Tzedek-Tzedek

I knew this was the time to get two boxes. Still in preview mode, the not-yet-published IAEA report on Iran is reported to include solid evidence that Iran 's nuclear program goes well beyond medical research and power generation, and is actually to produce nuclear weapons. The obvious target for these is us, Israel . Increasing probably scenarios include that Israel will soon launch a tactical attack on Iranian nuclear facilities; Iran would likely respond with massive ballistic missile bombardments on Israel ; Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon , perhaps even Syria , would all join in and blast us with literally tens of thousands of long range missiles. Unconventional warheads, such as gas and biological weapons are quite likely to be used. Hezbollah is planning to infiltrate the northern border and capture whole towns. For us in Bet Shemesh, we'd be in the thick of the missile debris. I have no influence on Israel 's defence policy, much...

Note from Tzedek-Tzedek: Rabbi Yosef Blau is the mashgiach ruchani at Yeshiva University and its affiliated rabbinical school Yeshivas Rabbeinu Yitzchal Elchanan. Rav Blau has been active in helping survivors of abuse in the Orthodox community, including cases involving rabbis and teachers. Rav Blau has kindly agreed to offer his insights to Tzedek-Tzedek regarding the case in Israel of Rabbi Motti Elon, and in particular Rav Elon's speech last week, available in its entirety at: http://www.inn.co.il/TV/Cat.ashx/0/180107 . A REACTION TO RABBI MOTY ELON’S PUBLIC SPEECH By Rabbi Yosef Blau The Israeli court system will determine Rabbi Moty Elon’s guilt or innocence of the charges against him. His public speech in Migdal will not affect that determination. However the speech challenged the credibility of Takana, the forum set up by prominent rabbis, psychologists and legal experts to respond to accusations of improper sexual behavior by rabbis and Jewish educator...

  Rav Motti Elon, once the star rabbi of the National Religious camp, was indicted this week on charges of indecent acts against two minors. The alleged incidents took place in 2003 and 2005, involving teenaged male yeshiva students. The Jerusalem District Prosecution claims that Rabbi Elon exploited his position as an educator and molested these two teenagers on various occasions in 2003 and 2005. Overall, the indictment covers five counts of forceful indecent act and abuse of authority. Allegations against Rav Elon were first publicised in February 2010, by the hitherto unknown Takana Forum. Takan Forum had been established in 2003 by leading National Religious rabbis, legal experts and mental health practitioners. The Rav Elon case was apparently brought to Takana soon after Takana opened its doors, and was the first (and so far only) case where Takana has gone public. Takana's remit is to manage cases of alleged immoral or abusive sexual behaviour by rabb...

  I was once asked by a respected rabbi to perform a task which I pointed out to him is criminal under Israeli law. His response has troubled me ever since. The rabbi did not respond by quoting from a classic Jewish halachik authority to justify his illegal instruction, such as from the Shulchan Aruch, from the Tor or from Rav Elyashiv…. The rabbi wrote to me that “if the law supposes that, then the law is an ass”. He was quoting from Charles Dickens. Actually from Dickens’ fictitious buffoon, Mr Bumble, in Oliver Twist. I could have written this off as one-time buffoonery by the Rabbi – we all make slips and errors of judgment. However, the same Rabbi then went on to give the same advice, to similarly break the Law, to his whole community. (Without even bringing Mr Bumble as a source – just “take-it-from-me”). In too many of my dealings with members of ultra-orthodox communities, they have taken such a frivolous, dismissive, nay, derisive approach...

We've all heard of the classic line to the teacher: "The dog ate my homework". Here's a variation on the theme. My newly married 20 year old daughter Avital returned from a day trip by the Kinneret, and told me that her cell phone had been picked up and stolen away by a crow/raven! No more cellphone. My son in law, Yair, reminded me that crows have a reputation for stealing bright shiny things – so the cell phone would have been a natural target for the bird. Meantime, some desk-top research shows that a relative of the crow, the magpie indeed has a reputation for stealing shiny objects. According to Wikipedia, the crow family (includes Crows, Ravens and Magpies) are exceptionally intelligent, "topping the bird IQ charts". Their brain cavity, pro rata, is the size of a human's. "As a group, crows show remarkable examples of intelligence. Crows and ravens often score very highly on intelligence tests. Certain species ...

The stand-off between the national religious school,  "Orot Banot" , in Givat Sharret, Beit Shemesh, and the extremist ultra-orthodox "Kanoim", residing five minutes walk away in Ramat Bet Shemesh, has dropped from the headlines in Israel – but is still festering on. According to parents from the school, they arrived at the start of the post-chagim vacation, to find a smashed window and a stink bomb (smelling of feces) in a third grade classroom. Some dozen Kanoim have re-established their demonstration outside the school. The police are also on the spot, using stun-guns and other crowd control methods to create a distance between the kanoim and the school kids. See this recent video that Dov Krulwich, a parent from the school, posted to YouTube: The Orot Banot dispute has attracted considerable interest around the world. My folks in England almost fell off their sofa, when the BBC News aired a report about Orot Banot in Bet Shemesh. ...

I met this weekend with someone close to the case of Yigal Amir's brother, Chagai. Yigal Amir is infamous for the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin on 4th November 1995 . Yigal's story and occasional antics occupy many column inches, particularly as the November memorial season comes around. His brother, Chagai, however, has been almost totally forgotten. In parallel to Yigal's conviction and life sentence for Rabin's murder, Chagai was sentenced to 16 years for conspiring to murder and various arms related charges. According to my source, Chagai has been kept in total solitary confinement in the Ayalon Prison for the past 16 years. He has no TV, radio, rare visitors and even the guards are not allowed to talk with him. His cell is 4 x 4 metres. He once over the past 16 years met with his brother Amir, to study together, for half an hour.     These terms of imprisonment are considerably harsher, for example, than for the Arab te...