By Your Hand - the Sin of Nov

Harav Yosef Blau

Director of Jewish Community Watch

Here is a trivia question:

Who dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and what was the date?

If you answered the US Air Force on August 6, 1945 I will give you partial credit but it’s not the true answer. Let’s think out of the box.

The gemara in Sanhedrin 95a refers us to a pasuk in Shmuel B 21:16:

וישבו (וְיִשְׁבִּי) בְּנֹב אֲשֶׁר בִּילִידֵי הָרָפָה, וּמִשְׁקַל קֵינוֹ שְׁלֹשׁ מֵאוֹת מִשְׁקַל נְחֹשֶׁת, וְהוּא, חָגוּר חֲדָשָׁה; וַיֹּאמֶר, לְהַכּוֹת אֶת-דָּוִד. 

And Yishbi of Nov who was from the offspring of Harpa (Orpa) and the weight of his spear was 300 weights of copper…and he sought to smite Dovid.

The gemara explains that HKBH said to Dovid HaMelech: “How long must this sin be concealed in your hands? By your hand (on your account) was destroyed Nov the city of Kohanim, by your hand Doeg HaAdomi was banished, and by your hand Shaul and his three sons perished. Would you prefer that your offspring be eradicated or that you be surrendered into the hands of your enemy?”

How special. We don’t all get to choose our destiny!

In any case, Rashi explains that “this sin” is referring to the sin of Nov. This sin was an act of gneivas daas. Dovid was on the run from Shaul and he reached the city of Nov where the Mishkan was. He requested from the Kohanim of Nov to give him bread and a sword as an emissary of Shaul when, in actuality, he was a fugitive from Shaul and his men. This had quite a backlash as Shaul’s Chief of Staff, Doeg HaAdomi, accused all of the Kohanim of sedition (mored b’malchus) and, by his word, Shaul ordered them all to be executed. As a result, Doeg, who was known as the “chief of the shepherds” – i.e., the head of all Roshei Yeshiva (the Gadol HaDor) – was banished from Olam Habah and Shaul and his sons died an inglorious death at the hands of the Plishtim.

HKBH is calling Dovid HaMelech responsible for all of these calamities. Not only for the inadvertent destruction of the city and the Kohanim, but even for the doubly inadvertent banishment of Doeg and the deaths of Shaul and his sons.

Of course, Dovid HaMelech did not kill anybody. His only “sin” was not telling Achimelech that he was a fugitive. Shaul and Doeg killed the Kohanim and, for this, they met their doom. It was their fault, not Dovid’s. In fact, Dovid’s gneivas daas was a clear matter of pikuach nefesh. And why was he on the run to start with?

Well, Shmuel HaNavi anointed him as the King of Israel while the sitting king, Shaul, was still on the throne. This is usually not a very good idea. Could be hazardous to one’s health. Besides, Dovid wasn’t really interested in the job. He had lots of big brothers who were capable fellows. It’s just that Shmuel HaNavi had his number and he needed to make an early exit from our world so he wasn’t able to push it off.

All told, Dovid was the most innocent of all of the characters in this debacle and yet, HKBH put everything on his hands. Everything. The executions of the Kohanim (also innocent), the banishment of Doeg (not quite so innocent), and Shaul and his boys (Shaul was the one who “gave the order”). Everything is on Dovid’s hands. For one little infraction in a life or death situation!

This gemara is here to teach us a frightening lesson. Every person can be held accountable, not just for his own actions, but for what other people – even irresponsible lowlife people – do as a response to his actions. And if this is so even when his own actions were almost unavoidable at a time of pikuach nefesh, imagine if the initial player has no excuse of pikuach nefesh and had every opportunity to avoid it!

And if this applies when the backlash is something nobody would have anticipated, imagine the responsibility for a repercussion that one would expect to happen and should have been foreseen.

Of course, we already should have gotten this message with our mitzvah to bring an eglah arufah as an atonement because, just perhaps, we did not give a travelling Jew enough encouragement to deal with the hazards of the road. But this gemara seems to tell us how far this concept really goes.

When we do something, even if it’s not reckless, we are responsible at some level for the backlash. And when we are foolhardy and reckless, even more so!

So, by now you have probably figured out the answer to our trivia question:

Who dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and what was the date?

The real answer is that the Japanese Navy did it on December 7, 1941. Of course, they didn’t realize that they were dropping an atomic bomb on their own country. There was no such thing as an atomic bomb, anyway.

But when those atomic bombs came down, they were just the grand finale of the first conventional bombs that they dropped on Pearl Harbor. Legend has it (never confirmed) that the Naval Marshal General, Isoroku Yamamoto, himself acknowledged this with his legendary remark on Dec. 7, 1941: I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.

The terrible resolve was resolved on August 6, 1945 in Hiroshima.

When one starts a war, everything that happens as a result, even to himself, is “by his hand”.

Friends (the few I have left) and relatives ask me why I continue to write about the Malka Leifer episode. Well, firstly it is a tremendous Chillul Hashem which I would like to see terminated. But, truly, this is far from the open-and-shut case that the consumers think it is. There are things that need to be said and nobody else feels like saying it.

