Loving Israel Even When I Don't Love It!

“I love Israel even when I don’t love it!”

Thesewords, originally uttered by Amos Oz, one of Israel’s finest authors andintellectuals, last summer at the third Israeli Presidential Conference have stuck with me since I first heard themlast week. They express accurately how I feel when reading some of the newsthat comes out of Israelthese days.

Examplesof things going off track in some sectors of the Israeli society sadly abound. Thereis the unacceptable treatment women receive from an extremist portion of thepopulation that forces them to sit in the back of public buses. You have the event in Beit Shemesh, where an eight year old orthodox girl, on her way to school,was cursed and spat on by a group of ultraorthodox adults because she was not,in their sick minds, dressed modestly enough. Then there is the absolutely despicableultraorthodox protest 10 days ago when they wore yellow stars and dressed theirchildren in striped uniforms to protest their perceived discrimination.¹ Add to all this the despicable attitudeof settlers in the West Bank who call “Nazi” to the Israeli Police or one oftheir leaders who claimed in an interview this week that “Israelidemocracy has finished its role, and it must disassemble and give way toJudaism.”

It was in that sense refreshing toreceive the email below², written by Aryeh Ben David, founder of "Ayeka, Jewish Spiritual Education," reflecting notnecessarily on the events of these last weeks, but even more importantly on thecauses for them. May we all be inspired by his words to rethink the ways inwhich we apply our Jewish values in our lives. May we recommit ourselves to keep doing whatever we can, from our place,to keep our beloved Israelas a source of pride and inspiration for the Jewish people all over the world.

L’Shalom,

Rabbi Mario

^1. You can read an excellent opinion by Professor Deborah Lipstadt on theprotest here.

^2. More Thoughts on the Situation in Beit Shemesh

   Re-posted email from Aryeh Ben David 

The way we learn Torah affects the way we relate to people.

I studied for many years as an adult in several very observant yeshivot in Israel. The yeshiva where I received my Rabbinic Ordination hosted many prominent Rabbis, including a former Rabbi of a large city in Israel, numerous poskim (halakhic deciders) and writers in Encyclopedia Judaica. I began learning with my chevruta (study partner) at 4:30 in the morning, braving many freezing cold hours in the unheated Beit Midrash. I was the gabbai (organizer) of the early morning minyan, and a central figure in the yeshiva for 4 full years.

I offer this background not to extol my role, but to note that I played a very central and conspicuous part in the yeshiva. That being said, it is quite mind-boggling now for me to look back and realize that in the countless hours during those four years not once did a single Rabbi approach me and ask, "Aryeh, how are you doing?" I repeat - Not Once.

Innumerable times I was asked, "Aryeh, did you understand the Gemara? Did you crack the Tosephot? Aryeh, what new idea can you say today?" But not once was I asked how I was doing.  "I", as a Jew and a human being, was not important. The only thing that was significant was the Torah learning I was engaged in. I think this attitude led to my valuing myself only insofar as I could master the Talmud and other books. This led to a total disconnect between myself and my learning. 



I replicated this modeling with my chevruta, Ariel. What did I care how Ariel was doing? I never talked with him about his life.

My wife Sandra once asked me while I was studying with Ariel, "How is he doing? They've got 3 little kids, is he sleeping, is he overwhelmed?" I looked at my wife dumbfounded, telling myself "She obviously doesn't get what Torah learning is about. How should I know how Ariel is?! And what do I care? The only thing Ariel and I care about is - did we crack the Gemara. Caring and talking about each other? That's equivalent to bitul Torah (wasting of Torah studying time)."

It was pure learning. And purely disconnected from life. Which is, of course, the opposite of what Torah learning should ultimately be. It should be the greatest connector to life.  Now it is many years later and of course I am embarrassed and ashamed of what I wrote above and much more. Which leads me to the present furor and crisis visiting Israel these days and thoughts which I am sure many will consider heretical.

