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Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Interview: Internet Rabbi Yaakov Menken speaks about his Religious Education work with www.Torah.org

In an interview on Religious Education, Orthodox Rabbi Yaakov Menken talks of his work with the successful teaching website www.Torah.org
and tells readers all about what to expect as student
by Peter Menkin


Founder and Director of www.Torah.org,
Rabbi Yaakov Menken of Baltimore, Maryland, USA



This is the second interview in three that constitute the final article-interview on Religious Education. The unique aspect of this interview has to do with the success of internet education and its use in the teaching of Torah and Jewish learning purposes, as well, of Orthodox Jewish adult education. In this interview with Religion Writer Peter Menkin, Director of www.torah.org spoke with the writer over a period of a few months, from December, 2011, through the 20th of March, 2012. Rabbi Yaakov Menken (no relation to the Religion Writer), speaks with an authority born of education, training, and experience. He shows a love of learning, and like the other three Rabbis who are part of this interview series of three about the internet learning site, with its 78,000 subscribers, Rabbi Yaakov has a warmth for the reality of the work and their experience in reaching out to both Jews and non-Jews in many parts of the world--in fact, worldwide as well as the United States. The phone conversations held from Peter Menkin's home office in Mill Valley, California to Rabbi Yaakov's office at www. Torah.org and his own home in Baltimore, went well.



1.                  Peter Menkin: There is little doubt in my mind that your work as Director, www.Torah.org is an internet success with 78,000 subscribers. In a conversation by phone, you talked some about advantages and such of internet learning—calling Torah.org a place for ongoing education (lifelong learning). To paraphrase your remark regarding continuing education--as this writer knows it as once known in California, USA-- and your school purpose, continuing education is…much closer to our model, not because (the student is) going to get a credit. Lifelong education known to us as… religious study…a more fundamental obligation. It is one of the things we are expected to do. Tell us about this lifelong, fundamental obligation. Give us some about the, “Why,” and “What for…”

In our view, of course, the Torah as the word of God was not only given to us in a written law, but given to us as an Oral Law—which was only written down so that it wasn't forgotten. For us every piece of that Law is God’s Commandment. “And you will teach it to your children, and you will speak of it when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking on the way, and when you lie down and when you arise.” [Deuteronomy 6:7].

In any case, it is one of our most fundamental teachings that we should be involved in learning and studying God’s law—it’s God’s teaching, the Torah. Whether its ethics, philosophy, we are fulfilling God’s Commandment to study, which helps us to perform all the other Commandments. It’s not merely intellectual study. You learn how to speak properly, and then you have a conversation. (We have a class in the ethics of speech. It is one of our oldest classes, and the archive is still active on our website.)

When we are talking about philosophy and ethics and how a person should think about things, it is not simply cut and dry. You have to have the spirit along with it. There are certain things you can get away with in rote mechanics, but ethics you cannot. It is not to say you are supposed to—you don’t get up and check a box. When it comes to something like interpersonal conduct, if you don’t understand the principals you can’t understand what you are doing.

Even in a more positive direction, this--when you are studying the word of God you are becoming a more Godly person. You are coming to God and making the world a better place. It’s very small. You start much closer to home. When you learn to generally care about other people, and make others happier…one person at a time…that generosity is reflected in a lot of ways: in spirit, in generous giving, generosity of volunteerism. Generosity of time is also generosity.

It’s a rationale for our existence, to become a more Godly people and bring the world along with us. That is our highest expression in the world.

A large part of our audience is composed of people who have--even people who have been born into Jewish families—who have never been exposed to this. They have never experienced the beauty of what Jewish learning really is. Part of our work is to have people have an experience of Jewish learning and grow from there.

When it comes to Jewish learning, the objective is not to be the greatest scholar on the planet. There is only one person who will be the greatest scholar on the planet. It is to be the greatest scholar you can be.



2.                  Peter Menkin: This writer notes there are opportunities the technical side of internet systems offers the student that your school offers: http://torahmedia.com/ . The site says,
TorahMedia has thousands of FREE Jewish mp3 audio downloads and a lending library of world class Jewish speakers. Find your favorite speakers, discover new ones and search for your topic on the world's most comprehensive Torah audio lending library available online.
   

You told me in a phone conversation, We have a very substantial mp3 library of our own. It is one of the most diverse sources on the internet. There are six pages of teachers who are involved with us. Torahmedia.com  (is) where one can find collateral material…Torah audio. (Availability allows) use mp3 players and  the iPod will play it, podcast compatible. Torahmedia has podcasts available.  I call this cutting edge, and even, “cool.” I am sure young people say it is, “cool.”

How were you able to create all these integrated sites, technically, and who worked on the project that as www.torah.org began in 2005? Talk to our readers about your own background, both as Rabbi and as computer programmer? Do you have a degree in computer programming?



Rabbi Yaakov: Project Genesis has been around since 1993, and the domain name Torah.org came two years later. I do have a background in computer science. I went to Princeton, and one of my classmates was Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com. He was Princeton computer science student and had an idea for an online bookstore. Part way through Princeton, I made the decision to be observant of traditional Judaism and went to study that ofter college. After studying for several years, I wanted to do something to encourage Jewish learning on college campuses. The truth is I thought we were going to do live events on campus. I thought we would do things outside of Hillel to capturing students' attention. But then the Internet became the best way to reach large numbers of people. It was a confluence of circumstances, and people that encouraged me to use the Internet for Jewish learning, and lo and behold it took off.



Because my degree was in computers, I was the first programmer for our organization. We ran web servers, mailing list servers. I am less and less involved with that today. We have a team of people who work with us today, and the truth is today there is not as much programming.

There is a big project afoot to unify our websites. When we began in 1995, we did this all by hand, there was no software platform to work from. There was not as much user access. You couldn’t rely on the average user to have a broadband Internet connection. Today all that has changed. Even news sites feature video on the home page. We do not divide as text from audio from video as we did ten years ago. We have to link to audio and video as we do with other web topics [today]. If there is web audio content about a holiday coming up, doesn’t it make sense to link to that content?



