Close the Window, I Feel a Draft Coming In!

Let me open this post with an announcement.

It looks like I will have a second son joining the IDF.

A quick rundown. I am blessed with six sons (and even more daughters). The oldest is the one I called Yaakov. He is more of a leather yarmulke type. He joined Nahal Chareidi in 2010. I wrote about it then. He did his three years and was discharged about five years ago. He has even done a stint in miluim. After the army, he went to Bar Ilan U and got an M.A. in financial mathematics. Currently, he works in the financial office of a large law firm in Ramat Gan. He is a very, very eligible bachelor.

Next is the one I called Yossi who was the star in many of my Shidduch posts. He went through the Israeli Yeshiva system and obtained an official p’tur. Then he went to Lakewood, found a bride and came back. He is currently learning in Kollel in EY and, I hope, living happily ever after.

Next up is one I will call Yitzi. He was only three when we came, but still, like his older brothers, he didn’t really take to the Israeli Yeshiva social system. He also managed a p’tur from the army and then promptly bugged off to the US and is currently learning in Rhode Island with some college on the side.

I will skip to my two younger sons, both Israeli born who blend in nicely with the “system”. They are both in Yeshiva Ketana (high school) and don’t seem to be candidates for army service in the long term.

And this brings us back to son number 4 – Eli. Eli is my first son born in Eretz Yisrael. Actually, he is my only child born in Yerushalayim. Everyone after him was born in Bnei Brak. Like his father, Eli is an independent thinker, left-handed, and very opinionated. In line, he is an idealist. Though his ideals are much more nationalistic than mine. He is not pro-Medinat Yisrael but is he very pro-Eretz Yisrael.

Eli is quite a character. Even though he never attended the Zilberman school system, he fully adopted their Vilna Gaon shitos. He doesn’t shave, he wears techeiles, tries to wear tefillin all day, and stops bentching after “al yechasreinu”. So he is part Zilberman with a touch of “hilltop” and 100% activist. He is a Lehava activist and Temple Mount activist and a Kahanist. He learns in Yeshiva Raayon Hayehudi which is the yeshiva established by Rabbi Meir Kahane, HY”D. He is pre-messianic which means he believes we should first build the Beis HaMikdash and reinstitute the avoda and [only] then Moshiach will come.

This means clearing out the Yishmaeli interlopers and he is all for it. He doesn’t believe in firing warning shots. He would just love to get his hands on an M-16 and so, he decided to sign up.

For those who don’t know, the chareidi presence in the army is expanding. Until now, there was only Netzach Yehuda (Nahal Chareidi) which is an infantry battalion in the Kfir brigade. They are now starting a Chareidi Tzanchanim (paratrooper) battalion and this is what he tried signing up for.

Unfortunately, he is a bit scrawny, very nearsighted, and, as I said, avidly idealistic so he wasn’t really able to get past the few physicals and the army shrink. So he is settling for Plan B which is to go into Rabbanut Tzvaii in the Shachar battalion.

What comes out of all this is that out of the offspring of yours truly, [Anglo] Chareidi-in-Chief, I might wind up with 2 out of 6 (equals 1 out of 3) boys doing IDF army service. And I am certainly not the only chareidi baal-haboss who is experiencing this phenomenon. All this without any crazy mandatory laws.

Which brings me to the point of this post.

Here in our neck of the woods, we are sitting with baited breath trying to get a handle on what is being called the new improved Hareidi Draft Law. It’s a bit like Obamacare (per Nancy Pelosi) – we won’t really know what’s in it until after we pass it. It is as mysterious as it is illogical. But, this is Israel. Everything works this way.

So for the record, I am getting all my information from these few articles in Haaretz which is not exactly the oracle of truth (HERE and HERE and HERE) but they (plus a few others from Arutz 7 and JPost) are the first ones that show up in my Google. 

This bill is a very strange type of compromise. On the one hand, it calls for financial sanctions against the Yeshiva world if certain quotas are not met. By itself, the chareidi parties would never accept such a provision and would bring down the government instead of supporting it. So, to take out these teeth, the bill gives a time schedule as if to say that there won’t be any sanctions for the first two years anyway. After that, there may be financial sanctions but it won’t affect the bill. Only if there are three consecutive years where the quotas fall short, then the bill will be voided and all Yeshiva guys will get drafted.

But, wait! If the bill is voided, the Knesset gets another 12 months to make a new bill before there is any mandatory draft. Mishpacha magazine adds that the Defense minister can issue automatic deferments for even another two years.

It seems that some of the chareidi parties (Shas and Degel HaTorah) are actually ready to support this bill because, at the extreme end, it totally kicks the can down the road for another six years (or more). There won’t be any sanctions for the first two years and for the next three, well, it’s only money.

