Meshech Chochma: Cohanim killing man for his wife

Guest Post by Rabbi Raffi Bilek
 There is an interesting comment from the Meshech Chochmah in this week’s parsha:-- Shmos (21:14) וְכִי-יָזִד אִישׁ עַל-רֵעֵהוּ לְהָרְגוֹ בְעָרְמָה מֵעִם מִזְבְּחִי תִּקָּחֶנּוּ לָמוּת 

And if a man will come purposefully upon his fellow to kill him deviously, you shall take him from My altar to die.

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It is not strange to say that the intent of the verse is regarding that which is practiced among the nations and recorded in the Torah, “lest the people of the place will kill me” by Pharaoh (Genesis 12) and Avimelech (ibid. 26). And the term “עָרְמָה” we find by the snake (ibid. 3:1), and he set his eyes on Eve, as the gemara says in the first chapter of Tractate Sotah (Tosefta chap. 4): he said “I shall kill Adam and marry Eve.” 

And that is what is meant by “וְכִי-יָזִד אִישׁ עַל-רֵעֵהוּ [בְעָרְמָה]” – that he shall covet his fellow’s wife and kill him in order to marry her [just as did the snake, who is hinted to by the word עָרְמָה].  Therefore the verse says “מֵעִם מִזְבְּחִי תִּקָּחֶנּוּ לָמוּת” – because this situation is most likely to happen among the kohanim, since they are forbidden to marry a divorcee, and therefore at times they have no alternative but to kill the husband [in order to be able to have his wife – as opposed to finding some way of causing them to divorce].  Furthermore, married women [are frequently in contact with the kohanim because they] need them for matters of sacrifices of zavah and yoledes, and thus the verse says “מֵעִם מִזְבְּחִי” [to hint to this] . . .

 This is a fascinating Meshech Chochmah on several counts.  The real eye-popper is when he states that a kohen “has no alternative” (אין להם עצה) but to kill a husband whose wife he is after.  Naturally he means that this is the kohen’s perspective, but it’s a pretty extraordinary comment nonetheless.

I think the take-away though is the attitude towards “holy men” taken by the Meshech Chochmah. The kohanim, after all, are supposed to be the role models for the Jewish people, showing them how a Torah personality acts, inspiring them to greater kedushah, etc. Yet the Meshech Chochmah hardly blinks an eye in saying that they are prone to killing men in order to marry their wives; in fact, he states that it is likely more common among kohanim than among the general population, because of their particular halachic situation!

This brings out another interesting observation, which is that the Meshech Chochmah is very cognizant of the phenomenon of apparently frum people who are meticulous in observing some aspect of halachah or other but who don’t hesitate to blow other rules out of the water (such as, say, the man who beats his daughters to ensure compliance with the laws of tznius).  So kohanim are apparently in fact more likely than the general population to be lechers, murderers, and hypocrites.  (Perhaps this is in line with Chazal’s statement that the greater a person, the greater his yetzer hara?)

There is a lot of debate today between various camps on how we view our leaders.  It seems that our forebears had no problem suggesting that our clergymen could very well be among the worst sinners as well.

Attributes of Spirituality Described by Survivors of Sexual Violence

NCBI     Click to download pdf of full article

Attributes of Spirituality Described by Survivors of Sexual Violence
Gregory P. Knapik, Donna S. Martsolf, Claire B. Draucker, and Karen D. Strickland

Abstract

This study focuses on what aspects of attributes of spirituality as defined by Martsolf and Mickley (1998) are most salient for female and male survivors of sexual violence. Content analysis of secondary narrative data, provided by 50 participants in a study of women’s and men’s responses to sexual violence, was coded to the five attributes of spirituality as defined by Martsolf and Mickley. The attribute aspects of connecting with others in spiritual ways and with God/higher power were particularly significant. The attribute of transcendence was found less important, and the attributes of value, becoming, and meaning were not found important. The Martsolf and Mickley framework helped organize narrative data for a content analysis of spirituality in survivors of sexual violence.

Introduction

This study’s purpose was to determine what attributes of spirituality, as defined by Martsolf and Mickley (1998), are most commonly described and what aspects of these attributes are considered salient by survivors of sexual violence. [...]

