Dear Rabbi Wolpe,
I admit it.
As an Orthodox rabbi, I\’m genuinely embarrassed at the moment.
Judging by the recent goings-on in the Jewish book publishing world, where certain Orthodox authors have been taken to task for their controversial writings and books have either been banned, forcibly censored or book tours were canceled, it would seem that we don\’t have our act completely together.
The new International Criminal Court sounds like such a good idea, why would either the United States or Israel oppose it?
And now, as we are on the brink of war with Iraq, \”The Protocols\” has arisen, phoenix-like, in the land of ancient civilizations, in a new mass-media guise. It is the inspiration of the script of \”Horse Without a Horseman.\”
This, too, shall pass.\n\nAnd when the current government crisis in Israel, the showdown with Iraq and the conflict with the Palestinians are history, professor Avishay Braverman wonders, whither Israel?\n\nHis answer: the Negev.\n\n\”All our focus is on what I call the theater of the immediate,\” Braverman said. \”I\’m concerned we ignore internal issues in Israel, as if all we have to do is solve our external problems and the Messiah will come.\”
For a man who was rational, and with whom one could discuss cause and effect and the logic of doing things one way (the non-inflammatory way) as opposed to another, it always amazed me how he would invariably choose the wrong path.
In the late Middle Ages, some Jews first banned and then instigated the burning of the books of Maimonides, the greatest philosopher Judaism ever produced. The book burning of 1232 was one episode in a controversy that lasted for some two centuries. The fight was not over Maimonides as an individual, for all agreed he was a great scholar and a pious man, rather the dispute centered on his incorporating Greek learning into his philosophy. Maimonides revered Aristotle; he called him \”the philosopher.\” His opponents attacked him and the intellectual battle raged.
In our sex-saturated — and in fact, as a result, sexist — society, men and women eschewing handshakes to avoid any semblance of misplaced sexuality might seem a bit much to many.
Yasser Arafat exiled. Tel Aviv striking back forcefully at Iraq against America\’s wishes. The expansion of settlements. The permanent reoccupation of Palestinian territories.
A new president of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR) was inaugurated in a moving ceremony held Oct. 13 in the ornate Plum Street Temple in downtown Cincinnati.
The Republicans ran on terrorism and the Democrats ran on the economy. The Republicans won.
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