Thursday, October 30, 2014
Distinction between social judgment and judgment of beis din Rav Hirsh
In researching my new sefer on judging others versus judgment of beis din I came across this relevant quote from Rav Hirsch (Vayikra 19:15).
For judgment outside the court of justice, for judging our fellows in ordinary life, out of this sentence imposing the duty on the judge to adhere sharply to the absolute facts in all strictness, the Gemora ]Shevuos 30a] there learns the rule:הוי דן את חברך לכף זכות always give the best possible interpretation to all matters concerning your neighbour and judge him to his advantage. This is only apparently in contradiction with the judicial formula. For judgment in a court of justice and social judgment do not serve the same purpose. The former has to test the action solely as to whether it is in accordance with the dictates of justice or not, quite apart from any considerations of the individual circumstances or conditions and without regard to the motives. An action, although it may not be legal, can be entirely excusable and yet at the forum of justice must be judged as punishable. And an action judged by its motive can be stamped as highly vicious and yet legally be within the law and unpunishable. But Society has, on the other hand, above all, the personality, the character, in its eye, and every action is, to it, only a symptom by which to judge the integrity or the reverse of its members. Exactly the same justice which in court banishes personality entirely from the judgment, and judges the action entirely in absolute objectivity, that same justice demands in social life the most meticulous and anxious conscientiousness in considering every possible condition which could make the person and his character appear in a better light, and admonishes:
Be not hasty in throwing mud at anybody's character, always be inclined to find excusing circumstances for all actions! This is the same idea of justice which for social judgment says: אל תדין את חברך עד שתגיע למקומו "Judge not thy neighbour until thou hast been in a similar position" (Aboth II,5). "It differentiates between forensic and social judgment to such an extent that to the judge in civil cases it says: "When the parties stand before you, consider them both in the wrong, but once they have accepted your decision and have left you, regard them both as good men": כשיהיו בעלי הדין עומדים לפניך יהיו בעיניך כרשעים וכשנפטרים מלפניך יהיו בעיניך כזכאין כשקבלו עליהם את הדין (Avos 2:5).
Schlesinger Twins: Michael lies to court that Beth went to a beer festival on Yom Kippur to deny her weekend visits with her children!
Guest post from Beth Alexander
It seems there any no lengths Mr Schlesinger won't go and no depths too low that he won't sink to try to discredit and destroy me, the mother of his beloved children.
Every day of separation from my dear boys is another day of torturous pain and agony to endure. Special days like birthdays, holidays and celebrations are especially hard.
Shabbat and Chagim are the most testing of all. These silent lonely days are the harshest reminder of the heavy loss of all my hopes and dreams: the loving Jewish home I yearned to create together with my so-called 'religious' husband, the happy home of fun, ringing with children's laughter I struggled to build, the holiness and warmth I expected to fill my marriage - all devastatingly replaced by abuse, destruction and tears.
Unable to bear the pain of solitude on Rosh Hashonnah, I flew home to Manchester. I sat at the back of shul with my mother and we wept and sobbed in each other's arms, consoling one another; a mother bereft of her children and a grandmother's double pain for her daughter and suffering grandchildren far away. It is the 4th year without my children on the Chagim but the wound is just as fresh and raw as the day it was inflicted.
I wasn't able to stay until Yom Kippur so was forced to spend the fast in Vienna. I went to shul and cried again. Uncontrollably. I was comforted by the kindest people, strangers and old friends who shared my grief and understood what, for any mother in the world, is the greatest loss of all.
Sukkot and Simchat Torah - again separated - but the Tuesday visit I was able to take them to the shul sukkah on chol hamoed brought the three of us pure joy!
It's been a difficult month and truthfully, I'm glad it's over. Until Sammy and Benji are back in my arms, the Chagim will never be the same for me again. Simcha and celebration have been replaced with solemn mourning and meditation.
Yet to add salt to the wound, Michael Schlesinger wrote to the court this week to deny my application for weekend visits claiming that I am not religious and accused me of spending Yom Kippur 'the holiest day of the year' at a beer festival in some far flung place in Austria!!
Why do you tell such audacious lies, Michael? Why did you also lie that the twins were ill on my visit two days before Rosh Hashonnah? You claimed Sammy had pneumonia - which would take at least 2 weeks to recover from - but then both boys were in the Chabad shul just two days later on Rosh Hashonnah. Why did you then ask people to lie for you to deny that they were in shul when others had already seen them there and informed me they were there?
