A Simple Jew emailed us the following article: Jason Bedrick is the first Orthodox Jew (a Lubavitcher) to be elected in New Hampshire.

Windham – A young man who does not shake hands with women was recently elected to the state Legislature, and the support of several members of the Salem Women’s Club was instrumental in his victory at the polls.

“My faith out of respect for women does not allow contact between unrelated men and women,” said Rep. Jason Bedrick, 23, R-Windham. He said he explains this on a daily basis to female colleagues who reach out their hands to him.

Usually, that’s the end of the conversation, he says, but sometimes, when he senses the woman isn’t convinced, he adds: “If every man in the world were to keep his hands to himself, would it be a better world for women or a worse world for women?”

Bedrick is the first Orthodox Jew to be elected in New Hampshire, a state that is home to fewer than 10 Orthodox Jewish families and where Jewish people account for 1 percent of the population.

Jewish Heritage Center Chinese Auction
The Jewish Heritage Center is having its annual Chinese Auction at the Shaare Tova Ballroom, 82-33 Lefferts Blvd, Kew Gardens, on Saturday, December 9th at 8:30 PM. Admission is $18 (which includes a Free $20 Raffle Ticket) and $10 for children 3-13. It’s a great organization and there is a hot buffet, valet parking and lots of exciting prizes (and there will be lots of BTs there).

The New Year of Chabad Chassidism

The 19th day of the Hebrew month of Kislev is celebrated as the “Rosh Hashanah of Chassidism.” It was on this date, in the year 1798, that the founder of Chabad Chassidism, Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi (1745-1812), was freed from his imprisonment in Czarist Russia.

Aish has lots of audio files about Chanukah, most of them can be listened to online for free.

Confessions of a Hollywood Dropout

The religious atmosphere in our home began to change in 1977, the year that Anwar Sadat, the late president of Egypt, made his historic visit to Israel. What seemed to overshadow Sadat’s visit was that of two other individuals—my older brothers. Murray and Gary had spent several weeks in Ireland shooting a television documentary. Since they had never been to Israel, on their way home, they decided to stop by. While at the Kotel, they were approached by Rabbi Meir Shuster, a veritable legend who is responsible for bringing thousands of wayward Jews back to Judaism. He spends hours every day at the Kotel approaching Jewish kids who seem spiritually lost. He met my brothers, and asked them a few of his usual questions: “Are you Jewish?” “Do you know what Shabbat is?” “Have you ever seen a yeshivah before?” Ten minutes later, they were sitting in the office of Rabbi Noach Weinberg, rosh yeshivah of Aish HaTorah, then a fledgling school for newcomers to Orthodox Judaism. After spending a half hour with the rabbi, they decided to check in for an extended stay, joining the fifteen college-age men who made up the entire student body at the time. After a couple of weeks Murray came home to finish the documentary while Gary stayed on, eager to soak up the wisdom of the Torah.

BT Shluchim make for BT rappers

Recently we’ve been witness to a new phenomenon, namely Baalei Tshuvah retaining a part of their former lifestyle. Whether it’s rappers or beatboxers, boxers or otherwise, they continue to supposedly use their talents and “flip it to Kedushah.” That never happened in the old days. In the old days in Hadar Hatorah Reb Yisroel Jacobson made you cut your long hair off and conform to the rules of Yeshivah. Yes, you could keep your musical instrument, but you played Chabad Nigunim and joined a Chasidishe band. If you were an artist you focused all of your energies into painting the Chasidic lifestyle. Today you do what you want, all the while staying frum, of course, and giving the youth the insipid idea that the two go together, and that pop culture will have no influence on their practice of Yiddishkeit.

Good Shabbos!

Beyond BT’s One Year Anniversary Melava Malka
When: December 2, 2006 at 8:00 PM
Where: Congregation Ahavas Yisroel 147-02 73rd Avenue in KGH, one block east of Main Street.
Why: To meet and connect with fellow Beyond Bt’ers
What: 8:00 PM Pizza & Shmoozing; 9:00 PM ”Searching for Meaning – A BTs Spiritual Journey in Music and Monologue”; 10 PM Ice Cream & More Shmoozing
How Much: $5 per person, kids under 4 free

Rabbi Horowitz on Risk Factors for At-Risk Teens Part 2 (Part 1 here)

Rav Hutner was saying how we must change the way that we view our yeshivos. He was suggesting that the holy yeshivos of Voloshin and Slabodka were primarily designed for a tiny percentage of the outstanding achievers in Torah, as the grinding poverty of pre-war Europe forced the vast majority of children above the age of thirteen to join the workforce. American yeshivos and Beis Yakov’s, Rav Hutner maintained, need to be geared for all children to find success and refuge.

