How to lose your lunch in 2:00 minutes
In case you can't open the linked audio of Rabbi Boruch Dov Lesches, a former leading Rabbi in Sydney, Australia and now one of New York's leading ultra-Orthodox figures, I have prepared a short list of the "high points" here.
1. Rabbi Lesches counsels the pedophile that if he doesn't stay away from the 11-year-old boy he is abusing, both he and the boy will be "sent away"
2. Suggests 11 year-old boy wanted it - that an 11 year old consented to sex with a man 10 years older (claims they are basically the same age)
3. Adds this little nugget - that some non-Jewish boys – who he termed "goyims" – have acted and thought in a sexual way from the age of five
4. Claims that reporting pedophiles would "destroy them and their children" and cause pain for victims - stating "If you start to do something about it [it] will not be productive"
5. Says that poor teenagers have "nothing else to do in life" than "thinking 24 hours about sex" which again, they wanted willingly "in the family, out of the family, boys and girls, girls and boys, people, dogs, you have no idea what people did. Alright? They thought it was fun, and they are going for it"
6. Oh, and when he realizes that we've all heard his true feelings on the matter? He apologizes. Riggggghhhhhhhhtttttt......
In a statement issued on Monday, Rabbi Lesches said he regretted making the comments in the recent telephone conversation.
"I would like to apologise for statements made in a private telephone conversation that caused pain to the greater public," he said.
"I would like to make my position absolutely clear: Without any reservation, I endorse the rabbinical rulings encouraging victims of abuse to report to the police."
And of course, now he knows nothing about the abuse:
Despite Rabbi Lesches clearly recalling in the telephone conversation the alleged abuse of one Sydney boy, he said in his statement that he was "never informed of any allegations regarding minors prior to this call".
"In retrospect I am shocked to hear of these allegations, because I often entrusted my own young children to the care of the alleged perpetrator, without hesitation. I would never have done so had I known of the allegations," he said.
...the alleged abuser, being investigated by police for sexually abusing at least four boys in the Sydney Yeshiva community, has privately admitted that Rabbi Lesches did speak to him about his activities with a boy believed to be about a decade his junior.
Children cannot consent to sex.
I repeat. Children cannot consent to sex.
There is no situation or theory or circumstance that makes it okay for a grown up to have sex with a child.
Children do not seduce.
Children cannot consent.
Children do not think being abused is fun.
Abusing a child destroys THE CHILD - not the abuser by turning him in.
Did I mention that children cannot consent to sex?
Excuse me while I go and throw up.