Ten women have accused the rabbi of sexual abuse, up from earlier estimates of eight in Israeli media.
Since the scandal broke, Rabbi Sheinberg has been distanced from his yeshiva and from the Tzfat community for the sake of public safety.
During the hearing late Thursday, Justice Ari Shaham rejected claims
that revealing the rabbi's name would cause undue damage to his
reputation and personal safety. [...]
Rabbi Sheinberg was arrested while trying to flee Israel at Ben-Gurion Airport earlier this month. He was due to be identified by the press following a decision by the Nazareth District Court
that revealing his identity was "in the public interest," but that
decision had been frozen pending an appeal by his defense team.
Last Friday, Arutz Sheva exposed several damning details about
the case, including the fact that Sheinberg allegedly admitted his
offenses to Tzfat Chief Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu - but since then has
claimed over and over again that the allegations are "nonsense."
Sheinberg's defense attorney also accused the women of lying, stating at
one point, "who remembers this stuff 13 years later? ][...]
In the hours before his name was revealed to the press, Sheinberg's
detention was extended until Thursday, July 23, and the presiding judge
in that hearing revealed that damning physical evidence had been added to the case files
What a disgusting abuse, an alleged R'Y of "Orot HaAri" sullying the name of the Arizal, and all the Torah,
ReplyDelete"Orot Ha'Ari" & "Tzfat" -- back to "amateur & immature cookoo & cookee Kabbalah-land" where plain and simple normative Halacha and Mentsclichkeit often fly out the window.
ReplyDeleteNo doubt this guy had all sorts of great "Kabbalistic tikkunim" in my mind when he seduced and had sex with so many women. And if "ten" are mentioned it's probably only the tip of the iceberg!
This guy should hang his head in shame. He now has a chance to do Teshuva Gemura by suffering all these bizyonos that are a pure kappara for him, and he should face his fate like a man and not try to escape...to where exactly...does the rest of the world need such an "export" ("expert"?) from Eretz Yisroel?
What about all the women he took advantage of and whose lives he ruined? Where can they run and hide their shame?? And their families?? What a bizayon and busha!!
This just proves that old vort of Rav Yisroel Salanter that "It is easier to learn the whole of Shas, than it is it is to change/break even one Midda (character trait)"! As we see, I guy can be a Rosh Yeshiva yet he still stuck =on the level of a Behaima as far as his character goes.
Nebech!
Anyone willing to bet that any of the alleged incidents took place in public?
ReplyDelete....
No takers?
I didn't think so. We are all in agreement that any transgressions that took place were in private.
Just so.
Then can we agree that a campaign to promote the idea that a man and woman should generally not meet in private can be a step towards preventing abuse? Yes?
Here's a working name for this project: "2 Bad". Teach it to the kids: "4 the Good, 2 is Bad".
Yes, the Kabbalists often make grand claims and take on the role of "spiritual advisor", and then indulge in debauchery, even with eshet ish! This is precisely what the Shabbetai Zvi movement did. But His successor, Jacob Frank, was even closer to the derech of these so called "rabbis", who may wear a knitted or even black kippa. Mr Frank said of Zvi "if shabbetai Zvi had to taste everything in this world, why didnt he enjoy the taste of pure power". Zvi was a meshuga with manic depression who was deceived into thinking he is the Messiah (it happens quite often), whereas Frank was a pure opportunist and rasha who knew how to control and abuse people. Thus there is a shadow Frankist movement within orthodoxy.
ReplyDeletealso, his articles had been removed from yeshiva.co.il, which is the DL learning website in Israel.
ReplyDeletethe link isnt working!?
ReplyDeleteI have never heard of this man before. How important is/was he considered within the DL world? Can somebody who knows give me the name of a Chareidi Rav/Rosh Yeshica of similar standing within the Chareidi community?
ReplyDeleteThere already exist halachos pesukos forbidding yichud.
ReplyDeletesorry, it is http://www.yeshiva.org.il/
ReplyDeletei read the israeli news last night and searched the name, and the shiurim were missing from here
I've never heard of him either, but he was a colleague of Rav Shmuel Eliyahu, who is the Chief Rav of Sfat. I think he is/was more of a local figure, and the yeshiva was pre-army mechina, based on Rav Kook and HaAri's teachings. There are quite a lot of DL yeshivot for pre-army and Hesder.