The allegations are for events that allegedly occurred ten plus years ago and ended then. Only the accusers know what really happened and to what extent they were victims. But now, nobody is hurting them any more. They are no longer victims (they call themselves “survivors”). They are currently accusers and prosecutors. They are on offense. The Leifer camp is now on defense. The accuser is pursuing the accused.

I have pointed out that, at this stage, the Halacha does not support this redifa. It is the duty of the public – who have no idea what to believe – to either butt out or to work to put an end to this redifa and Chillul Hashem, not to perpetuate it. Anybody who actively or vocally participates in it has all of the repercussions on their hands.

Moreover, even though one could argue that Mrs. Leifer and her activities are the catalyst for what’s going on now, this war of extradition and prosecution was really started sometime in 2011 when the JAPs walked into the Victorian police station and filed a criminal complaint against a Jew who has been in Eretz Yisrael for a good three years.

This war is starting to get very ugly, as most wars do. Let’s have a quick look at one of the most recent posts on the BringLeiferBack page:

We receive constant backlash from those that support Leifer in reaction to this #bringleiferback campaign.

We can live with that.

But when Leifer’s relatives use my sisters death as proof of their power that is going way way way too far!

In the last few days, we have heard that Leifer's family have been calling members of the Jewish community. They have threatened that unless they sign letters stating that Leifer was the perfect educator and the sexual abuse has been a figment of our imagination, “bad things will happen to them”.

AND THEIR PROOF?? "We told this to someone else, they didn't listen to us, and they died'.

Absolutely sickened and horrified.

Interesting. From the way she is relating it, I don’t know how she knows that the referenced “someone else” is her late sister, A”H. I will have to assume that the details were more specific in real time. But now, let’s discuss.

First, the disclaimer. I personally am a total lone wolf in this drama and have no relationship or connection with anyone from the Leifer camp. To date, nobody on that side has ever contacted me to say “Thank you” or “No, thank you”. Nothing. So I have no involvement in these tactics and I do not condone them. I also think they are a little beneath the belt and can be called “hot oil”.

Nevertheless, the saying goes: All is fair in love and war!

This is going way way way too far? Already? My dears, this episode is far from over and I fear – like Naval Marshal Yamamoto – that you ain’t seen nothing yet.

The sheer naïveté of these JAPs is so utterly astounding. Did they think they can start a war with their 2011 Pearl Harbor attack in Victoria and then go home and sleep peacefully? Did they really think the Leifer camp, who is on the defense, is not going to fight back? Do they think this is Columbo? That the bad guy is just going to stick out his hands for the cuffs and come along quietly?

Goodness! I wrote more than a year ago that these girls are Flirting with Danger. I wasn’t kidding. There are definitely folks who hadn’t woken up yet and are now starting to. They may not be such powerful giants but, who knows who will wake up tomorrow and what they will do?

Incidentally, if this becomes a family feud, I am under the impression that the Leifer family is way bigger than the Sapper family, with some powerful figures, to boot.

So now Dassi Erlich, the aggressor, is complaining about hot oil and mustard gas. Does she realize that if it has come to abusing the memory of her late sister that this is by her hand? If Dovid Hamelech is blamed for the deaths of the “wayward” Doeg and Shaul, can these JAPs conceive that they are the ones who are violating their late sister? It is by their hand?

And what will they say when the nukes start to fall?

There’s more. I hate to say it but the dirty tricks did not start now and they did not start by the Leifer camp.

The JAPs are complaining about the defense tactics that are “going way way way too far.” You mean to say there are boundaries? You mean to say that the Sapper camp has any boundaries whatsoever? Not that I can see.

I have been following Dassi’s posts on her Facebook page for well more than a year and all of the suggestions that they get from “their” supporters that they thank them for. Things such as organizing protests in front of the court building (not the worst thing) and obstructing funding for her legal defense so her lawyer cannot do his job as well as to deny her of a legal defense council - which is essentially obstruction of justice. 

The story that really inflamed me was in the comments of her post on March 6, 2018 (there are lots of comments and these are in the "Reply" section of one comment). 

It began with a sensible comment from a more objective reader (and a religious woman) named Shoshana who, at that point was a supporter of the extradition campaign. She wrote:

At the end of the (say) [day] the most important thing is that there be a fair trial in Australia and this matter gets resolved …

Okay, a "fair trial". This reasonable comment was immediately countered by one Nicole Iglicki Gold who wrote:

… “A fair trial in Australia”-who are you kidding? She doesn’t deserve anything fair. I don’t know these girls but I am human and am sensitive to their pain…She is a criminal and deserves to be in jail and to have the key thrown away

Here is a typical commenter who admits that she doesn’t "know these girls” (the Sapper sisters) which indicates that she certainly doesn’t know Mrs. Leifer, as well. She doesn’t know anything at all, yet she "knows" that Mrs. Leifer is an “evil evil lady” and a “criminal” and “deserves to be in jail and the key thrown away…” Just because Dassi Erlich said so!

