Sexual molestation is absolutely prohibited according to halacha.

shoshi said... You see, as far as I understand, there is no clear case in halacha against pedophila, as long as it is directed against non-related girls. In this case, however, or in the case of incest, it is a very heavy issur. So I can not understand why rabbanim would treat this issur more lightly then shmirat shabbat, etc... shoshi said...You see, you made my point: According to halacha, it is permissible to have sexual intercourse with children as young as 10.Now you say that rape is assur. But what happens if? Does he have to pay compensation? Or will he go to jail? PS: As far as the distinction between molestation and rape is concerned: molestation is any form of sexual abuse, even touching. Rape means there was penetration. So what is the halachic stance on oral rape (forced oral sex), for example??? Or on unwanted touching?

Shoshi's question comes down to - Since there does not seem to be a prohibition under the term molestation doesn't that means it is permitted?

There simple answer is that all forms of sexual molestation are prohibited and the assertion that there is no prohibition against molestation is 100% wrong!

1) If it is homosexual it is prohibited under the prohibition of homosexual behavior 2) heterosexual relationships are only permitted in the context of marriage. 3) Sexual contact - such as hugging and kissing - is also prohibited. 4) It is prohibited to do anything which arouses sexual thoughts outside of marital relations. 6) It is prohibited t to disturb another person with unwanted sexual advances. 7) A person can be killed as a rodef in making sexual advances whose punishment is kares or death by beis din. 8) one is obligated to save a person from molestation or any type of unwanted attention 6) The destruction of person psychologically has been deemed by Rav Eliashiv and Rav Sternbuch as pikuach nefesh. 9) It is prohibited to touch another person for sexual gratification. 10) It is prohibited to look at pornography or to show it to other people. 11) Sexual fantasies are prohibited. 12) Most poskim say that seduction of a minor is considered rape - so even if they agree it is prohibited. 13) Rape of a relative is incest 14) Oral sex is prohibited as zera levatala and by the prohibition against precursors of sexual activity as well as against thoughts and contact of a sexual nature. 15) Encouraging another to have sexual fantasies is forbidden.

Most of the above are Torah prohibitions The others are at least rabbinic prohibited according to all poskim. In addition any behavior which disturbs the safety or well being of the community - it is permitted to call the police. In addition the community has the right to protect itself and administer punishment - including death and disfigurement and any and all other punishment that it deems necessary to protect itself from harm.

There is absolutely no one who says that molestation is permitted. The only valid point you seem to make is that there is no prohibition of child marriages. However I haven't noticed that any of the charges of molestation today involve child marriages within the Jewish community. I would assume that it would be quickly banned by all poskim if it occurred.

Sexual Abuse - Czech castration law

CNN reports:

The Czech Republic's practice of surgically castrating convicted sex offenders is "invasive, irreversible and mutilating" and should stop immediately, the Council of Europe's Anti-Torture Committee said in a report made public Thursday.

The central European country castrated at least 94 prisoners in the 10 years up to April 2008, when investigators from the Council of Europe, a human-rights forum, visited the Czech Republic.

The Council of Europe condemned the practice as "degrading." The procedure is being performed even on first-time, non-violent offenders, such as exhibitionists, its investigation revealed.

Prisoners have to request castration under Czech law, but many fear they will be jailed for life if they do not, the investigation found. "In practically all the cases, these patients indicated that their application was at least partially instigated by fear of long-term detention," the report said.

"Some patients claimed that the treating sexologist had explicitly told them that surgical castration was the only available option to them and that refusal would mean lifelong detention." And it warned that some "significantly" mentally retarded people had been castrated. [...]

Satmar Rebbe asks Obama to help Yemeni Jews

NEW YORK (JTA) -- A leading Satmar rabbi called on President Obama to assist the Yemeni Jewish community.

At a fund-raiser for Torah study last week, Rabbi Aron Teitelbaum, the head of the Chasidic sect in Kiryas Joel, N.Y., made reference to the recent difficulties of the Yemeni Jews, according to Yeshiva World News. In recent months the community has experienced the murder of one of its prominent members, as well as an increase in verbal and physical abuse that escalated during Israel's military operation in Gaza.

Teitelbaum reminded the gathering of the impotence of American Jews to rescue Hungarian Jews during World War II, and he was quoted as saying that the Yemeni Jews' predicament differed because "today we can save them and we must do so."The Satmar leader not only beseeched Obama, in his talk and in aletter, and American Jews to get involved, but made the request toBritish Jewry as well. His reasoning was that immigration restrictionsare a little tighter in the United States following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

Teitelbaum did not mention Israel, where 50,000 Yemeni Jews immigrated in 1949 and 1950 as part of Operation Magic Carpet. Critics accuse the Satmar community of dissuading the remaining Yemeni Jews, whose population hovers just above 300, from moving to Israel.

Rav Sternbuch - Change - Yes, you can

R' Tropper - is he good for the Jews?

While we have had some discussions about the validity of R' Tropper's approach, we have not really focused on the consequences.

R' Tropper is using geirus as a tool in kiruv. When he finds that a baal teshuva is stuck because he is married to a non-Jew he switches hats and works to have the non-Jew become a Jew. Thus he reasons it is a win win situation. The Jew becomes fully observant and his wife becomes Jewish. Their children now will add to the Jewish population instead of destroying it. The only down side, he reasons, is that the age old practice of not proselytizing needs to be bent a bit. Any problems with this he reasons are made up for by requiring the convert to adopt an Orthodox life style. Seem like a nice neat package. Why should anyone be upset with it.

Let us list the reasons.

1) He has removed the age old stigma to intermarriage. There is absolutely no consequences of intermarriage. If you ever want to legitimate it he is standing there with open arms. Of course since not all Jews want to be Orthodox - therefore he contributes to the intermarriage rate by allowing everyone to chose a non-Jewish partner without the slightest guilt or consequence. Consequences unknown. But we can reasonably assume that more Jews will intermarry with R' Tropper looking the other way - then will return to Judaism with a converted bride.

2) Let's assume that not everyone that R' Tropper converts will stay frum. Because he has such high standards and is makpid on kabbalos mitzvos - all of his converts will definitely become Jews. However the statistics from the past tell us that at least half will back slide. They will then become irreligious Jews. If he wasn't so meticulous then when the convert goes back they were never Jewish in the first place. If he wasn't so meticulous then the back sliding converts will be genuine non-Jews.

3) The consequences of having converts who are genuine Jews and were married in a genuine marriage - but who give up observance is very simple - mamzerim. Rav Moshe solved the mamzerus problem from the Reform and Conservative by saying their marriages were non valid. Similarly their converts are not valid. Not so R'Tropper's converts. However everyone of R' Tropper's converts is a potential producer of mamzerim.

4) An additional consequences in back sliding will be on the communities and families.

This is similar to the statement about Sedom. They had horrible laws - which weren't enforced until an honest judge Lot came along. It is specifically because he is makpid on keeping the laws that he is causing problems.

In sum. For R' Tropper to come along and introduce a change in the dynamic of the Jewish community he needs to show that what he is doing is beneficial. It is not enough to say that when he converts people they were frum. Rav Chaim Ozer had such a view and then 20 years later radically altered it to say that a decent beis din should not do conversions. Similarly Rav Moshe Feinstein knew all the hetirim but personally had nothing to do with geirus. What are the two, five and ten years statistics on Rabbi Troppers' converts. What is their impact on marriage and children?

Update on EJF and Aguiar - RaP

THE REAL SCANDAL: Revenge against Gumar Aguiar and covering their backs for having sanctioned the taking of tens of millions of dollars from Guma Aguiar for years is why the ten rabbis signed this letter when they realized that Guma had dumped them/EJF to get a conversion for his wife from arch-rival Rabbi Bomzer.

Ever since poster Roni/Tropper has joined the discussions on this blog with his bloodthirsty and vitriolic attacks against anyone who dares to question Tropper/EJF he has unrelentingly made Rabbi Bomzer the source of all evil because he has performed lenient conversions.

