Saturday, January 23, 2010

Earthquake - Divine response to criticism of the silence of rabbis in Tropper scandal?!



A curious example of apologetics -The Earth Trembles - recently appeared in Cross-Currents. It was written by the director of public affairs for Agudath Israel of America - normally the epitome of cogent prose. He did slip once before by claiming that the swindler  Berny Madoff  was somehow superior to the "Hero of the Hudson" - for which he apologized.  What follows is the relevant excerpt. It is the only response of the American Chareidi establishment - that I am aware of - to the Tropper scandal.  Read his article Tidal Waves on page 5 of the Jewish Observer for a more appropriate essay.
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From a truly Jewish perspective, though, there is more that we must do in the wake of a disaster as terrible as the recent one in Haiti. We must introspect, and make changes in our behavior. The 2004 tsunami in Asia occurred during the same period of the  Jewish year’s Torah-reading cycle as the recent Haitian disaster, a  period known as “Shovavim Tat,” an acrostic of the initials of the weeks’ Torah portions. It is a time considered particularly ripe for repentance. After that cataclysm, a revered contemporary Jewish sage in Israel, Rabbi Aharon Leib Steinman, pointed out that the revered Gaon of Vilna identified a particularly powerful merit at this time of year in “guarding one’s speech” – avoiding the expression of ill will, slander and the like. That, Rabbi Steinman added, is a merit especially urgent “in these days, when the evil inclination puts all its energies into entrapping people in this sin… [when] it is almost impossible to find someone who hasn’t fallen into the ‘mud’.”

No prophet or wise man, only eyes and ears, are necessary to recognize that the Jewish world today is rife with “evil speech” – speaking and writing ill of others (whether the words are true, false or – so often the case – some toxic mixture of the two), and with the hatred that breeds such sins. Jewish media are filled with accusations and “scoops”; they compete gleefully to find the vilest examples of crimes to report, to do the most attention-grabbing job of reporting them, and to be the first to do so. The very week of the recent catastrophe in Haiti, a national Jewish newspaper published a comic strip featuring grotesque depictions of religious Jews and aimed at disparaging Jewish outreach to other Jews.

And another Jewish newspaper ran an editorial placing the alleged ugly sins of an individual at the feet of Jewish rabbinic leaders, simply because the presumed sinner, before he was exposed, had arranged for several respected rabbis to deliver lectures and had encouraged people to make donations to their institutions. Having thus “established” guilt by that association, the editorialist demanded that every Orthodox organization and rabbinic leader publicly condemn the alleged sinner or be smeared themselves with sin. Then he mocked rabbinic authorities as a group for, instead of issuing condemnations of sinners, rendering decisions on social and halachic matters, as if that were not precisely what rabbis are for. Those are examples of anti- Orthodox invective. But ill will and its expression, tragically, know no communal bounds – in fact, the offensive comic strip seized upon intemperate statements made by Orthodox Jews about others.

Jews can take positions. Indeed we are charged with standing up for Jewish principles. But personalizing disagreements or slandering individuals is – or should be – beyond the pale.
© 2010 AM ECHAD RESOURCES
[Rabbi Shafran is director of public affairs for Agudath Israel of America.]

20 comments :

  1. Earthquake - Divine response to the silence of rabbis in Tropper scandal?

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  2. What a terrible article.

    If people have received money and luxurious accomodations from somebody who used his influence to overturn previously accepted halacha, they should investigate fully.

    If they fail to investigate and are caught as enablers of a menuval, they should immediately ask mechilla of those they lead. To continue covering it up exposes a gaping hole in today's moral fabric.

    I am surprised Agudah said anything. I had thought they were silent because they were started by a Tress and that Kol Yaakov was started by a Tress (his son?), and they were pretending nothing ever happened. To attack the critics is to defend the one who is criticized.

    What does Agudah get out of enabling tropper?

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  3. Cogent prose? Hardly. And the retraction from smearing Capt. Sullenberger was likely forced on Shafran by the Novominsker & Zweibel after the uproar he caused.

    Shafran has never apologized by the way for smearing the victims of Kolko and other predators who he publicly accused of fabricating "tawdry tales" nor has he ever offered one syllable of sympathy for abused children.

    Shafran is not someone who is mekabel musser or tochacha. Rabbonim who know his m.o. will warn you to not even bother debating him. He can get rather testy and nasty at times. Someone once posted an entire email dialog he had with Shafran about Kolko to a since deactivated blog called Avi Shafran Speaks. You should have seen Shafran react when presented with hard hitting questions. He started hurling all kinds of insults at the person. Shafran later accused the person of violating giluy sod which is completely absurd.

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  4. Introspection is indeed a proper response to tragedy, but what he is saying is that OTHER PEOPLE are responsible, that's as far from introspection as it's possible to be.

