Refusal of Torah Jews to Fight Cuomo: Refusal of Torah Jews to Fight Invalid Gittin and Mamzerim: Why?

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

I have written often of the catastrophe of Cuomo in Albany creating hideous laws. One is to allow people to poison a pregnant woman who wants her baby. The fetus dies and the husband has no punishment. He killed a fetus which according to Cuomo may be murdered with no punishment. Of course, if the husband damages the mother with a knife for instance, he is a murderer. Where are the thousands of Orthodox Jews many of them Torah scholars who are silent?

New York State has long had a GET Law which allows a woman to force a GET. A forced GET says Rambam beginning the laws of divorce, (and the poskim in Shulchan Aruch Even Hoezer 77.2)  forbid forcing a GET.  But nobody cares about the many mamzerim who are springing up in New York. Also, throughout America, senior ‘rabbis’ are telling women to force a GET from their husband. Some tell her to remarry with no GET on the ridiculous grounds that husbands who had children with the wife are not of a status to merit Torah marriage. One senior Rosh Yeshiva who did this is descended from a great Gadol HaDor from Europe who surely would never approve of such a thing. And when the scandal erupted, basically from me and my brother Rabbi Dr. Daniel on our blogs, a senior ‘Rosh Yeshiva’ got involved to get the monkey out of the tree. Then that mamzer maker was restored to his previous status as a pillar of a major ‘Torah’ organization. That is part of the reason I despise and attack that ‘Torah’ organization and don’t recognize it.

Let us tell a story about the Baal HaTanyo and a very wealthy Jew who refused to give charity. If he gave, it was a mere pittance. The time came when a couple needed money to marry. In those days the poverty was terrible and getting married was not always possible without large sums of money. In a particular town the leaders pondered the problem and had no solution. Finally, the Baal HaTanyeh volunteered that he takes the responsibility for raising the money, on the condition that he decides who to visit for it. With no alternative, this was accepted.

There was in that community an extremely wealthy Jew who gave tiny amounts to charity. The Baal HaTanyo chose to go to him, which shocked everyone. The Baal HaTanyo rapped on the man’s door and was admitted. He asked for help so the couple could marry and the wealthy man gave, as he was wont to do, a very small donation. Usually, such would arouse in the person who asked for the money outrage. But now the Baal HaTanyo thanked the man profusely and gushed blessings upon him. The man had never seen such an attitude. He always saw the opposite. In shock, he escorted the Baal HaTanyo out of his house and watched him descend the steps. Suddenly, he called out, “Rabbi! Don’t leave. I want to increase my contribution.” The Baal HaTanyo returned to the house with the man, and took the now larger donation. Again, the Baal HaTanyo didn’t criticize the amount given which was still not what was needed. Instead he gushed blessings on the man and thanked him profusely. The Baal HaTanyo left, and soon, he was again summoned back to the wealthy man’s house. This kept up until the entire sum needed was given by the wealthy man. The Baal HaTanyo departed from the man gushing blessings on him and assured him that the couple now able to marry will be noticed in heaven. This will bring great blessings and happiness to the donor.

The question, however is, why did nobody else think of such a strategy with a very wealthy man? Was it the holy spirit of the tsadik or what? I don’t know. But I can surmise as follows. The Rov of Brisk Reb Chaim Brisker in the period that he served as a major leader of Vollozhner Yeshiva, was once commanded by the head of the Yeshiva to get money from a wealthy man. Reb Chaim travelled to him and explained the crisis in the Yeshiva and how much money it needed, a very large sum. The gevir immediately agreed and went to his safe and pulled out a huge sack of money. He began counting it out, but only counted very small coins, one at a time. This went on and on. Finally, Reb Chaim, who was losing all of this time when he should have been learning with students in the Yeshiva, asked the gevir if perhaps he had large coins. He replied, “When I prepare to give for a mitsvah, the Soton comes to me and begins to complain and tells me not to give the money. When that happens, and he is banging away with his complaints, I have a strong temptation to keep the money for myself. But I respond to him, “NO!” And I keep counting the money, tiny coin by tiny coin, to utterly confound and destroy the attack of the Soton.”

A wealthy man once promised a million dollars for a Yeshiva and everyone was sure he meant it. But he never gave the money and nobody knew why he changed his mind. It was obvious that he really wanted to give the money. Then a prominent scholar said, “Yes, he surely wanted to give that large sum of money, but he did not have the merit to do so.” And so it was.

Is this why we have tragedies with governments destroying lives and few protest? Is his why we have many ‘rabbis’ who give invalid divorces and the wife remarries with an invalid GET and her child from the next husband is a mamzer and few protest?

Perhaps, if the people who do nothing about tragedies would summon their souls and fight back, and begin, even with one small step to improve and achieve the ability to fight, they would do more and more until we saw them out on the street with signs and songs and ferocious complaints, and surely, there would be hope.