Israeli rabbis launch initiative to marry gay men to lesbian women

Haaretz

Rabbis from the religious Zionist community have launched an initiative to marry gay men to lesbian women - with some surprising successes.

So far, 11 marriages have been performed. Haaretz conducted an email interview with one such couple, Etti and Roni (not their real names ).

Etti and Roni, both religious, were married five years ago. Though they were honest with each other about their sexual orientations from their first meeting, to the outside world, they portray themselves as a normal heterosexual couple. Today, they have two children, and are thrilled with the results.

Ohr HaChaim: Moshe got everything - yet Rabbi Akiva said chidushim he didn't know!?

from Daas Torah - translation copyrighted

Ohr HaChaim  (Vayikra 13:37): I would like to reconcile the apparent contradiction between two opposing views found in the Medrashim. In Vayikra Rabbah (22:1) it states that everything was given to Moshe at Sinai – even that which a student would innovate in the future. However Bamibar Rabbah (19:7) says that Rabbi Akiva gave interpretations that Moshe didn’t know. There are many other sources regarding these two views. It would appear that the reconciliation of these views is that in truth that all the Torah was told to Moshe. And therefore no scholar can possibly know more than Moshe did. And that is true across the generations from the day the Torah was given until the Messianic days – there were no new Halachos that weren’t known to Moshe. The explanation is that G d in fact gave Moshe the Written and Oral Torah. G d in His wisdom also encoded in the Written Torah the entire Oral Torah that he had taught Moshe. However He did not tell Moshe how the Oral Torah was encoded in the Written Torah. Ascertaining this encoding is in fact the work for all those engaged in Torah study. They are to determine where the halacha which was given to Moshe and the secrets and interpretations are alluded to in the Written Torah. Thus we find that the Tanaim came and composed works such as Torah Cohanim and the Sifre. Thus all their analyses of the verses are to determine where the known halacha is encoded in the Written Torah. This work which continues until the present is the holy work of Torah scholars to investigate the verses of the Bible and reconcile them with the Oral Torah. This effort is call Eretz HaChaim. This knowledge of exactly how the Oral Law was encoded in the Written Law was not given by G d to Moshe. It is in reference to this encoding that our Sages state that Rabbi Akiva made interpretations that Moshe didn’t know. This doesn’t mean that Moshe didn’t know the basis of the interpretations since after all everything was transmitted by him even that which a student would say in the future. However he didn’t know how the Oral Law was hinted at in the Written Law. This is the key to understanding the present issue where Hillel expounded the halacha from the verse that which was said to Moshe orally and G d did not reveal this halacha to Moshe from the verse. It was left for Hillel to find how this halacha was encoded in the verse.

One in four Jewish women suffer abuse in the home

Jewish Chronicle

One in four Jewish women are victims of domestic abuse, according to the largest survey of its kind.

The Jewish Women's Aid study, You know a Jewish woman suffering from domestic abuse: Domestic abuse and the British Jewish community, found that 26 per cent of the 842 people surveyed had personally experienced domestic abuse.

Despite a third admitting they thought abuse in the Jewish community would not be the same as the rest of society, the number of Jewish woman abused is two per cent higher than the national average.

Jewish leaders have criticised communal organisations for "sweeping this problem under the carpet" and said the report must act as a "wake-up call" to the community. [...]

Police in Los Angeles Step Up Efforts to Gain Muslims’ Trust

NYTimes

The question of whether American Muslims do, or do not, cooperate with law enforcement agents in preventing potential terrorist attacks is at the heart of Congressional hearings that begin Thursday in Washington. The hearings have been called by Representative Peter T. King, a Republican from Long Island, N.Y., and chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee. He says that American Muslims do not cooperate, and that he will call witnesses who will prove it.

But in Los Angeles, home to one of the largest and most diverse Muslim populations in the country, the picture is far more encouraging, though there are still challenges. And it has one of the most assertive multidepartmental efforts in the country, along with New York, to overcome mistrust and engage Muslims as allies in preventing terrorism, according to law enforcement experts.

"We're not going to win the war against terrorism without Muslims," said Leroy D. Baca, the Los Angeles County sheriff, in an interview in his office. Mr. Baca will be called as a witness at the hearings on Thursday. [...]

David Schick: The Man With Two Faces; a Fraud Case Shocks

NYTimes 1996

Then came David Schick. A lawyer and father of 10 at age 36, his reputation as a doer of good deeds brought people to his home on Avenue I late at night seeking counsel on immigration law or trouble with a child. And Mr. Schick took the family's name far beyond Flatbush.

