Esser Agaroth: When Passover Became A Holiday Again

When Passover Became A Holiday Again

29 of the First Month 5770

Once upon a time, there was a holiday called Pesah (Passover).

It was a joyous time for all Jews. But then the current galuth (exile) came, and things began to change. Jews began to change. They had to adapt and to hide and to assimilate into the cultures of the surrounding goyim, in order to survive.

It was a challenge to wear Jewish clothing and to observce Jewish customs. Jews were beaten up or even killed for being different, eating differently, and dressing differently, and believing different things than their neighbors did. So, gradually they changes their habits, to look and act more like their neighbors.

What choice did they have?

Even those Jews who isolated as much as possible, and who were uncompormising in their loyalty to Torah, were not immune to such changes in practices. Yet their isolation caused another fundamental change in Jewish thinking.

The despair set in. If only we could fill our “mitzvah piggy banks” to a critical mass, Mashiah (The Messiah) would come and save us, take us to Eretz Yisra'el, rebuild our Holy Temple, and all would be well!

We would live happily ever after.

There was no need to learn about the Laws of the Temple. After all, weren't they only relevant to the First and Second Temples? The Ramba”m never intended for us actually to build it, just to have the merit of studying them. After all, EVERYONE knows that RaSh”I said the Temple will fall from the sky,...prefabricated.

There was no need to learn the Laws of Kings and their Wars. Mashiah would know them already, and teach us everything that was necessary. And after all, he will have supernatural powers enabling us to be free from such matters anyway.

All we had to do was to was sit back, learn, say Tehillim (Psalms), and placate the goyim as best we could, and our Hero would eventually come to rescue us (ie. do all the work of redemption).

This focus on only parts of the Torah led to new ideas. If only we were more stringent on this issue or that, Mashiah would come sooner. Some of these stringencies were necessary, keeping Jews far from sin, while residing in a foreign environment, a Jew's natural habitat being Eretz Yisra'el. However, some stringencies began to arise, simply because there was nowhere else for Judaism to go. Moving to Eretz Yisra'el, where most misswoth could be performed, where learning Torah was optimal, and where Jews belonged leHatkhilah was only an impossible dream.

This became the prevailing hashqafah (view), and all Torah learning began to fit into this pre-established rubrick, pertually letting Jews off the hook from being active participants in the redemptive process.

Then came the Maskilim, the academics, the so-called “rationalists,” the ones who were too progressive and enlightened to believe in the “superstitions” of their forefathers, not even entertaining the idea that maybe the Judaism of their fathers and grandfathers was not Judaism lived by HaZa”L (Our Sages, may their memories be for blessings), nor even the Rishonim. Nope. Everything had to go.

At the end of the 1700's, a new strategy arose. Some asked, “Why don't we try chipping away at that 'superstitious' Torah one piece at a time? We'll go after the Oral Torah first, and pretend to believe in God and the Written Torah.” But, this strategy wasn't really a new one. It had already been tried by the Tzadoqim (Saducees). Similar strategies were later attempted by early Christians, altered and refined by keeping a pulse on what was popular, keeping what the Romans and other pagans liked about Judaism, and discarding what was proclaimed to be too difficult or demanding.

Much of this very, pick-and-choose strategy was next incorporated into that of the Jews with “new ideas” of the 1700's. Halachah (Torah Law) quickly lost its status as something binding.

All of these movements of Jews recognized that something was wrong with Judaism. Yet, none of them actually went back to re-examine the Halachah and its supporting sources. Well, one group sort of did, but felt compeled to tweek the conceptualization of the Oral Law first. So, that hardly counts.

Other groups emerged which emphasized person meaning in religious observance, some with more of a “do whatever you want and call it Jewish” attitude than others. Yet by concerning themselves with the selfish feelings of Jews who were lost, angry, or confused, over the search for what was authentically Torah, they sacraficed their heritage to the God of Self, and successfully created something which was still endlessly farther away from Judaism than what was in the hands of the isolationists who valued stringencies, and shunned anything incompatible with their preconceived notions born out of galuth.

The battle between the pseudo-old ideas and the pseudo-new ideas continues, and this Pesah, the following could still be heard:

“I hate Pesah.”

“I hate cleaning for Pesah.”

“There's nothing good to eat during Pesah.”

“I'm always too exhausted to enjoy Pesah.”

“If Passover is an indicator of what the rest of Judaism is supposed to be about, then I want nothing to do with it. I just don't get it.”

Waiting to eat, and thus starving for hours, trying to focus on heavily detailed divrei Torah and complex midrashim, and then told to stuff your dinner down your throats, in order to eat the afikoman before halachic midnight. Where is the simhath yom tov in that?!