And what does Nichole Sapper Meyer say about the one who says “she does not deserve anything fair”?

Nichole Meyer: Nicole Iglicki Gold thank you ... your words mean a lot to us

Get that? Nicole Sapper Meyer thanked the lady who said “she doesn’t deserve anything fair”. She did not thank Shoshana. Evidently, Nichole Meyer likewise does not believe that anybody she accuses deserves anything fair!

So it appears that the Sapper sisters want what they want and don’t believe in playing “fair”. And now Dassi says that when the Leifers take extreme measures to defend themselves that “that is going way way way too far!”??

What were we discussing previously about Double standards??

Now, I do have something to say in favor of the Leifer camp. I am sure they have seen the grand proclamation from Rabbi Shmuel Feurst, Shlita and 106 prominent American Rabbanim which says that:

The Torah's statement in Leviticus 19:16, "Do not stand by while your neighbor's blood is shed," obligates every member of the community to do all in one's power to prevent harm to others.

Now, I personally wrote that this is really a mistake. It should read “all that is necessary to prevent harm” and not “all in one’s power to prevent harm” but who am I to argue with HRHG Rav Shmuel Feurst and 106 American Rabbanim – some of whom are even my age or older?

As I said earlier, at this stage of the game, the Sappers are on offense and the Leifers are on defense. Mrs. Leifer is currently the nirdaf[et]. I am certain many readers think that Mrs. Leifer’s blood doesn’t qualify for Lo Taamod (I will abstain for now), but I can say that to her relatives it certainly does. As such, they have the psak of HRHG Shmuel Feurst and 106 other prominent Rabbanim who say that not only are they allowed to do “all that is in their power” but they are obligated to.

So the Leifers have a hetter - if not a chiyuv - for their tactics. What hetter do the Sappers have?

And this is all by their hand.

And what makes it really bad is that the people who perpetrate this travesty are people who sport pious beards.

As I have repeatedly said, this whole episode is one great Chillul Hashem and it is getting ugly and it will not end well for anybody. It needs to end. And who is keeping it alive?

Obviously, the JAPs who started this war are in it till the end. By they cannot do it without help. Yes, they have thousands of fair weather grandstand supporters that cheer them on on their Facebook page (and they block out all dissenters). But they have a little bit more organized help. Consequently, this debacle is just as much by the hands of these organizations.

Who are they?

I can name two very misguided organizations that call themselves Rabbinic.

The first are my good friends at the Rabbinical Council of Australia and New Zealand (RCANZ). This organization provides no Jewish services for the community whatsoever. Its sole raison d’etre is to be a spokesman for the Jewish community to the outside world on social issues.

Sadly, these are a group of very liberal Rabbis who put the emotions of the crowd ahead of the guidelines of the Shulchan Aruch. In a previous post I mentioned some of the ringleaders: Rabbi Yaakov Glasman, Rabbi Alon Meltzer, Rabbi James Kennard and Rabbi Benjamin Elton. These are all left-wingers, Modern or Open Orthodox. Into interfaith dialog and LGBTQI rights. They are all younger than I am so as far as I am concerned, they are a bunch of children pretending to be "Rabbis".

Despite all this, their misguided support has given some sense of legitimacy to this campaign. Thus, even though it does not look like they have actively intervened in this controversy, what is happening is by their hand.

At best, RCANZ will get the Oscar for Best Screenplay Editor. But the Academy award for Best Supporting Actor goes to…the envelope, please…

Jewish Community Watch!!

Jewish Community Watch is a boiler room operation with a very impressive web site. As opposed to some of the other more sincere organizations like Ohel or Amudim who focus on helping victims of abuse, JCW is not very interested in the victims of abuse. Their primary focus is to hunt down and prosecute those who they are convinced are molesters. It doesn’t really matter if they are molesters or not. As long as JCW thinks they are, there is no line they won’t cross to do them in.

One of their features is their shameless Wall of Shame. Here they feel they are saving the world by seeing to it that anyone on their hit list is posted. Now, I have written in my post about the 3 Ps that one of the most effective tools is indeed, publicity or pirsum. But even this has limits. It is sufficient to have an online list of known and even potential predators with a clear description as to where they are holding in their predatory career, but an officially called Wall of Shame puts everyone in one basket. It’s not just that some may be true psychopaths and others are not really so, but also, many have “done their time” and need a chance to rehabilitate themselves. But what is the worst thing, and indeed applicable in the Malka Leifer case, not every person on their list is even a confirmed predator.

In most of the WOS entries, JCW puts a little box with a short description of what the person is guilty of. Often they can write that X confessed to this or Y was convicted for that. But there are plenty of exceptions. As an example, one person on the JCW WOS has one small note in his little box: Convicted in 2012 for possession of child pornography.

