ללא מחבר No Author

Ishay Ribo: ‘From a Young Age, I Resolved to Write Only Songs Connected to God and Judaism’

Ishay Ribo: The Great Harmonizer

Jan 5, 2020  |  by 

Ishay Ribo’s star is rising, and with it comes a message of hope, faith, and unity.

Last week, on the first downpour of the winter, Ishay Ribo was sitting with his band around a wobbly wooden table in a far corner of the Jerusalem International Convention Center.

Cigarette smoke hung in the air, water bottles were scattered about, and one of his producers was playing backgammon with a balding schlepper. Ribo’s guitarist, long sidelocks reaching his shoulders, slouched in a wooden chair, texting on his phone. His bass player, a small cap atop his head, wore a weathered jacket and a blank expression. Ribo, his beard trimmed close, his short hair slightly graying, tzitzis hanging out of a gray hoodie, sat in the middle of his crew, his eyes at attention.

The linoleum on the floor is cracked, the yellow paint on the walls is peeling, and the fluorescent light above casts a dim glow, but here sits perhaps Israel’s hottest act, preparing for a show.

The scene is right out of a clubhouse – kids seated in a circle playing marbles, friends gathered around a table for a friendly game of cards. There is camaraderie in the air, but also a hint of tension, as if something big is about to happen but no one is exactly sure what.

Ribo is 30 years old, and until a few years ago he was a minor act on the Israeli music scene. Then came his big break, in 2014, when Idan Raichel, a pop star regarded as one of Israel’s most creative and popular musicians, as well as a taste maven with the ability to launch careers, invited Ribo on stage to play a song.

That song, “Tocho Ratzuf Ahavah,” remains Ribo’s calling card, his classic, the sound that other Israeli artists now try to imitate and the melody that has endeared him to the full spectrum of Israeli music lovers, from the proudly secular to the starkly religious.

The song embodies Ribo as an artist. It is both delicate and energetic, full of longing yet exploding into hope. It is also a deeply religious song, with sources in Prophets, Psalms, and Proverbs, and yet its lyrics are easily accessible. It is a foot-tapping pop song with lyrics worthy of poetry.

The song is Ishay Ribo and Ishay Ribo represents the Israeli moment. He is Sephardi but appeals to the entire mishmash of Israeli society – Ashkenazim, chassidim, unidentified. He is a yeshivah graduate who wears a big black kippah and long tzitzis, yet secular Tel Avivans sing along to his songs with the same gusto that chareidim from Beit Shemesh do. He is a former singer in the army band who was invited to perform at both Israel’s nationally televised Independence Day celebration and its Memorial Day commemoration.

To date, he has released four albums – one of which went platinum, two of which went gold – and has recorded duets with a gamut of Israeli pop stars, from legend Shlomo Artzi to chassidic star Motti Steinmetz to pop king Omer Adam. Next year he plans a worldwide tour with stops in the United States, Canada, Mexico, France, and South Africa (he plays Queens College on June 4 and Saban Theater in Los Angeles on June 7), an impressive schedule of international concerts for an Israeli musician who sings in Hebrew and speaks little English.

It’s easy to pinpoint Ribo’s appeal. His voice is smooth and melodic, with a note of truth and urgency. Many of his songs are centered around acoustic guitar, which he plays, or piano, manned by his longtime collaborator, David Ichelovitch. It’s hard to identify his style, but it’s probably best described as soul-spiritual or folk-rock.

Menachem Toker, Israel’s most popular chareidi broadcaster, describes Ribo as a musician who has accomplished the rare feat of cutting across Israel’s sharply defined societal lines.

“Ishay Ribo is totally observant, every yeshivah student can listen to his music,” says Toker. “But he’s also the bridge between the chareidi and chassidic and the dati-leumi. He is the only singer in Israel today loved by the religious and the secular. Some like [Yaakov] Shewkey and some like Omer Adam, but there’s no consensus like Ishay Ribo.”

Continue reading…

From Aish, here.

