Animal Farm by George Orwell

Looking for a "classic" novel to read, i decided to read Animal Farm with a friend to be talked about afterwards. After we read the book though, we then had a problem. The book is kind of obvious. (For a summary of the book and the allegory it is supposed to make see the wiki). While its direct correlation to historical figures may not be obvious, the more general ideas were.  So much so, that throughout the book I was able to guess the next part of the plot. While reading I understood why Animal Farm is used so frequently in younger grades. It is an easy  target for understanding allegory in books and sets up an understanding at how to do this in general. What I didn't understand at first was why this was then considered such a "classic" book. 

About a week ago, I decided to learn how to make my Bubbe's (grandmother's) chocolate chip cookies. They had always been mine and my sister's favorite, and so she made them every time we came over, and we couldn't have been more excited. When I tried to do it though, I saw how absurdly simple the "recipe"(as recipe like that grandmothers actually use) was. It had merely simple ingredients, and there was nothing particularly special in the cookies at all. What I learned though is that the beauty in the cookies were their simplicity. Always the same, always with five chocolate chips on each cookie. They were simple, good and standard, and that made them great. Leo Tolstoy once said: “There is no greatness where there is no simplicity, goodness and truth”. My Bubbe's cookies were great because they were simple and good, and they tried to be nothing more. Perhaps this is what is so great in Animal Farm. Orwell tries to do no more than he needs to. He does not make it complicated, but merely tries to get over his point in a truthful, good and simple way.

Things are getting more and more complicated in a world that continues to move forward, but it is the building blocks of society that are good, and simple, like family and community that are truly the important things.

The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch

The Last Lecture is based on a famous inspirational lecture by Randy Pausch. (If you have never seen it, watch it here. Its somewhat long, but very worth it.) In the lecture, Pausch, who had just been diagnosed with terminal cancer, goes through how he achieved his childhood dreams and lived his life. The clip went viral and the book became a #1 national best seller. The reason I read The Last Lecture this week was in preparation for my sermon for the shul I am interning with over the summer. Parshat Devarim begins Moshe's last lecture. The leader that had taken them out of Egypt and led them through the desert for forty year, only to bring them to the Promised Land but not enter himself, is to speak for the last time. I imagine this was an inspirational moment for both Moshe and the people to hear their leader and his dying words. When he starts, the beginning is completely underwhelming. He begins by speaking about how he asked Israel to appoint judges. Ummm what? Moshe's last speech and he's talking about judges? Pausch on the other hand begins about how he fulfilled his dreams! what is going on here?

While thinking about this, I was reminded of a speech Yehuda Rothner (director of Camp Stone) once gave to the staff. He held a tissue box over his head and proclaimed that tissues were the most important thing in the Beit Knesset. He explained that you may want to get the kids to pray, but you have no chance if the room isn't set up correctly. Without tissues, it is unreasonable to assume that the kids will stay inside. For things to work a system needs to be set up. They don't just happen. Perhaps, this is what Moshe was trying to get across. The Jewish people's goal is to create a just society in Israel, but that can't happen until it is set up to be one. Judges create a framework where this can happen. This may explain why Moshe changes the story. In Yitro, it is Yitro who comes to Moshe about Judges and Moshe who finds them. Here Moshe says that he told Bnei Yisrael to find judges and they did. So why the change? Soon Moshe won't be around to set things up to work for the people, they are soon going to have to find judges and create a just society on their own. (Pausch actually does speak about this same idea but I will let you watch him say it.)

In this same story in Dvarim, there is one pasuk sung to the tune of Aicha which we read on Tisha Be'av. The connection may be just this same point. Its hard to mourn for something that happened such a long time ago. Its even unreasonable for someone to just feel bad for the burning of the Temple in the way someone is upset about a death. Therefore, we have created ways to set ourselves up to be sad on Tisha Be'av. We don't eat, drink, bathe, or wear leather shoes. This all enables us to get into the spirit where we can mourn the destruction of the Beit Hamikdash. 

