Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Emotional Resilience: Bulletproofing the Mind

NY Times   I first met Miller last December in Kandahar. We had several conversations, but he was under strict orders not to discuss his job. Yet his job -- that of a new kind of soldier -- interested me. The Special Forces soldiers in Afghanistan looked different, with their thick beards, fleece jackets, wraparound sunglasses and high-tech weaponry. Did they think and feel differently than the traditional foot soldier? Earlier this fall, I caught up with Miller at Fort Campbell, Ky., where the Special Forces Fifth Group is based. Safely back from battle, Miller was allowed to discuss his brand of warfare -- and how he was built to carry it out.

Miller's dawn assault on the Qaeda fighters in Kandahar, I learned, was but one step away from hand-to-hand combat. It involved grenade exchanges from a distance of just a few feet, and it finished with Miller and his men standing amid their dead and bloodied foes. ''They fought to the last minute,'' he recalled. ''For these guys, surrender was not an option.'' He later added, ''It was amazing to see the carnage.''

The attack was the kind of urban warfare American soldiers will be engaged in should the United States have to shoot its way into Baghdad and other Iraqi cities. When the Cold War ended, many thought that C.Q.B. would become a thing of the past. Conflicts would be fewer, and any interventions undertaken would rely on overwhelming force and precision munitions, not house-to-house fighting. Yet since 9/11 we have begun a war that may draw our soldiers into many battles involving intimate killing. What will that mean for Miller and his men?

The last time this kind of fighting occurred on a grand scale, in Vietnam, 50,000 Americans died, and many survivors had injuries that were not just physical but emotional. The clunky phrase ''post-traumatic stress disorder'' entered the national lexicon. Today, the military believes, the United States is fighting an intimate war in the right way, because soldiers have been prepared and equipped in a manner that increases the prospect of their victory and decreases the prospect of their injury -- whether physical or psychological. Just as smart bombs are less likely to go astray, 21st-century warriors are more lethal than before, yet less likely to suffer P.T.S.D., according to military instructors and psychologists. Dave Grossman, a former Army Ranger and West Point professor of psychology, refers to this phenomenon as ''the bulletproof mind.''

Such confident assertions may seem surprising, considering what happened this summer at Fort Bragg, N.C. Four soldiers there murdered their wives; three of the soldiers had Special Forces training and had served in Afghanistan. The news media rushed to link the murders to post-combat stress, although there is little proof and investigations continue. Military officers, not surprisingly, doubt the idea that P.T.S.D. played a significant role, and they may have a point. Fatal spouse abuse, sadly, plagues the military even in peacetime. As they see it, the furor over this incident has obscured a broader truth. Today's Special Forces soldiers, they claim, have been unusually well trained to succeed not only at war -- but also after war. [...]

Indeed, Special Forces officers openly discuss the use of ''stress inoculation'' -- in which they are exposed to heartbeat-racing drills that raise their threshold for staying calm. It doesn't mean Special Forces soldiers are immune to stress or the mistakes that stress causes, but it takes a lot more to rattle one of them than an old-time draftee.


An important dose of stress inoculation occurs during a three-week training nightmare that comes at the end of the Schoolhouse course. It goes by the acronym SERE, which stands for survival, evasion, resistance and escape. SERE teaches Special Forces soldiers how to avoid and endure capture by the enemy. The exercise places them in a ''resistance-training laboratory'' that is, essentially, a prisoner-of-war camp, with guard towers, barbed-wire fences, blindfolds, putrid food, irregular sleep intervals, abusive guards and brutal interrogations. Details about SERE, such as the types of punishment inflicted on the ''prisoners,'' are classified; Special Forces officers told me that torture is not practiced, though they did not deny that physical pressure is applied. The unpleasantness apparently includes being buried in wood barrels. When I asked Miller about SERE, he shook his head and said, ''It is imprinted on my brain.''

Monday, February 4, 2013

Takanos against gerim : What are the consequences?

