COVID haredi unit head: Enforcement ineffective

 https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/covid-haredi-unit-head-enforcement-ineffective-654167

 The head of the Health Ministry’s coronavirus department for the ultra-Orthodox community, Roni Numa, said on Sunday that there was a lack of coronavirus enforcement in the sector because of its political power and the upcoming elections.

Numa denied, however, that the COVID-19 infection rate in the yeshiva system is out of control, although he said that several factors had led to an increase in the number of students being infected.

Tropper's former defender has regrets

RONI has left a new comment on your post "Reb Reuven - please!":

Rav Daniel Eidensohn Shlita

At it stands now (and I do not think that the situation will change relating to this angle) , YOU (RAV DANIEL EIDENSOHN ARE THE TZADIK and so some others (except one and the gvir he covers up and the people aligned with that gvir) and I OWE YOU AN APOLOGY IN THE SIZE OF AN ELEPHANT!

And I want to say to you now, Bekitzur:

ON THIS ISSUE YOU ARE A TZADIK, I WAS A RASHA, I NEED TO DO TESHUVA ON THIS ISSUE, OF SHAMING YOU AND CALLING YOU NAMES AND MORE WILL BE FORTHCOMING AFTER CLEAR INFORMATION IS GIVEN. I HOPE YOU WILL ALLOW MY WORDS TO STAND. I HOPE YOU FEEL THAT I FEEL REAL REMORSE AND PAINED OVER THE FACT THAT I MALIGNED YOU NUMEROUS TIMES OVER AN ISSUE THAT YOU WERE RIGHT.

THERE ARE MORE THAT HAVE WHAT TO SAY AND I WANT TO SAY, AS THE APOLOGY AND AS THE EXPLANATION THAT YOU WERE IN SOME CENTRAL ISSUES.

(I MUST STATE FROM THE OUTSET, THAT NOTHING ABOUT THE OTHER RABBI, THE OTHER GVIR, THOSE WHO LECKED HIM THEN, AND NOW AND MILK HIM AND EVERYTHING THAT THAT PART REPRESENTS IS *NOT* CHANGED. SOME LESSONS MUST BE TAKEN FROM THAT AS A WELL.

BUT THE LESSON FROM ADONI RABBI UMORI RAV EIDENSOHN IN THE APST THAT AS TO THE PRESENT IT IS A "RED HERRING" HE IS 1000% RIGHT).

LEIB TROPPER: I MUST SAY TO YOU, BEKITZUR NOW, THAT YOU WERE A TERRIBLE RASHA ON THIS ISSUE, THERE ARE SO MANY THINGS THAT HAPPENED HERE THAT EE EFSHAR LEPORTOM. I WOULD BE WRITING THEM, MORE BEARICHUS LATER IF THE RABBI OF THIS BLOG KINDLY PERMITS IT AND AFTER WE HAVE MORE INFO.

YOU HAVE ONE AND ONLY OPTION (PLEASE FORGET ABOUT CALLING ME; IT IS USELESS AND A WASTE OF TIME; YOU MUST NOT CONVINCE ME ABOUT YOUR TRUTH), THAT YOU MAKE YOUR CASE TO THE *PUBLIC* THROUGH A LAWYER TO PROVE THAT YOUR IS THE TRUTH AND THAT WHAT APPEARS ON THE TAPE (THAT IS FAR FAR FAR BEYOND "KOLOH DELOY PASSIK" AND BEYOND "UMDENAH DMUCHACH" OF KIUR AND WORSE AND SELLOUT OF JUDAISM (GERUT_) FOR ZNUSS, IS THE REAL ESSNAN ZONAH) IS FALSE.

OTHERWISE, DO US ALL FAVOR AND DO SOMETHING SIMILAR TO

חזרת טבח שהיה בודק לעצמו ומוכר ויצא טריפה מתחת ידו, {פד} שילבש שחורים ויתכסה שחורים, וילך למקום שאין מכירים אותו ויחזיר אבידה בדבר חשוב, או יוציא טריפה מתחת ידו בדבר חשוב. (לו ועיין בי"ד סי' קי"ט).

AND AGAIN DO NOT CALL ME! I COULD NOT SLEEP ALREADY FOR THE LAST WEEK (AND MORE).

