My comments on my brother's blog about Rabbis Kaminetsky and Greenblatt

My brother wrote on his blog daattorah.blogspot.com: As everyone knows, the storm resulting from the phony heter to Tamar Epstein has been going on for a while.  R Shalom Kaminetsky's campaign to manipulate Rav Greenblatt to declare the marriage invalid worked only for a while. However a wide range of major rabbis - including Rav Chaim Kaminetsky - have condemned this heter and declared Tamar as still being married to her first husband and thus committing adultery with her 2nd husband. It has clearly been publicly declared by these rabbis that persuading a psychiatrist to write an invalid report - is a a major danger to the Orthodox community and the institution of marriage.

The question is why the issue has not been settled with a retraction of the heter by Rabbi Greenblatt and a rejection of the heter by Rav Shmuel Kaminetsky and his son? Why is the issue dragging on? Why isn't an ultimatum being given to the above - to either comply or be publicly denounced?

The answer unfortunately is not a pretty one. Because if a ultimatum was delivered to the above rabbis - there is a good possibility that they would not comply. After all they have "Daas Torah" or as Rav Greenblatt says "I followed the Shulchan Aruch" and it doesn't matter to him whether the facts are true or not. He views the heter as being independent of how it was obtained and that only thing that matters is that he issued a  psak that Tamar can remarry. Similarly Rav Kaminetsky sees no reason to condemn the heter because was issued by a "bar samcha" Rav Greenblatt and so it doesn't matter if the basis is a pack of lies. In short neither cares whether the heter was obtained through falsely proclaiming that Aharon Friedman  suffers from extreme incurable mental illness that disqualifies him from ever being able to marry.

Thus the real answer why there is no ultimatum is because we have a serious problem here of codependency. What is ultimately preventing the resolution - and the reason that the Moetzes Gedolei Torah will never get involved - is the issue of the priority of  our rabbinic leaders. While Torah and halacha are truly important but there is a greater concern for these rabbis. They view that the system itself is in danger if major gedolim are declared to be in open rebellion against the Torah. These rabbis will never do anything that is perceived as an attack on gedolim. They believe that  faith in gedolim (and daas Torah) is more important to preserve than faith in G-d and Torah! Or rather that faith in G-d and Torah must be through faith in the gedolim.

Unfortunately, by publicly declaring that the heter is false and that a major breach in Torah has occurred - they can't conceal from the public that the agents of this breach are in fact gedolim. The longer they hesitate the greater is the loss of faith in gedolim and the greater the cynicism is amongst the masses - including the yeshivos and seminaries. 

In short, since they have gone public with the existence of a major breach - they can not avoid following that to its logical conclusion. But they lack nerve and don't want to be perceived as the ones who destroyed the public status of revered gedolim - Rav Greenblatt and Rav Kaminetsky. End of my brother's comments.

I have two small comments. One is that among the letters published by major rabbis there were clear attacks on the lies and the anti-halacha content of the heter to Tamar. Whether these attacks should be followed by stronger ones is delicate, because some of the letters cannot be written any stronger. If you call somebody a liar and remote from Halacha, what is the next thing to say? And if you want to put him in cherem, why didn't you do this immediately when you realized that his entire HETER is a lie and remote from halacha?

Number two is a personal thought. I learned and spoke frequently with HaGaon Reb Aharon Kotler and the Gaon Reb Moshe Feinstein. One thing I noticed was that very few if any of the many people who were able to speak to them did so. Reb Moshe was frequently queried about halacha, but to just speak to him and learn more that I didn't see in Monsey where I used to talk to him when he came frequently to visit his daughter with his rebbetsin. And after a while, I realized that I had nothing to do with the new world of Torah. I spent the next few years pestering any gadol who came my way, but the way  things were developing didn't interest me. 

Then I got interested in Gittin and ended up talking to the Gaon Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashev zt"l. Actually, we had made in Monsey a Beth Din to make Gittin for Russians who had no Rov there, and it was done under Rav Elyashev, because who could pasken those shaalose? Finally I went to Israel and spoke to the Gaon at length about a new topic he was concerned with, the Get Law of New York State. I went into him with a list of questions and when it was over I asked him for his name for my Beth Din and he gave it. The years spent with Reb Aharon and Reb Moshe prepared me. And then I found out that some major Torah authorities who did not pester every Gadol they could were making invalid and forced Gittin. 

The last few years I have been fighting furiously with these "gedolim" and what is happening now is not news to me at all. Rabbis who are Rosh Yeshivas or Rosh Kollelim or dayanim who did not study intensely under true Gedolim invented the term Gadol to mean them, not the real Gedolim. So what do we expect?

Number three which should be number one but I had to prepare the ground, was the following episode. In Monsey a video store once opened in the main shopping district. I went to the Magid of Jerusalem Rav Schwadron after he had spoken somewhere and told him. He ignored me completely, actually professionally, because he was a disciple of Rav Lapian who could speak six hours straight and keep the audience. I repeated myself, and he kept the frozen face that said I didn't exist. Then I raised my voice, and said, "Rebbe! Hashchoso!" He was waiting for that. He was a master mashgiach and they specialized in teaching by "putting you in the sack." 

Suddenly, he came alive, his eyes flashing, his hands moving professionally until he pointed at my face and said, "A Yeshiva is hashchoso!" I felt myself falling, falling, falling. A still voice said to me, "Just be quiet. He said this in public. Now he must explain this." And I just stood there. When Rav Schwadron saw how he had stunned me with his comment he laughed and said in Yiddish "that shut his mouth" which sounds much nicer in the Yiddish that he used. (We had bantered just before this and he owed me one.) Then he starting explaining. He talked about the present system and how it produces frustration. At any rate, if we keep it simple, the Yeshiva system is producing problems, and why this is is a long discussion. But by realizing that a Yeshiva is hashchoso, I concentrated in my family and teaching everyone that times had changed and we have to do things in the old fashioned matter, to the best of our ability, because what goes on today is a problem.

Later on, at my son's wedding I met a major Gadol and told him my various complaints about the system. When I told him about "A Yeshiva is hashchoso" he became enthused. I was shocked. I asked my son about this and he said, "Tatee, he always talks like that."

Tamar's Heter: Protecting Rav Shmuel Kaminetsky is more important than protecting the Torah

from my brother Rabbi Dr. Daniel Eidensohn on his blog daattorah.blogspot.com. My comments will follow on a second post. Dovid Eidensohn.

Thursday, December 31, 2015

Tamar's Heter: Protecting Rav Shmuel Kaminetsy is more important than protecting the Torah

As everyone knows, the storm resulting from the phony heter to Tamar Epstein has been going on for a while.  R Shalom Kaminetsky's campaign to manipulate Rav Greenblatt to declare the marriage invalid worked only for a while. However a wide range of major rabbis - including Rav Chaim Kaminetsky - have condemned this heter and declared Tamar as still being married to her first husband and thus committing adultery with her 2nd husband. It has clearly been publicly declared by these rabbis that persuading a psychiatrist to write an invalid report - is a a major danger to the Orthodox community and the institution of marriage.

The question is why the issue has not been settled with a retraction of the heter by Rabbi Greenblatt and a rejection of the heter by Rav Shmuel Kaminetsky and his son? Why is the issue dragging on? Why isn't an ultimatum being given to the above - to either comply or be publicly denounced?

