1. Uh-Oh. It looks like loving hummus makes you into a Muslim...
2. Hadassah is shocked at a comment about how a Rabbi chooses where he is willing to eat out.
3. Frum n Flippin has Doers and Believers, and connects it to her shidduch experience.
4. Shiloh Musings writes about the recent psak from Rav Elyashiv about not taking money from Rabbi Eckstein's organization of International Fellowship of Christian and Jews, and points to the Jpost article in which Rabbi Eckstein responds with mentioning some haredi organizations and saying he will out more.
5. Reb Akiva talks about being more spiritually aware in Israel.
6. Parshablog continues the discussion of whether the Flood of Noah was a global or local flood.
It's upsetting, no? To know that your love of chummus has shaken such steady ground!
ReplyDeleteI understand where R' Elyashiv is coming from, but...he is focusing on the wrong end of the problem.
ReplyDeleteIt seems obvious that there are MANY haredi institutions who receive money from Eckstein, whether they know it or not. This money helps them do chesed.
It also seems obvious that tzedaka from our Jewish brethren is not meeting their financial needs, which is why they are seeking funds from other sources. If R' Elyashiv is so concerned with this issue, he should be making a statement that every Jew should be giving MORE tzedaka (within their means, of course), so as not to force the Haredi social institutions to take non-Jewish money.
The reasons listed in the articles for why this is assur are patently spurious. Non-Jews giving money to Jewish charities "aggrandizes them". Come on...this is ridiculous. Do you see many Jews converting to C-nity because they give charity to Jews?
Jews feel beholden to non-Jews because they received funds from them? Yeah, I see how "beholden" most Haredis feel towards Medinat Yisrael, even though the State gives them money/social services...
And where is the desecration of G-d's name in taking money to do chesed? It would a desecration of G-d's name to take money from them and then blow it at the casino, or go on vacation with it, or furnish your appartment with luxuries. To use it for chesed, and to ease the suffering of other Jews? Sorry, I don't see any desecration there.