Torah U'Pop Culture

It is exceedingly hard not to be lonely, where nearly every mussar shmooze denouces the evil influence of "non-Torah" ideas, culture, music, literature, etc. While often referred to as "kineged HaTorah", it seems a hard sell to claim anything not written by a godol is opposite of Torah values.

In fact, why are these the only options: 1) Torah values, 2) Opposite of Torah values ???

Why can't there just be 'things.' You know, things: a novel about nothing important, a song whose lyrics you can barely hear (let alone understand), or a celebrity who facinates you more so because their story has no moral value.

Torah U'Pop Culture.

Ok, fine - I admit it: Twisted within a lot of meaningless stuff are messages - when taken seriously, as serious as The Gospel - that contain actions forbidden by Halacha. But who takes this stuff seriously? I am not a 14-year-old girl. I don't.

I won't even claim that I use pop culture as a means to find metaphors for Torah values, blah, blah, blah....I enjoy these things because they interest me. And things that interest me make me happy. And if they contain actions forbidden by Halacha, there is no inclination to trust the p'sak of Thom Yorke (or D.H. Lawrence, or Atom Egoyan) over the Chofetz Chaim and Rav Moshe. The former can't even make a laynus on a daf.

Who wants drown in pure truth, when there is so much more in the world?

God, grant me the serenity to appreciate things;
Courage to react when wrong p'sak is being presented;
And the wisdom to know the difference.

From the Mouths of Daughters

"Abba - girls go to shul on Shabbos. They're not allowed to go to shul during the week."

"I smell like fish."

"I'm a really good sink turner-offer"

Things I learned on Yom Kippur

1) There are some really strange (and awesome) Jews out there, and they show up in shul on Yom Kippur.

2) Sometimes it can be good to daven in a minyan where they need to call out the page numbers every 5 minutes, and where the chevra can't figure out when to open the Aron.

3) Reading Baal Shem Tov stories in bed during the break on Yom Kippur, while drifting in and out of sleep, is a taste of the next world...

Two Kinds of Yom Kippur

There are two types of Yom Kippur.

There is the Yom Kippur experienced by a Jew who is drowning - drowning is health problems, parnossa problems, children problems, addiction problems - or even drowning in tragedy.

There is also the Yom Kippur experienced by a Jew who is healthy, whose family is healthy, who has a good job and beautiful children and for whom life is, generally, all good.

Two completely different days...

Old Age and Dementia

My grandfather passed away recently. Without dwelling on the topic, the last few years of his life were tragic, as the family watched our beloved father and grandfather slowly deteriorate from the great man that he was into a non-communicative state of minimal function and great suffering. The thought of it makes one think of where we are ultimately headed and generally does not engender warm fuzzy feelings.

This past Rosh HaShanah I had the privilege of pushing an older gentleman in his wheelchair to and from shul a number of times. This man apparently just recently, in the past month or two, began to demonstrate symptoms of dementia, to the obvious great distress of his family. I was aware of this from the outset, but not knowing him very well beforehand, was not really disturbed by this. On our first walk, I learned that he was born in Cracow in the 20s, was in a few concentration camps during the war, was transported to Frankfurt by U.S. troops upon liberation, where he found a small reconstructed Jewish community and he remained until 1951 when he immigrated to the states, met his wife, raised a family, etc. His only surviving relative was his father, whom he was reunited with 2 years after liberation. He apparently remained observant the entire time. I earned great respect for this man in our conversations, and I felt we both enjoyed these conversations, despite his asking me the same questions on almost every walk, and other similar blunders indicating the unfortunate deterioration of his mind.

Others who know him well remarked sadly how brilliant he was, his wife expressed her torment. But given the context of my introduction to him, I wasn't disturbed by the situation. I was viewing the present moment, not the past. It is what it is, and it is unfortunate, but he is still a man with feelings and many other distinctively human capacities, and I was glad to be able to transport him to shul, have some nice conversation with him, make him smile, feel good, etc. He was quite grateful as well and expressed so numerous times.

I later reflected on this experience as compared to how I related to my grandfather in his final years. Granted, my grandfather was more debilitated and probably suffering to a much greater extent. But reality is such that many of us will end our lives in a debilitated state, to some extent or another, we have resistance to accepting that, but we can't change it. I wished that I could have related to my grandfather in partial disregard of the giant of the man he used to be, only focusing on who he is now, his current existence. Perhaps I could have focused more on making him smile instead of the horror that consumed me in not even knowing if he knew who I was anymore.

