Loss of an Advocate for the Sanctity of Jewish Marriage: R. David Eidensohn zatza"l

 R. David Eidensohn has ascended to the Heavenly Academy. He was the brother of (yibadel le-chaim) R. Daniel Eidensohn, editor of Daas Torah blog, where I serve as an associate writer. See https://daattorah.blogspot.com/

It was R. David Eidensohn who originally sounded the alarm against the blood libel that was inflicted by R. Hershel Schachter (acting on behalf of Ms. Tamar Epstein) against Reb Aharon Friedman [falsely claiming that Reb Aharon is obligated to write her a get, a terrible violation of Exodus 20:14 by Rabbi Schachter]. And then, when thanks to the good advice of R. David Eidensohn, Reb Aharon refused to write any get, it was R. David Eidensohn who subsequently sounded the alarm against the fraudulent Kamenetzky-Greenblatt heter [directing Ms. Epstein to "remarry" with no get whatsoever], inspiring numerous batei din worldwide to declare that Ms. Epstein is still the wife of Reb Aharon, and further prompting the Beit Din Tzedek of the Edah ha-Charedit in Jerusalem to instruct all rabbis throughout the globe to protest the fraudulent Kamenetzky-Greenblatt heter. I have published several articles on this matter, including most recently at https://daattorah.blogspot.com/2025/03/shabbat-zakhor-and-agunah-problem-by.html [-and also regarding the tangential topic of blood libels at https://daattorah.blogspot.com/2025/04/a-passover-message-to-president-putin.html ].

I would like to follow up on the letter I sent the Rabbanan earlier this week (Tuesday, Sept. 9), inspired by the ascent to the Heavenly Academy of R. David Eidensohn, a scholar who defended the sanctity of Jewish marriage from the disciples of Saul Lieberman who sought to mislead every Jewess to receive a get upon demand and say shalom yihiyeh li ki bi-shrirut libi elekh (Deut. 29:18). [I personally consulted by long-distance telephone with R. David Eidensohn when I formulated my prenup at https://www.scribd.com/document/176990434/Prenuptial-Agreements, and he is acknowledged in the credits.]

R. David Eidensohn identified three pitfalls that occur with corrupt mesadrei kiddushin today, including (a) those mesadrei kiddushin that will arrange a chuppah for the ex-wife of an innocent husband who was coerced by the 1992 New York Get Law [-forbidden by Maran Rav Bleich, and as mentioned this past Tuesday, Maran Rav Bleich also forbids the analogous situation where the 1990 Canada Get Law was used against an innocent husband. Not only that, but even in a case of seemingly remote doubt, where no secular court was involved and the couple divorced in Beth Din amicably, in an actual shiddukh with a divorcee that was proposed to me, Maran Rav Bleich denied me the right to pop the question to the lady, and this despite R. Ariel Wasserlauf's independent investigation (at my request), the results of which he generously shared with me, that the ex-husband was delighted to jettison the ex-wife in order to marry a second wife, to whom he is now happily married with five children. Furthermore, this father of five (from the second wife to whom he is happily married) currently serves as the ba'al korei of one of the Dayanim of the Jewish Community Council of Montreal R. David Rephael Banon, and in fact Rabbi Banon supervised the actual get in question, such that li-kh'orah "all systems go" and this was a glatt kosher divorce. No, Maran Rav Bleich holds I still have to be choshesh that the innocent ex-husband (who is not in the category of kofin le-garesh) was afraid of the 1990 Canada Get Law, and so better I should be stuck as a bachelor rather than risk even the possibility of adultery. See with your own eyes how serious this problem of the 1990 Canada Get Law has become.]; (b) those mesadrei kiddushin that will arrange a chuppah for the ex-wife of an innocent husband who was coerced by the 1993 Beth Din of America prenup [-an illegitimate and heretical prenup like that of Saul Lieberman, unlike mine which is recognized as valid by the universal consensus of poskim]; and (c) R. Nota Zvi Greenblatt who fraudulently arranged a pseudo-chuppah for Ms. Tamar Epstein who had no get altogether. Taking my cue from R. David Eidensohn [and after shimush with Maran Rav Bleich], I published a series of refutations to all of these corrupt mesadrei kiddushin, and as a result of this, I was able to ensure that a double get zikkuy was arranged for the agunah whose case I brought to the Supreme Court of Canada. Yodu la-Ha-Shem chasdo, ve-nifle'otav li-vnei adam (Psalm 107). 

R. David Eidensohn also tackled a fourth pitfall which I have never addressed in published form: The humiliation tactics of ORA as representing a form of illicit coercion on gittin [in the case of innocent husbands]. He discusses this here: https://torahhalacha.blogspot.com/2014/11/ora-mamzer-producing-organization.html#comment-form , and even mentions the case of Yisrael Meir Kin that I referenced in my letter earlier this week. In a very recent development, Maran Rav Bleich has also addressed the humiliation tactics of ORA in his latest two-part article in Tradition. I have not yet read the article as the journal has not yet arrived in any Montreal library, but I know from the summary published on the Tradition website that Maran Rav Bleich refutes ORA. Maran Rav Bleich also briefly references this two-part article in his recent recorded audio lecture (just two weeks ago) at https://www.yutorah.org/lectures/1145961/Ervas-Davar-(Even-HaEzer-119)

I also draw your attention to a video that the late R. David Eidensohn published during his lifetime entitled "Reb Aharon Kotler - Do We Still Follow His Ways," warning the public about Ms. Tamar Epstein's false antics in claiming that she can remarry without a get [-this video was released in 2014 even before she actually went ahead a year later in 2015 and was makhshelet R. Nota Zvi Greenblatt in a berakhah le-vatalah at an adulterous pseudo-chuppah]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=83zRqBsWuU0 In the final segment of the video, Rabbi Eidensohn movingly says as follows (31:55 into the recording): 

"And those of us who remember Reb Aharon[*], who remember that there's such a thing as a Shulchan Arukh and that being a rosh yeshivah doesn't make you a gadol that you're bigger than the Shulchan Arukh. So, those of us - we're outnumbered badly, but there's plenty of us, and we have to unite and be strong and keep up the derekh ha-yashar in Torah."

[* = The reference is to R. Aharon Kotler.]

So this is why I am writing the present e-mail. R. David Eidensohn has left this world, but if we coordinate ourselves as he advocated, we can continue his legacy and rescue Klal Yisrael from a mamzer epidemic. "A conference of the righteous is beneficial to them and beneficial to the world" (Sanhedrin 71b). 

This week, when we will read "a lady shall be betrothed, and another gentleman shall cohabit with her" (Deut. 28:30), I pray that tikhleh ha-shanah ve-kileloteha (Megillah 31b). 

Thank you,

Shalom C. Spira