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

The Problem with RCA Prenups

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

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

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

RCA and Its Teaching about Prenups followed by Dovid Eidensohn’s comments.

RCA Says

Jewish Divorce and the Role of The Prenup

The Torah views marriage as a vital institution in Jewish life. But the Torah also recognizes that in some cases marriages do not work out and need to be ended. In order to do so, the husband must willingly give, and the wife must willingly receive, a Jewish bill of divorce, known as a Get. In the absence of a Get, the husband and wife are both precluded from remarrying. Later offspring of the wife may bear the stigma of mamzerut (illegitimacy).

Dovid Eidensohn comments: Later offspring of the wife may bear the stigma of mamzerut (illegitimacy). I feel it is important to be more specific about what makes mamzerut from a married woman. Mamzerut from a married woman comes about if she sleeps with another man not her husband. A woman who hates her husband may be easily tempted to sleep with another man not her husband. But what is happening today is that many “rabbis” have invented a new law, that a husband who does not give a GET willingly when the wife demands it, may be forced to give a GET. A forced GET is invalid and if the woman remarries with an invalid GET her children from the new husband are mamzerim. The sin of forcing a GET is a Rashbo in VII:414 and it quoted by all five poskim in the Shulchan Aruch Even Hoezer Laws of Kesubose 77 par 2 and 3. The Vilna Gaon there says that everybody agrees to this. Everybody, except the RCA and its “Gedolim.” But what I just said is really a bit old fashioned. The new style, pioneered by a certain Rosh Yeshiva in Philadelphia, is to tell a woman she doesn’t need a GET, but she can just leave her husband. That surely makes mamzerim. But we have a case in Philadelphia where the woman who left without a GET is living with a strange man and both of them have bought an ad on the Yeshiva Kollel dinner. This shows you where the world is going when you invent the new Torah.

 This is also something done by Rabbi Gedaliah Schwartz and I spoke to him about it and he said that he allowed two Orthodox spouses to leave when they wanted a GET because they didn’t need a GET. I asked him why they didn’t need a GET when they were Orthodox, the witnesses were Orthodox, the woman got a ring from the husband and they lived together for a month. He replied “Because there was no Biah.” The halacha clearly taught in Tur Shulchan Aruch and Shulchan Aruch Even Hoezer Chapter 26 laws of Kiddushin is that a woman can be obtained in marriage in three ways, each one of the three ways independently of the other. That is, a ring without a marital document and without Biah creates a full marriage. But Gedaliah Schwartz didn’t know that. There is tremendous ignorance of halacha among people who have very high positions. That is how to make mamzerim. The woman who was let off with no GET, if she remarries, will make mamzerim.

But somebody suggested that a husband who cannot have marital relations for physical or emotional reasons may lose the entire Kiddushin made between him and his wife. If so perhaps the husband who was not with his wife for thirty days caused the Kiddushin made with the ring to disappear. But we find in Shulchan Aruch Even Hoezer chapter 76 paragraph 13 that a husband who refuses to ever have relations with his wife must divorce her and give her a Kesubo. A Kesubo is only given when there is Kiddushin, and the statement that the wife is given the right to leave him means there was a GET. If so, in all cases of Kiddushin where the man has a problem physically or emotionally or just decides he wants no more intimacy, the husband must free his wife with a GET and pay her a Kesubo. Not as Rabbi Schwartz did to let husband and wife go without a GET and probably also no Kesubo. Both were errors.

 Furthermore, the Shulchan Aruch there Even Hoezer chapter 76 paragraph 11 says that one who is unable for reasons of health or medical issues to be with his wife at least once in six months must divorce his wife and give her a Kesubo.   The husband with Rabbi Schwartz was with his wife only one month. But even if he could be with her six months he must give her a GET and a Kesubo. But Rabbi Schwartz simply told husband and wife to leave without a GET. When a prominent scholar in Yeshiva University heard about the woman just leaving he screamed at me, “Where is the woman?” I told him to ask Rabbi Schwartz. But wherever she is, if she remarries for sure the child is a mamzer, and the children’s children, for all generations.

RCA Says

In some cases, spouses have purposely withheld a get even where their marriages have functionally ended. Some spouses have refused to participate in the get process in order to extract concessions in divorce negotiations, in order to extort money, or simply out of spite.

Dovid Eidensohn: It is true that not all husbands willingly give a GET because the wife demands one. The above comment is true, but we are left with the question of why the author did not write a bit longer to explain two things. One, that the halacha in Even Hoezer 77 par 2 and 3 as taught by all five poskim there, the Shulchan Aruch, the Ramo, the Gro, the Beis Shmuel and the Chelkas Mechokake say clearly that a husband must not be pressured to give a GET. If the GET is pressured, it is very possible it would be invalid, and the woman using it to remarry would have a problem if her children are kosher children. The Gro there has a very long discussion of this and says that everyone agrees with this not to force the husband to give a GET. The PRENUP, of course, is simply a device to force a GET from the husband. The RCA wants to make it standard so that all woman can force their husband to give a GET whenever they want out. This is forbidden by a Mishneh Nedorim 90B that although originally, we believed women in their stories that required a Beth Din to force the husband to give a GET, this practice stopped when it became a problem because a woman could possibly use her stories not because they were true but because she found a cute fellow she wants to marry. This is the halacha and the basis for not believing women who demand a GET from their husband because he is disgusting to them, as taught by Rabbeinu Tam in Tosfose Kesubose 63b.

If the husband loves his children and the wife wants to take them to a distant place, why should he just fork over the GET? Is he a human being or a creature for the woman to control? But let us keep to the point. The halacha is that a husband may not be forced to give a GET and may not be pressured. The Shita in Kesubose says that one may not tell the husband it would be a proper thing to give a GET.

RCA Says

Traditionally, rabbinical courts (batei din) have been charged with the responsibility of overseeing the process of Jewish divorce, and ensuring that a get is not improperly withheld.

Dovid Eidensohn: The Chazon Ish says (Even Hoezer Noshim Gittin 99:2) that any force on the husband can ruin the GET. He says that a Beth Din that requires the husband to give a GET and the husband is not one of those very few people in Shulchan Aruch required to give a GET, then the GET is invalid for two reasons. One, it is a GET given by the husband with force, because a Beth Din that forces has the status of ONESS, unless the Shulchan Aruch says clearly that it is a mitsvah to force the GET. Secondly, if the husband would know that the Beth Din made a mistake to force him because the Shulchan Aruch does not consider him to be a person who may be forced to give a GET, he never would have given the GET. Therefore, the GET is invalid for two reasons, ONESS and error, and is on both counts botel min haTorah.

To show just how delicate all of this is. The Shulchan Aruch has a discussion about a husband who is a MUMAR, he changed his religion and no longer believes in the Torah or practices Judaism. Can he be forced to give a GET? The Yam Shel Shlomo discusses this (in the sefer of teshuvose of Maharshal, Ramo, and Maharam Lublin: See Maharshal teshuvo 41.) If the Mumar can maintain marital relations with the wife שאר כסות ואונאה even if he has changed religions and doesn’t keep the Torah, we don’t force him to give a GET. Maybe the wife will influence him to change back to being a Jew. The Maharam is quoted by Maharshal that we don’t force a Meshumed to give a GET. In Shulchan Aruch Even Hoezer 154:1 we have an argument if a Mumar can be forced to give a GET. Maharshal (above) also says that it depends on how removed the Mumar is from Judaism and if he continues to maintain proper marital requirements with his wife.

