Center for Military Readiness Elainne Donnelly CMR

September 28, 2018

TO: Rabbi David Eidensohn       Dear Rabbi Eidensohn,   As I write to you today, I am preparing for a difficult event that shouldn't be happening. On Tuesday, October 23, I will be present in a federal courtroom in downtown Detroit.  I am not being sued, and certainly have done nothing wrong. My organization and I are being dragged into a courtroom, however, becauseLGBT Left activist groups are demanding that a federal judge compel me to bow to their demands. Last February, attorneys representing LGBT activist groups served three imperious subpoenas on the Center for Military Readiness.  They want to search my emails in the hope that they will find "evidence" to use in their lawsuits against President Donald Trump. One subpoena demands that I turn over emails and other "communications" withWhite House and Pentagon officials on the subject of transgenders in the military going back to June 16, 2015, more than three years ago. The purpose of this fishing expedition is to dig up something - anything - that might support their conspiracy theory: The idea that President Trump changed the military's transgender policies for reasons of "animus," not concerns about national defense. The conspiracy theory is ridiculous.  Nevertheless, four federal district judges already have handed down preliminary injunctions ordering President Trump to reinstate transgender policies that his predecessor, Barack Obama, imposed on our military LGBT attorneys have served subpoenas on several conservative organizations, but CMR is the first to face a courtroom hearing on the most outrageous subpoena of all. As part of a Seattle lawsuit called Karnoski v. Trump, attorneys for LGBT groups have filed a motion demanding that a federal judge compel CMR to produce transgender-related emails going all the way back to the first day of the 2016 presidential campaign. On October 23, CMR's legal team will vigorously defend our First Amendmentright to communicate with government officials without intimidation or censorship. But I really need to know - Are you with me in this fight? Enforcement of the Seattle subpoena, and possibly two more related to theWashington, D.C. lawsuit against the Trump Administration, would impose disproportionately heavy burdens on the Center for Military Readiness and on me.   For starters, CMR would have to spend thousands of dollars on professional IT services.  Then I would have to spend hours redacting private information from hundreds of emails.   This could happen even though the judge hearing the Seattle Karnoski case already ordered the government to produce the relevant information being sought.  The judge added, "there is no suggestion that this evidence can be obtained from other sources."    Given this ruling, why are activist lawyers being allowed to harass CMR?     There is a name for courtroom tactics such as this.  Activist attorneys are using a type of "Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation,"known by the acronym SLAPP.   With SLAPP tactics that misuse the court system, LGBT lawyers are trying to intimidate me and "chill" my rights of free speech.  They also want to punishCMR for promoting values different from theirs.   In CMR's view, responsible authorities (not civilian activists or like-minded judges) should make decisions that strengthen our military, not weaken it with social burdens.     Our military defends America, and readiness to deter or fight wars must come first.     I am very grateful to Law Professor Emeritus William A. Woodruff and theThomas More Law Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan, who are fighting the legal attacks on CMR.     As our legal team said in letters of objection, nothing justifies subpoenas or court orders allowing LGBT activists to rummage through CMR emails.   Our articles, CMR Special Reports, and Policy Analyses about the transgender issue have been posted for everyone to see on our website, www.cmrlink.org.   We hope that high-level officials have read CMR publications and found them useful.   But contrary to LGBT conspiracy theories, CMR had no direct or indirect role in the Trump Administration's process of studying and revising transgender policies.   CMR's concern is military readiness, not "animus" against anyone.   As we have been reporting for months, even before President Trump announced his intent to review and change his predecessor's transgender policies, Defense Secretary James Mattis responded to military leaders who were expressing concerns about the high costs and consequences of Obama-era transgender mandates in terms of military readiness. Secretary Mattis ordered a six-month delay to allow for more study, and a Panel of Experts produced a full report citing recent data about transgender health care costs.   