"torah outreach"!? L'maan Yaidu

From Torah Outreach Program (these are the longest emails but they are full of good stuff)

Last week, we explored the claim of Exodus Raba (51:2) that there were 2 tabernacles- we explained that the tabernacle in the midst of the camp served as the center of ritual, the tabernacle outside the camp, Moshe's Tent of Meeting, as the bet midrash, where one went to "seek" God, to resolve his/her ?? and conflicts. Therefore, says Ruth Fogelman, Bilaam proclaims: "How good are your tents, Yaakov, your tabernacleS Israel!" (Num. 24:5). We might then also posit that there will be 2 future Temples- one, the center of ritual, near Bet El, site of Yaakov’s dream, and Har Chatzor, the highest peak, "the head of mountains", in the Jerusalem region. The other, the tabernacle of testimony, may be a great lehrhaus, a bet midrash, on the site of the previous temples, where all will come to "seek God"- "And the sons of the stranger, who join to God to serve Him, and who love the name of God, to be His servants, all who guard the Sabbath from profaning it, and strengthen My Covenant- I will bring them to My holy mountain and make them rejoice in the house of My prayer- their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be pleasing on My altar, for My House will be called a house of prayer for all peoples" (Is. 56:6f). Thus Jerusalem will earn its new name in the last verse of Ezekiel, "God is There", from the high spiritual quality of its populace, rather than from the sacrificial rites, confined to Bet El. Many folks so experience it today, if they are lucky enough to meet the right Jerusalemites. CHAREDIM are those very traditional Jews, who attempt to perpetuate life as it was hundreds of years ago, including its food and clothing, amidst the modern world; they somewhat resemble the Mennonites, who preceded them by 200 years, in this respect; but charedim have nothing against modern technology, per se. Per Rav JBS, they yearn to rebuild a narrow shtetel, which never existed.

They are not specially attuned to simplicity, handicrafts and nature, as are Menonite and Amish folks, tho early chassidic masters wandered the woods, while praising tobacco (see Gene Wilder's wonderful film, "The Frisco Kid", for the Jewish-Amish interface); they tend to take the strictest interpretations of ritual law, and stress family unity, outward behavior and conformity. Most learn lots of Talmud and Codes, but little else, e.g. Tanach, Science, Tanach, Philosophy and history. A group of returnee Chabadniks is forming an ecological rural community, Eretz HaChayim, in Sunderland, Mass. (JPMag, 3/7/03: The Frum Farm). The Chabad establishment, instead of praising and helping them, takes a dim view of their project, with far-fetched claims that Chabad is not compatible with such a life style (as their far-fetched justifications of males not sleeping in a sukkah!). Perhaps they just don't want to recognize and validate life-styles and creativity that do not originate in Chabad, or vodka-laden East European peasant culture, and are not party-line- cf. their rejection of their truly great Gafnian Chabad teacher, Shmuli Boteach. While I am happy to see Torah-true Jews living on a high level, well integrated with their environment, I am also upset by their lack of Zionism- they do not even express a desire to eventually make aliya and create their model village here; I was similarly upset, some years ago, by a Chabad Video (The Lamplighters) from L.A., in which their local leader sang 'This land is your land, this land is my land...', referring to the U.S., with no mention of Israel.

The traditional fierce haredi opponents of The Besht and chassidim are called "misnagdim" . See Eliyahu Yehuda Schochet's "The Hasidic Movement and The Gaon of Vilna" for a sensitive, balanced exploration of both societies, and their conflicts. His pragmatic conclusion is that chassidut was a good thing, despite the often valid critique and persecution of the misnagdim, for it worked! It kept many Jews enthusiastically Jewish, amidst terrible conditions in cursed Eastern Europe (See Prof. Menachem Friedman's Hebrew work on the old yishuv of Jerusalem, during

SHUL is a yiddish term for a synagogue, SHTIEBEL for a small informal shul. ALIYA is ascent to the Holy Land of Israel. YIDDISHKEIT denotes Eastern European Jewish civilization, a century ago, its religious culture only one of many equally valid interpretations and civilizations of authentic Judaism, e.g. Sephardim and Yemenites, who are, perhaps unconsciously, excluded from Judaism by use of this divisive term, instead of Judaism or Yahadut.

A PROJECT OF TOP, TORAH OUTREACH PROGRAM, ARARAT 2/5, JERUSALEM, TEL. (02) 628-7359, e-mail: top@actcom.co.il Visit our site: http://www.israelVisit.co.il/top Our recent e-mail studies are archived, with many others, at www.shamash.org

I'm actually struck by a history that is a BALANCED history of the fight between misnagdim and chasidim. Usually when I was in Crown Heights I heard the parables abotu the Evil Misnag (who mourned on Purim and celebrated on Tisha B'Av because he was a miserable bastard) who tried to kill the poor but happy Chasid and then turned around and became Chasidic himself. This is why I like to read stuff by the Gra (or Vilna Gaon) who publicly dipped matzah in a large vat of water during Pesach to rule that gebracht observance was nonsense