The Rabbinic Law Of Unintended Consequences

Rabbis are – and always were – human beings. They have no special powers and had none. Some are honest, some self-serving, some are criminals and some are saints – as it always has been. Haaretz documents this in a profound way. 25% of all infertility cases may be caused by halakhic infertility, in other words, infertility caused by rabbis. What’s this? Harry Maryles explains:

Briefly stated, according to biblical law a woman is permitted to immerse herslf after only seven days from the onset of her menstrual cycle (Dam Niddah). But in cases of a flow of non menstrual blood (Dam Ziva) that is contiguous for three consecutive days she is biblically mandated to wait seven days after the flow of blood stops. Because of the complexities in our day of determining which type of blood flow a woman is actually experincing and the severity of transgressing Hilchos Niddah, Chazal [the rabbis of the Mishna and Talmud] mandated that all blood flows be treated as Ziva blood requiring seven “clean” days, to be observed after the Niddah blood flow stops. This tacks on at least five extra days that a husband and wife must wait before having sexaul relations beyond what the Torah madates. And the vast majority of blood flows in women is Dam Niddah, not, Dam Ziva.

What happens in a great number of infertitlity cases is that ovulation, the fetility period, takes place during these “extra” days and by the time of immersion, the fertility peiod has passed. Quoting Dr. Rosenak from the article:

“Through my work as a gynecologist, especially in the ultra-Orthodox and national religious communities, it transpires that more than one quarter of the infertility cases result from what is called ‘halakhic infertility.’ That means that tens of thousands of women go to the mikveh when their period of ovulation is past.”

Dr. Rosenak’s article was published in HaTzofe, a large National Religious journal. He argues for a reconsideration of the laws of niddah. As might be expected, a leading rabbi immediately objected, arguing that perscribed hormones would deal with this problem. Dr. Rosenak responds forcefully:

Rosenak related to this in his follow-up article last week, writing that shifting the solution from the sphere of halakha to the sphere of medicine is "an interesting argument." "Halakhic infertility is not a medical problem … It is a purely halakhic problem, and its solution has to be halakhic, not medical." Criticizing the Laus’ contention that "it is hard to assume that hormones will seriously harm the woman’s body," Rosenak calls it "an irresponsible statement that requires scientific proof" and "grave."

"These are matters of life and death!" he wrote. "I tremble every time I am forced to prescribe hormones for a woman who has no genuine medical problem. Perhaps the woman sitting opposite me has an undiscovered genetic predisposition to breast cancer? Perhaps, heaven forbid, she could have a stroke?"

This is today’s Orthodoxy. Rabbinic laws, even those based on questionable custom and whose outcome is not what was intended by the original drafters, even if it endangers life (metziztza b’peh) or otherwise damages Jews, must stand because, if not, the entire frail halakhic system wil come crashing down on the swollen heads of the men who run it.

So what should be done? I don’t know. Increasingly, my personal option is to move away from Orthodoxy. Perhaps this should be your choice, as well.

[Hat Tips: Dr. R-F; Chakira.]

Rabbis Call For Israeli “Democratic Uprising”

A group of rabbis made up of National Religious hardliners and Chabad has called for a "democratic uprising" in Israel. The Israel Insider reports:

A group of prominent rabbinic leaders in Israel and abroad yesterday
issued a call for Israeli citizens to launch a democratic uprising to
bring down the government of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert…

"Out of love for each and
every Jew, we call on the people of Israel and its leaders to begin a
democratic uprising to immediately replace this government, which
constitutes an ominous threat to the nation of Israel," the Rabbinical
Congress for Peace, a coalition of over 1,200 rabbinic leaders and
pulpit rabbis, said in a statement.

Former chief rabbis Mordechai Eliyahu and Abraham Shapira were
among the signatories, as well as Rabbi Meir Mazuz, head of Israel’s
Tunisian Jewish community and one of the country’s most well-respected
rabbis.

