Regarding molesters: True Hishtadlus is that which works

Guest post in response to R' William Handler's nonsensical rant that was published by the Jewish Press

Getting rid of molesters…. with TRUE effort

A story is told about a small church in town, which had a garden that has become completely overgrown. Years of neglect have turned it into a veritable jungle of thorns, bushes, and weeds. Among the members of the parish was a man who was quite a talented and accomplished gardener. The sight of the overgrowth bothered him week after week, until he finally decided to do something about it. He put on his gardening gloves and began pulling weeks, removing bushes, tilled the earth, planted grass, transplanted flowers, and over several days, the garden started to look really lovely.

He worked up to the last minute before services, and was on his hands and knees in the garden, finishing up, as the priest walked by.

Looking around appreciably, he said “My word, isn’t it amazing what man could accomplish with the help from Providence!”

The gardener stood up, brushed of his hands, and responded. “With all due respect, father, you should have seen this place when Providence had this place to himself!”

Obviously, the gardener was trying to point out that it was his actions that brought about the beauty before them. And, just as obviously, the priest was trying to point out that without a God to cause seeds to germinate, grass to grow, flowers to sprout, and beautiful colors come forth, all of the work the gardener had done would have also been for naught.

This is the concept of “Hishtadlus”, loosely translated as “requisite effort” that is basic to the Jewish faith. Ever since God commanded the Jews to first travel into the Red Sea before he split it, the understanding is that God will do “his job” as long as we do “our job” 

This responsibility to do our Hishtadlus carries on to earning a livelihood, to keeping our bodies fit, and to safekeeping ourselves……. and our children.

How much Hishtadlus one is required to do is up for debate, but what is NOT up for debate is that whatever Hishtadlus entails, one is obligated to do.

If you are continuously failing in what you are trying to accomplish, you must change your game plan, your Hishtadlus.

How do you reconcile “If you fail, try try again” with “It’s not working, time to try something else”?

If you have a logical reason explaining why what you have tried did not work, and now it might, then it might pay to continue. If you have tried everything, and still have not had the success you have been hoping for, Hishtadlus might very well rule that it is time to figure out a new game plan that will work and get you the results you desire.

Continuing what you had been doing is not an option,

For decades, some of our children have been living in a veritable jungle of fear, in an undergrowth of distrust, with the thorns of molestation thrust upon them through the neglect of the community that should have protected them.

During that time, the understanding was that the Rabbonim with “siyata d’shmaya” were “dealing” with the problem.

However, it was not working. The jungle life in the garden continued to wreak havoc, one Korban at a time.

Clearly, what was being done was not working. We are now coming to the realization that logically, going to the Rabbonim with was not true Hishtadlus.

How could it be Hishtadlus? The Rabbonim with don’t have the resources, training, equipment, or ability to conduct a criminal investigation.

Upon hearing of the recent guilty plea, I was flummoxed. Where was the siyata d’shmaya? How could an Adam Gadol, who was so POSITIVE that the accused was innocent, be so WRONG, in such a SPECTACULAR fashion? The only explanation I could come up with is that “siyata d’shmaya comes as PART of Hishtadlus. When a person has a Shaila about a chicken, his Hishtadlus is to go to a Rav. And the Rav will be given siyata d’shmaya in his ruling. Since proper Hishtadlus for a molestation victim is to go to the authorities, “siyata d’shmaya was withheld from the Rav in that situation who was not doing HIS Hishtadlus in that situation, by referring the case to people who are properly equipped to investigate the situation, prosecute the culprit, and assign proper punishment.

Our Gedolim are Tzaddikim who lead us, guide us, in areas of Halacha, Mussar and Hashkafa. They need to be looked up to, and follow their dictates, which indeed DO have tremendous siyata d’shmaya in areas of Psak Halacha.

Conducting a criminal investigation is not an area in which our Rabonnim have been trained or properly outfitted for.  Not only are they not qualified to conduct the investigation, they are even less qualified – or even able – to mete out appropriate punishment.

Clearly, while Halachically one is ABSOLUTELY REQUIRED to perform proper Hishtadlus, to save the lives of their children, paradoxically there were many the Rabbonim with “siyata d’shmaya” who were stopping this very Histadlus from being performed.

Thankfully, though, the tide has turned. 

Along came certain gardeners who have worked to start weeding out the evil from amongst us.

Slowly, beauty is emerging in the absence of this evil.

The people harming our children are being incarcerated. Many more are put on notice that we will not stand by and let them prey on our young.

A beautiful garden is growing.

But, make no mistake.

The eradication of this evil is being done by gardeners performing their Hishtadlus, the parents who are going to the authorities to protect their children.

None of this beauty, none of our now convicted molesters ending up in jail came about by “Providence” alone. Nor through the work of Rabbonim with “siyata d’shmaya”.  If anything, recent court actions show that due to the insistence of  Rabbonim with “siyata d’shmaya” molesters have been free to continue to molest, to the point where we now have second generation molesters in our community, who have molested children AFTER the Rabbonim with “siyata d’shmaya” have been informed of their activities. In this particularly embarrassing case, the Rabbonim with “siyata d’shmaya” were absolutely CONVINCED, after “thorough investigation” that the accused was innocent… Until the accused stood up in court and admitted guilt to each and every charge.

Moreover, if the Rabbonim with “siyata d’shmaya” had their way, Nechemia Weberman would still be giving “therapy” to teenage girls in a locked office with a bedroom for 12 hours a week, Yosef Kolko will still be a camp counselor, and Jordan Murray would still be teaching 5 and 6 year olds.

It is only through TRUE Hishtadlus, going to authorities, that this problem can be dealt with.

It is clear that when people like Rabbi William Handler tell us that we should leave the issue in the hands of the Rabbonim with “siyata d’shmaya”, we MUST stand up, brush our hands off, and tell him “You should see what a jungle this place was when the Rabbonim with “siyata d’shmaya” had it to themselves”

Rav Nachman describing the impact of Modernity

There was was once a time says the master of prayer when each of us had gone to his own special place. The warrior. the orator. and all of the king's men - each had gone lo renew his particular strength.

At that time a great wind storrn swept over the world. The entire earth was confounded. Dry land was transformed into sea and sea into dry land. Deserts came up where there had been towns. And new towns sprang up in areas where there had only been desert. The whole world was turned upside down by the wind.

When the wind came into the king's palace, it did no damage at all. As it whipped through the palace, however. it grabbed up the beautiful child and carried him away in an instant. The king's daughter ran off in pursuit of her child. Soon she was followed by her mother. the queen. and then by the king himself. Thus all of them were scattered and nobody knows their place.

