New York – This column will undoubtedly generate a lot of flack and some people will be quite upset about what is written. Nonetheless, discussion and thought are items that have always characterized who we are as a people. The question is; Did we do the right thing in inundating Florida Governor Crist’s office to stop the execution?
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The issues are manifold. On the one hand is the issue of Ahavas Yisroel. Even Klal Yisroel’s biggest detractors would admit that there is hardly an ethnicity that demonstrates such internal concern for each member as the Jewish people do. But there are other issues as well.
Firstly, this particular person, although he did express remorse and regret, he also did murder a human being – Tzelem Elokim. All people were created in the image of Hashem and it is a horrific thing to snuff out the life of any individual. The Meshech Chochmah writes that the punishment for murder – Jew or gentile, is death. For a gentile victim the punishment is Misa Bidei Shamayim. A gentile court should definitely enforce its laws – and it is a good and proper thing to enforce the death penalty for murders.
But even for those who disagree with this first point – there is another issue –the second point. A governor under significant political duress will never, ever commute a sentence. Once again to those who may have missed that previous sentence – a governor whose political future is in serious question will never alienate the civil service workers in his state – ever. Anyone with an ounce of political sense will know this to be true. One would have better luck selling Israeli Bonds at a Palestinian National Convention.
With this in mind, how is it that the brightest and the best minds in our orthodox Jewish organizations attempted such a campaign when they new there was zero chance of it coming to fruition? The political damage to Orthodox Judaism was enormous. The harassment to the victim’s family was so significant that they actually asked the Jews to stop calling them and harassing them. Indeed, the family of this woman were called “Nazis” in asking for the death penalty being invoked here. Is this also not an enormous Chillul Hashem? How dare any of us call them Nazis.
One phone caller to Governor Crist actually said, “By us.. the most important thing is a Jewish life.” What?? Is this person insane? Is this the message that we are giving- yes seek justice in every way, but when it comes to one of us – don’t mete out the punishment that the wheels of justice finally came up with – because this guy happens to be one of us.
And don’t the people who run these organizations and campaigns realize that there will also be people in our camp who are not the brightest candles in the box who will make Chilul Hashems constantly and consistently when we ask them to take to the phones, emails, and letter writing? Numerous people have complaints against those who have signed off on hafganot in Yerushalayim because they do not rein in the mishugayim – why then did our organizations not do the same? Especially, when there was no gain here.
A third point involves a re-examination of our role among the nations. One of the reasons for our galus is to bring the Umos haOlam to a realization of the yashrus of Darchei Hashem. When we place our interests above the public good in something so public – does that really further enhance yoisher and appreciation of the Darchei Hashem?
Have we not taken the idea of “But is it good for the Jews?” to such an extreme level of absurdity that we apply it to the detriment of society around us? The question is not wrong, but it should be tempered with, “Is it good for the Jews and is it good for society?” If a Jewish young man is dealing drugs – that is bad for society – he should be punished – because what he has done is wrong, immoral and destroys the basic fabric of society around us. Every case is different and every situation should be judged on its own merit, but here we have a case where we seemed to have lost our judgment in what was an appropriate hishtadlus or not.
True, what will be said is that we are ignoring the mitigating circumstances. The perpetrator was extremely sorry for what he had done, he was young, his IQ was low, he was either on alcohol or drugs, etc. They will point to the inherent unfairness of a situation where other people whose crimes are much worse receive much lighter sentences. This may all be true, but the fact is that an innocent young woman who dedicated her life to the betterment of the world – was brutally murdered with a bullet to her head. Crime must be punished. Vicious crimes must be punished even more. We must always do what is right – even when it hurts.
Kal Hakovod to Rav Hoffman for again cutting through all the rhetoric and speaking the truth. This whole effort to save a convicted murderer was poorly conceived and even more poorly executed and will result in a much greater long term damage to the fumme community than anything it might have acomplished. We seem to lack strategic vision and somehow the life of a convicted murderer seemed to become the exclusive priority of orthodox jews to the exclusion of much greater needs for which they choose to remain silent. What a shanda.
I’m glad this was written. Good common sense.
A brave article. he asks good questions!
Agree, and well said.
A man and his wife are at the checkout in the supermarket. The man insists that the cashier erred and short-changed him. After a brief dialogue, the man realizes that the cashier is correct, that she did not short-change him, and he walks away.
What should the wife do?
1. Apologize to the cashier for her husband’s behavior
2. Say nothing but look at the cashier with a “You’re right but what-can-I-do?” look
3. Walk away with her husband without any kind of response to the cashier
I invite the readers to choose one of these options and later, b’ezras Hashem, I’ll finish my point and how this relates to this R. Hoffman’s column.