Though we may say that this person has a very bad habit (understatement) and maybe needs to be watched, there is no indication that he ever harmed or tried to harm a single soul. It is common that people have perverse fantasies and use imagery to gratify themselves but have no intention of crossing the line into predatorship. All of their sins are bein adam L"Makom. And who says that he didn’t get help to kick the habit? So perhaps he needs to be avoided and there are grounds for awareness, but why is he a predator and why does he need to be “shamed”??

Incidentally, JCW doesn't have anything on this fellow as of 2012. This was six years ago. What is the Halacha? Is it permissible to shame anybody for something he did in the past but as far as anyone knows is not being done now?

Dovid Hamelech himself gives us the answer in Sanhedrin 107a: One who has engaged in adultery (past tense) is worthy of strangulation but has a place in the World to Come. One who shames one in public, has no portion in the world to come!

Another person only has:  JCW has interviewed multiple people who recounted sexual abuse… So this person hasn’t been charged or convicted of anything. We don’t know how many people are “multiple" and how credible they are. At the end of the day, it is he said/she said. Same thing here, what are the grounds for “shame”?

But, after these, there are quite a few people that have no little box at all! At most, some links to some news items which talk of their unconfirmed allegations. Malka Leifer is in this group. And there were some that didn’t even have any links! It’s anybody’s guess why they are up there.

The most irresponsible thing of all is that they have multiple entries for "predators" without posting their picture. Besides the fact that the key shaming that they want to do is to post the villains mug on to the Net for everyone to see, so what do they gain by pictureless posts? But there is a very serious issue here. And let's take one entry as the prime example - a confirmed offender named Avraham Rosenfeld.

There are six Avraham Rosenfelds in the Jerusalem Chareidi phonebook and these are just the married people with phones. And this doesn't include Bnei Brak or Kiryat Sefer or anywhere out of the Jerusalem area. If you don't show his picture, how do we determine the correct Avraham Rosenfeld and avoid mixing him up with the incorrect AR? Do you know how much damage this can cause to totally innocent people?

Let's go one step further and ask what is accomplished with this particular "shaming" (along with many of the others). Is it protecting anybody? Well, as long as this fellow is in jail (as noted), he is not a threat to anybody on the outside. Should he be released from jail, this is still totally worthless because there is no picture of him and not even a place of last residence (and he certainly will not be back in the school in Tel Aviv where he was).So it doesn't affect him. It only affects his innocent relatives or another innocent Avraham Rosenfeld who may be mistaken for him. 

So the score is: People helped - 0; Innocent People hurt - who knows?

Bottom line is that Jewish Community Watch is dedicated to shaming, hurting, and punishing whoever they set their sights on and making sure not to fix anyone who may be fixable. Actually they prevent this. And they don’t really care who else gets hurt in the process, even some of those they claim they are trying to protect. (See my post about Victim Turned Predator). I devoted a special post (HERE) to explain why this approach is not too effective.

Jewish Community Watch has certainly taken a more active role in our episode.  As mentioned, our suspect has a prominent spot as one of very few females on their Wall of Shame. But, despite all the Halachos I discuss that seem meaningless to them and despite the futility of this needless Chillul Hashem and despite the fact that nobody in Australia is in any danger from this person no matter what, they could not rest.

At a time when the forbidden extradition process seemed deadlocked, and the newspapers were silent, JCW (see HERE) very valiantly paid megabucks (of their donors' money??) to have somebody follow this woman with a video camera for 200 hours to catch her doing what?

Doing absolutely nothing! Riding buses, buying things, writing checks, talking on her cell phone. All this just to show the world that she is fit to be sent to Australia where she is no threat to anybody! 200 hours of being normal and not a single minute of molesting anybody!

Well, of course all the newspapers woke up and the police took action and Shana Aaronson and Manny Waks got great video shoots, and the war is back on and the Chillul Hashem perpetuated. Three Cheers for JCW!

Essentially, Mrs. Leifer is now sitting in jail in Neve Tirtza accused of being capable of riding buses and using her cell phone. And I and my fellow Israeli citizens are paying for this.

It is by their hand.

No question that Jewish Community Watch is a very misguided organization, but who is misguiding them?

Well, their key players are two very devoted and very hot-blooded individuals. Meyer Seewald in the US and Shana Aaronson, the Chief Operating Officer here in Eretz Yisrael. True heroes for our long suffering victims – oops, I mean, survivors. But we must assume that these avenging angels are paragons of virtue and wouldn’t lift a finger without exemplary guidance from great Torah authorities.

Let's recall that Dassi Erlich wrote in the initial post that this "is going way way way too far". This episode is getting messier and messier and the Chillul Hashem is getting stronger and stronger and we have the wizards at JCW to thank.

Wizard? Well, who is the man behind the curtain? Who is the great Torah authority?

His name is Rabbi Yosef Blau. Yes, I am talking about the senior Mashgiach ruchani at Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary. He is also the president of the Religious Zionists of America.(Wikipedia).

It is by his hand.

Rabbi Blau is on the Board of Directors. But he also has some elves. If you check out the JCW Advisory Board we find some other very distinguished people who must be advising them. These include:

·       Rabbi Elchonon Tauber – the dayan of Hancock Park in Los Angeles, California.

