The passing of Rabbi Sachs, proponent of facilitated communication

Of note, at Dani18.com:

1. לזכרו של צדיק
דניאל, כ"ג אדר ב', תשע"א.
אני רוצה להגיד כמה מילים על יהודי חשוב ביותר, תלמיד חכם, יהודי שעבד שעות רבות החל מלפני קרוב לחמש עשרה שנה כדי להוציא לאור את התיקשורים שלנו, של האוטיסטים. שמו אליעזר משה זקס בן רבקה זצ"ל, והוא נפטר בי"ח אדר ב' השנה. הרב זקס היה יהודי שחיפש אמת, יהודי שומר תורה ומצוות, למד תורה ולימד תורה, יהודי גדול אשר ניסה בכל כוחו להביא את האמת לעם ישראל. הוא רצה מאד לקבל פניו של משיח, אבל בעזרת ה' הוא יעשה את זה בתחית המתים, הוא יחסר לנו מאד וגם לעם ישראל.

1. In memory of a tzaddik
Daniel, 23 Adar II, 5771
I want to say a few words about an extremely eminent Jew, a Torah scholar, a Jew who worked many hours going back more than about five to ten years to publish the facilitated communication of ours, the autistics. His name was Eliezer Moshe Sachs ben Rivkah, zatzal, and he passed away on 18 Adar II of this year. Rav Sachs was a Jew who sought the truth, an observant Jew, who studied Torah and taught Torah, a great Jew who tried with all his might to bring the truth to the people of Israel. He wanted very much to greet the Messiah, but God-willing he accomplish this during the resurrection of the dead. He will be missed by us greatly and by the people of Israel.

I agree with much of this. Though I disagreed with him about the efficacy and therefore truth facilitated communication, I think Rabbi Sachs believed it was real and was indeed trying to do great things for klal Yisrael. And I would guess that good intentions go a long way, from the perspective of the Bochen Klayos vaLev.

Of course, it was almost inevitable that he would be disappointed in his hopes to greet the mashiach, even as he was likely most confident that he would indeed great mashiach and be thanked warmly for his efforts in spreading the message. After all, his autistics kept on promising that the apocalypse was coming "soon", without giving any set time, so as to string everyone along.

And unfortunately, the message of the autistics is NOT one of shalom. It is one of sinas chinam for fellow Jews and triumphant believe that their own sect is the best, and the select, while everyone else is a no-goodnik who needs to do teshuva. Thus, for example, they follow up this announcement with the following, in the same missive, in explaining their anti-halachic call to mourn on Purim:

מגיע פורים, החג החשוב ביותר לחיזוק האמונה והביטחון בה', ומה אנחנו מוצאים בארץ ישראל הקדושה וכמעט בכל העולם? לא פורים כמו שצריך להיות, לא מסירות נפש על קידוש ה', לא קירבה לקב"ה. רואים בעיקר קבוצות גדולות של יהודים, רצים לחנויות, קונים כל מיני ממתקים, נהיים שיכורים ומקיאים ברחובות ובבתים. יש גסות רוח והתהוללות ברחוב, יש תחפושות כמו הגויים האמריקאים, האנגלים או האירופאים, ששייכות לעבודה זרה, כמו בקרניבל, לא יהודי בכלל. יש מוזיקה שנשמעת כמו בג'ונגל באפריקה, הרוק'נרול, כמו הגויות שיש בעולם המודרני. ואיפה היהודי כמו מרדכי הצדיק ואסתר המלכה והיהודים שישבו וצמו שלשה ימים רצופים כדי להתקרב לה' ולהוריד מעלינו את הגזירה הקשה? יש עלינו גזירה קשה ביותר ואנחנו משתוללים, משתכרים, מוציאים כסף על שטויות כמו חג התחפושות באמריקה. אוי לנו, האם בהתנהגות הגויית הזו אנחנו חושבים שהקב"ה יציל אותנו? דוקא בפורים הזה, שכל העולם במצב קשה ביותר, ועוד מעט השנאה תעבור לעם ישראל, ושבעים עמים יהיו נגדנו, ואנחנו, איפה אנחנו? אנחנו שוכבים על הרצפה, בתוך הקיא שלנו, ורובנו לא נמצאים כלל במצב הרוחני הראוי לקבל פניו של משיח צדקנו. 

