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- 5 sept 2010
Teitel calls court 'a whorehouse'
'Jewish terrorist' declares court not authorized to try him, says accepts Torah judgment only. Medical opinions differ on his fitness to stand trial
Yaakov (Jack) Teitel disrupted Jerusalem District Court on Sunday when he stood up suddenly and told the judges in English that he opposes "this whorehouse" which he said had no legitimacy to try him. Teitel is accused of various acts over a period of many years which have earned him the title of "Jewish terrorist."
Teitel told the judges he accepts the Torah judgment alone, reiterated that the court was not authorized to try him, and said "God is king."
Last November an indictment was submitted against him, including 14 paragraphs detailing 12 years of terror. According to the allegations against him, in 1997 he murdered taxi driver Samir Akram Balbisi in Jerusalem, and shepherd Issa Jabrin near Susya. He then returned to his country of birth, the United States, before coming back to Israel where he tried to harm police officers and Palestinians a number of times.
According to the indictment, he also placed an explosive device in the house of Prof. Ze'ev Sternhell who was lightly wounded, and sent a booby-trapped gift to a family of Messianic Jews in Ariel, seriously wounding their teenage son Ami Ortiz.
The court debate centered round contradictory medical opinions regarding Teitel. One asserted he was not fit to stand trial, while another said he was fit to stand trial and responsible for his actions. During the debate, Teitel's attorneys Michael Ironi and Asher Ohayon requested the raw material on which the medical opinions were based so they could fully understand the second opinion.
Representative of the State Prosecution Sagi Ofir agreed to the request, and the court ruled that the two sides would submit a joint injunction permitting the psychiatrists to submit the raw material.
Ohayon also said Teitel would not agree to cooperate with the court. "The most he is willing to do, after much effort, is to be passive," Ohayon said, referring to "higher" orders which would not permit Teitel to do more than this.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3949488,00.html 2 dec 2011, 15:47 , Respect -
Maria 6 sept 2010
Rabbi asks businessmen to invest in Israel
Rabbi Yoshiyahu Pinto meets with 80 American Jews in Bulgaria, says 'it's unfortunate that there are so many wealthy Jews in the world who don't even consider the Israeli economy as an option'
Rabbi Yoshiyahu Pinto held a closed meeting with 80 Jewish American businessmen in Bulgaria on Wednesday and asked them to invest $5 billion in the Israeli economy, including $2 billion in the coming year.
The businessmen who met with Pinto included entrepreneur Jay Schottenstein and one of the owners of the Victoria's Secret women's wear retailer.
In such days of economic opportunities, we must remember that we, the sons of the Jewish people, must preserve the country, built it and ensure that its economic flourishes," the rabbi told the businessmen.
"It's unfortunate that there are so many wealthy Jews in the world who don't even consider the Israeli economy as an option."
One of the people the rabbi expected to see, but who failed to show up, was NBA star LeBron James, who met with Pinto about three weeks ago. The basketball players' business manager, Maverick Carter, arrived instead.
The meeting was held in the Bulgarian city of Silistra, where renowned Jewish scholar Rabbi Eliezer Papo is buried. Rabbi Pinto visits the grave once a year in an event known as "the Uman of the Sephardim."
The festive event was attended by more than 1,000 people from Israel, including dozens of senior businessmen.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3949061,00.html
2 dec 2011, 15:47 , Respect -
Maria 13 sept 2010
Bnei Brak man with violent criminal record allegedly threatens to spread nude pictures of Rabbi Yitzhak's lawyer
Rabbi Amnon Yitzhak. Against mixed-gender concerts
Nude pictures used for extortion in haredi concert conflict.
Bnei Brak man with violent criminal record allegedly threatens to spread nude pictures of Rabbi Yitzhak's lawyer if latter does not retract his opposition to haredi artists performing before mixed-gender audiences
The conflict within haredi society between over whether or not to allow concerts before mixed-gender audiences has reached new heights. On Monday, the police arrested Shlomo Saklersky, a 40-year-old resident of Bnei Brak, on suspicions of extortion.
Saklersky is suspected of having shown nude pictures of the attorney associated with Rabbi Amnon Yitzhak in order to coerce him to withdraw his opposition to concerts before concerts with both men and women in attendance.
Saklersky allegedly sent the lawyer nude pictures of him and threatened to spread them should he not capitulate to his demand to cease pressuring haredi artists not to perform for mixed audiences. Saklersky denied the allegations, but admitted to speaking with a third suspect in the affair who was also arrested on Monday.
Tel Aviv Magistrates' Court extended Saklersky's remand by two days.
Saklersky has an existing criminal record that includes violent offenses. He said during his investigation that he was merely trying to mediate between the two sides because of his previous acquaintance with Rabbi Yitzhak.
Though the lawyer only recently filed a complaint with the police, the alleged incident occurred a number of weeks ago.
The investigation material reveals that Saklersky arrived at the offices of the Shofar organization headed by Rabbi Yitzhak where he presented the compromising photographs while noting that the rabbi is associated with people who are not mindful of modesty standards.
The organization's clerk tore up the pictures. The police are in possession of a number of transcripts from telephone conversations that allegedly corroborate suspicions against Saklersky.