None of us was there when this happened, as we each had gone off to renew our strength. When we did return to the palace. we found no one there .... Since then we have all been scattered. and none of us can now get back to that place where he needs to go to renew his strength. Since the wind came and turned the entire world around, changing land into sea and sean into land. The old paths no longer are of any use. We are now in need of new paths because all the places have been altered. Meanwhile we can not renew out former strength. We do, however, retain an imprint of those former times and that in itself is very good.

Modernity impacts halacha when 1)government intervenes 2) people rely on their own judgment

Dr. Jacob Katz (Changing Position and Outlook of Halakhists in Early Modernity) The beginnings of modernity, as we all know, can be dated in relation to the phenonmenon the history of which we wish to trace. The attempt to fix time when the position of the rabbis, the official bearers of halakhic authority, changed, eliciting as a result an alteration in their outlook as well, may well be facilitated by observation of two corresponding proceses. One of these was the growing intervention of the respective governments in the  affairs of the Jewish communities, undermining the autonomy upon which the authority of the rabbis depended. The other was the emergence of a group of people within the communities who, relying on their own judgment contested the prerogative of the rabbis to control the religious conduct of  their congregants. The two phenomena are not independent of each other.  The tendency of the modern state to appropriate functions formerly the domain of religious institutions and the endeavor of individuals to exempt themselves from religious authority are both an expression of the expanding spirit of rationalism in the course of the eighteenth century.

Children of refugee's welcomed by Sweden - riot & hate Sweden - why?

NY Times    In Stockholm and other towns and cities last week, bands made up mostly of young immigrants set buildings and cars ablaze in a spasm of destructive rage rarely seen in a country proud of its normally tranquil, law-abiding ways. 

The disturbances, with echoes of urban eruptions in France in 2005 and Britain in 2011, have pushed Sweden to the center of a heated debate across Europe about immigration and the tensions it causes in a time of deep economic malaise. 

The riots, now subsiding, have produced less damage than the earlier ones in Paris and London, which also involved mostly immigrants. But the unrest has shaken Sweden, which has a reputation for welcoming immigrants and asylum seekers, including those fleeing violence in countries like Iraq, Somalia and Syria, and regularly ranks in surveys as one of the world’s happiest places. 

“I don’t know why anybody would want to burn our school,” Ms. Bromster said. “I can’t understand it. Maybe they are not so happy with life.” 

Peri Commision on drafting Chareidi deadlocked over penalties

Times of Israel   A committee meeting tasked with passing new rules for drafting youth into the army — particularly ultra-Orthodox — ended in argument early Monday morning as sides failed to agree on punishment terms for draft dodgers. The termination of the Peri Committee meeting followed several hours in which the panel found broad consensus and approved several points from a recent draft proposal. 

The main bone of contention arose between Science and Technology Minister Yaakov Peri, who heads the eponymous group drafting the new rules, and Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon. The two agreed to meet in an attempt to hash out their differences later on Monday.

Ya’alon said before the vote that he would oppose any measure that automatically criminalized ultra-Orthodox draft dodgers. However, Peri and his Yesh Atid faction consider sanctions a central part of the plan, which is intended to integrate the ultra-Orthodox into military or national service. [...]

During the meeting, which lasted past 1 a.m. Monday, the panel agreed on most of the draft proposal’s measures, including allowing top Torah scholars to be exempted from service and not extending the new rules to Arab youths along with the ultra-Orthodox.

The panel also agreed to lengthen service for those in the religious hesder serve/study program by a month, and not by eight months, as was originally proposed.

Hesder students currently spend 16 months in service and several more years in yeshiva study.

Super computers match fragments of Cairo Geniza

NY Times   The idea is to harness technology to help reassemble more than 100,000 document fragments collected across 1,000 years that reveal details of Jewish life along the Mediterranean, including marriage, medicine and mysticism. For decades, scholars relied mainly on memory to match up pieces of the Cairo genizah, a treasure trove of papers that include works by the rabbinical scholar Maimonides, parts of Torah scrolls and prayer books, reams of poetry and personal letters, contracts, and court documents, even recipes (there is a particularly vile one for honey-wine). 

Now, for the first time, a sophisticated artificial intelligence program running on a powerful computer network is conducting 4.5 trillion calculations per second to vastly narrow down the possibilities. 

“In one hour, the computer can compare 10 million pairs — 10 million pairs is something a human being cannot do in a lifetime,” said Roni Shweka, who has advanced degrees in both computers and Talmud and is helping lead the effort. “It’s going to be a very powerful tool for every researcher today that’s going to work on one fragment. In a few seconds, he’ll be able to find the other fragments, like finding the needle in the hay.” 

The genizah project is part of a growing movement to unleash advanced technology on the humanities. In recent years, geeks and poets have been collaborating on databases and digital mapping that are transforming the study of history, literature, music and more.[...]

The 320,000 pages and parts of pages — in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Judeo-Arabic (Arabic transliterated into Hebrew letters) — were scattered in 67 libraries and private collections around the world, only a fraction of them collated and cataloged. More than 200 volumes and thousands of academic papers have been published based on the material, most focused on a single fragment or a few. Perhaps 4,000 have been pieced together through a painstaking, expensive, exclusive process that relied a lot on luck.  [...]

ORA Post removed - Rabbi Jeremy Stern said item was unauthorized

I removed the recent posting regarding Ora. Rabbi Stern said that the item posted on his web site  had not been approved for posting. It has in fact been removed from the ORA website

Peri Committee recommendations for drafting Chareidim & severely limiting exemptions

Times of Israel   Jewish Home party officials late Thursday hailed a government committee’s recommendations for a revolutionary universal conscription bill that would severely limit the number of ultra-Orthodox Israelis exempt from the draft.

Sources within the national religious party, headed by Naftali Bennett, called the Peri Committee’s plan a “historic compromise,” and credited Bennett’s alliance with Yesh Atid chief Yair Lapid.

Jewish Home party officials late Thursday hailed a government committee’s recommendations for a revolutionary universal conscription bill that would severely limit the number of ultra-Orthodox Israelis exempt from the draft.

Sources within the national religious party, headed by Naftali Bennett, called the Peri Committee’s plan a “historic compromise,” and credited Bennett’s alliance with Yesh Atid chief Yair Lapid.