The answer unfortunately is not a pretty one. Because if a ultimatum was delivered to the above rabbis - there is a good possibility that they would not comply. After all they have "Daas Torah" or as Rav Greenblatt says "I followed the Shulchan Aruch" and it doesn't matter to him whether the facts are true or not. He views the heter as being independent of how it was obtained and that only thing that matters is that he issued a  psak that Tamar can remarry. Similarly Rav Kaminetsky sees no reason to condemn the heter because was issued by a "bar samcha" Rav Greenblatt and so it doesn't matter if the basis is a pack of lies. In short neither cares whether the heter was obtained through falsely proclaiming that Aharon Friedman  suffers from extreme incurable mental illness that disqualifies him from ever being able to marry.

Thus the real answer why there is no ultimatum is because we have a serious problem here of codependency. What is ultimately preventing the resolution - and the reason that the Moetzes Gedolei Torah will never get involved - is the issue of the priority of  our rabbinic leaders. While Torah and halacha are truly important but there is a greater concern for these rabbis. They view that the system itself is in danger if major gedolim are declared to be in open rebellion against the Torah. These rabbis will never do anything that is perceived as an attack on gedolim. Thy believe that  faith in gedolim (and daas Torah) is more important to preserve than faith in G-d and Torah! Or rather that faith in G-d and Torah must be through faith in the gedolim.

Unfortunately, by publicly declaring that the heter is false and that a major breach in Torah has occurred - they can't conceal from the public that the agents of this breach are in fact gedolim. The longer they hesitate the greater is the loss of faith in gedolim and the greater the cynicism is amongst the masses - including the yeshivos and seminaries. 

In short, since they have gone public with the existence of a major breach - they can not avoid following that to its logical conclusion. But they lack nerve and don't want to be perceived as the ones who destroyed the public status of revered gedolim - Rav Greenblatt and Rav Kaminetsky.

Consequently there is great pressure to try and save the reputation of these gedolim by putting pressure on Aharon Friedman. It is widely viewed by these rabbis that almost all goals will be accomplished if he is sacrificed by forcing him to give a get and receive nothing in return.

Let me make it absolutely clear. Aharon Friedman will never back down. He will not sacrifice his reputation or his relationship with his daughter in order to allow Rav Kaminetsky and Rav Greenblatt to save face and not be held accountable for their sins. Aharon Friedman is not going to be the scapegoat that allows the rabbis to avoid the horrible task of destroying the reputation and legacy of Rav Kaminetsky and Rav Greenblatt - if they won't back down and condemn the phony heter.

Another women freed without a GET - Gedaliah Schwartz - Some more mamzerim

Someone sent me a copy of a letter from the Chicago Beth Din signed by Rabbi Gedoliah Schwartz dated September 22, 2004. This is also listed in the letter as the seventh day of Tishrei, 5765. So, three days before Yom Kippur, when people are probably ready to give a GET at least lichumro to save from making even possible mamzerim, we have a new approach to mamzeruth, Make them and blame it on something that nobody ever heard of. The excuse in this letter is "It is quite evident that this marriage is not halachically valid. This is due to the fact that there was no consumation of the marriage and there is evidence to that effect." Translation, since Rabbi Gedaliah Schwartz has determined that there was never Biah, the marriage never took place. That is what he says, and he once told me this orally. I then asked him how he knew that there was no Biah. He told me the doctor said so. I asked him how the doctor would know if there was a Biah that did not tear anything, such as anal intercourse or neshika, just a touch. No answer.

But the real problem with this "pesak" is that the Shulchan Aruch clearly states that Kiddushin comes about for three reasons: The husband gives his wife a ring or something of value, the common type of kiddushin, and a Kiddushin made with a special document of the couple agreeing to marry, or, a third way, Biah. But the first two approaches are completely valid without Biah. But maybe Rabbi Schwartz never got to that section of the Shulchan Aruch. So let me quote it to him.

Even Hoezer chapter 26 paragraph 4: A woman is married in three ways, with a value of silver [such as a ring, the common way of marrying] or a document or biah." The Shulchan Aruch says that one who marries with Biah is given a beating, but the marriage is still valid. But GS tells a couple married like all marriages with something of value that they are not married because somehow he decided that they had no Biah, something that I challenge him to prove, if he knows the laws of Biah. But since he doesn't know the laws of marriage, why should he know the laws of Biah?

I recall some years ago that a major Rov told me about a couple that went to Rabbi G. Schwartz for a GET and he told them there was no need.  I asked him why no GET was needed and he told me because there was no Biah.

I just want to add that the seforim of the poskim are full of men going to a woman and giving her some money and telling her that she is married to him. Nobody ever said that the marriage is no good because there was no Biah even though in nearly all of this questions there was nothing more than a quick giving of a ring or similar value. But Rabbi Schwartz would make it easy on all of those people and just tell them that if there is no Biah they don't need a GET. If that is different than what the great rabbis of all generations paskened, it just goes to prove that GS has a different Torah than the one Moshe brought down from Sinai.

SHOULD RSK GO TO REB DOVID FEINSTEIN?

Somebody called me yesterday and told me that Rabbi Shmuel Kaminetsky has agreed to submit his permission for Tamar to remarry without a GET to Rav Dovid Feinstein. He asked me why I did not support this. I told him that  the only Rov who permits these things in the first place was Reb Moshe Feinstein, and he made a strong condition: If the husband would give a GET, even with strong conditions, he does not permit the woman to remarry without a GET. Thus, if Reb Dovid permitted Tamar to remarry without a GET even though the husband Aharon would give a GET if certain custody rights could be restored, Reb Dovid Feinstein thus disagrees with his own father Reb Moshe! And I should accept this?

But let us say that Reb Dovid, in a theoretical case, did not disagree with his father. Let us assume that he disagreed, not with his father, but with all of the rabbis such as Rav Chaim Kanievsky and Rav Suriel Rosenberg, the leading poskim on Gittin in Israel. If so, at best we have a SOFEK DIORAYSO a doubt in a Torah law which we must be stringent and rule that she is forbidden to remarry.

Also, I would like to know if Reb Dovid is going to take the enormous amount of time necessary to study psychology and to discuss the matters with the various people who are supposed to have said that Aharon is mentally damaged and can never be a husband, something that Tamar never said until the Kaminentsky reshoim taught it to her. Those few rabbis who did take the time to study these things think that Kaminetskies invented a pure lie. Now, if Reb Dovid says it is not a lie, but many prominent rabbis said it was a lie, we now have a question if Reb Dovid is a greater expert in lies than all of these Rosh Yeshivas.

But let us keep it simple. If Reb Shmuel wants to go to Reb Dovid, why does he not go? It is a free country. And the answer is, that Reb Shmuel has complete faith in his "gadol" capacity to say whatever he wants about anything, despite  his Torah knowledge, that I know personally to be  limited. Reb Shmuel does not have the backing of a single known posek! And yet he still encouraged Tamar to remarry without a GET and have a child that everyone else considers a mamzer, as the great rabbis wrote clearly in their protests at the remarriage of Tamar.

The answer to Reb Shmuel is this: You made up something that is accepted by great rabbis as a pure lie without any backing form a great posek, only yourself or some other feminist rabbi such as _____. And when the world erupted at this, you want to find a fig leaf and ask Reb Dovid. 

