In a pre-dawn operation in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of
predominantly Arab East Jerusalem, scores of police officers and IDF
troops Sunday evicted an elderly Palestinian couple from their home,
despite protests by the United States, other countries, and human
rights groups.
Security forces also detained several activists
of the pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement who had been
sleeping on the family's property, and expelled them to the adjacent
West Bank, without pressing charges.
The case came to
international attention in July, when U.S. diplomats lodged an official
protest with Israel for harming Palestinians and for anti-Palestinian
actions taken by settlers, citing as one example the eviction of the
al-Kurd family from their home in the Shimon Hatzadik complex in Sheikh
Jarrah.
For months, a group of settlers has also lived in a
portion of the house, maintaining that an Ottoman-era bill of sale
grants ownership of the Shimon Hatzadik property to the Committee for
the Sephardic Group. The Jerusalem District Court issued a ruling in
favor of the Sephardic Group,which transferred the property to a
settler organization called "Shimon's Estate."
The settler
group, in turn, sought to evict the al-Kurd family, refugees from West
Jerusalem, who have lived in the house since the early 1950s. At
4:45 on Sunday morning, some 20 IDF vehicles and seven police minibuses
sealed off much of the neighborhood, prior to the eviction, witnesses
said.
Mohammed and Fawziya al-Kurd were then taken from the
apartment, which they have been sharing with Israeli settlers since
1999, when Israeli courts evicted their son Raed from an added wing of
the property. The couple has been fighting for their property through
the courts ever since, but in July 2008 they were ordered to vacate the
premises at once.
Israel Police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld said
that following the court order naming a Jewish family as the legal
owner of the house, "The Arab family was evicted. Two people were, in
fact removed from the house," he told Haaretz, referring to the
al-Kurds. [...]
In modern English the concept "victim" means or implies an overtone of “injustice”. Something that shouldn’t have happened did in fact happen. The emotional response is one of sorrow and/or moral indignation.Such is the case in our society about child abuse - injustice and moral indignation. Yet we are often taken aback by some of our community Rabbis that do not respond in a similar fashion.
I would like to describe a possible source to their less then sensitive response to what we call today “the victim”. Chazal and the responsa literature describe in great detail the forbidden behavior of the perpetrator of abuse, his legal status, and punishment. There is considerable discussion about how why and when you can kill him and what will happen to him in the next world. There is no parallel dialogue about the injured (abused) person. This seemingly insensitivity reaches a high point when the Shulchan Aruch (C.M. 425:3) states that if the perpetrator has begun the abuse (in this case rape of a betrothed women) he no longer has the status of Rodef (liable for death) and can “only” be brought to court.And the abused girl? No comment.No mention of emotional suffering, social repercussions, or suicide or a long list of laws violated.
Compare abuse to the modern Halacha pertaining to Lashon Hara. A simple word used inappropriately, correct information given without proper permission - and worlds are destroyed. People who are not even present become victims of unguarded speech. Something like 55 violations of Halacha, Torah, and Hashkafa are identified. This is a total response of Law, communities (teach ins, etc.), and Rabbonim to an infraction of the law.
And abuse? I want to propose two issues which might throw some light on the status of abuse in the time of the Gemora and today. First is the significance of the term victim and the second is the evolution of Pasak over time and in different communities. The term victim is a modern Latin/Christian term with all the baggage that it implies. Chazal do not relate to ‘victimization’. This difference can be attributed to a clear purposeful hashkafa that reflects Chazals’ understanding of all events in the world of flesh and blood: all events are direct product of God’s will, He and He alone determines what will happen and to whom. This is din emet. Within this approach there is no ‘injustice’, no ‘victim’ in the modern western (Christian) sense. No mistakes made, only things that we don’t and can’t understand. Halacha deals not with Hashkafa but rather damage, retribution, and compensation.The damaged person can receive payment for some act, but there is no moral judgment only civil suit.
These damages include elements of boshet (embarrassment) and Tzar (pain) which are measured in normative ways. I propose that this psychological artifact has evolved into a significant – almost dominant place in “new” halachic understanding of damage. This reflects the modern western fascination or obsession with emotions in general. Chazal generally do not dwell on emotions but clearly say that emotions – when they exist – should always be under the total control of Da’at. This supports, I believe my first assertion that Hashkafa determines judicial reasoning – as Daat does to emotions.