Regardless if one agrees with either the Rabbi Tropper's or Rabbi Bomzer's prescription for doing conversions, from the outset this letter of censure against Rabbi Bomzer was presented as a fait accompli without either Rabbi Bomzer being asked to give his side of the story or any other context except that which poster Roni/Tropper and the words in the letter signed by the ten rabbis, that includes Rabbi Tropper's signature on it, to the left. [remainder of post as comment on this post here ]

Abuse - Parents didn't report uncle

Nana reports: YNET

אתמול האריך בית משפט השלום בירושלים את מעצרו של הדוד, תושב מאה שערים, החשוד כי ביצע מעשים מגונים ומעשי סדום באחייניו. היום הוארך גם מעצרם של ההורים, החשודים כי לא דיווחו על ההתעללות שנמשכה שש שנים. האב סיפר בחקירתו: "התייעצתי עם רב, והוא אמר לי לא להסגיר את אחי

Save the Jews of Yemen

[DT: I would like to see some official haskomas regarding this organization]

Jersey Girl wrote:

There has been a continuous Jewish community in Yemen since the times of the First Temple, more than 2500 years ago, but today the survival of that community is in grave danger. Last December, Rabbi Masha Al-Nahiri, 30, was brutally murdered shot to death, leaving his wife and nine children. A few days later, the home of Masha Yahia was firebombed as well as having a grenade thrown at it. They were home at the time he and his wife and children had to flee for refuge, suddenly homeless. I was personally in his home for a Shabbat as he lives between the two Jewish communities in a remote area. President Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen, who has always treated the Jews as respected Yemenite citizens, announced that he could no longer guarantee the protection of the Jewish community.

The Yemen Times reported that President Saleh had given his directive to protect the Jews and move them to safe places in the district of Sana’a, but those directives have evaporated and there is no longer a promise of government protection. This is due to the tribal nature of a land that has stood still in time! [...]

The people there are now in fear for their lives Al-Anisi added that Yemeni Jews are afraid of the threats they receive from extremists who are protected by sheiks. "A well-known man protected by Kahlan bin Mujahed Abu Shawareb intimidates Jews in Amran,” he said. “He threatens them and he hasn’t been arrested so far despite the President's directives to arrest all those who harm Yemeni Jews. There is something going on in secret which we don’t understand in this respect!"

At this time we are begging for your help we need money desperately to resettle everyone anywhere that they will desire to go. Please make your tax deductible charitable donations out to the Yemenite Jewish Federation of America. The money is needed for shelter, food, clothing, and medical care. Anyone who desires more information on how to help may contact Ruven Schwartz at walter.schwartz@ccsicandy.com.

The checks can be personally given to Rabbi Sabri at K4 Pizza in Far Rockaway opposite kosher world. Rabbi Sabri he is the son of the Rabbi still in Yemen!

Please mail checks as well to:
Bet Midrash Shalom Teman
2915 Bayswater Ave
Far Rockaway, New York 11691

They can also be me mailed
Ruven Schwartz
1135 Dickens Street
Far Rockaway N.Y. 11691

Guma Aguiar - $500,000 to March of Living

Cloud Computing Journal

JERUSALEM, February 3 /PRNewswire/ -- The International March of the Living today announced one of the largest private donations in the organization's 21-year history, a $500,000 gift from Guma and Jamie Aguiar. The 2009 March of the Living at Auschwitz, the largest of Nazi Germany's concentration camps, will be held on April 21st, marking the 70th year since the Third Reich launched the Second World War.

Only one week earlier, Mr. Aguiar stirred international headlines through an historic $8 million donation to the aliyah (immigration to Israel) organization, Nefesh B'Nefesh, instantly establishing him as one of the Jewish World's leading philanthropists. [...[

Aguiar, founder of Leor Energy in 2003, was lauded worldwide for his stunning success in identifying one of the largest North American natural gas deposits discovered in decades. "Mr. Aguiar has a prophetic sense of vision and purpose, demonstrated precisely at a time when philanthropy is facing serious challenges," said Dr. David Machlis, Vice Chair of the International MO

Lashon harah?

Reuven sent you a message.

"Hello, as a Rav and a mechaber of seforim, I don't understand how you can run a "blog" that becomes a forum for all types of lashon hara?"

Rabbi Bomzer defended

rabbi has left a new comment on your post "R' Bomzer censured by Vaad for Conversion":

I am an Orthodox Rabbi of an Orthodox shul with over 200 families. A year ago I performed a wedding of a wonderful and observant couple who lives in my community. The bride was converted a few years before she met her husband by Rabbi Bomzer. Among her papers of conversion, was a letter where she was asked by the Beis Din to sign a statement accepting upon herself all of the mitzvot including Rabbinic and Torah Mitzvot. I was impressed at the specificity of the listing of the mitzvos and saw that it was obviously an added protection for her that the beis din was responsible enough to ask her questions verbally as she reported to me about the mitzvos and whether or not she accepted all of them and of course she did and to go the extra mile of having her sign it on paper. I asked her about the process of the beis din and I am satisfied that it was completely done according to halacha.

She did not pay $10,000 dollars as was suggested here somewhere and it was obvious to me that this was a serious process. Today, a little more than one year later I know for sure that she is observant, she covers her hair with a tichol and she attends the mikvah regularly and her family is shomer shabbos and kashrus. I have no reservations whatsoever eating at her home and I am absolutely certain that this guir is complete and legitimate.

Additionally other colleagues have told me when I asked about Rabbi Bomzers giur that it is accepted by most and especially by Rabbi Kotlarsky of Lubavitch and many many others. All of them told me that the paperwork they have seen included this formal acceptance of the mitzvos and all of the gerim that we have seen or heard about have been observant Jews.

I do not know why this terrible letter was put out and I do not wish to get involved in the politics of Rabbi Tropper vs Badatz etc. But it should be stated that he does get the kabolos hamitzvos in writing and that many of us in practical Rabbonus do accept his giur and have seen that all the gerim that we have seen have been observant yorei shomayim frum yidden.

Guma Aguiar - RaP's commentary

Recipients and Publicity comment to post "Guma Aguiar of EJF - raised as Christian":

Guma Aguiar of EJF & Nefesh BeNefesh controversy: False messiah or hero?

Clashing media depictions from America and Israel about Guma Aguiar's philanthropy and his agenda

First off, thank you for the good wishes from poster Roni/Tropper and his willingness to debate and be frank about many issues relating the still unfolding EJF-Guma Aguiar saga and his wife Jamie with the doubtful conversion from Rabbi Bomzer and the Chabad rabbi. We have all learned a lot and benefited from Roni's/Tropper's seemingly obvious first-hand knowledge about the Guma-EJF-Jamie-Tropper situation.

But it is now time to move on, not be mired and sit with the old slogans and accusations and the old points that have been repeated a hundred times by now. We need to take stock and move on because from the very bosom and heart of EJF, its still official Co-Chairman, has arisen one named Guma Aguiar who until a few days ago was only an elusive mysterious name and person in the background of the EJF story and controversy, but who now, with his "Aliyah" to Israel and having given a huge donation of a few million dollars to the Nefesh BeNefesh organization (that has support from Christian Evangelicals in America), hyped by the ultra-Zionistic Arutz Sheva media outlet, see Oil Tycoon Cashes In on Spiritual Dividends in Jerusalem (01/28/09) and Aguiar: We've Got to Climb the Ladder(01/29/09), and having declared an agenda of "starting" with bringing 100,000 new "olim" of all stripes to Israel, all this must be noted and analysed. [...]

[Rest of post is in comments section "Guma Aguiar of EJF - raised as Christian":]

UNRWA admits IDF didn't hit school

Arutz 7 reports:

During the Cast Lead operation in Gaza, IDF tank fire near a United Nations school in Gaza was blamed for the deaths of dozens of civilians who had taken refuge in the building. The incident became one of the most highly publicized attacks in the war, and led to heavy international criticism. However, recent reports suggest that the incident was not accurately portrayed by senior U.N. Officials.

John Ging, the director of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Gaza, spoke to the Toronto Globe and Mail last week and agreed that no shell had actually struck the school building. Ging said he had never claimed that the school itself was hit, and he blamed Israel for confusion over where the strike took place.

Shortly after the alleged attack, Ging harshly criticized Israel for firing near the school, saying he had given the exact coordinates of the compound to the IDF and suggesting they had failed to avoid hitting the building. While admitting that Israeli fire had not hit the school compound, Ging insisted it made little difference. “Forty-one innocent people were killed in the street... The State of Israel still has to answer for that,” he said. [...]

Rav Sternbuch - Next step

Guma Aguiar of EJF - raised as Christian

RaP forwarded

Arutz 7: Amongst the famous names in Israel rubbing elbows at a cocktail reception launching the 6th annual Jerusalem Conference on January 26, Israel National Radio's Yishai Fleisher spoke with oil magnate and philanthropist Guma Aguiar, the chairman of this year's conference, about using his personal gain in order to transform the Jewish dream into a reality, and using discoveries which changed his life and the lives of thousands of Jews throughout Israel.

Email readers, click here to watch video interview with Guma Aguiar

"The dream that our parents, grandparents, and great-great grandparents had…it begins with a profound trust in G-d and is accomplished by gathering the Jewish people from the Diaspora to their homeland," Aguiar told Fleisher, in a joint interview broadcast on Israel National News TV and Israel National Radio. "Unless we have the dream of having a Temple that we would be able to serve our G-d with all of the [commandments], then ultimately, what are we doing here in Israel? That's the reason why my family came to the Holy Land. That's the reason why all our forefathers longed set foot in Israel. Based on my studying of our Hebrew scriptures, it is clear to me that our focus must be focused on sacred matters here in Israel. This inspiring endeavor will strengthen the Jewish state and, please G-d, hasten the redemption."