The use of spirituality may be one way survivors cope with the experience of sexual violence. Studies in the United States reveal that religious support (Glaister & Abel, 2001; Oaksford & Frude, 2003, Valentine & Feinhauer, 1993), belief in and connection with divine beings (Draucker & Petrovic, 1996; Smith & Kelly, 2001), and finding spiritual meaning in adversity (Smith & Kelly) can aide in recovery from sexual trauma. Researchers have also found, however, that survivors’ religious faith can fuel shame and guilt, and church communities can minimize, deny, or enable violence and abuse (Giesbrecht & Sevcik, 2000). A systematic review of empirical studies examining associations between religion, spirituality, and personal growth following trauma revealed three major findings:

First,….religion and spirituality are usually, although not always, beneficial to people in dealing with the aftermath of trauma. Second, that traumatic experiences can lead to a deepening of religion or spirituality. Third, that positive religious coping, religious openness, readiness to face existential questions, religious participation, and intrinsic religiousness are typically associated with posttraumatic growth. (Shaw, Joseph, & Linley, 2005, p. 1)

While spirituality appears to be an important aspect of recovery for some survivors, little is known about what attributes of spirituality are most frequently described in narratives of survivors of sexual violence and what aspects of those attributes are most salient for survivors. [...]

Bulgaria Implicates Hezbollah in Deadly Israeli Bus Blast

NY Times   The Bulgarian government said on Tuesday that two of the people behind a deadly bombing attack that targeted an Israeli tour bus six months ago were believed to be members of the military wing of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. 

The announcement could force the European Union to reconsider whether to designate the group as a terrorist organization and crack down on its extensive fund-raising operations across the continent. That could have wide-reaching repercussions for Europe’s uneasy détente with the group, which is an influential force in Middle East politics, considers Israel an enemy and has extensive links with Iran.[...]

“There’s the overall fear if we’re too noisy about this, Hezbollah might strike again, and it might not be Israeli tourists this time,” said Sylke Tempel, editor in chief of the German foreign affairs magazine Internationale Politik.

The significance of their determination has put pressure on Bulgarian officials, who would like to maintain strong ties with Israel and the United States, and European allies like France and Germany. Bulgarian officials had maintained a studied silence for more than six months since the attack.

“If you factor in the suspicion that there are political implications beyond Bulgaria’s borders, it’s completely understandable that they’ve been playing for time,” said Dimitar Bechev, head of the Sofia office of the European Council on Foreign Relations.

Baby Boomers are less healthy than their parents

Time   Every generation likes to think it’s healthier than the one that came before, but baby boomers can’t make that claim.

In a study published in JAMA Internal Medicine, researchers found that a sample of the baby boom generation, the 78 million Americans who were born in the post-war birth explosion from 1946 to 1964, were less healthy than many of their parents. Never mind the fact that Baby boomers have been dubbed the Healthiest Generation, since they have the longest life expectancy of any previous generation, and that  they were able to exploit advances in medical care and reap the benefits of public health campaigns highlighting the dangers of smoking and unhealthy diets. That moniker may simply no longer apply, since it turns out that they have higher rates of hypertension, diabetes, obesity and high cholesterol than members of the previous generation. [...]

Hypertension is a particularly troubling example of that—both because of the raw numbers and because of the cardiovascular damage that can result from the condition: 35% of those in the previous generation had high blood pressure, while more than double that proportion, 75%, of baby boomers do. And that’s despite greater awareness of the condition, as well as better screening methods and treatments for runaway readings.

Why are public health campaigns, as well as improved therapies, not having a greater effect on disease rates? One factor overshadowing any incremental gains in chronic disease may be obesity — a greater portion of the US population is overweight or obese than ever before, and those extra pounds can trigger a host of unhealthy medical conditions. And rather than treat the root cause of obesity, advances in medical care — drugs that lower cholesterol, medications that drop blood pressure, and bypass surgeries that fix plaque-burdened hearts — may only be masking and perpetuating the problem. “Medication use has definitely increased, so we are propping ourselves up on our canes and our medicines,” says King. “We are becoming over dependent on medications and surgical solutions rather than creating our own good health.” [...]

Problem: Nobody wants to live next to a sex offender

NY Times   Two trailers in this wealthy beach town stand as testament to an increasingly intractable problem for localities across the country: where to let sex offenders live after prison. 

 The cramped trailers house convicted rapists, sexual predators and child abusers, about 40 sex offenders in all. They are stuck here in large part because Suffolk County, like many jurisdictions, has in recent years passed laws that bar convicted sex offenders from living near schools, day care centers and other places with children. 

