defending HaRav R' Herschel Schachter שליט"א (Guest Post)

(Pitputim Photo)

Dear frum Jews: The Forward does not care if your kids get molested.

This isn’t an exaggeration, a joke or some kind of bombastic Avi Shafran style rhetoric. It's an inescapable and repugnant conclusion. For those of you not keeping track, at a recent Rabbinic conference in London, Rabbi Hershel Schachter, one of the foremost Halachic decisors of the generation, said unequivocally that there is no issue of Mesirah in handing over abusers to the police. Mesirah, he averred, refers to a situation where an illegitimate government is trying to confiscate Jewish property. It has nothing to do with reporting abusers to the police. After covering Weberman and Finkelstein so assiduously, after publishing the demonstrations of Judy Brown, the Forward should’ve been delighted. "Yeshiva Rabbi Bluntly Warns Sex Abuse Reports Are Required”-- That’s the headline you should’ve opened up to on Friday morning. A premier posek, not a professional controversy hound like Yosef Blau, not a fourth rate YCT rabbi struggling with Rashi script, said almost exactly what you’d want him to say. Certainly, if the Forward cared about your kids, this’d be newsworthy. Think your Boro Park rabbis knows the laws of Mesirah? Nope. Not anymore. Think that its ok to cover for someone on unsere team? Turns out, you’re going against Halachah. Think your punctiliousness with shemirath eynayim will save you from your shemirath yadayim issue? Turns out, it doesn’t work that way. Unfortunately for him, Rabbi Schachter added some caveats. He didn’t stop with this powerful denunciation of the major problem plaguing Orthodox Jewry today. He noted that Federal Prisons are fair and accommodating of Orthodox Jews. And then he said that state prisons can sometimes be hefker. They might put you with a “schvartze," - pause -  a black Muslim who wants to kill all the Jews.


There are two possibilities here. Larry Cohler-Esses says he I felt "I knew this man like I knew some of my own relatives." He must be sure that Rabbi Schachter paused to reemphasize his irrational hatred of people of color and Muslims. I know Rabbi Schachter pretty well too. It seems to be he said an offensive term, one he might’ve been habituated to from his upbringing as a Yiddish speaker. Then he paused, corrected himself, and specified that he meant a member of the Nation of Islam. The Nation of Islam has a large prisoner contingent. They utilized “bigoted and anti-Semitic rhetoric” the ADL’s words, not mine that “has included statements calling whites "blue eyed devils" and Jews "bloodsuckers" that controlled the slave trade, the government, the media, Hollywood and various Black individuals and organizations.” Schachter might not be right to be too concerned about the future cellmates of the Webermans and Lanners of the world. He certainly should’ve avoided the outdated and offensive term schvartze - a word that, while not laden with the hate of a racial epithet, is equivalent to “Negro” in its anachronism. This would all be a major issue if he wasn’t in the middle of solving the major crisis of Orthodox Jewry today.

Sadly for the Forward, he was. He was giving Halachic sanction to people who speak out about abuse. He was doing more to end it from the inside than the Forward could do with a million Judy Brown stories. He digressed, opined, added in colorful and misshapen linguistic infelicities. He didn’t do this because of his intense racial or religious bigotry or his love of abusers. He did it because he’s Rabbi Schachter. Rabbinic authority doesn’t come out of thin air. Schachter’s corresponds to what Max Weber called charismatic authority. He is a raconteur, a Yiddish storyteller and king of caveats. If you want a story about R' Velvele Soloveitchik, an obscure teshuvah from the Koziglover Gaon, or a scintillating conceptual distinction first proposed by Yerucham Fishel Perlow and then mercilessly plagiarized, Rabbi Schachter is one of the only living people who can give you that. Besides his stand on abuse, Schachter is also a moral voice in other areas. He’s condemned the practice of Metzizah bePeh since it endangers infants. He courageously stood up in public in Ami magazine urging reform of the corrupt system of Batei Din. He lends his weight to an interminable and acrimonious battle on behalf of agunot; a battle that's earned him the ire and opprobrium of vast segments of Haredi Jewry. It's doubly impressive that Schachter’s mastery of vast corpses of Rabbinic literature and his spellbinding storytelling and sense of humor are yoked to a moral vision so idiosyncratic and so obviously based on doing what he thinks is the right thing.


