I'm Back Pt. 2
What?? Pt. 2, what happened to part 1? Well, I wrote it at the end of October. Why didn't you see it? Because I could not get WordPress to send it and I had not idea how to fix it.
For two months.
What a way to make yourself feel stupid and old at the same time.
Since you most likely did not get the last post I think it is important that you read that one first. Otherwise this won't make too much sense.
Seriously, go on, read that post before this one. I am not going anywhere.
Welcome back.
So I have been going through some stuff. The business stuff is done ( hopefully)
Health stuff, still working on it.
Seems my doctor, who does over 500 biopsies a year would like to do mine again. He just wants to be sure he did it right the first time.
To put in perspective I met a doctor here in Israel who said he did 1,000, not per year, lifetime.
Did I mention my guy does 500 a YEAR.
So what to do? Statistically, the odds of a different result are not great but do I want to be the shmuck who second guessed his doctor and was wrong????
But wait, I don't have to second guess anyone. I can get another doctor to do that. It is one of the benefits of having two health plans in two different countries.
I do not want to go into all the reasons I think the NY doctor is being overly overly cautious . I asked him ( his people) why they don't do another MRI first to see if there was any change and they told me because ' the insurance will only pay for one MRI a year' .
Really????
Que up Israeli health care.
I will be getting another MRI here in a week or so. Hold on to your hats, say a prayer, and I will update on the next post
Back to the important things.
I am not sure how much play this next story is getting in Galut, but here it is a big thing.
A famous Haredi children's author and therapist in that community , took his life this week after being accused of rape and child molestation. A bet din was formed by presumably distinguished rabbis from that community. They gave this man , Chaim Wadler, The opportunity to defend himself. He would not.
More and more accusations came in and eventually he took his life.
The reaction to this event has been surprising and heartening
The majority of Haredi Rabbis condemned this man . They showed compassion to the victims . They called for others in the same or similar situations to come forward.
This would seem obvious but until now , unfortunately, this was normally not the case.
However, now, book store owners are debating whether or not to stop selling his books. Many are taking them off the shelves. This is a big deal.
There will also be some good old fashioned book burnings. ( not sure how I feel about that)
Unfortunately, but not unsurprisingly , there are a few rabbis who say that it is loshon hara ( evil speech) to repeat the accusations against CW ( this is how the haredi newspapers refer to him) Some blamed the victims and accused them of lying.
Some of these (so called) rabbis carry significant weight in the haredi community such as The Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi of Israel.
He paid a condolence call to the Wadlers.
What kind of message does that send?
People may say it is not the families fault, why punish them. But as my friend ( http://www.rationalistjudaism.com/) pointed out a few days ago, although that is correct, the chief rabbi does not go to every shiva call. Going to this one was evil and sent the wrong message to the community and the victims
One of the victims was so distraught, she took her own life yesterday. She could not deal with the people defending CW and blaming the victims. This whole situation was put very articulately by one of the victims in an article she wrote today. I suggest you read it ( https://vinnews.com/2021/12/30/abuse-survivor-an-open-letter-to-my-community)
What a heavy post.
Sorry.
I didn't even talk about Omicron
So I would like to end this on a high note ( well for me anyway). I found out a few days ago that a friend and neighbor from Manhattan made Aliyah last week. This was an unexpected yet pleasant and much needed bit of good news.
One down a bunch more to go.
I am waiting for you
Shabbat Shalom