Well, to be honest, I am not a writer, however I will try and express my thoughts to you on this issue. I will put my Rabbi hat on, and speak now as a Rabbi ( for those commentators who are authorities on who is and who is not a Rabbi, I did get Smicha [rabbinical ordination] from Rabbi Piekarski of blessed memory in 1991, at the Lubavitch Yeshiva in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. Based on that I can use the title Rabbi, which I only use when I am in the position as a Rabbi). The last thing a rabbi can be is judgmental, yet on the other hand he can’t be foolish and unrealistic. A Rabbi must be a listener and use his training to try and help his follower by bringing out the best in them. Great Rabbi’s are not the ones who say no to every legal question or legal issue that they confront, that is easy and takes no knowledge. The challenge of a Rabbi is to be able to find the harmony between G-D and man. To find a place where man can be the best man, the most G-Dly man. Our mission in this world is to bring G-D into this world, to fuse the two. Is Patrick perfect, no, for that matter neither am I nor are you. We all do things we should not be doing. We read in last weeks Torah portion how G-D punished Moses for striking the stone instead of talking to it. He lost his chance of leading the Jews to the land of Israel. A human being is imperfect, by the mere fact that he is physical , only G-D is perfect. My job is not to look for Patrick’s fault. I am a friend of his who saw people talk of him as an anti-Semite and felt responsible to speak up. What I’ve learnt as a Rabbi is, never judge your fellow man until you are in his shoes and you know all the details. Which in short means never, because what we see in others is a mere reflection of ourselves.



Now I will put on my www.ice.com diamond maven’s hat. The diamond deal had all the potential to be a grand slam home run. Other issues at the company, issues that affected all of the company caused the deal to be only a bunt.

Mayer