Showing posts with label punishment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label punishment. Show all posts
Mar 23, 2011
The Japanese and The Egyptians
And speaking of Japan, people have been coming up with all sorts of reasons why the tragedy happened to them. I have heard a number of suggestions, and there are probably even more floating around that I have not heard. And no, not all the suggestions are from Jews or suggestions of Jewish reasons, but some were. The thing is that all the talk I heard was from regular people making suggestions, and not from community leaders or clergy.
That has changed now. On Purim, the Rachmastrivke Rebbe, a great and well respected leader of a powerful chassidus in Yerushalayim, held court with his tish. At his Purim Tish, the rebbe spoke about many things, including Japan.
Bechadrei has video of the event, but I don't understand the yiddishe, so I only read the report. The Rachmastrivke Rebbe said that God is striking the Japanese repeatedly, but they are like Pharoah and the Egyptians who received multiple blows and plagues but could not seems to understand why they were getting hit and that it was connected to their holding the Jews as slaves and how they treated the Jews.
The Japanese, the Rebbe said, are holding the yeshiva boys in jail, despite their having done no wrong. They think these yeshiva boys know what drugs are, but from where would a hassidic yeshiva boy know anything about drugs? Only the non-Jews know what drugs are. Instead of admitting their mistake, they continue to hold them, and for that they are getting punished.
The rebbe then said a bracha, wishing for their release in the near future. He closed off with a call for Hashem to send Mashiach, saying we are ready for his arrival, and a promise to the throngs of followers that by next year the price of an apartment would be 5000NIS and there would no longer be a housing crisis. I am assuming he was referring to rental prices, that the price of a rental apartment would be no higher than 5000 NIS per month, rather than that being the price for purchases.
Until now I did not feel the need to comment on the suggestion, as people talk and say stupid things, while leaders are usually more careful. Now that this reason is out and about by a serious community leader, it is time to comment.
These boys might have been naive, and they were clearly taken advantage of by someone they thought they could trust, but that does not make them innocent. They were caught carrying drugs, with or without knowledge does not really make much of a difference to that fact. Had they done the same in any country around the world they would have been put in jail, just the same as what happened in Japan. Perhaps the Japanese prison conditions are harsher than many other countries, as the askanim are claiming, but that doesnt really change anything about what they did and the Japanese perspective of law enforcement.
The Japanese did not go catch a couple random boys off the street and imprison them on false charges. They caught 3 boys smuggling drugs into the country, albeit naively, and arrested them. I don't believe it is right to blame their incarceration as the cause for God's wrath.
That has changed now. On Purim, the Rachmastrivke Rebbe, a great and well respected leader of a powerful chassidus in Yerushalayim, held court with his tish. At his Purim Tish, the rebbe spoke about many things, including Japan.
Bechadrei has video of the event, but I don't understand the yiddishe, so I only read the report. The Rachmastrivke Rebbe said that God is striking the Japanese repeatedly, but they are like Pharoah and the Egyptians who received multiple blows and plagues but could not seems to understand why they were getting hit and that it was connected to their holding the Jews as slaves and how they treated the Jews.
The Japanese, the Rebbe said, are holding the yeshiva boys in jail, despite their having done no wrong. They think these yeshiva boys know what drugs are, but from where would a hassidic yeshiva boy know anything about drugs? Only the non-Jews know what drugs are. Instead of admitting their mistake, they continue to hold them, and for that they are getting punished.
The rebbe then said a bracha, wishing for their release in the near future. He closed off with a call for Hashem to send Mashiach, saying we are ready for his arrival, and a promise to the throngs of followers that by next year the price of an apartment would be 5000NIS and there would no longer be a housing crisis. I am assuming he was referring to rental prices, that the price of a rental apartment would be no higher than 5000 NIS per month, rather than that being the price for purchases.
Until now I did not feel the need to comment on the suggestion, as people talk and say stupid things, while leaders are usually more careful. Now that this reason is out and about by a serious community leader, it is time to comment.
These boys might have been naive, and they were clearly taken advantage of by someone they thought they could trust, but that does not make them innocent. They were caught carrying drugs, with or without knowledge does not really make much of a difference to that fact. Had they done the same in any country around the world they would have been put in jail, just the same as what happened in Japan. Perhaps the Japanese prison conditions are harsher than many other countries, as the askanim are claiming, but that doesnt really change anything about what they did and the Japanese perspective of law enforcement.
The Japanese did not go catch a couple random boys off the street and imprison them on false charges. They caught 3 boys smuggling drugs into the country, albeit naively, and arrested them. I don't believe it is right to blame their incarceration as the cause for God's wrath.
Labels:
Japan,
punishment
Dec 24, 2008
Shame 'em and run 'em out of town!
