Should We Change Jewish Law?

Posted on June 27, 2010 by Luke Ford

A convert to Orthodox Judaism, Orthodox rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo writes:

I teach Jewish Philosophy. I am confronted daily with countless young Jews who search for an authentic Jewish religious way of life, but are unable to find spiritual satisfaction in the prevalent halakhic system as practiced today in most Ultra or Modern-Orthodox communities. For many of them, typical halakhic life is not synonymous with genuine religiosity. They feel that halakha has become too monotonous, too standardized and too external for them to experience the presence of God on a day-to-day basis. Beyond “observance”, they look for holiness and meaning. Many of them feel there is too much formalism in the halakhic system, and not enough internal meaning; too much obedience and not enough room for the individualistic soul, or for religious spontaneity. More and more sincere young people express these concerns, and many of them are deeply affected by their inability to live a conventional halakhic life.

Here’s a response in lecture form by Rabbi Ari Kahn.

Rabbi Ari Kahn: “I don’t trust him [in diagnosing] the symptoms, I don’t trust the diagnosis and I don’t trust the cure.”

“Over 60% of Jews in the world don’t step inside a synagogue. Way over 60% of Jews in the world have never been to Israel.”

Rabbi Kahn says there are not a large number of non-observant Jews who are yearning to observe a more flexible form of halacha (Jewish law).

“A rabbi friend of mine gave a lecture to a group of non-religious Jews. At the end of the lecture, he asked, how many people want to become more spiritual? All of them raised their hands. He then asked, how many of you want to become more religious? None raised their hands.”

“The vast majority of people that I’ve met, 99%, who move from observance to non-observance do so not out of philosophical reasons but for lifestyle reasons.”

“Rabbi Cardozo admits that if you were to go to a posek and analyze this according to Jewish law, everything he is about to say is wrong. He says he’s writing this, not as a halachist but as a Jewish philosopher… It’s not within the realm of halacha.”

Who decided that the Shulchan Aruch would be the accepted code of Jewish law? Who decided that Rabbi Moshe Feinstein would be the great decider of Jewish law of his time? The Jewish people.

Rabbi Cardozo writes: “Over the last five hundred years, famous rabbinic leaders have called to limit the overwhelming authority of Rabbi Josef Karo’s Shulhan Arukh and Maimonides’ Mishneh Torah. They felt that these works do not reflect authentic Judaism and its halakhic tradition. The reason is obvious. Both these great codes of Jewish Law are very un-Jewish in spirit. They present halakha in ways which oppose the heart and soul of the Talmud, and therefore of Judaism itself. They deprived Judaism of its multifaceted halakhic tradition and its inherent music. It is not the works themselves which are the problem but the ideology which they represent: The ethos of codifying and finalizing Jewish Law.”

Rabbi Ari Kahn: “Rabbi Cardozo considers himself Orthodox and an important voice within Orthodox Judaism. This paragraph is arrogant and simplistic.”

Is the goal of the Talmud to determine the halacha or not to determine the halacha? Rabbi Cardozo says not to, Rabbi Kahn (and everyone else I know) says the purpose is to establish halacha.

Rabbi Kahn: “I believe this is a very dangerous essay. It may have many nice soundbytes but it doesn’t have a leg to stand on [from an Orthodox perspective].”

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Meir Kin Responds To Rabbinic Contempt Order

Posted on June 27, 2010 by Luke Ford

Meir Kin reponds to this:

Dear Community:

It is with a heavy heart that we stand today before Tisha B’Av and yet have not learned the lessons of the past. The Bais Hamikdosh was destroyed because of baseless hatred coupled with silence from the Rabbis, after seeing a fellow jew publicly humiliated (Kamtza-Bar-Kamtza). The Los Angeles Jewish Community has recently been exposed to a mountain of lies from ORA (getora.com) and the RCC (Rabbinical Council Of California). I’m referring to the letter written by Jeremy Stern from ORA headed by Herschel Schachter from YU. http://www.scribd.com/doc/33562356. Some of these lies are new, while others are regurgitated and were already proven false. This week, a new campaign has been waged against me for unwarranted reasons. If you are a person that will listen to Loshon hora and are quick to judge, I ask you to read my letter in its entirety, and see the links so that you can see and learn that what may appear as ‘obvious’, is nothing short of a ‘mirage’ and a total fabrication of the facts. I will not make empty statements as you have heard and read, but rather back them up with facts and documents!!! I do not want to bore you with the facts of my divorce case. You can read all about them at : http://www.mishpattsedek.com/Justice-Denied-LA.htm and http://lonnakin.blogspot.com/, https://lukeford.net/blog/?cat=17550 and http://rabbiniccorruptionatrcc.blogspot.com.

So why have you not heard about my case for over 1 year? The answer is that after presenting the evidence in 2009 that proved the allegations to be false ,and that a Get was waiting for Lonna Kin to pick up, Gershon Bess had agreed to remove the false seiruv on June 2009 after we both agreed to enter mediation. http://www.scribd.com/doc/33562597

So why all of a sudden a new Seiruv 1 year later? Here is where you will see the lies and the fabrications.

1) The timing of this new false Seiruv is not by chance, but it coincides with a recent hazmono (summons) issued to Gershon Bess by a Bais Din In Ny. Gershon Bess was just summoned for his 3rd time but has refused to appear http://www.scribd.com/doc/33562468. Instead, in a retaliatory preemptive fashion, he orchestrates a ‘new false seiruv’ http://www.scribd.com/doc/3356172/New-Seiruv-2010 to be issued against me in order to shut me up! Doesn’t this remind you of the old mafia tactics, where a person going to testify against a mobster is ‘mysteriously found dead’? Like the Italian mafia, the Rabbinic Mafia has its own ways of eliminating its threats. Does this mean that no one can call a rabbi to a Din Torah? Gershon Bess was summoned to a Din Torah to request a letter of apology for falsely defaming me in public, and after seeing my evidence and removing the previous false seiruv, has not issued a letter of apology: http://www.scribd.com/doc/33562597 and http://www.scribd.com/doc/33561962. Why didn’t Gershon Bess and the RCC just reactivate their original seiruv? I need not remind you the reputation that the RCC carries in LA.

