Good
Shabbos all. Israel is a week ahead of the Diaspora. This will be probably the
last time I mention the Diaspora Parsha which is Pasha Kedoshim as this
continues for three more months. http://rabbipauli.blogspot.co.il/2016/05/parsha-kedoshim-stories-news-and.html
Parsha
Emor
This
week is a continuation of the last two weeks. First atoning for sins and then
making the nation holy. Now it is time to have a separation from holy to holy
in the seed of the Cohanim. For even an ordinary Cohain has to act differently
and marry better quality than that an ordinary person who can marry a divorced
woman. (Even if we say that the husband was horrible, still she chose him.) The
ordinary Cohain can marry a widow. However, the Cohain Gadol can only marry a
virgin excluding even the poor widow.
21:1 And the
LORD said unto Moses: Speak unto the priests the sons of Aaron, and say unto
them: There shall none defile himself for the dead among his people;
We
see this when the sons of Aaron passed away, the Leviim cousins took care of
the burial and bodies.
2 except for
his kin, that is near unto him, for his mother, and for his father, and for his
son, and for his daughter, and for his brother;
Even
though for an ordinary Cohain it is permissible it is better to relegate the
duties to a non-Cohain. It is customary today to walk after the coffin a little
except the Kabbalistic custom and then after burial pray from afar on the
pathway.
3 and for his
sister a virgin, that is near unto him, that hath had no husband, for her may
he defile himself.
If
he sister passed away young or was a spinster all her life, he may attend to
the burial chores like the other relatives mentioned above.
4 He shall not
defile himself, being a chief man among his people, to profane himself.
All
the laws which we mentioned above apply only to an ordinary Cohain but not the
Cohain HaGadol who does not even leave Yerushalayim.
5 They shall
not make baldness upon their head, neither shall they shave off the corners of
their beard, nor make any cuttings in their flesh. 6 They shall be holy unto
their God, and not profane the name of their God; for the offerings of the LORD
made by fire, the bread of their God, they do offer; therefore they shall be
holy.
Now
normal Jews are forbidden to shave the corners of their beards or make the
cuttings on their flesh since the Cohanim are the exception to Am Yisrael in excellence
and Kedusha, that is repeated here. However, the holiness goes deeper than a
plain person. Henceforth, the reasons why their Kedusha goes deeper than the
ordinary Israeli. Even the women that are permitted to them are holier.
7 They shall
not take a woman that is a harlot, or profaned; neither shall they take a woman
put away from her husband; for he is holy unto his God.
I
can understand quickly the harlot as she goes with the highest or even first
bidder. However, a woman profaned by rape or incest can make a wonderful wife.
However, I have watched enough testimony by such women to realize that they
have been hurt deep inside and their who life has been changed.
Still
a woman divorced because her husband was a drunkard, disgusting, criminal,
stunk, beat her or even of less an intelligence or social class does not make
for a bad wife. In fact, she might be a wonderful Baalas Ha Beis (Yiddish =
Balabusta) [fine wife of good quality]. However, she has been rejected by one
husband whether her fault or not makes her Pasul for the Cohain.
8 Thou shalt
sanctify him therefore; for he offers the bread of thy God; he shall be holy
unto thee; for I the LORD, who sanctify you, am holy. 9 And the daughter of any
priest, (If a Kohen’s
daughter becomes desecrated through adultery) if
she profanes herself by playing the harlot, she profanes her father: she shall
be burnt with fire.
Because
her holiness is higher than that of a Jew or Levi, she is also treated special
and judged accordingly.
If
[a kohen’s daughter] becomes desecrated through adultery: Heb. כִּי תֵחֵל. [The word תֵּחֵל
here, stems from the word חִלּוּל, desecration, and not
from the word הַתְחָלָה, beginning, and thus,
the phrase here means:] If she becomes desecrated (תִּתְחַלֵּל)
through a forbidden union, whereby she had a marriage-bond to a man and she
committed adultery-whether [this bond had been] a betrothal or a marriage. And
our Rabbis differ with regards to the matter [i.e., as to which stage of
marriage-bond is referred to here]. All agree, however, that Scripture did not
speak of a single woman. — [Sanh. 50b-51a] She desecrates her father: She has
desecrated and degraded his honor, for [people] will say of him, “Cursed is he
who fathered this one! Cursed is he who raised this one!” - [Sanh. 52a]
10 And the
priest that is highest among his brethren, upon whose head the anointing oil is
poured, and that is consecrated to put on the garments, shall not let the hair
of his head go loose, nor rend his clothes; 11 neither shall he go in to any
dead body, nor defile himself for his father, or for his mother; 12 neither
shall he go out of the sanctuary, nor profane the sanctuary of his God; for the
consecration of the anointing oil of his God is upon him: I am the LORD. 13 And
he shall take a wife in her virginity. 14 A widow, or one divorced, or a
profaned woman, or a harlot, these shall he not take; but a virgin of his own
people shall he take to wife. 15 And he shall not profane his seed among his
people; for I am the LORD who sanctify him.