Let me add, that it will not be easy for the government to apply any sanctions to any Yeshivos. The money the Yeshivos receive is so miniscule that there is almost no way to give less. Sure the government money helps and contributes to the budget, but none of the Yeshivas can and do subsist on it exclusively. Supposedly, Ponovizh has been the showcase Yeshiva for government assistance so they hang up a blue and white flag on Yom HaAtzmaut, but how much do you think Belz and Gur and Vizhnitz rely on government money? Who are you kidding?

And that’s where the numbers of “chareidim” really are!

After absorbing all this, I am puzzled by quite a few questions. First about the quota numbers themselves.

According to the Haaretz article, the numbers call for a starting quota of 3,996 “Yeshiva” guys in 2018 (bear in mind that it is already mid-July) and advance to 6,844 by the end of 2027. This would be a cumulative increase of about 71% over ten years.

The question is: 71%? Where is the army going when it comes to manpower? Does the army really want to grow? Does it need to grow? Does it intend to be 71% bigger in ten years?

Everybody knows that the Israeli army is totally swamped. As long as nothing really drastic happens, they have way more soldiers than they need and, it is argued, than they can afford. Currently, the system brings in enough inductees from all sectors that they are not lacking. They barely call anybody for mandatory miluim anymore.  If, chas v’shalom, some terrible catastrophe would call for the strength of the entire force, there are enough potential reservists between the ages of 22-36 to quadruple the standing force in a flash. This fact will hold year after year. And if even that won’t be enough, it obviously means that HKBH is not standing in our corner so we are anyway doomed no matter how many soldiers we produce.

So the manpower issue is a total joke and everybody knows it. In truth, as the general Israeli population continues to grow, kein yirbu, it becomes evident that the country is facing a more serious dilemma: how to deal with a potential soldier pool that is way bigger than we need?

And this is no joke. Currently, the Israeli government is dealing with it by quietly giving indiscriminate exemptions to people who do not meet the high end of their profile standards - especially if they want to be exempted. Not just to chareidim.

Perhaps, we can alleviate the army surplus problem by sending all the girls home. This might help to minimize what is now the biggest cause of death in the Israeli army – abortion. But, of course, then all the girls would get a head start in law school, pharmacy school,  and optician school while the boys in green are stuck playing shesh-besh by their Humvees and they will corner the job market (this is already happening).

Yep, Israel has its own version of the “shidduch crisis”.

I gather, many readers are probably saying that the purpose of this quota increase is not because the army wants to grow, but they want the proportion of the soldiers coming from the chareidi sector to be bigger than it is. Such a stance is likely to open up another few Pandora’s boxes.

Firstly, the concept of singling out one sector of the population to produce a “quota” is very undemocratic in today’s liberal world. It sort of goes against the principles of the left wing that is pushing for this quota to start with. Quotas for one are quotas for all!

I suppose the counter-argument might be that we would intrinsically apply quotas to any sector but it’s a foregone conclusion that any other “sector” already meets its phantom quota so there is no point in applying one. This may be true, but even so, the idea of even designating a “sector” is disturbing. Are Ethiopians a “sector”? Are Russians a “sector”? Are olim a “sector”? Are the handicapped a “sector”? Ashkenazim? Sephardim? Kurdim? Geirim?

Doesn’t secular pluralistic ideology state that all citizens are a part of one heterogeneous mixture?

The second Pandora’s box is that if we are dealing with a higher proportion of chareidim in an army of a basically static size, their influence and power will grow along with it. Is this really what the left wing army wants? The demands and “special needs” of the chareidim that are already in the army have always been a thorn in the side of the IDF. Real chareidim (not the renegades that run to the army to escape) are not too quick to follow orders that conflict with chareidi ideals. Chareidim will not take part in evacuations of Jewish settlements. They don’t believe in standing like statues while Arabs harass them and endanger them. And how many beard controversies and Torah shiur controversies does the army want?

Or does the army really want to turn black?

For the third Pandora’s box, we need to examine another part of the law as reported in the papers. Let us see what Haaretz writes:

The latest attempt, spearheaded by Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman, which passed its first reading vote in the Knesset on Monday night, aims to hit the ultra-Orthodox community where it hurts – the pocketbook.

According to the current version of the proposed law, yeshivas will be required to meet a quota of students who move from their studies into the military or do some alternative form of national service.

And in another article:

Financial penalties should be imposed on ultra-Orthodox yeshivas whose students fail to meet quotas for military or national civil service, a committee charged with preparing a new conscription bill recommended Monday.

