Rabbis: Naveh Should Be Killed

Rabbis associated with the new ‘sanhedrin’ have issued a ruling fatwa against OC Central Command Maj.-Gen. Yair Naveh. The JPost reports:

The rabbis, all connected with a movement to resurrect the Sanhedrin, the ancient Jewish governing body, said in their halachic ruling this week that Naveh was guilty of being a moser, a Hebrew word that can be roughly translated as an informant or traitor. Literally, it means someone who transfers another’s property or person to enemy authorities.

The rabbis see the Olmert government as the equivalent of a gentile enemy that "evilly and violently expels and causes mental and physical damage to Jews."

Maimonides ruled in his Mishneh Torah: "It is permitted to kill a Jewish moser anywhere, even today when rabbinic courts are not permitted to decide on capital punishment matters."

Maimonides stipulated that the death penalty is issued even if the person is not currently involved in traitorous activity but is expected to do so again in the future. Naveh’s supposed treason consists of signing administrative orders prohibiting approximately 20 right-wing extremists who live in Judea and Samaria from returning to their homes and families for an indefinite period.

The IDF said that the orders, which were issued without a trial, have prevented clashes between settlers and Palestinians.

However, the rabbis said the administrative orders were part of Naveh’s plan to "prepare settlements in Judea and Samaria for transfer to the enemy. Abandoning these places to foreigners endangers Jewish lives."

In the halachic decision, which is personally addressed to Naveh, who is Orthodox, the rabbis accuse him of transgressing the prohibition against "passively standing by while your brother is killed."

Rabbi Yisrael Ariel, head of the Temple Institute in Jerusalem and a former IDF rabbi, signed the decision together with Rabbis Reuven Hass, Yehuda Edri and Ido Elbo, and Prof. Hillel Weiss of Bar-Ilan University.…

The ‘sanhedrin’s’ leader is Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz. He did not sign this fatwa. He should also resign from the ‘sanhedrin’ to protest this insanity.

How Martin Luther King, Jr. Learned Hebrew

Pierre M. Atlas writes about his uncle, Rabbi Seymour Atlas:

…From, Rabbi Seymour Atlas was the spiritual leader of Congregation Agudath Achim, an Orthodox synagogue in Montgomery, Ala. One day while going for a walk, the young rabbi bumped into the young minister who led the church down the street. That church was Dexter Avenue Baptist, and the minister was Martin Luther King Jr.

The men began a cordial relationship based on common interests as clergy. Uncle Seymour spoke several times to King’s congregation. King asked the rabbi to teach him to read Hebrew.
But as my uncle told me the other day, King had to enter the synagogue through the back door for his Hebrew lessons. "That was the tradition of the South," Seymour said. "If you let a black man come in the front door, you’d be ostracized. It was rough. There was lot of hatred there."
Many Southern Jews walked a fine line in those years, not wanting to anger the whites who held all the power, who were often anti-Semitic as well as racist. The synagogue board of directors took a "don’t rock the boat" attitude toward racial issues and they were hypersensitive to anything that might look like a pro-civil rights stance. Some Jews had even joined Montgomery’s racist White Citizens’ Council, which was linked to the Ku Klux Klan. "They said it was better to be on the inside knowing what the enemy was doing rather than guessing," Seymour told me. "They wanted me to join the WCC, but I wouldn’t do it."

I asked my uncle if he became involved in the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott. He said no. But in the next breath, he told me a story showing that he did, in fact, take his own stand.

Seymour had a black "domestic" who cleaned the house and helped his wife with the kids. The boycott meant that the maid, who refused to ride the bus, could not make it across town to the Atlas home. So Seymour drove her back and forth from her "colored" neighborhood to his home each day.
In response, his car was vandalized on several occasions. " ‘N-lover’ and N-words were painted on my car from top to bottom," he told me. "It was a very dangerous time." As the boycott progressed, my uncle got a gun permit and carried a revolver with him as he drove across town to bring the maid to his home. "I only had to use it once," he said. "I fired it in the air to scare off some people."…

Rabbi Atlas was forced out by his synagogue shortly afterward. Here is more on Rabbi Atlas from a scholarly article on Jews and the Civil Rights Movement:

