Children's books are dangerous - lead poisoning?

Washington Post

Rachel Merrill, mother of three, was holding innocuous-seeming contraband in her hand at an Arlington Goodwill store earlier this month: a 1971 edition of "Little House on the Prairie." This copy of the children's classic had just become illegal to resell because of concerns that some old books contain lead in their ink.

Legislation passed by Congress last August in response to fears of lead-tainted toys imported from China went into effect last month. Consumer groups and safety advocates have praised it for its far-reaching protections. But libraries and book resellers such as Goodwill are worried about one small part of the law: a ban on distributing children's books printed before 1985.

According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the agency charged with enforcing the act, lead in the books' inks could make its way into the mouths of little kids. Goodwill is calling for a change in the legislation even as it clears its shelves to comply, and libraries are worried they could be the next ones scrubbing their shelves.

Parents like Rachel Merrill are concerned, too. She home-schools her children and says that new books are just too expensive.

"We eat organic food, and I'm very careful about that kind of stuff," she said. "But to me, it seems like the law's written way too broadly."

Scientists are emphatic that lead, which was common in paints before its use was banned in 1978, poses a threat to the neural development of small children. But they disagree about whether there is enough in the ink in children's books to warrant concern. Some even accuse the safety commission of trying to undermine the law by stirring up popular backlash.[...]

Judges vs legislation to decide moral issues?

(CBS/AP) Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank called Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia a "homophobe" in a recent interview with a gay news Web site.

In an interview on 365gay.com, the Democratic lawmaker, who is gay, was discussing gay marriage and his expectation that the high court would some day be called upon to decide whether the Constitution allows the federal government to deny recognition to same-sex marriages.

"I wouldn't want it to go to the United States Supreme Court now because that homophobe Antonin Scalia has too many votes on this current court," said Frank. The video of the interview is available online. [...]

Scalia dissented from the court's ruling in 2003 that struck down state laws banning consensual sodomy. He has complained about judges, rather than elected officials, deciding questions of morality about which the Constitution is silent.

Controversial topics like gay rights and abortion should not be in the hands of judges, he has said, calling on people to persuade their legislatures or amend the Constitution.

Religious Jewish soldiers - condemned by secular

NYTimes

JERUSALEM — The publication late last week of eyewitness accounts by Israeli soldiers alleging acute mistreatment of Palestinian civilians in the recent Gaza fighting highlights a debate here about the rules of war. But it also exposes something else: the clash between secular liberals and religious nationalists for control over the army and society.

Several of the testimonies, published by an institute that runs a premilitary course and is affiliated with the left-leaning secular kibbutz movement, showed a distinct impatience with religious soldiers, portraying them as self-appointed holy warriors.

A soldier, identified by the pseudonym Ram, is quoted as saying that in Gaza, “the rabbinate brought in a lot of booklets and articles and their message was very clear: We are the Jewish people, we came to this land by a miracle, God brought us back to this land and now we need to fight to expel the non-Jews who are interfering with our conquest of this holy land. This was the main message, and the whole sense many soldiers had in this operation was of a religious war.”

Dany Zamir, the director of the one-year premilitary course who solicited the testimonies and then leaked them, leading to a promise by the military to investigate, is quoted in the transcripts as expressing anguish over the growing religious nationalist elements of the military.

“If clerics are anointing us with oil and sticking holy books in our hands, and if the soldiers in these units aren’t representative of the whole spectrum of the Jewish people, but rather of certain segments of the population, what can we expect?” he said. “To whom do we complain?”

For the first four decades of Israel’s existence, the army — like many of the country’s institutions — was dominated by kibbutz members who saw themselves as secular, Western and educated. In the past decade or two, religious nationalists, including many from the settler movement in the West Bank, have moved into more and more positions of military responsibility. (In Israeli society, they are a growing force, distinct from, and more modern than, the black-garbed ultra-Orthodox, who are excused from military service.)

In many cases, the religious nationalists have ascended to command positions from precisely the kind of premilitary college course that Mr. Zamir runs — but theirs are run by the religious movements rather than his secular one, meaning that the competition between him and them is both ideological and careerist.

“The officer corps of the elite Golani Brigade is now heavily populated by religious right-wing graduates of the preparatory academies,” noted Moshe Halbertal, a Jewish philosophy professor who co-wrote the military code of ethics and who is himself religiously observant but politically liberal. “The religious right is trying to have an impact on Israeli society through the army.”