Worst of all are the lies to our children. They have a mother who loves them more than anything in the world. And you continue to deny them my love.
Every day of separation from my dear boys is another day of torturous pain and agony to endure. Special days like birthdays, holidays and celebrations are especially hard.
Shabbat and Chagim are the most testing of all. These silent lonely days are the harshest reminder of the heavy loss of all my hopes and dreams: the loving Jewish home I yearned to create together with my so-called 'religious' husband, the happy home of fun, ringing with children's laughter I struggled to build, the holiness and warmth I expected to fill my marriage - all devastatingly replaced by abuse, destruction and tears.
Unable to bear the pain of solitude on Rosh Hashonnah, I flew home to Manchester. I sat at the back of shul with my mother and we wept and sobbed in each other's arms, consoling one another; a mother bereft of her children and a grandmother's double pain for her daughter and suffering grandchildren far away. It is the 4th year without my children on the Chagim but the wound is just as fresh and raw as the day it was inflicted.
I wasn't able to stay until Yom Kippur so was forced to spend the fast in Vienna. I went to shul and cried again. Uncontrollably. I was comforted by the kindest people, strangers and old friends who shared my grief and understood what, for any mother in the world, is the greatest loss of all.
Sukkot and Simchat Torah - again separated - but the Tuesday visit I was able to take them to the shul sukkah on chol hamoed brought the three of us pure joy!
It's been a difficult month and truthfully, I'm glad it's over. Until Sammy and Benji are back in my arms, the Chagim will never be the same for me again. Simcha and celebration have been replaced with solemn mourning and meditation.
Yet to add salt to the wound, Michael Schlesinger wrote to the court this week to deny my application for weekend visits claiming that I am not religious and accused me of spending Yom Kippur 'the holiest day of the year' at a beer festival in some far flung place in Austria!!
Why do you tell such audacious lies, Michael? Why did you also lie that the twins were ill on my visit two days before Rosh Hashonnah? You claimed Sammy had pneumonia - which would take at least 2 weeks to recover from - but then both boys were in the Chabad shul just two days later on Rosh Hashonnah. Why did you then ask people to lie for you to deny that they were in shul when others had already seen them there and informed me they were there?
Worst of all are the lies to our children. They have a mother who loves them more than anything in the world. And you continue to deny them my love.
What lies do you tell them when they ask you why their Mama doesn't tuck them into bed at night and kiss them goodnight?
What lies do you tell them when they ask you why they can't run into their Mama's arms after a long day at kindergarten like all the other children?
What lies do you tell them when they hurt themselves and cry for their Mama?
One day soon they will discover the truth. Prepare yourself. How exactly do you expect them to react when they do?
========================Witness Statement =================
Vienna, October 29, 2014I, Sofia Collar, Argentina, 65 years old and now living with my daughter, Deborah Collar in Iglseegasse *, **** (Percholdsdorf), Austria, for some weeks, I declare, on my own will, that I met Beth Alexander at the evening of Yom Kipur – Jewish forgiveness day – at the Main Vienna Synagogue, the Stadttempel and as we were sitting next to each other and she did not stop crying I asked her what was wrong with her.Thereafter, we spend during the whole Friday evening service and Saturday – all day long – together and on different times when she could stop crying she told me that she was very unhappy and sad because she was apart from her two little children and could not spend the Jewish Holidays with them.Sofia CollarArgentine Passport 1.8******Tel (in Vienna) 0650 *******Permanent address: Araoz 282 – 6p 191414 Buenos Aires, Argentina
Wednesday, October 29, 2014
Rav Shmuel Kaminetsky claims that vaccinations are harmful
Rav Shmuel Kaminetsky |
Baltimore Jewish Times Read the whole article including the comments
[...] R.B.
encountered significant difficulties when she claimed a religious
exemption at a local boys’ day school. Before her son began school, she
contacted someone at the state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene,
as well as the state attorney general’s office, to inquire about
Maryland’s laws regarding religious exemptions.
“They said that the school could not refuse to accept a religious
exemption,” she related. “But then school started and the nurse called.
She said the school didn’t accept religious exemptions. I told her they
had to accept them so she said I would have to speak with the
principal.”
