A 60-minute animated film on the life of the Rambam is now in production in Israel. It was written by Robert J. Avrech, who's finishing off another such script on the Baal Shem Tov.

The first in the series was on Rashi.

At shul this morning, the rabbi implored us to be quiet during the Torah reading. Then, as he walked back to his seat while the reading began, he was repeatedly and noisily congratulated for his speech.

In his sermon, the rabbi talked about this week's Torah portion. Caring for the Levi. Not just secluding him to the housing project but including him in the community. As the Leviim don't need to bring offerings to the temple, they may feel out of it. Include them, says Moses.

We have Levis in our community. Those who feel out of it. They might be physically or mentally disabled. They may be single or childless. They may feel apart from the community. They might sit at home when the rest of the community is together. We need to reach out to the Levi. Because at various times, all of us are that left-out Levi.

AP on McGreevey, Charles Kushner...

Village Idiots: "Considering that Touro College's president, Dr. Bernard Lander, is an Orthodox Jew (and a rabbi at that), it is no wonder that he didn't return any calls on Saturday! Does anyone think over at the Associated Press?"

Haaretz reports.

Debbie Friedman has long been a favorite Jewish singer of mine. I have six of her CDs.

She recently led a Project Kesher trip to Soviet Union and brought her cute blonde girlfriend along.

This post of grief left me speechless.

Ariel Avrech and I both learned to relate to God and religion and the clergy in the same way we related to our fathers. Ariel with trust. He had the same trust in his rebbes as he did in his father.

His father R. is like My Name is Asher Lev, with the son set to carry on the traditions of the family line, while R. goes his artistic way (while still observing the tradition).

I was struck by Ariel's absolute trust in his parents. It never occurred to him that his parents could be wrong to him in significant matters. From everything I know, he was right.

I've long related to authority dishonestly. Not overtly so. I just never want to tell authority anything that will upset them. In their domain, I obey the rules. Outside, I do what I like. As a child. As an adult.

Rabbi Berel Wein just got up from shiva. His father passed away.

Hollywood Actresses: Their Amazing Tales.

I think that will be my next book. The stories of girls who get off the bus in LA at age 18 or so and try to become actresses. Their harrowing tales. Has anyone done this before? Luke Ford style?

I think this could be a lot more fun than writing about movie producers and Jewish journalists.

So I was talking to an ex-girlfriend and inviting her to my book party.

"Have you made any rude comments lately that have been reported to your rabbi?" she asked.

"Nope," I said.

She's reading My Life by Clinton. Up to page 580. Just 400 or so to go. She said it was good.

"Well, it's no XXX-Communicated: A Rebel Without a Shul" I protested.

"How long is your memoir?"

"One hundred seventy four pages. Just a quick swallow."

"I'm going to ignore that," she said.

"No, I think I'm going to call your rabbi to complain. What's his number?"

From page 25 of the William F. Buckley book In Search of Anti-Semitism:

Daniel E. Lapin wrote from the Pacific Jewish Center in Venice, California:

"Mr. Buckley, I am not sure that I fully understand the fuss about Sobran. The writing of Richard Cohen et al. strikes me as disingenuous. Sobran's "Pensées" in NR, December 31, 1985, on the other hand, laid the foundations of a dozen sermons in my synagogue. As you may remember from our brief meeting when you spoke for Brandeis Bardin Institute in Los Angeles, my rabbinic credentials are adequate.... If there is any way I can be useful to you, Mr. Sobran, or National Review, I would be honored. Insofar as there is something called anti-Semitism (as opposed to anti-Godism), I just don't believe Mr. Sobran is one."

Feminist turned frum has never felt more free. Neither have I.

Marvin Schick: "Forty years ago, few would have thought that at its main campus the Yeshiva University of the 21st century would have so strong a religious character. I certainly did not believe that this would be the case. Happily, I was wrong and happily the Jewish people worldwide have benefited as a consequence."

Shmarya writes: Have you noticed the number of comments on the post you blogged on me? They're up to 40! Take a couple of minutes (maybe, at the speed you read, several seconds!) and look them over. They are a near-perfect microcosm of the larger argument, and a perfect teaching tool.

Note the 'logic': The Rebbe is infallible. The Rebbe said it, therefore
it must be true. Therefore, the Rebbe is the messiah.

As the tag-line goes, "Now Jews have a second coming all their own.™"

How sad.

Gershon Jacobson: The issue was Who is a Jew. Yitzhak Rafael from the NRP, who was close with the Rebbe, refused to follow the Rebbe's advice on changing the Law of Return. He said that the NRP poskim along with rov poskim in the world, were against the Rebbe's advice. The Rebbe, who brooked no dissent, was outraged. He got Gershon Jacobson to interview YR when he was in NY. Jacobson allegedly said to YR, "How can you go against the wishes of the gedolei hador?" YR replied as above. Jacobsen then asked, "How can you go against the nasi hador?" He again answered as above. After several more repetitive questions about this, in exasperation YR said, "Mizrachi didn't listen to the Chafetz Chayim either and you can see that, 40 years later, we're doing okay." Jacobson wrote a story on YR's 'disrespect' for the Chafetz Chayim. The Rebbe then launched a petition drive to get YR put in cherem. It did not work. The Rebbe then formed a Vaad of Lubavitch Rabbis. There were maybe 7 or so on the vaad, all appointed by the Rebbe. One was Rabbi Rivkin. As soon as it was officially formed the Rebbe sent them a request for their first order of business -- put YR in cherem. Rabbi Rivkin refused to sign on the cherem. He was the only holdout. The Rebbe screamed in fargrengens about the "one who would not sign." Since the 'pesak' was mad public at the Rebbe's request, that "one" was very well known. What resulted was the threats, defamation, and thuggery I wrote about earlier.

I'm polishing my dvar Torah for my simcha Thursday night. All the gedolim of Los Angeles will be there along with Chayyei Sarah. They have written letters of approbation in Hebrew for my two latest seforim. I will urge my listeners to abjure worldly pleasures and to instead set their sights on the true world by healing the broken vessels all around us through good deeds.

Never expecting kavod (honor) in this world, I'm overwhelmed and humbled by all this attention. Fool, I am but dust and ashes. What care I for earthly rewards when I am sure of good things to come.

The event will be strictly kosher (with Cathy Seipp serving as mashgiach) and shomer negiyah (no touching of opposite sex) will also be enforced by burly bodyguards. Anyone who dares to touch a woman will be thrown out.

