Fw: Tehillim Conference call for Martin Grossman Today at 5pm EST! Call 718-258-2008 enter prompt 9 and then 9

 

Dear Friends of Chofetz Chaim Heritage Foundation,

 

All of us are powerfully aware of the fate facing Martin Grossman.  Hopefully our tefilos will be accepted and his life will be spared.

 

We received a handful of emails from people who questioned our wisdom of davening for a person who admittedly committed a terrible crime.  Doesn't he deserve the punishment? Isn't is a Chilul Hashem that we are advocating so strongly for a confessed criminal?

 

I felt important to answer these emails so that even for the handful of people who this is an issue for, that we clarify that this initiative is not a Chilul Hashem.

 

The first thing to be said is that Gedolei Yisroel have strongly supported efforts to free Mr. Grossman. But let me add some additional thoughts.

 

I don't know that much about the case.  This is what was reported to me.  Martin Grossman had a difficult upbringing.  He was an orphan.  He got involved in crime, possibly drugs as well.

 

He had been on parole and was caught by a law officer.  He panicked and the rest of the story we know.

 

Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zwebel, the director of Agudath Yisrael of America told me that according to attorneys who are experienced in death row sentencing, there are definite legal precedents

 for clemency.

 

I can't address the legal issues.  I can only tell you what seems to make sense to me. We all make mistakes.  But Hashem created teshuva so that even if we make big mistakes we can rectify them.  By experiencing remorse, Mr. Grossman has done one of the basic of steps of teshuva that the Torah requests. 

 

Here are the key points:

 

1.      The act that Mr. Grossman did  at the age of 19 or 20 ,was not premeditated but was done under pressure and in a state of panic

2.      He has expressed great remorse for his actions.

3.      He's been a model prisoner for 25 years

Note: evil people don't express remorse nor are they model prisoners.

4.      No one is asking that he be released only to change his sentence to life in prison without parole.  Certainly he will have paid with his life for his crime by being in jail basically most of his life.

 

 

 

 

And finally there is the issue that today he has embraced Yiddishkeit and davens 3 times a day

Of course, even if he didn't become a bal teshuva we should advocate for any Jew.

 

But one, who in the depth of prison and has found Hashem, who says the words of Tehillim on death row; such a person is certainly greatly deserving of our efforts to commute this sentence.

 

For those who had questions about our efforts, I hope this clarifies the issue for you.

 

I believe that the Ahavas Yisroel and efforts exhibited by Klal Yisrael in this matter is certainly a zchus for all of us.

 

May it be a zchus for Michoel Yechiel ben Miriam Sorah.

 

Sincerely,

 

Chofetz Chaim Heritage Foundation