joints =P========P===P==----->>> Endowed with talmudic wisdom, his prophetic, foresight and pragmatic sense of urgency deemed him an invaluable seer. joints ======PP===PP===PP==----->>> He had derelict possessions, he lived like a vagrant, he stooped like a leper, and groveled like a broken beggar. joints C==P=P=====P=----->>> But there was a sense of inexplicable and nearly esoteric knowledge within him. joints =====P=======P========PP==P=----->>> Of all the grand rebbes of eastern Europe whose souls were sucked dry by German built chimneys, whose charred remains were shoveled out like dusted dough into ovens. joints =====----->>> His was, resounding, and true. joints C====P========P===P=====P=P=----->>> And there was something maudlin about hearing him and other Hasidic Jews rock back in forth and chant in tandem, filling large banquet halls in Brooklyn to capacity. joints ===PP=P=P=P==P====----->>> He was part of a subset, a counterculture of sorts, on the periphery of everything Secular and American. joints C======P=========----->>> But he was deeply, deeply, deeply disgusted by those who did not understand him or know him. joints ===PP=P==========P==P==----->>> It been circulating for a number of years that prolific pedophilia and sexual violence has been occurring in Hasidic communities in New York. joints =======P===P=====P==----->>> Ritual baths or mikvahs have become hotspots of molestation and rape by rabbis and other distinguished members of the community. joints =========P=----->>> Young boys and young girls are fondled and fingered in schools. joints ===PP==P=======P==P=P==PP===----->>> Its the mark of a dark underbelly, with no accountability, and no real legal mechanisms within the community to advocate for the victims within a patriarchal sordid society. joints C=======P=====P=----->>> But this man wasn’t evil, this man wasn’t a sexual deviant, this man wasn’t a pervert. joints ==P==P=----->>> He wasn’t a violator or an aggressor. joints ===----->>> He was kind. joints ======----->>> He had soft, knowing, hazel eyes. joints ====PP=========P=----->>> His skin once tan as a young boy and man, had become yellowed and wrinkled with age. joints ====P==PP=----->>> At 86 he resembled a little vulture, with a twinkle. joints =========P===P=======P===----->>> His wife had died and his children all twelve of them had moved to Kiryas Joel, 20 some odd miles northwest of New York City. joints ===========P=====----->>> They abandoned him because his scriptural revelations did not mesh well with the evermore stringent Satmar tradition. joints ====P==----->>> They left him there, in Williamsburg alone. joints C===P==P==P=----->>> So here he was a lonely hasid in the middle of Brooklyn. joints =PP==P=P=====P====----->>> Living in a damp apartment, next door to slightly less observant Bukharan Jews from Georgia and Southern Russia. joints ===P==P===P==----->>> He was just a new fixture in his building and in the neighborhood. joints =P==PP=PPP==PP==----->>> Shuffling down the street with a limp, but with as much purpose as a marching zealot. joints ======P=----->>> Carrying plastic “C-Town” bags filled with onions. joints ===P==P=======PP=P=P===----->>> He carried onions to remind him of the shtetl where he worked and lived as a boy in Poland before the Nazis came. joints ==P==P==P==PP==----->>> He had a vivid recollection of chopping onions with his uncles on a spring day. joints C=====----->>> And he developed this new habit. joints ==P=======P=P=P==----->>> His visits to grocery stores and bodegas became ritualized, in order to pick up more onions. joints CP===P======P======P=----->>> And for the first time in his life he was set free from the community, he was banished, considered a phantom. joints C===P================----->>> So he would smile at Puerto Rican kids walking by, or black kids walking by, or blue eyes gentiles walking by. joints ===P===P==----->>> He ironically became a Jewish Santa Claus on his block. joints =P=P=----->>> Handing out candy around Christmastime. joints ==P==PP==----->>> He was a withered man, but a vibrant soul. joints ===P=====P====----->>> A somber reflection of years and years and years of religious study and practice. joints C=P==P==----->>> But also a living example of those ideals. joints ===P========P=----->>> Moishe is living by his own accord and he is heroic because of it.