From the publisher:

Traditional Jewish religious belief speaks of a divinely revealed, perfect text, authoritatively expounded. The question this book addresses is one with which the author has struggled all his life: in the light of historical criticism, advances in knowledge, and changing moral attitudes, is the traditional notion of divine revelation and authoritative interpretation still valid? The focus is on Judaism but the arguments are easy to transpose to other religions.

The Talmud, the foundation of Jewish law, acknowledges that men can be sexually aroused by women and is indeed concerned with sexual thoughts and activity outside of marriage. But it does not tell women that men’s sexual urges are their responsibility. Rather, both the Talmud and the later codes of Jewish law make that demand of men.

Rabbi Linzer has posted a much longer discussion of the issue on his blog. I recommend this post for those who want a deeper discussion of the sources.

Two news reports from one of Israel’s biggest enemies (see here if you didn’t get the reference) show how this hyper-modesty has infected the national-religious public. The first is about the displeasure of some rabbis from Hesder yeshivas and their students about female instructors in the army. Recently, a paratrooper refused to jump with a female instructor because there might be inappropriate physical contact. While the article only mentions this case, the army is clearly worried about this issue. The son of a close friend recently completed a tank commander’s course. At some point during the course the female instructor fell down. He went over to help her get up, and after she saw his kippah she was afraid that she’d get in trouble if he helped her up. She told him that they are instructed to avoid all types of physical contact with religious soldiers. Whether she understood the protocol correctly is not so relevant, it’s that the army is worried enough about the issue that female instructors are being given guidelines about it. Our friend’s son promptly told her that she had nothing to worry about, and proceeded to help her get up.

The second (Hebrew) is about how the weekly parashah pamphlet from Machon Meir published a notice about the upcoming end of the mourning period for the Fogel family, the family whose parents were murdered by terrorists last year along with some of their children. The pamphlet has a policy of not publishing pictures of women, so the face of Ruti Fogel, the mother, was blocked out. According to this article, Ruti Fogel’s father also works for Machon Meir.

Machon Meir responded and said:

העלון ‘באהבה ואמונה’ הוא עלון תורני המופץ ונקרא בתוך בתי הכנסת. בשל כך מדיניות העלון היא לא לפרסם תמונות נשים בו. פרסום המודעה באופן זה נגרם בשל טעות אנוש ובלא כל כוונה לפגוע חלילה. המכון התנצל בפני המשפחה על כך וההתנצלות התקבלה בהבנה מלאה

The pamphlet “Be-Ahava ve-Emunah (In Love and Faith)” is a Torah pamphlet that is distributed and read inside of synagogues. As a result of this, the pamphlet’s policy is not to publicize in it pictures of women. The publication of the announcement in such a manner was caused by a human error without, God forbid, any intention to cause harm. The institute apologized to the family and the apology was accepted with complete understanding.

If seeing a picture of a woman’s face in synagogue is so problematic, I can only wonder what they think about women being present in a synagogue that doesn’t have them behind a meḥitzah that is similar to the separation fence.

Update:  According to this article in Kipa (Hebrew), Rabbi Haim Navon has said that this week’s pamphlet will not be allowed in his synagogue, and he called upon others to do the same.

A second book is a collection of his essays titled אלהים מאמין באדם. The introduction can be found here.

Ynet has an article (Hebrew) about Roni Weinstein’s new book, Shavru et ha-Keilim (“They Broke the Vessels”). Weinstein’s book is subtitled “The Kabbalah and Jewish Modernity.” In this book Weinstein claims that modern religious Judaism cannot be understand without reference to the Kabbalah. He is quoted as saying:

The Kabbalah is like a bomb that was dropped hundreds of years ago, but its aftershocks just keep expanding with the passing of the years.

Kabbalah emphasized the eternity of the moment.

According to Weinstein, [the Kabbalistic belief that man's actions have an immediate affect on God] created a new idea-that every single moment of a person’s life is unique (חד-פעמי): Every mitzvah that you perform has its uniqueness, such that if you don’t pray mincha as you should-you missed the moment. The meaning of this is a life of urgency, since a person can never do enough, a feeling of sin and guilt accompanies him wherever he turns.

The table of contents can be found here, and the first chapter can be found here.

The first article was by Ariel Picard, On the Place of Halakhah in Modern Judaism. In this article Picard calls for a different understanding of the Jewish law and tradition. Halakhah as a legal system backed by divine command is no longer operative. In its place is a Jewish-Israeli culture that is informed by, and based on, Jewish law, tradition, and customs, as they have developed over the past two thousand years.

התפיסה המוצעת כאן מבקשת לכונן רצף תרבותי בין העבר להווה. המהפכה הקופרניקאית של המודרניות היא בעיקרה מהפכה של התודעה האנושית. שינוי תודעתי הוא דבר מהותי ובעל משמעות רבה אך הוא אינו מחייב שינוי נורמטיבי מן הקצה אל הקצה. במילים אחרות, רבים מן הערכים שייחסנו לציווי הא-לוהי אנו מייחסים היום לתבונה האנושית. כך, מתוך תהליך של בחירה, אנו שואבים השראה מן המסורת התרבותית ומבקשים להתאימה לקיום האנושי המודרני. בשונה מן הגישה המודרניסטית הנוקשה, המבקשת ליצור חיץ בין היצירה המודרנית לבין המסורת הדתית הקדם מודרנית, בתפיסה המוצעת כאן יש הכרה בחשיבותה של הרציפות התרבותית האנושית. המסורת התרבותית היא משאב יקר ומעורר השראה גם למי שחי בעולם המודרני שנדמה כי הוא שונה לגמרי מן העולם שבו מסורת עתיקה זו תפקדה. התבוננות מעמיקה מראה שבתחומים רבים הצרכים האנושיים, הדאגות והרגשות אינם כה שונים. המורכבות של יחסי האדם עם חברו ועם החברה שבה הוא חי דומה מאוד לעבר. משום כך ניתן לשאוב רעיונות, עקרונות, אורחות חיים ונורמות חברתיות ואישיות מן העבר אל ההווה.

The second article is by Yoav Sorek, The Challenge: The Dismantling of Religious Society.

If I understand Sorek correctly, he is calling for a restructuring of how religiosity and a religious lifestyle is understood by Israeli society. No longer is there to be a line of demarcation between a religiously observant lifestyle and one that isn’t, rather, Jewish life, study, and observance will be present on a continuum of legitimate behavior and lifestyles. Sorek is calling for a dismantling of the compartmentalization, both structurally and theologically, between religious and secular society. It is his hope that this reconfiguration will help Judaism, and especially, Jewish law, confront the reality of a sovereign Jewish state.

I am sure that future issues of Musaf Shabbat will contain many reactions to both of these important pieces.

Education Minister Gideon Sa’ar announced that Professor Michael Schwartz is the recipient of the Israel Prize for Israel Studies for 2011. Schwartz was chosen for his internationally-known expertise in Medieval Jewish philosophy, and especially in “The Guide for the Preplexed,” (Moreh Nevokhim), which was written by the Rambam (Maimonides).

See this article about Prof. Schwartz’s new translation of the Guide for the Perplexed from Arabic into Hebrew. This translation can be found here.