For Mr. Halbertal, like for the vast majority of Israelis, the army is an especially sensitive institution because it has always functioned as a social cauldron, throwing together people from all walks of life and scores of ethnic and national backgrounds, and helping form them into a cohesive society with social networks that carry on throughout their lives.

Those who oppose the religious right have been especially concerned about the influence of the military’s chief rabbi, Brig. Gen. Avichai Rontzki, who is himself a West Bank settler and who was very active during the war, spending most of it in the company of the troops in the field.

He took a quotation from a classical Hebrew text and turned it into a slogan during the war: “He who is merciful to the cruel will end up being cruel to the merciful.”

A controversy then arose when a booklet handed out to soldiers was found to contain a rabbinical edict against showing the enemy mercy. The Defense Ministry reprimanded the rabbi.

At the time, in January, Avshalom Vilan, then a leftist member of Parliament, accused the rabbi of having “turned the Israeli military’s activity from fighting out of necessity into a holy war.”[...]

Abuse - Perpetrator as practicing doctor?

NYTimes

A year ago, Sweden’s most prestigious medical school found itself in an international uproar after it unknowingly admitted a student who was a Nazi sympathizer and a convicted murderer, then scrambled to find a way to expel him.

It is hard to imagine how the case could get any more bizarre. But it has.

The 33-year-old student, Karl Helge Hampus Svensson, having been banished from the medical school of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm on the ground that he falsified his high school records, has now been admitted to a second well-known medical school — Uppsala, Sweden’s oldest university.

New twists in his and another case highlight the difficulties that three of the country’s six medical schools have had in admitting and dismissing students with serious criminal offenses in just the past two years. The cases resonate far beyond Sweden, raising fundamental questions about who is fit to become a doctor.

The circumstances of Mr. Svensson’s admission to Uppsala’s first-year class — reported in January by Swedish news organizations — are unknown, because none of the officials involved will publicly discuss his case. He apparently uses an assumed name — a customary practice for Swedes seeking to remain anonymous because of a personal threat. Last week, Uppsala officials, responding to concerns about Mr. Svensson’s admission, said he had not participated in class work, but did not say why.

In another embarrassing twist, a Swedish newspaper reported last month that much of the verdict and court files regarding Bjorn Soderberg, Mr. Svensson’s murder victim, had been cut out or replaced with blank pages. The police said they had been unable to find a culprit.

And in still another case, a 24-year-old medical student at Lund University was convicted last April of raping a 14-year-old boy while he slept. A district court sentenced the student to two years in prison, but a higher court reduced the sentence to two years’ probation and medical therapy. [...]

Snake Oil vs. Scientific Medicine

Washington Post

Our conference was being held over lunch, but Pat, a middle-aged health-care consultant, did not touch a bite of her food. When I asked if something was wrong, she revealed her lifelong battle with Crohn's disease, an inflammation of the bowels that causes diarrhea and abdominal pain.

I asked what her doctor advised. With some hesitation, she told me she was chiefly being treated by someone she called her "teacher," who helped her use her use qi gong, a Chinese system of breathing and energy exercise, to manage her illness.

She also sees a conventional doctor. But I was struck that this woman, whose job involves ensuring that hospital practices are supported by scientific evidence, had chosen to consult a provider of alternative medicine.

"My teacher looks at me as a whole person," she explained. "He looks at my emotional state, not just my diseased state. . . . He empowers me on how to care for myself. . . . My doctor looks at me just as a disease."

As an MD with two decades of experience, I felt a sense of rebuke. Personally, I am not averse to alternative medicine. Though I was raised and educated in America, I was born in India, where treatments such as ayurveda and yoga originated and where they are perceived as an equivalent method of healing many illnesses. And I use meditation and massage as aids to relaxation.[...]

Convert on beis din for conversion? - Rabbi Broyde

Rabbi Broyde has a typically excellect summary of the subject on the Hirhurim blog. Subject discussed on this blog I II III

Some Final Observations Now That the Summary is Over

It seems to me [and to preempt any questions, I am speaking just for myself and for no organization that I am involved in: neither Emory University nor its law school, nor its law and religion program, nor the Beth Din of America nor the Young Israel where I am the Founding Rabbi necessarily agree with my thoughts] that given since this dispute is without clear precedent, one can say for certain that as a matter of halachic policy it is a bad idea to allow a convert to serve on a bet din.