Is Evolution Jewishly ‘Fixable’? – Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan

Aryeh Kaplan on Evolution- A Missing Chapter of The Handbook of Jewish Thought

Posted on October 24, 2019 by 

In honor of Bereshit, here is Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan on reading Genesis as presenting the truths of 20th century science, as discussing a world 2 billion years old with humans as existing for 25,000 years.

This is part VII in a series on Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan- for biography see Part I, Part II, Part III, for Kabbalah see Part IV  Part V  and Part VI Much of the prior biographic discussion has already been incorporated into Wikipedia.

Aryeh Kaplan’s Handbook of Jewish Thought has become a classic of synthesizing the classic positions of Jewish thought into an order fashion both an introductory guide and simultaneously a reference book

Below is a pdf of a full chapter of Aryeh Kaplan’s Handbook of Jewish Thought left out of the published work because he presents evolution as part of the basic tenets of Judaism. The already typeset chapter has an editor’s note across the top asking if the chapter is “fixable” and “true kosher”? There is also an editor’s note that dates the chapter to 1968 when Kaplan was leading a Conservative congregation in Dover NJ.

The Handbook of Jewish Thought was published in two volumes, the first, containing 13 chapters, appeared in the author’s lifetime in 1979. The second volume edited by Avraham Sutton, was published posthumously in 1992. This volume has 25 chapters. While the first volume had no introduction from the author, the second volume contains the following statement:

The bulk of the present volume is from the author’s original 1967- 1969 manuscript that consisted of 40 chapters. Thirteen of these chapters were prepared for publication by Rabbi  Kaplan himself and published in 1979 as the Handbook of Jewish thought – Volume I. It is clear that the remaining chapters were set aside with the thought of eventually preparing them for publication. Of these remaining chapters, 25 are presented here

Despite the assertion that the first volume was called “volume 1”, no such statement is to be found in the original Handbook of Jewish thought.

Quick arithmetic – 13 (volume 1) and 25 (volume 2) indicates that 2 chapters of the original 40 were suppressed. In the end, they – Moznayim – or the Kaplan family concluded to leave these chapters out of the book.  Generally, the works published by Moznayim are much more circumspect than the audio recording of his lectures. Here is an extreme case.

Moznayim assigned people to edit Kaplan’s writings  or tapes of his lectures who were not there at the lectures or had left for other teachers years before.

I thank Rabbi Ari Kahn for providing access by sending me the pdf of this gem. If someone has the final – 40th chapter – I would love to see it.

Evolution      

Kaplan is explicit in his affirmation of evolution in this piece.

In the first three paragraphs, he states that the creation account in Genesis is not literal and not science but narrated to teach the history of Israel. He believes that new concepts in science are always being discovered beyond the limited science known in the Biblical and rabbinical era.  We are, according to Kaplan, to continuously interpret the Biblical text according to currently available knowledge.

Even though the explicit text is to narrate Israel’s history, nevertheless Kaplan states that the scientific knowledge is hinted at in the Masoretic text through “subtle variations”. In addition, we have traditions that aid in our discovering the scientific truth in the text. Maimonides and other medieval commentators interpreted the text based on Aristotle. Maimonides in his Guide II:29 explains how he would be willing to read texts based on current science. Similarly, Kaplan footnotes Ramchal in his commentary of the Aggadot.

Kaplan considers the creation of the universe as billions of years ago when there was the initial creation as the creation of matter as well as the initial creation of time/space. The creation at the start of Genesis was billions of years ago according to Kaplan, even if the Torah does not explicitly state it.

Kaplan explicitly rejects the 19th century Gosse theory, a theory that the world only appears to be older because God created it that way. Kaplan writes: “God does not mislead humans by making the world appear older.” Many of the members of the Association of Orthodox Scientists of his era did accept Gosse as did the Lubavitcher Rebbe.

Kaplan defines the creation with the date of 3761 BCE as only the date when Adam (the new being with intelligence) was created. The world itself is billions of years old and various species of men, including Neanderthals and Homo Erectus, pre-date this created Adam.  People generally assume the creation of the world, creation of men, and creation of the intelligent descendants of Adam occurred at the same time; Kaplan differentiates these events.