…Twenty years later, as events surrounding the Montgomery Bus Boycott
began to unfold, another local Rabbi, Seymour Atlas of Congregation
Agudath Israel would suffer the same fate as Rabbi Goldstein. Known for
his liberal sermons and his outspoken support for civil rights, Rabbi
Atlas caused a split among members of his congregation, many of whom
were afraid of retribution from the larger anti-civil rights
population. Appeals for him to moderate his rhetoric instead pushed him
to the other extreme. Much to the consternation of his congregation, he
frequently appeared on local television and radio stations with Martin
Luther King, publicly discussing issues relating to desegregation, the
Montgomery Bus Boycott, and other civil rights problems. To dramatize
his activism, Life magazine featured Rabbi Atlas in an article that
included his photograph. The article depicted him as a maverick, whose
views were so progressive they were out of place in a southern city
such as Montgomery. At an emergency meeting summoned by his
congregation’s board of trustees, Rabbi Atlas was invited to recant his
support for the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and asked to henceforth submit
all public speeches he intended to deliver to the board two to three
days prior to delivering them (Life, 1956). Rabbi Atlas remained
unrepentant. At his next service he offered a defiant prayer in support
of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. It was more than the increasingly irate
trustees were willing to tolerate. Snubbed by his own congregation, a
dispirited Atlas tendered his resignation, and gave up his career as
Rabbi of the synagogue (Webb, 476).…

The OU’s Double Standard

DovBear notes something I meant to post on, but forgot due to a computer crash and other matters – the OU’s double standard. DovBear notes in a post about the Conservative Movement’s new Tzedek hechsher:

…If the halacha is more demanding then the law (as it, in fact is) don’t companies, in our view, have an obligation to go beyond the law? Who’s the posek that told the OU that companies don’t have to go beyond the secular law when it comes to choshen mishpat? Anyway, if the OU is so certain the government can be relied upon to enforce Jewish law, why do we need the OU’s kashruth division in the first place!?… [We really don’t – see here.]

The real problem, though, is this: R’ Genack’s boneheaded response opens the OU to the charge that they embrace a double standard by considering the government reliable for some questions of Torah law, and not others. Worse, it suggests us that ben adam l’makom laws are more important than the laws that tell us how to treat each other.…

Of course, that charge is true. Orthodoxy is far more concerned about rabbinic minutia and humrot of kashrut law than they are about breaking a biblical command about treatment of workers or cruelty to animals. That’s one major reason why you should not be Orthodox.

Settler Violence: Nothing New

Danny Rubenstein writes in Ha’aretz:

…The statistics are familiar. Of the thousands of Arabs who lived in the part of Hebron under Israeli control (according to the agreement of the government of Benjamin Netanyahu), few remain. The Abu Aisha family of Tel Rumeida lives in a house that has been dubbed the "cage house" because of the bars surrounding it, which are meant to protect it from harassment by the settlers. The other isolated Arab families who have remained in the area near the settlers tend to hide in a similar manner. In other words, the Hebron settlers have succeeded in getting rid of almost all of their Arab neighbors, something the IDF and the police have done nothing to prevent, which means they are in effect helping the settlers.…

Videos: 1 & 2, 3, 4. Background: 1, 2.

Settler Children At Play, cont.

I think some Orthodox Jews need remedial parenting classes.

Settler Children At Play

Part 1

Part 2

Settlers At Play, continued …

In an update to this post, Ha’aretz explains the trouble between Hebron settlers and the Arabs in cage:

Efrat Alkobi, whose cursing at Palestinians was documented on film and broadcast in the Israeli media on Wednesday, will be questioned by
police at the Hebron police station on Thursday morning.

The police said that they decided to summon Alkobi for questioning following the release of the film to the press. They added that the problem of settlers abusing Palestinians in the Hebron area is a persistent one and is "well known" to the police. They said that the Abu Ayisha family, one of whom documented the incident, has been escorted by police on numerous occasions to protect them from abuse.…

In recent years the settlement "Adamot Yishai" was built near the Abu Ayisha family’s house, in the Tel Romeida neighborhood of Hebron. Many Palestinians abandoned their homes in the area following settlers’ violence against them. In order to cope with the daily rock-throwing, window breaking, and attacks, the Abu Ayisha family placed bars around their home. The family currently resides in a house that resembles a cage.