Secretary Mattis made recommendations for a new transgender policy, and President Trump endorsed the nuanced, readiness-first Mattis plan back in March.   But even before the Pentagon study was complete, an army of lawyers for theLGBT Left, including the Human Rights Campaign, the ACLU, OutServe-SLDN, and LAMDA Legal, filed lawsuits to stop President Trump from changing previous policies.   Like-minded judges in three states and the District of Columbia issuednationwide injunctions forcing President Trump to reinstate Obama-era policies. Never mind that Article III of the U.S. Constitution does not authorize judges to run the military.  The administration is fighting this power grab and CMR is fighting it too.   The constitutional order is at risk here. In 2016, candidate Trump pledged tostrengthen America's armed forces and to end political correctness in the military.  Trump won the election and as President he is delivering on those promises.   Now we see LGBT activists and a few lower-level federal judges trying to usurp the constitutional powers of the duly-elected Commander-in-Chief.   They are conducting a coordinated national campaign to find anything that might persuade the Supreme Court to nullify sound military policies. The subpoenas SLAPPed on "non-party" CMR are part of this irresponsible campaign.   An order to comply with the intrusive Seattle subpoena would chill CMR's First Amendment rights to discuss matters of public policy with government officials. Such an order would violate CMR's privacy and deter potential sources of information from communicating with CMR on a trusted, confidential basis.   These consequences, which would seriously impede our work, may be the real reason that well-funded LGBT groups are targeting CMR.   I have complete trust and confidence in our legal team.  They will make a compelling case at the hearing on October 23, but there is no way to know what judges will do.   You should know that necessary expenses - including filing fees, travel, and legal research - will continue to rise into thousands of dollars before this is over.   And the issues at stake here are bigger than CMR - they involve national security.   Acting like "Supreme Judicial Commanders of the Military, four activist district judges declared Trump's policies to be unconstitutional, even before the extensive Pentagon study was complete. But that's not all:   In addition to usurping presidential prerogatives, the judges have adopted the vocabulary, assumptions, and ideology promoting the unscientific notion that human gender identity can be changed by alterations in outward appearance. They have also tried to reverse the election by ordering the Secretary of Defense to continue an array of controversial Obama-era mandates, including irreversible hormone treatments and body-altering surgeries, as matters of "civil rights." The judges ignored the medical and military consequences of accommodating persons who identify as transgender or suffer fromgender dysphoria - a serious psychological condition that used to disqualify persons from military service. They also ignored Obama-era policies that politicize health-care services with medical mandates that allow no dissent from commanders or health care personnel who object for reasons of medical ethics orpersonal conviction. The judges even refused to consider recent Military Health Servicerecords, which documented high costs and harmful consequences from transgender treatments, which studies have shown do not reduce high risks of suicide. Elected officials, not judges, should decide the makeup of the All-Volunteer Force.   Issues in question include the eligibility of persons to serve if they are diagnosed with physical or psychological conditions that detract from deployability and readiness.   I hope I can count on you to help CMR deal with this threat.  Please consider sending a generous tax-deductible contribution.   I can promise you that your contribution will be put to good use - now and after this threat is over.  As the story unfolds in coming weeks, I will keep you posted. Will you stand with me at this critical time?    To make your contribution please click on the CMR 25th Anniversary logo button below:      Thank you for reading this letter, and for considering my request for your support.    With warm regards and thanks,           President, Center for Military Readiness     PS: A platoon commander at Fort Bragg preparing to deploy soldiers overseas should not have to worry about social agendas that impede readiness.                Please help CMR to promote sound policies that support our men and women who volunteer to serve.   Center for Military Readiness | P. O. Box 51600 | Livonia, MI 48151 | 734-464-9430

