“The comments made by Rabbi Noson Leiter that sought to link the devastation caused by Hurricane Sandy to our state’s embrace of marriage equality are as offensive as they are ignorant,” Governor Andrew Cuomo said today.
“This catastrophic storm claimed the lives of more than forty New Yorkers,” he continued. “This kind of hateful rhetoric has no place in our public discourse, and is particularly distasteful in times of tragedy. Our state is proud to offer equal rights to all our citizens, and we will never tolerate the use of a tragedy like Hurricane Sandy to promote a divisive and bigoted agenda. I call on Rabbi Leiter to apologize immediately for his hurtful comments.”
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30 Responses
What a Chillul Hashem! Rabbi Leiter is entitled to his beliefs, but promulgating them like this right after a tragedy is the real “toeva”
I call on Cuomo and dirtbag Bloomberg to backtrack on this evil decree and follow the commandments of G-D. Of coarse this destruction was becuase of evil behaviour and the decision for Bloomberg to attack Millah. There is no other explanation.
sorry to say but Cuomo is right
The anshey (great men) Sedom also didnt believe it.This is mamesh Anshai Sedom .Its borur kekechama .R leiter is a very great and brave man . Even Avrahom couldnt stop it, It came anyhow .Just wait —–CHALILAH .As much as I hate it, “O” might win tomorrow, that vadai a sign its over.Last week we didnt want the black out ,this week we want it.
If there is a Mekor for this in Chazal
Why are we shying away from the truth if this is what our Torah says so this true no matter who disagrees
“I call on Rabbi Leiter to apologize immediately for his hurtful comments.” As should anybody frum that has ever been offended by the westboro church’s comments about Jews and soldiers.
Lakol zman v’as- now is not the time to stick our “fruma” noses in the air. Please, Nosson Leiter tell me what the people of Seagate were oyver? Or are you just frustrated because your power went out for a few hours?
How does he know it’s not true? Hashem did it for a reason; we may not know for sure this is it, but we can’t rule it out.
doesnt this guy realize how stupid of a comment this was
Who cares what the truth is…somethings just require a little brains…idiot…do we need other reasons for people to hate…a little bit of saichel…
Tipush
I’m sure he didn’t say he KNOWS this caused it, but that it definately can be counted as a potential cause. In that case, it is a KIDDUSH HASHEM.
People not wanting to hear the truth of truths, does not make it a Chilul Hashem.
my 4 yr old nephew would know not to say something like this publicly
Look, it was never put up for a vote by the people of NY, and Cuomo wants to make himself like the big Tzadik, and he knows very well that truth doesn’t bow to current styles and trends – that’s why he feels a need to respond to one Rabbi’s comment…
The fact is, most americans feel like the Rabbi, and not like the Governer.
How do you know cuomo is right? Have you learned gemara? Do you believe in the tora or are you liberal. ?
Should one give tochacha to those who will not and cannot hear it?
While its certainly possible that the Eibishter brought the hurricane and wreaked havoc on NY & NJ as divine retribution for the legalization of same gender marriage in both states, its not likely that anyone in our generation has the level of ruach hakodesh to determine the causes of the Eibishters actions. On the other hand I’ve heard Rabbonim offer “possible” reasons based on divray chazal which is refreshing & enlightening. As far as the Governor, the Mayor and other non-believers are concerned the concept of divine retribution is totally foreign & even ridiculous. They simply believe in nature. Even if they believe in some sort of G-d it is only a politically correct g-d who runs his affairs according to the latest liberal agenda. It is chutzpa for Gov Coumo to ridicule a religious belief that g-d punishes for going against his will the same as if the Gov got up before Succos & said its silly & meaningless to take a lulav & esrog and shake it.
Andrew Cuomo is an oisvurf. He lives openly with a woman that is not hiw wife, spitting in the face of traditional religion. Not only the Torah hakedoshah, but even his own church! He saw that people were okay with that, they elected him governor, so he figured that he could go ahead and trash marriage even more, by claiming that what the Torah calls abomination, is the same as legitimate marriage, and pressuring the legislature to approve it.
What the citizens of NY have to do is take that ois-varf, and varf ois. Time to throw out the oisvurf. If they want to have a state like Sodom, they shouldn’t complain if Hashem gives it the treatment He gave to that depraved place.
I warned you not to vote for Coumo & Bl$$mberg but you didn’t listen! You threw Palidino under the bus & now we’re stuck with these two Rishaim! Where are the “askanim”, lol, who were tripping over themselves to endorse these 2 lowlifes? You can still rectify the situation a bit, by voting tomorrow for Mitt Romney, David Storobin, Bentzion Axelrod, Marty Golden, Wendy Long & Dov Hikind. Your vote has heavy consequences! Ignore the “experts” and use your Seichel.
ותפתח ה את פי האתון
Not all that one thinks should be said. A little bit of common sense wouldn’t hurt.
