Suspicion: Sudanese men planned to molest girl

YNET   The Jerusalem Magistrate's Court extended until Sunday the remand of two Sudanese migrants who are suspected of planning to molest a five-year-old girl.

Local police officials said Thursday the girl was not hurt. During the remand hearing it was revealed that according to what the girl told her parents, she may have been hit in the head and blindfolded.

The two young migrants were arrested in the capital Wednesday after the girl's mother called the police as the suspects were making their way from Mikonor Street to a public park.

The remand hearing revealed that the girl was with the suspects at the time of their arrest. The girl, who was missing for about half an hour, said she was with the suspects for the entire time. The suspects claim she followed them.
The attorneys representing the Sudanese men said they were arrested due to the color of their skin. The police representative at the hearing told the court the suspects did not resist arrest and do not have a criminal record. [...] 

Halachic Analysis: Stickering Cars – Is It Permitted?

Vos Iz Neias  posted with the permission of Rabbi Yair Hoffman

What should a shul do when do when a car blocks the flow of traffic in the shul parking lot?  A lot of shul leaders, of late, have taken to “stickering the car.”  These “stickers” are extraordinarily difficult to remove, but the rationale behind it is that the priver would prefer a sticker to being towed. 

What is the halacha here?

THE DRIVER IS A THIEF

Before we get to the issue of the actual “stickering”, it must be noted that parking illegally is technically considered trespassing, which is a form of actual theft.

How do we define trespassing? From the perspective of American law, trespassing is the act of illegally going onto somebody else’s property without permission, which could just be a civil law tort (allowing the owner to sue for damages), or it could be a criminal matter.

What exactly is the halachic violation? The violation is actually that of stealing. The Talmud (Bava Basra 88a) records a debate between Rabbi Yehudah and the Sages as to whether borrowing an item without permission renders a person a gazlan, a thief, or whether he simply has the status of a borrower.

Rabbi Yehudah maintains that he does not have the halachic status of a thief, while the Sages maintain that he does. The Rif and the Rambam both rule in accordance with the Sages-that he is considered a thief. Indeed, this is also the ruling of the Shulchan Aruch in four different places (C.M. 292:1, 308:7, 359:5, 363:5).

Is the “considered a thief” designation applicable in all cases? Generally speaking, borrowing an item has a value associated with it.  In the case of trespassing, there may be no particular value per se in setting foot on the person’s property, or in parking improperly. While this may be the case, the Chazon Ish (B.K. 20:5) writes that the prohibition of sho’el shelo mida’as (one who borrows without permission) applies even when the item is not something that generally has a market value, and even if the value is less than that of a perutah.

How do we know that borrowing without permission also applies to being on someone’s land, or parking illegally? Maybe, it can be argued that in order to “borrow,” you have to physically take an object; here, you are just taking up space on someone’s land. [...]

Yosef Kolko Incarceration sheet for N.J. Prison

The Waks Case in Australia : Abuse isn't reported to avoid abuse by the community

The Australian   The fears that choke child-abuse victims in every community cast an even darker shadow in orthodox circles, where dirty laundry is typically dealt with in-house. The archaic concept of Mesirah - the prohibition on reporting another Jew’s wrongdoing to non-Jewish authorities - still exerts a powerful hold. Zephaniah began to feel a bristling towards him from the first Sabbath after his son’s disclosures. That Saturday in the synagogue the most senior spiritual leader, Rabbi Zvi Telsner, delivered a stern sermon from the pulpit. “Who gave you permission to talk to anyone? Which rabbi gave you permission?” he thundered, without mentioning any names. Zephaniah and his wife Chaya walked out in a spontaneous protest with six others. Rabbi Telsner insists his remarks were not directed at any individual. “It’s like calling someone fat,” he tells me. “If you think you’re fat that’s up to you.” He had dismissed as “absolute rubbish” any suggestion he sought to discourage witnesses from stepping forward.

Slowly and surely, during the weeks and months that followed, the Waks began to detect slights and snubs in personal and religious forums, making life increasingly fraught. Zephaniah has been denied religious blessings routinely dispensed to others. Men who have accompanied him to religious studies for years now cut him dead. Intimate friends no longer share their table or invite him to family celebrations. Whispering campaigns besmirch him as a “dobber” or “moser” and anonymous bloggers have defamed him. [...]