The conceptualization presented here in short can raise a number of questions:
1.How and when did emotions like boshet become so powerful as to be equated today as Pekuach Nefesh? And if the damage only appears years later is it still PN now? If it only happens in a certain percentage of cases?
2.How, when, and IF we should raise the Hashkafa issue in therapy with the child?
3.What are the positive side of ‘victim’ in these issues and are there also negative sides? Emotion or law should rule? Are Western ideas ‘better’ than Chazal when dealing with emotions?
Rosh Hashanna (17a):Wrongdoers of Israel who sin with their body7 and wrongdoers of the Gentiles who sin with their body go down to Gehinnom and are punished there for twelve months. After twelve months their body is consumed and their soul is burnt and the wind scatters them under the soles of the feet of the righteous as it says, And ye shall tread down the wicked, and they shall be as ashes under the soles of your feet.8 But as for the minim9 and the informers and the scoffers,10 who rejected the Torah and denied the resurrection of the dead, and those who abandoned the ways of the community,11 and those who ‘spread their terror in the land of the living’,12 and who sinned and made the masses sin, like Jeroboam the son of Nebat and his fellows — these will go down to Gehinnom and be punished there for all generations, as it says, And they shall go forth and look upon the carcasses of the men that have rebelled against me13 etc. Gehinnom will be consumed but they will not be consumed, as it says, and their form shall wear away the nether world. Rambam(Hilchos Teshuva 3:6):These are the ones who have no portion in the World to Come but are cut off and lost and are judged because of the enormity of their wickedness and sins for eternity – apostates, heretics, deniers of the Torah, deniers of resurrection of the dead or redemption, those who cause the masses to sin, those who separate from participation in the community, one who sins openly…, the informers, and those who cause fear in the community for ulterior motives, murderers, habitual speakers of lashon harah and those who deface their circumcision. Shulchan Aruch (C.M. 388:9):Who ever hands over a Jew into the hands of non‑Jews – whether it is the Jew himself or just his money – does not have a portion in the World to Come.
“If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen,” was former
President Harry S. Truman’s slogan. “If all your questions weren’t
answered, get back in the kitchen,” may be the motto of OU Kosher’s
upcoming webcast “Kosher Home, Sweet Home, Part II,” to take place
Tuesday, November 25 at 2:00 p.m. EST on ouradio.org. Once again, OU
Kosher’s halachic poskim, Rabbi Yisroel Belsky and Rabbi Hershel
Schachter, will respond to questions about the intricacies of
maintaining a kosher kitchen.
The first “Kosher Home, Sweet
Home,” was webcast on May 29 and drew an audience in the thousands, as
the poskim responded to questions submitted prior to the program. But
time did not permit many of the submitted questions to be answered,
bringing on requests for a second webcast. The November 25 session is
the response.
Questions in May included those pertaining to ovens, the microwave, use
of non-Jewish help in kitchen, kosherization of various materials,
kosher travel, using the same oven for dairy and pareve, and use of
warming drawers on the Sabbath. The responses, intricate yet explained
in a manner easily understood by the audience, may be found on the
archived webcast on www.ouradio.org.
“In response to the
overwhelming participation and feedback to last spring’s ‘Kosher Home,
Sweet Home,’ the OU Kosher webcast when hundreds of questions were
received and thousands of listeners tuned in worldwide, and considering
the countless requests to allow for more kitchen-related questions to
be asked,” we have scheduled Part II, declared Rabbi Dr. Eliyahu
Safran, OU Kosher Senior Rabbinic Coordinator and Vice President of
Communications and Marketing.
The webcast is part of OU
Kosher’s continuing and ever-growing educational outreach to the
community, which includes the “OU Kosher Coming to Schools and
Communities” program, and the highly informative and entertaining
Kosher Tidbits postings, now numbering 125 on OU Radio. The most recent
video Tidbit is on kosher wine certification, featuring Rabbi Nachum
Rabinowitz.
