Monday, November 29, 2021
Understanding the Marc Gafni Story
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/understanding-the-marc-gafni-story-part-ii
In 2004, The Jewish Week
ran a damning exposé on Gafni, which included Mr. Gafni’s admission of
the incidents with the ninth-grader, as well as the news that Shlomo
Riskin had rescinded his rabbinic ordination. The article quoted Gafni
saying he now took precautions against future missteps: “‘I don’t work
with kids,’” Gafni said, “‘I don’t counsel men or women, and I don’t
meet alone with women.’”
Kiruv at lincoln square - gafni
https://www.lukeford.net/profiles/profiles/mordecai_gafni.htm
Judy told her story to Rabbi Shlomo Riskin. He chose to believe Winiarz.
Judy told one of her counselors in JPSY, Susan.
Susan brought Judy to Rabbi Blau who put out the word that Winiarz was dangerous.
I'm told by anti-Winiarz sources that an informal Beit Din was
convenened in New York about Marc and Judy. That Winiarz was told to
quit his job and move from New York to some unsuspecting community and
make a new life (that was how these things were handled until recently).
Marc: "This New York Beit Din story is a complete fabrication. The Judy encounter should've been dealt with and healed immediately. I kept running JPSY for a couple of years [after the Judy controversy]."
Rabbi Yosef Blau's wife Rivkah worked for R. Shlomo Riskin in the 1970s and early 1980s (she ran his girls' high school). She frequently found it distressing and burned out twice. She and her husband appeared to have a tense relationship with R. Riskin (though they've all since buried the hatchet, and R. Blau has a son who works for R. Riskin).
Marc Winiarz was R. Riskin's poster boy.
R. Riskin was trying to raise money to show that he could produce a new generation of rabbis. The first (and only in the United States?) guy R. Riskin ordained was Winiarz.
Yeshiva University's backbenchers were furious at R. Riskin for starting his own Hebrew high school (Ohr Torah). R. Riskin was talking about starting his own ordination program up the road from YU. R. Riskin was taking funding that used to go to YU. The guy who funded Ohr Torah was Max Stern of Stern College (the women's branch of YU) fame.
Rabbi Blau and Marc Winiarz had a confrontation in 1985 in a hallway on the third or fourth floor of YU.
According to sources, the confrontation went like this:
Marc. "Rabbi Blau, what are you doing? Are you crazy? Why haven't you come to talk to me to heal this thing? You're spreading stories that are not true."
Rabbi Blau says: "I'm going to get you."
Marc responds: "Why don't you first take care of problems in your own home before you start throwing stones at other people?"
I hear that Rabbi Blau then threw a punch at Marc and said, "I'll bring you down."
On Oct. 12, 2004, R. Blau told me: "At one point, Mordechai came into my office and told me he'd get my wife. I was stern with him. He was threatening."
In July 2008, I ask Marc about all this. He replies: "This was a long time ago. I wish the Blaus well. I no longer live in their world. Perhaps one day in the future we will all be able to sit down like human beings and heal this."
In early 1986, Winiarz finished his term at JPSY.
Marc: "I ended JPSY for a simple reason. A lot of people who do youth work does it between 18 and 26 and then you burn out."
Luke: "Weren't you exiled to Boca? Wasn't there a Beit Din convened?"
Marc: "It never happened."
Luke: "So you went to Boca voluntarily?"
Marc: "Of course.
"It's a natural transition. I went to Rabbi Kenny Hain, who was head of communal services at YU. I was ready to take a pulpit. He suggested Boca Raton."
The rabbi in Boca Raton before Winiarz was Mark Dratch, Rabbi Norman Lamm's son-in-law.
The congregation (Boca Raton Community Synagogue) had about 20 families. They'd been brutal to R. Dratch. One guy was particularly vicious -- attorney Steve Marcus who was murdered in a gay bar ten years later.
Rabbi Lamm came down to help his son-in-law. When he got up to speak, four people turned their chairs to face the wall.