Iron Dome has curbed Palestinian terror attacks

Time Magazine

No tour of Middle East conflict zones could be complete without a stop at Sderot, an Israeli town of 24,000 that stands uncomfortably close to the Gaza Strip. The rain of rockets out of the Palestinian enclave has made Sderot famous for two things: the thickness of its roofs (even bus stops have reinforced concrete tops); and the collection of crumpled missiles arrayed in racks behind the police station. As a visiting VIP in 2008, U.S. Senator Barack Obama dutifully inspected what the machine shops of Islamic Jihad and Hamas fashioned from lengths of pipe and scrap metal. Low-tech doesn’t begin to cover it. [...]

Back to the Beersheba wedding. The revelry appears to carry on oblivious to the wail of air-raid sirens competing with the DJ (that song in the background is “Sunday Morning” by Maroon 5). If Israelis no longer scramble to shelters, then Iron Dome really has changed the dynamic. It’s not yet at that point; schools still close when the rockets fly, and parents stay home from work. But Rafael’s head of research and development, who began work on Iron Dome even before the government thought to ask for it, tells TIME that its overarching accomplishment is that it can break the pernicious cycle of escalation that can lead to things like invasions. The batteries can liberate Israel’s elected leaders from the public pressure that comes with mass casualties. “The big success of Iron Dome is not how many missiles we intercept,” says Roni Potasman, the executive vice president for R&D. “The main success is what happened in the decisionmaking civilian population environment. The quiet time. Clausewitz used to say the mission of the military is to provide the time for the decisionmakers to decide. Now, if out of 500 missiles, 10 of them get by and cause casualties, a school or kindergarten, then this is a whole different story.” [...]

RaP: EJF as viewed in 2006

RaP: The Jewish Press from June 2006 [posted on this blog in 2007], a full year before this blog started really focusing on the EJF conundrum reveals and conforms a lot including all the "rationalizations" that Roni/Tropper kept on hammering over and over again.

In fact this could be called the standard EJF self-justification script when EJF was openly launched. Obviously at that time already Tropper knew he would have to answer for his new innovations and therefore he carefully laid out the whole script and battle plan. In hindsight, lots of it becomes self-contradictory with all the unknown variables that came flying there way: the Uproar over their excitable partner Rav Nochum Eisenstein's insulting the RCA and YU rabbis at the early EJF convention, the written declarations of Rav Shternbuch and the entire BADATS against EJF, and the final blow the disgraceful and ugly fall-out between Rabbi Tropper & Tom Kaplan with Guma Aguiar.

This makes for interesting reading even now and reveals a lot that is self-explanatory for anyone who has been following these events:

Haaretz backtracks on claims Israel forced birthcontrol on Ethiopians

Tablet Magazine   There was no shortage of outrage following a report by Haaretz in late Janaury asserting that Israel had acknowledged a policy of forcing long-acting birth control shots upon Ethiopian women in transit camps who wished to emigrate from Ethiopia to Israel. The story also charged that Israeli officials hadn’t told the women that the effects of the Depo-Provera shots. The explosive first of the story went like this:

A government official has for the first time acknowledged the practice of injecting women of Ethiopian origin with the long-acting contraceptive Depo-Provera.

Beyond the normal outlets that selectively focus on Israeli scandals, sites that report on women’s issues reprinted the Haaretz story and, in multiple acts of stenographic journalism, cast their vicious judgments of Israeli racism and sexism to their readerships.a

The first problem with the story: No Israeli official ever acknowledged there was such a practice at all, it was denied by Joint Distribution Committe, which ran the clinics, and the Health Ministry. (The Scroll was able to convince the popular site Jezebel to retract a damning first line after the story had already blown up and commenters had accused Israel of committing genocide.)

After an Israeli committee was established to investigate the matter, a second story ran in Haaretz last week repeating much of its original reporting. Then, earlier this week, came this correction (caught by CAMERA):

This article, which was updated on March 6, 2013, reported on Health Ministry director-general Prof. Roni Gamzu’s instruction to gynecologists not to renew prescriptions for Depo-Provera if there is any doubt that recipients did not understand the implications of the treatment. The original version failed to state that this instruction was issued “without taking a stand or determining facts about allegations that had been made,” and referred to all women and not just women of Ethiopian origin.

