"We Are All Scapegoats,"Sefardic Rabbi Says

Dwek is a "traitor." Money-laundering rabbis are good people, their 'crimes' are really mitzvas. We are all "scapegoats."

In My View: Don’t point fingers
‘Not just a Syrian problem; we are all scapegoats’
By Rabbi David Bibi • The Jewish Star

The way the Jewish papers and blogs wrote about the recent arrests in New Jersey requires some comment. One expects misstatements and exaggerations from the international media, but do the Jewish papers need to follow suit? Rumor had become perceived fact, as so often happens. What happened to dan lekaf sechut — giving the benefit of the doubt — and innocent until proven guilty?

Rabbi Noah Weinberg zt”l tells of what he calls “A Jewish consciousness story.”

A gregarious son partying each night brags to his father that he can count 100 true friends. The father congratulates his son, noting that in all his life, he has only achieved half a friend. The father suggests a test. “Take a goat, slaughter it, put it into a sack, get some blood on you and in the middle of the night go to your friends,” the father says. “Tell them you got into a fight with a guy at the bar, one thing led to another and you killed him. Beg them to help.”

As so the son goes to each of those friends and all slam the door in his face. Dejected, he returns to his father and asks what the father’s half friend would do. His father tells him to go and see.

In the middle of the night, still holding the sack and covered in blood, the son knocks at his father’s friend’s home. He tells the same story. And the half-friend hesitates, saying, “Although I shouldn’t do this, you’re Chaim’s son, and I’ll help you.”

They take the sack and bury it together.

The boy returns to his father in shock.

The story continues and the father explains that a true friend would never even hesitate.

The Torah states, you should love your friend as yourself, I am G-d. If you truly fulfill this, G-d promises then He is the third partner in your friendship.

What is a true friendship? Do you have a true friend? Do you have half a friend? Do you have someone in your life who would risk his freedom, his honor, his money if your son came to him?

A Jewish consciousness story!

Three Sephardic rabbis are accused of succumbing to compassion. Was there personal gain for any of them? I highly doubt it.

Did they succumb to a young man who was ostracized by others? Did they succumb to a young man who came to them again and again pleading that his children had no food on the table? Did they succumb to the suffering son of a trusted scholar? They did. They fulfilled the verse, Ve’ahavta LeReacha Kamocha, even though they were duped, and my sense of judging favorably tells me that Hashem is with them.

Was it wrong to be complicit in a potential federal felony? Undoubtedly it was. Does it mean we need to examine ways of helping? Certainly, and we need to reexamine much in the way we live.

The shocking news is the traitor among us. One begs to imagine the FBI threatened and cajoled, but to set up the 87 year old chief rabbi, to set up a relative, to set up the holy man who shared the dais with his own father for 30 years is unconscionable.

French Jews burned Maimonides’ book and a short time later the Talmud was burned in France.

We have a problem and its beyond the scope of this article and well above my pay scale to solve it. But the problem is not a Syrian problem, not a Sephardic problem, not even an Orthodox problem. It’s a Jewish problem. Let’s come together to solve it. Let’s give each other the benefit of the doubt and lets avoid pointing out scapegoats, because in the eyes of the world, we’re all the scapegoats.

Rabbi David Bibi leads the Sephardic Congregation of Long Beach.

Comments

[alternative childcare]

I think he's got a potential script on his hands. After his half friend helps him bury the goat, the two of them go after all of his friends and kills them all in various nasty ways. Bingo, hollywood slasher blockbuster!

I can't figure out why else he would recount such an ugly fable. Is he suggesting that the Torah way is to offer to be an accomplice to murder?

[seymour]

if I was in his shul I would ask for a refund on my membership.

It is full of lies, he thinks if you say a lie often enough people will think it is true. Dwek asked to clean/kosher the money it is on tape loud and clear. The admitted they were doing this for a long time.

