[Oagdu] Article Featuring myself and my brother

Sun Jun 25 21:01:33 UTC 2017

Hi:

Sorry if you get this twice.  I just discovered that I sent this the first
time  from an account which I am not subscribed to these lists on.

I wish the editor had not used the term  "visual Impairment", but had no
idea she would do that.  Nevertheless, the main points are in there that I
was striving for.

Chaim Thanks!

Chaim

The Dayton Jewish Observer The Dayton Jewish Observer

<http://daytonjewishobserver.org/>

  Navigating Judaism to find independence

2017-06-22

//June 22, 2017

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Moshe Segal (L) with Orion, and Chaim Segal with Yahtzee. Photo:

Marshall Weiss.

<http://daytonjewishobserver.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/MosheandChaim.jp
g>

Moshe Segal (L) with Orion, and Chaim Segal with Yahtzee. Photo:

Marshall Weiss.

*By Martha Moody Jacobs, Special To The Dayton Jewish Observer*

Moshe and Chaim Segal, brothers with visual impairments often spotted in

the Kettering-Oakwood area, have celebrated milestones over the past few

months. Moshe was recently paired with his first guide dog, Orion; and

Chaim published the first volume of his planned five-volume memoir, The

Sayzeh Song. The two milestones encapsulate the unique relationship

between each brother and his Jewish upbringing.

I met with Moshe and Chaim at Sinclair Community College, where Chaim

works at a call center helping inbound students. We sat around a table,

with Orion, and Chaim's guide dog, Yahtzee (Chaim has had a guide dog

for years), resting at their feet. Moshe and Chaim aren't totally blind;

each can distinguish some light and dark.

The brothers grew up in an Orthodox home in Dayton, and attended the now

defunct Congregation Shomrei Emunah/Young Israel of Dayton with their

parents and two sighted brothers. Keeping mitzvot (commandments) remains

important to them.

Moshe, 48, regularly attends prayer minyans for yahrzeits and shivas.

Chaim, 46, dons tefillin every morning, and has delivered kosher food to

sick friends. Both sing and play keyboards - they were members of the

Beth Abraham Synagogue Youth Chorale - and have provided music at

simchas. They walk to Shabbat services at Chabad in Oakwood each Saturday.

Moshe Segal recently acquired his first guide dog, Orion. Photo:

Marshall Weiss.

<http://daytonjewishobserver.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Moshe.jpg>

Moshe Segal recently acquired his first guide dog, Orion. Photo:

Marshall Weiss.

Moshe's decision to acquire a guide dog was precipitated by a recent

rabbinic ruling that his use of a white cane on Shabbat was forbidden

without an eruv.

An eruv is a ritual enclosure, often marked by wires, that allows Jews

to carry certain objects outside their homes on Shabbat, in accordance

with halachah (Jewish law).

The Oakwood area doesn't have an eruv, and Moshe's rabbinic authority,

Rabbi Dovid Feinstein of New York, said it would violate halachah for

Moshe to continue carrying a cane on Shabbat. In order to go to services

independently, Moshe needed a guide dog.

"At a very early age," Moshe explains, "I decided that I believe in the

things I was taught by my religious teachers, including that God expects

us to do all these things."

Orion has been taught to lead Moshe around obstacles and traffic. Moshe

spent three weeks training with Orion at The Seeing Eye, a philanthropic

organization in Morristown, N.J. The Seeing Eye breeds, raises and

trains puppies to become guide dogs for those with visual impairments.

It provides clients with guide dogs and training at prices within their

reach.

It is Orion's training in "intelligent disobedience," Moshe notes with

no trace of irony, that helps keep him safe.

While Moshe derives satisfaction from following halachah, Chaim's

relationship to Orthodox Jewish practice is more ambiguous. Chaim has a

"rather liberal political viewpoint" and has problems with "certain

aspects of how men's and women's roles are viewed within Orthodoxy."

"I kept thinking that when I got older I would understand things

better," Chaim says. "Originally, what kept me going was the fear that

if I forsook the commandments, I would place the entire nation (the

Jewish people) in mortal danger. For me, this is a very complicated

subject." And one that his memoir, The Sayzeh Song, explores.

Chaim's memoir presents a childhood filled with confusion and isolation.

The title, The Sayzeh Song, comes from Chaim's misunderstanding of the

chorus of the Hall and Oates song, Say It Isn't So. Chaim heard the

words "Say it!" as a weird voice calling out an incomprehensible

"Sayzeh!" on a "frightening-sounding chord."