Aguiar has come a long way toward these understandings. Despite having been born Jewish, Aguiar was raised as an Evangelical Christian, encouraged to participate in Christian youth groups and church events throughout his young life. At the age of 26, Aguiar moved to Houston, Texas with the determination to find oil beneath the soil. Seeking out a Christian congregation to join, he encountered Rabbi Tovia Singer who has devoted his life to helping Jews in the church return back to the truth and beauty of the Jewish faith. Rabbi Singer is the founder of Outreach Judaism and pop ular talk show host on Israel National Radio.[...]

Bialik & Sefardim

YNET wrote:

Long-held notion that national poet hated eastern Jews stems from statements wrongly attributed to him, say researchers

"The national poet of Ashkenazim only," "A well-known Sephardim hater," and "a famous racist" are only some of the sentiments – often expressed in talkbacks as well – aroused by the name Chaim Nachman Bialik. The national poet himself has been dead since 1934, so he is not here to defend himself. However, the notion stems from a statement attributed to Bialik: "I only hate the Arabs because they resemble the Sephardim." But it turns out that Bialik never said those words, but rather editor and translator Aryeh Leib Smiatzky.

Smiatzky included the statement in his book "Bialik on Atar" as a joke, and some researchers later claimed that literary circles hostile to Bialik attributed the words to him in a bid to besmirch him. Notably, none of Bialik works includes any mention of hatred or patronizing towards Sephardic Jews. [...]

Guma Aguiar - philanthropic activity

Chabad Lubavitch global network

Rabbi Moshe Meir Lipszyc announced today that Guma L. Aguiar co-founder of Leor Energy, an oil exploration and production company based in East Texas, contributed an additional half million dollars to Chabad Lubavitch of Fort Lauderdale. The center will be renamed “The Guma Aguiar Family Campus.

Guma has a heart of gold,” said Rabbi Lipszyc.In recent years, he's funded much of Chabad of Ft. Lauderdale's dynamic growth. "He's now agreed to make his most recent contribution public because he wants to show the world that this is how Chabad responds to the oppressive darkness of terrorism, by taking action and growing.”Aguiar, 31, told Lubavitch.com that, like the rest of the world, he was stunned by the news of the terror attacks in India. Groping for answers, Aguiar considered Chabad’s place in the world. [...]

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

Haaretz reports

An American businessman and philanthropist has recently donated $8 million to Nefesh B'Nefesh, the organization announced on Sunday. Guma L. Aguiar, who joined the Nefesh B'Nefesh board this June, made the gift to support the organization's work in helping Western Jews immigrate to Israel and integrate into Israeli society.

The money, which was donated in several installments during the second half of 2008, is "being used to help meet the needs of thousands of recent newcomers," Nefesh B'Nefesh explained in a statement.

Tom Kaplan wants director of Kaplan Foundation removed

The Sun-Sentinel reported: [Jersey Girl forwarded]

Fort Lauderdale, FL - In the legal annals of Broward County and the often furious back-and-forth between people suing one another for supposed lying, swindling, cheating and other misdeeds, this may be a first. The director of one of South Florida's most generous foundations, the Lillian Jean Kaplan Foundation, believes he is the Messiah and has been spending the foundation's millions to bolster his image, a lawsuit filed by his uncle claims.

The alleged Messiah wannabe, Guma Aguiar, dismisses his uncle's assertions as nonsense. If he truly believed he was the savior, he said, he would belong in a mental institution. Aguiar's rabbi says the businessman is exceptionally giving, donating millions to improve the world. "He is a person who has a heart that is not matched by anybody," said Rabbi Moshe Meir Lipszyc of Chabad Lubavitch of Fort Lauderdale. But Aguiar's uncle, Thomas Kaplan, wants a Broward County judge to remove his nephew as director of the foundation created to honor Kaplan's mother, and to which Kaplan says he has contributed more than $40 million. The Lillian Jean Kaplan Foundation, in existence for seven years, handed out nearly $4.9 million in 2006 to causes ranging from Jewish charities to the digging of water wells in Africa, according to the last federal tax return available online.

It's not those gifts Kaplan is objecting to, but to the more than $7 million he says his nephew, 31, doled out last year to advance what the lawsuit calls his "claim that he is the Messiah and to promote his messianic mission."

Kaplan's attorney, Harley Tropin, declined to comment on the case, saying the Jan. 9 lawsuit speaks for itself.

At the root of this unique court action may be a family falling-out over a business deal. Aguiar and Kaplan have dueling lawsuits involving a company they founded, Leor Exploration & Production LLC, which was sold for $2.55 billion after discovering huge natural gas reserves in East Texas. The nephew is demanding an accounting of where the money from the 2007 sale went, saying he is owed at least an additional $17.6 million. The uncle is accusing Aguiar of misappropriating Leor's assets for personal expenses and demanding his nephew pay back nearly $200 million. In an interview, Aguiar said that since the sale of the energy company, he's been dedicated to using his newfound wealth to promote good deeds. Last year alone, he gave more than $30 million to charitable causes, one of his attorneys, Greg Miarecki, said.

As for the Messiah business, Aguiar said he's never told anyone he's the Messiah. He does say, though, that he feels very blessed. "People have said what an amazing accomplishment it was that I started a company at 26 from nothing and built it up to be so successful," Aguiar said. "When I sold the company I gave credit to God."

Aguiar says he was largely responsible for Leor's success, having moved to Houston from Florida at age 26 and immersing himself in the world of oil and gas exploration. Leor ended up tapping into what turned out to a multi-trillion-cubic-foot field of natural gas. In 2007, he was named Executive of the Year by Oil and Gas Investor magazine. While Aguiar portrays his uncle as having a minimal role in the company, Kaplan maintains he guided the business every step of the way. Before Leor, Kaplan already had made millions in the mineral and energy industries. [...]

Three Oaths - Prevent settlement of Israel?

Rabbi David Bleich (Contemporary Halakhic Problems I page 14):

The prime argument cited in objection to the War of Independence, and indeed to the very establishment of the state itself, is based upon a literal understanding of the Talmud, Ketubot 111 a. In an aggadic statement, the Talmud declares that prior to the exile and dispersal of the remnant God caused the Jews to swear two solemn oaths: (I) not to ke the Land of Israel by force, and (2) not to rebel gainst the nations of the world. Rabbi Zevin maintains that these talmudic oaths are not binding under circumstances such as the ones which surrounded the rebirth of the Jewish state.

In support of this view he marshals evidence from a variety of sources. Avnei Nezer, Yoreh De'ah, II, 454:56, notes that there is no report in any of the classic writings regarding an actual assemblage for the purpose of accepting these oaths, as is to be found, for example, in the narrative concerning the oaths by which Moses bound the community of Israel prior to the crossing of the Jordan. The oaths administered before the exile are understood by Avnei Nezer as having been sworn by yet unborn souls prior to their descent into the terrestrial world. Such oaths, he argues, have no binding force in Halacah. Similarly, the Maharal of Prague in his Commentary on the Aggada, 11 a, and in chapter 25 of his Netzah Yisrael, interprets these oaths as being in the nature of a decree or punishment rather than as injunctions incumbent upon Jews in the Diaspora. There is obviously no transgression involved in attempting to mitigate the effects of a decree.

A third authority, R. Meir Simchah of Dvinsk, author of the Or Sameach, accepts the premise that these oaths do apply in a literal sense. However, he expresses the opinion that following the promulgation of the Balfour Declaration, establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine no longer constitutes a violation of the oatb concerning rebeIIion against the nations of the world. The text of Or Sameach's statement on this important issue is reprinted by Z. A. Rabiner, Toledot R. Meir Sameach (Tel.Aviv, 5727), p. 164. Rabbi Zevin adds that this argument assumes even greater cogency subsequent to the United Nations resolution sanctoning the establishment of a Jewish state.

There is yet another line of reasoning on the basis of which Rabbi nature of these oaths at the present juncture of Jewish history. He advances a forceful argument which, particularly in the present post-Holocaust era, must find a sympathetic echo in the heart of Jews who have witnessed an unprecedented erosion of all feelings of humanity among the nations of the world which permitted the horrendous oppression and torture of the Jewish people. The Talmud, loc. cit., records that the two oaths sworn by the people of Israel were accompanied by a third oath which devolves upon the nations of the world; namely, that they shall not oppress Jews inordinately. According Zevin and others who have advanced the same argument, these three oaths taken together, form the equivalent of a contractual relationship. Jews are bound by their oaths only as long as the gentile nations abide by theirs. Persecution of the Jews by the nations of the world in violation of this third oath releases the Jewish people from all further  obligation to fulfill the terms of their agreement.