I wonder if something like this would work as a way of getting the hooligans to stop their violent behavior. What they do is more public, so I would guess not.
A divorced Jacksonville woman said her former church has threatened to "go public with her sins" and tell the congregation about her sexual relationship with her new boyfriend.Also, once you start publicizing people's sins, it will then be used against all sorts of people doing things wrong that is nobodies business, leading to a communal disaster. Probably better not to start using this method...
Rebecca Hancock said harassment from Grace Community Church in Mandarin over her sex life caused her to leave, but she said that didn't put an end to the problem. She said she received a letter from the church's elders telling her the church plans to make her personal life very public.
"I'm basically run out. I'm the church harlot," Hancock said.
Labels:
punishment
Apr 20, 2007
The girls deserved to be punished
This is the latest story making waves..
Seven pupils at a Beit Ya'akov school in Netanya were punished after they stood up for the siren that sounded Monday in honor of Holocaust Memorial Day (Monday), Yediot Aharonot reported.
According to the report, the school principal removed the girls from their classroom and forced them to stand up for the rest of the day and read psalms.
In haredi circles, using sirens and "moments of silence" to mark memorial holidays is considered a gentile custom and is discouraged. Haredi rabbis often encourage their followers to recite psalms or other prayers silently during the siren.
According to the report, the school principal removed the girls from their classroom and forced them to stand up for the rest of the day and read psalms.
In haredi circles, using sirens and "moments of silence" to mark memorial holidays is considered a gentile custom and is discouraged. Haredi rabbis often encourage their followers to recite psalms or other prayers silently during the siren.
I saw the original article in the Yediot, and then Jameel sent it to me.. I agree with Jameel's position that the method of punishment was wrong, though that is not what I want to write about.
We were talking here about Yom Ha'Shoah on Yom Ha'Shoah eve over dinner with the kids. We were talking about different aspects of it, including the siren and what to do when the siren blares, and what their schools would be doing and what we remembered they had done in previous years.
The kids asked me what I do and what I think should be done when the siren goes off. I told them that if they are in school, and I would assume (never safe to do so, but I am anyway) that the school would make sure the kids were in class at the time rather than at recess, they should do whatever the school does and whatever the teacher tells them. If, on the other hand, they should find themselves outside in public, or anywhere else around other people, during the siren, then they should stand still during the siren.
I told them that the way we commemorate the Holocaust and Memorial Day in Israel is by standing still and contemplating the events behind the day, so to not do so in view of other people is grossly disrespectful and inappropriate, and furthermore because we are religious it would clearly constitute a chillul Hashem and cause anger and even hatred of the religious.
Some of the common arguments against standing still are; it is not a Jewish way of remembering the dead, it is a waste of time and better to learn or say tehillim or something like that, etc.
I, personally, do not find standing still for a minute to be such a bad thing. I waste plenty of time doing other things (blogging could clearly be in the list) that standing still for two minutes during the wail of the siren is completely insignificant as far as the amount of time wasted. The only people who can be concerned about the wasted time are people who are careful to utilize every minute of the day properly, and there are not too many of those people.
That time can be used to think about the events of the day, which is not such a bad thing. How often do we take the time to stop and think about them? This gives us that opportunity. If one is truly worried about the time wasted, he could say tehillim while standing still, or find ways to not waste those two minutes while standing there.
I believe these excuses are exactly that - excuses. not reasons. They are excuses that have been found to rationalize not participating in an event that Israeli society holds.
So, my daughter (11 years old) smirked and told me that I sound like a chiloni (a secular Jew) saying they should stand when they are outside.
I told her that standing is not important on its own. If someone is learning Torah when the siren goes off, they should not stop learning and stand. That would be a waste of time and learning Torah is much more important that standing still. However, if one is not learning and is found among other people then they must stand still and behave as part of society. We live in Israel - a country with rules and all sorts of people, and we have to behave accordingly, even if sometimes we do not agree.
She seemed to accept that.
That being said, back to the story reported of the girls who stood up during class and got punished. I feel the punishment was probably ill chosen and Jameel said it better than I can, so I will leave that issue.
I do feel the girls were wrong. They disrupted a class that was studying and they should not have done so. If they felt so strongly about it, they could have asked to be let out, or they could have come late that day to school or stayed home or whatever. They were not standing up because they believe in it (or at least I doubt it), rather I think they were pulling a prank and looking for a way to make a disruption in class, and they succeeded.
They are studying in a school that does not commemorate the day in that fashion, they live in a community that does not do so, and they come from families that do not do so. The impetus that pushed them to stand in class was not belief in the idea, but to make trouble. They deserved to be punished (and as to what the appropriate punishment should be, I have no idea) because they were wrong for disrupting their Torah studies and the classroom.
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