Questions from Joe Orlow and Yoni Benamou and answers by Rabbi Dovid E. Eidensohn

Torah Questions by Yoni Benamou and Joe Orlow

 Answers by Rabbi Dovid E. Eidensohn

CONTENT

Question One Almost 18 years old - marriage

Answer to QUESTION ONE

Question two “gedolim”

Answer to Question Two “gedolim”

Question One:

I am a Jewish male almost eighteen years of age. Is it wrong for me to be unmarried at this age, even if I turn eighteen? I can get married now, but without proper funds I cannot support a family. Am I a sinner?

Answer to Question One:

The Shulchan Aruch in the beginning of Shulchan Aruch Even Hoezer tells of the mitzvah of marrying at the age of seventeen or eighteen. See Even Hoezer 1:3 in Otsar HaPoskim.  Eighteen according to one opinion means when the eighteenth year begins, and it begins at the conclusion of the seventeenth year. That is, on the seventeenth year birthday begins the eighteenth year. But the full eighteen years do not happen until a year passes from the seventeenth birthday and there is the eighteenth year birthday, when the person achieves a full eighteen years. But the sin of not marrying begins at the beginning of the eighteenth year at the seventeenth birthday when the person had a full seventeen years. That is the time to marry according to this opinion.

Another opinion says that eighteen in the Shulchan Aruch means not the beginning of the eighteenth year after the full seventeen year birthday, but it means the final and full eighteen years, that happens at the beginning of the nineteenth year.

 In earlier generations, a man who refused marriage was taken to the Beth Din and pressured to marry. See Shulchan Aruch Even Hoezer I:3 that this pressure began at the age of twenty. However, the Shulchan Aruch says that this pressure only applies to one who “does not want to marry.” This person is a sinner. But one who is actively seeking a shidduch is not pressured.

Also one who is busy learning Torah and is afraid that if he marries he will have to go to work and not learn, is also not pressured. As long as he does not have sinful thoughts, he is allowed to continue his learning. However, if this goes on for a very long time there could be problems. See Even Hoezer I:3 and Otsar HaPoskim there number 22. See also Even Hoezer I:4 and Otsar Haposkim on the subject if a learner who refuses marriage is completely free of marriage or should be told to marry.

I recall years ago when I learned in Yeshiva and there was a boy a great masmid, always learning. He was also tall and good looking. But he didn’t marry and was getting along in years. I went over to him and said, “Look, you are a deeply pious person and want to keep the Torah. If you had married, you would probably have had children by now. Is this lack of children not considered by you a Hefsed merubo a “great loss” that permits people to be lenient in some manners? He soon married.

ANSWER TO QUESTION ONE JOE ORLOW

Question Two – A group of questions by Joe Orlow about “Gedolim”

Why do the "Gadolim" I speak with not express sympathy for the struggle that unlearned people have when they witness what appears to be a huge breach of Halacha? Even an Av Bais Din told me he is in pain at the apparent transgression in the case of permitting Tamar Epstein to remarry.

Why do these "Gadolim" not express  embarrassment for issuing a ruling that smacks of pandering, even if they justify the pandering by saying they must uphold the illusion that "Gadolim" are perfect, or justify it because they must keep the money flowing to their Yeshivas?

What does it mean when "Gadolim" rule in such a way that others will sin based on the ruling and thus ruling in a way that is a Chillul Hashem? Practically speaking, do those who act this way have a Chelek in Olam Haba or is a lifetime of Torah and Mitzvos squandered by one misstep?

Why did the "Gadolim" stumble here? Or have they been playing fast and loose with the rules for years and just got caught here?

The "Gadolim" are acting silly. They say that the couple is forbidden and in the same breath say the couple can rely on Rabbi Greenblatt to stay together. Are the "Gadolim" insane?

END QUESTIONS

ANSWER TWO JOE ORLOW “GEDOLIM”

From Rabbi Dovid E. Eidensohn

Joe, thank you for your five questions. Let us take a look at them. We label them as questiontwo A, question two B, then C then D then E.

Question Two – A group of questions by Joe Orlow about “Gedolim”

Why do the "Gadolim" I speak with not express sympathy for the struggle that unlearned people have when they witness what appears to be a huge breach of Halacha? Even an Av Bais Din told me he is in pain at the apparent transgression in the case of permitting Tamar Epstein to remarry.