Intent to sin - counted as sin?

Kiddushin(81b): Every time R. Hiyya b. Abba fell upon his face he used to say, ‘The Merciful save us from the Tempter.’ One day his wife heard him. ‘Let us see,’ she reflected, ‘it is so many years that he has held aloof from me: why then should he pray thus?’ One day, while he was studying in his garden, she adorned herself and repeatedly walked up and down before him. ‘Who are you?’ he demanded. ‘I am Harutha [a well known prostitute], and have returned to-day,’ she replied. He desired her. Said she to him, ‘Bring me that pomegranate from the uppermost bough.’ He jumped up, went, and brought it to her. When he re-entered his house, his wife was firing the oven, whereupon he ascended and sat in it [He tried killing himself]. ‘What means this?’ she demanded. He told her what had befallen. ‘It was I,’ she assured him; but he paid no heed to her until she gave him proof. ‘Nevertheless,’ said he, ‘my intention was evil.’That righteous man [R. Hiyya b. Ashi] fasted all his life, until he died thereof.

Rav Sternbuch - Our source of security

We must stop using the word 'miracle' and start referring to ' hashgacha pratis'

Hamodia , 26 Teves January 22nd,

Refusal of talmid chachom to go to beis din

Regarding the discussion on this post regarding whether a talmid chachom needs to appear before a beis din. All I have been able to find is the following halacha

שולחן ערוך חושן משפט ז סעיף ו - מי שתובעין אותו לדון לפני דיין שקטן ממנו, אין הדיין יכול לכופו לילך לפניו, אלא מכנפי מאן דאיכא התם מחכימי ומעיינים בינייהו.

ערוך השולחן חושן משפט סימן ז סעיף ח
אם תובעים ת"ח לדין לפני דיין שקטן ממנו בחכמה אין הדיין יכול לכופו שיבא לדון לפניו וכיצד עושים אוספים כל החכמים שבעיר ודנים ביניהם דכיון דמתאספים כל החכמים ליכא זילותא כשידין בפניהם [או"ת] ואף אם הת"ח גדול מכולם ואם רצון הת"ח לבא לפני הדיין הרשות בידו דחכם שמחל על כבודו כבודו מחול ואם יש זילותא להת"ח לעמוד ביחד עם הבע"ד שלו שולחים הדיינים סופריהם ומקבלים הטענות בכתב ודנים ע"פ הטענות שבכתב [סמ"ע] ועי' מ"ש בסימן קכ"ד:

This is based on Kiddushin (70a):A certain man from Nehardea entered a butcher's shop in Pumbeditha and demanded, ‘Give me meat!’ ‘Wait until Rab Judah b. Ezekiel's attendant takes his,’ was the reply: ‘and then we will serve you.’ ‘Who is Judah b. Shewiskel,18 he exclaimed: ‘to take precedence over me and be served before me!’ When they went and told Rab Judah, he pronounced the ban against him. Said they to him, ‘He is wont to call people slaves,’ whereupon he had him proclaimed a slave. Thereupon that man went and summoned him to a lawsuit before R. Nahman. When the writ of summons was brought, he [Rab Judah] went before R. Huna [and] asked him, ‘Shall I go or not?’19 ‘Actually,’ he replied: ‘you need not go, being a great man; yet in honour of the Nasi's house,20 arise and go.’

Arab Muslim - commentator

I am making this comment a post as a reminder that the internet is not a private converation. Furthermore it does provide the opportunity to discuss issues with those that you don't normally meet in your daily routine. I do appreciate the fact that this commentator did take the time to send us his observations. For a related issue see Hasbara - Army of bloggers And Facebook battleground.

Just a gentle reminder to everyone that all comments require a name other than anonymous. I made an exception in this case.
=======================================================

Anonymous [ has left a new comment on your post "Should Jews hate Arabs?":

Jersey Girl, I would like to show my support to you. I'm of Muslim and Arab background. It makes me happy to see that are some decent Jews who have compassion and understanding. In history Jews lived under Arab/Muslim ruler in relative peace and harmony example the golden age for the Jews in Spain before the Christians took over and forced the population to convert to Christianity or die. What is happening Israel/Palestine is sad and tragic. And for the Muslim on the street supporting Hamas - well who should they support when there are innocent civilians being killed, and no democratic government is doing anything to stop it. Zionism turned to terrorism pre 1948 killing many innocent people.

Stocks slumped with Pres. Obama's rescue plans

CNN reports

U.S. markets slipped Tuesday on banking concerns and as traders also faced up to expected rises in government debt. Government debt prices fell as the nation watched Barack Obama become the 44th U.S. president.

With the government deficit already exceeding $1 trillion, the rescue plan that Obama has been touting will mean the government auctioning off a tremendous volume of debt -- which makes government bonds unattractive.

Sinking bond prices are "a reflection of the massive stimulus plan in effect and the likelihood that there is more coming down the road, and the concerns how we will pay for all of this," Kim Rupert, fixed income analyst at Action Economics, told CNN Money.

Stocks slumped Tuesday as the global banking crisis and a spate of weak earnings highlighted the general plight of the U.S. economy. [...]

Cohen being married to convert /Reb Moshe

This discussion below of the validity of marriage of a cohen to a convert is relevant to this posting & this posting. It is also important because it is not cited accurately by Rabbi Simcha Cohen in his discussion of the matter. The person who sent this teshuva also requested the identity of the rabbi cited in this posting who gave a heter for a baalas teshuva to marry a cohen - or possibly the source the rabbi relied upon for his heter.

Tefilin & long hair - problem?

Rael wrote,

There is an issue raised by the poskim that having long hair is a chatizah with regards to tefillin.

See the following secondary sources:

Notes on the Mishna Berura by R'Yosef Rimon:

The Weekly Halacha by R'Daniel Neustadt:

Lettings ones hair grow long a shiur by R'Aharon Lichtenstein:

Shiur by R'Eytan Weisberg

======

A couple of questions:

1) What about the issue of the nazir, surely he had long hair and yet had to put on tefillin? Asides from the nazir, was it not common in biblical times to have long hair and in more contemporary times rabbis like the Rogachover Gaon and the Chatam Sofer had long hair?

2) In halacha everything has a "shiur", has anyone seen any measurements of what is considered long hair?

My understanding:

My understanding is that the issue being spoken of is a comb over, where the hair from the back of the head (i.e. hair that is growing from a position that you cannot place the tefillin shel rosh is pulled to the front). I would assume it is not an issue if the hair is long in the front, provided that the hair is from a position where you can place tefillin. Eg this picture:

Israel - Ringworm Children (video)

Please click on the following link for a cogent discussion of this issue

Full Rebuttal by PLANCK'S CONSTANT

Jersey Girl disagrees with Planck's Constant - see comments section

I would appreciate if you would do a bit more research before you post claims that Ringworm Affair never occurred as documented. I apologize in advance that this post is so long. But the topic is important.

As a family member of numerous survivors, I am frankly shocked and dismayed at your callousness and absurd rebuttal of a very well documented and attested documentary of history, a tragic chapter not unlike that in Europe in which 6 million Jews were murdered(H"YD).

The Ringworm Children (Part 01)

Bailout - Help banks or encourage loans?

NYTimes reports:

[...] Congress approved the $700 billion rescue plan with the idea that banks would help struggling borrowers and increase lending to stimulate the economy, and many lawmakers want to know how the first half of that money has been spent before approving the second half. But many banks that have received bailout money so far are reluctant to lend, worrying that if new loans go bad, they will be in worse shape if the economy deteriorates. [...]

Israel - Ashkenazi vs Sefardic students

YNET reports:

After a year of deliberations, High Court Justices Edmond Levi, Hanan Meltzer and Edna Arbel ordered the Beit Yaakov religious school and the Independent Education Center to nullify within a week all discriminatory practices and protocols that separate between Ashkenazi and Sephardic students, including the removal of a wall in the school's courtyard, unifying the two teachers' rooms meant for two different "learning tracks" and cancellation of the unlawful levies on parents of students in the "Ashkenazi-Hasidic track."

In the decision handed down by the court, it was also decided that the Emanuel Regional Council is to present an arrangement acceptable to all parties for the separation of the school's various learning tracks, otherwise the High Court will not authorize the existence of separate learning tracks in the school. [...]

Rav Moshe Sternbuch - Miracles to behold

Rav Aharon Schechter - Attitude towards Science

Rav Aharon Schechter on Rabbi Slifkin and creation, Part 1 Part Two

Gaza - Sign up to support our soldiers

שלום,

מצורף לינק לתפילה לשמירה או רפואה לחיילים הלוחמים.