Four of the Lamed Vavniks have RSVP'd: Kendra, Jewel, Jenna, Raquel.

Yossi Klein Halevi will give a speech. Then there will be a symphony followed by pictures at an exhibition.

What a wonderful evening I just had with Chayyei Sarah. She calls me Ephi.

I sent her flowers for her birthday.

It's such a shame that my soul yearns more for Torah than for women. People misunderstand that and think I'm a friend of Dorothy.

I've been talking about the plethora of "Young Jewish Professionals" events (attended by folks in their late 30s and early 40s) with my friends.

Khunrum writes: How old in the Jewish Community to be ineligible for all these "young" oriented things?. When I think "young" I'm visualized kids in their late teens, "very" early twenties. Yet Luke is pushing 40 and is still attending "Young Jewish Singles." Luke's friend was at Kitty Hawk with the Wright Brothers and is still doing "Young" this and that. Can any Jews help me out on this one? Damn if I am not feeling younger by the minute. I'm ready to start a "Young Jewish Tourists" club right here in B'Kok.

In keeping with the spirit of this crone being involved with Young Jewish Whatever, we have founded the first chapter of Young Jewish Tourists, B-Kok Chapter. My dear friend and fellow monger Izzy (last surviver of a Polish family wiped out by the filthy Hun in WWII) is President. He is 77 years young. Goyem and even German goyem are welcome to join. There is no age limit and anyone who can love is considered "young."

We meet in the Nana Hotel lobby monthly. Dues are optional. See you there.

Chaim Amalek writes: Khumrum points to the shame of the Jewish community: the delusional manner in which non-orthodox Jews approach the matter of sexual reproduction. Of course you are right; these people are not "young" in any
sense that a Palestinian or a Mexican would understand and use the term. Rather, they are barren.

The fate of these barren women of the community is a scandal, not the least because it is seldom discussed in public, for fear of offending these foolish women. Simply put, it is dysgenic in the extreme for such women to be spending their very limited child bearing years working on "leadership" roles when what is needed is for these women to take the lead in making babies. Whatever "leadership" they provide can wait
until they hit their late thirties - forties, AFTER they have born and raised their children.

Someone needs to tell these people that they are not young. Someone needs to warn the truly young of what awaits them if they wait too long.

Fred writes: In light of Chaim's remarks, LF should announce that the organization is now being re-named Barren Jewish Singles. (Optionally, we could call it Childless
Jewish Singles.)

Earlier I commented that "Old Jewish Singles" would not work as the name of an organization. I think that Childless Jewish Singles would actually work for a
singles organization. But query, Chaim, aren't you equally guilty on this count?

Some random thoughts on McGreevey:

Funny story line in some of the newscasts: gay activists saying his resignation shows how hard it is to be gay in America. But at this point -- with none of the telecasts talking about the possibility that a former controversial appointee was the other party int he affair -- isn't the story about infidelity? And the real question then would be, is adultery a resignable offense? Perhaps the Clinton affair settled this in the negative, but would Clinton have done the wrong thing if he had said, "What I did was wrong, and in violating my sacred vows I have compromised my integrity to the degree that I no longer deserve the trust you put in me as a leader, and I am resigning?" That's basically the only reason McG gave in his speech explaining why he was stepping down.

What queer theorists will say is that infidelity is the necessary resort of the closeted gay. But McGreevey did choose politics at a time when openly gay men and women were facing fewer and fewer obstacles in the workplace. You could say of the twice-married McGreevey that photogenic deception is the necessary resort of the political animal.

The flip side of this are people being asked by dumkopf reporters -- "Do you think he should resign because he is gay?" Again, is that why he resigned? Had he stood up, saying he and his wife have come to a painful realization and that they are announcing their divorce because of his sexuality, would anyone have called for his resignation?

Ultimately, the whole discussion is a non-starter, since something else is afoot here, but that won’t prevent a spate of opeds by gay rights groups, responses from the "family values" crowd, sidebars to the Times story in the morning (mark my words) talking about the continuing liability of homosexuality in the political arena, etc etc.

"Not that there is anything wrong with that" disclaimer: My beef isn't with gay activists, but with activists in general who push their agendas on dubious grounds. It's the old joke about the Jewish guy who explains why he wasn't hired as a radio announcer: "D-d-d-amn anti-S-S-S-Semites."

When the story shifts, as it probably will even by the morning, to speculation or more that McG compromised the integrity of his office by hiring an unqualified mistress (or whatever it's same-sex cognate is) for a key government post, this story line will and should quickly dry up.

With his wife at his side, Gov. James E. McGreevey of New Jersey announced today that he is gay and would resign out of concern over the impact on the governor's office of his disclosure of a sexual relationship with a man.

McGreevy's homosexual lover Israeli Golan Cipel also worked for Charles Kushner.

Another article on the Kushner connection

Kushner again.

What is it with Jews and sexual affairs with the powerful? First Monica Lewinsky. Than Sandra Levy. Now Golan.

Taking bets on likely headlines for tomorrow's Post and Daily News. Put me down for $20 with:

QUEEN JAMES!

"In August, Rabbi Jacob Rubin, the operator of Leben, signed a Stipulation and Order with the Health Department which suspended the Order for Summary Action. In this agreement, Rabbi Rubin acknowledged that conditions at the time of the Summary Action constituted legally sufficient grounds for the summary action. He further agreed to pay $5,000 (the remainder of the $65,000 civil penalty was suspended pending compliance with the stipulation and order), hire a case manager and a nurse to oversee medication management, and spend at least $30,000 on renovating the basement. When the basement area passed a Health Department inspection, the residents were allowed to return to their now newly-renovated bedrooms."

From Shmarya's site: On Monday night - 23rd of Menachem Av, Rabbi Shmuel Lew [headmaster of a Chabad women's seminary in London, England and a senior Chabad representative there] spoke at a Farbrengen in Tiferes Bachurim [the ba'al teshuva section of the Rabbinical College of America in] Morristown, [NJ]. Coming from the Rebbe's camp - [Camp Gan Israel]CGI Parksville, NY, Rabbi Lew put the gathering onto a spiritual high!

A large silver cross around his [Al Goldstein's] neck gleamed against his chest hair. He has been wearing it for a few months. "I feel doomed as a Jew," he said. "I'll try anything else."

