My father often would get upset when he saw someone who had committed a crime being defended by a Rav. This is a story he told me on one of the many occasions when I visited him in Israel. But before I tell the story, a bit of background about my father.
He was a Charedi. He grew up in Galicia, the son of a prominent Chasidic Rav who was the Mora D’Asra of a community of about five villages in the Ukraine when it was under Polish rule. (I guess one could call it the Five Towns… of Poland). My father’s retirement years were spent in Bnei Brak. He retired to Bnei Brak because it reminded him very much of the community he lived in as a young man in Poland. Immediately after moving there he developed a relationship with a local Chasidic Rebbe who had a shteeble one block away.
This was a special relationship as they were both about the same age, both holocaust survivors, both lived in the US for many years and both immigrated to Israel at about the same time. My father loved people. And people loved him.
This Rebbe was quite decent fellow in many respects. He was a kind and gentle man and a big Talmid Chacham. He recognized and respected my father’s Yichus (a direct descendant of R. Shimon Yaroslover.) In fact, when my father was Nifter the Aron made many stops on its way to its final resting place, one of which was at thatv Shteeble. There were two separate venues for hespedim, one in Chicago and one in Bnei Brak. This Rebbe’s Hespid was the most moving of all hespedim, including my own. He truly loved my dad.
My father would often discuss “current events” in Bnei Brak with me. One time he started telling me the story of a Chasidic fellow who had been caught selling drugs in Israel. An as though that weren’t bad enough he really got livid about the following: In the course of talking about the incident with this Rebbe, and wondering about how someone so Frum could do such a thing, This Rebbe very calmly said to my father, “Reb Shimon, you have to understand, I know this fellow. He has a big family to support!”
My father was so upset at this Rebbe, his friend, that he could barely control himself. How could a Chasidic Rebbe whom he admired and who was a huge Talmid Chacham try and rationalize such behavior? How could he explain away a drug dealer by saying he had a large family to support? Yet that is exactly what this Rebbe did. This Talmid Chacham, this man who had a following, THis man who paskined Shailos for his Chasidim, felt no compunction about defending a drug dealer. How far can one go to be Dan L’Kav Zchus?
I bring up this story to make the following point. There have been far too many instances of rabbis defending bad behavior. And this is but one more. It does no good protesting that we ought to not air our dirty laundry. That just makes the problem worse. We have in our midst a mentality and despicable. Many otherwise good people find it acceptable to excuse even the worst kind of behavior.
There is no Mitzvah to defend it. There is no profit in hiding it in some misguided attempt at being Dan L’Kaf Zchus. Nor is calling it Lashan Hara any good. There is no excuse hiding it under the guise of preventing Chilul HaShem. The Chilul HaShem has already been done. It is up to us to condemn it, not expalin it away.
Whenever Torah Law is perverted by any kind of rabbinic leader it has to be condemned in the strongest possible terms. That is what I am doing here. There is no sweeping it under the carpet.
Many people have complained that my blog serves only to exacerbate the hatred of the outside world against us by exposing our flaws. I disagree. By exposing and condemning I do the exact opposite. Those who may read my blog from that world and read or know of the newspaper articles I sometimes reference will know that at least one rabbi thinks such behavior is inexcusable. And of course it isn’t only “one rabbi” it is vast majority of the Torah leadership… left to right! But all it takes is a few misguided individuals trying to excuse it, to create a Chilul HaShem.
I am often accused of not really having Hochacha as my purpose and that my real purpose is just to bash Charedim. They reason in part that my target audience doesn’t read my blog anyway. But the fact is Charedim do read my blog. Most of those calling me a Charedi basher… are Charedim.
Instead of vilifying me for being a gadfly, those who have been doing so ought to take the message I send to those rabbinic leaders they are defending and convince them join the vast majority of Torah leadership that does not condone bad behavior, and condemns it in even stronger terms than I do. Convince them that their words are being exposed. Convince them to change.
We cannot be an Or LaGoyim if we ignore our problems. They won’t go away. The more some rabbinic leaders rationalize bad behavior the more it will increase. We cannot preach honesty to the world if we excuse dishonesty in our own. Instead of yelling at me… yell at the criminals, and their supportive rabbis, whether they be MO or Charedi. It doesn't make any difference.