But the fig leaf won't help you. You destroyed Tamar. Her baby will be a mamzer. And you will be a greater disgrace. And yet, you don't care. You are so sick that you think  you are smarter than all of the great rabbis who tore your HETER to shreds.

And what is the next step? Probably to put you and your dear son in Cherem, to kick them out of the Philly Yeshiva, and to deal with RNG as well.

How To Fix the Tamar Mess?

taken from my comments on my brother's blog

Rabbi Dovid E. Eidensohn

The above article [in my brother's blog written by a Cons rabbi]  contains: "In its recent article, the Forward quoted Rabbi Aharon Feldman of Baltimore’s Ner Israel Yeshiva as calling for the former agunah (whose original marriage, and therefore whose status as an agunah, he deems to remain intact) to leave her new husband. Rabbi Feldman declares any future children born to the Fleischers to be mamzerim — “bastards”— themselves forever debarred from marriage to “legitimate” Jews. Rabbi Dovid Eidensohn similarly is quoted as describing the dissolution of Ms. Epstein’s first marriage as “a sad joke based on a clear corruption and misuse of halachic principles,” and declaring Ms. Epstein an “adulteress.”

I want to clarify something. Technically, Ms. Epstein is an "adulteress." But she only followed, like a good Jewish woman, the teachings of her rebbes, the Kaminetskys. Her father was a pious man who was greatly admired by everyone but when he died her father became the Kaminetskies. They, and they alone, are responsible for her being an "adulteress" and if she has a child, all of the rabbis have declared it would be a "Mamzer." The "mamzer maker" will be the Kaminetskies. Now this is a very important fact. Let me explain.

The proper solution that everyone wants is for the three rabbis involved in this to tell Tamar it was a mistake and that she must leave her husband, at least long enough to settle with a GET and avoid mamzeruth. Since these three rabbis are busy inventing the Torah, they will have no trouble doing this. But what will they tell Tamar? Will they tell her that they made a mistake? And now that she may be pregnant, what will she say? How will she feel? And how will her mother feel? If the three rabbis do this, what will people think about them? That is why it will probably never happen. And one mamzer after the other will be born. 

I merely want to point out the pain involved for RSK to admit to Tamar that he was wrong, which basically means that he is not the Gadol perfect rabbi he thought he was, and I don't see that happening so fast. I surely hope and pray that I am completely wrong.

There is another factor here. You have two ninety year old rabbis who are getting a lot of pressure. We have to pray for them to stay healthy until they take the terrible step of admitting their mistake to Tamar, which is really a heroic deed. They are the only ones who can fix this, and for that, they must be healthy enough to be alive!

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Our latest telephone discussion is about:

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Tamar Remarries Based upon HaGaon Reb Moshe: A Mistake                                                                       

Rabbi Dovid E. Eidensohn/845-578-1917/eidensohnd@gmail.com/Chanukah 5776

Tamar’s marriage is rooted in the teaching of HaGaon HaGaon Reb Moshe Feinstein to permit a woman to remarry who is an Agunah who cannot get a GET from her husband who has a terrible blemish. I believe that relying on this pesak of HaGaon Reb Moshe is completely wrong, as I will explain.

First of all, HaGaon Reb Moshe states clearly that his Heter only applies when the husband absolutely refuses a GET, such as the case when the husband fled and can’t be located. Tamar was not in such a situation. Her husband Aharon clearly told me that he would certainly consider giving a GET. See Igeres Moshe I:80 at end, “We permit this if it is impossible to get a GET.” Also, see beginning of EH I:80 “When it is impossible to get a GET” and the end of the teshuva there.

It is incredible to me that so many people have commented on this issue and yet it is not clearly established that HaGaon Reb Moshe would never have permitted Tamar to remarry without a GET. If Rabbi Greenblat is a disciple of HaGaon Reb Moshe does he not feel responsible to study the teshuvose of HaGaon Reb Moshe that limit remarriage to a case where there cannot be a GET and Tamar is not such a case?

But there is more proof that Tamar should not remarry based upon HaGaon Reb Moshe’s teshuva.

In his teshuva in EH I:79:1 HaGaon Reb Moshe says that “This question has been discussed thoroughly by the earlier rabbis and the latter ones. And some forbade her remarrying without a GET, and some say that technically she could be permitted to remarry but they were not ready to permit it, and some said it is forbidden by the rabbis but permitted by the Torah.” HaGaon Reb Moshe then proceeds to permit it in certain very serious problems. But he makes it clear that he has no source to permit it, other than his own findings.

HaGaon Reb Moshe  quotes there two major poskim who disagree with him, and would forbid a woman to remarry even if she is a pure Agunah and no GET is possible. These Gedolim are Bais HaLevi, the Rov of Brisk and the father of Reb Chaim Brisker Soloveitchik, and the Kavno Rov. These were great Gedolim, accepted by all Torah Jews as “final word” Gedolim who were the greatest rabbis in the world. HaGaon Reb Moshe is most likely not as great as they were, and they lived before him some generations. If so, we have a situation where three rabbis pasken, two forbid it and one permits it. Do we permit it or do we forbid it? Since the majority forbid it, how can we rely on the minority, in this case, HaGaon Reb Moshe, and permit a woman to remarry without a GET? (See Choshen Mishpot 25:3)

In fact, there are at least double the amount of great rabbis who forbid the woman to remarry even if she is a complete Agunah with no hope of a GET. The Gaon Rav Henkin who was the Gadol in America before HaGaon Reb Moshe, disagreed with HaGaon Reb Moshe, and he produced a Noda Biyehuda II:80, one of the greatest of the poskim who also absolutely forbids a woman to remarry without a GET, even if the husband fled the Agunah, and even if the husband converted to a non-Jewish religion before he married her. If so, we have now four opinions against HaGaon Reb Moshe. This should militate against Tamar remarrying based only upon the opinion of HaGaon Reb Moshe.

Note that Rav Henkin brings the teshuva from Noda Biyehuda, but HaGaon Reb Moshe did not bring it, meaning, that he did not know this teshuva. If HaGaon Reb Moshe did not know the teshuva, and indeed, did not have a single person who agrees with him to permit the woman to remarry, relying on HaGaon Reb Moshe is a serious problem, not only because he is badly outnumbered. Because if a Rov even a major posek rules against earlier authorities or other authorities, and he knows about them, and he has proofs against them, then we may allow his ruling to stand, because perhaps he has proofs that the earlier rabbis erred. But if HaGaon Reb Moshe did not mention the Noda Biyehuda, which probably means he did not know about it, we cannot rely on HaGaon Reb Moshe, because we say “If he had seen the teshuva of Noda Biyehuda he perhaps would have rescinded his own decision.”

See Shulchan Aruch Choshen Mishpot 25:2 end of Ramo there. We follow the opinion of a latter authority because we assume that the latter rabbi saw the opinion of the early rabbi or rabbis and rejected it because he had proofs that it was wrong. But if the latter rabbi never saw the teshuva of the early rabbi or rabbis, we say that if the latter rabbi had seen the teaching of the early rabbi maybe he would have agreed and changed his own decision. And therefore, we cannot rely on the latter rabbi.