These
are extra prohibitions for a Cohain Gadol.
16 And the LORD
spoke unto Moses, saying: 17 Speak unto Aaron, saying: Whosoever he be of thy
seed throughout their generations that hath a blemish, let him not approach to
offer the bread of his God.
The
Cohain had to be fit and I head of one Cohain who did not deal with a toothache
because of this:
18 For
whatsoever man he be that hath a blemish, he shall not approach: a blind man,
or a lame, or he that hath anything maimed, or anything too long, 19 or a man
that is broken-footed, or broken-handed, 20 or crook-backed, or a dwarf, or
that hath his eye overspread, or is scabbed, or scurvy, or hath his stones
crushed; 21 no man of the seed of Aaron the priest, that hath a blemish, shall
come nigh to offer the offerings of the LORD made by fire; he hath a blemish;
he shall not come nigh to offer the bread of his God. 22 He may eat the bread
of his God, both of the most holy, and of the holy. 23 Only he shall not go in
unto the veil, nor come nigh unto the altar, because he hath a blemish; that he
profane not My holy places; for I am the LORD who sanctify them. 24 So Moses
spoke unto Aaron, and to his sons, and unto all the children of Israel.
The
next chapter continues with this and includes an involuntary release of seed
and therefore after marital relations, a Cohain must go to the Mikvah to serve
HASHEM.
… 23:1 And the
LORD spoke unto Moses, saying: 2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say
unto them: The appointed seasons of the LORD, which ye shall proclaim to be
holy convocations, even these are My appointed seasons.
This
section deal with all the Yomim Tovim of Am Yisrael. We start out from the holiest
followed by two of the three Regelim then the Tishrei Yomim Tovim starting from
Rosh Hashanah.
3 Six days
shall work be done; but on the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy
convocation; ye shall do no manner of work; it is a Sabbath unto the LORD in
all your dwellings.
Solemn
day of rest for all Jews not just Orthodox. But wait over the years I have been
trying to convince my Conservative and Reform Readers to observe the Shabbos.
However, I came across the following Statistic from the PEW Institute research
which shocked the core of my being. The population of the Modern
Orthodox are 170,000 adults and 47,000 children. Observe the Seder 98% Fast on
Yom Kippur 90% Shabbos Candles 78% Observe Kashrus 83% Go the Synagogue at
least once a week 67% Do not handle money on Shabbos 81% Believe firmly in
HASHEM 77% What is also bad that there are border-line cases in
the Charedi Communities that smoke and do so on Shabbos or go out dating
non-religious youths their age both males and females. The Rabbis know and they
hush this up to make everybody in their realms great and they have no problems.
I
don’t claim to be a solver of problems. In fact, those who follow me over the
years that I have written Torah on the net don’t find me a fire and brimstone Rabbi,
but as for the statistics I can only tell you this: What is not a problem in
this world will be a big one in the next. Your Yetzer will tell you go out
forget about Shabbos, Kashrus and Family Purity. It is not a matter of having a
onetime fling if 17% don’t fully observe Shabbos or somebody in a fit of
passion put the Mikvah aside and succumbed once and then regretted it. Only 78%
light Shabbos Candles among “Orthodox” in the USA!!! This is no big deal to
spend a few dollars and have aluminum foil to protect from fire and even many
non-observant Jews light Shabbos Candles and keep Kosher to one degree or
another at home even if it is not completely perfect. When I was in the hospital
with Oxygen all about, I lit a Chanucha Menorah with electrical lights that www.ellichai.com
supplied me with.
How
can somebody call himself Orthodox and not observe the minimum requirements of
Mitzvos. I spend more money with compassion to feed stray cats and for my dog
and fish each year than I spend on Shabbos Candles in perhaps ten years. What
is the matter with these people? 77% believe firmly in HASHEM perhaps that is
the problem, but they must believe a bit to call themselves Orthodox. Perhaps
one needs Mussar and learning to overcome the weak belief for the 23%. Where
are the 2% that don’t have a Seder? I know of a disabled Conservative Ger who
held a Seder with Matzos and one or two other things due to poverty. But the
TORAH does not mince words and when it says those who do not observe Shabbos
and without a Korban a Seder shall be cut off from their people. Kares is in
the next world! Remember Gehennom lasts at maximum 12 months although Kaf
Keller can be very long. Kares is forever or until one has a reincarnation to
repent which might be centuries away.
As
for those folks who for some reason or other violated these fundamental
commands and beliefs of Am Yisrael I can only remind you that sincere
repentance, prays and charity will annul or atone for the evil decree upon you.
