The Organized Resistance Against Phony Agunahs by Joe Orlow

It is not for plain, simple, members of the community to publicly question the religious rulings of the Rabbis of congregations. The role of entering into these Halachic discussions is the perogative of the great scholars of the generation.

We hold, however, that it is the obligation of every good man -- Jew and Gentile alike -- to protest when Rabbinical leaders promote lawlessness.

Therefore, we wish to go on the record as saying:

(1) No more incitement to riot in other people's Shuls.

(2) No more incitement to snatch husbands and violently attack them.

Rabbis involved in this incitement are

The Rabbis of the Washington Vaad;

Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz; and

Rabbi Shmuel Kamenetsky.

We call on these Rabbis to rescind their inflammatory rhetoric and act to restore calm and peace to the community.

We cannot emphasize enough that we have no personal enmity against these Rabbis. If their car were to be stuck, we would come to their aid; in their respective domains, they are each Mora D'Asra, and all who choose to enter there should exhibit respect to them.

But when these princes of Our Nation venture into the public realm and trample the common values of Man and G-d, what citizen with any shred of feeling can remain still?

If they want to stir up others to beat their own followers, or foment a riot in their own Minyan -- by all means! But they have not limited their thuggery to those who willingly submit to them.

Therefore, with reluctance and regret, we unsheathe from our First Amendment scabbard the same weapon of the word that these men have wielded against us. We will go to the streets and online and trumpet the alarm to awake our unwary friends and neighbors.

Know that these kind, smiling, educated men we've collectively hired and/or elevated to "Gadol" status can also be nasty, arrogant, and bullheaded when it comes to placing their honor and selfish interests above the integrity of the Torah. That innocent people standing in their way get hurt seems to mean nothing to them.

We want to express Hakaros Hatov to fellow community members Mrs. Sara Barak, Dr. Jeremy and Mrs. Erica Brown, Mr. David and Mrs. Sharon Butler, Mrs. Avraham Rubin, Mr. Nathan and Mrs. Elizabeth Diament, Mrs. Sara Elikan, Dr. John Golin and Trish Weissman, Dr. Jacques and Mrs. Susan Gorlin, Mr. Dean and Mrs. Devorah Grayson, Mr. Ed and Mrs. Lori Greenberg, Mrs. Elanit Rothschild Jakabovics, Mr. David Janus, Mr. Avi Kaplan, Miss Rella Kaplowitz, Rabbi Ira and Mrs. Rachel Kosowsky, Mr. Neil and Mrs. Fran Kritz, Mr. David Levin and Ms. Debbie Rosenbloom, Rabbi Avi and Mrs. Debby Levitt, Mr. Avi Litwack, Mr. David and Mrs. Giliah Litwack, Mr. Maury Litwack, Mr. Moshe and Mrs. Rose Litwack, Dr. Jonathan and Mrs. Michelle Schneck. Mr. Joseph and Mrs. Orlee Turitz. Their groundbreaking and pioneering letter five years ago paved the way for us to openly and boldly state our position.

Rav Shmuel Kaminetsky receives support - not for being right but for being a gadol!

update: Those who signed were told that it was a private show of support for Rav Kaminetsky and that it would not be made public. The original text is the first version. It was modified after it was signed to indicate that the support was also for Rav Shmuel's psak. Lakewood was flooded with the second version which contains the loyalty clause regarding psak. Third version claims that the 2nd version was a forgery to cause machlokes - it is now the dominant version in Lakewood
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One of the great tragedies of the this crises is the way the issue of a heter which is causing a couple to commit adultery - is being avoided. Neither Rav Shmuel Kaminetsky or Rav Nota Greenblatt have actually defended their actions. The following excuses for not discussing the heter is 1) it is complicated so don't mix in 2) I didn't investigate the facts but depended on a psychiatrist who must know what he is doing or else he would damage his reputation 3) I didn't pasken but relied totally on somone else 4) It is worse to criticize a gadol then to commit adultery 5) Rav Kaminetsky and Rav Greenblatt have done so much for Yiddishkeit - how dare you open your mouth.
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FIRST VERSION

SECOND VERSION  - added it is Torah requirement to fully accept his psakim

THIRD VERSION: Claims the second version regarding psak is forgery to cause machlokes

Nathan Lewin: Defense of the Epstein Torture Gang - because they were just doing a mitzva!?