But, wait! Look at this headline and lead from Haaretz July 2:

Explained: The Controversial Law That Would Press Israel’s ultra-Orthodox Community Into Military Service

The defense minister is spearheading legislation to get nearly 7,000 Haredim into the army by 2027. But neither the ultra-Orthodox nor left-wing politicians are happy with the proposed bill…

This is very confusing. Who is this quota calling on – ultra-orthodox Jews from the “community” or the students from any given ultra-Orthodox Yeshiva? If they want a quota of ultra-orthodox Jews, what does this have to do with the Yeshivos? How would one apply sanctions to the general charieidi sector?

So let’s first take the more logical route – this is not really a quota on the chareidi sector in general. It’s meant to be a quota on the Yeshivos. What does this mean? If they get their quota of “Yeshiva guys” they will be satisfied and if they don’t, they will sanction the Yeshivos? If it’s the collective Yeshiva system, which Yeshivos do you punish? Which yeshiva is “guilty”? All of them? Collective punishment?

And if its’ individual Yeshivos, does this mean that every Yeshiva will be given a quota of active students currently enrolled that are supposed to be de-studentized and “turned over” to the army?

Like, Ponovezh will have to go over their current student list and fork over 50 guys? Will they be sohnim or mechablim (or a separate quota of each)? And Mir and Chevron and Wolfson and Rosen and Lomza and Meor HaTorah, etc, etc.?  And what about Yeshiva Grodno Ashdod (don’t make me laugh)? I can assure you this is never going to happen. Not before every major road artery between Tel Aviv and Yerushalayim is repeatedly plugged up to a standstill.

The problem is, if a boy goes into the army, he isn’t enrolled in a Yeshiva! So how is any boy a ward of any given Yeshiva? Which Yeshiva gets all the unaffiliated “wildcard” guys? In terms of increasing from 3,996 to 6,844, do you mean we already have 3996 Yeshiva boys in the army? Which Yeshivos are they from? Why can’t every Yeshiva point to let‘s say ten soldiers hanging around the chareidi battalions and say they came from us?

This looks a lot like the Cantonist decrees to me. Netanyahu is getting way too friendly with Vladimir Putin (or is it Avigdor Lieberman?).

After all this there are more questions. How is the government even going to punish the Yeshivos with sanctions? Give them less money? No money? If the Yeshivos will survive without the government money, what effect will this have?

And if they can’t survive, it means the Knesset is closing them down. I can’t imagine any government willing to take on such as task nor surviving to tell about it. Incidentally, I predict that just as the proportion of the chareidim in the army increases, the proportion of the chareidim in the Knesset will also increase. As the right wing gets more and more established in the Knesset, it is a sure thing that such a debacle as closing down Yeshivos will never pass the plenum.

Sof davar, there is just no chance that these sanctions will ever be applied; especially on a per-Yeshiva basis. The left-wingers and Avigdor Lieberman are never ever going to get their “Yeshiva guys”.  And no Yeshivos are going to get sanctioned.

So let’s go back to understanding this law at a more communal level and assume that they will just have to settle for calling for a quota of chareidim that are not Yeshiva guys.  And, sure enough, if we look at the headline of the last Haaretz item I quoted, the terminology seems to indicate this.This is not a per-Yeshiva quota, but a chareidi-sector quota.

And we are back to square one. With new Pandora’s boxes.

According to the press, “Yeshiva students” and “Ultra-Orthodox” are interchangeable. But this is not the way it is in real life. We already noted a problem of singling out a specific group from a “politically correct” perspective, but now we are faced with a much stickier problem: how do we identify what counts as a chareidi community and a chareidi?

Those who read my book probably know that a big section of it deals exclusively on how to define a chareidi so we know who counts and who doesn’t. Not everybody agreed to my definition. But there is one thing we can all agree on ­– there is more than one definition.

When it comes to demographics, if one does not have a monolithic definition on his subjects his numbers are totally useless. I expounded on this point both in my book (Chapter 9) and in a lengthy post eight years ago about how to define a chareidi for the purpose of statistics.

And,  after all is said and done, is such a thing really necessary? As I opened in this post, the IDF already got my Yaakov and it looks like they will be getting my Eli (I am not sure they really want him!). Are they “ultra-Orthodox” or not? Eli is even currently in a real honest to goodness Yeshiva (even though the founder was banned from the Knesset).

MK Yisrael Katz says the same thing. Right here in Arutz 7:

Minister Katz also stated that the intervention of the judicial system in the law was unnecessary. ​​"The Supreme Court erred when it intervened on this issue of enlistment," he said.

Katz also added an unusual figure that has received no media attention. "According to data presented by a committee in the Defense Ministry, the number of haredim who serve in the army is not far from the percentage of the general public who serve."

