Guest Post
first published two years ago
first published two years ago
this is relevant to rav Shmuels claim that there is a machlokes haposkim if Tamar can remarry without a Get
The tragedy of Rav Feldman's letter , besides the emotional reference of some unspecified behavior by unspecified people being worse than being mattir an eishess ish to remarry without a Get (!) , is, in my opinion, the language in the letter relegating what has occurred to - "I respectfully disagree". The damage done by such a weak description is incalculable.
We now have a machlokess what berachah to make on rice cakes ; a machlokess about the shiur of a kezayis; and a machlokess about allowing an eishess ish to remarry without a Get based on a hired person (hired by one party) writing a report about another party's mental health without ever meeting that second party and then using that report to shop around till someone is found who will pasken that no one but no one would ever deign to live with such a person (despite the first party actually having done so for a significant period of time) and who will actually allow remarriage without a Get; and this without a proper investigation that this "condition" actually existed at the time of the kiddushin!; and all
this without the presence or knowledge of the second party (who
certainly needs to be heard from by a Bais Din as to what he has to say
to the claim of mekach to'us (may we assume that it is no worse than if I sold you a tape recorder and you claim mekach to'us?) ; and with everyone subsequently denying that they were mattir (wasn't me, it was him; no, it wasn't me, it was him; no, no, it wasn't me, it was him)
And this, I now read, is simply a disagreement between Poskim!
Talking about "worse"-- the cover-up is worse than the crime.
Rav Chaim Zev Malinowitz
Rav Malinowitz is a first class Talmid Chochom, the general editor of Artscroll, and a premier posek. I think this should add a lot of weight.
ReplyDeleteWhile I agree with your description of R Malinowitz, it will change nothing. Logic isnt prevailing anymore nor will it because the consequences of what has happened are too difficult for many to accept. This won't change that.
ReplyDeleteMuch easier to attack AF and the Eidensohns, and so they'll do so.
To categorize what the Kaminetzkys did as "a dispute among poskim" is a belittling of the Torah! They trampled upon and shamed Aaron Friedman when they publicly declared him "meshuga" for their "friendship" with his father-in-law! This was not the case of agunah where the husband was lost at sea or in Churban Europe. This was a man who DID go to the Bais Din! He followed the rules! No one but the Bais Din had any right to interfere! Once the Kaminetzkys and Jeremy Stern arose to harm Aaron Friedman, then Klal Yisrael had the obligation to NOT STAND BY AS THEIR BROTHER'S BLOOD WAS BEING SHED! That was the root of the "heter". I know of what I speak because I saw similar wickedness written by Pesach Lerner and Peretz Steinberg of Young Israel.( http://cleanupyoungisrael.blogspot.com/2010/05/more-details-and-can-be-found-on.html ) Shmuel Kaminetzky was involved with that too out of "friendship". as I noted in another post. We see the results as Nittai of Arbel warns in Pirkei Avos 1:7 "do not befriend a wicked person".
ReplyDeleteIt takes a lot of courage to take a stand. Kol hakovod.
ReplyDeleteAt this point I think some very very sharp action needs to be taken and words need to be written by esteemed rabbonim, not about the nevalah that was perpetrated but about the perpetrators themselves. They must be openly called reshaim and separated from the community. No more dancing on egg shells. Finally let the whole truth be told. A demand that the yeshiva in Philly be closed etc.The protests against the 'ruling' didn't make them change their ways so the next step needs desperately to be taken quickly before the Feldman approach is adopted and The holy Torah is sold to wicked rogues ch'v. Action better be taken quickly while there are still some people who care and before everyone becomes desensitized to the desecration of Hashem and The Torah.
ReplyDeleteto me, this is all lashon hara. Let each person move on with life. We judge people the whole day and we are not even in their shoes.
ReplyDelete....in contrast to those backing off....
ReplyDeleteRabbi Eidensohn,
ReplyDeleteIsn't this more of the same?
One person or Rabbi disagrees with another Rabbi's "Daas Torah".....accuses him of tearing apart the Torah, etc, etc, etc.
We love issuing Daas Torah claims and put Rabbanim on pedestals as DAAS TORAH, until they don't say what we want them to say....then they are lightweights and we find another "Gadol".
So, Rabbi Shmuel Kamenetzy - Daas Torah. Until we disagree.
Rabbi Aharon Feldman - Daas Torah! Until he renegs.