Yasher Koach. Well put.
yashar koach to rabbi hoffman for saying what i (and i hope many others) have been thinking over the last few days. how low have we sunk when the yeshivishe velt (agudah, etc.) goes all out to try to save the life of a convicted killer, but doesn’t make a peep when our own precious (and most importantly INNOCENT) kinderlach are being molested, raped, etc. (R”L) by rabbeim, in mikvaos, etc…
we care more about cold blooded murderers than we do about our own precious children.
how low have we sunk.
Going to the Pope was wrong. You don’t call in favors over someone so undeserving; you save it for true “Prisoners of Zion” like the Gilad Shalit and the others held in Arab captivity. But to waste a favor like that is exercising poor judgement. Where are the Vatican letters to Hamas to have rachmanus on Gilad Shalit? That fiasco was inexplicable and in the words of Mrs. Parks, “went too far”.
The real culprit of this situation, is Death row and the length of time it took for this individual to be executed.
Appeals and death row are what took so long for this individual to die, allowing him ample time to discover and reach G-d. (not that this is a bad thing)
According to Talmudic law, the passage of time, between a murder, conviction, and punishment was extremely brief. And yet we learn that with death comes atonement.
Death can provide atonement, but Death Row seems to be a path to sainthood.
Well said.
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!! Rabii Hoffman this article eloquently put to words what my mind and heart have been thinking throughout the last few days. Sadly those like you who think clearly are not in powerful positions in Jewish organizations to make the proper decisions for the Klal. Once again our leaders have let us down.
agree 100%.
i have been saying this for days.
As usual Rabbi Hoffan you are right on target.
key points
1. Governor Crist did not sentence him to death, the people of the state of FL did.
2. Gov Crist and 4 governors before him have all heard the pleas for this mans life on multiple occasions and all denied them.
3. The “diminished capacity” appeal has been tried 19 times on behalf of this man with not one, single judge finding any reason to change the sentence.
4. With no legal justification for overturning the sentence, the Governor is required by FL law to carry out the will of the jury who convicted him.
For those who don’t understand the law, it is relatively simple. The Governor is required to carry out the will of the jury. Period. The only reason for a stay of execution under the law is if new information becomes available which may mitigate the sentencing.
While my heart hurts when any yid is killed, blaming the governor is not only inappropriate, but it is dishonest.
If the murderer were a cuban gang member of 18 years old and his victim was a 89 yo holocaust survivor would u and the agudah still be singing the same tune?
You are right with that, that if we tell people to call in te governer there will allways be people out there, with a loose mouth,
However the major point here is that even if this guy was a gentile, a major fact in the case was not presented, that the guy was not himself at that time & he was totally doped,
The ONLY thing we requested was that they should give him a clemency hearing, If he is So sure that he will still be executed, then why not give him another try, to bring up the REAL facts in the story, & let EVERYBODY agree that this guy should b executed,
I’ve heard these and similar arguments throughout the whole ordeal. While it’s true, there should be no double standard when the killer is one of our own, I also felt it wasn’t right for there to be a double standard when the killer is strung out on drugs. Other killers get leniency for such defenses, and for much less; why should he be any different? You allude to this in your last paragraph, nevertheless you feel he should be treated more harshly. Why?
Other minorities (we can all think of who) will defend one of their own even when they overwhelmingly deserve punishment. So why do you feel you have to apologize for our hishtadlus?
As for people harassing the Parks family, that was plain outright wrong, and a Chillul Hashem.
If Crist would have felt his constituents were dissatisfied with his decision, he possibly would have stayed the execution. That was the message we were trying to generate.
We shed a tear for Martin Grossman’s death as well as for his life, and hope that he has attained teshuva sheleima and is in a better place now. However, Rabbi Hoffman, you could not be more right. Kudos to you for speaking up. We need to evaluate our priorities well, over and over again before launching an offensive of such proportions. Thank you Rabbi Hoffman. And may the neshama of Mr. Grossman תהא צרורה בצרור החיים אמן.
Finally – a voice of reason. Thank you, Rabbi Hoffman.
thank you for your fair and non biased oppinion on a serious matter. I never met an atheis in a fox hole either.
Very well said. I feel that justice was served. May the executed murderer receive a kapporah and his repentance accepted by the Beis Din shel Maaloh.
Well put.
Although it’s an unpopular stance, I agree and many Yidden do not understand that “halolam nivra bishvili” doesn’t mean that you can now disregard the rest of the world.
I agree with the problem. Different solution.
While reading this column I felt like I agree with everything that he says. However:
It is important for us , sometimes, to set our intellect aside, and work from clear emotions. A fellow Jew is about to be executed. Just as no one will blame a relative for promoting the commutation of a sentence, so too, people can be expected to have a sensitivity towards a fellow Jew. If it was an American being executed in the Philippines, many Americans would rally around him. If someone has the emotion to get involved, and then, intellectually decides not to, will just serve to dull our emotions and connection to a fellow yid.
