Good for the Jews? Conservative and Reform Jews Can be Paid State Rabbis in Israel

Really. The Times reports that now, following a "brokered deal," Conservative and Reform rabbis will qualify to be paid employees of the State of Israel, "JERUSALEM — The Israeli government announced on Tuesday that, for the first time, it planned to pay the salaries of a small number of Reform and Conservative rabbis, as it does with many Orthodox ones."Our experience with Israeli rabbis paid by the State is terrible, horrible, awful.The rabbis...

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Funny Sexy Israel Tourism Ad

Funny Sexy Israel Tourism Ad (from 201...

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Using and Misusing the Tehillim

We have published on Halakhah.com the SYNOPSIS OF SEFER SHIMUSH TEHILLIM: Containing Protections Against Numerous Calamities. Attributed to Rav Hai Gaon, in Hebrew and English, compiled by Reuven Brauner.From the Introduction:Sefer Shimush Tehillim is a short and relatively little-known treatise attributed to Rav Hai Gaon (according to the Sedei Chemed) which describes the Kabbalistic uses of particular chapters and verses from the Book of Psalms...

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Rabbi Lichtenstein's Foreword to Mikra and Meaning by Nathaniel Helfgott

Rabbi Nathaniel Helfgott has written an incisive and perceptive book of literary approaches to selected biblical texts, Mikra and Meaning. The work must be examined within the literature of such studies written for the modern Orthodox reader, that is the college educated observant Jew. It stands out as a remarkable success within that genre.What struck us in this book was the Foreword by Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein, a former teacher of ours, and an...

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Is lying and cheating Jewish?

No lying and cheating is not Jewish. It is universal, everyone does it a little, a few people do it a lot.In the WSJ, to promote his new book, Dan Ariely wrote, "Why We Lie" he explains, "We like to believe that a few bad apples spoil the virtuous bunch. But research shows that everyone cheats a little—right up to the point where they lose their sense of integrity." Ariely's research shows that nearly everyone cheats and lies if given the opportunity....

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How "Rabbi" J. Ezra Merkin Bought His Co-op Apartment at 740 Park Avenue

The J. Ezra Merkin of recent headlines and scandals -- known for eternity as a Bernie Madoff feeder -- and the Merkin family live in duplex apartment 6/7B at 740 Park Avenue.A book by Michael Gross, 740 Park, is a fascinating account of rich New York through the prism of that single exceptional building.We bought this book several years ago to read about the really rich folk in the neighborhood where we grew up, including Merkin's upstairs neighbor,...

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Detroit News: What is a Kosher Amigo Shabbat Scooter?

The Amigo Shabbat Scooter is a clever invention. We had bought one for our dad in 2007. It helped him get to shul on Shabbat.Kosher scooters help Jews keep faithMich. company's device gets disabled Orthodox followers to synagogueORALANDAR BRAND-WILLIAMSThe Detroit NewsWixom --Michael Balkin observes traditional Jewish practices, but walking to services has been difficult for the past 20 years.A worsening neurological disorder has made walking more...

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Was Christopher Columbus Jewish?

Yes, Christopher Columbus was a Jew according to some historians.Charles Garcia, writing via CNN, summarized the case for Columbus the Jew in a story on May 20, 2012, the 508th anniversary of his death, "Was Columbus secretly a Jew?".The crux of the evidence is this:Recently, a number of Spanish scholars, such as Jose Erugo, Celso Garcia de la Riega, Otero Sanchez and Nicholas Dias Perez, have concluded that Columbus was a Marrano, whose survival...

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VIN: Rabbi Manis Friedman Says the Internet is not a Crisis for Judaism

On the day of a major stadium rally that was called by rabbis to warn against the dangers of the Internet, a prominent Lubavitch rabbi says there is no "unprecedented crisis." VIN reports:In an address to a group of teenage students, noted author, lecturer and educator Rabbi Manis Friedman dismissed the notion of banning the internet and rejected the idea that the Jewish community is facing an unprecedented crisis.Speaking on May 2nd at the United Lubavitcher Yeshiva in Crown Heights, Rabbi Friedman called the internet the nisayon of today’s generation...

