קול החינוך גליון #103
יו”ל ע”י ‘ועד הורים’ – בהכוונת גדולי התורה שליט”א
* למסירת מידע ומשלוח מסמכים בס”ד 03-691-5752, טלפקס: 6915752@okmail.co.il
[קול החינוך עוסק במלחמת מדינת ישראל בחינוך יהודי עצמאי.]
Reprinted with permission.
Rabbi Asher Weiss: May One Plead ‘Guilty’ in Government Court?
Plea Deals and Chillul Hashem
Question:
Shalom Aleichem,
Occasionally, in order to secure a conviction (which can be very difficult), prosecutors will make a deal with the accused that they will only be charged with a lesser offense if they agree to plead guilty.
In the event that an observant Jew has been charged with a particularly egregious crime ר”ל is there a formal/technical concern about chilul Hashem in “admitting” to such crime when one is innocent? Is it possible to speak about this generally or does it depend upon the particulars?
Answer:
It would be permissible to make a plea bargain as it is common knowledge that this is a legal tactic and often does not reflect the truth. The defendant and his legal team will often state this openly. The technicality of entering the plea does not necessarily increase Chilul Hashem. In many cases, the charges alone and their being spread by the media cause the greatest Chilul Hashem, regardless of the outcome and trial.
As you mentioned, however, this question would certainly be case dependent, and if in fact making a plea would cause a great Chilul Hashem, it is something to be considered. This would depend on the standing of the defendant in his community, the nature of the charges and the evidence against him.
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‘Jonah in the Whale, Noah in the Ark’ (Disclaimer: You May Want to Ignore This One!)
Willie Nelson -Ac-cent-tchu-ate The Positive
Published on Aug 29, 2014
From What A Wonderful World
-uploaded in HD at http://www.TunesToTube.com
Israel Democracy Institute: Israelis Optimistic But Not About Politics
Excerpt in English from Hamodia:
The survey found widespread dissatisfaction with the country’s politicians. It reported that 68 percent of all respondents felt that Knesset members do not perform their duties properly, and 80 percent believe politicians are more concerned with their own interests than those of their constituents.
Power via politics is an illusion, so disillusionment is good. The results are even more significant considering the “Rightist” government coalitions.
Yet, there was a startling inconsistency between perceptions of public figures versus the country as a whole, about which respondents were much more positive.
Tamar Hermann, an Israeli professor who led the research, acknowledged that while the dissatisfaction levels were similar to last year’s survey, this year there was a marked increase in people who believe the country’s overall situation is good, to 48 percent from 36.5 percent last year. Nearly three-quarters of Israelis are satisfied with their personal situations.
Why is that inconsistent?! Country ≠ State.
The study interviewed 1,024 people and had a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points. The margin increased to 3.4 points for Jewish respondents and 7.9 points for the smaller Arab sample size. The research was conducted in May, but took months to analyze and publish. Hermann said, however, that public opinion on such issues is “pretty stable.”
Of course, people lie to pollsters, but I assume they lie in the other direction.