נרשמים והם שולחים שם של חייל את מתפללת והוא לוחם.

http://www.tefila-idf.com/

תזכי למצוות ובשורות טובות!

Desecrate dead to save lives? - Barzily Hospital

Bartley Kulp wrote:

I first saw this issue in the news about a month ago. My question is why there was no ruling a lot sooner. Why no Haredi Rabbis expressed any opinions on this issue quickly considering that the hospital has already been hit by rockets? There should have been a very rapid heter given and if not a reason why? Are we a society that is more concerned with setting up batei dinim for inspecting woman's clothing than tackling life or death issues.

Here's the article;JPost

Halachic ruling: Lives more important than bones

Protecting Jews from Hamas's Grad rockets is more important than respecting the rest of the dead. Hospital patients and their... Hospital patients and their families wait in a bomb shelter in Ashkelon Barzily hospital, Saturday.

That is the unsurprising halachic decision issued Wednesday by the two chief rabbis of Israel regarding the ongoing controversy surrounding foundation construction at Ashkelon's Barzilai Medical Center.

The construction is designed to fortify the hospital against Grad rockets fired by Hamas terrorists in Gaza, by adding an underground operation room.

But the necessary digging will disinter Roman- or Byzantine-era graves, an act that is prohibited according to Jewish law if the bodies are Jewish - which is unclear.

Last week Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Yona Metzger reasoned that since the digging is aimed at saving lives, and since there is a doubt whether the bones are Jewish, building the underground room takes precedence over not disturbing the deceased.

The Chief Rabbinate's Governing Council ratified Metzger's decision, which was also backed by Chief Sephardi Rabbi Shlomo Amar.

The Health Ministry announced the ruling on Wednesday night. [...]

EJF - Halacha cafeteria style

EJF surrogate Roni keeps pounding certain points over and over in his defense of R' Tropper. 1) He claims that EJF is an improvement of the previous situation in that EJF makes sure that there is a genuine commitment to mitzvos 2) He claims that the proselytizing is a chet kal which is permitted in order to improve the situation. 3) He claims that EJF is not bringing in goyim - as the other rabbis do.

This is an example of his defense.

Roni wrote

Most importantly: Bomze'rs actions (and actually there are MANY such fake dayanim who convert for a business or at least do not require the convert to commit to observe torah and mtizvot)is one of the main reasons that EJf was created: to establish a STANDARD of conversion that up till now was neglected by the general public. The magnitude of the crime by the fake dayanim and the tragedy of bringing goyim into klal yisroel is a "Chet chamur" (very severe sin) and our Rabbis establish in our tradition, that at times it is permissible and at times commanded to make a "shet kal" to prevent and stop a chet chamur! SO, if what is needed to prevent the prospective converts not to turn to the fake rabbis but to turn to the kosher ones' and to the kosher standard is a chet kal, of seeking those sincere one to follow the right path and maknug sure that those who are not aware of the right path at least know that the wrong path does not fulfill their desire to become jewish, so be it. Our illustirous rabbis in the past centuries have ruled that one may perhaps violate some of the rabbinical prohibitions (like for instance: not to convert someone for the sake of marriage) as long as the person would commit himself to live a jewish life, ie. a life dictated by the code of jewish law!

1) As Rav Moshe Feinstein, Rav Chaim Ozer and many other gedolim has stated - the sincerity of most converts is questionable. Rav Moshe states pointedly that even when they say they are going to keep mitzvos - most of them are lying. Rav Chaim Ozer - who initially took a lenient view changed his mind and said that no respectable beis din should be involved in converting intermarried couples. Thus it really isn't' as critical to point out how much money was charged for the conversion - but to see how permanent and committed the geirim are. What are the statistics for EJF of how many gerim stay observant? How many of their children keep Shabbos after they leave day school - or even in day school? BTW I know of one major rav associated with EJF who has been accused by a prominent rabbi of doing conversion for the sake of money.

2) It is interesting to note that R' Tropper claims to be following the psakim of Rav Moshe Feinstein. In regards to this issue of a beis din sinning in order to convert an intermarried couple - Rav Moshe categorically prohibits it. So does Rav Eliashiv in the teshuva I published. Which one of the poskim has stated - in writing - that it is permitted to sin (chet kal) in order to convert intermarried couples. I asked R' Tropper point blank and he refused to answer. This attitude of chet kal in fact is associated with the left wing views - which have been solidly rejected by contemporary poskim. While it is true that there are rulings such as freeing a slave to make a minyan, which contemporary posek has is stated that the public need is served by EJF proselytizing operation? Loudly screaming "we insist on acceptance of mitzvos" is simple nonsense - unless you can show that the majority of converts are permanent - and stay religious even if they divorce their Jewish spouse. Otherwise you are simply bringing goyim into Klall Yisroel the same what you claim that as the so called fake rabbis - you constantly denounce. - are doing We had a EJF participant commenting on this blog a year ago - he proudly announced that he had strongly pressured his wife to convert. That is what you call sincere acceptance of mitzvos?

3) There is no evidence that R' Tropper is doing a service to klal Yisroel by taking off the stigma of intermarriage. There is no evidence that his conversions - though possibly cheaper than other rabbis - are more sincere converts. After all if you have to wine and dine a couple to get them to pay attention - it doesn't bode well for the sincerity of the conversion. There is no question that R' Bomzer has produced some genuine converts. Where is the head to head comparison to show that EJF converts are superior to his?

Bottom line 1) chet kal is rejected by Rav Moshe Feinstein 2) No evidence that EJF converts are superior to other conversion programs 3) There is no evidence that Klall Yisroel is benefiting from encouraging intermarried couples to convert instead of following Rav Eliashiv's view that they should be ostracized.

Life - Return of multigenerational households

NYTimes reports:

[...] Like the Obamas’ new domestic arrangement, whereby Marian Robinson, Michelle Obama’s 71-year-old mother, will become a third head of household and the primary caregiver for two children born to two high-achieving parents, the linchpin of the Baker-Roby household is a grandmother. Theirs is an old-fashioned scenario that fell out of style as Americans drifted to the hermetically sealed nuclear family. Since the early part of the last century, academics have noted the waning of this arrangement in the United States, because of increased mobility, smaller families and even Freudian attitudes, rampant at midcentury, that described “too close” adult maternal ties as unhealthy.

It is a choice, however, that is cycling back into favor. A recent study by AARP shows that multigenerational households are on the rise, up from 5 million in 2000 to 6.2 million last year, an increase from 4.8 percent of all households to 5.3 percent. It’s not always a smooth ride — families being what they are — but it’s still an appealing solution to the work-life conundrum.

Elinor Ginzler, senior vice president for livable communities at AARP, sees a number of forces contributing to these numbers. “There is some cultural play here,” she said, “as we become more and more a nation of new immigrants who bring that tradition with them. Yet 25 percent of American boomers we surveyed said they expected to have their parents move in with them, and were looking forward to it.” For all these reasons, she said, “Our cultural norms are shifting. There is a great renaissance of what we think about when we think about family.”

And it looks as if one particular family relationship — that of adult daughters with their mothers — may be entering a period of more than just détente, as veterans of the women’s movement endeavor to help their own daughters achieve the work-life balance that may have eluded them. That’s why Ellen Pulleyblank Coffey, 65, a family therapist and author in Berkeley, Calif., calls herself a “feminist grandmother” for her role in caring for Cole, the 2-year-old son of her daughter, Sarah Patrick, an urban planner whose husband, Todd Patrick, is a graphic artist [...]

Gaza - Proportionality & hypocrisy

Israel is judged by different standards than NATO - why?

YNET

"There is always a cost to defeat an evil. It never comes free, unfortunately. But the cost of failure to defeat a great evil is far higher."

Jamie Shea, NATO spokesman, BBC News, May 31, 1999

It was in these words that the official NATO representative chose to respond to criticism regarding the numerous civilian casualties incurred by the alliance's frequent air attacks during the war in Kosovo between March and June of 1999. He insisted NATO planes bombed only "legitimate designated military targets" and if civilians had died it was because NATO had been forced into military action. Adamant that "we try to do our utmost to ensure that if there are civilians around we do not attack," Shea emphasized that "NATO does not target civilians...let's be perfectly clear about that."

However, hundreds of civilians were killed by a NATO air campaign, code named "Operation Allied Force" - which hit residential neighborhoods, old-aged sanatoriums, hospitals, open markets, columns of fleeing refugees, civilian buses and trains on bridges, and even a foreign embassy.

Exact figures are difficult to come by, but the undisputed minimum is almost 500 civilians deaths (with some estimates putting the toll as high as 1500) - including women, children and the elderly, killed about in 90 documented attacks by an alliance that included the air forces of Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Holland, Italy, Turkey, Spain, the UK, and the US. Up to 150 civilians deaths were reportedly caused by the use of cluster-bombs dropped on, or adjacent to, known civilian areas.