Of course, as I have written countless times, the validity of his statement boils down to what counts as a “chareidi”. Though, by my own definition, I believe he is right.

There is really no way out of this Pandora’s box. The Bagatz is spinning its wheels. They can give a hundred 12 month deadlines. There can never be a logical law. We have always defied logic, anyway.

Nobody really knows what this law is. According to Mishpacha magazine, there is currently a rift between Degel HaTorah and Agudas Yisroel. Degel HaTorah is looking at this as a quota for the ultra-Orthodox community, so they can live with it. Agudas Yisroel is looking at it as a quota of Yeshiva boys, so they cannot live with it.

Whether or not this bill passes, nothing is really going to change. It’s all smoke and mirrors. There is only one thing it can accomplish. If you ask Moshe Gafni, it may just save Netanyahu’s coalition.

But if you ask Yaakov Litzman, it may not.

By Your Hand - the Sin of Nov

Harav Yosef Blau

Director of Jewish Community Watch

Here is a trivia question:

Who dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and what was the date?

If you answered the US Air Force on August 6, 1945 I will give you partial credit but it’s not the true answer. Let’s think out of the box.

The gemara in Sanhedrin 95a refers us to a pasuk in Shmuel B 21:16:

וישבו (וְיִשְׁבִּי) בְּנֹב אֲשֶׁר בִּילִידֵי הָרָפָה, וּמִשְׁקַל קֵינוֹ שְׁלֹשׁ מֵאוֹת מִשְׁקַל נְחֹשֶׁת, וְהוּא, חָגוּר חֲדָשָׁה; וַיֹּאמֶר, לְהַכּוֹת אֶת-דָּוִד. 

And Yishbi of Nov who was from the offspring of Harpa (Orpa) and the weight of his spear was 300 weights of copper…and he sought to smite Dovid.

The gemara explains that HKBH said to Dovid HaMelech: “How long must this sin be concealed in your hands? By your hand (on your account) was destroyed Nov the city of Kohanim, by your hand Doeg HaAdomi was banished, and by your hand Shaul and his three sons perished. Would you prefer that your offspring be eradicated or that you be surrendered into the hands of your enemy?”

How special. We don’t all get to choose our destiny!

In any case, Rashi explains that “this sin” is referring to the sin of Nov. This sin was an act of gneivas daas. Dovid was on the run from Shaul and he reached the city of Nov where the Mishkan was. He requested from the Kohanim of Nov to give him bread and a sword as an emissary of Shaul when, in actuality, he was a fugitive from Shaul and his men. This had quite a backlash as Shaul’s Chief of Staff, Doeg HaAdomi, accused all of the Kohanim of sedition (mored b’malchus) and, by his word, Shaul ordered them all to be executed. As a result, Doeg, who was known as the “chief of the shepherds” – i.e., the head of all Roshei Yeshiva (the Gadol HaDor) – was banished from Olam Habah and Shaul and his sons died an inglorious death at the hands of the Plishtim.

HKBH is calling Dovid HaMelech responsible for all of these calamities. Not only for the inadvertent destruction of the city and the Kohanim, but even for the doubly inadvertent banishment of Doeg and the deaths of Shaul and his sons.

Of course, Dovid HaMelech did not kill anybody. His only “sin” was not telling Achimelech that he was a fugitive. Shaul and Doeg killed the Kohanim and, for this, they met their doom. It was their fault, not Dovid’s. In fact, Dovid’s gneivas daas was a clear matter of pikuach nefesh. And why was he on the run to start with?

Well, Shmuel HaNavi anointed him as the King of Israel while the sitting king, Shaul, was still on the throne. This is usually not a very good idea. Could be hazardous to one’s health. Besides, Dovid wasn’t really interested in the job. He had lots of big brothers who were capable fellows. It’s just that Shmuel HaNavi had his number and he needed to make an early exit from our world so he wasn’t able to push it off.

All told, Dovid was the most innocent of all of the characters in this debacle and yet, HKBH put everything on his hands. Everything. The executions of the Kohanim (also innocent), the banishment of Doeg (not quite so innocent), and Shaul and his boys (Shaul was the one who “gave the order”). Everything is on Dovid’s hands. For one little infraction in a life or death situation!

This gemara is here to teach us a frightening lesson. Every person can be held accountable, not just for his own actions, but for what other people – even irresponsible lowlife people – do as a response to his actions. And if this is so even when his own actions were almost unavoidable at a time of pikuach nefesh, imagine if the initial player has no excuse of pikuach nefesh and had every opportunity to avoid it!

And if this applies when the backlash is something nobody would have anticipated, imagine the responsibility for a repercussion that one would expect to happen and should have been foreseen.