 The idea that Beth Din can just order husbands to give a GET or suffer is not based on the Shulchan Aruch and it ignores the Chazon Ish. Again, the statement by the RCA that a Beth Din of the RCA can control whether a GET should be given is completely wrong.

RCA Says

However, in modern society batei din frequently lack the authority to do so. The Prenup is a document entered into by a man and woman prior to their marriage. It provides that in the unfortunate event of divorce, the beit din will have the proper authority to ensure that the get is not used as a bargaining chip. Rabbo Eidensohn says, “This is completely wrong. A Beth Din has no right to force a husband to give his wife a GET against his will. See Shulchan Aruch Even Hoezer chapter 77 paragraphs 2 and 3: All commentators (Shulchan Aruch, Ramo, Vilna Gaon, Beis Shmuel, Chelkas Mechokake) say clearly that it is forbidden to force a GET, and the Chazon Ish mentioned above( Even Hoezer Noshim Gittin 99:2) says that a Beth Din has no power to order a GET unless the husband is clearly listed in Shulchan Aruch as one who must be forced to give a GET. Otherwise, the GET is botel from the Torah.

Prenup essentially contains two provisions:

1.         Each spouse agrees to appear before a panel of Jewish law judges (dayanim) arranged by the Beth Din of America, if the other spouse demands it, and to abide by the decision of the Beth Din with respect to the get.

Dovid Eidensohn: The RCA wants everyone to sign a prenup and this would require everyone to come to the RCA Beth Din. But the RCA Beth Din has members who are not great believers in the Shulchan Aruch and Poskim especially when it comes to demonizing husbands and protecting women. Therefore, no husband should ever sign a prenup that forces him to go to a RCA Beth Din.

RCA Says

2.         If the couple separates, the Jewish law obligation of the husband to support his wife is formalized, so that he is obligated to pay $150 per day (indexed to inflation), from the date he receives notice from her of her intention to collect that sum, until the date a Jewish divorce is obtained. This support obligation ends if the wife fails to appear at the Beth Din of America or to abide by a decision of the Beth Din of America.

Dovid Eidensohn - If the couple separates, the Jewish law obligation of the husband to support his wife is formalized, so that he is obligated to pay $150 per day (indexed to inflation), from the date he receives notice from her of her intention to collect that sum, until the date a Jewish divorce is obtained. If the couple separates means that the wife walks out of the house. If so, the husband is obligated immediately to start paying her $150 a day. This is called by the RCA “the Jewish law obligation of the husband to support his wife.” Where does it say in Jewish law that the wife who walks out on the husband must be paid $150 a day or anything? See Shulchan Aruch Even Hoezer 70 the obligation of the husband to feed his wife and children. The sums there are about a wife who lives in the house not one who ran away.  And the sums there are nothing like $150 a day. This prenup is pure blackmail to force a GET whenever the wife wants it. And that, specifically is forbidden by the Mishneh in Nedorim 90B, because if a woman has the power to force a GET she can just decide to remarry and find somebody cuter than her husband. Therefore, the Mishneh clearly says that we don’t allow a woman the power to force a GET, ever. If Beth Din or proper witnesses can testify that the husband is somebody who must be forced to give a GET, that is one thing. But the wife herself cannot force a GET, period. This is because we fear she wants to change husbands. חיישינן שמא עיניה נתנה באחר. This is also quoted in Tosfose Kesubose 63b by Rabbeinu Tam.

RCA  Says

3. Each of these provisions is important to ensure that a get is given by the husband to his wife in a timely manner following the functional end of a marriage. The first obligation grants authority to the rabbinical court to oversee the get process. The second obligation provides an incentive for the husband to abide by decisions of the rabbinical court, and give a get to his wife once the marriage is over and there is no hope of reconciliation.

Dovid Eidensohn: there is no hope of reconciliation. On my brother Daniel’s blog daattorah, there was, a year or two ago, a war between husband and wife and everyone thought that it would surely end quickly. Well, one day we had a picture of the two lovie dovies and to my knowledge that is the latest status. Anyone who says that “the marriage is over” is probably a feminist who wants to demonize men and support women. Incidentally, the horrible war against Aharon Friedman had the RCA ORA people in full throat to demonize him, and have him thrown out of the Washington shulls, but the wife, who ran away with their baby, is ignored. Now she left the husband with no GET, remarried a strange man, and by the RCA and its feminists, that is fine. She and her new boyfriend recently both signed up an ad for a Yeshiva affair in Philadelphia.  So the Washington rabbis and other RCA and feminist people hate Aharon Friedman, a person who followed exactly the instructions of the Baltimore Beth Din, and they love Tamar Epstein, who ran away with their baby and then left her husband and shacked up with a strange man with no GET. She is a zona but the Washington rabbis and the RCA and the feminists never criticize her. Her mother spent a large sum to have Aharon Friedman beaten and kidnapped after he delivered the baby to his wife in Philadelphia. That is just fine with the feminists. When did the RCA protest this?

RCA Says

There are at least four reasons to sign The Prenup:

1.         It is an act of kindness to prevent suffering.

2.         People follow the examples of others. Even if you are sure that the plight of the agunah (a woman whose marriage is functionally over, but whose husband refuses to give her a get) will never be your own, you should sign The Prenup as part of an effort to make The Prenup a standard part of every Jewish wedding. If our collective actions can bring that about, we will have played an important role in solving one of the great crises of Jewish life in modern times, and we will prevent other people from suffering.

Dovid Eidensohn – Does the Prenup present kindness and prevents suffering? Is the man who must divorce his wife and leave his children and maybe get kicked out of his house suffer? Well, that doesn’t count. RCA are feminists.

RCA Says

3.         It is a pragmatic document.

4.         Aside from the inherent emotional trauma of a divorce, divorces often result in prolonged and expensive battles over finances and custody. In some cases, adding the issue of the get, and when and whether it will be given, can serve to add mistrust and emotional upheaval to a process that is already very painful. By signing The Prenup, couples ensure that if the tragedy of divorce ever befalls them, the get will not become an issue of contention.

Dovid Eidensohn- As we mentioned earlier, the RCA neglects to mention that a clear Mishneh in the Talmud, 90b in Nedorim, clearly forbids a woman to be able to say something and force a GET. But who cares about a Mishneh if you are a feminist? And incidentally, the teaching of the Mishneh, that when a woman demands a GET with the strongest reasoning in the world she can’t get it, because we suspect her of saying things to get rid of her husband so she can marry somebody else שמא עיניה נתנה באחר is also mentioned in Tosfose Kesubose 63B. But the RCA is so busy inventing a new Torah it has no time for Mishnehs and Tosfose.

