Kudos to Kedem?

The founder of KosherFest was asked whether there was anyone who has been part of KosherFest since it began twenty-five years ago.  His response, printed in Mishpacha magazine, was "There are two handfuls, I would say.  Kedem is a big one, and kudos to them.  We weren't a wine drinking community, it was just a cup of sweet wine for Kiddush, but Kedem educated an entire generation.  Now there are more than 1000 different bottles of wine at Kosherfest.  It's really, 'My, how they've grown up!'"

This is a good thing? Good for the wine manufacturers and distributors who make money on it, but who else is it good for? Is that what we were missing all this time, an education in how to drink? Previously we were immature? Presumably this is why I have been reading many articles in recent years about the out of control drinking going on in within frum communities. 

I found the articles showing pictures of KosherFest unappealing.  It looked to me like KosherFress.  I understand the need for those in the kosher food and beverage industries to network, and I understand the need for new products to alleviate the situations of those with allergies and illnesses that do not allow them to eat normal foods.  But do I think our increasingly obese and struggling with limits frum community needs even more food products than we already have? No.  Was I lacking anything very important twenty-five years ago when it came to food? No.

“Every day is a new adventure,” said EF of --- which has been producing bakery items for 52 years. “It isn’t just keeping up with the times, it is staying ahead of the times that is what really has to be done, although there are classic items that are tried and true and people never get tired of those.”

I must be missing something major since I don't understand why we must constantly come up with new culinary items.  But as long as we say the words "I'm eating this l'sheim shomayim," we're okay, right?

Focus on Over-Consumption

I give Benzion Klatzko credit for his unpopular remarks in a recent talk entitled "The Grinch that Stole Purim."  For those not up on their Dr. Seuss, it's a take-off on a story about a grumpy creature that makes plans to deprive the Whos of their holiday presents, dinners, and decorations.

Klatzko laments the wet-rag attitude towards Purim by those who seek to minimize (or eliminate) noise-making at the mention of Haman's name, minimize shalach-manos giving, minimize (or eliminate) drinking, and say you're too old to dress up.  He thinks they're a bunch of spoil-sports and are taking Purim away from us, and he's got a good point!

Does drinking get out of hand? Sometimes.  Does shalach manos giving get out of hand? Sometimes.  But when we hear too much about things getting out of hand, then the mussar-giving is out of hand!

Actually, I think year round eating and enticements to eat with increasingly lurid advertisements and cookbooks has gotten out of hand in the frum world.  This affects us every day of the year, not just one, and it affects the health of men, women and children, not just men.  So rather than harping on  excessive Purim mitzva and minhag observance, I'd like to hear more from our leaders about excessive non-mitzva and minhag eating indulging.

Not Quite Kosher Indulgence

An ad in a frum magazine:

GOT CRAVINGS?
chocolate + caramel

and it showed a bag of chocolates.

I translate this ad into:

GOT TAAVOS? Indulge in chocolate

***

In the same magazine an ad for a liquor store says:

Expanding your palate with select international wines

I translate this ad into:

Don't have enough taavos? Let us help you expand your repertoire.

***
I suspect that one of the reasons we say on Yom Kippur:

al cheit she'chatanu lifanecha b'maachal u'v'mishteh - for the sin that we sinned before You with eating and drinking, is because we indulged our cravings and expanded our palates and G-d wasn't in the picture.

Feeling Good versus Actually Helping

I'm impressed with R' Shais Taub's approach to addiction.  I haven't read his book but I've see a number of his articles.  In an Ami article he says that addictions are a person's attempt at a solution to his problems.  Therefore, he sees no reason for a zero-tolerance policy against teenaged drinking, for it's not the alcohol that's the problem.

He points out that the government has spent billions on drug and alcohol education and he doesn't think it stopped a single person from becoming addicted.  ""Awareness and prevention" campaigns make people feel good, and they're easy to get funding for, but do they help anyone?" he asks.  He goes on to say, "If someone has the underlying issues that make them feel the need to self-medicate, then no amount of "awareness and prevention" will help.  They will still have the same inner pain.  I think we should focus far more on giving our children the spiritual tools to be emotionally healthy people."

The frum world has latched on to the "awareness" campaign in many areas as can be seen in the subjects of articles covered in frum magazines.  You sense the self-congratulatory spirit in these magazines.  They feel so virtuous for taking taboo topics out "from under the rug," and for attempting to "debunk stigmas."  They feel even more justified when people write in letters lauding them for being "courageous" in "tackling these painful subjects."  But is this awareness only making us feel good, as though we are helping anyone merely by talking about these problems publicly? If yes, let's see the evidence.

related posts:
here
here

Which Is It?

Am I the only one who notices the contradiction?

The is what AA and numerous others who follow their guidelines say:

1) The alcoholic (or addict) is described as having no control over whether he drinks.

2) The only way the addict can be helped is when he understands that only he can control his behavior.

Do they have control or don't they?

What is the REAL problem - Drinking L'Chaim?!

Rabbi Reisman publicly said at the Aguda convention last week that if he gets shnapps in mishloach manos, he pours it down the drain.  When asked by his congregants what they should serve at a yartzeit, he said cake and juice, and that shnapps is a goyishe minhag (a ridiculous and nasty assertion).

The way it used to be is that Jews drank shnapps and drunkenness was practically unheard of.  Today, because of a loosening of discipline in so many areas of our lives, R' Reisman is trying to counter this by advocating a zero tolerance to alcohol.  Is this a Torah approach? Is his approach a good one? Has zero tolerance (with no means of enforcement) proven effective in the past?

Well, when the United States tried Prohibition, 1919 to 1933, during which the sale, manufacture, and transportation of alcohol for consumption were banned, Mafia groups which had previously limited their activities to gambling and theft took on the profitable black market for alcohol. Powerful gangs corrupted law enforcement agencies, leading to racketeering. Stronger liquor surged in popularity because its potency made it more profitable to smuggle.  When repeal of Prohibition occurred in 1933, organized crime lost nearly all of its black market alcohol profits in most states.

As far as frum people are concerned, well yes, there is a thing in halacha called swearing off consumption of something, as a geder, a protective fence.  But this is something that an individual has to commit to on his own and do so very carefully, so it works to protect him, not entice him.  An all-out ban of alcohol (other than wine presumably) which R' Reisman is promoting seems counter-productive to me and there is no source in Torah which says that we should forswear alcohol.

More importantly, is R' Reisman addressing the root cause of a problem or is he just picking on a symptom? Is the problem that too many people in frum society are drinking or is the real problem that too many frum people are lacking in discipline, lacking in yiras shomayim, lacking in simchas ha'chaim, and turning to forms of gratification that goyim are known for.