Running to the Bakery, Charisma, Suicide, and self- actualization

Why does everyone run the bakery right after pesach. Can’t you wait?

dr hayim solovetchik claimed once that pleasure became allowed to orthodox jews in the 70's (the so called Me decade). I feel as people think they are supposed to always feel happy and if they don’t or even worse than that, don’t feel happy when they hit a major milestone, they kill themselves.

This pursuit of pleasure to find meaning has no end. Glatt kosher sushi is the sort of thing that should make us happy, but it doesn’t. So we than look for glatt kosher pot. But even that doesn’t work. And it gets worse and worse. We look for charismatic teachers and leaders, much in the same vein. We need to feel happy, even in shul and in class. As we can't always be happy, we then get depressed as we think there is something wrong with us for being what is actually normal.

The goal of life is not happiness. It is meaning. And the whole orthodox community (at least in the USA, here I am a neophyte) has bought the lie, along with the West, that the point of life is happiness. Its like the joke that you would think that based on the way the society carries on about it that"one night stands,"make the unemployment rate fall in by half.

Unfortunately 60 years of this philosophy has helped many fewer than it has damaged. Just all the people who have died alone (before this terrible outbreak) because they abandoned their spouse or were too busy finding self- actualization to “settle down” in that petite bourgeois phrase.  As long as your goal is to feel “right” inside, you will never succeed in meeting that goal. Telling even younger and younger people to feel “right” about themselves seem like a good way to help encourage suicide among the young, as we see in social media encouraged suicides or the what researchers call, suicide clusters.

Running for chometz is just another symptom of deep danger. Having said that, I would love a bagel RIGHT NOW.

Israel's Supreme Court. Completely out of line, but What do you Expect?

Jonathan Sumption (former uk supreme Justice) pointed out in his Reith Lectures that the courts fill political vacuums (and usually in way much less satisfying than if they are filled politically). 

I think that by creating a pure unicameral system, Israel left a gap that has been filled by the Court. The question is how can this gap be realistically filled, hopefully in a Madison-esqu way. Direct election of the head of government, did not solve this problem, perhaps because it didn't resolve the problem of checks and balances. Westminster systems (like the UK and Canada) that have diminished the strength of their upper house have seen a similar issue. 

Going forward, how can this gap be filled without an unlikely constitutional convention like event or aggressive FDR-like tactics? The vacuum in the separation of powers is real. Maybe it was masked by much of Israel's early history being dominated by one side. 

However as the tide turned to the Right in power and influence, the weakness of the unicameral system has been revealed. I wonder if the answer is in devolving power somehow.

Charlie Brown, the Chazon Ish, and Bitachon

I have learned a little more about faith in Hashem from an old Peanuts
cartoon during this time of being  at home due to the health
precautions here in Israel. Charlie Brown explains in that comic strip
that security in life is, “sleeping in the back of the car when you
are a little child,” while your parents drive, “you don’t have to
worry about anything, your mother and father are in the front and they
do all the worrying... they take care of everything… but it doesn’t
last, suddenly you’re grown up and it can never that way again.” This
powerful thought is not only the musings of a comic character, but it
is also very similar to the thinking of one our greatest gedolim.

The Chazon Ish in Emunah VeBitachon says that bitachon is trusting
that what Hashem does is the right thing. It is like Emunah actualized
l'maaseh. We
believe whatever happens, good or bad, it is God’s will. Not that we
shouldn’t try to affect our lives and fate, but we must realize, that
in the end of the day, while we can make ourselves more comfortable in
the “back seat,” and adjust our “seat belt,” we are in Hashem’s car
and he does all the “worrying,” and things will turn out not
necessarily the way we planned it.

Sitting at home at the orders of our local government, wondering about
our health, our livelihoods, and the national and global economies,
things out of our hands. Whatever we think about the interventions of
our governments and leaders, we can’t do anything, it is up to them to
solve this problem we now all face. We can worry about stretching out
our budgets, or keeping children occupied, or how to learn over Zoom,
but in the end of the day, everything is in the hands of political
leaders.