RCA Says

3. It is an opportunity for a couple, on the eve of their wedding, to demonstrate their respect for each other.

The Prenup is a commitment between husband and wife that even in the very worst scenario, even if their relationship falters unimaginably, they will not harm each other and will treat one another with respect and basic dignity. There is no better way to start off a marriage than to say to your partner: Even in the very worst circumstance, even if this union should end, Heaven forbid, I will not allow myself to act indecently toward you.

Dovid Eidensohn – A wife who forces a husband who is struggling financially to fork over every day $150 is concerned about respect for each other?

RCA Says

5.         To protect yourself.

6.         Marriage is an act of trust. Most often we trust that our marriage will be successful, and that the person we are marrying would never do anything to harm us. There are no guarantees in life, and it is important to take safeguards to protect ourselves from harm in the future.

Dovid Eidensohn – Yes, the RCA has revealed to us that when the husband signs over his life to his wife who threatens to rip his pants off financially, and she then takes the GET and kicks him out of the house, this is because the RCA has declared that “marriage is an act of trust.”

RCA Says

The Prenup was drafted by Rabbi Mordechai Willig, Sgan Av Beth Din of the Beth Din of America, and a Rosh Yeshiva at the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary of Yeshiva University, in consultation with halachic and legal experts. The concepts contained in The Prenup predate 1994, when it was introduced. In 1664, Rabbi Shmuel Ben David Moshe Halevi, the rabbi of Bamberg, Germany, published a compilation of Jewish legal forms called the Nachalas Shiva. One of the forms in that book is a version of the tana’im, a Jewish wedding document, with a provision that is very similar to The Prenup. In a footnote to that provision, the Nachalas Shiva cites some authorities who held that the provision dates back to the Takanos Shum, the authoritative communal enactments adopted in the early Middle Ages by the leaders of the German communities of Speyer, Worms and Mayence.

Dovid Eidensohn: The concepts contained in The Prenup predate 1994, when it was introduced. In 1664, Rabbi Shmuel Ben David Moshe Halevi, the rabbi of Bamberg, Germany, published a compilation of Jewish legal forms called the Nachalas Shiva. One of the forms in that book is a version of the tana’im, a Jewish wedding document, with a provision that is very similar to The Prenup.

When I heard once that the source of the prenup was the work Nachalas Shiva I found in chapter nine the first document whereby a wife was mistreated by her husband and she fled to her father’s house. The Beth Din was summoned but it will take time for it to get organized to hear the case. Therefore, on the document prepared for just such a problem, it says that when the wife flees the house of the husband and stays with her father, the husband must pay for her food on a regular basis until the Beth Din will deal with the case and hopefully restore the marriage. This is not a prenup. A prenup is about breaking a marriage and forcing the husband to pay money until he gives a GET. The case in Nachalas Shiva is about a husband who probably caused the wife to leave the house and he has to pay her for her food until the Beth Din meets, and the Beth Din will make sure that the husband learns to behave in the house. If so, this is not a prenup that breaks up a marriage, but a sum of money to keep the wife in food until the Beth Din can restore the marriage when the husband is told how to behave in the house with his wife. Also, the RCA prenup is designed to break the husband financially to pay $150 a day until he gives her the GET. This is about fifty thousand dollars a year. The story of the woman who fled her house has the husband paying once a month for her food, nothing more.  How can Rabbi Willig compare these two things and say that the story of feeding his wife for a month or so is the same as his prenup that forces every husband to spend fifty thousand dollars a year or give a GET? I also checked out his claim that the Nachalas Shiva presents something like a prenup calling it similar to Takanas Shume. Well, Rabbi Willig is perfectly safe saying these things because if he found a proof for prenups in the story of the woman who fled the house and gets paid for her food why can’t he just stretch things a bit more and say more baloney? Who is going to check him out besides me? Takanas Shume is mentioned many times in Nachalas Shiva and it talks about people making agreements, signing them, and then somebody dies. Does the money promised get cancelled or just what happens?

Bottom line: The RCA is doing a terrible sin by presenting Prenups. The Mishneh in Nedorim 90B clearly forbids giving a woman the power to force a GET on her husband in any circumstances. We fear that she merely wants to find a new husband. This is repeated in Kesubose 63b in Tosofse. The incredible amounts of money the husband has to pay, about fifty thousand dollars a year, have absolutely no source anywhere in the Torah. The halacha of how much a husband has to pay for his wife’s food is a tiny, tiny fraction of that. See Even Hoezer chapter 70. This is a pure fine to force a GET from the husband. Forcing the GET is invalid and the children from the woman from her next husband are mamzerim. The Chazon Ish we mention above says that a Beth Din that orders a husband to give his wife a divorce and the husband is not one of the very few people that the Shulchan Aruch says must give a GET to his wife, that the GET is invalid by the Torah because the Beth Din ordered it which is in the category of ONESS or force, and the GET is botel min haTorah. Also, if the husband would have known that the Beth Din is mistaken and has no right to order him to give a GET, he never would have done it. Two reasons why the GET is botel by the Torah.

I feel I have presented effective reasons why I oppose Prenups. The question is only when the RCA succeeds in making many men write prenups, and they divorce their wives as per her request, and then the wife remarries, and people like me think it is a question of mamzeruth for her new children, what happens then?

Question: If the husband knew his wife would live with him a few years, have a few children, and then kick him out of the house, would he have signed the prenup? Of course not. If so, the entire signing is asmachto.

But for now I want Rabbi Willig to explain to me why his Prenup is permitted based upon the Mishneh in Nedorim 90B. And does he dismiss the Tosfose in Kesubose 63b that we suspect a woman of saying something to get a GET so she can remarry with a new husband? And is he sure that the Chazon Ish is wrong when he says that a Beth Din that demands a GET from a husband who is not a candidate for a forced GET produces a GET that is בטל מדאורייתא for two reasons?

And can Rabbi Willig tell me exactly where he found proof for the RCA Prenup in Nachalas Shiva and where he found in Takanas Shume any hint about the RCA Prenup and its obligation to pay the wife $150 a day until the husband gives a GET.

RCA Says

2016 Resolution: Requiring the Use of Prenuptial Agreements for the  Prevention of Get-refusal Adopted by direct vote of the RCA membership. Click here for press release. Sep 22, 2016 -- Whereas our tradition celebrates married couples living together in peace and harmony, in love and devotion all of their lives; and, Whereas the Torah recognizes that some marriages cannot be sustained and therefore provides procedures for the termination of those marriages; and, Whereas in some unfortunate instances a husband or wife refuses to cooperate with the appropriate instructions of a beth din regarding the termination of their marriage with a get, thereby preventing their spouse from building a new family life; and, Whereas the prenuptial agreement of the Beth Din of America (BDA) has obtained the approval of dozens of leading rabbinic authorities and remains, in the eyes of both activists and scholars, the single most effective solution to the agunah problem; and Whereas even those members of the Rabbinical Council of America (RCA) who follow rabbinic authorities who rule differently than those of the BDA can use a different prenuptial agreement that meets the requirements of their rabbinic authorities Therefore the Rabbinical Council of America declares that each of its members must utilize, in any wedding at which he is the officiant (mesader kiddushin), in addition to a ketubah, a rabbinically-sanctioned prenuptial agreement, where available, that aids in our community's efforts to ensure the timely and unconditional issuance of a get.

