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Jewish Court Sentences Dog To Death By Stoning


Steve
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http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/06/17/jewish-court-sentences-dog-to-death-by-stoning/

JERUSALEM — A Jerusalem rabbinical court condemned to death by stoning a dog it suspects is the reincarnation of a secular lawyer who insulted the court's judges 20 years ago, Ynet website reported Friday.

According to Ynet, the large dog made its way into the Monetary Affairs Court in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighbourhood of Mea Shearim in Jerusalem, frightening judges and plaintiffs.

Despite attempts to drive the dog out of the court, the hound refused to leave the premises.

One of the sitting judges then recalled a curse the court had passed down upon a secular lawyer who had insulted the judges two decades previously.

Their preferred divine retribution was for the lawyer's spirit to move into the body of a dog, an animal considered impure by traditional Judaism.

Clearly still offended, one of the judges sentenced the animal to death by stoning by local children.

The canine target, however, managed to escape.

"Let the Animals Live", an animal-welfare organisation filed a complaint with the police against the head of the court, Rabbi Avraham Dov Levin, who denied that the judges had called for the dog's stoning, Ynet reported.

One of the court's managers, however, confirmed the report of the lapidation sentence to Israeli daily Yediot Aharonot.

"It was ordered... as an appropriate way to 'get back at' the spirit which entered the poor dog," the paper reported the manager as saying, according to Ynet.

Certain schools of thought within Judaism believe in the transmigration of souls, or reincarnation.

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I couldn't quite wrap my head around it, so tried to find out more online and found these:

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4082843,00.html

http://beta.ninemsn.com.au/default.aspx?ocid=hmlogout&s_tnt=244:1:0

http://failedmessiah.typepad.com/failed_messiahcom/2011/06/rabbis-sentence-dog-to-death-567.html?cid=6a00d83451b71f69e201538f3b49f8970b

Apparently alledged dog in question escaped and Let the Animals Live org has filed a complaint with Police against Rabbi Levin, that is according to Jewish World news.

Who knows, this could be an urban myth in the making or a true story of an individual who should be sectioned in his local psych ward, I hope it's the former!

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Story is reported by many news organisations (suggest anyone interested do a search) not just the one in the link provided glad to see that it is not considered acceptable behaviour.

Edited by Mags
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Sounds pretty fake to me.

All of this based on what a 'manager' said.

Doesn't hurt to think a little people! Usually before you come out with judgements.

Sounds fake to me as well. It 'happened' several weeks ago but is only now getting headlines? Give it a few more weeks and the story will get even better.

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I just found this way too hard to believe so looked it up on the snopes forum and found this from a poster who looks like he may be a lawyer

It seems to be an Urban Legend in the making.

First, a "Rabbinical Court" is not a secular authority. People go there for advice (this one seems to handle financial issues, so I suspect that it mediates small disputes to keep them out of small claims court, in addition to handling purely religious matters), and it can draw up documents that dissolve marriages, or authorize conversions, which the government honors (the divorces have to be filed with a city clerk, though), but the court has no authority to do something like this, and yes, could be charged under animal cruelty laws if someone reported it.

Second, it doesn't seem to have happened. I couldn't find an article in English, but, FWIW, here's one in Hebrew.

It pretty much repeats everything in the OP, adding that

Quote:

The organization "Let the Animals Live" is expected to file today (Thursday) a police complaint against Rabbi Avraham Dov Levin, an Orthodox rabbi and head of a beit din [rabbinical court] in a well-known in the Haredi sector. [my translation, FWIW]

The "Haredi sector" is Mea Shearim, Jerusalem. Then, the article goes on to quote Rabbi Avraham Dov Levin as saying "it never happened." He confirmed that a dog did show up in the court, and apparently got inside the building, frightening some people, and it took a while to chase it out, so it was a bit of an event, but the idea that it was identified as a lawyer who had been cursed was nonsense. It seems that once the dog was chased out, some children did throw stones at it, but that was a case of children being cruel, because they chose to be, not because the court told them to be.

I have no idea how old the children were, or what happened to them-- whether they were an older group of punks, who probably should have been arrested, or little kids who might have seen the dog chased out of the building, and thought they were somehow helping by chasing the dog out of the area. I don't know whether they were trying to kill the dog or just chase it away, and it does seem to have gotten away-- if it really had been sentenced to death, it wouldn't have been allowed to get away. But the beit din doesn't have that authority-- like I said, Israel does have animal cruelty laws.

I also have no idea whether there ever was a secular lawyer who gave the beit din trouble 20 years ago, and if there was, whether or not he died recently.

and further to that, judaism strictly forbids unnecessary cruelty to animals so what judge in his right mind would order the stoning of a dog by kids

Edited by raz
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Just sounds like anti semitic nonsense.

Yep.

I had a thought of what might have happened - the judge did actually say it but it was as a joke. I was in court one day where a judge sentenced someone 'to be taken from here to another place and hanged by his neck until dead'. It was hilarious, especially because it wasnt even a criminal matter but if some uptight person with no sense of humour had been sitting in the courtroom it could have runaway like a train

Edited by raz
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But wait, there's more. Steve, check the ynet website.

Here's one post in the feedback section

23. Baloney Story

This story is baloney. The commenters here who are so outraged should apply reality-checks before going ballistic in public. Do judges ask children on the street to carry out sentences? When was the last time you hear of a dog "wandering into a courtroom"? Is there no end to the malicious slander invented by Ynet and other militant secularists? Get real! This story is all baloney - and some people swallowed it whole.

(NB, maybe it is was really a dog that was re-incarnated into a lawyer's body...)

Jake in Jerusalem , Jerusalem, Israel

and another

32. Oh please, people...

"The head of the court, Rabbi Avraham Dov Levin, denied that the judges had called for the dog's stoning. But one of the court's managers confirmed the report to Yedioth Ahronoth."

The court denied such a thing happened, and YNet (and an unnamed 'manager'), who has a history of making things up, writes the story. And people, nonetheless, would rather believe Ynet...

R , Jerusalem (06.16.11)

it seems Ynet is not very popular in Israel

Edited by raz
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