Monday, October 23, 2017

VIOLATION OF SYRIAN CUSTOM AND TRADITION"

"C/O AHAVAT SHALOM 

"
Dear: RABBI YAAKOV HILLEL 

Rabbi I am respectfully writing to you out of a deep concern of you "violating & interfering" in our sacred Syrian customs that are held up for hundreds of years. It is well established in the Syrian community that if a son has a first born son he by "tradition and by Jewish law" names him after his biological living father.  

I have made way over a dozen calls to you from Brooklyn to Israel so to speak "running after you" concerning this very delicate issue in order for you to "rescind and retract" this so called erroneous "Heter" that you issued without any "religious basis or any halachic grounds" to a son who was manipulated by Rabbi Murray Maslaton A"H to rebel & grossly disrespect his own father due to family issues. Rabbi you stated to me you "never met, knew, or heard" of my son David prior to him approaching you. You stated clearly that you didn't know the other side of the story & now that you were told the facts you agreed to have my son change the name to "Joseph" the correct and proper name for the sake of making peace between father & son. You clearly agreed to change the name back to its original state for the sake of peace after hearing the other side & getting up to speed on the truth of the matter. As of yet you have not followed through, executed or implemented what you said you would. You did not keep your word neither have you done what you said you would. 

We both know you come to Brooklyn and Deal frequently to "collect & solicit" monies from this very illustrious & affluent Syrian community. If you believe & rely on the super large sums of monies you collect here in Brooklyn New York and in Deal, so too as well, you are required to "respect & honor" our "heritage & sacred traditions"

"MINHAG ABOTENU IS DIN" 

Over 600 year tradition! 

This is clearly our "Halabi Syrian Custom" There are no exceptions attached to this law!

Since you are not of Syrian Halabi descent you have no Rabbinical authority or right to override our Syrian Halabi customs and traditions!

You stated that you "reside" in Israel if that's the case why are you involving yourself & making a ruling that clearly contradicts our Syrian tradition & is out of your jurisdiction?   

You state you cannot force my son to change his son's name back to its original state. Then what business did you have in permitting him to do so in the first place without any fact finding, documentation "due diligence" or any deliberate thought whatsoever? 

For the record "Joseph Mochon" has never violated or transgressed Jewish Marital law. In fact, followed everything according to Jewish Orthodox law and a decision has been rendered in favor of the father and husband through a competent Bet Din Process signed by and accepted by both parties with a binding decision. case is closed, game is over and a verdict has been rendered! 

My son David told you he was "traumatized" by the name Joseph & subsequently you decided based on that "word" to give him a ruling that overrides what our Syrian community custom which is considered "Din." others have spoken with my son, & the son deceptively changed his tune by stating that "if his father would give a Get to his mother" then he would "consider" the changing of the name of Mordechai (which was name of Rabbi Murray Maslaton who brainwashed the young man and turned him against his own father and who was the original cause of this) Back to "Joseph" the proper name of his own father. based on this alone my son lied to you, as a Rabbi you never even tried to verify whether his statement was true or false & based on this alone you allowed him to dishonor, disgrace & disrespect his own father. You have created a major distraction & disruption to my whole family. All you accomplished was to provoke & promote additional familial conflict. 

At the Brit my wife David's mother was surprised & disturbed, as well as my son's In-laws. Everyone within immediate family is extremely upset about this surprise name announcement. 

You cannot see it in yourself to acknowledge & to admit that this was an oversight & miscalculation and an error on your behalf. Instead you insist & hide that you did nothing wrong. It's an unacceptable behavior & it cannot be tolerated. It won't be swept under the rug as you would like it to be.

Rabbi Murray Maslaton father's name was Joseph 

Rabbi David Ozeiry Father's name was Joseph 

David Mochon Father's name is Joseph 

Why is the law and tradition any different by this case sounds like a rabbinical double standard!  

These 2 Rabbis followed tradition and named their first born sons Joseph why are they hypocritically allowing another man's son to violate his own father and Syrian tradition especially when the father is adamantly protesting against this violation and disgraceful act! 