Below is an article by Harry Maryles that Israeli rabbis have strongly attacked the RCA Prenup. He also writes that the Gaon Rav Ovadiah Yosef zt”l approves the RCA Prenup, which is a false statement. I have studied the RCA prenup and the document of HaGaon Rav Ovadiah Yosef, and one has nothing to do with the other. The RCA prenup is a terrible document, it violates a Mishneh in Nedorim 90b and many other things. It is a terrible sin for somebody to sign that prenup. Rav Ovadiah Yosef has a totally different approach and it is not a prenup. Number one, the RCA prenup gives all power to the woman and she can force the husband to pay fifty thousand dollars a year for not giving her a GET. Rav Ovadiah Yosef’s document is not a prenup. It is a document perhaps similar to the Nachalas Shiva chapter nine, first document, where a husband had a falling out with his wife and she fled the house and went to her father. The law is that the husband must pay 12 gold coins a month to the wife to pay for her food in her father’s house. Beth Din is summoned and they will straighten out the husband for the way he treated his wife and get the wife to return to the house and the couple will find Shalom Bayis.

The document of the Gaon Rav Ovadiah Yosef is the opposite of the RCA prenup because it is the husband’s document through and through where the wife is invisible for most of it. The husband has the power to summon the Beth Din that he wants. He writes in the amount of money he will pay the wife until the Beth Din settles things. The Beth Din will rule between the husband and wife and if the wife defies the Beth Din, then the husband has no more obligations in the matter. There is no question about violating the Mishneh in Nedorim 90b because the wife has no power period. She is only able to accept or reject the Beth Din, and if she rejects the Beth Din, the husband owes her nothing.

Again, the RCA prenup is completely treifeh and makes mamzerim. The document of the Gaon Rav Ovadiah is the husband’s summoning the Beth Din that he chooses and they will make peace in the house and hopefully the wife will return and find Shalom Bayis. How can anyone think that the Tsadik and Gaon Rav Ovadiah backs the treifeh RCA Beth Din? Note below the many prominent Israeli rabbis who claimed that the RCA prenup is completely treifeh and makes mamzerim.

Israeli Rabbis Protest RCA Prenup and Making Mamzerim Rabbi Eidensohn says: Below is an article by Harry Maryles that Israeli rabbis have strongly attacked the RCA Prenup. The article claims that Rav Ovadiah Yosef approves the RCA Prenup, which is a false statement. Again, the RCA prenup is completely treifeh and makes mamzerim. The document of the Gaon Rav Ovadiah is the husband’s summoning the Beth Din that he chooses and they will make peace in the house and hopefully the wife will return and find Shalom Bayis. How can anyone think that the Tsadik and Gaon Rav Ovadiah backs the treifeh RCA Beth Din? Note below the many prominent Israeli rabbis who claimed that the RCA prenup is completely treifeh and makes mamzerim. One prominent Israeli rabbi wrote:  Are RCA Rabbis Orthodox? Copy below of Document of the Gaon Rav Ovadiah Yosef zt”l for a broken marriage and the husband summons a Beth Din to settle things and improve the marriage. Not a prenup. Note that the RCA prenup is completely treifeh and violates a Mishneh in Nedorim 90b that a wife can not have the power to force the husband to give her a GET. We fear that she really wants a new husband and we won’t cooperate to give that to her. The document of the Gaon Rav Ovadiah Yosef zt”l is about a husband whose wife has left the house probably because of the way he behaved and he summons a Beth Din to settle things and make Shalom Bayis again. This is not at all like the RCA prenup which makes mamzerim. Here the wife has no power and the husband summons the Beth Din he wants and gives her the money for food and parnoso that he wants to give her. And when the Beth Din he called is ready they settle everything. If the husband accepts and not the wife she is finished. This is the opposite of the treifeh RCA prenup. Note below a copy of the document of the Gaon Rav Ovadiah Yosef. It has no relation whatsoever to the RCA Prenup which empowers a woman to force her husband to give her a GET.  Such a GET is invalid and makes mamzerim. The document of the Gaon Rav Ovadiah Yosef is not a prenup, it does not empower a woman to force her husband to divorce her, and it simply allows the husband to summon his Beth Din and pay the wife what he wants until the Beth Din arrives to settle the Shalom Bayis and to bring the wife back into the house. Somebody’s comment on the ferocious attack by senior Israeli rabbis on the RCA prenup. In what can only be called a shocking development, YWN reports that 44 rabbinic leaders in Israel have declared invalid the RCA prenuptial agreement. That document requires a recalcitrant husband to pay a hefty support payment in cases of unresolved divorce.  And if used the Get (Halachic divorce) is void. It is considered a get Me’usa – a forced divorce. Halacha dictates that for a divorce to be valid, it must be given willingly by the husband. If he is forced to give it – then he obviously is not doing it willingly. Which voids the Get The RCA prenup as I understand it requires that in cases of a divorce, if the husband refuses to give his wife a Get, he is required to pay her support payments of $150 per day. That would make most recalcitrant husbands more than likely to grant their wives a Get. This prenup takes seriously the plight of Agunos - women who cannot remarry because they are still considered married. No matter whether there is a civil divorce; No matter how long they have been separated. The RCA does not consider it a Get Me’usa because the husband, if he chooses, can pay her the fine and not give the Get. If used extensively - the incidence of chained women will be dramatically reduced. The RCA prenup has its detractors here in America. Some rabbis have objected to this and consider the hefty fine a form of force that might make the Get void. But I have never heard any of them make the kind of hard core declaration the Israeli leaders have. Not to mention the fact that the Prenup has its share of legitimate supporters. Respected Poskim of high stature are listed that include Rav Ovadia Yosef, Rav Zalman Nechemiah Goldberg, Rav Gedalia Dov Schwartz, and Rav Asher Weiss. The RCA now requires all of its members that officiate at marriage ceremonies to use the prenup. Crafted 25 years ago by Rabbi Mordechai Willig. Rabbi Eidensohn says that this is not true. The document of the RCA is completely different than the document of the Gaon Rav Ovadiah Yosef zt”l. The document of the Gaon Rav Ovadiah Yosef zt”l is not a prenup, it is a settlement between the husband and wife who had a fight, and then the Beth Din makes Shalom Bayis. The RCA prenup destroys the family by forcing a GET on the husband. How can anyone compare a treifeh thing that makes mamzerim with the kedusho of the Gaon Gadol HaDor Rav Ovadiah? End D.E. Now the comments of the writer above continue. And yet the declaration signed by these prominent Israeli rabbinic leaders is sharp in its rejection. They say that children of those women that remarry based on it are Mamzerim. Which according to Halacha may not marry into Klal Yisroel. And whose offspring for all time may not do so either. Those who signed this declaration include respected rabbinic leaders of both Charedi and Religious Zionist camps. They were not reticent in their condemnation. From YWN:  In a document obtained by the Srugim website, signed by dozens of rabbonim, including chareidim such as Eida Chareidis Ravaad HaGaon HaRav Moshe Sternbuch Shlita, Rabbi Avraham Auerbach and Rabbi Shlomo Yosef Machpud, they attack the agreement and write about it among other things: “The truth is that this marriage agreement represents the destruction of religion truly, and leads to a fear of ‘eishes ish’ and mamzerus”. HaGaon HaRav Avigdor Nebenzahl Shlita has also penned his objections, citing a rav who permits signing such an agreement is not an Orthodox rav and one should (not) rely upon his halachic rulings. Former Chief Rabbi of Hebron and Kiryat Arba Rabbi Dov Lior Shlita concurs, stating the document negates halacha and may chas v’sholom lead to serious issues of ‘get me’usa’, mamzerus, and the destruction of the kedusha of the family. He adds Chief Rabbis have and remain opposed to it and a document was released during the tenure of HaGaon HaRav Avraham Kahana Shapira ZT”L and HaGaon HaRav Mordechai Eliyahu ZT”L.  I have to wonder what the motivation behind this was to come out with this declaration now. Where were they years ago when the RCA first adopted it? Why now? I also have to wonder why the widely respected (from right to left) Rav Nebenzahl has virtually declared the entire RCA membership not Orthodox? Especially after the Charedi controlled Chief Rabbinate were so willing to accept their converts? This is quite the contradiction!  You can’t be denied your Orthodox status and right to Paskin and then be told your converts are legitimate. I am not making any accusations here. The Israeli rabbinic leaders do not make frivolous declarations. They are sincere Poskim. Sincere Poskim make declarations based on Halacha. Not politics. And if there is one thing that is known about Rav Nebenzahl - it is that he is 100% L’Shma.  (I removed two paragraphs that were just thoughts not necessary for us now.) D.E. We now continue with the above speaker or commentator. The question is where do we go from here? What if anything is the RCA going to do about this? How will they respond? And what happens to all the women that got divorced using this prenup and remarried and had children. These are serious questions that demand answers. *New Update Upon further research it has become apparent to me that Rav Ovadia Yosef does indeed support the RCA prenup. His signature on a Hebrew version of the prenup - is legitimate. Sorry for the confusion Posted by Harry Maryles at 10:57 AM 270 Comments    Newer Post Older Post Home Rav Dovid Eidensohn says that the above comments are wrong. Rav Ovadiah never approved the RCA prenup. See above explanations.

