Mamzer Makers: What is Next?

By Rabbi Dovid E. Eidensohn/845-578-1917/eidensohnd@gmail.com

About a month ago, Tamar Epstein Friedman married somebody while she was still married to Aharon Friedman. She had previously proclaimed that she did not need a GET from Aharon. Around Yom Kippur Rabbi Notto Greenblatt performed a ceremony marrying her to a strange man not her husband.

For many months we have posted on our blogs warnings that Rabbis Shmuel and Shalom Kaminetsky of Philadelphia Yeshiva felt that Tamar could remarry without a GET. But other than our warnings, there was nothing. And then, around Yom Kippur of this year, Tamar “married” another man not her husband, without a GET. 

A few months before she remarried, some rabbis tried to convince Tamar and those backing her to accept the general feeling that remarrying requires a GET, but this failed.  Then when the remarriage was publicized people were shocked. A few weeks after the remarriage, senior rabbis from various countries published signed letters from their Beth Dins or personal understanding. All of the letters said that Tamar’s baby from this new husband would be mamzerim. All of the writers said that the logic of the HETER to remarry was completely wrong. And some of the letters went further, such as ridiculing “rabbis” involved in this, or putting them in Cherem.

Anger built in the Torah community fueled by more and more letters from prominent rabbis. One of the “rabbis” involved in the heter had to speak somewhere. It is reported that he brought a police escort due to the great hostility at his action.

What will happen now?

The universal outpouring of fury against the ridiculous excuses for remarriage without a GET guarantees that if Tamar has a child it will be considered by responsible people to be a mamzer. (Maybe Shalom will marry the mamzer to A  student in the Philly Yeshiva.) Therefore, if Tamar remains married to her new “husband” and has a child that almost all people consider a mamzer, what will happen then? Well, the child will be a mamzer.  And what else?

The players in this are Rabbis Shmuel and Shalom Kaminetsky, who are the  movers and shakers behind this mamzer making.  Rabbi Notto Greenblatt trusted the Kaminetskys and performed the wedding ceremony.  So he certainly is being watched how he will react to the general fury at his baseless heter.

And of course, there is Tamar and her family. What will they do? Will they remain faithful despite everything to the teachings of the Rabbis Kaminetsky and have a baby considered by most people to be a mamzer? Or will they separate? Or will they take birth control pills? Or will they have the child and believe that Rabbi Kaminetsky will take care of things?

If the Kaminetskies  and Rabbi Greenblatt continue to maintain that Tamar is legally married, we can anticipate many women leaving their husbands and finding some rabbi who will perform the ceremony. We will thus have an increase of mamzerim. But how can the rabbi mamzermakers  back down now after Tamar is married and may be pregnant? How bitter will she and her rich and powerful family be if the same rabbis who got her into this mess now desert her and concede that what she did was wrong and produced mamzerim?

Like it or not, it is unlikely for this to happen. This leaves only one solution. Aharon Freidman must give his wife a GET as soon as possible. Then, if she is not pregnant, she can be convinced to wait and stay away from her husband for a while. Things must be arranged so that Tamar’s next child will be born  at a time when it seems to have been produced after the GET.  But how is anyone going to convince Aharon to give a GET? Senior rabbis have already said that he has no obligation to give her a GET. He, personally, knows that if he gives her a GET, he can probably forget about his daughter. He is one individual fighting a mafia in Philadelphia of very rich and powerful people, who have already been in Federal Court for trying to kidnap and torture Aharon to force him to give Tamar a GET. For this they paid sixty thousand dollars and the FBI has the proof and the confession of their Philly lawyer. Aharon was jumped in front of his mother-in-law’s house and there is a police witness, besides the confession of Tamar’s mother lawyer that they paid sixty thousand dollars to the Epstein goons to kidnap and torture Aharon to give a GET.

It would seem that there is only one end to this: Tamar’s  mamzer children will produce outrage and some people may refuse to have such children, and some people may decide to have such children, rather than settle with their real husbands. This could split the Orthodox world.

I know that there are rabbis out there who want to settle this for the sake of Klal Yisroel, even if Aharon gets butchered. Aharon lives in Washington, DC, and to force  him to give Tamar a GET he is so demonized that he cannot doven in any shull. Even after Tamar declared that she doesn’t need a GET the community still makes it impossible for Aharon to doven in a shull there. Many rabbis feel such a hate for Aharon that he is alone and persecuted. But when Tamar remarries without a GET, these same rabbis ignore it. And yet, Tamar’s remarriage is something clearly forbidden by HaGaon Reb Moshe Feinstein and the great poskim as I bring many times on my blog torahhalacha.blogspot.com and my brother’s blog daattorah.blogspot.com, and as prominent rabbis have published recently. But Washington, DC “rabbis” feel that Aharon must be tortured and Tamar ignored.

Well, I am not going to ignore Tamar. And I am not going to ignore the Washington rabbis with their twisted Torah. And I am not going to ignore the rabbis who feel that we must sacrifice Aharon to settle this mess.

Years ago, when I began attacking prominent rabbis who ruled against husbands in ways forbidden by the Shulchan Aruch and poskim, and I was basically alone, I had a dream. HaGaon Reb Aharon Kotler came to me and said, “I am going to test you on Tamid.” I woke up and could not imagine what that was all about, but I knew it was real, not just a dream. It took me a while to understand. The problems I am fighting are growing and are not going way. I must fight them Tamid, because the rabbis who  do these things are, like Greenblatt and Kaminetsky, big names, and people are afraid to start up with them. Even those rabbis who signed letters that Tamar’s children from her new “husband” will be mamzerim, were careful to mention that those who did incredibly stupid things in halacha are still “Gedolim” rachmono litslon.

This war seems to be getting more and more terrible with time. I am alone, me and my brother, and a few rabbis who have posted their opposition to the heter of Tamar. But as time goes on, I hope to stick it out Tamid, forever bli neder,  and I hope others will join the cause to save Klal Yisroel from being part mamzer.

How should I end this? I did Goral HaGro and it answered very quickly. It is a posuk in Melochim II:17 about the stubborn sinning of the Jews that led to the Chorbon: “And they did not listen. And they hardened their necks as the necks of their forefathers, who did not believe in the L-d their G-d.”

We have a Torah. We have a Shulchan Aruch. We have a gemora and the poskim. May a woman remarry without a GET? Why do some rabbis of our time put their energies into demonizing a husband who wants to see his daughter taken from him by his wife and taken to a far off city? Why do these rabbis not demonize  people who clearly defy the Shulchan Aruch and the poskim and make mamzerim?

They don’t have to answer to me. But they will answer to HaShem. And when they are judged for torturing Aharon will they will trot out their lies about Aharon? Let them say their  inventions of halacha. Let them reply to the Heavenly Court that true they defy the Shulchan Aruch, but they are Gedolim. Let them.

We will start our free telephone conferences this Wednesday night at nine o’clock. Dial 605-562-3130 then enter code 411161#. The conference begins with remarks stated here on this post, and you will be notified when to ask questions and make comments.

We want to go public. If you want to participate in our growth and if you know others who want to learn about laws of family and related topics, call me at 845-578-1917.

Dovid Eidensohn/845-578-1917/eidensohnd@gmail.com