Get ready…Leonard Cohen with Sonny Rollins here to help seal the deal

Why is it so hard to say Yom Kippur properly? Non initiates including our very erudite President say Yahm Kippur.  Maybe they are on to something? Yahm in Hebrew means sea, a sea of atonement?  May it all go swimmingly.

גמר חתימה טובה לכולם

In his underrated and mostly forgotten novel, Beautiful Losers, one of the greatest songwriters of all time, wrote a long diatribe regarding his unfortunate state of constipation.  One line stayed with me for these nearly forty long years:

How can I be creative today with all of yesterday still with me?

Rav Nachman says not only can you be creative, but you can fix yesterday by fasting today–transforming that waste into energy. Yom Kippur, the unlaxative!

Yom Kippur and th 15th of Av were once days when young maidens would dance in the vineyards for their would be suitors who would witness the spectacle. We were told that these were the most joyous of days. Rav Nachman of Breslav, the great Hasidic master sees the fast itself as reason for celebration. Yom Kippur magically includes all the days of the year which is why it has the power to atone for all of them.  Fasting on this day, revives the days we have slain through our sins, and this makes sense biologically:

One can understand this from a material perspective. When one fasts, it is as if one does not have sustenance and strength from that day because he has neither eaten nor drunk anything, and still, he is serving God.  It must be that there is strength left over from yesterday. Thus he is bringing the strength of yesterday to today, and when he continues to fast, there isn’t enough from yesterday to sustain him so he must go further in the past, and through this he brings life back to the fallen and dead days and through this, he brings forth light and life to all the days.

Fasting diminishes desire so that we can fill ourselves with the glory of God. It is an opportunity to be welcomed.  He has much more to say on this and I have posted a translation of the essay in its entirety. For the Hebrew and English, Rav Nachman on Yom Kippur click here

I have just upgraded to a new domain name which has dropped wordpress from the URL: scorchintorah.com for anything that ails you.

The Once Quietest Day of the Year in Israel has been altered by the ubiquity of technology.  A reflection of what we lose when we are perpetually connected. Worth a read.

The Framers of the Constitution never imagined the abuses of free speech on the internet. People defaming each other anonymously and spreading lies virally throughout the entire globe. The Torah views speech as profoundly and uniquely human which makes it a quality of the Divine.  Speaking is a sacred task and one that needs to be done with great care. Years ago, I created a faux Talmud page that examined the conflict that can emerge when one has no moral compulsion to temper his speech. The age old question is who needs to be protected from whom?

Washington Post yesterday stated that Congress will pass legislation that will halt the practice of automatic overdrafts from debit cards.  Consumers will no longer be clobbered with huge “fees” (read penalties) for being a penny overdrawn. People should not let this fall by the wayside and let the Congress  know consumers need to be protected. that

Too often the perfunctory request for forgiveness is only offered to those of whom we are guaranteed a positive outcome, but, in fact, have not seriously wronged at all.

I offer the following story.  A close friend whom I wished to visit because my family was away had told me not to come because a mutual friend was visiting and basically two was company and three was a crowd.  It seems my observant lifestyle would have cramped whatever style he had envisioned for the weekend.  I immediately wrote a letter saying how upset, hurt I was that somehow our being together was less important than how we might have spent the time.  If this was an indication of our friendship, then there really wasn’t much friendship at all.

What did I want from that letter? I wanted a response, and as each year, each birthday went by and no response was forthcoming, I came to the realization that what I had written seemed to be true.  He didn’t really care, and that hurt worse that the previous rejection.

One day, five years later, a letter arrived in the mail (this was a long time ago!) from my friend who apologized not only for what had happened, but for why it had taken him so long to respond.  He had had a dream recently that included me, both of us looking for someone’s house that we couldn’t find.  The following day he picked up a random book at a new age book store and it happened to be my translation of Sharre Orah that had recently been published.  When he saw my name on the cover, the signs could not be ignored and, finally, he felt impelled to write a letter.

It was clear that I, too, had been waiting lo these many years for that letter.  I wrote him back immediately, and he came to visit me for a few days soon after. This is not the end of the story.  The visit was not a great one.  The memories of our friendship were not rekindled in the present. After the visit, we didn’t manage to keep in touch, and years have since gone by without us being in contact.

Once, I got a call from a mutual friend that David was having a special birthday and his girlfriend was organizing a special party and she had requested messages from people who were important to his past.  Without hesitation, I sent a message, happy to modestly contribute to this celebration. I received a response, but there was no subsequent correspondence.