The rabbinical conference was responding to a national address by
PM Ehud Olmert last week commemorating the death of Israel’s first
prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, in which Olmert stated that he was
willing to give up most of Judea and Samaria (the "West Bank") in
exchange for "real peace" and promised that he would release "many,
many" Palestinian prisoners as part of a deal.

The Rabbinical Congress for Peace called Olmert’s address a "crime."

"In his deplorable speech, Olmert in essence announced a
‘liquidation sale’ and collective suicide of the people in Israel
including the release of thousands of the most dangerous terrorists
from Israeli jails. Israeli citizens must launch a democratic uprising
and protest to bring down the government immediately," the rabbis said.

Their statement continued: "Olmert adheres to the advice of false
left-wing ‘prophets’ instead of adhering to the true prophets as
expressed in the Jewish Code of Law that any territorial concession to
the enemy will only lead to bloodshed. It will not contribute to calm
nor will it promote peace."

 

1. Olmert’s address is not a crime – it is an expression of democracy.

2. The rabbis who signed this deplorable letter oppose democracy unless democracy can be used to further their theocratic aims.

3. The Code of Jewish Law, the Shulkhan Arukh, is written by rabbis, not prophets.

4. Nowhere in the Shulkhan Arukh does it say, "any territorial concession to
the enemy will only lead to bloodshed. It will not contribute to calm
nor will it promote peace."

Regardless of your position on Olmert or his suggested concessions, you should be adamantly opposed to the lies and misrepresentation of these pathetic men who seek only to subvert democracy and usher in theocracy under their control. A strong, tall and broad wall must be immediately erected to separate Synagogue and State. Let the building begin.

[Hat tip: Brooklyn Cowboy.]

NCSY Shout Out

NCSY, the flagship Modern Orthodox outreach group, a division of the OU,  whose target audience is 14 to 18 year olds, has developed a cozy relationship – both above board and in a more stealth-like fashion –with haredi outreach organizations including Aish HaTorah (of Torah Codes infamy) and Ohr Somayach.

So what’s the problem? This. Parents do not send their children to NCSY to get involved with groups that preach a message of anti-modernity, or a message of no secular education, or a message of putting off Harvard indefinitely to attend yeshiva (a case NCSY actually brags about). In other words, this appears to be a classic bait-and-switch.

NCSY owes all of us, especially those of us who are parents of teenaged children, an explanation and clarification of their policy regarding haredi recruiters and organizations.

How about it, NCSY? What is NCSY’s policy here? Are you up front with parents about this before their children become involved with NCSY? Or is this just another version of the Torah Codes?

Should You Tell Police About An Orthodox Abuser?

Rabbi Hershal Schachter’s Sunday night talk, Should I Call the Police?, and Rabbi Benjamin Yudin’s talk, Talking to Our Kids About the Birds and the Bees are both online for free listening or for free download.

No comments from me yet. I just began listening now.

UPDATE: RHS’s basic position is there is no mesira when dealing with a criminal, especially a violent criminal or abuser. There are a few caveats but, for the most part, call the cops. For details, listen to lecture and the Q & A that follows it.

RHS also mentions the special Agudath Israel "beit din" that was supposed to be formed years ago to deal with abusers. That beit din was never formed. MO day schools do not have a registry of abusers either. RHS notes that an abuser can go from abusing in Brooklyn to abusing in Canada to abusing in Israel to abusing in South Africa because neith the haredi or MO communities have a sex abuser registry. He also notes that many rabbis are unfamiliar with the halakhot surrounding these issues and they rule incorrectly out of ignorance.

I would add two things. First, I don’t think most of the rabbis RHS mentioned ruled out of ignorance; I think they ruled to protect rabbinic abusers. Second, in response to a question, RHS expresses worry at what will happen to criminals in state prisons (as opposed to federal prisons) where much abuse takes place. He says mesira would then become part of the equation. Pretty much every abuser will end up in a state prison. So what should a Jew do? Allow an abuser to run free to abuse more children? A rapist to rape more women? Of course not. RHS sees a valid problem. Its solution is to work for better, cleaner and safer state prisons.

