263. Rubinstein, 156–157.
264. Hagigah 15b.
265. See the comments of Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Chajes to Sanhedrin 11a in his Hagaot Maharatz Hayes, where he considers the act of asking a child at random what he learned in school a form of Bat Kol (which can be loosely translated as a “heavenly whisper”).
266. Rovner, “Structure and Ideology,” 32. See also Rabbi Joseph Trani, the Maharit, at 2:8 of his responsa.
267. Rovner, 35.
268. Rubinstein, “Elisha ben Abuya,” 158.
269. See Talmud Ketubot 62b. See also Talmud Pesakhim 49b where Rabbi Akiva said of himself that before he became immersed in Torah he would have bitten a Torah scholar. For more on his life see Encyclopedia Judaica, 2nd ed. (2006), s.v. “Akiva Ben Joseph.” More recently, Barry W. Holtz authored a biography on Rabbi Akiva as part of Yale’s “Jewish Lives” Series. See Barry W. Holtz, Rabbi Akiva: Sage of the Talmud (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2017). For an illuminating piece on the optimism of Rabbi Akiva, see Meir Soloveichik, “Rabbi Akiva’s Optimism,” Azure 30 (Autumn 2007).
270. Makkot 24b.
271. Rabbi Hershel Schachter records this explanation in the name of Rabbi Joseph Dov Soloveitchik in his Mi-Pninei Ha-Rav (Jerusalem: Hotzaot Beit Hamidrash Dflatbush, 2001), 216.
272. Kim Severson, “Mixing Drinks with Work and Staying Sober, Too,” New York Times, June 23, 2009.
273. Some commentaries contextualize this passage of Talmud to be referring only to loftier levels of repentance; see Rabbeinu Nissim of Gerona in his Derashot Ha-Ran, chapter 6, see also Rabbeinu Yonah’s Shaarei Teshuvah at 1:49.
274. For more on the Hasidei Ashkenaz see the discussion found in chapter 13 “To Whom it May Concern: Rabbinic Correspondence on Sin and Failure” in this work.
275. See A. Rubin, “The Concept of Repentance Among the Hasidey Ashkenaz,” The Journal of Jewish Studies 16 (1965): 161–176. See also Talya Fishman, “The Penitential System of Hasidei Ashkenaz and the Problem of Cultural Boundaries,” The Journal of Jewish Thought and Philosophy 8 (1999): 207–209. There she also cites Avodah Zarah 17b as another possible source that advocates placing oneself into situations of temptation.
276. Sefer ha-Rokeah 206.
277. Fishman, “The Penitential System of Haside Ashkenaz,” 209.
278. Rubin, “The Concept of Repentance,” 166n21.
279. See Brill, Thinking God, 108. See also Norman Lamm, The Religious Thought of Hasidism (Hoboken, NJ: Ktav Publishing House, 1999), 370, which presents a comparison of their respective approaches to repentance and the need to repent for previous acts of repentance.
280. See Green, Tormented Master, 266, which cites a moving example of the fervor with which this slogan was held by contemporary Bratslav Hasidim during the torments of World War II. Green found in the diary of Emanuel Ringelblum a description of life in the Warsaw ghetto. The diary describes, “In the prayer-house of the Hasidim from Bratslav on Nowolipie Street there is a large sign: ‘Jews, Never Despair!’ The Hasidim dance there with the same religious fervor as they did before the war.”
281. Likutei Moharan is the foundational work of Bratslav Hasidut. Most of the work was compiled by Rabbi Nahman though some segments were added or edited by Rabbi Nathan.
282. I have decided to cite the passage in the original Hebrew, with my own translation following. The original language will help facilitate linguistic comparisons to Rabbi Zadok’s work.
283. See Likutei Moharan II:78.
284. See Rabbi Zadok’s Divrei Sofrim 16.
285. Shilo Pachter, “Shmirat Habrit: The History of the Prohibition of Wasting Seed” (PhD diss., Hebrew University, 2006; Hebrew), 244–275.
286. Shivhei Moharan 11–12, translated in Green, Tormented Master, 27. See also Shivhei 2, in Tzadik: A Portrait of Rabbi Nachman, trans. Avraham Greenbaum (Jerusalem: Breslov Research Institute, 1987), 247, which depicts Rabbi Nahman’s efforts to experience the holiness of Shabbat as a child. After intensely preparing himself to accept Shabbat, “he wanted to see something but he saw nothing.” Pained by his sense of distance from the awesome holiness of Shabbat he crawled underneath the table and cried for several hours.
287. Green, Tormented Master, 288.
288. See Green’s discussion of Rabbi Nahman’s approach to religious ecstasy in Tormented Master, 142. He writes, “Nahman, plagued as he was by inner tensions, could not accept the rather facile advocacy of joy that was his Hasidic heritage.”