Of course, we already should have gotten this message with our mitzvah to bring an eglah arufah as an atonement because, just perhaps, we did not give a travelling Jew enough encouragement to deal with the hazards of the road. But this gemara seems to tell us how far this concept really goes.

When we do something, even if it’s not reckless, we are responsible at some level for the backlash. And when we are foolhardy and reckless, even more so!

So, by now you have probably figured out the answer to our trivia question:

Who dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and what was the date?

The real answer is that the Japanese Navy did it on December 7, 1941. Of course, they didn’t realize that they were dropping an atomic bomb on their own country. There was no such thing as an atomic bomb, anyway.

But when those atomic bombs came down, they were just the grand finale of the first conventional bombs that they dropped on Pearl Harbor. Legend has it (never confirmed) that the Naval Marshal General, Isoroku Yamamoto, himself acknowledged this with his legendary remark on Dec. 7, 1941: I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.

The terrible resolve was resolved on August 6, 1945 in Hiroshima.

When one starts a war, everything that happens as a result, even to himself, is “by his hand”.

Friends (the few I have left) and relatives ask me why I continue to write about the Malka Leifer episode. Well, firstly it is a tremendous Chillul Hashem which I would like to see terminated. But, truly, this is far from the open-and-shut case that the consumers think it is. There are things that need to be said and nobody else feels like saying it.

The allegations are for events that allegedly occurred ten plus years ago and ended then. Only the accusers know what really happened and to what extent they were victims. But now, nobody is hurting them any more. They are no longer victims (they call themselves “survivors”). They are currently accusers and prosecutors. They are on offense. The Leifer camp is now on defense. The accuser is pursuing the accused.

I have pointed out that, at this stage, the Halacha does not support this redifa. It is the duty of the public – who have no idea what to believe – to either butt out or to work to put an end to this redifa and Chillul Hashem, not to perpetuate it. Anybody who actively or vocally participates in it has all of the repercussions on their hands.

Moreover, even though one could argue that Mrs. Leifer and her activities are the catalyst for what’s going on now, this war of extradition and prosecution was really started sometime in 2011 when the JAPs walked into the Victorian police station and filed a criminal complaint against a Jew who has been in Eretz Yisrael for a good three years.

This war is starting to get very ugly, as most wars do. Let’s have a quick look at one of the most recent posts on the BringLeiferBack page:

We receive constant backlash from those that support Leifer in reaction to this #bringleiferback campaign.

We can live with that.

But when Leifer’s relatives use my sisters death as proof of their power that is going way way way too far!

In the last few days, we have heard that Leifer's family have been calling members of the Jewish community. They have threatened that unless they sign letters stating that Leifer was the perfect educator and the sexual abuse has been a figment of our imagination, “bad things will happen to them”.

AND THEIR PROOF?? "We told this to someone else, they didn't listen to us, and they died'.

Absolutely sickened and horrified.

Interesting. From the way she is relating it, I don’t know how she knows that the referenced “someone else” is her late sister, A”H. I will have to assume that the details were more specific in real time. But now, let’s discuss.

First, the disclaimer. I personally am a total lone wolf in this drama and have no relationship or connection with anyone from the Leifer camp. To date, nobody on that side has ever contacted me to say “Thank you” or “No, thank you”. Nothing. So I have no involvement in these tactics and I do not condone them. I also think they are a little beneath the belt and can be called “hot oil”.

Nevertheless, the saying goes: All is fair in love and war!

This is going way way way too far? Already? My dears, this episode is far from over and I fear – like Naval Marshal Yamamoto – that you ain’t seen nothing yet.

The sheer naïveté of these JAPs is so utterly astounding. Did they think they can start a war with their 2011 Pearl Harbor attack in Victoria and then go home and sleep peacefully? Did they really think the Leifer camp, who is on the defense, is not going to fight back? Do they think this is Columbo? That the bad guy is just going to stick out his hands for the cuffs and come along quietly?

Goodness! I wrote more than a year ago that these girls are Flirting with Danger. I wasn’t kidding. There are definitely folks who hadn’t woken up yet and are now starting to. They may not be such powerful giants but, who knows who will wake up tomorrow and what they will do?

Incidentally, if this becomes a family feud, I am under the impression that the Leifer family is way bigger than the Sapper family, with some powerful figures, to boot.

So now Dassi Erlich, the aggressor, is complaining about hot oil and mustard gas. Does she realize that if it has come to abusing the memory of her late sister that this is by her hand? If Dovid Hamelech is blamed for the deaths of the “wayward” Doeg and Shaul, can these JAPs conceive that they are the ones who are violating their late sister? It is by their hand?