Fight the haters and back Brian Camenker of massresistance who is winning

A TIME OF WAR!

A Time of War between biblical people and the haters. 

Very wealthy leftists with  anti-biblical values in opposition to  the Torah have regularly attacked biblical people and with their huge monies have forced many companies to cancel any media presentations from biblical people. The major player of the biblical people is Brian Camenker from massresistance.com. He has organized around the world strong opposition to the haters and the leftists who fight biblical values.

It is crucial that all biblical people and those against hate stand together in the great war in the world today over biblical values. If we are silent and the haters are vocal they will win. But if we are able to get our own people and the vast numbers of those who are against hate, we will win. And Brian is winning.

Shalom,

David Eidensohn

Are Homosexuals Taking Over the Trump Presidency?

 

This edition of CMR E-Notes provides the latest update on federal judges exceeding their authority by ordering the Trump Administration to continue Obama-era transgender mandates on our military.  It also reports on determined efforts by the LGBT Left to drag CMR into pending lawsuits filed against President Trump to nullify his transgender policies.

 

Using a variation of the legal tactic called SLAPP (strategic litigation against public participation) lawyers for LGBT groups have served subpoenas on CMR and several other "non-party" organizations.  The intrusive subpoenas demand access to emails and other information that LGBT Plaintiffs think will "prove" a ridiculous conspiracy theory -- the idea that President Trump changed the military's transgender policies for reasons of "animus," not national defense.

 

It is worth the time to consider the new articles linked below, and why the outcome of ongoing controversies could affect military readiness and, eventually, all institutions of American life.

 

1.  Are LGBT Activists Gaslighting the Pentagon and Courts?

In the waning months of the Obama Administration, gaslighting tactics helped to establish groupthink and transgender ideology at all levels, on a mandatory basis. Then-Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter imposed controversial transgender policies that were based on unscientific beliefs, such as the notion that superficial changes in appearance can change a man into a woman, or a woman into a man.

 

All personnel were required to use reality-defying vocabulary, and to comply with official Instructions, Memos, Handbooks, and mandatory training programs that ignored concerns about personal privacy, disproportionately high costs, non-deployability issues, politicized health care that would not solve underlying psychological problems, and ethical conflicts associated with transgender treatments and sometimes surgeries. (See CMR Special Report, July 2017)

 

Donald J. Trump won the 2016 election, promising to strengthen our military.  In July and August 2017, Trump announced his intent to review and revise military transgender policies. LGBT activist groups such as the Human Rights Campaign, the ACLU, LAMDA Legal, and OutServe-SLDN immediately filed lawsuits to stop implementation of President Trump's plans.

 

Like-minded judges issued injunctions against President Trump and his policies, disregarding the fact that Article III of the U.S. Constitution does not authorize judges to run the military.  This article provides an overview and new insight into what the courts and LGBT activists are doing to our military, and why it matters:  

• CMR: Seattle Subpoena SLAPPs CMR

Four federal district judges have ruled in favor of transgender Plaintiffs since last Fall. Their Preliminary Injunctions usurped constitutional prerogatives of the Commander-in-Chief, applied unprecedented legal standards of review without constitutional authorization, and adopted without question the assumptions, vocabulary, and ideology of the LGBT Left.  

 

The various court rulings also refused to consider medical and military implications of their orders, and disregarded new data gathered from the Military Health Systemduring implementation of transgender policies of the Obama Administration.

2.  Litigation Update #3

Starting in February 2018, LGBT lawyers expanded their discovery demands on the government by serving subpoenas on the Center for Military Readiness and several other organizations.  The subpoenas demand access to private emails and communications regarding the transgender issue with White House or Pentagonofficials, going back as far as June 2015 - the first day of the Trump for Presidentcampaign.  

 

The purpose of the subpoenas is to prove mind-reading speculations about the President's "state of mind," and to persuade federal judges to second-guess and nullify presidential decisions on matters involving national security.

 

LGBT activists speculate that if they can show that the President had unworthy motives for changing policy, the Supreme Court ultimately will declare his actions to be unconstitutional.  Plaintiffs expect this result even though federal courts historically have shown "deference" to Congress and the Executive Branch in legal disputes involving national security.

 

Since last Fall, four federal district courts, in Washington, D.C., Baltimore MD, Seattle WA, and Riverside CA, exceeded their authority by issuing orders to reinstate Obama-era policies.  Three of the four ordered the government to produce pre-decisional documents that might provide psychic insight into the President's motives and state of mind.

 

This comprehensive CMR Policy Analysis explains why these court orders negate all claims of "need" for documents and emails from outside "non-party" organizations, including CMR:  

• CMR Policy Analysis: LGBT Lawyers Suing to Revoke Trump Military Transgender Policies

The Department of Justice has filed powerful arguments in defense of President Trump's powers to make policy under Article II of the U.S. Constitution, affirming both the substance and process justifying new military transgender policies that President Trump approved on March 23. (See CMR Policy Analysis, July 2018)

 

The Trump Administration should continue fighting for presidential prerogatives to make policy for the military, until the Supreme Court has an opportunity to restore the constitutional order.