We regard it as a tremendous opportunity. Anything that comes along in this way can be used to expand educational offerings. And here we’re talking about a type of immediate outreach to people around the world that was never offered before. Obviously there are upsides and downsides to every technical advance. Here we are leveraging it to its best advantage.





3.                  Peter Menkin: In questions asked of one of your teachers, Rabbi Yitzchoch Adlerstein. One question asked of him I will now ask of you: Speak some to us about the goals of Jewish Religious Education, especially in light of the reach and effectiveness of internet education. Can you tell us what limitations you find in this system? and more, some of the general rules of purpose of your internet teaching?



Rabbi Yaakov: To address the limitations, the biggest limitation is the lack of personal contact. There is always an advantage to having a personal connection, and it is very difficult to make that happen over an internet connection. We are doing something in our unique way, to help people learn and grow and all the things we said earlier. We are enabling that because we use the internet. We inspire and help people to learn about Jewish learning wherever they might be. Even at McMurdo Air Force Base, in Antarctica. This was of course back in the early days, when scientific research stations did not have to have all the firewalls and protections that they do now. There was a Jewish researcher there who did a little Jewish learning by visiting our website.



We’ve had subscribers in Montana, in Kenya, Western Australia (the most educated Jew on campus. He was downloading material from our website for weekly study). We obviously have subscribers in New York, Baltimore and Los Angeles, Chicago--in Jewish communities where there is substantial Orthodox community and educated community.

Using the Internet provides exposure to this traditional Jewish teaching in this way. We don’t know specific percentages of which age groups, but there definitely are a large number of college age subscribers. In general terms I would say, yes, we are succeeding in reaching college studints this way.

We try not to limit how people use the site … it’s very much user, student driven. It is always what people want to sign up for, what is of interest. We don’t say, here’s how to use it, here’s how you ought not to use it. The material we are sending out, and the lectures, are all packaged by the teacher. We don’t provide a rule set on how to read it or when to read it. When it’s convenient for you, we want you to do a little Jewish learning.





4.                  Peter Menkin: This writer often wonders what the reason is that a religious man or woman engages in a given vocation. In a serious way, this question asks of clergy (you), what was and is your call, and why did you take on the work you took. In your case, religious educator?



Rabbi Yaakov: When I became religious in college, I realized there was not enough access for Jewish students in college. The large organizations like Hillel with their buildings and draw to local activities called for a certain level of identity before Jewish students would even go into the building. I realized there was a need for more. Given that Jewish outreach and education are imperatives for everyone, it seemed like I felt a new and unique contribution could be made.



I don’t think that there was any moment of inspiration; it’s more that I perceived a void and saw that I could make a contribution that could help. I felt that someone who had experience on college campus could perceive this. That said, a lot of my original perceptions and thoughts did not come to pass. The success came in an adjunct to our primary activities, and yet we became phenomenally successful in that area.



In the Jewish understanding of God and his laws, you have the Torah and detailed laws for most every act in life. You know what you are trying to do is glorifying the Torah and God’s name. That is the guideline you need. You talk to outstanding rabbinic teachers and ask if this is a good thing to be doing.



My conception of what is on the right course is all well and good, but you have to consult with the leading rabbis, and learn what they think is true. Tremendously successfully endeavors are not always in God’s path, but you see things that are not obvious success. The divine presence is not seen all the time. We may not see what we wish to see or don’t.





5.                  Peter Menkin: The Jewish man or woman is engaged in education from a perspective of a religious and particularly Jewish kind, especially the Orthodox. Will you speak to us about this perspective, and take us to the matter of attitude in viewpoint. Further, I refer the reader to your interesting remark in a conversation we had, to wit, Sunday school is a different game. What we’re doing is more adult oriented. Sunday school has a component that is obligatory. Parents want you to because you have to be Bar Mitzvah. It’s all about the person’s individual discovery. There may be a transformation of a person, inspired by the education they get online. Although some of (our) classes are focusing on inspiration, though some are dry recitations of facts.



Rabbi Yaakov: When one is involved with childhood education, parents, teachers and others decide what the students must [learn]. We make choices in our later years, like college…we take electives. Of course we choose a major and areas of study. The same is true in religious education. Hebrew school is not mandated by the children, it is mandated by the parents. Individual discovery is for [adults]; people say I want to go to a Jewish website and choose such and such topic. One thing about the website: that we offer such a diverse array of topics of study, but we don’t provide individual guidance, the way a leader of a congregation is expected to do. There are few individual relationships here, and it’s not any sort of formal relationship.



You spoke about being a religious leader – I didn’t set myself up that way, or see myself that way. On the contrary, I am trying to enable others to teach. That is why you have such a large array of teachers on our site. The larger schools can set up their own websites, but we created a structure where someone who is a teacher, educated Jewishly, is enabled to teach via the Internet. I have leveraged my knowledge of computer science to aid the area of Jewish education. As I said before, I have a classmate who created Amazon.com. I use the same knowledge of computers to do something very different.





6.                  Peter Menkin: Let’s talk some more about formation, which is in the religious sense a kind of spiritual and religious growth phenomenon, one that Christians say is a result of the Holy Spirit and Grace itself. What is the source of such formation and growth for the Jewish student?  Is it Ruah?



Rabbi Yaakov: We do believe that every Jewish soul is born with that desire to grow towards God. We are all created in the image of God. Abraham was set apart as a seeker of God and divinity. We are just helping someone uncover that which is there. Even though people make all sorts of different contributions, and there are 70 faces of Torah. We would not say people are inspired to be that way…was it their nature to be drawn to things in a certain way and a certain nature? There may be a person who has a natural affinity for the shedding of blood. That person can be a murderer, or the kosher slaughterer of animals, or circumciser of baby boys in that ritual of Jewish faith.

The particular direction a person goes is often a part of that natural affinity, and using it in the right way.







7.                  Peter Menkin: Thank you for your generosity and long, complete answers in this interview. I am glad for the opportunity to talk with you and continue our acquaintance. Is there anything this writer failed to ask or omitted in this series of questions that you’d like to make at this time? Thank you.



Rabbi Yaakov: The Orthodox Jewish world has much to offer other Jews, and the world, and this is an opportunity to hear from them directly – people can look in and see what we say. It is like hearing the lectures the rabbinic students are hearing from the rabbis. Everyone is finding out what is said, and some people find it very informative to see it firsthand.