R.B. reached out to Rabbi Shmuel Kamenetzky, founder and dean of the
Talmudical Academy of Philadelphia, whose wife, Temi, speaks out against
vaccinating children. The rabbi wrote a letter on R.B.’s behalf,
leading to her son’s principal relenting and apologizing.
When reached by phone, both Kamenetzkys confirmed their belief that vaccinations, not the diseases they prevent, are harmful.
“There is a doctor in Chicago who doesn’t vaccinate any of his
patients and they have no problem at all,” said the rabbi. “I see
vaccinations as the problem. It’s a hoax. Even the Salk vaccine [against
polio] is a hoax. It is just big business.”
Kamenetzky says he follows the lead of Israeli Rabbi Shmaryahu Yosef
Chaim Kanievsky, who rules that schools “have no right to prevent
unvaccinated kids from coming to school.”
“What about the people who clean and sweep in the school?” argued
Kamenetzky. “They are mostly Mexican and are unvaccinated. If there was a
problem, the children would already have gotten sick.”
Sharon Billing, a Baltimore nurse and mother, said she once challenged Temi Kamenetzky at a lecture.
“How can you advise young mothers to do this?” she asked the
rebbetzin. “You’re old enough to remember whopping cough and diphtheria.
As Jews, we are required to guard our health.”
Billing has a cousin born just prior to the development of the polio vaccine.
“He was wheelchair bound all of his life and had the use of only one
arm,” she said. “I find it distressing that so many are so uninformed
about vaccines.”
In her 20 years as a pediatric nurse practitioner, Stacy Schwartz of
Pikesville has rarely come across parents who refuse to vaccinate.
Schwartz, who works in a private practice in Cross Keys and at Beth
Tfiloh Dahan Community School once a week, says she believes in
vaccinating all children.
“For us, it’s a public health issue, and there is no credible
research to show that vaccines lead to developmental disabilities,” said
Schwartz, who added that Beth Tfiloh follows Maryland’s state
vaccination policy. [...]
R Freundel accused of Mikve camera: Police set up hotline for those who think they were victimized
Washington Post Authorities investigating a Georgetown rabbi accused of secretly
recording women in a ritual bath in Northwest Washington have set up a
hotline number for people who think they might have been victimized.
D.C.
Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier, in her first public comments on the
arrest of Rabbi Barry Freundel, said Tuesday that the investigation is
expected to take a long time as forensic experts comb through computer
storage devices seized in the case.
“It’s really a tragic case
and it is going to take some time for all the details to unfold,” Lanier
told Bruce DePuyt on her monthly appearance on NewsChannel 8. “I think
this case will be rolling out for some time.” She added, “For people who
are potential victims, that is agonizing.”
The number at the U.S. attorney’s office is . There is also an e-mail address, usadc.bernardfreundelcase@usdoj.gov, and a web site with updated information: www.justice.gov/usao/dc/programs/vw/bernard_freundel.html.
Lanier said it is important that potential victims “who are part of this larger family can follow what is going on.” [...]
Each life is precious: The life of children with severe brain damage
YNET The children of the Chronic Respiratory Care Ward at Herzog Hospital have severe brain damage, but for the dedicated staff it is a priority to give them quality of life.
When Eli arrives to visit his 14-year-old daughter Rachel at the Children's Chronic Respiratory Care Department in Herzog Hospital in Jerusalem, he fights to hold back the tears. Instead of crying, he tries to be positive, telling her about the upcoming holiday, sharing all the recent news from their large family, and praying with her.
Sometimes, as he prepares to say goodbye to his beloved child, he thinks she is moving her head as though trying to reach for him. But, painfully, he understands that she can't.
The department opened in 2004, based on the successful treatment of adults requiring respiratory support. There are at present 24 children in the ward - some are conscious and others have minimal response to stimulus.[..]
"Almost half of our children had periods of hypoxia due to various disastrous incidents, such as a baby who suffocated on the lace of a pacifier or a toddler who pushed his head inside a pickle jar full of water," Gil says.
"The second group contains children with congenital problems such as a developmental defect leading to brain dysfunction, a hereditary disease or malfunction created by some genetic defect during fertilization, or complications following meningitis, which unfortunately still occur. The common denominator is their constant dependence on a ventilator," she says.
"However, our work doesn't end with prolonging their lives; it is also about improving their quality of life. Our children receive physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, therapy with animals, music therapy, bibliotherapy and more. The adherence to daily stimulation has certainly proven itself; there are conclusive physiological responses, for example their muscles, which under normal circumstances are very rigid, become looser, and the heart rate and blood pressure decrease.
