Letters

A selection of letters to the editor.

By JPOST EDITORIAL
Temple Mount (photo credit: REUTERS)
Temple Mount
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Write to: maglet@jpost.com Only a selection of letters can be published. Priority goes to those that are brief and topical. Letters may be edited, and must bear the name and address of the writer.
Two-way street Sir, – I read with interest Bishop William Shomali’s request that Catholics be allowed to pray en masse in the Cenacle whenever they wish (“Great expectations,” Cover, May 23).
I am informed that currently individuals and small groups pray there all the time without any interference. Perhaps Bishop Shomali might wish to extend his requests to allowing Jews, the church’s older brothers, to be able to pray at their holiest site, the Temple Mount.
Alas, when it comes to the Jews, the church is about taking, not giving.
SAM ROSENBLUM Beit Shemesh Lose the lust Sir, – With regard to “Prurience for a purpose” by Mati Wagner (Books, May 23), lust can never be kosher! To advocate lust in husband/wife intimacy is not Torah. Passion has a seminal place in Torah if and only if it is narcissism-free, especially, but not exclusively, in the husband.
Passion, even with the slightest touch of narcissistic self-love, is pseudo-masculinity. Such selfish self-love is expressed in a husband hurting his wife psychologically and/or physically in actualizing a self-proclaimed masculinity that hides his true self. The word “lust” bypasses this distinction.
JOSEPH D. LEVINSON Jerusalem The writer is a retired professor of philosophy and author of an upcoming book on Rabbi Soloveitchik’s view of husband-and-wife intimacy.
Floss daily Sir, – As a dentist with 30 years of experience, I would like to comment on the answer published to the dental question in the May 16 health feature.
Prof. Jonathan Mann neglected to mention the most important activity, the daily use of dental floss to clean between the teeth. This is a 100-percent necessity to prevent periodontal disease. It also helps prevent interproximal cavities.
There is no acceptable alternative to the daily use of dental floss, and the fact that this is not emphasized by many dentists in Israel is a stain on the profession.
An individual who flosses every day in addition to brushing properly will not need to visit a hygienist at all. An honest dentist will tell such an individual that there is nothing to clean.
I suggest visiting such a dentist once or twice a year for a checkup. The dentist should decide based on the individual’s needs and risk factors when the next checkup should be and if a cleaning is necessary.
DAN CHEIFETZ Modi’in Superficial stuff Sir, – In “#BringBackOurConscience” (A Dose of Nuance, May 16), Daniel Gordis attacks “price tag” youth as though they were practicing terror. He only looks at the surface, not below.
These acts (which have not resulted in any terror that we associate with the Arabs among us) leave me bewildered as to Gordis’s views. I only wish his desire to “eradicate this cancer before it’s too late” would be addressed to those who do commit terror and murder innocent Jews, not to frustrated youth whose government, political, religious and IDF leaders act passively by rewarding the true perpetrators of terror with housing, food, computers and educational opportunities, and then release them to commit more terror in a display of soul-wrenching passivity.
This whole issue is being blown out of proportion by those who wish to deflect attention from the real terror and lack of appropriate response, such that rock throwers and others can continue to maim and kill with impunity. Gordis needs to focus on the real problems, not the superficial stuff.
P.J. ACEMAN Bar Yohai Thinking haredim Sir, – As a haredi person, I have no problem with anything that appeared in “Between worlds” (Cover, May 2). No one can force anyone to be or remain haredi, and if people need help they deserve to receive it.
However, I do want to take issue with one of the last sentences in the article. One of the yotzim (people who left the haredi fold) says “...my life has more meaning now, because I’m actually thinking when I do things...”
Unbelievable as it may seem to some, haredi people actually think when they do things.
A. ROTSCHILD Rehovot