Question from GerInTheCornerFebruary 4, 2013 at 5:41 PM

I have a question for the Rabbi or others that is serious, although perhaps a bit off topic. In places where there are takanos against gerim (e.g., Mexico), what happens l'maaseh, if a long time yeshivish ger (+20 years) from the United States comes to a shul while on a business trip to daven, hear the megillah, etc.? If he keeps a low profile and davens, will he be quizzed about his background and summarily be thrown out of the shul? Or are these takanos primarily aimed at the local population?

בדרך לגן ביישוב החרדי: בת 5 הותקפה באכזריות


kikarhashabat תקיפה מזעזעת בישוב החרדי: לפני כשבועיים, ילדה בת 5 צעדה בבוקר לגן בו היא לומדת, כאשר גבר נטפל אליה, גרר אותה למקום סמוך ותקף אותה באכזריות קשה במשך זמן ארוך
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לפי הדיווח של הדס שטייף, ב'גלי צה"ל', מדובר במקרה תקיפה קשה מאוד, כאשר ילדה בת 5, בעודה בדרך ליום לימודים בגן, נלכדה על-ידי גבר והותקפה באכזריות  במקום סגור במשך זמן ארוך
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לאחר ששוחררה על-ידי התוקף, מיהרה לגן ושם הבינו כי הילדה עברה טראומה קשה ומיהרו להזעיק את ההורים, שלקחו את הילדה לביתם, כדי לטפל בה.
כתוצאה מהפגיעה הקשה, נפגעה הילדה באורח גופני ונפשי בצורה קשה, ואף נזקקה לאשפוז של מספר ימים בבית החולים.

למרבה ההלם, ההורים סירבו עד כה להגיש תלונה במשטרה על מקרה התקיפה הקשה, בשל טענה כי הם חוששים לפגיעה בשם המשפחה כאשר תיחשף זהות הילדה הקטנה.
בעקבות סירובם להתלונן כמו גם סירוב הגורמים השונים בעיר לערב את המשטרה, התוקף האכזרי מסותבב במשך שבועיים ימים, מאז התקיפה, כאשר הוא חופשי ויכול בכל רגע לחזור על מעשיו החמורים


העיר החרדית 'מודיעין עילית' הופכת בתקופה האחרונה מעיר שקטה לעיר בה מאיימת סכנה מוחשית לשלומם של ילדים המסתובבים ברחובות
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כזכור, הבוקר דווח ב'גלי צה"ל' על אירוע חמור של תקיפה אכזרית וקשה של ילדה בת 5 לפני כשבועיים על ידי גבר זר שתקף את הילדה במשך זמן ממושך, כתוצאה מהתקיפה הילדה נפגעה ופונתה לבית החולים כשהיא פצועה גופנית וחמור מכך - נפשית.

מרות התקיפה האכזרית, בטענה 'שלא יהרס השם של המשפחה' בחרו ההורים שלא להגיש עד כה תלונה במשטרה, יש הטוענים גם הדבר מגיע לאחר עיצה ובהוראה של רבנים בעיר, מה שיוצר מצב בו התוקף המסוכן מסתובב חופשי ברחבי העיר כשהוא יכול לתקוף בכל רגע נתון ילד או ילדה נוספים
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המשטרה, שקבלה את המידע על התקיפה הקשה, פתחה בחקירה אך נבלמה בקיר שתיקה של התושבים והעסקנים בעיר שלא מעבירים מידע למשטרה, מה שמונע את העמקת חקירת מקרה התקיפה הקשה.

update YNET   A Modiin Illit resident told Ynet: "Everyone is shocked. Some rabbis even discussed it over the weekend… One of them urged us to keep children safe and report anything of the sort.

"Nobody wants to protect such criminals," he insisted, "but parents know that in the haredi public the one who will be tarnished by this is the girl. She will not be able to get married and this will ruin her entire future. I have reason to believe that (her parents) took care of her and probably also took her to therapy, but they wouldn’t complain, so everyone who knew about the case simply respected their wishes."