Three Chapters from the Book Problems and Solutions by Dovid Eidensohn

6 - The Strangest Story in the Talmud? HaShem Battles the Moon!

            Actually, the story that I will quote from gemora Chulin 60b is much stranger than what I wrote in the title here. I wrote here “HaShem Battles the Moon!” Yes, that is true, as the gemora there describes the battle in detail. But the real strangest story is the conclusion of the gemora there where HaShem, having failed to convince the Moon to do what He wanted, then declares, “Bring for Me an Atonement because I made the Moon small.”

We now quote the above gemora, and will add explanations where appropriate.

Gemora Chulin 60b: “Rabbi Shimon bar Pazai asked, ‘It is written that, ‘Elokim made the two large luminaries.’ And it is written, ‘The large luminary and the small luminary.’” The problem is very simple. First the Torah tells us that HaShem made two large luminaries, meaning they both were large. Then it is written “The large luminary and the small luminary.” This means that only one luminary was large and the other luminary was small. As we will soon see, the two luminaries were the Sun and the Moon. HaShem decided to make the Moon small as we will see.

The Moon said to HaShem, Master of the Universe! Is it possible for two kings to share the same crown? He said to her, Go make yourself small. She said to him, because I uttered before you a proper statement I must make myself small? He said to her, Go and rule over day and night. She said, What is the benefit? Of what good is a candle in the daytime? (HaShem said) Go and the Jews will count because of you days and years. She said, Days also cannot be counted other than by mentioning seasons as it is said ‘And they will be for signs and holy days and for days and for years.’ (HaShem said) Go, and the pious will be called your name Yaacov the Small, Shmuel the Small, David the Small. He saw that she was not satisfied. HaShem said, Bring for Me an atonement that I made the moon small. As Reish Lokish said, Why is the Goat Offering of Rosh Chodesh unusual that it says “for HaShem”? HaShem said, This goat will be an atonement for Me because I made the moon small.’”

First of all, what kind of chutzpah does the Moon have to argue like that with HaShem? And if the Moon does have such terrific Chutspah, why does HaShem tolerate it? Assuming that the Moon is an angel, what angel can make demands of HaShem like that? And what angel gets away with it? And what angel succeeds in making HaShem admit that since He disagreed with the Moon He must bring an atonement every Rosh Chodesh?

This brings us to the beginning of the Torah, and the story of Creation. In the Chumash we find “In the beginning ELOKIM created the heaven and the earth.” HaShem’s Name is ELOKIM, the Name of Justice, which is also a female name. Later on, much later, suddenly the Torah reverses itself, and starts all over with the Creation story, but this time HaShem is HaShem ELOKIM. HaShem is masculine and kindness, and ELOKIM is female and justice. What does this mean? The Torah was dictated by HaShem, and did He change His mind?

So we have Justice and Kindness ELOKIM the Name for Justice, and HaShem the Name for Kindness. And we have a female name ELOKIM for rigid justice. And we are greatly confused by all of this going here and then reversing. This is, after all, HaShem’s Torah.

We come now to a point where we must define what HaShem’s plan was in all of this. There had to be a plan behind the various Names and why first this one and then that one. When the second Name was introduced, what happened to the first Name? We want answers.

The answer is as follows. The Creation is a Creation of humans who are not angels. A human is not an angel, and we find at the act of Creation that the angels opposed the creation of humans. If HaShem wants them, what Chutspah do the angels have to oppose it?

The answer is as follows. There are three levels for human beings in the Torah. One, is rigid justice. A world of rigid justice does not tolerate sin. If ELOKIM would be the standard of creation anyone who sinned could disappear. It would be a repeat of the Flood when the world was wiped out leaving only one family of righteous people, Noah and his family.

But less we reject rigid justice, we must understand that HaShem is insulted when He created a world of sinners. That world is Chilul HaShem. The angels who have no inclination to sin are also insulted when HaShem created a world filled with sinners. If the Moon wanted to dominate over the Sun, she was simply reflecting respect for HaShem, that a creation filled with sinners, as it is and as it has always been, is a Chilul HaShem. If she had Chutspah to argue with HaShem, it was Chutspah to save the world from sinners and to promote rigid justice that would not tolerate sinners.

Thus, we have a clash that seems to have no solution. If there is rigid justice, we have a situation that could easily result in wiping out most people because most people are not perfectly righteous. If we on the other hand seek kindness, we promote a world of sin. What is the solution?

The solution is a gemora in Avoda Zoro beginning 4b and going into 5a. The gemora asks how it is possible that King David who stated that his heart is so pure that evil cannot influence him, and then he goes and kills a husband and steals his wife. That is probably the greatest sin ever done. How did that happen? The answer, says the gemora as Rashi explains, is that HaShem wanted it to happen to teach everyone that no matter what sin you do, if you repent HaShem will accept it. Again, the purpose of the world is not perfect justice. It is not a world full of sinners. It is a world filled with sin but containing the capacity of Teshuvo, which is the purpose of Creation.

