Not Our Shomer
Senator Schumer, in a play on his name, bills himself as the shomer, the guardian, of Israel and America.
Let’s see:
* He was the first senator in 2008 to tell us that Obama is the “real deal.” We got the Iran Deal.
* He groomed and delivered to Congress the disgraced Anthony Weiner.
* He did nothing to stop the Iran Deal, delivering a cynical, empty “no” vote while making it clear to colleagues that he wouldn’t try to change any “yes’ votes.
* He supported anti-Israel Sen. Keith Ellison for chair of the Democratic National Committee in a cynical nod to the leftist majority in his party.
* He has declared war on the Supreme Court nomination of Neil Gorsuch – a legal giant who doesn’t conform to Schumer’s pygmy politics.
* He opposed David Friedman as ambassador to Israel in deference to leftist Jewish critics of Israel.
Yes, he’s a shomer, all right – just not for us.
Jeffrey S. Wiesenfeld
(Via E-Mail)
Greatness Of Gorsuch
I believe both the supporters and opponents of Judge Neil Gorsuch are erroneous in their estimate of him.
He is known as conservative in his beliefs. However, his great integrity as a jurist leads and demands of him to be apolitical in his legal decisions.
He makes no attempt to “make” law according to his private preferences.
Rather, he reads the law and decides constitutional validity. He is a strong constitutionalist who seeks to apply the intent of the writers in his decisions.
This is what defines him as a great jurist.
Conservatives and liberals alike should not expect of him anything other than strict constitutional validity in his decisions.
Jerrold Terdiman MD
Woodcliff Lake, NJ
Rav Sonnenfeld’s Peace Effort
In his March 17 Time Capsule column, Jeff Reznik noted the yahrzeit of Rav Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld.
Although there were differences of opinion between Rav Sonnenfeld and pre-state Israel’s first Ashkenazi chief rabbi, Abraham Isaac Kook, they were friends on a personal level. The two of them would visit secular kibbutzim to encourage the pioneers there to return to their religious roots.
In 1929, after anti-Jewish pogroms left many Jews dead, Rabbi Sonnenfeld published a letter in Hebrew, Yiddish, and Arabic pleading for Arab-Jewish peace and cooperation. He detailed how Jews had helped develop the land and explained they had no designs on Muslim holy places.
Previous to that, in 1924, Rav Sonnenfeld had made a serious attempt at Arab-Jewish reconciliation. He met Sharif Hussein bin Ali, the recognized leader of the Arab and Muslim worlds, through the efforts of law professor Jacob Israël de Haan.
In Europe de Haan had been a leading Dutch lawyer and human rights activist. His activities on behalf of political prisoners in Czarist Russia resulted in getting some of them released. After he made aliyah to pre-state Israel he met and fell under of the influence of Rav Sonnenfeld and became haredi.
The increasing Arab-Jewish tensions disturbed Professor de Haan. In the face of great opposition from the Zionist establishment he made diplomatic contact with Arab notables. He was able to arrange a meeting with Arab leaders including Sharif Hussein bin Ali. The meeting was successful and might well have led to an Arab-Jewish peace agreement. But de Haan was assassinated. That ended the peace talks.
We should be in awe of great rabbis like Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld and Abraham Isaac Kook and laymen like the great baal teshuvah Jacob Israël de Haan.
Reuven Solomon
Forest Hills, NY
Pesach Cleaning
Pesach cleaning is just not my thing. When do they clean museums? Libraries? Other public places? I assume during off hours when the public isn’t there. If someone thinks my house should be cleaned (for Pesach or any other time), that’s what should happen. The cleaning lady should come after I leave for work and be gone before I get home. And all my stuff should be returned to where it was before the cleaning started.
I don’t even agree with what “cleaning” means. I think to most women cleaning (for spring, for Pesach, or for any other time) means throwing things out. For men, I think it typically means organizing things. Pick up the two-month old newspapers I haven’t finished. If they’re not intentionally folded to keep specific articles on top, fold them correctly, organize the sections in the right order, dust under them if you must, and put them back exactly how you found them. That’s cleaning!
A good cleaning lady, if asked, should be able to organize bookshelves at least by fiction and non-fiction and by genres like Judaica and biography – that is, if she’s not familiar enough with the Dewey Decimal System or the Library of Congress catalogue system to really organize my books.
This idea of throwing anything out is much overrated. It’s actually one of the greatest forms of discrimination we have in this country today. Think about it: If we came across a box containing George Washington’s electric bills or even the bills for Abraham Lincoln’s extra-long pants, everyone would consider it an important historical find. But if I have my parents’ – let alone grandparents’ – electric bills, people ask me “Why are you saving that junk?” That’s clearly discrimination against middle class and poor people.
Pesach is the only holiday concerning which the Torah doesn’t tell us explicitly to rejoice. Some commentaries suggest that because it’s the holiday of freedom and we should automatically be happy, there is no need for a specific commandment. I would argue just the opposite. There is a principle that the Torah doesn’t give people commandments they cannot fulfill. All that cleaning up is very depressing. And since women are pretty much in control of that realm, much of the cleaning typically and tragically involves throwing things out.
Happy? Most of us are, or should be, in mourning over our tossed belongings. In the best-case scenario, our possessions have only been moved from where we had grown used to having them.
Someone suggested I go to a pre-Pesach lecture on cleaning. If anything, there should be pre-Pesach lectures on how to best save and organize valuable items. If only I could get my wife to buy into this. Then again, maybe the lecturer should just cut to the chase and concentrate on how to survive differences in marriage.
Harold A. Marks
(Via E-Mail)