The metaphoric sixth day was only when Adam was created in Divine thought as the plan for creation, not the actual date of his creation- see below on Kaplan’s acknowledging humanoids before Adam. (Berakhot 61b  Eruvin 18a)

Kaplan makes a general statement that the “time of creation is not essential to our thought.” He proves this from a citation in Yehuda Halevi’s  Kuzari,1:60-61”

Al Khazari: Does it not weaken thy belief if thou art told that the Indians have antiquities and buildings which they consider to be millions of years old?” To which the Rabbi in the dialogue answers: “The Rabbi: It would, indeed, weaken my belief had they a fixed form of religion, or a book concerning which a multitude of people held the same opinion, and in which no historical discrepancy could be found. Such a book, however, does not exist.”

Kaplan takes this to mean that Halevi would only be bothered if they had a form of religion accepted by the multitude with discrepancy, but not about the claim concerning civilization and ancient books.

Continue reading…

From Kavvanah, here.

Headlines In Halacha – Jews Going to College

1/18/20 – Show 255 – Is it Mutar to go to Secular College

January 17, 2020

Coed dorms, bathrooms and classes; frats, drinking, and OTD risk; “orthodox” Jews mixed dancing parties at night and Shacharis the next morning; rampant anti-Semitism; extreme liberalism and Kefirah – is there any Heter?

Are the Ivy League Schools worse than Brooklyn and Queens colleges? How does the situation in the U.S. compare to that of the U.K., South Africa and Australia? 

** Guest Hosted by Ari Wasserman ** Author of “Making it Work,” “Making it ALL Work” (for women) and 10 other Seforim, Maggid Shiur, Yerushalayim

with Rabbi Zevulun Schwartzman – Rosh Kollel – Yerushalayim – 8:06
with Yoni Goldberg – student, Princeton University – 33:34
with “Bracha” – student, Ivy League university – 53:24
with Rabbi Dr. Akiva Tatz – author, speaker – London – 1:03:30
with Aaron Fishkind – student, University of Pennsylvania – 1:21:52
with Yoni Katz – student, NYU – 1:29:37
with Rabbi Dr. Gil Perl – Head of Kohelet Yeshiva – Pennsylvania – 1:41:00
with Cameron Isen – student, University of Pennsylvania – 2:09:00
with “Sarah” – student, Ivy League university – 2:21:30
with Professor Alan Dershowitz – retired Harvard Law School professor – 2:31:40
with “Alex Lyons – former student in the United Kingdom –  2:53:00
with Ari Jackson – former student in Australia – 2:55:10
with “Yaakov” – recent graduate, Queens College – 2:57:45

Continue reading…

From Headlines In Halacha, here.

Vote For Yigal Amir’s Release?

Party aiming to free Yigal Amir to run in March election

Mishpat Tzedek party, headed by wife of assassin Yigal Amir, registers to run in upcoming Knesset election.

Arutz Sheva Staff, 15/01/20 09:16

A party dedicated to securing the release of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s assassin, Yigal Amir, has been allowed to register for the upcoming Knesset election.

The Mishpat Tzedek (Fair Trial) party, headed by Yigal Amir’s wife, Larissa Amir (nee Trembovler), registered to run for the Knesset on Tuesday, after the party promised not to publicly back the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin.

Mrs. Amir told the Central Elections Committee Tuesday that the party, whose full name is the “Mishpat Tzedek Party for Judicial Reform and the Release of Yigal Amir”, was dedicated to securing a retrial for Yigal Amir as well as “all those people who deserve it, all the innocent people sitting in prison.”

Fourteen candidates are included in the party’s Knesset slate, with Yigal Amir’s wife in the top spot, and Yigal Amir’s mother, Geula Amir, in the sixth spot.

In November 1995, Amir, then a 25-year-old law student at Bar Ilan University, shot and killed Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin as he left a rally in Tel Aviv.

Amir confessed to the killing, saying that he had murdered Rabin to prevent the continuation of the Oslo process with the Palestinian Authority, and was sentenced to life plus 14 years in prison.

Despite his confession, some have argued that Amir was not actually responsible for Rabin’s death. Earlier this year, Bar Ilan professor Mordechai Kedar sparked controversy when he claimed that Amir was not the assassin.

