From a former Catholic who converted: I was once in the city where my late Rav’s kever was located. Several people encouraged me to go there and pray. I went. I was overwhelmed by a sense I was reliving a part of my Roman Catholic past. I couldn’t do it. It felt much too Catholic and not very Jewish.
13 kids and still not supporting his family.
His Ketubah is invalid….
Submitted by a friend:
Your most recent post reminded me of this really terrible situation that occurred years ago:
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-oct-19-cl-58951-story.html
The story is fascinating. An Israeli man taking advantage of uneducated and poor chassidic men and women.
TL:DR, Hasidic kids were paid to smuggle what they were told were diamonds, was actually drugs.
Ami magazine had an article about shloime zionce and a friend visiting the turtle smuggler in a hellhole prison in Madagascar.
IIrc, he suspected something was up/illegal, but was so desperate for money he took the risk. He was NOT a naive ignoramus.
He therefore perfectly fits the מאמר חזל you quote.
Was the dog food kosher?
They were star shelled Madagascar tortoises, not turtles by the way….
If the story is true, then I agree totally with Rabbi Slifkin's comments.
However... being the cynic that I am, I don't believe the story. I wonder if they misspelled Moldovia and meant to write Nigeria.
For those of you who believe the story, I own a bridge in Brooklyn I'm trying to sell real cheap. Contact me for details.
Praying at the graves of dead people isn’t Jewish, it’s more like Catholicism.
From a former Catholic who converted: I was once in the city where my late Rav’s kever was located. Several people encouraged me to go there and pray. I went. I was overwhelmed by a sense I was reliving a part of my Roman Catholic past. I couldn’t do it. It felt much too Catholic and not very Jewish.