Problem of silence and coverups of coach abuse of young athletes

NY Times   A woman who was sexually abused as a teenager in the 1980s by a Hall of Fame swimming coach used the occasion of his sentencing Thursday to demand the departure of three leaders in USA Swimming who she said knew about the coach’s misconduct and failed to act.

For five years beginning when she was 13, the woman, Kelley Davies Currin, was sexually abused by Rick Curl, her coach on a suburban Washington team that he founded. On Thursday in Montgomery County Circuit Court in Maryland, Curl, 63, was sentenced to seven years in prison after pleading guilty to one count of child sexual abuse in February.

With her case against Curl concluded after three decades, Currin, 43, called for further investigation into actions that helped “create a culture that protects predator coaches and vilifies young victims.”

The issue of sexual misconduct by coaches has been percolating in the sport since at least the 1960s, but it rocketed to the surface in 2010. In a highly publicized case that year, Andrew King, then 62, was sentenced to 40 years in prison after pleading no contest to charges of molesting a 14-year-old girl who swam for him in San Jose, Calif., and two women he coached on other teams in the 1980s and 1990s. He was accused of molesting more than a dozen swimmers.[...]

Should new couples be given genetic tests for adult on-set diseases?

Haaretz    A panel of experts is considering adding tests for diseases that develop in adulthood to the standard genetic tests given to young couples when they are starting a family. Currently, these tests only cover diseases that develop in childhood. [...]

The National Bioethics Council, which advises the Health Ministry, set up the panel in response to a proposal to add one specific test, for a mutation of the GNE gene that is common among Jews of Persian origin and causes HIBM, a neuromuscular disease for which there is currently no treatment. HIBM begins with muscle weakness, usually when the patient is in his thirties, and ends in total paralysis.

The National Bioethics Council, which advises the Health Ministry, set up the panel in response to a proposal to add one specific test, for a mutation of the GNE gene that is common among Jews of Persian origin and causes HIBM, a neuromuscular disease for which there is currently no treatment. HIBM begins with muscle weakness, usually when the patient is in his thirties, and ends in total paralysis.

The National Bioethics Council, which advises the Health Ministry, set up the panel in response to a proposal to add one specific test, for a mutation of the GNE gene that is common among Jews of Persian origin and causes HIBM, a neuromuscular disease for which there is currently no treatment. HIBM begins with muscle weakness, usually when the patient is in his thirties, and ends in total paralysis.a

Because the current tests relate only to diseases that develop in childhood, this counseling only addresses the possible implications for the couple’s children, while ignoring the implications for the parents. Yet a genetic mutation can affect the parent even if he hasn’t developed the disease it causes. For instance, a mutation of the FMR-1 gene can cause autism or developmental delays in children, but women who carry this mutation face an increased risk of early menopause and of developing neurological diseases such as Parkinson’s later in life.[...]       

Rav Sternbuch: Written psak to report Kolko to police

Cautionary note: Even though in the case addressed in the letter there was a confession, Rav Sternbuch has told me that is not a necessary condition to require going to the police. I did not post this as a teshuva - since Rav Sternbuch did not write it to explicate the parameters for reporting. For those interested his views are discussed in details in my books on abuse as well as various postings that can be found by searching for "police" on this blog. THE REASON I POSTED IT IS TO SHOW THAT THERE ARE GEDOLIM WHO REQUIRE GOING TO THE POLICE -  contrary to what one would conclude who has been following the  pronouncements of the Lakewood establishment and Rav Belsky concerning child abuse.

Update 5/ 23/ 13: A rough translation is:

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.

ט"ז יורה דעה סימן קנז

(ח) חייב מיתה כשבע בן בכרי. - נראה דלהכי נקטיה כשבע בן בכרי דאע"פ דבדין תורה לא היה חייב מיתה אלא מצד חוק המלכות שמרד בדוד מ"מ מוסרין אותו אם יחדוהו ומינה אף בזמנינו מי שפושע ומורד במלכות שלו מוסרין אותו וה"ה בשאר עבירות שאחד מוחזק בהם כגון עוסק בזיופי' או שאר דברים שיש בהם סכנה פשיטא שמוסרין אותו ומן הראוי למסור אותו אפי' אם לא יחדוהו כיון שהוא כמו רודף לשאר ישראל ע"י מעשיו הרעים שעושה בפשיעה כן נראה לי בזה ועוד נראה לי דבמקום שאין מוסרין אותו אין חילוק בין מסירה למיתה או לשאר יסורים או אפילו לממון דלענין יסורים פשיטא שהם גרועים ממיתה כדאמרינן באלו נערות (דף ל"ג) אלמלא נגדוהו לחנניא מישאל ועזריה הוה פלחו לצלמא ויליף מזה דיסורים קשים ממיתה ויליף דמלקות חמור ממיתה וראיה דהא בירושלמי לא קאמר תבעיתיה מלכא להריגה אלא סתם תבעיתיה אפשר ליסורין לחוד (ואין) [ויש] לנו להחמיר מספק ואפי' לממון מצינו בפרק הגוזל בתרא דקאמר על זה קרא כתוא מכמר כיון שנפל בידי עובדי כוכבים שוב אין מרחמין עליו כן נראה לע"ד

[translation from my Child and Domestic Abuse volume II page 99]

Taz (Y.D. 157:8): If he is liable to the death penalty like Sheva ben Bichri. It would appear that the reason why Sheva ben Bichri is used as an example is that even though he was not liable to the death penalty according to the law of the Torah but rather according to the law of kings in that he had rebelled against Dovid – nevertheless he was handed over since he was singled out. We learn from this that even today that someone committed a transgression and rebelled against his secular government – he is to be handed over to the government. This is true for other sins that are inherently a danger to the community such as counterfeiting – they are handed over to the government. They are to be given over even if the government did not specify that particular person since he is like a rodef (pursuer) that is endanger the rest of the Jews by his bad deeds that are transgressions of the law. This is my opinion

:

Are physical attacks on innocent people by religious Jews - terrorism? by Rabbi Yair Hoffman

Five Towns Jewish Times   How very horrifying it was to see video footage of the Tsarnaev brothers gleefully place down a bomb that murdered four and injured dozens.  It is not just the callous banality of their deeds, it was the smirk on one of their faces.  It was their joy in their involvement that sickens and repels us.

But are we really so different?  As of this writing there are protests going on in Israel concerning the government’s decision to draft Yeshiva students.  The draft and its protest is not the issue.  The issue is how can we not condemn the horrifying actions of religious Jewish men pushing and shoving huge metallic garbage bins into a large crowd of people?