Thus, when HaGaon Reb Moshe does not quote the Noda Biyehuda he greatly weakens his own ability to be relied upon, because maybe if he had read the teshuva he would have agreed with it. But there is another reason why this weakens HaGaon Reb Moshe’s pesak. See Nesivose there Choshen Mishpot 25:2 in Nesivose #20: He brings the Alshich that if the Moharik argues with a Tosfose we don’t say that the law is as the latter authority, because Tosfose was a greater sage than the Moharik. If so, HaGaon Reb Moshe was not on the level of the Noda Biyehuda, who was one of the very greatest authorities accepted by all Israel. I heard this from HaGaon Reb Yaacov Kaminetsky, that the Noda Biyehuda and the Chasam Sofer are different than other poskim in that with other poskim if a rabbi today has proofs that their leniency is wrong, he can be stringent. But if the Noda Biyehuda and the Chasam Sofer rule to be lenient, even if somebody today would disagree with it or have a strong question on it, he could be lenient, because all of Jewry accepted the authority of these two. If so, Noda Biyehuda is surely greater than HaGaon Reb Moshe, and we don’t follow HaGaon Reb Moshe against the Noda Biyehuda.

In truth, I am not sure that HaGaon Reb Moshe could be considered greater than the Kovno Rov who was a major Gadol HaDor accepted by everyone. HaGaon Reb Moshe was not accepted by everyone and had many great battles about his pesokim. I am also not sure that HaGaon Reb Moshe would be considered greater than Rav Henkin, but perhaps they were equals. But if they were equals, we cannot rule leniently that HaGaon Reb Moshe was right and Reb Henkin wrong, because it is at least a doubt of a Torah sin. Thus, HaGaon Reb Moshe is lenient, but the Noda Biyehuda, Bais HaLevi, Kovna Rov and Rav Henkin are stringent. So we have a problem of a Torah law and how can we be lenient with one rabbi against four especially if at least one of those rabbis was far greater than HaGaon Reb Moshe? And probably the Kovneh Rov and Bais HaLevi were greater than HaGaon Reb Moshe.

The Mahari ben Leib (IV:19:3)says that in his time (that of the Bais Yosef who perhaps was his disciple) if a majority of rabbis permitted a woman to marry or remarry and a minority forbade it, that we are stringent and forbid the woman to remarry. This is perhaps based upon a Tosfose in Kesubose 2a סד"ה שאם היה לו . A doubt in halacha is normally resolved leniently. But this may not apply to a doubt about a husband and wife who may, if we are lenient and permit them to live together, “will live together and sin all of their married life.”

If so, surely we cannot rely upon HaGaon Reb Moshe in defiance of the majority of great rabbis, because even if they permitted it and HaGaon Reb Moshe was one rabbi who forbade it, we should be stringent as the Mahari ben Leib says. Surely when the majority of rabbis forbids the woman to remarry we may not follow the minority and permit Tamar to remarry. And surely, even though HaGaon Reb Moshe did not know it, when we know that the Noda Biyehuda strongly disagrees with HaGaon Reb Moshe, we would pasken like the Noda Biyehuda and forbid the woman to remarry.

Thus, we cannot rely on HaGaon Reb Moshe to permit Tamar to remarry, for all of the above reasons.

There is, however, another reason. I once had a problem that a woman needed a GET, but the husband while amenable to give a GET, refused to allow a rabbi into his office. There is a teshuva from HaGaon Reb Moshe permitting this GET. I asked a rabbi who was a prominent GET maker if he would make the GET. He said he will perform the GET and then give the woman and husband a paper that they are divorced in accord with the opinion of HaGaon Reb Moshe, but he will not agree to it. I was upset at this and called HaGaon Reb Moshe. His gabei heard the problem and said, “Just because it says in the teshuva sefer to do it, do we do it?” I was so stunned I just hung up. I called up HaGaon Rav Avigder Miller and he told me that HaGaon Reb Moshe wrote teshuvose for a certain time when it was appropriate but later on changed and did not do those great leniencies.

Rav Margolin of Ezras Torah told me the same thing about Rav Henkin, that we have no teshuvose from him because he felt that his teshuvose were written for a time that required certain leniencies but he did not want them done later one when the world become frumer.

If so, it is highly possible that these teshuvose of HaGaon Reb Moshe written against the opinion of the great rabbis of Israel in earlier generations are also the product of a different time and HaGaon Reb Moshe in his later years would not want to do them any more. For all of the above reasons and more, Tamar has no right to rely on HaGaon Reb Moshe to remarry.

If Tamar has a child with her new “husband” it is a mamzer, as many rabbis have written.

Audio on Rabbis Who Make Mamzerim and Present Problems of Yeshivas and the Torah Community

click below 

Audio Problems of Rabbis and Yeshivas that Produce Mamzerim



Audio is on our website at www.torahtimes.com .

Free Telephone Conference Thursday night Dec 3 at 9 PM with Rabbi Dovid E. Eidensohn

TOPIC - Major Rabbis who Make Mamzerim and Defy the Shulchan Aruch

Rabbi Eidensohn's blog is torahhalacha.blogspot.com  with almost 150 posts on the laws of marriage and family in Even Hoezer. Last month over 5300 page views.

Also a website  www.torahtimes.com features texts and audio on similar topics.

Videos are found at torahmarriage.blogspot.com mainly on Rabbi Eidensohn's studying under Gedolim Reb Aharon Kotler and Rav Moshe Feinstein both zt"l. . 

Rabbi Eidensohn can be reached at 845-578-1917 and eidensohnd@gmail.com  .

Post from daattorah.blogspot.com my brother Rabbi Daniel Eidensohn

Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Tamar Epstein heter: Five steps needed to bring about a resolution

It is clear at this point that Tamar Epstein is still married to Aharon Friedman - because the "heter" she received to remarry is a sad joke based on a clear corruption and misuse of halachic principles. Consequently her marriage to Adam Fleicher is invalid, she is committing adultery and future kids are mamzerim.

It is clear that Aharon Friedman has been severely mistreated and abused - not only by Tamar but a number of major rabbis - not limited to Rav Shmuel Kaminetsky, Rav Sholom Kaminetsky,  Rav Nota Greenblatt, Rav Herschel Schachter amd Rabbi Jeremy Stern.

It is clear that Aharon Friedman's daughter's abduction by Tamar was aided and abetted by a number of rabbis - some deliberately and some by incompetence.

It is clear that Aharon's rights as a father have been severely violated and that the normal relationship with his daughter has been damaged without any justification according to the Torah.

It is clear that Aharon Friedman received some singularly bad advice from a number of well meaning rabbis who were no match for Tamar's brain trust of gedolim and lawyers. These rabbis serious misjudged their ability to reason with Tamar's brain trust who treated these rabbis as country bumpkins and outmaneuvered them at every step. As one major posek told Aharon recently - he should have gone straight to the police when Tamar abducted their daughter. The reason that he didn't was that he trusted the assurance of various rabbis that they could handle the situation and their mistaken assertion that not relying totally on the beis din was a severe violation of Torah.

It is clear that the well meaning rabbis misgauged the degree to which Tamar and her family gamed the system - corrupting gedolim and halacha in the process.

It is clear that Tamar and family were guided by a strong feeling of entitlement that was encouraged by the Kaminetskys and Rav Herschel Schachter.

Aside from the public abuse and humiliation that Aharon has unjustly received over the years he has also been blocked from participating in the shul's in his neighborhood. Their rabbis claiming that he is a get refuser and needs to be punished. This in direct contradiction to the undeniable fact that the Baltimore Beis Din (the only one authorized by halacha) refused to issue a psak that he was required to give a Get. These shul rabbis relied on the invalid pronouncements and seruv issued by Rav Shmuel  Kaminetsky and Rav Herschel Schacter. Strangely enough even after Tamar announced she didn't need to give a Get they still excluded him since they claimed he was still a Get refuser. 