Attorney Yossi Freidman from the Public Defender's Office explained in a hearing held on Monday in court, "He has no interest in influencing or extorting any one of the sides to the conflict. He tried to do some mediation work and when he saw that the matter went wrong said, 'Leave me alone.'
The judge who presided over hearing on the extension of Saklersky's remand explained that some of the evidence supports the suspect's version of the events.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3953681,00.html 2 dec 2011, 15:48 , Respect -
Maria 19 sept 2010
The Murder Midrash
A controversial treatise, Torat Hamelekh, raises questions about a purported Jewish morality and the role of rabbis in society
ON A DAY IN LATE AUGUST, Rabbi Yosef Meidan, head of the Gush Etzion Yeshiva in Alon Shvut, a settlement south of Bethlehem in the West Bank, the most prestigious yeshiva of the moderate Zionist religious movement, began his daily lecture with a different lesson than the usual one on Jewish law.
He held up a copy of Torat Hamelekh (The King's Torah), a book with a marblepatterned cover and embossed gilt letters, to his students.
This is a challenging book, written by learned men, he said to the assembly of students.
After a short silence, he added, calmly and deliberately, We should burn this book and never allow its authors to teach halakha ever again.
Written by Rabbi Yitzhak Shapira and Rabbi Yosef Elizur, both from the West Bank settlement of Yitzhar, Torat Hamelekh was first published by the settlement yeshiva, Od Yosef Hai, nearly a year ago. The book deals with questions, such as the fate of a non-Jew who, in time of war, does not violate what are known as the seven principles of the sons of Noah, considered the basic commandments of all humanity, and the fate of a non-Jew who does violate these principles, and under what circumstances is it permitted to kill children and strangers living in the land. One of its six chapters deals with the prohibition for a Jew to give up his life in order to avoid killing a non- Jew, while another chapter deals with the question of when it is necessary and permissible to kill innocents.
The prohibition (in the Ten Commandments) Thou shalt not murder, the authors write, applies only to a Jew who kills a Jew. Since non-Jews are uncompassionate by nature, they should be killed in order to curb their evil inclinations, they write.
There is justification for killing babies if it is clear that they will grow up to harm us, and in such a situation they may be harmed deliberately, and not only during combat with adults.
Torat Hamelekh was not published surreptitiously nor was any attempt made to hide it from the eyes of the general public. In fact, it would appear that the authors wanted to reach as large an audience as possible and to generate public debate on whether it is justified to kill non-Jews, including children and innocent citizens.
Yet initially, although it attracted some attention in the religious-Zionist community, it raised a brief furor in the secular press, which died down quickly.
In January 2010, Shapira was briefly detained by the police for incitement, which preceded the torching and vandalizing of a mosque in Yasuf, a Palestinian village near Yitzhar. Security agents simultaneously raided the Od Yosef Hai Yeshiva and arrested 10 settlers, on suspicion that they were involved in the arson.
The police took no further action and the public took no further notice. For months, Torat Hamelekh, was on sale in religious book stores and at events sponsored by radical nationalist groups. But over the past few months, it has become almost impossible to find a copy of the book in Jerusalem or almost anywhere else. In the Od Yosef Hai Yeshiva, officials complain that the police have confiscated all the copies. The police deny confiscating copies from book shops, but say some were taken as evidence from houses of suspects.
IN MID-AUGUST, STATE PROSEC utor Moshe Ledor sent investigators to Shapira's home in the early hours of the morning and brought him in, handcuffed, for questioning about the publication of Torat Hamelekh. Rabbi Dov Lior, head of the Shavei Hebron Yeshiva in Kiryat Arba, near Hebron in the West Bank, and Rabbi Yaakov Yosef, leader of the Hazon Yaakov Yeshiva in Jerusalem, a former member of Knesset and son of former chief rabbi Ovadia Yosef, spiritual leader of the Shas party, a central component of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition, were called in for questioning, but publicly announced that they refused to appear.
An assistant issued a statement in their name, saying that they had no intention of providing anyone with an accounting of their opinions with regard to halakha. This persecution of the rabbis because of their religious opinions is a clear contradiction to accepted principles of freedom of religion and freedom of expression.
Lior and Yosef did appear at a wellattended and well-publicized rally, held in Jerusalem several days later, to denounce what they referred to as the the persecution of the Torah by the institutions of the State.
Torat Hamelekh was now receiving full attention, raising not only questions regarding a purported Jewish morality but also regarding the role of rabbis in society, heightened by the rabbis refusal to appear for questioning. Is it proper to investigate rabbis some of whom are civil servants whose salaries are paid by the state for their religious writings? And who determines what religious laws are acceptable in the current social and political context, especially now, as direct peace talks between the Israelis and the Palestinians resume and as tensions escalate between fundamentalist religious settlers and Israel's more moderate majority, religious and secular.
In a press release issued at the time of publication, the authors of Torat Hamelekh wrote that they do not plan to grant interviews to the media, especially not to those not committed to the Torah.