In the documented footage, which the B’Tselem organization received, a female settler comes close to the family’s house, and screams at 18-year-old Rajah Abu Ayisha "Get back in your cage." She continues to curse at her and calls her a prostitute in Arabic ("sharmuta") numerous times. The family maintains that this sort of incident is not out of the ordinary.…

Rajah said that the settlers throw rocks, water, and leftover food at them. "There are soldiers there who sometimes yell at the children to stop throwing rocks, but the children don’t listen to them. I was injured by the rocks more than once," she said.

Again, is this Judaism?

Settler At Play

Read the Ynet report and watch the video. Is this Judaism? Readers?

Rabbi Gil Student and the Art of Coverup

Rabbi Gil Student approvingiy links (an "excellent post", he says) to a foolish post by an RCA rabbi calling himself Rabbi Without A Cause defending the gedolim. Here’s an excerpt:

…I’m reminded of Rocky (the original film), the scene when Rocky is in a bar, watching a television interview with World Heavyweight Champion Apollo Creed. Apollo is yukking it up and playing the dandy, telling kids to wear suits and carry briefcases rather than become a professional athlete. The bartender calls Apollo a clown, and Rocky turns on him. “You calling Creed a clown? You calling the heavyweight champion of the world a clown?” Rocky, the third-rate ham-and-egger, knows what boxing is about, knows the kind of work you put in to train and win a fight, and knows the work ethic, not to mention talent, that goes into becoming heavyweight champion. He respects it in a way that others cannot, because they’re not in the field.

That’s the way I feel when I hear people mock gedolim and question their Torah knowledge and their ethics. These are rabbis who have spent decades learning and teaching, eight, ten, twelve, fourteen hours per day. They’ve been dedicated to this their entire lives. They don’t take breaks and luxurious vacations, they don’t watch TV and movies or read paperback novels, they don’t hang out with their friends schmoozing. I’m not romanticizing it; this is the life.

There are some 2700 daf in shas, and the Gedolim can tell you what’s on each page. They can quote Rishonim and Acharonim and debate and discuss the different sides of each argument. They know Shulchan Aruch, they know poskim and teshuvos.

And they know life. They answer questions from rabbis like me every day, with sensitivity and wisdom and creativity. They know how to be lenient, and they know when to be strict. They are quite familiar with the human condition.…

Here’s the comment I left on that blog, just in case this fool follows the example of his mentor Rabbi Student and censors me:

Yup. What they did to Rabbi Slifkin – and how they did it – was pure gadlus. That’s why so many of us make fun of them – and it.

Are you foolish enough to believe that dedication to a cause equals gadlus? I don’t care how many hours or how few vacations. I care about results.

How about a certain child abuse coverup with heavy participation from gedolim? Is that gadus?

Is telling victims that, because there was no penetration, there was no abuse, gadlus? Telling them that calling the police is mesira – is that gadlus?

You’re not rabbi without a cause, you’re rabbi without a clue.

With rabbis like these, who needs haredim?

Jewish Women Behaving Badly

Okay. So two Orthodox women bring 12 children, including some as young as 2 years old, to a glatt kosher Chinese restaurant for lunch. They’re disruptive. When the bill comes the women object to the 18% tip added by the restaurant – something alleged to be standard for large parties. There is no notice of this policy on the menu, and the women ask that the bill be split between them so the size of each party falls below the large party limit. This would allow them to leave a smaller tip. The restaurant refuses and an argument ensues. The upshot? The women file a criminal complaint against the waiter, alleging discrimination because the women are Jewish. (Remember, this is a glatt kosher restaurant where most – if not all – of the clientele are Orthodox Jews.)

I owned a kosher food service business. My customer base was made up of about 80% Conservative Jews and 20% Orthodox. Of the Orthodox, most were haredi, and about 70% of them were BTs. My worst customers, the ones who were the most obnoxious, who asked for the most (often illegal) "favors" (a favorite was cheating on their WIC accounts, which I refused to do), the ones who demanded the most and shopped the least, were all haredim who were not BTs.