So not only had the head of the Health Ministry not admitted the practice, he had–of his own volition and not under duress from scandal–issued a directive for doctors to make sure that all women (and not just Ethiopian women in transit camps) fully understood what the shots would do. [...]

A quarter of all new virus cases diagnosed are among ultra-Orthodox

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/a-quarter-of-all-new-virus-cases-diagnosed-are-among-ultra-orthodox/

The Health Ministry official overseeing action to counter the coronavirus among Israel’s ultra-Orthodox population revealed Sunday that the community has recently accounted for over a quarter of all the new cases diagnosed, even though it makes up little more than a 10th of the total population.

During a video press briefing, Roni Numa said that enforcement of lockdown restrictions and quarantine for virus carriers among the ultra-Orthodox, also known as Haredim, was not good enough, in part for political reasons.

Libel suits & Unintended Consequences

Going through the various thoughtful and erudite comments regarding freedom of speech certain practical conclusions can be drawn.

1) One has total freedom of speech if no one cares what you say

2) Anonymous statements and blogs are much freer and safer than those blogs or media in which the author is known. This is because there is a major barrier to first identifying the person you might want to sue.

3) Comments that are clearly seen by the average person as motivated totally to hurt another are much more readily restricted than those that are possibly motivated by good or neutral intentions.

4) Comments made about rich and powerful people are more risky than about someone who has no money and is not influential.

5) Free speech is much more likely to be allowed if the attempts to suppress it leads to a more negative view of the focus of the comments than the comments itself.

7) Free speech is more likely if the publicity around the attempt to suppress it brings to light negative information that is more harmful to the person's reputation than the original claims.

8) Newspapers and other public media are much safer places to express views which are critical of others. While the blogs are very accessible and cost nothing to express views - they are completely vulnerable to extortion of those who have the time and money to sue or at least threaten to sue.

In view of the above, it would seem that if the issues recently suppressed were picked up by newspapers or anonymous blogs, the likelihood of free speech being suppressed would be much less. The fear of antagonizing a newspaper - because of the negative publicity that would be generated and uncovered - would minimize the likelihood of attack and also would minimize the likelihood of successfully suppressing the view. In addition the newspaper has the resources that would make any attack a financially costly and uncertain enterprise

It is ironic that the recipients of the greatest benefit from this situation are Rabbi Tropper and Thomas Kaplan. It is also interesting that the issues being criticized were introduced by the R' Tropper's ardent defender - Roni. The person who precipitated the present situation will must likely find that it has become a tar baby. A classic case of the Law of Unintended Consequences.

Rabbi Tropper apologizes!

I wish to thank Roni for the following:

Rav Sternbuch on the EJF

Posted by Rabbi Tropper Posted in EJF Posted on 11-07-2009

Tags: EJF, Rav Sternbuch

Rabbi Tropper:

Is it true that your blog claimed that Rav Sternbuch told someone that he was against nasty attacks on EJF?

Rabbi Tropper responds:

I was so told. Subseqently someone emailed me that what I reported on the blog was not true and that Rav Sternbuch had not spoken to anyone regarding the attacks on EJF. I thanked him for notifying me and told him That I would correct it ASAP.

That Person Emailed me again thanking me.

I then Removed it from the Blog immediatly and notified that person that it had been corrected.

I apologize for the mistake.

Rav Sternbuch - converting wife with invalid geirus

This is the type of case that Rav Eliashiv was referring to in his published teshuva (3:140) and it is the type of case that most poskim would agree that it is appropriate to convert the non-Jewish spouse. The insistence of having conventions and pursuing people who knowingly sinned by intermarriage is not validated by this approach. The attempt of Roni and R' Tropper to insist that leniencies such as this allow them to hold conventions to persuade intermarried couples to convert requires clearly stated teshuvos to that effect from Gedolim. Even their posek Rav Reuven Feinstein has not issued a heter for this nor has he stated publicly that it is permitted.As far as I can ascertain - Rav Reuven Feinstein does not disagree with Rav Sternbuch on this issue.