Sex and the Modern Orthodox College Student

The NY Daily News reports:

…Late on the night of Nov. 13, a Daily News reporter sat in Room 303 of Hamilton Hall, a venerable classroom building where Columbia students have studied Poe, Plato and Plutarch for nearly 100 years.

As a female student volunteer stood facing the blackboard, and 24 Columbians watched, a lecturer who identified himself only as Dov flogged her with whips, rubber hoses and a cat-o’-nine-tails.

It was consensual, but the squeals of delight mingled with occasional yelps of pain.

Columbia would make no specific comment on the club or the flogging incident. Ivy Leaguers were unaware that the reporter was in attendance. Dov is not employed by the school, which does not police or censor club activities.

Referring only to student organizations generally, spokesman Robert Hornsby said the "university has a limited role in regulating student speech or private conduct."

New York’s smartest still dream of winning a Nobel Prize. And bookworms still pull all-nighters in the Butler Library. But the 2 million-volume monument to the mind, which stays open 24 hours a day, doubles as a temple of earthier desires.

"Having sex in the stacks of Butler Library is one of the ultimate Columbia experiences," said Miriam Datskovsky, sex columnist for the Spectator, the student newspaper.

"There’s very little dating. It’s predominately a hookup scene," said the 21-year-old, a senior from an Orthodox Jewish background who writes the Sexplorations column.

"Everything is so much easier and so much quicker: you go to dinner and then have sex," she added.…

Please discuss.

[Hat Tip: Leah.]

Marvin Schick, Abuser

Marvin Schick writes several years ago:

…The Catholic Church has been shaken to the core by literally hundreds, perhaps thousands, of accusations, as adults have emerged to voice their claims of abusive activities that occurred years ago. Media attention has certainly been a catalyst for many of the accusers being willing to go public, mainly against Catholic clergymen, but also against religious functionaries of other denominations. It stands to reason that if Orthodox Jewry or any other part of Jewish life were awash with sexual abuse against youngsters or in efforts to cover-up abuse, we would have heard about it in the recent period. It is powerfully telling that such charges have not materialized, that despite an atmosphere that is strongly conducive to sexual abuse claims, very little has been forthcoming on the Jewish or Orthodox fronts.

Emphatically, this does not mean that there haven’t been any such cases that we do not know about. It does mean that too much of the rhetoric within our community has been overwrought and unfortunate. I hope that those who leap at every opportunity to denigrate the Orthodox will recognize that what they have done is itself a form of abuse.

Rabbi Kolko’s abuse went on over a 30 year span and was covered up by many rabbis, including "gadol" Chaim Pinchas Scheinberg. Bryks walks free in Queens, still with official access to children. The Ner Israel perps still walk free, as does Mondrowitz. Rabbis like Scheinberg still intimidate families, victims and advocates. And Marvin Schick is still covering for them all. That, Marvin, is the real abuse.

[Hat Tip: Dr. R-F.]

As a bonus, here is a piece written by Marvin Schick defending convicted kidnapper Rabbi Shlomo Helbranes. Read all of JWB’s post (found, as is JWB’s unique style, in the comments to the headline) for Schick’s piece and lots of other  reports making Schick look, well, stupid – which is not exactly hard to do.

Helbranes’ Awarness Center page may be easier to follow.

NCSY Funneling Recruits To Haredim? Seems So

My friend and co-author David Kelsey exposes the ties between NCSY and Aish HaTorah and Ohr Somayach in this new post on Jewschool. Kelsey rightly points out that both Aish and OS oppose Modern Orthodoxy and that NCSY – supposedly a Modern Orthodox organization – is feeding recruits to these haredi organizations, organizations that oppose secular studies, evolution, much of modern science and modernity. The OU, NCSY’s parent organization, has been moving steadily rightward in kashrut and other areas. (Perhpas the only significant exception to this is the OU’s executive VP Tzvi Hirsh Weinreb.)