It provides information for particular areas of ethics. The websites gives guides for holidays and things like that which are practical. Some is theoretical – Jewish learning can be theoretical, but it can be very practical as well, with direct applicability to our lives. It may inspire people to do more and enrich their lives, but not all of it is practical or guidance of how to live. A lot of it is learning for learning's own sake.

ADDENDUM



Torah Lessons by Rabbi Yaakov Menken



Noach

by Rabbi Yaakov Menken

G-d's Message for All Humanity

"But flesh, when its soul is with its blood, you shall not eat it... He who spills the blood of man, by man shall his blood be spilled, for in the Image of G-d did He create man." [Genesis 8:4,6]

As an Internet program, Project Genesis reaches out to Jews all over the world -- this week, we received a wonderful and heartfelt letter of thanks from a Jewish woman in Zimbabwe. Also, of course, a significant number of interested non-Jews join our program, curious about the Jewish religion, customs, and/or practices. We've even had a subscriber from the Vatican!

Most of the time, our messages about honesty, ethics, and kindness are appropriate to everyone. At other times, however, we talk about distinctly Jewish practices -- Shabbos, holiday observances (the Sukkah, Chanukah candles, the Pesach Seder), etc.

Parshas Noach is the best time to turn the tables. Most every non-Jew curious about Judaism will inquire what Judaism has to say about non-Jews -- it's only logical, and it's only appropriate that we address this question.

Unlike the other religions of the world, Judaism does not believe that everyone must become a Jew in order to approach G-d or earn a place in the World to Come. When King Solomon built the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, he asked of G-d that He hear the prayers of all who pray towards that Temple: "Also a gentile who is not of your people Israel, but will come from a distant land for Your Name's sake... and will come and pray toward this Temple, may You hear in Heaven Your dwelling-place, and do according to all that that gentile calls out to You..." [I Kings 8:41-43]

Judaism neither solicits converts, nor suggests that non-Jews must follow all the Jewish practices and laws. Quite to the contrary! Maimonides writes in the Laws of Kings 8:10:

"Moshe Rabbeinu (Rabbi Moses) did not give the Torah and the Commandments to anyone but Israel, as the verse says, 'The Inheritance of the Congregation of Jacob.' [It was also given] to anyone from the other nations who desires to convert... but we do not force anyone who does not want [to accept them] to accept the Torah and the Commandments."

But even so, Jewish prayers call for the day when "all humanity will call upon Your Name... they will all accept upon themselves the yoke of your Kingship...." How is a non-Jew to come close to G-d, to do His will? What does it mean to "accept the yoke of His Kingship" if the Jewish Commandments do not apply?

The answer is found in G-d's statement to Noach, father of all humanity. As Noach leaves the Ark, G-d tells him that he may eat meat -- but not while the nefesh [soul] of the animal remains in its blood, meaning that a limb or blood taken from a living animal is prohibited. Murder is also forbidden, and Noach is told to set up courts to judge murder and other crimes.

All told, Judaism teaches that G-d gave seven laws (or more accurately, seven categories of legal obligations) which are incumbent upon all humanity:

1) Not to eat a limb or meat that was severed from a live animal

2) Not to curse the name of G-d

3) Not to steal or rob

4) Not to worship idols

5) Not to commit adultery or have other forbidden sexual relationships

6) Not to murder a fellow man

7) To establish courts of justice, to pronounce and mete out decisions for all mankind, and to ensure observance of the previous laws.

And with this, concludes Maimonides (8:11): Anyone who accepts these Seven Commandments, and is careful to do them, this person is one of the 'Pious of the Nations of the World' and has a share in the World to Come. This is provided that s/he accepts them and performs them because they are G-d's Command, part of His Torah, which our Rabbi Moses informed us were Commanded previously to the sons of Noach.

In our day, there are scattered non-Jewish congregations that have accepted upon themselves these "Seven Noachide Laws." There are organizations and web sites devoted to them, their needs and their studies. The best I've seen is www.hamayim.org [HaMayim is Hebrew for "The Water," explained on the "About Us" page.] For those interested, there is much to learn!

Good Shabbos, [and for those not called upon to celebrate the Shabbos, Have a Great Weekend!]

Rabbi Yaakov Menken



Text Copyright © 2003 Project Genesis, Inc.

The author is the Director of Project Genesis.










Shavuos

by Rabbi Yaakov Menken



Shavuos was the occasion, over 3300 years ago, when our ancestors stood at Mt. Sinai to receive the Torah. Ever since then, Jews have used this holiday to reaffirm our commitment to receive and learn our Torah, the spiritual lifeblood of our faith.

Shavuos was also the occasion when I and my religious school classmates, not nearly so long ago, stood at the Bimah to be Confirmed -- a modern ceremony found in many congregations (although, let's be honest, this ceremony, the age group involved, and the name, are all borrowed from the surrounding culture). Our studies at an end, we graduated. Passover may be the holiday of liberation, but on Shavuos, we were free!

What gave us this message -- tragic, for the People of the Book -- that we were done learning? I believe the answer is straightforward: none of our parents were attending classes. There were no classes for us in our later high school years, either. Jewish learning was obviously an activity for children.

The ceremony itself gave that message. We Confirmands and our families constituted the majority of attendees, on the holiday celebrating our communal attachment to Torah. We celebrated receiving the Torah, and few cared enough to appear.

Even today, parents often send their children off to Hebrew school with no interest in the subjects. Why, then, do their children go? In many synagogues, children cannot enjoy a Bar or Bat Mitzvah without mandatory family membership and Hebrew school attendance for two, three, or even four years. And children, as we all know, have to have a Bar or Bat Mitzvah (if the parents don't think so, the grandparents' strong opinion must also be considered). So to many parents and children Hebrew school is a long ordeal, a necessary prerequisite for the party at the end.

The Bar Mitzvah has been turned on its head: instead of a rite of entry into a life of Jewish learning and the assumption of Jewish responsibility, it has become a rite of exit. How did the Rabbi get rid of the mice in the synagogue? He gave them Bar and Bat Mitzvahs, and they never came back!