… 9 And the
LORD spoke unto Moses saying: 10 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say
unto them: When ye are come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap
the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring the sheaf of the first-fruits of your
harvest unto the priest. 11 And he shall wave the sheaf before the LORD, to be
accepted for you; on the morrow after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it. 12
And in the day when ye wave the sheaf, ye shall offer a he-lamb without blemish
of the first year for a burnt-offering unto the LORD. 13 And the meal-offering
thereof shall be two tenth parts of an ephah of fine flour mingled with oil, an
offering made by fire unto the LORD for a sweet savor; and the drink-offering thereof
shall be of wine, the fourth part of a hin. 14 And ye shall eat neither bread,
nor parched corn, nor fresh ears, until this selfsame day, until ye have
brought the offering of your God; it is a statute forever throughout your
generations in all your dwellings. 15 And ye shall count unto you from the
morrow after the day of rest, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the
waving; seven weeks shall there be complete; 16 even unto the morrow after the
seventh week shall ye number fifty days; and ye shall present a new
meal-offering unto the LORD. 17 Ye shall bring out of your dwellings two
wave-loaves of two tenth parts of an ephah; they shall be of fine flour, they
shall be baked with leaven, for first-fruits unto the LORD. …
Rabbi Simon Jacobson wrote the following which Aish got permission
to print. The link is here for the daily meditations: http://www.aish.com/h/o/t/48969716.html With the mitzvah of counting the 49 days, known as Sefiras
Ha'Omer, the Torah invites us on a journey into the human psyche, into the
soul. There are seven basic emotions that make up the spectrum of human
experience. At the root of all forms of enslavement, is a distortion of these
emotions. Each of the seven weeks between Passover and Shavuot is dedicated to
examining and refining one of them.
The seven emotional
attributes are:
- Chesed ― Loving-kindness
- Gevurah ― Justice and discipline
- Tiferet ― Harmony, compassion
- Netzach ― Endurance
- Hod ― Humility
- Yesod ― Bonding
- Malchut ― Sovereignty, leadership
The seven weeks, which
represent these emotional attributes, further divide into seven days making up
the 49 days of the counting. Since a fully functional emotion is
multidimensional, it includes within itself a blend of all seven attributes.
Thus, the counting of the first week, which begins on the second night of
Pesach, as well as consisting of the actual counting ("Today is day one of
the Omer...") would consist of the following structure with suggested
meditations:
Upon conclusion of the 49
days we arrive at the 50th day ― Mattan Torah. After we have achieved all we
can accomplish through our own initiative, traversing and refining every
emotional corner of our psyche, we then receive a gift ('mattan' in Hebrew)
from above. We receive that which we could not achieve with our own limited
faculties. We receive the gift of true freedom ― the ability to transcend our
human limitations and touch the divine.
For tonight: Day 21 ― Malchut of Tiferet: Nobility in Compassion
Examine the dignity of
your compassion. For compassion to be complete (and enhance the other six
aspects of compassion) it must recognize and appreciate individual sovereignty.
It should boost self-esteem and cultivate human dignity. Both your own dignity
and the dignity of the one benefiting from your compassion.
Is my compassion expressed
in a dignified manner? Does it elicit dignity in others? Do I recognize the
fact that when I experience compassion as dignified it will reflect
reciprocally in the one who receives compassion?
Exercise for the day:
Rather than just giving charity, help the needy help themselves in a fashion
that strengthens their dignity.
The Jewish Disney survives the war: http://www.timesofisrael.com/israels-walt-disney-believed-in-miracles-surviving-the-holocaust-by-the-sleight-of-his-talented-hands/
The two-room, high-ceilinged studio
where illustrator and animator Joseph Bau worked for much of his adult life
appears mostly unchanged on Holocaust Remembrance Day 2016, his drafting table
still laid with containers of brushes and pens, the walls hung with his
characteristic broad-stroked caricatures, the original tiled floors and walls
cracked and chipped in places.
His daughters, Clila and Hadassah
Bau, wouldn’t have it any other way.
Their father’s workplace, where the
Holocaust survivor created his original paintings, illustrations, animations
and top-secret forgeries for the Mossad — a fact they only learned after his
death — is where the two sisters, now both in their 60s, pay homage to their
parents’ Holocaust history, offering a piece of Bau performance art to whomever
has an hour to spare.
“It’s the smallest museum in the
world,” Hadassah Bau likes to say. “He built it all himself.”
Their father, said the sisters
repeatedly, was one of a kind. A humorous, loving, creative “startup-ist,” said
Hadassah Bau, using the popular term for Israeli high-tech entrepreneurs, “he
was always trying something different, always creating something new.”
He had a penchant for invention, and
it was a skill set that probably saved him more than once during the Holocaust.
He and his wife, Rebecca Tannenbaum — whom he met when the two were imprisoned
in the Plaszow concentration camp outside Krakow, before Bau was sent to Oskar
Schindler’s factory and his wife to Auschwitz — believed in miracles, and often
told their daughters that miracles happened everywhere, all the time.
Clila (left) and Hadassah Bau tell the story of their father’s art and
their parents’ Holocaust history at the Joseph Bau House in Tel Aviv, on
Holocaust Remembrance Day, May 5, 2016. (Jessica Steinberg/Times of Israel)
The sisters, each dressed in a
T-shirt bearing a reproduction of their father’s art, told parts of their
parents’ story in English on this particular Holocaust Remembrance Day to a
group of American tourists from Florida and Minnesota, seated on black folding
chairs in the main room of the studio.
