The Rapture, Looting, Halacha and Facebook: OY, the fun!

Ok, so the predicted rapture and end of the world did not materialize as predicted last Saturday (although the predictor has revised his forecast to Oct. 21st).  However, the whole shpiel produced some funny dialogue about how Jews should behave following the rapture.  The dialogue took place on Facebook but was reproduced on Zeek, where I found this:

The predicted rapture led some Facebook users to create a post-rapture looting event to capitalize on the sudden disappearance of thousands of the faithful. At the present time, about a half a million people are attending. One yeshiva student, however, observed that since the Rapture is scheduled for Shabbat, post-rapture looting may present a halachic problem. As a service to our readers, we are reprinting her original Facebook post and most of the comments that followed.

Gella Solomon: To all who plan to attend the post rapture looting on the 21st, I must remind you that it will be Saturday and hence acquisition of property by Jews will be forbidden until sundown. In short NO LOOTING ON SHABBOS!

SK: Is it against shabbos if it’s for free?

GS: Yes.

SK: Guess I’ll have to get Sunday’s left-overs…

LC: i think it’s after shabbas, technically

GS: It says on the event 12pm

SK: Also, “Al Tignov” - we technically shouldn’t be looting anyway, but we’re gonna do it because “God isn’t looking” according to the event. If the commandment not to steal is being waived, can’t we also waive shabbos?

NA: How are we stealing? They aren’t coming back. It is ownerless.

JM: Mamish hefker.

GS: waived… and no, because it’s not stealing if the owners have been raptured, since there is certainly ye’ush on their part if they’ve been taken up, it is hefker. But I believe you cannot acquire hefker property on shabbat either. Besides which, most of the stuff you’d probably want to loot will be muktze.

ES: only 3% of the world’s population is going missing– and they are likely the poor and the meek–so I’m not sure the looting is even going to be worth it. : /

PS: Wouldn’t the existence of the rapture pretty much void the entire covenant?

GS: Shouldn’t the destruction of the Temple have voided the covenant by similar logic? We don’t give up that easily.

PS: The destruction of the temple didn’t establish a different and incompatible belief system’s deity as existent, though.

GS: It kinda did though, for the theological paradigm of the era. Fortunately, Judaism was innovative enough to adapt to the idea of a portable God that doesn’t go away when a people is defeated and driven from their land. It did call the people’s continued covenant with that God into question though…

PS: A good point regarding the massive paradigm shift needed there. But wait. Doesn’t the period of adaptation amount to a renegotiating of the covenant? In which case, while things are up in the air… Free stuff!

RW: can’t I pick things up if there’s an eruv?

AG: I believe that you can borrow them for the duration of Shabbat (assuming eruv, no muktze, and the stuff is hefker) and then acquire them afterwards. But I could be wrong about that.


IH: Can I sell my looting rights to a non Jew and then buy it back after shabbos? (j/k)

Gella Solomon: @PS: a good question, with potentially deep ramifications for how we relate to the place of human agency in the covenantal relationship with God and the idea of chosenness. Meanwhile, you’re not Jewish so you can do whatever the hell you want. @RS, the issue isn't carrying, so no. @AG... in order to borrow, doesn't there need to be someone from whom to borrow? @IH... potentially a good solution, but what would be the non-Jew's motivation to loot for you? If you're just buying the stuff from her or him afterward then it kind of defeats the point of getting in on the looting.

LG: while it doesn’t address the issue of mukze, an eruv might be useful with “acquiring”

GS: because it is a hefker object in a private domain?

JR: Technically, it’s not hitting until 6 PM in your local tme zone. Yup, the ones who believe this are actually saying that this will hit New Zealand first at 6 PM locally there, and make its way across the globe hitting every time zone every hour. So, my point is, if you can’t loot on Shabbos, just wait a couple of hours.

IA: What if we just put the looted goods aside, and then make a formal declaration of acquisition after sunset?

JG: Items left out where they might pose a danger to the public (say, a motorcycle whose rider was assumed into Heaven mid-ride) may be moved out of the way.

GN: I think the Rapture is at 9 PM EDT, so it’s not Shabbos anymore, at least not on the east coast at New York’s latitude. That’s a lot of conditions.

This ain't no picnic

You guys don’t miss a beat. First, of all I’m sorry that I went off line from this blog for so long. I really didn’t know you cared – or at least I didn’t know you were reading. In three unrelated conversations this past week, people mentioned that they check here frequently and like to see the perspective offered. None of those people said a thing about the lack of new entries for several months but… Oy, the guilt. So, thank you Jonathan, Nadine, Guy and the rest of you.


