Sinas Chinam II - A Time to Throw Stones and a Time to Gather Stones

 

In my previous post about vaccines, I quoted a very confrontational statement uttered by HRHG Asher Weiss. He was referring to the “anti-vax” camp and he said: One cannot have a dialogue with those people, they are so bent on what they believe.

I don’t think he will ever realize how double-sided, this came across. I mentioned then that there are those who tried to engage with Rav Asher Weiss and they were met with the exact same attribute. One cannot have a dialogue with him, he is so bent on what he believes.

One such notable person is Rabbi Chananya Weissman. He has a Rumble channel which display his shiurim and a Substack channel, as well. Amazingly, he posted a lengthy article on the exact same day that I posted mine (May 6) and, in his no-pulling-punches style, said more or less the exact same thing. 

You can see his Substack post HERE.

Note - A while ago, he posted a short video clip that showed him actually confronting Rav Asher Weiss face to face. Rav Weiss summarily brushed him off.

In a subsequent Substack post, Rabbi Weissman referred his readers to my post from May 6. I appreciate that and am happy to do the same for him.

I need to point out one other thing about Rav Weiss’s statement that “One cannot have a dialogue with these people.” This totally misses the script. The game is not to have a “dialogue” like, “Do you think it will rain?”, “Well, yes, it’s been a bit overcast lately.” The game is to have a debate where you prove your point and prove the other side wrong. Just saying “This is a safe vaccine, as far as we can know”, “what can theoretically happen in the future”, “all these absurd theories” just doesn’t quite cut it. 

Harav Weiss is a dayan, posek and Talmid Chacham and his job is to be able prove his shitos and uncover valid flaws in opposing ones. On this topic (and, I dare say, on the Techeiles topic, as well) he falls quite short.

It doesn’t end with the subject of vaccines. This sentiment about not being able to have a dialogue with people who push an agenda is a recurring theme and runs central to this series of posts about sinas chinam. And so, we move on to our second topic. This is infamous Kol Koreh to encourage reporting suspected abusers to police which is spearheaded by Rav Shmuel Fuerst and social worker Dovid J. Nyer.

The Kol Koreh was first published in 2015 with 107 signatures and shortly after in 2016 with 108. Basically, the Kol Koreh said that if anybody is even only suspicious of child abuse, he should go immediately to law enforcement and not even bother to ask any shailos.

I immediately took the Kol Koreh to task for what I called “the crudeness of the letter, how indiscriminate it is, how it caters to a prevalent presumption of guilt and how it misrepresents Halacha.” The Kol Koreh was saying to go to police as a first resort and not a last resort and did not even try to distinguish if it was talking about an active “911” situation or after the fact. Just do it and ask questions later.

Shlomo HaMelech tells us that there is a time to throw stones and a time to gather stones, but Reb Dovid J. Nyer, Rav Shmuel Fuerst and about 100 other Rabanim were telling us otherwise. To them, it is always best to always throw stones. They have absolutely no regard for who is going to get hurt the most and who will get hurt the least.

I promptly launched a series of posts to explain how mesira really works and the relevant Halachos. I expressed all of the above in 2015 in these two posts:

Achas L'Maala V'Sheva L'Matta: Mesira VII: The Heter Meah Rabbanim - The Genie is Back

Achas L'Maala V'Sheva L'Matta: Mesira VIII: Blood Labels

I wishfully thought the matter was taken off the table as of then. Not so. After a lengthy quiet spell, it was republished a third time in 2022. The text of the Kol Koreh was exactly the same but there were three notable differences in 2022. 

1. The list had grown to a claim of 200 names, although there were really only 185 appearing. There were two duplicates and at least two names of signatories that had retracted bringing a real counting to 181.

2. The names were not displayed as signatures but only in print.

3. The proclamation was prefaced by a full-page article bent on “selling the product”. Astonishingly, the article tried to explain not only why a Rav does not need to be consulted before a serious action, but why it is better not to consult one. Can you believe this??

A subsequent investigation revealed that when the Kol Koreh was reprinted in 2022, none of the original Rabbanim were consulted to confirm that they endorse the article (which their signature endorses ipso facto). Some whose names appeared had even passed away in the interim. These certainly did not endorse the article. As such, there are no grounds to assume that even the new signers were shown the article.

I wrote about these problems in detail in this post:

Achas L'Maala V'Sheva L'Matta: Mesira XX?? - One Size does not Fit All

In this post, I indicated that I emailed Reb Dovid J. Nyer directly and asked him to explain these issues. He did not respond then or ever since.

One cannot have a dialogue with these people.

To put the matter to rest, I wrote a sub-series I called the Four Horsemen of the Kol Koreh Apocalypse. These were four scenarios where most Torah observant people would concur that calling law enforcement is not the most productive thing to do. 

I think the most powerful was Horseman 2. This was the time a reporter posed as a victim of molestation and asked 27 Israeli Rabbanim if she should report the molester to police. 21 out of the 27 (77%) advised her against it because it was likely to cause more harm than good. Seventy-seven percent!