David’s visit had filled a hole that was in my heart. His acknowledgement that he had been bothered by the way we left things allowed us to discover whether we should be friends based on who we were now and not on what we had done to each other.  The hurt went away and I can fondly remember the times we had together.

The point is that fixing what we have done wrong does not have to end in some kind of grand epiphany, but your last memory of someone who once mattered to you, should not be one of disappointment and hurt.  People should be able to reclaim the moments when they mattered to each other.  It is worth the risk of rejection to try and do this.

It was true that because I had already approached him and been open about how offended and disturbed I was that it was up to him to respond.  We don’t always get a nudge from a dream and a chance encounter with a book, and we shouldn’t need it.

How many Yom Kippurs need to elapse, before we free ourselves from the shackles of our own design.  The Mishnah says: Transgressions between people cannot be atoned until one has mollified the injured party. These pains last for years. They don’t go away until they are addressed, and even if the outcome isn’t dramatic, or even positive, knowing that an effort was put forth, takes the burden off you and places it on the injured party.

The Mishnah says once one has apologized three times, the injured party carries the sin–and carry it, he will.

Please, don’t let another Yom Kippur go by. Do yourself a favor.

“Woe to the wicked, and woe to their neighbors!” The Mishnah that appears in the Tractates Negaim and Avot D’Rebbe Natan explains that if righteous one shares a wall with a wicked person and the wall collapses because of the wicked ones deeds, the righteous one also loses the wall.  The Mishnah expands this concept to the point that one should avoid being in the company of someone who is morally reprehensible.

This idea would go hand in hand with the obligation to rebuke bad behavior and do ones best to not be complicit by acquiescent silence. “He said it, I didn’t.” is not an excuse if you let it be said without raising your voice, you are culpable.

Free speech can only work in a civil society if people are free to rebuke those who abuse that right.  Glenn Beck lost revenue as a result of his excesses, but Joe Wilson profited from his.

We all need to distance ourselves from people who result to personal attacks rather than argue the issue.

All that is necessary for evil to prosper is for good people to do nothing.

Rachel Krishevsky died at the age of 99 leaving over 1400 direct descendants behind. It is stunning to realize that having lived a long life one could leave an auditorium full of family behind. This is the idealism of a community who consider children a joy and a mitzvah. She lived near the shuk in Machaneh Yehuda, and I am certain her loving home didn’t have much space, but her children didn’t seem to mind. They opted to continue the tradition and had large families of their own.

There were many positive responses to the Shoah. A Jewish army is one, but this too, is an answer that is worth contemplating and appreciating.

In the Ordeal of Civility, John Murray Cuddihy’s book on the reasons for the Jewish disproportionate intellectual impact on the twentieth century, he recalls the antics of Abbie Hoffman in Judge Julius Hoffman’s court. Abbie was repeatedly held in contempt for calling the judge “Julie”. Cuddihy noted that to be held in contempt was to be held in contempt of the civility of the court. He wryly pointed out that the Judge was a yekke, a German Jew, while Abbie came from the ostjuden, the prost (vulgar, common) Galician Jews, and that was the subtext of their conflict.

On the first anniversary of the fall of the towers, I, along with my intern (now, Rabbi) Elliot Kaplowitz created a memorial service that was used by Hillels and synagogues throughout the country. The graphic design was created by the incomparable Maria Radacsi. Nowadays, our students have no memory of that chaotic, horrific day. It’s worth a look, so if you are so inclined, Parchments are Burning: A September 11th Memorial Service “>

Yesterday, I read an article in The New York Times that made my blood boil. It is well known that Jewish Law and American business practice do not see eye to eye on whose responsible for making sure that merchants charge a fair price for their wares. The Mishnah in Bava Metziya makes it clear that the responsibility falls on the merchant to be within one sixth of the market value of a particular item, while American business invokes caveat emptor “let the buyer beware”. This, however, is what happens when you rely on the foxes to guard the chicken coop.

When Peter Means returned to graduate school after a career as a civil servant, he turned to a debit card to help him spend his money more carefully.

So he was stunned when his bank charged him seven $34 fees to cover seven purchases when there was not enough cash in his account, notifying him only afterward. He paid $4.14 for a coffee at Starbucks — and a $34 fee. He got the $6.50 student discount at the movie theater — but no discount on the $34 fee. He paid $6.76 at Lowe’s for screws — and yet another $34 fee. All told, he owed $238 in extra charges for just a day’s worth of activity.