The rationale for this seems clear. Given the fact that there are many, many eminent poskim who think such a conversion is invalid even bedieved, it would be a terrible disservice to any convert to intentionally staff their conversion panel with such a rabbi. It makes such a conversion invalid according to many poskim for no good reason. An indisputably valid panel is a wise idea in every case and for every convert lechatchila. (This is even more so true in this matter where a hachra’ah based on logical rules seems so hard.)

The intentional decision to place a rabbi who is a convert on a conversion panel is nearly a form of rabbinic malpractice in my view; since so many competent and qualified rabbis are present in our times, why staff a rabbinical court with one whose qualifications are to be questioned as a matter of halacha?

Evil which is turned to good is greater good

Arvei Nachal(#23): G‑d created man for His honor and in order that there be reward and punishment in this world. This is the result of man having free‑will to do good or evil. However it is impossible to have free‑will unless man himself is a combination of good and evil. It is because of this man has the ability to turn from evil. Therefore when the good overcomes the evil – the evil turns to good and the reward is very great. The Zohar (2:184a) states that good exists only in turning from evil. In other words, even thought the good is inherently good, however the evil which is turned to good has a much higher quality. This is stated in Bereishis Rabbah (9:5): “very good” is referring to death. In other words that evil that is turned to good is very good and it is called “very good”. Consequently this is what G‑d wanted in the creation of man. It is impossible to accomplish this unless man is a combination of good and evil.

R' Yochanon & Raish Lakish - Rabbi Derovan

Rabbi Yochanan and Raish Lakish

Michael Freund of Shavei Israel responds to criticism

Michael Freund, Chairman, Shavei Israel responds to "RaP's criticism of proselytizing in Poland":

I would like to respond to the spurious criticism and outright lashon hara contained in the March 19 post entitled, "RaP's criticism of proselytizing in Poland".

I find it simply incomprehensible that my organization, Shavei Israel, is being labeled as "missionary" and criticized for helping people in Poland to return to their Jewish roots. Had the person who posted this tirade bothered to read the article in Mishpacha magazine in question, they would have seen quite clearly that I am quoted as saying the following: "For those interested in halachic conversion, we send them to the proper rabbinic authorities. For those who just want to learn more, we try to provide them with positive Jewish experiences.” Shavei Israel leaves the halachic aspect of each case to Israel’s Chief rabbinate. “Each case has its own set of evidence, its own level of proof or reliability,” Freund explains. “Is the Jewish line from the mother or the father? What kind of proof is there? These are things for a beis din to decide.”

There it is - in black and white - we leave these matters for a beis din to decide, because as Torah-observant Jews our fidelity is to Halacha and nothing else. We simply refer the people in question to rabbonim, and it is up to them to make the determination. Since when is referring people to a beis din considered "missionary" activity? Since when is respecting Torah law and following it cause for being the target of lashon hara?

Michael Freund
Chairman, Shavei Israel

Spirtual love vs material love

Meshech Chochma(Vayikra 19:18): Bereishis Rabba (41:1): A tzadik flourishes like a date palm… Just as a date palm and cedar tree have desires also tzadikim have desires. What are their desires – it is for G‑d…. Rav Tanchum said that there was a date palm in Chamaso which did not give forth fruit. A palm tree gardener passed by and commented that this date tree is longing for palm tree in Jericho. Once the two were grafted it bore fruit. The key to understanding this medrash is from the tradition that the yetzer harah does not have an influence except on which the eyes see (Sotah 8a). Lust for material things only is aroused by what the eye sees and then the heart desires(Bamidbar Rabbah 10:2). Similarly Megila (15a) says that the mere mention of the name of Rachab (who was very beautiful) caused a person to be sexual aroused. But that was only if the person knew what she looked like. However what the eye hasn’t seen the heart doesn’t desire.

In contrast the lust of tzadikim is not that way but comes from the power of the mind… Their desire is solely for spirituality and getting close to G‑d and not for material things. This is stated in Shemos (33:20): No man can see me and be alive. Thus we can understand the lust of the date palm and the cedar tree to which tzadikim are compared. It is not based on material desires. Therefore we see that the date palm had desire for that which it couldn’t see. The tzadik has gained control over his material nature and now has desire for that which can’t be seen – which is G‑d. This is also the proper understanding of “You shall love your fellow man as yourself I am G‑d.” Just as you have been commanded to love G‑d even though He hasn’t appeared before you – similarly you shall love and value every single Jew – even though he is so far away from you that you have never seen him.