Having said that, should we all go around killing husbands and kidnapping wives and then doing teshuva? HaShem selected the highest level of humanity, which was King David and the Jews at Sinai, as the gemora teaches, and had them sin, although they were not at all interested in sinning do to their very high level. But the world learned from these great people who sinned by the will of HaShem, that people should never despair of penitence and Teshuva. Teshuva is the purpose of the world.

Having said that, what happens to ELOKIM and rigid justice? Do we declare a vacation for such things? If here and there a perfectly righteous person appears, Mordechai of Megilas Esther, and the Chofetz Chaim, should we be disappointed, chas vishalom?

Now everything seems to fall into an order we can understand. The Torah begins with a lengthy discussion of Creation as an act of ELOKIM, rigid justice, the female Name. But once established, and once we understand that of course HaShem is sanctified when perfectly righteous people exist, and a world requires such people. We don’t want a world where no perfectly people exist. The catch is that when most people do sin, we don’t reject them, because of the Creation of Teshuva, as we explained.

Thus, the perfectly righteous are happy. The rest of us who do sins maybe every day, have teshuva. Ultimately, there is hope for everybody. Yes, there is hope even for the Moon. HaShem made her small, because rigid justice is a threat to most if not almost all humans. But HaShem accepted the complaint of the Moon because He surely desires a place for the few perfectly righteous. They are not second class citizens. HaShem emphasized His preference for the perfectly righteous even though most people can’t reach this level, by declaring that once a month a sacrifice be brought for Him, for HaShem, for allowing a world that defies the standards of the perfectly righteous. By bringing a sacrifice of atonement, HaShem encouraged the great level of penitence, as the gemora above in Avoda Zora teaches, that the greatest Jews had to sin to prove the value of penitence. So, yes, HaShem created a world that begins with ELOKIM and the perfectly righteous. He then took step two to give the sinners a chance, which really means that He gives those who do teshuva a chance, because that is the only hope for the vast majority of humankind. And to establish this, HaShem declared that He would also repent, to encourage everyone who is not perfect, the vast majority of people, not to be ashamed because if they were ashamed they would not repent. Thus, the penitent are proud because if HaShem repents why can’t everyone repent? And in a world where the few perfectly righteous are honored, because that is the ideal, but for those who sin there is teshuva and HaShem backed them up, we have a world filled with people happy with their levels and determined to serve HaShem with joy.

7 - A Husband or Wife without a Functioning Marriage

The Hebrew version of this is:

ולשון הרמב"ם פרק טו' מהלכות אישות וז"ל מצות חכמים היא שלא ישב אדם בלא אשה שלא יבא לידי הרהור עכ"ל ובמגיד משנה שם מביא המקור להרמב"ם מגמרא יבמות סב ע"ב וז"ל שאין אדם רשאי לישב בלא אשה עכ"ל

Translation is: Rambam Chapter 15 of the Laws of Marriage says, “The rabbis have decreed that a man should not be without a wife lest he come to sinful thoughts. The Magid Mishneh there brings the source of the Rambam in the gemora Yevomose 62B, “A man is forbidden to live without a wife.” Let us understand that the Rambam and the Magid are not saying that if a man has a wife and they have no intimacy that this is okay. It is not okay. It means that a man has a functioning marriage where there is regularly intimacy as taught in the Shulchan Aruch and gemora. But if a wife wants a divorce and the husband refuses to give her one, even if they continue to live in the same house, the husband has no intimacy nor does the wife. This can cause both of them to find intimacy with another person who is forbidden to them and if they do this they are doing a horrible sin.

Let us now bring the Hebrew version of our next teaching:

והנה מי שאין לו אשה  והוא צעיר לימים יש לו לחוש שיכשל בזרע לבטלה ח"ו. ובש"ע אבן העזר סימן כג' סעיף א' וז"ל אסור להוציא שכבת זרע לבטלה ועון זה חמור מכל עבירות שבתורה ע"כ ובסעיף ב' וז"ל אלה שמנאפים ביד ומוציאים שכבת זרע לא די להם שאיסור גדול הוא אלא שהעושה כן בנידוי הוא יושב ועליהם נאמר ידיכם דמים מלאו וכאלו הרג הנפש.

This means “one who has no wife and he is young we must fear that he will sin with zera livatao chas vishalom. In Shulchan Aruch Even Hoezer chapter 23 paragraph 1 we find, “It is forbidden to take out zera livatolo and this sin is greater than all sins in the Torah.” In paragraph 2 there it says, “And those who with their hands take out zera livatolo not only have they performed a great sin but who does this is in nidui and regarding such people it is said, “your hands are filled with blood, and it is as if they killed a person.”

We must clarify something at this point. When the Torah was given to Moshe and the rabbis wrote the Talmud it was permitted for a man to have more than one wife. It was also possible for a man to divorce his wife even if she refused the divorce. But today because of various newer laws it is forbidden to have more than one wife and to divorce a wife without her consent is also forbidden. If so, a husband who has reached a point with his wife that he cannot have regularly intimacy with her, either because she refuses or because he does not want to be with her, we have a crisis. Biology is burning for a young person, and it doesn’t go away for many years until the person is really old, and even then, who knows if anybody is really cleansed of the biology. If so, the only solution is a good marriage. If a person is unable to have intimacy but the marriage is good, things may be fine. But especially with younger people, any marriage with no functioning intimacy and nothing to calm the fire of the biology, what hope is there to be saved from serious sins?

There are today thousands of people without a proper protection from their biology. Many people divorced and cannot remarry for whatever reason. Many people can marry but are reluctant because of the many problems in marriages today, the gender war, etc. Many people delayed marriage until it got to the point that they could only marry by accepting somebody much older or much different than the person they always planned to marry. Such people can wait and wait and wait until they find what they always wanted, but it is not easy to find somebody you wanted in your youth when you are much older.

This is a crisis and it is only getting worse. The gender wars, the fears, the lack of proper guides for many people, yes, it is a crisis and it is only getting worse.

We have, in his book, revealed various problems in the Torah world. We have also suggested various solutions. Let us try now to make something of a list of the problems and a list of solutions. If we believe strongly in the Torah and the Shulchan Aruch, and we associate with people who agree with this approach to Torah and life, we have a way to deal with crisis. But if we don’t believe strongly in the Torah and the Shulchan Aruch the way the Chofets Chaim and earlier generation believed in them, we have no tools to stand strong to solve the problems.

This is going to bring us to the next section of the book, Heel and Happiness – the Secret of Success. We are going to discuss about people who believe in the Shulchan Aruch the way we should believe in it, and are outnumbered. And yet, there is hope and more than hope.

