Dr. Mayim Bialik on being modern orthodox

Joe Lieberman: The Story of His Religious Journey

An Orthodox Jew and a Social Media Producer for CNBC Eli Langer asks NFL Player Dan Marino some Questions

Haredi: The Ultra orthodox society in Israel

Inside Israel's Ultra-Orthodox Population

The religious population of Israel is growing very fast, three times faster than the secular population and the tension between these two groups is growing.

Part of a BBC documentary Reporter John Ware visits Israel's Ultra-Orthodox population and is given a rare glimpse inside a Yeshiva religious school.

A national television show named "Blue Bloods" filmed in Boro Park last month, recording an episode for their show. That episode, named "Men in Black" aired on CBS last Friday night, February 8, 2013.

The show begins with the Grand Rebbe of Tolshen, Rabbi Morganthal lying on his deathbed. Henry Reagan, the former local police commissioner who is a close friend of the Rebbe, pays his respects. The Rebbe shares with Mr. Reagan that he is breaking with Hasidic tradition in asking Levi, his younger son, to be his successor instead of the customary elder son, Jacob, because the former is more suitable. At the funeral of the Rebbe, Levi, the new Grand Rebbe steps into the alley to answer a call on his cell phoneand is stabbed to death, compounding the tragedy. The rest of the show focuses on the investigation in finding the killer. 

A charming Chabad Rabbi Moshe Weiss from St. Paul, MN, has the investors on a reality Television show on ABC listening to his business idea for a power-free magnetic sound enhancer for the iPad. Click Here for more info.

KLEINMAN FAMILY HOLOCAUST EDUCATION CENTER

Serving as a Holocaust education center על טהרת הקודש, within the framework fashioned by the precepts of Halacha as well as the ethos of Torah Hashkafa.

Functioning as a facility for teaching the history of the Holocaust and the lessons to be learnt therefrom.

In doing so, focusing special emphasis on the spiritual and moral dimensions to the Holocaust; in particular:

Conveying the grandeur of the vibrant, richly-tapestried life of Torah-observant Jewry in Europe, which preceded the Holocaust, and was so tragically destroyed by it;

Transmitting an appreciation of the spiritual and moral heroism, constituting lofty kiddush Hashem, evinced by so many of our brethren who, despite experiencing horrors of unprecedented nature, in conditions well beyond the limits of human endurance, retained their unshakeable faith in Hashem and the eternity of the Jewish people, and steadfastly maintained their adherence to the Torah practices and traditions with which they had grown up and been imbued;

Engraving on the human consciousness the towering personalities of the saintly Jewish leaders, of blessed memory, so many of whom perished during the Holocaust, whose lives of piety and purity continue to serve as a source of inspiration and example to Jews in every corner of the globe to this very day, and whose brilliant and luminous teachings are studied and absorbed as standard sources in halls of Jewish learning wherever the thirst for knowledge and wisdom pulsates in Jewish hearts and minds, and to convey, and help absorb, their teachings on the lessons inherent in the test of faith represented by the Holocaust, as well as in the rebuilding of Jewish life in the post-Holocaust era;

Illustrating the miraculous resurgence of the Torah world, in the post-Holocaust era, and the extraordinary rebuilding of Torah communities and institutions, all the while maintaining continuity, through profound links with, and deep roots in, the pre-Holocaust world that was destroyed.

In carrying out this Mission, and achieving these objects, the Kleinman Family Holocaust Education Center will strive to target the widest possible audience, in all age groups, but with particular attention being paid to the young generations, who are furthest removed temporally from the events of the Holocaust, and who are therefore least knowledgeable about it, but who represent the future.

Orthodox Jewish All Stars

Jack Lew's Shabbat Helper

When Jack Lew was appointed chief of staff to President Obama in January, many in the Jewish community wondered how he could observe Shabbat in such a demanding position.

Luckily, Lew has the most powerful man in the world to keep track of time as the sun starts to dip low in the sky on Friday afternoons.

