Ta'anis Esther

[this is based on a post from 2 years ago and will be published in Peiros Ha'aretz.]

This coming Thursday, the 13th of Adar, is Ta'anis Esther, a puzzling fast day. According to many opinions, this fast commemorates the fast the Jews fought during the war against their enemies on the 13th of Adar. According to others, it is in memory of the 3 days the Jews fasted before Esther went to see Achashverosh. That occurred during Pesach time, so it seems strange to mark this fast on the wrong date. But either way, why is it necessary to fast, no tragedy happened on Ta'anis Esther! Also, according to some opinions, it shold be forbidden to fast on the day before a holiday! What was the great need to fast before Purim?

Purim is an unusually jubilant day in the Jewish Calendar. There are the mitzvoth of mishloach manot and the festive seudah, and there's even a mitzvah to get drunk! This is besides all the customs that have become common, such as wearing costumes.

But matters were very different for the Jews in the times of Haman. A royal decree had been passed, calling for the annihilation of all the Jews. People did not know what would happen. It was scary times.

In the end, the Jews were miraculously saved, but because of an important reason: They did Teshuva. Haman had caused the Jews to wake up, and they fasted and repented. G-d then caused the miraculous turnaround of Purim.

On Purim, when we celebrate with such ecstasy, there's a risk we might become too light-hearted. There are still those who seek to destroy us, and it is vital we don't miss the message. Therefore, on the day before Purim, we recall the troubles and worries the Jews went through, and more importantly, we remember the reason they were saved, and we do teshuva ourselves. Only then can we celebrate a meaningful Purim.

Slifkin and Darwinism (draft)

Although it's been some time since I read the book, I felt I should try to bring to a close the Slifkin & Darwinism series. The last post on this topic pointed out that Science wasn't as perfect as Slifkin claimed. In this post I'd like to discuss Darwinism specifically.

Slifkin says that the science of Darwinism should be judged separately from any implications people draw from it. This is true to a point. But if an ideology allows people to be "intellectually fulfilled atheists" [-Dawkins], perhaps that is part of the reason that it became so widely accepted. The fact that Darwinism and social darwinism developed together and led to Nazism also says something about it.. [eval on own w/o faith in sci random make sence?]

So we cannot just have faith in the Darwinist's words. We must compare their beliefs to ours. They are materialists, who do not believe in anything above the physical. Therefore, they have to pick between aliens having created life or it having spontaneously arisen. Because of many obvious problems with the former (how did the aliens arise?), most scientists prefer the latter.

Fine, that's what they're forced to believe, but why would a religious person accept that? How could someone like Slifkin accept this ideology of randomness? A perfectly encoded string RNA does not just form on it's own. And definetly not with the similarly amazing proteins (all just happening to be made of the just right order of 'left-handed' molecules) to carry out its instructions!

Life could not have arisen and evolved just by unguided forces. There was a Guiding Hand.

Nebach!

Welcome to the nebach! blog. New readers are invited to check out the
selected posts on the side of the Nebach! blog. They can read some posts
on Intelligent Design, then read some critical analysis of "Challenge of
Creation", a book by R' Slifkin. There's some posts on Jewish Education,
and then some more selected posts on miscellaneous topics.
Old readers of Nebach! will be happy to find out that new posts will
becoming to Nebach! some time in the future.

P.S.
I'm sending this posts from the 1980's email service in KBY. It may come
out weirdly.

Ariel

Hebrew

I would normally put this in a comment on the post its relevant to, but im
not able to access my blog in kby. (Check back on old posts for
brilliant insights or information i only found later.)

The Rosh HaYeshiva, R' Greenberg, Gave a shiur today about speaking in
Lashon HaKodesh. I don't think I mentioned in my post the holiness of
Hebrew, another (if not primary) reason to teach hebrew to the very young.
Hebrew is the language of the Jews, the Holy Tongue of the Holy People
(Gur Aryeh, Devarim 1:23). It is the language G-d communicates with
his people (Ramban shemos 30:13).

But specifically about teaching your child hebrew, read this quote from
the Sifri:

When a child begins to speak, his father teaches him lashon hakodesh and
teaches him torah. But if he does not speak with him in lashon
hakodesh and does not teach him torah, it is fit as if he
buried him, as it says, "teach them to your children"

The sifre explains the limud: "l'ma'an yirbu y'meichem" only is true if
"v'limadtem es b'neichem", and "m'klal hen ata shomea lav".
(see also tosefta chagiga 1)

In the Holy Land

I got to KBY 2 days ago, and I'm using their email software from 1989. I'm
emailing blogger whch should post this on my blog. I had been planning on
publishing many posts, but there wasn't enough time between MoKo and KBY.
I don't even have access to my drafts saved on Blogger, but I'll probably
figure out a way to get them. There may be more posts in the future!

A Guten Chodesh

Small Schools

There are way too many Jewish yeshiva high schools for boys. Just in Monsey alone, there are 9? black-hat schools. Due to their small sizes they spend money inefficiently and can't afford many things.

Each school first needs its own building and transportation. Then they each have to get their own menahel, mashgiach, principle, secretary and janitor. Each school then has to offer certain basic classes, even if there aren't enough kids. A calculus class might only have 3 kids. Its not very efficient use of tuition and tzedaka.

But even worse is the lack of choice for kids stuck in a small school. The school is unlikely to have a gym, lab or computer room. The classes will have kids of different abilities dumped together. If AP's are offered, they won't be their own class. Almost everyone will have to go to the same classes without being able to pick what interests them. There won't be any interesting or useful classes like technology or public speaking. There won't be any extracurricular activities or sports. In Limudei Kodesh, there will only be one shiur for all. The brighter and more motivated kids will be forced to learn at a low level. Small schools are clearly quite a disadvantage.

Some will somehow argue that small schools are good, there's more personal attention. Even assuming that's a good thing, it's clearly outweighed by the disadvantages. Imagine if all the high-schools in Monsey moved in to one property. In the beginning, they'll each have completely separate schools, and just save money on the property. But then they'll realize they can get joint transportation and build gyms, etc. They'll make one calculus class for all those interested. They may even start offering a choice of classes besides math. Eventually, they might even realize there's no real point in having so many menahels, etc. After that, they'll figure out a better way to divide up the shiurim and classes. Someone will then notice it will make more sense to have one building and they'll be one school.

So why are there so many black-hat high-schools? There aren't so many elementary schools, girls' schools or modern high schools. There aren't too many bakeries or hardware stores!

I think there's too much of a supply of people who want to be rebbeim, menahilim and rosh yeshivas of mesivtas. In a regular business, that would drive down prices too low, and people would have to switch jobs. But high schools can just collect tzedaka and don't need to be profitable, so anyone can be a rosh yeshiva. I guess the solution is to go to a modern school, which doesn't have as big a supply of rebbeim.