8 - Heel and Happiness – the Secret of Success

Devorim 7:12 “And it will be when you keep the laws of these commands and guard them and fulfill them, then G‑d will fulfill for you the covenant and the kindness that He swore to your fathers.” The Orach Chaim, a major commentary on the bible, asks why this passage was written with the two unusual beginning words. The passage should be written “And if you keep the laws…” Instead it adds two words והיה עקב which in Hebrew translate to “and it will be because of (your hearkening to the commands)”. The Medrash explains that the word “HEEL” is there to teach that G‑d promises protection only to Jews who do not grind the Torah into the ground with their heel.

I hear alarm bells. What Jew steps on the laws of the Torah as one grinds something in the dirt with his heel? Some Jews obey and some Jews are too busy to obey. But a Jew who believes in the Torah doesn’t grind a command down with his heel. Furthermore, if the condition for G‑d to protect the Jews is the fact that the Jews don’t grind the Torah down into the dirt, that should be extremely easy to fulfill. What Jew would do it and if there was a Jew who did it, and people knew about it, we can be sure that the Jew would never do it again and most likely would do penitence for his hideous mistake. The real alarm bells sound because the Torah was not written for people who have to be warned not to ground the Torah into the ground with their heels. Something is very, very wrong. Of course, there is nothing wrong with the Torah. But the Vilna Gaon says that when the rabbis want to say something secretive they write it in such a way that many people will think it is just foolishness. This exactly fits the tee. But what secretive thing is there in this passage? (The Vilna Gaon’s teaching is in the third volume of the Zohar page 73, that heavenly sources are of two varieties. Some are revealed and understood. And some are not understood until a person merits to achieve the secret message in it.)

Let us look carefully at the lengthy discussion of the Orach Chaim HaKodosh in this matter of the HEEL. We must be careful to find something very problematic. If it is a normal passage we are wasting our time. I think I found it. The Orach Chaim is chugging along on the basic idea of the word heel and nonchalantly tosses in the fact that there is a Mishneh that uses the word heel. The Mishneh is talking about IKVISO DIMESHICHA which is Aramaic for “footsteps of the Messiah.” Okay. Fine. Heel means Moshiach. Pretty basic. Nothing exciting. And that is not what I am looking for. So out

comes the gemora and the Mishneh, and guess what. Pay dirt! Big time. The Mishneh is talking about

the most hideous sins the Jews ever saw or even heard about. And this period, just prior to Moshiach, is called “footsteps of the Moshiach” using the word AIKEV which really means “Heel.”

Now we are ready to load up the cannons and know what the secret of the passage is. IKVISO DIMESHICHA means the “footsteps of the Moshiach,” at least, that is the phrase. Does the phrase suggest the quick arrival of Moshiach? If it does, we are wasting our time. We must find something that is the opposite of what we are thinking. Then it may be the secretive passage that we want to find.

Now, pay attention. IKVISEH DIMESHICHA means “footsteps of the Moshiach.” But does it suggest the quick coming of Moshiach? Absolutely not. It is talking about the complete opposite. It is talking about the worst sins Jews ever did or heard of. Is that connected with Moshiach? How in the world can Moshiach come when Jewish children insult their parents? If “one’s enemies are his family” can Moshiach be right around the corner? Let us not forget the teaching of Eliyohu HaNovi in the first page of his teachings Tono Divei Eliyohu, that “the Tree of Life” is Torah, but Derech Erets, respect for people, and surely respect for parents, is more important. If there is a common thread among the many hideous sins listed in that Mishneh about Ikviseh Dimeshicha, it is that Derech Erets is dead. What does that mean regarding Moshiach?

For that, we have the final passage of Malachi the last book of the prophets. “Behold I will send to you Eliyohu the Novi, before the great and fearful day of HaShem. And he will return the hearts of the fathers to the sons, and the hearts of sons to their fathers. Lest I come and destroy the world.”

The task of Eliyohu the Novi is to restore Derech Erets, to undo the terror of the period of Ikviseh Dimeshoch when Derech Erets was destroyed. Pay attention now. We are getting into some delicate terrain. Number one, Eliyohu the Novi is not known to be standing on the mountains announcing Moshiach these days. The destruction of Derech Erets is the mood of Ikviseh Dimeshicha, meaning that Moshiach will only come with a period of the destruction of Derech Erets. How can Moshiach come in a time when Derech Erets is basically dead, when the rulers of the world deny G‑d, and the other hideous things mentioned in that Mishneh at the end of Sota happen? This is the exact question which blocks us from understanding why the Orach Chaim HaKodosh quotes this Mishneh about Ikviseh Dimeshicha along with “heel” of the passage in Devorim which is supposed to teach us happiness about a perfection in Torah that runs from the head to the feet or the heel. This seems to be an insurmountable problem, precisely the type of problem we need to reach deep into it and find the “secret” suggested by the Vilna Gaon in such passages.

I have it, and it is in that very Mishneh at the end of Sota, but it is a passage that can easily confuse most people. Therefore, we are going to have to borrow the teaching of the prime disciple of the Chofetz Chaim, Reb Elchonon Wasserman of blessed memory, to fix it. And then we have our secret.

The passage comes after a long list of misery of dead rabbis, of the decline of the Torah, etc., and etc. The passage really fits the mood of the Mishneh, which is a hideous mourning from top to bottom. A passage in this mourning appears several times, “And we have nobody to turn to other than our Father in heaven.” This passage seems appropriate for despair. There is nothing to do and nobody great enough to deal with the problems. It is all over. That is how the passage reads at first glance. But we know that in our search for the secret we have to dig deep and find it. And the one who did this was Reb Elchonon Wasserman. He said, “We have nobody to rely upon to help us other than our Father in heaven.” It seems to say that nobody can or will help us. And if the world is so inclined to insult parents and do all of the other hideous sins and destruction of Derech Erets mentioned in the Mishneh, why should HaShem help us? Isn’t He the one quoted at the end of Malalchi who threatened that if Derech Erets was not fixed He would completely destroy the world and kill everyone in it? He is the last person to trust to save the world when the world has utterly destroyed Derech Erets, and we await the destruction of the entire world and everyone in it. But Reb Elchonon insisted that despair is not the meaning of the passage “And we have nobody to rely upon other than our Father in Heaven.” Rather, “there is nobody to rely upon other than our Father in Heaven” means that in a world swarming with the worst sins and evil, our Father is waiting for the few individuals who still worship Him properly. And for them He will save the world and bring Moshiach.

But, how can He help us when He has clearly threatened to destroy a world without Derech Erets? And Ikviseh Dimeshicha is clearly a world without Derech Erets.

Something is missing. And we have to find it. It is the word “HEEL.” Why is this the key to the secret we search for? Look carefully at the commentary of the Orach Chaim HaKodosh there and he mentions that the correct purpose of והיה עקב is as follows: VIHOYO means “You will be happy” why? Because HEEL means that from the top of your head to the bottom of your feet, the heel, you are serving HaShem. Now the secret is right around the corner.