"Furthermore we have noticed that the children look at us and recognize us, despite the fact that they can't communicate verbally. Obviously they feel more than they understand." [...]
At first glance they
seem so helpless, remote and in pain that crying is an inevitable
response. But when you sit next to one of the children, who is wrapped
safely in the arms of one of their special education teachers, the
picture changes. [...]
Often," says Prof.
Gil, "when people hear about this ward, they immediately think 'What
kind of life is this?' But studies show that children with severe
disabilities are content with their lives; it all comes down to how you
look at it. In our culture, and especially for me as a Holocaust
survivor, life is so precious that it's unthinkable to give it up.
"There are hospitals around the world where when the doctor
breaks it to the parents that there is nothing he or she can do to
improve their child's condition, the parents take one last photograph
with their child, they say their goodbyes and ask for the child to be
disconnected from life support.
"In Israel, apart of the fact that it is forbidden by law, it
just never happens. Throughout the years we have had cases where we have
succeeded in weaning children off the ventilator, and these are our
greatest success stories."
[...]
Observations about the Salk Polio vaccine - National Public Radio
The Guardian In 1954, over 300,000 doctors, nurses, schoolteachers and other volunteers across the United States, Canada and Finland took part in one of the most complex and monumental medical trials in history. The plan was to test the effectiveness of a newly-developed vaccine for a disease that was devastating the lives of children across the US: polio.
It was a mammoth task – a double-blind experiment, in which 650,000 schoolchildren were given the vaccine, 750,000 were given a placebo, and over 400,000 children acted as a control group and were given neither. For taking part, each participant was given a sweet and a certificate proclaiming their role as a ‘Polio Pioneer’. The results, announced in 1955, were just as monumental: the vaccine was safe and effective. As a direct result of the development of the vaccine, polio was completely eradicated in the US by 1979. [...]
One other aspect of Salk’s story still plays a vital role in the development and use of vaccines today: public support. In many ways, the 1954 field tests of the polio vaccine are a major success story in public health and scientific engagement – according to some sources, a Gallup poll that year showed that more Americans knew about the trials than could give the full name of then president, Dwight Eisenhower. In short, it appeared that there was unprecedented support for the vaccine.
It is therefore a sad and strange irony that there now appears to be a growing backlash against vaccines in the US and UK – particularly the MMR vaccine. Since Andrew Wakefield published a fraudulent paper in 1998 purporting to show a link between the MMR vaccine and autism, incidences of measles and mumps have risen greatly. Despite this, and despite studies showing clear costs to society when vaccine rates drop, antivaccinationists still insist on ignoring the evidence when it comes to immunising children. It therefore seems like the celebration of Salk’s 100th birthday is an apt time to remember how hugely important vaccination is – not just on an individual level, but for public health as a whole.
Tuesday, October 28, 2014
Polygamist cult leader Goel Ratzon sentenced to 30 years in prison
YNET The Tel Aviv District
Court sentenced polygamist Goel Ratzon on Tuesday to 30 years in prison
for sex crimes against his wives and daughters as part of what
prosecutors described as a mind-boggling saga of dominance and delusions
of deity.
Last month, Ratzon, 64,
was convicted of a number of sexual offences, including rape of a number
of his wives. He was cleared, however, of separate counts of
enslavement regarding 21 spouses and 38 children he had kept in various
homes around the city. He was also found guilty on the majority of the
other sexually related offenses, condemning him in the highly publicized
trial as a serial rapist.[...]
During the interview Ratzon said: "There was no slavery. We had warm relations. (There was) full understanding between us, a genuine desire to help one another. A woman does not stay in a place she is not pleased with for 15 years."
Monday, October 27, 2014
Karen Mosquera hy"d - second victim of Hamas terror attack at train station - is buried
Arutz 7 Karen Jemima Mosquera hy''d, fatally wounded last Wednesday by a Hamas terrorist in Jerusalem, succumbed to her wounds
on Sunday and was buried in the capital. She became the second victim
to die from the attack, along with three-month-old Chaya Zisel Braun
hy''d.