Really life is like this, everything is in the hands of the leader of
all leaders, God. Sitting at home is a good time to recognize this.
For thousands of years Jews have sat hurdled in their homes, in fear
of what is outside, waiting for the knock on the door, the screech of
the mob, the horror on the other side but knowing that whatever
happens, it is the will of God. Now it’s our turn to sit at home,
feeling powerless, stuck, and fearful. It is out of our control. We
have to trust in our local governments and more importantly, we have
to learn to trust whatever is the will of God.

We are Hashem’s children, he is in the driver’s seat and while we can
make the back seat more comfortable and remember to put on our seat
belts, at the end of the day, we are not driving the car and to trust,
whatever the end of the journey is, it is the one that God, chose for
us, His children, as he has for thousands of years.

Wrong Social Pressures Killing Modern Orthodoxy

Social Conformity, " change in belief or behavior in order to fit in with a group," can be a very destructive force as can be seen in the so-called "black hat" community, forcing even destructive behavior under the guise of religion.

However in Modern Orthodoxy there is little or no social conformity to be religious. To be a professional, yes, to go to a good school, yes, to make large amounts of money, probably, to be a religious Jew, to try and keep most of halacha? I don't see it.

Nobody is interested in saying, "kids going off has to be fixed now." Mumbling about the great work of JLIC or YU does not stop the problem.

There is no embarrassment over sponsoring kiddish for a graduation of a child who no longer keeps kosher and is living with a non-Jew.

I don't see emergency appeals for building Orthodox dormitories on college campuses, or for that matter JLIC. Some local shuls raised a couple thousand for JLIC. Wow! People will drop $50,000 a year for their kids future career, but a couple of bucks for having frum grandchildren?

The pressure to go on exotic vacations. Pesach hotels. Schools with all the accouterments of public schools. Fancy shul buildings. but what about our religion?

