This is a shiur that was given recently by Rav Sholom Shuchat at Mayan Yisroel of Flatbush (Rabbi Vigler) regarding transgender people and their Halachic status. Includes topic of 1) Is the procedure and cross dressing permitted 2) does gender change 2) is a Get required if a married person has operation after marriage 4) conversion after 5) yichud 6) which side of the mechitza 7) Tefillin
Friday, July 3, 2015
Transgender Issues - halachic analysis regarding Bruce Jenner
This is a shiur that was given recently by Rav Sholom Shuchat at Mayan Yisroel of Flatbush (Rabbi Vigler) regarding transgender people and their Halachic status. Includes topic of 1) Is the procedure and cross dressing permitted 2) does gender change 2) is a Get required if a married person has operation after marriage 4) conversion after 5) yichud 6) which side of the mechitza 7) Tefillin
Polygamous Montana trio applies for wedding license
Fox News A Montana man said Wednesday that he
was inspired by last week's U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing gay
marriage to apply for a marriage license so that he can legally wed his
second wife.
Nathan Collier and his wives Victoria and Christine applied at the
Yellowstone County Courthouse in Billings on Tuesday in an attempt to
legitimize their polygamous marriage. Montana, like all 50 states,
outlaws bigamy — holding multiple marriage licenses — but Collier said
he plans to sue if the application is denied.
"It's about marriage equality," Collier told The Associated Press Wednesday. "You can't have this without polygamy."
County clerk officials initially denied Collier's application, then
said they would consult with the county attorney's office before giving
him a final answer, Collier said.
Yellowstone County chief civil litigator Kevin Gillen said he is
reviewing Montana's bigamy laws and expected to send a formal response
to Collier by next week.
"I think he deserves an answer," Gillen said, but added his review is
finding that "the law simply doesn't provide for that yet."
The Supreme Court's ruling on Friday made gay marriages legal
nationwide. Chief Justice John Roberts said in his dissent that people
in polygamous relationships could make the same legal argument that not
having the opportunity to marry disrespects and subordinates them. [...]
Thursday, July 2, 2015
Rabbi Charged With Sexual Abuse Arrested Fleeing Israel
Arutz 7 A rabbi from the north of
Israel, who was distanced from his city due to sexual abuse complaints
filed against him by several women, was arrested on Thursday morning as
he was on his way to Ben-Gurion International Airport.
The rabbi, who was the dean of a yeshiva and whose
identity has not been revealed, was taken in for investigation by the
northern district police. A request to extend his detention will be
heard on Thursday.
Women who arrived to consult with the rabbi have complained to
police, with one claiming he sexually abused her several years ago and
another charging him with rape.
A number of high-ranking rabbis had requested that the rabbi step
down due to the complaints against him, and he recently gave in to the
demands and stepped down as dean of the yeshiva that he founded, and
likewise distanced himself from its associated institutions.
The rabbi also was a community rabbi, and distanced himself from his
city until the accusations against him were resolved in response to the
request of the rabbis.
A group of rabbis consisting of Tzfat (Safed) Chief Rabbi Shmuel
Eliyahu, Rabbi Avraham Engel and Rabbi Gad Cohen investigated the
complaints filed against the rabbi accusing him of improper conduct.
After thoroughly examining the issue and meeting with additional
sources, psychologists and professional advisers, the rabbis asked him
to suspend himself. He has been forbidden from coming in contact with the public, including his students. [...]
Wednesday, July 1, 2015
How I Joined Teach for America—and Got Sued for $20 Million
City Journal Winter 2003 by Joshua Kaplowitz
An idealistic new Yale grad learns up close and personal just how bad inner-city schools can be—and why.
I didn’t want to devote my life to helping the rich get richer or
crunching numbers to see what views were most popular for the vice
president to adopt. This wasn’t what my 17 years of education were for.
My doctor parents had drummed into me that education was the key to
every door, the one thing they couldn’t take away from my ancestors
during pogroms and persecutions. They had also filled me with a strong
sense of social justice. I couldn’t help feeling guilty dismay when I
thought of the millions of kids who’d never even tasted the great
teaching—not to mention the supportive family—I’d enjoyed for my entire
life. [...]
Five weeks later, I found myself steering my
parents’ old Volvo off R Street and into a one-block cul-de-sac. There
it was: Emery Elementary School, a 1950s-ugly building tucked behind a
dead-end street—an apt metaphor, I thought, for the lives of many of the
children in this almost all-black neighborhood a mile north of the U.S.