289. See, for example, Likutei Moharan II:12.
290. See Shivhei Moharan (Brooklyn: Moriah, 1974), 3–7. Also see the commendable translation of Avraham Greenbaum in Tzadik: A Portrait of Rabbi Nachman (Jerusalem: Breslov Research Institute, 1987), 247–253. Aside from the chapter dedicated to the triumphs that emerge from Rabbi Nahman’s spiritual struggles, the entire biography is replete with similar examples that occurred throughout Rabbi Nahman’s life.
291. See Elchanan Dov’s biographical sketch appended to Rabbi Zadok’s Otzar He-Melekh (Bnei Brak: Yahadus, 1968), 3 and its reference to Midrash Tanhuma Noah 3 in this regard.
292. First printed in 1922.
293. See Brill, Thinking God, 27 for a translation.
294. Brill speculates that it relates to Rabbi Zadok’s sinful past, suggesting that “the moral weakness he experienced during adolescence and marriage is likely to have been his own sexual desire or perhaps masturbation.” Brill, Thinking God, 27.
295. Rabbi Zadok returns to this point countless times in his writings. Of particular interest in this context may be Tzidkat Ha-Tzadik 76 that reiterates many of the themes discussed in this dream.
296. See Tzadik: A Portrait of Rabbi Nachman, 248.
297. Ibid., 249.
298. See Jerusalem Talmud Sanhedrin 2:3 and Babylonian Talmud Sanhedrin 107a.
299. An early Hasidic work written by Rabbi Yaakov Yosef of Ostroh (1738–1791).
300. Written by Rabbi Shlomo Ephraim ben Aaron Luntschitz (1550–1619).
301. There the story is cited that King David would have concubines brought before him every day and would treat them as if they were prohibited to him by Jewish law, despite the fact that they were permitted. He would say to his evil inclination, “Do you desire something which is forbidden to you? By your life! I will make you desire something which is permitted to you.”
302. Takanat ha-Shavin 9.
303. For more on the Talmudic phrase “[w]here penitents stand, even the wholly righteous cannot stand,” see Nahum Rakover, “Where Penitents Stand, Even the Wholly Righteous Cannot Stand,” in Between Rashi and Maimonides: Themes in Medieval Jewish Thought, Literature and Exegesis, eds. Ephraim Kanarfogel and Moshe Sokolow (New York: Yeshiva University Press, 2010), 167–190.
304. Sim B. Sitkin, “Learning through Failure: The Strategy of Small Losses,” in Research in Organizational Behavior, Vol. 14, eds. L.L. Cummings and B.M. Staw (Greenwich, CT: JAI Press, 1992), 231–266.
305. Ibid., 243.
306. Ibid., 232.
307. See Jennie Rosenfeld, “Talmudic Re-Readings: Toward a Modern Orthodox Sexual Ethic,” 108. Her discussion focuses on the interpretation of this passage in the works of Rabbi Zadok. She notes, “R. Zadok clearly reads against the literal meaning of this text in that the statement is more the academic observation of a rabbinic decisor than a practical observation about the role of sin in the life of the individual; the stumbling referred to is in rendering an incorrect ruling rather than in taking an incorrect or sinful action.” I have taken for granted that the context of Talmudic passages should be taken into account in their interpretation. This, however, is a much larger discussion. See the literature cited by Jeffrey L. Rubinstein, “Elisha ben Abuya: Torah and the Sinful Sage,” The Journal of Jewish Thought and Philosophy 7 (1998): 207n142.
308. See B-Rogez Rahem Tizkor, 47–50, where I first presented the contextual connection of this passage to the broader Talmudic discussion.
309. This phenomenon, of course,
is not limited to the children of Jewish clergy. There is an extensive body of literature that discusses the corollary of this phenomenon in the Christian world, where it is often referred to as “Preacher’s Kid.” See, for example, the memoirs of Franklin Graham, son of the famed evangelist Billy, Rebel with a Cause (Nashville, TN:Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1995). For more, see Carol Anderson, “The Experience of Growing Up in a Minister’s Home and the Religious Commitment of the Adult Child of a Minister,” Pastoral Psychology 46, no. 6 (1998): 393–411. Testimonials of children of rabbis are uncommon but not rare. For a touching anecdote, see Jerome R. Mintz, Hasidic People: A Place in the New World (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press: 1992), 19–20 which quotes Rabbi Israel Friedman, the child of the Boyaner Rebbe, who decided to become a social worker instead of a Hasidic Rebbe like his father. “When I said I would go into social work,” Rabbi Friedman recalls, “my father said, ‘That’s the next best thing to being a Rebbe.’” More recently, Shulamit Kitzis published a volume exploring the experience of children of rabbis in the religious Zionist community. See Kitzis, Demut Deyokno: Avot Rabanim ba-Tzionit ha-Datit ba-Eynei Yildeihem (Israel: Resling, 2017). Dr. Kitzis is herself the child of the esteemed Rabbi Shimon Gershon Rosenberg, known as Rav Shagar.