In September 1938, Joseph Bau was
about to start his second year at Poland’s Krakow University as an art major
when the German troops invaded Poland and sent Krakow’s Jews into the walled
ghetto.
Every Jew in the ghetto needed some
kind of job, said Hadassah Bau. Her father had been the only student in his
major to study calligraphy, the art of Gothic lettering, which were ancient
German letters.
“He fell in love with it,” she said.
The only thing he had brought with
him to the ghetto was his case of pens and brushes, a prescient choice, said
Hadassah Bau. He drew a sign, in Gothic lettering, announcing himself as an
artist and calligrapher, and the Nazis came looking for him to draft maps and
signs for the ghetto.
“He always said that art saved his
life,” continued Hadassah Bau.
Bau’s art saved others as well. He
became known as a master forger, faking documents and papers that allowed
hundreds of Jews to escape the ghetto and the Plaszow concentration camp, where
he and others were sent from the Krakow ghetto.
Joseph Bau’s signature, which is more easily read when turned sideways.
(Courtesy Joseph Bau website)
In the labor camp, Bau continued
working for the Nazis as a draughtsman. When he was commanded one day to create
a blueprint — a complicated task in those years requiring natural sunlight to
reproduce the technical drawing on light-sensitive sheets — he panicked,
knowing there wasn’t enough sunlight on that particular day to reproduce the
negative of the original drawing.
He headed outdoors, knowing he would
be shot if he didn’t fulfill the task, and was holding up the technical
drawing, hoping for a miracle, when a young woman passed by. In a moment of
concentration-camp flirtation, Bau held the drawing up to her face, and when he
returned to the office, found that the negative had succeeded, and he had the
necessary blueprint.
That crisis averted, he sought out
the young woman, Rebecca Tannenbaum, and the two conducted a clandestine
courtship in the camp, knowing that if they were caught, both would be shot.
Their relationship culminated in a secret wedding ceremony held in the dark of
night in one of the women’s barracks, where more than a thousand women could be
housed at a time, said Clila Bau.
Bau’s mother performed the ceremony,
using silver rings that a jeweler in the camp’s watchmaker shop had made from a
silver spoon. Bau traded the ring for weeks of his daily bread ration. The two
consummated their marriage on the third row of wooden beds, sharing the space
with the other women who slept there. When the horn was blown the next morning
for roll call, the women all laid on top of Bau in order to hide him from the
Nazi officers.
The Bau wedding was immortalized in
the film Schindler’s List, fictionalizing some of the details,
said Hadassah Bau — “My mother always said they didn’t have a chuppah like
that, because who had cloth just lying around?” — and creating a strange kind
of celebrity for the family.
The pair became known for their attempts
to bring humor and joy to their fellow inmates. Bau made a deck of playing
cards that he called “Hope” cards, featuring images of people during more
normal times. He would pull them out when someone was losing hope, said
Hadassah Bau, showing them that they could look like that again, with worries
as mundane as professional goals or family arguments.
He also created a book of poems,
written on small squares of cardboard paper collected from the Nazis’ discarded
cigarette boxes. The book, which contained a small, pressed flower he had given
to his wife, was kept inside the case of artists’ tools he had managed to keep
hidden in the camp.
An oil painting of Oskar Schindler by Joseph Bau, who stayed in touch with
his savior for the rest of his life. (Jessica Steinberg/Times of Israel)
The case was taken from Bau while he
was still in the camp, but miraculously turned up at Schindler’s factory when
Bau was moved there.
“From then on, for the rest of his
life,” said Hadassah Bau, “he kept it with him at all times.”
It was only in 1993 on the couple’s
50th wedding anniversary — when Schindler’s List was being screened in
Israel and reporters came to interview the couple — that Joseph Bau found out
that it was his wife who had worked to get his name on Schindler’s list.
The Baus found each other after the
war — “another story of miracles,” Hadassah Bau said — got married again in
Krakow, where she, their older daughter, was born, and made their way to Israel
in 1950.
In Israel, Bau devoted himself to
learning Hebrew, turning to illustration, movies and animation with time, and
working as a master forger for the Mossad. Known as the Israeli ‘Walt Disney,’
he produced animated shorts for movie theaters and television, and created the
opening and closing titles and credits for nearly every Israeli movie made from
the 1950s though the 1970s.
Their family, said Hadassah Bau, was
a happy one, where jokes, comical songs and humor were valued above all else.
The artistic gene was also passed on
to his children and grandchildren, all of whom work in the creative arts.
“Art, for us, is everything,” said
Hadassah Bau.
She and her sister have run the nonprofit museum for the last 19 years, touring the
world to tell their parents’ story, and are now raising money to publish their
father’s concentration camp book of poems, The World and I and their
mother’s diary, In The Name of God! and translate his memoir, Dear
God! Have You Ever Gone Hungry? into English.
