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You Can't Have Spirituality without Law & Justice

31/1/2019

A famous story is told of an apprentice walking around with his master of Eastern mysticism.

Seemingly detached from the material world and free of human vice, they spy a lost wallet lying on the ground.

The master slips it into his pocket.

“Shouldn’t we find the owner?” worries the apprentice.

“No,” says the enlightened master with a smile. “The gods have smiled on us today.”

You can’t have spirituality without justice & laws, without mishpat & mishpatim.

This is why all these countries bursting with Eastern spiritual practices and so-called rejection of worldly desires and vices also host terrible human rights abuses and deplorable living conditions with little hope of escape.

People grumble (or at least wonder at) the myriads of detailed laws within Judaism. It seems so nitpicky! And who needs all that...especially after the astounding spiritual experience at Har Sinai?

Yet Parshat Mishpatim imprints upon us the dire importance of creating a society based on justice. If you want real spirituality, then you absolutely must care about damages – even the most minor.

You can’t do a mitzvah through speeding, double-parking, breaking something, or stealing (like taking a Gemara to study without permission from the Gemara’s owner).

Talking loudly in divrei Torah while walking through the streets late at night when people are sleeping is not okay.

Even something like sharing a holy word with another while suffering from halitosis is not okay.

For more, please see Rav Avigdor Miller’s dvar Torah:
Parshas Mishpatim: Preface to Chassidus

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New Equality? Or Women Just Doing What They've Always Done?

31/1/2019

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Today’s modern world insists on evening out traditionally male-dominated fields.

In some fields, like left-brained fields of technology and engineering, you’ll never see true equality just like you’ll never see a 50-50 ratio of male-to-female nannies or newborn nurses. (Although if you do see such tidy ratios, you’d better head out to another, saner society because enforced equality means lower quality.)

But women are not only saturating but excelling in other traditionally male-dominated fields.

Why is that?

Nature Still has the Edge over Nurture

While Leftists pundits will yap about social conditioning and constructs, the truth is that some traditionally male-dominated fields are actually quite conducive for feminine strengths and women didn't need much in encouragement to enter those fields in droves.

Such fields appeared male-dominated simply because women either lacked the opportunity (not necessarily because of society, but because of old-fashioned labor-intensive domestic duties) or they DID work in those fields, but not in an official capacity.

So what’s the difference between a traditionally male-dominated field that is actually conducive for a woman’s strengths and a traditionally male-dominated field less conducive?

Let’s take the example of medicine.

Female Doctors vs Male Doctors

The official profession and title of a doctor was predominantly male for centuries.

Yet the actual practice of medicine was carried out by both men and women – they just didn’t call the women “doctor.”

For example colonial American midwife Martha Ballard was the most highly regarded midwife in her area, but she did much more than deliver babies. She treated serious diseases and also lanced abscesses. She had a working relationship with one of the top doctors in that area, and it’s clear from her diary that the relationship included mutual trust and respect for each other’s medical skills. The doctor was perfectly content for Martha to treat his own ill family members in his absence and she felt the same toward him.

Furthermore, when local doctors happened on the opportunity to perform an autopsy, these male doctors invited Martha to attend – just as they would any professional colleague.

And yes, they thought to invite her. She didn’t hint or put herself forward in any way to attend. They sought her out simply based on her obvious qualifications and skill as a medical professional.

So women entering the medical profession is actually a natural continuation of a role women have filled since time immemorial.

And studies indicate that women make better doctors than men. They seem to make fewer mistakes and so on. (Please see: JAMA Journal.)

Of course, we’ve all encountered bad female doctors. I had one at my last birth. She did the actual medical procedure fine, but her bedside manner was heartless and hideous. Better she should cake plaster over her mouth and just get to work doing what she was trained to do.

And this also is not to say that men don’t make good doctors.

There are many fine male doctors. But certain aspects of the female personality are more conducive to good doctoring. And you may call me a female chauvinist, but I personally prefer female gynecologists and obstetricians to male ones - and not just for reasons of tsnius. And I REALLY prefer female pediatricians to male ones, especially those female doctors who are mothers themselves. All things considered, women tend to be better pediatricians overall than men.

I don’t mean any offense to all the excellent male ob/gyns and pediatricians out there, but my personal experience shows that females are just better all-around in these particular fields.

In other words, what these areas of medicine demand tend to be fulfilled much better by a female doctor than a male one.

Men tend to excel in other areas of medicine.

No offense!

Nothing REALLY New under the Sun

Business is another field in which women have always participated, whether on her own or, more commonly, with male family members.

As explained in a previous post, even the classic Eishet Chayil of Mishlei/Proverbs clearly discusses a woman who invests in real estate and field production – and does so with great success.

So, all things considered, it’s no surprise that women make up half of medical students in America and surpass men in other fields:

60% of pediatricians are women
51% of ob/gyns are women
60% of dermatology trainees are women
63% of those enrolled in journalism or mass communication are women

NOTE: Female enrollment in medical school occurred without affirmative action.

Another field considered female-dominated today, but was historically the realm of males, is teaching – particularly teachers of elementary school students.

For millennia, any official teaching was performed by a male.

Yet by 1850, the majority of school teachers in America were female.

And again, like with the above professions, women were drawn toward teaching because it plays feminine strengths and is something women have done throughout history in unofficial capacity.

Free to be You & Me

So in any field you find a majority of women, you’ll see it’s a field that:

A) draws on female strengths
B) was something that women have traditionally done anyway, albeit not necessarily in official or professional capacity

And so the problem with society today is that it seeks to enforce equal representation in all areas – including areas to which women aren't innately drawn and tend not to display innate aptitude.

So society attempts to enforce "equal" representation unequally because it only seeks to increase the ratio of women in male-dominated areas rather than also increase the ratio of men in female-dominated areas. (At least they aren't trying to enforce even ratios in female-dominated fields too.) It's all a disaster in the making.

But really, people should be allowed to excel where they wish and should be allowed to just be themselves – according to whatever self Hashem gave them.

"Previous post" mentioned above:
The True History of Women's Work

Related Post:
What Happens When Equality Demands Discrimination

Why aren't there more female window cleaners on high-rise buildings? I protest the dearth of females in this field! Clearly, women are being socially conditioned to avoid squeegees & soapy water at dizzying heights. How long will we let the glass ceiling of high-rise window-cleaning block us from achieving equality? I declare a Twitter attack against all these blatantly misogynist skyscraper owners! Join me at #SqueegToo!

#SqueegToo!

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What Happens When "Equality" Demands Discrimination

30/1/2019

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In recent times, American businesses face pressure to hire an equal number of female employees, even in areas which seriously lack qualified females.

For example, female students simply don’t enter certain fields in the same numbers as men. (And male students simply don't enter certain fields in the same number as women.)

In the US, only 18% of computer science degrees and engineering degrees are earned by women despite the fact that women earn 64% of undergraduate college degrees.

And while belly-button-ponderers like to drone on about the gender gap as a purely social construct, women certainly saturate university classes for other formerly male-dominated fields.

For example, women comprise half of business students and almost half of those majoring in biology, statistics, math, and physical sciences, while over half the students in journalism and communications are comprised of women.

So if, for example, you need an equal gender ratio of computer scientists or engineers, you simply won’t be able to find an equal number of female computer scientists or female engineers because they just don't exist in those numbers.

Alternatively, as has been happening already, you’ll need to take the less qualified female computer scientists or engineers in order to attempt to close the gender gap in your company.