·       Rabbi Moshe Soloveitchik – the president of the Merkaz HaRabanim of Chicago.

על פיהם יהיה כל ריב וכל נגע!

Apart from JCW, I have a lot of respect for all of these people. They are all genuine Orthodox Rabbis and are all older than I am. Amazingly, I have in some way crossed paths with all of them in previous years.

As concerns Rabbi Tauber, Shlita, I shared a ride with him from Yerushalayim to Ben Gurion Airport about twenty years ago. We had a wonderful conversation about dayanus and Choshen Mishpat. As for Rabbi Soloveitchik, I once heard a shiur from him in Rabbi Karno’s shul in Chicago when I spent a summer bein hazmanim there visiting relatives.

And Rabbi Blau?

Aside from attending the same yeshiva as his son, Binny, some four decades ago and being a chavrusa to his nephew from Elizabeth at the same time and place, I must add that my aishes chayal used to be one of Rebetzin Dr. Rivkah Blau’s [Shaarei] Bnos Chayil. (The best one, in fact.)

So we have some very prominent Rabbanim behind this monstrosity. Everything they damage, hurt and ruin is by their hand. And every bit of this Chillul Hashem.

There is only one thing that Dassi Erlich says that I can fully agree with. This thing “is going way way way too far”. How do Rabbi Blau and Rabbi Tauber and Rabbi Soloveitchik justify it? 

בא וראה כמה קשה המחלוקת שהרי ב"ד של מטה אין עונשין אלא עד שיביא שתי שערות וב"ד של מעלה עד כ' שנה וכאן אבדו אף יונקי שדים

Rabbi Yosef Blau, LOY”T, is somewhere around 80 years old. הרב בלוי שפקח הוא, מה ראה לשטות זה? And likewise for Rabbi Tauber and Rabbi Soloveitchik.

Where will you be when the earth splits open?

Please stop this madness. It will only get worse. I cannot see how it will end well for anybody at all. Not for the Sappers, not for the Leifers, not for yourselves and not for me.

Just do it. Please.

It’s all by your hand.






Update to Previous Post - Earlier this week I received a phone call from the leasing company of the car I damaged. The woman said that their shammai (appraiser) conceded that they were not authorized to use an original part and they will accept my offer for NIS 765. I settled it on the phone with 3 credit card payments. 

Mesira X.ii: No Chochma, No Tevuna and No Eitza Against Hashem - 2nd Segment: Eitza and Conclusion

Author's note - This post is the second segment to Mesira X essay. The complete essay can be accessed in PDF format. To access -click HERE.

Part 4 – Eitza: How to Apply the Lessons - Let the Chofetz Chaim be our Guide

I have written in several posts that I am convinced that the Chofetz Chaim would never sign the Sweet Torah Kol Koreh as written. I also added to this the Rambam and HRH”G Rav Moshe Feinstein. I am sure there are many others but these are rather easy to substantiate.

The Chofetz Chaim writes that any hetter to be malshin must meet as many of seven conditions as apply. These conditions are (in the order that I wish to analyze them):

1.   There must be a constructive toelles.

2.   If there is another way to achieve this toelles that does not require malshinus, it is forbidden to be malshin.

3.   One may not be malshin if it will cause a repercussion that is beyond what is called for (i.e., what a Beis Din would hand down).

4.   The malshin must have his information first-hand.

5.   The malshin cannot infer conclusions beyond the first-hand information that he has.

6.   The malshin cannot embellish or exaggerate the severity of the offense.

7.   The malshin must first reproach (confront) the wrong-doer.

We can now analyze these conditions and see if and how they are respected by the Kol Koreh.

Conditions 1 and 2 – Toelles

To Halachically justify being malshin (moser) a Jew to the secular law enforcement there must (a) be some constructive toelles that (b) cannot be achieved without being moser.

What could such a toelles possibly be?

The only possible toelles is that this is the only method that will cause him to desist from harming others. Yet we have learned in Lesson 1 that less than 15% of offenders are arrested and of those, less than 10% are incarcerated. So this does not stand to be too effective.

So, now, let me ask, if more than 98.5% of the offenders are not taken off the streets, what are we to do with them?

There is no easy answer. And I wrote in my previous post that we cannot solve this problem. We can only “treat” it. There must be alternatives, and there are some. There are social services and rehabilitation programs (12-step) that the offender can be compelled to attend under threat of further action. And there can be community sanctions for proven offenders – i.e., removal from high exposure positions, not allowed to use the mikva, etc. likewise with the threat of mesira if they are violated. Of course there is no guarantee of success with these, but Rav Eisenstein wasn’t wrong, either, when he said the court system is “like Las Vegas”.

So, once there is no choice but to have alternatives, then condition number 2 automatically precludes the Halachic justification of going straight to the police because there are alternatives that can be implemented first.

Thus, the Kol Koreh is definitely in breach of Condition #2 and in most cases (98.5 out of 100) does not even meet Condition #1.