2) Many of you do not know the intricate Halochot relating to Din Torah or Gittin because you were never exposed to these issues. The corrupted rabbis will use your ignorance to capitalize on their achievements! Therefore the tendency of the ignorant is to proclaim ‘Just give in to their demands, why ruin your name?’ Interestingly, very few people today will stand up for the truth and not cave in. I’m one of those individuals that will insist on the truth be told, and will not allow others to detract from the truth. This is my right and the Torah demands that the Emes be upheld!!

3) You may ask: Why is Meir Kin singled out and so viciously the victim of character defamation? The answer is that Lonna Kin Ralbag is the first cousin of Aryeh Ralbag, who heads the hashgocho Triangle-k. Obviously a person of that stature will use all ‘his connections’ with other hashgocho organizations including Yisroel Belski, Gershon Bess, Herschel Schachter, Avrohom Union to extract forcibly a Get under their terms.

4) Now lets begin dissecting their statements and reveal who the ‘real extortionist’ really is as well as their inaccurate statements and misquotes of Halocho.

5) Halocho is very clear about the prohibition of entering the Civil Courts as a first remedy. Please see : http://www.emesvshalom.com/letters-from-rabbanim/ which discusses this prohibition. Lonna Kin Ralbag had immediately taken Meir Kin to the civil courts and in fact had him gagged so that he cannot talk certain ‘hair-raising facts’ (I will let your imagination think what it was),so that he cannot have a fair shake at a Din Torah where Jews are supposed to arbitrate their differences. When he went to Bais Din Even Hamishpot initially, she tried to have him jailed for ‘talking to the rabbis’ See: http://www.scribd.com/doc/33564437. Do you see Gershon Bess, Herschel Schachter, Avrohom Union, Nochum Sauer cry out against her actions? Why are the rabbis silent when a woman commits Mesira and goes to the Civil Courts against halocho? Are they practicing ‘selective Judaism’? Why is the mitzvah of Get supercede the sin of ‘Mesira’ or going to Civil Courts?

6) Halocho dictates very clearly that in order for a GET to be kosher, it must be done free of any coercion. This means that coercing a man by using the courts to impose a hefty penalty, or coercing a man physically, or coercing a man by ‘public humiliation’ as a tactic to obtain a GET is a sin and will result in an invalid GET with potential for mamzeirim if a woman remarries with such a GET. See: http://rabbiniccorruptionatrcc.blogspot.com where letters from great rabbis illustrate this fact as well as expose the corrupt activities of rabbis . This is not a Meir Kin made-up phenomenom. Yet, these corrupt rabbis who know that Meir Kin has already written a GET without coercion are insisting to coerce him to write a new GET. Do you believe that such a GET is more kosher than the one that I voluntarily did???

7) Incidently, you will notice that never has Gershon Bess, Avrohom Union, Nochum Sauer or Herschel Schachter quoted any halachic sources to back up their claims! However Rabbi Gestetner from monsey (845)425-9708 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting (845)425-9708 end_of_the_skype_highlighting,who published many seforim: http://www.scribd.com/doc/33564859

Is also wrongly defamed as an extortionist rabbi for being one of the remnant honest rabbis who will stand up for Halocho and not for political expediency. Yet Rabbi Gestetner backs up everything in Halocho! See: http://www.scribd.com/doc/33565295 and http://www.scribd.com/doc/33565565.

8) In regards to a Din Torah, a respondent has a right to choose his Bais Din especially in a case where a woman has used the Civil Courts, and the seforim clearly state that you cannot issue a seiruv out of whim because you so choose! See: http://www.scribd.com/doc/33618871/Tziz-Eliezer-on-Seiruv

As long as the respondent is willing to go to a Bais Din, you cannot put a seiruv! I not only went to Bais Din, but had agreed to 4 Bais Din’s but lonna Kin had refused to appear and to remove my gag-order so that I can speak freely in any of them. This Gag order is still in place today. In fact on March 2009, I had agreed to arbitrate at Rabbi Teichman’s Bais Din but my offer was nixed by Avrohom Union from the RCC. Lonna Kin Ralbag, like many other women are being advised by their lawyers and their corrupt rabbis to proceed first to the Civil Courts and obtain custody, child support, assets etc and then come to their Bais Din to just receive the GET! This is clearly not acceptable by Halachic standards. The rabbis listed above know that people sympathize with Agunot and have so cunningly devised a system that every woman who doesn’t receive a GET on her terms can be made into an Aguna thereby creating the crocodile tears to flow and then they get ORA (getora.com) to rally in front of his family’s home to extricate a GET under her terms.

9) A Kosher Get had been deposited on March 2008 and been waiting for Lonna Kin Ralbag to pick up. http://www.mishpattsedek.com/Justice-Denied-LA.htm

10) The new seiruv is fraudulent and has no merit. A seiruv can only be issued to a person who is summoned by a Bais Din 3 times and does not respond. A) I have not received any summons from this phony non-existent bais din whose signatores are Herschel Schachter, Avrohom Union and nochum Sauer. B) This seiruv has no logo from a Bais Din, no address or telephone #. C) Avrohom Union and Nochum Sauer are from the RCC in California, and Herschel Schachter is from Riets Y.U in Ny. They are not an existent Bais Din but a quickly formed phony bais din formed exclusively and only to attack Meir Kin. If you compare the fonts and the layout used in the RCC Seiruv above and this new Seiruv, you will see that it’s the same minus the RCC name , address, tel # and missing one signatore from the RCC? Therefore why has the RCC necessitated a new Seiruv from another formed Bais Din when they can reissue their own? What are the odds that these rabbis, 2 of them who live in LA and one of them has a daughter getting engaged the next day, really met that day in New York City? See: http://www.scribd.com/doc/33621343

The answer is as I stated earlier, this was a vendetta against me by Gershon Bess for summonsing him to a Din Torah, and based on the facts listed above one can see the fraud and deception methods that were utilized.

