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Esser Agaroth wants to know…

Here’s his list of topics for Torah classes that could get him ostracized among nominally observant Jews:

Touching between Single Men and Women: Biblical Prohibition or Option?

The Obligation of Women to Cover their Hair

Jewish Modesty: Specific Laws or Generational Guidelines?

Jewish Modesty: Who dictates these Generational Guidelines? Jews or Non-Jews?

Jewish Modesty: It’s not only about what you wear

Does the title of “Rebbetzin” mean anything other than “wife of the rabbi?”

Wedding Rings for Men: Torah-based or Non-Jewish Custom?

Keeping Torah and Mitzvoth: Do our “feelings” matter?

Are Christians Practitioners of Foreign Worship? Does it matter?

Here are a few suggestions for Torah lectures, based on Rav Yosef Soleveitchik’s ztz”l teachings, and the various, “creative” interpretations of his work:

Special Permission for Birth Control in non-life-threatening situations
(Hint: What permission? I KNOW I’m gonna get flack for this one!)

Interfaith Dialogue: Lots of Rabbis are doing it, so what’s the problem?

Modern Orthodoxy: Are we to fit the Torah into modernity, or fit modernity into the Torah?

Here are a few suggestions for Torah classes, based on Rabbi Avraham Yitzhaq Kook’s ztz”l teachings,…and the various, “creative” interpretations of his work:

The Commandment to Guard Israel’s Borders: Can this only be fulfilling through service in Israel’s Defense Forces [IDF]?

Is there a such thing as an IDF order which runs counter to the Torah?
(Hint: Rabbi Avraham Shapira ztz”l, the late Rosh Yeshiva of Merkaz HaRav Kook seemed to think so, along with many others.)

Is there ever any conflict between Torah Law and Israeli State Law?
(Do I really have to ask this question? Apparently, I do.)

Do Yehudah and Shomron (Judea and Samaria) belong to the Jewish People?Or are we squatters on Arab lands? Is the answer really that complicated?
(Hint: No, it’s not at all complicated. look at the map.)

What is the original source of Zionism? Hertzl or the Torah?
(Unfortunately, this lecture is actually quite necessary.)

Read the rest here.

Shmuel I 10:27:

ובני בליעל אמרו מה ישענו זה ויבזהו ולא הביאו לו מנחה ויהי כמחריש.

Yoma 22b – 23a:

אמר רב יהודה אמר רב מפני מה נענש שאול מפני שמחל על כבודו שנאמר ובני בליעל אמרו מה ישענו זה ויבזהו ולא הביאו לו מנחה ויהי כמחריש וכתיב ויעל נחש העמוני ויחן על יבש גלעד וגו’.

Mishlei 11:12:

בז לרעהו חסר לב ואיש תבונות יחריש.

Rashi on Mishlei:

ואיש תבונות יחריש, כשמבזהו החסר לב כמו שאול דכתיב ויבזהו ולא הביאו לו מנחה ויהי כמחריש.

Mishlei 14:34:

צדקה תרומם גוי וחסד לאמים חטאת.

“Giving charity elevates the nation; the kindness of the nations is a sin.”

Rashi explains:

צדקה תרומם גוי, ישראל. וחסד לאומים חטאת, שהיו נוטלים מזה ונותנים לזה.

“Giving charity elevates the nation” – This refers to the Jews.

“The kindness of the nations is a sin” – who take from this one and give to that one (I assume the past-tense word “היו” is only due to the censor).

In short, Tzedakah is specific.

Here is Shut (responsa) “Binyan Tzion” at the end of siman 23 defending Metzitza by focusing on the empirical nature of medicine:

Download (PDF, 51KB)

Statistical analysis is never perfect, and doctors know little of inexorable cause and effect, if anything, for certain. The same approach to this question was taken by the Chasam Sofer and Maharam Shick.

Economics, however, is logical. We know what laws will do before they do them. Nor can one say “Nishtanu Hateva’im”. Of course, while some may be of the opinion Chazal were not aware of every empirical fact, I don’t know of anyone who would (or has) dared claim Chazal misunderstood pure, unchanging logic.

And if the Torah itself mandates a socialistic mitzvah or a centralized Temple or Ribbis, this is because maximum profits are not the goal, anyway.