Let us just do a double take here.  Did we really see this?  There is no question that unleashing such a large, massive, metallic object into a crowd of people can cause both serious injury and or death.  How is this so substantially different than the sickening actions of the Tsarnaev brothers?

One difference is that perhaps the victims hit by the massive garbage bin have a greater chance of getting out of the way.  But what if they can’t?  What if they get stuck, or fall and trip?  It is deeply grieving that our brethren could even contemplate this, much less actually do it.    The combination of the mass and velocity here could very easily create deadly force.

One of the fundamental principles of the Mussar movement is that learning the relevant sections of halacha to a particular sin, raises our awareness to that Aveirah.  With this in mind, let us briefly review what the Shulchan Aruch Choshan Mishpat section has to say about such behavior.

The general prohibition of trying to hurt another person is found in Choshain Mishpat 420:1.  There, the Shulchan Aruch writes that the Torah is concerned that additional injury not be caused to someone receiving a punishment – all the more so in regard to innocent people in a crowd. [...]

Kolko debacle: How to look up to rabbis who support a confessed pedophile?

Dear Rabbi Eidensohn, 

Can you please help me?

I went to a Rabbi for guidance about how to deal with my own anger against how the Kolko affair was handled by Lakewood rabbis. My anger stems from the fact that I want to look up to these Rabbis as leaders I can trust. So I feel betrayed in a personal way. He said, without any indifference to molestation or opposition to police involvement, that I have no way of knowing what the facts really are.  Therefore I could not assume the rabbis acted stupidly or insensitively.

You can't discuss your anger about X by being questioned whether X happened.  I therefore didn't get what I was looking for.

Would you dispute the premise that I cannot know what happened?  if not, how should I relate personally to the issue? What is your response to this?  

With your permission I would like to show your response to the Rabbi.

thank you

p.s.

do I have the right  to assume they have done wrong, or only that they have failed to explain what they did?
=============update 5 24 2013
2nd letter

Dear Rabbi Eidensohn,

My previous letter to you was unclear, resulting in confusion among readers.  I would like to set the record straight about my interaction with a Rabbi.  This Rabbi is

1. very sensitive to the issue of molestation, and has thought about it deeply,

believing it is the major cause of people leaving Judaism

2. totally supports going to the police when evidence is present

3. knew nothing of and had read nothing about this case but based his on-the-spot response on my flawed oral report

4. was sincerely agnostic, not biased in Lakewood's favor.  He never said I should assume their innocence.

  Thus, the Rabbi was dealing not with abuse per se but with the question of what facts can one know from media. 

A lesson from this story is that there is limit to what Rabbis can do when talmidim want quick answers to personal problems.  

Rav Sternbuch's speech at a protest demonstration held on Isru Chag Shavuos

  Atzeret Neged Giyus 

Jordan Murray pleads not guilty to molesting two of his students

KIRO TV  [includes video]  A former private school teacher has pleaded not guilty to charges of molesting two of his students.

Police said the victims were first- and second-graders at a private Jewish school in Seattle’s Columbia City neighborhood.

The teacher, Jordan Murray, who was addressed as "rabbi," pleaded not guilty to four counts of child molestation. 

Murray, 32, has been a first- and second-grade teacher at Torah Day School the past two school years. 

Does early psychological intervention prevent or cause trauma?

Scientific American     Devastating tornadoes have a lot in common with other major traumas, like life-threatening accidents, the Boston bombing and the Newtown shooting – especially the emotional distress they leave in their aftermath. As predictable and common as that distress is, though, early psychological response after trauma is still surprisingly controversial. It’s the center of a heated scientific debate that stewed and bubbled and then boiled over.

It began when a technique from the battlefield crossed over to civilian life. Soldiers traditionally debrief to share information and learn from missions and incidents. Psychological debriefing evolved along with military psychiatry instead of only discussing what happened, groups discussed feelings and coping too.

Psychological debriefing then spread to civilian first responders. Like soldiers, trauma was in the line of normal duty for them. They needed to be prepared and to cope with the stress, and debriefing was part of normality

Then psychological debriefing spread out to victims of trauma, too. And on to experiences like childbirth.

Some people expected that professional care could prevent post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other psychological harm. But in the search for an affordable and efficient intervention that could be offered to everyone, it was often a single session. [...]

Just as we worry about saying the wrong thing and further distressing someone in crisis, professionals can make things worse for people too. And maybe everyone doesn’t benefit from dwelling on the trauma in the immediate aftermath of a crisis.

A few trials of single session debriefing were done in the ‘90s. The people weren’t traumatized in the line of duty. They had suffered traumas like burns, road accidents or crimes. Or they had been debriefed around childbirth. And when discouraging results came in, controversy erupted. [...]

Problem of Convicted Sex Offenders: Where are they allowed to live?

Female LGBT Reform rabbi married to a non-Jewish woman protests the Reform movement's prohibition against intermarried rabbinical students

Forward   I am writing to urge you to reconsider the HUC-JIR requirement that all prospective rabbinical students sign an agreement that “any student engaged, married, or partnered/committed to a person who is not Jewish by birth or conversion will not be admitted or ordained.”

It matters to me: I am a HUC-JIR rabbi, ordained in 1991 and partnered with a non-Jew since 1984. In 1993 I founded a now thriving congregation that has engaged hundreds of people in Jewish life. I have worked toward conversion with dozens of candidates. The HUC-JIR requirement might have prevented me from becoming a rabbi, as it will future rabbis whose efforts would be as significant as mine.

My partner is a woman. I was an LGBT student at a time when this status was not recognized at the college and there was no such required agreement to sign. We were married under a chuppah on our 20th anniversary, in 2004, and were legally married when we could do so in New York State, in 2011. We have a grown daughter who celebrates the Sabbath and holidays. In 1988, my partner began welcoming the Sabbath in our home even when my student pulpit took me away. She attends services in my congregation, reads Jewish texts with interest and annually counts the Omer with me.

Match made in hell: Ami Popper weds mother of abused kids

YNET   In a ceremony held Sunday in Jerusalem, Ami Popper, who is serving multiple life sentences for the murder of seven Palestinians, married the woman who allowed self-proclaimed rabbi Elior Chen to viciously abuse her children. One of M.'s sons is still comatose in a vegetative state. 