Note that R. Moshe Feinstein, ZT”L wrote in his teshuva (IgM Ch”M 1:8) concerning one who counterfeits kashrus stamps on meat, that the offender can be reported to the authorities only if the Beis Din cannot stop him from continuing. In other words, if BD can stop him (i.e., an alternative to calling secular authorities), there is no justification for mesira. This is one proof that Rav Moshe would not sign this Kol Koreh as written.

Condition 3 – Overly Severe Repercussions

By itself, if Condition #2 is met, meaning there is truly no other way to stop the molester, this condition is usually not very relevant. We have to do what needs to be done to protect people from harm. This is when the din of rodef applies.

However, taken in conjunction with Condition #6, which is a heavy-duty one and will be analyzed shortly, we need to watch our step.

Condition 4 - Verifying the Information

Conditions #4, 5, and 6 are variations of the same problem: Is the report truthful? They interact to create what is obviously one of the key points of contention in this whole shooting match. The Kol Koreh, by its lack of discrimination, is opening the door to false accusations.

Condition #4 tells us that we cannot be malshin (or moser) on anybody unless the one who wants to be malshin is absolutely certain that the offense being reported actually took place.  “Certain” means the malshin witnessed it personally.

Understandably, this could be difficult. When molesters do their mischief, they typically do not invite spectators. Invariably, the victims do not have much company. So, how on earth, can somebody other than a victim have first-hand knowledge like the Chofetz Chaim requires?

They can’t.

Any person who is not the victim or a first-hand witness (virtually non-existent) cannot know exactly what happened (if anything).

The Kol Koreh indicates that one has a Torah obligation to mahsser on the alleged molester even if he has nothing more than “reasonable suspicion”. This and the term “every individual” indicate that this Kol Koreh is targeted to people other than the victim him/herself! It says that a non-victim has an obligation to report a molester for committing an offense he hasn’t witnessed.

So how does he know what happened?

Obviously, the victim or some other reliable source told him so. And he depends on what they say. Or what he thinks they said. Or what he “heard” them say. Perhaps, this may be bolstered by some genuine testimony that the offender “blew in her ear” or “patted him on the backside”, which may have really happened.

But actually, the non-victim “agent”, whether it is a parent, relative, friend, or clergyman, is judging the case. He is hearing testimony from one side, and most likely, not only does he not confront the offender to see “how he pleads”, but he does not even cross examine the victim or source to make sure there are no holes in the story. The testimony goes unchallenged and as such is “stamped” authentic. Thus, the malshin convinces himself that the report is impeccably true. An example of all this is the story of Mr. Grossfinger that was presented in my previous post.

In any case, the Chofetz Chaim does not allow such a thing. The Kol Koreh does. 

Condition 5 – “Interpreting” (or Misinterpreting) incomplete evidence

Condition #5 tells us even if we possess verified (first-hand) partial information, i.e., circumstantial evidence, which supports an allegation but does not irrefutably ensure that it is true, this is not sufficient to satisfy condition 4.

This is the problem of irresponsibly “filling in the blanks”. There are numerous variations of this phenomenon.

One variation is fully illustrated in the Mr. Grossfinger story in which Mrs. Nehrvin may have had firsthand evidence that there was abuse, yet she had no firm evidence as to who was the abuser. She recklessly took it upon herself to solve the “whodunit” with disastrous results.

In a second form, this problem rears its ugly head at a more insidious stage. Before there is any proof that an offense was committed at all. This is reflected in the reactions of the three other women in the Mr. Grossfinger story who jumped to conclusions based on sheer hearsay. In that case, not one of the mothers observed Mr. Grossfinger doing anything objectionable. They chose to misinterpret (or imagine) unrelated symptoms on the alleged “victims”.

In a third variation, the accused perpetrator indeed committed some confirmed misdemeanor, but nothing close to the degree that he is being accused of.

This goes back to the line I wrote in the previous condition about if one actually sees the offender “blow in her ear” or “pat him on the backside”. The onlooker makes the subjective decision to interpret this in the worst possible light and concludes on his own that the person is a serial rapist.

This issue brings to light what I wrote in Mesira IV about degrees of child abuse. I wrote there that while a non-invasive act (groping, stalking, blowing in the ear, etc.) is unacceptable and may be indicative of even worse behavior, by itself, it is not Halachically impeachable. Even if one actually witnessed such an act, but nothing more, the offender cannot be deemed a “רודף אחר הערוה לבועלה”.

To illustrate this, in the true version of the story that I was involved in, a complainant (who was not a victim but apparently a parent) tried to convince the Rav of a shul that a mispallel (the accused) was a confirmed molester. The Rav was prudent enough to ask the caller how he (or she) knew. The caller responded, “Once when I came to pick up my kid, they didn’t answer the door for fifteen minutes.”

