It has now been a few days that the world has been alerted to the meeting of Rabbi Dovid Feinstein and several other rabbis to do something about the situation with Tamar Epstein. Interested parties are Rabbi Shmuel Kaminetsky and probably Rabbi N. Greenblatt. But after a few days, nobody knows anything that has transpired. People are wondering. Here are my comments.
First of all, since around Yom Kippur past, the world has been notified that Tamar has remarried. Many rabbis have strongly protested. But nothing happened. Now, why is there a meeting of prominent rabbis now? Does RSK think that Rabbi Dovid Feinstein will support him in what he did? If Reb Dovid or any rabbi does that, the rabbi has lost his credibility big time. For Reb Dovid the situation is in more precarious than for other rabbis. Because Reb Moshe his father clearly states that although there are grounds to terminate a marriage in certain emergency situations, this holds true only if the husband refuses to give a GET. However, in the Tamar case, everyone knows that the husband will give a GET if he can be sure of getting custody of his daughter in a meaningful way, meaning that Tamar will have to move back to Washington or Baltimore. Therefore, if Reb Dovid backs the Heter, he is defying his father, which is ridiculous to contemplate. (I have spoke to Aharon about this several times.)
If so, why is there this meeting? Who wanted it and what did they expect from it? Here is my take on it.
I was told that the Nevominsker Rebbe was involved in this, but I don't know, and it seems that nobody knows if any of this is true. But my thoughts coincide with this as I will explain.
We want to know who arranged this meeting. And, simultaneously, we want to know what the arranger wanted from the meeting. Phrased a big differently: What normal person would get involved in this mess? Why?
I believe that the pressure for this meeting comes from only one group that is desperate to straighten things out, and that is Agudas Yisroel. It is now accepted in the world that RSK did a terrible and wrong thing. But who cares? RSK is a very old man with a very long history of doing important things for the Torah world. Even if he did something wrong at this stage, he has enough students and disciples to survive, even though perhaps most people will reject his "gadluse." And furthermore, for RSK to call such a meeting that has a very small chance of accepting his destruction of Tamar, makes no sense. So who would call this meeting and who is so desperate to call it when it makes no sense for anybody to anticipate anything from it?
The Agudah must straighten this out, because it has clearly marked Reb Shmuel as a major Gadol in Klal Yisroel and one of their great rabbis. In the event that times go on and more and more people are asking why RSK is still silent about Tamar, this will impact more on the Agudah than it will on RSK and his son, who really don't care about what people say about them. I heard this from a Rov who heard it from RSK, that people say this and that about him and he doesn't care. I heard it also from another source.
I am not a friend of the Agudah. I recall that some years back they backed the gays in a defense bill in Washington. I think it was the only religious group that backed the gays. Around that time, I called up two of the senior Roshei Yeshiva of Agudah and asked them to help out with fighting the gays. They both said the exact same words that "it is forbidden to fight gays" and when I asked why they said, "Because we are against hate."
Now, I don't know about the Roshei Yeshiva of the Agudah, but I say a posuk when the Torah is taken from the Aron HaKodesh that says קומה השם ויפצו איביך וינסו משנאיך מפניו . Who in the world is greater enemy of the Torah than the gays who defy the biblical ban on homosexuality?
I have a friend whose wife took him to a secular court. The judge ordered him to give a GET or go to jail. The friend told me that he called up a prominent person in the Agudah and was told that they don't get involved in such things. (After all, they are busy helping gays.)
It is time to go beyond the Agudah. It is a new world and the Chofetz Chaim and Reb Aharon Kotler don't work there any more. Reb Shmuel does, and he has some friends.
The issue is whether or not RSK is a gadol or not. If he is not, he must be removed from the Agudah's rabbinic leadership. But if he has destroyed a yesoma and maybe her child, how can be stay a Gadol? And will the Agudah support women who follow Tamar?
My personal opinion is that there is no kosher way to solve this, and it is likely that whoever pressured these rabbis to have this meeting to save the Agudah or whatever has just made things worse. I don't even know how there can be a revealed end to this meeting. Unless they announce that they have solved everything but it is a secret. That is ridiculous, but the whole meeting is ridiculous. There is no way to have such a meeting and promote RSK as a Gadol and keep Tamar married and having children. But if the Agudah backed the gays in the defense bill, who knows what they will do for their political problems? They needed gays because the big politicians are liberals. That means money for Yeshivas and power for the Agudah. So why not throw out the Torah a second time and announce that RSK is a gadol and everyone must accept it.
I won't.