However, the solution to the damage done by the pseudo-old ideas does not come from those with the pseudo-new ideas.

The solution is NOT to do whatever we want and ignore the centrality of halachah.

The solution is NOT to pretend to be frumer than frum, so that we can legimize our unsubstantiated leniencies in other areas of Judaism.

The solution is NOT to replace the centrality of halacha with an emphasis on only what is “meaningful,” in other words, make it up according to your feelings, like putting an orange or even a piece of bread on the seder plate.

The solution IS to rediscover what the Halachah (Torah Law) actually is, and then do it.

Unfortunately, both those with the pseudo-old ideas and the pseudo-new ideas are too stuck in their ways. Those who are close-minded close themselves off from authenticity, fooling themselves into believing the notion that the way they look, act, and speak is not so far away from HaZa”L. After all, they believe that their stringencies have made Judaism better than it was. And, although in some ways they deserve credit for the survival of Judaism, the idea that we can now move back to the proper (ie. only) Jewish Homeland, and learn what is proper Jewish dress, observance, and speech is nothing less than heresy. They are too blinded by hashqafah and power to see what is or is not authentic Judaism. They “know better.”

Those who proclaim open mindedness are not really open minded at all. After all, they are enlightened and progressive, and have no desire for authenticity anyway, fooling themselves into the belief that enlightenment and progress, adopted from Western society, IS authentic Judaism. They “know better.”

May the Holy One, Blessed Be He grant guidance to those of His People who are lost.

May He grant all those who had a lousy Pesah this year, the knowledge and courage to have an enjoyable Pesah next year,...like the one I had.

A Pesah which follows a period of SANE cleaning that which is halachicly necessary to clean
(You'd be surprised!)

A Pesah which offers more to eat than eggs, oil, shmaltz, potatoes, carrots, coconut, and preservatives

A Pesah Seder with lively and interesting discussions of Yetziyath Mitzrayim, yet also...

A Pesah Seder in which the meal commences not long after returning home from beth kenesseth (synagogue)

A Pesah Seder in which the meal is relaxed, and not rushed

A Pesah Seder in which guests do not struggle to stay awake, nor are bored out of their minds

A Pesah in which people feel comfortable eating at each other's homes

Then maybe Pesah will become a holiday once again.

בשנה הבאה בירושלים הבנויה

Next Year may we all be celebrating Pesah in a rebuilt Jerusalem!

*********

A version of the Ramba"m's Hagadah may be printed out from Mechon-Mamre.org.

Esser Agaroth: When Passover Became A Holiday Again

Esser Agaroth: Doctor, Lawyer, Broker, Loser

Doctor, Lawyer, Broker, Loser

22 of the Twelfth Month 5770

You have probably all heard the joke about the first, Jewish President of the United States...

The first Jewish Presient of the United States invites his mother over to the White House for Thanksgiving. He meets with a lot of resistance, but eventually convinces his mother to come.

After the plans have been formalized, his mother receives a call from a friend who asks her what she is doing for Thanksgiving. The President's mother says that she will be going to her son's house. Her friend asks, “Oh! You're going to your son, the doctor's house?”

The President's mother replies, “No, I'm going to the other one.”

Here is another joke you also may have heard....

An elderly, Jewish lady who is frought with anxiety over a dilemma she is in, meets with her friend in the park to discuss it. You see, she is very upset after being informed that her grandson is gay.

Her friend asks her, “So, nu? What's the dilemma?”

The grandmother replies, “Well, he IS dating a doctor.”

Enjoy the funny jokes during this month of Adar. The truth is, though, that these are anything but jokes, depicting the true prestige of being a doctor in the American, Ashkenazy world, where if you are not a doctor or a lawyer or a broker, then you are a loser.

There is, of course, a symbolic drop of leaway here. Many such families will tolerate one “creative type” (actor, musician, or other artist), one academic, one scientist, and even one “rabbi,” but only one, and not even one of each. Women may become therapists, but men who choose such a profession are always referred to as “the son who didn't become a 'real' doctor.”

Cousins who have absolutely nothing in common with each other are often thrown together into the same box in conversation, their parents vying for the title of who had to raise the more difficult, “problem child” or the blackest sheep.

I am writing of men primarily, but women feel the pressure, too, either to become, or to marry, one of the above.

I have a friend who has always been down on himself for not having gone to college. “But what about the eight years you spent in yeshivah?” I would ask him. “Is that not worth anything? Did you not learn and grow and become a better person from that experience?” But, this friend would just continue to sulk.