 

3.  CMR Needs Your Help 

 

Plaintiffs in the various lawsuits against President Trump have the right to disagree with CMR's stated principles, but that does not give them the right to mischaracterize our motives before a federal Court -- or to rummage through our private emails.

 

A hearing on CMR's Motion for a Protective Order against the Seattle subpoena will take place in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan on September 25.

 

Enforcement of the Plaintiffs' over-reaching subpoena - demanding all emails and documents related to the transgender issue going back three years to the first day of the Trump for President campaign - would impose disproportionate costs on CMR in terms of time and money.

 

If the court orders compliance with these unreasonable demands to produce documents, CMR will have to spend thousands of dollars on professional IT services, with no guarantee of reimbursement, and spend untold hours redacting information that should remain private.

 

The injustice to CMR would be even greater, since the judge in the Seattle Karnoski v. Trump case already ruled that the administration possesses and must produce relevant information sought by the Plaintiffs, and "there is no suggestion that this evidence can be obtained from other sources."

 

Court-ordered compliance of the intrusive subpoena would violate CMR's First Amendment rights to independently research, report on, and analyze military/social policies, and chill discussions with government officials and/or potential sources of information about the consequences of controversial policies.  These consequences, which would seriously impede CMR's work, may be an underlying second purpose being pursued by well-funded LGBT groups and an army of prominent law firm attorneys.

 

We are grateful to Prof. William "Woody" Woodruff and the Michigan-based Thomas More Law Center for their legal representation and invaluable assistance in defending CMR's First Amendment rights.

 

We are confident in the facts supporting our Motion for a Protective Order, but costs for everything from court fees to interstate travel are escalating fast.

 

If you are concerned about what is happening and would like to help,

please consider sending a tax-deductible contribution to CMR today.  More than ever, CMR needs your financial support!  For access to our easy-to-use contribution page, please click here.  

 

 

 Many thanks!  

 

 

 

 

Additional Articles of Interest:  

• Travis Tritten, Washington Examiner: Courts Order Trump to Reveal Internal Talks on Military's Transgender Policy 
• Rebecca Kheel, The Hill: Judge Rejects Trumps' Request to Toss Transgender Troop Lawsuit 
• FRC: The Killer Side of Transgender Treatments 
• LifeSite News: Gender Confused Persons Are Seeking a Cure But Getting the Wrong Answers 
• Brent Bozell & Tim Graham: The War on Traditional Gender Identity 
• Daily Signal: Why the LGBT Alliance Could be on the Brink of Schism 
• Townhall: Crossfit to Allow Transgender Athletes to Compete in Annual Event 

 

   

 * * * * * *  

The Center for Military Readiness is an independent, non-partisan, 501(c)(3) public policy organization, founded in 1993, which reports on and analyzes military/social issues.  More information is available on the CMR website, www.cmrlink.org. 

   

Purpose of Life is not Perfection but Penitence

To Answer Questions

Rabbi Dovid E. Eidensohn

Question One

I complain about people not marrying, but what about older people who are alone without marriage?

Answer: Older people are often without the biological problems that affect younger people, and they are less prone to sinning even if they are not married.

Question Two – How can we say in Tachanum that we and our forefathers sinned? Is this not an insult to the father and forefathers? And how does a young child who says this know that his father sinned or his forefather sinned?

Answer: I have an answer to this based upon gemoras and Kabbala. It is basically this: People come into this world which is designed not for human perfection, because almost nobody is perfect. So people sin, and this is expected by heaven, with the condition that a person sin and then do teshuva.  There is a gemora that the greatest Jews did the greatest sins, such as David with Bas Sheva, and Israel at Sinai who then went to worship the Golden Calf. But both of these repented which is the true purpose of the world. This idea that human beings were created with great impulses and tendencies to sin with extremely few exceptions, emphasizes to us that penitence not perfection it the purpose of life.

