Chofetz Chaim: Teaching needed information that might be misunderstood?

Chofetz Chaim(Hilchos Lashon Harah 8:7): Furthermore if someone has been established in the city as a rasha (wicked person) because sins for which it is permitted to degrade him – then it is also permitted to speak lashon harah about him (See the Be’er Mayim Chaim for the conditions that need to be fulfilled). What does it mean that he is established as a rasha? It is someone that the community collectively has no doubt because of the evil rumors that are constantly said about him concerning adultery and other such things which it is quite clear that all Jews understand that they are prohibited. However if there are just vague rumors that he is wicked – it is prohibited to rely on them to degrade him. Even to decide in your heart that he is wicked is prohibited based on vague rumors as I explained in Clall 7. I was very afraid to publish this halacha because of the speakers of lashon harah who will misapply it. They assume that because they heard a disparaging comment about someone that therefore he is a presumptive rasha and they can say degrading things about him and they will blame my sefer for doing it. Nevertheless I did not delete it. This is according to the principle stated in Bava Basra (89b), The ways of G‑d are upright and the righteous go in them but the sinners stumble in them (Hoshea 14:10)

.חפץ חיים (הלכות אסורי לשון הרע – ח:ז): . ודע עוד, דאם מחזק בעיר לרשע (יד) מפני שאר עניני עברות, שמתר עבורם לגנותו, (טו) גם כן דינא הכי (כך), (ועין בבאר מים חיים הפרטים, שצריך לזה), ואיזהו מחזק? כל שהסכם בפני אנשי העיר לרשע, עד שלא יפל להם בו ספק (מחמת שמועות הרעות, שיוצאות עליו תמיד מעניני נאוף וכיוצא בזה, דברים שנתפשט ידיעת אסורן בכל ישראל), אבל אם יצא עליו קול בעלמא בלבד, אסור לסמך על זה לגנותו, חס ושלום, ואפלו להחליט בלב אסור, וכמו שבארנו לעיל בכלל ז'. (ואף שיראתי מאד להעתיק דין הזה מפני בעלי הלשון, שכשישמעו על אחד שמץ דבר מה, תכף יחזיקו את האיש ההוא למחזק ברשע ויגנו אותו ויתלו את ההתר בספר הזה, עם כל זה לא השמטתיו, כמאמרם ז"ל בבבא בתרא (פט:) על רבן יוחנן בן זכאי, אמרה ומהאי קרא אמרה, (הושע יד:י), "כי ישרים דרכי ה' וצדיקים ילכו בם ופושעים יכשלו בם"):

R' Leib Tropper quits Eternal Jewish Family

Rav Elya Ber Wachtfogel Assumes EJF Leadership,

Rav Leib Tropper Steps Down - Eternal Jewish Family

December 14, 2009

Statement by the Eternal Jewish Family

The Eternal Jewish Family (EJF) announces today that Rav Elya Ber Wachtfogel, the Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva Zichron Moshe in South Fallsburg and one of the leading Gedolei Hatorah internationally, has agreed to assume the position of Chairman of the Rabbinic Committee of the Eternal Jewish Family following an announcement that Rav Leib Tropper has resigned that position effective December 12, 2009. Rav Wachtfogel joins a distinguished board of rabbinic and halachic authorities who oversee the activities of EJF, headed by Rav Reuven Feinstein, Chairman of the Halachic Committee (US), Dayan Chanoch Ehrentreu (Europe) and Rav Shmuel Eliezer Stern (Av Bais Din of Rabbi Wosner’s Bais Din – Israel).

EJF also announced that Rabbi Chaim Blum, EJF’s liaison to the network of Botei Din in the Torah community, has agreed to serve as interim director of EJF. The organization operates offices in the US, Europe and Israel with international headquarters in Monsey NY. In accepting the position, Rabbi Blum said: “The recent announcement by Rav Tropper that he is resigning his post at EJF is accepted with sadness and regret but we appreciate the years of dedication and service he brought to the organization. His vision, expertise and leadership significantly contributed to EJF’s success.  The announcement by some of the world’s leading Torah authorities that they will take an increased role in the Eternal Jewish Family is testimony of the organization’s strength and commitment to its core mission. The many people who benefit from EJF’s activities should know that the organization remains fully committed to its important mission, one which has helped thousands of people in their pursuit of a Jewish life.”

Statement by Rabbi Leib Tropper
I have decided to resign my position at the Eternal Jewish Family (EJF) effective December 12, 2009 to pursue a variety of other interests. As a founder of EJF, I am proud of my role of being an architect of a very dynamic and important movement in our community.   I will in the coming months do my utmost to be of service to the Jewish community in any way I can. I am extremely enthusiastic that a distinguished Torah personality of the stature of Rav Ela Ber Wachtfogel has agreed to assume my position of Chairman of the Rabbinic Committee and that Rabbi Chaim Blum has agreed to serve as interim director of EJF. I wish every continued success to EJF, its rabbinic leadership and the extraordinary team of dayanim and dedicated individuals that serve the organization in many parts of the world.