The restrictions are so sweeping that it can be difficult for the offenders to find housing, leaving many homeless, officials said.

Suffolk County, on Long Island, installed the trailers, after the authorities discovered that sex offenders had crowded into cheap motel rooms, sometimes down the hall from families with children. Around the country, similar clusters of offenders have been found in campgrounds, under highway overpasses and other isolated spots.

Emotional Resilience: Bulletproofing the Mind

NY Times   I first met Miller last December in Kandahar. We had several conversations, but he was under strict orders not to discuss his job. Yet his job -- that of a new kind of soldier -- interested me. The Special Forces soldiers in Afghanistan looked different, with their thick beards, fleece jackets, wraparound sunglasses and high-tech weaponry. Did they think and feel differently than the traditional foot soldier? Earlier this fall, I caught up with Miller at Fort Campbell, Ky., where the Special Forces Fifth Group is based. Safely back from battle, Miller was allowed to discuss his brand of warfare -- and how he was built to carry it out.

Miller's dawn assault on the Qaeda fighters in Kandahar, I learned, was but one step away from hand-to-hand combat. It involved grenade exchanges from a distance of just a few feet, and it finished with Miller and his men standing amid their dead and bloodied foes. ''They fought to the last minute,'' he recalled. ''For these guys, surrender was not an option.'' He later added, ''It was amazing to see the carnage.''

The attack was the kind of urban warfare American soldiers will be engaged in should the United States have to shoot its way into Baghdad and other Iraqi cities. When the Cold War ended, many thought that C.Q.B. would become a thing of the past. Conflicts would be fewer, and any interventions undertaken would rely on overwhelming force and precision munitions, not house-to-house fighting. Yet since 9/11 we have begun a war that may draw our soldiers into many battles involving intimate killing. What will that mean for Miller and his men?

The last time this kind of fighting occurred on a grand scale, in Vietnam, 50,000 Americans died, and many survivors had injuries that were not just physical but emotional. The clunky phrase ''post-traumatic stress disorder'' entered the national lexicon. Today, the military believes, the United States is fighting an intimate war in the right way, because soldiers have been prepared and equipped in a manner that increases the prospect of their victory and decreases the prospect of their injury -- whether physical or psychological. Just as smart bombs are less likely to go astray, 21st-century warriors are more lethal than before, yet less likely to suffer P.T.S.D., according to military instructors and psychologists. Dave Grossman, a former Army Ranger and West Point professor of psychology, refers to this phenomenon as ''the bulletproof mind.''

Such confident assertions may seem surprising, considering what happened this summer at Fort Bragg, N.C. Four soldiers there murdered their wives; three of the soldiers had Special Forces training and had served in Afghanistan. The news media rushed to link the murders to post-combat stress, although there is little proof and investigations continue. Military officers, not surprisingly, doubt the idea that P.T.S.D. played a significant role, and they may have a point. Fatal spouse abuse, sadly, plagues the military even in peacetime. As they see it, the furor over this incident has obscured a broader truth. Today's Special Forces soldiers, they claim, have been unusually well trained to succeed not only at war -- but also after war. [...]

Indeed, Special Forces officers openly discuss the use of ''stress inoculation'' -- in which they are exposed to heartbeat-racing drills that raise their threshold for staying calm. It doesn't mean Special Forces soldiers are immune to stress or the mistakes that stress causes, but it takes a lot more to rattle one of them than an old-time draftee.

An important dose of stress inoculation occurs during a three-week training nightmare that comes at the end of the Schoolhouse course. It goes by the acronym SERE, which stands for survival, evasion, resistance and escape. SERE teaches Special Forces soldiers how to avoid and endure capture by the enemy. The exercise places them in a ''resistance-training laboratory'' that is, essentially, a prisoner-of-war camp, with guard towers, barbed-wire fences, blindfolds, putrid food, irregular sleep intervals, abusive guards and brutal interrogations. Details about SERE, such as the types of punishment inflicted on the ''prisoners,'' are classified; Special Forces officers told me that torture is not practiced, though they did not deny that physical pressure is applied. The unpleasantness apparently includes being buried in wood barrels. When I asked Miller about SERE, he shook his head and said, ''It is imprinted on my brain.''

Takanos against gerim : What are the consequences?