Mr. Means, who is 59 and lives in Colorado, figured employees at his bank, Wells Fargo, would show some mercy since each purchase was less than $12. In addition, a deposit from a few days earlier would have covered everything had it not taken days to clear. But they would not budge.

Wells Fargo Bank is sleazier than those check cashing store fronts that charge high fees for getting your own money. At least they tell the customer what their charging up front. In this case Mr. Means finds out only after the fact that his “overdraft protection” was costing him five times as much as his purchase. Also, his sin is in not realizing that a deposit had yet to clear–not that he had insufficient funds.

Worse yet, is the exploitation of those who use debit cards in favor of credit cards. These are people who are trying to be fiscally responsible by paying as they go, instead of accruing heaps of credit card debt. Their reward is to be clobbered by usurious stealth interest under the guise of penalties–or overdraft “protection”.

How do banks defend this practice?

Some experts warn that a sharp reduction in overdraft fees could put weakened financial institutions out of business.

Michael Moebs, an economist who advises banks and credit unions, said Ms. Maloney’s legislation would effectively kill overdraft services, causing an estimated 1,000 banks and 2,000 credit unions to fold within two years. That is because 45 percent of the nation’s banks and credit unions collect more from overdraft services than they make in profits, he said.

Oh, poor baby! Now, we know the truth. Your local neighborhood bank is nothing more than a check cashing storefront masquerading as a respectable institution. They now rely on fees from the more vulnerable in society in order to stay in business. Charging exorbitant fees is a no-risk proposition that allows banks to fund adventurous mortgages that also exploit the poor.

The Torah understood loaning as a means for helping people out of difficult circumstances and therefore eschewed the practice of charging interest. The world could not tolerate this level of idealism, so that the practice of charging interest is reluctantly allowed under Jewish law, but now one can see the perversity of putting a price on money, and the consequences for those who play by the rules. It seems a no brainer that charging these fees would be halachically prohibited. I don’t know if I’m more upset by the practice, or by the sneakiness of so called respectable institutions.

I once heard a lawyer joke, but it seems more appropriate for bankers these days. “What’s the difference between a banker and a rooster? A rooster clucks defiant…”

There’s a special place in hell for these people.

There is a popular Talmudic narrative that probably owes its prominence to its lurid (at least to Western ears) content. It is the dramatic story of Elazar Ben Dordia who was governed by his lust for harlots to the point that once he traveled seven rivers to sample the favors of a prostitute who was renowned for her “skills”. During their moment of intimacy, she broke wind, and told him, “Just like this gas will not return to its original place, so too, Elazar will not be returned and atoned.” At this point Elazar, struck by the poignancy (and the pungent nature) of this statement asks the mountains, the constellations, the heavens and earth to advocate on his behalf, but he is refused by all. He realizes that it is up to him alone, and his remorse for the wasteful life he has led ends up killing him. A heavenly voice welcomes Rabbi Elazar Ben Dordaya to the world to come.

The Diane Rehm Show interviewed the former head of the FDA, David Kessler who has just written a book entitled The End of Overeating. His thesis is that eating is a salient stimulus that is hardwired into our brains. It is not something we can unlearn, but we can create “new wiring” that will mitigate the unhealthy impulse to overeat. Eating is different than other “addictions” because we actually need to eat, unlike needing to smoke or drink alcohol.

Rava said: Length of days, fertility, and income are not the products of merit, but of mazel. For look at Raba and Rav Hisda both of whom were righteous men.

When either of them prayed, the rains came.

Rav Hisda lived to be ninety-two.

Raba lived to be forty…(Moed Katan 28a)

Each day brings new possibilities, but each day is a gift.

A childhood friend died suddenly and his untimely demise evoked speculation from which a subtle undercurrent of panic could be felt among his contemporaries. “He was overweight.” “His family had a history of heart disease.” Somehow, these reasons were supposed to immunize we, the fifty somethings, from a similar fate. Nobody wants to be cheated out of his three score and ten, so we blame the victim. Deep down inside, we know the truth–it could be any one of us at any time. After all, there are plenty of fat, old people. I, unfortunately, am not able to mollify myself with rationalizations that have little bearing on reality. When it’s your turn, it’s your turn, and it often–more often than not–feels too soon.