ReplyDeleteWould not like to name a Rav of "equal" standing, not chas 'vshalom to make a comparison on a Kasher Rav. If you are in a small town with a few yeshivot, then you may know the names of the roshei Yeshiva, but as far as i know he wasn't considered a Gadol or leader. Motti Elon, on the other hand was considered a great figure and potential Gadol,...
Students in schools have fire drills. Hopefully, there will be no need to evacuate the school due to fire. Nevertheless, they practice for that possibility.
ReplyDeleteStudents in schools should have isolation drills. They are told in advance that each of them in the following week may find themselves in a staged potential isolation situation. They are to yell, "2 bad!" and avert the isolation.
For example, a teacher gives a student a note to deliver to the principal. The student goes to the doorway of the principal's office and announces he has something to give the principal.
The principal responds, "Yes, come in, and close the door behind you."
The student assesses the situation, recognizes that no one else besides the principal is in the office, and yells, "2 bad," backing away.
The student is commended by the principal, and receives a gift, to emphasize how the school values the student's accomplishment.
There can be a gap between knowing Halacha and implementing Halacha.
ReplyDeleteMy system bridges that gap.
From Rav Rozen, Machon Zomet
ReplyDelete(why wouldn't this apply to ANY woman seeing a male counselor)? on the other hand, if a second person is present, wouldn't that have a negative effect on the therapy process?)
The Women
I cannot skip over another extremely painful aspect of this affair, which cries out to heaven! What part was played by the women, who were involved in "tactile therapy," which did not reach a level of sexual activity?Are they naive? Simpletons? Daydreamers? People without a personality? According to reports, these were women who are normative, Ulpana graduates, educated in the best institutions, and intelligent. I understand and accept (including from the halachic viewpoint) that they were enticed and partially coerced because of the way they followed mysticism and "other forces," but I still feel that I must voice my criticism of women who seek advice in private meetings with rabbis in general, and specifically with miracle-workers, especially women who are willing to undergo mystic "treatments." Anyone who has a spiritual need for this should do it only if accompanied by a friend!
http://www.zomet.org.il/eng/?CategoryID=160&ArticleID=8767
the fallacy in this statement is that the people who are vulnerable are the ones going to seek therapy, hence they are gullible and can be easily manipulated. R' Rozen is claiming that a strong, rational, normative agent would not accept these manipulations. But such a person would not usually be in need of the therapy either.
ReplyDeleteCases like this, and the case at the girls seminary that was discussed at length on this blog, happen in part, I believe, because the time for marriage has been postponed.
ReplyDeleteThe Halacha states that a man should marry at age seventeen, and earlier is praiseworthy. In the not too distant past, many men did marry by age seventeen, or soon after. In some Jewish communities today, men marry at around that age.
Men who marry at seventeen are generally marrying women of the same age or a few years younger.
At some point in the last hundred years or so, the age of marriage for women has increased. This sets in motion a series of steps that lead to the case in question, and similar cases.
One thing that happens is that girls begin seeking answers on how to deal with being a woman outside of marriage.
The education a girl receives is not only from her schools. In this case, the schools may fail her. The school teaches the Halacha is that she should be married when she's sixteen. The school does not necessarily provide her with techniques to deal with her natural tendencies. She may seek answers from her family, friends, books, movies, the Internet, society, etc.
I think the author of the quote is being "naive" and a "simpleton" if he doesn't realize what's going on with a significant portion of young, unmarried women of marriageable age who have gone to the "best institutions".
Rabbi Rozen is 100% correct. Al pi halacha these women are guilty of sinning. And if married, they've committed adultery.
ReplyDeleteRaP, one of your hangups is your repeated regurgitating the dispute between Rav Shlomo Carlebach and Chaim Berlin. You take Rav Carlebach's position. (Let's not regurgitate all the details now.) But I see that Rav Hutner was alive when Rav Carlebach was dismissed. And Rav Carleback brought his din Torah against Rav Hutner, as Rav Hutner is the one who ultimately dismissed him. So why are you blaming Rav Schechter? Rav Schechter had no choice but to carry out the will and directions of Rav Hutner, who ultimately was responsible for Rav Carlebach's dismissal in 1978 before he passed away about two years later in 1980.