Sadly, as I pointed out last week, exactly the opposite has been happening over the past ten-fifteen years. School hours have been getting longer and longer. Kids are offered less time and opportunity to engage in desperately needed recreational activities, all the while greater and greater demands are being made on children. Most shocking of all, is the fact that parents are clamoring to get their children – ready or not – into schools that have the most rigorous demands and who summarily dismiss children for infractions.

Shoshana has a interesting post on Frum vs Religious

According to my friend, being frum is about keeping up appearances. It’s about the clothing, the hats, what other people see. It can also be about a mindset – that non-Jewish practices are not what we are supposed to engage in, that you shouldn’t go to a movie theater, that Jewish music is preferable to secular.

Being religious is a different matter. It’s about a spiritual connection, about serving God, following halacha with the correct intent. It’s about living Torah internally and really feeling it in one’s heart.

A Lonely Man of Faith is a new documentary about the life and legacy of Rabbi Joseph B. Soleveitchik.
This is a new documentary film on the life and legacy of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, the intellectual leader
of Modern Orthodox Judaism in 20th Century America. Throughout his life, in Europe, New York and Boston,
he struggled to forge a path between Jewish tradition and the modern age, an ordeal that frequently resulted
in loneliness. His impact was tremendous but his legacy was complicated.

Mazal Tov to Beyond BT commentor, Sephardi Lady, who blogs over at Orthonomics, on the birth of a baby girl. And a Mazal Tov to Mr. Sephardi Lady.

Mazal Tov to Mr. & Mrs. Menachem Lipkin on the birth of a grandson to their children Etana & Zev Hecht.

See the video or hear the audio of Rav Noach Weinberg’s address at the Tiferes Bnei Torah (TheShmuz.Com) Melava Malka on 11/11/06.

We’re trying to provide links to Baalei Teshuva resources on the Internet. Please list in the comments any BT resources that you have found helpful that are not included on this Wikipedia page..

While we’re looking at the Widipedia page, do you think it accurately captures the history and essence of Baalei Teshuva? What information is missing from it? Do you find any of the information to be inaccurate?

Rabbi Yitzchok Kirzner z”tl on Why Harold Kushner Is Wrong.
We are required, writes Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzato in The Way of God, to both “believe and know” that there is a God. This statement is hard to understand. If I know that there is a God, then belief is extraneous. The explanation is that knowing does not refer to empirical knowledge. Rather “knowing” refers to a process of relating our faith in God to everything we do. Knowing that there is a God means that our faith in Him must become inseparable from who we are and how we view the world.

Attaining this level is the work of a lifetime. Most of us are far from reaching it. We walk through life as if in a fog. Our faith remains theoretical at best. When we think about God, we forget the world. And when we think about the world, we forget God. No integration of God into our world takes place.

Occasionally, however, events intrude with such force that we are compelled to deal with our faith in the context of what is taking place in our lives. Suffering is one such event. It challenges us to confront the ultimate questions of who we are and what is the significance of our lives. Suffering is a painful invitation to deepen our faith and make it a real part of our lives.

Rabbi Noach Weinberg, founder of Aish HaTorah, will be speaking at the Tiferes Bnei Torah (aka The Shmuz.Com) Melave Malka, this Motza’ei Shabbos, November 11 at 7:30 at Yeshiva Chofetz Chaim in Kew Gardens Hills.

Don’t forget to learn some Mishnah Berurah today in honor of the 100th anniversary of it’s completion.

Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan on The Rules of Halacha. Highly recommended.

Rabbi Frand on Parsha Lech Lecha
The story is told that in Radin the Gentiles used to ask the Chofetz Chaim to walk over their fields or touch their cows. Although, to put in mildly, Gentiles in Poland generally did not think much of the Jews, they nevertheless recognized that the Chofetz Chaim was a great holy man and that his footsteps would bring prosperity to their fields. They were convinced that his touch would bring increased milk supply to their cows.
…
There is a lesson here for all of us. G-d decides how much he is going to shower on each person -– in terms of wealth, in terms of health, wisdom, power, talent and all forms of Heavenly Blessings. It stands to reason that if G-d is going to invest extraordinary blessing in a person, He will invest in that person when He has a measure of confidence in that person. G-d wants to know that the person will know how to use these blessings correctly.
Read more Pre Shabbos Links ›

Rabbi David Schallheim on Parshat Noach – From Generation to Generation
The true use of technology is to complete the Creation, as partners with the Creator. We mention this idea in the verse recited in Kiddush on Friday night: “God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because on it He abstained from all His work; which God created to make” (Bereishit 2:3). It would have been sufficient to write, “which God created,” why does the verse add, “to make?” This teaches that mankind is partner in the ongoing process of Creation.

