Dybuk, Kabblah & Mesorah

Dear Rav Eidensohn,

I stumbled across your blog as I was researching the so-called 'dybbuk' phenomena within the Jewish community. It was my sister who reported this story to me that led me to research the possible Torah sources for whether such phenomena ought to be thought of as anything but psychological illness.

As a college student studying philosophy and chemistry, I am always skeptical when I hear of stories which clash with the claims of modern science, medicine and general logic, so naturally I was doubtful about the supernatural claims being made. Your blog provided me with some relief in seeing that this is not something that Jews categorically believe in.

This episode has led me to the following larger-scale questions, however, which still remain unanswered. These questions have been ones which I have been thinking about a tremendous amount lately, and would appreciate any insight you may have.

(1) I did locate a number of sources in Hasidic/'Kabbalistic' literature which develop the idea of the dybbuk. What are we to make of these sources/claims? Especially when being tied to writings as early as the Ramban, how are we to straddle the line between being men of Torah and reformers when discarding claims being made by earlier rabbis? Does the idea of gilgul purportedly espoused by the Ramban entail the existence of Dybukim? (As an interesting aside, Plato, in the Meno and Pheado, seems to endorse a doctrine of reincarnation of souls on purely rational grounds).

(2) What criteria are we to use to determine when to endorse a given supernatural phenomenon and when to repudiate it? Surely there are certain supernatural events (Har Sinai, Kriyas Yam Suf, etc.) which we take quite literally as having occurred. What justifies our endorsement of these events over events such as dybukkim?

(3) Are the truths revealed by the Torah the same truths that would be arrived at by perfected human reason?

(4) Is the study of secular philosophy advantageous or detrimental in becoming a perfected Jew?

(5) If the claims about dybukkim are false (which I take them to be), then how do we explain how such ideas have crept into our Mesora under the veil of true kabbalah? Why are such ideas endorsed by supposedly important and learned rabbis? And, more importantly, why don't more Rabbis and community leaders who are aware of the spurious nature of such claims publicize the fraud?

Over the years I have formed answers of my own to some of these questions, but I currently find myself in a position where I am in need of further grounded Rabbinic insight to clarify and solidify my stance towards yahadus and my own outlook as a college student and Jew.

Music now has a hechsher

http://blog.yachdus.com/2010/01/new-chareidi-hechsher-for-music.html

בחדרי חרדים | מוסיקה - הכירו: ועדת הרבנים לענייני מוזיקה • חשיפה

Shunning intermarried couples & p.c.

Jewish Press by Rabbi Philip Lefkowitz

I was brought up in the Italian-Jewish neighborhood of Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. I vividly recall the sights, sounds and smells of my youth. The kosher deli with its aroma of pickles in a barrel, the Italian deli with its pungent provolone cheese hanging in the window, the barber shop with its background of Italian opera, the newsstand offering a selection of Yiddish and Italian newspapers, and, of course, the ever present sounds of Yiddish and Italian that permeated the streets. It was a wonderful and colorful world.

And the people? We all got along in an atmosphere of mutual respect. In the morning, older Jewish men carrying tallis and tefillin on their way to shul would greet the Italian widows, dressed in black, caressing their rosary beads and mumbling the "Hail Mary" on their way to first mass. [...]

Guma Aguiar in psychiatric hospital

JPOST

Betar Jerusalem sponsor Guma Aguiar has been forcibly admitted to the Abarbanel Psychiatric Hospital following a court order overnight Wednesday.

EJF - fuels conflict over geirus in Montreal

CJNews

MONTREAL — Mainstream Orthodox congregational rabbis in Montreal allege that the haredi-dominated Vaad Ha'ir is trying to undermine their authority in conducting conversions, dissuading prospective converts to Judaism from going to them and influencing the chief rabbinate of Israel that their conversions are not as halachically sound as those of the Vaad.[...]

EJF - The Con Game (first in a series)

Tablet by Allison Hoffman

December was a very bad month for Rabbi Leib Tropper, a powerful ultra-Orthodox rabbi who has been seeking to determine the standards for conversion in Israel and throughout the world through his little-known yet influential organization, Eternal Jewish Family. First, black-and-white posters appeared on walls in Jerusalem and other Israeli cities threatening public disgrace if the rabbi refused to "cease his filth." While the definition of "filth" was left up to readers' imagination, photos and video were prominently mentioned in the text, which demanded that Tropper suspend his involvement in performing religious conversions.

Rav Dunner responds to EJF attack

5tJewish Times

It is long established pattern of the hired cheer-leaders of the ejf to attempt to blacken the name of anyone who criticizes their activities in any way - the pot of gold that the ejf has found is worth $25 million and counting and who wants to lose out on that? but it is clear who the real ganef is in this sad story - it is anyone who associates themselves with this organization whose sole function is to leech as much money as possible out of Mr. Kaplan. The feeble attempts to publish fact sheets in the jewish media demonstrates what and who they are - no serious or well meaning organization finds it necessary to print fact sheets stating that they are not low-lives, not ganovim, etc etc. this is usually a given in any moisad - and if they have to publish something of this nature it can only be that they are and always have been goineiv daas habri'os on a giant scale. [...]