Yet Yisrael Ariel did agree to speak exclusively with The Jerusalem Report in late August. Ariel is a close assistant to Rabbi Yaakov Ginsburg, who has published similarly controversial books, including one that lauds Baruch Goldstein, the settler who murdered 29 Muslims while they were at prayer in the Tomb of the Patriarchs, in Hebron, in 1994. Those who have complaints about Torat Hamelekh don't understand and have not internalized the meaning of democratic values or Jewish morality, Ariel tells The Report.
He explains the rabbis position: President Obama, for example, is the antithesis of what we Jews believe. Obama divides the world into weak and strong, and he tries with all his might to support the weak. But according to the Torah, the true division in the world is between those who are right and just, and those who are not. But unfortunately, Obama's position has penetrated everywhere, even into the Israel Defense Forces code of ethics. In Israeli society, we no longer think in Jewish terms.
The statements in Torat Hamelekh, Ariel contends are thus a perfectly reasonable response to the capitulation to the false Western values that conflict with the spirit of the Torah.
Speaking at the Jerusalem rally, Yosef similarly declared that Torat Hamelekh is no different from the Haggada, which Jews read on the holiday of Passover. The Haggada, he reminded the audience, calls for God to pour out Your wrath on the nations that do not know You and on the kingdoms that do not call upon Your name and contains passages about killing non-Jews. So does the Bible. Does anyone want to change the Bible? he challenged.
MOST OBSERVERS BELIEVE that CTorat Hamelekh reflects a fringe viewpoint held by a small minority of rabbis from settlements and yeshivas in the West Bank that are known to be radical and extremist.
Yet, the late-August rally brought in a crowd of more than 250 rabbis and supporters, some of whom declared that, while they did not agree with the content of Torat Hamelekh, they had come to protest against the Attorney General's office, the judicial system, academic institutions and anyone else who believes that halakhic rulings should be subject to the secular legal system.
I don't agree with the book, declared Rabbi Ya'akov Ariel, the rabbi of the city of Ramat Gan and, as such, a civil servant, but the question here is not about agreement, it's about interrogation by the police. And Rabbi Sha'ar Yashuv Hacohen, rabbi of Haifa and similarly a public employee, declared that he was attending the rally in order to protest against the degradation of the Torah.
Thundered Rabbi Haim Druckman, head of the state's conversion courts, in the State of Israel, academic freedom is considered sacred. Only in the past few days, we have heard from the media that there are professors who openly incite against the State of Israel. One of them is reported to have said, Druckman continued, apparently referring to (and imprecisely quoting) Professor Zeev Sternhell's op-ed in a Hebrew daily several years ago, that the Arabs should aim their missiles at the settlements.
Isn't that incitement? But no one called for an investigation, and he even was awarded the Israel Prize. We are speaking about the most elementary issue the right to express words of Torah. And if there are differences regarding our understanding of the Torah, there are places of study where we can discuss these differences.
But Eliaz Cohen, a student of Druckman's, a poet and a resident of Kfar Etzion, in the West Bank, attended the rally to protest against it. He tried to interrupt Druckman's speech an almost unheard of act by a student towards his rabbi. He was removed by force from the rally, and later tells The Jerusalem Report, I know he opposes what is written in the book. But I could not be silent in the face of the hilul hashem (desecration of God's name) a particularly emotionally-laden term in the religious world.
And other, no less prominent, rabbis boycotted the event. In addition to Meidan, Rabbi Yoel Bin-Nun, one of the veteran founders of the Gush Emunim settler movement, wrote, in an opinion piece on the Ynet website, that he assumed that many of the rabbis who were in attendance at the event had not actually read the book. But from this moment on, he wrote, anyone who rises to defend the right to write such a book, or to engage in such an evil discussion as if it were a discussion of Torah testifies before heaven and earth that he has no part in the manner in which Rabbi Kook defended the Torah, referring to the spiritual leader of Gush Emunim.
Of the younger influential rabbis, Beni Lau, nephew of former chief rabbi Israel Meir Lau, leader of a study house devoted to social justice, also tells The Report that the book and the rally should be considered a hilul hashem.
Rabbi Yuval Cherlow, head of the armyaffiliated yeshiva in Petah Tikva and considered one of the most prominent moderate voices of the religious Zionist camp, denounced the meeting in the harshest terms. Whoever convenes a meeting solely on this topic [the alleged insult to the Torah] and does not, at the same time, completely distance himself from what is written in this book is a sinner, he tells The Jerusalem Report.
This book purports to be very Zionist. It is very concrete in the way in which it relates to the reality we face today. It is intended to give soldiers the tools with which to defend themselves. It claims that the IDF's ethical code is immoral vis-a-vis our soldiers and endangers the IDF through all sorts of pseudo-moral claims. But the men who wrote this book are merely defining Judaism in the way they believe. This book and its authors want to force Jewish morality to suit their opinions. And I, as one who deals with Jewish ethics, insist that you must say not only what is correct, but also what is worthy and what is not worthy.