And what will they say when the nukes start to fall?

There’s more. I hate to say it but the dirty tricks did not start now and they did not start by the Leifer camp.

The JAPs are complaining about the defense tactics that are “going way way way too far.” You mean to say there are boundaries? You mean to say that the Sapper camp has any boundaries whatsoever? Not that I can see.

I have been following Dassi’s posts on her Facebook page for well more than a year and all of the suggestions that they get from “their” supporters that they thank them for. Things such as organizing protests in front of the court building (not the worst thing) and obstructing funding for her legal defense so her lawyer cannot do his job as well as to deny her of a legal defense council - which is essentially obstruction of justice. 

The story that really inflamed me was in the comments of her post on March 6, 2018 (there are lots of comments and these are in the "Reply" section of one comment). 

It began with a sensible comment from a more objective reader (and a religious woman) named Shoshana who, at that point was a supporter of the extradition campaign. She wrote:

At the end of the (say) [day] the most important thing is that there be a fair trial in Australia and this matter gets resolved …

Okay, a "fair trial". This reasonable comment was immediately countered by one Nicole Iglicki Gold who wrote:

… “A fair trial in Australia”-who are you kidding? She doesn’t deserve anything fair. I don’t know these girls but I am human and am sensitive to their pain…She is a criminal and deserves to be in jail and to have the key thrown away

Here is a typical commenter who admits that she doesn’t "know these girls” (the Sapper sisters) which indicates that she certainly doesn’t know Mrs. Leifer, as well. She doesn’t know anything at all, yet she "knows" that Mrs. Leifer is an “evil evil lady” and a “criminal” and “deserves to be in jail and the key thrown away…” Just because Dassi Erlich said so!

And what does Nichole Sapper Meyer say about the one who says “she does not deserve anything fair”?

Nichole Meyer: Nicole Iglicki Gold thank you ... your words mean a lot to us

Get that? Nicole Sapper Meyer thanked the lady who said “she doesn’t deserve anything fair”. She did not thank Shoshana. Evidently, Nichole Meyer likewise does not believe that anybody she accuses deserves anything fair!

So it appears that the Sapper sisters want what they want and don’t believe in playing “fair”. And now Dassi says that when the Leifers take extreme measures to defend themselves that “that is going way way way too far!”??

What were we discussing previously about Double standards??

Now, I do have something to say in favor of the Leifer camp. I am sure they have seen the grand proclamation from Rabbi Shmuel Feurst, Shlita and 106 prominent American Rabbanim which says that:

The Torah's statement in Leviticus 19:16, "Do not stand by while your neighbor's blood is shed," obligates every member of the community to do all in one's power to prevent harm to others.

Now, I personally wrote that this is really a mistake. It should read “all that is necessary to prevent harm” and not “all in one’s power to prevent harm” but who am I to argue with HRHG Rav Shmuel Feurst and 106 American Rabbanim – some of whom are even my age or older?

As I said earlier, at this stage of the game, the Sappers are on offense and the Leifers are on defense. Mrs. Leifer is currently the nirdaf[et]. I am certain many readers think that Mrs. Leifer’s blood doesn’t qualify for Lo Taamod (I will abstain for now), but I can say that to her relatives it certainly does. As such, they have the psak of HRHG Shmuel Feurst and 106 other prominent Rabbanim who say that not only are they allowed to do “all that is in their power” but they are obligated to.

So the Leifers have a hetter - if not a chiyuv - for their tactics. What hetter do the Sappers have?

And this is all by their hand.

And what makes it really bad is that the people who perpetrate this travesty are people who sport pious beards.

As I have repeatedly said, this whole episode is one great Chillul Hashem and it is getting ugly and it will not end well for anybody. It needs to end. And who is keeping it alive?

Obviously, the JAPs who started this war are in it till the end. By they cannot do it without help. Yes, they have thousands of fair weather grandstand supporters that cheer them on on their Facebook page (and they block out all dissenters). But they have a little bit more organized help. Consequently, this debacle is just as much by the hands of these organizations.

Who are they?

I can name two very misguided organizations that call themselves Rabbinic.

The first are my good friends at the Rabbinical Council of Australia and New Zealand (RCANZ). This organization provides no Jewish services for the community whatsoever. Its sole raison d’etre is to be a spokesman for the Jewish community to the outside world on social issues.

Sadly, these are a group of very liberal Rabbis who put the emotions of the crowd ahead of the guidelines of the Shulchan Aruch. In a previous post I mentioned some of the ringleaders: Rabbi Yaakov Glasman, Rabbi Alon Meltzer, Rabbi James Kennard and Rabbi Benjamin Elton. These are all left-wingers, Modern or Open Orthodox. Into interfaith dialog and LGBTQI rights. They are all younger than I am so as far as I am concerned, they are a bunch of children pretending to be "Rabbis".

