Secular Marriage - halachic significance?

Five Towns Jewish Times - R' Yair Hoffman wrote: [from RaP] [...]

Few, however, would identify her as a typical example of one of the tens of thousands of people that are the subject of a great halachic debate between Rav Yoseph Eliyahu Henkin, zt’l, (1881–1973) and Rav Moshe Feinstein, zt’l (1895–1986).

What lies at the heart of this great debate are the following questions: How does the halachah view a secular (non-religious) Jewish marriage? And what happens if such a marriage dissolves? When a Jewish couple that was married either in the secular court system or by a non-Orthodox rabbi is divorced, rarely do they seek to also obtain a Jewish bill of divorce, called a get. This could present a problem for the woman’s future marriage prospects and, unfortunately, for those of her children as well.

Although Tory Burch (daughter of Reva Robinson and thus halachically Jewish) apparently received the last name she is now using from her marriage to Chris Burch (not a Jew), she was previously married to William Macklowe, a famous real-estate developer who is also halachically Jewish. The marriage did not succeed, and it ended rather quickly in a secular divorce. The question is, though: What is the halachic status of this first marriage?

Rav Moshe Feinstein discusses this issue in Igros Moshe (Even HaEzer, vol. IV, No. 59; he discusses the issue in general, not Ms. Burch’s particular circumstances). In discussing these types of marriages in a letter to Rabbi Nissan Alpert, zt’l, Rav Moshe is of the opinion that since the original wedding was, in all probability, never made with any halachic validity, the need for a halachic get is not imperative. A halachic wedding requires a woman to receive an item of value accompanied by the Jewish declaration of marriage in the presence of two Sabbath-observing witnesses. If there were no Sabbath-observing witnesses present when the ring was given and the declaration made, there is no halachic wedding, states Rav Moshe.

Rav Henkin, on the other hand, disagrees. He quotes a principle of the Talmud (Gittin 81b and codified in Shulchan Aruch, Even HaEzer 26:1) that a person does not generally wish that his marriage not be legitimate. The Mishnah there in Gittin explains that, according to Beis Hillel, if a man divorces his wife but subsequently remains with her in a pundaki (an inn), a get is required. The Shulchan Aruch (E.H. 149:1) rules in accordance with Beis Hillel.

Rav Henkin extends this ruling to cases such as the one mentioned above, as well. He points out that, although no longer practiced, there are ways of enacting a halachic marriage other than with the use of a ring (see the first Mishnah in tractate Kiddushin), and this is what is at play both in our case and in the Mishnah in Gittin. Since the members of this married couple are living together as a married couple, and the world views them as such, we have all the elements of a halachic marriage. What are the elements? The three elements are (1) kosher witnesses; (2) a valid method of effectuating marriage; and (3) the declaration of marriage.

In Rav Henkin’s view, who are the “kosher witnesses”? The witnesses are the entire world, including Sabbath-observing neighbors and friends that see them acting as a married couple. Rav Henkin refers to another Talmudic principle called an “anan sahadi,” which literally means “we [all] testify.” In his view, witnesses do not actually have to see it, but knowing it with certitude is sufficient.

Where is the declaration of marriage? According to Rav Henkin, there is a tacit, unspoken declaration of marriage that is based on the fact that a person does not wish his marriage to be invalid. Thus, when there is another method of effectuating the marriage—living together as husband and wife—Rav Henkin rules that the tacit declaration is the accompanying secondary marriage effectuation. Although it may sound somewhat strange, Rav Henkin’s position is not so novel. Poskim have discussed the notion of savlanos, sending gifts to one’s new bride, as a problem, and the issue is extended beyond the case of the Mishnah in Gittin. [...]

Agriprocessors in deep trouble

NYTimes reports:

A federal judge has appointed a temporary receiver for a kosher meatpacking company in Iowa after a bank said that the company had defaulted on a $35 million loan and that it had written $1.4 million in bad checks.

The loan foreclosure against the company, Agriprocessors Inc., was the latest in a cascade of troubles that have come after nearly 400 illegal immigrant workers were arrested in a raid in May at its plant in Postville, Iowa. On Thursday, Sholom Rubashkin, the former chief executive, was arrested in Iowa on federal charges of conspiring to harbor illegal immigrants.

In a lawsuit filed Thursday in federal court in Cedar Rapids, First Bank Business Capital of St. Louis claimed that Agriprocessors had failed to maintain enough cash in designated bank accounts to stay current on the revolving loan it took out in 1999. The lawsuit was first reported Friday on the Web site of The Forward, a Jewish newspaper.