Over the past three weeks I have gotten many questions in the form of "Can i do ___ or is ___ allowed". These are valid questions as they try and understand what the Halacha (or minhag) is. To some extent, though they miss the point. There are ways you can get around just about all of the minhagim. Have a siyum every night, and you can eat meat. listen to acapella or even say recorded music is fine. These all might be legitimate in their own right, but they are so not. Are we trying to just "follow" Halacha, or are we trying to accomplish its goals in feeling a sense of loss? When we fast tomorrow we have two choices (and the grey area in between of course). We could spend our day sleeping and watching TV, and if we did you would be following the letter of the law, or we could spend our day getting into the mourner's mindset. We may not be able to bring the Beit Hamikdash to us by doing this, but we surely can bring us closer to te Beit Hamikdash. 

(adapted from my Sermon at Shaare Tefillah in Teaneck)

The Cost Disease by William Baumol

   Why do certain things like computers get cheaper, while others like education continue to get more expensive? In The Cost Disease, William Baumol explains why this happens and what it means for society. He is clearly one of the leaders of thought in this topic as the disease is named after him. In essence, Baumol discovered that fields in which there can be little labor productivity growth, due to the fact that they are services that require personal attention, prices will continually rise higher than the rate of inflation. Conversely, computers, for which production can continuously be more and more automated, will continue to get cheaper. In short summary, lets say inflation, which by definition means that the purchasing power of money declines, makes prices rise by 5%. Since some sectors are having prices rising significantly under 5%, other sectors will have prices rise to be above that line. The reason this happens to sectors that are in the service business, is because they cannot make their production cheaper, but must still give wages to be competitive for workers. 

     While this was an interesting point in economics, Baumol's "solution" to the problem is enlightening. Since many sectors, such as food and technology have become cheaper they enable us to spend a greater percentage of our wealth on services, like health care. Therefore, even if health prices continue to rise, we, as a society, can continue to pay for it and still have our lives be better off in the long run. The question for the Orthodox Jewish community would be, does this rosy future apply to us as well? For years the Orthodox Jewish community has spoken about a "tuition crisis" (I put it in quotation marks because we need to stop calling everything a crisis, even if it is something that must be dealt with as soon as we find a viable solution. Calling everything a crisis makes problems seem like they are ephemeral concepts). Since, at least in general, we send our children to Jewish private schools starting in 1st grade, the continuous increase in prices has continued to create a strain on the community (they have risen to about 20K a year per child). However, perhaps, as the book would argue would be true in general, we will continually be better off despite the fact that education is taking up a greater and greater percentage of our livelihoods. If our community was like all others I would have to assume that it would be true, and perhaps it is. However, I think there are two reasons why we are not in the position to sit on our laurels and assume that the "tuition crisis" is truly a problem despite it looking like "the cost disease". Firstly, we are paying for education both for ourselves that is ever increasing, while also separately paying ever increasing costs for public education, which many of us do not directly use. Secondly, many of the sectors that in general are part of the progressive sector, fall into the service sector in our community. The most glaring one is meat. The slaughtering of meat needs to be done in a personal way by a qualified individual, and it is therefore now unsurprising to me, based on your thesis, that the price of Kosher meat continues to rise. Rather than pretending I can answer if we are truly in a predicament or it just seems like a problem like the cost disease does, I decided to ask Dr. Baumol himself. He answered: 

"Dear Mr. Reinstein, Thank you very much for your illuminating message.  Since I too am Jewish (though not orthodox), I am particularly concerned about the issue you raise.  And, indeed, though my analysis does, I believe, apply to the community as a whole, it unfortunately does not imply that all groups of society will have their legitimate interests protected. These are certainly matters that will require careful analysis and the design of appropriate remedial measures.  I will certainly seek to think further about the problem you raise.  

With best wishes,

Will Baumol"

First of all, it is awesome that he is Jewish, considering the impact he has had in recent economics. Also he answered remarkably quickly, which I was not expecting, but was extremely nice. In any event I hope he does continue to think about the problem because, after reading his book, would be very confident in possibilities he may bring up.  If it is a problem, I hope we, as a community, can solve it, or at least mitigate it soon.