What’s so disturbing about this story is that Rabbi Schachter is being skewered for being Rabbi Schachter. The off the cuff style, exaggerated anecdotes and Yiddishisms that lend him his power and charisma are what keep getting him in trouble. The same Rabbi who uses words like ferd and schvartzer also cries (in this same lecture) about someone coming to observe the laws of Taharas Hamishpacha. He laments his own public position --- “The Ribono Shel Olam is a Kel Mistater.” He breaks down in tears describing his own teacher, Rabbi Soloveitchik, and his impact on him. I’m not saying Rabbi Schachter shouldn’t be more circumspect about his choice of words. Though it’d rob us of his charm, it might be a necessary concession to the constraints of publicity placed on him by virtue of his position. Maybe we will lose these unguarded moments. Maybe a story about Rabbi Belkin or Rabbi Yerucham Gorelick will go down unrecorded because Rabbi Schachter will hesitate to say it. However, if you want abuse to end, and you want to take away the fig leaf of “Halachic” protection deployed by abusers, you might not want to bash Rabbi Schachter. If you want Orthodoxy to wake up to its internal problems and start handing people over to the authorities --- boker tov. This is what that looks like. Of course, if all you want pious nostrums about the word schvartze and long winded stories of the duplicity of the Orthodox about abuse --- Rabbi Schachter isn’t your guy. Ask the ADL and the Forward.

Let your heart not be troubled, Rabbi Manis Friedman

 (l-r, Reb Moshe Feller, HaRav Osher Zeilingold, RMF and HaRav Sho"B Gordon)


I knew this would snowball into something big, but one could only sit back and watch it unfold. We know that you care about kids alot more than they do. Do not take this to heart. You will rise above this. העם אתך. The abuse Gestapo will not bring you down. We understand what you said because we took the time to listen without jumping to conclusions. You're no less "sensitive" to abuse than they are.Your record of helping countless couples and families speaks for itself. You did NOT downplay abuse or try to make light of it. I would however suggest that in this day and age we not allow our thoughts and statements be fodder for the haters. They will stop at nothing because their lives consist mostly of hurting others. Issuing a "correction" or retraction may be the right thing here, but then again, you'd be playing into their hands. I'm no PR guru, so it's up to you, Rabbi. But this has to stop! We cannot allow ourselves to be manhandled by these people. This is America, not the FSU. We have a right to express ourselves.

Photo Source

הגאון אדר"ת זצ"ל מדבר על מסירה לשלטונות בשנת תרנ"ו

The responsa we bring you here is telling in at least two ways. The first way tells us that hanky panky was going in a shtetl in the Old Country way back in 1896. It isn't necessarily "news," but it's disheartening, it's not something you want to hear. And then there's the question of "mesirah," which I'm sure will rile some of you up. For some reason when it comes to the issue of abuse we've decided that the first thing we need to do is go to the police. I'm not sure when it happened; but it seems like the inaction on the part of mosdos, etc. is what caused our people to lose all trust in Rabbonim and Botei Din. They also do not believe that even if said Rabbonim and Botei Din do something that it would be sufficient. After all, Beis Din can't sentence you to life in prison...But having said that, the Aderes was a Litvak, the shver of Rav Kook, not some Williamsburg Hasid. But do we throw out all tshuves pertaining to issues like these and just use the secular courts? Do we just say נשתנו העתים because this isn't Czarist Russia 1896? Please tell me based on what we've decided to do this. Is Rikers Island or some State Penitentiary any better when we're talking about violent crimes? I don't know. YOU learn the tshuveh and decide. Also maybe read up on what happens to people like NW who are convicted of violent crimes against minors, what happens to them in jail these days... And realize, this crime in the tshuveh was alot worse than abuse, but for some reason the Aderes saw Chilul Hashem as overriding. The second half of the tshuveh is about whether or not her BF needs to marry her or not, so it's not relevant to our discussion, but feel free to read/learn it, it'll give you a glimpse into what Rabbonim dealt with...

בכלל the witch hunt that's going concerning skeptics (not to mention defenders of Nechemya) is a little alarming. I would not be surprised if I was next in line, since I'm perceived as not "strong enough" on this issue. They're talking about boycotting any and all Satmar-owned businesses (!) since they ultimately support Satmar and "Satmar" is defending NW, sent "problematic" kids to him all these years, and still harbors abusers. Ami magazine is the subject of a boycott because he's a skeptic - or a defender, as they see him - and interviewed NW's lawyer; and G-d knows who's next. I may be next for daring to publish this tshuveh. But realize that I too have kids, b"h, that I love and cherish and care about no less than a total stranger who say he's looking out for them. I've been getting all kinds of looks and messages from good friends for what they perceive as me defending NW... It looks like people stop practicing reading comprehension when it comes to this case.