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  5. Yasher Koach Rabbi Shafran. It is hight time someone stand up from Gedolei Yisroel shlita against the so-called "Jewsish" (ha!) blogosphere.

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  6. The article is a classic display of haughtiness. Very revealing.

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  7. V'hoemes nehderes! Clearly Moshiach must be around the corner. A generation where corrupt individuals are hoisted as leaders - Yehsivas are led by menuvalim, true Torah leaders remain silent (with myriads of excuses)but ALL know the real reason - Gedolim are surrounded by manipulative mafia-nicks looking out only for their own self interest - twisting the words of gedolim to fit their own agendas.

    It's time for ALL of us to cry tikun chatzos and beseech the Almighty to take us out of this Choshech v'afayla to a place of Layehudim haysa orah!

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  8. Yes, we must stop this slandering! It really does'nt accomplish anything but flare up hate within our midst!..Jewish people are a stubborn nation and even when a Gadol warns us, we continue to post slandorous remarks on this issue!! Dont we ever learn our lesson? all prosecutions, killing and oppression to our people are caused by us..and it starts with slander, jealousy and more...Look and open your eyes to our ancient history...Our failure to unite under ONE banner is our downfall over and over again!

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  9. It is true that the laws of Lashon Harah apply to information that is true, but this is not an excuse to avoid the truth. This article, like so many other actions or statements from our Frum establishment, shows a complete unwillingness to face the many real faults and failings we have; each of which could well be fixed with honesty and courage. Instead we hear time and time again about the faults of others, but our's can never be spoken of as it would violate the laws of lashon harah. If Avi Shafran and his organization cannot lead, let them all step aside for leaders with the courage to speak the truths of the Torah.

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  10. And another Jewish newspaper ran an editorial placing the alleged ugly sins of an individual at the feet of Jewish rabbinic leaders, simply because the presumed sinner, before he was exposed, had arranged for several respected rabbis to deliver lectures and had encouraged people to make donations to their institutions. Having thus “established” guilt by that association, the editorialist demanded that every Orthodox organization and rabbinic leader publicly condemn the alleged sinner or be smeared themselves with sin. Then he mocked rabbinic authorities as a group for, instead of issuing condemnations of sinners, rendering decisions on social and halachic matters, as if that were not precisely what rabbis are for. Those are examples of anti- Orthodox invective.

    Absolutely correct analysis by Rabbi Shafran. The Rabbis are not responsible for the individuals actions. Nor are they required to denounce every sin done by others. Even if they associated with that person previously.

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  11. Anonymous said...

    What a terrible article.

    If people have received money and luxurious accomodations from somebody who used his influence to overturn previously accepted halacha, they should investigate fully.

    If they fail to investigate and are caught as enablers of a menuval, they should immediately ask mechilla of those they lead. To continue covering it up exposes a gaping hole in today's moral fabric.

    I am surprised Agudah said anything. I had thought they were silent because they were started by a Tress and that Kol Yaakov was started by a Tress (his son?), and they were pretending nothing ever happened. To attack the critics is to defend the one who is criticized.

    What does Agudah get out of enabling tropper?

    January 24, 2010 1:26 AM


    while i would absolutely agree with your beginning statements, your ending speculation is completely off base.
    the current agudah does not even remotely resemble the original. (could you imagine reb aaron kotler keeping quiet about any issue, while career hacks and pr firms do all the talking!? )
    mike tress is currently spinning over in his grave as to the political (criminal?) state the agudah has become. his children have almost nothing to do with agudah for various reasons.
    additionally, the family had a very public falling out with tropper about 25 years ago. these are facts.
    (well maybe he's not actually spinning).

    ReplyDelete
  12. Anonymous said...

    What a terrible article.

    If people have received money and luxurious accomodations from somebody who used his influence to overturn previously accepted halacha, they should investigate fully.

    If they fail to investigate and are caught as enablers of a menuval, they should immediately ask mechilla of those they lead. To continue covering it up exposes a gaping hole in today's moral fabric.

    I am surprised Agudah said anything. I had thought they were silent because they were started by a Tress and that Kol Yaakov was started by a Tress (his son?), and they were pretending nothing ever happened. To attack the critics is to defend the one who is criticized.

    What does Agudah get out of enabling tropper?

    January 24, 2010 1:26 AM


    while i would absolutely agree with your beginning statements, your ending speculation is completely off base.

    mike tress is currently spinning over in his grave as to the political (criminal?) state the agudah has become.
    the current agudah does not even remotely resemble the original. (could you imagine reb aaron kotler keeping quiet about any issue, while career hacks and pr firms do all the talking!? )
    his children have almost nothing to do with agudah for various reasons.
    additionally, the family had a very public falling out with tropper about 25 years ago. these are facts.
    (well maybe he's not actually spinning).

    January 24, 2010 8:59 AM

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  13. I think, in general, that it is morally reprehensible to use a natural cataclism as basis for any kind of "Mussar shmues"...