Paul Shaviv On Rabbi Slifkin, The Age of the Universe, Chabad and Haredim

Paul Shaviv writes:

Whether we read the tangled tales of our “founding family,” or the mystical account of the origins of morality in the Garden of Eden, Genesis has always been the most engaging and the most challenging of the Five Books of Moses. But no part of it has exercised more attention than the account of Creation described in its opening 34 verses.

Way back, I was comfortable in understanding Genesis – Bereshit – as a majestic, spiritual account of Creation, containing in its short texts infinite spiritual truths. It was not a literal account. In the mid-1960s I first encountered Lubavitch-Chabad Chassidim who argued that the world was exactly five-thousand-and-some years old, and that God created fossils. But no one I knew – including several Orthodox rabbis – took them seriously. It was an exotic sideshow to the Chabad “gig,” which we all loved, in its uncomplicated, pre-Messianic incarnation.

A little later on, I encountered the “Orthodox Jewish scientists,” who sought to demonstrate by elaborate interpretations that the text of the Bible did not contradict any scientific theory. It was noticeable that as the scientific theories changed, so did the explanations. While, again, the arguments were sometimes fascinating, I could never understand why they were necessary. But every year, I loved those few weeks in the fall when the New Year began with the reading of the powerful account of the beginnings of the world as we know it. I could listen to Bereshit being read from the Torah without being troubled.

I am still not troubled, but others are troubling me. For in today’s Orthodox community, there are strong and insistent voices saying that you have to believe the world is 5767 years old or you are a heretic, with all the exclusions that are implied. Whether you are meticulous in observing the commandments or not is no longer a sufficient yardstick.…

The Challenge of Creation is important for two reasons.

The first is that it powerfully and rationally argues that to be Orthodox need not – indeed, must not – mean abandoning reason, nor need it mean rejecting science. That is – as indicated – a courageous statement in an Orthodox world that has been hurtling in the opposite direction for the last 30 years or so.

Rabbi Slifkin’s courage brought a firestorm down on his head. But his book is a powerful injection of calm common sense into an increasingly eccentric community. The small group of Orthodox who yearn to hear voices in Orthodoxy to whom we can relate – we feel like one of Rabbi Slifkin’s ecologically endangered species – owe Rabbi Slifkin a huge thank you.

The second, less immediately apparent reason, is that it is a practical complement to recent, and important, books by Menachem Kellner and Marc Shapiro, demonstrating that the parameters of Jewish definition have always been fixed by tests of practice, not tests of belief. Being Jewish was always about what you did, not what you thought. That idea sharply distinguished Judaism from most branches of Christianity, whose test of faith was belief, and it can only be conjectured whether those who want to reverse those parameters actually understand what damage they are doing. (Given the equally strong movement against the study of Jewish history in the same circles, it is entirely possible that they don’t.)

…This civilized, respectful, erudite, well-argued, beautifully structured book is a revelation in a controversy that has been marked by crude and adversarial public mud-slinging. His opponents could learn major lessons from him in derech eretz, let alone in Torah.

Rabbi Dr. David Berger Accepts Position At YU

The YU Commentator reports:

Dr. David Berger, professor of history at Brooklyn College and the Graduate Center of CUNY, recently accepted a full time position at Yeshiva, according to Vice President of Academic Affairs Mort Lowengrub.

Dr. Berger will begin teaching primarily at the Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies, where he is now Visiting Professor of Jewish History, and at Yeshiva College, said Dr. Lowengrub. He is expected to offer courses in his field of Medieval Jewish History, but Dr. Berger also believes he will occasionally teach courses on messianism and Jewish-Christian relations in modern times.…

Now this should be fun, especially if those classes are posted on YUTorah.org. I doubt they will, though.