We obviously need to reverse this trend. First and foremost, Jewish learning for adults must be as common as Hebrew school -- meaning, every concerned Jewish adult should participate on at least a weekly basis. [Obviously, I am preaching to the choir to some extent, because you are reading this. But do you go to live classes? Did you know that the LEAP engine on our web site now gives you an easy search engine for Torah classes near you?]

Second: parents must study with their children, if we want children to enjoy the experience of Jewish learning. Hebrew schools cannot (and do not) succeed when parental investment stops at the wallet. In many schools, parents already participate, and the impact is obvious. "I endured this, and now you must, too," is replaced with, "I do this, I enjoy this, and I hope you will too." How many surveys are needed to prove that this is vastly more productive?

Finally, I hesitate to say it, but Hebrew school should be reserved for families who actually want their children to attend. A Bar or Bat Mitzvah celebration is not Hebrew school graduation, but a Jewish birthright. At age 13 or 12 a young boy or girl must take responsibility -- ready or not. If the parents and children are both not interested in Hebrew school, then the experience often does more harm than good. I would rather meet the teenager who went into the ceremony with little preparation, and now wonders what it was that he or she did and wants to learn more, over the one who thinks he or she has "been there, done that."

Shavuos, of course, is an ideal time for adults to start or resume learning. It is the time when the spiritual forces of the original receipt of the Torah come down to us. And, on a much more pragmatic level, it is the time when children are leaving Hebrew schools for the summer, or for good. For their sake and our own, we, as adults, must demonstrate that we value Jewish learning. For 3300 years, the Jewish people survived by learning Torah -- in kingdom and in exile, in wealth and in poverty, in times of freedom and times of oppression. And whenever Jews abandoned Torah study, assimilation followed.

To those proud young men and women now celebrating their own Confirmations, I would say: please remember that this is not a graduation, an end, but a beginning. Until now, your synagogue and your parents have made decisions regarding your Jewish education, but now it's up to you. And it is your choice to attach yourself to Torah, to go to learn because you want to learn, which will truly confirm your place in the Jewish community, now and for generations to come.

A happy and meaningful Shavuos, and a Good Shabbos!

Rabbi Yaakov Menken



Text Copyright © 2002 Project Genesis, Inc.

The author is the Director of Project Genesis.














Rosh Hashana/Yom Kippur

by Rabbi Yaakov Menken

We find ourselves this week in the midst of the Ten Days of Repentance, the days from Rosh HaShana to Yom Kippur. An interesting idea - ten days for self-examination, reflection, and (we hope) self-improvement. But do we understand "repentance?"

The world today almost laughs at "sin" and "repentance." Almost? Let me rephrase that: the world does laugh at the whole idea of "sin." Part of that is denial - if I laugh at something, I don't have to take it seriously. Another part, however, comes from the non-Jewish conception of sin and repentance - which, because of the society we live in, has become quite pervasive in Jewish minds.

Many who no longer go to church describe confession as "going on Sunday to confess what we did Friday, and plan to do again on Tuesday." I don't know if that's accurate; I'm Jewish. I only know that this could not be further from the Jewish idea of repentance.

So instead of these terms, let us use "transgression" and "return," words which correspond more closely to a Jewish understanding of these concepts. Indeed, while we may translate "Teshuva" as repentance, it comes from the infinitive LaShuv: to return.

We know certain things to be right, and others to be wrong, and we cross the line. We go where we should not have gone - and in doing so, we move away from G-d. But in His great kindness, He leaves the door open for us to come back to Him, and restore our connection. That is the purpose of return - to come back to G-d.

If so, is it not obvious that Teshuva must happen in our hearts, and not in our mouths? Maimonides, in his codification of Jewish Law, says this explicitely (Hil. Tshuva 2:3): "One who confesses with words, but has not decided in his heart to abandon [his transgressions], is like a person who goes to a ritual bath while holding something unclean in his hand: immersion in the bath will not help him until he throws the item away!"

Repentance is an activity of the heart - a decision to change our behavior, and to abandon a path that has led us away from G-d instead of towards Him. And to make it easier for us, G-d gave us a certain time of year when He comes close to us, and invites us to go in the right direction. The Talmud in tractate Rosh HaShana says that the verse, "Seek out HaShem when He can be found, call upon Him when He is close" (Isaiah 55:6) refers to these Ten Days. Maimonides also says (2:6) that "Even though return and crying [over our errors] is always beautiful, during the ten days between Rosh HaShana and Yom Kippur it is exceptionally so, and is accepted immediately" - and he refers us again to that same verse.

It is as if G-d is right here in the neighborhood, and all we need to do is drop in! It is that easy for us to use this time for a rebirth, for making new beginnings in the right direction. Should we wake up in two weeks, feeling as if He left without us? Let's take advantage of this time of year, and come away from the season feeling closer to G-d.



Text Copyright © 1995 Rabbi Yaakov Menken and Project Genesis, Inc.

The author is the Director of Project Genesis.




This article interview will appear Church of England Newspaper, London in March, 2012.

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Report & Commentary: Rowan Williams speaks at Camaldoli (Benedictine) monastery with Pope present


