abeles@mhuxi.UUCP (Joe Abeles (Bell Labs, Murray Hill, NJ)) (03/26/86)
The following article was written several days before the passing away of Rabbi Feinstein on March 24, 1986: ---------- I was disturbed and somewhat shaken to learn about a scandal that has been uncovered recently in New York's Lower East Side. The scandal is centered in a yeshiva called MTJ (for Mesivta Tiferes Yerushalaim) which is headed by the most prominent rabbinical authority recognized by Orthodox ashkenazi Jews in the world, R. Moshe Feinstein. R. Feinstein is the man who has the last word on halacha today as far as the Orthodox are concerned. His position of leadership is so distinguished that his decisions are considered to be divinely sanctioned as a sage of this generation. There is no suggestion made (not by anyone as far as I believe) that R. Feinstein was in any way aware of these misdoings. It appears at present that two administrators of the school (one was an ordained rabbi) "laundered" money taken in "off-the-books" by small businesses for the express purpose of enabling them to avoid taxes illegally. The financially strapped yeshiva derived needed operating funds from a small percentage of the funds that passed through its hands (less than a percent). However, this does not change the fact that it was illegal. According to Halacha as I understand it, since it was illegal according to the laws of the United States, it was also against Halachic law. If this were another institution, I would not raise an eyebrow. But as I mentioned above, the personage of R. Feinstein is so important that there is a (if you will) mystical aspect to his leadership which is thought to extend to those human endeavors with which he associates, and MTJ as his institution of Jewish learning is certainly one of his more important associations. To convey the mystical aspects of R. Feinstein's authority, I will retell a supposedly true story related to an audience at Lincoln Square Synagogue by R. Nosson Scherman (sp?): [Begin story:] "An Orthodox woman had an unusual problem. The very difficult situation was that her husband, thought to be killed in German concentration camps during the war, had reappeared in the 1970's very much alive. However, this put her and particularly her children in trouble because she had remarried following the war. Now her children from that marriage were considered illegitimate under Jewish Law and therefore (as perhaps the worst consequence) would not themselves be permitted to marry. In fact they were of marriageable age and one was, I believe, engaged when this happened. "This problem went from rabbi to rabbi, and none could think of a solution. Finally, it was brought to the "dean," R. Feinstein and he questioned her on the facts: She explained how, following the war, her husband (he had been in a concentration camp) was nowhere to be found; it could be assumed that he was murdered by the Nazis. But she didn't know what to do since there was no one to give her a "get (Jewish legal document authorizing divorce which can only be issued by the husband to the wife)," and there was no actual proof that he had been murdered among the 6,000,000. She searched for help at that time and found Rabbi X (I don't remember whether the name was given by R. Scherman), a widely respected and well-known Orthodox authority in those days. She told how he had ruled that she could remarry, and thus she did. "R. Feinstein remained silent while she recounted her story of suffering and frustration. When she had finished he continued his silence for a moment. Suddenly, in a motion totally uncharacteristic of the learned sage, he brought his fist up and pounded down on his desk. The reverberation brought all who were present to a shocked state of attention. He spoke, 'It cannot be! Such a thing can never happen!' In an impassioned voice he continued, 'After consideration of their individual cases, I myself have given permission to almost two thousand women to remarry under circumstances such as you have described and NOT ONE has ever returned with such a problem.' 'And,' he went on, 'I knew Rabbi X before he passed on, and he was a greater man than I am today. What you have described could not have happened as a result of a Halachic decision rendered by Rabbi X! You have not told the truth!' The woman broke down and began to sob like a child. 'I admit everything,' she cried. I never met with Rabbi X. I took it upon myself to remarry because I could not find a rabbi who would allow it. But I believed my husband was gone forever; how could I have known...?' In the end, the great R. Feinstein found a legal, Halachic way around the problem of her now-illegitimate children which reversed the terrible conclusion that they could not marry within their religious society, and the problem was indeed rectified." [End of Story] My interpretation of this story is that it strongly suggests that the greatness of R. Feinstein extends to a certain mystical level based on his position as perhaps the greatest Halachic expert of this generation. In other words, he really has remarkable abilities which enables him to know who can remarry (because their missing husband is, in fact, murdered) and who cannot remarry (because their husband is very much alive but not yet reunited with his wife). Either this knowledge derives directly from a divine source or, because of the tremendous validity of Halacha, his mastery of Halacha enables him to make decisions and judgements correctly which cannot be fathomed by any other means at our disposal (so far as is known at the present state of human affairs). The point is that R. Feinstein is the symbol of the validity of Halacha, and therefore the entire Ashkenazic Orthodox "hashkafa (philosophy of life)," and that he reflects the divinity of Halacha. In light of this, the MTJ scandal takes on larger proportions. Something is wrong! Does R. Feinstein symbolize something greater than ordinary or not? How is it that a man who can tell by looking at a woman and hearing her story whether or not her lost husband is dead or alive cannot tell by talking to his administrators where they are getting the funds to run his yeshiva? I must ask, is the story told by R. Scherman even true or is it a complete fabrication? R. Scherman is the man behind the respected "Mesorah Art Scroll" series of reprints of traditional texts, of which all Orthodox readers are aware. Would he fabricate such a story? Finally, isn't this scandal really challenging our beliefs in Orthodox Halacha? Something must be wrong with Orthodox Halacha if its main proponent cannot run a Halachic yeshiva. Remember, this isn't politics, and a yeshiva isn't the Parking Violations Bureau. (Nobody ever claimed that governmental organizations are divinely inspired--we just try to keep them running as fairly as possible and if and when we find corruption the underpinnings of the system are not implicitly challenged) But if you answer that this isn't enough to challenge your belief in accepted Orthodox Halacha (for it has certainly challenged mine), I put to you the question: What would it take to challenge your belief in Halacha? If your answer is that nothing can, that your belief is unshakable, I suggest that you study the history of certain sects of Jews which considered themselves to be the main stream of historical Judaism which withered away and died some 2000 years ago. --J. Abeles ihnp4!mhuxm!abeles