"Immorality, liberality leads to murders": Chief Rabbi

YNet     Chief Sephardi Rabbi Shlomo Amar said that the recent wave of murders is the result of lax education and promiscuity. "A person who is allowed (to do) anything doesn't respect boundaries," the rabbi told Ynet.

"And so we've reached a situation in which young people – who aren't bad or criminals – murder someone who criticizes them; (a situation) in which women murder, children kill their parents and parents kill their children. I've heard about it and I'm frightened." 

Amar said that there is a "terrible crisis in the education of the (young) generation," mainly a lack of boundaries. "Today, people think that anyone who wants to maintain minimal modesty is primitive and belongs to a different generation. Things that were condemned by every other generation, considered abhorrent by the Torah, have become legitimate."

Abuse: More time for Justice

NYTimes Hawaii significantly strengthened its protections against child sexual abuse last month when Gov. Neil Abercrombie signed a measure extending the statute of limitations for civil lawsuits filed by child victims. At least as important, it opens a one-time two-year window to allow victims to file suits against their abusers even if the time limit had expired under the old law. 

Like similar laws in California and Delaware, the Hawaii measure recognizes some wrenching realities. It can take many years, even decades, before child abuse victims are emotionally ready to come forward and tell their stories in court. But by then, they may be barred from suing by the statute of limitations. For example, many suits against the Catholic Church have been blocked because the church’s covering up for pedophile priests made it hard for victims to come forward until long past the time limit for bringing civil claims. 

Hawaii’s new law allows child victims to bring suits up to the age of 26 (it was 20), or three years from the time the victim realizes the abuse caused injury. The law’s leading opponent was the Roman Catholic Church, which has been working hard to defeat statute of limitations reform across the country.

Lag B'Omer is dangerous!

JPost

As Lag Ba’omer approaches, a released survey states that nearly 25 percent of parents disregard their children’s safety by not supervising dangerous bonfires.  [...]

Beterem, the National Center for Child Safety and Health, said that most people understand where to initiate bonfires – in an open area without telephone and electricity wires, trees, traffic and combustible products. But many parents are unaware and fail to prevent young children from approaching the bonfire, especially in windy weather.

ORA - "beis din should give authorization"

guest post: Rabbi Jeremy Stern admits (at 58:00) that public pressure on a husband for not giving a get is inappropriate halachically absent a ruling from a beis din that a get be given.  Nonetheless, Ora was publicly demonstrating against Friedman and his family for over a year before any beis din had called on him to give a get.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEi4SXT_fCA

ORA: 1 Million dollars vs 1 child

Guest Post: Rabbi Jeremy Stern acknowledges that if a wife steals a million dollars from the husband and runs away, "she acted completely inappropriately."  He also acknowledges that in such a case the husband is not required give a get absent the husband having a "fair day in court."  [starting at 58:47]

Apparently,for Rabbi Stern (and presumably Ora's rabbinical advisers such as Rabbi Schachter) one million dollars are far more important than a mere child.  Tamar Epstein abducted the child she had with Aharon Friedman, but instead of labeling Epstein's abduction of the child as completely inappropriate, Rabbi Stern calls Epstein's actions kedas ukedin.  And while Rabbi Stern acknowledges that a wife's stealing a million dollars from a husband is (absent the "husband's having a fair day in court") grounds for not giving a get, Rabbi Stern maintains that Epstein's abduction of the child is not grounds for withholding a get.

And if the husband were to agree to postpone adjudication in civil court to bring the matter to BD, but then the wife were to violate the BD's orders so that the case is heard by the civil court at a much later date, and the court were to rule (at the wife's request) that the wife can keep the money or the child because the husband had waived his right to recover the money or the child as a result of delaying the court trial in order to have the matter decided in Beis Din, the husband would hardly have had a "fair day in court."

Ma'us alei: Husband disgusting/wife sensitive?

