Noah Feldman: Wiped Out.

"It would be more dramatic if I had been excommunicated like Baruch Spinoza, in a ceremony complete with black candles and a ban on all social contact, a rite whose solemnity reflected the seriousness of its consequences. But in the modern world, the formal communal ban is an anachronism."


Noah Feldman, our own modern Spinoza. But I trust that you understand why it was not so dramatic with your case. You are not exactly playing with the big boys.

(His full article can be seen at http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/22/magazine/22yeshiva-t.html?em&ex=1186804800&en=5912c1b9af1ce42d&ei=5070, where He tells the tale of how he graduated from a "Modern Orthodox" Jewish High school, and was then distubed to find out that his face and the face of his Gentile wife were airbrushed out of an alumni photo.)


I've got to hand it to you, Mr. Feldman, you possess superior intelligence, an articulate style, and a whole lot of issues to work out. Not only about modern orthodoxy, but about simple, faithful, Torah observance. Your successes, intellect, and ego all score such high marks, but sadly, you seem to be having difficulty with one of the basic ingredients of all Torah observance, modern or not. This basic and essential component is called the love and fear of God.

I do not consider a Jew who marries a Gentile to be lacking faith. He may have tremendous belief in God. It is just that he doesn't see any good enough reason to believe that the law had him and his own best intersts in mind. Such a non-observant believer lacks Yiras Shamayim, the fear or awe of God’s great presence and majesty. Yiras Shamayim, the only thing God asks from us (Deut. 10:12) as a people, is a way of putting your money where your faith is. Yes, I believe. But do I refrain from doing anything in my life simply because God is the Boss, or at least because God is always faithful to reward observance and punish disobedience? Yiras Shamayim, or the Fear of God (as it is usually, though incompletely, translated) separates those who believe in God from those who live a life enriched by this belief.

Lets look at some of Professor Feldman's words before they have been forgotten by the public, which I generously estimate at five weeks. By then some choice derisions of Mitzvot will most likely have made their way to KKK.com.


“Since the birth of modern Orthodox Judaism in 19th-century Germany, a central goal of the movement has been to normalize the observance of traditional Jewish law to make it possible to follow all 613 biblical commandments assiduously while still participating in the reality of the modern world. You must strive to be, as a poet of the time put it, “a Jew in the home and a man in the street.” Even as we students of the Maimonides School spent half of every school day immersed in what was unabashedly a medieval curriculum, our aim was to seem to outsiders and to ourselves like reasonable, mainstream people, not fanatics or cult members.”

The first thing that comes to mind is the error of thinking that Orthodox Jews follow 613 commandments. Unlike the commandment not to marry outside of the Jewish community (as mentioned in Deut. 7:3), a law vital to the life of our nation and the continuation of our tradition, there are many commandments that most Jews cannot fufull. Some are only for Cohanim, some are only for the King, some are for slaves, and many of them require a fully functional Temple in Jerusalem. Less than one hundred of the famous “613” are applicable to most Jews today.

But this is besides the point. The real error is saying that Modern orthodoxy means to be a “Jew in the home and a man in the street.” Modern Orthodoxy means that a religious Jew can take part in the modern world. He can go to university, play golf, be a law professor and even see a movie, provided that it’s kosher. I would not be proud of penning these poetics of "a man in the street." The point of Modern Orthoxody is that observance of the law does not force a Jewish man or woman to live in a ghetto. He is not just a “man in the street.” He is a Torah-observant participant in the modern world.


Then later Feldman writes, “Lieberman’s overt normalcy really is remarkable. Though modern Orthodox Jews do not typically wear the long beards, side curls and black, nostalgic Old World garments favored by the ultra-Orthodox, the men do wear beneath their clothes a small fringed prayer shawl every bit as outré as the sacred undergarments worn by Mormons. Morning prayers are accompanied by the daily donning of phylacteries, which, though painless, resemble in their leather-strappy way the cinched cilice worn by the initiates of Opus Dei and so lasciviously depicted in “The Da Vinci Code.””

