Arutz 7 Two years after Aguiar mysteriously disappeared, 9 Jerusalem properties
worth $44 million to be split between his mother, sisters and wife.
The estate of Guma Aguiar, the Jewish philanthropist who disappeared off Fort Lauderdale in June, 2012, has been divided among his heirs by a Florida court, reports Yediot Aharonot.
The court approved a compromise agreed upon by Aguiar's wife, Jamie,
and his mother, Ellen, along with his sisters Adriana and Angelika.
The sides had been in conflict over the estate, with each side
claiming all of the estate for itself, and Jamie insisting at first that
her husband was still alive. Jamie accused her mother-in-law of wanting
to drive a wedge between her and Guma, while Ellen said that the reason
Guma went out to sea on the day he disappeared was that he was
distraught after Jamie told him she wants to divorce him. Jamie completely denies this version of events.
A very sad story indeed. I cannot help but think back to the time when Guma Aguiar broke with his former mentor Leib Tropper and also broke with his uncle Tom Kaplan and instead of following my open advice to him on this blog years ago, to seek out other mentors and I suggested that as a Baal Teshuva he would find Rav Moshe Shternbuch to be very helpful as an English-speaking Rov who had worked with English-speaking Baalei Teshuva and was familiar with their complicated lives and shaylos.
ReplyDeleteInstead, from what I recall there was anger from Guma and his side at the temerity of such a suggestion, and Guma then turned full steam to get even more involved with Chabad that did not help his declining mental state that obviously took a tragic turn for the worse when he headed out to seas and was never seen again. How sad!
There is a moral in this tale that can be learned by the many highly successful and wealthy people who become Baalei Teshuva to be very careful who they choose as there mentors and rabbis. Guma at first chose to study with Tropper and he came to regret that bad mistake and landed up having serious legal fights and arguments with Tropper over missing monies that he demanded an accounting for as was reported, and twisted, in some Jewish news outlets at the time. Then Guma did not help himself by allowing himself to be led by the nose by the Chabad movement people who showered honors upon him and indulged him instead of giving him the correct hadracha and obvious help he needed with his rising troubled emotional and confused mental state.
Sure, Guma was thankful to the local Chabad rabbi in Florida who helped him with the conversion of his wife Jamie to Judaism, something that Tropper at the time mocked, even though Tropper had made his own ludicrous demands of Guma's wife of an obscene nature as Guma suggested on many an occasion and that led to the final break with Tropper, although Tropper said it was over purely "religious" reasons that Jamie would not comply with Tropper's EJF-style "strict conversions" that were subsequently proven to be the biggest fraud and sham and disgrace to Yiddishkiet. But anyhow, Guma just went from the frying pan to the fire and got in over his head with all the "mysticism" of Chabad that he just did not need. Guma needed sanity, stability and calm and reality orientation and to be brought down to Earth and not getting hyped up and have his ego inflated even more than it was already and then that led to the precipice where he could not even think about the future of his own life, his beautiful devoted wife and innocent children and what was good for him as a simple family man, husband and father.
We sincerely grieve for the loss of this potentially great man. We send our condolences to his wife Jamie who suffered a lot for no good reasons, just because she loved this complex and conflicted man Guma so much, and for his children as well as his mother and family. Notice how Guma's uncle, who was also his former business partner and ally, the brother of his mother who gets nothing in this settlement. Dr. Tom Kaplan and his wife were long-time partners with Tropper and helped to push him to launch EJF something they subsequently regretted. That is also a case of a leading Baal Teshuva family that is led astray by the wrong types of rabbis, by Tropper who led them to meet all the Gedolim he could muster but all for NOTHING in the end, when the Kaplans and Aguiars needed something far better and more reliable to help them in their Torah lives.
May Hashem truly comfort the family of Guma Aguiar among all the mourners for Zion and Jerusalem and may they know of no more suffering.
well said RAP,
ReplyDeleteI would add that many of the BT yeshivas misrepresent Torah, and they claim several other objectives:
a) Personal Growth and Happiness - which although this is a self help area, the rabbis here are riding on a wave to draw in more people. But few, if any of these BT rabbis are qualified to give advice on these issues, and in fact are opposed to modern psychology, and actually make things worse for people.
b) Mysticism. This is also very dangerous. Even for FFB, not everyone should go into kabbalah or pseudo kabbala, which is being taught in such places.
c) Rebbes and Miracles - this is also a type of cult, where supposed miracle stories are told, but never witnessed. The miracle makers are very successful businessmen, their business is getting money from rich (and poor) people.
d) I hate to say this, but also R Zionism, as if settling in the semi-liberated territories is part of becoming frum. Again, the National Religious yeshivas make this part of their credo.
The Gaon R' Moshe Sofer said many years before the modern BT movement that a BT faces great spiritual dangers in becoming too frum and too machmir. That was an era when true daas Torah existed, where the Chatam Sofer knew about human nature better than all these self styled "personal growth" counselors.
that particular advise works for all of us--- be very careful whom you pick as a rebbe and moreh derech. now more than ever
ReplyDeleteWhat is the halachik status of his wife - who IMO is probably one of the few actual true agunos in the world. Is she takeh an aguna? Is something being done to find a way to be matir her? Are any of the reshaim at Ora (lo Torah) such as Jeremy Stern doing anything to be matir her?
ReplyDeleteשמועות כי גומא אגייאר, מי שהיה הבעלים של בית"ר ים בעבר, אשר דווח כי טבע באגם קרלזין, ליד ביתו שבארה"ב, נמצא חי ושלם במוסד לחולי נפש בדובאי.
ReplyDeleteבשעות אלה מלווים אותו בני משפחתו, מדובאי חזרה לארה"ב.
דווח כי מצבו סביר וברגע שינחת, יחלו בחקירות לסיבות היעלמותו
http://bshch.blogspot.com/2018/05/blog-post_6335.html