As with the May webcast, the audience is invited to
submit questions. Prior to the webcast they may be sent to Rabbi Safran
at safrane@ou.org, fax 212-613-0775; during the webcast they may be
sent to Rabbi Eliyahu W. Ferrell at ferrelle@ou.org, fax 212-613-0701.
Israel is becoming a nation at war with itself. The conflict is not
just with militant Palestinians. Militant Jewish settlers in the West
Bank clash regularly with Israeli police who remove illegal homes.
Israeli security officials have warned of possible assassination
attempts on peace-seeking Israeli leaders.
In September, Jewish militants tried to assassinate Professor Zeev
Sternhell, a supporter of Peace Now, which documents settlement
construction. Settlers are damaging Palestinian property in retaliation
for government actions against the outposts.
The Israeli cabinet on Sunday branded the disturbances “a threat to
the rule of law and order in Israel.” The situation is so bad that Ehud
Olmert, the departing prime minister, announced plans to halt direct or
indirect government financing of unauthorized settlements — roughly
100. Another 120 settlements are government-authorized. And any peace
deal will inevitably require that the vast majority are shut down.
Mr. Olmert said he would increase the number of law enforcement
personnel deployed in the West Bank and move against law-breaking
settlers. It was long past time for the government to act. But we fear
the measures are more symbolic than real.
Mr. Olmert’s announcement exposed the fact that despite repeated
pledges to dismantle settlements, the government is still abetting
them. Even if financing is ended, some experts say government services
to the outposts like water and electricity will continue.
As a step toward peace, Israel must freeze all settlements and
reduce the roadblocks in the West Bank that are strangling the
Palestinian economy. To do so, the Israeli government needs the public
support of American Jews and moderate Israelis against militants who
seek political change through violence.
Israeli voters are expected to choose a new government in February.
Mr. Olmert’s designated heir, Tzipi Livni, the foreign minister, failed
to put together a coalition government for the right reasons: She
refused the ultra-Orthodox Shas Party’s demand that there would be no
negotiations on the status of Jerusalem. Such a commitment would have
made any peace deal impossible. Ms. Livni’s chief rival, Benjamin
Netanyahu, opposes immediate talks on a Palestinian state.
Israelis need a leader who can calm the forces that are tearing
Israel apart and also negotiate a just peace. The new American
president must be ready to fully support that effort. The lesson of the
last few months should be clear to all. Israel will have no peace —
with its neighbors or its own citizens — without a peace agreement.
This is the first in a series of postings dealing with the halachic basis for calling the police and dealing with a child molestor. It is primarily focused on the dynamics of the halacha. The bottom line is that major poskim clearly permit calling the police to protect a child from being molested. This discussion is part of the sefer about child abuse that I am currenly working on. One of the important considerations - as to whether to call the police in the case of child abuse - is whether the molester has the status of rodef (pursuer). The widespread assumption is that the purpose of this halacha of rodef is protecting the victimization or harm to another person. But this is clearly wrong.
Sanhedrin(73a):MISHNAH. THE FOLLOWING MUST BE SAVED [FROM SINNING] EVEN AT THE COST OF THEIR LIVES: HE WHO PURSUES AFTER HIS NEIGHBOUR TO SLAY HIM, [OR] AFTER A MALE [FOR PEDERASTY]. [OR] AFTER A BETROTHED MAIDEN [TO DISHONOUR HER].1 BUT HE WHO PURSUES AFTER AN ANIMAL [TO ABUSE IT]. OR WOULD DESECRATE THE SABBATH, OR COMMIT IDOLATRY, MUST NOT BE SAVED [FROM SINNING] AT THE COST OF HIS LIFE.[Soncino translation]
The literal translation of this mishna is that "the following are potential vicitims who are saved from harm at the cost of the life of the pursuer". However, Rashi - following the understanding of the gemora - specifically rejects this
Rashi(Sanhedrin 73a): Are saved - from sin. At the expense of their lives - anyone can kill the rodef to save him from sin - and this is learned from the Torah verse.
Tosfos(Sanhedrin 73a) is bothered by this reading. However he concludes it is necessary to accept this understanding that we are not concerned with the victim - but rather the spiritual well being of the rodef. That is because of the case in the mishna of pursuing an animal [for sexual purposes]. Tosofos notes that it obviously makes no sense to say we are killing the rodef because we are concerned to protect an animal from being raped. Therefore the concern of the mishna is saving the rodef from sinning.