It seems to me that men have been directing the condition of Judaism for the last several thousand years. I look around and ask myself, "Is learning which is disconnected from life going to make us a more compassionate and spiritual people? Is this really the way of Torah? Is Torah really just about accumulating more and more information without pausing and reflecting and applying it to life?"  It didn't cross my mind to connect my learning to my life.  My wife Sandra always connects her learning to her life.

Men have always been the ones in power. We know that it is very hard for someone in power to relinquish or even share it. Especially when one's reputation, prestige, and livelihood depend on keeping the status quo intact. But maybe the time has come for us men to admit that we have really bollixed up this whole Judaism thing, and give the women a chance to fix it. Maybe it's time to reflect on that for a while.  Have you ever experienced or witnessed Torah learning disconnected from life? How do you connect your learning to your life? Do you think there is a difference between the way men and women approach learning?

Artificial Pancreas Could Revolutionize Diabetic Care

Prof. Moshe Phillip, director of the Institute of Endocrinology and Diabetes at Schneider
Children's Medical Center, demonstrates MD-Logic on a young patient.

Article by Karen Kloosterman and re-posted from Israel 21c on January 1, 2012.

In people with diabetes, the pancreas doesn't produce or release insulin as it should, so the body can't metabolize sugars properly. That means blood sugar levels have to be monitored continuously, even (and especially) at night, when diabetics' blood sugar can get dangerously out of control. But nighttime monitoring and dosing is a sleep-stealing activity, particularly for parents of diabetic children.

A new artificial pancreas developed in Israel may allow them sweeter dreams. The MD-Logic was recently tested on Israeli children at an overnight diabetes summer camp, to resounding success. The key is that the device's software "thinks" like a physician, says one of its developers, Eran Atlas of the Schneider Children's Medical Center in Tel Aviv. Using existing insulin pump technology, MD-Logic closes the loop between a continuous glucose monitor and insulin pump, allowing patients to self-regulate their glucose levels and deliver the exact amount of insulin needed, when needed -- even at 3 o'clock in the morning.

First diabetes system of its kind for home use Developed by Atlas along with Prof. Moshe Phillip, Dr. Revital Nimri and Shahar Miller at Schneider, the artificial pancreas was tested on 18 Israeli kids between the ages of 12 and 15. It was also tested on groups of children in Slovenia and in Germany.  MD-Logic is the first system of its kind to be tried outside the hospital and it may be the first to offer relief and freedom to diabetics.

"A bigger problem is not just for the seven-year-old with diabetes but for the parents," says Atlas. "They are very stressed about the diabetes and often hire someone to be with the kids at school to administer insulin. But these caregivers don't always know diabetes so well.  "And then there are nights -- the most frightening when parents and patients are asleep. We wanted the nighttime to be easier to manage, so we focused on that," he tells ISRAEL21c.

Setting up a control room at the hotel where the kids were staying, the researchers were able to safely measure the efficacy of the device, and to ensure it could deliver insulin at the moment when the body needs it. The medical device is still in the prototype stage, so for now it requires connection to a laptop computer that can be carried in a backpack or set beside the bed. The general idea is to turn it into a mobile device so it can work night and day to regulate glucose levels. The more well regulated the blood sugar, the less likely that diabetes patients will suffer dangerous consequences including eye, kidney and nerve damage. 

Thinks like a doctor

"We have automated the way physicians think and the way people are taught for treating their own diabetes," Atlas tells ISRAEL21c. "The breakthrough is the ability to actually connect sensors to a system that changes insulin infusion rate safely and efficiently to create better glucose control than what they would achieve by themselves," he says.

The next stage is to test the artificial pancreas at home under supervised conditions. It will need to gain approval from the US Food and Drug Administration before being sold in the United States. In the meantime, the team is working to commercialize the technology along with Prof. Thomas Danne from Kinderkrankenhaus auf der Bult in Germany and Prof. Tadej Battelino from University Children's Hospital in Slovenia. They are working under a multicenter collaboration called the DREAM Project, for Diabetes wiREless Artificial Pancreas consortiuM.  The researchers believe that this is the first step in giving kids with diabetes -- and the adults who supervise them -- a worry-free night's sleep.