The suit also claims that Agriprocessors violated the loan terms by diverting nearly $1.4 million from First Bank accounts to another bank to issue payroll checks on Oct. 24. First Bank learned that those checks were returned for insufficient funds, the lawsuit says.[...]

Child Abuse - Israel's approach

JPost reports:

The holiday of Succot had arrived, and, when their father was out praying at the synagogue, the children were growing hungry. One of them, a girl, took the initiative and prepared nine pizzas for herself and her siblings. As they sat down to eat, their father arrived home,and gazed with rage upon his daughter's efforts. "Eat every single one by yourself," he ordered his terrified daughter, forcing her to obey until she vomited.The father-of-11 - now 47 - admitted to carrying out the actions described above eight years ago. He also admitted to sexually abusing one of his daughters, and to routinely verbally and physically abusing all of them, using objects such as shoes and hangers to hit them.The man struck a plea bargain with the prosecution and was sentenced on Monday to seven-and-a-half years behind bars, receiving a reduced sentence because he had agreed to grant his wife a divorce. The sentence enraged children's rights activists.This is the latest sample of misery to emerge from the spate of family abuse stories that have been dominating the local news.

Last month, it was the Rose Pizem case. The country listened in horror as details of the murder of the four-year-old at the hand of her grandfather, who stuffed her body into a suitcase and tossed it into the Yarkon river, emerged.Soon after that, three mothers murdered their young children in the space of a single week.And most recently, a successful police officer rising through the ranks is believed to have gunned down his policewoman wife, baby and toddler, before taking his own life. Police are clueless about the motive.Is this indicative of a new rise in extreme domestic violence here? According to police, the answer is no. "This has always been in the headlines. There is no increase," one source said. "Unfortunately,these incidents come in waves," he added, arguing that the quick succession of horror stories and intense media spotlight provide an exaggerated picture of the extent of family abuse.[...]

In a major effort to counter this, police say, they have launched a new computerized information system aimed at providing all victims of crimes, including the tens of thousands of victims of domestic abuse, real-time information about the status and location of their abusers.The system, which is linked in to every police department, the Prisons Service and the courts, sends out a text message to victims' cell phones, informing them that their suspect has been released from custody, or alternatively, sentenced to a prison term. In other instances, victims will be notified of court dates, or be told where to access indictment sheets.The system, named MENA (an acronym for the Hebrew words for Crime Victims Department), has now been integrated in such a way that a police officer registering a complaint can't proceed without ensuring that MENA has been notified of all the details. [...]

But what becomes of the perpetrators? In one small hostel in Hod Hasharon, an innovative approach has been employed for the past decade, whose goal is to rehabilitate abusive men. So far, its results seem encouraging.The Beit Noam hostel can house 13 men who have opted (pending a judge's approval) to spend four months at the center, rather than serve time in prison."Beit Noam is the only place in Israel, perhaps in the world,in which violent men live in boarding-school conditions, rather than receive treatment in groups or communities," the center's president,Ahuva Talmon, said. Founded by social workers, with the cooperation of the government and charity funds, Beit Noam came into existence in 1997,and has given men with abusive tendencies a new outlook on life."Many have genuinely changed. Some even stay on after their initial four months, out of their own free will, even paying to do so,"Talmon said.[...]

Schindler's List

NYTimes:

The most dramatic scene in the movie “Schindler’s List” takes place not in a cattle car or a gas chamber, but in an office. As the accountant Itzhak Stern’s typewriter clatters in the background, the names of the fortunate workers whom Oskar Schindler would ultimately save appear on a blank page that fills the screen. Finally Stern raises the stack of papers and says: “The list is life. All around its margins lies the gulf.”

In reality, this never happened. According to Mietek Pemper, a Polish Jew conscripted as secretary to Commandant Amon Göth of the concentration camp Plaszow, no single person could have kept in his head all the information that appeared on the list, including prisoners’ numbers, dates of birth and professions. Although there was a real person named Itzhak Stern, the character in the movie is actually a composite of Pemper (who typed some pages of the list himself), the real Stern and at least one other person.

