In the world of competitive finance, there’s never a bad time to make money. Sure the subprime market has many feeling the pinch, but the real opportunists find ways to profit in any circumstance. For example, one strategy is short selling or in other words, betting on a loss. In a must read NYTimes article, Ben Stein examines Goldman Sach’s practices of knowingly creating and selling flawed financial investments while covering themselves in the process.
But it’s not just the Big Guys who are getting all the breaks. In my favorite story of the subprime fiasco, some people are fighting foreclosures with impressive Talmudic reasoning:

A Federal Court Judge rejected 14 foreclosure claims by Deutsche Bank, which was trying to collect on securitized sub-prime mortgage loans it acquired. The judge stated that the Bank did not really own the ?bad loans? because it acquired them after defaults had already occurred. He asked the bank to prove it held the mortgage at the time of the foreclosure notices or said he will dismiss its claims.

The snowballing effect of subprime defaults is the result of repackaging, revaluing, and reselling various debts to various investors. However, once the debt is securitized and resold it can be difficult to track down who owned what and when. As a result Deutsche Bank not only loses on the initial investment, but cannot even recoup the losses through the typical hedge of property foreclosure.
Almost makes you feel sorry for them.

One of the things we talked about in the Devar Torah Workshop is that no matter how well you organize your thoughts and how well you deliver your message, there may be people who just won’t get it. They may be distracted, bored, or – let’s be diplomatic here – lacking the ability to comprehend.

Then of course there are those who fall into their own unique category. For one surreal example, this past Shabbat I delivered emergency fill-in devar torah for seudah shlishit, after which I was blamed for the Holocaust.

I suppose some background is in order. For various reasons due to Thanksgiving no one was slated to speak during seudah shelishit. At some point during shaharit I reminded myself that I spoke last year and figured out a way to tweak the old message and even have it tie in to Thanksgiving. Granted, it was not one of my best efforts, but I thought at least it was passable.¹

When I went to sit down down, and older gentleman and prominent figure in the shul come over with the obligatory “yasher koach” and asked if I attended the shul’s annual Kristalnacht event. I hadn’t. The gentleman then ranted that no young people came because we have no interest and don’t care about the Holocaust, and had we cared more back then we could have prevented it.

For the moment, let us ignore the specific implication that our current apathy towards shul events precipitated the most horrific genocide in our people’s history. Rather, I simply intended to demonstrate that as admirable of a goal it is for a speaker to connect with the audience, there are times when you should just let it go.

1. Hopefully I will get a chance to write it up at some point.

This Sunday I will be starting a new Devar Torah Workshop at Mt. Sinai (187th and Bennett) focusing on organizing and presenting written and spoken Divrei Torah. We will meet Sundays at 10:30 AM in the Multi Purpose Room downstairs, and it is open to men and women. While the workshop is free, anyone interested should register by sending me an e-mail.
I’ll likely blog the core principles at some point, but there’s no substitute for practicing in a supportive environment.

The big Jewish story of Summer 2007 was Professor Noah Feldman’s now infamous New York Times Magazine article “Orthodox Paradox” (July 22, 2007) in which Feldman critiques Modern Orthodoxy as being inherently and irrevocably inconsistent. The specific “paradox” to which Feldman points is that on one hand Modern Orthodoxy claims to embrace the secular world, yet simultaneously maintains a religious prejudice against it. Feldman cites examples of Jewish particularism in the Talmudic law that Jews do not desecrate the Shabbat to save the life of a non-Jew and through the personal ignominy he faced at his high school reunion having been ostracized due to his intermarriage.

Feldman’s article generated some of the most vociferous discussion among the Jewish intelligentsia and throughout the J-Blogosphere, with Feldman being vilified for betraying the Jewish people either for intermarrying or through voicing his critiques in a public forum.¹ While the frenzy has died down since the summer, Feldman exposed a nerve in the Jewish community which still rightfully still agitates many. To address some of those issues and the subsequent reaction, on Thursday October 18th NYU hosted a symposium entitled, “Orthodox Paradox: A Debate on Jewish Values” featuring the eclectic trio of Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, philanthropist Michael Steinhart, and the aforementioned Professor Noah Feldman.

Despite the event’s classification as a “debate”, there was little collective coherency among the three panelists. Instead of addressing one area of “Jewish values” each panelist discussed his own approach to the question based on his own individual set of values.

I was registered and supposed to attend YU’s medical ethics conference on Fertility, Modern Medicine, and Jewish Law this past Sunday but instead paid a shiva call to R. Moshe Tendler, my teacher of two and a half years, and pioneer in the field of Jewish medical ethics. Thankfully, CuriousJew has her typically thorough writeup of the event.
Some quick-hit second-hand thoughts and observations:

• If you ever have the opportunity to hear R. Johnathan Sacks, do so. An exemplar of the “integration” model of Torah U’Madda if there ever was one (and a captivating speaker no less).
• Regarding various fertilization methods, I must cite the classic R. Tendler quote: “You cannot commit adultery with a hypodermic syringe.”
• One of the “misconceptions” of infertility attributed to Dr. Richard Grazi is that a pelvic exam creates a niddah. I do not have access to the sources presently, but my father agrees saying that it’s really a dispute between R. Yohanan (lenient) and Reish Lakish (strict) in which case we usually follow the teacher. However, he does point out that in a YU shiur he attended, the Rabbi paskened l’humra, apparently buying into the “misconception.”
• There was some discussion related to multiple births and viability. This discussion is predicated on the Jewish perception of abortion, a topic into which I will not get. However, I do recall R. Tendler discussing the McCaughey septuplets and praising the family for adhering to their beliefs by not aborting any fetuses.
• The halakhot of shichvat zera levatala are more complicated than simply assur. The Conservative Teshuva on Homosexuality covered many of the nuances despite ultimately punting on the pesak.

Not having been there or having a better command of the subjects, I can’t comment further. Hopefully I will not have such a reason to miss it next year.

I just received this unfortunate e-mail:

Dear All:
Barukh Dayan Ha-Emet. I am sorry to note the passing of Rebbetzin Sifra Tendler, wife of Rabbi Dr. Moshe D. Tendler, shlita, (rosh yeshiva at RIETS) and daughter of Rav Moshe Feinstein zt”l.
The funeral will take place today at three PM at Rabbi Tendler’s shul in Monsey.
3 PM Community Synagogue of Monsey
89 West Maple Avenue
Monsey, NY 10952
Shiva will be observed at the Tendler residence
4 Cloverdale Lane
Monsey, NY 10952
HaMakom yenachem et’chem b’toch shar avay’lay Tzion vee’Yerushalayim.

Rebbitzen Tendler had been ill for some time, most recently with a relapse of cancer (I believe lymphoma). Our wishes and condolences are with the entire Tendler family.

A few weeks back I bought a generic pair of scissors from a downtown Duane Reade. Of the many ways in which a pair of scissors could be packaged, these in particular were attached to a cardboard backing with a metal washer fastening a loop around one of the handles. Thus after tearing off the backing, the loop was still firmly attached like so:

Now if only I had some utensil, device, or mechanism which could sever this superfluous and intrusive connection.
Oh wait….