Capitol in Washington. I had seen signs of inner-city blight all over
the neighborhood, from the grown men who skulked in the afternoon
streets to the bulletproof glass that sealed off the cashier at the
local Kentucky Fried Chicken. This was the “other half” of Washington,
the part of the city I had missed during my grade-school field trips to
the Smithsonian and my two summers as a Capitol Hill intern. v[...]
As the tour ended and I was about to leave, Mr. Bledsoe pulled me
aside. “The one thing you need to do above all else is to have your
children under control. Once you have done that, you’ll be fine.”
Fine. But as I learned to my great cost, that was easier said than done.[...]
Nothing in the program simulated what I soon learned to be the life of a
teacher. Though I didn’t know it, I was completely ill equipped when I
stepped into my own fifth-grade classroom at Emery Elementary in
September 2000. [...]
My optimism and naiveté evaporated within hours. I tried my best to be
strict and set limits with my new students; but I wore my inexperience
on my sleeve, and several of the kids jumped at the opportunity to
misbehave. I could see clearly enough that the vast majority of my
fifth-graders genuinely wanted to learn—but all it took to subvert the
whole enterprise were a few cutups.
To gain control, I tried imposing the kinds
of consequences that the classroom-management handbooks recommend. None
worked. My classroom was too small to give my students “time out.” I
tried to take away their recess, but depriving them of their one
sanctioned time to blow off steam just increased their penchant to use
my classroom as a playground. When I called parents, they were often
mistrustful and tended to question or even disbelieve outright what I
told them about their children. It was sometimes worse when they
believed me, though; the tenth time I heard a mother swear that her
child was going to “get a beating for this one,” I almost decided not to
call parents. By contrast, I saw immediate behavioral and academic
improvement in students whose parents had come to trust me.
I quickly learned from such experiences how essential
parental support is in determining whether a school succeeds in
educating a child. And of course, parental support not just of the
teachers but of the kids: as I came to know my students better, I saw
that those who had seen violence, neglect, or drug abuse at home were
usually the uncontrollable ones, while my best-behaved, hardest-working
kids were typically those with the most nurturing home environments.
Being a white teacher in a mostly black school
unquestionably hindered my ability to teach. Certain students hurled
racial slurs with impunity; several of their parents intimated to my
colleagues that they didn’t think a white teacher had any business
teaching their children—and a number of my colleagues agreed. One parent
who was also a teacher’s aide threatened to “kick my white ass” in
front of my class and received no punishment from the principal, beyond
being told to stay out of my classroom. The failure of the principal,
parents, and teachers to react more decisively to racist disrespect
emboldened students to behave worse. Such poisonous bigotry directed at a
black teacher at a mostly white school would of course have created a
federal case.[...]
When I asked other teachers to come help me stop a fight, they shook
their heads and reminded me that D.C. Public Schools banned teachers
from laying hands on students for any reason, even to protect other
children. When a fight brewed, I was faced with a Catch-22. I could call
the office and wait ten minutes for the security guard to arrive, by
which point blood could have been shed and students injured. Or I could
intervene physically, in violation of school policy.
Believe me, you have to be made of iron, or something
other than flesh and blood, to stand by passively while some enraged
child is trying to inflict real harm on another eight-year-old. I
couldn’t do it. And each time I let normal human instinct get the best
of me and broke up a fight, one of the combatants would go home and
fabricate a story about how I had hurt him or her. The parent, already
suspicious of me, would report this accusation to Ms. Savoy, who would
in turn call in a private investigative firm employed by D.C. Public
Schools. Investigators would come to Emery and interview me, as well as
several students whom the security guard thought might tell the truth about the alleged incident of corporal punishment.[...]
After 15 minutes, the school security guard appeared at the door and
beckoned for me. My stomach hit the floor, as I guessed what this meant:
yet another corporal-punishment charge. But this time was different.
Chaos reigned in the main entranceway as police officers swarmed into
the building. Raynard’s mother, I was told, had been in school for a
meeting to place her son in a class for emotionally disturbed children.
Raynard had told her that I had violently shoved him in the chest out
the door of my classroom, injuring his head and back. His mother had
dialed 911 and summoned the cops and the fire department. The police
hustled me into the principal’s office, where I sat in bewilderment and
desperately denied I had hurt Raynard in any way. [...]
Two months later, Raynard’s mother filed a $20 million lawsuit against
the school district, Ms. Savoy, and myself—and the D.C. police charged
me with a misdemeanor count of simple assault against my former student.
Thus ended my first and last year as a public school teacher. [...]
