Jew from Kuwait

Aish Hatorah

Growing up in Kuwait, I had the best of everything. My father owned a successful construction company, and provided us five children with amenities like piano lessons, swimming, calligraphy and trips all over the world. Although we were Muslims like everyone else, we were totally secular and my father always aimed to shield us from religious people whom he described as crazies.

I grew up being told that Israelis and Jews were the lowest type of creature in existence, put on Earth only to kill us Arabs. In math class the teacher would say, "If one rocket killed X number of Jews, how many would six rockets kill?"

My father was rabidly anti-Israel. He was a product of Nasser's school of thought: secular from a Muslim point of view, yet deeply dedicated to the idea of pan-Arab unity. Israel, he believed, was an American proxy in the post-colonial Middle East.[...]

Rav Moshe Feinstein - Thinking positively & chinuch

שו"ת אגרות משה יורה דעה חלק ג סימן עא

אבל אחר העיון יש עצה נכונה שצריך המורה להמתיק להם האמונה בהשי"ת בין בעצם הבריאה ובין שהוא הנותן החיות וזן ומפרנס לכל אשר בלעדיו אי אפשר לחיות אף שעה אחת וכן האמונה שהוא נתן התורה והמצות. ולהמתיקם אשר ידעו שקיום מצוה הוא יקר מכל הון וזהב ומכל תענוגות העולם כי קונה בזה חיי נצח ששעה אחת יפה מכל חיי העוה"ז כדאיתא באבות פ"ד מי"ז. שמלמוד כזה בדברים נעימים להראות החלוק שבין אלו המתאוים לעניני עוה"ז לאלו המשתוקקים לתורה ועבודת השי"ת, עד שיכנס בלבם שיעשו בני תורה היינו שהשקפתם על חיי העולם ורצונם ותאותם יהיה בעניני תורה ומצות ולא יהיה להם שום נסיון כלל. וכבר אמרתי כמה פעמים כי יש אדם שהוא שומר תורה ומצות, ובניו לא די שלא ילמדו ממנו לקיים ג"כ התורה ומצותיה אלא הוא מבלי משים מלמד אותם ח"ו להיפוך, דכאשר רואין דאביהם היה מחשיב למשל שמירת שבת שהוא נסיון לפניו מחמת שהיה יכול לעסוק בעסקיו ולהרויח סך גדול ונמנע ולא עשה זהו חסרון גדול לחנוך הבנים משום שכיון שרואין שהוא נסיון הרי לא כל אדם יכול להיות גבור לכבוש את יצרו ולעמוד בנסיון והרי אנו מתפללים בכל יום בברכות השחר אל תביאנו לידי נסיון וזה יביא שהבנים עזבו תורת ה'. אך האדם הנבון אין לו שום נסיון משני טעמים חדא שיודע שהשי"ת קצב לו מזונותיו וכל הרוחים שיהיו לו ובלעדיו אי אפשר להשיג אף פרוטה אחת לכן אף שאינו נותן בלי שום עסק מהאדם מצד שנגזר בזעת אפיך תאכל לחם אבל ברור שנגזר רק על ימים המותרים לעסוק במלאכה ומסחר ולא על שבתות ויו"ט האסורים ואף לא על השעות שא"א לעסוק במלאכה כמו בשעת תפלה ונמצא שלא מפסיד כלום במה ששומר שבת ויו"ט שמה שצריך להרויח ירויח בימי החול בלא ספק. ועוד אף אם לא השיג באמונתו כל כך וחושב שאם היה עוסק גם בשבת היה מרויח, גם כן אין זה נסיון למחבב השבת משום שהוא מצות השי"ת שחביבות זו שוה כל מה שהפסיד ע"י השבת, וכמו שחזינן שכמה אנשים מוציאין סך גדול לבנות דירה נאה ויש אף לחמשים אלף דאלאר ויותר ולא די שלא יתאוננו על הכסף שהוציאו על הבית אלא עוד שמחים בזה, וכן הוא ממש למי שהפסיד בשביל השבת שלא היה יכול לעסוק במלאכתו שהשבת שוה הסך שהפסיד ועוד יותר ויותר ויש לו ליהנות מזה שהשיג קיום מצות שבת בסך כזה וכזה. וכשרואין הבנים איך ששבת חביב כל כך ששוה כל כסף וזהב שבעולם, וגם שבאמת לא מפסיד כלום אלא אדרבה הוא מרויח מזה חיי נצח וגם שע"י השבת זוכה גם בברכה בעוה"ז הרי ישפיע עליהם שגם הם יקיימו בשמחה מצות השבת וכן כל המצות. וזה צריך כל מורה ומורה להשריש בלב ונפש התלמידים אמונה אמתית ואהבה ומתיקות לתורה ומצותיה, שהוא בהנהגתם בעצמם שמזה לומדים התלמידים הרבה ומהדבור עמהם הרבה בדברים רכים ונעימים והתיחסותם עמהם.

