Psychosis: Avi Shafran defends Madoff and sullies Hudson River pilot
from all the insanities, I can't recall this kind of mindless lunacy. from vosizneias.com: Harboring Some Admiration for Bernie, And Less For Sully
New York - Something tells me I won’t make any new friends (and might even lose some old ones) if I confess to harboring some admiration for Bernard Madoff.
And to make things worse, I can’t muster much for Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, the pilot who safely landed a full commercial airliner in the Hudson River back in January.
Let me try to explain. Please.
Mr. Madoff committed a serious economic crime on an unprecedented scale for such wrongdoing, and in the process ruined the financial futures of numerous people and institutions, including charitable ones, worldwide. There can be no denying that.
Yet I can’t quite bring myself to join the large, loud chorus of those who have condemned him to – to take Ralph Blumenthal’s judgment in The New York Times Magazine – the Pit, the deepest circle of Dante’s Inferno. Others have devised and publicly proclaimed creative and exquisite tortures of their own for the disgraced businessman – Woody Allen fantasized Madoff being attacked by clients reincarnated as lobsters, and Elie Wiesel wished the investor confined to a solitary cell and forced to watch his victims on a screen bewail their changed fortunes. The fury of the bilked has yielded opprobrium and loathing that isn’t visited on mass murderers.
I think the revulsion may say more about the revolted – and our money-obsessed and vengeance-obsessed society – than it does about Madoff. His crime, after all, was really remarkable only for its longevity and its scope. The Torah teaches that stealing is a sin, but it doesn’t differentiate between misappropriating a million dollars and pilfering a dime. And as to the sheer number of people defrauded by the thief of the moment, well, anyone who cheats on his federal income tax is defrauding 300 million of his fellow citizens. Few though, in such cases, invoke Dante.
What is more, Madoff likely began his crime spree in the hope of rewarding, not swindling, investors, and by the time it became clear he wouldn’t be able to do that, he was already deeply entangled – and daily becoming more entangled – in the web he wove.
None of that, though, is to belittle the great pain Mr. Madoff caused, and is certainly no cause for affording the iniquitous investment broker respect. No, what I admire about him has to do with his owning up to his crime.
Think about it. The man knew for years that his scheme would eventually come apart and that prosecution loomed, yet he took no steps to flee, huge bribe in hand, to some country lacking extradition treaties. Idi Amin, we might recall, died of old age in luxury. Madoff’s millions, moreover, could have easily bought him a new face and identity papers; he could spent his senior years tanned and well-fed among the sunbirds of Miami Beach.
Instead, though, he chose to essentially turn himself in and admit guilt. He apologized to his victims, acknowledging that he had “deeply hurt many, many people,” and adding, “I cannot adequately express how sorry I am for what I have done.”
No one can know if those words reflect the feelings in his heart, but I don’t claim any right to doubt that they do. And facing one’s sins and regretting them is the essence of teshuvah – which we are all enjoined to do for our personal aveiros, however small or large.
No such sublimity of spirit, though, was in evidence in any of the public acts or words of Mr. Sullenberger. He saved 155 lives, no doubt about it, and is certainly owed the hakoras hatov of those he saved, and of their families and friends. And he executed tremendous skill.
But no moral choice was involved in his act. He was on the plane too, after all; his own life depended on undertaking his feat no less than the lives of others. He did what anyone in terrible circumstances would do: try to stay alive. He was fortunate (as were his passengers) that he possessed the talents requisite to the task, but that’s a tribute to his training, and to the One Who instilled such astounding abilities in His creations (and Whose help the captain was not quoted as acknowledging). Basketball players are highly skilled, too – and heroes, in fact, to some. But I have never managed to understand that latter fact.
Sully has reportedly inked a $3 million book deal with HarperCollins, and is also planning a second book of inspirational poems; Bernie, likely for the rest of his life, will languish in jail.
That may make societal sense, but personally, I’m still unmoved by the pilot, and, at least somewhat, inspired by the penitent.
Judaism.com
April 5th, 2009 at 6:57 pm
i just hope that this exposes shafran as the relatively well-spoken jackass he is. but he is the embodiment of superficial frumkeit so he can’t be fired.
April 5th, 2009 at 7:07 pm
to their rare credit, most of YWN’s commentators are not happy with Shafran
April 5th, 2009 at 7:14 pm
see what this crackpot has to say:
Attorney and Pilot Says:
Dear Rabbi Shafran,
Than you for a great article.
Madoff is a Rasha, but he was stealing from those who wanted fruits of theft.
Captain Sullenberger is a competent pilot who did his job well. He did what ANY qualified and skilled pilot was doing…. MAYBE.
But “Hero” … no way.
By the way, it is not so clear that he was even a good guy in that incident.
Here are just a few points to think about. I do not know what they mean, and I am not accusing Scully of anything. But they do make one think….
This man has written books and training materials about just these types of incidents. How bizzare that just when such a situation would give him the publicity to make a fortune out of his materials, this bird strike should happen TO HIM.
He was getting on in years, and unsure how many more years he has a “captain” at that salary… and prestige.
Spend the $15 and buy an aviation map of the area. Notice the distance between the center of the GW Bridge and Teterboro Airport. VERY Close.
Many pilots believed he had more than enough altitude to make a clear approach to Teterboro, where they cleared all traffic and were ready for him with emergency equipment already rolling.
Teterboro Airport is large enough and well equipt enough for that plane.
It was a clear shot from where he was when he was talking to the Controllers.
They suggested Teterboro (listen carefully at the tapes) … he declined and said they were going to land in the Hudson.
Look at the distance from the bridge to his touchdown point. It was further that Teterboro’s runway was.