Appearing with his son Manny in December, he gave his account of the dynamics at work. "Why people do not talk? What sort of pressure is put on people? If you come forward and it becomes known it is a closed community; everybody knows everything - you are going to have trouble getting marriages for your children. This is a very, very strong thing and people are very fearful... It's a terrible dilemma for a parent: family name, stigma - all that sort of stuff." [...]

Rabbi Telsner denies there has been a vendetta against Zephaniah: "It is absolutely false from beginning to end." He says the decision to withhold blessings from him was made by a synagogue committee. "We give it to the people who deserve it," he says.

Kolko case Correction: The Family requested the Psak from Rav Sternbuch - not Beis Din

I want to make a correction regarding the reason for Rav Moshe Sternbuch's involvement in the Kolko case. Contrary to what I reported in some of my posts - the beis din did not request the psak. The family of the victim requested the psak and received one in writing  - that they were obligated to report the abuse.   The actual psak - Hebrew and English - is found here.

This doesn't change the essential point - since the father received a psak to go to the police he can not be a moser. Even if he hadn't received a psak he was obligated to go because of the din of rodef.

I have correct my posts to reflect this information. Please let me know of instances that I have missed.

===========================

This is the translation of the psak.

Concerning your question regarding someone who is suspected of the disgusting and serious crime [of pedophilia], And there are those who claim he confessed and a high level rav verified that there seems to be a solid basis to the suspicions and it is also well known that this disease [pedophilia] is difficult [for the pedophile to stop abusing children]. Therefore we are obligated to report him because he is a danger to the community. In addition someone who interferes with reporting him can possibly be causing additional harm to the community. In particular in our days where pedophilia has become widespread - we are obligated to report him. See the Taz Yoreh Deah, #154.

Historically Jews gave up religious practice when it became a burden - not because of loss of faith

Researching the impact of modernization in the 18th and 19th century, I am struck by how modern are the issues. The following is an excerpt from one of  Prof Feiner's works. He believes that secularization preceded ideology. Jews gave up religion when the price they needed to pay to keep it outweighed what they saw as its value. The cost-benefits issue is much more important than issues of theology.

The Origin of Jewish Secularization by Shmuel Feiner 2010 -Pages 105-108) In his study of secularization in England, Roy Porter points to a series of   measures that could be used to evaluate the growing erosion of the Christian   religion: in the big cities, churches were no longer major places of assembly,   and the clergy no longer served as the main sources of authority. The pace of   life in England quickened, and business, which dictated the pulse of urban life,   increased the influence of practical, rational, and earthly considerations in life.   In addition, physicians demonstrated that human intervention could help   people with their problems no less than the clergy, and they opposed folk med­icine and superstition, albeit not always with success. Despite the competition   between the concept of Christian providence as a worldview and the scientific   view, faith did not disappear, as a statement from that period revealed:"Superstition is said to be driven out of the world; no such thing, it is only   driven out of books and talk.?" At the same time, the rise in the consumption   of pleasures and the leisure culture contributed to secularization in England   and elsewhere in Western and Central Europe. Jeremy Bentham asserted that   if man were to choose the ascetic way of life proposed by religion, the world   would turn into hell because man is a creature who is meant to enjoy life. As a result   of the expansion of literacy in Europe and the publication of numerous peri­odicals, information about the earthly world and critical ideas became avail­   able to more people. But secularization did not depend on the adoption of a   secular world view. As John McManners argues, this trend was also a protest   against the constant demands of the Christian religion and an expression of   people's desire to cast off the burden of religion: "Secularization was the inevi­table counterpart, the opposite side of the coin, the reaction of human nature   to a demand almost too intense to bear.”

