Updates Regarding the "Hetter Matayim Rabbanim"

 

Author’s note – This post is a clarification of the post I wrote on May 4 about the flawed Kol Koreh urging reporting abusers immediately to the civil authorities. It is helpful to review that post and it can be read HERE. In addition, this post refers to quotes from the January 2017 post – A Concise guide to theLaws of Mesira – Part 1. It is helpful to see that post as well.

 

It’s been almost 3 months since I signed off on my previous post about the flawed Kol Koreh. Personally, I was busy with other matters and, of course, there is all this craziness going on in the world including, yes, more elections here in Eretz Israel and “Prime Minister” Yair Lapid.

This is going to be some Tisha B’Av!

I wrote at the end of my previous post that I have more to discuss about this Kol Koreh. I was referring to what I will call the “Four Horsemen of the Kol Koreh Apocalypse”. Unfortunately, that, too, will have to wait for a future post. For now, I want to report a number of updates to my previous post that materialized over the past three months.

 

Update 1 – How many Rabbanim really signed?

 

In my previous post, I noted that two Rabbanim from the Kollel in Cincinnati had signed the first printing and then were missing at the second printing and mysteriously reappeared at the third printing. This begs the question of (a) did they retract and then reconsider? or (b) did they never retract? or (c) did they never reconsider? 

A mutual acquaintance who read my blog told me that he had the opportunity to speak with one of the two Rabbanim. From what I understood, this Rav had indeed retracted his signature after the initial publication and he has never reconsidered his retraction (choice “c”). It still stands. The appearance of these two names in the third printing is totally unauthorized.

We learn from this that there were unauthorized signatures and that the maximum number of current signatories does not pass 181. Even more, if we deduct those who passed away since the earlier publication, we are down to at most 177.

 

Update 2 – How many signatories read and approved the attached article?

 

As many of my readers know, I email my blog posts to a list of subscribers and, occasionally, to some non-subscribers when the post relates to them. One email recipient was my old yeshiva friend community Rabbi who signed the Kol Koreh and whom I contacted back in 2015 regarding this subject and reported about it.

I was recently in the US, so I took the opportunity to touch base with him. Aside from “How are the kids?”, some of our conversation gravitated to the recent reappearance of the Kol Koreh and my subsequent blog post. This Rabbi friend told me that he had no idea that the Kol Koreh was reprinted in Mishpacha magazine last Pesach until he got my post in his email. Along with that came the revelation that he never saw the newly added accompanying article that is consequently “endorsed” by all the attached “signatures”.

This clearly tells me that, in the main, none of the Rabbinic signatories were approached and presented with the accompanying article for their personal approval and that no personal approval was obtained. The attachment of this article to the signatures was fully unauthorized and is fraudulent.

 

Update 3 – Who isn’t signing this, and why?

 

Also, while in the US, I had the opportunity to speak with a very prominent community Rabbi from the Midwest who has been heavily involved in this sugya for more than 25 years. A true front-lines soldier. I will call him Rabbi G.

Due to his extensive involvement, Rabbi G. would make an ideal candidate to be a supporter of this Kol Koreh, but he isn’t. As such, I asked him point blank why he didn’t sign it. He told me he was probably asked at least seven times to sign this Kol Koreh and he consistently refused. I asked him why he refused and this is what he told me (paraphrased):

“I have been involved in these issues for more than 25 years. I can tell you that it’s a formidable task to get a young woman victim to even speak with an Orthodox and caring Rav, and I should push them to talk to the non-Jewish police?”

Then he added:

“Most of the people who are eager to go to the police are male victims who have had a hard time and are mostly OTD and just want to bury the guy.”

End of conversation.

I see both of these statements as confirmations of some of the points that I was pushing in Part 1 of my 2-part series, A Concise Guide to the Laws of Mesira(January 2017).  Part 1 was about the 3 Ps and the third of which was the extreme measure of contacting police for prosecution and punishment.

Rabbi G.’s first comment about the reluctance of the female victims confirms what I wrote there as follows:

Aside from enforcing a separation or restraining order...there is only one reason to involve law enforcement in a case of sexual abuse: to “solve” things once and for all by getting the predator locked up. 

 

I think that in most cases, little to nothing is accomplished because the predator does not wind up getting locked up or it’s not for a significant amount of time. In so many cases of sexual abuse, the nature of the abuse did not reach true sexual contact and was merely “inappropriate touching” which, in the US, is usually 2nd degree sexual abuse – a mere misdemeanor. Though the victims in cases like this are genuinely devastated, the offense is not overly jailable. Lastly, jail is not likely to happen unless the victim is prepared to press charges (and actually does so), which opens the door to emotional and Halachic issues (לא יקום עד אחד) that go beyond simple day-to-day mesira.

 

Hence, resorting to this extreme measure does not offer much in terms of protection.

What both of us are saying is that involving law enforcement is not a matter of simply lifting the phone and calling 911 and going back to bed and leaving the rest up to the authorities.