סימן ה:שבב

הערה נענין נישואין לבעלת תשובה

באו לפנינו מקרים של בני תורה שהתחתנו עם בעלות תשובה, ואח"כ נתברר שאם הכלה היא גיורת שנתגיירה ולא שמרה מצוות מעולם, ואומדנא דמוכח שלא נתכוונה בשעת גירותה לשמור מצוות, והפוסקים כתבו שלא חלה הגירות והיא עודנה בגויותה, וכן בתה, אף שהיא בעלת תשובה וצדקנית ונשואה לבן תורה, מ"מ מדין תורתה"ק היא גויה ובעלה חייב לפרוש ממנה, והטבלנו אותה בצינעא בפני בית דין לשם גירות, ובעלה קידשה ונשאה עוד פעם בפני עדים כדין. זה הוא אם אמה של הכלה נתגיירה ולא שמרה מצוות מעולם, אבל אם אמה של הכלה גופא החלה אח"כ לשמור מצוות, אין לי הכרעה, ומ"מ צריך לחומרא להטבילה...

Rav Sternbuch (Teshuvos V'Hanhagos 5:322): Concerning a marriage to a baalas teshuva. We have cases coming before us of a ben Torah marrying a baalas teshuva and then afterwards it is discovered that the bride's mother was a giyorus who never observed mitzvos. It is reasonable to assume that the mother had no intention of observing mitzvos at the time she converted. The Poskim says that therefore the mother was never a convert and thus she is still a non-Jew and obviously so is her daughter the bride. This is so even if the bride is a genuine baalas teshuva and truly righteous and she has shown her sincerity by marrying a ben Torah. Nevertheless according to the law of the Torah she is a non-Jew and her husband must separate from her. However she is to be immersed in the mikva secretly before a beis din for the sake of conversion. Her husband needs to marry her a second time in the presence of kosher witnesses. This is if the bride's mother converted and never observed mitzvos. However if her mother eventually did come to observe mitzvos - it is not clear whether the daughter is Jewish but she should l'chumra be converted....

Tropper's continued smear campaign

I recently reported a blatant lie about me that appeared on R' Tropper's Blog here

"According to a trusted source, Rav Sternbuch, shlit”a was asked if he approves of the blog which is critical of EJF. His response was negative."

The original comment was found here. I protested this outright lie here Even Roni - Tropper's defender on this Blog - called up Rav Sternbuch and was told that the statement was not true. The comment has since mysteriously disappeared from Tropper's blog - but there was no acknowledgment that it was a lie or an apology for the slander. Tropper obviously can't claim that no one knew he was referring to me - because everyone knows that I am the only one who has a close association with Rav Sternbuch who opposes EJF and has a blog dealing with EJF. The reason that I am bringing up this issue again is because Tropper and his associates have continued to spread this lie. In fact a well known figure in kiruv recently criticized me for going against Rav Sternbuch's wishes by attacking Tropper. I am well aware that this slander will backfire against Tropper because people will eventually find out that it is not true. However there is an elementary requirement of derech eretz that even if Tropper genuinely thought what he wrote was true - he is required to publicly apologize once he found it was not true. He has not apologized for this or for the absurd claim that I am motivated to criticize him entirely because I am the chief supporter of R' Slifkin.

Berachos (31b): R. Eleazar said: From this we learn that one who is suspected wrongfully must clear himself. Count not thy handmaid for a daughter of Belial; a man who says the Tefillah when drunk is like one who serves idols. It is written here, Count not thy handmaid for a daughter of Belial, and it is written elsewhere, Certain sons of Belial have gone forth from the midst of thee. Just as there the term is used in connection with idolatry, so here. Then Eli answered and said, Go in Peace. R. Eleazar said: From this we learn that one who suspects his neighbour of a fault which he has not committed must beg his pardon; nay more, he must bless him, as it says, And the God of Israel grant thy petition

Is child abuse pikuach nefesh?

Roni commented to a previous post - I am making it a separate post & moved other comments

Shalom!

Lean"d regarding 2 (and then 3), it is clear lefu, rihatoh that at best the C is applicable:

I have to check all M"M; but lefm ruhatoh it is barur, that there are two cases of refuah. a) where there is no sakanah whatsoever, b) where there is chashash sakonoh, especially if it is a safek or sfek sakanah.