As I had surmised, this whole case finally came down to money. Even
after my acquittal, even after the accuracy of Raynard’s story had been
seriously undermined, his mother and her big-firm lawyers aggressively
pursued multi-million-dollar damage claims on the civil side. Yet even
as the lawsuit dragged on and the legal cloud over me caused me to lose a
job opportunity I really wanted, I refused to entertain Raynard’s
mother’s offers to settle the case by my paying her $200,000—a demand
that ultimately diminished to $40,000. The school system had no such
scruples; it settled the mother’s tort claim in October 2002 for $75,000
(plus $15,000 from the teachers’ union’s insurance company—chump change
compared with the cost of defending the litigation). It wasn’t $20
million, but it was still more money than I imagine this woman had seen
in her life—a pretty good payout and hardly deterrence to other parents
in the neighborhood who felt entitled to shanghai the system. [...]
Jewish Group, With Hired Protesters, Opposes the Gay Pride Parade
NY Times New York City’s annual Gay Pride Parade has long been one of the city’s more festive celebrations.
Today’s parade, in the glow of Friday’s Supreme Court ruling that the right to same-sex marriage is guaranteed by the Constitution, carried an extra burst of energy and emotion. The parade in San Francisco was similarly exuberant. See full story.
Some of the most curious costumes worn along the parade route belonged to protesters.
Behind a barricade, a
group of men wore the fringed Jewish prayer garment known as the tzitzit
and held up anti-gay signs bearing the logo of a group calling itself
the Jewish Political Action Committee.
“Judaism prohibits homosexuality,” one sign read.
But the men were not
Jewish. They were Mexican laborers, protesting because they were paid to
protest, said one of the men, who would not give his name.
Heshie Freed, a member
of the political action committee, an Orthodox Jewish group based in
Brooklyn, said that the men were supplementary troops, filling in for
the Jewish students who would normally be called upon to demonstrate.
Girl Scouts reject $100G donation over anti-transgender provision
Fox News The Girl Scouts of Western Washington said it refunded a $100,000
donation because it came with a provision that the money couldn’t be
used to support transgender girls.
The group said it sent the money back in May after the donor had
asked that the gift be returned unless the group guaranteed it would not
be used to benefit transgender girls.
"Girl Scouts is for every girl, and that is every girl regardless of
race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, gender
identity, religion. Every girl is every girl," Megan Ferland, CEO of the
Girl Scouts of Western Washington, said in an interview Tuesday. "It
was a sad decision, but it was not a difficult decision. There was no
way I would be put in a situation of refusing a girl participating
because of a gift. It was really that quick."
The local council has transgender girls participating in Girl Scouts,
said Kate Dabe, the council’s vice president of marketing and
communications. Dabe declined to provide additional details about them.
[...]
On Monday, the group set up a crowdfunding campaign asking for help
to fill the gap. "Help us raise back the $100,000 a donor asked us to
return because we welcome transgender girls," it said on its fundraising
page on Indiegogo.com.
By Tuesday afternoon, thousands had given more than $185,000.
"We are astounded," Dabe said. "We were prepared for a 30-day campaign. We raised our goal in a day." [....]
Dutch Supreme Court: Extradite Sex-Offender Rabbi Berland to Israel
Arutz 7 Overturning an appeal on a local court ruling in
February, the Dutch Supreme Court on Tuesday authorized the extradition
of the leader of a Jewish hassidic sect wanted in Israel for alleged
indecent assault of women and girls.
"Rabbi (Eliezer) Berland, currently living in the Netherlands, can
be extradited to Israel," the Supreme Court said in a statement.
The extradition process has been dragged out over recent months, as Berland was hospitalized in January for heart-related illness even before his petition of the ruling.
The rabbi has opposed his extradition, claiming the alleged assaults
happened over the 1949 Armistice lines and that Israel has no
jurisdiction, and that he was not an Israeli citizen. [...]
Step Aside, Freud: Josef Breuer Is the True Father of Modern Psychotherapy
The Viennese physician Josef Breuer
(1842-1925) has a unique and prominent place in the history of
psychotherapy. From 1880-82, while treating a patient known as Anna O.,
Breuer developed the cathartic method, or talking cure,
for treating nervous disorders. As a result of that treatment, he
formulated many of the key concepts that laid the foundation for modern
psychotherapy. This month marked the 90th anniversary of Breuer’s death,
offering an opportunity to reflect on the value of his contributions.
Breuer is best known for his collaboration with Sigmund Freud and for
introducing Freud to the case of Anna O. (whose real name was Bertha Pappenheim).
The ideas emerging from that case so fascinated Freud that he devoted
the rest of his career to developing them, in the form of
psychoanalysis. The two men co-authored Studies on Hysteria,
published in 1895, which is considered the founding text of
psychoanalysis. However, the significance of Breuer’s contributions goes
well beyond his role as Freud’s mentor and collaborator. In fact,
Breuer laid the groundwork for modern talk therapy by, for example,
considering all aspects of his patients's life and personality and
focusing on emotional expression as opposed to the Freudian emphasis on
insight and interpretation.
