Japanese Holocaust Rescuer: Sugihara 'Sempo' Chiune

Videos From the "Yerushalmi Institute" Convention

I blogged about this not too long ago. Now you can be there:

The False Prophets

Who remembers the diplomatic tsunami that we were promised last September? Nostalgia:

Palestinian Talmud Enthusiasts Convene

Last Thursday the "Yerushalmi Institute" presented an evening of lectures devoted to the redeeming of captives. I cannot claim to be a Yerushalmi enthusiast, since I think that the only Yerushalmi tractate I ever learned was Sheqalim. However, I am a wannabe.

The evening was quite interesting and I regret that I did not take notes.

The first speaker was Rabbi David Bar Chaim:

Rabbi Bar Chaim's remarks are more or less summarized here and here.

Next up was Professor Eliav Shochatman who mentioned a variety of sources dealing with the subject:

Moshe Feiglin also spoke, saying that we need to look to the written Torah in order to deal with problems related to running a Jewish State:

Rabbi Eliyahu Zini, the Rabbi of the Technion, was fascinating, showing the differences between the Bavli and the Yerushalmi when dealing with the same matters:

Last up was Rabbi Ratzon Arusi, who explained the issues from the eyes of a posek:

For me, this evening of "Torat Eretz Yisrael" was a breath of fresh air in the midst of the ongoing atmosphere of turmoil and incitement.

Sexual Harassment?

Things have gotten way out of hand. They really have!:

An indictment was filed Thursday against Jerusalem resident Shlomo Fuchs, 44, an ultra-Orthodox man who hurled sexist slurs at a female soldier on a public bus in the capital.

Police officials said Fuchs' behavior was unruly, and that he sexually harassed the soldier, Doron Matalon, by humiliating her and making sexual remarks.

What did he do? Apparently he called her a "prutza", which means a slut or a harlot. Not a very nice thing to do, but does this amount to sexual harassment?

The court also stated that sexual harassment does not only apply when the harasser demands something of sexual nature from the harassed, but also when the harassed is humiliated based on remarks relating to his or her sex. The judge ruled such was the case in this incident, since "there is no dispute that Fuchs spoke bluntly and shouted harsh and humiliating words at the soldier aboard the bus, calling her a 'slut' three times."

"I am not a sexual offender," Fuchs told his attorney afterwards. "If anything – she harassed me. I wanted to move away and she kept moving closer."

Fuchs' attorney claimed this was not a criminal offense. "We live in a free country. We're allowed to curse, it's part of the freedom of expression," he explained.

If the court does decide this is a sexual harassment case, said the attorney, then any man who calls a woman a "bitch" or other curse words would be considered a sexual offender.

I have to agree with Fuchs' attorney. It seems to me that this is all a product of the media-fed frenzy of incitement against the ultra-Orthodox: the police and the court are abusing their power to legally harass Fuchs.

Once again we can learn a lesson from this. First of all, I do not think that the Rambam or the Chafetz Chaim would approve of calling this soldier a prutza, even if she did not follow the etiquette of the mehadrin line. We really should be careful about what we say. Even our mundane speech should be something that is worth studying.

Secondly, what I quoted recently from chapter 20 of "The Path of the Just".

Let's hope that things will calm down soon.

נס פך השמן וצלחת החומוס

Happy Hanukkah