The
power of TOV over institutionalized hatred is seen in Not by the Sword by Kathryn
Watterson. She tells the story of Michael
Weisser, a Jewish cantor, his wife, Julie
and Larry Trapp. Michael
and Julie Weisser had recently moved to their new home in Lincoln,
Nebraska, in June 1991 when their peaceful unpacking was interrupted by a
threatening phone call. Shortly afterward, they received a package of racist
flyers with a card that announced -- “The
KKK is watching you, scum.” The police told the Weissers it looked like the
work of Larry Trapp, a
self-described Nazi and local Ku Klux Klan grand dragon. Trapp had been linked
to fire bombings of African American homes in the area and a center for
Vietnamese refugees. Read the complete story at -- http://tovcenter.blogspot.com/2015/07/remarkable-story-of-power-of-tov-over.html
The witnesses, laying their coats at the feet of Saul, were the men that would cast the first stones at Stephen in Acts 7. Why did they all lay their coats at Saul’s feet? The Talmud contains a very interesting account of the act of stoning that may provide the answer. “When the trial was over, they take him [the condemned person] out to be stoned. The place of stoning was at a distance from the court, as it is said, ‘Take out the one who has cursed.’ [i] A man stands at the entrance of the court; in his hand is a signaling flag [Hebrew sudarin = sudar , ‘scarf, sweater’]. A horseman was stationed far away but within sight of him. If one [of the judges] says, ‘I have something [more] to say in his favor,’ he [the signaler] waves the sudarin , and the horseman runs and stops them [from stoning him]. Even if [the condemned person] himself says, ‘I have something to say in my favor,’ they bring him back, even four of five times, only provided that there is some substance to...
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