The Joseph Bau House on Berdichevski Street in Tel Aviv, one of the more
dilapidated buildings on a street of renovated Bauhaus homes, May 5, 2016
(Jessica Steinberg/Times of Israel)
When their mother died in 1997, said
Hadassah Bau, it was nearly impossible for their father to find the will to
live. But the museum was his idea, and when he died in 2002, it was already up
and running.
Their family history is crucial,
said the sisters, a piece of the Holocaust that can never be forgotten. It’s a
sentiment they’ve passed on to their children as well — successfully, it seems,
as Hadassah Bau’s son married his own wife in the same place where his
grandparents got married: on the grounds of the Plaszow concentration camp.
50th anniversary of my starting to believe
in HASHEM. Part 1
What started out as a
morning dream right before I woke up was to change my life. I was an atheist or
at least agnostic in my belief. I observed more or less nothing. My family on
my mother’s side were Reform Jews for over 100 years I was the product of all
this. My father’s father broke away from traditional Judaism from a family that
was born into the world of a Jewish Publisher and exposed too much to modernity
and at the age of 17, his father had died and his older brother who converted
in order to teach in the University influenced him. This and the fact that most
likely he had been taken to the Kaporos ceremony or his father had examined a
Shochet in action. The slaughter of the chickens, the German -Austrian
propaganda and his older brother had gotten him to give up.
I posted this five years ago
when my friend Carl mentioned here was still alive. He passed away last year on
Chaf Tammuz so may this mention raise his Neshama. Now on the occasion of the 50th
anniversary of two private miracles, I am posting this week the occurrence of
the first one and next two weeks the continuation.
As I wrote last week, I am
about to tell a very-very personal story. It was the spark that initiated my
becoming Frum. But first a bit of a background first: I was brought up a 6th
Generation Reform Jew. My grandfather, a cigar smoker, had insisted that I
start learning in Reform Sunday School for my Bar Mitzvah so after the High
Holidays of 1956 (5716) my mother enrolled me in the Steven Wise Free
Synagogue. It was almost completely free of being a Synagogue and anybody who
went there could not easily become the Wise son.
I was just a little over 9
and 1/2 when I introduced our first Chanucha into our house and little be known
to me the first Seder that I was to conduct would only be reported to my dying
grandfather in the cancer ward of Montefiore Hospital in the Bronx. I never had
what Rabbi Simon Jacobson wrote this year:
“Tatte, ich vel ba dir fregen fir kashes…” (Father, I will ask you four
questions).
That is how I – and millions of other children – would begin asking the traditional four questions at the annual Passover Seder.
That is how I – and millions of other children – would begin asking the traditional four questions at the annual Passover Seder.
This year, for the first
time in my life, I do not have my father before me to ask him the questions. I
will not sit at his table, as I did for so many years, watching him quietly
smile as we would pose the four questions.
No I had to conduct the
Seder myself, because my father had been a child sent to a Catholic Orphanage
at the age of 3 during WWI and he never had a Seder from his anti-religious
father. I even tried to answer the questions in my own way from my scanty
knowledge of Torah on that first Seder. Due to my bed time and it was daylight
savings time, the Seder was conducted before Sun down. In fact we had no
knowledge of selling Chametz or the forbidden use of Chametz. This was in fact
the first year that we had Matzos in the house. My mother treated me to a dish
called Gefilte Fish that I had never heard of and for me made Matzo Ball Soup.
(Somehow this tradition had penetrated her generation.)
As the Reform wear their
Tallisim as a scarf and we had no Tallis in the house, I grabbed the hand me
down Scarf that I inherited from my anti-religious grandfather to have some
sort of link to the elders and conducted the Seder in English from the Reform
book that I had received from the "Temple". My father told me that I
was making a joke of the religion to which I answered that I had no Tallis and
this was the closest thing that I had and a link with my forefathers.
A year or two later, I visited
my friend whom I was to learn in my adulthood the son of members of the
Communist Party. They invited me to a lunch at their house and they were going
to put Bacon on their Matzos. Now eating Bacon on Bread during Pessach might
not have bothered me but not on Matzos that were something holy during Pessach
so I declined. This was perhaps one of some of the tests that I had from HASHEM
but at that time it did not correlate with me but reflecting back over the
years, the refusal although far from Yiddishkeit was a religious plus for a
fellow too young to fully observe Mitzvos.
When I was close to 14 the
Reform Rabbi of the Free Synagogue of Flushing was teaching me how to become an
Atheist. I walked out of the Synagogue, left the Reform and eventually did
become an Atheist or Agnostic at the age of 16 but I didn't need to be Jewish
or have Synagogue for that. That test I passed, but the atheistic-liberalism from the Reform
teaching had wounded my soul so perhaps this caused the slippage at the age of
16. For life is not a continuous Aliyah in gains but steps forwards and
backwards.
Something else happened to
me during these years, I spent my whole free time in Astronomy with the
exception of dating like a red blooded non-religious fellow does. When the Ranger
Seven went to the moon, the first photos were transmitted back live and I
watched them with my friend. I told him, "I saw these photos before, I
remember them." Then I recalled a series of dreams that I had around the
age of 12 or 13 and passed it off a coincidence and my concentration on
Astronomy.