Over the years I’ve spoken with many people in the Jewish food service business. All have the same basic complaints about their customers. All noted that the more "frum" a customer is, the more likely that customer will be trouble. I’ve seen this played out in restaurants and meat markets in several states and in Jerusalem, as well.

Why is this misbehavior so common? I have my thoughts, but I’d like to hear yours.

Dennis Prager Debates Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein About Problems In And Future Of Orthodoxy

And this at a conference sponsored by the OU’s West Coast division, no less. Luke Ford was there and – unlike Rabbi Adlerstein – has posted audio of Prager’s talk, Adlerstein’s response, Prager’s response, the Q & A, and Prager’s closing remarks. Rabbi Adlerstein on CrossCurrents will not even list Prager’s challenges to current halakhic practice. He writes:

He cited example after example of halachic areas he thought
problematic. I hesitate to publicize on this blog what are essentially
blows at the very heart of our mesorah (tradition).

And he does not mention even one of Prager’s challenges to current halakhic practice.

Luke also has audio of Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, Rabbi Michael Broyde and others. Unfortunately, his website doesn’t allow for linking in the way a blog does. You’ll just have to go over there and check it out.

By the way, Prager makes a valid point about Chabad outreach as compared to mitnagdish kiruv. Basically, it boils down to this: Chabad values Jews whether they’re frum or not. Mitnagdim value only frum Jews. Largely true. Of course, fame and money are much appreciated by both.

KASHRUT ALERT!

The Kashruth Council of Canada, COR, wishes to advise that Eden Frozen Brocolli, made by S. Bertram Corp. with the production date of July 2006 (on the package) has been recalled by the company due to infestation.

That’s right, folks. That kosher, bug-free broccoli is infested with bugs (too small to be seen with the human eye) that now render this otherwise kosher vegetable "unkosher." Too bad we can’t recall our rabbis as easily as we reall our veggies.

Orthodoxy and Homophobia

Steven I. Weiss has done us all a service by putting Agudath Israel’s press release on the Conservative movement’s gay rabbi debate up on the web:

AGUDATH ISRAEL LAMENTS
CONSERVATIVE MOVEMENT DECISION

“An Abandonment of All Pretense of Fealty to Judaism”

NEW YORK – Noting with sorrow the Conservative movement’s “Committee on Jewish Law and Standards”’ shameless endorsement of a position permitting “commitment ceremonies” between people of the same gender and the ordination as Conservative rabbis of people living openly homosexual lives, a spokesman for Agudath Israel of America called the decision “an abandonment of all pretense of fealty to Judaism.”

Rabbi Avi Shafran, Agudath Israel’s director of public affairs, stated that “this ruling doesn’t conserve the Jewish tradition, it defies it.”

“The entire corpus of halacha, or Jewish religious law,” he said, “makes abundantly clear that homosexual behavior is sinful. That a movement claiming to uphold the Jewish religious tradition can arrogate to stand halachic Judaism on its head is tragic. It will no doubt cheer those who place contemporary mores above the Jewish mandate, but in the end, it seals the fate of a movement long mired in muddle and malaise.”

“While every Jew is precious in the eyes of Heaven,” Rabbi Shafran continued, “and while some of us may face more difficult challenges than others as we strive to live by the Torah’s prescriptions, that striving is the very essence of what it means to be a Jew committed to Judaism.”

Now the facts. 1. The only homosexual behavior called sinful (actually, an "abomination") by the Torah is male-male anal intercourse. 2. Homosexuals are not called sinful or abominations. 3. Oral sex is not forbidden by the Torah. Neither is masturbatory sex. Indeed, poskim allow married heterosexual couples to do both, without worry about "spilling seed." The Conservative Movement’s new position is based on these points, and is in no way "an abandonment of all pretense of fealty to Judaism."

Agudath Israel – whose leading sages either covered for or ignored a serial pedophile who perpetrated rabbi-on-boy sexual abuse for almost 40 years – has no business commenting on the actions of the Conservative Movement, especially when Shafran and Agudah fell silent when asked to comment on the rabbi-on-boy sex abuse.