11) Why is Meir Kin the only man in the world that has had 3 Seiruvim against him? 2 are listed above and 1 is http://www.scribd.com/doc/33619643 Its like making 3 Blessings on 1 apple. Are 3 blessings better than 1? The answer is that each time a Seiruv was presented, I had managed to refute it and disqualify it as a fraudulent seiruv. That led the corrupted rabbis to seek a new venue to issue another seiruv so perhaps the ignorant will not catch on. The first Seiruv was a big joke as it was from a Bais Din headed by Lonna Kin Ralbag’s cousin Aryeh Ralbag. Additionally Rabbi Belsky who signed, later admitted to me that it was a mistake since he was unaware that Lonna Kin was Aryeh Ralbags cousin! Additionally a prominent member of this Agudath Harrabonim Bais Din Rabbi Ginzberg, issued a letter that No Seiruv should be issued against me because of a Gag-order that was imposed on me. See: http://www.scribd.com/doc/33619819 and http://www.scribd.com/doc/33619834 and http://www.scribd.com/doc/33619852

Then came the fraudulent RCC seiruv that was issued despite my answering the summons and stating my choice to arbitrate at a different Bais Din which is my halachic right as illustrated above. Then you have the 3rd new retaliatory Seiruv from a non-existent Bais Din, served on me 1 year after the removal of the RCC Seiruv and at the same time that Rabbi Bess was being summoned by me to a Din Torah??? Isnt that very suspicious and ironic???

12) I find it amazing that Jeremy Sterns letter only has derogatory and inflammatory remarks against Meir kin and not one against Lonna Kin. Therefore you can deduce that according to Jeremy Stern, Hershel Schachter, Avrohom Union, Nochum Sauer, it is permissible for a woman to litigate all her matters in a Civil Court, permissible to obtain a Gag-order against your husband and threaten to jail him if he violates it, permissible to steal your son, not let him see his father, steal his monies, and commit Mesira. Jeremy Stern lied again by stating that I fled Ny to avoid the NY Get Law. I left Ny after Lonna Kin dismissed her Divorce petition after the judge ordered her to provide 2 computers for inspection which contained serious proof that would of awarded me custody of my son. See: http://www.scribd.com/doc/33620620. This is why she ran to family court after dismissing her Divorce petition and obtained a Gag-Order to prevent anyone from learning these facts!

13) There were no 2 mediators, but just one. Rabbi Eliyahu Kin my brother, agreed upon by both parties. See: http://www.scribd.com/doc/33620703. I have agreed on relinquishing 50% of our outstanding issues but she has relinquished 0 %. Why should she agree to anything if she can get the RCC and ORA to harass and embarrass me in public without agreeing to an iota?!

Jeremy Stern again falsely writes the RCC was informed by the mediators that Meir was intractable, cruelly withholding a get from Lonna and refusing to bring his claims against her to a respectable beis din. As the mediators wrote in a letter to Meir once negotiations had failed:

“Lonna is willing to go to a reputable Beis Din to adjudicate ALL issues. Your position that you want money from Lonna irrespective of what the Halacha is and that you should get it because otherwise you won’t give her a Get is nothing more than EXTORTION.” There was no letter sent to Meir by the mediators. There was no extortion of monies, and a GET has been waiting for her to pick up for 2 years. The purpose of mediation is to get both parties to resolve all their issues on their own, but according to Jeremy stern its all about getting Meir to bring his claims to a respectable bais din.

IN CONCLUSION: The facts above speak for themselves. Lonna Kin Ralbag has chosen a path contrary to the Torah standards. She has severely damaged Meir Kin financially after continuous litigation in the civil courts, has stolen his monies, his only son, prevents him from regular visitations with his father in Los Angeles, prevents free phone contact with his son, attempted to have him jailed for speaking to Rabbi Gobioff from the Bais Din Even Hamishpot, has ORA rally 3 times before his parents home and his place of employment, has her associates harass and intimidate him on a constant basis, obtains 3 false Seiruvim , feignsto be an Aguna when all the while she refuses to pick up her GET written in a Chareidi bais din in Monsey Ny. After enduring such a horrible punishment and suffering from her and yet Meir Kin writes a GET on her behalf, you tell me who is the real extortionist here! It is Meir Kin who is the victim and Lonna Kin the extortionist who wants to violate Torah Law and dictate to Meir which Get is acceptable and where to pick it up! The last I heard , the Torah gave the man the right to choose his scribe and place to write the GET! If you have any sense of decency and honesty, please write to Jeremy stern and all these corrupted rabbis listed above that you will no longer tolerate these baseless lies and let them save their ammunition for the TRUE AGUNOT OUTHERE THAT DESERVE OUR HELP, AND NOT THE PRETENDERS.

Luke, this is fresh off the press. Please see attached Seiruv and condemnation letter against rabbi gershon Bess from a Bais din in Monsey, Ny. The second letter is a letter to the public to make them aware of my innocence and informs the public of all the damages inflicted upon me by the RCC, ORA, and Lonna Kin Ralbag.

Bais Din Lishkas Hagozis/Kedushas Levi Monsey, NY (845)352-0532;426-1349

This is the 4th (courtesy) summons being sent to Rabbi Gershon Bess to appear in front of our Bais Din with the other litigant, Mr Meir Kin . We respectfully request that you contact us to notify the date that is convenient for you to appear.

Signed today the 15th day of Tammuz 5770.

Signed Rabbi Ahron Tzvi Klein

Signed Rabbi Zalman, Pinchos Shtoltzenberg

It has been decided that as of today, Rabbi Gershon Bess is in the status of contempt, by Torah Law for not appearing to this court as well as doing things against the Torah without proper reason and conducting himself in a manner as if he were the sole Rabbinic authority in this generation. All his halachic rulings should be considered invalid. Whoever assists him in his endeavors shall be equally responsible to his sins and its ramifications. Whoever seeks the path of Torah, should distance themselves from him or his associates, and by doing so will fulfill what the Torah states Blessed is he who upkeeps this Torah. Amen.

Signed Ahron Tzvi Klein

Signed Zalman Pinchos Shtoltzenberg

Signed Tzvi Dov Avraham

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Rabbi Marc Schneier Splits From His Fourth Wife

Posted on June 27, 2010 by Luke Ford

I broke this story May 26.

Today the New York Post reports:

Respected Rabbi Marc Schneier has split from his fourth wife and is now spending time with a younger woman.

A source tells us the rabbi and wife Tobi Rubinstein-Schneier are divorcing after splitting a few months ago, and he has since started spending time with an attractive brunette in her 30s named Gitty.

Schneier, founding rabbi of the New York Synagogue and the Hampton Synagogue in Westhampton, is also a spiritual adviser to stars including Russell Simmons and Steven Spielberg. He and Tobi have been married for three years.

Schneier, 51, is also the founder and president of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding. He often jets around the world to improve interfaith relations and met with Pope Benedict at the Vatican last year.

Schneier, named by Newsweek as one of the 50 most influential American rabbis, recently told his congregation that he’s suffering from bipolar disorder.

