Saturday, April 14, 2007

A top Brazilian rabbi charged with shoplifting says he plans to seek God's forgiveness when he meets next month with the pope

April 14, 2006

JTA

Sobel seeks forgiveness in pope's presence

A top Brazilian rabbi charged with shoplifting says he plans to seek God's forgiveness when he meets next month with the pope.

Rabbi Henry Sobel, who has led the Sao Paolo Jewish congregation, told the Estado de S. Paulo newspaper that he still plans on joining other Brazilian religious leaders next month in a meeting with Pope Benedict XVI when he visits Brazil, a predominantly Roman Catholic nation.

"I am not Catholic, so I cannot ask for the pope's forgiveness," Sobel said in remarks translated by the Associated Press in a story Friday. "But I will ask the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Israel to forgive me. Perhaps in the pope's presence I could feel his humility and have some of it enter my soul."

Sobel faces shoplifting charges in Palm Beach, Fla., where he was arrested in March. He is well regarded in Brazil for his activism against the dictatorship in that country in the 1960s and for promoting inter-religious harmony.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I say give the man an break no children were harmed and he seems to be sorry about it. Tat is more than we get from our so called religious groups here,

Anonymous said...

Well, he started out by blaming his shoplifting on his prescription drugs. For being 'crazy' at the time, he sure did maintain high standards for expensive ties.

That doesn't sound different from religious leaders here. It sounds like par for the course among ALL religious leaders everywhere.

Anonymous said...

I think the rabbi is just stopping by the vatican to give the pope a quickie, and then he's going to look for some good shoplifting opportunities in Rome.

Anonymous said...

Not being religious, I did not know that a non-Catholic can't be absolved by God via the Pope. So many rules. But I wonder what is a Jew, anyway? First off, there are "secular Jews," non-religious Jews who are part of a monotheistic religion. Then there is the matter of how people from Eastern Europe can somehow have the same tribal name as people from a completely different tribe far away, in the middle East. Why do these people with completely different genealogies, different religious beliefs and different social practices all call themselves "Jews"?

Anonymous said...

Why do these people with completely different genealogies, different religious beliefs and different social practices all call themselves "Jews"?


They believe it gives them a free pass. So called jews use the anti - you know what label to stifle any debate concerning their evil deeds.

Anonymous said...

Why do these people with completely different genealogies, different religious beliefs and different social practices all call themselves "Jews"?

That's precisely the problem. Today's Askenazi Jew scholars admit that they are Khazar in origin. Askenaz, by the way, was from Gomer - the founder of the Turkic tribes. Gomer was from Japheth - not Shem. They aren't even Semite.

Yet, today's Jews maintain they are the "Chosen People" by virtue of a carefully-maintained genetic line going back to Jacob/Israel! Today's "Christians" sit at the feet of the rabbi, yearning for "Hebraic" insight into their flawed eschatology.

We're so unbelievably stupid that we have infomercials on our "Christian" media begging for money to give to black, Ethopian "Jews" and clap with glee as the "Manash" Indian Jews "return" to their "homeland."