By contrast, the military losses inflicted by NATO on the Serbian forces during almost 80 days of aerial bombardment, unchallenged by any opposing air power, were remarkably low - with most estimates putting the figure at less than 170 killed.

Meanwhile, NATO forces suffered… no combat fatalities! This was mainly due to the decision to conduct high altitude aerial attacks which greatly reduced the danger to NATO military personnel in the air, but dramatically increased it for the Serbian (and Kosovar) civilians on the ground. Moreover, the civilian populations of the countriesparticipating on Operation Allied Force were never attacked or - even threatened - in any way by Serbian forces.

The significance of all this for Israel, beset as it is by a maelstrom criticism and censure regarding its military campaign in Gaza, should be starkly apparent. It raises three trenchant issues which it would fail to address to its great detriment:

1. The irrelevance of proportionality in military engagements
   
2. The unlimited hypocrisy of international politics
   
3. The disastrous incompetence of Israeli international diplomacy [...]

EJF invites 1/3 of world to convert /RaP&Roni

Recipients and Publicity comment to "EJF - offers enlightenment to non-Jews":

It's not just "Art Gib" because as the article tells the readers at its end: "About the Author :- Eternal Jewish Family offers information on Jewish conversion. Art Gib is a freelance writer." This Mr. Art Gib has been writing a lot of upbeat GLIB PR articles in behalf of EJF lately, as if he was promoting a new yummy super-delicious brand of Hagen-Daz ice-cream. He is more than a "freelancer" with all his stuff popping up online it surely seems that he is a well-paid and highly skilled writer on the EJF payroll (just that "freelancer" sounds a lot nicer to the gullible.)

This one takes the cake (or is it a super-dooper scoop of ice-cream that widens the eyes): "While nearly one third of the population of the world is considered Jewish or has Jewish ancestry" (SAY WHAT???) and that to his come on to the gentiles: "If you've always had questions or curiosities, or are considering conversion and want to know more, most of the time all you have to do is ask" (NOT PROSELYTIZING, RIGHT???) with the assurance that: "You'll find that anyone practicing the faith will be more than happy to answer your questions and steer you down the path to spiritual enlightenment" (LIKE WHO, WOULDN'T BE EJF WOULD IT ???)

So now EJF is inviting "nearly one third of the population of the world" (oh, they can also deny it by saying it was "Mr Gib" the shmo who wrote it) that he and EJF "consider" to be "Jewish" to join up and become Jewish with ultra-holier-than-thou conversions managed by EJF (and this, after accusing Bomzer and Rabbi Drukman of going overboard), with Rabbi Tropper running a "yeshiva" and educational programs for ove TWO BILLION people/"Jews" (the world's population is about 6 and half billion at present), that's greater than any false messianic movement in world history, with Rabbi Tropper at its epicenter as the "ultimate leader of all the halachic converts" -- you know, that should be a lot of fun (for Rabbi Tropper and his partner Tom Kaplan at least, who will have then materialized their delusional megalomaniacal dream!

No wonder Rabbi Eisenstein has walked away from Tropper and EJF because it is inconceivable that anyone in the Torah world wishes to lure over TWO BILLION gentiles into Torah true Judaism under the "auspices" of EJF.

Some things are best left for Eliyahu Hanovi and the true Mashiach to accomplish, but obviously the Tropper-Kaplan duo don't think so. Get ready for the fireworks on this one!

Roni comment to RaP's comment to post "EJF - offers enlightenment to non-Jews":

"that he and EJF "consider" to be "Jewish" to join up and become Jewish with ultra-holier-than-thou conversions managed by EJF (and this, after accusing Bomzer and Rabbi Drukman of going overboard)".

After all your treatises (while I agree that this article is misleading -even if he is not seeking converts; just making accessible for someone to ask about it- ) he does NOT bring goyim into klal yisroel; his organization does not engage in converting not intermarried couples. we do NOT have the crime of bringing goyim into klal yisroel and destroying kedushat yisroel!

Whereas RHB and some others, seek fake converts by their representatives, and deceive the Jewish people and the prospective covnerts by "converting" falsely: for without kabbalat hamitzvot the conversions is NULL AND VOID! (besides that the conversion may be invalidated due to exorbitant fees!). So ?RHB's converts are goyim and he brings goyim into klal yisroel (and at the same time fostering intermarriage) when he converts a girlfriend who wants to marry a Jew, and makes mockery of the conversion process and meaning itself by converting a shikssah so that her boss can marry her and abandon her husband and children.

Talis for a soldier

YNet reports:

כשרב גדוד 13 בגולני הגיע לבקר את החיילים הפצועים בבתי החולים, הוא נדהם לגלות כי כמעט אצל כולם מבצבצות ציציות

מתחת לחלוק. "השכפ"ץ שסידרת לנו הציל את חיינו", הודו לו. גם בפגישה עם
הלוחמים בשטח הבחין הרב הצבאי באחוזים לא רגילים מהם הלובשים ציצית חאקי
מתחת למדים. הפעם טענו החיילים: "אנחנו רוצים כבר לצאת להלחם עם החברים
שלנו, אבל בגלל השמירה הזו לא קורה כלום. המחבלים פשוט לא באים". מאוחר
יותר הבין כי מקבילו, רב גדוד 12 (במיל') שמואל קאופמן, דאג ל"שירותרום"
ספונטני ברדיו קול חי לגיוס אלפי ציציות, נוכח הביקוש הגבוה בקרב הלוחמים
לקראת הכניסה לעזה.


הרב קאופמן פנה לעיתונאי ידידיה מאיר וסיפר לו כי מאות חיילים,
דתיים וחילונים, מבקשים ממנו ציציות שיגנו עליהם בקרב. למחרת הזכיר מאיר
בתכנית הבוקר "התעוררות" כמה פעמים את מצוקת הרבנים הצבאיים, הרגילים לספק
בשגרה מספר מצומצם של ציציות לחיילים הדתיים וכעת מתקשים לעמוד בעומס,
והשאיר מספר טלפון לתורמים המעוניינים לסייע.

למחרת כבר דיווח רב הגדוד על אם שכולה שתרמה 40 ציציות, "כוח של שלושה
רכבים מרעננה" עם 500, משלוח נוסף של 700 גופיות-ציצית מירושלים, גברת עם
מבטא אמריקני שהבטיחה תרומ

.  

[...]

EJF - offers enlightenment to non-Jews

Articlearchive Art Gib writing for EJF

While nearly one third of the population of the world is considered Jewish or has Jewish ancestry, Judaism is a religion not understood very well by those who don't practice in the modern world. Sure, we know about Hanukkah and Passover, but what are the basic foundations of this worldwide faith.

If you've always had questions or curiosities, or are considering conversion and want to know more, most of the time all you have to do is ask. Here are some of the basic precepts and beliefs of Judaism.[...]

Judaism is a traditional and ancient religion that is practiced by many, but understood by few who don't share the faith. If you have questions or need further clarification on the Jewish faith or conversion, contact a support group near you or even your local Jewish community center or synagogue. You'll find that anyone practicing the faith will be more than happy to answer your questions and steer you down the path to spiritual enlightenment.

Prayer protects the heart

NYTimes reports

[...]Reducing chronic stress is another important factor. The Interheart study, which examined the effects of stress in more than 27,000 people, found that stress more than doubled the risk of heart attacks.

Dr. Joel Okner, a cardiologist in Chicago, and Jeremy Clorfene, a cardiac psychologist, the authors of “The No Bull Book on Heart Disease” (Sterling, 2009), note that getting enough sleep improves the ability to manage stress.

Practicing the relaxation response once or twice a day by breathing deeply and rhythmically in a quiet place with eyes closed and muscles relaxed can help cool the hottest blood. Other techniques Dr. Ozner recommends include meditation, prayer, yoga, self-hypnosis, laughter, taking a midday nap, getting a dog or cat, taking up a hobby and exercising regularly.[...]

Jewish spirituality - the secret weapon

JPost writes:

Two soldiers made their way through the winding streets of Gaza City, carefully watching for booby traps. Their objective was to hunt down Hamas terrorists and locate caches of Kassam and Grad rockets and other arms.

As they deliberated whether to turn left or right at an intersection, a woman dressed from head to foot in black appeared from out of nowhere.

"Go this way," she said, pointing to the right. For some reason, the two soldiers listened to her.

After proceeding for a few seconds, the pair heard a large explosion behind them, in the direction they had almost taken. A rigged house blew up, destroying everything in the vicinity.

The two soldiers asked the woman dressed in black who she was.

"I am the Matriarch Rachel," she said, referring to the beloved wife of Jacob.

