Rav M. Feinstein: For Moshe seeing not more real than hearing - Contradiction?

Igros Moshe(Y.D. 1:223): You bring from Sefer HaIkkarim (4:15) that the reason that Moshe did  not break the Tablets immediately when G‑d told him that the Jews had made the Golden Calf was because seeing is more powerfully real than knowledge. In my humble opinion, G‑d forbid to say that when Moshe heard about the Golden Calf that it was less significant to him than when he saw it himself - even in terms of emotional response. A possible explanation of why he broke the Tablets only after seeing the Golden Calf, because G‑d did not tell him about their enthusiastic dancing and therefore he thought it would be enough if they saw him - to completely repent immediately. However when he saw their enthusiastic dancing he realized that they would not so readily repent and therefore he broke the Tablets. You can also say that that he waited to break them so that the Jewish people could see him break the Tablets and realize the great loss they had caused because of the sin of the Golden Calf. This is stated explicitly in Devorim (9:14), “I broke the Tablets before their eyes.” This implies that he deliberately did it before their eyes. In addition it says later more explicitly in Devarim (34:12), “Before the eyes of all Israel.” Rashi explains this verse to mean that he intended to break the Tablets before their eyes. If so he had don possibility of breaking it when he first heard from G‑d about the Calf before he descended from  the mountain. He was thus forced to wait until he descended so they could all see that he was breaking the Tablets. In contrast regarding hearing something from another person it is definitely true that seeing is more powerful in eliciting emotions and there is no need to bring a proof to something so obvious.

Igros Moshe(O.C. 3:50): I replied to you many years ago and my reply was printed in my Igros Moshe (1:223) that G‑d forbid to say about Moshe that what he saw with his own eyes was much more real than what he heard from G‑d and that is the reason that he only broke the Tablets after he saw the Golden Calf with his own eyes. Now you write to me that the Akeidas Yitzchok also shares the view of the Sefer HaIkkarim. I in fact looked into the Sefer HaIkkarim and I saw that in fact he agrees with my view that there is no difference between hearing information from G‑d to seeing it oneself. He brings a medrash that the reason that Moshe didn’t break the Tablets previously was in order to inform the Jews that it is prohibited to act on knowledge – even absolutely certain knowledge until it is directly witnessed… The Akeidas Yitzchok himself wanted to say that Moshe wanted to break the Tablets in front of the Jews in order to magnify the message to increase their discomfort at sinning. This is a strong reason and I my explanation anticipates this as I wrote previously.

In contrast in Darash Moshe (Yisro):  

French court acknowledges fraud of iconic al-Dura killing

YNet

The French Supreme Court on Wednesday acquitted an Israeli doctor accused of slandering a Palestinian man who claimed he was injured by the IDF during the second intifada.

The Palestinian man, Jamal al-Dura, and his 12-year-old son Muhammad, became the symbol of the Al-Aqsa Intifada, when the two were caught in a fire exchange in the Netzarim Junction. The boy was killed in the incident, triggering a blame game: The Palestinians accused Israel for Muhammad's death, while Israeli officials claimed he was hit by Palestinian fire.

Child Abuse: Why the leniency for pedophiles?

JPost

According to data disclosed at this week's Beersheba Conference on Child Welfare, some 2,500 complaints are filed annually in Israel regarding sexual assaults against minors under 14. Dr. Yitzhak Kadman, executive director of the National Council for the Child, paints a darker picture yet, estimating that over the past several years no fewer than 100,000 of this country's children have suffered some degree of sexual molestation. Most cases never reach the courts and most offenders aren't brought to justice. Yet in those that are, sentences meted out to pedophiles tend to be exceptionally lenient. Even hardcore repeat offenders are hardly supervised after they are released back to society. Legislation adopted to keep track of them remains largely unimplemented. Studies conducted recently for the council, Kadman reported, indicated that not only do judges sometimes impose ludicrously mild punishments for pedophilia but they often fail to impose even the minimum stipulated by law. Incomprehensibly, punishment for offenses against children tends to be significantly lighter than for offenses against adults. The lightest penalties are reserved for crimes within the family. The greatest leniency appears in plea bargains. While judges sometimes criticize such bargains, they nevertheless (in 99% of the cases, according to Kadman) acquiesce to them. This despite the fact that legislation enacted a decade ago fixed minimum sentences for certain sex crimes. Moreover, the law demands a clear explanation in cases where the minimum is disregarded. [...]