During my first year of
College in CCNY, things were not going as I had expected. I had managed to skip
a year of College Chemistry and Physics, but going into the second year with
first year of Calculus not under my belt and getting used to a new environment
was hard. I had not listened to my friend Jerry who told me do the course again
and “get a few A's under your belt.” Well that was my desire to graduate
younger - I guess to get to Vietnam quicker. Still I entered CCNY and revised a
non-existent Astronomy Club with the help of Professor Cotton. At the end of
the year, I worked as an assistant for him and proctored the final examination.
After the exam a woman came up to me old enough to be my mother. She was
interested how a freshman could proctor an examination and where I learned
Astronomy from. Her name by the way, Toby Willig* whom I would have years
later for guidance on my path to becoming Frum. All this time, I lead weekend
Astronomy expeditions to my country house in Greenwood Lake, NY. *She later become the
President of Emunah and is the mother of Rabbi David Willig Shlita.
It was the weekend of April
21 to 23. Archie (aside note for those who remember the comic books – he was
married to a Betty so I found out how the Archie comics that I read as a kid
ended) drove me up to the bungalow. We were going to observe the last of the
Lyrid or Eta-Aquarid Meteor Shower, took photos of the sky on Friday and
Saturday nights. (Remember I am an Agnostic more of a Goy than Jew) On Sunday
morning after coming up from our observing position on the dock with an 85 to
90% view of the sky I noticed a drunk driver had rammed the mailboxes on the
side of road and I changed my camera setting from night to day (that would
prove a bad mistake). I figured that I could get a write up about 18 year olds
from NJ that drove to NY to drink in our local Greenwood Lake paper (but I
never did in the end).
After resting up, we drove
home to the City. The next morning, I had a dream that was about to change my
life. I dreamt that I was going to see the biggest fireball meteor that I ever
saw in my life. (Including to this day) I dreamt that I was going to see this great
fireball, get my name in the New York Times with the article starting on the
front page and then meeting two female class mates outside of the Physics
office in CCNY getting congratulations and a kiss on the check from them and
being congratulated by Professor Mark W. Zemansky. (The famous Physics book in
those days was Sears & Zemansky and he was a famous specialist in
Thermodynamics. A great dream especially the part with the girls and that was
that. (I bet you expected a young non-religious assimilated youth to dream of
meeting Rav Moshe Feinstein, The Lubavitcher Rebbe and Rav Yosef Baer
Soleveichik by the Physics Dept.)
But wait, that afternoon I
was on the number 7 train home from CCNY on the elevated part of the tracks and
I looked out towards the south and said to myself "The Meteor is going to
come out of the South". It was late in the afternoon and I was restless.
For some reason, I could not learn. I figured I would walk over 13 blocks to my
friend Carl and go across the street from him to Dr. Glass's Pharmacy to
purchase sunglasses.
Carl decided to walk me back
to my house to get some exercise. We were going up Greenpoint Ave between 47th
and 46th street when Carl said to me, "Take off those sunglasses you look
like an idiot as the Sun has just set." No sooner did I remove them and
place them in my pocket. Carl says, "Look at that it is too bright to be a
meteor it must be a UFO!" Sure enough going from South to North was a
meteor with a diameter as wide as the moon leaving a giant contrail in the sky.
I raced home to get my camera. But I had my focus stop at F22 for the mailbox photo
instead of F2 for the contrail photo.
Somehow the dream was in the
background and I managed to call up the NY Times. I gave them my roll of film
and a full scientific report on the meteor, speed, color, and other details.
They wrote the article. Some lucky fellow managed to actually photograph the
meteor in flight so I was out of luck especially because of my camera F stop.
And the next day, everything fell into place.
So did I recognize the
miracle - of course not. Why should I believe it was more than an accident and
I went about my school work on April 25th, '66 with little worries and cares
and bit of pride for making the NY Times. (In those days it was not known as an
extreme leftist rag). All went about according to the laws of nature and I continued
my studies through summer school to learn more Calculus like electron spin
Matrixes.