A source told us: “He’s divorcing his fourth wife. He’s a great leader in the Jewish community, he’s just not very good at marriage.

“He met Gitty after he was separated from Tobi and they are spending time together.”

A spokesman for Rabbi Schneier, Ken Sunshine, said: “Marc Schneier is a renowned worldwide leader, and a pioneer in Muslim-Jewish relations. He has been dealing with a very serious illness, and we will have no comment on rumor or innuendo.”

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/pagesix/famed_rabbi_wife_splitting_BQiuA67fqLpdOVR7Ru53nN#ixzz0s4XK5aic

I really dig that response. The rabbi loves to bang hot chicks. He must suffer from the same illness every men has. The difference between Rabbi Marc Schneier and Hugh Hefner on the one hand and the average Joe on the other hand is opportunity.

The average Joe doesn’t have the opportunity to bang hot chicks. The average man is not constantly overcoming this temptation because beautiful women are usually difficult to maneuver into bed unless you have a position of authority, like rabbi or missionary.

A big rabbi has lots of opportunities to bang chicks. A middling Jewish blogger, not so much. I’m not more righteous than Rabbi Schneier. I just don’t have the opportunities he does.

The other thing that gets me about this sick talk is that soon we will hear he is rehabilitated and ready to return to the pulpit. I say no! This man should never again be accepted as a rabbi.

Does anyone seriously think that Rabbi Schneier would have this same access to hot chicks if he wasn’t a prominent rabbi?

He should sell insurance and study Torah in his private time.

Remember when Los Angeles Orthodox Jew Dr. Gershon Hepner was saying he had bi-polar disorder? He got Rabbi Steven Weil and many of Pico-Robertson’s finest physicians to back his attempt to get his medical license back after his first felony conviction.

What did Dr. Hepner then do when he got his medical license back? He committed another felony. And he said he didn’t have bipolar disorder after all. He just loved to hit on chicks, including his patients and any attractive young woman who happened to cross his path.

You don’t have to be sick to want to bang every hot thing that moves.

I remember getting stiff rabbinic pressure to remove anything negative about Dr. Gershon Hepner from my website. Apparently the truth upset people in the community.

Dr. Gershon Hepner racked up two felonies and hit on every hot young thing in his life and yet he was welcomed to daven at Beth Jacob, YICC, Bnai David and every other shul in the community while a righteous and celibate God-fearer such as myself experienced nothing but scorn.

(Well, maybe I’m not so righteous and not so celibate and have received plenty of love from the awesome community of Pico-Robertson. Overall, I’ve received what I’ve deserved.)

Perhaps Rabbi Marc Schneier was not banging hot chicks so much as acting as a spiritual adviser and improving interfaith relations.

Where can I get a job like that? I realize it may tarnish my soul, but hey, I’m willing to pay that price if I can do Rabbi Schneier’s work of tikkun olam.

What do you think Rabbi Schneier means by claiming to be a “pioneer in Muslim-Jewish relations” and a leader in “Black Jewish relations”? This man has been having an awful lot of relations. I’m sure they were all for the sake of Heaven. Much like my own.

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Just Wait A Month And Then You Can Rape Her!

Posted on June 27, 2010 by Luke Ford

In his 12th lecture on Deuteronomy (2003), Dennis Prager says on the Torah verse about taking a captive woman as a wife after she’s left alone for 30 days to mourn her family: “You may not touch her for 30 days. This shows the wisdom and goodness of the Torah. If it said, don’t rape women when you win a war, forget it. It’s too utopian.

“But it says, hey, we know you want beautiful women. So hold on. No problem. Just wait 30 days.

“But please. Thirty days a woman is going to sit there and you’re going to get to know her and she’s crying over her relatives, and then on the 31st day, you’re going to rape her? That’s not the way men function. It’s brilliant. Guys, no problem. You can have your beautiful booty after winning a war. Just wait a month. But get to know her. Learn that she’s a human, not just a beautiful object.”

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Marry Him: The Case For Settling For Mr Good Enough

Posted on June 27, 2010 by Luke Ford

I could not put down this new book from author Lori Gottlieb.

I read it straight through Shabbos afternoon.

What made it particularly appealing is revenge.

As a guy, I have to go through life making the first move on a girl, asking a girl out, leaning in to kiss her for the first time, and then trying to develop a relationship.

This becomes wearing. Rejection wears one down. I’ve dated at least two dozen women in my life who I would’ve married, but none of them wanted to marry me.

Now I see some of them and they’ve hit the wall. They’re not married. They’re not cute. They’re bitter. And I’m glad. I’m glad to see the destruction of the haughty. I’m glad to see the humbling of all these chicks who thought they were so much better than me.

I’m 44. I have more choices now than ever. I date 18-year olds. I date 40-year olds. The world is my oyster.

Vengeance is mine, says the Count of Pico-Robertson.

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The Torah Says It Is OK To Ask Questions

Posted on June 27, 2010 by Luke Ford

From Dennis Prager’s eleventh lecture on Deuteronomy (2003):

Dennis: “When people say ‘Jews’, nobody yawns.”

Deut: 6:20: “If your child asks you tomorrow, saying, ‘What are the testimonies and the decrees and the ordinances that HaShem, our God, commanded you?”

Asking questions is a Jewish mentality. “At yeshiva we were taught to ask questions. Often the rabbis didn’t have answers. I have friends who grew up in other faiths and they were not encouraged to ask questions.”

“Moses is instructing every Jewish generation that will ever live how to answer your child – how come we keep kosher? How come we keep Shabbos? Because God took us out of Egypt.”

Reading aloud different translations of the Torah, Dennis says: “The Jewish commentators don’t like the word ‘fear’. The Orthodox can live with it. The non-Orthodox don’t like it. The Christians are OK with it. But the Hebrew word is ‘fear.’ It doesn’t mean scared. If God created the world and judges everything, He is worth fearing.”

“It’s OK for children to ask questions. The Torah assumes your child will ask you questions. Notice it doesn’t say, keep quiet and do them. This sets a tone. Parents, you owe your children explanations. So many parents think you just tell your kids to do it. It says to give a reason.”

“Judaism forgot to give rational answers over thousands of years. When people do something over and over, it becomes tradition. The Hebrew word for tradition, ‘minhag’ spelled backwards is ‘Gahnim’ (hell).”

