New Square: Context of the arson attack

Forward

[...] On May 22, the group’s longstanding complaints about harassment and intimidation by Twersky’s followers were starkly highlighted when Aron Rottenberg, one of its members, almost died in an arson attack on his home. Rottenberg suffered third-degree burns over half of his body when he confronted an intruder carrying a plastic bag full of gasoline and a torch at 4:12 a.m. Shaul Spitzer, the 18-year-old suspect apprehended by police, also suffered serious injuries in their struggle. Both men remain hospitalized, with Spitzer free on $300,000 bond. At the time of the incident, Spitzer worked for Twersky in his home. Rottenberg’s friends and family members say that the 43-year-old local plumber sought only to pray outside the village’s main synagogue, an act that provoked the ire of New Square’s leaders. They say local police and political officials ignored earlier attacks on him and others due to the political clout of Twersky, who directs New Square’s large bloc vote. [....]

New Square Arson Victim Blames Attack On Community’s Religious Intolerance

CBS

After being the victim of a frightening arson attack, New Square resident Aron Rottenberg spoke from his hospital bed in an interview on May 29 exclusively obtained by CBS 2.

In the interview conducted with an investigator working for his lawyer one week after the May 22 attack , Rottenberg said he blames the leaders of a Hasidic sect for creating the intolerant atmosphere that led to his injuries. [....]

Maharal:G-d's tears & science - earthquakes & G-d's influence on nature

Berachos(59a): As R’ Kattina passed the gates of the magician Oba Timei an earthquake occurred. He said: Does Oba Timei know what the reason for earthquakes? The magician replied: Of course I know. When G‑d thinks about His children who are sunk in suffering amongst the nations of the world, He sheds two tears into the ocean and the earthquake is the resulting sound that reverberates from one end of the world to the other. R’ Kattina replied:” The magician is a liar and his words are wrong because according to his explanation the earthquake should be followed by the aftershock of the second tear!” In fact however earthquakes are followed by an aftershock and the reason why R’ Kattina did not acknowledge the correctness of the explanation was so that people should not pay attention to the magician. R’ Kattina explained earthquakes resulting from G‑d clapping His hands together out of anger. R’ Nathan explained them as resulting from G‑d sighing from sadness. The Rabbis said that it is G‑d walking on the Heavens. R’ Acha b. Yaakov said: It results from G‑d pressing His feet together beneath His throne. …

Maharal (Be’er HaGolah #4): Berachos (59a): As R' Kattina passed the gates of the magician Oba Timei an earthquake occurred. … To properly understand this gemora you must be aware that our sages were not primarily concerned with a scientific description of the physical world. Even though it is obvious that there is a physical basis of earthquakes, our sages focused not on the laws of nature but rather G d's influence on the physical mechanism…G d in fact controls everything but works through the processes of nature…. This is an extremely fundamental principle on which is built the principle of faith… In contrast, the scientists when they investigate physical phenomenon such as earthquakes, thunder etc., assume that nature is all there is. They look at proximate causal relations and ignore the ultimate cause—the Creator of nature. However, our Sages …learned from Moshe Rabbeinu that the view of the scientists was incomplete. … Therefore, our Sages knew that these things are produced by natural processes, however G d is the initiator of all natural phenomena and thus nature is merely a messenger for G d. It is important to know that wherever the Sages use this type of language, they don't intended to actually describe G d, Heaven forbid! The description is simply a form that is comprehensible to the human mind. Thus, they are describing things from the point of view of the audience. This is an incredibly important principle which manifests itself in esoteric medrashim….

Trees: The Real Meaning of a Shavuos Minhag

5tjt translated by Rabbi Yair Hoffman

Rav Moshe Wolfson is the Mashgiach Ruchani of Yeshivas Torah V’Daas, and Rebbe of Congregation Emunas Yisroel in Boro Park. He is also the author of a three volume work on the Parshios of Chumash and the Moadim entitled “Emunas Itecha.”  The translation and annotation is provided as a public service in honor of the impending Yom Tov.

The Mogain Avrohom (Orech Chaim 494) cites a custom to bring trees into our homes and synagogues on the holiday of Shavuos.  He writes that he believes the reason for this custom is because on this holiday we are judged on the fruits of trees.  This is done so that we will pray for the trees [to have a plentiful bounty].

Rav Moshe Wolfson Shlita explains: It is clear that the type of trees that we bring into our homes and shuls must perforce be barren, non-fruit-bearing trees. Why is this true?  If it was otherwise, it would be a halachic impossibility, as there is a Torah prohibition of cutting down fruit trees - Bal Tashchis  (See Dvarim 20:19 and tractate Bava Kamma 91a). .[....]

Should Men Be Allowed to Father Children After They're Dead?

Time

Fertility-treatment innovations mean that all sorts of people who would not have been able to have a baby a generation ago are now able to bring life into the world. Now, some are arguing the ranks of the newly fertile should include dead people.

In Australia, a woman was granted permission last month to use her dead husband's sperm in an in-vitro fertilization (IVF) attempt to create a child. In Israel, grieving grandparents are petitioning a court to allow them to use their dead son's sperm to conceive a grandchild. And in California, a woman is due in three months with her husband's child — even though her husband died not long before she got pregnant. [...]

Why PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) is now being called PTS

Time

For years, the U.S. military has referred to the constellation of anxiety, depression and anger many combat troops suffer when they return home as PTSD -- Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. But in recent months, senior Pentagon officials seem to have gone on a search-and-destroy mission to kill the D -- Disorder -- and now prefer to call the syndrome simply Post-Traumatic Stress.