Abuse - Jewish Board of Advocates for Children

The Jewish Board of Advocates for Children, Inc. (JBAC) is a new non-profit corporation founded in New York State in 2008.

The founders recognize a need for a new voice to address the pressing issues of the day in yeshiva and nonpublic school education. Those issues include the health, safety and welfare of all children, the spiraling cost of religious and nonpublic school education, and the quality of education.

We are both a think tank and activist organization. Among our initial accomplishments, when we were known as the N.Y.S. Yeshiva Parents Association, was our successful advocacy for a new law authorizing all nonpublic schools to fingerprint and background check their prospective employees. Our schools can now avoid hiring convicted sex offenders and other dangerous persons who should not be working near children. This law became effective July 1, 2007.

Our activities include multi-disciplinary conferences, attended by professionals, community leaders, and all interested persons who possess a fervent wish to make a better world for our children. We seek practical solutions to contemporary challenges.

Our Officers and Executive Committee members are comprised of individuals with strong backgrounds in law, medicine, mental health, education, parenting and mentoring, and the Jewish religion.

Abuse - Be careful with doctors

NYTimes reports:

Dr. Melvin D. Levine, the North Carolina pediatrician who faces a lawsuit accusing him of molesting young boys during physical examinations, has signed a consent order agreeing that he will never again practice medicine in North Carolina or anywhere else.

In the consent order, approved by the state medical board on Friday, the board said it had been prepared to present testimony that the genital examinations Dr. Levine conducted on five unnamed patients were done outside the presence of a parent or chaperone, were not medically indicated and were either not documented in the medical record or not documented according to prevailing standards.

Until the accusations of sexual molesting surfaced last year, Dr. Levine was a prominent voice in the field of learning disabilities. His books and lectures were acclaimed by teachers and parents.

Dr. Levine, 69, has denied any wrongdoing. He voluntarily suspended his license last April and faces no criminal charges. Although the consent order did not address his guilt or innocence, Thomas Mansfield, the medical board’s legal director, said the order was unusually broad.

“The result of this consent order is that this physician will never examine another patient anywhere in the world,” Mr. Mansfield said. “Rarely do you see one that says never again, in any jurisdiction.”

The order, whose language was negotiated with Dr. Levine’s lawyer, said Dr. Levine had been prepared to present testimony that his examinations were medically indicated and consistent with standard medical practice.

The order also said the board had received many letters in support of Dr. Levine from doctors, educators, former patients and their parents, saying he had been instrumental both in helping students who struggle in school and in “helping teachers and clinicians understand the differences in learning and better manage students whose problems were misunderstood and poorly managed in the past.”

Dr. Levine’s lawyer, Alan Schneider, said, “He continues to adamantly deny the allegations.”[...]

Abuse - Incest - immoral but legal

Associated Press

Surprising as it may seem, incest is not always a crime in Europe.

Three European Union nations — France, Spain and Portugal — do not prosecute consenting adults for incest, and Romania is considering following suit.

The shocking case of Austrian Josef Fritzl, found guilty this week of holding his daughter captive for 24 years and fathering her seven children, has focused new attention on incest — which is a crime in itself in Austria even if the acts are consensual. But in the Fritzl case it was in connection with rape, homicide and other charges that led to a sentence of life in a secure psychiatric ward.

Laws exempting parents, grandparents, brothers and sisters from prosecution for incestuous acts if they are not forced upon adult family members are decades old in France, Spain and Portugal.

In Romania, decriminalizing incest among consenting adults is being considered as part of a wide range of reforms to the country's criminal code. No date has been set yet for a parliament vote on the bill, and opposition to the proposal is fervent even among some lawmakers in the ruling coalition.

Currently all forms of incest in Romania are punishable by up to seven years in prison. But Romania's Justice Ministry suggests the new legislation would move the country — which joined the European Union two years ago — closer legally to some other EU members.

"Not everything that is immoral has to be illegal," said Justice Ministry legal expert Valerian Cioclei. "We cannot help these people by turning them into criminals and punishing them."[...]