Sefer HaNer on Shabbos

This sefer is a scholarly critical edition recently published by my son Shneur Eidensohn from a manuscript located in the British Library. This the first time that Sefer HaNer on Shabbos has been printed or published. For a description of the nature and importance of this sefer click here.

T

Mekubal's Blog: Ezekiel 8 response to assertion that Orand's conversion vindicated Tropper

This is the purported response of the Ezekiel 8 group to a post on Mekubal's Blog  "Apologies are in order":
==============================
B'ezrat Hashem Yitbarach

Ezekiel 8 : Groups 12/13
Official Response

HaMekubal, your analysis is so factually baseless/mistaken it's almost an EJF-Tropper advertisement.

You seem like a an honest enough fellow; where do you get your rumours from that mislead you into this kind of blatant foolishness?

Let us point out some of the major fallacies you suffer and promulgate, in the hope that you will correct yourself promptly:

To be clear the conversion was done against Israeli Law, and against the stance of the Rabbinate.

You say this, what is your proof, do you know that that the Israeli CR didn't authorise this in advance? For the record, this BD was authorised in advance by the Israeli CR.

This Gadol stated clearly that if the tapes were true...

This Gadol obviously has some tremendous problems with Choshen Mishpat; if you/he can prove that he is privvy to ALL of the evidence, that still doesn't mean his conclusion is right, his opinion is worth no more and no less than any other uninvolved bystander. At best, he certainly was not able to see/hear all of the evidence here, "chachamim, hizharu b'dvarechem", v'hamevin yavin.

It appears that despite professional authentication of the audios and videos that they simply cannot be relied upon

These kind of statements are non-sequitors, you state something as a fact, then you draw a concrete verdict from it, with no basis. Even you "hedge", saying: "It appears", without explicity acknowledging that what "appears" is not neccessarily what is.

She was accused of ... allowing a surveilance[sic] team to set up cameras in her hotel room(on more than one occaision[sic]) to video her having illicit relations with a man and his wife.

1) Who "accused"? Why "accuse" someone of defending themselves? As it is, obviously many victims of erevRabbanim misLeaders have a difficult enough time believing hard evidence and hard facts, and it's also clear the "pilpul" dance of "make it go away" is really in full swing now.

Read and comprehend, please. She is NOT the only victim, she IS the only victim who has "gone public" (so far).

We are the surveillance team, and she and "her" hotel room wasn't the only persons or places involved, R"L.

What is more Rabbis who have recieved the full packet of evidence state that there are multiple videos of her also having relations with other men.

We repeat - THERE ARE MULTIPLE VIDEOS/AUDIOS OF TROPPER INVOLVED WITH WOMEN AND MEN (CANDIDATES FOR GIYUR, MARRIED AND UNMARRIED, AND OTHERS) WHO ARE NOT HIS WIFE, don't keep insisting that Rahel is the only victim, she is the only victim who has "gone public".

She also stands accused of taking money from an enemy of Tropper to make these recordings and videos. With verifiable email evidence to back those claims.

Again, you slander a victim. She herself admits part of the control exercised by Tropper was him paying her for participating in realising his perverse fantasies and fetishes, and let's not forget his worthless promises to help speed her "geirus"...

WE can verify beyond any doubt that she received no money from anyone, least of all "an enemy of Tropper", for any of her righteous actions in exposing EJF-Tropper criminal and immoral misdeeds. After all, we admit to taking any neccessary action in this matter at our own expense and initiative (and there is far more to this matter than the EJF-Tropper issues).

Make no mistake, this geirus is not recognized...

You make no mistake, siyag l'chochma - shtika.

bobX@anonymousspeech.com

EJF's response to Rav Dunner

5tJewish Times

5tJewish Times

EJF: Your interview with Rabbi Aba Dunner, the executive director of the Conference of European Rabbis (January 7, 2010), unfortunately twists the truth about Eternal Jewish Family International

Pinchas Shapiro: RAV DUNNER IS A HIGHLY RESPECTED VENERABLE RAV IN EUROPE. HE STATED THAT THE RABBIS OF THE STANDING COMMITTEE OF THE CER UNANIMOUSLY VOTED AGAINST EJF COMING INTO EUROPE. HOW IS THIS TWISTING THE TRUTH? [...]