Hirhurim

Mistakenly diagnosed as brain dead for 23 years

Times on line

A man presumed to have been in a deep coma for 23 years has spoken of his "second birth" after doctors realised that he had been fully conscious all along but unable to communicate.

Rom Houben, 46, was paralysed in a car accident that left him in what doctors thought was a persistent vegetative state. In fact he remained aware of his surroundings and could hear medical staff gradually give up hope on him.

Researchers using new scanning techniques discovered that his brain was still active and trained him to use his right forefinger to express himself on a specially adapted keyboard.

His case is being highlighted in his native Belgium by doctors who are pioneering new ways of understanding coma victims, hundreds of whom around the world could be conscious but locked in paralysis – and, unlike a true coma patient, able to feel pain.

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Israeli Medical Association vs. Health minister

JPost

The Israel Medical Association has denounced Deputy Health Minister Ya'acov Litzman for ordering doctors at Schneider Children's Medical Center to treat a lower-brain-dead baby girl like an ordinary living patient and give her antibiotics and other treatment, rather than only keeping her connected to a respirator.

Litzman visited the Petah Tikva hospital three days in a row to make sure that his orders, issued at the request of the baby's haredi parents late last week - were being followed.

A few weeks ago, Litzman said he "does not recognize lower-brain death" as death, but "observes the law."

Under the law, the immediate family of a lower-brain-dead patient can insist that he or she not be disconnected from a respirator or have nourishment withheld, but the patient is not treated like a living person who needs treatment. Otherwise, the default procedure is to turn off the respirator after a two-doctor team decides the patient is brain dead.

Chasid shoteh - sinning in the name of piety

There was recently an event that was designed to inspire and uplift women. The event was carefullly planned and professionally organized - to convey the greateness of Jewish women. Unfortunately something happened which surely would have caused the tzadik who inspired this event to weep bitter tears.

The event was advertised for women only.  A woman in her fifties - unfortunately still unmarried - looked forward to an evening of inspiration and being part of Jewish womanhood. She looked foward to forgetting her lonely existence by hearing inspiring speeches about serving G-d and being sensitive to the feelings of others.

However at the entrance to the event she was told she could not enter. "Why," she asked. "Because you are a girl - you are not married and this event if only for married woman. The woman begged, "But the advertisement did not say that only married women could come and be inspired - it said woman. At 50 years old I am surely a woman." Unfortunately her pleas were ignored and she was told to leave.

I am writing  these words  in the hope that those who dedicate their lives to helping and inspiring others - will stop and think and this embarrassing degradation of a Jewish woman will not happen again. Being involved in inspiring others can never be a justification to insult people and be oblivious to their pain.

I did call up the organization to protest this disgusting injustice. I hope they listen to the messages on their answering machines.