Rowan Williams, Lent, 2010



Using the art of the homily, Archbishop Rowan Williams spoke to the ecumenical relationship between the Anglican Communion (Episcopal Church in USA), and the Roman Catholic Church, citing history. For a thousand years the Camaldoli hermitage and its monks have been praying and living with the presence of the Lord. The Archbishop’s homily was presented at Papal Vespers, San Gregorio Magno al Celio 10 March 2012.
Praying in the presence of the Lord can be a form of definition for contemplative prayer, practiced by Christians the world over, and of course, by the Camaldoli monks of the Benedictine Order throughout its 1000 years. The Archbishop said, regarding this prayer and the Camaldoli anniversary (Homily on the 1000 year anniversary of Camaldoli [Benedictine]: The Archbishop of Canterbury’s Homily at Papal Vespers) that this is a great gift to be united with God in a manner described in this way …a statement on contemplation and faith:
”Your Holiness, dear brothers and sisters, it would be wrong to suggest that we enter into contemplation in order to see one anther more clearly; but if anyone were to say that contemplation is a luxury in the Church, something immaterial for the health of the Body, we should have to say that without it we should be constantly dealing with shadows and fictions, not with the reality of the world we live in. The Church is called upon to show that same prophetic spirit which is ascribed to St Gregory, the capacity to see where true need is and to answer God’s call in the person of the needy. To do this, it requires a habit of discernment, penetration beyond the prejudices and clichés which affect even believers in a culture that is so hasty and superficial in so many of its judgements; and with the habit of discernment belongs a habit of recognizing one another as agents of Christ’s grace and compassion and redemption. And such a habit will develop only if we are daily learning the discipline of silence and patience, waiting for the truth to declare itself to us as we slowly set aside the distortions in our vision that are caused by selfishness and greed. In recent years, we have seen developing a vastly sophisticated system of unreality, created and sustained by acquisitiveness, a set of economic habits in which the needs of actual human beings seem to be almost entirely obscured.”
His Homily that traces the connection of relationship between the Camaldoli order and Catholic Church with the Anglican Communion, and in the case of this writer, specifically, Episcopal Church USA, is a profound measure of ecumenicism. This charism of friendship, this charism of ecumenicism is a modern element of the monk’s practice and life in our 21st century and this modern era of Christianity. In San Francisco’s Bay Area there are many Camaldoli, Benedictine Oblates. There are 600 in the world at large. There is a study house for Monks in Berkeley, California called Incarnation Monastery. In Big Sur, California is an American motherhouse, Immaculate Heart Hermitage (New Camaldoli). But it is St. Gregory who the Archbishop of Canterbury cites along with Romauld, who was a powerful force and founder in the tradition of the monasteries and significantly Christianity.Romauld founder of the Camaldoli order. And of course, we can’t ignore St. Benedict, whose Rule both monks and Oblates follow.
The monastery is touted in celebration because it is one of the Christian lights of the world, even as the Anglican Church may be a great light and hope to the world.
This era of our contemporary Christian lives demands Christian unity, Christian ecumenical relationship, in this Religion Writer’s estimation. For we live in both unpopular and even threatening times for Christianity and Christians in many, many parts of the world. And even in England, and in the United States, the tensions between secular society and Christianity and Christians becomes more evident almost monthly.
The life of the Camaldoli, yea, the life of the Christian, is one of service to God. Archibishop Rowan William’s almost makes this statement a proclamation in the opening remarks of his homily when he said,
“Your Holiness, Dear brothers and sisters in Christ: It is a privilege to stand here, where my predecessors stood in 1989 and 1996, and to offer once again, as we did most recently in Westminster [and Assisi], the sacrifice of praise that we owe to the One Lord in whose name we are baptized; the One Lord who by his Spirit, brings to recognisability in each member of his sacramental Body, the image and abundant life of Christ his Son, through the temptations and struggles of our baptismal calling. St Gregory the Great had much to say about the peculiar temptations and struggles of those called to office in the Church of God.”
Let us move in this direction of friendship between Christians and in the Christian world. It is this warm greeting of a cordial relationship, and it was the current Pope Benedict who in his homily at the anniversary meeting and its visit by the Archbishop who used the word, “cordial,” that we find a civiliziing and Christianizing force in the world. Let us call this what the monks and Dr. Williams have recognized it as: Religious Charism.
Shall this brief article-essay close with the words of the Archbishop’s from his homily discussing the beauty and necessity of humility? A practice held by Christians and the Camaldoli monks (in their case a 1000 years of practice). Let us read what the Archbishop had to say:
“And it is this humility which the writer of the first life of St Gregory, written in England in the early eighth century, places at the head of the list of his saintly virtues, associating it with the ‘prophetic’ gift which allowed him to see what the English people needed and to respond by sending the mission of St Augustine from this place. That association of humility and prophecy is indeed one that St Gregory himself makes in the Dialogues. The true pastor and leader in the Church is one who, because he is caught up in the eternal self-offering of Jesus Christ through the sacramental mysteries of the Church, is free to see the needs of others as they really are. This may be ‘tormenting’, because those needs can be so profound and tragic; but it also stirs us to action to address such needs in the name and the strength of Christ.”
These are good words of aid and faith that any of us may get strength from as we live in the world this Lenten season of 2012.

–Peter Menkin, March 11, 2012
Third Sunday in Lent, 7 a.m. Mill Valley, California



Amateur Italian video of visit March 10, 2012

Saturday, March 10, 2012

Interview: Rabbi Dovid Rosenfeld on Jewish Education with Torah.org--third in the series on religious education

This interview is the third in a series of three on Religious Education; it is with Rabbi and Teacher Dovid Rosenfeld
who is American and lives in Jerusalem
by Peter Menkin


In this interview the writer hopes to elicit from Rabbi Dovid Rosenfeld, teacher of matters Orthodox Jewish much about the internet teaching website and organization www.torah.org . Through this interview, the final in a three part series on Religious Education, we begin a three part number of interviews with different Orthodox Rabbi’s who teach and write for that website. Each has a slightly different perspective of religious education and what they teach. More, it is their subject that is the primary object of their difference. But all three are Orthodox, and all three are Rabbis—all three are both writer and teacher. So without much ado more, here is the first of the interviews in this final of the three part series on Religious Education. The first two in the series had as subject a Southern Baptist, and an Episcopalian from the USA.



Rabbi Dovid with his twins, two of his seven children

INTERVIEW WITH RABBI DOVID ROSENFELD

  1. 1. Question by Peter Menkin: As a writer and teacher at Torah.org you receive a lot of inquiries, questions and answers from your many students. What of your subjects covered have proved to receive the more thoughtful answers from students. Will you share one or two of those answers and also tell us something of your students in general? About students you have in a month or a year, you’ve said, “Counts grow slowly but steadily – more a function of how long-standing a class is. Pirkei Avos (started in late 1998) has over 11,000 students. Maimonides (begun 2008) has >4500.” Talk to us about the attraction of “Pirkei Avos” and its subject.

