YUTOPIA

Every week I write a brief "Rabbi's Corner" for my synagogue's weekly e-mail. With the 4th of July this weekend I decided to examine the ideas of and meaning of "Freedom" and "Patriotism". After a little searching I found a fascinating irony - these two terms holy contested in our perniciously partisan society both have linguistic histories conveying ideas of love and brotherhood.

First, according to the Online Etymological Dictionary the origins of word "Free" are rooted in a context of "love":

O.E. freo "free, exempt from, not in bondage," also "noble, joyful," from P.Gmc. *frijaz (cf. M.H.G. vri, Ger. frei, Du. vrij, Goth. freis "free"), from PIE *prijos "dear, beloved" (cf. Skt. priyah "own, dear, beloved," priyate "loves;" O.C.S. prijati "to help," prijatelji "friend;" Welsh rhydd "free"). The adv. is from O.E. freon, freogan "to free, love." The primary sense seems to have been "beloved, friend, to love;" which in some languages (notably Gmc. and Celtic) developed also a sense of "free," perhaps from the terms "beloved" or "friend" being applied to the free members of one's clan (as opposed to slaves, cf. L. liberi, meaning both "free" and "children"). Cf. Goth. frijon "to love;" O.E. freod "affection, friendship," friga "love," friðu "peace;" O.N. friðr, Ger. Friede "peace;" O.E. freo "wife;" O.N. Frigg "wife of Odin," lit. "beloved" or "loving;" M.L.G. vrien "to take to wife, Du. vrijen, Ger. freien "to woo."

The term "Patriot" finds its origins in the word patriote or "fellow countrymen", though in political terms it evolved into somewhat of an insult:

Meaning "loyal and disinterested supporter of one's country" is attested from 1605, but became an ironic term of ridicule or abuse from mid-18c. in England, so that Johnson, who at first defined it as "one whose ruling passion is the love of his country," in his fourth edition added, "It is sometimes used for a factious disturber of the government."

"The name of patriot had become [c.1744] a by-word of derision. Horace Walpole scarcely exaggerated when he said that ... the most popular declaration which a candidate could make on the hustings was that he had never been and never would be a patriot." [Macaulay, "Horace Walpole," 1833]

But the term Patriotism was not always an insult, nor was always used as a political sledgehammer to sell flag pins. According to Harvey Chisick's Historical Dictionary of the Enlightenment, "patriotism" could be defined as something akin social egalitarianism and justice:

Unlike the situation in the 19th century, when nationalism tended to be exclusive and confrontational, during the 18th century patriotism belonged with such inclusive and cohesive values as humanity and beneficence. In the course of the second half of the 18th century, a person who provided relief for the poor, or objected to excessively harsh penal laws, or who criticized institutions such as serfdom or slavery, was likely to be described as a good patriot." (p. 314) [emphasis original]

My hope for this 4th of July our nation can look back to the history of these important words not be lost amongst the ever-spiteful partisan rhetoric which continues to divide our country. I hope that we can spread freedom - in all senses - to our fellow citizens of the world and that we remember the message of what it once meant to be a true patriot.

While I'm not optimistic, I am proud to live in a country where I have the freedom to dream.

I just had a problem with my IBM Thinkpad¹ (T60) where the screen would go dark/blank after a couple of seconds. The only way I could get anything was to keep hitting Fn+F7 as a sort of refresh, but that wouldn't last longer than seconds at best.

Apparently this is not an uncommon problem with Thinkpads. One theory is that the problem is with the inverter but someone else had to replace the whole screen.

After doing some fiddling, I found that my problem was be solved - at least temporarily by dimming the screen down from full brightness. I have no idea exactly what the problem is or why this worked, but if you're having similar trouble you may want to try dimming your screen before shelling out hundreds for a new screen - or thousands on a new computer. So far it seems to work ok for me, but I have no idea how long it will last. Minimally it should make backing up easier while you go computer shopping.²

Please let me know if this was a helpful solution.

Update: Turns out this solution lasted one day - a valueable day for backups, mind you, but one day. If this works, do not close the screen.

. 1. Yep, that's right - an IBM Thinkpad - was one of the last runs before the change to Lenovo.
2. Thankfully, I actually ordered a new Thinkpad on sale earlier in the week before the screen went dark. I did notice some screen problems, but I was having more performance and HD issues typical of a computer several years old.

During Sefirat Ha'Omer, many Jews observe some customs of morning in memory of R. Akiva's students. According to Wikipedia:

The period of counting the Omer is also a time of semi-mourning, during which the Halakha forbids haircuts, shaving, listening to live instrumental music, or conducting weddings, parties, and dinners with dancing.

But even in matters of custom there can be multple opinions. For example, every year I get several e-mails asking about what types of music are permitted during the 'Omer. Some distinguish between live and recorded music, others avoid music with instruments. While I personally find these distinctions inconsequential since the entire practice is a matter of custom, let it not be said that here at YUTOPIA we are completely intolerant of minhagim. And so in honor of Sefirat Ha'Omer, I've decided this year to compile my favorite a capella videos from YouTube.¹

This apocryphal factoid seemed appropriate for Yom Ha'atzmaut. From a 2003 Hadassah article:

According to Jewish educator and comics fan and writer Alan Oirich, artist Gil Kane based his design of the large-headed, balding Guardians of the Universe in DC's Green Lantern on David Ben-Gurion.

