Laurie Asherman http://www.jta.org/user/profile/15436 en-us zsilberman@washingtonjewishweek.com Copyright 2012 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 Thank you, Alan. I usually do not read the comments to JTA articles because most of them are filled with hate and loshon hora. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 The first two comments above bother me considerably. A main principle of Judaism is teshuvah. There is much the article does not report. What we do know is, this man most surely committed a crime - what crime we do not know. We do not know if he has reached out for forgiveness from the person(s) he harmed. We do know that he is willing not to eat treif and lose 45 pounds in order to obtain the right to have Kosher food. Who are we to judge him? I applaud his conviction and pray that he is sincere and able to have a teshuvah gamurah and bring goodness to the lives of others. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 I agree with Alex to a certain extent. The settlers should have been able to stay in their homes until the legal matters were cleared up. However, we, as Torah observant Jews, must always watch our behavior to set the example as expected of us. Defending ourselves against being torn from our homes - yes - but not defacing others' property and other bullying. This reduces us to their level. However, it must be terribly frightening to be a "settler" in our own land. These poor people - our people - must feel very desperate to go to such extremes. Shira Malka 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00