Tosfos points out that rodef is not solely to stop the person from sinning. There are two conditions to be able to stop the rodef by killing him - 1) he must be attempting to commit a sin which is punished either by capital punishment or kares 2) there has to be a person who suffers directly from the sin.
Thus Shabbos and idolatry are not part of rodef because there is no victim. Rape of an unmarried woman would also not be included because there is no death penalty or kares for it. [The Tosefta & Yerushalmi are more inclusive than the Bavli]
Another major consequence is that if the rodef has actually committed the crime - we can not stop him from continuing to engage in the act by killing him. This is the psak of the Shulchan Aruch(C.M. 425:3)
.שולחן ערוך חושן משפט סימן תכה סעיף ג
וכן הרודף אחר הזכר או אחר אחת מכל העריות (לאנסה), חוץ מהבהמה, מצילין אותו אפילו בנפש הרודף. ואם רדף אחר ערוה ותפס ושכב עמה, כיון שהערה בה, אף על פי שלא גמר ביאתו, אין ממיתין אותו עד עמדו בדין
In view of the above - only child abuse which is punishable by kares or death is relevant. - e.g incest or gential penetration for homosexual relationship. Obviously this would exclude many cases of child abuse. This would mean that the law of rodef would not justify calling the police in most cases.
The only way to invoke rodef is to assert that abuse is pikuach nefesh. However, this is problematic for a number of reasons to be discussed in the next post.
Remember major poskim do permit calling the police for child abuse - the reasons will be discussed in a later post.
Jerusalem Municipality wreckage crews on Wednesday demolished two
illegally built Arab home in east Jerusalem, prompting skirmishes in
the area throughout the afternoon, police said.
The court-ordered demolition in the east Jerusalem neighborhood
of Silwan, which was carried out under heavy police guard, quickly
erupted into violence after dozens of local residents pelted police
with stones and hurled a firebomb at police, Jerusalem police spokesman
Shmuel Ben-Ruby said.
Police responded by firing stun grenades to disperse the crowd. There were no casualties reported in the two-hour altercation.
Later, some of the residents barricaded themselves in one of the
homes slated to be torn down, but eventually agreed to leave the
building, furniture in hand, after lengthy negotiations with police.
The city said that the two homes, one of which was inhabited,
were built in "green areas" where construction is forbidden, and that
they were both razed by court-order after appeals against their
demolition were turned down.
Since the beginning of the year, the municipality has carried
out 108 demolitions, including 78 in east Jerusalem and 30 in west
Jerusalem, the city said in a statement.
Palestinians and left-wing Israelis complain that is difficult
for Arabs to obtain building permits in Jerusalem, forcing them to
build illegally, while the municipality insists it is evenhanded in
enforcing building codes in all parts of the city.
The issue of Arab house demolitions is especially explosive in
east Jerusalem, which Palestinians claim as the capital of their future
state.[...]
Los Angeles Times reports: A measure to once again ban gay marriage
in California was passed by voters in Tuesday's election, throwing into
doubt the unions of an estimated 18,000 same-sex couples who wed during
the last 4 1/2 months.
As Proposition 8, the most divisive and emotionally fraught issue on
the state ballot this year, took a lead in early returns, supporters
gathered at a hotel ballroom in Sacramento and cheered.
"We caused Californians to rethink this issue," Proposition 8 strategist Jeff Flint said.
Early in the campaign, he noted, polls showed the measure trailing by 17 points.
"I think the voters were thinking, well, if it makes them happy, why
shouldn't we let gay couples get married. And I think we made them
realize that there are broader implications to society and particularly
the children when you make that fundamental change that's at the core
of how society is organized, which is marriage," he said.
In San Francisco on Tuesday night at the packed headquarters of the "No
on 8" campaign party in the Westin St. Francis Hotel, supporters heard
from San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, whose decision to issue same-sex
wedding licenses in his city led to the court ruling that made gay
marriage briefly legal in the state. .
"You decided to live your life out loud. You fell in love and you said,
'I do.' Tonight, we await a verdict," Newsom said, speaking to a
roaring crowd before final returns were in.