New Psak: cigarette smokers can't be witnesses

NRG פסק הלכה של אב בין הדין בירושלים, הרב אליהו אברג'יל, קובע כי מעשנים פסולים לעדות, כך נקבע בפסק הלכה שפרסם בשנתון 'תחומין ל"ג'. בנימוק לקביעה החריפה, הסביר הרב אברג'יל כי "אדם שמודע לחומרת הנזק שגורמות הסיגריות, וממשיך בזה, עובר על 'השמר לך' ועל הציווי 'ונשמרתם מאוד לנפשותיכם' ".

הרב אברג'יל מבהיר כי לפי הפוסקים, כשאדם מזיק לעצמו הוא עובר על איסור מהתורה ולכן אסור מלכתחילה לקחת אותו לעדות קידושים וכדומה. בנוגע לאדם המעשן סמים קובע הרב אברג'יל כי "בוודאי פסול עדות כאשר הוא מכלה גופו ונפשו".

בנוסף, קובע הרב אברג'יל, כי היות ונזקי העישון מפורסמים וידועים לכל, שכן על קופסאות העישון מופיעה הודעה שהעישון מסוכן, לא ניתן להחשיב את המעשן כשוגג, שאינו מתכוון לעבור עבירה. 

Mussar Movement was haskala - a man-based vision to revive religion

In my investigation into the Seridei Aish's description of the Mussar Movement as "frum haskala", I have come back to my original understanding. At this point I disagree with Prof. Shapiro that "frum haskala" simply meant concern with spiritual development and fear of G-d. 

The Haskala was a man based vision - not a religious one.  I just posted the Seridei Ish's vision of the Jew in the ghetto - not only was it repressive economically and psychologically but most found   religion also to be repressive. http://daattorah.blogspot.co.il/2013/05/seridei-aish-haskala-why-did-religious.html

Mussar was clearly a man based program to revive  religion as was Hirsch's Torah im Derech Eretz. It also involved participation in the world, tikun olam and an awareness of human knowledge and a focus on the individual human being. This is clearly the opposite of Chassidus which is a movement based on ruach hakodesh, revelation and Daas Torah and subjugation to authority. The Mussar Movement was also  opposed to the ghetto - either of the body or mind and deprivation of wordly pleasures and experience.

Al Dura is a Palestinian Hoax: Israeli government concludes al Dura was alive after gun battle

YNET   The committee, formed in 2012, was first headed by now Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon, and concluded its inquiry recently under the chairmanship of Yuval Steinitz. The report itself focuses on the controversial September 2000 France 2 broadcast – in which the boy is seen hiding behind his father while the two were under IDF gunfire – and conclude that al-Dura was still alive at the end of the video.[...]

According to the Steinitz-Ya'alon committee findings, in contrary to what had been published before, there was no evidence that the boy or his father were even injured at the time the video was shot.

In addition, the committee noted there was reasonable doubt whether the IDF was responsible for the bullet holes seen in the wall behind the two.

Furthermore, the Israeli report points a blaming finger at the France 2 news report. [...]

NY Times    The new findings published on Sunday were the work of an Israeli government review committee, which said its task was to re-examine the event “in light of the continued damage it has caused to Israel.” They come after years of debate over the veracity of the France 2 report, which was filmed by a Gaza correspondent, Talal Abu Rahma, and narrated by the station’s Jerusalem bureau chief, Charles Enderlin, who was not at the present at the scene. 

The Israeli government review suggested, as other critics have, that the France 2 footage might have been staged. It noted anomalies like the apparent lack of blood in appropriate places at the scene, and said that raw footage from the seconds after the boy’s apparent death seem to show him raising his arm. 

“Contrary to the report’s claim that the boy is killed, the committee’s review of the raw footage showed that in the final scenes, which were not broadcast by France 2, the boy is seen to be alive,” the review said. “Based on the available evidence, it appears significantly more likely that Palestinian gunmen were the source of the shots which appear to have impacted in the vicinity” of the boy and his father.

Israeli economy doomed without Chareidim & Arab workforce participation

Haaretz    The Israeli economy cannot thrive without ultra-Orthodox Jews and Israel's Arabs being more fully integrated into the workforce, the National Economic Council warned the cabinet at a meeting last week.[...]

The most serious problem here, however, is related to working-age populations that are not employed - meaning, the low workforce-participation rate of the country's Arabs and the ultra-Orthodox population. The problem is the product of a lack of desire to be employed, when it comes to the Haredim, as well as low skill levels. (A large proportion of Haredi men choose to engage in Torah study full-time rather than work. )

The council presented the cabinet with a slide, showing that between 1997 and 2012, the poverty rate of the non-Haredi, non-Arab population remained unchanged at 12%, while the rate among Arabs and Haredim skyrocketed from 38% to 58%. As a result, Israel's population consists of three separate countries: Arab Israelis, ultra-Orthodox Jews, and everyone else. And that last segment is actually contracting while the two weaker segments are growing.

In 2009, 71% of those aged 25 to 29 entering the labor force belonged to the third, more highly skilled, group (i.e., the non-Haredi and non-Arab sector ). The council said, though, that this group will decline to just 59% of the newly employed by 2019, and 53% by 2029. Israel is, therefore, moving in the direction whereby if things are not changed, the non-Arab, non-Haredi working population with relatively high productivity will become just over half of the new members of the workforce - a situation that is not sustainable. [...]

The council says that as a result of the situation, as early as next year the country will have a 3% structural deficit - an excess of government expenditures, including items such as social welfare payments to the poor - over government income from taxes and economic growth.

The structural deficit is a reference to a situation in which the government spends more than it is taking in, not as a result of transient factors but rather the entrenched structural characteristics of the economy. Even more alarming, the council says, is the fact that the structural deficit will be 10.5% by 2050, if the current situation is not addressed.

Israel needs to decide, the council says: It can continue down its current path of greater government outlays for the poor at the expense of increased taxes, and reduced government spending in other areas. This will perpetuate poverty among Haredim and Arabs and impose an impossible burden on the remaining working population.

Alternatively, Israel can better integrate the Arabs and ultra-Orthodox into the general workforce, increasing their participation and substantially enhancing their skill levels through education.

The council's assessment is that if the three population groups are indeed integrated into one productive workforce, by 2030 Israel will once more be competitive in the world economy.

Interview with the Brisker Rav: Rav Yisroel Salanter tried being a chassid

This was published by Rabbi Leo Jung in Men of the Spirit page 210-211

*This interview, [by Pinehas Biberfeld] published first in Ha-Neeman, the organ of Israeli Ye­shivah circles, is based on the present writer's recording, from memory, his conversations with Reb Velvele. The answers, deeply engraved upon his heart, are offered here.