Question from GerInTheCornerFebruary 4, 2013 at 5:41 PM

I have a question for the Rabbi or others that is serious, although perhaps a bit off topic. In places where there are takanos against gerim (e.g., Mexico), what happens l'maaseh, if a long time yeshivish ger (+20 years) from the United States comes to a shul while on a business trip to daven, hear the megillah, etc.? If he keeps a low profile and davens, will he be quizzed about his background and summarily be thrown out of the shul? Or are these takanos primarily aimed at the local population?

בדרך לגן ביישוב החרדי: בת 5 הותקפה באכזריות

Update Feb 7 2013: Complaint withdrawn - claims it was Hoax

kikarhashabat תקיפה מזעזעת בישוב החרדי: לפני כשבועיים, ילדה בת 5 צעדה בבוקר לגן בו היא לומדת, כאשר גבר נטפל אליה, גרר אותה למקום סמוך ותקף אותה באכזריות קשה במשך זמן ארוך
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לפי הדיווח של הדס שטייף, ב'גלי צה"ל', מדובר במקרה תקיפה קשה מאוד, כאשר ילדה בת 5, בעודה בדרך ליום לימודים בגן, נלכדה על-ידי גבר והותקפה באכזריות  במקום סגור במשך זמן ארוך
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לאחר ששוחררה על-ידי התוקף, מיהרה לגן ושם הבינו כי הילדה עברה טראומה קשה ומיהרו להזעיק את ההורים, שלקחו את הילדה לביתם, כדי לטפל בה.

כתוצאה מהפגיעה הקשה, נפגעה הילדה באורח גופני ונפשי בצורה קשה, ואף נזקקה לאשפוז של מספר ימים בבית החולים.

למרבה ההלם, ההורים סירבו עד כה להגיש תלונה במשטרה על מקרה התקיפה הקשה, בשל טענה כי הם חוששים לפגיעה בשם המשפחה כאשר תיחשף זהות הילדה הקטנה.

בעקבות סירובם להתלונן כמו גם סירוב הגורמים השונים בעיר לערב את המשטרה, התוקף האכזרי מסותבב במשך שבועיים ימים, מאז התקיפה, כאשר הוא חופשי ויכול בכל רגע לחזור על מעשיו החמורים

update - kikarhashabat

העיר החרדית 'מודיעין עילית' הופכת בתקופה האחרונה מעיר שקטה לעיר בה מאיימת סכנה מוחשית לשלומם של ילדים המסתובבים ברחובות
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כזכור, הבוקר דווח ב'גלי צה"ל' על אירוע חמור של תקיפה אכזרית וקשה של ילדה בת 5 לפני כשבועיים על ידי גבר זר שתקף את הילדה במשך זמן ממושך, כתוצאה מהתקיפה הילדה נפגעה ופונתה לבית החולים כשהיא פצועה גופנית וחמור מכך - נפשית.

מרות התקיפה האכזרית, בטענה 'שלא יהרס השם של המשפחה' בחרו ההורים שלא להגיש עד כה תלונה במשטרה, יש הטוענים גם הדבר מגיע לאחר עיצה ובהוראה של רבנים בעיר, מה שיוצר מצב בו התוקף המסוכן מסתובב חופשי ברחבי העיר כשהוא יכול לתקוף בכל רגע נתון ילד או ילדה נוספים
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המשטרה, שקבלה את המידע על התקיפה הקשה, פתחה בחקירה אך נבלמה בקיר שתיקה של התושבים והעסקנים בעיר שלא מעבירים מידע למשטרה, מה שמונע את העמקת חקירת מקרה התקיפה הקשה.

update YNET   A Modiin Illit resident told Ynet: "Everyone is shocked. Some rabbis even discussed it over the weekend… One of them urged us to keep children safe and report anything of the sort.

"Nobody wants to protect such criminals," he insisted, "but parents know that in the haredi public the one who will be tarnished by this is the girl. She will not be able to get married and this will ruin her entire future. I have reason to believe that (her parents) took care of her and probably also took her to therapy, but they wouldn’t complain, so everyone who knew about the case simply respected their wishes."