I discovered Breuer early in my training as a therapist, after I
realized that helping my clients gain insight into their problems, as
the principal focus of treatment, was rarely effective in causing
fundamental change. I found Freud’s technique of free association
unhelpful, because many clients who are anxious or depressed have
difficulty associating freely. The most therapeutic sessions were the
ones that elicited an emotional response from my clients. If I could
guide them to access feelings and memories, relevant to their area of
concern, they would often report a sense of something shifting inside
them, which dramatically accelerated the process of growth and change. [...]
If we compare Breuer’s theory with Freud’s formulation of
psychoanalysis, there are three main differences: psychic trauma
(Breuer) vs. sexual conflict (Freud) as the primary cause of
psychopathology, hypnoid states (dissociation) vs. repression (defense)
as the primary mechanism, and emotional expression (catharsis) vs.
interpretation (analysis) as the primary means of recovery. Ironically,
in each of those points, the modern view of psychotherapy has
increasingly come to favor Breuer.[...]
Setting aside personal details, the key question is whose ideas were
more valid, and in that regard history is squarely on the side of
Breuer. Freud’s emphasis on sexuality as the dominant factor shaping
human development and causing psychopathology is no longer taken
seriously today. Instead, the role of dissociation due to trauma is
increasingly recognized as more fundamental. Also, most therapists today
realize the importance of helping clients access and integrate painful
emotions due to past trauma, which is the essence of Breuer’s cathartic
method. [...]
Tuesday, June 30, 2015
Ktzarim - Deals with a difficult transgender problem
=======================================
This clip illustrates a serious problem of true identity - which is illustrated by the following article where a woman becomes surgically transformed into a man - but then she uses her female biology to have a child.
This is an era of gender revolutions, and the Jewish community is racing to keep up. Enter
Yuval Topper. Topper, who comes from an Orthodox family, was born
female, underwent a sex reassignment surgery to become male, discovered
that he’s gay, married a gay man, and in 2011 became the first Israeli
transgender man to conceive and give birth to a baby. [...]
“There’s a growing number of trans-male Jews who are getting pregnant
and having babies. Finding ways to sanctify and welcome men who are
having babies into the community, which is something previous
generations of Jews could never dream of, is increasingly becoming part
of modern Jewish life,” Kukla tells the Times of Israel.[...]
“People tend to like having things in nice, tidy boxes, of men do this,
and women do that, and challenging these notions can create anxieties,”
explains Kukla. “To make room for transgender Jews round the table, we
have to expand some of our notions around gender and sexuality. For
starters, normalizing the fact that people can have different
life-cycles and choices, ones that don’t necessarily conform to the
binary reality of male/female, mother/father… to my understanding,
gender is a lot more complex than that.” [...]
Topper’s decision to get pregnant was one of simple practicality: In
line with the rabbinical courts, the State of Israel does not officially
allow same-sex couples to adopt. Only one parent may adopt, then the
other may file for secondary custody, and all this with the caveat that
adoption be recognized as being within “the child’s best interest,” an
often discriminatory clause. It was much easier to simply stop taking
testosterone for a while. [...]
Sunday, June 28, 2015
Marriage Annuled after Groom Turns Out to be a Woman
update:
Rav Yigal Shafran (Techumin #21):
פוסקי דורנו נחלקו בשאלה האם יש השלכות הלכתיות
לניתוח לשינוי המין' ומה הן השלכות אלו, כגון : האם מי שעשה כן חייב לברך "שעשני
כרצונו", או "שלא עשני אשה"? האם פוקעים מגבר מצוות שחייב בהם, והאם
פוקעות מנשים מצוות שרק הן חייבות בהך?
הרב עובדיה חדאיה זצ"ל (שו"ת ישכיל-עבדי
ח"ז אה"ע סי' ד) סבר שאין לניתוח כזה משמעויות של שינוי, וכל אחד נשאר במינו.
כשיטה זו סברו עוד הרבה, למשל :הרב חירש ב 'נועם' חט"ז (תשל"ג) עמ' קנב
(שו"ת לב-אריה ח"ב סי' מט ; בקובץ אסיא ח ' וא עמ' 144, נשמת-אברהם א"ע סי מד אות ג,
ועוד .
