Rabbi Yehuda Lave

Appropriate Sadness

While it is theoretically possible to develop an attitude to totally prevent sadness, the Jewish view is there are times when such feelings are appropriate.

For example, we have an obligation to cry over the death of another person. Also, we should care enough about potential suffering to pray that it will not come. And we utilize these situations as reminders to improve ourselves.

One of the greats in the Jewish Renewal movement died on Friday, Rabbi Mordechai Goldstein at 85.

He lived a life worth living bringing many thousands of Jews back to a religious life. It is appropriate to be sad at his passing and his shiva will be this week in Jerusalem. However, we practice sadness to remember someone and then move back on to life and don't let death or sadness stop us from having Joy.

Love Yehuda Lave

BREAKING: Obama Signs Waiver to Prevent Moving U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem

President Barack Obama signed a waiver to prevent moving the American embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

It is the eighth time Obama has signed the waiver, which must be renewed every six months.

Congress passed a law in 1995 mandating the move of the embassy to Jerusalem, but allowed the president to exercise a waiver, citing the national security interests of the United States.

President-elect Donald Trump pledged during the 2016 campaign to move the embassy to Jerusalem.

With the Republican's election, many Israelis — including Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat — say they hope Trump will honor his promise.

"This will symbolize the close relationship and courageous friendship between the two nations," said Israeli Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked.

Israelis are excited by the prospect but not holding their breaths. About half of Israelis polled said they didn't think Trump would really relocate the embassy, according to a November survey for the Jerusalem Post.

In an address to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in March, Trump promised to "move the American Embassy to the eternal capital of the Jewish people, Jerusalem."

This was red meat at an AIPAC convention. Trump said the relocation would happen "fairly quickly."

Trump is not alone here. Previous candidates, including Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, promised the same thing in their courtship of pro-Israel voters, then reversed themselves.

The nascent State of Israel took control of West Jerusalem in 1948. It proclaimed Jerusalem its capital in 1950. Israel won East Jerusalem from Jordan during the 1967 Six Day War. Jerusalem today is not only a crucible for three world religions — Judaism, Christianity and Islam — but also the center of Israel's government, home of its parliament, its ministries and the offices and residences of the prime minister.

Rabbi Mordechai Goldstein, of blessed memory, dean of the Diaspora Yeshiva on Mt. Zion, Jerusalem, passed away Thursday following a debilitating illness

Rabbi Mordechai Goldstein, of blessed memory, dean of the Diaspora Yeshiva on Mt. Zion, Jerusalem, passed away Thursday following a debilitating illness that had him confined to a wheelchair in recent years.

Rabbi Goldstein, an alumnus of the Chofetz Chaim Yeshiva in Queens, and a colleague of the late Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, was one of the pioneers of the T'shuva (return) movement, and for some 50 years his was among the primary yeshivas for returnees.

Rabbi Goldstein founded The Diaspora Yeshiva in 1965, in western Jerusalem, attracting young, largely secular followers from Israel and the US. Two years later, after the 1967 Six Day War, the yeshiva moved to the liberated Mt. Zion.

Unlike traditional Orthodox academies, Rabbi Goldstein's yeshiva appealed to students who identified with the nonconformist beatnik and hippie subcultures, adopting a neo-Chasidic approach. Students were encouraged to keep their long hair and their musical instruments. Many students were professional or semi-professional musicians, and several musical collaborations were spawned in the yeshiva dorms.

In 1975, with Rabbi Goldstein's support, Avraham Rosenblum, yeshiva student and rock guitarist who had started his own band in New York in 1970, founded the Diaspora Yeshiva Band. The band became an outreach instrument, using Jewish music in its rock n' roll metamorphosis to draw young secular Jews into the milieu of Torah study.