The police added that "The investigation is rigorous, but we're running into walls of silence from everyone. We're utilizing all the resources we have in order to trace all those involved. I hope we can do so soon."

update kikarhashabat

הסיפור המזעזע בעיר מודיעין עילית שנחשף אתמול לפיו ילדה בת 5 הותקפה באכזריות במשך זמן ארוך כשהייתה בדרכה לגן, חושף נתונים מזעזעים בנושא. מיקי מילר, מנהלת שירותי הרווחה בעיר, חשפה הבוקר כי מדי שנה מתבצעים לפחות 60 מקרים של פגיעה אכזרית וקשה בילדים (חדשות חרדים)

Curing PTSD without talking about trauma

NY Times   Individual therapy is not the only way to treat PTSD. In January, a young man with the nickname of Trin (he asked that his real name not be published) sat down in a small, drab, room at a Veterans Affairs clinic in New Orleans with nine other men. All were veterans — of Iraq, Afghanistan, Operation Desert Storm or Vietnam; Trin had served in Iraq. All had PTSD. The men took chairs facing each other around tables pushed into a square, along with two women, who were running the group.

The facilitators asked everyone to do three drawings: of how they felt, where they were and where they wanted to be. Trin drew himself with no facial features. The next week, the facilitators put on some music and everyone stood up, faced a wall, and bounced to it. At other sessions they took large sheets of paper and colored in their family trees, with different colors for divorces, early deaths, conflicted relationships. And at almost every meeting over 10 weeks, they practiced conscious breathing and mindfulness.

“When they asked us to draw and color, people were rolling their eyes,” Trin said. “We had older gentlemen, and some people might have thought this is kind of soft — not my lane.” [...]

The Center for Mind-Body Medicine’s program — the one Trin did — is the most comprehensive of all of them, giving participants a variety of different strategies to choose from: breathing, meditation, guided visual imagery, bio-feedback, self-awareness, dance, self-expression, drawing. And it is the one with the strongest evidence that it works to cure PTSD. In a trial in a Kosovo high school, students with PTSD who did the 10-week program had significantly greater reductions in PTSD than a control group of students assigned to wait for the course. Other before-and-after studies (with no control group) in Gaza have found an 80 to 90 percent reduction in PTSD with the technique, and those results still held months later. This is significantly better than any currently used individual therapy. [...]

Mind-body medicine and the other alternative therapies, moreover, may be more attractive to soldiers than the individual treatments, which have a 20 percent dropout rate. Both C.P.T. and prolonged exposure ask the patient to relive his trauma — an upsetting prospect for many soldiers. Some veterans avoid psychotherapy because they do not want to be singled out, judged and labeled deficient.

The alternative medicine groups, by contrast, have a dropout rate of virtually zero. Members can talk about their past trauma if they wish, but there is no pressure to do so. Instead, the groups are centered on the present, helping members to learn practical skills they can employ immediately. The facilitator does not sit in judgment — she’s a participant in the group, sharing skills she might use herself for better sleep or stress reduction. Everyone, after all, can use help dealing with the stress of re-entry to civilian life. Going to a skills group instead of psychotherapy could remove much of the stigma of treatment.

The Rambam, Kabbalah, and Moshiach - by Eddie UK

Guest Post by Eddie [D.T. I am posting this because I respect Eddie's sincerity as well as the fact that similar views seem to be accepted as valid amongst some Orthodox Jews. I personally totally reject this understanding and my posting it should not be interpreted as approval or agreement. - I also posted it because Eddie does raise some good questions that are important to deal with. However asking good question doesn't mean that the questioners explanations are correct. Please read the comment sections.]

The Rambam is widely recognized as the most authoratative Rabbinic scholar in post Talmudic literature and possibly Jewish life. His halacha, philosophy, and principles of faith are central to Jewish practice, even beyond denominational communities.

His Ikkarim or 13 principle of faith, which are in his Introduction to Chelek, are generally considered as make or break as far as orthodox or traditional Judaism is concerned.

In his epic Mishneh Torah, he concludes with the laws of Kings and Wars, which is widely accepted by all streams of Orthodoxy, whether Lubavitch, Litvish, Sephardim, Yemenites etc.

הלכות מלכים ומלחמות פרק יא

ז  ועיקר הדברים, ככה הן:  שהתורה הזאת אין חוקיה ומשפטיה משתנים לעולם, ולעולמי עולמים, ואין מוסיפין עליהן, ולא גורעין מהן; וכל המוסיף או גורע, או שגילה פנים בתורה והוציא הדברים של מצוות מפשוטן--הרי זה בוודאי רשע ואפיקורוס.

Here is delineates a position that any changes made to the Torah (that he has just described) is a work of evil and heresy.  He presumably means fundamental, mitsvot, rather than specific halachic opinions which are disputed by his great rivals such as the Gaon RAAVAD of Posquieres.