An ad-hoc coalition of moderate religious groups issued a statement in which they wrote that Israel's rabbis are subject to the laws of the state, as are all of Israel's citizens, and that obligation also conforms to the halakhic precept of dina demalchuta dina (the law of the state is law). So such insubordination [of refusing police questioning] can also be considered a halakhic transgression. And even a handful of settler rabbis censured the book and boycotted the event, including Shlomo Aviner, chief rabbi of the settlement of Beit El and head of the Ateret Yerushalayim Yeshiva.
GIVEN THE GROWING INFLU ence of rabbis over the growing number of religious soldiers, and the growth of the army-affiliated yeshivas, the question arises whether Torat Hamelekh and similar rabbinic literature will affect the way soldiers respond to events in the territories.
Yisrael Ariel hopes they will. Soldiers need to understand that they are right and righteous, they shouldn't ask questions about who is weak or who is strong. If you are right, then it doesn't matter if you are weak or strong.
Torat Hamelekh was written to change the attitudes of the people who have adopted this Western attitude When my son goes to the army to fight, he is not alone, he is with his mother and father, his community, the people who are with him in his life. Morality seems very different when you think this way.
And, in fact, there were large numbers of youths at the Jerusalem rally, most of them wearing the long thick side-locks and large skullcaps associated with the extremist fringe of the national religious movement. Several wore T-shirts with the slogan, Show no mercy.
Yet Cherlow says that he is not concerned regarding the impact that Torat Hamelekh will have on young men as they enlist in the military. Religious soldiers act according to ethical rules and morality. Not that there isn't any such danger, but I think that it is on the fringes. Isolated soldiers, weak in their faith, alone in the country, may take advantage of the book to commit crimes, even murder.
But the anxiety regarding the soldiers torn between prevailing moral codes and the writings of their teachers, and troubled by what many see as the attack on the world of Torah is reflected on the websites, which the rabbis of the religious Zionist movement have opened over the past few years in order to enable youth to ask for rabbinic opinions anonymously. On the Kippah website, one of the most active of these sites, a soldier asks, In this book, you write that it is permitted to kill innocents and even children if they endanger me. But is it not God who decides who should live and who should die? And He has specifically written, thou shalt not murder.
The rabbis respond to his query by writing that war is cruel and in war you must win completely, and in our times, we must aspire to a complete victory, so that our enemies will surrender Unfortunately, the IDF, once an idealistic institution that was meant to defend our ancient and holy people and our land has become an organization in which the personal careers of the soldiers conflict with our true values If the religious soldiers want to fix the IDF, they will have to stop hiding their Jewish- Israeli positions. They must say loudly and clearly that the role of the IDF is to defend the land and the people, and not pretend that they are UN soldiers who are supposed to keep the Jews and the Arabs apart, and they must denounce commanders who do not understand that we are in the land of Judea and Samaria because it is the land of our forefathers.
Cherlow repeats that he doubts that soldiers will be influenced by these writings, but he adds, I am more concerned that the authors think that this is what Judaism is supposed to be and no one will want to become part of such a Judaism. In addition, they are providing fuel to all those in the world who hate us.
TO DATE, BOTH SEPHARDI CHIEF Rabbi Shlomo Amar and Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger have steadfastly refused to comment on the book or the rally. And the government and its officials have remained silent, raising serious questions regarding the extent to which Netanyahu, whose coalition is dependent on the right wing, is willing to confront and contend with the extremists in the national religious camp, especially as the decision regarding the continuation or cessation of the 10-month housing freeze approaches.
Despite the tone of their writings, defenders of Torat Hamelekh often use arguments taken from liberal democratic theory. It breaks my heart that an open, democratic discussion has not been internalized, says Yehuda Glick, head of the Mikdash Institute and a strong proponent of permitting Jews to pray on the Temple Mount. If they disagree, why don't they pick up the gauntlet, open the book and discuss and debate? These people Rabbi Meidan's students, for example are intellectually capable of dealing with Torat Hamelekh.
But legal commentator Moshe Negbi, a contributing editor to The Jerusalem Report, retorts, This is clearly incitement to racism and to violence, for which the law mandates a five-year prison term. Religious incitement is the most dangerous, whether it is by Bin Laden, Hamas, fundamentalist Christians or extremist rabbis. Perhaps prosecuting these rabbis will prevent publication of the next book we all remember that Yigal Amir, the assassin of prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, said that without the support of the rabbis, he would not have done what he did. It is useless to run after the mosquitoes; we have to dry out the swamps. And those swamps are halakhic rulings and books like Torat Hamelekh.
http://www.jpost.com/JerusalemReport/Article.aspx?id=188561 2 dec 2011, 15:48 , Respect -
Maria 2 dec 2011, 15:48 , Respect -
Maria 3 oct 2010
Hundreds in north may undergo circumcision corrections
Chief Rabbinate to hold hearing on rabbi from Haifa area suspected of not removing entire foreskin during brit ceremony. Following discovery, dozens of concerned parents contact experts to check if their children's circumcision was performed thoroughly. No concern for medical complications.
Israel's Chief Rabbinate suspects that a mohel (ritual circumciser) from the north performed hundreds of circumcisions in recent years that did not comply with Jewish Law. Some of the children circumcised by the rabbi have already undergone surgery to correct the brit, thus rendering it kosher. There is significant concern that others will be forced to undergo a similar procedure.