Was the Aderes a mean old man for not allowing the מאנסים to be thrown into a Czarist Russian jail? I don't think many of you would say that, no matter how far you've strayed from the path, or how much of a victim's advocate you are. Most of you would say that the times have changed and we cannot pasken like that anymore, but that the course of punishment was befitting 1896. I don't know what made you decide that, but I'll accept that argument. I'm sure you'd agree that Aderes was having her best interest in mind by taking care of her physically as well as monetarily by having her marry her suitor and having the villains pay a huge sum. All that may be lacking here - in the Mir case -  is the punishment that many so desire. The "sharing a cell with some murderer who will have his way with them," That's what seems to be missing here. I guess Aderes didn't deem that suitable punishment, otherwise chilul hashem be da--ed, throw him to the dogs! So try and wrap your brains around the concept that the fact that some people either don't believe that he did it or don't want to see him thrown into jail may not be because they're monsters; it's not a "you're either with us or against" situation. People can have different ideas than the self-proclaimed advocates and still want abuse to stop! Enough with the witch hunt!

(Wikipedia Photo)

Chaim Berlin Tragedy's take on yesterday's verdict (GUEST POST) and some of my thoughts as well

DailyNews Photo (cropped)

Dear readers: I had in mind to write a lengthy piece as soon as I heard the verdict. I did not feel good about it, not because I was so convinced that he was innocent, but because it didn't seem anything was proven beyond a reasonable doubt, and also because of who was on the other side.  I'm sharing with you what my initial feeling was at that time. Ultimately it seemed like I could not be excited that he was found guilty when so many of those who really despise frum Jews were out to get him. They have hijacked this cause and now make it seem like they care about our kids more than we do. And we are to blame for this. Once we deal with this in a sane and just manner we will gain back some control of our communities. And the more we close our eyes to this the greater the damage. I realize that for the older generation it may be difficult to believe that stuff like this happens, especially at the hands of "pious" and "good" people, but we've been seeing this over and over again. Then I was privy to new information about Nechemia, and it wasn't good. Not from any self-proclaimed "child advocate," but from a close relative of another alleged victim. Someone who is very part and parcel of the establishment. He has no bones to pick, until now. Now NW is a monster to him too. Upon hearing this I decided that I could not in good faith write any words in his defense, even if it's just that the trial was skewed against him. So what we're left with is Chaim Berlin Tragedy's harsh take on reality. Truth be told I would not write some of the "terms of endearment" that he does, but sometimes I have no choice.

Hi, Tzig; ah freilichen Chanuka.

koidem kol, may all the sonei Yisroel have a mapola bimheira! And may the ohr haTorah and ohr haGeula finally shine all over the world! Ich zog, like that song, "that the times they are a changin'," and that all Charedi communities should wake up and see that the days of getting free passes and pleading for "rachmonus" because they are a "minority" or the "poor victims" are long gone. We are all big boys now and we must take it on the chin like men, and not act like cowards and crybabies. Charedim must start to practice the Torah mamash--- not just rebbisha bobba meises-- but real mitzvos like lo tinaf, lo tignov, lo tachmod, lo tirtzach etc. etc. etc., and like tzedek tzedek tirdof, etc. etc. etc. having rachmonus on the weak and defenseless and stop being money grubbing great greedy guts, worshiping the avoda zora of gelt, gelt, un noch gelt.

I hate to say it but we have a guy like Weberman who will be going to jail for not being careful with gilui arayos, the hoiz bucher of the Skverer Rebbe who is in jail for attempting shefichas damim, and sadly David Schick and many more in jail for geneiva, I would say to all of them sitting in jail "it's in the aseres hadibros stupid!" In the "good old days," when the media did not discover the Charedim yet, when there was no Internet, when no one could care less about children's rights and women's rights, when the Mafia was all powerful, none of this stuff was ever dealt with. If a teacher molested a kid there was nowhere to run to, now the child advocates and the courts make sure that people go to jail and pony up tens of millions, even hundreds of millions like in the Catholic church. It's the same yetzer horas but the world around has changed. You guessed it, it's the Modern world, with gizmos galore. In past time guys like R. Aron Schechter could have gotten away with okaying the expulsion of kid to disappear and even sell him off to the cantonists, but in today's word of instant communications on the web and instant people power, the tables are turned and the weak become the strong.