“If you keep the commandments, have you achieved righteousness? The Jew says yes, the Christian says no. You achieve righteousness and then you do what God wants.

“The Jewish way is that you do what is right and then you’re good with God. The Christian view is that that’s nonsense. You get good with God and then you do what’s right.”

“The Jew is right that you have to keep these commandments. The Christian is right that that is not enough. That’s a means, not an ends. The ends is to fear and love God properly. The law is a vehicle, not an end.”

“Law becoming an end in itself is becoming a problem in modern society outside of Judaism. I had a big international law professor hang up on me on the radio right before the law in Iraq. He was inveighing how terrible it is, how it is against international law.

“I asked, if the UN security council voted for it, would it then be illegal?

“And he hung up. He realized what I was implying — law is just what people vote on. There’s got to be something more important than law — morality. It was legal to kill Jews in Germany. Legal is just what people vote on. Legal may be moral or it may not be moral.”

“It was never anywhere in the Torah that God commanded kill the men and women of Midian. It was Moses speaking.

“Whenever God speaks about what happens to the Canaanites, it is about chasing them out. Never about destroying them. It is repeated several times in the book of Exodus.”

“This is Moses angrily talking. He’s using language at his disposal. He’s so angry at the practices of those people.”

But the Bible itself says this genocide was never carried out against the Canaanites. It’s a theoretical command from Moses.

“The Torah never has people killed for crappy belief. At least not non-Jews.”

God prescribes expulsion, not annihilation. “Moses saw that the sexy Midianite women were getting the Jews into idolatry and this is what he is worried about.”

This action is defensive and nothing is prescribed against idolaters outside of Israel.

“There is much more warning that the Jews will be destroyed than that the Canaanites will be destroyed in the book of Deuteronomy or any other book of the Torah.”

Deuteronomy prescribes the same treatment for any Israelite cities that lapse into idolatry.

“If you hear that the Hebrew Bible recommends genocide, it is not true. It is Moses being angry in his talk. It didn’t happen [genocide of the Canaanites]. If it happened, it wasn’t God’s instructions. It happened only once in the Torah and that was with the Midianites.”

12th lecture: “Remember when the pagan women [of Baal-peor] seduced the [Israelite] men with their beauty into worshiping other gods? It was Pinchas who acted while Moses sat there like a retired leader.

“I think Moses is over-reacting when he keeps telling them to destroy them, to devour them, to show them no pity.”

Question: This is Moses retelling the story but isn’t it all the word of God?

Dennis: “That is an enormous question. The text doesn’t tell me it is the word of God, it says it is the word of Moses. I have to be guided by what the text tells me.

“When Abraham spoke to the king and said, this is my sister, is that the word of God? That’s the word of Abraham. It’s in a book I believe to be divine but it doesn’t mean that what Abraham says is divine words. Abraham does not look like a hero in the text.

“If Moses says, this is what God said to me, then we’re much closer, but it’s not God. I don’t know why that’s not orthodox. It’s something I’d need to ask my Orthodox friends. Do they believe it is identical to God speaking?

“God handed down the text in the Orthodox view, but the text has non-divine utterances.”

“In all the studying I did in traditional places of learning, Deuteronomy was never distinguished between what Moses said and what God said. The Torah tells me these are Moses’s words and I have to understand the distinction.

“Moses hits the rock and says, look at the rock and the water Aaron and I are getting out for you? Are those God’s words? Obviously those are not God’s words. God says you can’t get into the Holy Land because you said that.

“You have to understand that this is a human speaking here. The divine seal of approval is on the authenticity of what he said but not necessarily on the correctness of what he said.”

Rabbi Rabbs posts: Prager is dead wrong, and what he wrote smacks of ignorance and heresy.

Judaism is a Talmudic and not a Biblical religion. To read the Bible without the commentaries, and without the Oral Torah is a fast way to apikorsis, and Prager demonstrates why one should never do so. He saw something in Dvarim and created … See Morehis own original story as to how Moshe said something that Prager mistakenly thought G-d never stated. But, Prager’s stupid explanation doesn’t match Judaism’s explanation.

Before he opened his mouth, Prager should have learned the Rambam. In Sefer HaMitzvahs, the Rambam lists as one of the 613 Mitzvahs from G-d that we are to wipe out all seven nations of Canaanim. Rambam says we learn that from Dvarim 7:1. Thus, it is not Moses’ own initiative, but when Moses says it in Deutoronomy, he is merely quoting G-d.

To say otherwise would not only show ignorance but complete kefirah, heresy, because doing so would deny that the Torah which we have today comes from G-d. Saying Moses concocted it himself would be saying the Torah is man-made and that Moses was not a true prophet. All of that would go against the Rambam’s principles of faith, and thus, would be considered apikorsis.

Prager’s whole approach falls down anyway, because I already stated during the Torah Talk that G-d commands us to practice genocide against Amalek. Not only that, but the commandment to wipe out the Canaanim continued throughout each and every generation, and we see that King David had wars with them, and destroyed them completely, with the survivors being scattered and assimilated among the nations until they disappeared.

Thus, that is what we follow, not because Moses said it, but because G-d told it to Moses.

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The New Testament Is Feelings Oriented While The Hebrew Bible Is Action Oriented

Posted on June 26, 2010 by Luke Ford

There’s plenty about action in the New Testament and plenty about feeling in the Hebrew Bible but the stereotype in my headline is generally true.

When the Hebrew Bible talks about loving God, it refers primarily to action, not feelings and theology.

My mischievous side just took over and I made this Facebook update: “Luke Ford got up in shul today and talked about what God had done in his life.”

I have never heard a Jew speak this way. We don’t speak about God acting in our lives. Our religion is not feelings oriented, it is law oriented. We don’t trust feelings and we don’t trust the heart and we don’t trust people to intuit what God wants and we don’t trust people to feel their way to God and goodness.

If I did get up in shul and speak about what God had done in my life nobody would notice because I would have nothing to say. I can’t get my head around talking with assurance about God acting in your life. How do you know? How do you know it’s not just your feelings acting in you? How do you know it is not a delusion?

I grew up a Seventh-Day Adventist Christian where talking about how God has acted in one’s life was the norm and you were a freak if you didn’t assent to this approach. Women used to hit up my dad –when he was single — and say that God had told them they were to marry. My dad would say that God had given him no such message.