We have been discussing the issue of what to do when the wife declares ma'us alei to beis din primarily as to whether the husband is forced in some to give a divorce. Rambam(Ishus 14:8) says she can not be forced to live with him because she is not a captive who can be forced to be with someone she hates.   We have this teshuva of  Rav Ovadiya Yosef which indicates we have to see that she really views him as disgusting or repellant and not that she is interested in another man.There are clearly cases such as a wife beater or psychopath where there is no need to explain ma'us since any intelligent adult would also find him disgusting.

 But what if we see that the husband is not terrible - but she says she can't stand him. Do we insist that she has to put up with her dislike of her husband for the sake of the family? Or does ma'us alei simply mean - he is not my cup of tea and I want out. What is she could deal with him - if she was on psychiatric medication - does she need to take medication to preserve the marriage? What if he is not frum enough and it grates on her nerves how insensitive he is to Torah - is that considered ma'us alei. What if he is too frum and is machmir on everything - she can't stand it - is that ma'us alei.

In sum, does ma'us alei mean merely she personally can't stand him or does it mean that objectively this person has to be disgusting? Does she have to work on herself not to find him disgusting?

Haredi institutions implicated in massive financial scheme

ynet

The Jerusalem Police raided several ultra-Orthodox institutions Sunday as part of an elaborate fraud investigation. Five people were arrested.

Police believe that the suspects are involved in a massive student registration scheme, meant to defraud the state out of millions of shekels.

New Chareidim: Working is a reality

JPost

A small but significant segment of the haredi population is beginning to emerge, whose socioeconomic status could be defined as middle class, says a new study from the Israel Democracy Institute.

Although specific numbers are not yet available, the report, which was presented on Wednesday at the organization’s headquarters in Jerusalem, identified several defining characteristics of a nascent ultra-Orthodox middle class that sets them apart from other members of their community and which represent a new haredi sector that aspires to a more varied lifestyle. [...]

“But they also work hard to live in both worlds without losing their original identity. They want to maintain their culture and identity as members of the ultra-Orthodox community, but they are also inclined to go to the theater, read non-haredi newspapers, as well as the haredi ones, and be exposed to a greater extent to wider Israeli society,” he said.

New Chareidim:Mishpacha vs. Yated

.kikarhashabat

ערב הבחירות, ניטשת מלחמה של ממש בין שני עיתונים מרכזיים בציבור החרדי: משפחה ויתד נאמן. הרקע לכך, הפעם: החרדים העובדים. אחרי טור נוקב שפורסם אמש במשפחה נגד "יתד נאמן", באה התשובה החריפה מעל דפי הגיליון - מאמר של חברי-הכנסת גפני ומקלב. איך זה ייגמר? סיקור מיוחד (בכיכר)

Wife jailed for refusing get

Haaretz

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A woman who has refused for 16 years to grant her husband a divorce was put behind bars last week - the first time a woman has been arrested in such a case.The 60-year-old woman, a teacher, has appealed to the Supreme Court, whose president, Asher Grunis, will decide today whether to keep her under arrest. 

If Grunis does not rule in her favor, she will remain behind bars until the Jerusalem Rabbinical Court hears her case in July. She can then file a petition over whether the rabbinical court has the right to imprison her.In 2001, the rabbinical court ruled that the couple's property be divided, but the woman did not accept. She said she deserved a much greater portion of her husband's wealth.

Rav Schachter's occasional misspeaking

Jewish Week  Understanding the non-significance of Rav Schachter's baseball bat comment

Some Orthodox Jews were wondering this week what it would take for Rabbi Hershel Schachter, a prominent rosh yeshiva at Yeshiva University’s rabbinical school, to be relieved of his duties for making offensive statements — the latest of which has proved to be the most shocking of all.

At the same time defenders of the rabbi were questioning when the community would come to recognize the stature of the Talmudic scholar they revere and show more respect toward him.

The divide is not a new one in a Modern Orthodox community whose young men and women tend to show more obedience toward rabbinic sages and leaders than their parents do. And Rabbi Schachter has a history of making politically incorrect statements — but none as seemingly egregious as the one made last week to a group of students in Israel in which he appeared to advocate shooting the prime minister of Israel if the government “gives away Jerusalem.” [...]