In early August, I had
finished my summer school and was back up at Greenwood Lake waiting for the
Perseid Meteor Shower. It was a cloudy night so as I lay in my bed, I began to
reflect on the physics behind my dream. Let's see my brainwaves were in my bed
on the morning of April 24th and the earth was in such and such a point in
space traveling in its orbit at 25,000 mile per day going around the Sun at
18,000 miles per hour with the Sun going around the galaxy at such and such
miles per hour. My mind waves had gone to the observance of the meteor then to
the NY Times that evening, the reading of the NY Times article on my way to
College, the Physics Dept. the Next Morning and also on the Subway Train the
previous day. Trying to figure out things I realized that my mind had been: (1)
Back and forth in time. (2) My brainwaves had traveled back and forth instantly
distances greater than the speed of light. This called for a new theory of
Physics that could explain the phenomena. I began to go deeper and deeper into
the consequences of my theory. There was a dimension above time and space for
this travel (little did I know that Klein in 1923 had come up with a 5th
dimension and in the future around 1980 Prof. Schwartz of UCLA was going to
come up with 11 dimensions proven mathematically.) My conclusion was that one's
brain waves somehow could travel physically back and forth to anyplace in the
Universe instantly! I called this the Principle of Cosmic Unity or the
Principle of Oneness. This would be the biggest thing in my family since the
Exclusion Principle. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pauli_exclusion_principle
My mind was ticking away faster than any quad I7
computer will ever be. Suddenly the Oneness hit me like a ton of bricks. The
Universe is ONE! Suddenly, something vague buried deep in my subconscious from
9-10 years back in Sunday School hit me. One of the few sentences that I knew
in Hebrew "SHEMA YISRAEL HASHEM
ELOKAYNU HASHEM EHUD" (Hear O'Israel, The L-RD our G-D, The L-RD is One.)
The Good Mapamnik debates
the man with the Kipa:
Politically, I was moving
more to the right but religiously, I was still with MAPAM and the
anti-religious people. The week after my new physics theory, I was back in CCNY
to pick up my grades and I stopped off at the Physics Dept. A fellow named
Himmelstein was packing up his stuff as he was going for his MS and PhD at
Columbia University and leaving us. I had never said more to him than hello or
goodbye but my theory was in the back of my mind. I wanted to find out from him
if G-D could exist. We debated and argued for a few hours about Cain meeting
his wife and other G-D walking in Gan Eden, The Hand of G-D, etc. I had a
Catholic concept of Heaven and Hell and he dispelled that. My whole Atheistic
an Agnostic belief was just about out the window after about two hours of
debate and me absorbing everything he said about miracles being natural events
with minute probabilities.
Still it was going to take
another miracle to get me solid in my faith and a visit from my friend Howard
to set me on the right track but that is going to be another story later on. I
will only end this part of the story with a note. For some time I learned
Chavrutha in Rehovot with Dr. Pinchas Fuchs. We debated whether or not one
should say Hallel on Yom HaAtzmaut (Israeli Independence Day) or not. He
replied to me that even for a private miracle one should say Hallel all the
more so for a national miracle. I decided to look for the Newspaper Clipping
that I had from ’66. It turned out that it said April 25, ’66. I looked up the
date: Hey or the 5th of Iyar! (Ind. Day) The two days of Miracles occurred
on the 4th and 5th of Iyar! 7 years after the meteor on
the same Hebrew Calendar night, my son Asher Shalom was born! Copied and pasted from
writing by Danny Shoemann Shlita (who was bullied off of the internet by the Charedim with all
his great contributions.) If one experiences a miracle, one should celebrate the day of the
miracle every year. On this day one should set aside time to thank Hashem for
the miracle and to talk about the miracle. Source: Kitzur Shulchan Aruch 61:3 Part two next week.
Statistics about Israel and the Diaspora:
Number
of Citizens in Eretz Yisrael 8,148,000
Jews
6,377,000 non-Jews 1,771,000
Numbers
of soldier who died from their wounds in battle or after a hospital stay from
battlefield injuries 23,477. Over 2,000 civilians killed by terrorists or wars.
In
Israel 86 or 88% of the Jews celebrate Pessach Seder of which 70% are according
to the tradition. Somewhere between 30 to 35% are Orthodox.
In
the US Diaspora the following statistics from 2013 from PEW Institute:
Reform
35% Non-Affiliated 30% Conservative 18% Orthodox 10% Other 7%
Orthodox:
Charedim 62% Modern Orthodox 31% Other 7%
Observing
Mitzvos of all US Jews to some extent is 70% Fasting on Yom Kippur 53% Observe
Kosher at home 23% light candles for Shabbos 22% (many
of the non-observant Jews in Israel also light Shabbos Candles so that the
numbers look more like 50 to 70% both the Sephardic, Yemeni, and European Jews
brought this custom with them and it stuck even if they don’t observe
properly.)
The
population of the Modern Orthodox are 170,000 adults and 47,000 children.