After all, it’s not rational to assume that every member of the 18% is a top-notch computer scientist. You’ll have some B-students in that slice, just like you have in every slice, no matter how big or small.

So this will actually hurt women because people will suspect that a female computer scientist or engineer is actually not so qualified and only hired because of her gender.

And because there always are less qualified in every field, female computer scientists and engineers will gain a reputation for lower quality work because companies are forced to hire females at any price - and regardless of actual skill or qualification.

So female computer scientists and engineers will still have to prove that they earned their place. They’ll still have to work twice as hard to be considered just as good.

And anyway, it's just not possible to create a 50% gender ratio with only 18%.

That’s just one example.

Reverse Discrimination

And this type of gender discrimination for the sake of "equality" is what led Dilbert creator, Scott Adams, to become a cartoonist.

After repeated blocks to promotions in favor of female candidate ONLY because of gender (even though his superiors – including a female superior – admitted that he was the more qualified candidate), Adams stopped trying and instead detoured into the creation one of the most popular comic strips (and one of my personal favorites).

Hashem doesn’t close one door without opening another, and the second door opened into cartoon fame for Scott Adams.

However, companies forced to hire less qualified and less talented individuals will produce lower quality.

So the world of comics gained, but Adams's former company lost.

Biological Differences in Real Life

In contrast, how would you feel about a hospital hiring male neonatal nurses for the newborns ONLY because they were male?

How would you feel about less qualified nurses caring for your tender newborn simply to even out the gender ratio?

And unlike the world of engineering and computer science, most people are willing to admit that there are very real gender differences regarding the care of babies and small children.

To give an example: A non-Jewish family member of mine put his child in the preschool of the local JCC. The head teacher was a male.

When the parents came to pick up their child one day, the male teacher said playfully to the child in front of the parents, “Mason, do you want to tell your parents what you did today?”

After some cheery prodding, Mason said, “I ate a worm.” (Yes. An actual worm.)

“And what did it taste like?” said the male teacher in that cooing voice people reserve for small children.

“Jelly,” came the reply.

The teacher grinned at the parents.

My family member and his wife found this all very funny.

Personally, I’m wasn't so enamored.

But think about it for a minute.

With a female caretaker, children really are less likely to eat worms or other forbidden substances. It’s not that such a thing would never happen with a female preschool teacher – it DOES happen! But women tend to me more attentive and conscientious.

Males tend to have a more, “Oh, it’ll probably be okay…” approach to children. Not all, but many. And sometimes they’re right in this approach, but sometimes not.

And just for knowing, my 3.5-year-old is in gan with 2 male melamdim and they’re fabulous. Very responsible, very warm and attentive. And the head melamed is a master educator.

And despite the fact that our school offers the option of either a female teacher or a male teacher, we chose to put our child with the melamed over the ganenet because 2 other sons learned by this melamed and had extremely positive experiences.

So our youngest is by this same melamed too.

Nonetheless, it cannot be denied that these melamdim are still a bit more laid-back than a female teacher is for that age. (But at least the children never eat worms...)

Secondly, in the JCC example, if that had been a female teacher, she never would’ve reported the event in such a frivolous manner.

Many male teachers wouldn't either, but male teachers -- especially younger ones -- are more likely respond with humor rather than horror to such a situation.

(Also, I found it interesting that the teacher reported it as something Mason did -- i.e., "tell your parents what you did today" -- rather than something that happened to Mason -- i.e., "tell your parents what happened to you today." Does that reflect a gender difference? I'm honestly not sure.)

But how could Mason’s male teacher present the whole thing as a minor and amusing episode? He didn’t feel bad or express any personal responsibility or remorse for his own lapse of diligence. How can he not even feel apologetic?

That boggles my feminine mind.

Not to mention the kashrus issue if you’re Jewish...

In contrast, your average female teacher would say something like, “Oh, I’m so embarrassed to have to tell you this, but today, we caught Mason eating a worm before we could stop him. We’re so sorry this happened and we checked him out to make sure he was okay and we’ve taken steps to ensure this WON'T happen again. We feel just terrible about this, but we wanted to make sure you knew so that if Mason doesn’t feel well later, you can have him checked out that the worm didn’t harm him or anything.”

She’ll probably also explain a bit about why they didn’t catch Mason in time, i.e, it’s not that they weren’t responsible or didn’t care, but unforeseen circumstances popped up, which gave Mason took the opportunity to sample the worm.

(Or she might decide not to reveal anything in order to avoid confrontation & other negative consequences.)

Right?

Enforced "Equality"?

Yes, these are all generalizations. On the flip side, we all know appallingly negligent women and very conscientious men.

But biological hard-wiring is why more women than men tend to be attracted to working with very small children, especially babies. And these same reasons make women better than men in these areas too...generally speaking.

There are always exceptions.

Likewise, biological hard-wiring seems to be why more women tend to be less interested in computer science and engineering just like less men seem to be interested in early childhood education, becoming a neonatal nurse or becoming a nanny.

If you read the studies of why fewer women enter computer science and engineering and why, once there, succeed less than men, you’ll notice that it’s a lot about their approach to these areas.

The innate feminine approach is less conducive to success in these left-brained fields.

Of course, all the pontificators drone on about social conditioning, but you’re not necessarily seeing that in other traditionally male-dominated areas.

Needless to say, men can be excellent nannies and nurses and women can be excellent computer scientists and engineers.

But not nearly as many of them can be or will be.

So just to be clear: The issue is NOT about traditionally male-dominated professions.

Women succeed in droves in some traditionally male-dominated professions because those professions (like doctors, for example) are conducive to the female strengths and in the case of doctors, women actually practiced medicine from time immemorial, but didn't do so officially or with a fancy title.

It’s about biological hard-wiring, which will give one gender the upper hand in specific fields and there is NO WAY to even that out.

And forcing equality where there isn't any produces unwanted consequences.

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The Feminine Path to Greatness

29/1/2019

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For the past few decades, women have been encouraged to compare themselves to men.

This fosters unhealthy competition, including within marriage.

Of course, this ends up infiltrating the frum world too.

But really, it’s like comparing apples to oranges.

Apples & Oranges

If you’re an apple, you should be interested in your appley potential and being the best apple you can be — according to whatever apple you are. There are many different kinds of apples and no 2 are the same.

But if you’re obsessed with how you compare to an orange, you end up holding yourself back.

For example, you may obsess over how your peel is fully edible – yet the orange’s peel can be used for flavoring in high-end desserts. “Orange zest” somehow sounds so much more prestigious than “apple peel.” Yet you’ll be missing the wonderful vitamins and taste experience inherent in your own peel.

Or you fret about how to add more orange to your color. But you’re a Green Delicious! Adding more orange will only downgrade your market appeal and inherent beauty. Customers seek you out davka because you’re a Green Delicious or a Pink Lady rather than a juicy Jaffa.

Self-denigrating apples also ignore the absolutely scrumptious & comforting pies they make and instead yearn to be part of a citrus fruit cocktail or mourn their lack of vitamin C and pre-formed sections.

Likewise, Hashem set up spiritual physics so that women can achieve what men can, albeit in a different way.

How to be a Gedolat Hador & a Mekubaless

I still remember the wonder I felt when reading Rav Yehudah Petiyah’s account of an old illiterate Jewish lady who worked at sifting wheat with her millstones. Upon finding a date among the wheat, she recited a bracha with all the kavanah she had, then ate it.

Upon dozing off, an old man suddenly appeared before her, praising and thanking her for freeing him from his suffering — “even though you did not rescue me completely" —
before vanishing into thin air.