“I saw the president on many occasions on Friday afternoons look at his watch, and ask: ‘Isn’t it time for you to get going?’” Lew said, “or, ‘Why are you still here?’ The president was not checking the clock “because he doesn’t think I can keep time,” Lew said. Rather, the extra care on this issue reflects the President’s wish “to remind me that it’s important to him, not just to me, that I be able to make that balance.”

Lew, who is Orthodox, revealed the details about his keeping Shabbat in an extraordinary interview with the Forward that touched on his need to observe the Jewish holy day.

“And he’s respected that time and again,” the chief of staff said of Obama.

The chief of staff noted it was Obama who brought up the issue of Shabbat when first offering Lew the job.

“He raised it with me saying: ‘I know that things are going to come up where there’s an emergency on Saturday or that you need to be here. I know you well enough to know that this is not an issue. I want you to know that I’m never going to ask you to work on Saturday if it’s not really necessary. It’s important for me that you know that.’”

On his behalf, Lew provided the President with his own assurances.

“I’ve made it clear,” Lew said, “that you don’t have to wonder if there’s a crisis whether I’m available. If you need me, I don’t even consider it a violation of my faith to be doing the things I need to do to make sure people are not in harm’s way.”

In practice, this arrangement has worked out well. On Fridays, Lew leaves the White House before Shabbat begins and he is off on Saturdays. In the cases where his presence was needed on Shabbat, the chief of staff usually walked to the White House and back.

Rabbis he consulted with assured Lew that when there is a real necessity, Jewish tradition approves of working on the Sabbath. The number of times Lew actually had to work in Saturday has been “limited,” he said.

Lew had dealt with the potential conflicts between observing Shabbat and working in top level positions under President Bill Clinton, when he served as the White House budget director. Clinton made sure not to have his top budget adviser busy from sundown Friday to the end of Saturday, and Lew made himself available when emergencies occurred.

“I have found that if you are true to your own beliefs, people respect it,” Lew said. “I’ve found that President Obama considers it a sign of strength and value that there is something in my life that reflects principles that I adhere to.”

Read more: http://blogs.forward.com/forward-thinking/164892/jack-lews-shabbat-helper/#ixzz2AQOfNIwT

Venice, Italy - 'Fill The Void' Looks At Hasidic Community

Venice, Italy - Israeli director Rama Burshtein provides an intimate look inside the private world of Tel Aviv’s Hasidic community in the film, “Fill the Void,” which premiered this weekend in competition at the Venice Film Festival.

A Hasidic Jew herself, Burshtein said she wanted to create a portrait of family life within the community without presenting it in conflict with the secular world.

“The Orthodox world is so interesting it does not need to cope with the secular,” Burshtein told a news conference Sunday. “It can be very interesting and the drama can be very strong inside.”

The film is about an 18-year-old girl named Shira who struggles with whether she wants to marry her brother-in-law, Yochay, after her sister Esther dies giving birth. The decision is all Shira’s, despite the strict formality within the community, and the movie ultimately is a story about facing a difficult decision and becoming a woman.

“It’s all about emotions and choices and what leads you to do what you do,” said actress Hadas Yaron, who played Shira. “I’m also young. But Shira is different from me because she is not familiar with all these feelings she experiences for the first time.”

Israeli director Rama Burshtein (L) with an unidentified guest attends the premiere of 'Fill the void (Lemale et ha' chalal)' during the 69th Venice International Film Festival in Venice, Italy, 02 September 2012. The movie is presented in competition at the festival, which runs from 29 August to 08 September.  EPA/DANIEL DAL ZENNARO

The movie shows intimate rituals of the Hasidic community, from Esther’s funeral to her infant son’s circumcision ceremony immediately after, Sabbath dinner and the workings of the matchmaker, who helps brokers marriages as girls reach Shira’s age.

The community, while residing inside the bustling and secular city of Tel Aviv, is very self-contained. In one scene, as the men study, someone gets up to close the windows that allow sounds of secular Tel Aviv to drift inside.

