Archive for the ‘kidush hashem’
secret lives of ex-lubavitchers
I read this in an issue of Beis Moshiach (Hebrew). I misplaced that edition so can't relay the date. (Translation, mine.)
"Before I went back to Israel my father's business partner Charlie (Yechezkel Roth) came to bid me farewell. A Jew who was one of the first students of Tomechi Temimim, which the previous Lubavitcher Rebbe had established in America; this person had descended from the path of Torah over the years, and our talk continued until I told him about my studies in Yoga and suddenly I found myself opening up to him the concerns of my heart. I told him with great vivaciousness of the Torah of Yoga which I learnt and on the ways of meditation. All my attempts to tell him of the exaltedness of Yoga he contradicted and in place explained that in Judaism there was the concept of meditation and that it is featured in the book, the Tanya."
"I didn’t pay heed to his words and I received them in a mixed manner. I was then a young bochur, and listening to what an older person was telling you, I shed with, 'the world is for the young.'"
"Towards the end of our discussion, I told him that I dream of going to India, to study where Yoga was founded. At this point, he lost his composure and screamed "instead of going to India, where there many diseases, it would be better for you if you went to Kfar Chabad."
The article goes on to say that Bentzion Cohen went to study at University in Israel and, at the suggestion of Charlie Roth, visited his friend, the mashpia, Zushe Posner.
When Shlomo Chaim Kesselman went into yechidus and mentioned Bentzion Cohen’s resolution to think chassidus before davening, the Rebbe stood up and exclaimed, "Bentzion Cohen thinks chassidus before davenimg?! Shlomo Chaim would repeat this story at many farbrengens.
Bentzion Cohen resides in Kfar Chabad with his wife and children.
Choshen Mishput on Socialized Health Care
Shmarya writes,
Choshen Mishpat 163:1-3 gives a town's beit din the right to tax all residents to meet communal needs.Included in those communal needs are defensive fortifications, mikva(s), synagogue(s), and salaries for rabbis, teachers, and doctors.In other words, the community is specifically given the power to tax everyone to pay for healthcare.In the same way, halakha (Jewish law) forbids living in a town without a doctor.While this isn't the same thing as mandating socialized medicine, it does clearly establish a communal responsibility for healthcare, and halakha's mandate is far more in consonance with President Obama's vision for healthcare than it is with the Sarah Palin-Rush Limbaugh Republican version or, ironically, the Senator Joseph Lieberman version.
the secret lives of an ex-lubavitcher
I read this in an issue of Beis Moshiach (Hebrew). I misplaced that edition so can't relay the date. (Translation, mine)
"
Before I went back to Israel my father's business partner Charlie (Yechezkel Roth) came to bid me farewell. A Jew who was one of the first students of Tomechi Temimim, which the previous Lubavitcher Rebbe had established in America; this person had descended from the path of Torah over the years, and our talk continued until I told him about my studies in Yoga. Our talk continued and suddenly I found myself opening up to him the concerns of my heart. I told him with great vivaciousness of the torah of Yoga which I learnt and on the ways of meditation. All my attempts to tell him of the exaltedness of Yoga he contradicted and in place explained that in Judaism there was the concept of meditation and that it is featured in the book, the Tanya".
I didn’t pay heed to his words and I received them in a mixed manner. I was then a young bochur, and listening to what an older person was telling you, I shed with, ""the world is for the young"…
Towards the end of our discussion, I told him that I dream of going to India, to study where yoga was founded. At this point, he lost his composure and screamed "instead of going to India, where there many diseases, it would be better for you if you went to Kfar Chabad"
The article goes on to say that Bentzion Cohen went to study at University in Israel and went, at the suggestion of charlie roth, to visit his friend, the mashpia, Zushe Posner.
When Shlomo Chaim Kesselman went into yechidus and asked for bentzion Cohen’s resolution to think chassidus before davening, the rebbe stood up and exclaimed, "bentzion cohen meditates on chassidus before davenimg?! shlomo chaim would repeat this story at many farbrengens.
Bentzion Cohen resides in Kfar Chabad with his wife and children.
corroboration
I thought 7fatcow was the only site reporting on Shmuel Borger. Here is Nochum Rosenberg's site, (added to the blogroll), and here is frumfollies. Also, comments by Avrumule on failedmessiah, modernorthoprax , Dov Bear heard about it, and Ben Atlas: Sex, Lies, and Videotape in Boro Park .
“Motty Borger was molested at yeshiva” he told his widowed wife
(previous post: •Motty Borger, Boro Park Chosson, Leaps from Hotel Window)
Suicide groom twist; bared molest to wife
By Susan Edelman and Kirsten Fleming, New York PostA Brooklyn newlywed who jumped to his death from a hotel balcony the night after his wedding was tormented by memories of being sexually molested as a Jewish student, sources say.
After joyfully singing and dancing at their lavish celebration in Williamsburg on Nov. 3, Motty Borger, 24, bared his secret anguish to his bride, Mali Gutman, the next day — and the revelation caused a strain, a source close to the family told The Post.
"That entire day he discussed it with her. He told her the story of his life, how he felt so awful and he couldn't go near her," the source said. The couple had met just last July, after a matchmaker set them up.
"When he got married, he realized he couldn't face up to it, and he told his wife that he needed help."
The stunned bride responded, "So, why did you marry me?"
Borger reportedly answered, "You are absolutely right. It was not right of me to get married."
At 6:45 a.m., while Mali slept, Borger climbed a railing outside their seventh-floor room at Avenue Plaza Hotel and leaped, police say. He died hours later at a hospital.
Friends insist that Borger — described as fun-loving, smiling and cheerful — wouldn't take his own life.
