A world in which they can hold themselves above the law. Not even the President of the United States can do that, only dictators of third world countries can. To some people, the risk of being a slave in such a failed state is worth the tiny chance of becoming its king.

“Better to reign in Hell than to serve in Heaven.” – Lucifer

He makes it very clear, in fact spells it out, that it’s a problem for him when Israeli actions cause him embarrassment when he’s with his progressive friends and thus he exacts from Israel a high (and unattainable) standard of behavior, short of which he can show that by golly he’s not one of those chauvinistic Jews who is a reactive defender of Israel.

I commend him, as I say, for honesty, but not for much else.

Rosen uses the Hebrew term “cheshbon hanefesh” to give a religious patina to his blatantly political argument.

Actually, while he uses the term, he does not actually perform the action. Chesbon Hanefesh means being completely honest and understanding not only what is done, but the flaws that led to that action. Before a person can ask forgiveness, he must first acknowledge exactly what he did wrong. When the sin involves other people, he must make a complete and sincere confession and ask mechila (forgiveness) from the person that he has wronged.

That is why “Lashon Hara” (evil speech – though it is true) and rechilus or motzi shem ra (slander – which is false) are among the most difficult sins to atone for. The analogy is releasing a bag of feathers over the Grand Canyon and then trying to retrieve them. Every one who has heard the slanders, even if they did not believe them, must be approached and the results of the slander canceled.

I find that I cannot call the author of the screed “rabbi” Rosen (the lower case r is deliberate). His pretense that the slanderers that goldstone used as “authorities” are credible or “respected” is laughable to say the least. The comments by such really honest and respected bloggers as daledamos, elderofzion, israelmatzav, yidwithlid, and soccerdad himself among so many others have shown that the only true things that goldstone put into the report were the names of the participants in the travesty and the fact that something happened in Gaza.

In the Yom Kippur prayers we ask for forgiveness for all the sins that we, and any members of our community, might have done. I am sure that we (as individuals) have not committed most of the sins that we have read, but we ask forgiveness because of the fact that someone in the Am Yisrael (people of Israel) could have done so. In this case, “rabbi” rosen and “judge” goldstone need to reread the prayers and ask for forgiveness of the people that they have slandered.

Someone who is in a position to judge and judges falsely is considered as he he helped destroy the world. This is both someone who condemns the innocent as well as one who frees the guilty. The “goldstone report” is guilty of both. As a result, Rosen has committed the crime of “Chillul Hashem” (desecration of G-d’s Name) by leading someone who does not know the facts to think that he is speaking as a “rabbi”.

After Yom Kippur, we ask for forgiveness as part of the post Yom Kippur prayer. It is a common question, why do we include the request immediately after Yom Kippur, when we have just gone through the full Day of Atonement. One answer might be to look at these two people, who have refused to atone for the sins that they committed. Maimonides says that those who refuse to admit that the sins that they have committed were wrong in the first place cannot atone. While this occurs, we cannot wash the stain of the sin from our souls. We are all affected by the sins of commission and omission exemplified by the “goldstone report” and its defenders.

I imagine if someone wrote a report on the bombing of Japan and started at Nagasaki, ignoring Pearl Harbor and everything Japan did in Manchuria, Burma and the Phillipines, he might come to a similar conclusion about the US.