“This moment in the movie really gives the idea of being in the environment,” said Yiftach Klein, who plays the brother-in-law Yochay.

Burshein, 45, was born in New York and graduated from film school in Jerusalem in 1994. During that period, she became deeply religious. She has since been making films within the Orthodox community to help promote self-expression.

“I love this world. I chose this world. I was not born to this world,” she said.

She said, however, that the Hasidic world did not appear inviting when she first contemplated it from the outside 20 years ago.

“Part of that was because how I thought they saw women,” she said. Once inside, however, she said she found she liked traditional roles between men and women.

“I love my role as a woman. I feel it is true. I chose it. It doesn’t stop me from doing films, but the way I see the home, between a man and a woman, I love it like this.

Visitors Flock To Museum Exhibition Featuring Display Of 250 Years Of Hasidic Judaism

Jerusalem - There are 250 years of Hasidic Judaism on display at the “A World Apart Next Door” exhibition in Jerusalem. The exhibit, which opened two months ago, has brought in about 1,300 visitors per day, half of whom are ultra-Orthodox.

An article today by the Daily Mail quotes the museum’s director, James Snyder, as saying, “It’s a phenomenon – a kind of blockbuster. It’s definitely exceeded expectations. For the ultra-Orthodox, it’s the first opportunity to see their communal culture elevated and celebrated in a museum setting. For everyone else who sees members of the community on the streets, it’s an opportunity to learn about a culture of which you can’t help but be aware, but about which you know little.”

Documentary follows Hassidic couple on cruise British documentary 'Kosher Cruise' introduces complex, authentic representations of ultra-Orthodox life

Frame by frame, British director Paddy Wivell manages what so many filmmakers, including Israeli ones, have failed to do: portraying the image of ultra-Orthodox Jews in a profound and authentic manner, one that viewers can understand and even identify with. The film provides a sensitive and courageous insight into the lives of a middle-aged Hassidic couple.

That is the opening scene of the fascinating British documentary "Kosher Cruise," which aired on Israel's Yes Doco channel for the first time last week. As the film unfolds, that intimate scene will signify the beginning of an in-depth look into the relationship of an ultra-Orthodox couple – Gaby and Tikwah Lock, who have been married for 40 years.

Frame by frame, British director Paddy Wivell manages what so many filmmakers, including Israeli ones, have failed to do: portraying the image of ultra-Orthodox Jews in a profound and authentic manner, one that viewers can understand and even identify with. The film provides a sensitive and courageous insight into the lives of a middle-aged Hassidic couple.

Hassidic on the edge 

Wivell is obviously fascinated with the ultra-Orthodox lifestyle. The esteemed BBC director has continuously chosen to document religious Jews in the UK, most specifically focusing on their relationships.

In his previous documentary, "Wonderland: A Hassidic Guide to Love, Marriage and Finding a Bride," Wivell infiltrated the reserved Hassidic Jewish community of Stamford Hill, where he followed young couples that were about to get married. "Kosher Cruise" follows a Hassidic couple from London going on their first vacation.



Wivell is apparently aware of his immense cinematic accomplishment with "Kosher Cruise." The filmmaker met Gaby and Tikwah, the film's protagonists, while filming "Wonderland," and what began as a professional relationship blossomed into a friendship – so much so that it was in fact the couple's idea to make "Kosher Cruise."



Wivell admits that most ultra-religious Jews he encountered while filming were very communicative, hoping to promote a better understanding of their way of life. Gaby Lock is one such person; or as Wivell says, Gaby is not afraid to challenge himself and "think outside the box."


According to filmmaker, meeting the Locks has enriched his life, which is evident in the film. What could have been a banal documentary of a romantic cruise turns into an intricate interpretation of religion, marriage and social encounters.  

In a way, the film is not really about a kosher cruise, but about Gaby and Tikwah's relationship. The cruise forced the Locks to reexamine their marriage. The film even joins them on a couples therapy session. Wivell's journey into the complexities of married life shows that the Locks' problems are probably the same as those of secular couples all over the world.