Nishma Survey

Why I don’t understand this survey part 1 I don't understand is how the survey has statistical significance. In other words, because this email was forwarded to synagogues and from synagogues to congregants, there is no way of knowing if those who responded were a mini picture of the broader population (a true sample) or not. For example, if you send all the shuls parsha sheets with certain ideological content to give out and in the parsha sheet there is an ad that says, "please let us know what you think of this parsha sheet for a chance to win a gift card." Would you be able to decided what everyone in the shul thinks about the ideological issues raised in the parsha sheet by what the people who call in say? Maybe half the shul didn't even look at the parsha sheet. Of those who looked, only half (25% of whole) noticed this ad (shabbos!). Of those who noticed the ad, only half (12.5% of the whole) decided to call. Of those who decided to call only half(6.25%) remembered to call. So what do you really know? You know what 1/16 of shul thinks. They may be the most motivated, true, they may be the "those who show" and make decisions, true, but that it. Unless you have a true random sampling of population, I have trouble understanding what you can learn for certain. If for instance, there are 50,000 orthodox Jews and a random 10% of them (or a population adjusted) 10% got the survey and of those who got it, 30% responded. Then you could calculate roughly something about the population as a whole. 1) In the into language seemingly sent to shul’s a. The ou’s exact involvement is not made clear b. Who Nishma is and why they should be trusted is never stated c. No body (including even the OU) is listed as some sort of institutional review board (IRB to approve the research). d. It is not explained on the onset how the survey can be both anonymous but yet gift cards can be given out e. There is no email or contact info at the onset for any concerns f. – when you are dealing with people’s private answers all of these are quite odd. 2) on the survey itself a. page 1 i. it says that, “The aggregated results will be clearly communicated to both synagogue leaders and congregants.” It didn’t say that in the intro which makes me, as a respondent, quite disturbed as to who will see what and how private this is? ii. It says,” The survey is conducted by Nishma Research and is sponsored by The Micah Foundation. The study researchers and foundation benefactors are Orthodox Jews. the foundation’s mission is to promote and enhance Jewish religious and cultural life.” However, it does not clearly explain who these people are?? b. Page 2 i. Here it finally explains how the survey can both send you gift cards and be anonymous as well finally providing someone to contact . ii. It says here, “Among couples, we encourage both spouses to take the survey separately, so that we know how each individual thinks about the various issues. The survey takes about 18-20 minutes to complete. (Each screen has a "Save and Continue Later" option you may click at the top, if you do not have the time to complete the survey.)” 1. This means that they don’t have IP restrictions. In other words, if the same couple can do the survey separately, there is no way of stopping someone from doing the survey twice himself or ten times himself. That is why many surveys are designed to be taken only once from each IP address. It can cause trouble for the same couple not being able to take the survey on their home wifi on different computers, but here it seems that anyone can do whatever they want. c. Page 3 i. “Please describe Please enter an 'other' value for this selection.” I don’t know what this means? Write the word, “other?” d. Page 4 i. The question says, “What is your gender?” the third option is, “Non-conforming, other.” This opens the survey to being pegged as being left wing orthodox as opposed to sympathetic to right wing orthodox. There is no reason to do this. To get the 0.00 something percent? You could just as well count the people who skip this question. IMPORTANT SURVEY FROM NISHMA AND THE OU Nishma Research, under the leadership of Mark Trencher, is conducting an independent survey of United States Orthodox Jews. The goal is to collect information about various attitudes within the community. This survey is open to anyone age 18+ who attends an Orthodox synagogue. The Nishma survey has been drafted and will be analyzed entirely independent of the Orthodox Union. While Nishma has agreed to share the survey results with the OU, the OU does not have any control over how the results will be portrayed or published. The survey is online and can be accessed at http://bit.ly/Orth odox-Survey. It covers a wide range of issues, such as shul and davening, Jewish education and learning, raising a family, issues of concern to women, success and challenges of living in today’s society, etc. The survey is totally anonymous. Note also that there will be ten $100 gift cards given out to randomly selected respondents. The survey will be available for completion online through August 31. CLICK HERE TO TAKE THE SURVEY Page 1 Survey of the Orthodox / Observant Jewish Community What are the views of the Orthodox Jewish community? What do you think about the major questions facing Jewish life, your community, your family and yourself? This survey addresses these and related questions. The aggregated results will be clearly communicated to both synagogue leaders and congregants. The survey is conducted by Nishma Research and is sponsored by The Micah Foundation. The study researchers and foundation benefactors are Orthodox Jews; the foundation’s mission is to promote and enhance Jewish religious and cultural life. Page 2 This survey is for people age 18 and older. Among couples, we encourage both spouses to take the survey separately, so that we know how each individual thinks about the various issues. The survey takes about 18-20 minutes to complete. (Each screen has a "Save and Continue Later" option you may click at the top, if you do not have the time to complete the survey.) This survey is 100% anonymous. At the end of the survey, you will have the opportunity to get the survey results sent directly to you. Additionally, you’ll be able to sign up for a chance to win one of ten $100 Gift Cards. If you have any questions about the survey, please email Mark Trencher of Nishma Research at mark@nishmaresearch.com. Page 3 Note: This is the only survey question with a mandatory response. We do, however, encourage you to respond to all the other questions as well. Regardless of your synagogue affiliation, which of the following categories best describes your approach to Judaism? Would you say you are ... • Modern Orthodox or Centrist Orthodox (Note: You will have the opportunity later in the survey to further define this) • Yeshivish / Litvish / Agudah • Chasidic / Chabad • Not Orthodox – Please describe Please enter an 'other' value for this selection. Page 4 What is your gender? • Male • Female • Non-conforming, other

Colouring between the lines of chazal

Colouring between the lines of chazal

Consumer behavior and the Orthodox Jewish Community

Consumer behavior and religious minorities
This can be examined through the lens  u of the Kosher food business or Orthodox consumer goods
There are three areas to examine
1 "mainstream" or " non-jewish" companies that have specific campaigns target the orthodox Jewish communities (can be segmented by subcommunties and region, especially Israel followed by a distance second with New York City)
2 companies that accidentally have become go to for the orthodox community, west clock crock pots, Stella Dora, Duncan Hines,
3 orthodox Jewish companies that target their company and Jewish product companies that target the orthodox sectors (manishivitz)