I’ll mention first of all that a big fraction of the correspondence I receive is not all that relevant to the material I teach. Some people just write to say thank you. Others come with their own issues and problems. I suppose they turn to me because they have no one else in their lives they feel can advise them, and they feel based on my writings that I would be an appropriate person. Lastly, a few correspond regularly with me and we develop a relationship – and there too our correspondence doesn’t necessarily have much to do with my classes.
Of the relevant questions and comments I receive – perhaps averaging one every other class, it’s of course hard to generalize with such a large audience. My students can range from non-Jewish, totally uninitiated, to advanced Talmudists. I guess as a rule the beginners do not feel equipped to challenge me. The questions more generally come from my most advanced readers. One general observation I would say is that the material itself generally does not put my readers off. Strongly moralistic or not politically correct statements – say such subjects as the Jewish view on the separation of the sexes or the specialness of the Children of Israel – do not seem to elicit much flack. Look, for the most part my readers are coming seeking spirituality. They want guidance and absolutes, not wishy-washy politically-correct sweet nothings.
More often it’s not the actual material I teach but my passing comments that generate the flack – sometimes a careless wisecrack, at times disparaging remarks about Christianity or less-religious denominations of Judaism. (Criticisms of Islam have never elicited negative reactions.) As a writer, I’m actually often surprised how my readers pick up on the careless side comments which I hardly paid attention to myself. Over the years I’ve learned to become attuned to and avoid the types of remarks which folks object to.
In terms of the course material I teach, one aspect which I find enormously refreshing is the fact that I teach classic material in its original. (Pirkei Avos is a section of the Mishna, which was put into final form in the 3rd century C.E.; Maimonides lived and authored his works in the 12th century.) The students see the writings of great scholars in their original (translated from the Hebrew as accurately as I can – although important nuances will always be lost). They are not reading some modern doctored up writings – the world according to Dovid Rosenfeld. They can view and see the wisdom of the words of the Sages themselves. There is nothing to hide or to whitewash. Their words are timeless, as relevant today as they were when they were written.


Additional comment by Rabbi Dovid:

It’s refreshing that the readers get to see the material in the original. I am not just giving my own wisdom, but the wisdom of the sages. It gives a lot of authority to it. It is something that people can appreciate that it’s timeless. People grapple with free will vs. God’s free knowledge and how does God judge men.

People can study on a superficial level, or profoundly. (This is [all offered] in English from a translation from the Hebrew text.)  I think that is one of the pluses of beginning with the text with what the sages say. For the most part … people see for itself the depths of it.

Sometime it sounds like Ben Franklin giving nice advice, but I say how this is sacred and the meaning of life and God’s eternal life. It is very fertile and I try to bring it out in contemporary forms. As a writer I start typing and get inspired.



AS EXAMPLE, A FULL LESSON FROM TORAH.ORG
WITH TWO EMAIL RESPONSES AND ANSWERS

LOVE KNOWS NO BARRIERS: MAIMONIDESE
Chapter 6, Mishna 3
Maimonides on Life
by Rabbi Dovid Rosenfeld

“There is a universal obligation (lit., ‘an obligation on every person’) to love every member of Israel as himself (lit., ‘as his body’) as it states, ‘And you shall love your fellow as yourself ‘ (Leviticus 19:18). Therefore one must speak positively about his fellow (lit., ‘speak of his praises’) and be careful (lit., ‘sparing, sympathetic’) with his property — just as he is careful with his own property and concerned about his own honor. One who honors himself by shaming his fellow has no share in the World to Come.” This week the Rambam discusses the importance of loving every Jew, based on the famous verse in Leviticus “Love your fellow as yourself.”

This great principle of the Torah, as the sage R. Akiva termed it (Sifra Kedoshim 4:12, brought in Rashi to that verse), follows the Rambam’s previous law. Last week the Rambam discussed the obligation to “cleave to the wise.” This week we are told to indiscriminately love all the Jewish people. This obligation is a beautiful and oft-quoted one, but it really engenders a very basic question. How does one make himself love someone else?

It’s great to say that we must love every Jew, but how are we expected to just turn on an emotion, especially one as strong as love? How can I be expected to love every single Jew, the vast majority of whom I’ve never before met and don’t know from Adam? So clearly the love the Torah here commands cannot be understood as some head-over-heels infatuation with every other Jew. We are not expected to be excellent friends with strangers we have never met. Rather, the feeling must be one of an underlying sense of kinship. I feel an innate affinity and comradeship with my fellow Jews. We all share the same basic goals and values. There is a universal bond which unites us. This would thus seem to be a very practical obligation. I can’t really feel a strong emotional fondness for every Jew I meet but I must view him as a fellow compatriot — and must treat him as such. Likewise, the Rambam illustrates this law in very practical ways — that we be considerate of our fellow’s honor and property.

We might not be able to elicit an intense emotional response when we come across a fellow Jew, but we can and must modify our behavior towards him. And quite likely, in so doing our attitude towards him will improve as well. Some understand the prohibition against charging interest in a similar vein. Any serious economy cannot run without the charging of interest. If not for it, all surplus money would be stagnant, not reinvested into the economy, and no one other than direct producers would earn any income. (I’m not an economics guy (in the slightest), so this is a very crude layman’s explanation.) So too, the Torah permits that we lend money on interest to Gentiles (which historically was the somewhat-less-than-desirable (and often rather dangerous) role many enterprising Jews had in society). However, to our fellow Jew the Torah forbids it. For just as one would certainly offer open, unstinting aid to his brother in need, so too we must do towards every fellow Jew. My teacher R. Yochanan Zweig (www.talmudicu.edu) once illustrated this idea with the following scenario.

Say you’re somewhere on the other side of the world — hiking along in the Himalayas or snorkeling through the Great Barrier Reef (distant enough? :-) . You then come up for a break and bump into a slight acquaintance — say your neighbor from across town or a fellow member of your synagogue of 500. You’d go wild with excitement: “Hey! How’re you doing? So good to see you! etc.” Now had you passed him by back home in the local supermarket you might have at most offered him some semi-coherent grunt and gone on with your business. (I’m writing from a guy’s perspective, that is. ;-) But relative to your present surroundings, see someone you actually know, however slightly, and you feel extremely close. This too is the obligation we have towards our fellow Jews, of all stripes. We must recognize that in a very deep sense we all share the same values, goals and national mission — regardless of differences in our outer trappings, our styles, personalities, backgrounds, or even languages.