The police added that "The investigation is rigorous, but we're running into walls of silence from everyone. We're utilizing all the resources we have in order to trace all those involved. I hope we can do so soon."

update kikarhashabat

הסיפור המזעזע בעיר מודיעין עילית שנחשף אתמול לפיו ילדה בת 5 הותקפה באכזריות במשך זמן ארוך כשהייתה בדרכה לגן, חושף נתונים מזעזעים בנושא. מיקי מילר, מנהלת שירותי הרווחה בעיר, חשפה הבוקר כי מדי שנה מתבצעים לפחות 60 מקרים של פגיעה אכזרית וקשה בילדים (חדשות חרדים)

Sunday, February 3, 2013

Curing PTSD without talking about trauma

NY Times   Individual therapy is not the only way to treat PTSD. In January, a young man with the nickname of Trin (he asked that his real name not be published) sat down in a small, drab, room at a Veterans Affairs clinic in New Orleans with nine other men. All were veterans — of Iraq, Afghanistan, Operation Desert Storm or Vietnam; Trin had served in Iraq. All had PTSD. The men took chairs facing each other around tables pushed into a square, along with two women, who were running the group.

The facilitators asked everyone to do three drawings: of how they felt, where they were and where they wanted to be. Trin drew himself with no facial features. The next week, the facilitators put on some music and everyone stood up, faced a wall, and bounced to it. At other sessions they took large sheets of paper and colored in their family trees, with different colors for divorces, early deaths, conflicted relationships. And at almost every meeting over 10 weeks, they practiced conscious breathing and mindfulness.

“When they asked us to draw and color, people were rolling their eyes,” Trin said. “We had older gentlemen, and some people might have thought this is kind of soft — not my lane.” [...]

The Center for Mind-Body Medicine’s program — the one Trin did — is the most comprehensive of all of them, giving participants a variety of different strategies to choose from: breathing, meditation, guided visual imagery, bio-feedback, self-awareness, dance, self-expression, drawing. And it is the one with the strongest evidence that it works to cure PTSD. In a trial in a Kosovo high school, students with PTSD who did the 10-week program had significantly greater reductions in PTSD than a control group of students assigned to wait for the course. Other before-and-after studies (with no control group) in Gaza have found an 80 to 90 percent reduction in PTSD with the technique, and those results still held months later. This is significantly better than any currently used individual therapy. [...]

Mind-body medicine and the other alternative therapies, moreover, may be more attractive to soldiers than the individual treatments, which have a 20 percent dropout rate. Both C.P.T. and prolonged exposure ask the patient to relive his trauma — an upsetting prospect for many soldiers. Some veterans avoid psychotherapy because they do not want to be singled out, judged and labeled deficient.

The alternative medicine groups, by contrast, have a dropout rate of virtually zero. Members can talk about their past trauma if they wish, but there is no pressure to do so. Instead, the groups are centered on the present, helping members to learn practical skills they can employ immediately. The facilitator does not sit in judgment — she’s a participant in the group, sharing skills she might use herself for better sleep or stress reduction. Everyone, after all, can use help dealing with the stress of re-entry to civilian life. Going to a skills group instead of psychotherapy could remove much of the stigma of treatment.

The Rambam, Kabbalah, and Moshiach - by Eddie UK

Guest Post by Eddie [D.T. I am posting this because I respect Eddie's sincerity as well as the fact that similar views seem to be accepted as valid amongst some Orthodox Jews. I personally totally reject this understanding and my posting it should not be interpreted as approval or agreement. - I also posted it because Eddie does raise some good questions that are important to deal with. However asking good question doesn't mean that the questioners explanations are correct. Please read the comment sections.]
The Rambam is widely recognized as the most authoratative Rabbinic scholar in post Talmudic literature and possibly Jewish life. His halacha, philosophy, and principles of faith are central to Jewish practice, even beyond denominational communities.

