Tuesday, June 23, 2020

Kaminetsky-Greenblatt Heter: A reader asks, What is the real agenda of this blog in protesting corruption of halacha and adultery?

We have been dealing for a long time with the issue  of a recognized gadol - R Shmuel Kaminetsky - being involved in the slimy task of corrupting halacha and refusing to accept responsibility to stop the adulterous relationship of Tamar and Adam. R Kaminetsky and son conducted a worldwide campaign to produce a psak from R Greenblatt in which he investigated not a single one of the phony facts presented to him. R Greenblat married the couple solely on the say so of Rabbi Kaminetsky. "It is chutzpa to question what a gadol says!" Worldwide outrage was expressed in letters from most of the leading poskim against the heter. [see the post at the uppoer right corner of this blog] In spite of that we still have people - as seen in the comment below - who say, "What is your agenda?"


in short: what is the real agenda here? to try and get RSK to force Tamar out of current situation thru the blog pressure (which does not seem to be happening), or to somehow allow him to 'save face' , but to get the desired result

 There are a few issues here.

1) Did something horribly wrong take place in the producing of the Kaminetsky-Greenblatt Heter which threatens the foundations of yiddishkeit by damaging the collective emunas chachoim?

2) Do we ignore or tolerate horrible actions by gedolim because they are gedolim and therefore- We -the "fungus under their feet" - have no right to question them?

3) Is there an imperative to protest this corruption of Torah - as we do any other corruption - or is it a task only for other gedolim to deal with?

4) Is it a fact that the protests on this blog have not produced results?
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We have dealt with the other issues at length. I would like to address the last issue.

It is clear from the feedback that I have gotten -- that the protests have in fact registered. While it is true that Tamar and Adam are still living in sin - but the protests have not been in vain

1) R Kaminetsky and his extended family are highly irritated by the protests - based entirely on their claim that R Kaminetsky has done nothing wrong and has clearly acknowledged that Rabbi Dovid Feinstein has said the heter is garbage. In particular, that he never paskened that Tamar could remarry and thus he has no obligation to do anything. He feels no responsibility for the campaign that his son conducted - in direct consultation with him and his approval of every step - to find poskim who would agree to the heter nor the phony psychiatrist report that his son produced to support the heter. In short, he claims he is totally innocent of wrong doing  and that the responsibility is solely that of R Greenblatt. It doesn't bother him that Tamar is relying entirely on the heter of R Greenblatt that he engineered - because after all she has a major posek to rely on. This despite that R Greenblatt relied totally on the facts that were presented to him by the Kaminetsky's - including the false claim that Aharon Friedman is totally insane. However as one family member told me, "the whole thing stinks and is a grave embarrassment" [yes there are family members who are ashamed of what R Kaminetsky has done]

2) Talmidim and admirers of R Kaminetsky are alternatively angry with me and embarrassed by the fact that they have no intelligent explanation for R Kaminetsky's conduct in this sordid affair. But after all he is gadol hador so they struggle with their cognitive dissonance as best as possible. Some by attacking anyone who questions R' Kaminetsky's actions and others by a strong sense of shame and embarrassment which they heroically suppress.

3) There is in fact widespread awareness amongst the yeshivas students and avreichim - as well as the rabbis and poskim of our generation. This includes of course the many rabbis who wrote letters denouncing the heter. Most have no idea of how to deal with this - but they are very bothered by it. They understand that R Kaminetsky is the "bank that is too big to fail" as well as that their jobs and their future employment and shidduchim for their children are in danger if they make any public statements. R Kaminetsky is a very important figure in the Torah world and he has a high level of influence - not only personally but through marriage. One of the major rabbinic players told me a long time ago that it was clear to him that R Kaminetsky was acting against the halahca "But who am I to criticize the gadol hador - no one will listen to me."

So yes - there is a need to continue the protest against what R Kaminetsky has done and against the fact that he has not publicly stated that the couple needs to separate and has not apologized to Aharon Friedman for the slander and "dirty halachic tricks" he has used against him.

It is Elul for gedolim also!

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