Regarding Messianic speculation, on the details of Mesianic times, sequences, details, he writes as follows:

ד  ויש מן החכמים שאומרים שקודם ביאת המלך המשיח, יבוא אלייהו.  וכל אלו הדברים וכיוצא בהן--לא יידע אדם היאך יהיו, עד שיהיו:  שדברים סתומים הן אצל הנביאים.  גם החכמים אין להם קבלה בדברים אלו, אלא לפי הכרע הפסוקים; ולפיכך יש להם מחלוקת בדברים אלו.  ועל כל פנים, אין סידור הוויית דברים אלו ולא דקדוקן, עיקר בדת.

  

It is instructive that he says the Prophets did not have access to the specifics, and that Chachamim had no Kabbalah (received tradition) on these matters.

ה  ולעולם לא יתעסק אדם בדברי ההגדות, ולא יאריך בדברי מדרשות האמורים בעניינים אלו וכיוצא בהן; ולא ישימם עיקר--שאינן מביאין לא לידי אהבה, ולא לידי יראה.  וכן לא יחשב הקיצין; אמרו חכמים, תפוח דעתן של מחשבי קיצין.  אלא יחכה ויאמין בכלל הדבר, כמו שביארנו.

Furthermore we are enjoined not to calculate end times, or to dwell on midrashim regarding these matters.

It also significant that he was not challenged by Raavad on these statements.

There is a counter trend amongst mystics of the Kabbalah esoteric school, which not only makes calculations of end times, but also dwells on the Moshiach of each generation, and tells fantastic stories, for example of the Arizal knowing what was unknown to the Neviim and Chazal!

e.g. http://www.kabbalaonline.org/kabbalah/article_cdo/aid/379599/jewish/Visit-to-the-Hidden-Mashiach.htm

We are expected to believe that some 400 years before the Wright Brothers, 2 mystics flew by cloud from Tzfat to Lublin (Poland) , the proof being that they presented the Maharshal with hot cakes fresh from the oven in Israel!

Had these men flown by cloud, not only would the cakes have cooled down by the sub zero temperatures, they would have died from the cold and lack of oxygen.

A number of departures from Rambam and misrepresentations of his comments have been made by some important and less important Acharonim.

The Baal HaTanya  in Shaar haYichud of his Tanya claims that G-d and Sefirot are One, and he bases this on

הלכות יסודי התורה פרק ב

יג  [י] הקדוש ברוך הוא מכיר אמיתו, ויודע אותה כמות שהיא.  ואינו יודע בדעה שהיא חוץ ממנו כמו שאנו יודעין, שאין אנו ודעתנו אחד.  אבל הבורא--הוא ודעתו וחייו אחד, מכל צד ומכל פינה:  שאלמלא היה חי בחיים ויודע בדעה, היו שם אלוהות הרבה--הוא וחייו ודעתו; ואין הדבר כן, אלא אחד מכל צד ומכל פינה ובכל דרך ייחוד.

This is despite Rambam stating that  אבל הבורא--הוא ודעתו וחייו אחד, מכל צד ומכל פינה

This is clearly not the case with the Sefirot / Ein Sof, which have a diverse life of their own.

R Shneur Zalman's chief Mitnagdic opponent, R Chaim of Vollozhin also makes a remarkable misattribution to the Rambam.

In Gate B. Ch. 5 (Penultimate paragraph),  he claims that Rambam in Moreh  Ch 72 of part 1, that G-d is the soul of the world, in the same way that human soul is related tot he human body.

A careful analysis of the above Rambam (Guide 1, ch.72) reveals that Rambam says the exact opposite. In his 3rd  caveat that the management of the universe is totally separated , ie unlike a human soul/body,  Hashem is absolutely separate from all parts of the universe. ( see R' Kapach's edition, Mossad HaRav Kook 1977, p. 132).

The entire works of Rambam, especially his Yad HaHazakah, Guide, and Helek, attest to his non materialist approach to G-d.  His views are bing misappropriated to give creedence to an alien and counter philosophy which is immanentism , which is one way in which pantheism is defined, even by orthodox Rabbis.

Another anti-halachic claim which is commonly mad, is that Rambam violates his own injunction not to calculate the Ketz, or end-times.  It is alleged that he did so in his Epistle to Yemen, when in fact he repeatedly states there that is is forbidden. What he did reveal, was a tradition for a possible date for the renewal of prophecy. He did this in order to stop people from calculating the ketz.