When she consulted Rav Yehudah Petiyah, he informed her that the date contained the reincarnated soul of this old man and via her pure-hearted blessing, she succeeded in rectifying him 2 levels upward!

The astounding part is that she succeeded in doing so even though she recited the wrong blessing. She said borei pri ha’adamah rather than borei pri ha’etz.

Had she recited the proper blessing, this lost soul would have achieved complete rectification.

Yet as far as I've seen, in order for men to accomplish such a thing, they need to fortify themselves with lots of Torah study and learn the proper kavanot of the kabbalists. You hear stories of a soul trapped in a fruit achieving some kind of rectification when eaten by a righteous Torah scholar – not a well-intentioned am ha’aretz.

Think about this for a minute:

In all the stories of rectifying souls via blessings, have you ever heard of a regular yeshivah bachur achieving this? No. It’s always a learned tzaddik or even a mekubal. So how was this poor illiterate and somewhat ignorant (it’s not difficult to guess the correct blessing for a date, like it is for bananas) old lady able to achieve this?

And again, even with the wrong blessing, she managed to rectify this soul up 2 levels. Had she said the correct blessing, this soul would have achieved complete rectification — all because of her heart and mental focus, regardless of her actual knowledge. So she was able to achieve what only mekubalim can achieve. Amazing!

In a nutshell: Hashem set up the world so that women can achieve great things by taking a completely different path than men.

Upon being asked what a girl is taught in the womb by the angel, Rav Avigdor Miller explained she is taught “an endless Torah” of good middot, character refinement, emuna, and daat Hashem. He quotes the Vilna Gaon, who insisted that his daughters should learn all the mussar books. (The category of mussar books today includes but is not limited to: Duties of the Heart, Pathways of the Just, Ways of the Righteous, Pele Yoetz, Rav Eliyahu Dessler, etc.)

As Rav Miller emphasizes in tape from A Moment with Rav Avigdor Miller-Tape #459:

All the mussar seforim are available to girls.

If a girl learns all these things, then she is a gaon, she's considered the same as if she would be a gadol hador.

She has learned her Torah, she is a success.

This isn’t patronizing or being satisfied with "less."

Hashem set things up so that a woman who excels in her path really does become a success, a gadol hador, and can even accomplish miracles.

This is a truth that both men and women need to internalize and appreciate.

For the full account of Rav Petiyah and the millstone lady:
The Jewess Mystique: The Truth about Women & Mitzvot

To receive a weekly email with choice transcriptions of Rav Avigdor Miller's classes like the one above, please go to the sign-up page here: http://rmillerqa.com/

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Why Life is So Hard & the 1 Thing You Can Do About It

28/1/2019

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In a November class, Rav Shalom Arush described a woman who completed 6 hours of hitbodedut – then immediately had a fall. He didn’t say in what, but he described her frustration and despair.

Six hours! That’s something like 2 hours of thanking Hashem, 2 hours of confession, and 2 hours of requests – or however the woman parceled it out.

People can go through their whole life without ever accumulating 2 hours of sincere heartfelt confession before Hashem. And here, she did that (more or less) in one go – and she tripped up right after.

That’s not encouraging, is it?

Why It's Not Your Fault

Rav Arush used this example to stress the importance of begging Hashem to help you overcome your yetzer hara, your dysfunctional inclinations.

Your yetzer hara is so strong that good intentions and iron resolve aren’t enough; you need Hashem.

Sound depressing?

It’s not.

It’s actually another way of saying that your flaws and your falls aren’t really your fault.

You aren’t a failure if you try then stumble.

The yetzer hara is barreling at us full-force, particularly in this generation, and Hashem is the only One strong enough to overcome it.

Some Sagely Statements

Here is proof (and advice) from our truly great Sages:

Sefer Hachareidim: “A person must pray over himself and his children to be rescued from the yetzer hara.”

This is why the morning blessings specifically request that the yetzer hara not overcome a person.

Likewise, during the Bedtime Shema in the blessing of “Hamapil” ("al yishlot bi yetzer hara – don’t let the evil inclination take control of me") a person must intend that he, his spouse, and his children are saved from the yetzer hara. (Yeladim Mutzlachim/Successful Children by Rav Shalom Arush)

Chazal: “The yetzer hara is so harsh that even its Creator called it ‘bad’.”

Rav Yitzchak: “The yetzer of a person renews itself upon him each day.”

Rav Sh. Ben Levi: “The yetzer of a person overcomes him each day and seeks to slay him – and if the Holy One Blessed Be He wouldn’t help him, he [the person] could not [help himself]. (Kiddushim 30)

Rav Yechezkel Levenshtein (Avot Yisrael): “A person’s greatest hater is the yetzer hara, and it wants to annihilate him from two worlds [i.e., This World and the World to Come].”

Sefer HaYashar: “...each person needs to fear for his soul and to pray each day to his God to rescue him from the force of the yetzer hara.”

The above paints a picture of a merciless and monstrous psychopath in hot pursuit of ripping us to pieces.

So if we’re crushed beneath the yetzer hara, is it really our fault?

Only if we didn’t cry out for help.

I Protest!

In Words of Faith, Rav Levi Yitzchak Bender stresses the importance of protesting the yetzer hara. Even just one second after you’ve just sinned!

Say something like: “I DON’T WANT THIS! I DON’T WANT TO BE LIKE THIS! I HATE THIS MIDDAH! I HATE THIS FACET OF ME – TAKE IT AWAY, HASHEM, BECAUSE I DON’T WANT IT!!!”

Because of this, Rav Arush recommends to cry out several times a day, once on behalf of yourself and a few more times on behalf of your spouse and children, to be saved from your biggest enemy, which wants you to lose Two Worlds.

So don’t sink into self-disgust or despair if you fall.

Maybe you had great week, then you find yourself back to square one again.

Maybe yesterday, you managed victory after victory, then all of the sudden, you trip up this morning before you even said Modeh Ani.

Or maybe you started off your morning well, then found yourself flat on your face by noon.

That’s how it goes, sorry to say.

It’s not a reflection on you.

As described in a previous post, this generation is under assault from the fierce and gargantuan death throes of everything bad.

Why is that YOUR fault?

It’s NOT!

So even as you find your face smushed into the mud from yet another fall, try to at least mumble the words: “I protest! Help me, Hashem! Save me from the yetzer hara! Mrmph-mrmph!”

As Rebbe Akiva Rabinovitz said [Ahavat Kedumim, p. 170, emphasis mine]:

Hakadosh Baruch Hu holds absolutely no hakpadah against a Jewish person who possess evil traits and lusts.

Hakadosh Baruch Hu does not come in accusations about this since He implanted these within him, and He brought us down here FOR THIS PURPOSE.

If so, regarding what is the hakpadah?

The hakpadah occurs when the Jewish person does not strive to seek out the path and the counsel as to how to get out of [those evil traits and lusts].

Therefore, there exists the iron rule:

"As long as a person engages in battle, he is always called 'the winner'."

This is mind-bogglingly liberating.

It means that even if you don’t succeed, you are still considered victorious in Shamayim just because you TRY.

But you have to really try.

And you have to call out to Hashem.

Previous Post:
Inspiring Words for the Darkest & Coldest Times

Related Post:
How to Get Past Toxic Shame & Apathy

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The Secret to Fulfilling Na'aseh V'Nishma

24/1/2019

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For Rav Avigdor Miller's full dvar Torah on the parsha, please see:
Parshat Yitro 1: Na'aseh V'Nishma
Parshat Yitro 2: Hearing Hashem's Messages

In Parshas Yisro, Am Yisrael bursts onto center stage by virtue of one statement:

Na’aseh v’nishma.