Get Divorce by Video Conferencing

 Technology has done a lot for us, some might say much of it is not good, but this is something new. The iPhone has allowed a beis din in Beer Sheva to be granted a divorce and no longer be an aguna after 8 years of retaining such a status.

I would qualify it a bit by saying that the get was not delivered by iPhone, rather, the iphone was used to facilitate the recalcitrant husband's appointment of the beis din to officially grant the divorce.

Israel Hayom reported that a woman in her forties requested a divorce, claiming that her husband was a fraud and had defrauded money out of her and caused great financial loss to both her and her father over a number of years, and then he ran away to chutz la'aretz abandoning her as an aguna.

This past week she received an email from a hospital in Eilat with the results of blood tests of her husband. She had not known he was in the country, but he showed up and at some point required medical care. the system sent her the results of the blood tests and she informed the beis din of his presence.

The beis din arranged with the police to make sure he would not be allowed to leave, and in the meantime they convinced him to issue the get to his wife. Theget still had to be arranged, and it had to be done quickly, as any delay would give him an opportunity to change his mind. In such situations, beis din tries to get it done as quickly as possible before things can go awry and eave her to suffer more years of torture.

With him stuck n the hospital in Eilat and the beis din out in beer Sheva, they decided the quickest way to take care of this would be via video-conferencing. They needed him to appoint them to write and issue the get on his behalf. Often this might be done by either the beis din traveling to the location of the husband or working in tandem with a local beis din, if there is one, to take care of that end of it. Beer Sheva is not so far away from Eilat that the 2 hour delay should have been so significant, and Eilat does have a chief rabbi so he must have a beis din. So, I don't know why they couldn't use any of those solutions, but it seems they could not. They conferred with Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar who gave his approval to the video-conferencing being used for appointment of the beis din to write the get on his behalf, and they were off to work.

Shortly after that, the woman had her get, after 8 years of being an agunah.

The truth is that more than the iPhone getting credit for this, the blood results being emailed to her out of the blue is really the technological aspect that should be given the credit for saving her.

I wonder if it would be presumptuous to say that if the iPhone (or email) was created just for this day, for this instance, dayeinu...

TIME MAGAZINE's Battle for Jerusalem

New York - There is a new battle being waged over the future of Jerusalem, but not between the usual Israeli and Palestinian players. According to TIME Magazine, (http://ti.me/TcEpA2) in their cover story out this week entitled “The Battle for Jerusalem,” this time, the warring factions are the ultra-orthodox or “charedi” Jews and the secular Israelis.

TIME author Karl Vick writes, “Since 1967, Jerusalem has become a resolutely Jewish city, so much so that the central question preoccupying residents today is not how it might be divided with Palestinians – for they are widely ignored of late – but rather just how religiously conservative the city can become while remaining a place most Israeli Jews could imagine living.” The article states that the ultra-orthodox have only recently made a “Lazarus-like comeback,” one which “threatens the fabric of Israel, or as they see it, points the way to the nation’s salvation.”

Two Israeli men, one ultra-orthodox and the other secular were followed and interviewed by TIME for their story. Both men live and own apartments in a neighborhood called Kiryat Yovel which is home to about 800,000 people. But it has become less of a home for secular Israelis like Noam Pinchasi and more of a home to charedim like Elhanan Gibli. TIME estimates that approximately 20,000 secular Israelis have moved away from Kiryat Yovel in the past seven years, bringing the total percent of secular Israelis in the area to just 31. Meanwhile, the number of ultra-Orthodox Jews, also at 31 percent, is increasing.

“It’s a flight much of Israel is watching with concern bordering on alarm,” TIME writes. “The ultra-orthodox are the fastest growing population in a Jewish state long governed by seculars but lately grappling with just how Jewish it wants to be.”