ולכן עם ישראל, בטח הייתי מציע לכם לשבת על הרצפה עם שק ואפר, ולבכות ולבקש מחילה מהקב"ה...

Purim has arrived, the most important holiday to strengthen faith and trust in God, and what do we find in Israel and in almost all the rest of the world? Purim not as it should be, not self-sacrifice for the sanctification of God, not drawing closer to God. We mainly see large groups of Jews, running to shops, buying all kinds of candy, getting drunk and vomiting in the streets and houses. There is haughtiness and revelry in the street, there are costumes like the American, English or European gentiles, with connections to idolatry, like Carnival, not Jews at all. There is music that sounds like the jungle in Africa, rock and roll, like the gentiles who are in the modern world. And where is the Jew like the righteous Mordechai and Queen Esther and the Jews who fasted for three days in a row to come closer to God and to remove from over us the harsh decree? There is upon us an extremely difficult decree and we go wild, get drunk, spend money on garbage like on Halloween in America. Woe to us. Do we think that with gentile behavior God will save us? Precisely this Purim, the whole world the most difficult situation, and soon the hatred will turn to Israel, and the seventy nations are against us, and meanwhile we, where are we? We lie on the floor, in our own vomit, and most of us are not at all proper spiritual condition to receive Messiah's face. 

And with Israel, certainly I would suggest you sit on the floor with sackcloth and ashes,and cry and ask God for forgiveness...

The very opposite of Rav Levi Yitzchak of Berditchiv, these folks look at Jews doing mitzvos and try their best to find the negative in it.

Look, if I thought it were really a message from on high, from a true prophet, it would be one thing. But I know it isn't. And so this is really a reflection of the deep feelings of the facilitator and the environment in which these people live, in which they despise klal Yisrael at large and go out of their way to cast them in the most negative light.

Yes, Rabbi Sachs, zatzal, was trying to bring Truth to klal Yisrael, and bring the mashiach. What is slightly negative is his willingness to consider this lashon hara and motzi shem ra to be the Truth, and to think that disseminating such slander and hatred under the title of a call to teshuva was the proper way to help bring mashiach.

But, at the end of the day, his error was one of misperception, rather than one of malice. May his family know no more sorrows, and may we all greet mashiach together speedily in our days.

Authentic Judaism, in many different flavors

That is the message in a recent post at ThanBook, in a post titled 12X Authentic Judaism, with an idea he relates from Rabbi Sokol.

I heard a similar if not identical idea from Rav Schachter. Namely, that why the 12 sifrei Torah, one for each shevet? Because "variety is the spice of life"! And each shevet would have its own Sanhedrin, and might pasken slightly differently. And all of these flavors are beloved to Hashem, and what Hashem wants. And, he continued, nowadays, Hashem wants Sefardim and Ashkenazim, chassidic, yeshivish, etc.

Of course, this has its limitations. As much as we profess to be open to different "flavors" of Orthodox Judaism, I would guess that every religion sets limits on what they not only disagree with, but puts one entirely outside the pale of the religion. For example, as "pluralistic" as we are in condemning that certain blogger for considering only his narrow band to be authentic Judaism, do most Orthodox Jews consider Reform Judaism to be "authentic Judaism"? What do we maintain about Conservative Judaism? Reconstructionist? Frankists? Sabbateans? Karaites? And this is OK, and this is normal, though it makes the distinction between one fellow declaring his narrow version of Judaism to be authentic, and us doing the same.

Even as there were different tribes with different approaches, we see at the end of sefer Yehoshua that it was a big deal when this happened:

י וַיָּבֹאוּ אֶל-גְּלִילוֹת הַיַּרְדֵּן, אֲשֶׁר בְּאֶרֶץ כְּנָעַן; וַיִּבְנוּ בְנֵי-רְאוּבֵן וּבְנֵי-גָד וַחֲצִי שֵׁבֶט הַמְנַשֶּׁה שָׁם מִזְבֵּחַ, עַל-הַיַּרְדֵּן--מִזְבֵּחַ גָּדוֹל, לְמַרְאֶה.	10 And when they came unto the region about the Jordan, that is in the land of Canaan, the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh built there an altar by the Jordan, a great altar to look upon.
יא וַיִּשְׁמְעוּ בְנֵי-יִשְׂרָאֵל, לֵאמֹר: הִנֵּה בָנוּ בְנֵי-רְאוּבֵן וּבְנֵי-גָד וַחֲצִי שֵׁבֶט הַמְנַשֶּׁה אֶת-הַמִּזְבֵּחַ, אֶל-מוּל אֶרֶץ כְּנַעַן--אֶל-גְּלִילוֹת הַיַּרְדֵּן, אֶל-עֵבֶר בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל.	11 And the children of Israel heard say: 'Behold, the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh have built an altar in the forefront of the land of Canaan, in the region about the Jordan, on the side that pertaineth to the children of Israel.'