We must not view him in terms of if he’s my “type” and the sort I could develop a strong personal friendship with. I must rather view him as one with whom, relative to the world at large, I feel extremely close. In Proverbs (18:1) King Solomon wrote, “The separated one (‘nifrad’) will seek out his passions.” Why is a pleasure seeker referred to as a “separated one?” Rabbeinu Yonah of Gerona (Spanish medieval Talmud scholar and ethicist) explains that once a person follows his or her desires, no two people are alike. Each has his own set of lusts and urges, and each will go his separate way. One kid will skip school for the basketball courts, one will become a computer hacker, one will memorize every statistic and batting average in the league, etc., etc. Human beings, once loosed on their passions, have less and less in common, and for that matter, exhibit less and less humanity. If, by contrast, two people are united in common cause, then they are not “separated”.

They may differ in approach, style, personality, and role, but they are all bound by a common overall mission. Personality-wise, a fellow may just clash with you. He would never be the sort you’d actually develop a strong personal friendship with. But that’s really besides the point — because you’re all on the same team. Just as an army or sports team requires many positions and many players, each fulfilling his own unique role while working in harmony with the whole, so too Israel, to fulfill its national mission, requires all sorts of individuals to constitute a nation of G-d. In the Book of Esther, Haman, the wicked prime minister of King Ahasuerus, conspired to annihilate the Jewish people.

When he approached the King to present his request, he described Israel as “one people, scattered and dispersed among the nations” (3:8). We were spread out and vulnerable, a small minority in each of the 127 provinces in which we dwelled. And in a deeper sense, Haman was absolutely right. The Jews at that time were very superficial, attempting to blend in with their Gentile host society. (See Talmud Megillah 12a that the Jews of the time sinned “for show” — in order to curry favor with the Gentiles.) And so, in 127 provinces, there were 127 types of Jews, all more closely resembling (or trying to resemble) their Gentile neighbors than their fellow Jews abroad. I mean, how strong a bond does a young, assimilated American Jew feel with a Jew from India or Morocco (who (Heavens!) doesn’t eat cholent and gefilte fish on the Sabbath)? (Or even worse: You say “Good Shabbos” and he says “Shabbat Shalom!”) I recently read the statistic that the majority of American Jews under the age of 35 would not consider the destruction of Israel a personal tragedy for them. Of course it would be tragic, but not in a personal sense — and not really qualitatively different than hearing of genocide in Rwanda, Darfur or any of the other troubled areas of the world. Why, I might happen to be umpteenth cousin with some of those Israelis, but we belong to a different culture, have different values and interests, speak a different language, have different ideas on how to bring about peace in the Middle East, etc. Not a whole lot to draw us together — certainly not culturally or ethnically.

And so, correctly claimed Haman, the Jews of the time were vulnerable — hopelessly so, and theirs for the taking. We were not a united people, possessing the strength of G-d’s chosen nation. We were a bunch of isolated individuals, each attempting to ingratiate himself within a different community and different society — and hopelessly outnumbered by the many Gentiles among whom lived and who could so easily and at any time turn against us. To combat this, Esther instructed Mordechai, “Go, gather all the Jews…” (4:16). In simple meaning, she was instructing him to notify the Jews of Shushan to fast for her. But the deeper meaning is that they must combat the slur of disunity Haman so rightly cast upon them. We must overcome our differences and prejudices and recognize that we are all a single entity, a nation of G-d, and consequently, capable of withstanding all enemies within and without. As the Rambam here states (to translate literally), we must love our fellow Jew as our body. Kabbalistically speaking, we are all a single, unified organism, all different aspects and different appendages of the same whole. And only with such a unity can we stand together, wherever we may find ourselves, and possess the strength of a nation of G-d. (Part of the ideas above based on an article which appeared in the (short-lived) journal _Jewish Thought_ Vol. 1 No. 2.)

Maimonides on Life, Copyright © 2009 by Rabbi Dovid Rosenfeld and Torah.org

Email letter to Rabbi Dovid:
akaHaddasa wrote:
Dear R’ Rosenfeld,Yashar Ko’ach!What you wrote/how you described this Mishna was extremely beautiful.Thank you. I’m going to share this with many others… especially, my nieceswho are currently dating. I hope it sheds some light for them, if they haven’t figured it out, yet.Shabbat Shalom,
Haddasa

Response to Haddasa
From: Dovid Rosenfeld dar@torah.org Subject: Pirkei Avos – Chapter 5, Mishna 19 To: pirkei-avos@torah.org Date: Thursday, July 29, 2010, 10:17 PM


Thank you very much! I appreciate your writing and hope others benefit. Be well – Shabbat Shalom (this week!) Dovid


Email letter to Rabbi Dovid
On 10/8/2011 4:52 PM, xxxxxx xxxxxx wrote
Good morning Sir,


I am an protestant pastor, River of Life, in Starke, FL. Your writings are a regular source of information and inspiration. Thank you for your faithfulness.


Our study group is seeking for an answer as to whether “land” might be considered to be holy or is it considered holy by the presence of the Holy One or by the presence of a servant of the Almighty.


Thank you for your kind response
Response to xxxxx xxxxxx
Hi, I’m sorry I’m so far behind in my email correspondence. Thank you so much for your appreciation! The issue you raise is a good one. My opinion is that the Holy Land is actually imbued with its own holiness and special character. Before the Israelites entered the land it was raising giant fruits and giant people. This is because they were not attuned to its spiritual potential and so it was spent on the physical plane. People that are worthy to appreciate it can grow enormously spiritually from it. Be well – success in your endeavors, Dovid :
.