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Given the above it is time to get beyond the focus on condemning Tamar for remarrying based on a phony heter. 

First step - there needs to be a clear demand from all the rabbis - that the unjust restrictions of the area Shuls need to be removed and Aharon needs to be welcomed back.

Once this overdue step is taken - it might be possible about taking additional steps. 

BUT WITHOUT THIS MINIMAL ACT OF DECENCY - THERE IS NO BASIS FOR AHARON TO BE INVOLVED IN ANY ADDITIONAL STEPS. 

Especially since a gadol has clearly stated that Aharon has no need to give Tamar a Get.

Step two -   the restoring of Aharon's access to his daughter by having her move back into the Baltimore-Washington area. This step needs to be fully guaranteed by halacha and law that this arrangement will not be changed against Aharon's wishes.

Step three -  Aharon needs to give Tamar a Get. It is important to note that Aharon should not be first depositing a Get with Beis Din. The obligation is on Tamar to do what is necessary and then Aharon will reciprocate.

Step  four - an internationally respected beis din needs to be formed to decide what Tamar should do next  In the meantime it is clear that she needs to separate from her new husband.

Step five - an internationally respected beis din should decide an appropriate response to  Rav Greenblatt and the Kaminetsky's regarding their responsibility in generating a false heter and corruption of the halacha and halachic process

Mamzer Makers: What is Next?

By Rabbi Dovid E. Eidensohn/845-578-1917/eidensohnd@gmail.com

About a month ago, Tamar Epstein Friedman married somebody while she was still married to Aharon Friedman. She had previously proclaimed that she did not need a GET from Aharon. Around Yom Kippur Rabbi Notto Greenblatt performed a ceremony marrying her to a strange man not her husband.

For many months we have posted on our blogs warnings that Rabbis Shmuel and Shalom Kaminetsky of Philadelphia Yeshiva felt that Tamar could remarry without a GET. But other than our warnings, there was nothing. And then, around Yom Kippur of this year, Tamar “married” another man not her husband, without a GET. 

A few months before she remarried, some rabbis tried to convince Tamar and those backing her to accept the general feeling that remarrying requires a GET, but this failed.  Then when the remarriage was publicized people were shocked. A few weeks after the remarriage, senior rabbis from various countries published signed letters from their Beth Dins or personal understanding. All of the letters said that Tamar’s baby from this new husband would be mamzerim. All of the writers said that the logic of the HETER to remarry was completely wrong. And some of the letters went further, such as ridiculing “rabbis” involved in this, or putting them in Cherem.

Anger built in the Torah community fueled by more and more letters from prominent rabbis. One of the “rabbis” involved in the heter had to speak somewhere. It is reported that he brought a police escort due to the great hostility at his action.

What will happen now?

The universal outpouring of fury against the ridiculous excuses for remarriage without a GET guarantees that if Tamar has a child it will be considered by responsible people to be a mamzer. (Maybe Shalom will marry the mamzer to A  student in the Philly Yeshiva.) Therefore, if Tamar remains married to her new “husband” and has a child that almost all people consider a mamzer, what will happen then? Well, the child will be a mamzer.  And what else?

The players in this are Rabbis Shmuel and Shalom Kaminetsky, who are the  movers and shakers behind this mamzer making.  Rabbi Notto Greenblatt trusted the Kaminetskys and performed the wedding ceremony.  So he certainly is being watched how he will react to the general fury at his baseless heter.

And of course, there is Tamar and her family. What will they do? Will they remain faithful despite everything to the teachings of the Rabbis Kaminetsky and have a baby considered by most people to be a mamzer? Or will they separate? Or will they take birth control pills? Or will they have the child and believe that Rabbi Kaminetsky will take care of things?

If the Kaminetskies  and Rabbi Greenblatt continue to maintain that Tamar is legally married, we can anticipate many women leaving their husbands and finding some rabbi who will perform the ceremony. We will thus have an increase of mamzerim. But how can the rabbi mamzermakers  back down now after Tamar is married and may be pregnant? How bitter will she and her rich and powerful family be if the same rabbis who got her into this mess now desert her and concede that what she did was wrong and produced mamzerim?

Like it or not, it is unlikely for this to happen. This leaves only one solution. Aharon Freidman must give his wife a GET as soon as possible. Then, if she is not pregnant, she can be convinced to wait and stay away from her husband for a while. Things must be arranged so that Tamar’s next child will be born  at a time when it seems to have been produced after the GET.  But how is anyone going to convince Aharon to give a GET? Senior rabbis have already said that he has no obligation to give her a GET. He, personally, knows that if he gives her a GET, he can probably forget about his daughter. He is one individual fighting a mafia in Philadelphia of very rich and powerful people, who have already been in Federal Court for trying to kidnap and torture Aharon to force him to give Tamar a GET. For this they paid sixty thousand dollars and the FBI has the proof and the confession of their Philly lawyer. Aharon was jumped in front of his mother-in-law’s house and there is a police witness, besides the confession of Tamar’s mother lawyer that they paid sixty thousand dollars to the Epstein goons to kidnap and torture Aharon to give a GET.

It would seem that there is only one end to this: Tamar’s  mamzer children will produce outrage and some people may refuse to have such children, and some people may decide to have such children, rather than settle with their real husbands. This could split the Orthodox world.

I know that there are rabbis out there who want to settle this for the sake of Klal Yisroel, even if Aharon gets butchered. Aharon lives in Washington, DC, and to force  him to give Tamar a GET he is so demonized that he cannot doven in any shull. Even after Tamar declared that she doesn’t need a GET the community still makes it impossible for Aharon to doven in a shull there. Many rabbis feel such a hate for Aharon that he is alone and persecuted. But when Tamar remarries without a GET, these same rabbis ignore it. And yet, Tamar’s remarriage is something clearly forbidden by HaGaon Reb Moshe Feinstein and the great poskim as I bring many times on my blog torahhalacha.blogspot.com and my brother’s blog daattorah.blogspot.com, and as prominent rabbis have published recently. But Washington, DC “rabbis” feel that Aharon must be tortured and Tamar ignored.

Well, I am not going to ignore Tamar. And I am not going to ignore the Washington rabbis with their twisted Torah. And I am not going to ignore the rabbis who feel that we must sacrifice Aharon to settle this mess.

Years ago, when I began attacking prominent rabbis who ruled against husbands in ways forbidden by the Shulchan Aruch and poskim, and I was basically alone, I had a dream. HaGaon Reb Aharon Kotler came to me and said, “I am going to test you on Tamid.” I woke up and could not imagine what that was all about, but I knew it was real, not just a dream. It took me a while to understand. The problems I am fighting are growing and are not going way. I must fight them Tamid, because the rabbis who  do these things are, like Greenblatt and Kaminetsky, big names, and people are afraid to start up with them. Even those rabbis who signed letters that Tamar’s children from her new “husband” will be mamzerim, were careful to mention that those who did incredibly stupid things in halacha are still “Gedolim” rachmono litslon.

