There has been much written about the Monsey Treif meat scandal. I’m not sure that I can add much to the story. But I heard an unbelievable story about this butcher, the owner of Shevach. Apparently after he had been exposed he was seen a day or so later at the L’Chaim of a friend’s child. The people there were surprised to see him there. When asked how he could show his face in town, he said, “What’s the problem? I apologized!”
Talk about not having a clue. Here is a man who perpetrated one of the biggest scams against the Torah world I have ever heard about in modern times, and he thinks an apology will get him right with his community and the rest of Jewish world. What was he thinking? How can anyone think that a simple apology will wipe away the immense fraud he perpetrated? What kind of perverse mind thinks like that? Here is a man who willfully sold Treif meat for years to unsuspecting Torah Jews in the Monsey community for years. How does a respected individual, a Torah Jew with a strong religious background and relatively high level of Torah knowledge sleep at night? …let alone show up after he is caught?! Here is a man who was influential member of the board of a Yeshiva in Spring Valley, who was a Baal Koreh and even gave a Daf Yomi Shiur. Not exactly the profile of a crook of this magnitude or of any magnitude!
I happen to have met this fellow a number of years ago. His son married the daughter of a friend of mine. My wife was the party planner and I was at the wedding too. The only thing unusual about him was that he seemed to be somewhat temperamental and a bit short fused. Other than that, there was nothing unusual about him. His son is a wonderful young man. How could such a monster produce such a fine son? I guess that this fellow was cool as a cucumber and was able to compartmentalize his life with his family, and his fraudulent business life. Kind of like the way a Mafia Boss does.
But it is still a mind boggling thing to conceive of, to execute, and keep secret for so many years the fact that he was willfully deceiving his own Frum community by selling them Treif meat as Kosher. He was only caught inadvertently, through an innocent question from one customer to another about where he was buying the Satmar Shechita meat that he was going to use for his upcoming Simcha. When the answer was that he was buying it from Shevach meats, it raised a red flag. He had spoken to the suppliers from Satmar who told him they hadn’t sold or made any deliveries to Shevach for months! This led to checking out the butcher and the discovery that indeed he had removed the original labels from the Treif packages and had put on kosher ones. And then everything hit the fan.
So what was this man thinking? Here is a possible scenario. It was all about the money. It’s a slippery slope. You rationalize. You start with one Treif chicken that is switched. It could have easily progressed from there. As a Lamdan this butcher probably thought a long these lines: He really needed the money (for whatever reason). He bought Treif chickens for substantially less than kosher ones. He reasoned that since his customers would be clueless, they are completely Patur. They were entirely B'Anus, a Halachic status that absolves one of any fault. And many Poskim have already indicated, the community wasn't even subjected to Timtum HaLeav, a spiritually negative condition on the soul that one attains when eating Treif. These Poskim Paskined that Timtum HaLev does not apply to those who transgressed B'Anus through no fault of their own. As such there is not even any Lifnei Iver. His customers were completely absolved of any wrong doing, so, what's the problem? Win/win for everybody.
So when he was caught, he figured oh well… I’m sorry. Life will go on. Well life has indeed gone on. But Monsey residents will never be the same. And the Hechsher industry has been severely traumatized. And what happened to this butcher? He has divorced his wife, severed all relationships with his children and has disappeared from the planet.