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Celebrating Yom Yerushalayim

Today is Yom Yerushalayim. It is a Yom Tov. I recited Hallel in shul - with a berakhah.This year 5772, a few weeks ago, I made a sad trip (with my brother, sister and son) to Jerusalem to accompany my father's remains on El Al and to inter him in his final place of rest at Har Hamenuchot in Givat Shaul, Jerusalem, gush yud, chelka bet, shura tet.My father, Zev Zahavy, loved Israel, and especially Jerusalem. He owned two apartments there. He visited...

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What does the Talmud say about Islam?

The Talmud says nothing at all about Islam.The Talmud was published around 499 CE and Islam was founded may years later, around 622 CE. The Talmud mentions Arabs in numerous places, but that has nothing to do with Islam, the later religion.For some reason a recent story about the new Arabic translation of the Talmud, "Lebanon news -Jordanian center translates Babylonian Talmud into Arabic" tells us that Mohammad Najem, spokesperson of the Amman-based...

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Remembering Our 1964 Red Citroen DS19

In 2007 the NY Times reminded me of my 1964 Red Citroen DS19 with a picture spread of the author's car and a nice little story.This essay is mentioned in the Times' spread.The New Citroen by Roland Barthes 1957I think that cars today are almost the exact equivalent of the great Gothic cathedrals: I mean the supreme creation of an era, conceived with passion by unknown artists, and consumed in image if not in usage by a whole population which appropriates...

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Is Caroline Kennedy's Husband Edwin Schlossberg Jewish?

Yes, Edwin Arthur Schlossberg is a Jew.All four of Schlossberg's grandparents were Russian (Ukranian) Jews born near Poltava and arrived in the United States at Ellis Island.In 1986 Schlossberg married Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of President John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis at Hyannis Port when Caroline was 28 and Ed was 41.Their afternoon wedding ceremony was held at the Church of Our Lady of Victory in Centerville, Massachusetts...

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Shmuley Boteach Warns the Forward of Legal Action

In February the Forward published an article about Shmuley Boteach's candidacy for congress in New Jersey. We did not like the article. We do not like the Forward. We consider it to be a high-school-quality newspaper with little original news reporting content of any value. The article about Boteach impressed us as an example of poor journalism, laden with suggestions and innuendo of wrongdoing, where none was merited.According to a news report now...

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Is the Internet Kosher?

Is the Internet kosher?Now, the hot dogs served at Citi Field can be judged kosher or treif.The Internet cannot. It is a medium for communications and hence cannot be kosher or treif. Some rabbis are making a mass rally about the Internet the center of attention for their communities.We wonder if the rabbis know that every month we give away 25,000 tractates of the Talmud on our web site www.halakhah.com.The Wall Street Journal reports that the "Orthodox...

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Yossi Abramowitz: Madonna is Jewish

We've been posting for nearly seven years that one of our favorite pop singers, Madonna, is not Jewish even though some of her music makes allusion to the Kabbalah and she has been involved in Kabbalah studies.Now Yossi Abramowitz in the Jerusalem Report, strongly insinuates that Madonna is Jewish in actual fact ("YOSEF I. ABRAMOWITZ hails the arrival of Madonna to Israel – and to Judaism"). Yossi writes a nice column, but we just don't buy the premise...

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A Successful Kindle Direct Promotion for God's Favorite Prayers

I allowed the previously scheduled Kindle Direct Publishing promotion for my book "God's Favorite Prayers" to proceed on Sunday May 2, even though I was sitting shiva for my dad. I thought he would have had no objection to that.I expected that when Amazon made the book free for a day it would result in the download by readers of a few hundred copies. That would be a good way to build momentum for the volume within the KDP publishing program.At the...

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My father's most valuable autographs

During the shiva for my dad this past week, Rabbi Dr. Zev Zahavy, I showed many people an important part of our inheritance from him - five valuable autographs.Now these are not autographs of Babe Ruth or Mickey Mantle or of presidents or anything like that. These are the five signatures on my dad's klaf - on his diploma of ordination from Yeshiva University's Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, which he received in 1942.The...

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Rabbi Zev Zahavy z"l (update)

I regret to inform you of the passing of my dad. Rabbi Zev Zahavy z"l Beloved husband of the late Edith Zahavy z"l; father of Rabbi Tzvee Zahavy '72R, Professor Reuvain Zahavy and Professor Miryam Wahrman; grandfather and great-grandfather, brother of May Chait and of the late Rabbi Noah Goldstein '51R z"l and Selma Guedalia z"l.Rabbi Zev Zahavy was a wonderful son, husband, parent, grandparent, and great-grandparent. He served sincerely as a synagogue...

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