The Holy Kabbalist and the Dead Cop

Last updated on: July 6, 2015 at 3:52 pm by Jeffrey L. Falick

The Holy Kabbalist and the Dead Cop 2015-07-06T15:52:06-05:00 Jeffrey L. Falick

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Rabbi Yoshiyahu Pinto. By Yaacov Gross (Own work) [GFDL], via Wikimedia Commons

Last night the head of the National Fraud Unit of the Israeli Police, Deputy Commissioner Ephraim Bracha, a 55-year-old father of four, shot himself in the head.

Bracha was at the center of an investigation involving corrupt Kabbalistic Haredi Rabbi Yoshiyahu Pinto whom he accused of bribing him back in 2012. You may never have heard of Pinto, but lots of people that you have heard of know exactly who he is. Included among his followers and admirers are many prominent Israeli and American businessmen and politicians. There are even celebrities. The Forward reported a few years ago that LeBron James had consulted with him.

Pinto’s been under investigation for lots of things. The one involving Bracha included an inquiry into fraud allegations against Pinto’s charity, Hazon Yeshaya, accused of stealing millions of dollars from funds it collected to – among other things – assist Holocaust survivors. Some of the money was donated by the Conference of Material Claims Against Germany.

Bracha and Pinto were not strangers. The officer was also one of Pinto’s followers. In November 2012 Bracha recorded an interrogation that he conducted with Pinto during which an argument broke out about whether Bracha himself had received bribes to cover up Pinto’s activities and protect his cronies. As reported in Haaretz:

Transcriptions of the argument obtained by Haaretz reveal that Bracha explicitly threatened to end his life if the allegations were proved true. “I swear on the Torah that I gave you $60,000,” said Pinto. Bracha responded, “That’s a lie. You’re a liar, a cheat and a con man.”

Pinto reaffirmed his claims. “I swear you took the money. Swear on your children.”

Bracha yelled in response, “We’re both going to do a polygraph, if you gave me even one shekel, one shekel, I’ll put my own head in the noose, commit suicide.”

“Go for it,” responded Pinto.

Bracha was under investigation at the time of his suicide. Pinto has already entered into a plea bargain with Israeli authorities. There are so many charges and counter-charges that it’s difficult to keep track of them all. The FBI was involved. So was disgraced Republican ex-Congressman Michael Grimm, a former FBI agent recently convicted of felony tax fraud.

Last night the holy rabbi responded to Bracha’s death. As reported at Ynes.co.il (a Hebrew language Haredi site not to be confused with the secular Ynet; my translation):

…the rabbi gathered hundreds of his followers at his home in order to reveal to them the mystical vision that had come to him last Shavuot [in late May]. As he told it, while sleeping on Shavuot night he met with the spirit of Bracha’s soul. “I said to him, ‘Be ye warned, on the 17th of Tammuz [a Jewish fast day coinciding with July 4/5] I am bringing you before the Heavenly Court where they already know the truth, where they know exactly how much you received from me, and where they know the seriousness of the transgression of bribery that the two of us fell into.’”

The rabbi’s followers were commanded to keep silent until after the deputy commissioner’s burial…and not to reveal the details of this wondrous story that proves the greatness of the Kabbalistic rabbi who merits heavenly revelations and in whose hands are mastery of both what is above and what is below. [This is not the editorial judgment of Ynes which is unfriendly to the rabbi.]

Pinto will soon continue his mastery of the material and heavenly worlds in an Israeli prison.

Bracha will be buried later today.

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