The Rabbi on the Beach at the Shul on The Beach
Last week Bernie Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison. In the early days of my blog I wrote a couple of Madoff posts (check them out if you have not seen them).
His recent sentencing reminded me about something that I did not post in the fallout from the scandal. This post is not “news” but its message is timeless. (more…)
This LA Times article actually encompasses the points I made yesterday in my post about a similar NY Times article.
Except there are still some Jewish elitists who “disown” Madoff (the first “Rabbis” mentioned in the article”). Rabbi Adlerstein and Harriet Rossetto echoed my sentiments of learning from the incident and Madoff’s opportunity for Tshuva.
Rossetto even goes so far to say that maybe Madoff is the messenger teaching us to redefine our values. That is a good approach. That is a healthy approach.
Divorcing ourselves from Madoff by saying “Madoff does not represent the Jewish people, not even remotely” is useless and inaccurate. Firstly, no one represents the Jewish people, we each represent ourselves. Secondly, that kind of disownment is not our place as humans and fellow Jews. He is still a Jew and yes he made mistakes but haven’t we all?
In Madoff Scandal, Jews Feel an Acute Betrayal – NYTimes.com
This NY Times article raises some interesting issues. Firstly, does Madoff reflect on “Jews” – are we all judged as a nation / religion by the actions of individuals? Is it anti-semitism when non-Jews express displeasure with the actions of Jews who act like idiots? Is there really no teshuva for Madoff? the last “rabbi” quoted seems to thing the Madoff is doomed to hell with no chance for redemption. Last I checked teshuva was always an option.
Besides all those questions what really irked me about this article was the self-righteousness of these non-observant Jews looking down from their pedestal of morality on Madoff. He is not excommunicated from the Jewish people because he is a thief! He is a Jewish thief and he is still our brother. He needs his people now more than ever to be sympathetic to his dire situation. He is not excused but we are not allowed to judge him either. Everyone does things that are wrong, everyone fails a moral challenge along the way. We are no different from Madoff. His sins do have grander repercussions and resonate more strongly throughout the world but at the end of the day he is just another person who messed up.
It is useless to paint him as a non-Jewish Jew because of his mistakes. As Jews we believe that mistakes are inevitable, it is how we dael with those mistakes that defines us. Not a bunch of “Rabbis” telling the NY Times that Madoff isn’t really Jewish because he is a crook!
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