בס׳ד

"Where does it say that you have a contract with G-d to have an easy life?"

the Lubavitcher Rebbe



"Failure is not the enemy of success; it is its prerequisite."

Rabbi Nosson Scherman



9 Feb 2011

Moralement discutable

For a country that takes vacations hyper seriously, its top ministers seem to have a serious problem figuring how to vacation ethically, not to mention understanding that junkets sponsored by Arab dictators or their cronies may be, well, moralement discutable.
...French Prime Minister François Fillon, who acknowledged Tuesday that the Egyptian government had offered his family free lodging, a plane flight and a boat cruise on the Nile during a New Year’s vacation in Egypt,...

http://www.france24.com/en/20110209-france-fillon-prime-minister-foreign-minister-mam-egypt-holiday-air-dictator-scandal-tunisia

In a case dated August 2009, "The Supreme Court ruled Monday that elected judges must step aside from cases when large campaign contributions from interested parties create the appearance of bias."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31168141/ns/politics-supreme_court/

Shoftim Ch. 16, v. 19: "V'lo sikach shochad ki hashochad y'a'veir" - And you shall not accept a bribe because a bribe will blind - The gemara Sanhedrin 21b states: Rabbi Yehudoh said, "Why does the Torah not tell us the underlying reason for mitzvos? The answer is because in the two places where the Torah did give a reason, King Shlomo the greatest person of his generation, fell through. The Torah states that a king shall not take too many wives lest his heart turn away from proper service of Hashem (Dvorim 17:17). King Shlomo reasoned that he was capable of taking many wives and still staying on the straight and narrow. Nevertheless, his wives turned his heart away from Hashem.
The Divrei Sho'ul and Imrei Emes ask, "According to this gemara why does our verse give us the reason for not accepting bribes?" They both answer that here there is no fear that a person might reason that he is above being affected by bribery since the Torah testifies that by taking a bribe the judge's sound judgment will be blinded. Once blinded, the judge will not be aware that he is blinded, so how could he rationalize taking bribe?
http://www.shemayisrael.com/parsha/fleisher/archives/shoftim62.htm
This article is provided as part of Shema Yisrael Torah Network
Permission is granted to redistribute electronically or on paper, provided that this notice is included intact.


Anyone want to offer a free vacation to moi? I will make sure to plug you in a positive fashion on my blog. On second thought, I don't want to be unduly influenced so scratch that idea.

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