Nobody wanted to take the pulpit that R. Lamm had ostracized.
Winiarz moved to Boca Raton around 1986. He did a great job in
outreach. He was charismatic. The size of the congregation tripled.
Marc ruffled feathers. Before the high holidays, he took out full page ads in the local Jewish newspaper that said, 'Are you bored with impersonal and monotonous services? Come join Rabbi Marc.'
"The other rabbis in town were furious with me," says Marc, "because they felt I was describing their congregation, which of course I was."
Insiders and outsiders in the Torah world
From comments I wrote on Avodah in 1999
I think a rather inaccurate and naive black and white picture
is being presented of the nature of information transfer in
the Orthodox world. There are those who feel that if we only
have Artscroll biographies - then future talmidei chachomim
will inevitably repeat the errors of their predecessors. This
is contrasted with the narrow minded rosy view of the right
wing that halacha requires focusing only on the positive and
perhaps even lying c.v..
I once asked one of my sons who was learning at Ponevitch about
this issue. He replied, "the rosy stories are presented for the
masses. The fact is that anyone who is going somewhere in the
Torah world has full access to the stories - but it is kept as
Torah Shebaal Peh. It is simply a question of to'eles. For
someone who is an outsider and is not immersed in learning -
the raw stories are harmful because they will be misunderstood.
For the insiders - those who come in contact with the big
people - the stories are understood in context."
Thus for those historians (and baalei batim) who rely primarily
on written material - there is a great disparity of what is
learned compared to one who has close relationships to gedolei
Torah - who pass down information concerning these issues. It
is rather naive to think that someone who has studied world
history, Jewish history and American History and regularly
reads the New York Times, Jewish Press as well as participating in internet
discussion is more sophisticated in understanding the dynamics
of Torah and Torah politics than the elite who devote their
lives to study at the main yeshivos whether it is Lakewood or
Yeshiva University.
This filtering of information relates to the problem of the
letters published by the Tora UMaddah Journal. Aside from the
halachic question of publishing these letters is the question
of what information Rav Weinberg wanted publicized. There is no
question that the harsh condemnations stated in the letters are
stated nowhere else in his large numbers of published letters
and tshuvos. Did he not publish them elsewhere because he
simply felt that they would not be properly understood in
written form or did he conceal them because he was legitimately
afraid that he would be condemned for these views? Did he
strongly exaggerate his views to Prof. Atlas as a way of
empathizing with his correspondent's views or were these in
fact his actual personal views that he expressed to anyone he
felt he could trust?
The bottom line is that the publication of the letters severely
damaged his reputation in the Orthodox world where he has been
acknowledged as one of the major talmidei chachomim of the 20th
century.
If the views are accurate then he and his halachic opinions
will be discounted or ignored - if they are not accurate then
his name has simply been besmirched. So what was gained? Did
someone think that there would be a movement of talmidei
chachomim to legitimize the harsh statements found in the
letters? Did someone fantasize that Rav Weinbergs standing is
so absolute that it would influence and bend the whole world in
his direction?!
I am sorry for the upset that my last posting caused but it *is* an accurate
statement of the Litvak point of view. (I believe that there is a totally
different dynamic in the chassidic world.) Let me mention two solid sources
expressing the elitist litvak view. The first is Rav Dessler's famous essay
(vol 3 page 355) stating that there should be only two options - full time
learning or a low status job. The second is Rav Moshe's (Igros Moshes Y.D. IV
36.15 page 233) adamant refusal to give a baal habayis the status of a ben
Torah. Thus in the litvische yeshiva world - those who are not major league
talmidei chachomim or on their way to being such are outsiders and
deliberately so. This puts tremendous pressure on people to learn - swim or
sink. But even someone learning full time in kollel - but not regarded as
going somewhere is also an outsider.