Statement by Rav Reuven Feinstein, President of Halachic Committee on EJF
It is with a deep sense of regret and yet renewal that I note a change in leadership of the Eternal Jewish Family that includes the agreement by Rav Ela Ber Wachtfogel to serve as Chairman of the Rabbinic Committee of the Eternal Jewish Family.  I hope that Rav Leib Tropper’s decision to resign his position at EJF will serve him and his family well.  At the same time, I have also agreed to take on a more active role in overseeing all of the halachic nuances of EJF in assuring that all universally accepted conversions are in compliance with the highest standards of halacha. I wish to reassure the community that EJF will continue to be guided by the highest halachic standards under the leadership of the Gedolei Yisroel, headed by Rav Wachtfogel and myself in the US, Dayan Chanoch Ehrentreu in Europe and Rav Shmuel Eliezer Stern in Israel.

For More Information, please contact: Erin Gentry - 917.392.1775

Yashrus: Intuitive human ethics & commonsense

On Wednesday December 16, 2009 Rav Meir Triebitz will be give a presentation on the role in halacha - expecially that governing society - of the innate human understanding called yashrus. This is actually a presentation of the introduction he is writing for my sefer dealing child abuse.

The presentation will be in English in Har Nof and the public is welcome. Please call me to confirm at 054 461 470

מדרש תנאים (דברים פרק יב:כח): כי תעשה הטוב והישר הטוב בעיני שמים והישר בעיני אדם דברי ר' עקיבה: ר' ישמעאל אומ' הישר בעיני שמים והטוב בעיני אדם וה"א (מש' ג ד) ומצא חן ושכל טוב בעיני אלהים ואדם:

Poster from Jerusalem about R Tropper

This poster has been widely disseminated in Jerusalem. I make no assertions about its accuracy or truth - It is purely for your information.

Mekubal's translation

Get out Unclean thing!!!

Eretz Yisrael is shaken for 400 parsangs upon the 400 parsangs in which the lie has been revealed of such a boorish man - it is the very Leib Tropper from America that stands so to speak as the head of the body of giur, who pretends to draw near and convert hearts to our Father in Heaven.

Truly he does the acts of Zimri and seeks a reward like Pinchas. And in this we are alerting that if he does not cease from this filth and from these actions and he will not separate from his work and he will continue upon this way of lying about our holy Rabbis, we will publish his disgrace publicly accompanied by terrifying pictures, photographs and video.

Rabbi Lookstein :Sexual ethics course at Ramaz

NYTimes

Nearing his ninth decade, formal in vested suit and cufflinks, Rabbi Haskel Lookstein strode purposefully into a classroom of Ramaz High School on Manhattan's Upper East Side one recent Monday afternoon. He checked the presence and location of his 18 students against a seating chart. He chided one for arriving moments late.

Then he led off the discussion of the homework assignment. It consisted of an article from the national Jewish newspaper, The Forward, about a married couple who participate avidly in both synagogue and swinging. "Aren't these people just being honest?" Rabbi Lookstein asked. Five or six hands immediately shot up.

So began another day in Jewish Sexual Ethics, the course better known around Ramaz, even to its teacher, as "Sex With the Rabbi." For the last 23 years, since Rabbi Lookstein devised the class, he has taught it to every 10th grader to pass through Ramaz, a Modern Orthodox institution combining rigorous secular and religious curriculums.[...]

Conservative convert buried outside main cemetery

JPost

Chief Sephardi Rabbi Shlomo Amar ruled Sunday that a 13-year-old boy who passed away over the weekend in Madrid had to be buried in a separate burial section demarcated by a row of trees because he had converted to Judaism in a Conservative rabbinical court.

Ben-David was buried Sunday in a special section of Madrid's Jewish cemetery reserved for people whose Jewishness is in question.

Rabbi Moshe Ben-Dahan, the Chief Orthodox Rabbi of Madrid, told The Jerusalem Post that Amar ruled against burying Ben-David in the main part of Madrid's Jewish cemetery.[...]

To adopt a non-Jewish child - must be Orthodox

Haaretz

Nira and Yaron had been trying to have a baby for eight years. They did everything - in-vitro fertilizations, egg donations, treatments in Israel and abroad. Nothing worked. The only way they would be able to have a family was by adoption. The Taf adoption agency found a baby for them after a few weeks of searches, and they were called to Belarus to adopt an abandoned 11-month-old baby boy. Their happiness knew no bounds.

