September 9, 2005
Faith and Faithfulness
I applaud the moral content of David Klinghoffer’s recent column on adultery (“Bigger Than Brad and Jen,” September 2). But Klinghoffer’s real argument, that only mighty religious commands can deter infidelity while weak secular ethics actually encourage it, is absurd.
Actually, only thanks to secular ethics can anyone condemn Brad for two-timing Jen. “Thou shalt not commit adultery,” as authoritatively interpreted by our Sages, does not prohibit a married man from having sex with a single woman. Klinghoffer likes to quote Rashi. On this commandment, he should have consulted Rashi, who stated: “Adultery applies only to the case of sex with a married woman.” Doubtlessly, married men through the ages have exculpated themselves by persuading themselves that their affairs weren’t technically adultery, since the woman was not married.
There are other prohibitions on premarital or nonmarital sex, to be sure, but one cannot derive from them the sanctity of the marriage bond, as they apply equally to married and unmarried folks. Generally, classical Judaism would have regarded male infidelity as crass, obnoxious behavior — but not adultery. Female infidelity, on the other hand, is a capital crime. Perhaps classical Judaism’s strongest statement against married men having affairs with single women is Rabbi Moses Isserles’s assertion in his contribution to the Shulchan Aruch that “some say” male infidelity is grounds to compel a divorce.
Judaism’s sex ethics derive from an ancient patriarchal, polygamous context, more concerned with restricting women’s behavior than men’s. Only ethics beyond halachic rules helped us see that sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. Thanks to this outside influence, modern Jews have expanded our sense of adultery and now properly revile either marriage partner who betrays their spouse’s trust. Blessed is the God of providence who leads us forward to this insight.
Rabbi Jeremy Kalmanofsky
New York, N.Y.
Peace Now Means Now
Americans for Peace Now’s Mark Rosenblum writes that “No one is suggesting that Israel should immediately be asked to make the same kind of sweeping territorial concessions in the West Bank that it just made in Gaza” (“The West Bank Connection,” September 2).
However, the Israeli Peace Now Web site plainly states that the movement’s new campaign slogan is “Don’t Stop with Gaza — Continue Towards Peace!” At another section of the site, stickers can be found, composed years ago, demanding that Israel get out of the territories. “Immediately” and “sweeping,” then, would seem to be way past and long gone.
I would think that Rosenblum is being injudicious in assuming that most people are unable to read what is published as the actual positions of the organization instead of believing opinion articles such as this one.
Yisrael Medad
Shiloh, West Bank
Orthodoxy Isn’t Cheap
When it comes to working versus stay-at-home moms, the issue is not what is ideally preferable, but rather what is practically necessary (“Orthodox Union Riles Working Moms,” September 2). The price of admission to Modern Orthodox life is so prohibitive, a family of four sometimes seems to need a household income within the top half percentile in order to break even. More than two kids, and they’re in real trouble.
In New York City, for example, tuition for two children with ancillary costs will easily run $40,000 or more. Four weeks at summer camp will tack on upwards of $6,000. Synagogue membership and High Holy Days seats? Another $1,200, excluding appeals and building funds. Then there is the added cost of keeping kosher, the expected charitable donations and the horrendous cost of housing in religious neighborhoods. The first $100,000 of pretax earnings barely covers the cost of being Jewish.
No wonder our community produces an endless line of lawyers and doctors and nary a writer or thinker. We are programming our sons and daughters to become cash cows just so that they can tread water in the frum community.
If anything, Sara Malka Poupko Reichman, the essayist who suggested that mothers should ideally stay at home, should be more concerned about the “birth control” effect of being religious — whereby Orthodox women limit the sizes of their families simply to avoid starvation or the absurd stigma of having to plead poverty to anonymous scholarship committees despite a six-figure household income.
Let’s get real.
J.J. Gross
Bronx, N.Y.
Surprise Endorsement
A strong thank you to the Forward for your August 26 article “Synagogue Group Backs John Roberts Nomination.” Without your good reporting, I, as a Conservative Jew for more than 50 years, would not have known that I supposedly view Judge Roberts as “qualified”!
Word of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism’s unconscionable action has now also been reported by The Associated Press and reached even the tiny local newspaper in Crescent City, Calif. I have written Rabbi Jerome Epstein, executive vice president of United Synagogue, in part as follows:
“Who decided to turn the United Synagogue into a political organization on the model of the Christian Coalition? What allows you to think you represent politically 1.5 million Conservative Jews? Who called on you to take on such a political role?… What about your tax-exempt status as a religious, not a political, organization?”
The country is now rightly distracted by the misery inflicted by Hurricane Katrina. But please, fellow Conservative Jews who are Forward readers, act to keep this strange little cadre of self-appointed political experts from getting away with this trick.
Sylvia G. Lenhoff
Crescent City, Calif.
Irrational Gas-Guzzling
In his August 26 opinion article Antoine Halff suggest that higher energy prices could stimulate a virtuous cycle of conservation and innovation as cheap oil disappears (“Breaching ‘The Breaking Point’: Politics Fueling High Oil Prices”). I do not share his confidence that the market will suffice to alleviate the very real peak energy supplies problem.
The energy market doesn’t function like the theoretical classical market of omniscient, rational players. Consumers buy giant Hummers and SUVs for primarily emotional reasons. Automobile-centered American suburbia sprawls endlessly into the Florida swamp, Arizona desert and Midwestern prairie. And available energy conservation technologies are not fully utilized.