 It's actually a very Yiddishe thing if you think about it, when did Bnai Yisroel become "strong" in Mitzrayim? When they were at their weakest and lowest point, Hashem empowered them and gave them a manhig like Moshe. And when the Yidden were in golus in Persia and were weak and defenseless and about to be killed out, it was the a Yiddishe meidel of all people, Esther HaMalka who was the po'el the geulah. And obviously on Chanukah it was the part of the nes, the weak became strong -- and right now too many Charedim are acting like arrogant bullies with big fat bellies with corrupt leaders who care about donations and not about din vemishpat. So it will be the goy'ishe courts through which HKB"H is teaching us that he still has ways to make those who hurt others pay, and they will now go to jail and sit with gangsters who beat them up, ra-e them and do to them what they did to other innocent people.


Did you hear about Rav Aron Teitelbaum's reaction to the Weberman verdict? He says that all the Satmar off derech kids should be sent to other countries!!! Now how crazy and evil is that??? Maybe he can take lessons from R. Aron Schechter how to send OTD kids to gulags like he helped with his talmid Michael Hersh who sent his kid Isaac to "Tranquility Bay" on far island of Jamaica in the Bahamas. Maybe R. Aron Teitelbaum wants to send his troubled teens to Uganda or Madagascar like the Europeans who were bothered by the "Jewish Problem" wanted to do a 100 years ago? So is there any surprise that a guy like Weberman gets enabled by a gangster Mafia don like R. Aron Teitelbaum? If R. Aron Teitelbaum were smart he would SHUT UP, or he will also find himself facing a jury. Seems his kid brother R. Zalman Leib is smarter --- he is keeping a low profile and not saying stupid things in public like his arrogant big bro' Aron when he shoots off his mouth. Likewise in the ikvese d'meshicha, it is the weak Jews after the Holocaust who gain a medina in Eretz Yisroel, not perfect but still the beginning of a new tekufa. And in society it is no longer physical force that matters, it is brains and "the feminine side" (females and their kids) that have "power," and Charedim need to get their minds around that and embrace and work with that, as many do in any case, since most are just ehrliche hard-working people fighting to support their families.

 While there are far too many rotten apples that are getting away with gilui arayos geneiva and even shefichas damim, r"l, Charedim still think they are still living in Poland or the Ukraine with the bulvans, or in Rusland with poeren and Cossacks. In short the mind-set is still of people who think they must act like they are in Czarist times or are still living in Stalin's gulags or in Nazi concentration camps, when we are all instead enjoying THE BEST OF TIMES IN ALL WAYS, yes sirree right here in the US of A, the joys and freedoms of an open and free democracy with equal rights for everyone in the best that Western society has ever offered (for how long is an open question ...). Too many Charedim are kofi toiv and are not thinking, they like America's as a malchus shel chesed but they also mock it's laws as hilchos sedom, like too many Muslims who are still on jihad still don't get that, and then just resort to plain old hefkerus ish asher yashar be'einav ya'aseh Just some thoughts. There is lots more to say. It is all very sad that it has come to this.

Have a Freilichen Chanuka and best wishes always,

CBT

The image problem we have [Weberman trial] (GUEST POST)

"I have mixed and conflicted feelings about this case. I am absolutely convinced that a Hasidic looking man cannot get a fair trial anywhere when accused of such crimes, but in this case I have my doubts as to Weberman’s guilt. That’s all, “doubts,” and doubts does not mean convinced, no need to jump on me. No competent criminal lawyer permits a police abuse case or a Hasid sex case (or even fraud case) to stand before a jury and counsel often chooses a bench trial. (Why Weberman’s lawyer let his client go before a jury should give us pause - and we should speculate as to why). I don’t know Weberman personally but he is a distant cousin, so when I asked numerous mutual cousins that I share with him and know him personally they all told me that if he is guilty he should rot in jail. Since the term “if” has come into the conversation so many times, that tells me that my “doubt” is shared by a great many others.