This war seems to be getting more and more terrible with time. I am alone, me and my brother, and a few rabbis who have posted their opposition to the heter of Tamar. But as time goes on, I hope to stick it out Tamid, forever bli neder,  and I hope others will join the cause to save Klal Yisroel from being part mamzer.

How should I end this? I did Goral HaGro and it answered very quickly. It is a posuk in Melochim II:17 about the stubborn sinning of the Jews that led to the Chorbon: “And they did not listen. And they hardened their necks as the necks of their forefathers, who did not believe in the L-d their G-d.”

We have a Torah. We have a Shulchan Aruch. We have a gemora and the poskim. May a woman remarry without a GET? Why do some rabbis of our time put their energies into demonizing a husband who wants to see his daughter taken from him by his wife and taken to a far off city? Why do these rabbis not demonize  people who clearly defy the Shulchan Aruch and the poskim and make mamzerim?

They don’t have to answer to me. But they will answer to HaShem. And when they are judged for torturing Aharon will they will trot out their lies about Aharon? Let them say their  inventions of halacha. Let them reply to the Heavenly Court that true they defy the Shulchan Aruch, but they are Gedolim. Let them.

We will start our free telephone conferences this Wednesday night at nine o’clock. Dial 605-562-3130 then enter code 411161#. The conference begins with remarks stated here on this post, and you will be notified when to ask questions and make comments.

We want to go public. If you want to participate in our growth and if you know others who want to learn about laws of family and related topics, call me at 845-578-1917.

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

Senior Rabbis Make Mamzerim – Why?

By Rabbi Dovid E. Eidensohn/eidensohnd@gmail.com/845-578-1917

We have worked hard recently to refute the incredible distortions of halacha by Rabbis Greenblatt and Kaminetsky who permitted Tamar Epstein Freidman to remarry without a GET. It took weeks after the sinful remarriage of Tamar Epstein Friedman to arouse some senior rabbis to protest. This blog began serious protests long before then. It was always obvious that the rabbis who guided Tamar Epstein Friedman had an agenda that was not in the Shulchan Aruch. But the fact that nobody but me and my brother protested proved to most people that the senior rabbis who declared that Tamar did not need a GET were perhaps correct. For long months my blog produced limited interest. Finally, when senior rabbis began saying what I was saying for years, that without a GET Tamar would produce mamzerim, my blog shot up. At last, people realized that I was right and that the prominent rabbis who encouraged Tamar to remarry without a GET were wrong.

We are not here to rest on our laurels. True, we publicly stressed the true Shulchan Aruch long before anyone else came along publicly.  But what has been achieved? As of this writing, nothing. Tamar is still with a strange man. The rabbis who are responsible for her remarriage have not publicly recanted. Surely some women will decide to remarry without a GET, based upon these rabbis and what they did. We want to discuss here two things: One is where are we now with prominent rabbis defying the Shulchan Aruch, and two, where will we be down the road with prominent rabbis defying the Shulchan Aruch?

First, where are we now with prominent rabbis defying the Shulchan Aruch? We know of course about Rabbis Greenblatt and Kaminetsky and their ideas about Tamar. Some may think this is an unusual thing. But it is not an unusual thing. Rabbi Moshe Heinemann, the rabbi of Baltimore, is a major sponsor of ORA, the organization that humiliates and coerces husbands to giving a GET. Such a GET is likely a coerced GET that is invalid and the children born from it are possibly mamzerim. I called him up and asked him about this, and he told me something that showed he did not know the Shulchan Aruch. He is not the only one.

The last few years I have been involved in heavy wars with very prominent Rosh Yeshivas and poskim about coerced Gittin. There were two very famous cases where two prominent families had a war. The prominent rabbis of one side published letters signed by many prominent rabbis that everyone should humiliate the husband and shame him and cause him pain and distress until he gives a GET.  I protested that this violates a Rashbo VII:414 that there are husbands who are commanded by the Talmud to divorce their wives and they must do it. If these husbands are living sinfully with a relative say an aunt or sister, we force the GET even with beatings. But if the husband is unable to have children and to make the wife  happy in marriage, although the Talmud commands him to divorce his wife, it is forbidden to do three things: We may not put him in cherem, we may not physically attack him, and we may not humiliate him. On the other hand, says the Rashbo, a woman who demands a divorce from her husband because he disgusts her cannot force the husband to divorce her. “If he wants to, he divorces her, and if he does not want to, he does not divorce her.” Therefore, all of the these ladies who demand a GET because they despise or hate their husbands have no legal right to coerce the husband and if they do coerce the husband, then the GET is invalid. The Rashbo is quoted by the Shulchan Aruch, Ramo, Gro, Chelkas Mechokake and Beis Shmuel as the halacha in EH 77 paragraphs 2 and 3. Nobody disagrees. But Rabbi Heinemann disagrees.

The Chazon Ish even says that if a Beth Din commands such a husband to give a GET and he gives it, thinking that the Beth Din was only following the Shulchan Aruch, but in this case there was no law that the husband must give a GET, the GET is invalid for two reasons: it is a forced GET forced by the pesak of Beth Din, and it is a GET given by mistake, because the husband was wrong in assuming that the Beth Din was correct in their ruling that he must give a GET.  (Chazon Ish EH Gittin 99:2)

But how many Beth Dins and prominent rabbis violate this and command husbands to give a GET when they feel the marriage is over? How many humiliate husbands who refuse to give a GET only because the wife demands a GET and claims she despises her husband? We mentioned above Rabbi Moshe Heinemann, but there are many others.

The problem with Rabbis Greenblatt, Kaminetsky, Heinemann, etc. is one problem: Today, once a person considers himself a Gadol, he ignores the Shulchan Aruch. He and others assume that whatever he says is right, Shulchan Aruch or not.

So, what is going on today? People who achieve a certain status as Rosh Yeshivas or Rabbonim make up halacha. And nobody dares to challenge them. And if they produce invalid Gittin, they produce mamzerim. Rabbi Heinemann on ORA’s website called upon everyone to support an organization ORA because it forced 150 men to give a GET with public humiliation and public demonstrations. But a coerced GET is an invalid GET. And the invalid GET turns children into mamzerim. See the Rashbo I mentioned above. Here is a prominent rabbi congratulating those who make mamzerim and asks people to support them!

And what will happen tomorrow? It is likely be much worse, unless we really make it clear that mamzer makers are not Gedolim. But who will make that clear?

Somebody noted that it used to be that any woman whose husband would not give a GET could hire Epstein to torture the husband and give a GET for sixty thousand dollars. But after the Trenton trial when the FBI caught Epstein and his crew, people won’t do this anymore. Therefore, the only hope for some women is to find a rabbi who doesn’t believe in Gittin, or who twists halacha as Rabbis Greenblatt and Kaminetsky do. Is that going to be the wave of the future? It depends if we fight it and make it clear that Tamar and  others who follow the wrong rabbis are going to have children we consider mamzerim, and that this will be widely publicized.

I heard from Gedolei haDor of this and past generations that there is something wrong with the Yeshiva system. The enormous amount of divorces, broken families, broken children, and broken parents, is just growing and growing. There is obviously something very wrong when people who come from the finest families and attend the finest schools and have fine children tear each other part in divorce battles, in Beth Din and in secular court, without permission of Beth Din.