Is everything Rabbi Malinowitz says Daas Torah? More so that Rabbi Feldman? What is his position on issues like Rabbi Slifkin, Elimelech Meisels, Hoodlums in Beit Shemesh and reporting sexual abuse? Are all of those positions "Daas Torah" as well?
Or maybe we will wait until HE says something we don't like, and then we will dump him too!
I am reminded of a p'shat by Rav Yisroel Salanter, ZTL, who explained the Gemara that in Yemos HaMoshiach, p'nei hador k'pnei hakelev, referring to Gedolai Yisroel. He explained that just as a dog gives the appearance to be leading its master, but really it is on a leash and not in control, so too, in yemos HaMoshiach, our leaders will look like they are leading, but are really at the whim of the followers.
I am personally sickened by all of this game-playing from all sides. My emunas chachimim from all sides has been rocked to the core. Yet like a train wreck, I can't peel my eyes from it.
David if you believe this than you shouldn't be reading this blog
ReplyDeleteBut between these two opposing parties, the emes comes out in stark contrast....
ReplyDeleteAnd now you know the identity of the unnamed poseik below.
ReplyDeleteI just read the head lines and it is sickening. Anyways, let us not be nirpim, nirpim, get back to work. This does not pay my bills.
ReplyDeletePlease go back to yeshiva. You have gotten confused and mixed up and you are helping no one including yourself. If you had a better understanding of halacha you would be able to understand more clearly what is happening.
ReplyDeleteno this is not a dispute in halacha - this is a dispute whether gedolim should be protected against revelation of their errors or whether they should acknowledge their mistakes
ReplyDeleteDavid, there are two parts to the pasuk לֹא תֵלֵךְ רָכִיל בְּעַמֶּיךָ לֹא תַעֲמֹד עַל דַּם רֵעֶךָ אֲנִי יְהוָֹה
ReplyDeleteWhen someone is being harmed or may come to harm, the mitzvah in the second half "is so important that it even allows us to speak lashon hara
(negative speech) when necessary." (Rabbi Yehonasan Gefen in http://www.torah.org/learning/jewish-values/brothersblood2.html ) So yes you can say it is Lashon Hara but it is within the requirements of the Torah just as a Hatzolah member is REQUIRED to drive a car on Shabbos in order to stave off harm.
All you have proven is that your very proficient in googling Rav Malinowitz name and assuming those are issues.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, this entire matter is really illustrative of p'nei hador kip'nei hakelev. What happened here, at least at the outset, is inaction on the part of the supposed leaders of the Torah community, especially those of the American community. It is mostly due to this inaction that a blog has become the venue through which people become informed and driven to action. If, for example, the Kaminetskys had been disinvited from the Agudah convention by the members of the American Moetzes, I don't think that there would have been much more for DT and others to do. But all there was was inaction, and that's all there will be, until there is enough of an uproar on the part of the people. Yes, sadly, it is truly p'nei hador kip'nei hakelev.
ReplyDeleteAren't you judging the commenters as violating the laws of lashon hara?
ReplyDeleteMy emunas chachimim from all sides has been rocked to the core. Yet like a train wreck, I can't peel my eyes from it.
ReplyDeleteQuit mixing metaphors. Your comment is a train wreck.
You at least publicly acknowledged why you sat in jail, and how you regret your actions. There are wrongdoers out there who brazenly deny that they did anything wrong. In fact, they think that what they did was a mitzvah...
ReplyDeleteכֵּן דֶּרֶךְ אִשָּׁה מְנָאָפֶת אָכְלָה וּמָחֲתָה פִיהָ וְאָמְרָה לֹא פָעַלְתִּי אָוֶן.
Just look at what happened to Dresden. There are still some leftovers stranded in the forests of Japan that did not surrender.
ReplyDeleteThough, the picture looks like lhvbchl"ch, his late brother from Lakewood. ...
ReplyDeleteFor simplicity, he will be a gadol as long as he doesn't say anything that by a mile in the sky is against the Torah.
ReplyDeleteYes, when people whom we trusted, abrogate the Torah, our Emunas Chachomim becomes abrogated.
This point is significant.
ReplyDeleteThe whole concept of kavod for a talmid chochom is based off his Torah learning. And vice verse. As I'm sure everyone is familiar with the Gemaras in makkos and Kiddushin.
But when they deviate, their past service means nothing.
The very thing that makes them gedolim is their adherence to the Torah. Without their a bunch of old men with white beards dressed like they are going to a 19 century opera. Homburgs and frocks in hand.