Prices at the gas pump and the utility meter don’t reflect the cost of military and diplomatic efforts to stabilize oil supplies from the developing world. Just look at our intervention in Iraq and deployment of military forces in the Middle East. As Halff cited in numerous additional examples, pesky politics keep interfering with classical market supply responses to consumer energy demand. Al Qaeda would like to interfere with our energy supplies some more.
I fear that our economy is not getting enough of the right price signals and that our political leaders are not courageous and mentally agile enough to respond to the tightening energy noose around America’s neck. We have had ample warnings since the 1970s oil embargoes. Yet we do not have meaningful energy taxes, nor have we reformed land use to encourage the development of compact, walkable, mixed-use communities connected by mass transit. Instead, politicians, journalists and consumers vent their spleen on scapegoats, such as hapless gas-station owners and attendants.
Steve Lanset
Hoboken, N.J.
Ritual Abuse Excuse
Regarding your August 26 news article “Controversial Circumcision Rite Becomes Issue in Mayoral Race,” it is outrageous that this problem is viewed by some as a political or religious issue. It is a child-health issue.
Anyone — mohel, rabbi or parent — who, in the face of scientific evidence, subjects an infant to the possibility of serious illness or death should be prosecuted for child abuse, notwithstanding any religious tradition that is cited.
Sy Lutto
West Palm Beach, Fla.
Tasty Tofu Treats
In reference to the challenge that Beth Wolpoff faces with the lack of parve desserts that are quick to make, may I suggest the book “Tofu Cookery” by Louise Hagler (“Duncan Hines Goes Dairy, Time-pressed Bakers Rise Up,” August 26).
I have been making the chocolate pudding for years. There are many other flavors, and they are all dairy- and egg-free. Ten minutes in the blender.
D. J. Heinze
Aberdeen, N.J.
Not-so-Fantastic Four
I don’t know what’s more pathetic: that someone cares about the Jewishness of a fictional character or that someone actually subjected himself to “repeated viewings” of the Fantastic Four movie (“Invisible? Yes. Fantastic, Yes. But a Member of the Tribe…?” August 19).
David Waghalter
Los Angeles, Calif.
Israel: More Than Sex
I feel compelled to clarify my quotes in your article about the phenomenon of “Sexual Zionism” (“Selling Israel With Sun, Fun and a Whiff of Sex…,” August 19). My remarks were not an endorsement of the practice of using sex to sell Israel. My analysis about the sexualization of Israel was offered with regard to the major Israel program providers that use such tactics. My critique, which was not included in the article, was that this is a particularly superficial marketing ploy. My intent was to elucidate this opportunistic strategy that unfortunately stoops to the level of crass sexual commercialism and perpetuates a shallow vision of Israel as a romantic playground for American Jews.
Habonim Dror, as the originator of the long-term Israel program 56 years ago, prides itself on providing deep and meaningful connections to Israel. We entice our members to come to Israel with the opportunity to take part in the creation of cooperative communities that are based on the principles of social justice, equality, peace and coexistence as envisioned by our prophets. Historically, Habonim Dror pioneers, bare-chested or not, settled the land and revolutionized Israeli society with the establishment of kibbutzim. Today, in the spirit of building a just and equitable society in Israel, Habonim Dror graduates are creating and joining intentional urban communities that are sprouting up all over the country.
In the context of contemporary American society, rife with consumerism that panders to the lowest common denominator of sex, I can’t say I am surprised that Israel program providers have chosen to follow the lead of the market. I can say that I expect more from reputable organizations that purport to provide positive educational values and experiences to our Jewish youth. And I know for certain, through my own experiences in Habonim Dror, that Israel, albeit a land mythically known to flow with milk and honey, has a lot more to offer than just babes and brawn.
Alex Sharone
National Director
Habonim Dror North America
New York, N.Y.
Churchill’s Real Views
I would like to take this opportunity to correct some misstatements of fact that appeared in Marek Halter’s opinion article about the bombing of Hiroshima and the end of the war (“Revisiting Hiroshima, Rethinking the Way We War,” August 5).
Halter quotes without comment Pierre Joliot-Curie’s statement that “the recourse to the atomic bomb was not necessary. Even Churchill admitted as much.”
But Winston Churchill admitted no such thing. What he actually said, in a speech to the House of Commons on August 16, 1945, was as follows: “There are voices which assert that the bomb should never have been used at all. I cannot associate myself with such ideas. Six years of total war have convinced most people that had the Germans or Japanese discovered this new weapon, they would have used it upon us to our complete destruction with the utmost alacrity. I am surprised that very worthy people, but people who in most cases had no intention of proceeding to the Japanese front themselves, should adopt the position that rather than throw this bomb, we should have sacrificed a million American and a quarter of a million British lives in the desperate battles and massacres of an invasion of Japan. Future generations will judge these dire decisions, and I believe that if they find themselves dwelling in a happier world from which war has been banished, and where freedom reigns, they will not condemn those who struggled for their benefit amid the horrors and miseries of this gruesome and ferocious epoch.”
Halter also misidentifies “the infamous Werner von Braun” as the leader of the German scientists who were about to manufacture an atomic bomb. He appears to be confusing von Braun, who headed the rocket program, with Werner Heisenberg, the famed physicist who was a prominent figure in Germany’s nuclear energy program.
He also writes that the Nazis were “focusing on developing a long-range rocket, the V-2” but that “the rockets, as it turned out, were never used.” In fact, London came under attack by V-2 rockets in 1944.
Finally, he says that von Braun surrendered to American troops in late 1944. His actual date of surrender to the 44th Infantry Division was May 2, 1945.
Michael L. Ticktin
Roosevelt, N.J.
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