Ynet learned that the mohel oversight committee instructed the rabbi not to conduct additional circumcisions until the Rabbinate's hearing on his case, expected to be held this week, is completed.
According to the item published on ladaat.net, suspicions were aroused after a number of senior rabbis from the Haifa area were present at a brit milah performed by L. %u2013 a rabbi affiliated with the local Chabad %u2013 were surprised to find out that he did not remove the foreskin around the penis, as is required by halacha. The guest rabbis notified the Chief Rabbinate, and word spread throughout the community.
Following these revelations, dozens of concerned parents contacted expert mohels to examine their children's circumcision. A number of circumcised children even had to undergo a surgical procedure under full anesthesia to correct the botched circumcision. Each such surgical procedure costs thousands of shekels.
The said mohel is well-known and performs hundreds of circumcisions a year. Estimates are that the scandal will likely have implications for thousands of children. For instance, the Chief Rabbinate may decide to summon the circumcised children for an examination whether the circumcisions meet kosher standards.
However, it is important to note that there is no concern of medical complications. The issue is a purely halachic and aesthetic one.
Rabbi Moshe Weisberg, a member of the inter-ministerial committee of the Health Ministry and Religious Affairs ministry for oversight and training of mohels, told Ynet that he does not remember any such instance. "It can happen to anyone because no one is an angel, even if he is a mohel or a doctor," he explained. "But on such a scale? This is already in the realm of the abnormal."
Weisberg added that a number of worried parents have already contacted him on the matter. In most cases, he ruled that though their sons' organ may look "weird," by his definition, it can be ruled retrospectively that the brit milah was kosher. However, in some cases, he recommended that the corrective surgery procedure be performed.
"If it were my son, I wouldn't think twice," he said. Other mohels and doctors from the north have also performed the "corrections" on a number of children.
'Brit milah must be done performed in entirety'
N., a haredi parent of a three-year-old circumcised by L., told Ynet of the sense of panic and subsequent meeting with Rabbi Weisberg. "He is known as one of the foremost experts in our community. When he removed my child's pants he just said, 'Oy, oy, oy.' My heart sank. I almost breathed my last breath. Fortunately for us, it was okay in the end, and he said we don't need a correction."
N. said that he specifically chose L. to perform the brit milah because he heard that babies don't cry when he does the procedure. Now, three years later, he understands why.
"Whenever I bathed the children, I saw there was something weird with him, but I didn't make a big deal about it," he added. "I told myself it could just be a difference between one child and the next. Only when my wife told me about the Rabbinate's investigation did the other shoe drop."
Despite this, N. emphasized that the said mohel is "a God-fearing adherent," and that the botch, if there was one, was done innocently.
Head of the Chief Rabbinate's brit milah department Rabbi Moshe Morsiano told Ynet, "There is no medical damage, but it is a halachic matter. Circumcision is a commandment and must be done in its entirety. There is concern here that this was not the case. This is a serious, well-known, and highly regarded man who apparently made a mistake."
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3963336,00.html 2 dec 2011, 15:48 , Respect -
Maria 10 oct 2010
Petition: Divulge names of neglectful mohels
Freedom of Information Movement says Rabbinate ignoring court order, endangering public health.
The Movement for Freedom of Information has demanded that Israel's Chief Rabbinate divulge the names of mohels (ritual circumcisers) who were found to have performed botched circumcisions.
The movement claims that the Rabbinate is violating a High Court of Justice order by keeping the names secret, and petitioned the court to find the violators in contempt and subject them to the resulting fines and sentences.
A year ago the petitioners asked the court to "maintain public health" by forcing the Rabbinate to publish the names of the circumcisers, who were said to have caused their subjects health problems.
The court found in favor of the petitioners and ordered the names to be handed over to them within 30 days. However, according to the movement, the Rabbinate ignored this order.
Letters of request for the names were cited in the petition. "The conduct of the respondents after the verdict was handed down constitutes a direct continuation of their conduct until the petition was filed," the movement explained.
"They continue to evade the orders of the Freedom of Information Law and express contempt for the court's orders."
Roy Peled, who chairs the movement, accused the Rabbinate of purposefully keeping citizens in the dark. "I have no doubt they want to keep the dirty laundry inside and cover for the mohels," he told Ynet.
"They think they can solve these issues on their own%u2026 It's difficult to believe that a state authority ignores court rulings so easily in order to protect these mohels. The Rabbinate is behaving irresponsibly towards parents."
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3966968,00.html 2 dec 2011, 15:48 , Respect -
Maria 13 oct 2010
Top rabbis: IDF conversions endorse gentiles as Jews
Leading Lithuanian rabbis slam IDF conversion track; Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar supports it.
Senior rabbis from the Lithuanian ultra-Orthodox community released a "Torah opinion and protest" against the IDF conversion track, while expressing support for marriage registrars who do not recognize former soldiers as Jews.
A notice issued Tuesday morning in haredi newspapers Yated Neeman and HaMevaser following the public and legal debate surrounding the legal and halachic validity of these conversions, claimed this was a way of "approving goys (gentiles) as Jews." The rabbis called on all those who can to protest and prevent such conversions.