We in the Hasidic community must look inward why we're looked upon so unfavorably. Of course there is the age old problem of antisemitism, as well as the hate of the secular for the frum, (repulsed is a better term) added to the general worldwide dislike of the overly devout, of every religion. As more and more of our people get caught up in the Justice system, avoidance of this problem and blaming others is not an option. We must face juries that are selected out of the general population. From my own observation on how our community has developed socially and politically I get the feeling that the social attitude our community projects outwardly towards our neighbors and fellow citizens has - especially in New York - poisoned the jury pool. We live in one of the most tolerant and generous cities in the world, but what do most of the residents of the City know about us and our way of life? I would venture to say that millions of people around the Metropolitan NYC area know us for just a few things; we are opposed to gay marriage. Oh yes, let me add and we support Israel. On both issues we come off as strident, brooking a no nuanced approach; no "live and let live." No, we come off as angry and suspicious (no president named Hussein will defend Israel) The electoral graphic map published by the NY Times says is all. The red dots of Romney voters stand out as one solid core of naysayer's in opposition to the cultural and political sensitivities of most New Yorkers. By our votes and our interactions with local politicians we have projected an image of a community that is intolerant and one that does not care about the more vulnerable ones living side by side with us.

Then there are the simple day to day interactions; how do we tip the taxicab driver, the grocery delivery boy, our workers, our cleaners? These people, their children and members of their family end up as jurors of people like Weberman and they will be charged to decide his fate. I have long detected a strong attitudinal shift, especially among the young in our community, from a feeling of mutual communal responsibility combined with traditional fear of “what will the goyim say,” to an attitude of triumphalism and of an arrogant projection of entitlement. Correct me if I’m wrong, but whenever I bring up these issues among my young acquaintances I get the look as if I fell off the moon. I have no doubt that one day we will have to take on these dire issues, that if not dealt with in a sensible way will grow worse and worse, until we will have no choice. Of course we might avoid giving any thought to this issue and suffer without the benefit of self analysis to re-examine our place in this country. Even if Weberman is guilty of some criminal improper behavior within the indictment there is a strong possibility that he is not guilty of the more severe charges. This is where a socially poisoned jury really matters. It is reasonable to doubt and suspect that Weberman is guilty of some of the charges, likewise it also reasonable to speculate that the girl and her supporters have an incentive to pile on charges. For a victim it might be easy to morally rationalize the piling on of more accusations, in order to make at least something stick. Brooklyn’s DA Charlie Hynes office is so politicized and his integrity is so compromised that it makes me share Tzig's doubts. This trial gives me the shivers, not only about what might be the outcome for those directly involved, but I tremble about what the outcome will bring and what effect it will have on the rest of the Haredi community here and around the world."

  Yosef 718

So... you wanna know what I think about the Weberman trial, eh? One thing's for sure, a fair trial he'll never get, even if it is being judged in court! And I could care less what Yankee Horowitz says.

All the supporters of the victim already decided that he's guilty, just because. The press is calling him a "monster-Rabbi." The allegations are already fact. So what chance does he REALLY have. IMVHO it's only a question of how much time he'll get, not whether or not he'll get time. And I really don't know if he did it or not.

א שמועס פון Yoeli W

"Rabeinu," is, of course, Rebbe Nachman of Breslov. I just love that guys are going back to the age-old Chassidic texts, be it Breslov, Chabad, or whatever.

Still waiting.... (Penn State, etc.)

(LA Times Photos)

It's been a week since the scandal broke at Penn State. In that span of days we've heard from a certain "crusading" blogger about Meal Mart Salmonella, battered Jewish women, Reb Shmuel Kamenetzky telling people not to go to the Police when they see abuse, more abuse in the Jewish Community, Israeli Haredis being male chauvinists, the Kletzky murder trial, Reb Nosson Tzvi, but only because his mother was from his neighborhood in S. Paul, and a host of non-issues. Including a very important story about a Ethiopian Jew being named Israeli Ambassador to ----- Ethiopia.  But not a word, not one single, solitary word, about the abuse that went on there for years, not just abuse but violation! of young children by the No. 2 man in the University's Athletic Dept. (as far as I'm concerned, as well as the rest f the world.) The fact that America's very bright, non-Haredi students rioted in support of old JoePa, even though he did nothing to stop the violation of young children, also gets no mention. NOT. ONE. WORD. I guess he cares only about Jewish children being abused. Gentiles mean nothing to him. They can all go to hell, huh? Are they not G-d's children, Scotty? Imagine, just imagine if we would do that, support a Rosh Yeshiva who was fired because he did nothing by rioting and flipping over cars. I've been very patient, Mr. Rosenberg. I shall wait no longer.

You are nothing but a two-bit hypocrite, liar, ingrate - yes, ingrate, and worse.

And most of all, you're an embarrassment to your people.