But how could they promise such a thing? How can you do something BEFORE you ever hear it?

Unless you’re psychic, you have no idea what you’ll be asked to do.

So you can’t do it.

Except that you can.

The secret to na’aseh v’nishma is revealed through Avos 3:12:

כל שמעשיו מרובין מחכמתו, חכמתו מתקיימת

“Anyone whose good deeds exceed his wisdom, his wisdom will endure.”

What does that mean? Rav Avigdor Miller explains:

“If a person does more than he knows about, more than he learned, that’s a man whose wisdom endures and has eternal value.”

How can you possibly do more than you know?

“If you know ten halachos, you can fulfill ten halachos. And if you learn one more halacha, then you’ll be able to do that one as well, and you’ll have eleven.

"But you won’t be able to fulfill twenty. You can’t fulfill what you don’t know about.”

Exactly.

So what’s the solution?

You say, “Na’aseh v’nishma” about anything Chazal says.

“Whatever you’ll learn in the seforim, whatever the chachmei haTorah will tell you is necessary to do — right now, even before you heard their words — you accept upon yourself to do it.”

And what happens when you do that? Hakadosh Baruch Hu says:

“That man is marked by Me as a man of success. He’s a man who I consider to have already fulfilled these mitzvos that he doesn’t even yet know about.

"And even the mitzvos that he will never hear about.”

Of course, this works if you are actually trying to accomplish more; it’s not a loophole for lazy learners.

But if you strive to increase your observance, then accepting upon yourself to do whatever the chachamim command will ultimately earn you schar for any future mitzvos — including those you may never have the opportunity to learn.

“If a person will say with sincerity, ‘I know there’s much to learn still and a lot of things that I’m not doing correctly.

"But I’m making up my mind that I want to fulfill everything, without any hesitation,’ then all of the Torah laws and details that he has accepted upon himself — everything — are considered his ma’asim already.”

How to Really Want It

“If you want to succeed in this world, it’s not enough to just get by.

"You have to feel a yearning, a desire, that Hakadosh Boruch Hu should lead you in the right way. And you should be crying out in your heart. It has to be coming from your heart!

אחלי, 'I hope to You Hashem, that I should be able to do those things'.”

So how do you achieve this ideal of hope and desire?

Step 1: Fill Your Mind with Torah Ideals (by reading, listening to, and pondering the right things).

Many people daydream of what they’d buy if they could. Others daydream of popularity, fame, the ideal vacation, and all sorts of goals unrelated to their neshamah’s real needs.

These kinds of daydreams are a waste of time. They’re no more than a fake escape because you’re still exactly where you were when you started — maybe even lower.

But once you get your heart focused on the right things, then you’re on your way to daydreams that aren’t only pleasurable, but also productive.

Step 2: Start Dreaming.

What’s the best way to build up your heart to where your mind knows it should be? Let your imagination get to work. Stare off into space and free your mind to start flowing in the right direction.

Rav Miller gives the example of a person with no money who dreams of building an even bigger Torah community than that of Lakewood. Such a person fantasizes about everything that goes into creating a fantastic new yeshivah community in New York or Eretz Yisrael.

You can also fantasize about helping other Jews with your imaginary wealth or the ill people you’d heal if you could. You can fantasize about shalom coming to Jews suffering from either the thugs on the American streets or the terrorists in Eretz Yisrael. You can also fantasize about Jews living affectionately with each other.

“ ‘Ohhh,’ says Hashem, ‘You’re hoping to Me. You’re not just going through the motions and trying to get by. You’re really hoping in your heart.

"If so, then I consider that as if you are actually participating in those things that you desire to do’.”

Step 3: Verbalize Your Hopes and Wishes

Start wishing out loud (but not necessarily where others will hear you).

Rav Miller suggests the following:

A frum woman who walks down a street full of atheists and tumah can say to herself, “Ah, if I could have lived in the good old days. If I could have lived in the days of the Beis Hamikdash and watched the Kohanim bring the karbonos onto the מזבח with the fear of Hashem on their faces.”

When you pass by a yeshivah and see bachurim streaming out, say, “Ribono Shel Olam, give a bracha on the roshei yeshivos and their rebbetzins, and on their sons and daughters. And on their eidim and their daughters-in-law. And on their einiklech as well. And the same is for all the Kollel people too. And all the bachurim, all the youngsters in the cheder and in the mesivta, should all live long.”

A working man who dedicates some precious time to the beis medrash can end his learning session by detouring over to the Shas on the seforim shrank and say, ““Ribono Shel Olam, how I wish I could stay here all night, every night, and learn through Shas. I have such a desire to sit over a daf of Gemara and slowly absorb the sweetness of the words of Chazal. But what can I do already? I have to get to sleep tonight so that I can get up for work tomorrow.”

Actualizing the above 3 steps ensures the following:

You forge increasingly deeper layers of sincerity within your heart.
You earn schar for your desires as if you actually did them.

Yet Rav Miller understands that initially, you might feel fake. You’ll feel silly. Walking around in stiff new shoes makes for awkward steps — at the beginning.

“Now, the first fifty times you don’t mean it. You don’t mean it all. But one thing you do mean – you want to mean it!

"‘I hope that someday I’ll mean it.’

"So Hakadosh Boruch Hu says: הבא לטהר מסעיין לו — ‘If you’re taking the first step, then I’m going to help you,’ says Hashem.

"And little by little, you become a man who sincerely desires to be goimel chasadim toivim l’amo Yisroel [one who bestows good kindnesses for His Nation Israel].”

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Your Inalienable Right to Teshuvah - No Matter What Scoffers & Cynics Say

22/1/2019

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One of the most important rights a person has is the right to do teshuvah.

People have a right to change for the better.

Unfortunately, there will always be those who call a changed person “fake” or “hypocrite” and remind that person of his or her former deeds.

There will always be those with the conviction that the sinful, flawed you is the “real” you. (It’s not.)

But you can’t let that stop you.

You Can't Collect Scattered Feathers

Around 20 years ago, in a moment of frustration, I confided lashon hara in a “friend”— lashon hara that I mistakenly assumed was l’to’elet due to my emotional pain.

Then I forgot about it.

But she didn’t.

Around 10 years later, we ran into each other and pretty early on in the conversation, she asked how I was managing with so-and-so.

“Oh, fine,” came my breezy answer.

“Really?” she smirked. “Because you sure weren’t before.”

(“Before” was 10 years prior.)

“Oh,” I said, realizing what the problem was. “Yeah, we had some issues then, and, oh, there were a lot of things I didn’t understand. But I understand them now and we get along fine.”

She sniggered. “Really?” she said. “But don’t you remember how that person said [the appalling & strange thing that person had said]. I mean, that was really weird. You don’t remember that?”

Oh, right! I’d forgotten about it. But fortunately, it no longer appalled or distressed me because I’d moved past it. Now I fumbled for words. And she chuckled again. Then I stammered something like, “That person didn’t mean it that way and I never should have repeated it to others.”

At that point, I think she realized her own impropriety because she sobered up and the conversation ended pretty quickly after that.

Now, I don’t think you really need halacha to tell you NOT to do what she did. I mean, it’s pretty smarmy to remind a person of lashon hara said 10 years ago AND insert it early into a conversation when you’ve only just reconnected. Furthermore, it’s even smarmier to twist their arm about it — not only to remember it, but to get re-offended by it.