There are discussions of this in Kabbala about the first humans and their experiences with evil that had nothing to do with their sins but with the will of heaven. Indeed, the gemora says that HaShem declared that He must repent regularly because he rejected the Moon. The Moon wanted a world free of evil, and felt that a world with living sinners was a disgrace to heaven. HaShem said that to kill out all of the sinners would destroy the world, because sinning is what most people do. But to teach people that the purpose of life is penitence, not perfection, HaShem offered to Himself to teshuva, as if it could be, to teach everyone that the purpose of life is not perfection but imperfection followed by penitence.

Living Alone with Biology and Suspicions

Living Alone and Sinning

By Rabbi Dovid E. Eidensohn

Rambam[1] says, “It is a mitsvah of the rabbis [not the Torah] that a man should not live without a wife, lest he sin with evil thoughts. Nor should a woman live without a man, so that people will not suspect her of sinning with men not her husband.”

The Magid Mishneh there in the Rambam says that his source is a gemora in Yevomose 62b where the gemora accepts the teaching of Rabbi Yehoshua in this matter. The Maharsha in Yevomose 63A go into this subject in depth and quotes sources going back to the beginning of creation that some creations such as proper human beings are designed to thrive in this world, whereas to merit this level one needs a proper marriage, a man with a woman, for the sake of the man and for the sake of the woman. A man without a woman or the opposite can produce a creation that floats here and there and enters the world of not proper creations.

We can understand these deeper thoughts or not, but the plain teaching of the gemora and the Rambam are that a man without a wife and a woman without a husband violate the rabbinical decree of not living with sinful thoughts or people suspecting you of sinning. We can, without delving into Medrashic or Kabbalistic mystery, understand very well that a man without a functioning marriage is a candidate for sinful thoughts and worse, and a woman without a functioning marriage may be suspected as to how she manages to deal with her biology alone. Nothing mystical about that.

The gemora goes further by saying that a man who reaches the age of twenty and is not interested in marriage, of him we say, “his bones have exploded,” whatever that means, but it is not a compliment. Bones hold the body together, and when they “explode,” the human being drifts into the second phase of humanity, we discussed earlier in the Maharsha, and it is not a compliment. Today, huge numbers of people, young and not married, have all kinds of opportunities to marry and refuse it, for whatever reason. Do they sin? Are they suspected of giving in to their biology? What do you think?

---

[1] Ishuse 15:16

Recognizing Homosexuals as Orthodox Jews

David Eidensohn <eidensohnd@gmail.com>	9:53 PM (1 minute ago)		Reply
to Riccardo

Dr. Riccardo,

Here is what I wrote today to answer you, and I am feeling a bit better, thank HaShem.

Question from Dr. Riccardo from Italy

According to pure Halakhah, is it possible for Gentiles to assume the admissibility of carnal lesbian relationships and those between males other than anal coitus?

Dr. Riccardo,

I read with great interest your involved and intricate study from many important sources about homosexuality, etc. I had some thoughts reading through your sources which impressed me greatly. It is now almost the Sabbath day as you mention as I live in Monsey, NY, and we begin our prayers her around six o'clock to move things up to make Shabbos early. I won't be able for a while to give you a definite answer to all of your excellent points, because I just got out of the hospital with pneumonia, it should not happen to anyone else, and my doctor studied me carefully after I had finished my eight days of medicine for that condition, and he warned me strongly not to do anything strenuous for two weeks which will culminate in  chest x-ray on Aug 28. Until then, if I have to do heavy thinking, I have to take it easy.

I will not, however, leave it at that. See Rambam Ishuse 24:16 - A wife who  is not modest loses her Kesubo, which was established by the rabbis to prevent the husband from divorcing her. But a woman who is not modest should surely be divorced. See also Shulchan Aruch Even Hoezer 21,7 - One who hugs or kisses a woman forbidden for him to have relations with her, that people do not sense any sexual interest in such, for instance an older sister or his father's sister, even though he has no pleasure this is very shameful and is sinful, and is the doing of fools, because we never come close to a forbidden woman. End quote. See also Rambam brought in Moreh Nevuchim 3,28 and specifically in Rashbo I:417 that doing something which doesn't seem like a terrible sin but it corrupts others, those involved are killed even if they did nothing that could ordinarily bring them to great punishment. Thus, all of these loopholes which can bring about changes in respect for Torah are suspect. 