Is Rabbi Avigdor Miller, zatza"l, Responsible For Authentic Judaism?

In the first perek of Pirkei Avot, we read:

א,יא אבטליון אומר, חכמים, היזהרו בדבריכם--שמא תחובו חובת גלות, ותגלו למקום המים הרעים, וישתו התלמידים הבאים אחריכם וימותו, ונמצא שם שמיים מתחלל.

Avtalyon's message is that Rabbis should be careful with their words, because students who follow after them might stumble and end up causing a tremendous chillul Hashem.

There is a certain blog which bills itself as presenting authentic Judaism, in which the blogger presents himself as following after Rabbi Avigdor Miller, ztz"l. I haven't really heard much from Rabbi Miller, so I don't know firsthand if heated condemnations of others were of Rabbi Miller's style, but there are some commenters on the Hirhurim thread about this who say that this was indeed his style, and that some of the ideas are indeed representative. Thus:

This guy hasn't said much that Rav Avigdor Miller didn't, although AFAIK RAM never attacked the Rav in such personal terms. However, most of the content and tone is perfectly in line with what one hears on RAM's tapes.

RAM is revered in the yeshiva world as a forthright, outspoken talmid chacham and gadol. Many rebbeim and mashgichim emulate him, and I certainly heard plenty of this sort of stuff in my mainstream black hat yeshiva, contra Mark's statement that "those who seek to lump the mainstream Chareidi world together with him, are guilty of Sinas Chinam to the highest degree."

On the other hand, there are just so many idiots around, and if one had to be careful of all of them, one could not say anything. I discussed this back in 2008 with another story involving an idiotic student of none other than Rabbi Avigdor Miller. I cite myself, fixing a few typos:

About a decade ago, my parents encountered a fellow who was a big follower of Rav Avigdor Miller. And he was "boasting" of how big a talmid he was. For example, Rav Miller declared in one of his lectures, about the evils of television, "I want you to take your television and throw it out of the window." Now, this fellow lived on the fifth floor of an apartment building. But he unplugged his television, took it to his window, and literally tossed it out the window, to shatter on the pavement below. He said he looked first to make sure no one was standing below, but in the meantime, how did he really know that someone would not walk out of the apartment at that time?

Rav Avigdor Miller certainly did not mean for his listeners to take his words literally, but rather they were said for dramatic, and rhetorical effect. After all, he was a very talented orator. He wanted to drive home the point that his listeners should get rid of their televisions, and thus rid their homes of its dangerous spiritual influence. But had this overly-literal fellow actually hit someone, well then, in the good-old-days he might well be sent into galus. And then, as per the din, his rebbe could be sent to the Ir Miklat with him. Thus, שמא תחובו חובת גלות.

As I wrote there, I felt that the fault in that case lies with the idiots, who misinterpret his words. And I drew comparisons to certain folks who run with certain Gedolim's words, sometimes also giving them misinterpretations. And suggested that there might just be an obligation to take control of their words, to make certain that they are not misinterpreted or overapplied.

In the present instance, I don't know whether this blogger knew Rabbi Avigdor Miller personally, or just listened to many of his tapes. And perhaps Rabbi Miller was somewhat entitled to use this style, because he presumably had not only form but substance. When he condemned something, he could also back it up with sources and argue it. And perhaps he did it because it made for an "inspirational" speech, in which people are convinced that their path is the correct Torah path and thus are drawn closer to their Judaism, to Torah, and to Hashem. The best defense is a good offense, and all that. Even so, perhaps it was not appropriate to send out the message in this way, because look at the results.

