Yosef Kolko: How is the victim being protected?

The following recently appeared in a Lakewood paper. Trial is set August 6. The family of the victim has already been driven out of Lakewood. Witnesses have been intimidated. What are the gedolim doing to protect the victim and ensure a fair trial? "Outraged" demanded to know what is the current problem - well here is a good example!

Rema: Create peace by slandering an innocent person

Peace Through Slander

Tamar's supporters rally primarily to defeat "evil"

guest post: Some have asserted that the attacks and demonstrations against Aharon and his family are contrary to halacha and are counterproductive if the goal is for Tamar to receive a get. They have wondered whether those attacking and demonstrating against Aharon and his family are even doing so primarily in order to help Tamar receive a get. Here is the answer from the demonstrators themselves.

The author of this blog has previously noted that she is related to Tamar (a sister of Tamar's brother-in-law Dovy Goldschmidt, and daughter of Moscow Chief Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt), and appears to be Estee Goldschmidt, the organizer of the online petition against Aharon.

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http://walkingthegreyline.blogspot.com/2012/02/support-tamar-epstein-agunah-become.html

http://thinkingjewgirl.blogspot.com/2012/06/reason-its-important-for-you-to-go.html#comment-form

Okay. So another three months have passed. Tamar still has no get. This Sunday rallies will be held at the locations of Aharon's mother and uncle, his biggest supporters.

*The reason it is extremely important for you to go to the rally, is not because of the impact it might have on Tamar, but primarily because of the impact it will have on you.*

It is similar to the marches for Soviet Jewry in the eighties. Two hundred and fifty thousand Jews gathered in Washington to rally on behalf of Jewish brethren in Russia screaming: "Mr. Gorbachev, let our people go!" No matter what it accomplished in terms of affecting Soviet Jews, it accomplished so much more in the impact it had on those American Jews who stood up against injustice, and became part of a larger picture fighting for good to triumph over evil.

I was once on a date where the guy brought up the agunah issue and then said: "All those people who fight for agunahs, do they really care about them? Of course not. They are just pushing feminist agenda." 

I just looked at him. There was no point in arguing.

After a hundred and twenty years, you won't be held accountable for not changing the world. You will be held accountable for not trying. This Sunday presents you with a tremendous opportunity to stand up against evil, to stand for "Tzedek Tzedek Tirdof" (Justice, Justice, you shall pursue). Having attended rallies in the past, I must say, they are some of the most bonding, intensely emotional and inspiring experiences I have ever lived through.

Abuse:Halachic & Ethical Dilemmas II

Pitputim Guest Post - Thanks to all who commented on the first scenario. Consider, now, a new scenario.

Your daughter is showing signs of strain. She has not been herself for some time. You have tried all manner of parental approach: the stick and the carrot and you can’t seem to manage to cajole her to be on the same page as you and your husband. She is also not performing to her ability at school.

You become aware of rumours that a male associated with your daughter’s school has been exposing himself and may well have fondled or even forced himself on some girls. When you hear these rumours you are in a state of disbelief. You cannot imagine that this apparently fine and upstanding individual would do such things. If he did, then you conclude that he must be sick or have experienced some trauma that has scrambled his moral compass.

One day your daughter casually mentions that the said person approached her and attempted to interfere with her. You aren’t sure whether actual interference has taken place. On the other hand, this may well explain her unusual behaviour and lack of focus. Given the rumours, you run to the School and meet with the powers that be. They tell you that there have been issues with this person and that he is receiving treatment and the strong indications are that this earlier behaviour will no longer be manifest. It’s a close-knit school where each parent knows the other and shares strong common ideals. The school did not contact the police because they felt they were dealing with it internally through professionals. Their Rabbi forbade “Mesira” anyway and there was no mandatory reporting in place. [Click for full posting]

An open letter to Matisyahu: Rabbi Hoffman

5tjt by Rabbi Yair Hoffman

Dear Matisyahu,

The reports, have been a bit devastating. First came the beard. Now, it seems, your appearances are sans Yarmulkah.

What happened?

We were, for a while, so proud of you. Here was a powerful entertainer, filled with talent, and unabashed in his Judaism. Unabashed, as well, in his Hasidic deportment. And filled with a spiritual energy of which the secular world took note.