I told my wife, if I ever go that way, please, don't even think about what I was and get distraught about my condition in relation to the past. Just focus on who I am at that moment. Make me laugh, smile, make my life a positive experience, give me an opportunity to give to others and remain human despite my existence as compared to my earlier self.

Selichos - What For?

Over the past week and half, I've come to the conclusion that the purpose Selichos serve for me is essentially a ruse to ensure I get to Shacharis on time, for a week or two. I'm not sufficiently awake or familiar with the text to have a meaningful prayer experience through Selichos, and honestly I'm generally not quite on time to Selichos either. But I'm usually in shul early enough to catch a decent chunk of it, enough to appease my conscience and guarantee that I can get my tefillin on before Shacharis starts.

Messianism

"...we could use a little Messianism in our lives, even if it is false..."

- Akiva Ben Canaan

“My parents are always arguing about me. Mother wants me to be a rabbi. Father would rather have me study for a doctorate in philosophy. Theyre funny, my parents. My mother lives body and soul for Hasidism: she devotes her actions and thoughts to God. My father adores reason: he devotes all his time to skepticism about the eternal verities. To make peace between them I promised to study religion and philosophy.”

Varady was listening, his eyes half shut, and Michael wondered if he was awake.

“That’s dangerous,” the old man murmurred...

“Its dangerous,” the old man said again. “To swear fidelity to both light and shadow is to cheat. Of the roads that lead to truth there is never more than one. For each man there is only one. In that sense the atheist and the mystic are alike: they both proceed directly to the goal without turning aside. At the goal, of course, they meet. But if their paths cross on the way, they run the risk of cancelling each other out. Do you understand, my boy? You can’t be inside and outside at the same time. Man is too weak, his imagination too poor, to enter the garden at yet remain beyond the wall I know something about that…”

The boy burned with curiosity. He guessed, suddenly, that there was a direct link between the words he had just heard and the wall erected by his parents to protect him from the old man.

Elie Wiesel, The Town Beyond the Wall, 25

Cause of the Problem?

The Jewish man of faith may experience a different loneliness then his predecessor. Jewish Orthodoxy today is a far more robust affair than it was in the early sixties. Yet, one fears that in the midst of our increased learning, halakhic practice and fierce tribal loyalties of the present, the sense that it is all a means to approach the Divine may often be forgotten. Similarly, in the minutiae of learning and halakhah there is always the trap of neglecting the essential message of Divine love and our calling to emulate it.

Rabbi Mayer Schiller, “Must We Be Quite So Lonely?”

Could this be the reason why most of us are really adherents of Torah Im Rock’n'Roll?

We run and they run…

But most of us are running to the same stuff as they are, aren’t we?

Why Torah Im Rock’n'Roll?

Torah Im Rock’n'Roll is a new and practical integrative philosophy of Orthodoxy for real Jews. This means a Torah outlook that seeks to integrate with the positive elements of general culture. Why a new hashkafa? What’s the matter with the existing prevalent flavors of Orthodoxy?
Torah Umadda is just impractical. Very few people practice true Madda on its own, let alone with Torah. This hashkafa may work for a handful of academics and super intellectuals, but what about the other 99% of Jews?

Torah Im Derech Eretz? The remnants of the Frankfurt community in the U.S. have watered down their heritage and largely sold out to the yeshiva world. At present they differ from mainstream chareidim almost exclusively by liturgy and customs surrounding davening.
Torah only? Come on, we said practical. Granted, there are probably way more Jews who practice a true Torah only lifestyle than there are those who practice Torah Umadda, but from my observations it is the minority of those who ascribe to this philosophy who actually embody it in their lives.

Common, regular Jews who integrate with the world are left out in the cold, failing to meet the ideals of any of the broad Weltanschauungs outlined above. The Jew of the modern era needs a new hashkafa. Let’s call it what it is, enter Torah Im Rock’n'Roll, integrative Orthodoxy for real Jews. (Ok, we’ll try not to use the word weltanschauung again.)

Posted by Sir Bruce