Many people, with different practices, think their Judaism is authentic Judaism, or else they wouldn't be practicing it. The Nanachs certainly think their Judaism is authentic. Lubavitch certainly thinks their Judaism is authentic Judaism, and is the proper and ideal derech. XGH thinks that various brands of Judaism are authentic Judaism, including his own. Esser Agaroth thinks that mustaches are "not Jewish". Teimanim -- as least the few I've encountered -- are notorious for thinking that their derech is the proper derech, and best represents authentic Judaism, such that everyone else should adopt it. Indeed, Rav Ovadia Yosef declared that Moshe Rabbenu was a Sefardi and that when mashiach comes, he would pasken in accordance with Sefardi halacha!

So this is just one more fellow who thinks that his particular narrow and fringe brand of Judaism is authentic Judaism. The difference is partly that it is to the exclusion of everything else -- even Rav Ovadia Yosef allows nowadays for Ashkenazim to follow Ashkenazi halacha, and for real Breslovers to visit Uman. But it is mostly that while thinking his is the only way, he also generates a lot of heat, and his blog seems dedicated just to attacking those who don't subscribe entirely to his particular views. Such that it crosses the line into extreme sinas chinam. And he does not seem to have the substance to back it up, just the heat.

So perhaps Rav Avigdor Miller should be held partially responsible for this phenomenon, and this particular blogger's views. People will echo their rebbe, and he was apparently putting out this strident message on tapes heard by masses and masses of people. And he knew he was an inspirational speaker.

Similarly, should we lay the blame for modern day Lubavitch meshichists upon the Rebbe, zatza"l? He certainly endorsed the idea that this was the very last generation, in which mashiach would arrive. And meshichists can point you to some persuasive statements that the Rebbe made about mashiach, and about his father-in-law. Even if there is a defense for the Lubavitcher Rebbe holding this, the talmidim who followed him drank the evil water and are causing a tremendous embarrassment and chillul Hashem.

The same for people today, such as Rav Moshe Shapiro or Rav Moshe Meiselman. Should he be responsible for the form and substance of those who consider themselves his students? I would think he should be, to a large degree. Thus, if he does or does not provide direction, perhaps Rav Moshe Meiselman should be somewhat responsible for the conduct and writings of Freelance Kiruv Maniac, or Rav Shapiro for Rabbi Schmeltzer and his Chaim beEmunasam.

Authentic Judaism?

Maybe if we give him all the attention he craves, he will just go away. Enough people have been giving him attention, even to simply say that he does not deserve attention.

Of course, he does not deserve attention. The posts there are inane, as if written by someone not entirely sane. And it is just name calling, rather than substantive points. Who cares about what he writes?

Having one's blog name showing up in the top hits of a Google search is not such an impressive feat. Search for Hirhurim and the Hirhurim blog comes up. Search for Parsha Blog and Parshablog will show up. Search for Little Green Footballs and Little Green Footballs will come up. What is an impressive feat is having something relating to your topic come up. Searching for Parsha, admittedly part of my blog name, makes Parshablog come up. And for a while I was the top hit for Zohar. That is impressive, and is an "authentic" claim to fame.

Nobody searches for Authentic Judaism. And hardly anybody writes about it as a phrase -- less than 10,000 hits on google, if you enclose the phrase in quotation marks. If he was the top hit for Judaism, that would be something.

At any rate, see Hirhurim's post on Authentic Judaism.

"With great power comes great responsibility"

So goes a famous maamar by בן חביבא. 

{Update: To clarify, because I see I misled at least one person. The author of that statement is Stan Lee, who made the Spiderman comics. Peter Parker's uncle, Uncle Ben, said the statement. Chaviva is Aramaic for Uncle, and Ben is Ben, so Ben Chaviva was a joking reference to Uncle Ben. Sorry for the misunderstanding.}

But perhaps we can find an earlier echo of this in Pirkei Avot --

אבטליון אומר חכמים היזהרו בדבריכם שמא תחובו חובת גלות ותגלו למקום המים הרעים וישתו התלמידים הבאים אחריכם וימותו ונמצא שם שמים מתחלל

How could the words of a Chacham lead to Galus? Perhaps the following story can illustrate this idea. It involves Rav Avigdor Miller, zatza"l.