Israel Inside: Rewalk

It’s time to cure the disease of ultra-Orthodox Education

Article by Nehemia Shtrasler and re-posted from Haaretz.com on January 3, 2012.

Blessed be the yeshiva student who scared the little girl on her way to school. Blessed also be the one who spit at and cursed female passersby. Blessed be the ultra-Orthodox man who called the female soldier a prostitute, and blessed be those who demonstrated in striped prisoners' garb and stuck yellow stars on their clothing.

All this taken together might finally shake up the secular majority and force it into action. All this might make 90 percent of the population understand that there's no point in condemning the spitter or putting the one who cursed on trial. They are merely symptoms of a serious disease, and whoever deals merely with the symptoms is wasting his time and could even make the disease worse.

This disease is ultra-Orthodox education.  It's an education that puts young Haredim through a thorough brainwashing, which ends with them believing that democracy is the evil regime, that equal rights for women is totally treif, that freedom and humanism are only good for the goyim, and that studying math, English and history is idolatry.  They also learn that to go out and work for a living is a terrible embarrassment, and that to serve in the army is worthy of contempt, suited only to the secular donkey - who is stupid enough to sacrifice his life for the "homeland." 

Young Haredim are educated to totally despise the values of the secular state, which is why they have no problem scaring a little girl or calling policemen Nazis.  Their leaders have a clear goal: To provide the community with good living conditions at the expense of the secular donkey, who they believe should work hard, pay taxes and sacrifice his life in the army. Thus they can continue to shirk their duty while continuing to blackmail.

The part that's especially galling and absurd is that the secular majority, in its foolishness, is financing this destructive process. It gives huge budgets to the independent Haredi educational system. It gives allowances to married yeshiva students, as well as grants that are far higher than what a soldier gets during his compulsory service, or a student studying medicine or engineering. This is because the secular population is suicidal. It is slowly but surely wiping itself out with its own hands.

Just now, following the events in Beit Shemesh, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggested a solution: Divide Beit Shemesh into two, a Haredi city and a religious-secular one. Interior minister and Shas chairman Eli Yishai immediately objected. Yishai understood that a Haredi city couldn't survive because it would be "without revenues, without arnona [city taxes] and without industry."

In other words, without the secular-national religious donkey bearing the burden, there would be nothing from which to give those Haredi families with many children. It would be impossible for them to finance their education, health care, welfare, ritual baths, synagogues, yeshivas and kollels - yeshivas for married men.

As we speak, Beit Shemesh is planning a new neighborhood with 25,000 apartments, but the government is marketing those apartments at Haredim at cost price. In other words, despite the recommendations of the Trajtenberg Committee, the Haredim are the ones who will get land at half price, in addition to large discounts on taxes. All this comes on the backs of the religious and secular taxpayers.

Only last week, Yishai suggested changing the tables for arnona discounts so that large families in small apartments with low incomes get a bigger break.

So we have to stop dealing with symptoms; it's time to cure the disease. In other words, to do away with the independent education systems of Shas and Agudat Yisrael, and force every child in Israel to study the same general curriculum, as in France. Whoever wishes can teach his children Mishna and Talmud in the afternoon.

All the Haredi draft evaders should be drafted into the Israel Defense Forces for three years, like any other citizen. Everyone has to help protect the country. The support given to yeshivas and kollels from the state budget should be totally stopped, which will force the Haredim to go to work. In no part of the Diaspora, neither in Poland nor in Morocco, did Jews even dream of living as parasites at the public's expense.

But knowing where we live, and what's important to Netanyahu, we can assume that this call will fall on deaf ears and we'll take the slow-but-sure route to oblivion.