[only the last questions are published here]

QUESTION: I know that the Master considers it more important to conduct a Talmud Torah for boys than to issue the "Hanee­man."

The rabbi, as was his wont, ran to the book-case, fetched a copy of the Rambam, where at the end of the Laws about Leprosy the following passage occurs: "But the conversation of the proper Israelite deals only with wisdom and Torah, therefore the Lord helps them and grants them both, as it is said:  "Then they that feared the Lord spoke one with another and the Lord hearkened."

QUESTION: But the Rambam mentions Torah and wisdom, thus obviously there is room for both?

ANSWER: He remained silent.

QUESTION: R. Israel Salanter, too, issued a monthly called Tevunah (Comprehension)?

ANSWER: This is an argument against your point. He stopped the publication very soon. His stopping it indicates that this was not, eventually, his way. He tried many things, among them also the way of Hassidism.

update: There is a much more detailed discussion of Rav Yisroel Salanter's relationship to Chassidus in Rav Avraham Eliyahu Kaplan's sefer בעקבות היראה

Rate of global warming slows significantly

Scientific American  Extreme global warming is less likely in coming decades after a slowdown in the pace of temperature rises so far this century, an international team of scientists said on Sunday.

Warming is still on track, however, to breach a goal set by governments around the world of limiting the increase in temperatures to below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times, unless tough action is taken to limit rising greenhouse gas emissions.

"The most extreme rates of warming simulated by the current generation of climate models over 50- to 100-year timescales are looking less likely," the University of Oxford wrote about the findings in the journal Nature Geoscience.

The rate of global warming has slowed after strong rises in the 1980s and 1990s, even though all the 10 warmest years since reliable records began in the 1850s have been since 1998. [...[]

Kolko case: Learning to believe the unbelievable

When we read about a horrible crime, we look for a rational explanation by seeking out the words regarding the accused, "he was a loner", "he was strange". We typically do find this to be true for those who fire automatic weapons in school massacres or cases such as the kidnapping, abuse and murder of women and children. However in the case of sexual abuse by pedophiles - we are stuck with the fact that often the perpetrator is amongst the most beloved of the community. Typically the pedophile picks a lonely child and grooms him for abuse by being his "special friend".  Consequently many can't believe that this distinguished family man, this charismatic teacher, this deeply spiritual clergyman would do such a thing. Many can't accept that the pervasive belief  that a man who abuses and rapes children is  mentally ill, a loner, a stranger - is typically wrong.

Because of the deeply seated belief as to the inherent evilness of pedophiles, we have a hard time accepting that the beloved uncle or neighbor is a child rapist. Consequently even when a pedophile confesses - it is often not accepted as being true. And surely when the accused is convicted despite his protests of innocence. The belief that nice people don't do horrible things conflicts with the fact that this person was convicted or confessed. 

This is the problem of cognitive dissonance - resolving strongly conflicting facts. However this dissonance is difficult to live with and thus we have a need to resolve it. One resolution is that we decide he wasn't so nice after all. That his good deeds were fake and that we really didn't know him. While in fact his accomplishments are often genuine - but viewing him as a phony allows us to accept his guilt.  

The other way of resolving the dissonance is to say that the conviction or even confession is not true. How does one ignore the fact of confession by the accused. One rationalization is that he was being railroaded by lying, vindictive kids who were trying to cover up their own misdeeds. Furthermore the accused could not handle the expenses of years of legal help. Therefore when faced with the likelihood of a life sentence or a plea bargain of 5 to 10 years - the plea bargain is the rational option. Because this does happen - it is possible for a rational human being to discount clear evidence of guilt. However the fact that it is unlikely - should cause the true and faithful believers in innocence to at least have doubts.

The Seridei  Aish notes that for a person to be a believer, the fact must move from being an outside assertion - to being accepted internally. This is true of all beliefs. Therefore there are those who keep externally the facts of confession or conviction. They acknowledge that a conviction or confession has occurred - but it is not internalized. The question then becomes, "What helps us internalize these unpleasant facts?"

The most helpful aid to accepting unpleasant facts is education. As we become more educated about the niceness of pedophiles, the dissonance becomes reduced.  As we learn that genuinely loving and spiritual people can do these horrible crimes - the more readily we will deal realistically with these crimes - both in terms of prevention and conviction. As the dissonance is reduced, the easier is it to accept reality.  It is time to accept reality.

Eli Weinstein charged again - for $6 million scam

Asbury Park Press   A Lakewood man will spend at least the next few days in jail on charges that he and two others swindled a New Zealander out of more than $6 million in a stock scam.

Eliyahu Weinstein, 37, was awaiting sentencing on wire fraud and money-laundering charges when he was arrested at his home Tuesday morning.

Also arrested Tuesday were Alex Schleider, 47, also of Lakewood and Aaron Muschel, 63, of Brooklyn. The trio are charged with swindling the unnamed victim by misrepresenting that the man’s investment would be used to buy shares in last year’s Facebook IPO and real estate.[...]

Weinstein in January plead guilty to a count of wire fraud and a count of money laundering in connection with a real estate ponzi scheme that cost investors about $200 million. He was released on bail with a number of stipulations, including not engaging in any financial transaction worth more than $1,000 without the permission of a court-appointed special counsel.But in a “blatant violation” of that stipulation, according to FBI Special Agent Karl Ubellacker, who signed the complaint, Weinstein and his two co-conspirators convinced the victim to send them nearly $7.2 million in wire transfers in February and March 2012 for a purported investment in upcoming Facebook stock.[...]

Calling another Jew a rasha (evil): Punishment and Repentance

Kiddushin (28a): It was taught: If someone called a person a slave then he is banned (nidoi). If he called him a mamzer then he is given 40 lashes. If he called the other person a rasha (wicked) the victim can damage the perpetrator’s livelihood.(יורד עמו לחייו

Rashi (Kiddushin 28a): Beis din does not get involved but the victim is allowed to hate the perpetrator and damage his livelihood and to ruin his business.

Ritva (Kiddushin 28a): This is mida keneged mida (measure for measure). Since the perpetrator caused him a loss in his well being because society does not have mercy on one called a rasha. Therefore beis din does not get involved but it is permitted for him to damage the perpetrator's livelihood and to cause him a loss in his well being.
=============
If someome discovers that they are wrong about another person that they have publicly condemned - what should be the response?