Nathan Lewin is a very smart lawyer - but in his continued defense of the Epstein Torture gang he is showing he knows nothing about elementary halacha. Torturing a husband to give a Get invalidates the Get. Furthermore it is clear that Epstein was doing it for money - not for the mitzva of freeing an Aguna. 

But even if he were doing it for a noble cause - his lack of concern for the facts as well as the illegality of kidnapping and torture - makes the whole enterprise disgusting. It is a chilul haShem and embarrassment to the Jewish community that the Jewish Press saw fit to publish such trash. Perhaps next week they will have an article about torturing a beis din into giving the wife an annulment or perhaps it will be enough to give substantial bribe - for this noble cause. Why does he think that the end justifies any and all means?! 

Instead of focusing his complaints on the FBI and the American Justice system for protecting husband from torture - he should have spent some time asking halachic experts for letters supporting Epstein's work. Does he really think Epstein's approach is supported by the mainstream poskim? If so - who are they? 

Is Lewin in favor of special training in torture techniques for dayanim so they can be more effective? Maybe instead of electric shock, Epstein should have used an electric drill on the brain of these stubborn husbands or maybe slowing skinning them alive! How can a frum lawyer defend the Epstein torture gang?

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Jewish Press

In more than 50 years of practicing law as both a prosecutor and defense counsel I have witnessed no more misguided and foolishly destructive use of law-enforcement resources than the FBI’s recent triumph in a federal court in Trenton, New Jersey.

Three distinguished rabbis who had courageously championed the cause of agunot – women whose former husbands cruelly prevent their remarriage by deliberately withholding a Get – were sentenced in mid-December to terms of ten years, eight years, and more than three years in federal prison because they were induced by FBI actors to participate in what they believed was a “forced Get” but was, in reality, nothing more than a show – a “sting” – created by the federal authorities.

The FBI set out to lure rabbis who would actively – perhaps over-zealously – try to have a recalcitrant husband (who did not exist) authorize the writing and delivery of a Get to a weeping agunah who was, in reality, an FBI agent. The agent’s acting talent persuaded the trusting rabbis that she was authentic, particularly because she brandished a forged but legitimate-looking ketubah and a seruv signed by the presiding dayan of the Beth Din of America fraudulently secured by the FBI.[...]

The “Getcha Sting” backed the wrong side in the battle between agunot and their despicable recalcitrant husbands. There are, to be sure, legitimate law-enforcement objectives that require undercover agents and call for “stings.” Potential terrorists have been smoked out by federal agents who masqueraded as compatriots or supporters. Under-age prostitution in 135 cities was stopped in October as a result of a “massive FBI sting.” The famed “Abscam” prosecutions of seven Congressmen and one Senator in 1980 grew out of an FBI “sting.”

If the FBI had some basis to believe that rabbis had formed a mafia-style organization to beat recalcitrant husbands, it might have justified a “sting” directed at such a group to prevent future violence. But the “Getcha Sting” began with efforts to lure ORA and the Beth Din of America into the FBI’s web. Not only was this an enormously foolish expenditure of federal law-enforcement resources, it was a disastrous choice made by the FBI. Husbands who withhold gittin from victimized agunot are evil, and one would expect the FBI to choose the virtuous side in this conflict. The FBI should have sided with the agunot, not with the spouses who flout rabbinic orders to give a Get.[...]

The presiding judge wrongly excluded all evidence of religious motivation and intent. From the beginning of the Trenton trial, I and the other three defense counsel tried to present to the jury the overriding motive of all those who planned and participated in the trip to the warehouse. None truly wanted to lay a hand on the fictional husband or to engage in violence. All believed the husband might agree to authorize a Get if he was only confronted. All thought they were performing a mitzvah in helping to free an agunah.[...]

The FBI’s “Getcha Sting” was comparable to similar “stings” that have been found “outrageous” so that prosecutions were dropped. Did the prosecution’s conduct in creating the “sting” entitle the defense to claim that the defendants had been “entrapped?” The current law on entrapment presents a significant obstacle to such a defense. But the FBI’s conduct is not beyond correction by the courts. Federal courts have dismissed criminal cases when the prosecution’s conduct in promoting and prosecuting fictional crimes was “outrageous.” Last January the federal prosecutor in Chicago dropped charges against 27 black and Hispanic defendants who were charged after being arrested following similar “stings” conducted by the United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). [....

