Kikar ran the following video... Mayor of Bet Shemesh, Moshe Abutbol, starts off talking to a class very nicely. he gives a nice "shmuess", relevant to the High Holiday season, about how they spent so much time preparing what to say in front of the courts and how much more so is prep needed before speaking to the Heavenly Court ... and then he says something I cannot understand how he said in front of the video camera - he says that to a human court one can make up stories and say what you want, as the judge doesn't know the reality anyway (but before Hashem you cannot)... did he just state publicly, in front of a video camera, that he lied to the courts?
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Or maybe slightly different. The mayor wants them to believe he's taking them into his confidence, but really it seems like a way to confuse the charedi community: "I tell you the truth so even if you hear something else in the media just sit tight what I told you is the real story."
ReplyDeleteThe language is actually worse than you make it sound, Rafi. He isn't just talking in general about how to present things to a judge - he says that you can make up tales, "Bubbe Meises", etc. to tell the judge, since the judge is not familiar with Beit Shemesh. This was not a theoretical distinction between a human judge and G-d - he was referring to specifically how they worked on making things up in the case of Safot v'Tarbuyot.
ReplyDeleteI would like to give Mayor Abutbul (I go with this spelling since that is how the Mayor spells it, though I personally prefer the "Abutbol" spelling) the benefit of the doubt.
ReplyDeleteI think he is too incompetent at public speaking to mean things as bad as he says.
He probably meant that if the Municipality of Bet Shemesh had meant to deceive the civil court they could have done it, since the civil court is not familiar with Bet Shemesh. However, in the Heavenly Court one cannot deceive, since the Judge there knows everything (even the "shtick" that goes on in Bet Shemesh).
May everyone be Written and Sealed for a Good, and PEACEFUL, year of Brotherly Love,
Catriel Lev, Ramat Bet Shemesh Alef
Any lawyer will easily understand what he is talking about, and none of it involves deception. Lawyers are very skilled at presenting their clients' case -- that is why it is called being an advocate. You put the best spin you can, without engaging in deception or perjury. Lawyers and their clients spend a great deal of time thinking of the best way to present something to the Court, and because judges are flesh and blood, the presentation itself can often sway the judge as much as the facts. (Which is one of the reasons that Chazal did not like having advocates before batei din.)
ReplyDeleteNone of that works when one comes before the Heavenly Court, that is his whole point.