In contrast I was told (by one of the Bostoner Rebbe's sons) that in the
chassidic world being a chasid is itself adequate status. "As long as you
cling to the Rebbe it compensates for the fact that you are not a tzadik or
talmid chachom". He further stated that the chasid is more likely to learn in
a gentlemanly way while the litvak's concern is to defeat his opponent - the
result being that the litvak takes his learning much more seriously and
personally. [I am aware that there are chasidim who learn like litvaks - but
as a generalization it seems to be true]
Bottom line. There are insiders and outsiders in the Torah world. (Something
which I had thought was obvious to all.) The insiders have access to
information which not available to the outsiders. This is related also to the
issue of midgets and giants.
Hanukkah gelt
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanukkah_gelt
Rabbi A. P. Bloch has written that
"The tradition of giving money (Chanukah gelt) to children is of long standing. The custom had its origin in the 17th-century practice of Polish Jewry to give money to their small children for distribution to their teachers. In time, as children demanded their due, money was also given to children to keep for themselves. Teenage boys soon came in for their share. According to Magen Avraham (18th century), it was the custom for poor yeshiva students to visit homes of Jewish benefactors who dispensed Chanukah money (Orach Chaim 670). The rabbis approved of the custom of giving money on Chanukah because it publicized the story of the miracle of the oil."[1]
Ba'alei Teshuvah
https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/baalei-teshuvah
In the second half of the 20th century, the words ba'alei teshuvah took on new significance. Beginning in the 1960s in the U.S., the rise of the counterculture in general American society together with the search for new meaning and spirituality led an increasing number of college-age Jews to explore Jewish observance, many for the first time. For most of these young Jews, the exploration led them to Orthodoxy, of one form or another.
The Baal Teshuva Movement - Agudath Israel of America
1 heard from Rabbi Yoseif Kahaneman, the late Ponevezher Rav 7"~n, that in the course of the Hitler holocaust a million pure souls of innocent Jewish children,cheder children, were lost. Since then, their souls hover in the world, trying to find bodies into which they can enter in order to continue their interrupted lives. Thus pure Jewish souls are transfigured in the chozrim biteshuva of our days.
The Baal Teshuva Movement
https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/the-baal-teshuva-movement/
BTW one of the saddest respondents I encountered was Rav Ephraim Buchwald, who was a leader at YU’s TLS and then founded and led National Jewish Outreach Professionals. I know, like and respect him very much. This is what he wrote to me:
The rise and decline of the Baal
Teshuva movement, particularly the rise and decline of the non-Orthodox
synagogues in the U.S. Conservative and Reform synagogues were the
primary feeders of the Baal Teshuva movement. With their collapse, the
religious return of their youth has ceased. With few exceptions, the
Baal Teshuva movement has sadly ended.
Baal teshuva movement
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baal_teshuva_movement
Appearing as an identifiable movement in the 1960s, a growing number
of young Jews who had previously been raised in non-religious homes in
the United States started to develop a strong interest in becoming a
part of observant Judaism; many of these people, in contrast to
sociological expectations, became attracted to observant Judaism within
Orthodoxy.
Rabbi Yosef Blau the mashgiach ruchani of Yeshiva University has noted:
Rabbi Yosef Blau the mashgiach ruchani of Yeshiva University has noted:
A baal teshuva movement has emerged with a significant number of Jews from non-traditional homes returning to the observance of grandparents and great grandparents. In fact one of the challenges facing modern Orthodoxy is that many of these returnees are attracted to a European Orthodoxy.[6]
Sunday, November 28, 2021
Is Modern Orthodox Kiruv Possible?
https://www.thelehrhaus.com/commentary/is-modern-orthodox-kiruv-possible/
In theory, the Modern Orthodox community is in the best possible situation to take on this challenge. No other branch of Judaism is so firmly rooted in Torah and mitzvot while simultaneously being full participants in contemporary culture. Many Jews who are not yet observant would likely be able to strongly connect to Modern Orthodox Judaism and find an ideological home within the Modern Orthodox community if such an option were to be presented properly.
