Profile Rabbi Dovid E. Eidensohn

Thursday, January 31, 2019

How Can Mortals Understand HaShem? A Kabbalistic answer




Goal One, whereas people are finite and limited in their ability to know anything, and even the greatest thinkers are changing their minds frequently and need help from other thinkers, how can humans being know HaShem? What is it about HaShem that people really know? Meaning, if the mind of HaShem is unknown to humans because it is heavenly and we are completely ignorant about heaven, how can we then relate to HaShem? How can we pray to Him if we don’t understand Him?



First of all, Goal One. How can we pray to HaShem if He is in heaven and we don’t understand anything about heaven with worldly finite minds?

The Torah begins “In the beginning of ___, HaShem created the heaven and the earth.” It does not say “the first thing in creation was the creation of heaven and earth.” It says “In the beginning of ___” meaning, it does not say in the beginning of what. Thus, the Torah begins with a statement that has no understanding.

But keep in mind that heaven is not a dimension open to people. And here the creation was about heaven as it was about earth. But in the beginning of creation means the beginning of heaven as well as earth. But people cannot understand heaven and so how can they understand in the beginning of what heaven was created?

We are not able to understand in the beginning of what heaven was created. So it is left unsaid. But that itself is crucial for us to understand. Yes, there is a heaven, and yes, we don’t understand it, and yes, G‑d wants us to know that there is a hidden heaven and that it is hidden from us, but we must know that it is there, and that HaShem is there, and that we have a role to play in heaven even if we don’t know what it is or what heaven is. But HaShem gave us a Torah, and although much of life is hidden from us, when we devote ourselves to learning Torah and studying under great rabbis, much becomes revealed to us.

In fact, the missing phrase in “in the beginning of__” has a meaning precisely what I just said. We cannot with our finite minds know HaShem or heaven, but if we study Torah properly. the lights of heaven percolate into our system, each person according to his efforts and piety. Each of us has the potential to understand things that are beyond us, through Torah and piety and fear of HaShem.

There is a famous story from the tsadik Reb Shlomo Schwadron, about the Second World War, which, when it broke out, and the Germans invaded Poland, led to terror and killing. A Jew fled Poland and came to Israel, because he realized that in Poland only death awaited the Jews. But if he came to Israel, perhaps somehow he could find a way to save his wife and children.

He came to Israel and remembered a tradition that one who prays forty days at the Kosel can merit miracles. He went for forty days to the Kosel, crying bitterly that HaShem save his wife and children. On the fortieth day, he noticed a man praying. He realized that this man was not an ordinary person, but a great saint. Perhaps, he thought, this person can tell me about my family. He went to the person and asked him to please tell him how his family is. The man was befuddled and simply ran away. he Polish Jew ran after him, but the man ran home quickly and shut the door after him. The Polish man rapped on the door, and he heard inside somebody running. It was that same person who now opened the door and said, “Now I have the obligation of honoring a guest. Please, come in, and let me get something for you.” He brought out some food and was quite friendly. The Polish man said that he wanted to know about his wife and children. How are they? Is there a way to save them from the fiends?

The man suddenly grew somber, put his head down and thought a bit, and then asked, “If I tell you, will it remain a secret?” “Yes,” said the man. The man asked, “Do you live in a house on the corner with two floors?” “Yes.” “The Germans are inside the house, but they are not bothering anyone. Your family will be safe and sound and come to Israel.” And so it was.

This is also the idea in “In the beginning of____” You and I don’t know what that missing phrase is, but that holy man did know. And each Jew has the potential to increase his piety and holiness and achieve wonderful knowledge through the Torah and light of heaven.

It was known that the holy rabbi Rav Yeshayeh Karelitz, the Chazon Ish, would regularly be consulted by very sick people, and he told them very often things completely opposite from the doctors. He once told somebody who asked him that the key to saving a person’s life was a doctor so and so, and the Chazon Ish added, that this doctor did not have to do anything for the sick person, but he had to be at the hospital during the surgery. For some reason, the doctor was unwilling to be the doctor to perform the surgery, and another doctor did it. But the person got better. The doctor then asked somebody, “Okay, your rabbi was able to determine that if I would come the person would get better, something that was not at all obvious to me. But how did he know that I should watch the surgery if I did nothing?” The answer: The rabbi wanted it that way. He knows why, I don’t.  As I recall the story the time came when this doctor himself came to the Chazon Ish and asked him why it was important for him to come if he did nothing. I don’t recall the answer. But it is known that the Chazon Ish, although a rabbi in a small farming village which eventually became a large city, was constantly besieged by people who needed this or that miracle immediately, and he always helped out. He actually was part of a group of relatives who were saints who did make miracles regularly. The great saint Reb Chaim Kanievsky is part of that family, and Rav Shach was also a participant in making miracles. Greatness in piety and greatness in Torah go a long way.

This first passage begins with the heaven and the earth, two opposite dimensions. Angels are in heaven and people are in this world. People in this world are removed from HaShem as He is in heaven. But HaShem created people who in a way are holier to Him even more than angels. For this reason, the angels cry out in pain: Why are pious people close to G‑d and the angels outside of that level?

HaShem created angels who sing His glory and fulfill His will. People, on the other hand, are not angels, far from it. This world is filled with evil. Even good people are usually not perfect. As the woman in the Song of Songs said, “I have been made black as the ancient dead.” But the creation was essentially for humans who have evil inclinations and do sins, and they are required to live their lives with their pain and evil thoughts and deeds, and to do penitence, and then they will be forgiven. That penitence is light from darkness, and a very high light, the true purpose of Creation.

“From the darkness you will see the light.” But only from the darkness. The angels are heavenly and very close to HaShem, but they cry out that people are closer to HaShem than they are. Only light from darkness is the true holiness. Angels naturally perfect are remote from that. But people with their remoteness from heaven who repent their evil ways and seek light from darkness, can find it. And when their light arrives, it is the true purpose of creation. The prime purpose of Creation was people who sinned, and almost everybody sins, do sincere Teshuva. (Avoda Zora 4b)

People saddled with darkness and evil thoughts have a hard time finding light, and surely have a hard time discovering what the first passage of the Torah teaches, “In the beginning of ____ HaShem created the heaven and the earth.” Struggling to find that light is the purpose of life. Struggling to battle the evil inclination is higher than sitting in heaven and singing to HaShem, because light from darkness is the greatest light.

The Kabbalists says that when HaShem sent the soul of Adam from heaven into the world, He even then realized that the world would be filled with challenge, darkness, and yes, evil, and yes, pure evil. He wanted Adam to taste this evil even in the highest dimensions as he sailed down into the Garden of Eden. HaShem always knew that evil would be a great part of the world, as challenge, as the force that people would conquer to merit the highest light and portions in heaven greater than the angels who have no evil temptations. For this, HaShem had prepared in heaven a male and a female set of angels whose job it would be to bring evil when HaShem wanted them to do it. That job began with the sailing of Adam into the Garden of Eden. It continued when the angel of heaven whose job was to tempt men tormented Adam on the way down into this world, and her husband terrorized Adam’s wife Eve until she ate from the forbidden fruit and got the first humans expelled from the Garden of Eden. But we are going too fast.