I hope I have real friends who will help me solve the problem get a good lawyer and turn myself in, and explain the situation. The Torah says you should an accomplish to a murder. By giving this example he is admitting the rabbis did wrong.

again again as always the frum community cannot look inwards at their faults and just chuck this off as antisemtism- mosser and what ever idiotic excuse they can come up with.

the way he explains it, leads to a much bigger question if true what he says.
What type of friend or religious leader charges 10% to cash a check for someone who needs to feed his family that is disgusting, and low.

They are either greedy pigs, or thief's take you pick

he says we should not scapegoats but at the same time he has no problem scapegoating dwek

the more and more the religious people open there mouth it reminds me why I am blessed that I left that loony tunes cult

[Joseph K]

This story with the goat is really inspiring and shows us how we all need to band together to help our brothers in their time of tzora.
Look this isnt about legal/illegal, its about having rachmonus and a warm yiddishe hartz for another jews pain.

mi keamcha yisrael

[seymour]

This story with the goat is really inspiring and shows us how we all need to band together to help our brothers in their time of tzora.
Look this isnt about legal/illegal, its about having rachmonus and a warm yiddishe hartz for another jews pain.

mi keamcha yisrael

Posted by: Joseph K | August 06, 2009 at 08:47 PM

and dwek?

[Tonda]

Friends help you move.

True friends help you move bodies.

Jewish friends help you move money.

But it takes a haredim Rabbi to praise the crime as something admirable, condemn the criminal only after he implicates other Jews as being a traitor, mention anti-semitism in the third act right on schedule, pop in an ad hominem attack on the French for something that happened 800 years ago, condemn the FBI for catching criminals, and then blame the rest of the world for noticing. He then tops it off with a reminder that all Jews are really on the same team, so lets pull together.

I guess the moral of his story is that all GOOD Jews should band together and protect the bad Jews, unless the bad Jew turns against another Jew, and then he becomes a really bad Jew and should be kicked out of the club because he shared the secret handshake, or something...

And never miss a chance to kick the French.

[seymour]

Tonda,

you finally figured us out, all those weird things we do are really code to pass on information.

Now you are a mosser since everybody will read this you are in cherim and can do and hang out with dwek

[Ben]

If these Rabbis were so kind hearted and really really felt Dwek's and his family's pain, why they did not simply give him money from their charitable funds? Why did they need to charge hungry and poor Dwek for help?

These kind souls washed 3 million dollars for Dwek, that is enough to feed most families for life. The 87 old nazi-rabbi Kasin laundered hundreds of millions (also probably to help some poor holders of that money).

Rabbi Bibi, the author has criminal mind and have no sense of right and wrong. Where did he learned his ethics? Is it possible that he got them from Kasin?

R.Bibi also cries for unity of Jewish people while following the takanah that separates them for 70 years. He is just a typical hypocrite.

[ah-pee-chorus]

this moron is so stupid and amoral that he OPENS his column with a story extolling the immorality and complete stupidity of someone agreeing to be an accessory after the fact for another mans murder, while acting in such a way that the dead man's family may never know their son's condition or fate for the rest of their lives.
then, as if that wasnt enough to start laughing, you realize that in the man's story the son's "friends" believed he really did kill the man. and yet they did not help him. now the part that this mentally challenged writer has a problem with is that they wouldnt help. so rabbi no-brain is implying that the accused ARE GUILTY and that there is no problem believing that. the problem according to him is that we are not now helping the accused rabbis, maybe by helping to hide the evidence, as the loyal friend did in the parable.
if i didnt know better i would swear this is a great practical joke. instead, the joke is that he was given smicha and might even have followers and congregants.
the community would have been better off letting the grand dragon of the klan defend them.

[ah-pee-chorus]

"We Are All Scapegoats"

no, any goat would have to be smarter than you to locate the ground on which he walks.