Pelegish or Not?

Rabbi Tzvi Fishman has written perhaps the most disingenuous column yet on pelegish. But it’s not all his fault – his work is based on the even more disingenuous work of Rabbi Ya’akov Ariel, a leading, perhaps the leading, Religious Zionist rabbi.

In brief, these rabbis argue that pelegishut meant, a) permanence, a relationship that lasted for life and, b) that it had the status of marriage, including a ketuba. This is both absurd and demonstrably false. Both rabbis cite the Vina Gaon as a precedent for this novel idea of permanence and ketuba. Perhaps the Gaon can be excused for this bit of foolishness. he had no access to the historical data we now have. I don’t think for a moment he would make these same assertions today.

What Fishman and Ariel do is argue this way: Pelegish cannot be a relationship where either party can walk away at any time without notice or reason. It cannot be a shot-term arrangement. Therefore it must be that …

But pelegish was exactly that – a relationship with an easy out for both sides, a relationship that could last a lifetime of a few hours, as the case may be.

As for the idea of "turning your daughters into harlots," that was meant to prevent both cultic and non-cultic prostitution, not sex between willing partners.

Pelegish stopped because Christian society frowned on the practice, and because, as it became more rare, rabbis feared Jewish women in a pelegish relationship would stop using the mikva due to scorn heaped on them by unlearned married women who based their views on society around them and not on Torah.

Should pelegish be reinstated? I don’t know. But I do know that, if the answer to that question is no, rabbis like Fishman and Ariel have done far more damage than they realize. What they wrote is akin to lying. People who are, for whatever reasons, involved in non-married sex or thinking about such involvement will not restrain themselves because of these men’s disingenuous arguments. Quite the contrary.

The Tzaddik of Addis Ababa

Uriel Heilman reports:

The door to Mother Teresa’s Mission in Addis Ababa cracks open and a nun pokes her head out. When she sees the doctor, her face breaks into a broad smile and she swings the door wide open.

"Come in, come in," she beckons, grabbing Rick Hodes’ hand.

Inside, the nun and the doctor — an Orthodox Jew originally from Long Island, N.Y. — quickly are overwhelmed by the clinic’s masses of sick and dying.

Every three paces, Hodes is stopped by another patient. They come to him limping, clutching their bellies, hobbling on elephantine legs rendered virtually useless by cancerous growths or mysterious tumors.

Hodes, 53, is the only doctor most of these people will ever see. As the lone Western-trained physician to conduct regular rounds here, Hodes represents the best hope at this palliative-care clinic for Ethiopia’s neglected legions of malaria patients, cancer victims, AIDS orphans and tuberculosis sufferers.

Without X-rays, lab tests or MRIs, Hodes does what he can, making diagnoses on the fly, recommending medication and moving from patient to patient with an urgency that bespeaks his mission.

Often he pays out of his own pocket to send the more hopeful cases for tests or treatment at private hospitals.

"It doesn’t matter what religion he is; he is doing this for humanity," says Monica Thonen-Bartet, a Maltese volunteer at the mission. "This is the most beautiful man I have ever seen."

This is not Hodes’ day job: As medical director for Ethiopia for the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, Hodes is responsible for the medical welfare of some 10,000 Ethiopians known as Falash Mura.…

Hodes’ real passion, however, seems to be caring for the severely ill at Mother Theresa’s Mission. He does not get paid for this work.…

At last count, Hodes had more than a dozen youths living in his home, and he has placed three more at boarding schools in Ohio and a cancer clinic in Washington. Hodes picked most of them up at the mission, where they had diseases ranging from polio to bone cancer.