This story, whether true or not, is being circulated in religious circles - via Internet forums, SMS, e-mail and word of mouth - and is fast becoming an urban legend.

There is a tendency among the faithful to introduce metaphysical dimensions to the fighting in Gaza. Two-and-a-half weeks into Operation Cast Lead, religious faith has been integral to many soldiers' morale.

"We are being swamped with demands, from religious and secular, kibbutzniks and yeshiva students, Sephardim and Ashkenazim," for the names of soldiers to pray for, said Rabbanit Grossman, director of the Jewish Information Center in the capital's Mea She'arim neighborhood. The haredi organization has created a special "prayer hotline" for
soldiers.

The initiative, backed by the Bostoner rebbe, Rabbi Levi Yitzhak Horovitz, and Rehovot Chief Rabbi Simcha Hakohen Kook, pairs a soldier involved in the Gaza fighting with a supplicant who prays for that soldier's health and welfare.

Only soldiers who are interested in the service - or whose family members or friends are interested - are being singled out for this special spiritual protection from Hamas terrorists.

Thousands, Grossman said, have contacted the Jewish Information Center, which has publicized the service via word-of-mouth and e-mail.

People from all walks of the religious community, from the religious-Zionist Bnei Akiva to the anti-Zionist Eda Hahareidit, have volunteered to pray for the soldiers, said Grossman.

"Our prayer-sayers include yeshiva students at the Mir, Kol Torah, Ponevezh and Hebron, residents of Mea She'arim, students at Beit Ya'acov seminaries as well as national-religious yeshiva high schools and ulpanot," said Grossman, who preferred not to give her first name because "good deeds are best left hidden."

"Soldiers from all walks of life and from a variety of backgrounds, both religious and secular, have asked that we pray for them," she said.

"Just the other day an entire battalion of soldiers, just about to enter Gaza, gave us all of their names. They passed the phone from one to the other, secular and religious - not one of them refused.[...]

Arabs & Jew Hatred (anti-Semitism)

Wall Street Journal - Referred by Jersey Girl

[...]  Jews around Europe are increasingly under attack since Israel decided two weeks ago to defend itself after years of rocket fire at its civilian population. There have been arson attempts on synagogues in Britain, Belgium and Germany. Police last week arrested Muslim protesters who wanted to enter the Jewish quarter in Antwerp. Several Danish schools with large Muslim student bodies say they won't enroll Jewish kids because they can't guarantee the children's safety. In France, a group of teenagers attacked a 14-year-old girl last week, calling her "dirty Jew" while kicking her.

At rallies in Germany and the Netherlands over the past two weeks, protesters shouted, "Hamas, Hamas, Jews to the Gas." In Amsterdam,Socialist lawmaker Harry van Bommel and Greta Duisenberg, widow of the first European Central Bank president, marched at the front of one such "peace" demonstration. They didn't join in the background chorus calling for another Holocaust. Instead, they chanted, "Intifada, Intifada, Free Palestine." Mr. Van Bommel later insisted this wasn't a call for Jewish blood but for "civil disobedience" -- a laughable defense given that terrorists during the last intifada murdered more than 1,000 Israelis.

Most of the anti-Jewish violence and protests in Europe come from immigrants. In what may have been a Freudian recognition of the changing face of Europe, CNN two weeks ago used footage of anti-Israeli protesters in London in a report about the growing anger in the "Arab and Muslim world." The mythical Arab Street now reaches deep into Paris, London, Berlin and Madrid.

After a burning car was rammed into a gate outside a synagogue in Toulouse last week, President Nicolas Sarkozy issued a statement that was as morally confused as his judgment of Israel's Gaza offensive. Mr. Sarkozy, who condemned both Hamas terror and Israel's attempt to stop it, also blurred the distinction between the victims and perpetrators of anti-Semitism in. [...]

Ramban - Love neighbor as yourself

I am having difficulty understanding the Ramban's commentary to Vayirka (19:18). He starts out saying that the commandment cannot be understood literally because the heart can not love another as oneself. Then he concludes by saying that this commandment is to remove the jealousy from your heart so that there is no limitation on the love you have for another person. This seems to be a direct contradiction.

Vayikra (19:18): [R' Chavel's translation]. AND THOU SHALT LOVE THY NEIGHBOR AS THYSELF. This is an expression by way of overstatement, for a human heart is not able to accept a command to love one’s neighbor as oneself. Moreover, Rabbi Akiba has already come and taught, 86 “Your life takes precedence over the life of your fellow-being.” Rather, the commandment of the Torah means that one is to love one’s fellow being in all matters, as one loves all good for oneself. 87 It is possible that since it does not say “and thou shalt love ‘eth rei’acha’ 88 as thyself,” but instead it likened them in the word ‘l’rei’acha ‘ [which literally means “to” thy neighbor], and similarly it states with reference to a proselyte, and thou shalt love ‘10’ (him) [but literally: “to” him] as thyself; 89 that the meaning thereof is to equate the love of both [himself and his neighbor, or himself and the proselyte] in his mind. For sometimes a person will love his neighhbor in certain matters, such as doing good to him in material wealth but not with wisdom and similar matters. But if he loves him completely, he will want his beloved friend to gain riches, properties, honor, knowledge and wisdom. However [because of human nature] he will still not want him to be his equal, for there will always be a desire in his heart that he should have more of these good thIngs than his neIghbor. Therefore Scripture commanded that this degrading jealousy should not exist in his heart, but instead a person should love to do abundance of good for his fellow-being as he does for himself, and he should place no limitations upon his love for him. It is for this reason that it is said of Jonathan’s [love for David] “for he loved him as he loved his own soul” 90 because Jonathan had removed [altogether] the attribute of jealousy from his heart, and he said [to David], and thou shalt be king over Israel 91 etc.

רמב"ן (ויקרא יט:יז) וטעם ואהבת לרעך כמוך - הפלגה, כי לא יקבל לב האדם שיאהוב את חבירו כאהבתו את נפשו, ועוד שכבר בא רבי עקיבא ולמד חייך קודמין לחיי חבירך (ב"מ סב א): אלא מצות התורה שיאהב חבירו בכל ענין כאשר יאהב את נפשו בכל הטוב. ויתכן בעבור שלא אמר "ואהבת את רעך כמוך", והשוה אותם במלת "לרעך", וכן ואהבת לו כמוך (פסוק לד) דגר, שיהיה פירושו להשוות אהבת שניהם בדעתו, כי פעמים שיאהב אדם את רעהו בדברים ידועים להטיבו בעושר ולא בחכמה וכיוצא בזה, ואם יהיה אוהבו בכל יחפוץ שיזכה רעהו האהוב לו בעושר ובנכסים וכבוד ובדעת ובחכמה, ולא שישוה אליו אבל יהיה חפץ בלבו לעולם שיהיה הוא יותר ממנו בכל טובה, ויצוה הכתוב שלא תהיה פחיתות הקנאה הזאת בלבו, אבל יאהב ברבות הטובה לחבירו כאשר אדם עושה לנפשו ולא יתן שיעורין באהבה. ועל כן אמר ביהונתן (ש"א כ יז) כי אהבת נפשו אהבו, בעבור שהסיר מדת הקנאה מלבו ואמר (שם כג יז) ואתה תמלוך על ישראל וגו':

Hamas - religious not national struggle

The Times [See also Wall Street Journal referred by Jersey Girl]

The conflict in Gaza has been triggered by Israel's belief that the status quo has become intolerable and should be overturned.

There are several reasons why Israel felt it could not live with the situation in Gaza. The most immediate is the rocket attacks by Hamas that have made life for nearly a tenth of Israelis an exercise in anxiety. Also a factor is that Hamas, since it staged its putsch two years ago, has closed Gaza to all Palestinian groups that have accepted a two-state solution. This makes it impossible for Israel and the administration of President Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) in the West Bank to restart negotiations that could lead to the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.

More importantly, perhaps, Hamas has forged an alliance with Iran based on President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's strategy of “wiping Israel off the map”. Tehran's investment in Hamas is large enough to have given it a decisive say in shaping the group's strategy. Israelis see Hamas as one of the two arms of a pincer, along with Iranian-funded Hezbollah in Lebanon, that Tehran is building against them.

Thus, Israel's war aims are clear: end the rocket attacks, reopen Gaza to other Palestinian parties and eliminate the Iranian presence. This means creating a new status quo in which Hamas is not the dominant party in Gaza.

Some commentators have claimed that the cause of the current war is Israel's occupation. But Gaza - until last weekend - was the one bit of Arab territory nominally under Israeli occupation that was free of Israeli settlers and troops. Yet, most of Israel's troubles, in the form of rocket attacks and suicide operations, came from Gaza. At the other end of the spectrum, the Golan Heights, under Israeli occupation since 1967, have been as quiet as a churchyard despite the presence of large numbers of Israeli settlers and troops.