I really think that any decent person would realize on his or her own not do such a thing, even without knowing that it’s halachically forbidden.

But it taught me some things.

Lessons Learned

1) First of all, it gave me the chance to atone for what I’d said. I took the blame off the subject of the lashon hara and also admitted that I shouldn’t have said it in the first place. I was able to express regret for the deed.

2) Secondly, it drove home that old parable, that negative speech is like waving a pillowcase full of feathers into the wind — you’ll never be able to re-gather all the feathers. They’ve simply scattered too far and wide. (But it was a lesson I needed to learn a few more times before I really got it. Ultimately, sitting down each day to review these laws really helped.)

3) Thirdly, it showed me how important it was to avoid doing this to others — and to let the other person CHANGE. Really, I don’t understand why she didn’t switch the subject when she saw I initially didn’t remember the incident. Why did she work so hard to conjure it up again and rub it in? I really don’t get it.

4) And finally, I needed to take responsibility for myself. Yeah, she was wrong to do what she did—that was a couple of serious transgressions right there on her part. But she’d never have been able to do that if I hadn’t said what I said in the first place.

I was wrong to have said what I said.

And that’s that.

The Penitent Peddler

Especially if you speak out against your former errant behavior and in favor of correct behavior, certain people will target you.

And the Kli Yakar describes all this well in Vayikra 14:4 (Parshat Metzora).

There is the famous midrash of the rochel, the peddler, who made his way through the area of Tzippori, proclaiming, “Who wants to buy the elixir of life?”

And only Rav Yannai was interested.

What was the elixir of life?

Shemirat halashon — guarding your tongue from speaking slander (whether true or not), rumor-mongering, tale-bearing, and any other negative speech that is of no benefit.

The Kli Yakar delves into the deeper layers of this story. Because rochel is the same word as tale-bearer – a person who spreads rechilut – the Kli Yakar maintains that this peddler was actually a slanderer who’d done teshuvah and was now encouraging others to do teshuvah too.

What happened?

Once upon a time, the rochel went about slandering others and "casting strife between brothers," in the words of the Kli Yakar.

“Yet later, he gave his heart to do teshuvah and requested the ways of healing mentioned by our Sages: Torah learning for a talmid chacham and shever ruach [a broken spirit] for an am ha'aretz.

“And he saw that these ‘medications’ benefited him.

“Therefore, his heart filled with the desire to bring merit to the masses and to bring teshuvah to all the very towns in which he knew there were gossipers.”

So the rochel marched through these towns with his tantalizing proclamation.

“For they were like sick people who need medications for a cure, which needs to be purchased.”

But the people wouldn’t allow it.

Yes, they came out at his call — to harass him.

“Etmol hayitah rochel holech rachil — Yesterday, you were a slanderer who went about slandering!” they said. “V’hayom atah rotzeh l’taken darcheinu? — And today you want to fix our path? Kashot atzmacha tachilah! — Clean up your own backyard first!"

(Loose translation — kashot means “adorn” or “decorate” or “fix up.”)

Yet the rochel DID clean up his own backyard!

That’s why he was there. He’d found the right “medication” (Torah study and a broken spirit of remorse) for the “illness” (fault-finding combined with gossiping about those found faults).

And now he wanted to share the “cure.”

Instead, they humiliated him and insisted he was still the same old fault-finding slanderer who’d gone around fomenting strife between brothers.

Of course, this can be considered an atonement for his previous behavior. Their response to him was very wrong, but as far as he goes, he can take it as a kaparah.

Yet why did they respond the way they did?

Baalei Ra'atan Don't Count

The Kli Yakar describes them as baalei ra’atan — people who choose to seek out the faults in others and then gossip about those faults: “…they'd already chosen for themselves the rotten path and their tongues were used to speaking lashon hara.”

People who haven’t done real teshuvah don’t see the possibility of change. Even if they see a changed person in front of their face, they simply do not believe their eyes.

This is a reflection on them, not on you.

3 Types of Trepidation

Yet to be fair, there are times when another person’s hesitancy to accept the new you is justified (and then you need to be patient and understanding):

You’re very quick to apologize without any change.

This type tends to combine an apology with self-denigration.

If you're doing this, you're not actually doing teshuvah at all.

How so? What's going on with this type?

Subconsciously, this type feels that the self-denigration atones for their mistakes, and in a sense, permits them to repeat the mistake again. There’s no real teshuvah there and they’ll repeat the faulty behavior pretty quickly after they apologize. And they’ll continue this way, often for years, without ever changing.

If this is what you’re doing, people have a right to distrust your apologies and admissions of wrong-doing.

Until you actually change your behavior, people don’t need to take your apologies or breast-beating seriously.

You’re still in the ping-pong phase of teshuvah.

You really intend to stop the behavior and you even succeed to a certain extent – but then you backslide.

So you jump back on the wagon and even stay there for a time...until you fall off again.

This occurs because it takes time & trial-and-error to learn the new improved behavior. You’ve boarded the ship and now you need to gain “sea-legs” as you sail the churning waters.

But until you’ve gained your sea-legs, you lurch around, tripping & falling.

Others are within their rights if they choose to keep their distance from your lurching until you’ve got your sea-legs firmly in place. After all, you’ve sprawled onto these people before; they don’t want to get in your way again.

But don't feel bad. The ping-pong phase is perfectly natural, especially if you're learning a behavior that's very foreign to you.

(This is actually a good sign because it means you are really striving for profound change by aiming for behavior that is so different than your sinful ways, you need to learn it like learning a foreign language.)

You hurt them so much before, they want to make sure you’ve REALLY changed.

These people aren’t unforgiving, just wary. They’re willing to accept you’ve changed; they just want to make SURE you actually have.

Failure Never Erases Success

You also have the right to fall without being considered a failure.

Falling is pretty common.

For example, after a year of total sobriety, an alcoholic can suddenly go on a drinking binge.

After 6 months of measured behavior, a reformed ka'asan can suddenly fly into an outburst.

There are a few reasons for this. One is simple human weakness.

Another major reason is that it drives home how bad the behavior is. For example, an alcoholic may feel so sick on this sudden binge that he doesn’t even want to ever drink again. Throughout the year, he felt pretty good with his sobriety, but still yearned to at least get tipsy again. Yet after the sickening binge, he no longer even yearns for it.

This is known as descent for the sake of ascent. You needed to plummet in order to really rid yourself of the bad middah.

Another reason is to keep yourself connected to Hashem and disconnected from gaavah. In the midst of a fall, you can’t feel like you’re oh-so victorious and better than others. You also realize that your success came from Hashem and not your own willpower.

Regardless, there are people who will point to your fall as “proof” that you really haven’t changed.

How stupid and horrible of them.

All those moments, hours, days, and weeks of struggle…all those excruciating obstacles you faced as you fought your ingrained bad habits and forged new good behaviors…it’s all meaningless.

Really?

It’s nothing? You didn’t do anything at all?

Of course not.

In THEIR eyes, in the eyes of people who’ve never really done teshuvah, your efforts and successes don’t exist.

But your naysayers are wrong, wrong, wrong.

Your efforts and successes DO exist – and they mean a lot!

They’ve already formed an imprint on your soul.

And so you pick yourself up and try again. Hopefully, you’ll last out for longer until the next fall. And then you’ll last longer and longer – until you don’t fall again.

Good is Always Stronger Than Bad

In Judaism, good deeds can never be erased.

Only bad deeds can be erased (via true teshuvah).