If the ATF’s “sting” was so outrageous that Zachary Fardon, the federal prosecutor in Chicago, dropped 27 cases against black and Hispanic defendants rather than prosecute them, why did Paul J. Fishman, the United States attorney for the District of New Jersey, proceed with the trial of rabbis and young Jewish men who committed a less serious offense than attempted robbery and possession of cocaine? And why did he urge severe prison sentences for rabbis and Orthodox Jews who were only trying to perform the mitzvah of freeing an agunah?

Supporter of Rav Kaminetsky: I don't know what happened but I know you don't know either and therefore can't deal with this issue!

update: added comment about violation of Shulchan Aruch with their continued silence

This is the first response to my request for a defense other than that Rav Kaminetsky is a gadol.

His response is that that besides Rav Kaminetsky being a gadol - he knows that I don't know what happened even though he admits he doesn't know what happened.  But how does he know that - if he doesn't know what happened and he doesn't know whether I know what happened?! So this is the standard defense- Rav Kaminetsky is a gadol and you have no right or competence to deal with this issue. Only gedolim can deal with the issue - hidden from the eyes and ears of the masses. Sad! 

Please enough with the gadol defense. The facts are clear and well documented on this blog. There must be one person who is competent to respond intelligently.
 update:

IsraelReader • 

Our well-meaning yungerman, apparently has missed an explicit halacha in Shulchan Aruch Yoreh De'ah (YD 242:10) that a rabbi is not allowed to permit something that people perceive as being prohibited. Period. However there happens to be a leniency formulated by the Shach (s.v 17), IF the rabbi provides a clear rationalization for his ruling.

ש"ך יורה דעה סימן רמב, ס"ק יז
שאסור לחכם כו' - נראה דהיינו דוקא אם מתיר בסתם... אבל אם
אומר לשואל טעם בדבר ומראה לו פנים, או שמביא ראיות מתוך הספר מותר. עכ"ל.

Hence, the rabbi(s) involved in this alleged היתר are either halachically prohibited from making such pronouncements (as per the Shulchan Aruch), or they are duty bound to explain the basis for their leniency (as per the Shach).

The public is waiting to hear the defense of this unusual ruling. The burden to explain such a ruling lies on those who made it. Until they do so, the ruling is allowed to be criticized. In fact, it MUST be criticized, since this is part and parcel of the halachic process.

Did RNG or anybody else involved in this alleged היתר do so? Not to my knowledge.

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Please excuse my writing skills I'm just a simple yungerman Idon't really write but this is something that touches my heart so I will try to express myself as best as I can . 

Disclaimer I am not a talmid of rsk and I have never met rng.

 

You want a supporter to back the heter of rsk and rng . I can't do you know why? because I'm not involved in the case I wasn't in the room and neither were you so while I cant back it you cannot bash it Oh and most importantly I'm not a gadol. You want a supporter to back it How can anyone back something they are not involved in. Thats the simple answer .

The fact that we do know is reb shmuel Kaminetsky is around 90 yrs old has spent his entire life involved in torah and is moser nefesh daily for the sake of Klall yisroel. Reb nota greenblat spent his entire life involved in gittin and is respected by most gedolim in America as a top if not the top in inyanei gittiin in america.

So your going to say that the facts that we do know or think we know are mind boggling, don't add up at all to the heter. It does not make a difference to me.That does not mean I follow blindly and I don't ask or express interest and understanding I do And i also don't understand how they got to that heter but i trust that they are not corrupt based on their history.

So you want to say they made a mistake, maybe but again who am I Did i spend my life involved in torah involved in gittin no i did not and neither did you or anybody who writes in the comment section of your blog it means its not up to me or you to say that they made a mistake.

So your going to say a lot of Gedolim are against it and strongly disagree some even very strongly . That still does not give you the right in any way to make machahs or have a blog that get people to bash gedolei yisroel

.

In short this is not something for us to deal with. We have gedolim who deal with this Behind close doors. If you feel they are not doing enough then we ask them to do more . What does it help by posting ? any toeles? So now more bochurim in yeshivah coffe rooms and older men in the mikvah can hock details cause loshan harah rechilus people to loose emunas chachomim . How can you think this is the right mehalech . In my humble opinion the only think this blog on this story did was cause harm to klall yisroel.