When Gibli moved in to Kiryat Yovel, he was the first charedi in his building. Now charedim reside in four out of eight apartments. Across Israel, charedim now comprise 10% of the population and 21% of the enrollment in elementary schools. The birthrate of charedim is three to four times more than that of secular Israelis, and demographers estimate that in 20 years, one in five Israelis will be charedi. 

TIME references the collapse of Netanyahu’s government coalition and attributes the breakdown to the issue of how to address the “question of what to do about the ultra-Orthodox.” It says the Kadima party left Netanyahu’s coalition when he refused to force religious youth into service in the Israeli military.

In an unabashedly critical paragraph, Vick writes, “Draft avoidance is just one privilege. The ultra-Orthodox, whose hermetic lifestyle may be based on the preoccupation with the next world but whose political clout defines savvy in this one, also enjoys subsidies for child care, education and housing. The community’s power only grows with its numbers. Uncontained, it stands to fundamentally alter Israel’s identity.”

Noam Pinchasi says he is at war with the “blacks” – a reference to ultra-Orthodox Jews – over land in Israel. He and a crew of similar-minded citizens have been arrested for stirring up trouble in charedi neighborhoods by placing posters of nude paintings on the doors of synagogues. Pinchasi said he is sending a message to the charedim, “This is not like Ramot Eshkol, Neve Yaakov, Maalot Dafna,” referring to neighborhoods in Jerusalem which were once identified as secular, but have since become “black.” Pinchasi began his movement after mixed swimming was banned during the day at neighborhood pools, and when charedim set up makeshift synagogues in homes and stores. Pinchasi is also aggrieved that residents of Kiryat Yovel want their own eruv even though there is an eruv that runs around all of Jerusalem.

Charedim are now “conquering neighborhoods designated for others,” according to TIME. When a religious man offered to buy the home of Pinchasi’s neighbor, saying, “We’ll give you a good price because we want you out of here,” Pinchasi told the man, “I have barbeques during Shabbat. Pork. We’re going to play music. We smoke. And we bring prostitutes here.” The religious man bought the house anyway because of the tight housing market. Pinchasi is quick to point out that he is not an atheist, that his family lights shabbos candles and makes kiddush on Friday nights. Yet, he identifies principally as an Israeli and not as a Jew.

“The bookish ultra-Orthodox have their militants, too. . .” writes TIME. “Downtown billboards in Israel no longer feature women; advertisers fear defacement, or worse, boycotts. On public buses, ultra-Orthodx women sit in the back. . .ultra-Orthodox men spit on an 8-year-old girl on her way to school, calling her a “whore” for her long-sleeved clothes, which were not conservative enough for their standards.”

In response to reports that secular Israelis are coordinating efforts to buy property in Kiryat Yovel and re-claim the area, Yitzchak Pindrus, the charedi vice mayor of Jerusalem said, “Be serious. . .This is the reality in Jerusalem. Demography is geography.”

Kosher Heaven, Now at 7-Eleven

Monsey, NY - If you have ever walked into a convenience store and wished the hot dogs rotating slowly on the grill rack were kosher, you might want to take a drive up to Monsey, where the 7-Eleven at the corner of Route 59 and College Road is serving up freshly cooked hot dogs.

Of the over 8,000 7-Eleven locations in the United States, the Monsey location is the only one to operate a separate kosher grill, according to Margaret Chabris, director of corporate communications at the Dallas based headquarters for the chain of convenience stores.

“This idea came from the franchisee,” Chabris told VIN News.  “They contacted us to find out if it was doable and they worked it through with us.”

In fact, brothers Michael and Anthony Mendicino, owners of the Monsey location had been trying to find a way to serve up kosher hot dogs for years, after numerous requests from kosher consumers who frequent the store.

Mendicino estimates that the store draws approximately 2,000 customers on a daily basis and that seventy percent of his clientele are Orthodox Jews.  He was quick to point out to one visiting customer that the Slurpee machines are only filled with kosher flavors.  A quick glance around the store shows rows of Cholov Yisroel milk in the refrigerator case and a bakery case with a label stating which items are certified by the KCL of Lakewood.