Anything good you do stands forever.

Even evil people get rewarded for the good they've done, no matter how minuscule.

(This is one reason why you'll see bad people with lots of success; they're being rewarded in This World for the little good they've done.)

People who try to convince you that a fall invalidates all the progress you made up to that fall are not coming from a Jewish point of view.

The Only Opinion that Really Matters

You have the right to improve yourself.

You have the right to change.

You have the right to turn over a new leaf.

Sure, we all know that we have an obligation to better ourselves.

But we have a right to change too.

And even if others don’t believe you, even if others mock you or reject you or scoff at you, you need to know that Hashem sees your transformation and that it’s registered in Shamayim.

And that’s all that matters.

To see more about the Kli Yakar's interpretation of the above story, please see:
Part II: The Happy Cure for Blabbermouthed Fault-Finders (AKA, The Kli Yakar on Parshat Metzorah)

For more on the problem with self-denigration, please see:
5 Reasons Why Self-Denigration Never Helps

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Inspiring Words for the Darkest & Coldest Times from the Kli Yakar

21/1/2019

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In Shemot 6:1, the Kli Yakar offers a comforting observation for hard times:

For it is one of the known phenomena that this is the quality that exists within each day close to sunrise:

The darkness is at its darkest, even more than the darkness of night.

And after that, the light of morning breaks through and increases.

And so it is with the majority of ill people: Close to their death, they grow strong and sit up on the bed and ask to eat—and after that, death overwhelms them.

And so with the days of winter: Close to the rising of the Sun, the cold increases and overwhelms—until finally, it is conquered by the Sun.

And this is a natural phenomenon.

Because in the natural world, every thing that senses when something opposite it is coming against it—something which desires to abolish its existence—so it fortifies itself to its utmost against that which comes against it and resists submitting before it.

And according to its nature, it draws upon every resource it possesses to action.

Yet in the end, it is conquered because its opposing force overwhelmed it.

So it is with all the things that we mentioned.

Likewise, so it was with what Paroh was evil toward Yisrael now even more than he was in the past: This is a sharp sign that his end is approaching, and that the time of Redemption is approaching to nullify all the functions of Paroh—therefore, he wants to strengthen his actions…therefore, he wants to rise up against them with a strong arm.

And this is a sign that My Salvation is near to come and My Righteousness to be revealed.

It’s like Rabbi Wallerstein’s parable of the flapping fish dying on the fishing dock.

Fish are never as active and wild as when they’re taking their last breaths. Rabbi Wallerstein said then that lots of craziness and sin is coming to the surface because all the bad is gasping its last breaths.

It’s true now that a lot of loonies and people expressing anti-Torah values regularly work themselves into a frenzy—and it’s only increasing.

Many of us keep saying, “It can’t get worse than this; it can’t get crazier than this”—and then it does exactly that: It gets worse and crazier.

And we’ve been repeating that pattern for years now.

I don’t know when the end of bad is going to come and the good revealed.

But it really does seem close because the insanity is overwhelming—it’s like the Plague of Frogs, with the slimy little varmints getting into every crook and cranny.

And yes, because it’s only natural for one force to fortify itself to the utmost and fight back with everything it’s got against a rising counterforce, things could get even crazier, chas v’shalom.

If we can all just HOLD ON AS BEST WE CAN, I really think we can make it.

B'ezrat Hashem.

The above is mostly my translation, with some help from Elihu Levine's incredible & highly recommended translation of the Kli Yakar, Shemos I. But any errors are still mine. Sigh...

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How to Love Different Groups of Frum Jews & Why You Should (Plus, How to Choose a Path for Yourself)

17/1/2019

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Rav Miller’s dvar Torah for Parshat Beshalach is one very close to my heart:

Appreciating different groups of Jews.

Ever since our inception, Hashem has kept the Jewish people divided-yet-united into very different Tribes.

Rav Miller insists that having a wide (halachically legitimate) variety of different Jews makes life more fun.

And it does!

Some Nice Stories

One of my fondest memories of Shabbat in Tzfat was going up the unending staircase (Tzfat is built on a small mountain) and hearing Lecha Dodi sung in several different nusachs, depending on what shul I happened to be passing at that moment.

The modern-day coming together of different groups and their customs always makes me feel like we truly are different links (or pearls!) within the same necklace.

If one is missing, the whole strand falls apart.

And I’m far from being the only one who feels this way.

Many, many frum Jews enjoy an opportunity to connect with other frum Jews from different ethnicities and nationalities.

In fact, I have a Yerushalmi chassidish neighbor who loves hanging out with Sephardi neighbors and lately, she’s also been inviting Russian baalei teshuvah couples for meals. She’s very makpid with her own children that they should never denigrate another group. I can tell that it’s all fun for her (and because I’m Sefardi by marriage and American by birth, I end up being part of her fun too).

After she came back from a trip to different holy graves of Rebbes in Eastern Europe, she enthused about how a Breslov woman on the bus inspired her with a steady stream of Breslov thought throughout the ride to Uman. “I said Tikkun Haklali at the grave of Rebbe Nachman!” she bubbled. “And I saw orot (lights/spiritual illumination)—yes, really!”

And she is part of a chassidus reputed to oppose Breslov (although Rav Levi Yitchak Bender insisted that this wasn’t true, as stated by the Rebbe of that chassidus himself).

My son, who learns in a standard Sefardi charedi yeshivah, spent Shabbat in Kiryat Arba-Chevron and enjoyed every minute of the warm, vibrant Judaism of his Kahanist hosts. Everyone was really nice to him and no one agonized over why he was in yeshivah as opposed to the army (a scenario that sometimes occurs outside the charedi community). He experienced a lot of warmth, acceptance, and good old-fashioned ahavat Yisrael combined with tremendous ahavat Torah—the divrei Torah never stopped flowing.

He doesn’t want to join that community; he’s happy where he is. But he received tremendous enjoyment and inspiration from frum Jews who are living a very different life.

A Litvish charedi kollel guy from America spent his first month of Shabbosim in Eretz Yisrael davening in a different shul for each tefillah. He experienced different kinds of chassidus and different kinds of Sefardi, and he thoroughly enjoyed himself. If you saw him, you’d think he is a very quiet serious-but-nice conventional Litvak. And he is! But that doesn’t contradict his healthy appreciation for other frum groups.

But other than providing us with lots of fun, there are other reasons why Hashem insists on the “Divided-Yet-United” paradigm…

Serving in Hashem's Army

The only way to learn how to truly love others is to be forced to love people who aren’t exactly like you. And not only that, people whose attitudes are very different than yours—maybe even at odds.

For example, some frum communities are very into insulating themselves against non-Jewish society and building a kind of self-imposed to ghetto around themselves. Other frum communities march out into the world, spreading Torah to the darkest corners and lovingly gathering in as many lost souls as they can.

You might personally find one much more appealing than the other. But in reality, both are vitally necessary. Both are in service of Hashem.

Rav Miller gives some practical examples:

So when a person from Dan was passing by and a boy from Yehudah saw him, he might have a yetzer hara to ridicule and say, “Tatty, look at that man. Look at his funny clothing.”

So his father scolded his son, “Oh no, don’t laugh at him. He’s our brother from the holy Tribe of Dan. Have respect. Every Tribe is holy.”