Amir’s wife, who married Amir a decade after the assassination, has lobbied for his release.

Working in conjunction with his wife, Amir last year sought to promote the establishment of a political party dedicated to securing his release from prison, allegedly soliciting the involvement of Israeli rapper Yoav Eliasi, better known by his stage name “Hatzel” (The Shadow). Eliasi reportedly rejected the offer to help lead the party.

The party, tentatively named “Nura Deliba”, was not registered for either of the Knesset elections in 2019.

Attorney Eyal Globus of the Central Elections Committee ruled last month that the new party, renamed Mishpat Tzedek, could be allowed to run in the March 2nd election so long as it does not condone the assassination of Prime Minister Rabin.

From Arutz Sheva, here.

Israeli Government Violations of Disengagement Opponents’ Civil Rights

Civil Rights Violations during the “Disengagement” period

The 50 page report is authored by Dr. Yitzhak Klein, director of The Israel Policy Center; Shmuel Meidad, founder and director of Honenu, and attorney Itzik Bam. It can be downloaded here.

A particularly poignant Honenu case from the summer of 2005 is that of Chaya Belogorodsky, then 14 years old. Her drama began when she took part in a nonviolent demonstration against the expulsion. After watching two friends get arrested, she walked over to the police van to see how they were faring. As she stood nearby, a police officer told her to leave. When Belogorodsky replied that she was permitted by law to stand on the sidewalk, she was arrested for insulting a police officer.

The nightmare was now in full swing. Belogorodsky was placed in solitary confinement for five days. A hole in the ground served as a toilet; there was no shower, no toilet paper, no running water. She was also not permitted visits or phone calls. On Shabbat, the guards shut off the lights, guessing correctly that, as a religious Jew, she would not turn them back on. Belogorodsky spent that Shabbat in the dark. Because of the lack of kashrut supervision, she also avoided most of the food served. The “system” tried to break the spirits of hundreds of youngsters like her, aiming to discourage others from future protests.

When the five days had ended, Belogorodsky was moved to a regular prison cell. She was now granted one hour each day outside her cell for exercise and phone calls home. Her family was permitted a 30-minute visit once a week. Older girls in prison on similar charges were strip-searched after each family visit, ostensibly so prison authorities could find hidden drugs.

Belogorodsky’s father called Honenu. The prosecution wanted her remanded until trial, which at that point could have been months away. Honenu’s lawyers took the case to the Supreme Court, where Judge Ayala Procaccia, a strong advocate for government crackdown on dissenters, accepted the prosecution’s arguments that teenage Belogorodsky was an “ideologically motivated criminal” who could negatively influence others even in house arrest. The prosecution was willing to allow her to be released to a kibbutz, saying it would be a “good educational experience for her.” Belogorodsky and her parents refused on religious grounds.

As Belogorodsky’s days in jail grew to 40, public pressure on the State intensified. Eventually, the justice system relented and allowed her to return home. Belogorodsky’s father credits Honenu with extricating her from the nightmare.

Akiva Vitkin’s story also began at a non-violent protest. As the 19-year-old sat in the streets of Ramat Gan protesting the expulsion, three police officers sat on top of him and pretended to handcuff him. “Another police officer approached Akiva from behind, leaned towards his head, stuck his fingers in Akiva’s nostrils and pulled violently upwards and backwards,” Tuvia Lerner of National News Network recalls. “Akiva was dragged to a police car while he was bleeding from his nose and eyes.” Lerner had stopped his car nearby and caught the shocking incident on film.

At the Ramat Gan police station afterwards, Vitkin was taken into a room where a witness observed four policemen beating him with their fists and knocking him to the floor before the door was closed. Akiva emerged with his face swollen and bloody, barely able to walk.

Belogorodsky and Vitkin are not alone. Their stories are recorded among dozens of others in a 50-page report entitled Israeli Government Violations of Disengagement Opponents’ Civil Rights. The devastating indictment against the Israeli leadership documents 165 cases of unlawful use of pretrial detention, declared immunity for police brutality, false arrest, torture, and use of General Security Services (GSS) for cases of unarmed civil disobedience.

From Honenu, here.