Yet Rabbi David Ozeiry encouraged and influenced my son David to do differently thinking let's use this as a BLACKMAIL tool against the father and let's send him to Rabbi Hillel in Israel to push it through in order for Rabbi David Ozeiry to get something wrongly accomplished without attaching his name to it. Rabbi David Ozeiry is a pro when it comes to Rabbinical manipulation and deception!
He knows very well how to deflect his name from the equation but to accomplish his hidden agenda and put someone else in the front line. When Rabbi David Ozeiry gives his own wife a GET then and only then can he instruct or manipulate anyone else in the Syrian community to do the same!  

As the famous Rabbinical saying goes: 

"Do as I say not as I do"

"practice for yourself what you preach to others" 

Rabbi Yaakov Hillel if you only "respect & cherish" the large quantity of monies & funds you collect in this Syrian community but do not respect & honor our sacred Halabi long established customs, then it should be vastly publicized to the community at large through a mass email mailing to inform all Syrian community members of your actions and true intentions. Violating our established Minhag & disrespecting our Syrian community tradition! 

Bottom line is Rabbi Hillel all you do or care about is to come here multiple times a year to fool people with your talk and collect monies and leave. You couldn't care less about this Syrian community. Your main goal and selfish agenda is to get money from community period! 

Rabbi Hillel you are "Iraqi" you own this act that was done against our heritage and tradition & personally towards myself, to my children & to my family. You are the only cure, you are responsible for this. Rabbi David Ozeiry used you using his famous playbook, which In essence what he got you to do was cunningly and deceptively to issue a phony Heter without his name being attached to it so the Aviera will be on your head not his and the responsibility will be on your head not his. Nothing like a "slick Yemenite" to do something underhanded behind the scenes like Rabbi Ozeiry can.   

If subsequently my son chooses to disobey this DIN it will be on his conscience. You are thus required, obligated and responsible according to our "treasured Mesora" to at least draw up a letter to "rescind and retract" this incorrect verbal Heter that you issued very carelessly that is a very serious violation of our Syrian Orthodox Halabi long established tradition and release yourself from this rabbinical abuse of authority that you implemented! 


Respectfully yours

Joseph Mochon

7 comments :

  1. Is this letter anything other than cheap gossip? Are we now expected to be the judges based or reading the words of one side? Are we, on the basis of his letter, to lose repct for R' Yaakov Hillel, who is an esteemed rabbi, kabbalist, and author of scholarly kabbalistic writings?

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  2. To the anonymous author
    I don't know if you're actually going to read this comment but I'll write it as if you would.

    Family relationships are very complicated.
    Your son's State of Mind during the bris is very important to this conversation.
    It seems the two of you had a falling out. Justifiably or not, it was an argument that didn't seem to have an immediate end.
    Minhug is like Din, yes, but if the name would be a source of pain to the father of the baby, the rabbi established that he is under no obligation to hurt himself for the sake of respecting his father.
    Since the source of the custom is as a sign of respect to the living father, if doing so would inflict pain on the parties involved, the custom falls away.

    I agree with you that a Community Rabbi should have made that decision. Perhaps he would have decided that does custom should not be abolished even in the face of pain. I don't know

    More importantly is the end of the story. The rabbi is a thousand percent correct that he cannot force someone to change his name. Changing Jewish names is a controversial idea to begin with. A forced name change is unheard of.

    Good luck

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  3. The purpose of such posts is to raise public awareness that such things do happen, although this particular letter may not be truly representative of the phenomenon.

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  4. Can anyone please clarify: what it means Mihag Yisrael Halchah?
    Why does it become a halacha what is the source for that?
    Does it have the same strength as a Dirabonen?

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  5. The letter writer faults Rabbi Hillel of not "hearing the other side" before deciding. I too have not "heard the other side ", that of Rabbi Hillel. Therefore I will refrain from judging him in the courtroom of my mind.

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  6. I know the supposed intended purpose. There's always a claim of 'toeles' when someones speak what they shouldn't. I don't see how it could be correct to make such a letter public.

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  7. The author doesn't understand what we mean when we say this. This is in a case where the actual Halacha is one way, but the minhag is the is a different way. It does not apply to situations that are detached from Halacha entirely. Also, when applying this rule, there still needs to be some halachic basis to do so.

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