A year-and-a-half ago Mosquera came to Israel from her home in
Guayaquil, Ecuador, to complete her conversion to Judaism, a Foreign
Ministry statement on Sunday said. It revealed she chose to convert
after discovering she was descended from Conversos, Spanish Jews
forcibly converted to Catholicism after 1492.
"She spent the last two months in a Midrasha, an institute of
Jewish studies for women, with other women from South America. Prior to
moving to Israel, she had studied Family Psychology at the Catholic
University of Guayaquil and was planning to study archaeology in
Jerusalem," added the statement [...]
"She was a quiet girl who believed in her path, fought to become a
Jew and nothing bothered her," said a friend. Mosquera's bereaved
mother said her daughter’s dream had been to come to Israel and build
her life here, but her life was cut short. [...]
Top Cop's Housemaid Admits She Made Up Affair - accusations destroyed his career
Arutz 7 A woman who was employed as the housemaid of recently retired
Commander of the Jerusalem Police Maj. Gen. Yossi Pariente has admitted
that she lied about being sexually exploited by him, according to IDF Radio.
"I made it all up," the maid now reportedly says.
Pariente retired surprisingly last week, and the housemaid's
allegations appear to have been a major consideration in his decision to
cut short his career. The woman, who used to clean the Parientes' home
in Jerusalem, claimed that she had an affair with him for two years, and
that he sexually harassed her. [...]
Leading criminal lawyers have claimed that allegations of male sexual
misconduct against women are extremely hard to disprove in Israel's
court system, due to the pervasive influence of a radical women's lobby
in the Knesset and media, which insists that false allegations are very
rare.
The matter was discussed in a heated debate last month in the
Knesset's Committee for Advancement of the Status of Women, when three
female lawyers who head the Committee on False Allegations and Parental
Alienation in the Tel Aviv District of the Israel Bar Association
claimed that such allegations are a very common phenomenon.
Representatives of women's groups linked to the New Israel Fund hotly
disputed the claim and the parliamentary committee's chair, MK Aliza
Lavie, read out what she said were police statistics, according to which
there were only 12 cases of false allegations by women per year, and a
similar number by men. The representatives of the Committee on False Allegations and Parental Alienation called this number "ridiculous." [...]
Today: Satmar Hasidic Men's-Mikva sexually abused activist Joey DiAngelo Candlelit Memorial in Monsey Upstate NY.
Guest Post
Candlelit Ceremony at the Burial Site:
6:30-7:15pm - 221 Brick Church Road, Spring Valley, NY 10977
Memorial, Remembering Joey:
7:30-10:00pm - Rockland JCC, 450 W Nyack Rd, West Nyack, NY 10994
Bring along some form of ID (Standard JCC building security requirement)
6:30-7:15pm - 221 Brick Church Road, Spring Valley, NY 10977
Memorial, Remembering Joey:
7:30-10:00pm - Rockland JCC, 450 W Nyack Rd, West Nyack, NY 10994
Bring along some form of ID (Standard JCC building security requirement)
America
is now all consumed and busy with the woman's mikva voyeurism abuse,
but by us Hasidim in Bror Park Williamsburg Monsey & Monroe, men and
boyz use a naked bath house together called the Men's-Mikvah, and kids
are sexuality molested and abused! Nobody cares!
One now died of a overdose. Please come over to report this vigil and lets stop this abuse once and for all!
Rabbi Nuchom Rosenberg will be talking.
Here are some reports on this terrible loss of life due to abuse in the Mens Mikvah
1.
like by Deb Tambor the family stole the deceased body, that they
disowned while alive because he was talking about his
trauma, and didn't let his friends be by the funereal.
2.
Here you can read about the cold callous divisiveness of our pain by
the community mouth pieces, how they shun and hush those who
speak out against child sexual molestation.
3.
Mark Openhiemer of the NY Times, this weekend went so far re the
Woman's Mikva voyeurism scandal, to dip himself in the Mikva.
Little does he care that by Hasidim children get abused in the
Mens Mikva!
4.
At minute 70 hear Joey in his own haunting voice, how he opens his up
his wounded heart, to the world, describing his life full of pain guilt
and anguish, since he was abused in the mens mikvah as a young kid as
old as 8!
5.
Was it a suicide or an accidental overdose is the question? Read how
one community activist says its a "Homicide!!!" Because
the community silences those victims like Joey! And they have no other
way to go but to die.
6. In Yiddish a short but heartwarming report.
Subscribe to:
Posts
(
Atom
)