Blind teenager sees by clicking

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Steipler: "Better to be punished in this world"

Rav Sternbuch: Sarah's pain

Conversion:Chief Rabbi vs. City Rabbis

JPost

The legal adviser to the Chief Rabbinate said Wednesday that he would take disciplinary steps - including layoffs - against city rabbis who refused to recognize converts who converted under the aegis of the Chief Rabbinate.

Attorney Shimon Ulman told the Knesset Immigration and Absorption Committee that it was unlawful for city rabbis to refuse to recognize conversions performed by the chief rabbinate rabbinical court.

In a telephone interview after the Knesset meeting Ulman told The Jerusalem Post that although the procedure was a long one, he would initiate disciplinary actions against rabbis.

"We cannot have a situation in which a rabbi who receives a salary from the Chief Rabbinate refuses to accept the decisions of that same Chief Rabbinate," said Ulman.

Missionary tactics against Muslim & Jews

Jersey Girl's response to question of Christian missionary activity with Muslim.

I have asked a few of my muslim business contacts if they are having problems in their mosques like we are having.

One man who lives in Qatar told me this:

"There is a large mosque that is very beautiful and was built by a family he knows. Many "Americans" started coming to this mosque and converting to Islam. They joined the mosque and became influential in its politics. Eventually they replaced the imam with someone else who turned out to be a Christian missionary. Now, this mosque is a church but it looks like a mosque. They do all of the same prayer rituals but the imam preaches Christianity. All ofthe Muslims in the area know about this mosque and do not go there. He prays at home because he does not live close enough to anothermosque to attend.

I spoke to a Moroccan Muslim lady about this. She sells for me for 3-4 years now. She is married with a baby and her whole family lives nearby. They are what I would consider the Muslim equivalent of MO. Very solid in their very traditional faith. She told me the following:

"In her mosque there is a new imam. Yes, there are many many new converts to Islam in her mosque. Last year for the first time, they had a Christmas party in the mosque with a festive meal and cakes. They exchanged gifts for Christmas". I asked her why would a Muslim celebrate Christmas, it is not a Muslim holiday. She answered that "the imam said that Jesus is a prophet and that the mosque should celebrate his birthday with a festival and gifts".

Another contact, a Moroccan woman named H who lives in England told me:

"There is a woman who comes to her mosque. She is very very verypious. She attends all of the prayers and covers with a khimar (this is a very long cape like covering that is above and beyond the headscarf) and a niqab (face covering, also not required by Islam, way beyond), she is very very pious and I should learn from her. (H does not cover her hair, but she does dress modestly). H told me that her new friend is single and has no friends since she converted to Islam. So she invited H to come home with her to her family for Xmas last year, "for moral support". She took H to church and candlelight mass and then to Xmas dinner with her "large extended family". H enjoyed it very much, it was very beautiful and because they knew she was coming, they purchased kosher meat (where she lives there is no halal market and so she buys kosher meat as do many Muslims in the West). I told her that I thought that this woman was a missionary and that this was staged. At first she was appalled that I would say something about this "sincere and pious convert". But then she asked around and found out that this woman has taken several women from the mosque to her Church.

My former neighbor, KB has told me that "Jesus never had any place in Islam, it is the result of missionaries that anyone would consider Jesus a prophet"

But do an internet search and you will see that in the West, Muslims are being bombarded with the concept that Jesus is a prophet in Islam.

On another topic, I have also spoken to a Hindu neighbor of mine.

She told me that her family has been aggressively invited for Xmas each year by their neighbors. She does not want to go, but feels very compelled to go because the neighbors tell her that "in America, it is considered traitorous not to celebrate Xmas because it is an American holiday". She is also similarly invited for Thanksgiving which she does not want her family to celebrate. But she works on Thanksgiving and Xmas (double time pay) and while she is at work and her husband is home with the kids, the Christian neighbors aggressively invite them.

