Forum
FORUM Naming Names The October 1988 issue of MOMENT was excellent. We especially enjoyed the articles on "Turning Jewish Singles into Spouses." Who was the good-looking couple on the cover? How...
...A naval ship comes by and offers the man refuge...
...Only if he answers ' 'Yes" to all of them does he deserve our unqualified admiration...
...Rabbi William Blank Sacramento, California Steinsaltz's Answers To Unasked Questions Adin Steinsaltz says that some of his best friends are Reform rabbis ("MOMENT Interviews Talmud Scholar Adin Steinsaltz," October 1988...
...As to whether God is forbidden to perform miracles, of course nobody can forbid God from doing anything...
...Three-quarters of my family discovered Judaism in Israel and tkey live there...
...so he joined the other Soviet Jews who refuse to stay in Israel, went to the USA and discovered Judaism in California...
...Does this mean that Jewish people believe that miracles may be performed by human beings...
...I am referring especially to William and Wendy Dreskin's article, "Our Strugle With IBD [Inflammatory Bowel Disease...
...That process ebbs and flows over the course of the years of a person's life, creating the transformations of one individual from am ha'aretz to boor to atheist to chozer b'tshuva to talmid cha-cham...
...I'm sure I don't have to elaborate further to illustrate the source of our differences...
...What Steinsaltz fails to consider here is that the vast majority of Jews are neither "observant" nor "nonobser-vant...
...They are rather engaged in a process of moving toward or away from a greater involvement in Jewish living...
...Mind you, I do not deny your right to publish whatever you wish, but this does not mean I must assist you...
...Rather than say that steps along the process don't "make sense," and the corollary that there is a minimum level of observance that makes one's Jewish life legitimate, I would suggest that Jewish life is an ever-changing dynaftiic and this dynamic makes perfect sense even (or especially) when it doesn't make sense...
...By ascribing the metaphor to a seemingly serendipitous remark by a mortal author of Scripture, you deny the Divine Revelation of the Torah at Sinai...
...God Himself (or Herself) may restrain Himself/Herself, that is His/Her prerogative...
...Specifically, I was offended by the November 1987 cover article ("A Precious Gift") about a single Jewish woman who became pregnant through artificial insemination—and by a Gentile to boot...
...I have yet to find many women who say they are willing to put a relationship at the top of their priority list and who actually carry out their words...
...Does he recognize their right to perform marriages and other religious ceremonies in Israel...
...Do not forget that the Satmarers do not accept Lubavitch hashgacha...
...Shortly thereafter, he drowns...
...Jews do believe that human beings have the capacity to perform the miraculous...
...Holocaust Memorial Museum and Hymen Goldman adjunct lecturer in theology, Georgetown University, replies: The Talmud actually says ein somchim al ha'nes—one may not depend on a miracle...
...I read with interest Betty Jacobs' article "Thou Shalt Get Married (Already)" in the October 1988 issue...
...To you, these may be preposterous thoughts...
...God, why didn't you save me...
...Israel, however, fell short of his idealization...
...Does he recognize their converts as Jews...
...He says, "I'm waiting for God to save me...
...Matt Young Boulder, Colorado "Fe" to Leonid Feldman The page you devoted to Leonid Feldman, the reviewer of Natan Sharansky's book in the September 1988 issue ("Tell the Truth, Feldman: You Are Jewish"), reminds me of the individual who never gave a donation to a poor man, because he could not stand to suffer the sight of him, out of extreme compassion...
...He could not stand the sight of corruption in the country (he did not find anything else positive...
...Today, we have many priorities and, accordingly, dating is but one of them...
...Does this mean that God is forbidden to make miracles for the Jewish people...
...In all those years, through family doctors, gastroenterolgists, hospitals, surgeons, etc., no one ever told us of NFIC [The National Foundation for Illetis and Colitis], or offered us any help in coping, other than drugs and surgery...
...One is not forbidden to pray for a miracle but merely forbidden to rely on one...
...What's Priority Number One...
...For now those who agree with me are still picking and choosing which "priorities" of the day should be pursued...
...When he goes up, he confronts God...
...My long experience has taught me that most women I have dated could have been the "right woman...
...I was similarly disappointed in your recent short piece ("Was Abraham an Astronomer...
...All of your articles are interesting and informative, but the opinions expressed in many of them are so abhorrent that I cannot in good conscience support further publication with my subscription...
...moment Is Interesting And Informative, But He Won't Renew I am returning your renewal order form without my renewal, but I feel further explanation is in order...
...it is not ours to either forbid or permit...
...The subscription was received as a gift from one of my patients after delivering her child, and I read each issue with interest...
...Your article on Harry Houdini ("Harry Houdini's Escape from Ehrich Weiss," May 1988) was exceptionally good and very thorough...
...Houston, Texas Can Jews Perforin Miracles...
...I feel that I am doing something positive for the recipient—giving him food for Jewish thought throughout the year...
...I enjoyed it greatly...
...The greatest obstacle we have to overcome is to remove the aura of social and moral acceptability towards unwed motherhood that is pervasive in our culture...
...Unable lo stand the anti-Semitic indignities in the USSR, Leonid, on the basis of advice from Sharansky (Leonid never heard of hunger strikes, either), managed to get a visa to Israel...
...But I have found the easiest, best and most significant gift is a subscription to MOMENT...
...One lives in a world without miracles and must make preparations accordingly...