From the Barefoot Jewess: "How would I deal with someone whom I discovered was a narcissist sharing my blog? I would remove this person without fail. I would have no qualms. One of the most predictable things about them is that they will spam the site. In fact, they will spam all sites, under the guise of "information"; if they are guest bloggers , well, what an opportunity! Invevitably, it links back to them. If they have their own sites, they will have a multitide of links, all leading to them. It is guaranteed that all genuine discourse is aborted. A blog can become a dead thing. On the other hand, I think some people would sell their souls to rule the blogosphere, and it is a guarantee that said narcissist will generate hits."

It's late at night. I'm going to bed. First, a cozy and heart-warming tale of good cheer about Malcolm Hoenlein [and the courageous Jewish establishment at The Jerusalem Post and JTA] from my interview with Walter Ruby.

"Did you have any dealings with Malcolm Hoenlein?"

Walter laughs heartily. "The story got published and almost 20 years later, Malcolm still doesn't speak to me.

"Around 1986, Cardinal John O'Connor, the late Catholic Archbishop of New York, had gone to Israel and he was doing some diplomacy. The Presidents Conference people were unhappy because he seemed to be saying some mildly critical things about Israel. For me it was almost indiscernible but for them it was a shanda. The Presidents Conference ruminated for several days about issuing a statement. Hoenlein wanted to get this statement out before Shabbat. It was already Friday morning. They couldn't hammer it out. So he went ahead and wrote the statement and wrote the names of every one of the 53 president of the major Jewish organizations.

"Cardinal O'Connor returned to New York. Reporters were waiting for his response. He looked at the statement and blew up. He said it was outrageous. How dare they? I do everything for Israel and now they're attacking me...

"Monday morning. I was writing for The Long Island Jewish World. Editor Jerry Lipman called me. He said he was getting all kinds of calls from presidents of Jewish organizations saying they never signed that letter. He asked me to look into it.

"Until now, I had had a decent relationship with Hoenlein. A month earlier, my editor at The Jerusalem Post, Ary Rath, had been in New York and Hoenlein had made a point to say to him, 'Walter's a wonderful reporter. You are so lucky to have him.' I guess he figured he bought me with that.

"I call him. I told him I'd heard from about 20 of the 53 presidents who said they had never signed this document. The first thing Malcolm said was, Walter, this would be a terrible thing for the Jewish people if you published this. It would cause grievous damage. I was like, Malcolm, come on. Give me a break.

"I thought about it for a day. I asked the editor if we should go ahead with it. He said yes. I called Malcolm back. I said, we're going to press tomorrow. We'd like some response. He said, 'If you publish this, I will fuck you for the rest of your life.'

"And he did. A month later, he and the chairman of the Conference, Morris Abrams, the Mort Zuckerman of his era, went to Israel and had lunch with the editors of The Jerusalem Post and asked that I be fired. David Landau, who was then managing editor, said your ass was hanging by a thread, but they couldn't stomach it. They felt Hoenlein was so right-wing and they were liberal left. On the other hand, they said, why do we need the tsures [trouble]?

"Later on, there were moments when I felt like he was hurting me behind the scenes. Years ago, when I was in Russia, the JTA position in Moscow opened up. I was the only logical person for the job. They offered it to a young businessman who was not a journalist. He said to the editor of JTA, why wouldn't you offer it to Walter? And he [editor Marc Pearl] said, according to the businessman, 'Walter Ruby has no credibility in the Jewish community.' That felt like the hand of Malcolm Hoenlein."

Who was the editor of Jewish newspaper that got Walter Ruby fired for this story? I think it was Jerome Lippman from the Long Island Jewish World.

"In the late '80s, I talked to a gentleman named Barry Gurary. [He was the son of Rabbi Shemaryahu Gurary, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok Schneerson's elder son-in-law, married to his elder daughter. Menahem Schneerson beat out Rabbi Shemaryahu to become the leader of Lubavitch.] There were books at 770 Eastern Parkway that he claimed belonged to him. Lubavitch claimed they belonged to them. He took the books and sold some of them. That led to a court suit. He was found guilty and forced to pay back much of the money.

"Barry sent me transcripts of fabrengens that the rebbe had preached that these books were like living documents, pieces of flesh, and that anyone who would sell them, it was like killing somebody. After the rebbe delivered one of these fabrengens, one of his young followers went upstairs, knocked on the door of Barry Gurary's mother and knocked out her eye. She was 85 years old. The fellow who did this was put on the first plane to Israel before they could prosecute him.

"The police didn't come around very fast, as a local [African-American] police sergeant in Crown Heights said to me, Mayor Kotch doesn't put a high priority on looking into this as the Lubavitcher Rebbe delivers 40,000 votes to him every election.

"This story was laid on my doorstep. I told the story. I submitted it to the consortium of Jewish newspapers. Then I went on a long trip to Russia in late 1989. When I came back from Russia, I found that I had been fired. One of the editors had showed the thing to someone in Chabad who had threatened to sue. Then I was going to sell it to New York magazine. I didn't get around to it. I did see it published in New York magazine by somebody else."

Shmarya writes: "The guy that hit her had apparently helped her load some boxes (apparently filled with those books) into a van earlier that week He heard the Rebbe screaming as Walter Ruby describes, went upstairs to the Gurarie's apartment in 770 and knocked on the door. Barry's mother opened the door for him and he beat her badly. Chabad arranged (on Shabbos) to get the guy to Israel on the first flight out after Shabbos. The police looked the other way long enough for the guy to get on the plane. According to my sources, Mrs. Gurarie phoned her sister, the Rebbe's wife, on Shabbos to get help. She answered the phone. No caller I.D., either. There's a history of the Rebbe provoking just this type of violence. Rabbi Rivkin, a Rosh Yeshiva of Torah VoDas and a Chabad hassid, suffered a similar fate in the early 1970's when he refused to go along with the Rebbe's wishes on an issue. (He thought the Rebbe's desire to put someone in cherem was not Halakhicly correct.) he was spit on, called a nazi, had his home defaced and vandalized, received death threats, 3 am threating phone calls, and was harrassed at evey turn. An elderly man, he suffered a massive stroke soon after and died. His son-in-law, Rabbi Shurin, wrote a couple of pieces in the Yiddish Forward about Lubavitch terrorism as a result. The Forwad even published pictures. The Rebbe's response to this was to say that no one who learns Chabad chassidus could do such a thing. Oh yeah, where did Rabbi Rivkin live? Crown Heights.