In spite of this, much of the kiruv (roughly translated as “outreach”) world is dominated by those representing various shades of a more right-wing Orthodox Judaism, including organizations such as Chabad,[4] Aish HaTorah, Chazaq, Olami, and more.[5]
One of the biggest issues that prevents Modern Orthodox kiruv from being successful is that Modern Orthodoxy tends to be perceived as unattractive to those who are searching for a legitimate religious outlet. One need only look at the traction of Eitan Gross’s now infamous article in which he argues that the Modern Orthodox world is full of “glaring hypocrisy and internal contradiction.”[7] Similarly, Noah Feldman of Harvard Law (who himself left the Modern Orthodox community), assessed the following:
Saturday, November 27, 2021
Orthodox leaders slam popular 'Kiruv' rabbi
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/221450
A number of leading rabbinical figures in the Orthodox world have issued a stern rebuke of one of the most prominent ‘kiruv’ (outreach) rabbis in the United States.
Sixteen rabbis penned a letter, publicized on Wednesday, rejecting the behavior and comments of Rabbi Yosef Mizrachi, calling his teaching methods “superficial”, “deceptive”, and “dangerous”.
“As rabbonim and mechanchim (teachers), we are greatly concerned about the popularity in some circles of a ‘kiruv’ approach that does not bring honor to the Torah…but on the contrary, creates considerable chilul Hashem (desecration of God’s name),” the statement reads.
Among others, the 16 signatories to the letter include Rabbi Gedalia Dov Schwartz, head of the Beis Din of American and the Chicago Rabbinical Council; the Bostoner Rebbe, Rabbi Mayer Alter Horowitz; Rabbi Yitzchok Alderstein, editor of Cross Currents; Rabbi Avi Shafran, a senior member of Agudath Israel of America; Rabbi Shalom Baum, President of the Rabbinical Council of America; Yeshiva University Rosh Yeshiva Rabbi Daniel Feldman; Rabbi Shaya Karlinsky, Rosh Yeshiva of Darche Noam in Jerusalem; and Rabbi Joseph Dweck, Senior Rabbi of the Spanish and Portuguese Jewish communities in the UK.
A Time to Build,” Rabbi Chaim Dov Keller
There is another aspect to the "with us" syndrome: Give us what we want. "We want spirituality," so we give them spirituality. "We want meditation," so we respond with lectures on meditation. "We want Kabbala,"and we deliver Kabbala. This, it can he argued, is only used as a means of attracting them. But then we have to "bait and switch." And"bait and switch" does not always work. A person coming into Judaism searching for mysticism and Kabbala may not be so happy to be sold the halachos of Shulchan Aruch. And when he's not satisfied with ourbrand of mysticism, he may explore other forms of mysticism. Our goal is not to produce Mitzva Machines, but to make bnei Torah, andto spread Torah, which is the lifeblood of the Jewish People. "Spirituality"seekers are in reality "hungry to hear the words of Hashem." When people are hungry and thirsty, you do not feed them potato chips and diet cola with cotton candy for dessert. And when they really want to hear the word ofHashem, you do not feed them puffand platitudes and pop Kabba/a before you teach them the basics of Torah'. Otherwise, the result can be a hybridization of Judaism - "feel good,'' and do-it-yourself religion, and in the worst scenario, introduction into messianic cults. Not all outreach is kiruv.
Out to Save the World
https://mishpacha.com/out-to-save-the-world/
Warmly eulogized by the entire Torah world after his passing, in his lifetime he was both ridiculed as “Noach the meshugener” and subject to sharp criticism. Despite being the seminal figure in the modern baal teshuvah movement, he was rarely invited to address the general chareidi public, and a major rosh yeshivah once took to the pages of the Jewish Observer to attack the “religion of kiruv.”
No one who had such a vast list of things he wished to change could have failed to arouse critics. The Novominsker Rebbe, Rav Yaakov Perlow, in his eulogy for Rav Noach — a boyhood friend — hinted at the source of some of that opposition: “Often, those who burn with passion to right every wrong make others nervous.” The Rebbe confessed that in later years he would often cross to the other side of the street when he saw Rav Noach coming to avoid being confronted with questions about what he was doing to solve the problems of Klal Yisrael.