"I know Motty, and I know he didn't jump. It was an accident," one said. The rabbi who spoke at his funeral called reports of suicide "wickedness."
A security video at the hotel shows him looking "agitated" in an elevator with his wife, cops said.
The city Medical Examiner ruled his death a suicide. The NYPD is investigating the sex-abuse allegations, said a police official.
A source familiar with the tragedy said Borger had confided in close relatives that he was molested while a teen attending a yeshiva, possibly by a rabbi, but they never went to police.
Motty Borger, Boro Park Chosson, Leaps from Hotel Window
H'moon hotel leap
By Liz Sadler and Kirsten Fleming, New York Post
A newlywed groom on his honeymoon yesterday plunged to his death from a Brooklyn hotel in an apparent suicide — as his bride slept, unaware of the tragedy, sources said.
Motty Borger, 24, died at Lutheran Medical Center after the seven-story plunge from The Avenue Plaza Hotel in Borough Park — just two days after marrying his love, Mali, in a lavish ceremony, according two sources.
Borger's bride was sleeping in the room when her husband, who worked with his videographer dad, opened a window, stepped onto the balcony and jumped at 6:45 a.m.
Mali didn't know what had happened until she was awakened by the hotel concierge.
Friends were shocked at the young man's death, saying there was no sign at Borger's wedding in Williamsburg on Tuesday that he'd try to end his life.
"He sang, he danced, he was the happiest kid on the planet," said a friend who was at the wedding among 500 pals and loved ones.
"The guy was super energetic," said another reveler.
The couple shared a meal of boiled salmon Wednesday night in a postwedding celebration and seemed to be in good spirits.
"They were both happy," said a waiter.
"They were laughing, talking about what they should order."
Detectives were poring over security video, including a clip that shows an agitated Borger in an elevator with his wife.
A police source described Borger as "emotionally disturbed."
The apparent suicide stunned family members who just 48 hours earlier were celebrating the young couple's union.
"The guy was so full of life," a friend said. "He was so happy to marry her."
Friends said they couldn't believe Borger would want to kill himself or that there could have been any marital strife.
"She's a nice, sweet girl," a friend said of the bride. "They have money, so that wasn't a problem
ACCEPT IT PEOPLE
Likewise, the assumption that parents are predisposed to love their children unconditionally and protect them from harm is not universally true. I remember one patient, a man in his mid-20s, who came to me for depression and rock-bottom self-esteem.
It didn’t take long to find out why. He had recently come out as gay to his devoutly religious parents, who responded by disowning him. It gets worse: at a subsequent family dinner, his father took him aside and told him it would have been better if he, rather than his younger brother, had died in a car accident several years earlier.
Though terribly hurt and angry, this young man still hoped he could get his parents to accept his sexuality and asked me to meet with the three of them.
The session did not go well. The parents insisted that his “lifestyle” was a grave sin, incompatible with their deeply held religious beliefs. When I tried to explain that the scientific consensus was that he had no more choice about his sexual orientation than the color of his eyes, they were unmoved. They simply could not accept him as he was.
I was stunned by their implacable hostility and convinced that they were a psychological menace to my patient. As such, I had to do something I have never contemplated before in treatment.
At the next session I suggested that for his psychological well-being he might consider, at least for now, forgoing a relationship with his parents.
I felt this was a drastic measure, akin to amputating a gangrenous limb to save a patient’s life. My patient could not escape all the negative feelings and thoughts about himself that he had internalized from his parents. But at least I could protect him from even more psychological harm.
Easier said than done. He accepted my suggestion with sad resignation, though he did make a few efforts to contact them over the next year. They never responded.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/
hat tip to vicki polin
HALLELUJAH!!!
"Shining the Light of the Gospel To and From the Nations of the World."
This event is planned to start at 7:00 pm on Oct 5, 2009 at Streaming LIVE from Isreal!
“bad rabbi”
www.baltimoresun.com/news/
baltimoresun.com
Women tell of abuse by rabbi
Long silence broken with accounts of mistreatment by synogogue's founder
By Nick Madigan | nick.madigan@baltsun.com
October 4, 2009
For more than half a century, Rabbi Jacob A. Max was a dominant figure in Baltimore's Jewish community, founder of one of its most important synagogues, an influential leader who officiated at countless cycle-of-life rituals of the faith. A man, it seemed from afar, above reproach. • But Max's reputation disintegrated earlier this year after he was convicted of sexually molesting a woman half his age in a Reisterstown funeral home.
It marked the only time a woman had sought a legal remedy against the rabbi, even though murmurs had long rippled through Moses Montefiore Anshe Emunah Hebrew Congregation that his behavior toward some of the females in his flock was anything but appropriate.
The hushed accusations of Max's penchant for groping and fondling - which some women say he accompanied with a smirk and an excuse about his being a "bad rabbi" - appear to have been tolerated without inquiry for decades because of his standing and authority in the tightly knit religious community. Girls who complained to their mothers about his conduct say they were ignored.
On April 13, three days before his 85th birthday, Max was found guilty of second-degree assault and a fourth-degree sex offense after a brief bench trial in Baltimore County District Court. Max, who has been married for 25 years, was sentenced to a suspended one-year prison term and one year of unsupervised probation. He will not appeal, his lawyer said.
News of the conviction prompted five other women to share with The Baltimore Sun their own allegations of improper advances by the rabbi. Three contacted a reporter and the remaining two were referred by others. The women said news of the conviction impelled them to come forward because they believe their charges about Max's behavior deserve to be disclosed, no matter how long ago the events occurred.
hat tip to vicki polin
Judaism.com