Rabbi Barry Starr of Sharon, Massachusetts paid hundreds of thousands to cover up affair with male minor
Starr allegedly paid Zemeitus nearly half a million dollars — taken from synagogue funds and borrowed from his congregants. Much of the money came from the rabbi’s discretionary fund, including checks altered by the rabbi. Starr also borrowed thousands of dollars from an elderly congregant, a Holocaust survivor. [..]
Authorities have found no evidence that Starr
had sex with minors, according to the Globe. Starr was charged last year
with larceny and embezzlement. He pleaded not guilty and is awaiting
trial.
Starr, a married father of two, is credited
with expanding the congregation he served for 28 years to over 600
families. He has served on the Rabbinic Cabinet of the Jewish
Theological Seminary and as president of the Massachusetts Board of
Rabbis, as well as the region’s Rabbinical Assembly.
Sad story. The gemara says (Sotah 3a)
ReplyDeleteאדם עובר עבירה בסתר והקב"ה מכריז עליו בגלוי
"A person commits a transgression in secret, and the Holy One, Blessed be He, proclaims it against him in public".
While they weren't able to find any evidence that he did anything with minors, he is no saint. ואין כאן מקומו להאריך.
Stupid rabbi. Every orthodox rabbi knows to have his (her) separate 501(c)3 not affiliated with the synagogue accounts, for such personal purposes.
ReplyDeletewhat a bastardization of a quote! Good job
ReplyDelete"Bastardization"??? Excuse me? Would you care to explain the פשט of that מאמר חז"ל, in any other manner?
ReplyDeleteYou're saying if "there's smoke, there's fire". The gemara isn't saying that, unless you're looking kvetch it into it, and bastardize the מאמר. As I wrote, good job!
ReplyDeleteNot only was there was "smoke", but there was "fire" as well. As was reported elsewhere, there were plenty of lurid things that he did בסתר, which I will spare the reader from going into detail about.
ReplyDeleteBut why conjecture, when IN HIS OWN WORDS he explained in an email to his congregants that he was stepping down “with great remorse and deep regret,” after engaging in “marital infidelity and other serious personal [mis]conduct.”
“Human frailty is a part of life, and I leave bearing the guilt and shame of that frailty for the rest of my life,” Starr wrote. “I am sorry for what I have done, and for what I have inflicted upon my family and upon my community.”
So while they couldn't prosecute him for child abuse, since there was no evidence that he did anything to underage boys, but as far as Hashem is concerned he did commit other עבירות בסתר, which He now caused to be revealed to the public. This is EXACTLY what Chazal tell us to bear in mind. We must remember that Hashem sees every single action, and if a person thinks that no one will ever find about the sins he commits privately, Hashem has his ways of making the public find out about them.
Ah, but none of this information is in the article.
ReplyDeleteYou're right that none of this information is in the article. But when you happen to read that someone allowed himself to be extorted to the tune of nearly half a million dollars, it should raise a question, why would an innocent person pay so much money for a non-existent problem to go away? So you you start to look around a bit, and then you find that he actually wasn't so innocent, which now became a problem that needed to be covered up, or else he would be exposed for behavior unbecoming to him...
ReplyDeleteאדם עובר עבירה בסתר והקב"ה מכריז עליו בגלוי