ReplyDeleteAlso, well after all this, about 15 or so years ago Rabbi Drillman, a long time Chaim Berliner very close to Rav Schechter, took a position as co-Rosh Yeshiva in Novardik with Rabbi Joffen (Yoffen) a son-in-law of Rav Shlomo Carlebach (as well as a descendent of Rav Yisroel Salanter, founder of Navordik), with the full encouragement and endorsement of Rav Schechter. Obviously bygones are bygones with Rav Schechter endorsing his close disciple and long-time Chaim Berliner Rabbi Drillman (who was with Rav Hutner on the hijacked airplane) to take a position with Rav Carlebach's son in law.
Well said. I would like to ask, even though these women were enticed, doesn't the Torah hold them responsible for their actions??
ReplyDeleteMale doctors when meeting with female patients have s nurse in the room, same should be with a Rav.
ReplyDeleteAnd in the same way, there can be a gap between knowing the Joe Orloff system and implementing it. Point is, all this already exists. If people are not implementing it at the Torah's command, why would they implement it at yours?
ReplyDeleteOf course the women are liable. Under Torah law (as opposed to secular law), these are not cases of abuse, they are cases of men and women sinning together. The women are not in the category of שוטה and are thus equally culpable in the sin. But the "rabbi" remains unfit for his position.
ReplyDeleteon the other hand, if a second person is present, wouldn't that have a negative effect on the therapy process?
ReplyDeleteThe other person doesn't need to be in the room. The next room is fine, with the door open, and the understanding that the person can walk in at any time. In brief, obey the laws of yichud l'chumra, and much of this sordid behavior would be prevented.
This is not in the realm of מדות רעות, it is in the realm of איסורים. Serious איסורים. Characterizing transgressions of איסור אשת איש as a failure of middos is so absurd as to be comical.
ReplyDeleteI am addressing a phenomenon which we can call "Teaching vs Learning".
ReplyDeleteI have encountered teachers who give over the material for a course including lecturing the students and assigning reading and coursework.
Then the teacher grades the students.
The teacher then assumes the children have learned the material. But just because a student has passed a course doesn't mean they've learned the material, in the sense of understanding it. It may indicate, instead, that the student was able to pass the tests without thinking much at all about what they learned beyond putting it into a form that will lead to a good grade.
My system is a stab at trying to break this mindset. We have laboratory components for science courses. Literature students have to write essays. Is it too much to ask Jewish schools to give real-life opportunities to learn how to fulfill the Mitzvah of Yichud? Who ever heard of a drivers education course where the student never gets behind the wheel of a real car? Yet we ask students to guide themselves through seminary and beyond based on listening passively to a warning not to isolate themselves?
@kishkeyum Under Torah Law, even a 12-year old or 14-year old girl is liable. Same with a 13-year old or 15-year old boy.
ReplyDeleteOf they have sinned, and very serious ones at that. If they were married, then under Torah law this is chayav mitah. But the details of what happened are presumably not known to us, and whether they had the status of shoteh. It is for a BD to determine this.
ReplyDeleteWhether an adult woman who has intercourse with a spiritual advisor for what she is told to be spiritual reasons and therefore permitted - is not the simple case of wrong that is being presented here.
ReplyDeleteYou might want to read Binyan Tzion #154
Correct. And therefore?
ReplyDeleteVery interesting teshuvah, but: a) It's a huge chidush. b) He himself is saying only יש לדון and only if two others agree. c) There was a special circumstance there in that the woman believed it was l'sheim shomayim, and was credulous enough to tell her husband. I don't believe for a moment that every woman who commits adultery with a rabbi is in the same category. d) I have to wonder whether the woman in the shaaleh pulled the wool over the Binyan Tzion's eyes, as well as her husband's. I would have suspected that she wrote to the husband b/c she feared the news would reach his ears some other way. This way she could present herself as innocent.
ReplyDelete@Kishkeyum - your understanding is that of the Yad Eleazar
ReplyDeleteThat's gratifying.
ReplyDeletethis story tells a bit more on the background of Scheinberg: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4681658,00.html
ReplyDeletemost striking is that he studied in Netiv Meir yeshiva. Since scheinberg is 47, that would be approx 30 odd years ago. 15 years ago , one rosh yeshiva there was arrested and convicted of maasei s'dom with boys in his yeshiva. Is it possible that Scheinberg himself succumbed to these abuses?
Forget about halacha or secular law. What about simple ethics as a doctor or of a similar profession? This was abuse of trust and rape in its basic form. For each count he should get 15-20 years without parole. This should guarantee that he will die in prison. As a matter of halacha if each man whose wife did this doesn't give a GET, he is the most stupidest idiot on the planet.
ReplyDelete