The work of the angel whose job it was to torment men and seduce them began her work, as we explained, higher than this world, as Adam’s soul was coming down from heaven to the Garden of Eden. Her husband terrorized Eve who ate from the Forbidden Fruit and got Adam and her expelled from the Garden of Eden. But after the period when the angel of evil she arrived in this world, she was sitting with her husband in heaven, during the marriage of Adam and Eve. The marriage of Adam and Eve was a Kabbalistic affair. They stared at each other and began to count the letters of the Alpha Beth, the alphabet. Each letter mentioned and studied brought great powers to the marriage. Soon the angels in heaven, almost all of them, were watching this, and then, as the letters went higher and higher, they all came down to watch up close.

The only angels left were those whose job was to bring evil to the world. They looked around and saw that they were all alone. This did not appeal to them. After all, they were created for a purpose. Sitting there while the angels watched the wedding was not their job. So they went down into the world. This time, it was the wife, an extraordinary beauty, who did her job. All she did was to walk near Adam as he was staring at Eve, who was also a great beauty, but she was not an angel, and Adam did notice the angel. That second, all of the angels disappeared. The wedding was over. The angel had done her job very well. Adam and Eve separated, unlike what we would anticipate for people who actually marry. In the case of Adam and Eve, there was only one woman in the world for Adam, and he should have accepted her and mollified her for his noticing the angel, but he was so bitter that he decided to have nothing to do with Eve who had dealt with the snake and got both Adam and Eve banished from the Garden of Eden. For years, he lived alone. And when he slept, the angel of evil came to him and tempted him to give birth to forces of evil or demons. That angel really did a bang-up job. I think she should have asked for a bonus!

Adam’s misery continued for a long time. One day, he met Kain, the murderer of his brother Hevel. Kain didn’t appear to be a broken murderer. Adam asked why not and he said, “I repented and HaShem accepted it. He gave me a power to be saved from those who want to kill me.” When Adam heard that HaShem accepts penitence, he realized that that applied to him. The first step, he realized, was to make peace with his wife and establish a true marriage, based not on perfection but on the penitence that both of them had to make for what they had done to each other rather than struggling with the destruction of the angel of evil that ruined the marriage. Adam went to Eve and declared, “You are the mother of all life.” Now Adam and Eve were reconciled and the angel didn’t get a bonus for that.

One day Adam was talking to HaShem and asked how many years he would live. HaShem said, One thousand years. HaShem then told him about various people including King David. Adam asked how many years David would live. HaShem replied, a few hours. Adam said, “I give him seventy years of my life.” HaShem accepted that.

It is interesting to know that the gemora asks how it is possible that the most holy people, King David and the Jews at Sinai sinned terribly. David said,, “My heart is still inside of me” meaning it has no evil inclination. Tthe Jews at Sinai who died when HaShem spoke to them, and the angels brought them back to life with great crowns, sinned by worshipping the Golden Calf and King David took Basheva from her husband a grave sin. The gemora explains that these people were not designed to sin, were far from it. But HaShem wanted to prove that the holiest people, those farthest from sin, can do the worse sins. Once people realized that even the holiest people can sin and HaShem accepts their penitence, anyone can repent, and indeed, the most important thing is not light or darkness, but penitence. King David did a lot of crying after the sin of Bas Sheva, which he did after HaShem warned him to anticipate divine testing that he would be forced to sin. David realized when he saw Bas Sheva that this was what HaShem meant. He realized also that if he controlled himself he would insult HaShem, and so he did the sin. For that he had to do a lot of crying and penitence. But that crying and penitence was what HaShem wanted, not the sin.

I want here to confess that my rebbe in the beginning of his sefer The Gates of the Kabbala quotes, as is his wont, the Vilna Gaon and other greats of Kabbala, to explain why HaShem created the world and how people can know HaShem when we can’t know Him. I don’t want to quote the exact words of these greats because I learned the hard way, after studying teachings of many gates of great kabbalists, that they didn’t necessarily want to reveal everything they said to people like me. I had to work very hard until I was able to follow their thinking, at least, to some degree.

Against my better inclinations, I suppose I should just say a few words of quote from words of these Kabbalists my rebbe quoted, although I fear it would just make some people like me confused. But to understand the true confusion here, let me say that the Kabbala takes literally the fact that this world is not only different than heaven, but people in this world with their very limited finite knowledge, are not only unable to know heaven and certainly HaShem, but even those forces that HaShem created specifically to bring light to people, contains sections that it not only is forbidden to describe them, but it is forbidden to even say that they exist!

Yes, HaShem created, for the benefit of people, Ten Sefirose, or worlds. The highest world is KESER or crown, and it is only a Sefira designed to bring light to people. But we may not say that it exists! The second sefira underneath KESER is CHOCHMO. We may say that it exists, but it is a heavenly body that imparts nothing of significance to mortals other than the fact that it exists, something forbidden for KESER.

CHOCHMO has a wife, BINA, the third Sefira down from the top. BINA is never separated from CHOCHMO, she has no fear from him, and they are never separated. Both of them were created simultaneously. But he is above the barrier to heaven and she is facing down into the bottom seven which are much closer to human understanding. CHOCHMO is terrified of KESER.

While we are at it, let us mention one fast fact. The bottom Sefira is a woman, MALCHUSE. Into her go the evil of this world, and she suffers terribly. She is the woman in the Song of Songs who cries out, “They have blackened me as the blackest in the world.” That sounds pretty terrible. But this is Kabbala. Rabbi Moshe Chaim Lutsato in Adir BaMorom says that MALCHUSE, meaning monarchy, has a good friend. It is a Sefira. And it is KESER. And guess what? Again, we are talking about the great Kabbalists. Just listen and don’t faint. KESER and MALCHSUE are one! KESER comes down to MALCHUSE and MALCHUSE rises, not up to KESER alone, but past KESER, into the heavenly realm where no humans may think what is happening there. Yes, MONARCHY and KESER are one, which is not the whole truth. The whole truth is that MALCHUSE goes farther into heaven than KESER. If you are not dizzy now, I can’t help you.

While you hopefully are dizzy, let me throw out some more dizziness, just quotes from my rebbe and the great Kabbalists such as the Vilna Gaon. HaShem wanted people to know Him, but that is impossible. How can mortals know heaven and how can they know HaShem? So HaShem created a force that enables people in this world to know HaShem enough to pray to Him and worship Him. Its name is צורת מרכבת אדם העליון in English the Form of the Chariot of the Senior Man. If you are not totally confused, allow me to help you. There is a passage in Ezekiel about his vision of a heavenly throne and the form of a man was upon it. Now, this passage was presented to all readers, the throne and the man. I don’t think it was a real man, of course, and I surely don’t believe it was HaShem chas vishalom. But could it have been the Chariot of the Senior Man, created by HaShem to reveal His light to mortals, perhaps when they study Torah properly? If you are dizzy, what difference does it make?