In Judaic history, we believe that prophesy ended with the prophet Malachai about 2,400 years ago.

An Orthodox friend comments on my Facebook status: “But it could’ve been an impromptu dvar torah/spiritual release, while under the influence of vodka, during kiddush?”

“Well, it wouldn’t be the first time a chassid with a long beard was inspired to speak by his dear rebbe.”

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The Reasons For Jewish Laws

Posted on June 26, 2010 by Luke Ford

In his third lecture on Deuteronomy in 2002, Dennis Prager says: “The rabbis [of the Talmud] distinguished between chukim (laws between man and God) and mishpatim (laws between man and man) as chukim are laws we can not understand and mishpatim are laws we can understand.

“There is a real problem asserting at the outset that there are laws we can not understand. If you believe that there are many laws that you can not understand, then you will never seek to understand them. That ends intellectual inquiry into their purpose.

“I grew up in the world that learned this way. It was the most difficult aspect of the thinking of the Judaism I was raised in, that there were laws I can never understand. There may well be, but to declare it at the outset means that it is pointless to try to understand.

“That leads to some terrible consequences — to an unintellectual observance of rules.

“For example, the law in Judaism of how you slaughter an animal. You take a blade that is extremely sharp, can not have any nick in it, and you have to be able to slice the animal’s throat in one cut across the neck.

“Everybody I know understands this as a way to minimize the animal’s suffering. Presumably the shochet (slaughterer) does it quickly.

“I was explaining this to a group in Halifax, Nova Scotia, about 25 years ago.

“In the audience was a newly ordained Orthodox rabbi who was trying out for his first pulpit.

“After I spoke about this, he politely raised his hand and said, ‘I disagree with Mr. Prager. We do not know why Jewish law ordains a sharp knife without a nick in it. He proclaims that it is to reduce the animal’s suffering but we don’t know that. The proof is that under Jewish law I can take a very long time in the speed with which I cut the animal’s throat, and then the animal will suffer.’

“I wanted to punch him. It was so painful to hear this was what he believed and this is what he was telling Jews, none of whom kept kosher.

“I believe you have to do things because God said so, but even if God said so, why did God give me a brain if not to understand why he said so?”

“Deuteronomy 4:1 says that these are the laws ‘so that you may live.’ So we’re told there is a purpose. Moses himself is giving a whole series of purposes to Biblical law. Do this so that you may live. If you don’t do this, you’ll die.”

“God is saying, I took you out of Egypt so that you could lead a holy life in the holy land.”

“This is how I justify God’s periodic decimation of the Jews when they leave the covenant.”

“If you don’t lead a holy life, I will have nothing to do with you and if I have nothing to do with you, you will die.”

Deuteronomy 4:6: “Observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations, who will hear about all these chukim (decrees) and say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.'” (NIV)

Dennis: “This sentence is the basis for my outlook on the purpose of Judaism.”

“The purpose of following chukim is so that the nations of the world look at you and be impressed that these are wise people and that these are wise laws that govern their lives. How could chukim mean laws we can’t understand if the rest of the world is supposed to understand them?

“They’ll just think, what a weird people! They observe laws we can’t understand.

“That is what the nations have often said about Jews. What a weird people. Why can’t they do this on Saturday and why do they dress like this?

“There’s nothing more tragic — aside from the loss of Jewish life — that this has not made sense to the world. The purpose of the Jewish people is to bring the world to God. How can you bring the world to God if you do things that the world can’t understand?”

“Because Jews can’t eat chicken with milk [thanks to rabbinic strictures], the whole lesson [that meat represents death and milk represents life and there should be no mixing] has been killed because chickens are not mammals. No mammaries, no mammals. Originally, there were rabbis of the Talmud who ate chicken with milk.

“God wants us to look wise… When you can explain what you do, the goyim find you more wise. And so do non-observant Jews.”

Deut: 4:7 “What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the LORD our God is near us whenever we pray to him?” (NIV)

Dennis: The Torah says that greatest does not come from great numbers or from great power, but from wisdom and understanding.

“That’s exactly where Jewish greatness has come from. When people are impressed by Jews, it has been for wisdom and understanding or related to the intellectual or moral realm. Jewish greatness has never relied on power. Jewish greatness relies on the quality of life it leads and on their being intelligent.”

Deut: 4:8 “And which is a great nation that has righteous decrees and ordinances, such as this entire Torah that I place before you this day?” (Artscroll)

Dennis: “Laws can be unrighteous, so Moses adds an adjective about the type of laws we have. If chukim mean laws we can’t understand, how can he call them righteous? Adding that that they are righteous, it means you can understand.”

“The Torah is clear that how you look to the other nations is the whole point of this. God is interested in everybody. He has chosen a people to do something for the rest of humanity — to bring a message to them about God and holiness.”

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Order Of Contempt Issued Against Meir Kin

Posted on June 25, 2010 by Luke Ford

Meir Kin responds.

From GETORA.org:

To concerned members of the Jewish community:

A seruv (order of contempt) was issued this week against Meir Kin. This is a very significant development in the case of Meir and Lonna Kin. We, at the Organization for the Resolution of Agunot (ORA), hope that the Los Angeles Jewish community will take the necessary steps in order to convey to Meir his obligation to go to beis din and issue an unconditional get.

This is a very detailed case which, tragically, has been going on for many years. Meir and Lonna will mark their 10th wedding anniversary on July 4th, though they have been living separately – since January 2005 – longer than they lived together. Much has happened in the intervening five and a half years, including countless attempts at mediation and arbitration. Unfortunately, none of these attempts have been successful in reaching a final resolution and in convincing Meir to issue a get.

Both sides have claims against each other. That’s not the problem. The issue here is whether or not both parties are prepared to go to a beis din to adjudicate those issues. Lonna is willing to go to any well-recognized beis din or panel of rabbis for arbitration. Meir, unfortunately, is not. He insists that there is only one beis din in the entire world which he is willing to go to, and that Lonna must accept their jurisdiction in order to receive her get. The problem here is that Meir’s beis din, run by Rabbi Tzvi Dov Abraham of Monsey in association with Rabbi Avrohom Gestetner, has been internationally condemned for corrupt practices and not following halachic procedures.