When they returned to Israel, they immediately began the process of having the baby converted to Judaism. They turned to the rabbinic court in Ashkelon, the seat of the head of the conversion administration, Rabbi Yosef Avior. The rabbi told them that if they wanted to have the baby converted, they would have to become observant Jews. The couple told Avior that they live a secular lifestyle but that they observe commandments: Yaron puts on phylacteries every morning and Nira observes the basic commandments for women. Nira and Yaron pledged in writing at the meeting that they would raise little Yair in the same way. It took a while, but at the age of 17 months, Yair underwent circumcision with the approval of the conversion administration.[...]

Kars4kids defends its reputation

Kars4Kids writes to respond to the December 12th article in the Newark Star Ledger involving the suggestion that Kars4Kids or any of its related charities have been involved in financial misdeeds, including money laundering or other illegal practices.  Not only are any such suggestions completely false the newspaper report is based on unjustified accusations in court papers from a court case that has nothing at all to do with Kars4Kids.  Those papers do make serious accusations against a number of charities involving millions of dollars. BUT KARS4KIDS IS NOT ONE OF THEM

The article states at the very beginning that "At issue are millions in payments to Kars4Kids and more than 60 other registered charities."  This is completely misleading.  No one -- not even the lawyers who made the original claims -- has EVER said that "millions" of dollars having anything to do with Eliyahu Weinstein have ever been paid by, through or to Kars4Kids. (In fact Mr. Weinstein has never even donated to our charity!)  Of all the transactions involving Kars4Kids that the lawyer in question claimed "carry the scent of money laundering," despite the impression left by the newspaper article,

KARS4KIDS IS NOT ONE OF THEM!

In fact, the same lawyer who made these claims filed an extensive list in court detailing the "millions of dollars" he thinks may be money laundering, down to the penny.  Anyone can download this list from the Internet. It names every one of the 68 Jewish charities he is accusing of possible involvement in this crime and the specific amounts involved.

KARS4KIDS IS NOT ONE OF THEM! 

The Star Ledger chose to write about the "local angle" -- a New Jersey charity whose name people recognize because of its success.  The magnetism of such a story to its readers, when mixed with the "religious wrongdoers" claims, was raw meat to the newspaper.  It was prepared to publish this story no matter how desperately it had to cut and paste unconnected "facts" or even unconnected accusations.  There are serious accusations against charities in this lawsuit, but KARS4KIDS IS NOT ONE OF THEM!

So what is the Kars4Kids "connection"?  A few years ago Kars4Kids was involved with a single transaction with a third party.  That third party in turn conveyed money to the defendant in that lawsuit, Eliyahu Weinstein, with no direct involvement of Kars4Kids.  Two years prior Oorah, Inc., a related charity, exchanged its old office 421 West County Line Road for the office building located next door to its current headquarters at 1785 Swarthmore.  The lawyer involved in the present Weinstein litigation, seeing the name of Kars4Kids in banking records produced in the case, served us with a subpoena so he could satisfy his clients that nothing "went on" with Kars4Kids and his client's money.  We resisted the subpoena at first because it was unnecessarily invasive and broad.  Our charity has nothing to hide, but is obligated to protect its donors privacy and its own private information.  We filed a motion in that court to quash the subpoena and eventually worked out a friendly agreement to give them what they needed to go on with their case.  That litigation is going on and involves a large number of accusations, suspected transactions and defendants.  KARS4KIDS IS NOT ONE OF THEM

Kars4Kids is the real deal.  We have nothing to hide and because the public has supported our programs so generously we have no need to make money the dishonest way, and never have.  There are lots of negative stories out there, unfortunately, that put Klal Yisroel in a bad light, and a lot of people and institutions that bear great guilt for causing Chillul Hashem by their actions.  KARS4KIDS IS NOT ONE OF THEM!

What's wrong with raising funds for a rapist?

JC.COM

A strictly Orthodox community is running a fundraising campaign for a convicted child molester who avoided jail by hiding in London for two years.

Nachman Stal lived secretly among the Charedi community in Stamford Hill, north London, having fled Israel in 2006 after being found guilty of sodomy and indecent assault of a minor.

The father-of-nine lost an extradition hearing in June and is now serving his sentence in an Israeli prison.

Members of the Stamford Hill community are appealing for money to support his wife and children, who have also returned to Israel..A fundraising committee spokesman, who asked not to be named, said: "We are trying to raise a large amount both for legal fees and also to support the family. We are doing what we can to help.[...]

The Tiger Woods of the Chareidi world

There is an ancient saying that there is always something in the Jewish world corresponding to what goes on in the non-Jewish world.

There will soon be a major earthquake upon the publication of the information which was associated with the following excerpt from an email I recently received. The information is now being verified. - but has not been so far. However it was also sent out to a number of others who will probably be the ones to actually publish the explosive and disgusting material. It will result in the effective end of a very powerful figure.