But Pemper’s book, “The Road to Rescue: The Untold Story of Schindler’s List,” is no takedown. It is, rather, a deepening of the story, which Spielberg’s movie inevitably oversimplified. Pemper argues that the “crucial accomplishment” was not the list itself but “the multifarious acts of resistance that, like tiny stones being placed into a mosaic one by one, had made the whole process possible.” Though he takes the opportunity to correct a few factual inaccuracies and settle some old scores, Pemper devotes most of his carefully written book to the numerous small initiatives that, in his telling, played a part in the rescue effort. It could not have occurred without Schindler’s tremendous commitment, but its success relied also on the courage and creativity of many other people, not to mention plain luck.[...]

The Jews who survived the liquidation of the Krakow ghetto, in March 1943, were transferred to Plaszow, a few miles south of the city. There, Pemper won the post of Göth’s personal secretary and interpreter. He was so terrified of working in close quarters with the volatile commandant that despite his workload he refused to ask for an assistant, unwilling to risk another prisoner’s death. Anyway, no one volunteered — the inmates were too afraid of Göth. The following anecdote, coolly related by Pemper, shows why:

“I would sit in the commandant’s office and take dictation from him. While he ­talked, Göth would watch the mirror outside his window, which he used to oversee the area in front of the barracks. Suddenly he would stand up, take one of the rifles from the rack on the wall and open the window. I would hear a few shots and then nothing but screams. As if he had interrupted the dictation only to take a telephone call, Göth would come back to his desk and say, ‘Where were we?’ ”[...]

Obama - War vet's endorsement of McCain

Fox News reports:

If the election came down to YouTube viewers, a pro-John McCain video would be the winner.

A short yet powerful video of an Iraq war veteran giving his endorsement to McCain has become the site's most watched election video, with over 11 million views.

The video opens with a young man with close-cropped hair standing outside in casual clothes next to an American flag.

"Dear Mr. Obama," he says, and describes himself as an Iraq war veteran, whose yearlong tour convinced him that Iraqis are "just like us" in seeking freedom.

"Are they better off today than they were in 2002? You bet," he says.

The man proceeds to list the reasons he doesn't agree with Obama's policies toward Iraq and instead is endorsing John McCain for president, "because he understands the fundamental truth, freedom is always worth the price."

The man then walks away from the camera, revealing he has a prosthetic left leg.

Obama - lead slipping

Fox news reports:

As the candidates make their closing arguments before the election, therace has tightened with Barack Obama now leading John McCain by 47percent to 44 percent among likely voters, according to a FOX News pollreleased Thursday. Last week Obama led by 49-40 percent among likelyvoters.

Child Abuse - Tzemach Tzedek/a Chabad view

There has been much puzzlement concerning the teshuva of the Tzemach Tzedak that I posted recently. A clear act of sexual abuse was dismissed based on an amasla which simply isn't convincing. Various suggestions have been offered such as 1) child abuse was unknown in the 1800's and in that context the amasla made sense 2) TT was viewing it as a normal person

I just spoke with a Chabad rav [who does not want his name revealed] - one who is intimately knowledgeable with Chabad chassidus. He offered the following which he said I could post "in the name of a Lubavitcher rav".

"You have to understand that it was Purim. During Purim a person's fantasies and thoughts which he keeps in check the whole year get released. There are many homosexual pedophiles out there who don't act on their desires. This rav expressed his repressed sexual desires. The question the Tzemach Tzedak faced was how to respond to this clear breach of halacha by someone who was a major talmid chacham. The major consideration was whether this was a one time event because of Purim or whether he represented a danger in the future. As a **Rebbe** the Tzemach Tzedek knew that this was a one time aberration and it would not happen again. Therefore the amasla is acceptable as representing his repressed fantasies that were temporarily released by Purim. Only a Rebbe could make such an evaluation. Without this explanation that it was as a Rebbe that the Tzemach Tzedek poskened - the teshuva makes no sense."

Child Abuse - Dov Hikind's progress

Jewish Star reports: Issue of Oct. 31, 2008 / 2 Cheshvan 5769

Assemblyman Dov Hikind says he has selected a new leader for his task force to combat sexual abuse in the orthodox Jewish community.While Hikind said the name would only be available later this week, he elaborated that the new leader’s responsibilities will consist of gathering and organizing the information about sexual abuse that Hikind intends to present to the national Rabbinical leaders.

The new leader’s role seems different from that of Rabbi BentzionTwerski, the task force’s high profile initial leader, who resigned after a week because of family pressure.

On his radio program last Saturday night, Hikind gave a deadline of January for the end of “Phase 1” of his campaign, which consists of creating a dossier of information about sexual abuse in the OrthodoxJewish community, in particular the Chareidi community, culled from interviews with abuse victims, therapists and even accused pedophiles.Hikind is convinced that once he presents the information to the Rabbinical leadership, they will act.