Many folks do not realize that 911 is not the Police. 911 is a general dispatch service for first responders for all kinds of emergencies based on the nature of the emergency. The dispatcher decides if this is a crime in progress which calls for police, a medical emergency which calls for paramedics, or a structural emergency which calls for the fire department.

911 is only interested in an emergency in progress or a newly discovered crime (robbery or homicide) that requires a crime scene investigation. They are not interested in a past event that happened years ago, yesterday, or even ten minutes ago so long as there is no current need for intervention. If you call 911 for a past crime, they will refer you to your local police precinct where you will need to show up personally and file a complaint. And don’t expect it to take less than a total of three hours. 

Once one files a complaint, their name and personal information is attached to that file forever and they will need to be very proactive in any further actions against the alleged perpetrator, such as making a positive identification, submitting signed affidavits and testifying in court.

Trust me, this is going to take a lot more than three hours. A lot more! And, as I wrote, this will invariably involve much emotional turmoil and plenty of Halachic dilemmas. The lives of the accusers will be deeply entrenched in that of the accused all throughout the prosecution period and beyond. At some level there will never be a total disconnect even though this is exactly what the victims need the most. It goes against their personal best interests.

Just ask any of the Sapper sisters.

And all this for what purpose? To get the guy three years in the cooler plus five years’ probation? Is all this really worth the price?

Well, I don’t think so and Rabbi G. doesn’t think so, and as we’ll later see, Rabbi Ratzon Arussi doesn’t think so, either. I tend to think that many of those who refused to sign the Kol Koreh can likewise see the reality of all this and understand that they may be sending an injured and vulnerable young woman into a hornet’s nest.

I am astounded that social worker Dovid J. Nyer, Harav Shmuel Feurst, Shlita, Harav Shraga Feivel Zimmerman, 170 some odd other Rabbanim, and many others who actually deal in this field are so detached from this reality.

Now, let’s look at Rabbi G.’s second comment about the eagerness of the male victims. This corresponds perfectly to what I wrote a few paragraphs later in the 3 Ps post as follows:

The real reason people want to resort to this measure is to punish the predator and see that he pays for his actions. They use the need to protect victims as the justification for taking this step. If it is truly necessary to resort to this measure for protection – i.e., the previous two measures are not sufficient – then, and only then, can we explore the stipulations of mesira. If it is not necessary, then it is merely nekama couched as “bringing the predator to justice”.

This paragraph is claiming that in many, or even most, of the actual cases of police intervention, the main intent is not protection but rather nekama and punishment, regardless of whether it is Halachically sanctioned or of what needless collateral damage this may cause.

As Rabbi G. confirmed, this is all too often carried out by people who no longer feel bound by Halachic dictates and, as such, what do they need a Kol Koreh from Rabbanim for?

Once again, just ask any of the Sapper sisters.

To summarize, these three updates – obtained from other people - tell me that this Kol Koreh is being deceptively presented, fraudulent, and misguided.

Supporters may want to claim that it was never meant for past offenders, only currently active ones and that the Meshi-Zahav and Walder debacles clearly justify the need for such a Kol Koreh; and that the good that we expect to come from it far outweighs any drawbacks.

I can’t agree with this. In fact, I agree with HRHG Dovid Cohen, Shlita, who said in his interview that for a real rodef and ongoing threat-in-progress, why should we even need a Kol Koreh? It’s somewhat obvious that we may call law enforcement for protection from imminent danger. Consequently, people will read into this proclamation precisely that it is intended to expand this natural hetter to situations where there is no rodef or imminent danger (מתוך שהותרה, הותרה). And, R”L, they may act accordingly.

This is indicated by the very callous, non-discriminatory language it was written in and, even more so, by the scary, unauthorized, newly added article which explicitly says exactly that. (See previous post.)

To illustrate how utterly damaging this Kol Koreh can be as written, I want to present the Four Horsemen of the Kol Koreh Apocalypse. These are four common scenarios where I believe most reasonable people will understand that calling in law enforcement or civil authorities is more than likely to cause more harm than good.

The Four Horsemen are:

1. The case of Amudim’s PSA video, “Shattered”.
   
   
2. The case of Harav Ratzon Arussi’s media ambush
   
   
3. The case of Malka Leifer
   
   
4. The case of the Mother in Pain (Jewish Press - Feb. 20, 2017)
   
   

The first two cases are what can be called realistic or graphic fiction. They didn’t really happen, but they do, frequently. The second two cases are real-life true occurrences. I am confident that anybody who is familiar with some or all of these cases and who is familiar with the “complexities and nuances” of this topic, will inevitably conclude on their own that the dictates of this Kol Koreh are truly hazardous and have no place. For these readers, there is no need to read the upcoming post.

For those who need a bit of convincing, there is a lot to discuss. It will require another post.

 

Stay tuned for the Four Horsemen…