It would appear clearly, that whereever there is a sakanah or safek sakanah, that we have an issue of pikuach nefesh! where it is much more than avedat gufoy!

The m"m that you cite are mostly for a) cases where there is no sakanat nefashot. A proof for that is: that at the beggining of YD 336 it says (after it states that it is reshut, it adds that it is ) Mitzvah "ubichlal pikuach nefesh!". It seems pashut that pikuach nefesh does not require the parsha and obligation of of "hashvat aveda"; it is a chiyuv on it's own.

It would appear that the reference that are cited later in the posskim (or the rishonim) refer to a situation where there is clearly no sakanat nefashot; there it is under the parsha of "hashavat gufoy"; but if it is akin to "roeh chaveroy toveah bayam..." or nochrim having a bad thought on a Jew (CM 426) then it falls under "loy taamod al dam reecho" and if it is a case of sakanat nefashot it falls under pikuach nefesh.

Wrt to three: It seems clear that there is an additional obligation of "atrichoy veoygureh" (to add tircha and hire experts) that is not under the general obgliation of a regular "hashavat gufoy".

the question will have to be analyzed what is the geder of molestation: "pikuach nefesh" sakanat nefesh or just "hashvat gufoy" (I would tend to a go with the former. But let's hear the discussion on it).

Regarding Chemdat Shlomoh. I don't have the mareh mekomot in my mind now, but I remember a LOT OF ACHRONIM MATMIHA ON THIS PATICULAR CHEMDAT SHLOMOH and disagreeing harshly with him.

Bechavod uvrachah,

Super computers match fragments of Cairo Geniza

NY Times   The idea is to harness technology to help reassemble more than 100,000 document fragments collected across 1,000 years that reveal details of Jewish life along the Mediterranean, including marriage, medicine and mysticism. For decades, scholars relied mainly on memory to match up pieces of the Cairo genizah, a treasure trove of papers that include works by the rabbinical scholar Maimonides, parts of Torah scrolls and prayer books, reams of poetry and personal letters, contracts, and court documents, even recipes (there is a particularly vile one for honey-wine). 

Now, for the first time, a sophisticated artificial intelligence program running on a powerful computer network is conducting 4.5 trillion calculations per second to vastly narrow down the possibilities. 

“In one hour, the computer can compare 10 million pairs — 10 million pairs is something a human being cannot do in a lifetime,” said Roni Shweka, who has advanced degrees in both computers and Talmud and is helping lead the effort. “It’s going to be a very powerful tool for every researcher today that’s going to work on one fragment. In a few seconds, he’ll be able to find the other fragments, like finding the needle in the hay.” 

The genizah project is part of a growing movement to unleash advanced technology on the humanities. In recent years, geeks and poets have been collaborating on databases and digital mapping that are transforming the study of history, literature, music and more.[...]

The 320,000 pages and parts of pages — in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Judeo-Arabic (Arabic transliterated into Hebrew letters) — were scattered in 67 libraries and private collections around the world, only a fraction of them collated and cataloged. More than 200 volumes and thousands of academic papers have been published based on the material, most focused on a single fragment or a few. Perhaps 4,000 have been pieced together through a painstaking, expensive, exclusive process that relied a lot on luck.  [...]

EJF's hilchos geirus program - what is it's purpose?

It has been claimed by Kanoimpogimbo that his community is being destroyed by rabbis as the result of EJF's welcoming attitude toward interfaith couples. The question is whether EJF in fact encourages the proselytizing of non-Jews who are dating Jews and encourages non-Jews to attend Torah lectures or that these rabbis who are participating in EJF hilchos geirus program have serious misunderstood EJF. Perhaps Roni could explain the purpose of the hilchos geirus program and what it teaches. If in fact these rabbis have misunderstood it, it is obviously necessary to inform R' Tropper that the goals of EJF - in least in this instance - are seriously misunderstood and that he needs to make sure the participants properly understand it. Below is the contract that participants sign. Perhaps R' Tropper should write a public letter condeming their attitude and I would be glad to pass it on and/or publicize it.