אכן הרב וולדנברג בשו"ת ציץ-אליעזר (חי"א
סי' עח) סובר שיש מצבים בהם ניתן לשנות את המין, וכוונתו לתינוק שנולד עם סימנים כפולים,
ואם יתערבו ויבטלו בניתוח את אותם חלקים של סימני זכרות שעימם נולד - יועיל הדבר לתחשיבו
כנקנה. על סמך דבריו יש שטעו לקבוע באופן גורף שמינו של אדם נקבע על סמך מראהו החיצוני
(ודבריהם הובאו באנציקלופדיה רפואית הלכתית, בסוף הערך 'ניתוחים' ח"ד עמ' 611 הע' 78 ).
אולם דומני שדיוק זה אינו נכון, והרב
וולדנברג שליט"א כלל לא דיבר במי שהחליט מיוזמתו להפוך את מינו. סימוכיך לכך ניתן
למצוא בתשובה נוספת של הרב רולדנברג שליט"א (ציץ-אליעזר חכ"ב סי' ב) בפנייתו
אל הראשל"צ הרב מרדכי אליהו שליט"א בעניו דומה. שם העלה, שגם מי שהתחלף מינו
מנקבה לזכר בדרך נס, דינו כאנדרוגינוס ולא כזכר, וזאת למרות מראהו החיצוני.
מסתבר שגם במקרה שתואר בראשית דברינו, גם הרב וולדנברג יודה שאין להחשיב את
הגברת הזו לגבר כלל ועיקר ,שכן בתשובה בחי"א הנ"ל הוא עצמו דיבר רק על מצב המבוסס על
הכפילות שתיתה בסימני הילד כשנולד, ומשום שמדובר היה בתינוק. אבל בבוגרת שהחליטה לעשות
מעשה ולחבול באבריה - על מנת לתחשיבה אחר כך כזכר, ושתיטול הורמונים זיכויים - לא מצינו
מי שיקל בזה, ובטוחני שגם הרב וולדנברג שליט"א היה מורה בזה לאיסור מוחלט ,ושלא כדברי מי שהבין בדבריו ההיפך , כנ"ל.
Arutz 7 The Jerusalem Rabbinate was forced this week to announce the nullification of a marriage it had performed, when it became clear that the groom was actually a transgender man, thus making the marriage invalid according to Jewish law.
The saga began when the couple approached the Rabbinate to register for marriage. The Rabbinate saw that the woman was pregnant, and the man claimed the fetus was his child.
Approval for the marriage was then granted.
The couple request a modest wedding ceremony to be held at the Rabbinate's office, and the Rabbinate complied with the request. The ceremony took place and one of the rabbis on the Religious Council officiated.
However, two weeks later, the Rabbinate received information that the
man married had not actually been born a man, and was previously a
woman who had sex reassignment surgery in 2013.[...]
update - see Tzitz Eliezar who holds that sex change operations change the halachic gender
Tzitz Eliezar(10:25.26):
See Rabbi J. Wiesen's discussion
update - see Tzitz Eliezar who holds that sex change operations change the halachic gender
Tzitz Eliezar(10:25.26):
See Rabbi J. Wiesen's discussion
Saturday, June 27, 2015
Supreme Court Makes Same-Sex Marriage a Right Nationwide
NY Times In a long-sought victory for the gay rights movement, the Supreme Court ruled by a 5-to-4 vote on Friday that the Constitution guarantees a right to same-sex marriage.
“No
longer may this liberty be denied,” Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote
for the majority in the historic decision. “No union is more profound
than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity,
devotion, sacrifice and family. In forming a marital union, two people
become something greater than once they were.”
Marriage
is a “keystone of our social order,” Justice Kennedy said, adding that
the plaintiffs in the case were seeking “equal dignity in the eyes of
the law.”[...]
The
court’s four more liberal justices joined Justice Kennedy’s majority
opinion. Each member of the court’s conservative wing filed a separate
dissent, in tones ranging from resigned dismay to bitter scorn.
In dissent, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said the Constitution had nothing to say on the subject of same-sex marriage.
“If
you are among the many Americans — of whatever sexual orientation — who
favor expanding same-sex marriage, by all means celebrate today’s
decision,” Chief Justice Roberts wrote. “Celebrate the achievement of a
desired goal. Celebrate the opportunity for a new expression of
commitment to a partner. Celebrate the availability of new benefits. But
do not celebrate the Constitution. It had nothing to do with it.”
In
a second dissent, Justice Antonin Scalia mocked the soaring language of
Justice Kennedy, who has become the nation’s most important judicial
champion of gay rights.
“The
opinion is couched in a style that is as pretentious as its content is
egotistic,” Justice Scalia wrote of his colleague’s work. “Of course the
opinion’s showy profundities are often profoundly incoherent.”
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