Our condolences to Rabbi Schallheim on the recent loss of his mother. May Hashem comfort him among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem.

Rabbi Zev Leff on Parshas Noach
The sins of immorality and robbery of the generation of the Flood were merely symptoms of the underlying disease of deficient character development. Noach attacked the symptom, but failed to cure the disease. He did not teach them to know Hashem through contemplation of His middos and to walk in His ways by correcting and developing their own character traits. Hence he was unsuccessful. His rebuke may occasionally have suppressed the symptoms, but they soon reappeared, since the underlying cause had not been treated. Without changing their underlying character, no true repentance was possible.
Read more Pre Shabbos Links ›

A Simple Jew has a good post with some good comments on what to do when they order in “kosher” food at work. Here’s a comment from Akiva:

Here’s what I usually say….

“I’m sorry, I really appreciate you trying but I’m somewhat of a fanatic about these things. Because of that my religious position requires that I only eat the super-duper-extra-kosher stuff. Fortunately, that’s readily available in our area at xxxxx location or xxxxxx well know products. If you’re able to get those for us fanatics, that would be great. If not, hey, we really appreciate your efforts in considering kosher at all! Thanks!”

By self-labeling as someone really unusual, it puts the onus of the position on me and makes them perfectly comfortable in saying no. Yet it also opens the door to accomodation if they want. Sometimes I tone down the “super-duper” and use “extra kosher”, “extra stringent kosher”, “extreme kosher”, then I point to my big black kippah and beard and say, “hey, you’d never guess that I’d be fanatical, right?” That always gets a smile.

Jameel at Muqata posts the following about a new law making kiruv to minors illegal in Eretz Yisroel:

The winter session of the Knesset is now in session. MK Chaim Oron (Meretz) ascended the podium of Israel’s parliament and proposed a new law:

Any person who attempts to influence a minor, to become more religiously observant of Judaism,(להחזיר בתשובה) will be subject to arrest and imprisonment for 6 months.

A reader wrote a letter and MK Oron responded:

Shalom,

I welcome your letter to me.

Due to the many instances in which different religious groups in Israel try to cause minors to be “chozer biteshuva” [return to religion], either through activities, or the distribution of materials that contain threats within schools, I have proposed to outlaw all direct or indirect activities from organizations like those, that try to cause minors to return to religion.

My proposal applies to attempts to convince minors, who normally have less developed faith and opinions than those of an adult — and attempts to convince them to change from a secular person to a religious person; a transformation that should only occur based on self-reflection and without any pressure or external enticements.

I understand that you disagree with my viewpoint, and therefore, “[every] person in his own faith shall live”

Sincerely,

Chaim (Jomas) Oron

Rabbi Yerachmiel Milstein has a free mp3 shiur at Aish, titled Bereishis: Who Banged the Big Bang?

In the beginning, G-d created…” These famous words lose some of their glitter when put alongside the many popular scientific theories that saturate our society. After all, what about the Big Bang, evolution, and the world being at least 8 billion years old? Rabbi Milstein looks between these divine lines and quotes ancient writings that show how the sages of old were light years ahead of current scientific discoveries – and that after all is said and done, the gap between science and Torah is really a lot closer than it appears.

If you prefer your Torah in black ink on white paper, then try this week’s Internet Parsha Sheet or try the archives for Bereishis Parsha Sheets from the past.

Neal Harris’ notes on Rabbi Frand’s Teshuva Drasha: Painting Your Masterpiece.
The metaphor of Yonah is not just to think about our faults. We need to think about our mission. That’s Yonah. We live in an era today where the phrase “mission statement” is said hundreds, if not thousands of times a day. Everyone is talking about their “mission statement”. Fortune 500 companies and also ma and pa businesses have their “mission statement”. Yonah’s mission statement was to go to Nineveh. What’s your mission statement.?

Jonathon Rosenblum on Mission Possible.
By identifying the point of intersection between our talents, passions, and that which the society needs, we can begin to identify the mission for which we alone were created.
Read more Pre Shabbos and Yom Kippur Links ›