Drowning with Spitzer
Wednesday March 19, 2008
Categories: U.S. Politics
My Dad had a terrific insight on the lessons learned from the Spitzer fiasco and the rise and tarnishing of his successor, David Paterson. In Ethics of our Fathers we are told that Hillel “once saw a man’s skull floating...
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About Virtual Talmud
This blog is no longer updated and is closed for comments. We welcome your comments about Judaism in our Judaism forums.
Brad Hirschfield currently blogs on Windows and Doors.
Author, radio and TV talk show host, and President of CLAL-The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, Brad Hirschfield is the author of You Don’t Have To Be Wrong For Me To Be Right: Finding Faith Without Fanaticism. Listed as one of the nation’s 50 most influential rabbis in Newsweek, and a regular commentator on Court TV, he is the creator of the popular series, Building Bridges, airing on Bridges TV, and the co-host of the weekly radio show, Hirschfield and Kula.
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Everything we said in public about Eliot Spitzer was lashon hara and it should never have happened.
May he find atonement and forgiveness and peace.
As for the new governor, they were essentially split up at the time and were on their way to divorce. They worked through it and their marriage is stronger than ever (so they say, and I believe them). More power to them. They are to be looked up to. They made mistakes, they looked divorce in the eye, and decided their marriage and children were too important to throw it all away. Good for them.
Funny that a few days after Wall Street types were gloating over Spitzer's fall, Bear Stearns collapsed out of greed and mismanagement.
Spitzer's lack of judgement hurt his wife and children. The Wall Street criminals hurt much of the US economy.
The yetzer hara of sexual urges is less damaging to society than the yetzer hara of greed.
The downfall of Eliot Spitzer should serve only as a wake up call that he, we, and all those in position of authority , leadership and power are first and foremost plain human beings. Meaning that they suffer the same temptations and frailities as the masses.
Have we forgotten "Slick Willie's" lies to the american public and grand jury?
We should never be surprised about the misjudgments of the powerful, rich, or the celebrity.Their positions in life does not protect them from their own weaknesses or stupidity.
Those who play pay!
Eliot who? He is no longer important to anyone except those close to him and I hope B'net isn't going to waste internet space on him.
If I were Mrs. Spitzer ~ I would not only have stood by my man (as he confessed) with his head held high but I would have turned to him in front of all the media & slapped him so hard his brain would have started to think properly again! Then I would smile at him & at the media and walked away, leaving him all alone.
Divorce him? No way! I'd let him atone for his sins every day of our marriage ~ let them look at him & he at them day in & day out! Cheater!
Bummer. I used to think self ruigheous ranting about the sins of others was a "born again" (you should pardon the expression) "right wing" thing.
I guess not.
I think self righteousness is unbecoming, no matter from whom it issues. Very few of us are utterly without sin. Or faults, if you prefer.
Was Eliot Spitzer a hypocrite? It seems so. But politics is a game of hypocrisy, power plays and trade-offs. I think it was Mark Twain likened it to sausage-- something you don't want to see being made. It's ugly and it's corrupt.
Until all God's laws are observed by man-- voluntarily--these human flaws and failings will be manifested, and more publically so by those who have acheived power.
But we can only condemn acts, not persons, or we ourselves are committing acts of prode, judgement... and other unGodly acts. Only God can judge our souls.
As for his wife, she did the noble thing and i salute her. Yes, i am a female.
It woud far more noble for all of us to pray for her-- and for our entire planet, which needs so much healing. Tikkun, not blame.
It is terribly sad that all the messages I have ever received about men is that they all cheat, that it is almost a right, or their perogative. A woman of valor? Ah, for a man of valor, worth his weight in gold, and the love and respect of his counterpart, a woman of valor. I hope in the next Life that I will understand it all.
There is much to be learned from the Spitzer problems he left NYS with. We now find out altho he said he was not involved in any way that he was deeply involved in "troopergate". The man is a liar.
Ah Eliot Spitzer, the person without a soul, how you let all of us down, let your family down, let your spouse down and even let yourself down. A wealthy so called educated individual, that proved to be no better than the lowest trash on the street of a slum.
The wide ranging mental destruction that ES has caused can not be erased by any action on his part. Only forgiveness from on high can provide any degree of relief and that is beyound my wildness imagination. May he be confined to a remaining life & future death of torture, multitudes larger than he has rendered to society. Even this will be insufficient for repayment.