"I forgot to mention that Chabad in Israel allegedly treated the thug that beat up Mrs. Gourary as a hero. Made a good shidduch for him, etc. Great organization, nu?"

For anyone who is not a fan of the NYT, I recommend my "More (In)Consitency at the NYT". It's a bit long (and perhaps a tad animated, though I finally decided on cleaning up the language before posting). I suspect someone has used it before me, but does anyone know of the use of the word "Timesian" to describe a certain - Timesian - political point of view? [Dear God, I just did a Nexis search and found like 60 uses. Forget that I asked. There goes my ambitions as a neologist. Damn it, that's a real word, too.]

Paul Shaviv writes: "I am always struck when reading these two great magazines at the almost total absence of Orthodox Jewish scholars from the field. Why aren't we interested in archaeology?"

Very easy but very painful answer. To be Orthodox means to ignore scholarship on difficult issues such as the historicity of the Exodus, the literary composition of the Torah etc. To be a scholar (in the secular sense), means to be not Orthodox. Those who try to be both, like James Kugel and the other Bar Ilan Bible scholars, are being neither true scholars nor true Orthodox Jews.

Anyone who says they've reconciled Orthodox Judaism (or orthodox Christianity or any form of normative Islam) with modern scholarship (literary, historical, etc) is either ignorant, self-deceived or lying. Please list in the comments those scholars who you believe have reconciled the two. JB Soleveitchik, for instance, simply ignored Bible scholarship. He didn't rebutt it. He just ignored the Higher Criticism, as have most of his followers (and YU). One is welcome to ignore evidence, scholarship and truth. Just don't expect to be respected for doing so by those who value truth.

I talk to the best minds in Modern Orthodoxy in LA about these matters and they give me such fatuous answers as:

* The latest Bible scholarship no longer follows Julius Wellhausen and rejects the Documentary Hypothesis.

Well, yeah, Bible scholarship, like all other scholarship has advanced over the past 130 years, but not towards the doxy of Orthodoxy.

I ask for great Orthodox Bible scholars and I get the names of 19th Century Germans such as David Hoffman.

Some of Halacah is based upon faulty science. I wonder how many people want to get operated on by doctors following the medical dictates and cures of the Talmud?

It reminds me of talking to Christian Bible scholars. I ask them if the Apostle Paul knew Hebrew.

"Well, yes," they say. "He was a Pharisee. He was a student of Rabbi Gamliel."

"Really? How do you know?"

"Because he said so."

In fact, there is no evidence that Paul knew Hebrew, that he was a student of R. Gamliel, and there is considerable internal evidence from Paul's writings that he did not know Hebrew, was not a Pharisee, was not learned in Jewish text, and that his created religion of Christianity was a mixture of Hellenic mystery cults and other forms of paganism with a Hebraic gloss.

Joe Schick writes: To say that someone can't be Orthodox and a secular scholar who deals with "difficult issues" that question the Torah is an exaggeration. To be Orthodox need not be to "ignore scholarship."

On the issue of the Exodus, see the piece by Lawrence Schiffman, professor at NYU.

For an article about an Orthodox archeologist, see...

The Wicked Priest writes: "For a fantastic piece on this issue, see Prof. Moshe Bernstein's seminal piece in Torah UMadda Journal 3."

Shmarya writes: "Lawrence Schiffman's piece is frightening. He misstates the thesis of Biblical 'minimalists' in order to 'prove' his point. The is no evidence for any
armed conquest by Benei Yisrael as described in Yehoshua. 'Evidence' for the Exodus is also lacking. Then we come to the 'unchanged' Torah. Marc Shapiro has some interesting quotes from Rishonim that indicate a much higher degree of editing and compilation than most of us have been taught. The point is thar Schiffman's piece would be laughable, if it were not for the issue of his position. Clearly, what Luke wrote is true: In this day and age, one can either be an Orthodox Jew ***or*** a
Bible scholar (or archeologist, etc.), but not both. As Orthodoxy is currently (mis-)defined, there is no other choice. It's either the pusuit of truth or the defence of dogma. Always the apologist, Schiffman has chosen the latter."

There's a comment that the Joseph Hertz commentary destroys Higher Criticism. Dream on. You obviously know nothing about HC.

Dawn Eden is a 60’s pop music aficionado, NY Post headline writer, and born-again Christian. Well, two out of three ain’t bad.

Cathy Seipp is ostensibly a libertarian with pro-Bush leanings, but the real agenda she is trying to advance is that she is far more intelligent (and beautiful - you mustn't be so modest, Cathy) than her journalist peers...

Paul Shaviv is starting a vocational high school for Jews in Toronto.

Never Again!

I don’t own Wal-Mart stock and hardly ever buy anything in its stores. So why do I care? Perhaps you’ve heard the saying, “First they came for the Jews, but I did nothing because I wasn’t Jewish ...”


- George C. Leef , director of the Pope Center for Higher Education Policy in Raleigh, NC, tastefully using a Holocaust analogy to criticize efforts, by John Kerry and others, to raise the minimum wage and to expand health coverage for Wal-Mart employees. Leef's column, 'Wal-Mart as a 'Wedge Issue," appears on the Web site of the libertarian Future of Freedom Foundation.

The Forward

April 17, 1998

Time to Name Names
By Jeffrey Goldberg


Several years ago, at one of the money-wasting general assemblies the Jewish federations fete themselves with, Malcolm Hoenlein, the major American Jew who runs the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, spotted me in a hallway and called me over for a huddle. It turned out that Mr. Hoenlein had a warning for me.

I had just written a story that appeared on the front page of this newspaper disclosing the salaries of 10 of the country's top professional Jews. As an exercise in reporting, the story was no great shakes -- it simply entailed collecting figures from a series of public IRS filings. In the secular press, a story detailing the
salaries of muckety-mucks usually lands with a yawn. But in the self-righteous and hypertouchy world of Jewish officialdom, the story elicited weeks of whining about the damage the Forward was doing to the Jewish people, it being common for professional Jews to conflate their own problems with those of their people.

The only muckety-muck who enjoyed the story was one of the few who possesses what in Israel are known as "eggs" and what the current secretary of state once referred to as "cojones." Abraham Foxman, the Anti-Defamation League chief, told a group of Jewish students that his salary (which then equaled that of the president of the United States) was proof that servants of the Jewish people could do well while doing good.