Hamas, as its charter and political literature make clear, does not want an end to Israeli occupation. It wants the end of Israel. That is because Hamas is part of a pan-Islamist movement with global messianic ambitions. Creating a Palestinian state in Gaza and the West Bank is not its aim. A branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas dreams of world dominion for its version of Islam rather than a mini-state in 5,000 square kilometres of barren land in a geopolitical backyard.[...]

Gaza - Who is winning?

Time Magazine:

[...] For in the end, the only thing that is certain is that every symbol of Hamas' rule in Gaza, every government building, police station, and office block has been replaced by a very large hole. It will take years for Hamas to re-build Gaza's infrastructure and to offer basic services to the war-dazed 1.5 million Palestinians inside the sealed-off territory.

R' Bomzer censured by Vaad for Conversion

Conversion - Retroactive nullification - child

Anonymous requested that I post this story about the retroactive nullification of conversion of the adopted son of the philosopher Fackenheim. It could be an important story but there are not enough details to draw any definite halachic conclusions.

YNET reports:

בית הדין הרבני בירושלים סיפק השבוע שערוריית גיור חדשה המסעירה את הממסד
הדתי והפוליטי. אב בית הדין האזורי, הרב יששכר דב הגר, פסל רטרואקטיבית את
גיורו של יוסי פקנהיים, שחי כל חייו כיהודי ואף נשא אישה באמצעות הרבנות,
כדת משה וישראל.

פקנהיים גויר לפני 29 שנה, כאשר היה תינוק, בבית דין אורתודוקסי בקנדה. כל
חייו הוא חי כיהודי לכל דבר ובשלב מסוים עלה ארצה והתחתן כהלכה, לאחר
שהרבנות ערכה את כל הבחינות הנדרשות.

לאחרונה נתגלעו פערים ומחלוקות בינו ובין אשתו והם החליטו, בהסכמה
הדדית, להיפרד. בני הזוג פנו לבית הדין הרבני האזורי בירושלים במטרה
להסדיר הליכים והגישו בקשה לסידור הגט.


לאחר שהתברר לאב בית הדין כי פקנהיים התגייר בעודו תינוק, הוא החל
לתחקר אותו בנושאי שבת, כשרות ושמירת מצוות. כשהרב אימת כי מדובר בבחור
שאינו דתי ואינו שומר שבת החליט אב בית הדין כי אין צורך בגט מאחר והבעל
אינו יהודי. גיורו נפסל רטרואקטיבית ועל כן נישואיו אינם נישואים.


בני הזוג התעקשו בכל זאת לקבל מסמך גירושין רשמי מבית הדין, על מנת
שיוכלו להסדיר את התוקף המשפטי במשרד הפנים. רק לאחר דרישה נמרצת של
פרקליט האישה ותלונות לנציבות קבילות השופטים והדיינים הסכים הרב הגר לסדר
גט לחומרה, אך השאיר בעינה את הקביעה כי הבעל אינו יהודי, ושמו צורף
לרשימת פסולי החיתון באופן שימנע ממנו לשאת אישה יהודיה באופן מקובל.
[...]

Should Jews hate Arabs?

Jersey Girl has left a new comment on your post "Arab propaganda war against Israel":

We were sitting in the vestibule of the synagogue on Shabbos, a group of mothers and children waiting for the service to end.

Two young pre teenage boys were playing a game, "I'm shooting Arabs","pow,pow, pow" "I'm blowing up Arabs", "I can kill more Arabs than you".

The mothers were horrified and one sends a child to go get her husband who questions the boys.

"Where did you learn this type of thing, this is terrible?" asks the father.

"Oh, the youth director, from NCSY," replies one of the boys. "We play a game on Shabbos called the "Settlers of Catan" and it is about an imaginary place, but we make it to be Israel and the object of the game is to kill as many Arabs as possible to win the game."

After Shabbos, one of the parents googles and learns that the game, developed in Germany, is played in nearly every NCSY youth group in the country.

During the 2006 Second Lebanon War Rabbi Sholom Wolpe, a prominent figure among Israeli Chabad told the local Kiryat Gat weekly "that the war should continue "until the enemy has been totally eradicated." [Interview with Shalom Dov Wolpo, Kiryat Gat Net (Hebrew), July 13, 2006]

Fortunately, the Orthodox Union issued a statement in response to Rabbi Wolpe's
racist and hateful remarks: “We unequivocally condemn Rabbi Wolpe’s statements. They are beyond the pale of legitimate democratic protest and have no basis in Jewish law or hashkafa (philosophy)".

But Chabad leaders have not distanced themselves from Wolpe and other extremist Messianics who call for genocide against Arabs.

Children in a local yeshiva bring home a parsha sheet in which the Ramban is credited with saying "that Arabs have been the evil enemies of the Jews since Avraham and Sarah".

A quick look at the referenced sefer, perek and passuk, shows that the Ramban never wrote such a thing. In fact, those who know history, know that the Ramban was expelled from Christian Europe and granted refuge in the Moslem Levant.

Where did this come from?

There is a great deal of Anti Arab and Muslim hate in our Jewish communities, so much that it is often shocking. This is not part of Judaism or our Torah. It is frightening to note how much Judaism has changed in the past 50 years. Our great grandparents would not recognize it.

Gaza imperils 2 state plan

NYTimes reports

With every image of the dead in Gaza inflaming people across the Arab world, Egyptian and Jordanian officials are worried that they see a fundamental tenet of the Middle East peace process slipping away: the so-called two-state solution, an independent Palestinian state coexisting with Israel.

Egypt and Jordan fear that they will be pressed to absorb the Palestinian populations now living beyond their borders. If Israel does not assume responsibility for humanitarian aid in Gaza, for example, pressure could compel Egypt to fill the vacuum; Jordan, in turn, worries that Israel will try to push Palestinians from the West Bank into its territory.

In that case, both states fear, they could become responsible for policing the conflict between the Palestinians and Israel, undermining their peace treaties with Israel. [...]

Abuse - rape of young girl

Just received this question :

Take this situation: A man regularly abuses a young girl He is not her brother, not her father, etc., so it is not Gilui arayot.

In this case, does she at all have a case against him according to torah law? Or can she just ask for a money settlement because she lost her virginity (if this is the case)? If he goes on abusing her for several years, will this make a difference (as compared to if he does it just one time)?

Has she a case to bring him to civil authorities? I would be very grateful for an answer to this question
===================================

The simple answer - 1) if you know for certain that these are the facts and he is still abusing her or others - is to call the police since this is viewed as a case of pikuach nefesh. The fact that this does not involve a specific sexual prohibition which is punishable by court or by kares - it still is prohibited because of many other Torah prohibition. 2) If it is only a suspicion - then contact someone who is experienced in these matters - whether a rabbi, psychologist or social worker - and ask how to proceed. Do not consult people who are not experienced in issues of abuse.

However if this is in regard to past activity and he no longer abuses and there is absolutely no possibility he will abuse in the future - the situation is different. In that case you need to consult with rabbinical authorities as well as a lawyer and experienced mental health expert.

Rav Eliashiv: Question: If someone is sexually abusing a boy or a girl in circumstances which we can’t stop him from continuing his evil deeds – is it permissible to notify the government authorities? Answer:...However, it is permitted to notify the government authorities only in the case which it is certain that the accused has been sexually abusing children. Informing the authorities in such a case is clearly something for the well being of the society (tikun olam). However in a case where there is no proof that this activity is happening but it is merely a conjecture or suspicion, if we permit the calling of the authorities - not only would it not be an improvement (tikun olam) - but it would destroy society. That is because it is possible that allegations are being made solely because of some bitterness the student has against his teacher or because of some unfounded fantasy. As a result of these false allegations the accused will be placed in a situation for which death is better than life – even though he is innocent. Therefore I do not see any justification for calling the authorities in such circumstances.

1) pikuach nefesh - Rav Eliyashiv [heard from Rav Maier Horowtiz - the Bostoner Rebbe's son] and Rav Sternbuch [heard directly] have clearly stated sexual abuse destroys the person and is thus pikuach nefesh. Simply put the person who is doing this is no different than someone trying to murder her. You must use the minimum effective action that will protect her. If it is clear that this is happening - call the police. The perpetrator is a rodef.

2) physically harming another person is prohibited

3) psychological harm is prohibited by "lo sono" Vayikra 25:17

4) embarrassing and degrading another person is prohibited

5) there is also a Torah requirement to stop a person from sinning.

6) this is also Torah violation of "loving your fellow as yourself"

7) there is a need to rebuke a sinner

8) the disgusting behavior of this individual degrades the spritual status of all Jews - through the mechanism of arvus.

9) there is a Torah prohibition of standing idly by while someone is being harmed