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May 9, 2008

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: Reverence, Yes; Worship, No

Mona Charen: Did Israel Drive Out the Arabs 60 Years Ago?

JWisdom: Ultimate opportunities by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

May 8, 2008

Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo: Israel at 3,500+

Jonathan Tobin: Still Fighting the Same War

Steven Plaut: How ‘nakba’ proves the fiction of a Palestinian Nation

JWisdom: Taking Israel for Granted? by Rabbi Mordechai Becher

May 7, 2008

Rabbi Hillel Goldberg: Israel is irrelevant to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Dion Nissenbaum: Latest Olmert scandal could derail efforts to force Israel's compromises

JWisdom: My Inner Ventriloquist by Sara Yoheved Rigler

May 6, 2008

Caroline B. Glick: Anti-Zionism at 60

The Kosher Gourmet By Ethel G. Hofman: In honor of Israel's 60th anniversary, the former president of the International Association of Culinary Professionals, whose members included the likes of Julia Child, is back with a smorgasbord featuring the taste and essence of the Jewish homeland

JWisdom: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Jewish Deer in Nazi Headlights

May 5, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Busy work

Jonathan Mark: Remarkable half-century old Mike Wallace interview with Abba Eban puts current anti-Israel sentiment into perspective

May 2, 2008

Rabbi Berel Wein: Rote religiosity

Caroline B. Glick: Whitewashing Hamas

JWisdom: Parent trap?

May 1, 2008

David Zwiebel: Faith communities can learn from Orthodox Jews in stimulating private philanthropy for religious education

George Friedman and Peter Zeihan of Stratfor: The Shift Toward an Israeli-Syrian Agreement

JWisdom: It's time to wake up by Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis

April 30, 2008

Jonathan Tobin: Pennsylvania's Democratic slugfest may leave some Jewish votes up for grabs

The Kosher Gourmet by Linda Gassenheimer: Fresh herbs, sauteed veal and tiny creamer potatoes makes a light spring dinner

JWisdom: How to Build a Mentch by Rabbi Mordechai Becher

April 29, 2008

Daniel Pipes: Barack Obama's Muslim Childhood

Joel Brinkley: On human rights, the U.N. once again strikes out

JWisdom: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: When The Truth is Unbelievable

April 28, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Q: I'm often stuck in the doctor's waiting room for hours! Doesn't he owe me something for my wasted time?

Steven Emerson: New U.S. government policy advises agencies to avoid using some of the very same words that make up terror groups' names

JWisdom: Why You & I Never Die: A Jewish View of Immortality, Part I by Rabbi David Aaron

April 25, 2008

Rabbi Mitchell Wohlberg: Schadenfreude isn't kosher for Passover --- or at any other time

Rabbi Berel Wein: The secret of how the data bank of memory is transferred from one generation to the next

JWisdom: Stepping Up to A Higher Spiritual Life by Rabbi Lawrence Kelemen, Part III

April 24, 2008

Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo: The successful failure

Fred Burton and Scott Stewart of Stratfor: Placing the terrorist threat to the food supply in perspective

JWisdom: Stepping Up to A Higher Spiritual Life by Rabbi Lawrence Kelemen, Part II

April 23, 2008

Connie Ogle: An intricate game of a novel

Jonathan Tobin: Making Sense of the 'J Street' Jive

JWisdom: Stepping Up to A Higher Spiritual Life by Rabbi Lawrence Kelemen

April 22, 2008

Jonathan Rosenblum: Why Israel's 'Leaven law' matters

Caroline B. Glick: Obama the Savior

April 18, 2008

Rabbi Harvey Belovski: Multimedia tool of antiquity

Caroline B. Glick: Revealed Truths vs. revealed lies

JWisdom: More than miracles by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

April 17, 2008

Rabbi Avi Shafran: Deconstructing Dayeinu

Rabbi Elazar Meisels: Is innovation at the Seder a slap at tradition?

JWisdom: Discovering Your Divine Mission, Part III by Rabbi David Aaron

April 16, 2008

Jonathan Tobin: A Prayer for Sderot's Children

Ethel G. Hofman: Sumptuous Seder

JWisdom: The Divine is in the details by Rabbi Mordechai Becher

April 15, 2008

Rabbi Dovid Zauderer: Let Charlton Heston Go!

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Jimma, tyranny's enabler

JWisdom: Relationships: Beyond Mars & Venus, Part IV by Dr. Lisa Aiken

April 14, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: The Snitching Supervisor

Jonathan Tobin: Forget the Fun and Games!

JWisdom: Sincerity is Valued Most by Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski, M.D.

April 11, 2008

Rabbi David Gutterman: A Mystery in the Middle East

Caroline B. Glick: Why Ahmadinejad smiles

JWisdom: Elevated illness by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

April 10, 2008

Stratfor Intelligence Briefing by George Friedman: A Mystery in the Middle East

The Kosher Gourmet By Steve Petusevsky: The spring elegance of asparagus

JWisdom: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: The Power of Rational Lies

April 9, 2008

Michael Feldberg: An all but forgotten Colonial doctor who put his Jewish values before his life

Jordan "Gorf" Gorfinkel's "Everything's Relative" gets philosophical

JWisdom: Four Rabbis in Bnei Brak by Rabbi Mordechai Becher

April 8, 2008

Caroline Glick: Covering for the enemy

Elliot B. Gertel: 'House' goes Hasidic

JWisdom: Relationships: Beyond Mars & Venus, Part III by Dr. Lisa Aiken

April 7, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Q: I have a translating business. Recently someone asked me to translate some financial documents that are clearly forged. Should I agree?