A feminist supporter of Rav Shmuel Kaminetsky proudly says women are destroying Orthodoxy

Times of Israel

• This year, it became clear that the rabbis who understand the crucial need to solve the ‘Agunah Crisis’, which leaves women in a state of limbo, and thus make every effort to free women who have been turned away by every other Beit Din, are illegitimate, “pasul“. They are not to be listened to, their decisions are INVALID. And yet, those who invalidate them offer no other solutions for these women…

• Horrifically, we watch as a sordid, vile saga continues to unfold surrounding a woman who was denied a get for years and eventually was given an annulment by a reputable religious court. We read the letters from rabbis calling one another traitors and ‘evil men’. We watch in disbelief as some rabbis declare her to still be married and her future children bastards. The obsession with condemning and harassing the woman who was given the ruling juxtaposed against the total lack of condemnation of the man who could end it once and for all by giving her a divorce is a sick and twisted perversion. It is painful. [...]

The state of Orthodox Judaism is crumbling, and it is because of women — but it is not their ‘foreign desires’, their shunning of tradition, or their unkosher aspirations, rather it is their lack of options, opportunity, and respect for their true needs that is causing the schism.

And the louder you shout about how we are shaking the foundations, the deeper you forge the cracks.

Va'eirah; Why Yaakov Aveinu Was Afraid of The Makkos

Guest Post by Rabbi Shlomo Pollak

The Daas Zekeinim Mibaalei Tosfus, in Parshas Vayechi, discusses two reasons Yaakov Aveinu did not want to be buried in Mitzrayim. Both reasons are related to the Makkos....

One of those reasons, also taught to us by Rashi, is because Makkos Kinnim would effect his body....

The Baalei Tosfus ask on the reason from the Gemarrah in Baba Basra 17a, that Yaakov Aveinu's body would have been protected from the Kinnim...

But the way they ask the question, is instructive....

For questions and comments please email salmahshleima@gmail.com

Vaerah 76 - Sustaining Change or the Teshuva- Repentance of Pharaoh by Allan Katz

 Guest Post by Allan Katz   A central theme in the parasha is Pharaoh's refusal to set free the Israelites despite him and his people suffering the terrible consequences of his stubbornness and counter-will. Pharaoh's stubbornness and defiance was reinforced by God ' hardening his heart ' so that after a temporary relief from a plague, Pharaoh would go back on his word and was able to endure the divine plan of 10 plagues. The first question is how can God punish Pharaoh if his refusal to set the Israelites free was due to ' o' nes '= coercion, duress and force. It was beyond Pharaoh's power and control to set them free because God had hardened his heart against making this decision. The second question is why Pharaoh and people in general don't learn from their mistakes or bad choices, even when they suffer the terrible consequences of their choices and behaviors. The classical example is the alcoholic who because of drink loses his job, his wife leaves him, or gets imprisoned for destructive behavior under the influence of drink. He then shows remorse and makes promises to abstain from drink, which is usually short-lived and he is soon back in trouble again. Like Pharaoh , when they feel the stick beating down on them, they repent and do teshuva, but when the stick is removed , they go back to their old ways.

The hardening of Pharaoh's heart had 2 purposes. It came after an initial expression of stubbornness and obstinacy that had to be supported and counter-act the pain and suffering inflicted by the plagues. God did not want Pharaoh to release the people because of extrinsic reasons that he was unable to bear the suffering caused by the plagues. The Divine plan was that Pharaoh would release the Israelites when genuinely moved to repent and not for the wrong reasons - to avoid the consequences, punishments and suffering. The second purpose was to strengthen and highlight Pharaoh true will and intrinsic choice – to keep the Israelites as slaves. He was therefore not interested in setting them free. Although Pharaoh had no choice but to defy Moses' request and to refuse to set the people free because God had hardened his heart, this was truly what he wanted in his heart and therefore he was punished for this. There is a concept that when a person is forced or coerced to do something wrong or sin because of ' o'nes ' or duress, and there is an element of willingness on his part to do the action, the willingness in his heart defines the nature of the action. Instead of one being forced and therefore not accountable, the person, because of his deeper inner-will is said to have done the action intentionally and willingly. This is learned from the verse in Jeremiah 30:14. עַ֚ל רֹ֣ב עֲוֹנֵ֔ךְ עָצְמ֖וּ חַטֹּאתָֽיִךְ׃If most of a person sins were done intentionally – be'meizid, his unintentional mistakes are considered as intentional sins, since without being mistaken or acting without intention, he would have intentionally done those wrongs and sins at some later stage. So while Pharaoh's actions were not in his control, his heart approved and wanted what he was forced to do.