But this is not only about Agudath Israel and its snake-oiled spokesman. In truth, what we have here is homophobia dressed in the guise of Judaism. From the RCA’s condemnation to UTJ’s, one thing stands out – a lack of compassion and concern for those born gay who seek, nonetheless, to lead a committed Jewish life.

This lack  of compassion – as so clearly demonstrated during the vitriolic opposition to Jerusalem’s Gay Pride parade – again shows Orthodoxy in all its forms to be far more concerned about laws dealing with man’s relationship to God, like the ban on male-male anal intercourse, than it is about the laws of conduct between people. This is why convicted haredi criminals lead haredi communities and are given seats of honor at communal functions, while openly gay men who seek to live the most honest and committed Orthodox life they can are ridiculed and often exiled from their communities.

What do you think God hates more? A convicted swindler with a 30 year record of fraud leading a haredi rabbinic organization and writing a weekly column in an Orthodox newspaper or two openly gay men trying desperately to carve out a life for themselves within Orthodoxy? If you have trouble answering this question you have failed Judaism 101.

Orthodoxy and Homophobia

Steven I. Weiss has done us all a service by putting Agudath Israel’s press release on the Conservative movement’s gay rabbi debate up on the web:

AGUDATH ISRAEL LAMENTS
CONSERVATIVE MOVEMENT DECISION

“An Abandonment of All Pretense of Fealty to Judaism”

NEW YORK – Noting with sorrow the Conservative movement’s “Committee on Jewish Law and Standards”’ shameless endorsement of a position permitting “commitment ceremonies” between people of the same gender and the ordination as Conservative rabbis of people living openly homosexual lives, a spokesman for Agudath Israel of America called the decision “an abandonment of all pretense of fealty to Judaism.”

Rabbi Avi Shafran, Agudath Israel’s director of public affairs, stated that “this ruling doesn’t conserve the Jewish tradition, it defies it.”

“The entire corpus of halacha, or Jewish religious law,” he said, “makes abundantly clear that homosexual behavior is sinful. That a movement claiming to uphold the Jewish religious tradition can arrogate to stand halachic Judaism on its head is tragic. It will no doubt cheer those who place contemporary mores above the Jewish mandate, but in the end, it seals the fate of a movement long mired in muddle and malaise.”

“While every Jew is precious in the eyes of Heaven,” Rabbi Shafran continued, “and while some of us may face more difficult challenges than others as we strive to live by the Torah’s prescriptions, that striving is the very essence of what it means to be a Jew committed to Judaism.”

Now the facts. 1. The only homosexual behavior called sinful (actually, an "abomination") by the Torah is male-male anal intercourse. 2. Homosexuals are not called sinful or abominations. 3. Oral sex is not forbidden by the Torah. Neither is masturbatory sex. Indeed, poskim allow married heterosexual couples to do both, without worry about "spilling seed." The Conservative Movement’s new position is based on these points, and is in no way "an abandonment of all pretense of fealty to Judaism."

Agudath Israel – whose leading sages either covered for or ignored a serial pedophile who perpetrated rabbi-on-boy sexual abuse for almost 40 years – has no business commenting on the actions of the Conservative Movement, especially when Shafran and Agudah fell silent when asked to comment on the rabbi-on-boy sex abuse.

But this is not only about Agudath Israel and its snake-oiled spokesman. In truth, what we have here is homophobia dressed in the guise of Judaism. From the RCA’s condemnation to UTJ’s, one thing stands out – a lack of compassion and concern for those born gay who seek, nonetheless, to lead a committed Jewish life.

This lack  of compassion – as so clearly demonstrated during the vitriolic opposition to Jerusalem’s Gay Pride parade – again shows Orthodoxy in all its forms to be far more concerned about laws dealing with man’s relationship to God, like the ban on male-male anal intercourse, than it is about the laws of conduct between people. This is why convicted haredi criminals lead haredi communities and are given seats of honor at communal functions, while openly gay men who seek to live the most honest and committed Orthodox life they can are ridiculed and often exiled from their communities.

What do you think God hates more? A convicted swindler with a 30 year record of fraud leading a haredi rabbinic organization and writing a weekly column in an Orthodox newspaper or two openly gay men trying desperately to carve out a life for themselves within Orthodoxy? If you have trouble answering this question you have failed Judaism 101.