Tom Kaplan - Coffee for Me, Worms for Her

NYTimes

UP AND SCRAMBLING Sunday is the designated morning for my wife to sleep in, so I make sure I'm up early, by 7:30, because one of the kids is usually up around then, and once one is up, the other one seems to follow pretty quickly. My day starts with us making something they call Papa's Special Eggs, which technically are scrambled eggs. I use olive oil, not butter, and some sea salt and a little bit of skim milk; I lean on the healthy side of the equation, but according to the kids, these are the benchmark of great eggs.[...]

Tropper is still running a yeshiva in Monsey!?

Horizons

Kol Yaakov Torah Center - Faculty

Rosh Yeshiva HaRav Leib Tropper, was born on the Lower East Side. He is a grandson of the Valbolneker Iluy, HaGaon HaRav Leib Forer zt"l. After graduating from Yeshivas Rabbeinu Yaakov Yosef at the age of 12 ½, Rabbi Tropper attended the Yeshiva of Philadelphia and then the Telshe Yeshiva in Cleveland. Before reaching his 15th birthday, Rabbi Tropper traveled to Eretz Yisroel to learn in Yeshivas Torah Ore. Rabbi Tropper spent more than five years at Yeshivas Torah Ore, where he developed a close relationship with its Rosh Yeshiva, Maran Harav Chaim Pinchus Scheinberg.[...]

Chilul Hashem - requirement to publicize

[Soncino translation]

Avos (4:4) R. JOHANAN B. BEROKAH24 SAID: WHOEVER PROFANES THE NAME OF HEAVEN25 IN SECRET,26 THEY27 EXACT THE PENALTY FROM HIM IN THE OPEN.28 [IN THIS RESPECT, IT IS ALL] ONE [WHETHER ONE HAS ACTED] IN ERROR, AND [IT IS ALL] ONE29 [WHETHER ONE HAS ACTED] WITH PRESUMPTION, IN [A CASE WHERE THE RESULT IS] THE PROFANATION OF THE NAME.30

Notes:
(26) How can any secret misdeed be a profanation of the Name, which necessarily implies a knowledge of the sin by at least one other than the guilty person? Tosaf. Yom Tob says: When the sin can be committed only together with another person, e.g. prohibited sexual intercourse. L.: There are two kinds of ‘profaners of the Name’: (a) one who commits a sin, making it clear to others that he contemptuously disregards the divine commandments; (b) one who transgresses secretly. not because he is concerned for the Glory of the Name of God, but for his own reputation among his fellow men, by whom he wishes to be regarded as a pious man. The latter is profaning the Name in secret, and it is this duplicity that is to be exposed by punishment in public. V.: A sin committed in secret which, should it become known, would cause a profanation of the Name.
=======================================================

Yoma(86b): One should expose the hypocrites to prevent chillul HaShem as it says in Yechezkeil (3:20):When a righteous man turns from his righteousness and he commits sin, I will lay a stumbling block before him.


Rashi(Yoma 86b): Publicize the hypocrites – These people are wicked but they represent themselves as righteous. Therefore if someone is aware of their deeds – it is a mitzva to publicize them because of chillul HaShem. That is because people learn from their deeds since they think they are tzadikim. Furthermore when they are punished from Heaven, people says “what benefit is merit to protect against suffering.”


Chofetz Chaim(Lashon Harah 4:7): All these laws which I have written apply specifically to those whose conduct and manner is to have regret for his sins. However if you investigate his path and discover that he has no fear of G‑d and he is continually doing things which are not good such as throwing off the yoke of heaven or that he doesn’t avoid doing even a single transgression which everybody clearly knows is prohibited – whether it is the sin that you want to reveal and has done it a number of times on purpose or he has done some other transgressions a number of times which is clear to all that it is prohibited – this clearly shows that he is not transgressing because his lust overcame him but rather that it doesn’t bother him that he is transgressing and he has no fear of G‑d. Therefore it is permitted to degrade him and to describe his shame either before him or not before him. Therefore if he does some deed or says something and there is a question of whether to judge it favorably or unfavorably – it is necessary to judge him unfavorably since he has established himself as completely wicked (rasha) in other matters. Similarly our Sages say that the mitzva of “Do not distress others” only applies to those who are equal to you in keeping Torah and mitzvos. Therefore someone who has no concern for the word of G‑d, it is permitted to shame him and to inform others of his abominations and to heap scorn on him until he repents. This is what the Rambam (Hilchos De’os 6:8) said. Nevertheless you should be careful not to forget the conditions that apply in this case (Be’er Mayim Chaim Lashon Harah 4:32).

Rav Sternbuch: Dybuk is mental illness

I showed Rav Sternbuch various press releases which asserted that he had placed the Brazilian dybuk in  niddoi to protect R Batzri.  He categorically denied the story. He added this is not a case of a dybuk but of mental illness. He expressed dismay that thousands of people believed that this was a dybuk and were involved with R Batzri's ceremony. He urged me to please write an article regarding his denial and emphasized the urgency to publicize his denial of involvment with the proclamation of nidoi and that he viewed this is a case of mental illness.