Friday, November 26, 2021
Heard from the Shomer Emunim Rebbe
About 15 years ago I had the opportunity to spend a number of hours with the Shomer Emunim Rebbe. The following are samples of our conversations.
I asked him what it was like being a rebbe? He replied, "In the old days when the chassidim needed the rebbe it was good. But now the rebbe needs the chassidim and it is not so good."
He mentioned a well known rebbe in Europe who had one daughter but many sons. The rebbe made all his son's rebbes but not his son-in-law. His daughter was hurt by this and asked her father why he didn't make her husband a rebbe also. The father replied, "Your husband is a tremendous talmid chacom. A talented leader - he will have no trouble with parnosa. Unfortunately your brothers are not so smart or talented - at least they can be rebbes.
I have a son who at that time was a strong kanoi. I asked the Rebbe what I should do about it. He told me to bring my son to him. The Rebbe talked with him - and my son criticized one group after another as not being "proper Jews". The Rebbe pulled out a sefer - Derech Mitzvosecha" and pointed out a paragraph. It said, "You can not be a kanoi if you enjoy it. Being a zealot is only for those who find it distasteful." My son lost all interest in criticizing other Jews at that meeting and totally changed his perspective for the good.
Rabbi Kanievsky says children 5 and up should be vaccinated
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/rabbi-kanievsky-says-children-5-and-up-should-be-vaccinated-686971
Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, one of the most senior haredi (ultra-Orthodox) rabbis in the world, said that children over the age of five should be vaccinated against corona, a ruling that should bolster the vaccination drive among young children in the haredi sector.
The
rabbi, 93, met at his Bnei Brak home on Thursday with senior medical
officials and doctors, who informed him of new developments regarding
the vaccine, rising case numbers, and the recent approval by the US Food
and Drug Administration for administering the Pfizer vaccine to
children from the age of five.
Of
the haredi population, 678,000 are age 0-19 of whom 200,000 are five to
11, so the vaccination drive for this cohort is of high importance for
the national child vaccination drive in general.
Thursday, November 25, 2021
A prison commander says female IDF soldiers were ‘pimped’ for terrorist prisoners
Gilboa Prison commander Freddy Ben Shitrit appears to confirm reports from 2018 that female IDF soldiers who were doing their military service in the prison as guards were “pimped” and forced to have sex with Palestinian terrorists.
Ben Shitrit says the prison “pimped soldiers” and “they handed over female soldiers… to terrorists for sexual purposes.” The incident allegedly happened before Ben Shitrit served as commander in the prison.
The allegations were first reported in 2018 by Channel 20 and firmly denied by the prison services.
Shocking allegations regarding female soldiers in security prisons
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/317578
Coalition chair MK Idit Silman has asked the Minister of Internal Security, Omer Bar-Lev, to establish a government review committee to examine the Israel Prison Service’s conduct with regard to conditions for female IDF soldiers working in prisons where security prisoners are held.
“In view of the shocking and serious allegations made by a senior Prisons Service official, a government review committee is required to conduct a thorough and in-depth examination of conditions,” Silman wrote, “even though the events described did not occur during the term of office of the current government.”
The allegations date back to 2018 but regained prominence this week
when Gilboa Prison commander Ben Shitrit gave testimony regarding the
prison break-out that occurred there earlier this year. Ben Shitrit had
noted that female soldiers were allowed to be used by security prisoners
being held in the Gilboa Prison, “in order to keep them happy.”
Top Israeli Expert: Vaccinating Children Is 'Important for the Kids, Not to Control the Pandemic'
“It’s not the booster waning, it’s the fact we still have unimmunized individuals,” she said. The public health expert explained that three-quarters of newly infected individuals have not been inoculated at all, while a further 15 percent are more than six months past their second dose and have yet to get a booster.
Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky: 'Vaccinate your children against COVID-19'
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/317568
Following approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for use in children ages 5-11 and the Israeli Health Ministry's subsequent approval and rollout, a leading Lithuanian-haredi rabbi has called on parents to vaccinate their children against coronavirus.
The announcement follows Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky's meeting with three senior Israeli doctors who are continuously working to manage the coronavirus pandemic in Israel.
The meeting, held in Rabbi Kanievsky's home, was attended by Professor Ran Balicer, who heads the Israel Shield staff of experts and the Clalit Research Institute; coronavirus czar Professor Salman Zarka; and Rabbi Kanievsky's personal doctor, Dr. Meshulam Hart.
3 Men Found Guilty of Felony Murder Charges in Trial Over Killing of Ahmaud Arbery
https://time.com/6123299/ahmaud-arbery-trial-guilty-verdict/
The defense teams for the McMichaels argued that their clients behaved in self-defense, alleging that Arbery tried to take Travis’ gun away from him during the ensuing confrontation and that Arbery was responsible for his own death. “You are allowed to defend yourself. You are allowed to use force that is likely to cause death or serious bodily injury if you believe it’s necessary,” Jason Sheffield, who represents Travis McMichael, said during closing arguments. “At that moment Travis believed it was necessary. This is a law that is for a person in Travis’s situation.”
The defendants claim to have believed they were acting under stand-your-ground and now-repealed
citizens arrest laws in Georgia—but since they had no proof that Arbery
was committing a crime, the law would likely not have applied.
Coronavirus commissioner: We may be on our way to 5th wave
Concern in Israel is mounting that the country might soon experience a fifth wave of the coronavirus pandemic, coronavirus commissioner Prof. Salman Zarka warned during a cabinet meeting on Tuesday night.
As of Wednesday, Israel had 6,500 active cases. They had dropped as low as 5,000 in previous days.
Men Found Guilty of Killing Arbery Head to Federal Court in 10 Weeks on Hate Crime Charges
After a Georgia jury found Travis and Greg McMichael and William "Roddie" Bryan guilty of murdering Ahmaud Arbery on Wednesday, the three men are set to head to federal court in less than three months to stand another trial on federal hate crime charges.
After roughly ten and a half hours of deliberation, jurors in Glynn County found all three men guilty of felony murder. Travis McMichael was convicted on nine charges, Greg McMichael was convicted on eight charges and Bryan was convicted on six charges.
Arbery was fatally shot by Travis McMichael on February 23, 2020 after McMichael, his father Greg McMichael and Bryan chased the 25-year-old Black jogger down with their pickup trucks while conducting what they claimed to be a citizen's arrest in the Satilla Shores neighborhood.
Wednesday, November 24, 2021
COVID in Israel: Cases highest in month, immunity declining, expert warns
Over 50% of new virus carriers are younger than 12. PM Bennett called on parents to get kids vaccinated and ordered antigen tests for students before they return to school after the Hanukkah break.
The immunity against the coronavirus among the Israeli population appears to be declining, an expert warned the coronavirus cabinet on Tuesday, as the country registered the highest number of cases in a month.Talking to
the ministers, Prof. Eran Segal, a computational biologist for the
Weizmann Institute, said that since the beginning of November, numbers
have been pointing to a fall in the immunity of the population, similar
to what happened in May.
According
to Segal, the decline is caused by the fact that more time has passed
for people who were only vaccinated with the first two shots since they
were inoculated and therefore their immunity is dropping – and a similar
scenario is occurring for those who recovered but did not get
vaccinated.
Tuesday, November 23, 2021
Jury finds Unite the Right organizers liable for millions in damages
The
jury in the civil case involving White nationalists who organized a
two-day rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, asked for
clarification Tuesday on a part of the verdict form that pertains to the
lawsuit's conspiracy claims.
