The Famous Rabbi Akavia, would say: Reflect upon three things and you will not come to the hands of transgression. Know from where you came, where you are going, and before whom you are destined to give a judgment and accounting. From where you came - from a putrid drop; where you are going - to a place of dust, maggots and worms; and before whom you are destined to give a judgment and accounting-before the supreme King of Kings, the Holy One, blessed be He.
- Ethics of the Fathers, 3:1
In the State of UTAH
When a concerned mother in Houston, Texas, named Melissa sent her son to a residential treatment center in Provo, Utah, it was not a decision that she ever thought she would confront.
"You just wouldn't think a Jewish mother would ever have to consider sending her 17-year-old son to Utah for serious intervention," Melissa, who preferred to now use her last name, said of that fateful day two years ago.
Known among social workers as RTCs, residential treatment centers provide live-in therapy and behavior modification exercises for adolescents with a variety of conditions, ranging from drug abuse to violent outbursts to eating disorders. Some are lock-down facilities where students may not leave the premises, and in the state of Utah, a parent can send a minor child to an RTC without his or her consent. As a result of this law, there are at least 30 such centers in the stateState of Washington Upholds Kosher Slaughter
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
An animal rights group lost its appeal in the State of Washington, where a court ruled that a law allowing ritual slaughter is constitutional.
The decision came several weeks after Holland passed a bill, which has not yet been signed into law, prohibiting kosher slaughter and requiring that the "stunning" method be used. The measure faces another vote in the Dutch Senate and, if passed, a probable appeal to the European court on its legality.
The Washington appeal court ruled against Pasado's Safe Heaven, which claimed that the state law favors religion because it requires humane slaughter by stunning or "in accordance with the ritual requirements" of a religion.
Jewish and Muslim slaughter requires that an animal be killed by severing the carotid artery, a method that independent researchers have often said is more humane than stunning.
Concerning Pasado's argument that the state law favors religion, the court ruled that it (the court itself) cannot take legislative authority by invalidating part of Washington's Humane Slaughter Law.
The Orthodox Union, whose OU kosher symbol is the most widely known trademark for certifying food as kosher, responded, "We appreciate the Washington State court's ruling. Kosher slaughter has been targeted by various fringe activists, but it is a necessary component of our community's religious life."
"We appreciate that elected officials, such as those in the Washington legislature, recognize the humane nature of shechita [kosher slaughter], and ensure its protection and thereby the flourishing of Orthodox Jewish life."
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