Teterboro did not require that sharp 90 degree left turn, which cost him altitude.
Water landings normally have a lower survival rate than does emergency landings on highways or runways.
Scully just happened to have made himself an expert in those landings.
Did you ever hear the stories of mothers who would make their kids sick, so they could be the heroes and cure them! Read about it.
There are some people who need to be “Heros”
Read Capt. Scully’s writings from before the incident.
During the incident, Scully was the “Classic Hero Figure” in every way.
except…. was it needed?
Just thoughts…. Remember, I said above, I am not accusing Scully of anything. I am only throwing out some thoughts. See what you make of them.
By the way, I AM a pilot, and do know the area very well.
I was approached about 7 years ago by someone who was offering me a “Great Investment” at a “too high” rate of return. He offered me 5 references from others who were current investors.
I turned it down. It was “too good to be true” …. he also folded… a few weeks after Bernie.
So, please, Rabbi Shafran, do NOT Retract your good words.
Thank you.
interesting that a lawyer doesn’t know how to spell ‘equipped’…
April 5th, 2009 at 7:34 pm
You guys are all for contrarian views…until they’re espoused by The Establishment.
Aloo V’aloo are full of shit.
April 5th, 2009 at 7:55 pm
THere should be a rule that anything that is posted on Failedmessiah.com cannot be cross posted on the Cows.
Let Shmarya pontificate on how evil Avi shafran is. We have better things to do, like … well anything is better than wasting bits and bytes on avi shafran.
April 5th, 2009 at 7:56 pm
i didn’t see this on failed messiah. i read it on vosizneias.
April 5th, 2009 at 9:40 pm
http://www.theonion.com/content/video/pragues_franz_kafka_international
April 5th, 2009 at 11:45 pm
GG is right but consistency is the bugaboo of small minds.
April 6th, 2009 at 3:19 am
This is totally classic 7fc, hatslacha butcher era. I totally agree with the point that Rabbi Shafran is making: whoever everyone in power is villifying, could not possibly be all that bad. And whoever they are celebrating could not possibly have done anything very special, important, meaningful, or heroic at all.
And furthermore, I think Mohammed’s point from It’s Me, Moe Silverstein, is right on the money: Madoff tried to push people away from him, and the charities and foundcting with and investing with him despite his exhorbitant conditions and the lack of clarity about what he was going to do with the money, were the super-wealthy decadent philanthropy class, with most of the so-called widows and charity money probably being invested in Holocaust education and Jewish Continuity, i.e. lies and vanity. that the voices of outrage are morally compromised bougise scum like Woody Allen, Jim Cramer, and Eli Wiesel, testifies how much he couldn’t be SO bad.
April 6th, 2009 at 7:21 am
it’s clear that madoff has become a focal point for all the anger and frustration of a failed economy but that don’t make him no tzadik doing tshuva like shafran implies. why hasn’t he cooperated with the feds and told them where all the money’s hidden? he’s a kike scumbag. and sullenberger? why would shafran even bring it up. don’t you see this is some OU/agudah attempt to make the jew less evil and the goy less good. switch the religions and shafran says nothing.
April 6th, 2009 at 9:26 am
yhosephus,
you missed the whole point. when shafran vilifies a good goy like sullenberger it bespeaks of something more sinister; of how the world is so divided into good and evil falling into jew and goy, that shafran had this burning rage at all the great attention paid to a hero in america who wasn’t jewish at the same time as the media was holding up a jew an an example of the greatest evil.
April 6th, 2009 at 9:50 am
just received this in an e-mail:
Dear Editor,
My recent Am Echad Resources essay “Bernie, Sully and Me” has generated substantial criticism from many readers, including people whose opinions
I deeply respect. I have come to the conclusion that that there were errors in both the content and tone of the essay, for which I apologize.
My main goal in publishing these essays is to help people understand eternal Jewish truths. Unfortunately, here I chose unsuitable examples for the concepts I sought to impart, failing to accomplish that goal and offending many people in the process.
I am grateful, as always, for the constructive comments and feedback I received from my readership, whose confidence I hope to retain going forward.
Rabbi Avi Shafran
Director of Public Affairs
Agudath Israel of America
April 6th, 2009 at 10:20 am
Yhosephus makes good points, but the arguments that Shafran makes to vilify Sullenburg and excuse Madoff are contemptible (aside for Caveat Emptor, which was his only salient point).
Madoff is a hero in my eyes for entirely different reasons, while the rest of wall street was busy screwing everyone in obscure ways, Madoff had the Chutzpah to do it in the open, his is not the only ponzi scheme operating, the feds have leaked trillions of dollars, the federal reserve even more. Our whole way of life in the western hemisphere is one big ponzi scheme, the aggregates of wealth are holding the world in peonage, im becoming more marxist with every passing day…
April 6th, 2009 at 12:31 pm
“My main goal in publishing these essays is to help people understand eternal Jewish truths.”
I KNOW SHAFRAN FOR 30 YEARS AND HE WOULDN’T KNOW AN ETERNAL JEWISH TRUTH IF IT BIT HIM IN THE ASS.
April 6th, 2009 at 1:29 pm
[…] Even 7FatCow, which usually demonstrates no morals to be outraged and no code to be violated, was horrified. […]
April 9th, 2009 at 9:57 am
Not that I’m totally impressed, but this is a lot more than I expected when I stumpled upon a link on SU telling that the info here is quite decent. Thanks.
April 9th, 2009 at 11:41 am
“stumpled”, wrong but somehow so right. maybe “stubbled”. maybe it’s a common name but my friend had a bar across the street from his house called the “stumble inn” i always loved that.