About a decade ago, my parents encountered a fellow who was a big follower of Rav Avigdor Miller. And he was "boasting" of how big a talmid he was. For example, Rav Miller declared in one of his lectures, about the evils of television, "I want you to take you television and throw it out of the window." Now, this fellow lived on the fifth floor of an apartment building. But he took unplugged his television, took it to his window, and literally tossed it out the window, to shatter on the pavement below. He said he looked first to make sure no one was standing below, but in the meantime, how did he really know that someone would not walk out of the apartment at that time?

Rav Avigdor Miller certainly did not mean for his listeners to take his words literally, but rather they were said for dramatic, and rhetorical effect. After all, he was a very talented orator. He wanted to drive home the point that his listeners should get rid of their televisions, and thus rid their homes of its dangerous spiritual influence. But had this overly-literal fellow actually hit someone, well then, in the good-old-days he might well be sent into galus*. And then, as per the din, his rebbe could be sent to the Ir Miklat with him. Thus, שמא תחובו חובת גלות.

Was Rav Avigdor Miller at fault for making such a statement? Of course not. He has a right to expect that his audience is not composed of overly literal "idiots," and this far-fetched concern should not have hampered his ability to deliver effective lectures. On the other hand, if this had become a pervasive problem -- if people across the country were being beamed on the head by idiots listening to his tapes, then he would likely have stopped using such rhetoric.

It is in this context that I used certain language in describing a psak of Rav Kanievsky about how one should wear his peyos down, as being at fault for breaking up a shidduch, where there was a fight between in-laws on whether the chassan should wear them up or down.

I did not really mean that he is at fault. As I said there, the fault really lies with the idiots, who took this statement of what Rav Kanievsky held, and (in my guess) tried to compel someone else to abandon his own minhag and his own poskim, and with idiots who would elevate this to such a level as to be a reason to break off a shidduch.

What Rav Kanievsky wrote is no different than what other poskim write on other matters, and is perfectly responsible. This is the role of a posek, to describe what he believes the ideal course of action is.

However, I do wish that Rav Kanievsky exercised better control of statements in his name, and also that he would take first hold of those who would seek to impose his views on others who follow other poskim. These are two separate points.

One point is that while Rav Kanievsky is a great posek, he is not the final word on all things halachic. And poskim know this, because they are knowledgable enough in halacha and in meta-halacha. (See here for an example.) But the hamon am does not know this, and this hamon am includes some idiots who would then yell at people for not following the Gadol HaDor, or else would put up kol koreis telling people they must listen to the psak, without noting that there are other poskim who disagree.

Rav Kanievsky said that "anything said in my name is false," but this is not the same, because it was in one of his sefarim. It is a halachic question of whether, once he rules one way, anyone else is a zaken mamre for ruling differently, and whether one is allowed (and should) follow other psakim. And I believe he could do more to address this issue, and take control of it. For example, he could make a declaration that he assurs anyone using his words in a kol korei. They could even make a kol korei out of it. Or he could stress, as Rav Yaakov Yosef did recently, that while this is his halachic opinion, others were entitled to hold and follow contrary opinions -- even though he (=Rav Kanievsky) personally thinks that they are dreadfully wrong and misguided. Unless he actually does believe that since his opinions are correct, everyone should follow it, and people should promulgate his positions in these ways.

Why should he have to do this? He does not. And who am I to be telling him that he should? But on the other hand, if this is indeed a pervasive problem, then perhaps he should take it in hand.

The other issue is that people are saying things in his name, which sometimes are true and sometimes are false. Rav Kanievsky said that "anything said in my name is false," and that is a good step towards a solution. But it has not proven sufficient, IMHO, as people continue to spread rumors, and attribute things to the gedolim. See here for an example of a recent rumor, which spread for a month before being quashed -- and yet the rumor is still going around. Here is another example of people using Rav Kanievsky's name.

The Sages of the Talmudic appointed "Amora"s whos job it was to be an official spokesman for them, sometimes for specific rulings or retractions of rulings. Perhaps something akin nowadays could be instituted -- a web page, or a phone hotline with recordings -- with a list of approved statements, and a way of asking whether a specific statement in his name was actually issued. As it stands, the power of a gadol is being diminished by those who misattribute to him, or take his rulings past their true intent.

_________________________
* Of course, in such a situation, it may well not be classified as shogeg because of the extreme negligence involved. But I, too, am making a rhetorical point.