To understand, we must tell another story about the Chofetz Chaim and one of his top students, who learned intensely with Reb Elchonon for years. I refer to the Ponovitcher Rov, a great builder of Torah in Israel. The Ponovitcher Rov was originally from Europe and then he went to Israel. While in Europe and studying intensely with Reb Elchonon Wasserman under the Chofetz Chaim, the Ponovitcher became very close to the Chofetz Chaim. Once, after he had become a prominent Rov of a city, he sensed that the people in his city were determined to drive him away and get a new Rov who was a modern person. He came with his problem to the Chofetz Chaim who told him, “When two armies battle to conquer a city, and somebody who does not join the winning army may be severely punished, one must join the strongest army.” The Ponovitcher Rov was stunned and he asked, “Should I become modern?” The Chofetz Chaim relied, “HaShem is the strongest one.” Join his army.

The Ponovitcher Rov learned this lesson well. When Rommel may his memory be blotted out, was just outside of Israel and ready to break through and kill every Jew there, the Ponovitcher Rov was busy building a Yeshiva. Somebody asked him about this and he replied, “If I build a Yeshiva and somebody tears it down, it will nonetheless be rebuilt.” Rommel didn’t come and the Ponovitcher Rov completed his Yeshiva. Maybe the fact that there were people there in Israel who had no fear of the Germans but only of HaShem helped to make the miracle of the defeat of Rommel.

Okay, let us spell out the secret. The secret is: When the world is filled with wicked people, the worst, and HaShem notices that here and there are people who are turning to him despite the majority of deniers and wicked people, He thinks about them first as they think about Him first. Therefore, there is hope. These people are the “Heel” connected to the head that connects to HaShem, and He will not neglect His special children.

The Gaon Reb Aharon Kotler came to America which was a place for people who want to make money not Torah. The rabbis in America were paid good salaries to provide services with one condition: if they saw somebody drive on Shabbos they were not allowed to make an issue of it. This was the treifeh medinah; the money was good, but behave.

Reb Aharon requested an appointment with the senior rabbis to present his ideas about what to do in America. The appointment came and Reb Aharon presented his ideas how to transform America into a Torah world. The rabbis listened and when Reb Aharon had finished the senior rabbi said, “Reb Aharon. We are in charge here. You go to Israel and teach in the Yeshiva of your father-in-law, Reb Isser Zalman Meltser.”

What could Reb Aharon say in reply to that? If he yelled at the rabbis, he ruined things. If he said nothing, he was ruined. But don’t forget, that Reb Aharon came to the treifeh medinah with faith in and the backing of HaShem. That rabbi who insulted Reb Aharon died on the spot. I heard this from Rabbi Dov Eisenberg who received Semicha from Reb Aharon. Reb Dov was from German extraction, and he went regularly to college to learn how to make a living. He often took Reb Aharon with him to New York on his way to college. It is quite possible that he himself saw this miracle. But even if he did not see it personally, if Reb Dov said something, it was solid. We will soon talk about the one rabbi in America who stood side by side with Reb Aharon to battle the rabbis. He was Reb Shraga Feival Mendelowitz, the head of Yeshiva Torah ViDaas. His son Reb Shmuel was the Rosh Yeshiva in Monsey of Yeshiva Beis Shraga named for Reb Shraga Feival Mendelowitz the head of Yeshiva Torah ViDaas.

We are getting to the secret. Reb Aharon trusted completely in HaShem. And it worked. That was the passage in the Mishneh about Ikviseh Dimeshecha that says, “And we have nobody to turn to other than our Father in Heaven.” This means, said the Chofetz Chaim’s major disciple Reb Elchonon Wasserman, not as some understand that we should despair. It means the opposite. We should not despair, because if we trust in HaShem, even if the whole world is evil and is exactly what the Mishneh talks about that sons insult their fathers and daughters insult their mothers, which means the collapse of Derech Erets, the few people who keep faith in HaShem will save the world.

That is, the prophet Malachi closed the prophetic teachings with the sentence “Behold I send to you Eliyohu the Prophet, before the arrival of the great and awesome day. And he will restore the hearts of fathers to their sons, and the hearts of the sons to their fathers, lest I come and destroy the entire world.” Eliyohu has not yet arrived, and the world is filled with evil, and the destruction of Derech Erets. Why then does HaShem not destroy the world as He has pledged to do? That is because of the few people like Reb Aharon who fulfilled the passage “There is nobody to turn to other than our Father in Heaven.” When we turn to Him, we will save the world, and ourselves.

When a Jew like Reb Aharon comes to a world like America, where the senior rabbi brutally insults him and tells him to leave the country, what hope is there? Seemingly, there is no hope. But Reb Aharon went to that meeting with faith in HaShem. When all hope is lost; when Derech Erets, something greater than Torah, is lost, what hope can there be? A few people who trust in HaShem completely will take the light of HaShem into the treifeh Medinah, battle the “rabbis” to the end, and succeed.

“And it will be when the Heel is aroused” all of the blessings will come to be. The Heel is the connection from HaShem to the head of the tsaddik who is complete in his faith down to his heel. He knows and fulfills what HaShem wants of him. And every inch of the tsaddik is tightly connected to HaShem, and HaShem is tightly connected to the tsaddik. Then, the corrupt world will feel the holy light of heaven and miracles will take place. Evil will be destroyed and Torah and Derech Erets will be restored.

This is the idea behind “and it will be” a change from the evil in the world to the efforts of the tsaddik who has pure faith in HaShem. HEEL, the one who connects his soul and his head to the feet that do the work. The feet go here and there and fight tooth and nail to destroy evil with the light of heaven blazing down from HaShem who never leaves the tsaddik who trusts in Him. Then a few righteous people will see miracles and bring about the changes necessary for Moshiach. That is the secret.

Above I quoted from the Vilna Gaon the idea that when we find a strange passage in the Torah or the Talmud, it seems out of place, but that is a hint that it hides a deep thought, a secret. I don’t know where this is brought in the Vilna Gaon, although it is well known that he said it. However, I think it is based upon a Zohar III:73A “There are three worlds connected one to the other: HaShem, Torah and Israel. And each one of these is a world upon world hidden and revealed. The third level is Israel, divided into two worlds, hidden and revealed, Yisroel and Yaacov.” The Zohar says that Yaacov is the lower revealed level for Jewry and Yisroel is the higher but hidden world. These are the words it uses to describe the higher hidden world, “The rules and the judgments for Yisroel: these are the mysteries of the Torah, and the rules of the Torah, and the secrets of the Torah.”

Thus, we were right to seek secrets when faced with the questions posed by the Orach Chaim HaKodosh that seemed strange but surely hid great secrets. The secret we revealed is the secret of haShem finding the few trusted righteous who merit to bring Moshiach. Such a great secret!

This book is about Problems and Solutions. The Problems are that today the major rabbis in America violate the Torah in the worst way, by making babies into mamzerim when they force divorces on husbands or tell women to leave their husbands with no GET at all and remarry and have mamzerim. I know of no way to stop this. But this I know. HaShem is stronger than these “rabbis” and the women who follow them. Trust in HaShem and fight back, as small or great a punch as you can manage, but fight, and you will see happiness even in such a world, the Ikviseh Dimishicho. HaShem is waiting for you and the few who fought back because they know there is somebody to trust in and to obey, even in such a terrible time. This is the ultimate test and it is the ultimate reward. It is a time to choose where you will go.