[ah-pee-chorus]

"We have a problem and its beyond the scope of this article and well above my pay scale to solve it. But the problem is not a Syrian problem, not a Sephardic problem, not even an Orthodox problem. It’s a Jewish problem""

(the quote continues)

".....and that problem is that morally challenged fools like myself and the accused rabbis are given smicha!

well at least he ended it well.

[ah-pee-chorus]

++They fulfilled the verse, Ve’ahavta LeReacha Kamocha, ++

you see , my cute, blind , dumb ,little sheep, our rabbis did a MITZVA! here in america the reward for mitvot is a bright shiny pair of metal handcuffs to play with. and sometimes a cute little electric bracelet you can wear on your ankle. such nice toys. yes, our rabbis are going to be away for a while as areward from hashem for this mitzvah. when you grow up i want you to be JUST LIKE THEM. always involved in mitzvot.

[soso]

I heard the story of the goat the first time from a muslim iranian. I suppose it is a classical story of the muslim world.

Do you want your friends to conspire with you for murder?

Well: if they do, you will have the perfect mafia around you and you can start business...

[Jonathan]

The story of the goat, far from being inspiring, is highly disturbing. If it was actually said from the pulpit - even more so.

[stormin norman]

I suppose we are lucky that the father told the son to slaughter a goat and not a female Ethiopian parking attendant

[critical_minyan]

if he had changed the story and said the person he killed was an ethiopian, all of his 100 friends would have helped him.
especially if they were members of shas.

[WoolSilkCotton]

++Tonda | August 06, 2009 at 09:09 PM++

Perfect analysis!

[itchiemayer]

Thanks guys for assuring me I'm not going crazy. I read the the goat story a couple of times because I thought I was missing something. Each time I read it, I couldn't help but think that his point was a horribly misguided one. Now I know I'm not going crazy!
Joseph K. found the story inspiring. He's also the guy who needed of all people, the Spinka Rebbe, to figure out Jews are obligated to "dot the I's" in their business dealings in our medina shel chesed. While I am happy he now realizes we are obligated to be scrupulously honest in our business dealings, the fact that he didn't know prior, and the fact that he considers this story an inspiring one, makes me wonder about Joseph K.

[Nachum]

I'm pretty sure Hanoch Teller has that story in one of his books, but the details may be slightly different (in an anti-Semitic country, he killed a non-Jew in self-defense and had to cover it up, etc.). Still ugly, but not half as ugly as this one.

[Izgad]

"French Jews burned Maimonides’ book and a short time later the Talmud was burned in France."

What does this have to do with anything?

[David]

That this man calls himself "rabbi" is a disgrace. A "friend" will help you get away with murdering another human being? This is what Judaism teaches? Breaking the law and engaging in fraud is something we do as a mitzvah? I think this "rabbi" has been reading the wrong Torah.

[effie]

This is an anti-semite's jackpot. It makes me ill.

[ah-pee-chorus]

: itchiemayer - joseph k is a joker just trying to have fun.

[Cole]

Wow, oh wow. That guy's the head of a congregation. We certainly have a Jewish problem, and it's disgraces like this unholy author and anyone that listens to him. Outside the confines of his circle, someone that tells tales like that and implies that the moral is to assist your friends in murder 'cause everyone is out to get you would be known as a paranoid conspiracy theorist. Yet this bloke is called Rabbi. Ouch.

[ah-pee-chorus]

++"French Jews burned Maimonides’ book and a short time later the Talmud was burned in France."

What does this have to do with anything?

Posted by: Izgad | August 07, 2009 at 08:05 AM

i think the esteemed rabbi means we have to burn rambams books, and then maybe the evidence will miraculously burn up too. anybody have a match?

[Tonda]

+++Tonda,

you finally figured us out...

Now you are a mosser...

seymour+++

Do I get a club tie, or maybe a cool hat?

[WoolSilkCotton]

So it's not just a 'few rotten apples'.

A leader of the community officially endorses such conduct. Great. Just great.

