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Jan 15, 2017

Interesting Psak: reporting sexual molestation

Machon Puah has issued a psak stating that one must report sexual molestation to the police.

Before getting to the details of the psak, I'll add that what I find interesting about this is not the psak itself, as it is not really new or unique (though some of the explanation is), even if not [yet] consensus, but where it came from. The Puah Institute deals with reproductive medicine and fertility treatments, in the sense of supervising treatments from a halachic perspective, along with counseling and support. Sexual molestation and such issues has not quite been in their repertoire. It seems that for their upcoming conference, they have added this topic to their discussion, and the issued psak is in advance of that.

Now to the psak... According to Machon Puah, one is obligated to report sexual abuse/molestation. They reason that times have changed and nowadays calling the police is not considered being a "moiser" - under the prohibition of reporting fellow Jews to the authorities. When a person presents a danger to the public, one can even give him over to non-Jewish authorities. They refer to Rav Dov Lior as to having said that today's criminal law in Israel is not like "din torah" but it is like halacha and despite the fact that the laws were established by people who do not keep the Torah's laws and commandments, but the religious parties have agreed to these laws so it is ok.

Further, Rav Burshtein, head of The Puah Institute, determined that the police today is different - today the Chief of Police is religious, the police have appointed a police rabbi to the force, there are religious detectives and investigators, and there is a common language between the religious community and the police more than before.
sources: Srugim, Israel Hayom

I admit these are arguments that I never heard before, so I consider them noteworthy.





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