8 יְחֶזְקֵאל:

יב וַיֹּאמֶר אֵלַי, הֲרָאִיתָ בֶן-אָדָם, אֲשֶׁר זִקְנֵי בֵית-יִשְׂרָאֵל עֹשִׂים בַּחֹשֶׁךְ, אִישׁ בְּחַדְרֵי מַשְׂכִּיתוֹ: כִּי אֹמְרִים, אֵין יְהוָה רֹאֶה אֹתָנוּ--עָזַב יְהוָה, אֶת-הָאָרֶץ

.

יג וַיֹּאמֶר, אֵלָי: עוֹד תָּשׁוּב תִּרְאֶה תּוֹעֵבוֹת גְּדֹלוֹת, אֲשֶׁר-הֵמָּה עֹשִׂים

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Ezekiel Chapter 8:

12 Then said He unto me: 'Son of man, hast thou seen what the elders of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in his chambers of imagery? For they say: the LORD seeth us not, the LORD hath forsaken the land.'

13 He said also unto me: 'Thou shalt again see yet greater abominations which they do.'

Deuteronomy דְּבָרִים 1:17

לֹא תָגוּרוּ מִפְּנֵי-אִישׁ, כִּי הַמִּשְׁפָּט לֵאלֹהִים הוּא

Be not afraid of the face of any man; for Judgment is God's

B'ezrat Hashem Yitbarach

24 Kislev 5770
"For out of Zion shall go forth Torah, and word of Hashem from Yerushalayim" 

A group of G-d-fearing individuals called Ezekiel 8:13 wishes to draw your attention to the following:

100 year old active molester released from jail

MSNBC

Everything that pedophile Theodore Sypnier has to show for his 100 years on Earth is packed in a single duffel bag as he prepares to begin a new chapter in life: freedom.

It's a chapter that prosecutors, judges and others who know him never wanted — or expected — to see written.

New York's oldest registered sex offender is scheduled to move by week's end out of a Buffalo halfway house for released inmates and into a place of his own, after completing his latest term in state prison for molesting little girls.

The judge who sentenced him said at the time that she expected him to die behind bars.[...]

Conservative Judaism - Increasingly irrelevant

Haaretz

Some of Conservative Judaism's top leaders found little to criticize within their own movement when they gathered together December 7 for a panel discussion on the future direction of their troubled denomination.

The plenary forum at the biennial convention of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism saw one panelist tout renewed involvement by rabbinic spouses in congregational life as a crucial tonic. Another lamented that the movement's "detractors" failed to recognize Conservative Judaism's far-reaching and vital role in Jewish life. Yet another acknowledged generically that the movement had "failed to live up to our own best ideals," but did not specify how.

Meanwhile, the chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary - traditionally seen as Conservative Judaism's titular leader - was nowhere to be seen on the dais or even in the audience. Though spotted having dinner just minutes earlier with USCJ?s new executive vice president, Rabbi Steven Wernick, who served as a panelist, it was announced from the podium that Chancellor Arnold Eisen had been invited to participate but was "unable" to make it. JTS spokeswoman Sherry Kirschenbaum did not deny a report that Eisen declined to take part in the panel because he wanted, but was denied, the role of moderator.[...]

Fire: Chanukah safety rules

Maccabee Aish Jewish Fire Prevention

Menorah Safety

    * Don't leave Chanukah candles unattended and never go to sleep while Chanukah candles are burning
    * Place the Menorah on a sturdy heat resistant surface away from anything that can catch fire including walls, curtains, cabinets, wooden and plastic tables, tablecloths, etc
    * Light candles out of childrens reach and where they cannot be knocked over
    * Keep surfaces and surrounding areas clear from burned matches, wick trimmings, oil residue, and other debris
    * Do not light "school project" Menorahs made from materials that can burn (wood, plastic, etc)

When Cooking Latkes

    * Keep small children away from hot oil and cooking areas
    * Keep pot handles turned inward and away from the edge of the stove
    * Keep hands, hair and sleeves away from open flame
    * Use extra caution when carrying hot food around children
    * Designate ovens, stoves, and heat containing appliances as a "NO GO ZONE" for children
    * Never put water on a grease fire, use a fire extinguisher and call the Fire Dept amergency number
    * Treat burns immediately by cooling with cool water and call your emergency number

Obama's EEOC Nominee is gay rights advocate

FOX

President Obama's controversial nominee for the EEOC, Chai Feldblum, has not been shy about her plans to fight for gay rights -- a position that is now is drawing sharp criticism.

President Obama's controversial nominee for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Chai Feldblum, has not been shy about her plans to fight for gay rights -- a position that is now is drawing sharp criticism.

"She's been an aggressive advocate for some of the most radical views that have ever been expressed," said Wendy Wright, president of Concerned Women for America.[...]