Hoenlein did not share Foxman's mindset. Though he didn't even make the list, he felt obligated to warn me that my future in what he referred to as "Jewish journalism" was looking dim. "You really should be careful," he said. "You can alienate a lot of people with stories like that." At the time, he served on the board
of the UJA-Federation's New York organ, so I assumed he was speaking officially. I thanked Mr. Hoenlein and went on my way, armed with further proof of something I have long believed: that the men and women who serve as Jewish "leaders" today are by and large incapable of grappling with unvarnished truth. Their spinelessness is reflected in their inability to deal straight-on with nearly every issue that confronts them: It is why American Zionists (an oxymoronic term) insist on rolling out the demonstrably false slogan "We Are One" to describe the Israeli-American Jewish relationship; it is why the leaders of Reform and Conservative Judaism preoccupy themselves with the immigration policies of a country they never plan to emigrate to; it is why the so-called defense organizations (Mr. Foxman's
included) try to scare money out of Jewish donors with frightful mailings detailing resurgent and deadly anti-Semitism, which is, in fact, in retreat; and it is, above all, why the Jewish leadership stands paralyzed as intermarriage and assimilation work to halve the number of identifying Jews in this country over the next two
generations.

I was reminded of this myopia after writing a mild (by secular standards) column detailing the ethical and policy failings of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs. I was quickly condemned by its chairman, Steven Schwarz, who stated that the JCPA would not limit its interests to core "headline grabbers" I detailed in a previous column. And what are the issues Mr. Schwarz derides as "headline grabbers"? The only two issues of overwhelming importance facing the American Jewish community, I suggested in that column, are the physical survival of Israel and the spiritual survival of American Jewry in the face of assimilation and intermarriage.

In Mr. Schwarz's world, though, Jewish survival is a "headline grabber."

And what is an issue of critical importance, then? Apparently, it is the formation of an International Criminal Court, which a recent JCPA resolution calls "an important step forward in securing international human rights." Never mind that the
International Criminal Court, as currently envisioned, could easily be manipulated by totalitarian regimes -- as the president of Freedom House, Adrian Karatnycky, has pointed out -- manipulation that could result in the spectacle of countries such as Iraq and Libya bringing America and Israel up on war crimes charges.

The reason the JCPA continues to be funded with precious Jewish dollars, even though it is an irrelevant organization that often advocates positions that are directly contrary to Jewish interests, is that it is considered impolitic in the Jewish
community to note unpleasant truths about groups that no longer serve any meaningful purpose. This weakness explains why the American Jewish Congress, which is a travel agency that runs a First Amendment law practice on the side, still exists, and why the Israel Bonds organization, which is a drag on Israel's economy, still sells bonds.

Things might be changing, however. In a recent speech before a national Hillel leadership conference, Michael Steinhardt, the philanthropist (and vice chairman of the Forward), took a step toward a candid confrontation of this problem. Mr. Steinhardt believes that the Jews in America are headed toward oblivion unless
the status quo is obliterated and massive new efforts are made to keep Jews Jewish. Overturning the status quo will only happen, he said, when the Jewish community stops resisting criticism and looks unsparingly at itself and its organizations. "We need to critique the status quo, to name names of ineffective organizations," Mr.
Steinhardt said. "In turn, the community must reprioritize and move money to effective organizations."

Though Mr. Steinhardt aimed, he never fired. He closed his speech without doing what he said should be done, naming names. So I wondered: Was he thinking of Stephen Solender, the head of UJA-Federation in New York, who, even with the Dow at 9,000, is
incapable of squeezing even a few extra dollars out of the richest Jewish community in the history of the world? Or was he thinking of the JCPA's irrelevant Lawrence Rubin? Or the Simon Wiesenthal Center's scare-mongering Marvin Hier?

Inquiring minds want to know, so I called Mr. Steinhardt to ask. He gave me a reasonable answer -- "I'm not particularly involved in the institutional world, so I don't know who's doing a good job and who's lazy" -- while still managing to avoid giving me names I suspect he names to himself all the time.

Only when he names them publicly -- and only when he is joined by the other megaphilanthropists in whose hands the Jewish future largely rests -- will the Jewish community begin to shake itself out of its stupor. Knowing Mr. Steinhardt, and several of the other philanthropic leaders, I believe that it is only a matter
of time before they realize that the ruthless and public pursuit of the unvarnished truth is the only saving step to take. And I wouldn't want to be Malcolm Hoenlein -- or Larry Rubin or any of the rest -- on the day when they take that first step.

My father -- principal of one of North America's largest Jewish day schools -- is guest blogging about matters of Jewish Education (and other Jewish topics...) on Bloghead.

Madonna opening kabbala day school.

Me writes: [Interview] Matt Bellan - editor of the Winnipeg Jewish Post and News

Points of interest:

1) Killed what became one of the biggest stories in the community

In 1987, the Winnipeg Council of Rabbis wrote a letter to the editor of the Winnipeg Jewish Post & News alleging that Rabbi Bryks plagiarized several articles in his Weekly Torah commentaries from a book by Ottawa Rabbi Bulka's called Torah Therapy. Rabbi Bryks' lawyer threatened the newspaper with a lawsuit if the letter were published. It was never printed.

2) Local general newspapers had a tendency to beat it in coverage of Jewish news

"The Free Press published a story at the top of page 1 March 29 about the community
service department's review of Bryks' behavior after a reporter from that newspaper snuck into an information meeting the Herzalia Synagogue board held the night before to brief Torah Academy parents and synagogue members about the department's findings.

The Jewish Post & News had asked for permission to attend the meeting, but a member of Herzlia's board advised that this newspaper would not be welcome, as the proceedings were an internal matter."

The Jewish Post & News - Wednesday, April 6, 1988

3) example of typical Hard-hitting journalism

Katz offered Winnipeg's Jewish weekly a sample of his wit, when asked how it feels to be Winnipeg's Jewish mayor, immediately after Glen Murray,
Winnipeg's first gay mayor.

"How do you know he was the first?" Katz snapped back. "You don't know."

Surfer writes: "Luke- You're hitting new lows now with open use of the f word. Your mouth needs a good drink of soap. And while you're at it, give your keyboard and hands a dunking in it as well."

I never knowingly use profanity here or elsewhere. That was from somebody else and I missed it. Now I've cut it out of the excerpt.