I believe that your editorial brings out the problem correctly but comes up with misguided solutions.
Perhaps this case can serve the Jewish community a good lesson that they should be kinder towards other convicts? Maybe we should rethink our support for capital punishment? Maybe we should support future, non Jewish people on death row, who, similarly, have extenuating circumstances?
That would be a great Kiddush Hashem
There are so many gemoras that point out we have to do all we can to save a jewish life whatever the circumstances are. Does halacha not require a person to give away all your money for pidyon shevuim? Does the writer know better then the amoroim and leading gedolim who paskened we have to do all we can to save Martin? Where is his emunas chachomim? A disgrace!
Unfortunately, this writer is 100% correct. We have caused ourselves incredible amounts of political damage chasing what was a lost cause and a wrong cause.
Calling Gov. Christ a murderer, asking Shomayim for Nekomoh does a disservice to our people demonstrating that we could not care less about this country and have very little Hakoras Hatov to what has been the most gracious host our people has had during this long and miserable Galus.
I’ve heard arguments here that we were required to try and save Mr. Grossman’s life. While this is true, the tactics employed by the Klal might not have helped, the comments on the blogs surely hurt. Gov Christ’s office can read VIN too.
Yes, there were no Eidim and no Hasraah. I’ve seen those comments; if we would all learn the history of capital cases and Bais Din, we would know that Bais Din had other death penalty methods that it employed when needed.
Let us not forget the murder victim. Not only did Mr. Grossman blow her brains out, he beat her senseless with a steel flashlight before doing so. Mr. Grossman was a cold blooded killer. If you support the death penalty, you must upport this.
I hope his Misah was Kapparah for his Neshamah.
Just to add my 2 “cents”, In fact, it was a great KIDDUSH HASHEM how klal yisroel stood up for a person non of us knew personally, all we knew is the story and that he’s a baal teshuva with deep remorse on his actions while a troubled teen ager.
The hishtadlus with the governor etc. on ly showed the big achdus of klal yisroel.
Mi k’amcho yisroel!!
Thank you Rabbi Hoffman :Nechamtuni .
Bravo!
This person deserved to die if he was on drugs then even more he should bear the responsibility.
he was saying that he got nervous cause he was in violation of his parole guess what that means he was thinking and in his right state of mind.
again we feel sorry but the law of the land is the law and must be upheld and no group should be exempt
No chidushim here, one thing is certain, in all generations there were gedolei yisroel that went all the way backwards to save convicted people from death or torture. so the right thing was done.
Klal Yisroel must make their hishtadlus, so thats what was done. So just because it wasnt matzliach, dont start cursing da’as Torah, after all your just a bunch of news reporters, stay with that, and dont put your nose in. Thanks!
a clear thinking Rebbie A breath of fresh air
That Fraud that he was said his Final Shema with treif chicken gizzards on his breath, proving that he had no faith in an afterlife.
Thank you for speaking for the silent majority.
How can you say this. If Martin would be yor brother you would never think of saying anything, so every yid (jew) is the same, we’re all brothers.
Would the writer have the same opinion if this were his son???
very, very well written article. and i am ashamed and disgusted that jewish people would stoop so low as to harass the victim’s family.
Wow, where does Rabbi Hoffman really stand on the issue? I am so confused.
Yes, he committed a terrible crime & was sentenced according to the prevailing laws. However, we also have the other side where the higher courts could stay an execution & the state governor could commute the death sentence to life in prison. In certain cases we also have the presidential pardon which we are more than happy to accept when needed.
All this is only with a melech bosor v’dom. With HaKodosh Boruch Hu we daven & beseech Him to change g’zayros ra’os and sometimes the answer is ‘yes’ & sometimes the answer is ‘no.’
We as yiddin are supposed to understand as hard as it is that HKBH knows best.bestm Only He knows what was, what is, and what will be. He knows the What, the Why, & the What for, for EVERYTHING that has happened & will happen forever.
There was nothing wrong with doing our hishtadlus in having this murderer sit in jail forever & it seems most of the gedolim whom we look to, felt this was the proper thing to do.
The Agudah (and I am sorry to say the OU also) organized a mass movement by our community to save someone ONLY because he was Jewish. All the reaons thrown in, how he was on drugs etc. are all bogus, and we know it. It was only because he was Jewish and they feel that only goyim should be executed. And they didn’t adopt the quiet approach of lobbying, but they called on Jews to flood the governor’s office with calls and emails, so that they entire world would know that the Jews care more about a killer than the family of the dead one. And you can say that the way Agudah formulated its statement was not mean to hurt the family or to absolve Grossman of his crime, but they have to know (and if they don’t they are really clueless) that when you let the animals out of the cage, when you call for the haredi masses to bombard the governor, you are going to get all sorts of loonies saying things that create a massive chilul hashem, and this at a governor who loves Jews and has always supported Israel.