Rambam - Faith & Doubt & the study of Science

Daas Torah: "Why don't we try another dichotomy. If you think his [Rambam] belief that studying of science leads to a greater appreciation of G-d is applicable to all times and all places - than you would conclude that he made a major mistake. On the other hand if you view that he only wrote that for his generation then you would assume that he would have abandoned it in our age when we see being a scientist does not produce a better understanding of G-d than studying Torah."

רפאל I do not think that the Rambam would abandon his view. True, he would be shocked by Chilonim studying Science and not finding G-d. But his directives were for Torah Jews. I submit he would be appalled by the intellectual corruption in today's Yeshiva world, in no small part caused by the ignorance of Science, davka after it gave birth to insights into Creation that are without precedent.

===========================================

I think the above exchange demonstrates the gap between the two sides. The Rambam is pictured by my opponents as the Enlightened Man - fearlessly search for truth without regard for the consequence. Urging all men to drop their blinders and no longer fear the Truth which is contained in Science and Philosophy.

This stereotype is simply not supported by the Rambam's own writings. For example the Rambam says that the Morech Nevuchim was not written for everyone. It was specifically written for those who involved in science and philosophy and were bothered by how to integrate the material. Even so he wrote this work with great care - concealing much of his true views as he writes in his introduction. In fact the Rambam was so successfull in concealing what his views were - as manifest by the apparent contradictions between the Moreh Nevuchim and Mishneh Torah - there is no agreement even amongst academics as to the Rambam's true positions on many issues.

Then we have his letters - one of which describes his abandoment of the study of Torah for science and philosophy. Rav Kapach simply says it is a forgery because it is inconsistent with eveything else we know about the Rambam. Then we have the view that the Rambam says that there is no need to study anything besides the Mishneh Torah. Yet he writes in one of his letters that in his yeshiva there was a traditional study of Talmud.

The false fantasy of the Rambam's espousal of fearless search for truth becomes unraveled with his statement that one is not allowed to study works which leads to questions and possible heresy. He says that even a sincere person who is trying to understand Torah - but concludes a view which is heresy - is in fact a heretic.

The Rambam would not walk into Lakewood and knock the shtenders over with the cry - "Go to college and seek the truth - you have nothing to fear!"

One always has to keep in mind the audience for a particular program

A number of years ago Rabbi Dr. Norman Lamm wrote a book "Faith and Doubt" which argued for the positive view of having doubt and having searching questions. However tucked away in a footnote 52 he presents a similar position to the above noting Hilchos Avoda Zara (2:3) which proscribes the study of that which may lead to heresy and hence into doubt. "If one reads the passage in Avoda Zara carefully he will note the author's explanation of and qualifications on his prohibition: the inablity of all kinds of mentality to understand philosophic truth...the emphasis on the fact that this is a general decision to be applied to the masses of people... and to casual unsystematic suty... and the fear that such speculation will be undertaken by those who do not know its fundamental principles and methods... Obviously Maimonides was dealing with two principles which had come into conflict - the duty to know G-d rationally, and the obligation to protect the unsophisticated from spiritual confusion...What, however, if the state of society and culture are such that to follow these rules without deviation would result in wholesale abandonment of faith? Would we be justificed in applying these rules regardless of the effects that were to follow? Obviously not.... In Maimondies' days, most peole were covered by his decision in Hilchos Avoda Zara and the minority of accomplished scholars and sophisticated intellects by the law in Hilchos Yesodei HaTorah. That was how the halacha protected the integrity of the faith. Today there may be pockets here and there of those who will live in self-contained communities without any access to the great sources of Western Civilization; for them the same decision holds true without change. But most of us, despite our lack of halakhic expertise and our doubtful philosophic sophistication, are such that doubt is ubiquitous with us and if we do not entertain it yet we surely will be exposed to it before long..."

Thus we must acknowledge and be concerned about the consequence of a particular program of study. If a person comes from a culture where Science is the standard of truth - then it might be important to address the issues as R' Slikin is doing. Then again it might be better to simply teach him that the only truth that matters is Torah. However a person who is in the Chareidi society immersed in learning Torah day and night. It is highly unlikely his yiras Shamayim will benefit from a diet of contradictions of Science and Torah and proposed solutions. There are, however, a minority of Charedi Jews that can benefit and therefore should study these issues. It is simply not for everyone.