The reason why people don't sustain change over a long period of time is because they engage in the repentance of Pharaoh – repenting because of extrinsic reasons, changing just to avoid the consequences of sin and inappropriate behavior. And once there is relief from the consequences, they engage in denial or rationalizing what happened to them as being unfair or bad luck etc, and soon goes back to their old ways. Change can be sustained if a person has a new sense of purpose and a new vision of himself. His essential needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness need to be addressed as well. Change cannot be sustained if a person feels forced to change or change just to avoid consequences. He has to change because he believes in the positive value in what he does. Pharaoh has to change because he acknowledges God's role in the world and the role of the Israelites in God's plans. People need to feel self-determined, autonomous, and connected to their inner-beingsand values. So adopting a new life style and focusing on the underlying philosophy helps people with drink, eating, gambling, anger issues etc. Often people are lagging skills and competence required in order to adopt and live a new life style. They also need a lot of guidance to learn new skills. Then people also need to be supported by family, friends and care givers and to have a sense of belonging and acceptance. In this way, even if progress is 2 steps forward , one step back , their hearts are for doing the right thing and the teshuva they do is genuine , not the teshuva of Pharaoh done to avoid consequences.

When it comes to kids, most of their behavior can be described as beyond their control as they are lacking the skills needed to behave adaptively and flexibly when the demands that outstrip their skills are placed on them. If we support their autonomy, competence, relatedness and sense of belonging we will raise children who will engage in true teshuva and sustain real change in their lives, engaging in an autonomous way in the moral act of restitution and reparation and not do the teshuva of Pharaoh simply to avoid consequences. In this way we sustain change and create a commitment to the underlying values involved.

Thought provoking - but not frum: What's Divine About Divine Law by Prof Christine Hayes

We periodically get into discussion - sometimes heated - about man's rationality being subordinate to the Torah. I just came across a new book (publish 2015 ) which discusses these issues in great deal. The author is not frum - in fact she is a non-Jewish professor. She discusses this issuwe in her chapters on natural law.

However I think she has something to contribute to the discussion and clarify what the issues are. Obviously whatever conclusions reached are subordinate to halacha and our mesora. So I would recommend this book only for those who are secure in their Yiddishkeit and would like to gain a greater conceptual understanding of what the issues are and possible solutions.

here is one page of the book

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The present chapter searches for evidence of a moral theory of natural law, distinct
from the Mosaic Law, in rabbinic texts.

Some scholars argue that a conception of natural law distinct from the Mo­sai Law appears in rabbinic literature in sources that deal with norms that pre­date Sinai. In this chapter, we consider this claim by examining texts that deal with pre-Sinaitic normativity in general and the seven Noahide laws in partic­ular. Our goal is to determine whether the rabbinic sources dealing with these topics provide evidence of a rabbinic natural law theory. There is no question that post-talmudic thinkers drew upon the notion of seven Noahide laws as a basis for the construction of aJewish natural law theory, but is such a theory in­ herent in the talmudic conception of the Noahide laws, or of pre-Sinaitic norms in general?

By the Middle Ages, Jewish philosophers were explicitly engaged by the no­tion of natural law and its relation to the revealed law of Jewish tradition. The first jewish thinker to apply the term "natural law" in a Jewish context was Jo­seph Albo (fifteenth century) who divided law into natural, conventional, and divine categories (Novak 1998, 124-25). Nevertheless, David Novak has ar­gued that Albo was not the first Jewish thinker to conceive of natural law in the Jewish context (124) and that "natural law theory, using a variety of different terms for itself throughout the ages, has been a constant element in Jewish thought." In recent years, a number of scholars and constructive Jewish theo­logians have argued that a notion of natural law is compatible with Jewish tra­dition (as a supplement to the revealed Written Law and the Oral Law), while others have argued that the concept of natural law is incompatible with the doctrine of a divine revelation of law.' To be clear, it is not our purpose to de­termine whether Judaism-as a multimillenium religious culture-has devel­oped or incorporated a conception of natural law as distinct from the Mosaic Law at any time in its long history, or whether it can draw upon the concept of Noahide law for the construction of such a view today.' Our question is rather lin I 'I und distinctly historical: do the classical rabbinic sources of late antiquity (i.e., prior to the rise of medieval Jewish philosophy when Greek cat­egories are more clearly adopted and adapted to Jewish tradition) evince a con­ception of natural law that matches and reflects natural law discourse in antiq­uity? This is not a philosophical or theological question about the compatibility of natural law theories and the abstract entity "Judaism:' It is a historical ques­tion about the presence or absence of Greco-Roman natural law discourse and conceptions in the literature of rabbinic Jews from the second to the seventh century CEo Any candidate for the title of "rabbinic natural law theory" will 