Two frum girls drown. "With profound sadness, pain and deep shock we inform you of a terrible tragedy that occurred on Motzoei Shabbos with the very untimely passing of two Shmueli sisters, Shterna 12 and Chaya 14, of Crown Heights."

New York Daily News

I went to Pardes today to hand in my application fee and to check out the digs. Kind of a weird lil place. Not what I was expecting, but more than I expected after hearing it was above a Mazda dealership. Was rollin' down Yochanan Ben Zakkai on my longboard, trying not to bust my ass. Walked in there shvitzed and toting a humongous-ass skateboard. Yay first impressions! Classes start on Sept. 1, so at least I've got a month to ---- around and do some Ulpan.

MoChassid on rabbis talking sports.

I'm looking for Cynthia Mann. My intentions are only noble. She was editor of the Atlanta Jewish Times from about October 1998 until the next spring. Last I heard she was living in Connecticut as a stay-at-home mom. She's no longer an AJPA member. She also worked for JTA in the mid 90's out of New York before moving to Atlanta.
She wrote a story in Atlanta about corruption charges levelled at the Federation president and his supporters went after her in the most vicious and personal fashion.
Won't somebody please help this humble Torah Jew do a big mitzvah? She has lost something that I must return to her [her chapter in my book on Jewish journalism].

I used to keep the masses in stitches writing about my humble life. But these days, I write about the rabbinate, oral law, and the nexus between the two. Should I write less about Judaism, and more about my life living amongst my betters in Los Angeles? Amalek says I should. What say you, readers?
PS I am thinking of offering a free X-Box to anyone who can convincingly make the case one way or another.
JMT writes:

Persons having zero interest in reading about "the rabbinate, oral law, and the nexus between the two" (or, for that matter, a book about Jewish journalism):
1. All non-Jews;
2. The vast majority of Jews;
3. All persons, regardless of race, creed, or color, who are in a position to offer you substantial gainful employment.

A heartwarming Shabbos tale from Chayyei Sarah, who has a sister Rivkah who lives near me.
I know I shouldn't enjoy Chayyei's writing so much, and that it is weird and stalkerish of me to keep pumping her site like this, but my heart is so moved that my fingers must type her URL over and over again, as if that would make us closer. I'm just a fool for love.

I call Baltimore Jewish Times (17,000 subscribers, Gary Rosenblatt was the editor for 19 years until he moved to The Jewish Week of New York in 1993) Senior Editor Neil Rubin Thursday, August 5, 2004.

I've Had a Terrible Weekend.

I have not told this to my friends yet (as if!), but I had quite a scare this weekend. First, Friday afternoon I slipped in the shower on a bar of soap, and hit my head on the way down. No bleeding, not even much of a bump, but it left me woozy. Then I went to shul, somewhat in a fog, feeling very down. I concluded that my sufferings in life (poverty, bachelorhood) were expressions of God's wrath for my shortcomings, and that God expressed his wrath by afflicting me with these shortcomings. Only by cleaving ever more tightly to the teachings of real Rabbis can I hope to break out of this cycle of Holy vengance and find a mate. Anyway, since hitting my head and deciding to become even more Jewish than I have been, I've rethought several positions in life. To begin with, I now think I support George Bush. And I really think I might find a wife via this blog. So I'm back. Send all your hate mail to chaimamalek@yahoo.com, the repository of my yetzer hora and my means of denying that I ever wrote any of this.

Luke Explains Cancer and Other Terrible Diseases

According to the world's great belief systems:

You have cancer (or other terrible diseases) because:

JUDAISM: God hates you.
CHRISTIANITY: God loves you.
ISLAM: Such is fate.

Science: Cancer is the result of the action of physical principles that may or may not be partially mediated by lifestyle choices (e.g. the decision of homosexuals to bugger men can lead to AIDS).

Luke feels that the Jewish explanation is the most morally valid of these. For example, I am certain that God really hates it when a Jew turns on a battery operated radio on Shabbos, even more than he hates it when a Jew would seem to attribute disease to the failure of a Jew to obey the rabbinate, which I don't think is the case at all. That doesn't quite make sense, but morally speaking, it does not have to.

I am a chassid because I was born one. If I had the choice to undo my first twenty years and be brought up as an MO I certainly would. I find the MO approach to be both more humane and more Godly and I have great respect for some of them.

I live in Jerusalem Israel, and am sick of being harassed by the checkpoints. Married for a while. Have a few kids.
Jewish: Yes
Frum: I try to be
Do for a living: Sales

Aidel Maidel takes questions. Why did she become frum?

The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion have asked me to discontinue blogging as I am giving away too many communal secrets.

I've done nothing for Israel all summer. I've been too burned out after building Habitat For Humanity houses with the Alternative Spring Break program.

I did join as many as 40,000 deadbeat dads in Las Vegas Friday for a massive, weekend-long show of non-support for our children.

From JPost.com: Thousands flocked to the funeral of Rabbi Yitzchok Zilber, 87, the spiritual mentor of Orthodox Russian Jews in Israel, late Monday night in Jerusalem on the eve of Tisha Be'av.

Heads of the leading Lithuanian (non-Hassidic) yeshivas eulogized Zilber, one of the few Jews to have kept an Orthodox lifestyle in communist Russia, paying for it by a stay in the Gulag, and who worked tirelessly to bring fellow Russian immigrants back to the faith after he was allowed to immigrate to Israel in 1972.

A year ago Ruby Taylor's young niece asked a question that left the 26 year-old speechless. "Do I look like God?" asked five year-old Bria. Taylor's education at Virginia Union University and Howard University had prepared her for helping children in abusive, challenging, and life-threatening situations. It was her strong relationship with God though, that helped her answer Bria's question with complete honesty.

Robert J. Avrech attended Brooklyn Talmudic Academy at the same time as Yossi Klein Halevi.

Robert replies to my email of inquiry about Klein's Memoirs of a Jewish Extremist:

Yes, I read the book. It was accurate and exactly mirrored my experiences. I knew who he was, but I kept my distance because he hung out with the Betar, JDL guys. They used to go to the basement, behind the lockers, and smoke cigarettes and discuss how they wanted to kill Arabs and goyim. All of them were children of Holocaust survivoirs. Their collective pathology was so naked, so raw that we who had American parents, kept a respectful/fearful distance.