Answer Two A – There was a huge eruption of Gedolim in Israel, America and Canada over the Tamar Epstein scandal. Who was responsible for it? Shalom Kaminetsky, Shmuel Kaminetsky, and Noto Greenblatt. I don’t know how many people think that they are still Gedolim. On my blog, I call all of them Mamzer Makers. If Tamar ever has a baby from Adam almost all rabbonim and Gedolim in the world will consider the baby a definite mamzer diroayso. So who are the “gedolim” that you refer to who don’t express sympathy for a huge breach of Halacha?

In truth, it is not so simple that these three are the whole problem regarding Tamar. Shmuel Kaminetsky went to David Feinstein who proclaimed that a Beth Din he would make would adjudicate the situation of Shmuel Kaminetsky and his granting Tamar the right to remarry without a GET. We are all waiting and waiting for that Beth Din to adjudicate and nothing happened. Finally, I called up Hillel David and asked him how the Beth Din could be silent when a woman is married to somebody not her husband and if she has a baby it is a mamzer. He replied that the Beth Din was only made as a service to help Shmuel Kaminetsky. It had nothing to do with the rest of us. If I wanted to know what the Beth Din held, I would have to ask Shmuel Kaminetsky.

I realized that this Beth Din is simply an excuse to save Shmuel Kaminetsky as a “gadol” for the Agudah. I blamed in my blog David Feinstein as an evil person and wrote that he is worthy of being put in Cherem. Hillel David and the other Dayan are about the same level. But people realize what happened and there is, especially on my brother’s blog every day, a severe accounting for what Feinstein did.

Question Two B - Why do these "Gadolim" not express embarrassment for issuing a ruling that smacks of pandering, even if they justify the pandering by saying they must uphold the illusion that "Gadolim" are perfect, or justify it because they must keep the money flowing to their Yeshivas? End question 2b.

Answer Two B: The two ninety year old rabbis S Kaminetsky and N Greenblatt may believe what they want. They are not Gedolim and are known to invent halacha. When Tamar first became interested in marrying without a GET I called N Greenblatt and asked him how he could perform a marriage on a woman who is married to somebody else and has no GET. He replied that Gedolim approved of it. That is a bald lie. There are no Gedolim who approved it. The permission to marry without a GET was a process of lies rooted in Shalom Kaminetsky and his father, who fooled N Greenblatt to make the marriage ceremony. Greenblatt and the two Kaminetskies are not people who know what it is to be embarrassed even when they make mamzerim. Next question.

Another Answer Two B. I believe this is included in answer One. The majority of gedolim were furious with Greenblatt, and the two Kaminetskies. And when David Feinstein got involved, there were many negative comnments about his “beth din.” End answer Two B.

Question 2 C - What does it mean when "Gadolim" rule in such a way that others will sin based on the ruling and thus ruling in a way that is a Chillul Hashem? Practically speaking, do those who act this way have a Chelek in Olam Haba or is a lifetime of Torah and Mitzvos squandered by one misstep? End question 2 C.

Answer question 2C: Again, the two Kaminetskies are not gedolim, they are only great in being wicked and falsifying the Torah. Everybody knows this. The Brisker Rov in Israel wrote a letter that Shmuel Kaminetsky is forbidden to teach Torah. He is a real rosho.

Question 2 D - Why did the "Gadolim" stumble here? Or have they been playing fast and loose with the rules for years and just got caught here?

Ansswer 2 D. No Gedolim stumbled. Some very wicked and ignorant people stumbled, and they were savaged by rabbis from around the world who pointed out that their permission for Tamar to remarry without a GET was based upon plain lies and ridiculous inventions.

Question 2 E - The "Gadolim" are acting silly. They say that the couple is forbidden and in the same breath say the couple can rely on Rabbi Greenblatt to stay together. Are the "Gadolim" insane?

Answer 2E – These like Kaminetsky and Greenblatt are not acting silly and they are not insane. They are full fledged wicked people who violate the Torah and make mamzerim. David Feinstein helps S Kaminetsky and he will answer for this terrible sin. He is not silly and he is not insane. But he backs a mamzer maker and so he is wicked. And he probably had political reasons to fulfill his wickedness, such as the need for the Agudah to maintain the fiction that Kaminetsky is a Gadol. But he is a great sinner, not a Gadol. And David Feinstein belongs in the same garbage can as Sammy.