The great failure of marriage even in the highest echelons of the Torah community is because people don't know the halacha, the Torah laws, of marriage, divorce, Family and raising children. Rabbi Dovid E. Eidensohn publishes books, publications, and material on blog and Google with approbations from the greatest rabbis such as the Gaonim Reb Moshe Feinstein, Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashev and other major gedolim.
Monday, December 28, 2015
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.
Sunday, December 27, 2015
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.
Sunday, December 20, 2015
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!
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!
Wednesday, December 16, 2015
EMERGENCY - US GOVT MAY WANT ALL WOMEN TO REGISTER FOR MILITARY DRAFT AND SERVE GOVT OTHER WAYS
EMERGENCY - WE ASK ANYONE WITH YIRAS SHOMAYIM TO PLEASE GO TO OUR NEW BLOG ABOUT STOPPING THE DRAFT OF WOMEN IN AMERICA. GEDOLIM IN ISRAEL CONSIDER THIS יהרג ואל יעבור.
CLICK HERE ON FIGHTING AGAINST DRAFTING WOMEN IN AMERICA
Tuesday, December 8, 2015
Free Telephone Conference
Thur Dec 10 9 PM
dial 641-715-3580 then code 884800#
Our latest telephone discussion is about:
We want to point out the great difficulty in creating rules for paskening. Today the world is much different than it used to be. Once every city had a recognized Rov and Beth Din that ruled for everybody but not today. We will point out various Torah sources that are designed to clarify כללי הורארה but in today's world there is confusion. This session does not claim to clarify all the confusion, but to point out various aspects of הוראה that should be understood by someone interesting in the rules of paskening.
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.
Friday, December 4, 2015
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 .
Tuesday, December 1, 2015
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 .
Tuesday, November 24, 2015
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.
========================================
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
Monday, November 23, 2015
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
Tuesday, November 17, 2015
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”?
Wednesday, November 11, 2015
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
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
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
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
Monday, November 9, 2015
Hagaon Rav Moshe Shternbuch shlit"o Severely Attacks Rabbis N. Greenblatt and S. Kaminetsky for Heter of Tamar to Remarry
Translation of letter from Gayed HaGaon Reb Moshe Shternbuch shlit"o by my brother Rabbi Dr. Daniel Eidensohn of Jerusalem
---
Rav Moshe Sternbuch
Protest against heter for Tamar Epstein to remarry without a Get
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. Taking the approach of this teshuva it is possible to destroy the whole framework of halachic marriage. For example, if a spouse is found to have cancer – something which begins to develop a long time before it is discovered by the doctors – it would be possible according to the logic of this teshuva to declare that the marriage is a mistake (mekach ta'os) and thus never existed. Similarly there are thousands of other cases of problems that develop prior to marriage but are only discovered after marriage.
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. The present case is not comparable to Rav Moshe's cases. But this is not the place to go into the details.
When a certain Religious Zionistic rabbi declared the he had found a heter for a person who had the status of a mamzer to marry, the Minchas Yitzchok (Dayan Weiss) gathered the people together and they sat on the ground and tore their clothing as a sign of mourning. It is explained in Kiddushin (13a) that when a married woman is declared to be free of her married status against the halacha, G-d becomes very angry and brings about punishment which is greater than that of the Generation of the Flood. To the degree that even the fish in the sea are destroyed.
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.
I heard from the Brisker Rav that when there is a serious problem that it be dealt with by issuing a categorical prohibition without giving detailed explanations. That is because if a reason for the objections are given, then it is possible for someone to argue and say they are wrong. Therefore also in this case, I am not coming forth except to encourage he who protests the heter and sanctifies G-d's name. His reward is exceedingly great.
Sunday, November 8, 2015
Protest Against Heter of Tamar by Geonim Rav Shlomo Miller, Rav Eli Ber Wachtfogel, Rav Moshe Green, Rav Yechiel Tauber
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