For good or for ill, the amputation of disorder represents a change in military nomenclature worth noting.

"This is a normal reaction to a very serious set of events in their life," Lieut. General Eric Schoomaker, the Army surgeon general, said of PTSD back in 2008. Well, if it's normal, why is it called a disorder, Battleland asked him at the time. Schoomaker, a thoughtful guy, pondered the obvious question for a moment. "Maybe we're not as sensitive as we might be to communicating things like disorder and the like," he finally said. "You raise a very interesting point. I'll have to talk that over with my psychiatric colleagues to see if there's a way of using different terminology that doesn't have people stigmatized by it." [...]

The forced acceptance of Torah at Sinai was to make it irrevocable

from Daas Torah - translation copyrighted

Maharal (Shemos 19:17): … I found in a medrash that when G d  gave the Torah He forced the Jews to accept it. Since the law of a raped woman is that she can not be forcibly divorced, consequently G d can never reject the Jews. It is important to note that the medrash is not saying that the covenant at Sinai was a form of rape. We obviously can not learn from the sinful conduct of human beings the nature of the covenant with G d. However, the medrash is teaching us that the punishment the Torah gives to a rapist is that he can never divorce the woman — and not some other punishment — because the punishment is appropriate to the deed. That is because every deed which is forced is irreversible while a voluntary deed is reversible. Thus the forced relationship with a woman is also irreversible…That is the reason that G d’s relationship with us was done in a forced manner so that it would not be reversible. Therefore even though the Jews had initially accepted the Torah willingly by saying “We will do and we will understand” — the essential relationship was one that had to be and thus it had to be forced.

Why G d waited 3 months after Egypt to give Torah to the Jews

from Daas Torah - translation copyrighted

Ohr HaChaim (Shemos 19:1): In the third month after the redemption of the children of Israel…on that same day they came to Sinai. It is difficult to understand why G d — despite His great love for the Jews and strong desire to give them their bride the Torah —  waited until the third month after the redemption from Egypt.  If you suggest that it was because of the distance that needed to be traveled, but we saw G d miraculously shorted the distance to speed up Rifka’s marriage to Yitzchok (Bereishis Rabbah 59:11).  We would surely have expected that G d would have done the same for the Jewish people. Consequently G d gave a  justification for the delay. It  was not the result of a lack of desire of the bride but rather that the groom (the Jewish people) were not properly prepared. The Jews were not prepared for the wedding with Torah since they had spent years in a spiritually polluted land  and had absorbed its pollution. Consequently they  needed to count for a 7 week period in a manner similar to a woman before she becomes purified. The Zohar indicates that this 7 week period between Pesach and Shavuos should be viewed as 7 times the normal 7 day period of purification. Therefore when this verse says “3 months of the leaving of Egypt”, it means the delay of 3 months was because of fact that they had left Egypt [and they needed extra purification]. A proof for this understanding is that this verse states when they had almost recovered spiritually — which was the first day of the 3rd month — they immediately arrived at Sinai. …

Schism in a Hasidic Village, a Series of Attacks, and an Attempted-Murder Arrest

NYTimes

Last September, Aron Rottenberg did something radical.

Along with some friends, he began worshiping not at the grand synagogue at the center of this ultra-Orthodox Skver Hasidic community in Rockland County, but outside the village at a residence for the elderly.

Before long, a rabbinical court ruled that praying outside the synagogue was a serious violation of community rules.

Next, groups outside Mr. Rottenberg’s house smashed windows and dumped his daughter’s school desk and books on the front porch. And on May 22, an early-morning attack left Mr. Rottenberg with third-degree burns over most of his body. [...]

State to compensate sexual abuse victims?

YNET

The Ministerial Committee on Legislation stands to debate a bill put forward by MK Orly Levy (Yisrael Beiteinu) and the National Council for the Child (NCC) regarding monetary restitution to victims of sexual assault.

The bill suggests that should felons who are ordered to pay their victims default on the court's order, the State should be the one to compensate the victims. [...\

Hasidic sect takes succession war to the Internet

Haaretz

As the succession war in Haifa's Seret-Viznitz Hasidic sect heats up, one of the warring parties has resorted to the Internet as a weapon.

In recent weeks, video footage has begun circulating in emails and on the ultra-Orthodox website Behadrei Haredim that shows Rabbi Baruch Hager, grandson of the sect's current admor (rabbinic leader ), maligning key leaders of Haifa's Viznitz community to his 86-year-old grandfather and even managing to get the admor to speak out against them.

Hager's allies say the recordings are fake, and that they are being distributed by another grandson of the admor - Baruch Hager's cousin, Yisrael Shpitatz - who hopes to ensure that his father, a Neturei Karta Hasid, will inherit instead. [....]

Judge rules gay athletic club can discriminate again heterosexuals

Courthouse News Service

The North American Gay Amateur Athletic Association can limit the number of heterosexuals on its teams, according to a federal judge's order, which also ushers forward claims by three bisexual men who say they were kicked out of the Gay Softball World Series because they weren't gay enough.
     The three men were playing for a San Francisco softball team in the finals when a rival team challenged their sexuality, citing the rule that limits no more that two heterosexuals per team.
     The men were "summoned to a hearing room to answer questions about their sexual interests or attractions, purportedly to determine their sexual orientation, in front of a group of more than twenty-five people, many of whom plaintiffs did not know," according to their federal complaint. The men say organizers told them: "This is the Gay World Series, not the Bisexual World Series."
     They filed suit against the athletic association, saying it violated Washington state's laws against discrimination based on sexual orientation and race. Two of the plaintiffs are black and one is black and Filipino. [....]