...Therefore Jews must prepare to live in a world without miracles...
...Please understand that I am not a Lubavitch convert who throws stones at people who drive on Shabbat, but merely a man who feels that the future of Judaism lies in enhancing our heritage, not running from it toward the seductive moral relativism of the modern secular world...
...I am a Christian woman and must confess to an ignorance of the Talmud or the Jewish faith...
...To say that a person who has brought his diet into line with halacha but who has not yet taken the steps towards complete rest on Shabbat is "making no sense" is to ignore that the mitzvot are manifest when flesh and blood Jews are stirred by a variety of combinations and permutations of our thoughts, feelings, aesthetics and intuitions...
...When seeking a partner becomes the priority and not a priority, then a couple will have a chance for longtime bliss...
...Stan Alintoff New York, New York Making Sense When It Doesn't Make Sense Adin Steinsaltz, who was interviewed in the October 1988 MOMENT, is one individual on the Orthodox scene whose scholarship and menschlichkeit merits the profound respect of Jews on every point of the traditional/liberal spectrum...
...Suffering from IBD The September 1988 issue of MOMENT is only my second issue, but already I feel I have received my money's worth...
...We can all have our own space, be independent, work out at the gym, meet our friends and still make the relationship the priority...
...I am a Jewish single from the "East Side" who has been extremely successful both financially and professionally, and I am seeking the "right woman...
...I say "Fe, Leonid," and "Fe, MOMENT" for opening your pages to him...
...Their desires are born of narcissism, and the emptiness that comes from a total lack of Jewish ritual, tradition and scholarship...
...However, just for my own knowledge, I would like to know...
...Robert K. Zurawin, M.D...
...I believe that a long-term relationship between two people can only exist when both of them make each other their number one priority...
...Glad you agree...
...Everything the Dreskins said is true—the mental anguish, family tensions, social problems, embarrassment, etc...
...However, Reb Adin displays typically Orthodox myopia when he states that maintaining a certain portion of the mitzvol—but not every one of them—"just doesn't make sense," and that "You are either in or out...
...California "SI," Israel "FE," eh...
...You, Mr...
...Now I am sure his good advice will keep other refuseniks from going to Israel, and from making the same mistake he made...
...For generations to come, "the Steinsaltz Talmud" will be the sine qua non of tal-mudic studies...
...The Houdini article states that "the Talmud forbids the performance of miracles...
...So what is the problem...
...God answers, "I sent the Navy and the Air Force to save you, what more did you want...
...How about their names...
...Shanks, are unfortunately not immune, either...
...Most Jews believe that in the ordinary sense, rather than the extraordinary sense of it...
...To give unwed motherhood the veneer of respectability, even to affluent Jewish women whose lives are otherwise "unfulfilled," is a criminal disservice to our people...
...I don't know how that sounds to him, but it makes me wonder: • Does he recognize them as rabbis...
...W Saltzman Margate, Florida P.S...
...September 1988) on the numbering of Abraham's descendants like the stars in the heavens...
...Judge and Mrs...
...That a Jew may ask for a miraculous intervention, but should not depend on it, is illustrated by a story: A drowning man prays to God, "God save me, God save me...
...A helicopter comes and offers him a way up...
...When this happens, you will see more marriages and happiness...
...These thoughts, feelings, etc., have the quirky propensity to resist being bound to any logical consistency...
...He says, "I'm waiting for God to save me...
...Jane Lewit Bethesda, Maryland...
...John May Fort Worth, Texas Our September cover couple are Assistant Editor Judith Katzoff Rosenthal and Stuart Rosenthal, who first met at a synagogue and who were married on June 12, 1988...
...If Steinsaltz answers "No" to any of these questions (I am deliberately omitting the more ticklish question of patrilineal descent), then he is just another Orthodox rabbi who sows the seeds of disunity among the Jewish people...
...Grace M Baker Camden, South Carolina The Easiest, Most Significant Gift Every day several mail order catalogs arrive at my house with endless products on display...
...I keep MOMENT gift forms right in my desk drawer and use them for my gift needs—for a host/hostess, birthday, anniversary, thank you, or whatever...
...But, again, it would be inappropriate to rely on a miracle...
...Poor Leonid, he never knew he was Jewish, he says, because he spoke Russian...
...therefore, I would like to ask a question out of that ignorance, if I may...
...A person cannot be half swimming . . . You either swim or you walk...
...If we experience the abundance of divine compassion and blessing, we are graced, but our history has taught us to prepare for a world without miracles...
...Please express my deep gratitude to them and my thanks to MOMENT...
...Moral positions such as this, even in the non-Jewish world, are totally unacceptable and inimical to the preservation of Jewish values...
...Joan L Laird Harnsburg, Pennsylvania Rabbi Michael Berenbaum, project manager (acting) of the U.S...
...When we saw the wedding pictures, we thought they would be perfect for the synagogue setups on the cover and for the snaps that accompany our lead article...
...My son Alan has suffered with Crohn's disease since 1980, when he was 19...
...I am very active in my community in trying to combat the frightening teen pregnancy rates in the black and Hispanic communities, so I know from whence I speak...
...Pandering to the strident feminists who endorse this kind of behavior, and the approval you may receive from them from publishing such an article, does not compensate for the erosion of respect you accrue from responsible sources...
Vol. 13 • December 1988 • No. 9