His Ikkarim or 13 principle of faith, which are in his Introduction to Chelek, are generally considered as make or break as far as orthodox or traditional Judaism is concerned.

In his epic Mishneh Torah, he concludes with the laws of Kings and Wars, which is widely accepted by all streams of Orthodoxy, whether Lubavitch, Litvish, Sephardim, Yemenites etc.

הלכות מלכים ומלחמות פרק יא
ז  ועיקר הדברים, ככה הן:  שהתורה הזאת אין חוקיה ומשפטיה משתנים לעולם, ולעולמי עולמים, ואין מוסיפין עליהן, ולא גורעין מהן; וכל המוסיף או גורע, או שגילה פנים בתורה והוציא הדברים של מצוות מפשוטן--הרי זה בוודאי רשע ואפיקורוס.

Here is delineates a position that any changes made to the Torah (that he has just described) is a work of evil and heresy.  He presumably means fundamental, mitsvot, rather than specific halachic opinions which are disputed by his great rivals such as the Gaon RAAVAD of Posquieres.

Regarding Messianic speculation, on the details of Mesianic times, sequences, details, he writes as follows:

ד  ויש מן החכמים שאומרים שקודם ביאת המלך המשיח, יבוא אלייהו.  וכל אלו הדברים וכיוצא בהן--לא יידע אדם היאך יהיו, עד שיהיו:  שדברים סתומים הן אצל הנביאים.  גם החכמים אין להם קבלה בדברים אלו, אלא לפי הכרע הפסוקים; ולפיכך יש להם מחלוקת בדברים אלו.  ועל כל פנים, אין סידור הוויית דברים אלו ולא דקדוקן, עיקר בדת.
  
It is instructive that he says the Prophets did not have access to the specifics, and that Chachamim had no Kabbalah (received tradition) on these matters.
ה  ולעולם לא יתעסק אדם בדברי ההגדות, ולא יאריך בדברי מדרשות האמורים בעניינים אלו וכיוצא בהן; ולא ישימם עיקר--שאינן מביאין לא לידי אהבה, ולא לידי יראה.  וכן לא יחשב הקיצין; אמרו חכמים, תפוח דעתן של מחשבי קיצין.  אלא יחכה ויאמין בכלל הדבר, כמו שביארנו.
Furthermore we are enjoined not to calculate end times, or to dwell on midrashim regarding these matters.

It also significant that he was not challenged by Raavad on these statements.

There is a counter trend amongst mystics of the Kabbalah esoteric school, which not only makes calculations of end times, but also dwells on the Moshiach of each generation, and tells fantastic stories, for example of the Arizal knowing what was unknown to the Neviim and Chazal!


We are expected to believe that some 400 years before the Wright Brothers, 2 mystics flew by cloud from Tzfat to Lublin (Poland) , the proof being that they presented the Maharshal with hot cakes fresh from the oven in Israel!

Had these men flown by cloud, not only would the cakes have cooled down by the sub zero temperatures, they would have died from the cold and lack of oxygen.

A number of departures from Rambam and misrepresentations of his comments have been made by some important and less important Acharonim.

The Baal HaTanya  in Shaar haYichud of his Tanya claims that G-d and Sefirot are One, and he bases this on
הלכות יסודי התורה פרק ב
יג  [י] הקדוש ברוך הוא מכיר אמיתו, ויודע אותה כמות שהיא.  ואינו יודע בדעה שהיא חוץ ממנו כמו שאנו יודעין, שאין אנו ודעתנו אחד.  אבל הבורא--הוא ודעתו וחייו אחד, מכל צד ומכל פינה:  שאלמלא היה חי בחיים ויודע בדעה, היו שם אלוהות הרבה--הוא וחייו ודעתו; ואין הדבר כן, אלא אחד מכל צד ומכל פינה ובכל דרך ייחוד.