Another friend recently told me about how not having a college degree is affecting his search for a shidduch (match), even in Israel. “What about all those years you spent in Hesder Yeshivah?” I asked. “Doesn't that count for something? Who cares if you have some piece of paper?”

His response was one word: “Women.”

And, he is right,...unfortunately. In most every Religious Zionist or Modern Orthodox, shidduch ad I have seen in Israel, women are looking for a man who is “academi” (has a college degree).

But, where did this mentality come from? Jews in America often talk about their respect for education and their support for educational institutions. And, they think this is it. Afterall, this is how Jews not only survived in Galuth (exile), but excelled. Jews were not only able to compete with the goyim, but often beat them. Now that we no longer have to compete with the goyim, let us get our priorities straight.

Yes, we need doctors and lawyers and even brokers. But we also need plumbers, electricians, and garbage men.

“Oh, don't worry, in the U. S. we have the goyim for that; in Israel that's what the Arabs are for!”

Sorry, but that attitude is just not going to cut it, depending on others for what we need to learn to do for ourselves.

Just like in the U. S., these guys do pretty well financially in Israel. Yet, my friend the garbage man (Yes, such creatures as Jewish garbage men do exist), who has always made more money than I have as a teacher (and isn't that one of the American, Ashkenazy ideals? Money, money, money...), is now a supervisor of garbage men, and making even more money than I am. Still, I see it in his eyes. Pride in providing for his family, their security, and his children's Jewish education is not enough. Unfortunately, neither is pride in keeping our Holy, Jewish Homeland clean, nor doing more to protect its environment than most other professions. Society still looks down upon him because of what he does, and because of what he doesn't do.

The fact that he is intelligent, friendly, and working in his free time on projects to help his community garners nothing more than a forced smile, from the “cultural elite” to acknowledge how quaint he is. But, the reality is that the elite does not even see him as being quaint. Rather, there is something wrong with him.

By now you are probably all saying, “That's easy for you to say, Ya'aqov. You HAVE a college degree,...two of them!”

I, myself, currently work with my hands (Oy! Geeeeeeeeevaaaaaaaaaaaaald!), and get treated as “less than” by those patronizing my work. Some still even think that I am a volunteer. After all, no self-respecting [American, Ashkenazy] Jew would ever do such a thing for parnassah!

You can only imagine what parents would say about Jewish farmers. (Yes, such creatures also exist in present day.)

“David went to experience the outdoors for a while. Don't worry. His therapist
says that he'll grow out of it.”

“Michael is just going through a phase. He'll be going to Harvard next year,...whether he wants to or not!”

“What's with my daughter Rachel? Oh, you know. She's just 'finding herself.' When she comes home to visit this summer, I have three young eligible bachelors in the wings to whisk her off her feet. Then she'll gladly turn in her shovel and rake for diamonds and choice of china patterns.”

Even worse, this mentality, this virus, has long since infiltrated Israeli society. Sephardim and Teimanim now feel they have to get that piece of paper, or else they are “less than.”

And, what of those with learning styles which do not cut it in the Western classroom? Well, let's just say that the world needs ditch diggers, too!

The non-religious, Ashkenazim started it, looking down on the Sephardim and Teimanim for not sharing their culture, language, nor dress, and for having that “holy” college degree. What was a Hacham (scholar) with 20 years in yeshivah worth to them? Absolutely nothing. It was a battle between East and West. The East didn't have a chance, now that the Ashkenazim were in charge, pushing their culture and agenda on everyone else, who they considered to be inferior.

The Iraqim who came were given tent cities for their dwelling places, and told that the must give up their traditional (Read: too authentically Jewish) garb for the preferred, Western clothing of assimilation amongst the nations.

Teimanim were told that they did not need their simanim (side locks) anymore; they were in Eretz Yisra'el now.

Shomrei Torah HaS'phardim [Sha”S] the Sephardi, Haredi, political party and movement was a great idea at its inception, yet went horribly wrong. Raising up Sephardi pride, creating a community no longer willing to take it from the Ashkenazim anymore was a noble goal. Now look what has happened. With the exception of celebrating with different foods and music, including eating qitniyoth (various legumes and seeds) during Pesah, and pronouncing Hebrew differently, Sha”S has turned into a group of Sephardim which tries to out-Ashkenazy the Ashkenazim.

There is even a verb in Hebrew for the process of turning Ashkenazy: le'hishtaknez. I kid you not.

Racism you say? I'll let you be the judge.

There is one “ism,” though which simply cannot be swept under the carpet.

The attitude and practice in communities where differential respect is accorded not to professions, but to people themselves, based only on their professions, is nothing less than classism.

Esser Agaroth: Doctor, Lawyer, Broker, Loser