He was recently the honorary chairman of the annual meeting of the nation's largest Orthodox organization. He helped arrange for President Clinton to meet in March with donors to a large rabbinical college he supports. When Mr. Schick had early success as a real estate investor, word spread so fast through the Orthodox Jewish world that wealthy Jews around the globe were soon entrusting him with millions. To reassure the religious, his deals included a letter from a rabbinical court waiving the prohibition in Jewish law on Jews earning interest from each other.

"They were knocking his door down," said Robert Goldman, a lawyer representing investors in New York, California and Belgium.

Then on April 6, an investor called Mr. Schick to ask about his $1.7 million that was supposed to be parked securely in an escrow account. According to a complaint filed in Federal Court in Manhattan, Mr. Schick responded simply, "I took it." [...]

Chief Rabbi Amar's committee recommends ending Army conversion course

JPost

The rabbinic committee appointed by Chief Sephardi Rabbi Shlomo Amar recommended that he terminate the Nativ course held for potential IDF converts, since Reform and Conservative teachers are part of its staff, Israel Radio reported on Tuesday.

“In this [Nativ] course about 10 of the staff of 170 teachers are Reform or Conservative. We perceive this as a severe problem, that casts a heavy shadow on all of the military conversions, and every effort should be made to cancel this course and/or to not have it as a precondition to the IDF process,” the report quoted from a letter the three-man advisory committee wrote.[...]

Establishing Paternity by Means of Blood Type Testing

MedEthics by Prof.Dov Frimer

A. Introduction

Significant developments have occurred in the field of hemato- logy during the past generation, and research in the area continues to advance. Scientists are firmly of the opinion that proper use of ABO blood type testing enables one to establish in most cases the negative determination of a paternity, namely that X is not the father of Y.[1] At the same time, the medical community acknow- ledges that a satisfactory method for positive, definite determin- ation that X is the father of Y, on the basis of ABO blood types, has yet to be developed.[2] Despite all this, judges in Anglo-Saxon countries are quite reluctant fully to accept paternity blood testing with all its ramifications. It is their opinion that the law should proceed cautiously when dealing with the adoption of new tests and examinations in an area which is under going rapid change and development.[3]

In this article I shall analyze and compare the attitudes of Jewish law and of Israeli law towards the use of blood testing in determining questions of paternity. To achieve this aim, three questions must be investigated: [...]

Philadelphia Archdiocese Suspends 21 Priests

NYTimes

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia announced Tuesday that it had placed 21 priests on administrative leave from active ministry in connection with credible charges that they had sexually abused minors.

The mass suspension was one of the single most sweeping in the history of the sexual abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Church in the United States. It follows a damning grand jury report issued Feb. 10 that accused the archdiocese of a widespread cover-up of predatory priests stretching over decades and that said as many as 37 priests remained active in the ministry despite credible allegations of sexual abuse against them. [...]

Drawing U.S. Crowds With Anti-Islam Message

NYTimes

As a child growing up a Maronite Christian in war-torn southern Lebanon in the 1970s, Ms. Gabriel said, she had been left lying injured in rubble after Muslims mercilessly bombed her village. She found refuge in Israel and then moved to the United States, only to find that the Islamic radicals who had terrorized her in Lebanon, she said, were now bent on taking over America.

“America has been infiltrated on all levels by radicals who wish to harm America,” she said. “They have infiltrated us at the C.I.A., at the F.B.I., at the Pentagon, at the State Department. They are being radicalized in radical mosques in our cities and communities within the United States.”

Through her books, media appearances and speeches, and her organization, ACT! for America, Ms. Gabriel has become one of the most visible personalities on a circuit of self-appointed terrorism detectors who warn that Muslims pose an enormous danger within United States borders. [...]

Is it child pornography if no child is abused in edited video?

NYTimes

People in this economically pressed town near Lake Michigan are divided into two camps: Those who think Evan Emory should pay hard for what he did, and those who think he should be let off easy.

Mr. Emory, 21, an aspiring singer and songwriter, became a household name here last month when he edited a video to make it appear that elementary school children in a local classroom were listening to him sing a song with graphic sexual lyrics. He then showed the video in a nightclub and posted it on YouTube.

Tony Tague, the Muskegon County prosecutor, stands firmly in the first camp: He charged Mr. Emory with manufacturing and distributing child pornography, a crime that carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison and 25 years on the sex offender registry.