[Yosef]

Thirty years ago, I got into an argument with a very well-known Orthodox (YU, non-Haredi) rabbi over community ethics. (Yes, even back then.) His line to me: "At least the people who are stealing are stealing for Torah."

That's pretty much what David Bibi wrote. WHich pretty much explains why I'm no longer part of the frum community.

[ah-pee-chorus]

+++Let’s give each other the benefit of the doubt and lets avoid pointing out scapegoats+++

will someone please buy dopey a dictionary and highlight the word "scapegoat".

[ah-pee-chorus]

++They fulfilled the verse, Ve’ahavta LeReacha Kamocha++

so this mitzva is fulfilled by helping someone you know steal money and keeping ten percent for yourself.

if you help a man you know rob a bank, and keep some for yourself, you are a very pious man, since you have helped your friend feed his family. hashem will be happy you fulfilled this important mitzvah.

[WoolSilkCotton]

It's a community where dishonest business practices and outright crime is a perfectly accepted way of life.

Drive through Deal or Ocean Parkway. Mansion after garish mansion, with the most expensive wheels in the driveways, all paid for in cash, all by men who dropped out of high school and seemingly have no real job training or business education.

Even our hassidic/haredi friends aren't that crooked. Most h/h's strike me a silly and slightly retarded, but only a fraction are truly sociopathic enough to commit serious white-collar crimes. Not so with our Syrian brethren though, where it's 99.9% sociopathic.

[effie]

But, WSC, it seems the H/H community is more than willing to defend the crooks.

[WoolSilkCotton]

How little do religious Jewish crooks (Sephardics or H/H's) realize the way they foolishly resemble so many other despicable backward practices of other ethnic and religious groups that put the highest priority on covering for one anothers' crimes, and remaining ignorant of how that damages the reputation of the entire group.

[Ben]

WSC, what if this entire group are just geniouses who don't need an education beyond 8th grade to be big machers? What is they are born bussinessmen? What if their Rabbis prayers are answered better then any other rabbi prayers?

I think by excluding all these possibilities you limit your choices to theft, which is not scientific.

[Noname]

I agree with Jonathan, that story of the goat was ridiculous and totally UN-inspirational. since when are we commanded to help cover up murder? What if the murdered person was another friend's son? This essay by Rabbi Bibi is totally disturbing and I can only say that for one Failed Messiah has published something worthy of criticism.

[Jerome Soller]

I agree with Noname. The goat story is very disturbing, as it represents the polar opposite of Jewish ethics and values. Obviously, this rabbi never understood Jewish ethics.

How many Jews over the centuries have died because of blood libels describing actions similar to this story? My ancestors survived pograms.

Psalms 37 27 Depart from evil, and do good; and dwell for evermore.
Psalms 37 28 For the Lord loveth justice, ...

I will probably post to the jewishstar web site later this week.

[sjl]

WSC - wealth is not evidence of a crime. That the syrians have been extraordinarily successful/lucky does not mean that they are dishonest as a whole. They helped each other out, valued hard work and improvisation, and managed to create successful businesses in similar industries. You see that in other communities too.
Also, this Rabbi Bibi, while Sephardic is not a member of the Brooklyn/Deal community and is not known there.

[NotParticularlyFrumButSickOfBS]

Well... at least they didn't allow their children to marry converts!!

[Joshua Waxman]

I posted about the origins of this story here:

http://parsha.blogspot.com/2009/08/good-friend-will-help-you-move-true.html

kt,
josh

[David Bibi]

I am so sorry that my article was so misunderstood. I am completely at fault. Here’s why!

The article in the Jewish Star was simply a very edited version taking my column in the weekly newsletter I have been writing for 15 years and distributing to almost 20,000 people. The original was 4000 words and cutting it to 900 or so was probably the first mistake. I guess I could use lessons from Reader’s Digest.

The second was going against my own advice to avoid stating in public things that might be misunderstood or misinterpreted. Only this week I cautioned others following a terrible article in the Asbury Park press and after hearing a press conference by former mayor Koch on this very matter.