Despite all this, their misguided support has given some sense of legitimacy to this campaign. Thus, even though it does not look like they have actively intervened in this controversy, what is happening is by their hand.

At best, RCANZ will get the Oscar for Best Screenplay Editor. But the Academy award for Best Supporting Actor goes to…the envelope, please…

Jewish Community Watch!!

Jewish Community Watch is a boiler room operation with a very impressive web site. As opposed to some of the other more sincere organizations like Ohel or Amudim who focus on helping victims of abuse, JCW is not very interested in the victims of abuse. Their primary focus is to hunt down and prosecute those who they are convinced are molesters. It doesn’t really matter if they are molesters or not. As long as JCW thinks they are, there is no line they won’t cross to do them in.

One of their features is their shameless Wall of Shame. Here they feel they are saving the world by seeing to it that anyone on their hit list is posted. Now, I have written in my post about the 3 Ps that one of the most effective tools is indeed, publicity or pirsum. But even this has limits. It is sufficient to have an online list of known and even potential predators with a clear description as to where they are holding in their predatory career, but an officially called Wall of Shame puts everyone in one basket. It’s not just that some may be true psychopaths and others are not really so, but also, many have “done their time” and need a chance to rehabilitate themselves. But what is the worst thing, and indeed applicable in the Malka Leifer case, not every person on their list is even a confirmed predator.

In most of the WOS entries, JCW puts a little box with a short description of what the person is guilty of. Often they can write that X confessed to this or Y was convicted for that. But there are plenty of exceptions. As an example, one person on the JCW WOS has one small note in his little box: Convicted in 2012 for possession of child pornography.

Though we may say that this person has a very bad habit (understatement) and maybe needs to be watched, there is no indication that he ever harmed or tried to harm a single soul. It is common that people have perverse fantasies and use imagery to gratify themselves but have no intention of crossing the line into predatorship. All of their sins are bein adam L"Makom. And who says that he didn’t get help to kick the habit? So perhaps he needs to be avoided and there are grounds for awareness, but why is he a predator and why does he need to be “shamed”??

Incidentally, JCW doesn't have anything on this fellow as of 2012. This was six years ago. What is the Halacha? Is it permissible to shame anybody for something he did in the past but as far as anyone knows is not being done now?

Dovid Hamelech himself gives us the answer in Sanhedrin 107a: One who has engaged in adultery (past tense) is worthy of strangulation but has a place in the World to Come. One who shames one in public, has no portion in the world to come!

Another person only has:  JCW has interviewed multiple people who recounted sexual abuse… So this person hasn’t been charged or convicted of anything. We don’t know how many people are “multiple" and how credible they are. At the end of the day, it is he said/she said. Same thing here, what are the grounds for “shame”?

But, after these, there are quite a few people that have no little box at all! At most, some links to some news items which talk of their unconfirmed allegations. Malka Leifer is in this group. And there were some that didn’t even have any links! It’s anybody’s guess why they are up there.

The most irresponsible thing of all is that they have multiple entries for "predators" without posting their picture. Besides the fact that the key shaming that they want to do is to post the villains mug on to the Net for everyone to see, so what do they gain by pictureless posts? But there is a very serious issue here. And let's take one entry as the prime example - a confirmed offender named Avraham Rosenfeld.

There are six Avraham Rosenfelds in the Jerusalem Chareidi phonebook and these are just the married people with phones. And this doesn't include Bnei Brak or Kiryat Sefer or anywhere out of the Jerusalem area. If you don't show his picture, how do we determine the correct Avraham Rosenfeld and avoid mixing him up with the incorrect AR? Do you know how much damage this can cause to totally innocent people?

Let's go one step further and ask what is accomplished with this particular "shaming" (along with many of the others). Is it protecting anybody? Well, as long as this fellow is in jail (as noted), he is not a threat to anybody on the outside. Should he be released from jail, this is still totally worthless because there is no picture of him and not even a place of last residence (and he certainly will not be back in the school in Tel Aviv where he was).So it doesn't affect him. It only affects his innocent relatives or another innocent Avraham Rosenfeld who may be mistaken for him. 

So the score is: People helped - 0; Innocent People hurt - who knows?

Bottom line is that Jewish Community Watch is dedicated to shaming, hurting, and punishing whoever they set their sights on and making sure not to fix anyone who may be fixable. Actually they prevent this. And they don’t really care who else gets hurt in the process, even some of those they claim they are trying to protect. (See my post about Victim Turned Predator). I devoted a special post (HERE) to explain why this approach is not too effective.