Torah requires wealth based upon several gemoras

 Raise children to be wealthy and great in Torah.



Raising Children to be Rich in Torah and Money

by Rabbi Dovid E. Eidensohn
The gemora in Horiyuse 10B tells how the students of Rovo, one of the greatest sages of the gemora, visited him. He asked them if they finished this and that volume of the Talmud and they said they have finished the books. He then asked them if they were wealthy. Rav Popo replied that he was wealthy. Rovo was pleased with this response, because one who is comfortable financially can learn Torah with peace of mind, unlike a person troubled constantly with debt.
We have a gemora quoting Shlomo HaMelech in Mishlei that one should not marry until he  has a house and a good job. See Sota 44a. When we note that in Shulchan Aruch Even Hoezer I:3 it says a man should marry before twenty, and when we find in chazal "an eighteen year old should marry" we wonder where all the money came that an eighteen year old who spent most of his time learning Torah suddenly had money for a house and a good job.

The answer is as follows: A child has no obligation to keep the Torah, because only one who is Bar Mitsvah must keep the Torah. However, the father of the child has an obligation to train the boy for adulthood. Whatever an adult must do the child must be trained for it.

 If an adult must learn nine hours a day and work three hours a day as the Rambam Talmud Torah I:12  and Shulchan Aruch Orach Chaim 156:1  tell us, a father must teach his son at a very early age to learn how to earn. Originally, the father makes it very easy, such as telling the son to go to school with some fruit from the farm and trade it with another child who is also learning how to buy and sell. But gradually, the child builds up experience, is trained to rap on doors, finds out the hard way that some people are not honest, and gradually develops under his father's tutelage into a first rate businessman. At the age of Bar Mitsvah he is already learning how to invest his savings into buying property if the price is right, and then he sells is when the price rises. At the age of eighteen he is ready for marriage. He has money for a house and has a going business in various things, real estate, selling things from the farm such as leather, and other opportunities.

The gemora in Berochose 35b says that in earlier generations people had pure faith in HaShem and deliberately earned little and learned steadily. They merited to earn with the small effort a good living. But today who can trust in such things? The solution today is to raise a child from a young age to earn part of the day even though he learns most of the day, and to learn business. As the  years pass, the child is trained by his father to be a true businessman, and by the time he seeks marriage, he owns properties or established good earning with various businesses.

Imagine a house where an eighteen year old boy has wealth. How much peace and contentment is in that house. How happy is the wife who can have what she needs and more. How happy are the children of that house, especially when their father begins training them in business, together with their main efforts, in learning Torah. Such a family trains children to be great in Torah and wealthy. This is what the Torah wants from people, if they make the effort and merit it. Because not everyone merits wealth, but it is surely an ideal to strive for.

Some rabbis such as Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Yehuda the Prince were extremely wealthy. Some were very poor, like Hillel. But how lovely it is to train a child from childhood to aim for wealth, to understand business, and to manage, in a few hours as a child, to establish himself as a successful businessman by the time he reaches marital age.

Children spend hours and hours on having fun. The best fun is to learn to earn and to watch the coins pile up. That brings a family of happiness and blessing.

Question: Do we raise our children to be great in Torah and wealthy? Or do we raise them to be "Great" in Torah, which almost never happens, and when it doesn't happen, a family is in trouble. And if we don't raise a child to earn, and he faces marital age, what hope does he have to have a house and a good job? Is this what Rambam says applies to a person who does not have a house and a good job and marries, that he is a Tipash? Rambam Mishneh Torah Dayose V:11

It is time to think carefully: Are we raising our children to be wealthy and great in Torah, or are we raising them to be Tipshim? Recall the above, that a gemora in Sota 44a clearly forbids marriage without a house and a good job, and this is brought in Shulchan Aruch Oruch Chaim 156:1. Why do so many people ignore open gemoras and poskim? Why, when we see the misery in so many broken families, we don't think into this?

Anyone who wants to discuss this with me can reach me at 845-578-1917.

Wednesday, January 30, 2019

Honest Money and Raising Good Children


Plan 4 – The Honest Torah and the Other Kind

Dovid Eidensohn

Here we want to combat what we saw before in A New Agudah #2, that New York State made a GET Law that produced mamzerim. This was produced all over the country and all over the world ultimately by women who are advised by prominent ‘rabbis’ to force a GET from their husband. This is forbidden by Rambam, Rashbo, Vilna Gaon, and the commentators in Shulchan Aruch Aruch Chaim 77. A Gadol HaDor has complained that when the New York State GET Law was passed, nobody protested. Recently, I spoke with somebody from New Jersey who said that maybe New York Jews don’t care about making mamzerim, but he knows people in New Jersey who do care. That is regarding the New York State GET Law. But forcing husbands to give their wives a GET which produces mamzerim is a thriving business. We will have hundreds or thousands of mamzerim very soon HaShem Yerachem.

It is my task therefore, at a time like this, to arouse the Torah public to protest loudly against those who do things that produce mamzerim.

We have a sacred duty to fight Governor Cuomo of New York who this month of January 2019 passed a law that if somebody causes the death of a fetus there are no criminal charges. The mother can just cry and maybe suffer from the violent destruction of the fetus so she mayl have difficulty having healthy babies again. If somebody knifed the mother or attempted to kill her or to injure her, they can be jailed as murderers or damagers. But nobody cares about the fetus.

We have also discussed earlier the crisis of serious scholars and rabbis who actually cultivate ties with people whose live are contrary to the most sacred teachings of the Torah. They do this sin for the benefit of getting government money or such material matters. Here too we must arouse the Torah community about “The Honest Torah and the Other Kind.”

A great rebbe said that there are children who learned very well in Torah schools but did not end up very well. He said that this is because the father cheated people. A man once lost his money and his children. He asked a rabbi what sin did he do to deserve this horrible end. He was asked if he ever robbed a non-Jew. He said that once he did rob somebody and right afterwards was when he lost his money and his children.

We must commit ourselves to the Honest Torah and to avoid The Other Kind. If we steal from a gentile Rabbi Moshe Feinstein told me that this was a serious sin, and a Chilul HaShem. Let us know and truly believe that HaShem watches our every act, and stealing, even from a gentile, is a very big problem in the eyes of HaShem.

In fact, HaShem has said that when somebody sins he can repent and be cleansed of his sin. But if he harms a fellow being, he is not forgiven. And no penitence will help, unless he gets forgiveness from the one he harmed. If he is truly desperate to repent, and he can’t find the person he stole from, there are ideas about going to the person’s grave and asking for his forgiveness in front of a group of people who witness this and his shame. But for all of us any idea of raising children with not perfect honesty, or of benefiting ourselves with taking what we should not take, is to be utterly rejected.