THE STATUS OF "CHILONIM" IN HALAKHA (PART 2)
The most problematic ruling relating to an apikorus is the law that he is to be "cast into a pit and not rescued." The Chazon Ish has a well-known ruling on this matter which is based on the understanding that this law is meant to achieve certain social objectives:
It seems that the law of casting [an apikorus] into a pit only applies at a time when the blessed One's providence is manifest, e.g. at a time when miracles were common, and heavenly voices were heard, and the righteous of the generation were under personal providence evident to all, and the heretics were particularly perverse in turning their passions to lust and wantonness. At that time destruction of the wicked served as a fence for the world, for all knew that leading the nation astray brought calamity into the world, and it brought plague, and warfare and famine into the world. But in a time of concealment, when faith is gone from the common people, the act of casting into a pit does not repair the breach, but rather it adds to it, in that it appears to them as an act of destruction and violence, God forbid. And since its entire purpose is to repair, the law does not apply when it does not lead to repair. It falls upon us to bring them back with chains of love, and to stand them in a ray of light as much as we can. (Chazon Ish, Hilkhot Shechita 2, 16)
The law of "casting down and not rescuing" is meant to repair the
generation, and therefore, at a time when it will not lead to repair, but rather
make things worse, the law is not applied.[8]
Our Generation: The Tinok SheNishbah
The Rambam, in a well-known comment regarding the children of the sectarian group the Karaites, elucidates an issue that can be relevant for us in this generation as well:
“However the children and the grandchildren of these errants, whose
parents have misled them, those who have been born among the Karaites,
who have reared them in their views; each is like a child who has been
taken captive among them, who has been reared by them, and is not
alacritous in seizing the paths of the commandments; his status is
comparable to that of one who has been coerced. Even though he later
learns that he is a Jew and becomes acquainted with Jews and [the
Jewish] religion, he is nevertheless to be regarded as a person who is
coerced, for he was reared in the erroneous ways [of his parents]. Thus
it is of the children and grandchildren of the karaites who adhere to
the practices of their Karaite parents who have erred. Therefore it is
proper to cause them to return in repentance and to draw them near with
words of peace until they return to the strength-giving Torah.”2
Tinok shenishba
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tinok_shenishba
Maimonides speaks out strongly against those who deny the validity of the Oral Torah, including the Mishnah and the Talmud, labeling them as heretics.[4] This would include Karaite Jews. He claims they deserve neither witnesses, warning, nor judges to be punished according to Jewish law. Rather, anyone who removes them from existence merits great reward as one who removed an obstacle from the proper course of Jewish belief and practice.
However, Maimonides expresses concern for the offspring of such individuals, and excludes them from those who deserve such punishment because they participated unwittingly in their denial of the Oral Law. While they are indeed sinners, he declares them unintentional participants in their lack of adherence to Jewish law and belief, similar to the case of a tinok shenishba.[5] Rather than be pushed away, such individuals are to be drawn into the Jewish community and taught the proper way so they can become observant, frum members of community.
The notion that unaffiliated and unobservant Jews are unwitting sinners who should be taught the Jewish laws and customs and welcomed into the Torah community is the basis for the many outreach organizations (Kiruv) that exist in the modern era, including Chabad, Aish Hatorah, Ohr Somayach and Gateways.
Leading Doctor: COVID infects the brain, vaccinate your children
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/317445
Dr. Meir Preis, director of the Institute of Hematology at Carmel Medical Center and the husband of Health Minister Director of Public Health Dr. Sharon Alroy-Preis, called on parents to vaccinate their children against the coronavirus and said he would do so himself.
To all who are undecided about vaccinating their children, Preis wrote on Twitter: ''I will vaccinate my small children. The reason is mainly that this virus penetrates and infects the brain cells. Very few viruses do this so it is not the flu."
''All viruses that do penetrate the brain tissue can cause significant damage years after infection. There is no shortage of examples of this, '' he said.