Berachos(31a-b): [Soncino Translation]   R. Hamnuna said: How many most important laws can be learnt from these verses relating to Hannah!33 Now Hannah, she spoke in her heart: from this we learn that one who prays must direct his heart. Only her lips moved: from this we learn that he who prays must frame the words distinctly with his lips. But her voice could not be heard: from this, it is forbidden to raise one's voice in the Tefillah. Therefore Eli thought she had been drunken: from this, that a drunken person is forbidden to say the Tefillah. And Eli said unto her, How long wilt thou be drunken, etc.34 R. Eleazar said: From this we learn that one who sees in his neighbour something unseemly must reprove him. And Hannah answered and said, No, my lord. ‘Ulla, or as some say R. Jose b. Hanina, said: She said to him: Thou art no lord in this matter, nor does the holy spirit rest on thee, that thou suspectest me of this thing. Some say, She said to him: Thou art no lord, [meaning] the Shechinah and the holy spirit is not with you in that you take the harsher and not the more lenient view of my conduct. Dost thou not know that I am a woman of sorrowful spirit: I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink. R. Eleazar said: From this we learn that one who is suspected wrongfully must clear himself. Count not thy handmaid for a daughter of Belial; a man who says the Tefillah when drunk is like one who serves idols. It is written here, Count not thy handmaid for a daughter of Belial, and it is written elsewhere, Certain sons of Belial have gone forth from the midst of thee. Just as there the term is used in connection with idolatry, so here. Then Eli answered and said, Go in Peace. R. Eleazar said: From this we learn that one who suspects his neighbour of a fault which he has not committed must beg his pardon;6 nay more, he must bless him, as it says, And the God of Israel grant thy petition.

Why did the Lakewood establishment and Rav Belsky get it wrong?

Now that Kolko has confessed  to being a molester, the big question  is why didn't his supporters realize this? The supporters who insisted that rabbis can properly investigated and deal with judging the guilt or innocence. The big resistance to going to the police has been the insistence that these matters should be handled within the community. There is no question that the Kolko case was not handled properly within the community. It was because of the establishment rabbis that Kolko was allowed to stay in the community and have access to others.

How is Lakewood going to justify not only facilitating a child molester to continue to go free but also persecuting his victims. How is Rabbi Belsky going to explain his "investigation" and public declaration  not only of Kolko's innocence but that it was prohibited to go to the police. If the victim had not gone to the police, there is no doubt that Kolko would have destroyed many other innocent lives from our community. In fact it was only because other victims suddenly came forward that  he confessed. How many more victims are there? Even  now in England the community is intimidating victims from testifying in the Halpern case.

Hopefully G-d will give these rabbinic leaders the understanding to make major changes in the way they deal with such cases in the future. Hopefully they will no longer try to destroy those who feel that the police and secular  justice system are the only way to properly deal with these cases.  Hopefully they will wake up before their own children and grandchildren suffer from this illness.

Perhaps they will even publicly acknowledge the serious errors that they have made in the past and promise not to do repeat them in the future.

Yosef Kolko pleads guilty to charges today after learning 2 more victims came forward

Asbury Park Press   A former Lakewood Yeshiva teacher today admitted sexually abusing a boy, after authorities said two more victims of his came forward to them as his trial was underway.Sheriff's officers placed Yosef Kolko in handcuffs and led him to the Ocean County Jail after he pleaded guilty to aggravated sexual assault, attempted aggravated sexual assault, sexual assault and child endangerment, and state Superior Court Judge Francis R. Hodgson revoked his $125,000 bail. [...]

 Kolko’s trial on the charges involving that one boy got underway last week, but Assistant Ocean County Prosecutor Laura Pierro told the judge that the defendant decided to plead guilty after learning that two more victims had come forward to authorities.

Pierro said she was contacted late Friday afternoon by a young woman who claimed she was victimized by Kolko, and the attorney for a young man who also claimed to be a victim.


Pierro said she met with the additional victims this morning and would have sought to admit their testimony, had the trial proceeded.


In exchange for Kolko’s guilty plea, the state would not proceed with additional charges related to the additional victims, but no other promises were made to him, Pierro said.

Binyamin Satz of Nahlaot sentenced to 15 years

YNET   The Jerusalem District Court sentenced Binyamin Satz, a 46-year-old resident of Jerusalem, to 15 years in prison after he was found guilty of sodomy and indecent acts against a number of haredi children, some as young as seven 

Haaretz  (January 2013) The Jerusalem District Court last week convicted the first man to be tried among several defendants accused of sexually abusing children in Jerusalem’s Nahlaot neighborhood, an affair police initially called the biggest pedophile case in the state's history.

The court convicted Binyamin Satz, who was the first of 18 men to be arrested in the case that came to light in August, 2011. Two more men are now on trial, and 15 others were released and have not yet been charged in the affair that sent shock waves through the neighborhood that is home to many ultra-Orthodox Jews.

The judges found Satz guilty, but struck down his confession, which they determined police had obtained through “unfair psychological pressure.” Satz was acquitted of one of the counts in the indictment.

From the moment the case hit the headlines, neighborhood residents and defense attorneys claimed that it was the result of a witch hunt and mass hysteria, and that few if any children had been harmed.

According to these sources, the case grew to such dimensions (at one point more than 200 youngsters were said to have been abused) because of the dynamics in the ultra-Orthodox neighborhood, in which stories were magnified or even invented.

Those who maintain the stories were exaggerated say false accusations were leveled at the weakest people in the neighborhood ­– men living alone, some of whom are psychologically impaired. In one case, a resident is believed to have committed suicide because of the rumors that he was involved in abusing the children. Others were forced to leave the neighborhood and even the country.

Aspaklaria Jewish Source Book - Currently Free Online

I just noticed reports 1  2 that the very valuable research tool Aspaklari by Rabbi Dr. Shmuel Adler is currently available free online click here Aspaklaria Online

Shavuot Is Tough Sell in Digital Age

Forward by Rabbi Mendel Horowitz   When I began teaching in 1998, dormitory floors were littered with magazines and books. Back when notebooks came with pens, students could be encouraged to read and write, could be challenged to communicate. Those students, like students always, were hardly mindful of their studies. But unlike the case of today’s 4Gers, it was possible to engage with the minds of those digital neophytes.

That was then. Today’s dormitory is cluttered with wires and suffused with wireless, its occupants sharing files more than ideas. My current students communicate, relate — think — in bizarre combinations of lethargy and haste, clicking from friend to virtual friend and from page to virtual page without pausing to consider the people or books in sight of them. A text-based curriculum that relies heavily on commitment hardly stands a chance. [...]