“It is a serious, a huge violation,” said Charles Willick, whose 6-year-old daughter was one of the students, all readily identifiable, in the video. “He crossed the line when he used children.”

Rav Herzog to Rav Unterman regarding rejection of paternal blood test

Rav Yitzchok Herzog(Assia 5 page 196-197 translation by R’ Dov Frimer): I do not deny that I was almost embarrassed ... by what you wrote ... in such a deprecating manner towards blood tests, from a negative aspect. That is, with regard to the possibility that [a blood test can] clarify that X is not the son of Y. How can there be a question of the credibility of the doctors in a matter which has been clearly accepted by all the masters of medicine throughout the entire world! Our Sages nowhere say that it was a statement handed down to Moses on Sinai .... Moreover, this is impossible, since it is now as clear as the sun at high noon... . However, they .held it as a fact and built on this assumption, since Aristotle had so asserted and so had been accepted by all the scholars of his time. What vast differences there are between the science of medicine in their day and in ours, and between the contacts that exist between all parts of the world today, in contrast to the state of affairs in ancient times! I remember from my reading of medical literature that there is no doubt whatsoever concerning this matter. Yet in your letter you imply that there are differences of opinion among medical experts. With all due respect, you are completely mistaken. Here is a copy of a letter from the government’s medical-legal expert who is also an observant Jew. The husband has already come to me and asked that the judgment be executed. You do not accept this. We shall give him an extension, and I am arranging the matter here and will notify the parties through you as to when they must come. It is unfortunate that while science is progressively conquering worlds and discovering all sorts of secrets, although it too errs at times, we like ostriches bury our heads in sand. It is imperative that we encourage the ablest students of the yeshivot also to be educated as men of science in each discipline, so that we should not need to turn to others in matters of physiology, chemistry, electricity, etc. concerning things that relate to our sacred Torah. ...

Rosh (55:9): Jewish vs Secular thought

from Daas Torah - copyrighted translation

Rosh (55:9): This that you wrote concerning the conclusions of intellectual analysis and the conclusions of religion thought – what shall I reply to this? The fact is that our Torah is not like your idle chatter. From secular logic - which all religious scholars distance themselves from - you cite proofs that cause an obligation or give rights or prohibit or permit. But it is an established fact that the ones who laid the foundation for the system of logic did not believe in Moshe nor in the righteous laws and statues which he transmitted to us – either in writing or through tradition. So how can those who are the intellectual heirs of a system which denies the importance of Moshe and his teachings bring a proof to support a particular statute or law of Moshe and to decide laws based on analogies and deductions which are characteristic of the study of logic? Of course this is not possible! In my day and my place are Halachos decided on the basic of solely on logical models – G-d forbid! As long as I live there will be Torah amongst the Jews and proof will be based on Mishnah, and the Babylonian and Yerushalmi Talmuds. There is absolutely no need for secular logic. That is because secular philosophical analysis is not the same as Torah thought and law - the wisdom of the Torah is a Tradition that was given to Moshe at Sinai. A Torah scholar generates conclusions based on the traditional hermeneutic rules as well as by drawing analogies and making deductions – even though these are not necessarily what would be found by the use of secular human intellect – we conduct ourselves according to Tradition. In contrast philosophy is entirely natural. They have great scholars and they rigorously follow pure human intellect. With their great intellect they delve deeply and of necessity contradict the Torah of Moshe since the Torah is simply not based on human intellect but Tradition. This is expressed by the verse, “Be simply pure with G d”. In other words even if the Torah directs us to go against human intellect we should not question our Tradition but should follow in total obedience to the dictates of G d. Therefore we do not bring proof from secular scholars against the upright laws of G d. Concerning this Mishlei (2:19) says, “None that go to the alien woman ever returns.” In other words all those who get involved with secular analysis are not able to escape from its influence and cannot bring the wisdom of Torah into their hearts because they have become accustomed to the secular way of thinking which is inherently more attractive than Torah. As a result of the influence of secular thinking, they are not able to fully comprehend the wisdom of the Torah which is the true path of life. That is because their minds are constantly dominated by natural thinking and wisdom and they assume that the wisdom of Torah and secular thinking are equivalent and compatible. They thus believe that is possible to bring a proof from one to the other – and as a consequence they corrupt the correct halacha. The fact is that these two modes of thinking are opposed to each other and thus incompatible – they can not coexist….