There is today a great effort from Orthodox homosexuals to gain respect for their situation. They want to attend synagogue and pray with everyone else, and they are gaining respect from various quarters, because why drive out people who want to be Orthodox and have little hope for changing their biology? The problem is that when people advance an idea that will cripple the community or change it dramatically, this is a serious injury to the community that should be strongly opposed. This is becoming a strong issue and will lead to great arguments, with both sides feeling they are in the right. Personally, I don’t want to encourage for any reason people to popularize behavior clearly forbidden by the bible, for centuries. Even though some people demand their rights, we Orthodox Jews have rights also, and we don’t want to discard the Torah. And if we permit homosexuals or others to publicize their deviancies in the community proper surely many people will be influenced to imitate them, including our own children. We must fight it tooth and nail. Our children come first.

Shalom,

David Eidensohn

Kiddushin and Pilegesh

Letter to an Italian doctor about Jewish marital laws

By Rabbi Dovid E. Eidensohn

I was honored recently to receive a letter from Dr. Riccardo F. Gioviale-Catania,Italia, a Noahide believer in the Torah, regarding one of the most difficult areas of Jewish law, marital situations with Kiddushin and Pilegesh. His ideas with many sources are too complicated for most people here, as was my response to him, but I wish to state the purpose of my letter here is not to comment further on that, but to recognize that for Orthodox Jews, the issues of Kiddushin and Pilegesh are very important, not so much in earlier times, but for today, as I will explain.

Kiddushin is the normal way of Orthodox marriage. It requires the husband to give the wife a ring, or a marital document, or an act of marital relations, all of this witnessed by two witnesses who are Orthodox Jewish men.

The husband takes the wife for himself, and in the words of the Ramban, “acquires” her so that she cannot leave him without his permission, unless he dies. On the other hand, Pilegesh, which is simply that the man takes the woman, not acquiring her, but she moves into his house, and whenever either one of them desires, they can simply leave and negate the marriage with no penalty. Both these kinds of marriage are recognized in the gemora Sanhedrin 21A, as the Vilna Gaon mentions in the Shulchan Aruch Even Hoezer 26:1.

I said before that Pilegesh is important today, but not so much in earlier times. What does this mean? In earlier times, every Jewish community had senior rabbis who had great influence. People feared to refuse their opinions. But after the great loss of six million Jews in the Second World War, and the great decline in America and other countries in respect for Torah, times changed. Now very few people know the laws of marriage, although many people claim to be experts in it. I once asked one of these where the laws of not forcing a GET is taught in Shulchan Aruch, and he didn’t know. Rambam in the beginning of the Laws of Divorce says that any forced GET is worthless. The Vilna Gaon says that this is the accepted practice today, that a GET must not be forced, and all of the commentators in Shulchan Aruch 77 par 2 and 3 agree, that a GET may not be forced, which is the teaching of the Rashbo in VII:414. But today this is no longer accepted by many ‘rabbis’ who don’t know the laws of Gittin.

Today there are increasingly brazen ‘rabbis’ who go so far as to tell a married woman who can’t leave her husband who refuses to give her a GET, that she may leave without a GET! Why? Because they invented some ridiculous reason that she was never married in the first place! A few years ago, there were ‘rabbis’ who guaranteed to force a husband to give his wife a GET by torturing him with electric shocks and physical violence, and they demanded sixty thousand dollars for this. One of them is a Rosh Yeshiva in Monsey, NY, and all of them were arrested by the FBI and either jailed or fined or both.

A husband or wife who wants to end the marriage, may turn to a Beth Din. At one time that was a good idea, but today, the attitude is that going to a Beth Din is quite a risky proposition.