I was not part of any group. I was solitary, poetic, sensitive; I would sit in a corner reading "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man." One of my Rebbeim once caught me, as I had it hidden inside my gemara, he leafed through it and grimaced:
"Avrech, what are you readng?"
"It's great literature."
"How would you know?"
"Um, it's tauight in all the universities?"
"Goyim and goyishe kups. Your father, does he know you read such narishkeit?"
"I guess he's aboout to find out, right Rebbe?"
"Such a smart boy."

Samuel G. Freedman writes August 1 in the NY Times last about Rabbi Marvin Hier's Holocaust Center in Israel. He keeps calling the rabbi "Mr. Hier."

"At the most hyperbolic edge of the debate, the American architect and critic Michael Sorkin claimed in Architectural Record that the Gehry design's use of large, irregular stone blocks "uncomfortably evokes the `deconstruction' of Yasir Arafat's headquarters in Ramallah into a pile of rubble by Israeli security forces.""

I believe Rabbi Hier has asked for equal space to respond in Architectural Record to the Arab academic Dr. Sorkin.

Miriam Shaviv writes: "A new book of responsa by Rav Elyashiv includes a statement that cancer -- which he refers to as 'the incurable disease' -- comes as a "punishment" because people (in general) have "distanced themselves from religion" and because there has been an increase in disrespect to Torah and its scholars (See Maariv / NRG for the more detailed Hebrew original).

"I do not need to elaborate on the hideousness and insensitivity of such a statement."

..........

Rav Elyashiv's statement is basic Torah. It is not intended, I believe, to be said to anyone suffering from cancer. But that is how the Torah sees the world. That there is one law ruling the universe and that law is moral and physical. When bad things happen to us, we should examine where we have gone wrong morally.

It is not an excuse for us to tell those who are suffering that they must have done wrong. It is an exhortation for us to morally improve and to see everything that happens to us, including parking tickets and cancer, as warnings from the Almighty that we need Him.

Look at Devarim and the paragraphs in the liturgy after the shma. If we follow God's will [assuming we live in a vacuum], we will, all things being equal, lead blessed lives.

From a Torah perspective, everything that happens to us is the will of God.

I do not think there is anything hideous in the rabbi's words. If he went around saying them to cancer sufferers, that would be hideous. But he is not. He is speaking Torah. If people think they can flaunt the Torah and the admonitions of the sages and not suffer for it, they are fooling themselves. There will be physical repercussions for violating God's will. This won't be measured out equally to each person and it won't all come in this life, but there is a Judge and there will be Judgment. What's so controversial about that?

Frankly, if you don't agree with those simple sentiments, I don't know why you would be religious (of any religion, this is basic to all of them).

The rabbi's statement is no more than a religious analogy to "smoking cigarettes can cause cancer." Not everyone who smokes will get cancer and not everyone who defies the sages will get cancer. But doing both things will increase your odds of bad things happening to you.

As with Rav Shachter's remarks of a few weeks ago, we will soon hear hysterical condemnations (Miriam's critique, by contrast, was thoughtful, specific, and courageous even though I disagree with it) of the sages by those who are comparatively ignorant.

Now, I think great rabbis should be held accountable for their words. I think they should be publicly analyzed. I just don't think that those who know less Torah should fly off the handle and react with public rage and thoughtless emotion to statements that are basic to the Torah-perspective.

And for the record, I am fully aware that the most pious Jews were most likely to die in the Holocaust and the most secular were most likely to get out of Europe in safety before WWII.

My mother, a pious Christian, died of cancer in her 30s. I don't believe it was caused by her sins and I don't believe any decent Christian would ever have told her such a thing. I have a good friend, a secular friend, who has cancer, and I would rather shoot off my foot, as would any decent soul, than tell her that her cancer was caused by her secularism. But that doesn't negate the rabbi's teaching. It is just not for us to inflict that teaching on those who are suffering. The rabbi's teaching is a call for repentance.

As Rabbi Avigdor Miller put it, when you see a one-legged Puerto Rican hop down the street, that is a call for repentance to klal Yisrael.

Everything that happens is a call for Israel to repent and to cleave to HaShem. That the Dallas Cowboys cut their starting quarterback Quincy Carter this week, is, in the Torah view, a call for us return to G-d.

If you hate what this rabbi said, your real problem is with the Torah, and with almost any religious viewpoint of which I am aware, not with him.

Judaism is a complex balancing of many competing values. Compassion for sick people is only one value among many. While Judaism condemns homosexuality, it has compassion for homosexuals.

You can't shout down a public comment because one suffering group may find it offensive. If a person directs needlessly painful remarks to specific persons, then he should be called on it. But if a rabbi gives a Torah view on cancer, then, if it springs from the Torah, it is a legitimate Torah view, even if it makes people uncomfortable.

Black comic Chris Rock makes jokes about black people which are funny. But if I, as a white man, were to tell them to black strangers, the jokes would be legitimately offensive. Context is king. The good rabbi here was not addressing a cancer ward. If he were, I would join in the condemnations.

Some human beings, being human beings, will bollix things up. I remember sitting around with a couple of Orthodox rabbis whose comment on Rabbi David Wolpe's brain surgery of nine months was that the Gemara says that those who hold heretical views will have brain problems. But even these rabbis with their harsh views would never have gone to Rabbi Wolpe and his family and friends and repeated these statements, at least not while the rabbi was suffering and fragile.

Shmarya weighs in. Can you guess where he comes down?

He writes me: "Keep in mind that by definition this responsa was intended to be made public and that R. Elyashiv could have removed that section from the book or added a
qualifying sentence. He did neither. When Chazal said in the Pirke Avot that "famine comes on the world for . . .," they based their statement on tradition from navi'im. If one wants to make a drasha about illness and sin, fine. But it must be just that -- a drasha. It does not belong in contemporary Halakhic literature (especially when the facts are so wrong)."

Miriam writes: "...[H]ow does R. Elyashiv know that G-d is punishing the people through that disease and not through the increase in heart disease, SARS or any other disease out there?"

We can not know any such thing, as we can not know any of the principles of the Jewish religion. They are all based on faith, and however rational, they are not subject to fact-checking. The rabbi's statement on cancer is no more or less faith-based than the belief that God brought the Jews out of Egypt.