Haredim increasingly open to addressing sexual abuse

JPost

Specialists and professionals this week highlighted a changing attitude within the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) community toward reporting suspected sexual abuse of minors.[...]

“More and more people within the haredi sector are willing to say that there is a problem,” Kadman told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday. “Within the community, the first thing someone does in many aspects of life is consult a rabbi. Today, many rabbis are advising people to file complaints with the police or social workers, which wasn’t the case in the past.”

According to Kadman, the number of reports of minors suffering possible sexual abuse in that community is lower than the national average, but he said this was likely due to cultural practices and taboos surrounding the issue within the haredi sector. [...

Mormon Church apologizes for baptism of dead Jews

JPost

The Mormon Church on Tuesday apologized that its members had performed posthumous baptisms into Mormonism of the long-dead Jewish parents of famed Nazi hunter and Holocaust survivor Simon Wiesenthal.

The baptisms "by proxy" were performed last month in Mormon temples in Utah, Arizona and Idaho, according to the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish human rights organization named after the man who hunted down more than 1,000 Nazi war criminals in the years following the Holocaust.

Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center told Reuters the baptisms were "unacceptable," adding that people who lost everyone and everything and were murdered for being Jewish during the Holocaust should not have their souls hijacked by another religion.[...]

Ben Gurion U Conference on Children: Charedim endangered because of concern for lashon harah

Maariv

בכנס השנתי של המועצה לשלום הילד שנפתח היום (ב') באוניברסיטת בן גוריון בבאר שבע ויינעל מחר בערב, התבטאו פסיכולוגים, עובדים סוציאליים ועובדים במרכזי סיוע לנפגעי תקיפה מינית, באשר לעבירות המין המצויות במגזר החרדי

מנהל השירות הפסיכולוגי-חינוכי במודיעין עלית, ישי שליף, אמר כי "יש צורך להתמודד עם בעיית הפגיעה המינית במגזר החרדי". לדברי שליף, בעבר התקבלה פסיקה בגיבוי הרב יוסף שלום אלישיב בנוגע לצורך בדיווח על מקרים מסוג זה.

העובדת הסוציאלית לחוק הנוער במשרד הרווחה, חנה סלוצקי, ציינה כי עד לפני עשור דיון כזה לא יכול היה להתקיים כלל. "המגזר החרדי עשה כברת דרך ארוכה בהתפתחות שלו להתעמת עם הבעיה, והרשויות עצמן צריכות להיפתח עתה במקביל על מנת לטפל בבעיה 'טיפול רגיש תרבות'", הוסיפה סלוצקי.

מנהלת מרכז "בליבנו" לטיפול בילדים ונוער שנפגעו מינית, בת שבע שיינין, הדגישה כי החברה החרדית נבדלת מרצון מהחברה החילונית, דבר שמייצר סיכון גדול יותר עבור הילדים החרדים.

"הילד החרדי לומד מגיל אפס לציית, וזאת בלי לשאול למה", הוסיפה, "ילדים לא יספרו לעולם על דברים מסוג זה מחשש ללשון הרע". עוד ציינה שיינין כי יש הבדל בין ילדים להורים חוזרים בתשובה לבין ילדים להורים חרדים באשר לכמות הדיווחים. לדבריה, לבעלי תשובה קל יותר לדווח

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DNA Results Are In: Canned Sardines Are Kosher

NYTimes

Just so you know: Canned sardines are kosher.

This judgment would appear to be definitive, based on DNA evidence. Genetic testing by a parasitologist at the American Museum of Natural History has confirmed that the recent discovery of small worms in canned sardines does not render them treyf, or unkosher. It may render them unappetizing, but that judgment is up to the consumer (more on that later).

The museum got involved last March when rabbis from the Orthodox Union, which certifies as kosher hundreds of thousands of products across the world, sought scientific help in resolving a question that arose when they began finding the worms, or nematodes, in cans of sardines. [...]

Original Research Article-  Journal of Parasitology