Observe the Seder 98% Fast on Yom Kippur 90% Shabbos Candles 78% Observe
Kashrus 83% Go the Synagogue at least once a week 67% Do not handle money on
Shabbos 81% Believe firmly in HASHEM 77%
Reform
50% are married to Jews and 50% to non-Jews
Conservative
73% married to Jews and 27% to non-Jews
Orthodox
98% married to Jews and 2% to non-Jews
Modern
Orthodox 94% married to Jews and 6% to non-Jews
Total
USA Jews married to Jews 56% to non-Jews 44%
Modern
Orthodox who have emotional connection to Israel 77% those who think that the
USA does not support Israel enough 64% and those who believe in peace with the
Arabs is possible 33%
Many in Israel
calling for the resignation of the deputy chief of staff: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/211922#.Vy8PE49OIeE
From Stephen:
One can see this from Alon Moreh (Mamre) today it is above Schem and visible
with the naked eye. http://thelosttemple.com/
Bankrupt
policies lead to bankruptcy: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/apr/1/california-red-1272-billion-state-auditors-say/
As much as this
man has principles - The truth about the Bern: http://www.aol.com/article/2016/05/09/study-says-bernie-sanders-tax-plan-could-nearly-double-national/21374122/
Milestone at
the age of 84 the Colonel retires from the IDF. He was master of ceremonies on
Independence Day for 34 years and put on a spectacular bunch of marches and
arrangements: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4801767,00.html
Inyanay
Diyoma
Time for Jews
especially Israelis to demand respect an Ed-Op by Diane Weber Biderman: http://unitedwithisrael.org/a-call-to-jews-and-zionists-its-time-to-demand-respect/
It will not
help her agent Molder will get the truth out there: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/211883#.VyyaW49OIeE
Rockets into
Israel on Shabbos and the IAF responds in kind but I believe they are all 30
meters underground now. http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/211899#.Vy4uio9OIeE
Russia and US agree to remove Assad and some top Syrian Generals to make peace. Patience has run out with him: http://debka.com/article/25405/US-Russia-aim-to-‘decapitate’-Syrian-military-
13 Iranians
become Shachidim in Syria: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/211900#.Vy4-xI9OIeE
Dr. Martin
Sherman an Ed-Op: http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/The-political-algorithms-of-the-Arab-Israeli-conflict-453271
You’ll never
know when they will turn on the Jews: Ed-Op Ben Dror Yemini: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4798065,00.html
After 25
rockets and mortars in 4 days (more than all of 2015 CE) there is a calming
down in the south if the military wing of Hamas complies: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4800634,00.html
ISIS is
threatening Israel now: http://debka.com/article/25408/ISIS-to-Israel-“We’re-coming-very-soon”-
Obama advisor
admits who lied to the public about the Iranian deal: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/211966#.VzASV49OIeE
Kind
of ironic that a prince of Saudi Arabia begging Americans to reject Trump, and
we the American people begging our government to release the 21 pages kept
secret about Saudi Arabian involvement in 9/11. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3578552/Prince-Turki-al-Faisal-begs-American-voters-not-make-Donald-Trump-president.html
New proposal to bring in soldiers http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Ayelet-Shaked-applying-Israeli-law-to-West-Bank-not-creeping-annexation-says-former-MAG-453557
No longer Mr. Security as fear of terrorism returns: No fear of G-D = fear of man: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/212017#.VzDhxPl96M8
$50,000,000 in tunnel building aid from the USA to Gaza.
Thanks to Kerry and his State Dept. and a Catholic Charity Partner. The same
group did not request Pope Pious XII to save Jews during WWII. http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4801490,00.html
The nature of
Amalek is to attack the old and the weak elderly women stabbed: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/212041#.VzGRX49OKM8
3 soldiers get
honors do to fighting the terrorist in the recent attacks: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/212045#.VzGSXo9OKM8
Munich terror
attack a product of welcoming in “refugees”. http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/212046#.VzGSZ49OKM8
Under Morsi, we
threatened to send troops to Cairo to save the besieged Embassy: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/212056#.VzHSU49OKM8
Bereaved family
has a girl but nothing can replace the son that they lost. http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/212049#.VzHS949OKM8
Youth captured
gives a concert to the Shin Bet: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/212052#.VzHTsI9OKM8
We finished
Davening and I wanted to make it into my car before the memorial sirens went
off as the siren is right over the Synagogue on the high point of the Yeshuv –
ha-ha right over my head the ear splitting sound so I put my fingers in my ears
and then Baruch Hu and went to the car. But 23,477 made the ultimate sacrifice
for Israel not mentioning a few thousand victims of internal terror (which is
lower than the murder rate in most US Cities). http://debka.com/article/25410/Israel-remembers-its-fallen-soldiers-victims-of-terror
Roadside device
wounds IDF Officer: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4802033,00.html
Anti-Semitic
attack on girls’ school bus: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/212098#.VzKp9vl96M8
Israeli Jets
hit convey of Iranian Supplies to Hezballah: http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Report-Israeli-fighter-jets-strike-weapons-convoy-on-way-to-Hezbollah-453649
Kosher restaurant
set ablaze in England: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/212156#.VzQDhJF96M8
As for Obama’s
Iranian Peace deal – how is it working for you? http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/212153
French PM takes
to task UNESCO resolutions: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4802247,00.html
Educating the
Start-up Nation: http://www.jpost.com/Annual-Conference/Educating-the-Start-Up-Nations-next-generation-453794
Top Hezballah
figure dies (COS of the terrorist organization). http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4802624,00.html From Debka http://debka.com/article/25420/Hizballah-high-up-taken-out-in-Syria
Egypt (peace
partner), PLO (partner) help Hamas get cement. http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/212224#.VzWM_pF96M8
Ed Op into the
Fray of this week: http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Into-the-Fray-Five-mendacious-myths-make-one-false-narrative-453863
Shabbat
Shalom with blessings,
Rachamim
Pauli