There were two of the greatest rabbis when I was growing up who refused to tell people to take government programs, even honestly. But they didn’t forbid them about it. In fact, when I asked one of them if taking government money was forbidden, he replied, “Do you drive down the street? Who made that street?” But he was happy that somebody asked him the halacha. He knew very well that money is a problem for those who want a pure life. It is one of the greatest challenges to a Jew and to anyone else.


Mishpotim and Yisro - Justice and Mercy, HaShem and the Moon


Sedra of Mishpotim – Mercy and Judgment of Yisro and Mishpotim

Dovid Eidensohn

The two Sedras of Yisro and Mishpotim are two Sedras of much mercy and much strict judgment. Yisro is a sedra beginning with Yisro who was not part of the Jewish people but the father-in-law of Moshe. When HaShem made miracles and brought the Jews out of Egypt, Yisro realized that the Jews were special in the eyes of HaShem. He gathered the family of Moshe from his home near Mt. Sinai and brought them to the Jews who awaited the Ten Commandments at Sinai. He uttered, “Blessed be HaShem” because of the great miracles and kindness HaShem had bestowed  upon the Jews.

The rabbis tell us that the angels may not recite the Name of HaShem without three words of praise. Jews may not utter the Name of HaShem without two words of praise. Yisro praised HaShem with one word of praise: Blessed by HaShem.

Moshe himself welcomed his father-in-law, and all of the Jews went to greet Yisro and everyone had a sumptuous and holy encounter. At the holy encounter which was then held, Moshe is not mentioned. He was not participating in the joyous meal, but was serving the meal. Later Yisro saw that Moshe was constantly answering the difficult problems Jews had to understand the laws of the Torah, and advised him to select many rabbis amoung the Jews who could assist in answering the halacha questions of Israel. Moshe agreed. Thus, Yisro, from this beginning of the Sedra, and the subsequent mighty kindness of HaShem to speak to Israel and give the Ten Commandments which contained the entire 613 commands of the Torah, Yisro is about the kindness of HaShem, with only some side mention of justice.

There is, for instance, the third of the tenth commandments, “Do not raise up the Name of HaShem for nothing.” Kli Yokor says that this is the strictest of the Ten Commandments. “Raise up” is as one raises a tree. The tree has many parts. As it is lifted, the trunk of the tree, the branches of the tree, the leaves of the tree, and the roots of the tree rise up, and clods of soil may rise as well. This means, says Kli Yokor, that the command not to raise up the Name of HaShem is a threat to all Jews of the most severe level. All Jews know the basic holy Names of HaShem. And Jews are often guilty of criticizing other Jews with these Names. But that is a violation of the third of the Ten Commandments. Why is it the strictest of the Ten Commandments? Because HaShem forgives Jews who sin to Him and repent. But He does not forgive a Jew who sins against his fellow Jew. When a Jew uses the holy Name of HaShem in his attack on a Jew who may be guilty of something, the sin raises up not only the sinner as in other crimes, but raises up all Jews in the world. This is the strictest of the Ten Commandments.

Mishpotim is a series of very serious judgments how Jews behave towards others. All kinds of Jews are singled out and told what judgments pertain to them. This is justice, a serious kind of justice, perhaps not as terrible as the Third of the Ten Commandments regarding the misuse of the Holy Names of HaShem. But they do result in strict fiscal and other judgments.

The opposite results of being faced with mercy or Din are clear from the first few passages in the Torah. The story of Creation begins “In the beginning HaShem created the Heaven and the earth.” HaShem here is ELOKIM which is the force of justice not mercy. Some passages later the entire Creation story is started over again, this time with the phrase “HaShem Elokim” meaning the HaShem of mercy who is the HaShem of kindness. Rashi tells us that HaShem changed the Creation story because a world of justice would be too hard for people to survive the sins people do. So HaShem began the Creation story with justice but changed it to mercy touched with justice.

This is the secret behind the strangest story in the Torah, the war between HaShem and the Moon, which the Moon lost but so did HaShem, who had to repent because He made the Moon small. This is the strangest teaching in the Torah which is almost ridiculous. An angel beats down HaShem who of all things has to repent?

But the angel is a woman and women are very close to justice more than men. The gemora says that HaShem trusts women more than men. Just as men are mercy, so women are justice. And if someone is justice, HaShem trusts them. But justice means that people, especially men, who are prone to taking it easy with the Torah, can be destroyed and that would be the end of the world. So HaShem ‘repented’ meaning, He had changed the world from justice to mercy and justice, so that sinners won’t be struck down and the world would disappear. For this He ‘repented’. But we find in our prayers that we ask HaShem to restore the Moon to her original power to compete with her light as the power of the sun. The time will come with the light of HaShem will fill the world and evil will disappear. Then the Moon will be vindicated and HaShem will accept it.


Tuesday, January 29, 2019

A New Agudah - Dovid Eidensohn studies under his great rabbis


Phase 3 for A New Agudah

Dovid Eidensohn



European Gedolim and the American Generation Gap


My first volume of the Torah that Was, the Torah that Will Be, was about my personal experiences pestering Gedolei HaDor Reb Aharon Kotler, Reb Moshe Feinstein, Reb Yaacov Kaminetsky, and many others. I wrote about these Gedolim and others of their time who created the Torah world. I described my personal efforts to speak to them although at the time it was like flying into space to talk to someone far removed. I realized that if I dallied time was not on my side. I was very young, and the Gedolim were not. So I went and spoke to them, asked them questions, presented questions and ideas in Torah, and observed them carefully.  I sensed each time that one slip and I would… But I went.

As time went on, I continued to pester every important Torah personality that I could. Born in Washington, DC, I attended Yeshiva Or Torah DiBrisk, founded by survivors sons of the dayan of Brisk.  There were three rebbes and four students. I went there after public school. I saw first hand the struggle of pure Torah in a much different world. After three years in Washington, DC, I went to Yeshiva Chofetz Chaim in Baltimore to learn for three years by the Gaon Reb Yaacov Bobrowsky zt”l, a talmid muvhak of the Gaon Reb Baruch Ber zt”l. He was one of the senior rebbes in America then, and many of the top Torah personalities in America came from his class. I then went to Lakewood to study under Hagaon Reb Aharon Kotler zt”l for two years until he passed on. That period, from the age of twelve until the passing of Reb Aharon when I was around nineteen, was a miracle for those days. My youth was spent learning from European gedolim. They taught me to fight ferociously for the old and true Torah, even in America.

Yes, being a Ben Yeshiva in those days and learning from such rebbes was a great challenge, and very, very few people did it. Even in Lakewood, two people came each term and two people left. There were about eighty people in the entire Yeshiva. Only a year before he died did Reb Aharon see success, when students from his American Yeshivas began to arrive. At the same time, a group of brilliant young students arrived, and thus, in one year, everything was turned around for the better. And then Reb Aharon died.