To Remove the Shackles of the Commandments: Indifference and Laxity

Beginning in the 1760s, religious laxity among the Jewish minority in Europe   gained momentum. In this decade, secularization expanded and deepened rel­ative to the past; this process would grow in intensity in the coming decades and reach its peak toward the end of the century in several communities in   Central and Western Europe. It was not the result of an earthquake that raised   questions about divine providence, nor was it the Haskalah's criticism of religion. But McManners's remark about secularization as the individual's reaction to the increasingly unbearable burden of religion can provide an insight   into Jewish secularization. At a time when halakhic literature and moral ser­mons were posing severe demands, individuals were attempting to throw off   religious prohibitions. To understand the traditional position that preceded   secularization, the point of departure need not be the normative system for   which the rabbinical elite was responsible, but rather the more widespread   popular understanding of religion in terms of obligations and discipline. What   is the meaning of loyalty to religion? When, for example, a London Jew was   asked to testify in court as to the character of Michael Levy, a young man   accused of a terrible act of sodomy, and to depict him as honest and moral,   he said the following: "[Levy] always resorted to the hours of prayer, minded his religion, and was timorous of God. My servant was acquainted with him,   and told me he was one that observed the Sabbath."

As we have seen, to understand the historical process that took place in   the first half of the century and distanced European Jews from religion as a   worldview and a way of life, we need to listen to the relatively obscure voices   that tell us that dissatisfaction with religious tradition, faith, and obligations   increased particularly among the younger generation, those born at the end of   the forties, fifties, or the early sixties. Some of them, spurred by their desire to   embark on an independent path and to cast off the burden of religion, also   took more radical steps of rebellion against the religion.[...]

For those men and women who grew up in a world dominated by eco­nomic considerations and interests, aspirations to climb the social ladder, modern acculturation, and the fostering of strong links to European culture, languages, and values, the demands of the halakhah were intolerably harsh, and the religious world picture was foreign and meaningless. The sharp contradiction between traditional religion and life ill the European city was for them unbearable, even humiliating: "The religion that was taught to us, then,   was full of mystical principles. The story of the primeval world was full of  secrets, dark, incoherent; the events were foreign and, down to the last shades   of meaning, so dissimilar to the occurrences of the world in which we lived   that they seemed almost unbelievable. Characters, states of mind, and feelings   of people who emerge in sacred scriptures not only were puzzling for us in   matters of expression but also, for the most part, stood in contrast to our feel­ings, expressions, and ways of acting."

The prayers were incomprehensible and meaningless, and the religion in its traditional form was at odds with their aesthetic sensibility; to them, the   commandments were embarrassing customs devoid of content, which "do   injury to sense and spirit." Traditional education may have kept young men from falling into moral degeneration and atheism, but in Friedlander's view,   it led to a counterreaction-to hostility toward religious practice, alienation,   skepticism, and a desire for release: "Who can describe the passage from the   slavery of the spirit into freedom! Who can calculate the delight, and thus the   strengthened energy of the soul, of a man who rises from the feeling that he has shackles to the decision to throw them off!”

Yair Lapid: Video of what a poor boxer he was 20 years ago

Tablet Magazine  discovers an old video clip of Yair Lapid outclassed in the boxing ring  Tablet - vacuous celebrity candidates are bad news "But slogans and gimmicks—Lapid playing Beatles songs on his guitar in front of adoring audiences, ... —are one thing. Deficits are another. Israel’s currently stands at nearly $10 billion, equivalent to 4.2 percent of the country’s gross domestic product, double the number originally allotted for by the state’s budget. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz have sworn up and down that taxes would not be raised nor deep spending cuts enacted. It’s hard to imagine how either measure is avoidable en route to recovery."

Education Ministry threatens chareidi schools over core curriculum - 4 months to comply!

YNET   On the path to another confrontation with the haredim: Ynet has learned that the Education Ministry will inform the High Court of Justice Wednesday that if within four months, the haredi educational system does not reach an agreement with the State regarding the issue of core studies, the government will propose a law obligating them to introduce core subjects to all state schools, including Meitzav standardized testing (tests examining schools’ efficiency and growth measures). 

The response of the Education Ministry will be given to the High Court following an appeal that was filed in 2010 by the Israel Religious Action Center – of the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism. In the coming days, talks will begin between the Education Ministry and representatives of the haredi community, in an attempt to summarize understandings over the next few months, and avoid conflict with the haredi sector.  

Education Minister Shai Piron announced during budget discussions that he would work to establish haredi public schools while cutting budgets to haredi tracks. The scheduled negotiations are part of this move. In the coming days, Director General of the Education Ministry Dalit Stauber is expected to meet with representatives of the schools to promote the plan. [...]