This is despite Rambam stating that  אבל הבורא--הוא ודעתו וחייו אחד, מכל צד ומכל פינה

This is clearly not the case with the Sefirot / Ein Sof, which have a diverse life of their own.

R Shneur Zalman's chief Mitnagdic opponent, R Chaim of Vollozhin also makes a remarkable misattribution to the Rambam.

In Gate B. Ch. 5 (Penultimate paragraph),  he claims that Rambam in Moreh  Ch 72 of part 1, that G-d is the soul of the world, in the same way that human soul is related tot he human body.

A careful analysis of the above Rambam (Guide 1, ch.72) reveals that Rambam says the exact opposite. In his 3rd  caveat that the management of the universe is totally separated , ie unlike a human soul/body,  Hashem is absolutely separate from all parts of the universe. ( see R' Kapach's edition, Mossad HaRav Kook 1977, p. 132).

The entire works of Rambam, especially his Yad HaHazakah, Guide, and Helek, attest to his non materialist approach to G-d.  His views are bing misappropriated to give creedence to an alien and counter philosophy which is immanentism , which is one way in which pantheism is defined, even by orthodox Rabbis.

Another anti-halachic claim which is commonly mad, is that Rambam violates his own injunction not to calculate the Ketz, or end-times.  It is alleged that he did so in his Epistle to Yemen, when in fact he repeatedly states there that is is forbidden. What he did reveal, was a tradition for a possible date for the renewal of prophecy. He did this in order to stop people from calculating the ketz.

It seems to me, from the above halachic statements of Rambam, that he did not accept mystical kabbalah, and that he denied that Chazal  and Neviim, had knowledge of specifics of Messiah.

Furthermore, his fight against materialism, or corporeality, has gone unheeded, and that this idea, which he calls heretical, has come back in force to become mainstream orthodoxy, who brazenly misquote the  Rambam himself, as justification for this ideology.

One final word: Rambam was famous for saying accept the truth from whomever it comes.  When discussing such matters, and one's entire life and perceived reward is at stake, it is very easy to claim that a list of gedolim said this, therefore they must be right.

Saturday, February 2, 2013

Registries Don’t Keep Sex Offenders from Restricted Areas

Time Magazine   Laws requiring sex offenders to register with local authorities are meant to discourage them from moving into the neighborhoods, but the latest study shows they may not be having the desired deterrent effect.

The research provides new information on the contentious question of whether public sex offender registries and housing restrictions actually improve public safety.  Housing restrictions typically bar offenders from living near schools, daycare centers or other sites likely to have a high concentration of children who may become victims.  As of 2011,  nearly 750,000 registered sex offenders were listed in the U.S., whose names can be searched in state and federal registries. But the latest analysis shows that offenders change residences frequently and that over the course of a 30 month period, a third will move into areas where they are not legally allowed to live. [...]

Looking more closely at the offenders who move to restricted areas, however, 51% of those who registered only once and then failed to comply again lived in these regions, compared to 30% of those who registered faithfully.  That could suggest that those who are seeking to hide their activities, presumably in plain sight, are moving to these areas, possibly to find new victims.

Friday, February 1, 2013

Haredim slam TV exposé on sexual abuse in community

Times of London   London’s Haredi leadership has hit back at a television program claiming that the community covers up child sex abuse, saying the show “has done nothing to assist, and may have damaged, the chances of bringing abusers to justice.”

The program, “Britain’s Hidden Child Abuse,” aired on Channel 4 on Wednesday and alleged that rabbis in the Orthodox community forbid or discourage alleged victims of pedophilia from going to the secular authorities. It showed secretly filmed footage of two Haredi rabbis approached for advice by a former member of the community, who alleged that he had been sexually abused as a child. [...]

