David's Thoughts

In its 24 Teves 5754 issue, the English edition of the Yated Ne’eman published a brief biography of Rabbi Eliyahu Eliezer Dessler by one of his most devoted disciples in commemoration of the fortieth yahrtzeit of that great twentieth century Jewish leader. In the course of describing R. Dessler’s childhood, the author included a section entitled “Torah Im Derech Eretz—Kelm Style” where he discussed some of the influences to which “little Elia Laizer” was exposed as a young boy. His father, R. Reuven Dov Dessler, was a student of R. Simh. ah Zissel Ziv who, in turn, was a student of R. Yisrael Salanter. In keeping with R. Yisrael’s desire to create Torah institutions which would inspire “ba’alei batim filled with Torah and mussar,” R. Simh. ah Zissel founded a yeshiva in Grobin which included the teaching of Russian language, history, geography and other secular studies as part of its formal curriculum, in addition, of course, to traditional Jewish texts. He felt that “ba’alei batim” would need to know more than “Torah and mussar” in order to be successful. R. Reuven Dov studied in this yeshiva as a young boy, internalized its values even as he became an affluent businessman, and was intent upon transmitting them to his own son. During his childhood years, Rabbi Dessler was taught at home and, wrote the author of this article, “true to the principles of his rebbe, R’ Simcha Zissel, the boy’s father included general studies in the curriculum. Among these were some classics of world literature in Russian translation. One of them (so Rabbi Dessler told me) was Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

Click here for the full document http://www.balintlaw.com/pdf/TruthsofHistory.pdf

Due in no small part to the recent controversy at the AgriProcessors slaughterhouse in Postville, Iowa, there has been a lot of talk of late about how glatt kosher meat is produced. Yet for all the sensational headlines about whether the standards of kashrut are being met, little attention has been paid to how those standards are actually determined.

It is important for you to know that there are three classes [of thinkers] who differ in their interpretation of the words of the Sages, of blessed memory.  The first class comprises the majority among those that I have come across and whose compositions I have read and of whom I have heard.  They understand the words of the Sages literally and do not interpret them at all.  To them all impossibilities are necessary occurrences.  They only do this because of their ignorance of sciences and their being distant from [various] fields of knowledge.  They do not possess any of the perfection that would stimulate them [to understanding] of their own accord, nor have they found someone else to arouse them.  Therefore, they think that the intent of the Sages in all their precise and carefully stated remarks is only what they can comprehend and that these [remarks] are to be understood literally.  This is despite the fact that in their literal sense some of the words of the Sages would seem to be so slanderous and absurd that if they were related to the uneducated masses in their literal sense, and all the more so to the wise, they would look upon them with amazement and exclaim: ‘How is it possible that there exists in the world anyone who would think in this manner or believe that such statements are correct, much less approve of them!’  This class is poor [in understanding] and one should pity their folly.  In their own minds, they think they are honoring and exalting the Sages, but they are actually degrading them to the lowest depths.  And they do not perceive that, as God lives, it is this class of thinkers that destroys the splendor of the Torah of God into saying the opposite of what it intends to convey.  For God said in His perfect Torah: This is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes and say: Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. [Deuteronomy 4:6]  But this category [of thinkers] expounds the words of the Sages in their literal sense so that when the nations hear them, they will say:  ‘Surely this small nation is a foolish and degenerate people.

Voters in Kansas ensured this month that noncreationist moderates will once again have a majority (6 to 4) on the state school board, keeping new standards inspired by intelligent design from taking effect.

This is a victory for public education and sends a message nationwide about the public’s ability to see through efforts by groups like the Discovery Institute to misrepresent science in the schools. But for those of us who are interested in improving science education, any celebration should be muted.

Matthew Wagner, THE JERUSALEM POST   

 Jun. 21, 2006

You can never be too pious when you are among the believers. Feldheim Publishers, a publishing house that caters to Orthodox Jews, discovered this when the English edition of the haredi newspaper Hamodia censored its book catalogue this weekend.

The De Funis and Schaloum families, this office, the legal profession and the world lost my friend, Marco De Funis, on Wednesday night, January 16, 2002.  Marco was 52 years old, two weeks short of his 53^rd birthday.  Marco had no warning of his death which occurred while running on the indoor track at the Jewish Community Center on Mercer Island, an activity he did several times a week for several years.  He had no history of heart problems, no cholesterol or blood pressure problems, no warning at all. 

            I was honored to give a eulogy at his funeral on Friday, January 18, 2002.  Below were my remarks:

JERUSALEM--A new breed of unilateralism is emerging in Israel these days. It isn't the type responsible for Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip last summer. It isn't political at all. It's religious.