No More Statutes of Limitations for Rape

NY Times   THIS week, Bill Cosby was charged with three counts of aggravated indecent assault. The felony charges stemmed from an incident more than a decade ago, in which Andrea Constand says Mr. Cosby drugged and assaulted her in his home. Mr. Cosby says he intends to fight the charges, and no court has found him liable for sexual misconduct.

The timing of the criminal charges was not arbitrary. The date of the alleged assault was Jan. 15, 2004, and Pennsylvania’s statute of limitations for rape and sexual assault is 12 years: If prosecutors had delayed two and a half weeks, the limit would have tolled.

Mr. Cosby’s public fall in the wake of dozens of accusations has been an education in the reality of sexual assault, especially concerning the long conspiracy of silence, and the weight of shame victims are made to carry, when the suspect is powerful and famous. “I was a teenager from Denver acting in McDonald’s commercials,” wrote Barbara Bowman, another of his accusers, in The Washington Post in 2014. “He was Bill Cosby.”

After decades of unsettling claims and quietly settled lawsuits, Mr. Cosby’s public reputation has gone from America’s dad to America’s creepy uncle. But Mr. Cosby finally faces prosecution only because of a deposition made public in July: If that testimony had been revealed just a few months later, it could have been too late for prosecutors to try this case.

The charging of Mr. Cosby, just under the wire, raises a key question: Why is there a statute of limitations for rape and sexual assault at all? Across the country, 34 states have statutes of limitations on rape, sexual assault or both, ranging from as little as three years up to 30. (A few states also have reporting deadlines tied to statutes of limitations; and a number of states provide for an exemption from statutes of limitations if a DNA match is later made on a reported rape or sexual assault.)

Restrictions on how long charges can be brought after the alleged commission of a crime exist primarily to prevent the deterioration of evidence, but also to promote public order, protect criminal defendants who may have a harder time guarding themselves against long-ago accusations, and encourage plaintiffs to bring cases or report crimes swiftly.

Those are laudable goals that make sense in theory. But in practice, they undermine justice for survivors.[...]

Steipler : Yaavetz' cure for severe depression and suicidal impulses - more love and affection with spouse

Steipler (Letters #10): Question: Concerning a person who suffers from severe depression who has tried to commit suicide. Answer. Perhaps it would be helpful to teach his wife to speak to him words of endearment and affection. Perhaps he is one who takes a very ascetic approach to marital relations. In truth that is what he needs for a cure as the Yaavetz states in his Siddur, "There is someone I know who fell into a severe depression and it became apparent from what he said that it is the result of studying Musar books. Because of these pietistic studies he only has marital relations once a week and that only happens after he makes many religious preparations and he only does it exactly at midnight...I told him that he should increase the frequency of marital relations even having them 3 or 4 times a week – or more. And he should be involved in showing affection and hugging and kissing..." Thank G-d he recovered completely from his depression and thus we see clear proof that the advice of the Yaavetz is very helpful....
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David Sedley 

Rabbi Eidensohn, as a psychologist who recognizes that there is such a thing as depression (which is not always cured by more frequent marital relations) why do you publicise this kind of teshuva? It may lead people to lose their faith in the Gedolim of the previous generation, or conversely it may lead to an increase in suicides.