Second of all, who knew how many people would ask why we are not having the “traditional,” end-of-year religious school picnic?! Of course you know that I’ve not been at Sinai for any of the previous picnics so I can’t say what those were like. You should also know that this was not my decision – which is not to say that I don’t support it because I do. But I am still surprised to hear how much influence and power people expect me to have over every thing that happens at Sinai. I suppose I do have significant authority and influence, but our congregation is large with an outstanding team of professional and volunteer lay leaders. In other words: Jill Stepak, her staff and her committee members make the decisions and run the school program with my full support. And I think that they have put together a great event to close our school year and celebrate the cycle of learning. Jill notes that this day is meant to, “Demonstrate the learning of our students in a fun and interactive way and to celebrate the year with our students, their families and our teachers all together.”

Sure, this ain’t no picnic but I think it’ll be even better. The Museum of Limmud features each class and each student’s work, Teacher Appreciation speaks for itself (right?), Kesher Café keeps us fed, and the Chana Rothman concert will be just plain fun. But if this doesn't stack up to previous year's picnics let me know. Check Chana out here:

Pink Floyd is off my play list

I'll let this posting from Ron Kehrmann speak for itself.  He wrote "An Open Letter to Pink Floyd Lead Singer Roger Waters: Condemn this Brutal Massacre."
 

You joined the cultural boycott against Israel two weeks ago. Since last Friday I have been looking for your condemnation of the brutal murder of the Fogel family -- three children, their mother and father -- in Itamar in the West Bank. This atrocity should be condemned by decent people everywhere, no matter their political beliefs.
   My daughter, Tal Kehrmann, was killed by a Hamas terrorist on March 5, 2003, on a bus on her way home from school, along with 16 other innocent children and adults. Tal was 17. She loved music and knew the words to all the popular songs, Hebrew and English.
   But we shouldn't need to have personally experienced such a tragedy to be outraged by senseless, brutal murders of innocents -- and to condemn these acts.
   In your letter announcing your decision to boycott my country you emphasize your belief "that all people deserve basic human rights." So did the Fogel family. I am sorry to conclude, Mr. Waters, that your decision, based on misinformation and propaganda, is biased, one-sided and contrary to the facts.

Follow the link above to read the whole letter.

Bar Mitzvah: I should have known

I should have known that the one subject that could shake me from my blogging torpor was not Israel, war, the Reform Movement or anything other than... Bar Mitzvahs.  Perhaps I see through new eyes because my own child is less than six months from his bar mitzvah and now attending his peers' services and parties regularly.  Maybe it's because my recent move has exposed to the subtleties of yet another communities' bar mitzvah mishegas.  But whatever it is, I am now quite clear that there is much mishegas surrounding the bar mitzvah in our community.  I am not, of course the first to conclude as much.  My esteemed senior colleagues have tried to put God on the guest on guest list and railed against the "idolatry" of today's bar and bat mitzvah ceremonies.

But just because others identified the problem years ago doesn't mean it isn't real.  It is.  I'll offer a few observations over the next few entries about this.  The problem became clear to me in the fall.  Within a few weeks I had spoken with two mothers, both during the reception and weeks after their child's bar/bat mitzvah ceremony and party.  In both settings these mothers remarked that they were disappointed and underwhelmed by the experience.  There was even a hint of resentment in both.  At the end of it all, they were proud of their children but feelings that they (the mothers) had done too much with too little (if any) "payoff."  I would not have expected either mother to feel this way.  Neither was a "drop off" or otherwise disengaged parent.  Both families were fairly well engaged in the temple and jewish living.  But both found the whole experience anticlimactic.  Something IS wrong with this picture and we should fix it.

About the Ultra-Orthodox

Inevitably, when leading a discussion about Israeli politics or society, somebody asks about haredim (so called "ultra-orthodox Jews" also, in some circles, "black-hatters").  Often it's a question based on our separation of church and state: why do the haredim get special benefits for being so religiously strict? Why does the state support religious institutions?  Here's a paragraph from today's online Haaretz editorial that explains it more clearly than I have seen in a long time:

Haredi politicians have always manipulated Israel's governments for their own ends, exploiting the fact that they hold the political balance of power in order to free their constituencies from sharing the burdens: For example, the Haredim have been liberated from studying core subjects in their schools, from compulsory military service and from the need to work - while living off the public's largesse in the form of stipends and allowances. Now even many members of the community recognize that the current situation cannot go on because the national economy will collapse under the growing burden.

And if you are interested in the religion-state divide (or lack thereof) in Israel.  Read Gideon Levy's op-ed piece from Dec. 16th. I'm not sure it's the best or most balanced article, but the analogy he draws between rabbis and dance club bouncers makes it worth the read.  Especially given the fact that Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, though not a rabbi is a former nightclub bouncer.