Maimonides Reinterpretation of the Thirteenth Article of Faith: Another Look at the Essay on Resurrection
Jewish Studies Quarterly, Volume 10 (2003) pp. 244—257 Albert D. Friedberg
In this paper I argue (1) that Maimonides Essay actually reinterpreted, somewhat coyly, his earlier statements; and (2) that his Essay outlined a novel doctrine of the resurrection
Among scholars, he continues, there are five opinions on
the reward for the righteous who keep the biblical commandments (and the converse for the unrighteous).
(1) a carefree, sensually luxurious life in the Garden of Eden
(2) eternal prosperity and health in the messianic era
(3) resurrection of the dead to material yet immortal bliss
(4) health and wealth in this world under a powerful native sovereign
(5) all of the above
In this light Maimonides complains that few are interested in the extraordinary phenomenon of the olam haba or world-to-come. He raises the urgent question of what constitutes takhlit (the “goal”, or true reward), and differentiates between true reward and the causes leading thereto.
He is exasperated by those who worry whether they will rise clothed or naked, bejewelled or not – as if this had anything to do with ultimate reward.
It becomes clear, from the tone of what he says, and goes on to say, that Maimonides categorically dismisses all five opinions in terms of takhlit or ultimate goal. Rather, only the immortality of the soul/intellect could be the proper takhlit of the virtuous.
In summary, then, the body does indeed decompose after death, but the righteous need not be resurrected since they are already “alive”. While resurrection is one of the articles of the faith, Maimonides seems to be foreclosing on a literal interpretation thereof. The suggestion in the Guide for the Perplexed is that the resurrection of the dead must be allegorized: another way of expressing the immortality of the righteous soul. As the passage in his Mishneh Torah makes clear, the ultimate reward of the righteous is blissful eternity in an immaterial world.
The silent plague of spousal abuse - inflicted by women
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/317413
With the media’s focus currently on the phenomenon of domestic violence against women, the head of Shovrot Shivyon (Breaking the Equality), Naama Zarbiv, presented some very surprising facts regarding violence directed not against the wife but rather the husband.
In conversation with Israel National News, Zarbiv related the background story to the facts she provided.
“Many of the men in our organization think that the figures regarding spousal abuse are symmetrical and present statistics from abroad,” Zarbiv says. “When I tried to talk about the phenomenon at a Knesset panel discussion, and requested statistics from the police so that budgets could be allocated accordingly, Tamar Zandberg (Meretz) – who was then standing in as chair of the committee – cut me off and muted my microphone, ‘explaining’ that violent women do not exist.”
“That really infuriated me,” she continues, “and I decided, in the name of freedom of information, to get hold of official police figures, because in the judicial system there’s a certain bias and we wanted to have a working figure to use.”
Zarbiv describes how “we requested statistics for grievous bodily harm (GBH), inflicted on men by women and the reverse. We especially wanted statistics for GBH because it’s something that can be proven with physical evidence, and also because a lot of people claim that while the phenomenon of spousal abuse against the husband exists, it refers to emotional abuse rather than physical.”
“The figures simply stunned us,” she says. Police statistics for 2020 showed that while 177 cases had been opened relating to the male spouse inflicting violence on the female, a whopping 2,068 cases had been opened relating to violence inflicted by the female spouse on the male.
Kyle Rittenhouse Refuses to Become Poster Boy for Conservatives
https://www.newsweek.com/kyle-rittenhouse-refuses-become-poster-boy-conservatives-1651885
Richards also issued a rebuke to Donald Trump Jr. for encouraging people to support a gun rights organization that said it would "award" Rittenhouse an AR-15 for his "defense of gun rights."
In a tweet that has since been deleted, Trump Jr. wrote: "Gun Owners of America is sending Kyle Rittenhouse an AR-15. Sign the card in support of Kyle. Americans have a fundamental right to defend themselves, and to keep and bear arms. The verdict in the Kyle Rittenhouse trial is a recognition of those rights."
"He's an idiot," Richards told Insider. "I don't have to expand on that because it speaks for itself."
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