There are certain events in life that compel us to recognize the limits of our understanding. The only appropriate response at those times is humility and silence.

And so, when I asked Rabbi Lapin a series of questions about death, about life after death, he gave me a sad and honest look and told me that he had no answers.

It is honest answers like this that have continually aided me in my faith. To have an exegesis that answers all questions pertaining to life and death is something I have always desired, but in someways I have also feared that such knowledge may make things too easy.

I don't know if that is the right word...easy.

Re Rabbi Lapin:

"Lapin and 'Toward Tradition' Under Scrutiny in Abramoff Probe" says a blogger in California on January 9, Earth Year 20,000,000,000,006.

Adding:

"It's common knowledge to those following the Abramoff lobbying scandal
that Jack Abramoff's rabbinic confidant was Rabbi Daniel Lapin. Lapin
was the fellow how first introduced Abramoff to Tom Delay and we all
know what beautiful music–and money–they made together.

Rabbi Daniel Lapin: Jack Abramoff's "go to" JewA little of Lapin's
background is in order here. After leaving (or being booted out) as
pulpit rabbi of the Pacific Jewish Center, a Modern Orthodox,
celebrity-oriented shul near the Venice boardwalk, The New Republic
reports in Torah Cover–Rabbis to the Right (June 20, 2005, no link
unfortunately) that Lapin tossed around ideas of how he could earn a
living:

"…On a previous road trip across the United States, he had noticed 19
towns named Salem. "I also started seeing all these Jerichos, Hebrons,
and Zions, and a slew of other Hebrew names. I called home…and I said,
'It's amazing.'" He couldn't believe the philo-Semitism of Middle
America–evangelicals who didn't just tolerate Jews, but actually
adored them. ("The Bible Belt is the Jewish safety belt" is one of his
mantras.) So why, he wondered, did Jews ungratefully persist in
complaining about prayer in schools and crèches in public squares?

Around the time he left Los Angeles, he started a group called Toward
Tradition–turning the title of Michael J. Fox's Back to the Future on
its head. Although he says it promotes "practical Torah solutions to
modern American problems," it really intends to broker an alliance
between Jews and evangelical Christians over social issues. (Lapin,
who considers Israel to be founded by "secular Bolsheviks," has mostly
steered Toward Tradition clear of foreign policy.) Toward Tradition
emerged at a propitious moment, just as evangelicals carried the
Republicans to their 1994 victory. And the group soon had as much
cachet as his Venice Beach temple. Its inaugural conference drew
Irving Kristol, Norman Podhoretz, and other luminaries. Many of them
lent their names to an ad Lapin placed in The New York Times, offering
Newt Gingrich a hearty "Mazel Tov" and saying of the Contract with
America, "We know all about ten point contracts."

But apparently, Lapin must've missed the part of his South African
rabbinic training related to Jewish ethics. Because the New York Times
reveals today that among the Abramoff transactions being investigated
by the Justice Department is a $25,000 "donation" he directed the
Magazine Publisher's Association (this is the name the Times reporter
uses but the group's actual name is Magazine Publishers of America
according to its website) to make to Toward Tradition. While the
publishers no doubt thought they were supporting Abramoff's favorite
charity (in a sense they were because the money went to his "rov"), in
reality the funds went directly to the wife of a former top Tom Delay
staffer...

This is disturbing news, if true.