Rabbinical Court Excommunicates
Senator Lieberman
The New York Torah Court – Beth Din, after careful deliberation, has excommunicated Senator Joseph Lieberman.
The following reasons were given for the excommunication:
Senator Lieberman has caused grave scandal –a chilul Hashem (desecration of G-D's Name)– by the fact that, while claiming to be an observant Jew, Lieberman has been misrepresenting and falsifying to the American people the teachings of the Torah against partial birth infanticide, against special privileges and preferential treatment for flaunting homosexuals, and against intermarriage of Jews.
A spokesman for the rabbinical court, Rabbi Joseph Friedman, stated that Senator Lieberman has also "flagrantly violated our sacred Torah by his Senate votes upholding partial birth infanticide and legitimizing homosexuality, which abnormal and unhealthy behavior the Torah strongly condemns as sinful and immoral. Mr. Lieberman, moreover, has, in violation of Torah, supported harmful gender integration in the U.S. Armed Forces –in the barracks, on naval warships, and in combat training– all of which weakens and demoralizes our Armed Forces."
Rabbi Friedman in addition declared that "under excommunication, or cherem as it is called in Hebrew, the person being excommunicated still remains a Jew. We hope that the senator repents and asks G-D's forgiveness, so that the excommunication may be lifted."
As an historical footnote, there are precedents for rabbinical excommunication of public figures, as well as private individuals. In 1945, Rabbi Mordecai M. Kaplan was excommunicated for grave violations of Torah. This was at the time reported in the New York Times and other newspapers.
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Is this the Joe Lieberman you say is worthy of praise?