The signatories are among the communities' most well-known leaders senior halachic authorities and Lithuanian yeshiva heads. Prominent names include Rabbi Shalom Elyashiv, Rabbi Aharon Yehuda Leib Shteinman, Rabbi Nissim Karelitz and Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach.
Rabbi Shalom Elyashiv
This was a coordinated attack from these leaders, aimed mainly at Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar. Last month the chief rabbi issued a notice in which he referred positively to IDF conversions, and was immediately singled out by the Lithuanian community.
The chief rabbi's notice was issued after the State's representative said during a High Court debate that IDF conversion officials had no authority and that the conversions were not approved by the Chief Rabbinate. In his response, Amar surveyed many years of cooperation between the civil and military rabbinate, and called on the Justice Ministry to regulate the administrative aspects of the issue.
Amar wrote noting historical fact that for many years the Chief Rabbinate had married off graduates of the army's conversion track, and said the Chief Rabbinate council will convene to discuss the issue from a halachic point of view. Amar's granting of legitimacy to the IDF track and the interpretations given to his words sparked the wave of protest.
The most vociferous attacks came from the Eda Haredit which issued a "severe warning" notice at the weekend against the IDF conversion. "We strongly protest against those who call themselves rabbis and assist (the conversions) directly or indirectly," they wrote.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3968304,00.html 2 dec 2011, 15:49 , Respect -
Maria 18 oct 2010
Yosef: Gentiles exist only to serve Jews
According to Rabbi, the lives of non-Jews in Israel are safeguarded by divinity, to prevent losses to Jews.
The sole purpose of non-Jews is to serve Jews, according to Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, the head of Shas's Council of Torah Sages and a senior Sephardi adjudicator.
Goyim were born only to serve us. Without that, they have no place in the world only to serve the People of Israel, he said in his weekly Saturday night sermon on the laws regarding the actions non-Jews are permitted to perform on Shabbat.
According to Yosef, the lives of non-Jews in Israel are safeguarded by divinity, to prevent losses to Jews.
In Israel, death has no dominion over them... With gentiles, it will be like any person they need to die, but [God] will give them longevity. Why? Imagine that one's donkey would die, they'd lose their money.
This is his servant... That's why he gets a long life, to work well for this Jew, Yosef said.
Why are gentiles needed? They will work, they will plow, they will reap. We will sit like an effendi and eat.
That is why gentiles were created, he added.
Yosef's Saturday night sermons have seen many controversial statements from the 90-year-old rabbi. In August, Yosef caused a diplomatic uproar when he wished a plague upon the Palestinian people and their leaders, a curse he retracted a few weeks later, when he blessed them along with all of Israel's other peace-seeking neighbors.
http://www.jpost.com/JewishWorld/JewishNews/Article.aspx?id=191782 2 dec 2011, 15:50 , Respect -
Maria 19 oct 2010
Major rabbi says non-Jews are donkeys, created to serve Jews
A major Jewish religious figure in Israel has likened non-Jews to donkeys and beasts of burden, saying the main reason for their very existence is to serve Jews.
Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, spiritual mentor of the religious fundamentalist party, Shas, which represents Middle Eastern Jews, reportedly said during a Sabbath homily earlier this week that "the sole purpose of non-Jews is to serve Jews."
Shas is a chief coalition partner in the current Israeli government.
Yosef, also a former Chief Rabbi of Israel, was quoted by the right-wing newspaper, the Jerusalem Post, as saying that the basic function of a goy, a derogatory word for a gentile, was to serve Jews.
"Non-Jews were born only to serve us. Without that, they have no place in the world-only to serve the People of Israel," Yosef said in his weekly Saturday night sermon which was devoted to laws regarding actions non-Jews are permitted to perform on the Sabbath.
Yosef also reportedly said that the lives of non-Jews in Israel are preserved by God in order to prevent losses to Jews.
Yosef, widely considered a prominent Torah sage and authority on the interpretation of Talmud, a basic Jewish scripture, held a comparison between animals of burden and non-Jews.
"In Israel, death has no dominion over them" With gentiles, it will be like any person-They need to die, but God will give them longevity. Why? Imagine that one's donkey would die, they'd lose their money.
"This is his servant". That's why he gets a long life, to work well for this Jew."
Yosef further elucidated his ideas about the servitude of gentiles to Jews, asking "why are gentiles needed? They will work, they will plow, they will reap; and we will sit like an effendi and eat."
"That is why gentiles were created."
The concept of gentiles being infra-human beings or quasi-animals is well-established in Orthodox Judaism.
For example, rabbis affiliated with the Chabad movement, a supremacist but influential Jewish sect, teach openly that at the spiritual level, non-Jews have the status of animals.
Abraham Kook, the religious mentor of the settler movement, was quoted as saying that the difference between a Jew and a gentile was greater and deeper than the difference between humans and animals.
"The difference between a Jewish soul and souls of non-Jews -- all of them in all different levels -- is greater and deeper than the difference between a human soul and the souls of cattle."
Some of Kook's manifestly racist ideas are taught in the Talmudic college, Merkaz H'arav, in Jerusalem. The college is named after Kook.