“People are skeptical about the Rabbis,” Hikind said. “I prefer not to believe that, but we’ll find out soon enough. I’m committed to this.The more I listen, [the more] I can’t imagine anyone not being committed.”

Hikind intends to create multi-faceted approach to the sexual abuse problem including prevention aspects for schools and parents as well as the creation of a network so other schools would know when a teacher was fired for sexual misconduct.

Hikind said that he spoke to the Agudath Israel of America, to take up the issue, but was declined. Rabbi David Zweibel, Agudath Israel’s Executive Vice President for Government and Public Affairs, said thatthe characterization was not correct, but did confirm a preliminary discussion with Hikind.

Hikind also stressed that his office has been covertly dealing with the sexual abuse problem, by meeting with accused pedophiles and getting them into therapy.

“I have one pedophile that calls me every single day to say ‘am I okay?’ ‘Have you heard anything?’” Hikind said

The issue of sexual abuse has always been a difficult topic in the Chassidic community. High social pressure to conform, social stigmatization and a fear of secular authorities has made identifying and stopping sexual abuse difficult. While all information about sexual abuse in the Orthodox community is anecdotal, Hikind called the issue“a disaster”.Hikind also said that nearly everyone who comes to his office is not willing to press charges. [...]

Obama - "Tell me what is right - I'll sell it!"

Fox News reports:

Barack Obama cultivated the image of a cool and collected leader during the height of the economic crisis last month, when lawmakers on Capitol Hill scrambled to draft a workable bailout package after a meltdown on Wall Street. And when John McCain suspended his campaign to dive head first into the fray, Obama's campaign accused the Republican of being "unsteady."But to hear Bill Clinton tell it, the Democratic nominee didn't quite have a handle on the situation himself.

"I haven't cleared this with him and he may even be mad at me for saying this so close to the election, but I know what else he said to his economic advisers (during the crisis)," Clinton told the crowd at a Wednesday night rally with Obama in Florida. "He said, 'Tell me what the right thing to do is. What's the right thing for America? Don't tell me what's popular. You tell me what's right -- I'll figure out how to sell it.'" Clinton said when the crisis broke, Obama called his own advisers as well as those of the former two-term president, Hillary Clinton, Warren Buffet and others. "He called those people. You know why? Because he knew it was complicated and before he said anything he wanted to understand," Clinton said."That's what a president does in a crisis."

The seeming praise may come off as a backhanded compliment, especially since Obama repeatedly accuses McCain of admitting he doesn't know much about the economy. McCain's campaign said Clinton's remark shows Obama was uncertain when Wall Street seemed to be on the verge of crumbling. "Barack Obama had no idea what the right thing to do is or at least that's Bill Clinton's impression," McCain spokesman Michael Goldfarb said.

"It's disturbing that ... Barack Obama's response to this is 'Tell me what to do and I will sell it,'" Goldfarb added. "That's been Barack Obama's entire campaign -- is one big sales job."

Oldest Hebrew inscription found?

Haaretz reported:
An Israeli archaeologist digging at a hilltop south of Jerusalem believes a ceramic shard found in the ruins of an ancient town bears the oldest Hebrew inscription ever discovered, a find that could provide an important glimpse into the culture and language of the Holy Land at the time of the Bible.

The five lines of faded characters written 3,000 years ago, and the ruins of the fortified settlement where they were found, are indications that a powerful Israelite kingdom existed at the time of the Old Testament's King David, says Yossi Garfinkel, the Hebrew University archaeologist in charge of the new dig at Hirbet Qeiyafa.

Other scholars are hesitant to embrace Garfinkel's interpretation of the finds, made public on Thursday. The discoveries are already being wielded in a vigorous and ongoing argument over whether the Bible's account of events and geography is meant to be taken literally.

Hirbet Qeiyafa sits near the city of Beit Shemesh in the Judean foothills, an area that was once the frontier between the hill-dwelling Israelites and their enemies, the coastal Philistines. The site overlooks the Elah Valley, said to be the scene of the slingshot showdown between David and the Philistine giant Goliath, and lies near the ruins of Goliath's hometown in the Philistine metropolis of Gath.

A teenage volunteer found the curved pottery shard, 15 centimeters by 15 centimeters, in July near the stairs and stone washtub of an excavated home. It was later discovered to bear five lines of characters known as proto-Canaanite, a precursor of the Hebrew alphabet.