My intent in releasing the edited letter to the Jewish Star was to argue against the paper’s headline the previous week.

As I wrote this past Friday, it “was to state that the problem is not a Syrian problem, not a Sephardic problem, not even an Orthodox problem. It’s a Jewish problem. Lets come together to solve it, lets give each other the benefit of the doubt and lets avoid pointing out scapegoats, because in the eyes of the world, we’re all the scapegoats.”

But for those who accuse me of condoning murder – and you were not the only one – I am saddened by my own lack of foresight.

And again I wrote on Friday, “I realize if even a few people misconstrue and write about it, then a hundred times that number may think the same but not write.”

With regard to the story of a friend and half a friend, obviously the story is not my own, although I liked the Goodfella’s line.

Again I quote myself, “It is a story told to all our children and one used by our Rabbis for a thousand years to define a friend. It was meant to convey the lessons we grow up with not to condone murder chas veshalom. Ask your Rabbi why it’s told. Ask Aish HaTorah why Rabbi Weinberg uses it to define friendship in his series on the 48 ways to wisdom, tape #11.”

In hindsight I agree. It was probably then wrong story to use.

And concluded my column Friday with the following four paragraphs

“Was it wrong to break the law? Absolutely!
Do I condone the behavior? No, I do not.
Should thing have been done differently? Yes.
Do we live in a country where we are required to follow the law? We do and we should be thankful for that.

The original unedited version of my article ended as follows. This may help to better understand where I was going with it.

“Have we gotten too comfortable here? Have we as scripture states become so fat that we’ve forgotten? Have we forgotten who we are, where we come from, and what it’s all about? Do we bear responsibility for our children leaving the path and turning against us whether as playwrights, authors, con men, or going so far as to set people up? It doesn't happen in a vacuum my friends. We're doing something wrong. Hashem tries to tell us. At first gently but eventually with a smack when we are not paying attention. When Rabbis are implicated and it is a son of a Rabbi who implicates, the fault must lie with all of us.

What's the solution? Who am I to say? But let me close with one final story - another my Rabbi often told me and a lesson he preached. Its a famous story told about the Chafetz Chaim zs"l.

When he was a young boy he wanted to change the whole world. He tried, but became frustrated. So, he revised his goal. He was only going to change his country, Poland. He soon saw that this was also a bit too ambitious, so he decided to just change his little town of Radin. Alas, this also proved to be too much, so he decided to change just the Bet Midrash where he prayed and learned. He soon realized that the only person he was capable of changing was himself. (Rabbi Abittan would also say, before you preach take care of yourself, let your inside match your exterior.)

So, the Chafetz Chaim got to work. As we all know, he succeeded in becoming one of the greatest sadikim in the history of our Nation. People began gravitating toward him and his Bet Midrash soon filled with people eager to learn from him. In time, his name spread through Radin. The small town became a Torah center by virtue of the great saddik who lived there Sure enough, the Jewish population of Poland began heeding the words of this saddik and Gadol HaDor. He wrote many sefarim (books). His masterpiece of halacha (Jewish Law), the Mishna Berura is used by poskim (halachic authorities) worldwide. His works, "Chafetz Chaim" and "Shmirat HaLoshon" have revived the all-but-forgotten mitzvah of proper speech. It has become a cornerstone of serving Hashem. His multitude of sefarim cover all aspects of Jewish life, and anyone who wants information or inspiration on practically all aspects of Torah need only turn to him. Yes, Rav Yisrael Meir succeeded. He changed the whole world.

We can do it. We can change the way things are. We can change our country, our city, our town, our community and our families. Where do we begin? With ourselves. We must examine our values and sense of honor. We must look at the justifications we make, the blind eye we turn aside and the way we live and act.

Each of us must build himself up to the point where he can truly say he has fulfilled the vesre to become a light on the nations. When the world turns to us and says, “I want to be like you”, then we have succeeded.