A spokesman for the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations, an umbrella organization for Orthodox institutions in London, told The Times of Israel that the program’s credibility was undermined by its reliance on anonymous sources. These included a rabbi whose face was not shown, who claimed that a young family had been driven out of its community after reporting abuse to authorities, and two young men who claimed to have taken the law into their own hands by attacking alleged perpetrators after their complaints of abuse were ignored by the rabbis.

“Channel 4 chose to use an anonymous ‘rabbi,’ an unidentified group of thuggish vigilantes, a young man whose claims cannot be verified and two specific cases that Channel 4 knew full well to have been investigated thoroughly by the local authorities and dropped without action to imply that our community does not take its responsibilities seriously,” the spokesman said.

“Our community does not need Channel 4 to remind us of our duty and responsibility to protect our children. They are our future, and we do all we can to protect them from these unspeakable crimes.

Thursday, January 31, 2013

R' Yoel Malik arrested for sexual abuse of yeshiva students

Wall Street Journal    A rabbi at a religious school in New York's ultra-orthodox Jewish community has been arrested on charges of sexually abusing students, a law enforcement official says.

The arrest of Yoel Malik, 33, of Brooklyn comes amid mounting pressure to report allegations of abuse within the insular, secretive community, the largest outside Israel, and barely a week after a respected religious counselor in the same sect was sentenced to 103 years in prison for sexually abusing a girl.

Both cases come from within the Satmar Hasidic sect, the official said.

Malik was taken into custody Wednesday after reports he may have brought two students to motels for sexual liaisons, said the official who was not authorized to speak publicly on the case and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. A third encounter was reported in a car. The official said the victims were all teenage boys, ages 14 to 16, and the encounters took place between March of last year and last week. [...]

Yeshiva teacher - Evan Zauder pleads guilty to sex abuse

NY Daily News   A former New Jersey teacher faces 27 years in prison after pleading guilty Tuesday to possessing child pornography and having sex with a minor.

Evan Zauder, 27, has been held without bail since his arrest in May.

He was charged with possessing kiddie porn after the FBI found hundreds of images of underage boys engaged in sex acts on his home computer in Manhattan.

He was also charged with having a seven-month affair in 2011 with a 14-year-old New Jersey boy. Sources said the victim was not a student.

Who’s afraid of Hassidic Jews? Everyone!

Times of Israel  by Rabbi David Eliezrie

The ominous image of two Hassidim in a dark forbidding background appears in an advertisement asking for support for the American Jewish University. The liberal Jewish college sits astride the hills of the Sepulveda Pass dividing Los Angeles from the San Fernando Valley. In the ad’s foreground are the backs of two Hassidic Jews, their large round hats, peyos side curls and dark clothing. A headline in bold white letters across the page poses the question “Will They be the only Jews left in 100 Years?” Against a black background slicing across the bottom we read that the “American Jewish University is a center of ingenuity and vision, dedicated to Pluralism in the open society.” It will insure a future for a dynamic Judaism.

The subliminal message is more portentous. We are the bastion of progressive ideas against the menacing and rising number of “ultra-Orthodox.” It’s our innovation that will chart the course for the future. We stand ready to stem the black hatted fundamentalist tide. [....]

Britain's Hidden Orthodox Child Abuse - Channel 4 Video

London chareidim respond to program http://daattorah.blogspot.co.il/2013/02/haredim-slam-tv-expose-on-sexual-abuse.html




Channel 4   A victim of child sex abuse in one of Britain's religious communities goes undercover to expose the way his community has for decades been dealing with paedophilia.

In a year-long investigation, other victims of child abuse from this closed community express their anger about the lack of justice caused by their leaders' misguided approach to dealing with the issue.

In some cases those brave enough to complain to the police about their abusers have even been harassed, spat at and ostracised by other community members.

This Channel 4 Dispatches special report also reveals that an alleged child abuser was allowed to continue working with children, despite complaints from his victim.

And other victims, frustrated by their inability to bring child abusers to justice, tell Dispatches they've threatened and attacked those they believe to be paedophiles.