It seems to me, from the above halachic statements of Rambam, that he did not accept mystical kabbalah, and that he denied that Chazal  and Neviim, had knowledge of specifics of Messiah.

Furthermore, his fight against materialism, or corporeality, has gone unheeded, and that this idea, which he calls heretical, has come back in force to become mainstream orthodoxy, who brazenly misquote the  Rambam himself, as justification for this ideology.

One final word: Rambam was famous for saying accept the truth from whomever it comes.  When discussing such matters, and one's entire life and perceived reward is at stake, it is very easy to claim that a list of gedolim said this, therefore they must be right.

Registries Don’t Keep Sex Offenders from Restricted Areas

Time Magazine   Laws requiring sex offenders to register with local authorities are meant to discourage them from moving into the neighborhoods, but the latest study shows they may not be having the desired deterrent effect.

The research provides new information on the contentious question of whether public sex offender registries and housing restrictions actually improve public safety.  Housing restrictions typically bar offenders from living near schools, daycare centers or other sites likely to have a high concentration of children who may become victims.  As of 2011,  nearly 750,000 registered sex offenders were listed in the U.S., whose names can be searched in state and federal registries. But the latest analysis shows that offenders change residences frequently and that over the course of a 30 month period, a third will move into areas where they are not legally allowed to live. [...]

Looking more closely at the offenders who move to restricted areas, however, 51% of those who registered only once and then failed to comply again lived in these regions, compared to 30% of those who registered faithfully.  That could suggest that those who are seeking to hide their activities, presumably in plain sight, are moving to these areas, possibly to find new victims.

Haredim slam TV exposé on sexual abuse in community

Times of London   London’s Haredi leadership has hit back at a television program claiming that the community covers up child sex abuse, saying the show “has done nothing to assist, and may have damaged, the chances of bringing abusers to justice.”

The program, “Britain’s Hidden Child Abuse,” aired on Channel 4 on Wednesday and alleged that rabbis in the Orthodox community forbid or discourage alleged victims of pedophilia from going to the secular authorities. It showed secretly filmed footage of two Haredi rabbis approached for advice by a former member of the community, who alleged that he had been sexually abused as a child. [...]

A spokesman for the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations, an umbrella organization for Orthodox institutions in London, told The Times of Israel that the program’s credibility was undermined by its reliance on anonymous sources. These included a rabbi whose face was not shown, who claimed that a young family had been driven out of its community after reporting abuse to authorities, and two young men who claimed to have taken the law into their own hands by attacking alleged perpetrators after their complaints of abuse were ignored by the rabbis.

“Channel 4 chose to use an anonymous ‘rabbi,’ an unidentified group of thuggish vigilantes, a young man whose claims cannot be verified and two specific cases that Channel 4 knew full well to have been investigated thoroughly by the local authorities and dropped without action to imply that our community does not take its responsibilities seriously,” the spokesman said.

“Our community does not need Channel 4 to remind us of our duty and responsibility to protect our children. They are our future, and we do all we can to protect them from these unspeakable crimes.

R' Yoel Malik arrested for sexual abuse of yeshiva students

Wall Street Journal    A rabbi at a religious school in New York's ultra-orthodox Jewish community has been arrested on charges of sexually abusing students, a law enforcement official says.

The arrest of Yoel Malik, 33, of Brooklyn comes amid mounting pressure to report allegations of abuse within the insular, secretive community, the largest outside Israel, and barely a week after a respected religious counselor in the same sect was sentenced to 103 years in prison for sexually abusing a girl.

Both cases come from within the Satmar Hasidic sect, the official said.

Malik was taken into custody Wednesday after reports he may have brought two students to motels for sexual liaisons, said the official who was not authorized to speak publicly on the case and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. A third encounter was reported in a car. The official said the victims were all teenage boys, ages 14 to 16, and the encounters took place between March of last year and last week. [...]

Yeshiva teacher - Evan Zauder pleads guilty to sex abuse

NY Daily News   A former New Jersey teacher faces 27 years in prison after pleading guilty Tuesday to possessing child pornography and having sex with a minor.

Evan Zauder, 27, has been held without bail since his arrest in May.

He was charged with possessing kiddie porn after the FBI found hundreds of images of underage boys engaged in sex acts on his home computer in Manhattan.

He was also charged with having a seven-month affair in 2011 with a 14-year-old New Jersey boy. Sources said the victim was not a student.