This is not a case of my rabbi versus your rabbi. This isn’t about the Rabbinical Council of California (RCC) versus a beis din in Monsey. This is about the entire rabbinic establishment worldwide – from the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, to the Rabbinical Council of America, to the Satmar beis din in Williamsburg, among many others – opposing two corrupt rabbis in Monsey who have made it their business to assist recalcitrant husbands in extorting money from their wives in exchange for a get. We have not encountered any other beis din anywhere which recognizes the rulings of Rabbis Abraham or Gestetner. To the contrary: every beis din we have contacted who is familiar with this Monsey duo has insisted on their status as personae non gratae within the rabbinic world. Put simply, a get from Rabbi Abraham is a tool for extortion and isn’t kosher.

On Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010, a seruv was issued against Meir Kin, signed by Rabbi Hershel Schachter, Rabbi Nachum Sauer, and Rabbi Avrohom Union. Please click here to see a copy of the seruv, including an English translation. This is not the first seruv to be signed against Meir. The first seruv was signed in March 2006 by the Agudath HaRabbonim in New York, including Rav Yisroel Belsky. After Meir fled New York to file for divorce in California (and thereby avoid the New York Get Law), a second seruv was issued against him by the RCC in May 2007.

After two protest rallies which ORA organized in March and May of 2009, Meir informed the RCC that he is willing to come to the table to resolve all issues. The RCC suspended their seruv in June 2009, in a good-will measure in order to open lines of communication between the two sides. After 10 months of intensive negotiations, with two well-respected members of the L.A. community who were friends of Meir serving as the primary mediators, the RCC was informed by the mediators that Meir was intractable, cruelly withholding a get from Lonna and refusing to bring his claims against her to a respectable beis din. As the mediators wrote in a letter to Meir once negotiations had failed:

“Lonna is willing to go to a reputable Beis Din to adjudicate ALL issues. Your position that you want money from Lonna irrespective of what the Halacha is and that you should get it because otherwise you won’t give her a Get is nothing more than EXTORTION.”

Now that the seruv has been re-issued, we are going to restart our efforts to convince Meir to issue a get. Please visit www.MeirKin.com for updates. If you have any questions about this case, please feel free to call us at the ORA office: 212-795-0791.

We hope and pray that Meir will soon come to his senses, appear before a recognized beis din, and finally issue a get to Lonna. We thank you in advance for your support.

Jeremy Stern

Director, Organization for the Resolution of Agunot (ORA)

www.getORA.org

ORA is the only not-for-profit organization addressing the agunah crisis throughout the world on a case-by-case basis.

The Organization for the Resolution of Agunot (ORA), is a not-for-profit organization which assists divorcing couples in effectuating a timely Jewish divorce in accordance with the highest standards of Jewish law. ORA strives to eliminate the infliction of abuse within the Jewish divorce process. We work to ensure that a get (writ of divorce) is issued unconditionally and in a timely fashion by amicably facilitating the divorce process whenever possible, and advocating against the abuse which is perpetrated through get-refusal when necessary.

The Israel Fathers Rights Advocacy Council emails:

While we are on no ways involved in the immediate divorce in question,
it is imperative to take exception to the gross misrepresentations in
the ORA statement, and underscore the increasingly alarming behavior
of the ORA organization in propagating complete falsehoods in the very
mistaken belief that the ends justify the means.

The Monsey bet din in question is well accepted in Israel and
worldwide. The fact that they have stood up before to ORA tactics that
have crossed all boundaries of social behavior, law and Halacha in
their attempts to inproperly intimidate divorcing men from asserting
any fathers rights does not make them improper in any way. If
anything, they deserve praise for standing up in the name of Halacha
against considerable societal pressure to ignore all halachic
procedure and throw divorcing fathers under the bus for the sake of
societal expediency.

While we have not evaluated the seruv issued by Union, Sauer and
Schachter, such seruv would represent nothing but public relations
toying with a lay population ignorant of halachic procedure and both
court and bet din process. There are no lack of Rabbis willing to be
Whores of the Court for the very significant Big Business that divorce
has become in Orthodoxy. Until the population comprehends that none of
these Rabbis are acting as neutral parties, or as detached third
parties l’shem shamayim, further tragedies and chilulei hashem of this
kind will continue. Neither Jewish nor secular divorce provide a role
for neutral rabbis. Like divorce lawyers, they play an important role
in the process, but clearly represent only one side. The attempt to
hoodwink the public into a false belief that these Rabbis are somehow
neutral parties acting above the fray is simply disgraceful. And the
money rests overwhelmingly with supporting the woman, and the very
well funded Jewish Feminist lobbies. It is simple divorce math.

ORA literally has engaged in lynch mobs at this man’s family
residences by its own public relations. That this sort of Talibaning
of an educated professional population in Los Angeles can occur is not
simply a community tragedy but a dark foreboding of where the public
is permitting itself to be led by a profoundly conflicted, if not
outright corrupted, Rabbinic leadership.

Aside from their being absolutely no halachic nor legal requirement
for anyone to respond to every bet din that decides to insinuate into
existing legal proceedings before another bet din, we are profoundly
distressed at the assertion that Rabbis Schechtet, Sauer and Union
suggest any authority to issue a siruv, or even a joint statement, in
any topic whatsoever. There certainly is no regular bet din listed and
recognized comprising those three men in any capacity let alone as a
harkev diyun. They certainly are not listed at the Rannabut in
Jerusalem as dayanim at all, let alone as a standing bet din with any
authority to sit as a harkev and issues judgments about any topic
whatsoever.

…the Court, imposing a Taliban on Terror on an all too
willing community — just so long as it is not their family involved,
people tend to be unduly selfrightrous. The Yiddish term is being a
tzadik of yenem tuchus.

Shameful. There can be no place for this kind of Rabbinic misconduct
in a 21st century halachic, professional community. This behavior did
not even play well in the shtetls and ghettos of Europe two hundred
years ago. Schechtet in particular should know better after his being
required to issue humiliating public apologies in Riverdale not long
ago in similar circumstances.

We have no comment on this particular case, simply the Rabbinic
misconduct and public misrepresentations. Let the bet din with
recognized authority bang heads to a solution without others
insinuating themselves into the picture for considerable fame and
personal profit.

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Rabbi Rabbs’s Controversial Statements

Posted on June 25, 2010 by Luke Ford

Rabbi Rabbs writes on his Facebook page: Today’s Controversial Statement #1: G-d, His Torah, and His children the Jews form a trinity. We are One. Thus, anybody that hates us Jews, hates G-d. Anybody that hates G-d or trashes Judaism is a full-blown anti-Semite.