Jewish Community Watch has certainly taken a more active role in our episode.  As mentioned, our suspect has a prominent spot as one of very few females on their Wall of Shame. But, despite all the Halachos I discuss that seem meaningless to them and despite the futility of this needless Chillul Hashem and despite the fact that nobody in Australia is in any danger from this person no matter what, they could not rest.

At a time when the forbidden extradition process seemed deadlocked, and the newspapers were silent, JCW (see HERE) very valiantly paid megabucks (of their donors' money??) to have somebody follow this woman with a video camera for 200 hours to catch her doing what?

Doing absolutely nothing! Riding buses, buying things, writing checks, talking on her cell phone. All this just to show the world that she is fit to be sent to Australia where she is no threat to anybody! 200 hours of being normal and not a single minute of molesting anybody!

Well, of course all the newspapers woke up and the police took action and Shana Aaronson and Manny Waks got great video shoots, and the war is back on and the Chillul Hashem perpetuated. Three Cheers for JCW!

Essentially, Mrs. Leifer is now sitting in jail in Neve Tirtza accused of being capable of riding buses and using her cell phone. And I and my fellow Israeli citizens are paying for this.

It is by their hand.

No question that Jewish Community Watch is a very misguided organization, but who is misguiding them?

Well, their key players are two very devoted and very hot-blooded individuals. Meyer Seewald in the US and Shana Aaronson, the Chief Operating Officer here in Eretz Yisrael. True heroes for our long suffering victims – oops, I mean, survivors. But we must assume that these avenging angels are paragons of virtue and wouldn’t lift a finger without exemplary guidance from great Torah authorities.

Let's recall that Dassi Erlich wrote in the initial post that this "is going way way way too far". This episode is getting messier and messier and the Chillul Hashem is getting stronger and stronger and we have the wizards at JCW to thank.

Wizard? Well, who is the man behind the curtain? Who is the great Torah authority?

His name is Rabbi Yosef Blau. Yes, I am talking about the senior Mashgiach ruchani at Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary. He is also the president of the Religious Zionists of America.(Wikipedia).

It is by his hand.

Rabbi Blau is on the Board of Directors. But he also has some elves. If you check out the JCW Advisory Board we find some other very distinguished people who must be advising them. These include:

·       Rabbi Elchonon Tauber – the dayan of Hancock Park in Los Angeles, California.

·       Rabbi Moshe Soloveitchik – the president of the Merkaz HaRabanim of Chicago.

על פיהם יהיה כל ריב וכל נגע!

Apart from JCW, I have a lot of respect for all of these people. They are all genuine Orthodox Rabbis and are all older than I am. Amazingly, I have in some way crossed paths with all of them in previous years.

As concerns Rabbi Tauber, Shlita, I shared a ride with him from Yerushalayim to Ben Gurion Airport about twenty years ago. We had a wonderful conversation about dayanus and Choshen Mishpat. As for Rabbi Soloveitchik, I once heard a shiur from him in Rabbi Karno’s shul in Chicago when I spent a summer bein hazmanim there visiting relatives.

And Rabbi Blau?

Aside from attending the same yeshiva as his son, Binny, some four decades ago and being a chavrusa to his nephew from Elizabeth at the same time and place, I must add that my aishes chayal used to be one of Rebetzin Dr. Rivkah Blau’s [Shaarei] Bnos Chayil. (The best one, in fact.)

So we have some very prominent Rabbanim behind this monstrosity. Everything they damage, hurt and ruin is by their hand. And every bit of this Chillul Hashem.

There is only one thing that Dassi Erlich says that I can fully agree with. This thing “is going way way way too far”. How do Rabbi Blau and Rabbi Tauber and Rabbi Soloveitchik justify it? 

בא וראה כמה קשה המחלוקת שהרי ב"ד של מטה אין עונשין אלא עד שיביא שתי שערות וב"ד של מעלה עד כ' שנה וכאן אבדו אף יונקי שדים

Rabbi Yosef Blau, LOY”T, is somewhere around 80 years old. הרב בלוי שפקח הוא, מה ראה לשטות זה? And likewise for Rabbi Tauber and Rabbi Soloveitchik.

Where will you be when the earth splits open?

Please stop this madness. It will only get worse. I cannot see how it will end well for anybody at all. Not for the Sappers, not for the Leifers, not for yourselves and not for me.

Just do it. Please.

It’s all by your hand.






Update to Previous Post - Earlier this week I received a phone call from the leasing company of the car I damaged. The woman said that their shammai (appraiser) conceded that they were not authorized to use an original part and they will accept my offer for NIS 765. I settled it on the phone with 3 credit card payments.