Comment by Peter Menkin: In a response to an earlier phone call made to you at your home office in Israel, we talked about the internet and its Torah.org role. You said: “I’m very impressed… Brother Menken had the foresight. He was one of the first ones to recognize how powerful a tool the internet is. I think an especially nice thing about it is using email and internet. First you can hear back from all corners of the earth. People now have Torah knowledge at their fingertips because of the internet. Email has a style, a life of its own. It’s a way to spread Torah; it’s not like reading a book…not a formality. If speaking, that is too relaxed. The web is a very good medium for connecting to people for teaching Torah and religious matters. You can get the content; internet is not as stuffy [as some other forms]. Not overbearing. It has been a powerful means of reaching out to people. Torah.org has mastered that…Rabbi Yaakov Menken (Rabbi Dovid’s brother-in-law) was right when he and my sister got married. Now it is the big organization that it is.”
  1. 2. Question by Peter Menkin: Please tell us more about being both Rabbi and computer programmer; speak to us some about the role of Jewish Education in the area of Torah.org and if you think this is a special kind of internet system of education that reaches people who would not usually be reached. Can you tell us more of whom they may be and where they live? I especially want to know what kind of interests the far flung hold.

First of all, I feel Torah.org has done a wonderful job disseminating Jewish wisdom to the masses. I find in particular email to be an especially powerful medium for reaching out to the uninitiated. Not only does it enable us to reach the four corners of the globe – to places where students would never have access to physical resources or live lectures, but email has a life and style of its own. It is more light and relaxed than reading a book or article, yet it is more formal than speech or correspondence. I feel it is the perfect medium for conveying ideas in an open, non-threatening manner. You can present solid material in a relaxed environment, on the reader’s own terms, without sacrificing the content of the message.

Of course one of the big downsides of Internet classes is that the students who are reached may have no serious access to any sort of Jewish infrastructure – synagogues, live teachers, a Jewish community. Thank God, using the Internet we can reach people who would have never had access to anything Jewish. But it’s only a small taste. There is no replacement for a real Jewish community and live Torah study.

In a sense I find myself the leader of huge flock of strangers. (Pirkei Avos, (begun in 1998) has over 12,000 students; Maimonides has over 4500.) Thousands of people turn to me for guidance and inspiration. They may live anywhere in the world, and be of any age and level of observance. A good fraction is not Jewish at all. As a result, I can hardly write specifics in my classes. There is no possible way I can tell what people they should observe, what they should be doing at their particular stage of life or level of observance. The same class is read by people as religious as I and by some Jew / Gentile in say, Pakistan who is at this moment getting his absolute first impression of Judaism.
Thus, what I humbly attempt to do is avoid discussing specifics and details of practical Jewish law. I rather attempt to show the beauty of the Torah, to find lessons and messages which can be appreciated by both the advanced and the uninitiated at once. But again, there is a real thirst for authentic knowledge out there. I generally do not get the feeling my words are being read by cynics or agnostics ready to challenge every point I make. People want to know what religion and Judaism is all about. I rarely feel I need to hide information. I simply attempt to find the messages most relevant to all.

Additional comment by Rabbi Dovid:


People come from all walks of life and everywhere. I feel like … Americans relate to my way of thinking better, but I get positive feedback everywhere. All sorts of places. With the internet you can reach people everywhere.

I’m really a leader of a flock of strangers to an extent. It is hard to gauge who they are and try to intuit from their email: are they female, young or old…there’s more of a polite and soft spoken tone I use in response. I think the internet is great for understanding, it is an amazing first step what the internet can do. But it is not really a full Jewish education. It is not enough to raise spiritual people.

I have to be a little low-key, or I could be talking to someone who doesn’t know anything about Jews. So I don’t try to be anything but general myth: spirituality and God. I don’t say--you must do this and obey this. That is another thing. If you are a Rabbi or minister you can tell them what they should do, what their next step should be. You try to raise them up. You tell them what the Torah is and through the internet raise their eyes. There is only so much you can do—communicate.


Comment by Peter Menkin: In our phone discussion earlier, you talked about being a Rabbi and how it is an important professional area for you that have enhanced your Religious identity and life. You said this to me from Israel to my home office north of San Francisco by phone: “All of my studying apart from the specific teaching work, all my study is personally enriching. Judaism is strong in understanding yourself. Part of one’s personal development. In Christianity if you were going to a seminary, that would be because you want to be a person-of-the-cloth. Education in Judaism is so emphatic; it is to produce religious G-d fearing Jews. I feel personally my own Torah study is an important part of my life, whether I do it professionally or not.”

  1. 3. Question by Peter Menkin: How do you pick your topics and know what to say? I know this enters the teacher-writing aspect of your work; people want to know how writers write. Tell us about how you as writer write and also about preparation to do so—to write. Oh, yes, in this multi-part question, talk a little about R. Yochanan Zweig who has influenced you and your studies.

Well, first of all, as I discussed earlier, I attempt to choose topics of interest to all, from the advanced Talmudist to the absolute newbie. My preparation is pretty loose in general. I study the material I will teach and review some of the classic commentaries. But then I just begin brainstorming and attempt to find a related topic of general interest. As often happens with writers, I begin typing and then the ideas flow. At the same time of course, the material I teach speaks for itself, and I feel contains valuable lessons without a lot of my own embellishments.

One general point in terms of preparation is that very little of my own rabbinical schooling and even my daily Torah study relates to the material I teach. In yeshiva we study almost exclusively Talmud and Jewish law. So on the one hand very little of my knowledge contributes to my writings. On the other, one of Judaism great insights is that Torah knowledge broadens and develops a person, both intellectually and spiritually. When a person studies and masters the Torah, he slowly becomes a person who embodies its ideals – and who can put the Torah’s lessons together and explain it to others.

I quote my teacher R. Yochanan Zweig often. He is one of the most insightful people I know, who brings enormous depth into any topic he studies and teaches, ranging from advanced Talmud study to basic Bible study.


Additional comment by Rabbi Dovid:


He is very creative and insightful. When I studied with him, and worked for him writing up his audio lectures, I studied some of his material. It opened up to me the depths someone can study the Torah and Scripture. Thank God I can take a lot of lessons from him and share them with a large audience.

Torahmedia.org has an audio collection, and I provided several tens of Rabbi Zweig’s lectures for them, (100). Some are free, some are for paid subscribers. They have their own website. Thank God he is still teaching. He has a small Yeshiva in Miami Florida. Coming from New York it is far away. It is considered an out of the way place. It is considered a small Yeshiva.


This article (sans Additional comments by Rabbi Dovid) appeared originally in Church of England Newspaper, London.