Preferences for shortcuts and concision are not traits of a successful divinity student. The law of the Talmud is tricky, and students are expected to join in a boisterous dialectic to unravel its intent. Achieving transcendence through debate — conversing with God through the medium of His word — is as central to Orthodox Judaism as its precepts. Participation demands qualities not readily found online. [...]

Talmudic tradition maintains that the great voice of God on Sinai has never ceased — that it resonates, forever to be noticed. I would like to believe that in every generation, all can hear that sound, can identify its source, can appreciate its relevance. In truth, only some are moved by its echo; others strain for a chord, others may be not listening. For some there is only quiet.

Shavuot is about participation, not commemoration. About joining a community of listeners. About experiencing the resonance of His expression.

There can be no shortcuts to informed religious conduct. To pretend as much would be misleading. There can also be no substitute for earnest dialogue — with teachers, confidants and texts. Still, the challenge of amplifying that awesome sound to those who do not yet hear it depends on the sensitivity, creativity and patience of those who do. The same digitally distracted child can focus when the subject is of interest. The same digitally isolated soul can join a community when it matters to him most. [...]

Lapid's financial program is sabotaging his promises for universal draft

Times of Israel   One of the central campaign promises of the governing coalition parties was to institute a universal draft to the IDF or civil service for Israel’s ultra-Orthodox and Arab populations, but that promise is in jeopardy due to austerity measures sought by those same parties. At a Sunday meeting of the Peri Committee, tasked by the government with formulating a solution to the problem of the universal draft, a Finance Ministry representative told the committee members that under the current 2013-2014 budget draft there won’t be enough funding to implement wide-scale recruitment of the ultra-Orthodox and Arab populations into the IDF or civil service, Israeli media reported on Monday. [...]

The implementation of a true universal draft would require a wide budget outlay in several areas, including training and preparation for each recruit, regular payments for new IDF soldiers or civil service workers, and employment, educational programs and economic incentives aimed to entice the ultra-Orthodox community to enlist.

“The Finance Ministry doesn’t have the funding for this,” the representative said, according to Maariv. “We expect very heavy cuts… I doubt if there will be an additional budget so that we can give incentives and rewards.” [...]

Kolko Trial: Victim's father testifies

Asbury Park Press    The father of a former Lakewood boy who accused his camp counselor of sexual abuse wanted to handle the matter discreetly, within the Orthodox Jewish religious community, he testified in court on Thursday.

The man, formerly a prominent rabbi in Lakewood’s Orthodox community, said he just wanted to be sure the counselor, Yosef Kolko, quit working with children, sought therapy and stayed away from his son, the man told a jury.

But when months had already passed after he had brought the matter to the attention of a respected rabbi who promised to handle it discreetly, and learning that Kolko was still working at the summer camp where his son was molested, the father said he broke with Jewish tradition and sought justice with secular authorities. [...]

Father Gordon MacRae: Hope in a case of apparent grave injustice

Wall Street Journal    [...] That a great many of the accusations against the priests were amply documented, that they involved the crimes of true predators all too often hidden or ignored, no one can doubt.

Neither should anyone doubt the ripe opportunities there were for fraudulent abuse claims filed in the hope of a large payoff. Busy civil attorneys—working on behalf of clients suddenly alive to the possibilities of a molestation claim, or open to suggestions that they remembered having been molested—could and did reap handsome rewards for themselves and their clients. The Diocese of Manchester, where Father MacRae had served, had by 2004 paid out $22,210,400 in settlements to those who had accused its priests of abuse. 

The paydays did not come without effort. Thomas Grover—a man with a long record of violence, theft and drug offenses on whose claims the state built its case against Father MacRae—would receive direction for his testimony at the criminal trial. A conviction at the priest's criminal trial would be a crucial determinant of success—that is, of the potential for reward—in Mr. Grover's planned civil suit. [....]

A New Hampshire superior court will shortly deliver its decision on a habeas corpus petition seeking Father MacRae's immediate release on grounds of newly discovered evidence. The petition was submitted by Robert Rosenthal, an appellate attorney with long experience in cases of this kind. In the event that the petition is rejected, Father MacRae's attorneys say they will appeal.

Those aware of the facts of this case find it hard to imagine that any court today would ignore the perversion of justice it represents. Some who had been witnesses or otherwise involved still maintain vivid memories of the process. 

Debra Collett, the former clinical director at Derby Lodge, a rehabilitation center that Mr. Grover had attended in 1987, said in a signed statement for Father MacRae's current legal team that she had been subject to "coercion and intimidation, veiled and more forward threats" during the police investigation because "they could not get me to say what they wanted to hear." Namely, that Mr. Grover had complained to her of molestation by Father MacRae. He had not—though he had accused many others, as she would point out. Thomas Grover, she said, had claimed to have been molested by so many people that the staff wondered whether "he was going for some sexual abuse victim world record." [...]

Cleveland kidnappings: Emotional Recovery Seen Possible for Victims of Prolonged Abuse

NYTimes   Day after day, it was his voice they heard, his face they saw.

He was their tormentor and their deliverer, the one who — at his whim — could violate their minds and bodies, the keeper of the keys and the source of food and water. His dominion was a ramshackle house with boarded up windows. His control was absolute. 

For the women he is accused of kidnapping and holding prisoner for a decade in a home on Seymour Avenue in Cleveland, their captor was for all intents and purposes their world. 

David A. Wolfe, a senior scientist and psychologist at the Center for Addiction and Mental Health at the University of Toronto, said that in situations of long-term sexual abuse and threat to life, victims inevitably develop complicated and ambivalent emotions toward their abuser in order to survive. 

“You turn the devil into something you can handle,” he said, adding that the first thing he would want to know from someone who survived such an ordeal would be “What was your feeling about this person during the captivity?” 

Dr. Wolfe and other therapists noted that all traumatic experiences are different and that many details of the women’s ordeal have not been made public; some experts argued that for the women’s sake, they should not be. 

But they said many people can and do rebound from even the most extreme abuse, aided by the support of family and friends, the use of specifically tailored therapies and the privacy, safety and time to digest and come to terms with their experience. It is important, some therapists said, that the women not be turned into a spectacle, their identities as individuals diminished to “kidnap victims.”

“We know that resilience exists and that recovery is possible,” said Dr. Judith A. Cohen, medical director of the Center for Traumatic Stress in Children and Adolescents at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh. “For people who believe that it’s inevitable that a horrific experience like this would leave lasting scars, the evidence does not necessarily support that.”