The Yeshiva system is designed to produce Gedolim. Once somebody has achieved this, and is considered a Gadol, whether as Rosh Yeshiva or Posek, he has achieved what the Yeshiva taught him to achieve. The Yeshiva did not teach him to achieve clear knowledge of the Shulchan Aruch and the poskim, because the vast majority of Yeshiva students are not trained in serious halacha. I have spoken to prominent poskim, Dayanim, etc., and they told me very strongly that husbands must give a GET upon demand. I asked them what they did with the Shulchan Aruch EH 77 par 2 and 3. They admitted that they had not learned it. But they pasken Gittin regularly as Dayanim.

When a “Gadol” thinks something is right, it becomes “Daas Torah,” even if it openly conflicts with the Shulchan Aruch and poskim. Rabbi Gedaliah Schwartz, the senior rabbi of the Modern Orthodox, told me that a frumeh couple married by an Orthodox rabbi and who lived together for a month could separate without a GET and remarry. I had asked him why he sent them away without giving them a GET and he told me “because there was no biah.” I asked him how he knew there was no biah as biah acquires in ways that there are no tears. He had no answer. But the amazing thing in my discussion with him was that he did not know what every person who studies the gemora or Shulchan Aruch knows, that a woman is acquired in marriage without biah, either through a ring or something of value, or a document (shtar). (Shulchan Aruch Kiddushin 26:4) And this ignoramus is considered the major authority of the RCA.

I once had somebody ask Rabbi Herschel Schachter of YU for his source to force husbands to divorce with public humiliation. He replied, “Rabbi Gedaliah Schwartz”. Can we rely on Gittin from such “rabbis”?

Mamzer Makers Rabbis Greenblatt and Kaminetsky: Are They  Gedolim or the Opposite?

By Rabbi Dovid E. Eidensohn/Wed 29 Cheshvan 5776/845-578-1917/eidensohnd@gmail.com

There is great joy in the Torah community that after weeks of silence some major rabbonim are presenting their views on the Tamar Epstein Friedman remarriage with no GET. My brother’s blog daattorah.blogspot.com features them and more rabbis are anticipated to weigh in with their criticisms soon. I was the first one to attack Rabbis Kaminetsky and Greenblatt in America and my brother in Israel was the first one to anticipate and refute what he assumed was the reason for their allowing Tamar to remarry without a GET, something confirmed by  others later on. Both of us worked for weeks attacking the remarriage without a GET but no prominent rabbis signed up. Now this is being rectified Baruch HaShem; and we anticipate more rabbis soon. What I want to do here is to ask What Did They Say? I feel there is some confusion here, at least with most of the protests.

Let us review the major rabbis posted on my brother’s blog daattorah.blogspot.com. First we mention the four prominent rabbis HaGaonim Reb Shlomo Miller, Rav Eli Ber Wachtfogel,  Rav Moshe Green, and Rav Yechiel Tauber. This group of senior scholars refers to Rabbi Greenblatt not as Rabbi but  as “Rabbi” meaning he is not even a rabbi. It also says that all who permit such things are “those who teach Torah falsely” which seems to include RSK and his son. HaGaon Rav Gestetner writes: “It was later announced that Tamar was married to Adam Fleischer by Rabbi Nota Greenblatt from Memphis, Tennessee. We protest at this terrible breach of the walls of our holy Torah that was heretofore unheard of amongst the Orthodox, but known only amongst the Reform. Anyone taking any part of this breach to permit what has been prohibited throughout the generations completely rejects the Torah and mocks the words of the Sages.

Therefore, pursuant to our holy Torah, we announce that the Rabbi Nota Greenblatt is an uprooter of the Torah, similar to the Reform movement.  He must be completely separated from the Jewish community, and his Jewish Law teachings, his bread and his wine are prohibited.  This is also the status of Rabbi Shmuel Kamenetsky, as all who have the authority to protest this matter and do not do so are held culpable.  Without his approval this would not have happened and it is clear that he bears responsibility for this terrible matter.

We also announce: Jewish Law is clear that Tamar is still married to Aharon and that Tamar and Adam Fleischer are violating the prohibition of another man living with a married woman. Any children born to Adam and Tamar will be considered complete “mamzerim” until the end of generations.  And there is an obligation to pronounce this.

Tamar must leave both men and is prohibited to either forever.  Before Tamar separates from Adam Fleischer through receiving a get, it is prohibited for Aharon to give a get to Tamar.  And even after Tamar receives a get from Adam there is no obligation on Aharon to give a get before Tamar agrees to an appropriate custody arrangement. Any children born by Tamar from Adam even after Tamar receives a get are mamzerim according to the rabbis.  There is an obligation to encourage them to separate. Signed, this first day of the week of “Vateshachais haaretz lifnei Elokim” [the earth was destroyed before Hashem] [Noach], 28 Tishrei, 5776,Monsey New York, Beis Din Shar Hamishpat

Posted by Daas Torah at 12

So far, the protesting rabbis utterly denigrated Rabbis Greenblatt and Kaminetsky. One put them in cherem and the other considered them as lacking in the ability to be a posek. Now let us turn to the other protests who also agreed that what was done makes mamzerim, but they spoke much differently about Rabbis  Greenblatt and Kaminetsky.

Here are the words of Rabbi Shternbuch in my brother’s English translation. The Hebrew is on his blog daattorah.blogspot.com. It begins:

“This is in regards to the recently publicized psak of one of the gedolim (an American rosh yeshiva) together with an American posek. The psak freed a woman from marriage without a Get despite the fact that she had lived with her first husband for an extended period of time and she had born a daughter from him. But now a therapist claims that the husband suffers from mental illness that had existed prior to their marriage. Therefore these two rabbis paskened that they had determined that the marriage was a mistake (mekach ta'os) and that therefore the woman was free to marry immediately without needing a Get. And in fact they [the posek] officiated at a wedding for her without her receiving a Get.

“And I saw the teshuva that ‘freed’ her. I hate to say this but the teshuva is total nonsense.”

The confusion is as follows: It begins by saying that the rabbis are Gedolim and then says that “the teshuva is total nonsense.” How can somebody who writes a teshuva that is “total nonsense” be considered a Gadol?

Rabbi Shternbuch continues, “In fact in many cases of divorce, the wife brings a therapist's opinion to beis din, that the husband suffers from mental illness that was a pre-existing condition. Therefore according to the view of these two rabbis there would be no need for a Get (G-d forbid!) in those cases! Such an approach is destructive to Judaism and uproots the basic laws governing Jewish marriage. And this that they claim that they are merely basing themselves on the views of Rav Moshe Feinstein – that is total nonsense.” Now, can Gedolim and poskim pasken something that is total nonsense?

And I have another point that most people don’t realize. The only posek who permits a person with severe deficiencies to be removed from a marriage is Reb Moshe Feinstein. He admits that gedolim of all of the generations disagreed with him and forbade the woman to remarry without a GET, and yet he permits it in certain extreme cases. But he makes a condition: This is only when the husband won’t give a GET. If the husband will give a GET, even if the wife has to give in to his demands in the most painful way, she may not remarry. So how can Rabbi Greenblatt, a disciple of Reb Moshe, permit the woman to remarry without a GET when nobody in the world would permit it? And if two rabbis permit a woman to remarry without a GET with claims that are “total nonsense” how can they be considered Gedolim? And note this. The  terms “total nonsense is used twice, once regarding the basic teshuva that permitted the remarriage, and the other thing is the claim of the two “Gedolim” that Reb Moshe Feinstein would permit Tamar to remarry. Somebody who makes up lies in the name of Reb Moshe Feinstein who writes clearly in Igeres Moshe that a husband who wants to give a GET but wants severe conditions, Reb Moshe does not permit remarriage even if the husband is hideously impossible to live with. So here we have “nonsense” and lies, and a scholarship that is far below the level of a Gadol.