But it was during a recent renovation that the Mendicino brothers realized that a kosher grill was an actual possibility.

“We installed a second grill during the remodel,” recalled Anthony Mendicino.  “We looked at each other and the light bulbs went off in our heads.  We said to each other ‘we are not touching this grill’ and we made the decision to call corporate to find out if the second grill could be used for kosher hot dogs.”

It took over a year for the approvals to come through and the store began serving kosher hot dogs just over a week ago, under the rabbinical supervision of Rabbi Zushe Yosef Blech.

The menu contains regular hot dogs weighing in at one sixth of a pound and priced at $2.59.  Hot and Spicy hot dogs and Polish sausage are priced at $3.99 and Chef Sam Indig, who runs the grill, says that the Polish sausage is his best seller.  Additional toppings add another fifty cents to the price of the hot dogs and the varied menu contains Jerusalem Dogs, topped with chumus, cole slaw, pickle chips and sweet pepper strips, the Mexican Dog, topped with salsa, diced onions, ketchup, mustard and mayonnaise and the Garden of Eden Dog, topped with mayonnaise, barbeque sauce, hot sauce, cole slaw and sweet relish, among others.  Freshly baked potato and spinach knishes are available for $2.49 and Chef Sam, as he is affectionately known is currently looking to expand the menu.

“I have never seen anything like this in America,” said Rabbi Blech, who said that corporate headquarters will be observing the store to see if the new grill is successful.  Currently there are no plans for any other franchise locations to install a kosher grill, according to Chabris.

As per Rabbi Blech’s instructions, the only ones allowed near the grill area are Chef Sam and his assistant Heshy and the kosher grill is separated from the main grill by a counter.  Signs on the glass case surrounding the kosher grill advise customers who want a coffee with their hot dog that non-dairy creamer is available in the coffee area.

“What is really amazing is that there are Jewish people who come in here who and eat products whose kashrus was questionable,” said Chef Sam, freshly attired in his official 7-Eleven chef’s coat.  “Now that we have kosher hot dogs they are choosing the kosher food.”

Chef Sam Indig

A gala grand opening event held on Sunday featured face painting, music, clowns and more drew large crowds.  According to Anthony Mendicino, who has co-owned the 7-Eleven location for nineteen years, response to the new grill has been excellent.

“One woman told me that her husband and her kids tasted the hot dogs and from now on, one night a week she won’t be cooking supper because her whole family will be coming here for hot dogs instead,” declared Mendicino proudly.

“The hot dogs are insanely good,” enthused Monsey teen Gitty Feder, who had a Garden of Eden Dog on her last trip to the store.  “The chef who made it is awesome.”

Another customer admitted to having come to the 7-Eleven five or six times in the week since the debut of the kosher grill, saying that it is both the taste of the food as well as the energy and excitement added by Chef Sam’s presence that keep drawing him back to the store.

“I don’t know how it is possible that they got this done, but I am so glad that they did,” said Spring Valley resident Bentzi Klein, who says he has seen a significant increase in the number of vehicles in the store’s parking lot.  “I come home from work, I stop here and have two or three hot dogs. I enjoy it every single time.”

Instead of Taking Down a Fruit Tree, Building Around It

Sheya Wieder owned a small old house on a large lot in Borough Park, Brooklyn, until about six years ago, he said, when he decided it was time to knock it down and build an upgrade. He was all set to go when it occurred to him that the big, shady tree, standing tall and proud right where his new stoop would go, might cause a problem. He took a branch to Brooklyn Botanic Garden, where he was told it was a mulberry tree. 

“The rabbis wouldn’t let me take it down,” Mr. Wieder said. “They told me if there is any possibility, even if it costs you money, you should work around it.”

So he did.

Today, a black metal staircase wraps partly around the tree, and a beige wheelchair-accessible elevator stands beside it. The tree looks perfectly happy, right there in front of the door.