Now I will turn to a personal note, to prepare for this volume, with its emphasis on today’s problems and tomorrow’s future. Somebody in Lakewood once told me the following from the Mashgiach, the tsadik Reb Noson Wachtfogel zt”l. It seemed that Reb Nosson, perhaps because he was a chosid or because of some other reason, had a different opinion about something than the Rosh Yeshiva did.  (I think I know what the complaint was about, and I think that Reb Baruch Ber had a somewhat similar difficulty in his Yeshiva on Simchas Torah.) Reb Noson stated his opinion and then said, “Yes, I disagree with the Rosh Yeshiva on this matter. But I tell you this. If you open up Reb Aharon you will see a complete Jew. If you are opened up, there will be a chazerel.” I don’t know about that person having a chazerel, but I just hope that nobody opens me up. Yes, Reb Noson put his finger on a terrible problem: the Generation Gap. In Lakewood and in all places where the American loved a good game of basketball, he had to learn from Reb Aharon Kotler. Just thinking about it amazes me. I mentioned before that when I spoke to Reb Aharon and Reb Moshe I felt as if I was floating in outer space talking to somebody sitting in a rocket. If I made one mistake… And all that I had was chutzpah. What else could possibly get me to do such a thing?

I want to tell a story mentioned in the other volume of the Torah that Was, but it is crucial for this book, when I develop it. It was about me in the barbershop on Friday afternoon in Lakewood. I came to the barbershop and took my place in line; then somebody very important came in. Of course, I offered him my place and he accepted it. However, he knew that I liked to say Torahs, so he told me to say a Torah. I told him the Torah I had prepared to tell Reb Aharon that night. I saw his expression and added something, and he approved. That night, I said over the Torah to Reb Aharon, and he was thinking, and out of habit, I added what I had added to the Very Important Person. Reb Aharon exploded. He said, “You are going away from the proper path in learning.” When I heard that, I was amazed. That was a terrible criticism, but what a compliment! Reb Aharon noticed that I understood the compliment, but he also understood that I would never make that mistake again. From that time on, I didn’t speak to anybody except Reb Aharon or my Rosh Chabura who was the major bochur in the Yeshiva. What was wrong with talking with the Very Important Person who at that time was at the very top of the list of important people in the Yeshiva?

From that incident when Reb Aharon exploded at me, I eventually realized something absolutely incredible. Reb Aharon was not the rebbe in Lakewood! Let me explain. That Very Important Person, who is today a major Rosh Yeshiva, one of the important ones in the world, surely spent all of his time learning, and he was a top learner. But, and here is the point. He was not a Talmid muvhak of Reb Aharon, because he, perhaps like the majority of Yeshiva students in Europe and America, had a different style learned most likely from the students of the Elder of the European Rosh Yeshivas, Reb Shimon Shkop zt”l. Reb Shimon taught to say “what” and then “why.” Reb Chaim Brisker, his student Reb Baruch Ber, and Reb Aharon, held, “Never say ‘why’.” When I told my Torah to the Very Important Person in the barber shop, I said “what” and stopped. But he wanted “why” because that was the style of the major Rosh Yeshiva in Europe, Reb Shimon. But Reb Aharon accepted the style of Reb Baruch Ber who was the major disciple of Reb Chaim Brisker zt”l, who is the father of the Lithuanian Yeshiva Derech of Brisk.

Why did Reb Aharon choose Reb Baruch Ber instead of Reb Shimon?  There is to that a simple answer. Reb Aharon learned in a musar Yeshiva in Slobodka under the Alter. But in nearby Kovneh was the Yeshiva of Reb Baruch Ber that was not a musar Yeshiva. Reb Aharon used to go regularly to Reb Baruch Ber’s Yeshiva to hear his shiurim.  Reb Aharon interrupted the shiur and Reb Baruch Ber kept arguing and fighting with him until Reb Baruch Ber’s major Talmid Reb Shlomo Heiman zt”l would go over and calm down the protests of Reb Aharon. This lasted for a while until Reb Aharon exploded again, and once again, there was war, and once again, Reb Shlomo went over to Reb Aharon, etc. There are many pictures of Reb Baruch Ber talking to Reb Aharon in learning in the summer vacation places. Incidentally, in the book about Reb Baruch Ber called HaRav HaDomeh Lmaloch, there are many pictures of Reb Baruch Ber with Reb Shimon Shkop. It is obvious that Reb Shimon is the senior person. He was the Elder of the Rosh Yeshivas.

Our point is that Reb Aharon had a Yeshiva where perhaps most of the students came in their twenties to learn by him after they had spent years learning  from students of Reb Shimon Shkop. When I spoke to Reb Aharon and gained his style, which was the style of Reb Baruch Ber which was the style of Reb Chaim, I thus, because of my youth (I came to Lakewood when I was seventeen) and because I spoke frequently to Reb Aharon and reviewed for him my findings in learning, I was not influenced by Reb Shimon’s Derech. Indeed, my previous rebbe, Reb Yaacov Bobrowsky, was a talmid muvhak of Reb Baruch Ber. I believe that my rebbes from Washington DC also learned by Reb Baruch Ber, although at that time was I too young to know the different between “what” and “why” in the Talmudic discussion.

My point in all of this is to display the Generation Gap. It was not a question of years. It was a difference between European geniuses and people like me. That is quite a generation gap. Reb Aharon Kotler was a major genius in Europe and was being primed by the Chofetz Chaim and Reb Elchonon and Reb Aharon’s father-in-law Reb Isser Zalman, to become Gadol HaDor. Reb Aharon was an incredible genius, even in Europe he was famous for this. How in the world could we Americans learn from such a rebbe?

Another great European genius who was a Rosh Yeshiva was HaGaon Reb Yaacov HaLevi Ruderman zt”l. He was the Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivas Ner Israel. At an early age he memorized the entire Talmud. Americans were far removed from his level. But Reb Ruderman merited that people from his family such as Rabbi Newberger arranged the Yeshiva so that the students got exactly the kind of teachers that they needed, and the entire Yeshiva basked in the glow of the Rosh Yeshiva. Such an arrangement is excellent for most students, but the Generation Gap is obvious.

There were other great Rosh Yeshivas who struggled with Americans even as they had lofty positions in Yeshivas. The bottom line is that the generation that learned from the Gedolim was limited in its relationship with them. The Gedolim were far too great to shine their light on the majority of Yeshiva students without making problems, and the students did not know what to do about that. I solved the problem with pure chutzpah. I went to talk to Reb Aharon, and he told me the truth, and it hurt, and I came back for more, again and again. As I mention in my first volume, I was not the biggest mechutsef in Lakewood. Somebody came to Lakewood for a summer program who was far removed from advanced learning. But he wanted to learn from Reb Aharon. So he went to Reb Aharon, put a sefer down in front of him, and asked him to explain it. Reb Aharon was very kind and gentle with him. When some of us wanted to send the boy to another Yeshiva, Reb Aharon insisted that he stay. But those who wanted him elsewhere got the job done, and I suppose I have to worry about this in the Other World.

