17

7/4/1776 was 17Tammuz. While the Declaration of Independence was in the final process of signature, Jews around the world were fasting. It always fascinated me, this seeming coincidence; why that date, out of all dates.

While it has never been perfect, nor perfectly free of anti-Semitism, the US has been a haven for us. Not only are we free to be as Frum as we want to be, the non-Jews are really starting to be wonderful. During a work stay in Texas, I was amazed at all the people who basically stood up for me because I wore a Yomika. Indeed, there's a Christian leader (John Hagee) who's renounced converting Jews. He's said, publically, that when Moshiach comes, he'll let us know who's right. What more could we ask from non-Jews?

Still, the 17Tammuz thing. Then, it came to me last July 4th. 17Tammuz is all about breached defenses. Before, we could always blame our shortcomings on the Goyish Oppression. It was an excuse, maybe even a valid excuse. In this country, that defense has been breached. We cannot blame our failings on the Goyim. Our shortcomings are 100% our own responsibilities.

2

A few years ago, I met a man who had been a Rov in South Africa. An older man, he was quite the storyteller. One of the topics he brought up was that he never knew why water circled the drain the other direction in the Southern Hemisphere. The answer's simple I said: the world turns in a different direction in the Southern Hemisphere.

I explained the Coriolis effect, which also explains why hurricanes and tornados also turn in the opposite direction in the Southern Hemisphere. If you look down at the North Pole, the Earth turns in a counter-clockwise direction. If you look down at the South Pole, the Earth turns in a clockwise direction.

He looked at me carefully and said, this is very important. Use this well.

Two weeks later, he left this world. I like to think that I eased his transition to the World to Come, maybe he was waiting for this answer before he was ready to leave. I'm not sure, but he did inspire me to apply this insight to the world of Torah.

It wasn't long before it hit me: the Coriolis effect is the instantiation of this in the world of Gashmius, and Eloo v'Eloo Divrei Elokim Chayim is the expression of this in the world of Ruchnius. Two diametrically opposed viewpoints with both 100% correct can only work if one if correct from one perspective, while the other is correct from the other. For some perspectives, we may have to leave this world to appreciate, but there is always a question of perspective.

Think of this question: do we go clockwise, or counter-clockwise around the Bima during Hakafos? Well, both answers are correct: clockwise when looking up from the ground, counter-clockwise looking down at the Bima.

Now, there is an example where perspective doesn't matter in both the world of Gashmius and Ruchnius. The speed of light is constant. It doesn't matter when you are approaching or receding from the light source, the speed is constant. The frequency shifts red when you are receding, blue when approaching, but the speed is constant. Similarly, Hashem is Good. It may appear favorable or unfavorable to us, but it is always Good.

Shaylos

Some things that are bothering me:

1) The Rambam brings down a Medrash that says that Tzara'as appears gradually, first on the buildings, then the clothes, then the person's body. However, Tzara'as appears 5 times in Tanakh: Moshe, Miriam, Na'aman, Gechazi, Uzziayahu haMelech. In each time, it appears suddenly.

What's the Baraisa talking about?

2) A man kills another man b'shogeg, accidentally, manslaughter. He's not in the Ir haMiklat, City of Refuge and the Go'el haDam approaches to kill him. Can he kill the Go'el haDam in self-defence?

3) What is the female form of "rabosai"?

4) Moshe got buried on Har Tevo, Aharon on Har Har. Why didn't Miriam get buried on a mountain?

More questions to come, as I think of them.

Tzedaka--a story

It was about a half hour before Shabbos, in Brooklyn. I just finished parking when a frum guy came to my window asking for Tzedaka. I reached into my change dish and gave him a coin.

He then started berating me as to how I would only give him a quarter, how cheap I was.

I quietly told him that it was a dollar coin. I had thought that it would be a nice surprise for him.

He examined the coin, saw that it was a Susan B. Anthony dollar, became very apologetic, completely humiliated, explaining how his mother was in the hospital, how hard it's been for him since he came to the US from Russia.

I told him it was OK and left quickly. I wonder to this day if I could have handled it better.

5

Rashi and most other Meforshim agree that Kri'as Yam Suf (the Splitting of the Sea) was five times the makkos of the Makkos (Plagues). I never found any discussion of why 5, why not 7, 6, 40, whatever. Below is a chiddush as to maybe why 5:

Perhaps the Makkos were middah keneged midda (measure for measure) punishment for enslaving the 20% of the Jews in Egypt who wound up being redeemed at Sinai (80% were killed by Hashem during the 9th Plague, Darkness). However, the Egyptians were so evil that they persued the Jews after the Makkos, Hashem decided to punish them for that transgression midda-keneged-midda for all of the Jews in Egypt, including the 80% killed during the Darkness, thus creating the 5x comparison.

When Lakewood Came to Chabad

I like to remember this when I get bummed out about the lack of achdus in the Torah Observant world of today.

I like to remember my Chassunah.

To out myself a bit, I am someone who was married for 18 years to someone not Jewish. During that time, I went to the local Chabad; then, at age 41, I left my wife and family and adopted the Frum lifestyle.

At about age 39, I got in contact with my Frum family, who happen to include several members of the G'dolim haDor. I even got my picture in the Hamodia centerfold, accidentally, at a Chasunah. For the curious among you, that's me, on the Rebbe card #114, unknown shmendrick staring at the camera.

For the first three years of my Frum life, I lived in Passaic; then, my non-Jewish daughter needed to move in with me. Unfortunately, there's no place in Passaic for a man with a non-Jewish daughter, so I moved back to where I had come from, and restarted my relationship with Chabad.

Last Kislev, I finally found a Frum woman who would put up with me, and we got married at our local Chabad. Of course, my Frum family, the Roshei Yeshivos came to the Chabad house and were b'simcha Chosson v'Kallah. I have pictures to prove it (:=).

It was wonderful. I started off with a speech, in Yiddish, on how we have seemed to have forgotten what the Rishaim of Mumbai knew: a Jew is a Jew. The murderers didn't ask what Nusach their victims davened, nor if they poskened according to the Mishna Breura or the Shulchan Aruch haRav. My Rebbe then regaled the Roshei Yeshivos with a vort from the Lubavitcher Rebbe, also in Yiddish.

My Rebbe was Mesader Kiddushin, and my Kallah's Rebbe (also Chabad) read the Kesubah. Besides my father, the Kevodim were mostly given to my Choshiv family. At the end of the evening, my S'fardi friend led the M'zumin, stumbling over the unfamiliar Ashkenaz Birkas haMazon in his hard-core S'fardishe accent.

During the evening, Lubavitch, Yeshivish, Frei and Goy (my immediate family is not Frum) all danced together. My Rebbe regaled my family with stories of his work out in the "wilderness", the atmosphere was magic.

Sinas Chinam is not necessary. Achdus is possible. All of us need to remember this, no matter how difficult it may be.

Minim

The word "Minim" in Hebrew is a very interesting word. Spelled Mem Yud Nun Yud Mem (I don't use Hebrew letters because I can't control how they appear), the word is a palindrome; i.e., the word is pronounced the same right to left and left to right.

Whenever I ask people how to translate Minim, everybody tells me "species". Indeed, that's correct, they are usually thinking of the "Arbah Minim", the Four Species of plants that we wave during Succos. However, it also means something else: heretic.

I always wondered why this word, this palindrome, had these two disparate meanings. One day, it came to me: perhaps Hashem intended this as a siman (sign) to the heretics, that they still have a connection to Hashem and the Jewish People, all they need to do is to turn around.