310. Irving N. Levitz, “Children of Rabbis,” Tradition 23, no. 2 (Winter 1988): 76–87.
311. Ibid., 79.
312. Ibid., 77.
313. David Assaf, Untold Tales of the Hasidim: Crisis & Discontent in the History of Hasidism (Lebanon, NH: Brandeis University Press, 2010).
314. Ibid., 30.
315. In a recent article on The Lehrhaus web site, Elli Fischer couches the phenomenon of Rabbi’s Children in an earlier biblical figure—Yitzhak, the son of Avraham. See his “The Patron Saint of Rabbi’s Kids,” The Lehrhaus, December 1, 2016, http://www.thelehrhaus.com/commentary-short-articles/patron-saint-of-rabbis-sons.
316. See Rabbi Moshe Sofer’s comment, in his Torat Moshe, on Numbers 1:3.
317. See Rabbi Avraham Shmuel Sofer’s comment, in his Ktav Sofer, on the Torah portion of Shemini, where he explains that Aaron’s children were reluctant to get married in order to avoid having children and repeating the parental mistakes they witnessed Moshe make.
318. Interestingly, Moshe’s grandson may have served as an idolatrous priest. See Rashi’s comment on Judges 18:30. See also Bava Batra 109b.
319. See his introduction to Tiferet Yisrael.
320. See Rabbi Shlomo Rabinowicz of Radomsk’s (1801–1866) Tiferet Shlomo, Moadim, 6, and Rabbi Aryeh Zvi Fromer of Koziegłowy’s (1884–1943) Responsa Eretz Ha-Tzvi 20. They both pose this question, though they offer different approaches than what proceeds here.
321. See Sefer Haredim 12:18, Responsa Dvar Avraham 1:31, and the presentation of Rabbi Soloveitchik in Shiurei Ha-Rav, Tefillah u-Kriat Shema 22.
322. See his Imrei Emet on the Torah portion of Nasso for the year 5624.
323. For more on this approach to the Kohanic blessings see my B-rogez Rahem Tizkor, 21–30. See there also the explanation in line with this approach of the Talmudic custom to pray for one’s dreams during the blessings of the Kohanim.
324. Special appreciation must be given to Rabbi Baruch Dov Braun. I never would have met the Jonah described in this chapter were it not for his analysis. My continued admiration and deepest gratitude to Rabbi Braun for making this introduction. Jonah has always fascinated scholars. For other approaches to the personality of Jonah, see in particular Ze’ev Haim Lifshitz, The Paradox of Human Existence: A Commentary on the Book of Jonah (Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson, 1994), Rabbi Avraham Rivlin, Yonah: Nevuah va-Tokhahah (Israel: Hotzaot Yeshivat Kerem B’Yavneh, 5766), and, most recently, Dr. Erica Brown, Jonah: The Reluctant Prophet (Jerusalem: Maggid Books, 2017).
325. Midrash Shokher Tov 26:7.
326. David Hume, The Natural History of Religion (London: A. and H. Bradlaugh Bonner, 1889), 9–10.
327. This is a translation of his original statement in German, “Die Religion … ist das opium des volkes.” The quote comes from Karl Marx’s 1843 work A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right.
328. Gordon Allport and J. Michael Ross, “Personal Religious Orientation and Prejudice,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 5:4 (1967): 432–443. Since the publication of this article, there has been an explosion of literature on religious motivation. For an academic discussion of religious motivation in the Jewish context see, in particular, Aryeh Lazar and Shlomo Kravetz, “A Motivational Systems Theory Approach to the Relation Between Religious Experience and Motives,” The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion 15:1 (2005): 63–72. Dr. Lazar has worked on religious motivation studies within the Israeli population. See his dissertation, “The Structure of the Motivation for Religious Behavior among Jews: A Comparison of Two Structure Models” (PhD diss., Bar-Ilan University, 1999).
329. Christian Wiman, My Bright Abyss: Meditations of a Modern Believer (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013), 146.
330. Ibid.
331. Ibid., 7.
332. For the primary theories regarding proper corporate apologies see Keith Michael Hearit, Crisis Management by Apology (New York: Routledge, 2010); W. Timothy Coombs, Ongoing Crisis Communication: Planning, Managing, and Responding (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2012); Uriel Rosenthal, R. Arjen Boin and Louise K. Comfort, Managing Crises: Threats, Dilemmas, Opportunities (Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas, 2001); and Alfred A. Marcus and Robert S. Goodman, “Victims and Shareholders: The Dilemmas of Presenting Corporate Policy During a Crisis,” The Academy of Management Journal 34:2 (June 1991). For an anthology of poor apologies see Paul Slansky and Arleen Sorkin, My Bad: The Apology Anthology (New York: Bloomsbury 2006). Nearly all discussions of apologies in a religious context include a reference to Simon Wiesenthal’s The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness (New York: Schocken Books, 1976), a moving volume that considers the possibility of forgiving Nazis in the aftermath of the Holocaust.
