Rabbi Yuter discusses the passage in B. Chagiga 15a-b regarding the rabbinic heretic Elisha Ben Avukah aka “Acher” and his relationship with R. Meir, focusing on the particularly Babylonian influence of the narrative.
R. Meir and Elisha Ben Avuyah / Acher Sources (PDF)
R. Meir and Elisha Ben Avuyah / Acher
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Dear Loyal Readers,
On Mar 7 2011 11:50:49 pm, my humble abode on the web notched it’s 500,000th visit!1 The lucky visitor from Hobart, Tasmania searched Australia’s Google for “free chords jewish music” and stopped by the The Jewish Guitar Chords Archive.
I know what you’re thinking, 500,000 is nothing by today’s standards – even for Jewish blogs – and especially since I’ve been doing this since May 15th, 2003. However, consider the following:
Finally, the 500,000th visit is not the same as a “hit” – as the chart below indicates most visitors to YUTOPIA stick around for a while, either taking time to read what I’ve written or downloading some of the chords from the archive.
| VISITS | ||||
| Total | 500,000 | |||
| Average Per Day | 266 | |||
| Average Visit Length | 4:27 | |||
| Last Hour | 26 | |||
| Today | 272 | |||
| This Week | 1,862 | |||
| PAGE VIEWS | ||||
| Total | 1,382,800 | |||
| Average Per Day | 749 | |||
| Average Per Visit | 2.8 | |||
| Last Hour | 76 | |||
| Today | 767 | |||
| This Week | 5,243
| |||
At any rate, I hope to continue keeping up the quality you’ve all come to expect both in the posts and now the podcasts which I am proud to say have already amassed approximately 5,000 downloads in total.
I thank you for your support and sticking with this site, even sometimes more than I have, and for putting up with my typos and grammar. I don’t have the time for a complete retrospective right now, though I suspect one should be due at some point. In the meantime, thanks again for helping this site achieve a Big Round Number and I look forward to reaching even more with you in the future.
Josh
1. At least since I started counting with Sitemeter – with all the changes I’ve made in the past, odds are I hit the mark a while ago.
In part 3 of his Economics and Social Justice series, Rabbi Yuter addresses the topic of Jewish Labor Laws from a holistic perspective, balancing the rights and obligations of both the employer and the employee.
Economics and Social Justice in Jewish Law – Halakhic Labor Laws Sources (PDF)
Economics and Social Justice in Jewish Law – Halakhic Labor Laws
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Rabbi Yuter’s Politics of Exclusion class continues with the Nodeh Beyehuda and R. Yaakov Emden responding to the rationalism of the late 1700’s. Includes reference to Alice’s Restaurant.
Nodeh Beyehuda and R. Yaakov Emden Sources (PDF)
Politics of Exclusion – Nodeh Beyehuda and R. Yaakov Emden
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Since becoming a pulpit Rabbi I have intentionally avoided writing about my personal life, but recent news prompts me to share some ideas which I suspect will resonate with at least some of my loyal readers. As some of you may know I recently applied for PhD programs in Religious Ethics, with the intent of focusing on the relatively unexplored ethical tradition of Rabbinic Judaism. With two M.A.’s, life experience, and a clear program of study I considered myself to be a decent candidate – certainly as good as anyone else who would apply. However, spots for these fellowshipped positions are extremely limited. One program to which I applied accepts an average of two students a year, though occasionally will go up to three or down to one. In a bad economy where more students are applying to graduate schools rather than going out into “the real world,” these programs are inundated with applicants. The other school to which I applied received over 10,000 total applications for graduate school study.
Thus it was not a complete surprised when I learned that I was not accepted into either of the two programs to which I had applied. To be sure, my GPA and GRE scores could have been higher but even so this would not have guaranteed admission. If potential advisors are not interested in an applicant’s chosen field of research, they have plenty of other willing potential students from which to choose. Furthermore, despite my academic background in Talmud, I intentionally did not choose to apply through the Rabbinics department because my interest was more in learning the ethical theory (and as I found out later the Rabbinics departments only had one opening). Since a PhD in an academic discipline rarely results in a significant financial payoff, I considered it pointless to pursue one unless there is at least some personal interest in the process.
Which brings me to my point of why I applied for Religious Ethics in the first place. For many years I had thought about doing a PhD but couldn’t quite determine the direction. It was after I first gave my class in Economics and Social Justice in my shul that I realized Religious Ethics was not only a field in which I was interested, but that it was an area in which I could contribute.
When I researched programs I found two universities which not only had a program in Religious Ethics, but also had a significant Talmud department. I was ecstatic. From everything I read it seemed that either institution would be a plausible fit, but more than that, it just felt right, that this was what I was supposed to do with my life – that this was the path I was supposed to take.
Applying was stressful; I had even delayed applying one year due to being in a suboptimal emotional state. I managed to overcome all fears of rejection, edited 3 old papers for writing samples, and dealt with needless drama involving a recommender, and still everything got in on time. Given how much I invested in applying, I’m holding up surprisingly well. I’m not crushed, not curled up in a fetal position wondering where my life went wrong, and not even regretting my decision to apply and setting myself up for the eventual rejection.
But even though I am disappointed, in some ways I think I’m more confused than anything else. After all, why would I be pointed in a direction with such a strong intuition, forced to overcome a whole lot of anxiety, and yet not actualize the goal. Why would I have the feeling that this PhD was part of my Path when clearly it was not meant to be?