After Reb Aharon Died




Before Reb Aharon died, the Lakewood Yeshiva was low on students, low on funding, and low in being appreciated in America. After he died, all of this changed. People began to arrive in numbers in the Yeshiva. A girl sought a good learning boy for a husband and her parents supported them at least for a few years. The new Rosh Yeshiva, Reb Aharon’s son, Reb Shneur, was like his grandfather, Reb Isser Zalman, who was a man of peace. Reb Aharon was a man of war, and made so many enemies among the modern Orthodox rabbis and even among haredi rabbis that he had few backers for the Yeshiva. But all of this changed when Reb Yosher Ber the Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva University instructed his students, the YU rabbis, to support Lakewood. Therefore, the new Lakewood was a different world than the Lakewood I knew. But not everyone was thrilled with the new situation.

True, beautiful new buildings were built, and they were filled with large numbers of students heavily engaged in Torah learning. But the new status of Lakewood as a status symbol was troubling to some people. The old Lakewood was only for the rare person who was ready to suffer everything in order to study Torah. The new Lakewood was for everyone who sought the new status, the easy shidduch, the beautiful building, etc. At this point, for better or worse, the Torah in America achieved a higher appreciation and incredible success.

But let us remember our previous discussion. We said that Reb Aharon was not the rebbe muvhak, the prime rebbe of perhaps the majority of his students. They came to Yeshiva because they wanted a high Torah level. But very few engaged directly with Reb Aharon. As we explained, Reb Aharon was a European genius, a fire, a fighter, and we Americans could not just go over and talk to him. I did it because I called upon my ample reserves of azuce ponim. I forced myself to do this because I realized that Reb Aharon and Reb Moshe and others were old people and I had to make my move now. But those who learned diligently in the same Beis Medrash as Reb Aharon but did not connect with him his departure from the world severed what could have been, a personal connection to a Gadol. When I spoke to Reb Aharon and Reb Moshe at length, I was always worried that maybe somebody would come over to the Rosh Yeshivas and take them away from me. After all, they had a right just as I did to talk to the Roshei Yeshiva. But rarely did anyone come. Later when I moved to Monsey and Reb Moshe Feinstein would often visit with his rebbetsin his daughter Rebbetsin Tendler, I taught in the same shul that Reb Moshe dovened and would spend a lot of time talking Torah to him. I was terrified that somebody would take away “my Reb Moshe” but after years, I only recall a tiny amount of people who came to talk to Reb Moshe. Only one of them as I recall was a Rov who had a problem with a GET.[1] Thus, when the Gedolim from Europe passed on, there was an emptiness. I felt it keenly.

Other people who did not talk directly to the European gedolim had a different solution to their new status. They turned to those who were now the senior Roshei Yeshiva and Talmidei Chachomim. These were usually not Europeans at all, but were students of Europeans. I had a problem with this. The new Torah was much different than the old Torah, and I didn’t feel comfortable with it. Until today, I am fighting the new generation with its different ideas, as I will discuss. And this reality, that the new generation did not have a full relationship with the old one, other than a few individuals, made problems, problems that we will discuss in this book, and show that the new leadership was not the old leadership.

Briefly, the new generation has a Torah that believes in learning Torah, becoming “gedolim” as the great goal. The old generation believed in fighting for the entire Torah. My criticism of the “new” generations are as follows: One, they are not fighting important fights, as I will explain, but putting their energy into building Torah learning with some exceptions. Two, the Yeshiva structure as it is now, creates frustrated people and no Gedolim, as I will show and quote Gedolei hador of the present and past generation.

What are Today’s Issues? What are Today’s Problems?


Here is a small list of today’s issues and problems:

1.    Gender war between men and women in family, between husband and wife. This leads to a terrible problem of divorces and a large population of people who are single.

2.    Feminism infects the Orthodox community in various ways. The world is heavily influenced by feminism. One objective of the feminists is complete equality between men and women. The latest target is draft all females just as all men to register for the draft. I spoke to “leaders” of the Torah community and they had no interest in fighting about this now. And yet, if there is a law passed for women to register for the draft, there will be a very serious question of martyrdom, besides jail and fines.[2]

3.            Years ago, the European gedolim encouraged me very strongly to fight against the Gay Rights movement. Why this should be done is something that everyone should know but almost nobody does. A few years ago, major rabbis in Monsey made a major campaign to elect a lesbian as Family Court Judge, although the opposition was a religious gentile who was against gay ideas. The senior rabbi in Monsey told me to hang up a ferocious letter that I made attacking them in his Yeshiva and shull. But someone asked me, “Why are you the only one to protest this?” Because today people have a new “Torah.” Those rabbis and some in New York find an advantage in backing a gay or lesbian for politics, because then the person is beholden to them for their political and financial needs. This is pure gangsterism and corruption. At least, I protested, and a lot of people were happy that I did. But the major rabbinical positions in the community are held by people who have different ideas.

4.    There is today a terrible spate of broken marriages in the Torah community. I personally know people from senior rabbinical families who are being torn apart by divorce battles in secular court.

5.    There are many things to elaborate in the above four things. But I want to turn now to a frightening story that I personally witnessed and heard from gedolei hador of the past and present generations.

Monsey Gets a Video Store Years Ago


Some years ago the Magid of Jerusalem Reb Shalom Mordechai Schwadron zt”l used to visit Monsey regularly to raise funds for Israeli Yeshivas and Torah programs. I tried to talk to him when he came, and he was very kind and wise.

In those days Monsey was a city of Torah Jews, Yeshivas, some apple orchards, plus a few snakes and an occasional bear or deer. One day, in the center of town near a Yeshiva, a video store opened. My friend and I were determined to do something about this. Rav Schwadron was in town and after a lecture he gave, we approached him and told him that a video store came to Monsey. I then anticipated a furious anger and a determination to speak publicly on this outrage. But no. Nothing. Rav Schadron simply ignored me. It was as if I didn’t say anything to him. I looked at his face. It was solid granite, turned away from me, in a pose that said, “You don’t exist.” I realized that this was no accident. The Rov was deliberately telling me that he had absolutely no interest in talking or hearing about a video store. I was stunned.  I repeated myself, twice, three times, and not a change in the face. Well, I said, I am Mr. Azuce Ponim. And I am going to pursue this further!

“A Yeshiva is Hashchoso”


I raised my voice and said, “Rebbe! Hashchoso!!”

That did it. The cold granite face turned directly at me. A professionally maneuvered hand moved directly at my face. A finger pointed at me and eyes were blazing. Slowly and professionally Reb Shalom said, “A Yeshiva is hashchoso!”