In this statement, the caller is admitting that they did not witness any abuse. If they had, that’s what they’d say: “I saw it with my own eyes, Rabbi!” But the most damaging thing that they saw with their own eyes was perhaps that they had to wait quite some time until the family opened their door. Yet, amazingly, this parent was convinced that their child was molested. Parents can be that way. (Incidentally, there was no basis to any accusations against this person. It’s a long story.)

The Kol Koreh tells “every individual” to report “abuse” while allowing “every individual” to rely on their own definition of “abuse”. 

Condition 6 - Ensuring that the facts are not distorted

Condition #6 tells us that even if every condition to this point is met, the offense is confirmed and the malshinus is justified, the malshin is forbidden to enhance or embellish the information in any way.

This is almost identical to the previous condition. The previous condition is that the malshin, before he reports, cannot bend the facts to convince himself that an unsubstantiated event occurred. This condition says that the malshin, when he reports, cannot bend the facts to convince the listener that an unsubstantiated event occurred.  Also, he cannot over-sensationalize or over dramatize the report to make it sound more horrendous than it is.

This reflects the line I wrote in the Mesira IX.v that an adult will invariably tell the truth the way he wants the listener to hear it. Sometimes a report is distorted from one end to the other simply by adding an extra word or omitting one. I wrote an entire post on this subject alone many years ago [sub]titled: The Objective of the Subjective Adjective (a fun post to read).

This was the main sin of the meraglim. They didn’t say anything that wasn’t true, they merely accentuated the negative and eliminated the positive. It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it.

To illustrate this, as well, I will go to the true story I related in the last condition. When the parent told the Rav that they were forced to wait for 15 minutes, the Rav responded, “So, what does that prove?” A good lawyer would have responded with a different question: “How are you sure it was 15 minutes?”

It’s not very likely the delay was 15 minutes and probably not more than three minutes. But when somebody is standing there waiting, a short time seems like forever. But I am certain the complainant said it because three minutes wouldn’t make the story stick. “So what does it hurt if I pad the details a bit? I am only telling the truth anyway, I just need him to believe me.”

As I wrote above, this condition can interact with Condition #3 because if one overstates the offense, it will invariable overstate the repercussions.

The only positive thing I can say is that these two conditions are the only two that the Kol Koreh does not explicitly urge us to violate. 

Condition 7 – Confronting the Offender

I saved this condition for last because, in my personal view, this is the most serious and neglected issue of them all.

The Chofetz Chaim tells us here that one can never be malshin on another under any circumstances before he confronts and reproaches the offender.

For what purpose?

I hardly think that the purpose of confronting the offender is so to first scold him and call him a “bad boy” and then to promptly go ahead and report him. It is to get him to desist and change course and thus to obviate the need to be malshin (moser) at all. It could also be to give him the opportunity to let you know that he hasn’t been doing what you think he has.

The Chofetz Chaim is in good company. Firstly, we have the Rambam who, when explaining the rules of rodef (Rotzeach 1:7), states: כיצד? אם הזהירוהו והרי הוא רודף אחריו  - "How so? If he was warned but he is still pursuing the victim…"

Likewise, Harav Moshe Feinstein writes in his teshuva (IgM Ch”M 1:8): It is only when they have observed that the Jewish courts cannot deter him is there any hetter [for mesira], after they warned him that they will file a suit in secular court…

When I wrote previously that not the Chofetz Chaim, Rambam, nor HRH”G Moshe Feinstein would endorse this Kol Koreh, my assertion was based on this condition. These three giants contend that to confront the offender is an absolute imperative. The Kol Koreh and the 107 Rabbanim who signed it wantonly disregard it.

The effects of direct confrontation are underrated. But they are very powerful. When I was taking courses on counseling, we covered this subject:

Q. If you suspect that your client may be contemplating suicide, what do you do to find out?   

 A. Ask him!

There is nothing to lose. If he is truly suicidal, he will more likely than not say so. He knows you suspect him. If this happens, you can surely believe him. If he says he isn’t, you can probably believe him, too, but you can judge his tone and body language to see if they allay your suspicions or exacerbate them, and act accordingly. The point is that most of the time, they tell the truth, and even if not, you haven’t hurt anything by asking him. If he’s bent on doing it and doesn’t want to tell anybody, he’ll do it anyway. You haven’t made anything worse.

It’s very much the same with somebody suspected of indecent acts. Just ask him! There is nothing to lose. Recall facts 10-14 that the majority of molesters are former victims who never got the help they needed. Many have a “death wish” to be caught and restrained. So, if they are really guilty, and they feel that the accusers have solid evidence and the “jig is up”, the majority will cave in.

If he denies guilt and you have no solid evidence (and you are not the victim), there is a good chance that he isn’t guilty. Whether he is or not, we are back to the Chofetz Chaim’s Condition #1 which isn’t being met.

If you do have irrefutable evidence and he still denies guilt, at least at this point you have met all seven conditions. Under these circumstances the mesira can now (and only now) be justified.

Confronting an alleged molster is not a comfortable thing to do. But it must be done. The Grossfinger story in Mesira IX.v illustrates how devastating it can be to neglect this step.  