                Rabbi Shternbuch concludes, “It is important, therefore that it be publicized that the heter of these rabbis for her to remarry is totally worthless and has no basis. Consequently she is still married to the first husband in every respect and therefore any children born from her relation to the second husband are clearly mamzerim. I have no peace of mind because I have not heard protests against this false heter - which is against G-d's honor and His Torah.”

                Here again we ask, “If people make a heter that is “totally worthless and has no basis” and is a “false heter”,are they “Gedolim”?

We turn now to the protest of Rabbi Aharon Feldman.

Rabbi Aharon Freedman Attacks Heter of Rabbi Greenblatt

Rabbi Aharon Feldman writes, “A few weeks ago, one of the most authoritative and distinguished rabbis in America [Rav Nota Greenblatt] permitted her to marry another man - and even performed the ceremony himself - without her receiving a Get from her husband. I asked this great rabbi what was his justification? He responded that the basis of his ruling, that she could marry another man, was an expert psychiatrist's report that had been given him. The psychiatrist had concluded that the husband (Aharon Friedman) suffered from the personality disorders of Paranoid Personality Disorder (PPD) and Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder (OCPD) from the beginning of their marriage. Furthermore the psychiatrist claimed that these personality disorders were incurable. On the basis of this information, the distinguished rabbi concluded that the marriage was retroactively annulled based on the halachic principle of mekach ta'os (mistaken acquisition).”

At the end of his remarks Rabbi Feldman says, “In addition to the danger posed because the heter has been produced by Rabbi Greenblatt, in the eyes of the public Rabbi Greenblatt  is viewed as being supported in producing the heter by one of the senior rosh yeshivos (Rabbi Shmuel Kaminetsky) of the present generation as well as his son ( Rabbi Sholom Kaminetsky) who is also a distinguished Torah scholar. Despite the fact that the Kaminetskys deny this, there is no question that many will rely on these rumors to permit the nullification of the status of being a married woman by means of this heter. That is because they think gedolim have clearly supported this heter.” Here again we have Gedolim, this time Rabbis Shmuel and Shalom Kaminetsky, called Gedolim. And yet, what they have done defies, as the lengthy letter of Rabbi Feldman proves, basic logic and Torah teachings. These are “Gedolim”?

When I learned by Gedolim Reb Aharon Kotler, Reb Moshe Feinstein and Reb Shmuel HaLevi Wosner all of the zt”l, and I made a mistake, I caught it. But when a person is a “Gadol” and makes mamzerim, that  is something else.

But one of the signers against Rabbis Greenblatt and Kaminetsky told me that there is method to the madness.

There are two approaches to use when attacking Tamar’s remarriage. One is that of completely denigrating the rabbis responsible for it, such as was done with two of the above protests. The other is the approach of another two protesters, to protest very strongly and declare that children will be mamzerim, and yet, to speak highly of the rabbis who did it. As I pointed out, if rabbis make such an error to make mamzerim, do we call them “gedolim” and other such titles? But this rabbi explained to me the reasoning.

Rabbis Greenblatt and Kaminetsky must be brought to understand that what they did was wrong. If they do this, we can hope that other rabbis will be afraid to repeat what they did. But if Rabbis Greenblatt and Kaminetsky are insulted and they continue to believe they are right, they will make more mamzerim. Furthermore, their students and disciples and those who look to them for guidance will  accept negation of marriage without a GET. Then Klal Yisroel will be split in two some considering the others side mamzerim. Others believe that if these two rabbis are not destroyed, they will continue their evil ways. 

Tamar Epstein: Translation of protest by R Shlomo Miller, R E B Wachtfogel, R Moshe Green and R Yechiel Tauber

Tamar Epstein: Translation of protest by R Shlomo Miller, R E B Wachtfogel, R Moshe Green and R Yechiel Tauber

English translation from my brother's blog daattorah.blogspot.com

This is concerning the uproar regarding the case of Tamar Epstein the wife of Aharon Friedman. He has refused to give her a Get for many years because of unresolved issues regarding custody of their daughter.  The facts of the case of been investigated and established by Rav Aharon Feldman. 

There is a "rav" [R Nota Greenblatt] who has given Tamar a heter to remarry without a Get. He  said the marriage was annulled retroactively because of the principle of mekach ta'os (mistaken acquistion). The reason for the mekach ta'os he claims is that the husband (Aharon) suffers from the personality disorders of Paranoid Personality Disorder (PPD_ and Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder (OCPD).

However this explanation is not adequate justification for annulling the marriage - since it is obvious that there are many people who have such personality disorders and yet are still able to have a successful marriage. In fact I asked two psychotherapists about this and they both said that these personality disorders are not mental illness but are simply personality traits. Thus there is absolutely no justification to declare the marriage annulled because of mekach ta'os. Furthermore the Beis Din of Baltimore - which is the only beis din that has been authorized by both side and they both appeared before it - has said that there is no sign of mental illness in the husband.

And if as a result of this "psak", reckless and irresponsible rabbis permit other woman to remarry it would mean that there will never be a need for a Get again. That is because the wife will simply claim that she has discovered that her husband has a serious personality problem and that she would have never agreed to marry him if she had known about it before the marriage. As a result of this mistaken reasoning - G-d forbid- it will result in multiplying the number of mamzerim in the Jewish people.

 Besides the above objections to the heter, it is a fact that they remained living together for an extended period of time and she never claimed that her marriage was a mistake -mekach ta'os. And in addition even after the therapist wrote that her husband had these "incurable" personality disorders - she remained living with him for a period of 4 months. Given these facts it is obvious that even if in fact that her husband has this defect of mental illness  (but as we noted before it is not a defect that justifies annulling the marriage ) it is clear that she was able to accept him as a husband and therefore the marriage can not be considered inherently mistaken (mekach ta'os).

Today it is widespread that reckless and irresponsible people who want to resolve every case of aguna by simply saying that the marriage is a mistaken marriage (mekach ta'os). As a result of such an approach the Torah (G-d forbid!) will be deserted and no one will be concerned with the truth as to what the halacha really is. It will be sufficient for these people that they can find some sort of rabbi who will declare that they are free from their marriage and it doesn't concern them whether the rabbi is following the halacha or not.

Today when  the Jewish people is in mortal danger from the sword of the Arabs, we need to ask what sin has brought about these types of afflictions? I am not a prophet  or even the son of a prophet and I don't have esoteric knowledge - but I do know something about the words of our Sages. The sword comes to the world because of those who rebel against the Torah and distort its teaching against the halacha. There is no greater rebellion and distortion of the Torah than to say that it is permitted for a married woman to marry someone else without first receiving a Get from her husband.

In summary, this married woman Tamar Epstein is prohibited to her second husband because she married him without first obtaining a Get from her first husband. Consequently all children she has from her second husband are mamzerim and can not marry other Jews.

Signed in anguish because of the terrible destruction and the public chilul haShem

Rav Shlomo Miller
Rav E B. Wachtfogel
Rav Moshe Green
Rav Yechiel Tauber