Elsewhere in the country, two other gay-marriage bans, in Florida and
Arizona, also won. In both states, laws already defined marriage as a
heterosexual institution. But backers pushed to amend the state
constitutions, saying that doing so would protect the institution from
legal challenges.
Proposition 8 was the most expensive proposition on any ballot in the
nation this year, with more than $74 million spent by both sides.
The measure's most fervent proponents believed that nothing less than
the future of traditional families was at stake, while opponents
believed that they were fighting for the fundamental right of gay
people to be treated equally under the law.
"This has been a moral battle," said Ellen Smedley, 34, a member of the
Mormon Church and a mother of five who worked on the campaign. "We
aren't trying to change anything that homosexual couples believe or
want -- it doesn't change anything that they're allowed to do already.
It's defining marriage. . . . Marriage is a man and a woman
establishing a family unit."[...]
The battle was closely watched across the nation because California is
considered a harbinger of cultural change and because this is the first
time voters have weighed in on gay marriage in a state where it was
legal.
Forward reports [sent by RaP] Buffalo Lake, MN- In developments that are likely to cripple the
availability of kosher beef in large parts of America, three of the
five largest slaughterhouses producing kosher beef have halted
production this week.
All eyes have been on the nation’s
largest kosher slaughterhouse, in Postville, Iowa, which stopped
producing beef last week due to a series of legal problems and arrests
at its parent company, Agriprocessors. That company also owns a
slaughterhouse in Gordon, Neb., which is thought to be the nation’s
fifth-largest plant producing kosher meat. While little attention has
been paid to the Gordon plant, local officials told the Forward that it
stopped operating in October.
Now, in unrelated developments,
executives at America’s third-largest kosher beef slaughterhouse,
located in Minnesota, told the Forward that production there has been
brought to a complete halt due to a fire.
“We’re not killing
anything right now,” said Bill Gilger, CEO of North Star Beef, which is
located in Buffalo Lake, Minn. “We’re adding to the shortage of kosher
beef, having nothing to do with what is going on Postville, but just to
do with our own situation here.”
“Whatever it is, there’s
going to be a tremendous void in the market,” said Rabbi Menachem
Genack, head of O.U. Kosher, the largest certifying agency for kosher
meat. [...]
The ultra-Orthodox community is planning a day of prayer to encourage continued funding of its schools.
Since the onset of the global financial crisis, many donors have scaled back support and others have stopped completely.
The
campaign's promoter, Chevy Weiss, said Monday that some six thousand
families have been hit hard by the crisis and were short on food and
diapers for their children.
She said about 28,000 Israeli Jews
choose to devote their lives to study instead of work. They rely on
donations from philanthropists and government stipends to support them
and their families.
Eleven prominent rabbis have apprioved of
the prayer day, set nationwide for Nov. 13. A delegation of rabbis will
then head to the United States to try and raise funds.
ArutzSheva reports: (IsraelNN.com) Two Jews were attacked last week in the center of the city of Ramla, in an incident which is part of a growing pattern of Arab-on-Jew violence inside pre-1967 Israel. In the latest incident,two young Arabs started pushing two Jews who were exiting a synagogue,and beat one of them who was on crutches.
According to Rabbi UriyahShachor of the RamlaKollel yeshiva, "It's obvious to us that there is an awakening of a nationalistic drive and this is connected to the situation in the country these days."
Eliezer Shachor, a member of the religious seed community in Ramla, added:"This is a powder keg, in the center of the state of Israel. Everyone knows it, but no one has a serious plan on how to stop it." He also related his own story of Arab violence. On the first night of Sukkot,he said, "a number of Arabs jumped out of a car, ruined my sukkahand ran away."
Religious seed communities are groups of national-religious families that make their homes in mixed Arab-Jewish neighborhoods and front-line towns in order to try and stem the tide of a gradual Arab takeover in the mixed cities, to strengthen the spirit of the Jewish residents and to revive the spirit of Torah and Judaism.
A network of religious seed communities is spreading out throughout Israel. They can be found in Sderot, Ramla, Lod, Yafo (Jaffa), Harish and Akko, to name just some of the locations.