Home › View all posts by Rabbi Yonason Goldson › Page 3

Author: Rabbi Yonason Goldson

Yachatz (Step 4) — A Taste of Things to Come

Posted on by — 1 Comment ↓

Rabbi Goldson is a well-known author of numerous pieces appearing on the web and in print media. He has quickly become one of the most popular contributors and commenters here on BeyondBT.

The fourth step of the seder, yachatz, is so brief that it can easily slip past us with little notice, depriving us of one of the most profound symbolic messages of the Pesach evening.

The simple, superficial imagery of breaking the matzah reminds us of the poor man rationing his meager fare and protectively hiding away the larger portion (the afikomen) to guard against an uncertain future. This echoes the symbolism of matzah as lechem oni — poor-man¹s bread, the coarse meal accorded the Jewish slaves by their Egyptian overlords.
Read more Yachatz (Step 4) — A Taste of Things to Come ›

BT, FFB, and FWE

Posted on by — 6 Comments ↓

“I feel like I’m on a treadmill.”

The expression seems to have lost its imagery now that so many have invested thousands of dollars on state-of-the-art, high-tech exercisers or dole out hundreds of dollars a month to join gyms that enable us to go steadily nowhere while sweating off calories. But back before treadmills became the defining symbol of the baby-boomers’ desperate pursuit of eternal youth, the expression “on a treadmill” meant, in the language of Torah, avodas perech — endless toil with no meaningful purpose.

So perhaps we owe the boomers a measure of gratitude for restoring the treadmill to where it belongs in Torah philosophy: as a symbol of the very purpose of our existence.
Read more BT, FFB, and FWE ›

In Memory of My Mother-In-Law

Posted on by — 4 Comments ↓

My mother-in-law passed away the week after Rosh HaShonah. Her kevurah (burial) fell on the afternoon before Yom Kippur, effectively eliminating any period of shiva (mourning). Approaching the three-month anniversary of her petirah (passing), I hope that a short reflection on the life of the mother of a baalas tshuva might provide some closure to the mourning process.

Barbara had reached 80 years old and was in reasonably good health before an aggressive brain tumor stole her independence, then her lucidity, and then her remaining faculties over the course of a few short months. Born and raised in semi-rural Massachusetts with virtually no Jewish awareness, her response to her only daughter’s commitment to Torah and mitzvos was nothing less than remarkable.
Read more In Memory of My Mother-In-Law ›

Not Passing, and Proud of it

Posted on by — 11 Comments ↓

“Where do you study?” asked the shaddchun.
“Yeshivas Ohr Yaakov,” I answered, “and before that I learned at Ohr Somayach.”
“And before that?” she asked.
“University of California,” I said.
“And before that?” she persisted.

Before that? “Uh, high school.”
“Yes,” she said patiently. “Which high school?”
Was she kidding? “Harvard School, in North Hollywood, California.”
“Is that a Jewish school?”
This was too much. “Actually, it’s Episcopalian.”
Read more Not Passing, and Proud of it ›

One Billion Chinese Can’t be Wrong

Posted on by — 22 Comments ↓

My visit to mainland China in 1981 left me saturated with images. Luminescent green meadows transected by bales of razor wire along the border. Meals comprising endless courses that, in my pre-kosher days, could have been anything from dog to silkworm. And bicycles. Thousands and thousands of bicycles. All of them the same make, the same model, and the same color — black.

“How do you tell them apart?” we asked our host. He laughed at the question. “One may have a ribbon around the handle, a scratch on the fender, or a bell on the handlebar”. In other words, although they were all the same, they were all different.
Read more One Billion Chinese Can’t be Wrong ›

Carrying My Children on My Shoulders

Posted on by — 3 Comments ↓

It’s not difficult to sympathize with the skeptics who questioned the ability of Avrohom Mordechai Altar, then still a teenager, to succeed his father as leader of the Gerrer Chassidim, possibly the most influential Torah community in Poland at the end of the 19th century. But the young scholar, who would grow up to become a great rebbe and author of the Imrei Emes, answered his critics with the following parable.
Read more Carrying My Children on My Shoulders ›