Yom Kippur IS a Slow Trading Day

Shabbat was absolutely terrific. I stayed at my cousins, the Reidlers, in Jerusalem and it is always great to see them. Shabbat day I ate with S. Stern and 5 other guys I went to Gush with Shana Aleph including three that I haven’t seen since (about 5 years). It was really exciting to see them and catch up. (For those I went to Gush with… It was Leron, Chananel, Rafi, Hershkovitz, and Stern. I also saw Ettinger at Shul, and Zarbiv for the 3rd meal.)

It is remarkable how many people from Shana Aleph are in Israel now. There were about 70 people in Shana Aleph (including South Africans, Australians and Brits), and at least 10 (15%) have stayed in Israel since. Then there are also bunch that are here now either for a year or moved here – without counting individual people I guesstimate it’s about another 10 making it about 30% of my Shana Aleph class is in Israel this year. Gush should be very proud of their success in instilling a love of Eretz Yisroel in their students. While in Yeshiva I remember reading one of their brochures claiming a high percentage of their students make Aliyah and I didn’t believe it, but judging from my year, it was most likely true. (Keeping in mind that more people make Aliyah later in life and some people from my year still haven’t finished college yet.)
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Saturday night a friend of mine in Givat Shmuel organized a very nice and well-attended dinner in Bnei Brak to launch a regular shiur/dinner club thing once a week. (Which I will most likely never attend as I am generally at work…)

At the dinner there was a shiur given by a very articulate and captivating English Charedi rabbi, who unfortunately chose the forum to deliver a Charedi style message.

I will address his main point later, but I first wanted to address a minor point that I think many of you will find interesting. He stated that after Yom Kippur the BBC, a blatantly anti-Semitic media source, regularly says, “trading volume was slow today because of the Jews celebrating Yom Kippur. The Rabbi views this an anti-Semitic attack on the Jews, implying that such a small group of Jews could actually control the trading volume of the world’s largest stock exchanges.

I don’t understand how anyone can see this as anti-Semitic. It is a well documented and statistically proven truth. The BBC, in this case, is not being anti-Semitic, they are stating a fact. Just like Vanity Fair recently listing 52 out of the 100 most influential people as Jews, or Forbes listing a large portion of Jewish Billionaries or the Nobel Prize being given to a disproportionate amount of Jews. The BBC doesn’t say, “trading volume was down today because of the cursed Jews!” Would you prefer if the BBC said “Trading volume was down for some unknown reason, even though we really know…” Why should we be embarrassed that we are an important group in the world of Finance?
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His main message, without the pathos, was that if you look at history, secular intellectuals have been able to rationalize anything including acquitting Nazi killers due to their misunderstanding that they were actually committing genocide while they thought they were defending their country. Because of this, we should ignore their thinking and only follow in the way of the “Torah”.

What he failed to address, and understand, and this was clear from speaking with him after as well, is that Torah is interpreted by people as well. Different poskim come to different conclusions based to a large part on their personality, behavior, and environment (this has been studied extensively). While a secular scholar looks through his sources, which likely include some Jewish sources, and weighs each according to his own accord, Jewish scholars look at Gemara, poskim, Tanach and other Jewish sources, and weigh them according to their own thinking too. Many people in our history have done a lot of terrible crazy things in the name of "Torah." (Note: This is not a criticism of halacha.)

His speech is a very Charedi and unhealthy message because he is saying that you should remove your own thoughts and follow your rabbi blindly. A rabbi’s advice should be considered strongly, but one rabbi’s opinion of what the hashkafa one should follow should not be the end of an individual’s thought process. It is important to seek the advice of several rabbi's as well as outside sources.

The Gemara says, if I remember correctly, that anyone that says there is no knowledge outside of Torah is stupid. (I can’t remember the phraseology exactly, but I am definite that that sentiment is there.) To say that secular thinkers don’t have anything to add is foolish. We need less people saying “follow the Torah” or “follow the Rabbis” and more people saying become an educated person. We need to learn to weigh the knowledge of the world appropriately in order to live and promote a proper way of life. Obviously everything needs to be done lishma and under the rubric of Torah, but it is foolish to say that secular sources have nothing to add to the conversation.