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.