The Tribe of Ephraim pronounced the letter shin as sin. So instead of saying “Shabbat Shalom,” they said “Sabbat Salom.” Rav Miller imagines the following scenario:

And when a boy of Shevet Reuven said, “Look, Abba! Isn’t that strange how this person from Ephraim is speaking a queer language—he can’t pronounce the words,” so his father said, “Shh, we don’t talk that way. Shevet Efraim is holy. It’s a very holy Tribe. They’re our people, our brothers.”

As Rav Miller explains: A military needs an army, a navy and an airforce. We need foot soldiers, soldiers in tanks, and soldiers who are sitting behind a computer in Intelligence.

The Jews are in Hashem’s Army.

As Rav Miller explains:

Among ourselves, we have to be the best of friends. Because no matter where you are—you could be a Jew in Australia, a Satmerer in Williamsburg or a Jew in Tel Aviv—we’re all in this world for one purpose: to serve Hakadosh Baruch Hu.

When we feel that we’re all fighting together for one cause, to serve Hashem, we’re all marching together in the same regiment, so it’s much easier to have a love for your fellow men.

How much of an affection are you supposed to feel for brothers who are of one mind with you!

Learning from Everyone

Another reason for the divisions is in order to learn good things from each other.

Each halachically legitimate group emphasizes another important aspect of Torah. If you bury your head in the sand of your own group all your life, you might miss out on some very important aspect of avodat Hashem.

One group davens late because they spend so much time arousing their hearts toward passionate tefillah. Other group davens right a sunrise to catch that special time and start their day off right and exemplify zerizut for a mitzvah.

We need to learn from both of them.

Practical Tips to Get Started

Practically speaking, Rav Miller advises that when you walk into a frum shul, you should say, “This is my nation, my brothers! And we all share the common purpose of serving Hashem.”

When you’re walking down a street with many frum inhabitants, you should be thinking, “I’m walking among my people. B’toch ami anochi yoshevet. It’s my people and I love them. I don’t care what hat he wears or what group he belongs to—it’s all my people!”

And in a crowded kosher supermarket? Here’s what Rav Miller recommends:

…and it’s crowded and the lines are long—these are precious moments! You’re looking down the aisles and all you can see are your “brothers and sisters.”

Women, men, children—all buying kosher food. That’s a nation dedicated with a singular heart to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. "Yisrael ein lahem eleh lev echad l’Avihem sheh baShamayim—The whole Am Yisrael has but one heart devoted to their Father in Heaven" (Sukkah 45b).

It’s not just poetry; that’s actually the greatness of the Am Yisrael that binds us as brothers.

It all reminds me of Tzirel Rus Berger’s (The Mountain Family) wonder and nachat when she first moved her family to a frum neighborhood: “I have the descendants of Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov playing in my backyard!”

What a beautiful—and true!—way of looking at Jewish children.

Which Path is Right for YOU?

And here’s a big question:

How do you know which group, which hashkafah, which type of avodah is best for you?

Rav Miller says:

Hashem wants you to be the best that you can be.

Some people can be their best if they're chassidish.

Some people can be their best if they're litvish.

Other people can be their best if they're sefardi.

It's like asking: "What is the best diet for all of mankind?" The best type of diet depends on each individual person. People are different.

Some people are so different that their diets are radically different.

So whatever it is that you choose, you should make it a principle in your life to always choose whatever it is that will give you the most success in life--and success in this world means preparing for the Next World.

For example, Rav Miller recalls the story of a man who kept saying, “Dunu dini—Judge my dispute.” Every time there was a dispute between him and another, he didn’t want arbitration; he wanted to go to a frum judge and hear the halacha.

They checked his lineage and discovered that, indeed, he was from the Tribe of Dan, a Tribe which always wants to follow the strict letter of the law.

Another man used to go around saying, “I love the sea, I rejoice in seeing it.”

And what did they discover?

He descended from Zevulun! Zevulun was a seafaring Tribe.

“They were sailors with boats and they loved the sea.”

In a Nutshell:

So all in all, you need to love other frum groups not just despite their differences, but BECAUSE of their differences.

As Rav Miller explains, the directive is found in Kohelet/Ecclesiastes 9:4:
"Mi asher yechaber el kol hachaim, yesh bitachon—whoever is still connected to all the living, then there's still hope."

What does this mean, "all the living"?

All the different types of frum Jews who are really living a Torah life (or at least trying to)!

If you do that, then there's definitely hope.

Rav Avigdor Miller on Parshat Beshalach: Learning to Love All Types of Jews
(All quotes used with permission.)

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The Zealous Religion of Modern Science

16/1/2019

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It took me an embarrassingly long time to realize the real problem between meshing Torah with modern science is that much of modern science is neither proven nor as objective as asserted.

Whether best-selling books written by top scientists for laymen or prestigious science journals, scientists cannot stop using words like the following:

“assume”
“think”
“seems”
“probably”
“possibility”
“may”
“suggest”
“could have”
“perhaps”
“likely”
"if"
“indicate”
“believe”

These are not scientific words. These are guesses. And “believe” is a term of a faith.

Boy, Am I Glad Astronomers Don't Perform Surgery!

In contrast, the science of surgery is very different. I’ve had a few Cesarean births and guess what?

Nobody “assumed” the location of my uterus—they knew.

They didn’t “suggest” that sterilizing the instruments would “probably” kill germs and “may” prevent infection, they followed certain procedures because research has PROVEN that these procedures and techniques definitely lower the chance of infection.

Furthermore, no one thought it was “likely” that there was a baby in there as opposed to, say, a pumpkin—they knew.

And that’s science you can pretty much rely on.

Why?

Because they’re actually able to PROVE things.

With regard to germs, scientists can see germs through a microscope and see what sterilization procedures reduce germs and which don’t. Doctors have also researched the effects of their procedures, making Cesarean births not only possible, but safer than previous generations could’ve ever imagined.

(Having said all that, there are aspects of medical science subject to baseless theories, personal agendas, ego, and greed—which have harmed or killed people. I just focused on the more proven aspects of medical science.)

The Scientific Ego

Today, many people think that scientists are highly intelligent and scrupulously objective.

Not surprisingly, many scientist WANT you to see them that way. But history (including recent history) has not shown this to ever be true for many scientists.

The desire for funding, fame, recognition, and ego-defense affect scientists to a large degree. Scientists can also be a surly defensive lot who don’t hesitate to shoot down and humiliate theories (along with the proponents of those theories) that interfere with their above-mentioned desires.

If you’ve ever actually known academics—whether professors, scientists, doctors, or researchers—or listened to people who know them, you’ll know that many (though certainly not all) possess an elitist mindset, which isn’t conducive to objectivity or integrity.

Would you attend a medical school in which they discussed their personal beliefs about the human body?

“We believe the kidney is located over here.”

“Computer models indicate that this could be an eyeball.”

“We will teach you to perform Cesarean surgery on a woman who is likely to be pregnant because the suggestion of a baby in there is the more intriguing possibility.”

You can't really learn anything useful from guessing, especially emotionally driven guessing, as shown by phrases like: "more intriguing possibility" — a phrase that appeared in a prestigious science publication — or feeling that something is too "remarkable" to be believed, as you'll see below).

Anti-Torah Science Leads to Medical Mistakes

Just as one example: If you believe in evolution and randomness, then body parts that don't have an obvious purpose may be considered flukes or a no-longer-necessary leftover of evolutionary development.

"We don't need these anymore" has been said about tonsils, the appendix, and wisdom teeth.

In my parents' generation, tonsillectomy was a normal part of childhood.

Who needs tonsils? We've evolved beyond that!

Then scientists discovered tonsils play an important part in preventing infection. Yes, some people are indeed better off without their tonsils and need them removed, but it actually harms people to have them removed unnecessarily.