In his book, "Jewish History, Jewish Religion: The Weight of Three Thousand Years," the late Israeli writer and intellectual Israel Shahak argued that whenever Orthodox rabbis use the word "human," they normally didn't refer to all humans, but only to Jews, since non-Jews are not considered humans according to Halacha or Jewish law.
A few years ago, a member of the Israeli Knesset, castigated Israeli soldiers for "treating human beings as if they were Arabs." The Knesset member, Aryeh Eldad, was commenting on the evacuation by the Israeli army of a settler outpost in the West Bank.
Faced with the negative effect of certain Biblical and Talmudic teachings on inter-religious relations, some Christian leaders in Europe have called on the Jewish religious establishment to reform the traditional Halacha perceptions of non-Jews.
However, while the Reform and Conservative sects of Judaism, have related positively to such calls, most Orthodox Jews have totally rejected the calls, arguing that the Bible is God's word which can't be altered under any circumstances.
The Bible says that non-Jews living under Jewish rule must serve as "water carriers and wood hewers" for the master race.
In Joshua (9:27), we read " That day, Joshua made the Gibeonites woodcutters and water carriers for the community and for the altar of the Lord at the Place the Lord would choose. And that is what they are to this day."
Elsewhere in the Bible, Israelites are strongly urged to treat "strangers living in your midst "humanely "because you yourselves were strangers in Egypt."
From Khalid Amayreh in occupied East Jerusalem
http://bit.ly/djxOPt 2 dec 2011, 15:50 , Respect -
Maria 20 oct 2010
Rabbi accused of sexual abuse: Man's strength is in his silence
Police recommended Elon, one of the most prominent rabbis in the religious Zionist movement, be indicted on charges of sexual crimes following several complaints.
Rabbi Mordechai (Moti) Elon responded Wednesday to testimonies of sexual abuse claims against him that had been made public by Takana, a forum that fights sexual abuse in the Orthdox community, saying "man's greatest strength is to remain silent."
"What there is in the world is not the noise around," Elon said during a sermon in a Bat Yam synagogue.
Elon, who was suspended from his public position following the police's recommendation to charge him with the allegations against him, said "Rachel taught me the secret of silence. There are kinds of silence that are above talk."
Following a lengthy investigation, the police announced in August they had collected sufficient evidence to recommend that Elon, one of the most prominent rabbis in the religious Zionist movement, be indicted on charges of sexual crimes.
Police suspect Elon of forcibly committing indecent acts on two minors.
The investigation included testimony from various individuals who had come into contact with the complainant during the time the alleged crimes were committed and strengthened the suspicions against Elon.
Earlier on Wednesday, hundreds of Elon's students signed an online petition criticizing "the malicious intention to publish defamations."
"For the last year we have gotten used to attempts to humiliate Rabbi Elon, and the Rabbi, in his humility has remained silent," the students wrote in the petition. "But now things have reached a point at which we cannot remain silent. To us, who have known Elon for many years, you cannot tell stories. We testify that over the many years we have been privileged to study and teach with Rabbi Elon, we have never, in any matter, not sight, nor rumor or even a hint of any kind, encountered exploitive or inappropriate behavior on Elon's part."
ADL slams Shas spiritual leader for saying non-Jews 'were born to serve Jews'
Rabbi Ovadia Yosef says in Saturday sermon that 'Goyim have no place in the world - only to serve the People of Israel'; ADL chief calls Yosef's words 'hateful' and 'divisive'.
The Anti-Defamation League on Tuesday condemned comments about non-Jews made this past weekend by Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef.
In a sermon given on Saturday on laws concerning what non-Jews are permitted to do on Shabbat, Yosef said: "Goyim [non-Jews] were born only to serve us. Without that, they have no place in the world only to serve the People of Israel."
"Why are gentiles needed? They will work, they will plow, they will reap. We will sit like an effendi and eat."
According to Yosef, death has "no dominion" over non-Jews in Israel.
"With gentiles, it will be like any person - they need to die, but [God] will give them longevity. Why? Imagine that one's donkey would die, they'd lose their money. This is his servant... That's why he gets a long life, to work well for this Jew.
On Tuesday, the ADL said that Yosef's comments contributed "to an atmosphere of hatred and a global trend of intolerance."
"It is disturbing to see any religious leader, and particularly Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, use their podium to preach such hateful and divisive ideas," ADL chief Abraham H. Foxman said.
"In a world where bigotry and prejudice are prevalent, it is especially important for religious leaders to use their influence to teach respect and acceptance," he continued.
In August, Yosef sparked controversy when he called for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to "perish from this world" and said that Palestinians were "evil, bitter enemies of Israel."
http://bit.ly/cYbrrC
Leading rabbi encourages IDF soldiers to use Palestinian human shields.
'Your life is more important than that of the enemy', Rabbi Yitzhak Shapira tells students, adding that a soldier should never put himself in danger even for the sake of a civilian.
A leading rabbi in the West Bank settlement of Yitzhar has encouraged Israel Defense Forces soldiers to make use of the outlawed "neighbor procedure" while operating in Palestinian areas.
