is incredible, we now see great Torah scholars doing things that until now only hasidic rebbes did. However. it would be more incredible to see the reverse, that is, to see hasidic rebbes write seforim on Shas and poskim.



Just a side point. Do you think the Rebbe in the photo maintained his kavanah during the photoshoot?

(The image was taken from an article by Marc B. Shapiro)

Shulchan Aruch HaChadash

I have decided to re-publish the Shulchan Aruch. It sounds unnecessary since the Haredim already have a monopoly on the publication of religious books, however I can offer something they cannot, a haskomoh which embraces modernity and gives over a relevant message. When one opens the this new publication of the Shulchan Aruch the song 'The Times they are a-Changin' by Bob Dylan will play. 

An adapted version of the lyrics are below.

Come gather ’round people

Wherever you roam

And admit that the Torah

Around you have grown

And accept it that soon

You’ll be drenched to the bone

If your Torah to you is worth savin’

Then you better start changin’ or you’ll fry out like a blaze

For the times they are a-changin’

Come rabbis and scholars

Who prophesize with your pen

And keep your eyes wide

The chance won’t come again

And don’t speak too soon

For the wheel’s still in spin

And there’s no tellin’ who that it’s namin’

For the loser now will be later to win

For the times they are a-changin’

Come students, teachers

Please heed the call

Don’t stand in the doorway

Don’t block up the hall

For he that gets hurt

Will be he who has stalled

There’s a battle outside and it is ragin’

It’ll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls

For the times they are a-changin’

Come zaide and booba

Throughout the land

And don’t criticize

What you can’t understand

Your sons and your daughters

Are beyond your command

Your old road is rapidly agin’

Please get out of the new one if you can’t lend your hand

For the times they are a-changin’

The line it is drawn

The curse it is cast

The slow one now

Will later be fast

As the present now

Will later be past

The order is rapidly fadin’

And the first one now will later be last

For the times they are a-changin’

I understand this is dangerous ground, nevertheless if halacha does not continue to grow and adapt many of the youth will become disenfranchised and fail to see the beauty of Judaism.