The beard. The peyos and black Yarmulkah. The tzitzis out and flying as you danced to the tunes that underscored Jewish spirituality.

True, reggae music is not to everyone's tastes, but the gentile world was now exposed to a thinking - a philosophy not heard from before. You had exposed a small, yet discernible, ray of the light of Chassidus to a different world. True, it was a world that had gone mad, but nonetheless, the notion of spreading Hasidic light was, in a sense, coming alive in you.

Your religious fans loved you. Those with a similar physical appearance to you, finally, had recognition. No longer did they receive bizarre looks in the street from those never exposed to such dress. They had a Matisyahu out there. Ambassador to the world. But then, something happened. Something may have changed within you. You went native. [...]

The Emperor has no clothes:Rabbinical infallibility

Outraged wrote demanding I retract my criticism of rabbinic leadership on a previous post Saving-kids:Lashon-harah-high-price-to pay. In one of his many strident criticisms he noted:

I am asking you what it is TODAY that you are criticizing in harsh terms the rabbis on the moetses for currently handling abuse cases wrongly ( i am quite aware that prior to NOW the frum community dealt with these issues internally without ultimately going to the police) I'm not asking for a general repeat of the last 10 years but rather exactly what the moetses is NOW doing that warrants your CURRENT massive criticism of the moetses today. I am not asking about Zweibel now, I am asking only about the moetses. And of course aside from wanting to get to the bottom of what you are mean regarding NOW.

I want to congratulate Outraged for stating two things - 1) That the gedolim and rabbinic leadership have not acted appropriately in the past and have been negligent in protecting our children and communities against child molesters. 2) He wants me to ignore this past and only criticize the present - which I assume he means no further back than a week ago. 

He is outraged that I dared mention past neglect, incompetence and deliberate coverups. DO YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT THIS MEANS? He is demanding that we do not hold our rabbinic leadership  accountable. Only we the masses are held accountable if we really messed up an important responsibility. Whenever the rabbinic leadership  botch something up - we are to repress awareness of the mistakes or at least no public acknowledgements) and we are not to expect them to apologize and to promise to try better in the future (teshuva).

This is functional infallibility. Gedolim and religious leaders make no errors and when they do err - we are not allowed to talk about it because they are infallible and thus can't make errors! We saw this happening with the infamous Tropper affair. Tropper bought the attention of the gedolim in America. When this spectacle came to a disgusting end - there was complete silence from the gedolim of America. When Rav Sternbuch told me to publicize that Tropper was guilty I was accused by varioius the rabbis of creating a chillul hashem - because since they weren't talking about it - the only way people would hear about it was because I was publicizing the matter!

I recently received a call from a major askan. He was furious at the language I have used. At my lack of respect for the gedolim. He didn't deny the problems that I have raised. I just wasn't supposed to publicly mention my upset. He had the same complaints against me when I publicized the Tropper affair.

When the Tropper affair ended in a multiple collision disaster - I sent a message to one of the most influential gedolim in  America - that he should at least acknowledge what had happened and condemn Tropper - as the RCA had done. The reply I got back was that the scandal was too big and too many major rabbis had been bought -  so it couldn't even be acknowledged that it occurred.

Pleasure is highly dependent on Seeing - Yoma 74b

Yoma(74b):Who fed you Manna in the wilderness in order to afflict you?(Devarim 8:16). There was a dispute between Rav Ammi and Rav Assi regarding what affliction the Jews suffererd from the Manna? One said [it was because of its transient nature] as we know that one can not compare one who has bread in his basked with one who has none [and is worried where he will get more - Rashi]. The other said [it was because what they ate didn’t look like what they tasted] because there is no comparison between one who sees what he eats and one who doesn’t see [and the Manna tasted like all types of food and yet they only saw the Manna – Rashi]. Rav Yosef said, this alludes to the fact that blind people eat but are not satiated. Abaye replied from this we can conclude that who has a meal should only eat it during the day. R’ Zera asked where this idea is alluded to in the Bible? It is Koheles (6:9), Better is the seeing of the eyes then the wandering of the desire. Reish Lakish concluded from this verse that better is the pleasure of looking at a woman than the act itself[- and therefore it needs to be greatly avoided – Semag].