Jonathan Rosenblum : Israel is unwittingly helping to fuel the international campaign of delegitimization against it

JWisdom: Matzah and leaven as a life philosophy by Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski, M.D.

April 4, 2008

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: The Mystery of Suffering

Caroline B. Glick: Fear of democracy

JWisdom: Dirty Jews by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

April 3, 2008

Rabbi Y. Y. Rubinstein: Parents --- and the children who would be them

The Kosher Gourmet by Kathy Manweiler: Tempted by restaurant dressings? Don't be. Here are recipes that can be made at home, healthier!

JWisdom: The importance of retaining a 'slave mentality' by Rabbi Mordechai Becher

April 2, 2008

Mitch Albom: Child abuse, disguised as faith

Jonathan Tobin: Unreasonable Accommodations

JWisdom: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith with Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Eliminating Jewish Influence over Germans

March 22, 2007

J-Rhythms with Avraham Rosenblum: JWR's cutting-edge music program showcasing performers -- singers, song writers, musicians, and bands -- who learn and live the Torah lifestyle (OUR NEWEST IGODCAST !)

Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review March 17, 2008 10 Adar II 5768

Up Close and Politically Personal: Remorse is the True Measure of Private Redemption

By Suzanne Fields


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | The histories of men and women, like the histories of nations, can be tragedy, comedy, or farce, and often all three. We must wait for the final act to pass judgment, as tempting as it may be to let fly at once. At the moment, Eliot Spitzer is merely another politician exposed with feet of clay, an enlarged ego, an overzealous libido, and the power and money to finance his self-destruction. This postmodern morality is gone with the speed of the Internet, but his resignation is not the final word.


If he truly wants to atone for his betrayal of public and private trust, there's still time to redeem himself. There's ample precedent (and instructions) in life and literature for redressing personal flaws. Judgment depends not on the depths to which a person falls from grace, but how genuine his remorse. Moral insight offers transforming power.


Gov. Spitzer, who becomes an ex-governor this morning (March 17), joins a crowded pantheon of smart guys who risked all for the transient pleasures of the flesh. But Spitzer is neither Antony nor Abelard, and his doxy "Kristen" bears no resemblance to either Cleopatra or Heloise. Purchased erotic adventures in the skin trade are particularly tawdry, no matter how much they cost. When Henry Kissinger spoke of power as an "aphrodisiac," he knew he was the honeycomb.


But the Spitzer story is an emblematic tale of our time and we're complicit in the telling of it. Ours is an age of omniscient voyeurism, where images of others in trouble constantly whet an insatiable appetite for more, more, more. Distinctions and boundaries are continually blurred.


How pathetic, for example, to watch Dina Matos McGreevey, whose former husband was forced to resign as Governor of New Jersey when his homosexual liaison with one of his staff was exposed, go on television to "commiserate" with Silda Spitzer. Naturally, McGreevey had a book to sell. She said she "stood by her man" at the podium when he confessed all only "for her daughter's sake." (Was she thinking of her daughter when she brought it all back to the public again?) We've lost the sense of the sacred that comes from reticence.


"I go forward with the belief, as others have said, that as human beings, our greatest glory consists not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall," Spitzer said in his resignation speech. That's a difficult task for someone who worked so hard to knock others down, but it's a worthy one. We can hope that he and we are spared the usual psychobabble about "sexual addiction" which accompanies the vocabulary of "healing." We don't need to watch a parade of his remorse.


Charles Colson, the ruthless hatchet man of the Nixon administration infamously willing to "walk over his grandmother" to get Richard Nixon re-elected, and who served seven months in prison for participating in a psychiatrist's office burglary on behalf of that campaign, demonstrated repentance by helping others. After prison, he established a prison ministry and worked on prison reform.


Shakespeare's Prince Hal, the future King Henry V, caroused in taverns, drinking and hanging about with lowlife and generally self-indulging as a wastrel youth. His father was ashamed of him. But, he disavowed his lowlife friends, even the much-loved Falstaff, to demonstrate that he could reform when it came time to ascend the throne.


It's not clear whether Bill Clinton paid any private debt for the humiliation he inflicted on his wife, but he can no doubt feel his own pain in the wake of the Spitzer scandal, as it draws attention again to his dalliance with Monica. However, there's a difference between Clinton's seductive "charm" and Spitzer's far from charming purchases.


Betrayal of the public trust nearly always counts for more than private immorality. This was dramatically brought home in the presidential campaign of 1884. Grover Cleveland, the Democrat who was the model of "official integrity," had fathered an illegitimate child in his bachelor days. James G. Blaine, the Republican who had been involved in railroad scandals, mercilessly mocked Cleveland's tawdry "copulative habits." Republicans reveled in chanting, "Ma, Ma, where's my Pa?" When Cleveland won, Democrats answered with triumphant mockery of their own: "Gone to White House, Ha, Ha, Ha!" But when you betray both personal and political trust, as Eliot Spitzer is learning in his considerable pain and humiliation, it's no laughing matter.

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