The Agudah created a situation where their masses were threatening the governor that the Jews of the world would never forgive him, that we are powerful and would make sure he wasn’t reelected etc. etc. The Agudah is responsible for the “ugly Jew” that reared its head, and all that will result from it.
This is all nice talk, but according to halachha he does not deserve death, so there’s no discussion.
I can’t see myself ever again donating money to Agudah, or attending their dinner. Their behavior in this matter has been outrageous. They have acknowledged that no matter how evil someone is, they will stand up for him as long as he is Jewish. Agudah will oppose ANY Jew being executed, no matter what he did. Yet the Agudah’s constituency is solid pro-death penalty. And take a look at the vicious comments on VIN, attacking the Park family, attacking the governor (who goes to daven at the kotel every year and is a great ohev Yisrael) referring to the murderer with Hashem Yikom damo, saying that the Governor will be cursed for what he did (i.e., following the law of Florida) and saying that Grossman was killed because he was Jewish.
I realize that most of the commenters on that site are not very intelligent, to put it mildly, but you see how vicious their parochialism is. I am convinced that much of the world’s anti-Semitism is because of the people commenting on that site. They really only care about Jews and when the goyim speak about Jews only caring about themselves, they are onto something. These people on VIN are really from a different religion thatn the one I practice (and I don’t support the death penalty)
Agudah disgusts me. I really feel that they are bad people running the organization
Once again you proved that hindsight is 20-20.If the Agudah would have remained silent, you can be sure every VIN poster would have been screaming, where is the hishtadlus of our Askonim etc etc. Since things did not turn out the way we wanted, now everyone is looking for scapegoats and how to pass the blame.
You can be sure this article would not have been written if clemency was granted.
The right thing to do now is to contact the Parks family and let them know that as Jews, we feel their pain and loss.. Mrs. Parks painfully stated that the family has been harrassed by the Jewish community over the past couple of weeks.
Shame on us.
There were some very strong arguments as to why the death penalty was not warranted in this case. Although R’ Hoffman’s points are good, we as Jews still were supposed to try and get the sentence down to life in prison. Nobody was asking that he should walk free.
Great and true editorial.
I did call and I did email. Both were short and respectful and both thanking the Governer for taking the matter seriously.
I don’t have the time to read comments on the major frum sites (3 that I know of) yet I found myself pulled into the whole ordeal these last few days out of sheer guilt that I was helpless. Yes I davened, yes I was Mikabel personal Kabolos as a Zchus but at the same time I was more nervous for Klal Yisroel in America as a whole then one Jew about to be executed. The more I read the more scared and worried I became. We Frum Yidden lost ourselves in our role of showing the world how to act to adversity. Using terms like Nazi?? Rasha?? spewing venom and hate? Acting like morons with no self dicipline? giving amunition to the Goyim to even think – let alone say bad things about who we are as a people and how we act? We are supposed to be better! We are supposed to be Nikiyim! We are supposed to realize that all is Beday Shomayim so our ONLY avenue is beseaching HKB”H!
Thank you for this article. Thank you for speaking out and thank you for the first 20 comments here all agreeing that perhaps these last 2 days were not our brightest days to shine onto the world.
Yasher koach for a well written article. The point of “#6 a reader” is so true. Uproar over a convicted killer and silence over molesters. They are “murderers” of generations of YIDDEN and we PROTECT these killers. The damage inflicted by them on Klal Yisroel is staggering. It happens daily and the silence by our Gedolim is deafening while they mobilized thousands to make a stink about saving a convicted killer. How shameful and hypocritical. Our political clout and favors are squandered away for futility. If you want to make a difference and save lives that are being destroyed as we speak, pressure the politicians for the passage of the Markey bill. Hold the perpetrators accountable for their crimes and ensure that the funds for treatment are there and paid for by the perpetrators and if there was a Moisad involved then they need to step up to the plate as well and provide the financial compensation necessary for the victims and their families to heal from the ravages of abuse at the hands of these killers. Then you can make a difference in someone’s life who will not languish in jail for the rest of his life. Someone who can become a productive member of the Klal.
Once again, Rabbi Hoffman has said what many have been thinking, but could not articulate. Unfortunately, we have become leaderless people.
Well said – makes me proud to be Jewish, again! – I’m horrified how many folks just didn’t get the whole picture. Any gentile reading this would assume we are totally out of our minds no less.
Kudos
One thing we can be proud about is how all the chareidi communities united in this cause. I was amazed how the frum community lined up to sighn pettitions in shuls and make calls. The unity was gevaldig. Lets use that power to fight for Rebashkin and against gay marriage and defeating all the liberal democrats who are not in our intrests.
Ditto……If only the article had been written a few days earlier.
It has been a very trying few months for the frum community. We should do some collective soul searching instead of trying to find Nazi’s hiding behind every rock.