333. See Richard E. Mooney, “Editorial Notebook; ‘If This Sounds Slippery …’ How to Apologize And Admit Nothing,” New York Times, November 30, 1992, http://www.nytimes.com/1992/11/30/opinion/editorial-notebook-if-this-sounds-slippery-how-to-apologize-and-admit-nothing.html.
334. Ibid.
335. See John M. Broder, “Familiar Fallback for Officials: ‘Mistakes were Made’,” New York Times, March 14, 2007.
336. See Hearit, Crisis Management by Apology, 30–31.
337. See Robert L. Ulmer, Timothy L. Sellnow and Matthew W. Seeger, Effective Crisis Communication: Moving from Crisis to Opportunity, 2nd ed. (Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 2011), 3.
338. For a more comprehensive history on the concept of repentance see David A. Lambert’s How Repentance Became Biblical: Judaism, Christianity, & the Interpretation of Scripture (New York: Oxford University Press, 2016). Regrettably, I only became aware of the volume during the final stages of the preparation of this manuscript.
339. See Pinchas H. Peli, ed. Al ha-Teshuvah (Jerusalem: World Zionist Organization, Department for Torah Education and Culture in the Diaspora, 1975), 15–18, translated into English in Pinchas H. Peli, ed. On Repentance in the Thought and Oral Discourses of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik (Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson, 1996). See also Yitzchak Blau “Creative Repentance: On Rabbi Soloveitchik’s Concept of Teshuva,” Tradition 28, no. 2 (Winter 1994): 11–18. Rabbi Soloveitchik was not the only thinker who developed a dual typology for sin along these lines. See also Rabbi Elchanan Wasserman’s Kovetz Ha’arot: Dugmaot la-Biurei Agadot al Derekh Peshat 3, which presents a similar dichotomy in his analysis of sin in Jewish though.
340. Pinchas Peli, “Repentant Man-A High Level in Rabbi Soloveitchik’s Typology of Man,” Tradition 18, no. 2 (Summer 1980): 140.
341. Stephen P. Garvey, “Punishment as Atonement,” UCLA Law Review 46, no. 6 (August 1999): 1818.
342. See Samuel Levine, “Teshuva: A Look at Repe
ntance, Forgiveness and Atonement in Jewish Law and Philosophy and American Legal Thought,” Fordham Urban Law Journal 27, no. 5 (2000): 1677.
343. Ibid., 1693.
344. See comments of the Rama to Shulkhan Arukh: Orah Hayyim 343 and the discussion of the Radvaz in 6:2.
345. See the discussion of Tosafot to Sanhedrin 71b s.v. “ben.” Many Halakhic commentaries discuss the legal culpability of a convert for the sins committed prior to conversion; for more see the sources cited in Yalkut Meforshim (Wagshal edition) to Sanhedrin ibid.
346. Beit Elokim. Cited in Rabbi Shraga Neuberger’s pamphlet on repentance, Sas Anokhi no. 13, 20–21 which presents this passage as support for the idea of “Half Teshuvah” .
347. For more on the role of verbal confession, see Rabbi Simcha Zissel Broyde’s Sam Derekh: Parshat Nizavim 9.
348. See Rabbi Avraham Genichovsky Agan ha-Sahar (Mahadura Shlishit), edited by Rabbi Shmuel Fish (Israel: 5773), 105–106.
349. There is a lot of discussion in Halakhic literature regarding the limits of when to apply the presumption that the inner will of a Jew is to act in accordance with Jewish law. For instance, is this presumption still operative if the person in question has converted to another religion? For more on this assumption, see Hagaot Maimoniyot, Hilkhot Gerushin 2:20:4, as well as Teshuvot Hatam Sofer 4, Even ha-Ezer 2:60.
350. See chapter 6 in my B-Rogez Rahem Tizkor, where I first present this analysis.
351. John W. Collis, Seven Fatal Management Sins: Understanding and Avoiding Managerial Malpractice (Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press LLC, 1998), 151.
352. Pema Chödrön, When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times (Boulder, CO: Shambhala Publications, 1997), 102.
353. For more on the etymology of the word mehilah see Mitchell First’s essay “What is the Origin of the Word in his collection Esther Unmasked (New York: Kodesh Press, 2015), 30–41.
354. Shaun Usher, Letters of Note: An Eclectic Collection of Correspondence Deserving of a Wider Audience (San Fransisco: Chronicle Books, 2014), xvi.
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