rabbi for hire?

a few months ago, i blogged about the municiple elections we were undergoing in efrat. now, our immediate community is in the process of a new campaign, this time for a rabbi for our shul. as a backdrop, it is important to note that the city of efrat has a cheif rabbi, r' shlomo riskin, who presides over the whole city but is only associated with one of the 25 shuls or so in the city. rabbi riskin prefers that each community and/or each shul have its own rabbi, so there's no conflict of interest. it took our community a very long time to come to the conlusion that it wanted a rabbi, then had a steering committee to identify candidates that took a year and half. (i should note that there are still some members who will be voting "none of the above" in the upcoming ballot).

finally, over the last four weeks, we've had three rabbis "try out" for the position. each are home-grown, that is they were all already members of our shul. they've all been giving shiurim for the community and people have been referring to them for matters of halakha. the three candidates are, in alphabetic order in order to demonstrate no preference:

• rabbi boruch efrati
• rabbi yehoshua grunstein
• rabbi itiel oron

the shabbatot rav program included a short halakha speech on friday night, a drasha shabbat morning, a shiur shabbat afternoon (usually pilpul) and then a Q&A session over seudat shelishit.
since we make early shabbat, i missed all 3 friday night speeches. since i daven in the early minyan shabbat morning, i missed all 3 drashot. since i've heard all of them in the past, i didn't need to attend their pilpul shiur, since they are all excellent. for me, the Q&A was really the best way to get an impression of what the rabbi was all about and the vision he had to lead the community.

some of the topics that came up were:

• the rabbi's ability to pasken shailot taharat hamishpacha
• the rabbi's willingness to participate in fundraising / encouraging new membership
• the rabbi's view on a soldier refusing orders (this has become a hot issue in the religious zionist camp since the army ordered soldiers to remove jews from their homes in gush katif and the like).
• the rabbi's veiw on women dancing with a sefer torah on simchat torah
• the rabbi's vision on increasing harbatzat torah (lectures, chavrutot, shiurim)
• the rabbi's intentions to resolve the major plague of talking during shul

overall, each candidate has things that he can contribute and their answers to the above topics were very interesting. if you're interested in their details, feel free to check out the shul web site and link on their names. their CVs are posted in hebrew. (while you're on the site, feel free to donate generously!) elections are this motzai shabbat, so i imagine they will probably be removed once there is a last man standing.

may the best man for the job win.

siyum sefer bereishit

this past friday, we went to partake in shalva's siyum (completion) of the first of the five books, sefer bereishit (Genesis). this event was very special for me on many levels. due to the historical, biblical and national significance of the city of hebron to the jewish people in general, but to the book of bereishit in particular, the siyum was performed on the lawn of the maarat hamachpela (the tomb of the patriarachs) in hebron. last year's siyum for first grade was also there as malka and i merited to bring our son, daniel into the convenant of abraham right there at his place of burial. several of our neighbors who were attending their daughters' ceremony outside were able to hop in for our ceremony and make our simcha that much more special. so that was a nice full circle, being as daniel celebrated his first birthday this week (and my first trip to hebron since).

so aside from the obvious emotions emitted by any feeling jew when visiting this place and the added significance of any child's jubilation of their first major accomplishment in learning of the Torah, this went even beyond that. as shalva and her classmates performed the ברכות יעקב (the blessings Yaakov gave to his sons on his death bed), by heart, with cantillations and with special movements for each blessing, it dawned on me. His first blessing was to Reueven:

רְאוּבֵן בְּכֹרִי אַתָּה, כֹּחִי וְרֵאשִׁית אוֹנִי--יֶתֶר
שְׂאֵת, וְיֶתֶר עָז.
Reuben, thou art my first-born, my might, and the first-fruits of my
strength; the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power.

while this is often considered as critisism for some mistake that he had made, for me seeing my bechora, my first-born as the first-fruits of my strength, completing this accomplishment, and especially at such a young age (i think i was in 4th or 5th grade when i completed it), gave me unprecedented nachat that i will carry with me for years. for shalva in particular, from a young age has always been fascinated with the Torah, but i can remember in particular when she was just 2.5 years old, that she would take story books of avraham purchasing the maarat hamachpela with her into bed to "read" it just one more time.

