For heaven's sake (maybe the wrong choice of phrase): plainly there was a fraud (and infringments of copyright, too, possibly infringments of trade marks and/or passing off); plainly there was a breach of religious shibboleths - two different things.

Plainly it has caused distress: most regrettable; most culpable.


Is the suggestion that ceramic dishes cannot be cleaned rational? Is the suggestion that metallic surfaces have to be heated to cherry red rational?

My sympathy is more for those who will be irrationally directed to destroy cherished possessions for no reason. It's not about this religion, it's not about the idea of religion, it's about the fact that the manifestations of religions see themselves as entitled to dictate, without reason or sense. God may be above man. Priests are not.

The idea that the Christian religions were solely to be interpreted by the priests, and that man needed an intermediary between himself and his God was mostly long since chucked out as a restrictive practice designed to entrench the power of priests.

The idea of a divine being may help some to live lives with consciences. The manifestations we see about us make us question the merit and goodness in such thoughts.

I have no reason to doubt that Rabbi-Sol is a good, devout, and sincere man. But why should his or any other religion cause any form of suffering to anyone for irrational reasons?