The "hate crime against gays" blamed on Chareidim turns out to be personal revenge

YNet see background by Avi Shafran Eli Yishai demands an apology
 They were four partners in crime who swore to never mention it. It was the terrible secret of the 2009 shooting at the Barnoar youth center in Tel Aviv that bound them together – an incident that sent shockwaves through the entire nation. Thousands were investigated in connection with the shootings, millions of shekels were spent to no avail, until one of the four felt betrayed and spoke to police.

On Tuesday, one day after the farce surrounding the lifting and restoring the gag order on the details of the case, the gag order on the publication of the name of the main suspect in the 2009 youth center shooting was lifted. Police said 23-year-old Pardes Katz resident Hagai Felician is suspected of shooting two people dead [...]

It has been also cleared for publication that Felician carried out the deadly attack to avenge the sexual abuse of his 15-year-old relative by a grown man he expected to be at the center.

Nir Katz, 26, and Liz Trubeshi, 16 were killed on the August 1, 2009 when a veiled man entered the Barnoar LGBT youth center in Tel Aviv and began shooting at the teens gathered there. Eleven others were injured.

How do we know Weberman is guilty of abuse? - posts discussing the evidence

Satmar still has not given up in trying to free Weberman and is conducting a compaign against his conviction, jailing and his victim. The following are some of the important posts regarding the guilt of Weberman which you can show to his defenders.

There seems to be an inherent belief in these people that any male who is convicted of sexual abuse of a woman or child must be innocent. Furthermore anyone who has been convicted by the secular goverment must be innocent. Finally anyone who is a talmid chachom, a nice guy and has ever done anything for the community is incapable of committing a crime.

These are the posts dealing with the validity of the guilty verdict in the Weberman trial

http://daattorah.blogspot.co.il/2012/12/rabbi-y-horowitz-update-re-weberma-trial.html

http://daattorah.blogspot.co.il/2012/12/rabbi-ronnie-greenwalds-view-of.html

http://daattorah.blogspot.co.il/2012/09/pearl-engelman-who-is-nechemia-weberman.html

http://daattorah.blogspot.co.il/2012/12/how-do-we-know-weberman-is-guilty-as.html

Haaretz sympathizes with Satmar rally's call for religious freedom

Haaretz   Until now, the primary storyline of the religious-secular battles in Israel has been driven by Women of the Wall, the activist group that, with their monthly prayer meetings at Jerusalem’s Western Wall, have brought more attention to the quest for religious equality in Israel than has been seen in years. 

But with the massive Haredi protest at the Wall last month, and Sunday’s large showing in Lower Manhattan, the Haredim have begun to mobilize. 

The immediate issue which brought thousands to Foley Square on Sunday is the attempt to conscript Haredi Israelis into the army. A parliamentary committee advanced a bill last month that would do just that. But the banner under which the protestors gathered on Sunday surprised me a little, as it’s one that has been largely the domain of religious liberals: freedom of religion.

As one sign carrier told me, his religion requires him to sit and study Torah. Any attempt to draft those like him into the military would be a violation of his religious rights.

 

It has generally been the liberals who have taken this line (in several cases, to the Israeli Supreme Court), arguing that religious law should not be the law of the land, and that Reform and Conservative Jews also have rights, in particular at the Western Wall. The effort has borne fruit, leading to a court ruling in favor of women’s prayer at the Kotel and an announcement by the Religious Services Ministry that it would institute changes to allow for the funding of non-Orthodox rabbis. The support that such efforts have drawn from the ranks of American Jews shows that the quest for religious equality is a resonant one.[...] 

Wife of Lev Tahor cult leader leaves him saying she was seriously beaten

BHOL       see Pure as the driven snow in Haaretz

אי שם במחוז קוויבק שבערבות קנדה, מנהל שלמה הלברנץ כת דתית קיצונית והזויה בשם 'לב טהור'. קשה אפילו להתחיל להבין את אורחות החיים הסגפניים שהכתיב הלברנץ לעשרות מאמיניו, ויותר קשה לאמוד את מקור הכוח באמצעותו הוא שולט בחייהם מדי יום, ללא הפרעה.