    I also found it abject when everyone jumped on the Tsunami a few years ago.

    Cataclisms happen, why should we bring them in relation with our personal conduct????? That's immoral.

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  14. Lashon harah isn't responsible for the shidduch crisis, child abuse, spousal abuse, chinuch crisis, kashrus bickering, substance abuse problems, elevated divorce rates, inability to support one's family...

    Were it only so simple, Rabbi Shafran, were it only so simple.

    Such naresihkeit will not let the Agudah off the hook for their indifference and malfeasance in the Tropper matter.

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  15. What a joke!
    Suddenly this guy has nevuah, on par with Noach and Avraham, when disasters hit the world!
    Well Sdom and Amarah were destroyed for the immorailty of the inhabitants. Not for something happening elsewhere. Furthermore, the nature of the sins of sdom and amarah were more akin to those committed by tropper.

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  16. The Agudah is destroying the Emunas Chachomim of scholar and layman alike. We look to the einei ho'aida for guidance and there is none. To compound this, monthly stories of Rabbinic improprieties only serve to further erode any semblance of confidence that we have left.

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  17. The whole A. Shafran concept that Chilul Hashem is caused by publicizing the sins of some rabbis is discounted by the Tosefta Yuma (Chap. 4) which states that hypocrites are supposed to be exposed in order to prevent a Chilul Hashem (Bab. Yuma 86b) a. in order that people should not learn from them b. in order that when heavenly punishments are to afflict these persons, people are not going to doubt the heavenly judgment (see also Maimonides Hilchot De'ot Chapter 6 Halacha 8)
    Of course the person who perpetrates these sins is guilty of Chilul Hashem.

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  18. anonymous at 2:57 has finally broken the sound barrier and said it like it is. the biggest problem facing the orthodox community today is the gabboim who surround our elderly gaonim. One didn't find these pushy and overbearing types around Rav Shach, the Steipler, certainly not the Chofetz Chaim and the Chazon Ish. This is not to say they did not have a 'shtub bochur' or a son nearby to protect them from nudniks. but these people had such respect for the gadol they served they would never have mainpulated the situation as some people do today. To this day, we can see which gedolim have been totally blocked out by their 'gabbaim'. One such Gabbai of a posek had to be literally forced to give the phone to the posek for a rather complicated psak that he felt qualified to answer on behalf of the gadol as he 'knew what the gadol held on these inyanim'. and that wasn't just one time.

    like many other things today, this is a chassidsh hanhago which has come into the litvish world. what they didn't adopt was that the chassidish gabbois was usually handed down from father to son, along with the yirah and proper hanhaga.

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  19. I commented over at CC. Apparently they didn't like it. Here's my comment:

    Rabbi Shafran started off ok, after all there's nothing wrong with, and ample support for, the idea that we should view any significant event such as the quake in Haiti as a catalyst to introspect.

    R. Shafran's piece begins to devolve when he states, "It is, to be sure, a very particularist idea, placing Jews at the center of humankind." Whether are not Jews are at the "center of humankind" it is the height of hubris and socially inept to imply, no matter how slightly, that G-d would kill 100,000 men, women, and children in order to send a wake up call to the Jews. There is an enormous difference between taking a message from something that happened and saying that a catastrophe happened to send a message.

    As if that weren't enough, this piece sinks further by attempting to assign a "reason" in the behavior of Jews for this catastrophe. So, not only do we "know" that an entire country was ravaged for our benefit, but we even know why! All those poor Haitians were killed, maimed and made homeless because of some nasty cartoons in a Jewish paper.

    But why stop there? After all, R. Shafran doesn't corner the market on assigning "reasons" for the earthquake. Maybe it's the opposite of what R. Shafran implies. Maybe the expose's came too late. Maybe the earthquake was "sent" because the Rabbinic establishment has now on just too many occasions assisted in the cover up of scandalous, anti-social, and criminal activity in the religious community. Or, maybe Haiti was ravaged because too many of our most pious looking co-religionists are dragging G-d's name through the mud in the name of honoring the Sabbath. Or Maybe he was unhappy that a bunch of Yeshiva students burned down the house of worship of another religion.

    Of course my examples are outrageous, just as are those in R. Shafran's essay. It is the height of insensitivity to use this tragedy as a soapbox to pontificate about the slights that any individual perceives are being perpetrated against his little slice of our community.

    Yes, privately we should introspect, but publicly we should follow the lead of our Jewish nation and show that we too are part of the greater world community and do what we can, in our own way, to alleviate the suffering of our fellow humans in Haiti.

    We should all pray for a Refuah and Nechama to all those affected by this tragedy.

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  20. Rabbi Shafran has responded:

    http://www.cross-currents.com/archives/2010/01/27/a-personal-note-to-cross-currents-readers/

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