Espaklarya writes: "Miriam, I don't understand you. He didn't say that it's a punishment for the cancer-afflicted person's actions -- he said it's a general punishment for the generation's level of observance. This is a classical thought. All suffering is due to sin, i.e. distance from God. How is this different than saying "and because of our sins, we have been exiled from our land"? Kol hamchalo asher samti b'mitzrayim lo osim alecho -- that is a promise that is kept if we don't sin."

Both The Jewish Week and The Jewish Press claim to be America's largest independent newspaper. Who's lying?

The Jewish Week, laughably, also claims to be the most respected. By who? Its Federation, which buys most of its subscriptions.

I went to a shiur by Modern Orthodox rabbi Yosef Kanefsky this afteroon on Tisha B'Av as a window into denominational Judaism.

In 1859, radical Reform rabbi David Einhorn devised a Reform liturgy for Tisha B'Av that acknowledged past Jewish suffering on this day (the destruction of the two temples, the last one in 70 CE by the Romans) but said that we should look for new temples springing up around the world as we create a universalist messianic age. Reform is the most universalist of the three major Jewish denominations. It started in Germany. It held that Jews should be Germans in the street and Jews at home. That Judaism was a religion, not a nation with a homeland in Zion.

In the Minhag American (1857) prayer book of moderate Reform rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise there is a moderate amount of litury for Tisha B'Av but no call for a fast as traditional Judaism requires. In the revised 1872 version, there is no litury for Tisha B'Av.

Following the Holocaust, Reform became more inclined to Zionism and to observing Tisha B'Av in some form. Some 1959 camp liturgy observed the day but did not mention the Shoah. But 1964 Reform camp liturgy is filled with references to the Holocaust, as is the Reform practice to this day (some Reform temples read Lamentations on erev Tisha B'Av and observe other parts of the traditional liturgy while other Reform organizations have swimming meets on the day).

Reform has varied the most with observance or lack thereof of Tisha B'Av.

Conservative Judaism has always officially stood by Tisha B'Av in theory, but aside from rabbis, few Conservative Jews have observed the day.

Orthodoxy has always held by Tisha B'Av and Jewish Law. Then in 1967, Jerusalem was recaptured. How could Jews then keep praying for the rebuilding of a desolate Jerusalem as the traditional liturgy demands? The Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv amended one verb and added a word to the prayer to make it fit modern realities. He was widely denounced. Why? Because Orthodox Jews have nightmares about changing their liturgy or other practices.

How many Orthodox Jews does it take to change a lightbulb?

Changes? We never change.

The Hebrew Kid and the Apache Maiden

I read this novel by Robert J. Avrech straight through in two hours Friday night. I laughed out loud a dozen times. It is terrific and a much-needed contribution to fiction for religious Jewish kids.

.........

A soldier approaches the frum family.

"You get back to your Cossack friends before I knock your head in, you dirty little sheygitz." Mama lifted a cast iron skillet.

"Please, ma'am, I'm not a sheygitz. My name is Schulman. I'm a landsman. A Jew."

...............

The mother yells at this Indian maiden Lozen. "So you be careful who you call a witch. Let me tell you something, you might scare the goyim with your whoops and hollers and guns and knives, but to me you're just a little shicksah pisher. And a little advice, maidel: you should spend a bit more time on your looks... You think a man is going to want to marry a wild girl? You should be thinking about a shidduch, not riding around like you're on the warpath!"

Mama was practically shouting. Lozen nodded mutely.

............

The book is written from the perspective of Ariel, a 12-year old about to celebrate his bar mitzvah in the Wild West of the 1870s.

It's clearly crafted by an accomplished screenwriter. All the scenes have conflict and move the story forward. Most of the chapters end with a hook that compells you to keep reading. The story often heads in the opposite direction of what you'd expect.

Dialogue is an Avrech strength. His emails are frequently hilarious when he paints his life with spare dialogue.

While Ariel is the book's most sympathetic character, momma and Doc Holliday are the most entertaining.

The book reminds me a great deal of Robert's movie A Stranger Among Us with its romantic view of Jewish mysticism. Both works have lead characters named Ariel who dabble in kaballah.

I love the absurd tensions of an Orthodox family trying to deal with the goyim in the Wild West.

The book comes out of a robust confidence that must flow from Robert's life that Orthodox Judaism is strong enough to tackle the wider world. I believe that Robert Avrech (who comes from a long line of Orthodox rabbis and his son Ariel would've carried on that tradition) is the first Orthodox screenwriter of feature films (with Brian De Palma's Body Double in 1984). In the world in which he grew up, Hollywood was at best foolishness.

So Robert must've learned at his secular college, and at his secular kibbutz in Israel, and in secular Hollywood, how to interact with non-Jews, righteous and otherwise, while maintaining his Orthodoxy.

Robert's life reminds me of My Name is Asher Lev, probably my favorite Jewish novel.

I read The Hebrew Kid for fun, but I reflect on it as an allegory of Robert's journey through the non-Orthodox world.

Like the frum family in his novel, Robert has long strived to practice Orthodox Judaism within a frequently hostile environment.

Avrech is not of the "Yossi Klein Halevi school of Orthodox Judaism," which simply posits that Orthodoxy is the language he learned to communicate with God. Robert is authentically Orthodox (literally means correct belief) in the sense that he truly believes in the Thirteen Principles of Maimonidies, and not just in some figurative sense. I know. I've grilled him on these.

I believe that Yossi and Robert both went to Brooklyn Talmudic Academy, aka Yeshiva University High School of Brooklyn. Yossi writes about it in his Memoirs of a Jewish Extremist.

The lead Jewish characters in this novel have meaningful interactions with non-Jews. Their worldview divides people not just along Jew and non-Jew, but most significantly along the lines of moral and immoral. The Jews learn from the goyim and vice versa. The Jews constantly face pressures for which they know no immediate halachic answer, but instead have to search themselves and their sacred texts for direction.

[This is the opposite of the fretful Orthodoxy embodied by Gil Perl and Yaakov Weinstein, graduate students at Harvard and MIT respectively, in their pamphlet “A Parent’s Guide to Orthodox Assimilation on University Campuses,” which warns Jewish parents of the moral and spiritual corruption that awaits their children should they send them to elite secular universities.]

Because they live in the real world, the Jews in the novel sin. They're real. They're not cookie-cutter characters like much religious fiction for teens.

Three years ago, Robert told me he could never write a novel.

Three years ago, Robert didn't have a son who was dying.

As he worked on this novel, Robert used to read portions to Ariel, who laughed when he had the strength.