All the best,

David Bibi

[Nativ Winiarsky]

Dear David:

Who am I writing to? The impertinent man who wrote the article in the Jewish Star whose message I found to be so repulsive and morally repugnant, or the gracious individual who wrote an e-mail whose primary message is the astute observance that our first and foremost responsibility is to change ourselves which if done correctly will ultimately beneficially impact on others.

I am truly at a loss.

Your explanation of the material redaction of the original article notwithstanding, it is simply inexcusable to allow an article like that to be transmitted to the world at large whereby a reader can, and with good cause, interpret it as implicitly excusing the conduct of the Rabbis arrested. Assuming that was not your intent, I certainly do not have to tell you that words have meanings and we have to be extra careful, especially in these times, of that which we disseminate in public.

I agree with you that “it’s a Jewish problem” but I disagree wherein you write that “let’s give each other the benefit of the doubt.” Sorry but these men were supposed to be our moral and religious leaders and they are subject to a far higher standard. Whatever our obligation is in terms of dan lekaf sechut (and the obligation is undoubtedly present), they have a halachically imposed more stringent obligation of holding themselves out above any and all suspicion. Now I do not know what you do for a living, but I have experience in criminal law and unless those tapes were doctored (which they were not), these Rabbis have a lot of explaining to do. To the extent that some bragged these were slow years and in years past they used to do 7-8 million in laundering, more then explaining is going to be needed.

I similarly take issue with your statement that “in the eyes of the world, we’re all scapegoats.” Here you have the classic “the goyim are out to get us” argument and it simply is wide of the mark and seeks to deflect the ills that plague us. The truth is that we are indeed all scapegoats. Like you said in your article, we are all responsible for allowing this culture where, as one true Hacham put it, “we got rid of Hoshen Mishpat and pretend to be Hassidei Elyon.” We are the ones who appointed these leaders knowing they wouldn’t say boo in the face of the many improprieties we all commit. The world rightly looks down upon us because we are oh so quick to give us the yclept “chosen people” but ever so slow to ultimately live up to that name. No my friend, the answer does not lie with Gentile hate but with Jewish self-deception.

As for the pretext for your use of the story that my Rabbi would probably know and Aish HaTorah uses, this too falls flat. In the first instance, my Rabbi knows it and thankfully rejected it for the same reasons expressed in my letter. As for Aish HaTorah, I don’t care who uses it, I rely on content - not by authorship. As the great eagle Rambam said in Shemonah Peraqim, “Shema HaEmet, Me She’mar.” That being said, if it is authorship you are so concerned with, you should know that the story actually stems from an Islamic source.

In regards to your point that the media has jumped on the fact that some of those arrested were Sephardic and have thus erroneously labeled this as a Sephardic problem, you are both right and wrong. Yes, there certainly exists some glee and racism by some who perversely see this as an inherent and innate flaw in the Sephardic character. In the same vein however, when the community is so pervaded with a mindset of “shuufee hada” and is intent on flaunting its material success (however dubiously earned) the attention brought upon it is, yet again, self afflicted.

Lastly, your penultimate paragraph states that “when the world turns to us and says ‘I want to be like you’ then we have succeeded.” Who can speak of success now when we have failed so miserably? Who can talk of the world wanting to be like us when we are the laughingstock of even the rabble? This is why these events so pain me and others who hold the Torah so dear. Specifically because ours is a religion and set of laws whereby the nations of the world are supposed to exclaim “what other nation is as wise and prudent as this (Devarim 4:6)” but our laws are now looked upon with disgrace, our people are deflated, and our leaders corrupted. The hillul Hashem is beyond words and for that I am angry with anyone who so dares to even insinuates that all is well and what was committed can be overlooked. We need a major overhaul and thankfully he who you were so ready to hang (CW), I look upon as an unsung hero for exposing the silent disease that is slowly, but ever surely, destroying us.

Respectfully,

Nativ