also as part of the performance: שחיינו וקימנו והיגינו לזמן הזה
may G-d bless us all to continue to strive to be closer to Him and to his Torah.

surprise! Hussein O(s)ama supports iran's nuclear legitimacy

again, US politics are not really my forte, but i can identify ominous news items when i see one.

after mr obama was elected, i blogged this post, summing it up with my facebook status at the time:

shlomo wishes america and its inhabitants the best of luck. you've made
your bed and now will have to sleep in it.

not that we should really be surprised since obama always expressed his intention to negoiate with a power that has explicitly called for the destruction of israel. now, he during campaign, he never mentioned that "willing to negotiate" means "supports their (nuclear) right". no one could imagine, during campaign or now, the possibility of "proving to be peaceful" when denying the holocaust and calling to whipe us off the map.

well, according to the transcript of his speech in cairo today, obama said,

Now part of this conviction is rooted in my own experience.
......my father came from a Kenyan family that includes generations of
Muslims. As a boy, I spent several years in Indonesia and heard the call of
the azaan at the break of dawn and at the fall of dusk.

obama is already in office, but is no longer a Christian in the skin of a Muslim. Hussein's true colors have come shining through and it is very troublesome for american jewry and for israel.

i cannot reiterate this enough (as other jews once tried warning their bretheren in Germany not too long ago):

JEWS, COME HOME!

i pity the fool

from blogging experience, espn embedded videos don't last forever, but here's a cute one: 

mr t singing "root root root for the cubbies" in wrigley; enjoy!

shavuot and conversion

this shavuot, we will learn megillat rut with an additional timely inspiration. as ruth the moabite was a pradigm for righteous converts and merited to have the kingdom of david stem from her offspring, it is also important to note that the central theme of the holiday, that of matan torah, has strong overtures of conversion. rashin in mishpatim 24:6 points this out based on several gemaras (most poignantly in keritut) delianating parallels of the historical context of the giving of the torah and that of any convert, focusing on the three primary tenets of circumcision, mikvah (immersion), korban, and of course, the acceptance of the yoke of heaven. 

conversion has made big headlines lately in israel. 2 major supreme court rulings: 

1. to explain the revoking of thousands of conversions under the supervision of rav drukman, shlita.

2. the government funding of reform and conservative conversion facilities

finally, our holy city of efrat has taken this opportunity to host a special conversion event yesterday with the marriage of 2 converts from the conversion center here. though i wasn't able to attend, i was told that it was very inspirational. 

one more thought by rav goldwicht regarding acceptance of torah/yoke of heaven:

though it is a disagreement which day was matan torah (the giving of the torah), the קבלת התורה - acceptance of the torah is up to us. every day. חג שמח

holiday eats and treats

on monday night, as we were out celebrating lag b'omer, shalva asked me, "why do we eat marshmallows davka on lag b'omer?"

i tried to keep a straight face and told her, "when rabi shimon bar yochai hid in the cave for 13 years, he and his son lived only on marshmallows."

"really?" she asked incredulously.

"no; not really. rabi akiva used to give out marshmallows to his students. they just fought over them and for that reason, they died."

"really?"

"no; not really".

"tell me really why we eat them".

"because they taste good toasted over our bonfires." (for those new to this game, that's the real answer).

when we came home from our traditional bonfire (can be seen in far left corner of the photo) and put the kids to bed, malka and i ate our traditional lag b'omer lasagna with spinach.

hit the ground walking

a lesson i learned the other day: 

even when really tired after a delicious cholent and before the shabbat nap, and even when holding my two eldest children in each hand, walking to shul with my eyes falling asleep while heading downhill may not end up in a "straight" line. 

"boom"!

i asked shalva why she didn't warn me of the oncoming curb and she let me know that i hadn't informed her of my decision to walk with my eyes closed.

oh well, you learn something every day.