Likewise, the appendix was a big mystery. And I think the only reason why it wasn't removed as regularly as tonsils is because it's much more invasive surgery.

But more recently, scientists began to discover that the appendix also serves a vital function for the immune system. This is accompanied by pompous headlines like: Appendix May Actually Have a Purpose. Nowadays, appendicitis isn't always automatic surgery. If they think it's safe to do so, many doctors try treating it with antibiotics first.

Finally, many pointed to wisdom teeth as evidence of evolution. What do we need those unnecessary and annoying teeth for? They must be primate leftovers!

Then I came across the idea that our diminishing nutrition is causing smaller jaws, which is possibly why crooked teeth are so common today. I don't know if anyone can prove the suggested link between nutrition and jaw-size, but it seems that a smaller jaw might also not have enough room for wisdom teeth—rather than just assuming it's an evolutionary leftover.

But if you're stuck on the evolutionary model, you won't look at the possible causes of the issue. You'll just keep removing teeth.

(And if you're wondering about the difference between me saying "possibly" or "suggested" and scientists saying those words? I'm not using the suggestions in place of proof or twisting your arm to believe that smaller jaws caused by poor nutrition is indeed the only possibility. I didn't entitle the piece: "Case Closed: Wisdom Teeth Removal Caused by Poor Nutrition." And that's the big difference: honesty.)

Heliocentrism! Oh, Wait...

Opposing the Torah narrative also leads to inaccuracies modern science.

For example, one of the scientific debates you used to hear in the frum community is the objection to the tradition of a geocentric universe in which everything revolves around Earth—an objection purely based on modern scientific theory (AKA "wishful thinking").

Instead, people insist on the heliocentric universe (in which everything revolves around the Sun), as proposed by Galileo centuries ago.

In fact, ever since I can remember, people were taught that we live in a heliocentric universe. And I remember a time in which debates among educated frummies consisted of a struggle to find Torah sources that supported the idea of a heliocentric universe.

I also remember reading stuff by educated frummies who expressed serious consternation over the fact that the Lubavitcher Rebbe did not believe in a heliocentric universe and attitudes like: Oh-heavens-to-Betsy-the-Lubavitcher-Rebbe-did-not-believe-that-the-Earth-revolves-around-the-Sun-despite-evidence…

(The above isn't a direct quote, by the way; it's a paraphrase.)

Heliocentric, heliocentric, heliocentric.

Except that no scientist actually believes this.

The Scientific Practice of Inaccurate Terminology

What they believe today is the theory of a barycentric universe in which all planetary bodies (including the Sun) revolve around a constantly fluctuating center of mass called a barycenter. (And according to this theory, this "center" moves tremendous distances from one point to another; it's not just wobbling around in more or less the same place.)

Nothing actually revolves around the Sun.

In fact, no planets revolve around any suns or stars anywhere in the universe.

Yet you will always hear about orbits around the Sun and planets orbiting stars even though scientists don’t actually believe this.

Respected sources like Scientific American & NASA's Space Place still make statements like "the planets all revolve around the Sun"—even though they don't actually believe this.

And people continue to blather on about a heliocentric universe.

But even this barycenter is also just a theory.

They don’t KNOW. There’s no PROOF.

Furthermore, anyone who believes in an expanding universe (which is standard science today) does not believe in any "center of the universe" at all.

(Please remember this every time you read an article written by these same believers that mentions something discovered in “the center of our galaxy” or whatever.)

Anything! As Long as It's Not God...

A 2008 Science Daily article entitled “Earth Not Center of the Universe” admitted in the first paragraph:

“Although the Copernican principle has become a pillar of modern cosmology, finding conclusive evidence that our neighborhood of the universe really isn’t special has proven difficult.”

Meaning, they believe that Earth is not “special” and is not the center—despite the fact that they can find no proof of their belief.

Yet they continue their mythical quest for such “proof” anyway.

And they state outright that Earth is NOT “center of the universe”—with absolutely no proof.

Why? Because they believe in the Copernican principle, which believes that Earth is not in a central, specially favored position—even though there is NO PROOF of the Copernican principle.

Canadian scientists sound very religious. What a dedicated belief system they have!

If you read the original article, you’ll see that it is filled with phrases like:

“indicated”
"they proposed"
"put forth the alternate theory that…"
"modeling"
“it’s really hard to determine if…”

They also make unproven statements of personal belief like:

“cosmic microwave background radiation—the afterglow of the Big Bang” (The Big Bang is a theory—a very popular theory, but only a theory nonetheless. Therefore, you also cannot make a factual statement that CMB radiation is the afterglow of it.)

“solidify the conventional view” (“Solidify” is a new weasel word for me. It doesn’t prove anything but is merely another synonym of “indicate.” Also, “conventional view” simply means that a lot of scientists agree, but demonstrates no proof.)

“Recent advances in data collection have brought us to the era of precision cosmology” (Says who? Where is there any proof of “precision”? These guys still rely on models and “indications” and “hard to determine if.” In other words? Not precise at all. But I guess they really need that funding...)

Faith-Based Science

In space, there is no up or down, no right or left, no north or south or east or west. Things are in motion and there’s no real center.

Except that there is: Earth.

Furthermore, how do you define the Center of the Universe?

Center of mass? Magnetic pull? Electric attraction? Physical location?

The 2005 Sloan Digital Sky Survey of 400,000 galaxies shows that they were all arrayed in concentric circles around...Earth.

(Even though this jives with my personal belief of a geocentric universe, I still ask: Does it actually show this or does the survey only indicate such an arrangement? Inquiring minds want to know!)

Furthermore, the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation converges on the Earth along its equator and axis.

Likewise, astronomers see red shift (galaxies zooming away from you) wherever they look—which is exactly what you would see in a geocentric universe!

In fact, Stephen Hawking (A Brief History of Time) states that the only reason why scientists picked out an alternative and completely baseless theory (that wherever you stand in the universe, you see redshift):

“...modesty: it would be most remarkable if the universe looked the same in every direction around us, but not around other points in the universe.”

Again, no indication or proof whatsoever, simply a desire to believe that Earth is NOT the center of the universe. A geocentric view would simply be too "remarkable."

Anyway, that’s their whole basis. False modesty. Gosh, how scientific!

In an October 1995 Scientific American article called Thinking Globally, Acting Universally, cosmologist George Ellis states:

“…we are using philosophical criteria in choosing our models. A lot of cosmology tries to hide that.”

Hmm…

I’m not sure what the consequences are for anti-Torah wishful thinking on the part of scientists, but as long as they insist in digging in the wrong places and creating unfounded theories (i.e. myths) instead of following the evidence, I don’t see how we can advance (or safely send humans to Mars or predict astronomical events or describe the Universe accurately)—scientifically speaking, of course.

Related Links:
Rav Avigdor Miller: Where is the Center of the Universe?
Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation
Several quotes and points were taken from the following article:
Current Science Excludes Geocentrism Through Unproven Assumptions
(Note: This particular link is shomer anayim friendly, but the rest of the site isn’t necessarily.)
How would the World be with No Moon?
Yet Another Stunning Scientific Discovery: Heck, We Haven’t Got a Clue!
The Venus Effect: Lots of Fun Insanity

May this post serve as some kind of tikkun for all the time I believed the wrong thing.

Thanks ever so much, Hashem!

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In a Nutshell:

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Heliocentrism! Oh, Wait...

The Scientific Practice of Inaccurate Terminology

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