And yet another Chilul HaShem. We've gone from yesterday’s financial Chilul HaShem to this little item in the news. From the New York Post:It's unholy.
A rabbi convicted of sexually abusing a teenage boy has his kosher meals picked up from a Queens store by an on-duty jail captain.
Baruch Lebovits, a once-respected Satmar rabbi from Brooklyn, gets the special food brought straight to his Rikers Island cell, even though the jail already provides kosher dishes for its Jewish prisoners.
Apparently, they aren't blessed enough for Lebovits, 59, who has been moaning for months that he couldn't eat the food because it hadn't had proper rabbinical supervision, sources said.
Lebovits' adherence to holy law apparently didn't preclude repeatedly sexually abusing a 16-year-old classmate of his son, a heinous crime for which he was sentenced in March to up to 32 years in prison.
This guy makes Weinstein look like a saint. And yet he gets this kind of preferential treatment. I don’t know who this on duty jail captain is – but frankly I don’t get it. What is he doing? Does he think this is some deserving Jew because he looks so ‘holy’ in that long beard and big black velvet Yarmulke? Why does this sick monster get preferential treatment? What is he thinking? I’d sooner feed worms to a fish!
But there is a greater issue here. There are those who might say that prisoners have religious rights and that they should be honored. Furthermore, why should a religious Jew be made to violate his religion if he can be accommodated without undue expense to the government? Child molestation aside - is he still not required to follow Halacha? Of course he is. But no one asks him to violate Halacha. Besides - prison is by definition a denial of rights as a form of punishment.
But his rights aren’t even being violated. That this fellow doesn’t trust a Hechsher is his problem. If he boycotts the food, that’s his problem too.
I am not God’s accountant. Only He knows what is in store for this child molester. But I do not envy his Olam Haba. If he thinks that his ‘Mesiras Nefesh’ is getting him any points with God - he’s probably got another think coming. If anything this 'Mesiras Nefesh' causes an even bigger Chilul HaShem!
If this guy has even an ounce of human dignity left in his bones he ought to shave his beard and stop wearing a Yarmulke. I’m sure he can get a ‘Heter’ for that.