You be the judge:

Image from Cracked

Since I moved down to the Lower East Side I have received more questions on Eiruvin than anything else. From conversations with many Jewish residents in the area - both members and non-members of my congregation - there is a great deal of interest and desire to have an eiruv erected on the Lower East Side. Setting aside the economic and political obstacles of putting up and eiruv down here, I decided that the best thing to do is simply to teach the basics of eiruvin in terms of how they work in halakha.

The intent of these shiurim is not to get people to the level of pesak and as such we did not explore the vast teshuva literature on the subject. Rather the goal was to provide working definitions and explain the laws and principles underlying the various halakhic disputes. Most sources are from the Talmud, Rambam, and Shulhan Aruch.

I decided to split this shiur into three parts:

1. Part 1 introduces the reshuyot and the basic definitions of eiruvin, and demonstrates that halakha views eiruvin positively and that putting one up is considered to be a Good Thing.
2. Part 2 covers the physical construction of the eiruv - the lehi, korah, and mostly the tzurat hapetach, explaining their halakhic function.
3. Part 3 discusses the conceptual requirement of getting all residents in an area to join an eiruv, as well as several solutions to the problem of getting Jews to agree on anything.

All three shiurim have been added to YUTOPIA's Source Sheet Archive.

As always, comments and corrections/suggestions are welcome!

Dear Loyal Readers,
I recently decided to cash out my credit card points from my American Express card to move. In my program each point is worth 1/2 a cent. As you could imagine most of the items in their store are "overpriced" at that ratio, but through their "Giving Express" program, AmEx allows for donating points at a rate of 1 cent per point to any charity in the GuideStar database.

I currently have 8,000 points left which translates into one $50 donation and three $10 donations.¹ The question is, where should it go?

Taking advantage of the recent national holidays I gave a two-part shiur series at The Stanton St. Shul. Part 1 was given on December 25th (fourth day of Hanukah) on Rabbinic Responses to Greek Culture and Part 2 was delivered this morning on Rabbinic Responses to Christian Thought. (The initial plan was to combine both into one shiur, but that was unrealistic).

I'm not writing them up because to be perfectly honest most of what I did was done before, and much better than I could ever hope to do. In particular I borrowed heavily from Saul Lieberman's Greek in Jewish Palestine / Hellenism in Jewish Palestine, Ephraim Urbach's The Sages: Their Concepts and Beliefs, and Haham Jose' Faur's new book The Horizontal Society which I hope to review shortly.

Still there are those who may be interested in the source sheets, which may be downloaded in PDF:
Rabbinic Reactions to Greek Culture
Rabbinic Responses to Christian Thought.

Also, I'm going to be posting future source sheets - and slowly migrating old ones - to a new section of YUTOPIA: http://joshyuter.com/shiurim/

Enjoy!

A few months ago I wrote a short article for the Institute for Jewish Ideas and Ideals' new journal Conversations. The purpose of this journal is to promote communal dialogue on various issues facing the Jewish community. Unlike the Edah/Meorot journals, the journal is supposed to be more accessible than academic and so I was given two editorial conditions:1. keep it short and 2. no footnotes.

As longtime blog readers know, that last condition was a tough one to overcome.

At any rate, I'm posting my article "A Fair And Balanced Approach To Jewish Social Justice" and I plan on revisiting the motivations for the article at some later point.

Wow.

I can hardly believe how long it's been since I've last written anything. I've barely had time to get basic derashot out, let alone formulate for intelligible posting (maybe next year :-). Consider that for the months of September and October I was commuting from Springfield to the LES for every Shabbat and Chag, packing, unpacking, and writing derashot. Then for some reason things just keep popping up that I haven't had the time to think let alone research and write.

So I'm sticking my head out to say that yes I am alive and well, just too distracted with many life and shul details to write more - though I must say I've been feeling the absence of not writing.

Right now I'm prepping a shiur for Dec 25 on Talmudic Responses to Greek and Christian Culture. Of course it's not going to be close to comprehensive but it serves a double inyanei deyoma.

God willing I'll try to make more time to write. I've really missed this place.

I'm still looking for a place to live on the Lower East Side. The rents have really gotten out of control with the economy and many others are trying to sell. To top it off, the co-ops have fees ranging from $1,000-$1,500 just for the right to rent in that building. In fact were it not for parsonage, I'd never be able to even consider living down there.

What's parsonage you may ask? The term originally referred to a rectory or dwelling of the priest on the premises of a church. These days it's more associated with a tax benefit given to clergy members where housing expenses are paid with pre-tax dollars (simplified definition). Quoth the IRS:

A minister who is furnished a parsonage may exclude from income the fair rental value of the parsonage, including utilities. However, the amount excluded cannot be more than the reasonable pay for the minister's services.

The catch is that clergy are also considered "self-employed" which means we get nailed double when it comes to social security, paying both the employee and employer side of things. However, there is one interesting loophole:

The fair rental value of a parsonage or the housing allowance is excludable from income only for income tax purposes. No exclusion applies for self-employment tax purposes. For Social Security purposes, a duly ordained, licensed or commissioned minister is self-employed...However, you can request an exemption from self-employment tax, if you are conscientiously opposed to public insurance for religious reasons.

Even if a Rabbi were to go Milton Friedman in lomdus on the IRS, I'd have to guess that most Rabbis do in fact participate in social security.

Still I'd love to hear from any Rabbi who has in fact used this exemption - and the arguments they've used.