Jerusalem – An elderly Israeli rabbi who is serving the remainder of a shortened prison sentence under house arrest because of an illness has said that he deserves capital punishment as outlined in the bible in retribution for the crimes he committed.
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As previously reported on VIN News (http://bit.ly/2oq7Nbn) 80 year old Rabbi Eliezer Berland, head of the Shuvu Bonim yeshiva in Jerusalem, was sentenced to 18 months in prison after being convicted on two counts of sexual assault.
He was granted an early release from prison in order to undergo cancer treatments and will remain at a convalescent home at Hadassah University Hospital for the duration of his sentence.
In an exclusive interview with Israeli Ch. 10 News (http://bit.ly/2pdIWbi), Rabbi Berland said that he accepts full responsibility for his actions and welcomes the opportunity to apologize to his victims.
“I am ready to face any punishment in the world,” said Rabbi Berland. “I am ready for them to burn me and stone me, which is the law of the Torah. The penalty I was given was perhaps too lenient and I am ready to accept a harsher punishment.”
Rabbi Berland also said that he has ordered his followers on many occasions not to harm his victims in any way.
“Their anguish must be respected,” said Rabbi Berland. “I am ready today to go back to jail.”
While Rabbi Berland may no longer be behind bars, he remains under full house arrest, with any changes to his current arrangement requiring the parole committee’s approval, according to Arutz Sheva (http://bit.ly/2qwMeKL).
A decision handed down by an Israeli court ordered Rabbi Berland to pay the full cost of his stay at the convalescent home as well as the associated expenses for a special security team that has been tasked with ensuring that Rabbi Berland complies with the conditions of his release.
According to some פוסקים he is permitted to actually commit suicide in order to get a full כפרה.
Instead of gloating, as I’ve seen some people do, we should all take this as a lesson about not trusting in ourselves and always being on guard against the יצר הרע. Rav Berland is a genuine עובד ה׳ who fell big time. That’s a good lesson for all of us as well.
I personally admire him for having the courage to accept this, & coming out in public with his statement,,,
Nu what is he waiting for?
Now that God has his permission he could burn in hell
he didn’t admit to it . he just said “if if”
How big a man is, his yetzer ho’ra is greater The ‘bal dover’ is strong enough to fool even the most scrupulous tzadik . We cant condemn a person untill we are faced with the same situation as he.
The laws regarding ‘yichud’ ( being alone with any person) are so strong to insure that a person doesn’t come to commit a sin.Yet people fall onto the trap.
One can learn from him. Studies show that the majority of abusers are untreated victims themselves. It’s a sad vicious cycle
Berland is a cult leader and this is just another manipulation. Obviously it works, people will believe anything this con-man fraud says.
I know the pattern, I was in a cult and I have helped deprogram victims of other cults. The cult I was in was all about control – the craziness I did to be subservient shames me now. The only good thing was, because I’m frum and always have been, I realized (eventully) that these people wanted me to also give up my faith for theirs…Catholicism. So I walked away, it wasn’t a live in cult. It was pure mind control, call me at exactly 2:07 on Monday sort of thing. If I was a second late (I actually used the speaking clock to hit dial at the optimum time) I was “punished” by a refusal to answer the phone.
This is how control works. Berland is still doing it with his “teshuva.” Please stop believing this scum is sincere, I guarantee he isn’t. The cult may be different but the pattern is the same.
I don’t understand all you people!!! can’t you see when someone is crazy ?!! all you have to do is listen to one sentence that comes out of his mouth !! The man is bonkers!! toit meshuggeh!!
Honestly! He looks like he is lying by letting people get the impression that he really did these things.
His facial and body features show that he is strongly innocent as does his exact wordings.
And he is educating people on how severe such things are that they are accusing him of (and sentenced him for).
He is actually disgusted as to how “normal” people think his supposed crimes are.
He is a true tzadik plus plus.
“I am ready for them to burn me and stone me, which is the law of the Torah.” Maybe the honor of setting him alight can be sold with the proceeds going to help victims of abuse.