מתחת לפני השטח, מתנהלת דרמה ענקית, המטלטלת את הכת ומאיימת עליה לראשונה איום קיומי של ממש. זה החל לפני מספר שבועות, כאשר תחת מעטה של חשאיות נמלטה מהכת לישראל מלכה הלברנץ, שהיא לא פחות מאשר רעייתו של מנהיג הכת.

בהקלטה בלעדית ומצמררת, הנחשפת לראשונה ב'בחדרי חרדים', מגלה מלכה כי הסיבה העיקרית לבריחה הגדולה היא אלימות שחוותה.

Lakewood Wakeup! Your rabbis need to publicly apologize for their public abuse of Rabbi "S"

After Yosef Kolko publicly confessed to raping a child, there has been studied silence from his supporters. We are not talking about some psychopaths who enjoyed destroying a distinguished talmid chachom and his family and driving them out of Lakewood for trying to defend his son according to the halacha. We are talking about the rabbinical leadership of Lakewood who lynched one of its own. We are talking about rabbis who get up before their congregations and tell them that they should be good and not speak lashon harah. Rabbis who are makpid that everyone should observe the most exacting chumros of kashrus and Shabbos. Rabbis who have devoted their lives and considerable talents to building one of the most important Torah communities in the world. We are talking about the failure of the spiritual leaders of the community!

It is astounding to me -  as a fellow Torah Jew and human being - that these rabbis who led the lynch mobs against Rabbi "S" are now silent when it has been revealed to all intelligent rational beings that they were wrong about Yosef Kolko. I am ashamed that these rabbis who have set themselves as paragons of Torah knowledge and conduct - have failed in the most elementary task - to repent and to publicly apologize to the man that they recently terrorized in the name of halacha.

It is clear - as the letters I received from Rabbi Goldin (president of the RCA) and others show - that there are many who are very uncomfortable with the lack of menschlikeit and failure to follow the halacha of publicly apologizing for their egregious error. While there are in fact some of those who terrorized Rabbi "S" - who have apologized to him in private. and even publicly- these are the very rare exception.

As a consequence of the moral and halachic cowardice of these rabbis, Lakewood is splitting into two camps. There are many avreichim who are ashamed of their rabbis. Who have lost respect for them as moral leaders. Who now have no one to turn to for "daas Torah". These are hurt and bitter individuals who will pass on this poison of cynicism and distrust for rabbinical authority to their children.  They are afraid to speak up themselves because they are totally dependent on the "system" for their existence - but they no longer are believers in the "system". They have effectively dropped out - yet remain as a fifth column in our community. The other camp is no less dangerous. These are people who refuse to believe the overwhelming evidence of Yosef Kolko's guilt - and are convinced more than ever that the world is only interested in destroying frum yidden. These are fanatics who are not capable of dealing with reality themselves - but only accept that which there rabbis tell them.  Just as emunas chachomim was destroyed by the public fight between Rav Yaakov Emden and Rav Yonason Eybschuetz  in the 18th century and which prepared the ground for the destructive forces of Reform and the Haskala - so too is the clash between those who want to accept reality and those who deny it.

It is therefore important that people convey to the rabbis of Lakewood their pained feelings and damaged emunas chachomim. It is critical for these rabbis to be aware of the horrible price the Jewish people will pay for their failure to provide moral leadership. It is imperative that the Lakewood rabbis publicly apologize to Rabbi "S" and clear the poisonous atmosphere that has developed because of the Kolko case. From what I understand he would welcome the opportunity to forgive those who have hurt him and to get on with life. It is time to stop obsessing over minor factors for kids going off the derech as well as other suffering in our community and to stand up and confront the real problems. 

Weberman case: 3 who confessed to intimidating witnesses get no jail time

NY Daily News Three Brooklyn brothers admitted they tried to bully the boyfriend of a Hasidic sex abuse victim before an explosive trial but received no jail time from the judge Thursday.

Three Brooklyn brothers admitted they tried to bully the boyfriend of a Hasidic sex abuse victim before an explosive trial but received no jail time from the judge Thursday.

Although prosecutors insisted they should get at least 30 days in jail for misdemeanor coercion, Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun allowed the trio to plead guilty and get conditional discharge.