Naturally I don’t have any useful answers, but I do think the question is itself important. We’d like to think that we’re on a path and that maybe we have some guidance in choosing which path we ought to take. Sometimes we’re given opportunities and other times we’re given intuitions which would help direct our choices. But what do these opportunities and intuitions really mean? Superficially it feels like these are directions we ought to take, but in reality these are just emotions – subjective and open to interpretation.
I can say this; I’m not going to obsess over not getting in, even if it means not pursuing a PhD in the foreseeable future. But what I will do is meditate on the emotions I’ve experienced and try to understand the signals I’ve received and their possible meaning. I don’t suspect I’ll find any substantive answers, but I do feel it is a question worth pondering.
Rabbi Josh Yuter delivers a class of his classic 2004 post Drinking on Purim
Drinking on Purim Sources (PDF)
Episode 21 – Drinking on Purim
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In part 2 of the Economics and Social Justice series, Rabbi Yuter discusses some examples of market controls in Jewish Law.
Economics and Social Justice in Jewish Law – Halakhic Market Controls Sources (PDF)
Economics and Social Justice in Jewish Law – Halakhic Market Controls
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Rabbi Yuter discusses Chaham Tzvi Responsa no. 38, featuring a conflict between an established Spanish/Portuguese synagogue and members crossing over to the newer Ashkenazi synagogues.
Politics of Exclusion – Sephardim vs. Ashkenazim
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This past Shabbat I was asked a straightforward question: Can a blind person be called up to the Torah to receive an aliyah? On the spur of the moment – the Torah reading was well underway and I was functioning as gabbai sheni and did not have the time to double check. On the spur of the moment, I said, “no” based on what I remembered.1 At the very least I had enough of a reason assume safek berachot an instance where it is doubtful that a blessing should be said, in which case the default would be to refrain from saying the blessing.
When I had a chance to look into the matter, I found that my decision was in line with Shulhan Aruch O.C. 139:3:
סומא אינו קורא, לפי שאסור לקרות אפי’ אות אחת שלא מן הכתב
A blind person cannot read [from the Torah] for it is forbidden to read even one letter [of the Torah] not from the written scroll itself.
The immediate question which ought to come to mind is what does reading from the Torah have to do with getting called up for an aliyah? To answer very briefly, the initial custom, sustained for generations and still kept in some communities to this day, is that whoever was called up to the Torah was responsible for reading that portion.
In his gloss to the Shulhan Aruch, Mishna Berurah O.C. 139:12 provides a practical dispensation for permitting a blind person to receive an aliyah:
דכיון שאנו נוהגין שהש”ץ קורא והוא קורא מתוך הכתב שוב לא קפדינן על העולה דשומע כעונה
Since our practice is that the agent of the congregation [i.e. a designated reader] is the one who performs the reading and does so from the text [of the Torah scroll], we are not strict on the one who is called up to the Torah, for when one listens it is as if he has said it himself.
Thus according to Mishna Berurah, a blind person is permitted to receive an aliyah because our custom of Torah reading has changed. Since the one receiving the aliyah usually does not perform the actual reading, we need not be concerned with a blind person reading by heart.
It occurred to me that this rationale employed by Mishna Berurah (and ostensibly others) has fascinating implications for women’s aliyot.2 The Talmud in B. Megillah 23a explains why women are excluded from being called up to the Torah
הכל עולין למנין שבעה, ואפילו קטן ואפילו אשה. אבל אמרו חכמים: אשה לא תקרא בתורה, מפני כבוד צבור.
Everyone [is eligible] to go up in the quorum of seven [i.e. to read from the Torah] even a minor and even a woman. However, the sages say that a woman should not read from the Torah due to the honor of the congregation. [Emphasis mine]
From my own experience, I have found the topic of women receiving aliyot is most often framed in the context of (re)defining “honor of the congregation.” However, I would like to suggest that according to the logic employed by Mishna Berurah, the question of “honor of the congregation” is irrelevant. The Talmud only states that a woman reading from the Torah is an affront to the honor of the congregation, however, as noted above, the person receiving the aliyah does not actually read from the Torah.
To put it concisely: I suggest that if one permits a blind person to read from the Torah on the grounds cited by Mishnah Berurah, then there ought to be no halakhic objection to women being called up to the Torah. According to the position of Mishna Berurah, the Talmudic restriction would not apply, thus any opposition to women receiving aliyot would be based not on halakhic/Talmudic problems inherent to the action, but rather for more subjective social or political reasons.3
Comments welcome below.
1. I should point out that the individual in question had not yet been called up to the Torah. Otherwise, there would be another consideration of publicly embarrassing the individual.
2. I have not seen this analogy made, but admittedly I have not looked very hard. If anyone knows of another source which makes a similar argument, please let me know so that I may give proper credit.
3. Not to say that these reasons are irrelevant or ought to be disregarded, but it is my opinion that halakha and pesak should be presented as honestly as possible.
In this installment of his “Politics of Exclusion” series, Rabbi Yuter tackles the highly controversial and publicized arguments of Rabbi Dr. David Berger against the messianic elements in Chabad Lubavitch.
Politics of Exclusion: David Berger vs. Chabad Lubavitch Sources (PDF)
Politics of Exclusion: David Berger vs. Chabad Lubavitch
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