This is nothing new and should be expected. But the concept that missionaries are converting to Judaism and Islam in order to witness in the shuls and mosques is fairly new. (I can write you about synagogues they have taken over too BTW).

Abuse: Problem of recovered memories

NYTIMES

BATES CITY, Mo. — On a dead-end dirt road, through frosted crops and bales of hay in this sleepy town about a half-hour east of Kansas City, state investigators spent much of last week excavating the yard around a farmhouse, looking for decades-old evidence of sex crimes against children.

Their search was prompted, law enforcement officials say, by a 26-year-old woman who went to the police in nearby Independence, Mo., in August and accused her grandfather, father and three uncles of sexually abusing her and her siblings as children, beginning in the winter of 1988 and continuing for seven years.

According to criminal complaints and other court papers, the woman said she had recovered suppressed memories of mock weddings, sexual acts involving children, rape and a sex act involving an animal that took place in and around the secluded old Bates City farmhouse, a wooded 55-acre property formerly owned by her grandfather, Burrell E. Mohler Sr. [...]

Shalva of Har Nof: Story of a heart

JPost

The night I meet with Gerry and Theresa Casey, Jerusalem is enjoying its first wintry weather of the year. However, for the natives of Sligo in the northwest of Ireland, the storm brewing outside is reminiscent of the type of climate they have tried to escape this past year to give their little girl Rachel, born with Down's syndrome and serious heart defects, a better quality of life.

"We were told by doctors in Ireland that a warm climate could increase Rachel's life expectancy for up to five years," says Gerry, 40, who officially arrived here with Theresa, Rachel and the couple's three older children - Sean, nine, Emma, seven, and Louisa, five - in December.[...]

Abuse:Clergy malpractice I - Obeying a rabbi

One of the critical issues in dealing with abuse is the legal status of the advice or guidance of a rabbi not to call the police in abuse cases - especially when this is a violation of mandated reporting. Does this constitute clergy malpractice in the sense of a doctor, lawyer or psychologist giving bad advise? Who is liable for a person not reporting abuse when a rabbi said not to. As a general rule it seems that a clergyman is not held responsible but rather the person who acts on his advice. This is especially true when the person acting on the clergyman's advice is an adult. See Rabbi Mark Dratch's article

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A breach of the duty owed by a member of the clergy (e.g., trust, loyalty, confidentiality, guidance) that results in harm or loss to his or her parishioner. A claim for clergy malpractice asserts that a member of the clergy should be held liable for professional misconduct or an unreasonable lack of competence in his or her capacity as a religious leader and counselor.

Generally speaking, most clergy malpractice cases are couched in terms of TORT LAW as matters of alleged NEGLIGENCE, abuse of authority or power, inappropriate conduct, breach of confidentiality and trust, or incompetence. The claims assert that members of the clergy owe the same kind of duty to persons they serve as doctors owe to patients or lawyers owe to clients. Most licensed professionals in the secular world, including physicians, lawyers, and psychologists, may be held liable for negligence. Clergy members, however, are not licensed as professional counselors, making them accountable only to religious standards in many jurisdictions. Moreover, because the practice (or "free exercise") of religion is protected by the Constitution, which, under the FIRST AMENDMENT, requires separation of church and state, courts remain reluctant to apply secular laws to what they perceive as religious matters. For these and other social reasons, claims of clergy malpractice historically were relatively fruitless, with courts consistently ruling in favor of defendants. In the late 1990s, however, a rising number of sexual misconduct allegations surfaced in the Roman Catholic Church, which resulted in courts taking a closer look at the viability of such a legal premise.

Christian fund protects Jews

JPost

Ramle Mayor Yoel Lavi is disgusted at the failure of several bystanders to come to the aid of a man who was viciously assaulted by a dozen gang members in a local park last week.[...]

City Without Violence costs NIS 20 million a year to operate. The government covers 47 percent of the outlay, while the International Fellowship of Christians Jews pays for 38%. Local authorities pay for the remaining 15%.