What then can a woman do today who wants to marry? If she does Kiddushin, and is acquired by the husband and cannot escape him unless he dies or gives her willingly a GET, should she go to the ‘rabbis’ who will tell her lies such as the forcing of a GET from the husband or to declare that she was never married in the first place? That is what is going on today in America and other countries in the world. And things are getting worse all of the time. In recent years major countries are beginning to ‘help’ women by putting husbands who won’t give a GET in jail. A prominent Torah expert said recently that all divorces done in New York State today are suspect because the government has given power to the woman to force a GET in certain cases. In Canada the government is also beginning to force divorces which, if done, means that the woman who remarries with such an invalid GET and has a child, the child is a mamzer.

Even in Israel there are problems with Kiddushin. I once spoke with a member of a prominent Israeli Beth Din who told me that when a husband doesn’t want to give his wife a GET they call in ORA, who forces the husband with public humiliation, to give a GET. My rebbe the Gaon Reb Shalom Yosef Elyashev zt”l told me that any Beth Din that does illegal things to free a woman from her marriage is not a Beth Din. Senior Israeli and American rabbis in the past generation have cautioned women never to go to a secular government’s court to settle marital matters, and never to trust even a Torah Beth Din until they clarify properly that they don’t make funny Gittin. Today very few of these great rabbis remain, and in their place are those who invent a new Torah to do what they want.

The only solution, as I see it, is not to marry with Kiddushin, but Pilegesh. There is no acquiring of the woman, there is no enslaving the wife to a man who may be impossible to live with. And she is free to leave when she wants. I spoke to a woman whose husband won’t give her a GET, and I explained about the problems of Kiddushin and the good idea of marrying with Pilegesh. She said to me, “Why didn’t I know this when I was nineteen years old?”

The great proponent of Pilegesh is the Ramban. But he himself admits that sometimes, in certain communities, Pilegesh could introduce problems. There are those who are against Pilegesh entirely. But the Shulchan Aruch in Kiddushin 26:1 has all of the major commentators of the Shulchan Aruch in favor of Pilegesh, such as the Vilna Gaon based upon the gemora in Sanhedrin 21A, who says that Rambam and Ramban permit Pilegesh. I explain elsewhere how the Rambam, who seems to say clearly in Kings 4:4 that only a king may have a Pilegesh, something that is clearly defied by passages in the Tanach. I explain how the Rambam does permit Pilegesh elsewhere on my blog torahhalacha.blogspot.com and material on google.comat eidensohnd@gmail.com. Also, the Beis Shmuel, the Chelkas Mechokake and others, to one degree or the other are not in agreement with the opinion of the authority that Pilegesh is sinful.

In earlier generations with great rabbis controlling marriage, to leave Kiddushin and going to Pilegesh was not necessarily a critical matter. But today, with the influx of mamzerim from women who flee their husbands who won’t give them a GET willingly, it is highly dangerous for anyone to marry with Kiddushin, and Pilegesh is preferred. But, as Ramban mentions, there is a danger to some degree in Pilegesh. But I feel that the danger of Pilegesh is not to make mamzerim, but the danger of Kiddushin is to make mamzerim, and that is happening today all over the world.

Yom Kippurim is almost as Great as Purim

We are now in the Hebrew month of Elul, which is a time of holiness and preparation for the great holy days coming in the Hebrew month of Tishrei. First in Tishrei is the first day, called Rosh HaShana, New Year followed ten days later by Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. This is followed five days later by the holy holiday of Succose and eight days after that by Shemini Atseress, the Eighth Day of Assembly.

Interestingly enough, Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, has an interesting name, because Yom means Day and Kippur or Kippurim is actually the word "like Purim," meaning, that Yom Kippurim or Yom Kippur, is similar like, but not exactly equal, to Purim.

Purim is the most unusual holiday of the year. It is not a day devoted to prayer, or learning Torah, but to drinking, especially powerful liquids, and many people simply get drunk with that kind of drink. How can Yom Kippurim be only almost like Purim, which is a day of drinking and not praying and not learning Torah?

But Yom Kippurim is about considering our sins. Purim is about something higher, considering heaven. Not praying, not learning Torah, but thinking of heaven and HaShem, that is the greatest day in the year.

Shalom,
Dovid Eidensohn