"Anything you do to keep the war tough is permissible, and obligatory according to the torah," Rabbi Yitzhak Shapira, headmaster of the Od Yosef Chai Yeshiva, wrote in fliers distributed to his students.
"According to true Jewish values, your lives come before those of the enemy, whether he is a soldier or a civilian under protection. Therefore, you are forbidden from endangering your own life for the sake of the enemy, not even for a civilian," Shapira declared.
Shapira was arrested over the summer for encouraging Jews to kill Gentiles in his book "The King's Torah." The preface of the book, which was published in November, states that it is forbidden to kill non-Jews - but the book then apparently describes the context in which it is permitted to do so.
The rabbi's decree came less than a month after the southern command military court convicted two IDF soldiers of using human shields during Operation Cast Lead, Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip, in the winter of 2008-2009.
The soldiers were convicted of offenses including inappropriate behavior and overstepping authority for ordering an 11-year-old Palestinian to search bags suspected to have been booby trapped.
The conviction is the first such conviction for soldiers who made use of human shields during an operation, an act strictly prohibited in IDF protocols.
The incident occurred during a search conducted by Givati soldiers in southern Gaza City in January 2009. An investigation was launched last July, after a United Nations report on children in armed combat brought the details of the event to the military police's attention.
The indictment also relied on a complaint filed by the Israeli chapter of the Defense for Children organization.
The IDF spokesperson's unit stressed that, during every incursion, soldiers were told that forcing civilians to assist in military operations was strictly forbidden, especially if such action were to endanger their lives.
http://bit.ly/cSLiJv 2 dec 2011, 15:50 , Respect -
Maria 21 oct 2010
Jewish Rabbi allows using Palestinians as human shields
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- A Jewish rabbi has allowed the use of unarmed Palestinian civilians as human shields even if they were killed in the process.
Yitzhak Shapira, a director of a Jewish school in the occupied West Bank, told Haaretz daily published on Thursday that anything could be used in order to save the lives of Jews according to the Tora teaching.
He said that the life of a Jew is much more precious than that of anyone else whether he is a soldier or not.
No Israeli should endanger his life for the sake of a non-Jew even if he/she was a civilian, Shapira said.
http://bit.ly/9obEHr
Israeli Rabbi urges use of human shields
A controversial Israeli rabbi has encouraged the use of Palestinians as human shields by army soldiers, even if the victim happens to be a civilian.
"Anything you do to keep the war tough is permissible, and obligatory according to the Torah," Rabbi Yitzhak Shapira, headmaster of the Od Yosef Chai Yeshiva, wrote in fliers distributed to his students, the Ha'aretz reported on its website on Wednesday.
"According to true Jewish values, your lives come before those of the enemy, whether he is a soldier or a civilian under protection. Therefore, you are forbidden from endangering your own life for the sake of the enemy, not even for a civilian," declared Shapira, who lives in the West Bank settlement of Yitzhar.
The rabbi was arrested in the summer for encouraging Jews to kill non-Jews in his book The King's Torah.
Last month, Israel's southern command military court convicted two Israeli soldiers of using human shields during the December 2008-January 2009 war against the Gaza Strip.
The so-called Operation Cast Lead left more than 1,400 Palestinians, mostly women and children, dead and thousands of others injured, while reducing scores of houses and edifices to rubbles.
Soon after the 22-day conflict, an independent fact-finding team commissioned by the UN Human Rights Council to investigate the offensive found Israeli forces guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The report by the head of the commission, South African prosecutor Richard Goldstone, listed -- among other things -- instances where Israeli soldiers used Palestinian civilians as human shields upon entering buildings thought to hole up resistance fighters
Last month, an Israeli military court convicted two soldiers of offenses including inappropriate behavior and overstepping authority for ordering an 11-year-old Palestinian following the Gaza war to search bags suspected to have been booby trapped.
http://www.presstv.com/detail/147568.html 3 dec 2011, 12:02 , Respect -
Maria 23 oct 2010
Ramahi: Using Palestinians as human shields reveals Zionist fanaticism
RAMALLAH, (PIC)-- MP Dr. Mahmoud Al-Ramahi, the secretary of the Palestinian legislative council, has charged that the edict by Jewish rabbi Yitzhak Shapira allowing use of Palestinian civilians as human shields in war and military operations reflected the extent of that rabbi's racism, savagery, and malice against Palestinians.
Ramahi said in a press statement on Friday that the edict also reflects the great extent of Zionists' extremism that is rampant in their religious institutions.
He said that the edict was expected in light of the Israeli violations of human rights and attacks on civilians during the Gaza war other than the settlers' assaults on mosques and places of worship in the West Bank including calls for demolishing a number of them.
The Hamas MP denounced such edicts and called on the world community to protect the Palestinian people in face of the catastrophic consequences that might result from those fanatic edicts that reflect "blind hatred".
http://bit.ly/9CKZkv
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Pj79OHBQK4 -
Maria 24 oct 2011
Top Rabbi Exposes Jewish Racism!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYBsDwjezQI -
Maria 27 oct 2010
Meir Kahane Assasination to 9/11
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2dOPGC_Rn0