Thank you, Rabbi Rose, for your beautiful reminder that we should never use the shield of on-line anonymity as an excuse not to treat each other with at least some measure of respect and decency. I thought your post was really lovely and very well written. Thank you.

Just because someone disagrees with the Rabbi does not mean that s/he has not listened. I actually had a discussion with someone about the calling your Rabbi by his/her first name after reading the article. A real discussion, not a bitch session.
Boulder does, by and large, tend to lean left and condemn any ideas that come from the right and I find it highly annoying when those same lefties trumpet how "open-minded" they are. However, I think that some of these responses have good honest thought behind them.
I appreciate Rabbi Goldfeder taking the time to respond to so many of the comments. Isn't debate supposed to be important in Jewish learning?
I tend to travel along the bumpy middle road, but I still think that there is great value in ministering to the world community. Our individual actions can have a ripple effect, especially when taken cumulatively.

Rabbi, with respect, building wells to bring people water seems very appropriate in terms of how tikkun olam has been explained to me.

We have over 7billion people on this planet, many of us are non-Jews. Are you suggesting that only Jews should receive your ministrations? I don't know that supporting other worthy causes is keeping Boulderites from helping their sick and elderly. If it is, perhaps Haver needs to hold a meeting to write some fire and brimstone encouraging congregants to contribute and volunteer to JFS.

Yes, money is limited and I can see your interest, as the head of a synagogue, to see more of your congregant's money being used for Jewish-specific charities, including your shul, JFS, etc. But why can't a little percentage of that money also be used to build wells and promote a healthy planet through climate change prevention? If the planet gets trashed, we'll all, Jews and non-Jews, be in hot water!

I also wanted to address your allusions to connection/unity/the bigger picture. Are we not all connected within that bigger picture? What you do or fail to do for a non-Jew, has an effect on a chain of people around that non-Jew that may come back to you, or someone you love, who is a Jew. Therefore, engaging in behaviors and promoting causes that save the environment, protect species of animals and help non-Jews, you are helping the wider world-community, of which all Jews are a part.

I appreciate your concerns and I'm sure they come from a good place, but I think the way they are presented opens a dark, dangerous door. I don't like to think about the obvious flipside to isolationism (Jews should only help Jews), because I think we've already see enough of that in this world.

My apologies if I have offended or misunderstood what you are saying. As tomorrow is Friday, I will wish you a Shabbat Shalom, Rabbi Goldfeder.

Are you not inspired, or is your opinion just colored by your concern for the boy? That is understandable and, of course, your feelings are valid.

This turned to a tragedy for him, but it was because of his own actions. I don't care if she was high, in a negligee and had expressed initial consent toward being intimate: NO MEANS NO! If the parents of the boy failed to give him that basic education or he chose to ignore that fact, then it doesn't really matter what the circumstances were: she said "no" and he forced her. The end. There is no defense, no excuse that can downplay or avoid the truth: she was forced against her will to have sexual relations with her rapist.

She definitely has "guts" to step forward and regardless of the circumstances, it is EXCELLENT to have a young person who has experience sexual assault coming forward and braving the court of public opinion to say, "don't blame the person assaulted, blame the person who assaulted."

I do hope the boy will get more than just incarceration - I hope he gets therapy. Jail these days doesn't care about rehabilitating people, just housing them - and that is a BIG problem because it just winds up in recidivism.

Brava, Anna! Thank you for your courage!

This is a very good point. This is also true for MANY of our regulations. If we simply enforce the laws already in place, we would have no need for creating new regulations.