Only later did he learn the real, more positive meaning of the phrase.

In a similar vein, Chaim recounts several stories in his memoir of his

father's harshness and impatience.

"He had a blind mother, so maybe." Moshe starts, trailing off.

In his book, Chaim also recounts his father's own difficult childhood

(there was "absolutely no room for objection" in his father's childhood

home) and thanks his father, a psychologist who died in 2004, for

"teaching me to be an ethically moral person."

Their mother, who now lives in a senior-care facility, promoted her

sons' learning and self-reliance. The brothers started reading Braille

at age 5.

Moshe was educated through high school at Hillel Academy, and, after a

rocky start in public school, Chaim graduated from Colonel White High

School.

Both brothers attended college and, for a time, Moshe studied to be a

rabbi. Now, the men have the latest electronic devices that let them

read, type, and transcribe in Braille.

Although they live near each other, the brothers have separate dwellings

and lead separate lives. They take turns hosting Shabbat dinners.

They're proud of their independence.

Moshe feels as if he is "losing credit" when people jump in to give him

help he doesn't need. "We're not a tzedakah box," he says of himself and

Chaim.

Moshe, who used to work at a call center, is frustrated that he isn't

employed now. He cites employers' irrational fears about hiring a blind

person, and notes that the highest form of tzedakah (righteous giving)

is giving someone a job.

He admits that an Orthodox life with time off for Shabbat and Jewish

holidays can lead to scheduling issues in the workplace. His dream job

would be with computers. Chaim notes eagerly that his brother has an

uncanny ability to solve computer problems and get users out of serious

jams.

Each brother is married to a woman he appreciates as a blessing.

Marriage is not a given in the blind community, and, as Chaim notes, the

Orthodox community offers limited options for blind people to make the

social connections needed for marriage.

Chaim Segal, shown here with his guide dog, Yahtzee, has completed the

first volume of his memoir. Photo: Marshall Weiss.

<http://daytonjewishobserver.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Chaim.jpg>

Chaim Segal, shown here with his guide dog, Yahtzee, has completed the

first volume of his memoir. Photo: Marshall Weiss.

Chaim's experience in the Orthodox matchmaking world was filled with

disappointments; he came to believe that his blindness made him unmatchable.

In 2004 at Chabad, Moshe married Hadar, a Jew by choice who is also

visually impaired; he met her through mutual friends.

Chaim, encouraged by Moshe and especially Hadar to "go out of his way"

to date a blind woman, joined a Harry Potter chat room on a voicemail

system for the blind.

There, he met "somebody very special," the woman living in Florida who

would become his wife. Hava, legally Brooke, is not Jewish, although she

was intrigued by the faith and had actually prayed for God to send her a

man named Chaim.

Over time, Chaim's mother accepted Hava, realizing that Hava had no

desire to change Chaim's level of religious observance.

In 2009, Chaim and Hava were married by Reform Rabbi David Burstein,

then with Temple Beth Or. The marriage is a happy one, although Chaim

notes that many in his Orthodox world refuse to call his wife Hava,

"feeling that she has no right to a Hebrew name until she converts, if

she ever does."

Despite these challenges to his marriage, Chaim continues to attend

Orthodox services and dons his tefillin daily. Because guide dogs are

unusual in Orthodox synagogues, he and Moshe express their thanks that

Chabad's Rabbi Nochum Mangel has set aside an area for them to sit with

their dogs.

Orthodox Jews, Chaim says, tend to have more of a fear of dogs than the

general population. And because they have little contact with dogs as

pets, that fear can sometimes manifest itself when guide dogs are in

their presence.

The antidote, he says, is to educate people more about the needs of

those with disabilities. Not only are guide dogs invaluable helpers,

Chaim says they provide their owners with comfort and love in times of

loneliness.

Chaim continues to work on his memoir and dream big - an activity, he

says, that blind people are not often encouraged to do - about "blind

Orthodox conventions and Shabbatons."

When I ask Chaim what keeps him going as an Orthodox Jew, he responds

with a question for me as a Reform Jew: "When so many basic tenets of

Judaism, i.e. observance of kashrut and Shabbos, are withheld, how does

a movement keep its strength?"

To read the complete July 2017 Dayton Jewish Observer, click here.

<https://issuu.com/barkmitzvahboy/docs/djojuly17>

Tags:Chaim Segal <http://daytonjewishobserver.org/tag/chaim-segal/>Moshe

Segal <http://daytonjewishobserver.org/tag/moshe-segal/>

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