That story took place many years ago. But even then, Reb Shalom  knew that the rabbinical world had its problems. The major problem is when rabbis encourage women to force a GET from their husband against his will and remarry with that GET. That GET, says Rambam and others, is worthless, as a GET must be given by the husband willingly. And today, when Reb Shalom is no longer with us, there are ‘rabbis’ who tell married women whose husband won’t give them a GET to remarry with no GET. A senior rov in Brazil called me to tell me that they did this in his city. No husband was involved in giving the GET, and a woman is freed of her husband in defiance of the Torah and the Talmud. The same was done recently by a senior rabbi in France.

A Generation of Mamzerim?


We are talking about a world that will soon be gripped in a crisis of children born of women who left their husbands with an invalid GET or no GET at all. The New York State GET law empowers women to force their husbands to give a GET and to get slapped with financial punishments or worse. Rabbi Bleich says that today all Gittin given in New York are given by husbands who realize that to refuse to divorce their wives will lead to court and it will destroy him, maybe take away his children and money. So, they give a GET. And this fear makes the GET invalid, and the children of the wife when she remarries with the invalid GET are mamzerim, or maybe doubtful mamzerim. A mamzer can marry a mamzeres, but a doubtful mamzer may not marry a mamzeres, and neither a mamzer or a doubtful mamzer may marry a regular Jewish woman. And people are silent. My rebbe Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashev zt”l was shocked that nobody protested the New York GET Law in its second phase, with its surrender to the woman and the destruction of kosher Gittin in New York State.

What can be done? One idea is from a prominent Rov in Israel Rav Abirgil who recommends today that people marry with Pilegesh, not Kiddushin. Kiddushin makes a woman a slave to her husband who can torment her at will and not give her a GET until he dies; and she can do nothing about it. She could listen to the wicked ‘rabbis’ who advise such women to force a GET from their husbands and remarry. Some such wicked ‘rabbis’ actually set up a scheme to torture a husband for sixty thousand dollars, with tortures so sophisticated that no human being could tolerate without surrendering and giving a GET that was forced, even though the children of the wife when she remarries will be mamzerim. But a couple without Kiddushin but with Pilegesh cannot make mamzerim. They simply live together in one house until it is time to leave, and either one of them can just get up and leave, preferably saying good-by! The husband can not torment the wife because she is free to just get up and leave any time she wants.[3]

In earlier generations when Gedolim like Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashev zt”l kept an eye on the movements of the rabbis, he shot down the problems. But today, there is nobody to do this. And people who don’t know the laws of Gittin, invent what they don’t know, and we are awaiting a crisis of mamzerim.

How happy will the mothers who escape their husband with invalid Gittin be when they have a child who is announced to be a mamzer, or at least, a doubtful mamzer? A doubtful mamzer is worse than being a full mamzer because a mamzer can marry a mamzeres but a doubtful mamzer may not marry a mamzeres, nor may he marry a regular Jewish girl. We are going down the road to watching children come to shame we can’t imagine, and shame of mothers we cannot imagine. When will it end?





[1] Of course people were always asking Reb Moshe halacha laws. But when I came to shull they were usually not there.
[2] I heard this from a senior gadol in Israel my relative Rav Brizel zt”l that Torah law forbids a woman to be controlled by the government only by her husband and family. He lived in an early time when he heard this from senior rabbis.
[3] The great rabbis such as the Ramban and others who permit Pilegesh make it clear that there is a caveat. A senior rabbi must guide the new husband and wife exactly how to behave, go to the Mikva, etc.

Monday, January 28, 2019

Fighting Great Sins against Biblical and Family People


Plan 2 for the New Agudah

Dovid Eidensohn

The first plan of the New Agudah was to savage Agudas Israel for its backing of toeiva which is forbidden by HaShem in open passages in the Torah. Our second plan is to work with others to make a massive effort for people of all religions men and women to become truly angry at Cuomo for destroying a human fetus and causing terrible agony to women and family. If our second plan works out, Cuomo will begin to realize that his hopes of becoming President are fading, and that the people who hate him and fight him are growing stronger. The Democrats in his party cannot ignore that. Once this begins, our leading fighters against Cuomo who visit Albany regularly and convince some politicians to refuse what Cuomo wants will only increase. If we continue a bit longer, the tide may turn.

But regarding fighting Cuomo and those who maintain that everyone must respect those who violate the Torah and the rights of family, let us mention  a letter from the Gaon Reb Moshe Feinstein zt"l which is brought in my blog torahhalacha.blogspot.com. 

A major problem is the Law of Divorce in New York State whereby women can pressure a husband to give a GET under certain circumstances. Rabbi Chaim Malinowitz, a prominent rabbi now in Israel, has an article published on the Internet discussing the history of the two GET Laws of New York State. The first GET law was approved by the rabbis because it had nothing to do with a GET only with New York civil law. However, the second law was never approved by senior rabbis, which makes a great threat to New York State Jewish divorces. Senior rabbis in America and Israel have wondered why the second GET Law was passed without the  approval of the rabbis. There is further a complaint that nobody complained about it, except as we find Rabbi Malinowitz, who wrote his thoughts after the deed of making the second law.

The uniqueness of the Second GET Law is that it is perhaps a rare invention of a law that essentially only impacts severely on one religion, and in that, only on one segment of that religion. But the terror of the law is that a woman who leaves her husband with an invalid GET is still married. If she remarries a man not her husband she is living in serious sin and may never return to her husband and is further forbidden with the second man. If she has a baby by the second man the baby is a mamzer, forbidden to marry a Jewish woman unless that woman is a mamzeres. But this applies only to a baby who is known to be a mamzer. He can marry a woman who is known to be a mamzeres.

However, a man who is known only as a possible or doubtful mamzer, is in more trouble than a definite mamzer. A doubtful mamzer may not marry a Jewish woman who is a mamzeres and may not marry  a Jewish woman who is a doubtful mamzer. See Shulchan Aruch Even Hoezer 4:24.

This leads us to another very serious problem with divorce and GET which is very prevalent today in America and Israel. The entire grim story is spelled out exactly by the recent book Mishpitei Yisroel written by the greatest rabbis of Israel and fifty great rabbis from America.

A woman wants a divorce, maybe because she hates her husband. The husband refuses, maybe because he loves his wife or because he has children from her who will be pained at the loss of their married parents. Or because a judge may split the children who will not only miss a parent but may miss their siblings.

A GET must be given by the husband willingly if the couple was married with Kiddushin. But if the couple was married with Pilegesh they may separate simply by any of them leaving the marital home. So we emphasize here the woman married with Kiddushin which is the vast majority of women. If she forces a GET she may not remarry. If she does remarry, the new husband’s children with her are mamzerim.