Catholics take the Eucharist, “take this bread for it is my body, drink this wine for it is my blood.” American Indians have rituals like the sweat lodge and the peace pipe. I am not going to list all of the rituals and traditions of all the peoples of the world that men of logic and normalcy define as outré (or bizarre, thank you, Professor, for teaching me a new word.). Feldman’s point seems to be, “how can you be modern and do all of this crazy stuff?” If you want to live your life purely according to the human intellect, then as a Christian you won’t take the eucharist, as a Muslim you won’t bow in prayer to Allah before the Kabba, and as a Jew you won’t follow Hashem’s command by wearing Tallis (“fringed prayer shawl”) and Tefillin (“Phylacteries”). In other words, Professor Feldman seems to be ashamed about doing anything that resembles those crazy things that religious Christians, Muslims, Mormons, or American Indians do. Yet his comparison of Tefillin to the scene in the DaVinci Code comes short of comparing it to “S&M” attire. This is a comparison whose only logical use would be in a KKK or Hamas web site. Using it in the New York Times is only preaching to the converted, as the secular (non affiliated) Jewish readership, due to an incomplete educaton, have long entertained such bewilderment at the commandments cherished by their own religion. I would suggest the modern enlightened reader to go shvitz in a sweat lodge and smoke the peace pipe. After all, the intellect can be satisfied with the peace pipe and the sweat lodge because the American Indian body sends a message to his intellect saying, “it feels good.” (but the pious native Americans probably wouldn’t let your uninitiated lilly white hides shvitz with them, anyway.)


Freedom of Religion is one of the great things about America. Follow whatever religion you choose, and be careful not to punch anyone because of God. However, if Modern Orthodox Judaism is your choice, it requires dedication to the Torah’s commandments and the Rabbinic tradition throughout the ages that has so lovingly and zealously guarded that tradition back to Mount Sinai. However, it allows greater leniency that the “Ultra-Orthodox,” or Charedim, are willing to allow, and tolerates less leniency, or, lets face it, abandonment of the commandments, practiced by conservative and reform Judaism. Mr. Feldman, pick your camp. If you want religious sanction and acceptance with your wife and children, then you would be with open arms in many conservative and all reform congregations. You want your teachers and friends to accept you. So do I. So do most people. I am sure you found out who your real friends are, Noah. One person you will not be friends with, at least not as long keep complaining as you do in your article, is King David. “I am a friend to all who fear You and keep your Commandments.” (Psalms, 119:63)


Our sages tell us to judge all men meritoriously. In the fulfillment of this sagely advice I will assume that your wife and children are sweet, wonderful people. But in the big scheme of things, you are ending your own Jewish lineage. I think being airbrushed out of the alumni magazine should be the smallest of your concerns. And sadly, there is a Jewish woman who you could have married who might just never get married now, at least not bear your children. Perhaps its better that way, if they might have learned to add insult to injury, abandoning and then publicly deriding God and His Torah as you have. But there is hope. For your sake, I bless your children or even your grandchildren to convert, no doubt to a Chassidic sect in Mea Shearim, where they might delight in every letter of the Torah and the Talmud, wearing their “outré” tallis katan and “leather-strappy” Tefillin.

You may have been wiped out of your alumni photo, but this is small potatoes. The only thing that is being wiped out here is your contribution the building of Israel. I'm not talking about your generous financial contributions. This is admirable. But Israel is best built through enduring generations that love of God and His Torah.


God willing, I will tackle Feldman’s next quote (printed below) at a later date. But here is a start.

He writes: “Food restrictions are tight: a committed modern Orthodox observer would not drink wine with non-Jews and would have trouble finding anything to eat in a nonkosher restaurant other than undressed cold greens (assuming, of course, that the salad was prepared with a kosher knife).The dietary laws of kashrut are designed to differentiate and distance the observant person from the rest of the world. When followed precisely, as I learned growing up, they accomplish exactly that. Every bite requires categorization into permitted and prohibited, milk or meat. To follow these laws, to analyze each ingredient in each food that comes into your purview, is to construct the world in terms of the rules borne by those who keep kosher. The category of the unkosher comes unconsciously to apply not only to foods that fall outside the rules but also to the people who eat that food — which is to say, almost everyone in the world, whether Jewish or not. You cannot easily break bread with them, but that is not all. You cannot, in a deeper sense, participate with them in the common human activity of restoring the body through food.”

As an orthodox Rabbi, I will go on record as willing to share a salad and a few beers with any decent Jew of Gentile, provided he has had a bath and knows some good jokes, and, of course, doesn’t have a big problem with Israel. Do I think of him as treif? Hey, some of my best friends are Treif eating Israelites. And why should I fault a Gentile for doing something that the Torah never forbade him? In the immortal words of Will Rodgers, “I never met a man I didn’t like.” It just takes eyes to see it.