Question

Hi Michi,
The whole story with Trump’s nominee Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court is really idiotic. After all, studies have shown that the brains of young people still aren’t fully formed; the process of brain development ends at age 20-plus. I wrote this yesterday in a talkback on Haaretz. An outraged reader asked me: so what are you suggesting—to exempt a 17-year-old rapist from punishment? My answer was: punish him, but with a relatively light sentence, and give a 27-year-old sex offender three times as much!
 
And another matter: in the latest issue of Makor Rishon, an interview was published with Avishai Eilat from the moshav Sde Yaakov. Aside from a one-year initiative for studying the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) among the public, he wrote a book called To Do Charity and Justice. Of course, I “have not yet had time to read” the book, but it was enough for me to read that he argues that since the time at our disposal is quite limited, if a religious Jew faces a dilemma between performing religious ritual and helping solve a human social problem, then in his opinion social concerns take precedence over performing the ritual. I was very impressed and moved, and immediately called him.
Let’s see what happens next.
All the best