Today’s Controversial Statement #2: Judaism is unapologetically bigoted, ethnocentric, and sexist. As a follower of Judaism, I am an unapologetic ethnocentric, sexist bigot. Anyone that has a problem with that has a problem with Judaism, and is thus anti-Semitic.

Today’s Controversial Statement #3: Being Jewish is extremely exclusive. Most of Judaism is for members only, and outsiders are discouraged from joining us. If Judaism were a country club, it might be labeled as restrictive or an apartheid. Anyone that says Judaism is inclusive must be ignored.

GREG EMAILS: Hi Luke,

I keep up with your blog and have a somewhat sketchy knowledge of your many entertaining misadventures.

I’ve thought of dropping you a line on a number of occasions, and I don’t know why I’m choosing to respond to your post about Rabbi Rabbs’s controversial statements.

Except that as it happens, I’m in a unique position. I’m a goy who lives smack dab in the middle of an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood here in Texas. Also, I’m one of those people who “get” Rabbi Rabbs and would find his comedy routine very funny.

However, my response to his statements is that Orthodox Jews don’t ask to be disliked; they demand it.

Today there is a lot of discussion surrounding the idea that many people dislike Jews. My experience would suggest that the Orthodox communities provoke dislike, whereas Conservative and Reform do not. My best friend in college was a Conservative Jew, and our religious differences were merely interesting and entertaining.

The exclusivity and cloisteredness of Orthodox Jews in addition to their conspicuous display in dress and standoffishness are bound to be provocative to those who enjoy being friendly and who are open to the idea of religious differences. “I show you my hand, and you slap it away,” a line from the Sopranos.

Now Rabbi Rabbs, a good guy and a funny guy, tells us that if a Jew loves another Jew there is a blessing, and yet if he loves a non-Jew there is no blessing. And he makes the three controversial statements in your post.

So I must say, as a sort of comparative religions guy with a Dennis Prager-like view of the relations between Jews and Christians, I have to say that Orthodox Jews seem to work harder at provoking dislike from people outside of the community than any other group I have lived around. It seems to me that it would be profitable to consider the old axiom, “If you want to have a friend, be a friend.” But apparently this would be stepping outside of the limitations and parameters of this very insular community.

RABBI RABBS EMAILS: Thank you, Greg, for your feedback and thanks for your wonderful compliments. I am flattered that you “get me” and find me funny.

It seems to me that you have misidentified what you find unfriendly about “Orthodox Jews”, when in reality, you have a problem with Judaism itself.

Everything you complained about was what I merely quoted from the Torah. I am telling it like it is about Judaism. If you find some of what I say unfriendly, then that’s because you find Judaism itself unfriendly. In other words, your complaints should not be against Judaism rather than those of us that follow it.

You say the Conservative and Reform movement are more friendly. Well, fine. But that’s because they don’t follow Judaism and do not represent it. So, you have no problems with those that don’t follow Judaism, but find those of us who do follow it to be unfriendly. And, the reason the followers seem unfriendly is because they are following an unfriendly religion.

I write that so as to clarify your complaint. Now, let us examine what else you wrote.

You place yourself amongst those that you claim “enjoy being friendly and who are open to the idea of religious differences”. But, I don’t see how someone who has strong complaints against Judaism and finds it unfriendly, and is offended by the mere sight of the clothes that us Jews wear *GASP* which you criticize as “conspicuous”, and is offended by our customs which you slam as “standoffishness”, can actually be considered “friendly and open to the idea of religious tolerance.”

Quite the opposite. Those who are offended by our clothes, and are offended by our customs, and who criticize Judaism and those of us that follow it, demonstrate religious INTOLERANCE.

Contemplate that for more than just a few moments.

Finally, the suggestion that we should water down our religion or sugar coat it so as to make it more palatable for others not only runs smack against the core values of Judaism which we have preserved in its authenticity for thousands of years, even at the threat of death, but history has taught us that when Jews do try to assimilate with the non-Jews, it doesn’t help us at all, in fact, it brought us the Holocaust.

In other words, your complaints should be against Judaism rather than those of us that follow it.

Greg responds: Rabbi Rabbs,

It’s exciting to read your post. This is the closest I’ve ever been to show business. I’ll bet you have friendships with some very well-known people in comedy.

I am trying to decide whether you would assign me to category 2 of your anti-Semitic list, but I am unsure.

Actually, Rabbi, if all of the frummie dress were accompanied by overtly friendly behavior, like “Hey Greg, how are you doing? …won the lotto?” I would associate the garb with friendliness and benevolence. Regrettably, my experience is the reverse. Let’s face it, Rabbi, it’s a hard group to warm up to.

The truth is that if everything you quoted is from the Torah, then my comments would not be about anyone; they would be about the Torah itself. However, this is a problem because I have an abiding respect for the Torah, and I appreciate the way Jews interpret it. This doesn’t mean that I don’t have some disagreements. A neighbor lady screamed at me the other day, because I said that when Moses came down from Mount Sinai it was a revelation from God, but I did not believe that Jonah lived for a period in the belly of a whale and that this would need a metaphorical or allegorical interpretation.

Yes, I said that Conservative and Reform Jews were a lot friendlier to be around. I find this to be true. I think Dennis Prager made a good move when he decided to go to a Reform temple. This was not a remark about Judaism, but simply about the level of friendliness that I find forthcoming in the Orthodox community. I have no qualifications to arbitrate about Judaism and would not try to do so.

I am frequently dismayed that Jews look at “the goyim” and wonder if they would be holocaust persecutors or liberators. I believe there is a confusion between Germans and Americans here. As a VietNam vet I believe I can safely say that Americans would be holocaust liberators, as in fact we were in World War II.

This constant conflation between Germans and Americans is a ridiculous vexation.

And incidentally, Rabbi, I normally don’t go schlepping for Jews so that you can continue your learning and frown on work. However if you’re in town I would be happy to carry your bags for a few free tickets.

RABBI RABBS EMAILS: Greg,

LOL @ carrying my bags for a few free tickets. Funny stuff.

Thank you for your reply. I shall respond.

I would not necessarily assign you to any category of anti-Semites, but I do think that you should examine some of your statements, because they smack of bigotry and intolerance. Just for example, let us substitute African Americans for Jews and read your statement:

“If the Blacks expressed overtly friendly behavior, like

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