At that point, I had been writing about this topic for over seven years and had received absolutely no serious pushback from anyone. I don’t even know how anybody who claims to be observant could push back. I wishfully hoped we have seen the demise of this preposterous Kol Koreh.

Fast forward to now - another six years later. Again, we would expect the main players to be older and wiser and to stop chasing their tails. Not so. Shortly after Pesach, a good friend of mine forwarded to me an email that he received from the organizer of this venture. The email respectfully requested him to sign onto this Kol Koreh referring to him as “the esteemed Rov”. 

This friend is not a community Rabbi or any type of a public figure. He currently serves as the Mashgiach Ruchni at an American yeshiva in the Jerusalem area for English speaking boys who do not have a strong background in learning. This Yeshiva is not very well known, nor is this particular friend. He said he had no idea why he was approached. As you may guess, he is on my blog email list and is well versed on my stance on this topic.

This obviously indicates that another printing is in the offing. He hasn’t given up. The email was an attempt to “sell the product” and encourage him to sign. It gave an overview of its purpose “reporting reasonable suspicions of child abuse promptly to civil authorities to deter abuse.” This sounds good until you read the fine print (or lack thereof).

His email claimed, “This kol koreh was published and republished over the years and as more Rabbonim signed on in Jewish media as well as Mishpacha Magazine, Ami Magazine etc with 200 charedi rabbonim signed. I'd like to republish in frum media sources etc with at least 100 more charedi rabbonim joining.”

Two comments:

(1) To this day he is still peddling the lie that 200 Rabbanim ever signed this Kol Koreh. I debunked this claim in my 2022 post.

(2) He is looking for another 100 “charedi rabbonim”. Even though my friend is a special person, a mashpiah and is definitely charedi, if this is where Dovid Nyer needs to search to get signatures, he is way-y-y short of his goal. 

The email gave a short list of those who previously signed. Here is an excerpt:  Rabbonim Shmuel Fuerst, Yitzchok Breitowitz, Yakov Bender, Doniel Neustadt, Kalman Epstein, Yechiel Perr zatzal, Yitzchok Berkovits, and about another eight names. One of those names belongs to a very prominent Rov in Woodmere even though his name does not appear on the Kol Koreh list! Note again Rabbi Doniel Neustadt who refused to sign the initial printing and when the last one came out, his name was shown twice. I wonder where he stands now. 

He also mentioned some names of new “recruits” from overseas. Eight names, one from Moscow, one from Berlin, one from Ireland, one from Amsterdam and only four others who I never heard of and don’t know where they are from. Most European charedi Jews are in England, Belgium and France. This list seems very thin. 

To enlighten the recipient of what he is being asked to sign on to, the writer provided a link to an exact copy of the previous 2022 printing with the introductory article and the exact same text version of the Kol Koreh. No changes and no indication that there will be any changes.

In my previous posts denouncing this Kol Koreh I stressed that the problems are inherent in the current language of the text. I went so far as to suggest how to modify the text to make it more complicit with Torah standards. This email is clearly indicating that there is no intention to update the text. I find this very odd because it is clear that many who could have signed and who may have signed, did not do so because of the indiscriminate language of the text. I know some who even retracted. So, fixing the language only stands to make this text more palatable to reluctant supporters and to obtain more signatures. It would be a win-win.

Evidently, one cannot have a dialogue with these people.

Finally, the email is respectfully signed by Dovid Nyer, LCSW. I believe this is the exact same Dovid J. Nyer from previous incarnations. If my math is right, he must be about 42 years old by now – בן ארבעים לבינה. Wouldn't you think?

And yet, he is at it again. What for?

It was already republished twice, and last time, it [falsely] boasted the support of 200 Rabbonim. Didn’t that do the trick? If yes, just reprint it again as is. Why look for more shepsilach? If not, why didn't it work?

In either case, how is adding another 100 mediocre Rabbonim – if it’s even doable – going to make a difference? Did Reb Dovid J. Nyer learn anything from his previous mistakes?

To investigate, I fired off another email to Reb Dovid J. Nyer, LCSW on April 28. In it, I asked him eight questions, as follows:

1. When do you think it will be published?

2. In which publications do you plan to publish it?

3. Do you intend to modify the text to what it should say or will you continue to leave it as is?

4. Are you going to again misrepresent how many Rabbonim signed it or will you give an honest number this time?

5. Are you again going to insert duplicate names, people who retracted, people who never really gave their consent, or people who have since died?

6. Are you going to check through the existing names to make certain that these Rabbonim are (a) still alive and (b) still living in the community and holding the posts that you place them in? 

7. Also, are you going to go through all the previous names to ensure that (a) they are still on board with your Kol Koreh as written and (b) they endorse the promotional article you never showed them up front?

8. Are you going to attach new promotional material and deceptively make it look like all the signatories are aware of this material and endorse whatever it says like the gneivas daas you did last time?

I topped it off, “Please update me on all of this.”

As of this writing, I am still waiting for a reply. I am perplexed because they are not very hard questions. It looks like I have to agree with HRHG Rav Asher Weiss on one thing, at least.

One cannot have a dialogue with these people. They are so bent on what they believe.