“It cost me over $100,000 to save it,” Mr. Wieder said.

In certain Orthodox Jewish communities, from Borough Park to Monsey, N.Y., rabbis say, there is a strong aversion to chopping down fruit trees, which results from some combination of biblical verses, Jewish law and mystical documents that prohibit destroying them wantonly. In New York City, where space is tight and the option to build out in another direction generally does not exist, that means friendly neighborhood foliage can present an especially hard challenge.

“It’s an extraordinary reminder of the kind of spiritual consciousness people need to be able to sustain, particularly in urban settings,” said Rabbi Saul J. Berman, an associate professor of Jewish studies at Yeshiva University. “You see this tree and the way it’s being guarded, and suddenly you realize there’s something going on here besides just human needs.”

This broader consideration, however, does not always come cheaply, as Mr. Wieder can attest to, or easily.

Others have wrapped more than just a staircase around a tree in the name of keeping it alive — like, for example, an entire building.

At Shloimy’s Bake Shoppe on 12th Avenue in Brooklyn, where flaky perfection can be found in the form of hand-rolled rugelach, there is a glass enclosure toward the back, right behind a giant oven and stacks of baking trays. Inside this glass box, which is open to the sky, is a berry tree.

“When we bought this place, we thought we would build all the way back, and then it became summer,” said Joe Leiberman, whose family owns the bakery. “We saw it was a fruit tree, and we changed all the plans.”

Interpretations may vary, but several rabbis, including Rabbi Berman, Rabbi Mayer Schiller and Rabbi Gavriel Zinner, who has written more than two dozen books on Jewish law and tradition, say this practice emerged from a passage in Deuteronomy: Even in wartime, one should not chop down your enemies’ fruit trees. There are also Talmudic sources, some said. And a mystical document called the Will of Rabbi Yehudah HaChosid, which dates back nearly 1,000 years and tends to hold more sway in Hasidic communities, took it further.

“He very cryptically asserted that it’s really dangerous to cut down a fruit-bearing tree because you’re tampering with God’s property,” Rabbi Berman said. “And if you want to tamper with God’s property, be cautious.”

Caution might also be advised to those left to deal with pre-existing fruit trees.

On a piping hot afternoon last week in Borough Park, a woman in a long black skirt struggled to get a stroller down the front stoop of her sister’s house. The double-wide buggy was empty and the stairs were tidy, yet the woman faced a distinct challenge: The steps extended from the house sideways at roughly a 45-degree angle to avoid a tree directly in front of the doorway.

“They are fruit trees,” the woman said of the tree in her path and another nearby, protruding from a brick shelter that housed the building’s trash cans. “That’s why they made the steps crooked, because they didn’t want to take it down.”

She jerked the buggy awkwardly to the left, then the right, before sighing and releasing her grip. She watched as the stroller bounced to the sidewalk.

All of this does not mean that exceptions cannot be made, said Rabbi Zinner, sitting in his cozy wood-paneled library last week surrounded by volumes and volumes of worn leather books. And if a tree is a danger to people, he continued, it can certainly go. A few years back, he said, he received a call from members of an Orthodox community north of New York City asking what they should do about a fruit tree that was attracting bears to an area where children played. He said they could chop it down.

“We have to respect a tree,” Rabbi Zinner said. “But we have to have respect for human beings, also.”

Though some groups take this prohibition more seriously, there are communities where stories circulate about tragedy or hardship, like a lost business or a sick child, befalling those who take the restriction lightly, and those can have staying power.

“It is a fear,” Rabbi Schiller said of the attitude in certain groups. “A mystical fear of mystical forces.”

Asked about his personal approach to the subject, he said, “I try to maintain the traditions of my community.” And besides, he added, “why take a chance?”

Rebbe Nahman conquers...Cannes. With God’s Neighbors.

Kosher Meals are First Class Food for Coach: Lufthansa's Kosher Certification for Airline Meals