Of course a victim should not need to do it him/herself. An agent, parent or a Rav should do it for them. But, somehow, in cases that I have followed, the “reliable information” of unequivocal guilt is freely offered to everybody under the sun (Rabbanim, principals, policemen, social services, mechutanim) except to the offender. When the offender wants to know where these accusations come from and on what basis, there is a sudden wall of silence – or case of amnesia - from very loose lipped people.

The bottom line is that according to the gedolim of the previous generations, there is absolutely no hetter under any circumstances to turn a molester over to secular authorities before he is confronted and given the opportunity to either clear himself or accept rehabilitative measures. No excuse whatsoever!

To my great consternation, both the revolutionary Kol Koreh and Rabbi Dovid Cohen, do not seem to acknowledge any of these seven conditions and especially this last one. The Kol Koreh explicitly instructs us to violate this condition when it says: “Any individual with firsthand knowledge…has a religious obligation to promptly notify the secular law enforcement…”

Likewise, Harav Dovid Cohen, Shlita is very puzzling. Initially he tells us (1:20): “I have paskened to go straight to the authorities, you don’t have to ask a she’ayla…”. There is no mention of any of the seven conditions of the Chofetz Chaim and no need to confront the offender. Later, he seems to have a brief moment of lucidity when he says (7:29): “There is a consultation. The person is given a fair chance to defend himself…”

Wait a minute, Rabbi Cohen! “The person is given a fair chance to defend himself…” when?? When is this “consultation”? Do you mean before you “go straight to the authorities”? This hasn’t been indicated by anything you have said to this point. In fact, it seems to contradict your earlier “psak”.

Or, do you mean that there will be a consultation without his participation, and he will have a chance to defend himself to the judge after he has been turned over to the authorities? What happened to the Chofetz Chaim, Rambam and Rav Moshe Feinstein?

חבל על דאבדין ולא משתכחין.

עד כאן עצה

Part 5 – Conclusion

I have had numerous personal conversations with the editor-in-chief of Mishpacha magazine wherein I voiced my objections to his stance on Mesira in general and to the Kol Koreh that his magazine carried in August. I know he has read some of my posts and at some point he said to me, “I’ve heard enough from you about what we shouldn’t do. Tell me your plan about what we do need to do!”

I wrote the Mesira IX post to express the point that, like cancer and other ills, we will not eradicate this plague by legislative means or magic bullets. The issue of sexual child abuse is far too complex for quick one-size-fits-all fixes. Once we know this I must strongly question the liberal psak of Harav Dovid Cohen, Shlita.

This Kol Koreh is advocating only one thing – to prosecute suspected molesters whether they are guilty or not. It is not designed to protect anybody, because damage is done by unknown and unsuspected molesters. Prosecution is done to known or suspected molesters. Hence, this edict will not prevent damage and it will not repair damage.

To prosecute a person who does not deserve to be prosecuted is wrong no matter how many suicides there are. As I wrote, the suicides happen at the hands of Phase 1 molesters. Prosecution happens to Phase 2 molesters. Thus, prosecution will not reduce suicides. It merely closes the barn door after the horse has escaped.

And, Rabbi Zvi Gluck tells us that 98.5% of these guys aren’t going to jail anyway. They won’t even be prosecuted. The barn door won’t be closed even after the horse is gone!

So, obviously, we need to put our efforts into doing what will help. It is imperative that every community have a vaad consisting of a Rav, a lawyer, various mental health professionals, and some laymen to oversee a rehabilitation program. It’s not a bad idea for this vaad to have a direct link with both secular social services and law enforcement. Many large communities have Jewish social welfare programs such as Amudim, Shalom Task Force and Project Relief in the East Coast and Magen Yeladim in California. There is no reason that these organizations cannot provide or oversee rehabilitative programs for offenders (if they don’t already do so). But if not, some other organization or community body must oversee them.

Once there is a vaad and a rehabilitation program, there is an alternative for Phase 2 molesters. Remember, most of them cannot or will not be prosecuted by the law enforcement anyhow. And now that there is an alternative, there is no excuse whatsoever to turn anybody straight over to the police.

I do not care what Rav Dovid Cohen, Shlita or 107 community Rabbanim say. I know what the Chofetz Chaim says along with the Rambam and Rav Moshe Feinstein, ZT”L.

So, here is my psak. And I can pasken this way even though I am not a Rav because this is זיל קרי בי רב :

Unless you are the victim and feel imminently threatened, every individual who suspects anybody of child abuse should promptly report them to the local vaad. The person must be immediately confronted by the vaad to determine if there are grounds to the suspicions.

If there are, he must be given the opportunity to cooperate with whatever rehabilitative measures are called for. Only if he is deemed to be non-cooperative and a continuing threat is there any toelles – and hetter to call in law enforcement.

This is what the Kol Koreh should be advocating. But it isn’t. And, for the life of me, I can’t figure out why not. I only spoke with two of the signatories and neither one could answer this question.

Who can?

אין חכמה ואין תבונה ואין עצה לנגד השם