Many were abandoned by their families; some were orphans. Mostly healthy now, these boys no longer are Hodes’ patients; they’re his children. Hodes has paid for the boys’ private schooling in Addis Ababa and has officially adopted five of them.…

Evil Rabbis and Hate, Part 2

As "moderate" Orthodox rabbis meet with gay leaders to try to negotiate the gay pride parade out of Jeusalem, other less moderate rabbis continue to behave like donkeys. Ynet reports:

… Rehovot Chief Rabbi Simcha Cook told Kol Chai radio Thursday regarding the possibility of bloodshed at the parade, “There are some things rabbis cannot say, but the public needs to understand on its own.”

Rabbi Elyakim Levanon said during the radio program that holding the gay parade in Jerusalem constitutes “blasphemy.”

“I cannot tell people how to act in such situations, but it is enough to look at the scriptures to see that cases of blasphemy sometimes end in death,” he said.…

These two pricks should be arrested immediately. Their statements are clear violations of Israeli law. Let them spend this Shabbat and many more Shabbatim to come locked in cages like the animals they are.

Haredim Riot In Jerusalem, Police Injured, Anti-Gay Bomb In Eli

The Jerusalem Post reports:

The third night in a row of Haredi protests against the Gay Pride parade planned for next week in Jerusalem turned violent Thursday.

Five police officers and one Haaretz photographer were lightly injured by protesters, who burned trash and tried to block off a main road as they threw stones, steel pipes, gasoline, chairs, eggs, and whatever other objects they could find at police who arrived to restore order.

About 2,000 protesters came out for a third night in a row of demonstrations against the city’s decision to hold the parade in the capital.

"We tried to block Bar Ilan Street," one protester told Army Radio, "but we couldn’t do it. Automatically, within half a minute, six or seven horses tore into the crowd…"…

On Thursday evening, a makeshift explosive device was discovered at the entrance to the neighborhood police station in the Samarian settlement of Eli.

The bomb was connected to a sign that read: "Sodomites Out!".

Bomb disposal teams destroyed the homemade device, which police said was "primitive but dangerous," in a controlled explosion. Police did not immediately arrest any suspects in the incident.

Chabad, Orthodoxy and the Disabled

Voting officials in London, Ontario lost use of a polling station. With little time before the election, they called on Chabad to help. Chabad agreed. But there is a significant problem – one of access:

Fourteen years after Parliament required federal voting stations to be accessible to all people, some Londoners must go to a civic polling station where 16 steps stand between them and the voting booths.

More than 1,100 Londoners in Ward 6 have been assigned to vote at the Chabad House on Richmond Street, where four steps lead to a covered landing and 12 steps go down a dark staircase leading to polling booths.

"Everyone I’ve talked to is shocked," said Richard Yake, who lives in the ward and has long been an advocate for the disabled — he successfully convinced city hall to modify its elevators to better accommodate the blind and those in wheelchairs.

The many steps at Chabad House will be a barrier to anyone in a wheelchair or using a walker, as well as those suffering from illness or recuperating from injury.

Disabled people tend to vote in high numbers because they depend on government services, but Yake worries those assigned to Chabad House will stay home when Londoners vote Nov. 13.

"We’re always concerned about voter turnout . . . and yet we’re putting roadblocks in their way. That’s hardly fair," Yake said.

It was London city clerk Kevin Bain who selected the location and he says he did so with regret.

"We would have preferred to have an accessible location," Bain said.

The city wanted to use an accessible location used in 2003, Robinson Memorial United Church, but it wasn’t available, according to Ward 6 candidate Stephen Turner, who had called city hall to voice concerns.

City staff learned they had to find a new site after sending a letter Sept. 7, said Bain, who added that the church was not at all at fault.

With little time left to mail out voter notification cards, city staff had to find a substitute quickly and Chabad House was the only place available, he said.

Chabad House is the only one of 207 city polling stations that isn’t accessible, Bain said.…

This is a common problem in Orthodox synagogues and Chabad Houses worldwide. It should not be so. But it is, largely because the Orthodox Jewish community just doesn’t give a damn. The same can be said of the Israeli government on national and local levels. Ever watch a disabled Israeli veteran try to get around in Jerusalem? I have. Have we no shame?