You people dont get it…all a bunch of idiots…who cares if Andrew Cuomo is right or wrong..what idiot would get up publicly and put the jewish people in the spot light like that when you know how the media will react..dumb dumb dumb…idiots..
Just compare the map of the storm and the map of Gay Marriage. Its the same!
http://statesthatallowgaymarriage.com/
All this started a year ago after the Gay marriage was allowed with the historic storm.
It doesn’t takes Roach Hakodesh to understand what the connection is. Just two open eyes and one working brain.
When you make the marriage official it takes it to a different level than privately that Hashem does not tolerate it like the time of mabul.
You New Yorkers think all Goyim think this comment is crazy. The truth is – even most Goyim agree. In EVERY state where Toeiva was put up for a vote by the people, it was voted down.
We learned in today’s daf (Shabbos 33b) the dangers of speaking out against the secular government. Let’s not get too confident in America just because we B”H have great rights here. Let’s remember that we are still the minority. If Jews enter the business of deciding what is and isn’t a marriage, then we open the door to Jewish wedding practices being barred in the future.
How sad; rabbis can’t open their mouths because politicians will condemn what they say. We just saw the Torah’s first mention of “politician” – when the “Polit” revealed to Avraham that Lot was captured in war. He urged Avraham to go save his nephew, while his true intent was for Avraham to die in war so he could then take Avraham’s wife for his own insidious desires.
That is a “politican” – a two-faced liar without shame. He’s proud to “embrace marriage equality” which the Torah forbids, and condemns “hateful rhetoric…” which is, in truer words, “morality.”
Rabbi Lieter chazack v’ematz. What you said was a Kidush Hashem. Not what weak minded western minded people think. Lot’s future son in laws also laughed at him and said he was an idiot. But you are raising Hashems banner! Go for it!
I don’t know about the timing, but we should be aware that this is a new level of perversion, not just that it’s a toeva. See Chulin 92 that Ula says that the Bnei Noach accepted thirty mitzvos, but they fulfill only three. The three are that they don’t write a ksuba for a zochor (see Rashi), they don’t weigh the flesh of the deceased in the butcher market (see two interpretations in Rashi), and they honor the Torah.
So now what’s left?
I am really surprised to see comments like this in yeshiva world.i tought this kind of comments belong to a Jewish liberal anti Torah site over there I found a bunch of Comments about how stupid the man is,if anyone learned chumesh he sees this very Clearly. we need no reach hakodesh the Torah writes very clearly that a mabul comes for this so what is all this nagetive comments against him from Torah Jews
The Governor is an idiot.
He calls the statement “ignorant”, as if there is some easy way to verify that it isn’t true. Now, I haven’t the slightest idea if it is true, but I do know that there is no way at all to prove that it isn’t.
And the Governor would better serve his state by taking care of the starving and cold people in Far Rockaway and Staten Island, rather than responding to no-names’s idiotic statements.
We do not know in what context Rabbi Leiter’s comments were made. However, if he did not explain himself clearly, I would like to try.
A tragedy occurs at different levels. It affects different groups and individuals for different reasons.
What I think Rabbi Leiter was trying to convey is that the city as a whole experienced a momentous disaster because of its support for and insufficient protest against same-gender marriage. Hashem has provided in New York the most vibrant presence of Judaism (and therefore the truth) in the USA and nevertheless, the leaders of the city did not take heed of this influence but instead chose to legalize depravity. And everyone who chooses to belong to this society at some level, Jew or gentile, has some responsibility for it and thus must suffer to some degree for this tremendous Chilul Hashem.
This is not to say that every piece of the disaster suffering was connected to this grievous error but that as a whole, every New Yorker was connected at some level to this error and needed to experience the suffering.
Rabbi Leiter must feel responsibility for his community and feels the neccesity to speak out against this grievous error. One does not need Ruach HaKodesh to point out the spiritual diseases in a community. It requires a will and seichel. The Torah requires us to soul-search in the wake of tragedy and the Rabbi of a community must soul-search not only on behalf of his own individual self, but on behalf of his community as well.
Hashem’s honor is at stake. We are all living in a historic moment where we can defend k’vod shamayim and the arrogant and the ignorant who insist on posting their heretical views ought to be aware of the Torah maxim that those who cause others to sin have no share in the world to come. Rabbi Shorr of Flatbush was a passenger in the back seat of a car service, driven by a Hispanic who remarked, “Rabbi, can’t you see G-d is angry at us for the gay marriage law and that is why we are being punished with this deadly storm.” Cuomo doesn’t hold a candle to a simple, Catholic cab driver because his hubris prevents him from seeing the truth.
Same-gender marriage is not just another sin that we need to repent for. Rather it is an earth-shattering chilul Hashem that causes us all to be in grave danger. Those among us who recognize this are greatly pained by the fact that so many are devoid of this basic knowledge of Torah Judaism. May Hashem save us from the misyavnim just as He did the miracle of Chanukah. We need a lot more light to dispel the overwhelming darkness.