Also, as an aside, what cure does the Steipler offer for single men? And what about for women?
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Daas Torah

Rabbi Sedley - as one who appreciates your genuine intelligence, commonsense and sensitivity - I am troubled by your question.The Steipler did not say that sexual frustration is the source of all depression or that a general cure for depression involves sexuality. Not all the details are included in this letter but it is reasonable to assume that a person with a history of depression and suicidal thoughts has been to therapists. Has already been prescribed medication and psychotherapy - but it isn't working. He is dealing with a person who he presumes to be obsessed with mussar and asceticism and as a result has a very unhealthy relationship with his wife. Such are not unusual in the yeshiva world and people who suffered from inappropriate spiritual endeavors [i.e. too much Mussar] were often referred to the Steipler.The point of the letter and the reason it is given out to chasanim - is not to tell yeshiva avreichim to avoid medical or psychological treatment for depression. It is not to say there is no halachically acceptable cure for depression for single men or women.It is simply to say that an unhealthy focus in spirituality can produce depression. An unhealthy attitude towards sexuality can produce depression. That depression resulting from a warped understanding of yiddishkeit and one's human needs - is not a badge of honor.A person needs to know what the Torah expects of him and what his or her genuine human needs and obligations are - and not try deny them by being a "tzadik".i

 .קהלת ז (טז) אַל תְּהִי צַדִּיק הַרְבֵּה וְאַל תִּתְחַכַּם יוֹתֵר לָמָּה תִּשּׁוֹמֵם

Lesson in true modesty

Tzfas Get: Use of Zichoi for Vegetative Husband: Collection of Views

  update: Received permission to allow downloads. There will be a new corrected version that will be available in a few days.   
בעז"ה בימים הקרובים תצא מהדו' מתוקנת עם כמה הוספות, אשלח אותה בעז"ה, ותוכל להכניסה להורדה.

Tzfas Get by Zichoi for vegetative husband 

Marc Gafni:A Spiritual Leader Gains Stature, Trailed by a Troubled Past

NY Times

 SEE Tablet Mag Part II

In his home office overlooking Monterey Bay, Marc Gafni is trying to remake American spirituality. He reads, he writes, and he works to bring a little-known philosophy called integral theory into the mainstream of New Age.

Integral theory “is based on the understanding that evolution itself is an expression of a spiritual universal force of creation embodied in each one of us as us, as unique selves,” said the futurist Barbara Marx Hubbard, who described Mr. Gafni as a leader of the movement.[...]

“We take the best of all the major disciplines of wisdom from the premodern period, the modern period and postmodern period,” Mr. Gafni said. “And we integrate them in a kind of renaissance project.”[...]

But the growing prominence of Mr. Gafni, 55, and his think tank has alarmed many Jewish leaders who know him as a former rabbi who was accused of sexually exploiting a high school freshman and who then moved to Israel to start a mystical community, only to lose it after having affairs with multiple followers.

Mr. Gafni, who talked about his past during several interviews, and his supporters say he has put all of that behind him. He said that old claims against him were all exaggerated, the result of professional resentment, and that he had been the victim of pseudofeminist witch hunts. (He handed this columnist a copy of “Sexual McCarthyism,” by Alan M. Dershowitz.)[...]

Mr. Gafni was born Mordechai Winiarz to an Orthodox family in Pittsfield, Mass., in 1960. His family moved to Ohio, and he attended an Orthodox Jewish high school in New York City. “He was one of the most brilliant students I have ever taught,” said Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, who ordained Mr. Gafni but later rescinded the ordination. [...]

Should approving adult-child sexual relations prevent a person from being a teacher?

CBS News

The University of Hawaii didn't violate First Amendment rights when it denied a teaching certificate for a Caltech-educated aspiring high school teacher who expressed views condoning adults having sex with minors, a panel of federal appeals court judges ruled Tuesday. [...]

"Oyama's statements concerning sexual relationships between adults and children were of central concern to the faculty," according to a ruling by the panel of judges on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

In a class assignment he wrote: "Personally I think that online child predation should be legal, and find it ridiculous that one could be arrested for comments they make on the Internet."

He went on to write that "real life child predation should be legal" as long as it's consensual and that the age of consent should be "either 0, or whatever age a child is when puberty begins."

When a professor discussed the statements with Oyama, he said it would be fine for a 12-year-old student to have a consensual relationship with a teacher, but that he would obey the law and report the relationship, according to the ruling.

Oyama made other comments his professors found concerning, such as disabled students being "fakers."

The comments were relevant in determining whether he should be allowed to work as a public school teacher, the panel concluded, and the university's decision was "directly related to defined and established professional standards" at state and national levels.

"Therefore, the university's decision was, by necessity, prospective in nature," the ruling said. "Oyama stood in the doorway of the teaching profession; he was not at liberty to step inside and break the rules. But that does not mean that the university was obligated to invite him in. Rather, the university could look to what Oyama said as an indication of what he would do once certified." [...]