IJII

Rabbi Alan Yuter is Rabbi of Congregation B'nai Israel, the Orthodox Jewish congregation of downtown Baltimore.

 

Culture

 

When we walk in on the Streets of Boro Park.  NY, or Park Heights,  Baltimore, Md., we see some Orthodox men walking on the street with beards during the seven  weeks between the Passover and Shavuot  holidays.  This season Is taken to be a period of mourning which seems to require a seasonal beard as well as a prohibition of music.   According to the ultra-Orthodox decisor and spokesman, R. Yisroel Belsky,

 

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Question:  When is it proper to be extra strict in the observance of the kosher laws?

 

 Consider:

 

1.              Show devotion to Heaven by being extra strict

2.              Public policy requires that rabbis and people who are viewed as more religious act and play the part as virtuosi of piety; rabbis who are lenient with themselves undermine public piety.   

3.              We should respect the sensibilities of the rabbis and laypeople who are extra strict

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Rabbi Alan Yuter of the Orthodox Congregation of Downtown Baltimore responded to a question about the permissibility of attending a Baltimore Oriole baseball game during the three weeks between the 17th of Tammuz and the 9th of Av. Since the three weeks are not far off (Tammuz 17 is on July 9), I thought readers would be interested in Rabbi Yuter's responsum. It has ramifications beyond the Baltimore Orioles, and beyond baseball.

 

Question:         Is it proper to attend baseball games during the summer

three week mourning period between the 17th of Tammuz and the 9th of Av?

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Rabbi Yuter is the Rabbi of B'nai Israel, the Orthodox congregation of downtown Baltimore.

Question: What is the status of the 'extra' conversion immersion [tevila leHumra] demanded by some Orthodox rabbis?

Answer:

1. The minimum standard required by Jewish law is that the rabbinical court consist of three observant laymen. Once the convert is accepted by the court, the conversion takes effect and without cause, may not be called into question.

2. a. The converting rabbinical court may include Orthodox rabbis who are themselves converts. [Hoshen Mishpat 7:1] Rabbis need not go through hoops to forbid the permitted on the part of parochials who either do not know or do not accept Jewish law.

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Rabbi Yuter is the rabbi of B'nai Israel, the Orthodox synagogue of downtown Baltimore.      
Real Orthodox Jews Reject Religious Coercion                      By Rabbi Alan Yuter  

In
suburban Baltimore, MD

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Rabbi Yuter is the Rabbi of B'nai Israel, the Orthodox synagogue of downtown Baltimore. He is a faculty member in the department of Bible and Jewish Law at the Institute for Traditional Judaism.

The abortion rhetoric provides the hermeneutic key whereby the contemporary contenders to the faith franchise called "Orthodox Judaism" reveal the moral essences of their alternative constructions of religious reality. At stake in this conversation is the meaning of Masorah, a culturally encrusted code word. According to the Judaism of the Rabbinic canon, or book-based Orthodox Judaism, it is the transmitted oral Torah as preserved for the collective of Israel in the public, vetted literature of the rabbis up to and including the Babylonian Talmud. Masorah is however also invoked as the retort of last resort to resolve the often occurring conflicts between the canonical Torah library and the living culture of affiliating Orthodox Jews.

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Rabbi Alan Yuter Mara d'Atra of B'nai Israel, the Orthodox synagogue of downtown Baltimore. He is a faculty member in the department of Bible and Jewish Law at the Institute for Traditional Judaism.