If the husband is pressured and divorces and wants to remarry, he has a problem. If he agrees to give a GET so that he can remarry and agrees for that reason to divorce his wife, she is divorced. This can lead to great complications for him and his children. But if he is not sure if he wants to divorce his wife, the GET is a doubt. Maybe it is kosher, and maybe it is not. If so, the husband and the wife may not remarry. And if the husband makes a great show and pressure that he must have a wife, we tell him simply all that he has to do is to give his wife a GET willingly.

Another battle for the A New Agudah is the war in New York State and some other states, England and Canada, regarding treatment of GLBTQ people. I refer to those states and countries which require children to study about GLBYTQ and to learn to treat them favorably whatever that means. Surely insulting them for their status is a crime. All of these laws deny Heaven and the Creator who ruled in the bible that sodomy is a capital crime if done deliberately in front of proper witnesses. Even if one does it privately it is a terrible sin. Indeed, the sin of “do not draw near to sin” is considered by Rambam a Torah crime and Ramban a rabbinical crime. “Do not draw near” is defined as one who talks to a woman out of desire or who behaves in a way that can easily get him to do a serious sin. But one who commits a definite sin such as sodomy is surely a sinner by biblical standards. Despite this, killing him without proper witnesses testifying to having seen the act is not punished with death.





Pesak from the Gaon Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashev zt”l in a Divorce and the Gaon Reb Moshe Feinstein zt”l with a person who wants to die.



Rabbi Dovid Eidensohn



Some years back I was training to be a posek. I would go to various rabbis, dayanim and Gittin experts to learn from them. Once I came to a GET and I walked into the room with those getting divorced. A woman was crying bitterly and next to her sat a woman who looked at me with hate. Of course, she thought I was part of the Beth Din. But I was just a visitor who knew nothing of the people involved in the GET.

The head of the Beth Din was a friend of mine who explained that the man and women had a son. They were secular Israelis and then the husband became religious. The wife was madly in love with her husband. But although she tried her best, she could not tolerate being religious. Finally, advisors told the man to divorce his wife. The wife was crying terribly, because she loved her husband.

I was very disturbed by the decision of the advisors of the husband to counsel him to divorce his wife. Who gave the husband the right to give his son away to his wife who was not religious and would probably raise the son to be irreligious?  But I said nothing then.

Not long after this, I was visiting my rebbe in Israel, the Gaon Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashev zt”l, one of the greatest Torah authorities. I told him how disturbed I was that the husband gave away his son. (I didn’t tell him what I thought about the advisors who couldn’t make a compromise with the husband and wife. If the wife is madly in love with her husband, but she can’t be the supper fanatic that he became, let him behave in a way that her love will tolerate. But I knew nothing about the husband and wife and why should I talk about such things? So I told him what I did know and awaited his response.)

Rav Elyashev told me: “If the wife would tolerate yaharas hamishpocho (go to the mikva regularly), he would not advise a divorce.” That is a tremendous ruling, something only the greatest sage can utter! It meant that the wife won’t keep Shabbos and maybe not kashruse and who knows what else. But if she keeps taharas hamishpocho the marriage continues. It means that the wife will be the mother of all of his children, and all of them will be raised by a woman who is not Orthodox.

I wonder what the Rov would rule if the woman did not love her husband madly. Maybe that was critical. Maybe he believed that her love would continue if he did not divorce her, and she would very slowly but surely become more and more religious. If she truly loves her husband, and the husband could be encouraged not to be a cruel fanatic, maybe that could improve things? But I did not ask that question. Maybe it was too late to ask questions.

One thing comes out from this sad story. When somebody is faced with such a problem, ask only the greatest authority. There is a postscript to this story that has nothing to do with divorces. I used to speak regularly to the Posek HaDor Rav Moshe Feinstein zt”l. Furthermore, I only asked him questions that if he did not tell me the answer, I would probably never find an answer for them.

I once asked him if a person is hopelessly ill and there is no cure. He is in agony and wants to die. Is it necessary to keep him alive even if he wants to die? I am not referring to mercy killing. I am talking about basic “keep him alive” care. Reb Moshe told me that in such a case the person may be allowed to die. I later discovered that his pesak is two open gemoras, Gittin 70 and Avoda Zoro 12. A dying person should be kept alive long enough to arrange his financial affairs with his children so they don’t fight over the inheritance. Perhaps we assume that he is willing to suffer that long, but longer is not necessary.

I once told this to the Gaon Rav Shmuel HaLevi Wosner zt”l and he replied, “Poshut azoy” that is obvious. I wondered why he answered that way and then I realized that since Reb Moshe was the Gadol HaDor in paskening Rav Wosner felt that to say he agrees would not be appropriate, so he just said, “poshut azoy.”

I once heard from the Gaon Rav Moshe Feinstein zt"l that with a serious medical problem we may need three doctors.

Today there are many children who are not successful in schools and begin to take drugs. In Monsey two children overdosed and are buried in the Orthodox cemetery. 

For children like this, how many doctors do we need?



Goal 19 - RCA Prenup Makes Mamzerim Unlike Rav Ovadiah Yosef's Document that is Not a Prenup

 

The Problem with RCA Prenups



RCA Prenups are promises the husband makes to his wife that if she demands a GET from him for whatever reason he will either honor her request and give a willing GET to her, or he will pay her the sum of $150 a day until he gives the GET. We combine here two things. One is the claim of the RCA that their Prenups are crucial for family, and the other is my refutation of what the RCA claims. The text of the RCA is here in regular text and my comments are italic and bold. Text that I single out from the RCA text to comment upon is underlined in the original and in my comments. (In some situations where all text had to be equal this does not apply.)

Another issue is the claim some make that the Gaon Rav Ovadiah Yosef had a document that was like the RCA prenup and that he accepted the RCA prenup. That is wrong, as I will point out. The document of Rav Ovadiah Yosef is not about forcing a husband to give a GET, but about making Shalom Bayis. Also, the RCA prenup gives all power to the woman to force her husband to give her a GET, and the document of Rav Ovadiah Yosef has all power in the issue in the hands of the husband, who selects how much money he will pay her until they are united once again by the Beth Din, and crucially, the husband picks the Beth Din. This is completely different than the RCA prenup that assigns all power to the wife. Furthermore, there is a clear Mishneh in Nedorim 90b that a woman must not have the power to force a GET on her husband because we fear that she will use the power to find another husband.

This Mishneh is quoted by Rabbeinu Tam in Kesubose 63B in Tosfose. It is the source of the law that a woman who claims that her husband is distressing to her cannot force a GET, because we fear that she will have the power to divorce her husband because she likes another man. The RCA insists that all married woman have a prenup and the ability to force the husband to divorce her anytime she wants, which is direct contradiction to this Mishneh and the basic laws of limiting the power of a woman to force a GET.





We will further strongly protest people who don’t do sins themselves, but don’t accept the biblical blame on those who do these serious sins. They too deny the Torah.