Carbon-14 analysis of burnt olive pits found in the same layer of the site dated them to between 1,000 and 975 B.C., the same time as the Biblical golden age of David's rule in Jerusalem.

Scholars have identified other, smaller Hebrew fragments from the 10th century B.C., but the script, which Garfinkel suggests might be part of a letter,
predates the next significant Hebrew inscription by between 100 and 200 years. History's best-known Hebrew texts, the Dead Sea scrolls, were penned on parchment beginning 850 years later.[...]

Child abuse - Historical Background

In dealling with the issue of child abuse it is important to understand that society wasn't always concerned about the welfare of children. The following indicates that child rights were derivative of animals rights. It would seem that there was a major change in society in the 1800's regarding not just the abolition of slavery but also concerns for the welfare of animals and then children. There seems to be a parallel in the Jewish worlds also as the first two teshuvos dealing with abuse are both from the mid 1800's.

American Humane society - Protecting Children & Animals since 1877

Mary Ellen Wilson

How One Girl's Plight Started the Child-Protection Movement

The sufferings of the little girl, Mary Ellen, led to the founding of the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, the first organization of its kind, in 1874. In 1877, the New York SPCC and several Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals from throughout the country joined together to form the American Humane Association.

Mary Ellen’s story marked the beginning of a world-wide crusade to save children. Over the years, in the re-telling of Mary Ellen Wilson’s story, myth has often been confused with fact. Some of the inaccuracies stem from colorful but erroneous journalism, others from simple misunderstanding of the facts, and still others from the complex history of the child protection movement in the United States and Great Britain and its link to the animal welfare movement. While it is true that Henry Bergh, president of the American Society of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), was instrumental in ensuring Mary Ellen’s removal from an abusive home, it is not true that her attorney—who also worked for the ASPCA—argued that she deserved help because she was “a member of the animal kingdom.”

The real story—which can be pieced together from court documents, newspaper articles, and personal accounts—is quite compelling, and it illustrates the impact that a caring and committed individual can have on the life of a child.

Mary Ellen Wilson was born in 1864 to Francis and Thomas Wilson of New York City. Soon thereafter, Thomas died, and his widow took a job. No longer able to stay at home and care for her infant daughter, Francis boarded Mary Ellen (a common practice at the time) with a woman named Mary Score. As Francis’s economic situation deteriorated, she slipped further into poverty, falling behind in payments for and missing visits with her daughter. As a result, Mary Score turned two-year-old Mary Ellen over to the city’s Department of Charities.

The Department made a decision that would have grave consequences for little Mary Ellen; it placed her illegally, without proper documentation of the relationship, and with inadequate oversight in the home of Mary and Thomas McCormack, who claimed to be the child’s biological father. In an eerie repetition of events, Thomas died shortly thereafter. His widow married Francis Connolly, and the new family moved to a tenement on West 41st Street.

Mary McCormack Connolly badly mistreated Mary Ellen, and neighbors in the apartment building were aware of the child’s plight. The Connollys soon moved to another tenement, but in 1874, one of their original neighbors asked Etta Angell Wheeler, a caring Methodist mission worker who visited the impoverished residents of the tenements regularly, to check on the child. At the new address, Etta encountered a chronically ill and homebound tenant, Mary Smitt, who confirmed that she often heard the cries of a child across the hall. Under the pretext of asking for help for Mrs. Smitt, Etta Wheeler introduced herself to Mary Connolly. She saw Mary Ellen’s condition for herself. The 10-year-old appeared dirty and thin, was dressed in threadbare clothing, and had bruises and scars along her bare arms and legs. Ms. Wheeler began to explore how to seek legal redress and protection for Mary Ellen. Click here to read Etta Wheeler’s account of Mary Ellen.

At that time, some jurisdictions in the United States had laws that prohibited excessive physical discipline of children. New York, in fact, had a law that permitted the state to remove children who were neglected by their caregivers. Based on their interpretation of the laws and Mary Ellen’s circumstances, however, New York City authorities were reluctant to intervene. Etta Wheeler continued her efforts to rescue Mary Ellen and, after much deliberation, turned to Henry Bergh, a leader of the animal humane movement in the United States and founder of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA). It was Ms. Wheeler’s niece who convinced her to contact Mr. Bergh by stating, “You are so troubled over that abused child, why not go to Mr. Bergh? She is a little animal surely” (p. 3 Wheeler in Watkins, 1990).[...]