WITH MR SHAFRAN, IT JUST GETS WORSE

The Jewish Star (published in Nassau County, NY), had this to say: The speaker is none other than Avi Shafran.

“I don’t expect a Conservative Rabbi to acknowledge that fact:
non-Orthodox rabbis are based on progression, not on Mesorah and not on
respect for elders. But those of us who call ourselves Orthodox have to
know on whose shoulders we stand,” Shafran asserted to relatively
modest applause.”

Apparently Shafran is unaware that we venerate sacred text and not so- called holy men who presume for themselves that they have a direct pipeline to God and know what He wants. Worse,they take this upon themselves based on their own assumptions and not on sacred text. Surely, that posture puts those rabbis WAY outside the parameters of Jewish law!

Doesn’t that make Avi Shafran a “kofer?” Or is he “pasul l’eydut (not acceptable as a witness)” because he tells lies in public?

What was the lie? Read this, ““I don’t know what Rubashkin did,” Shafran gravely told a quiet audience. “What I do know is it is Jewishly wrong to assume guilt on accusations. It is, to put it clearly and simply, unethical.”

The question of Rubashkin, according to Shafran, should have been
delegated to the elders of the Jewish community, a difference that
typified the reaction between the Orthodox and the Conservative response.”

Shafran must be the only person in America who does not know what Rubashkin did. Gosh, Avi, ever read the newspapers?

As for standing on the shoulders of great rabbis: let’s face it, we take a stand only based on halacha and not on some rabbi’s stature in the chareidi world today.

Speaking of Shafran, the newspaper also wrote: “He also described Hekhsher Tzedek, the conservative effort to provide ethical supervision to food producers intended to work in tandem with other kosher certifications, as being conceived in “sin,” specifically that of “jumping to negative judgments.”

Hmm, Avi ought to know. He would seem to be pretty immersed in the culture of lies. And last time we looked, his kind of lies surely count as being conceived in sin.

Give it a rest, Avi.