Search Results for: BERLAND

For more on Berland’s warmed-over Sabbateanism, see here.

I think the central fact of the Berland Scandal is almost no one emerges unscathed (i.e., righteous).

Without naming names, read this short work (next reworked into this) to see what I mean. Many, many rabbis and others knew what was happening, but they closed their eyes, allowed themselves to be intimidated into silence (or even being photographed with him!), gave ridiculous excuses (such as: “This is an internal Breslov affair” (?!), p. 15 here), and the like.

They themselves admit to knowing the facts for decades (even less justifiable than all the cases of rabbinic ignorance, such as Elior Chen), see here p. 32. Some excused him by just calling him “crazy”, see the last pages of this. Is every Rasha, then, literally crazy?!

The halachos regarding hiding a Torah scholar’s sins were clearly irrelevant from the very beginning because this was no one-time fall. He was spreading Sabbateanism for decades, destroying families in boatloads via divorce and debt, displaying wanton promiscuity, ordering extra-judicial murders, speaking real-life heresy, and so on. Some rabbis knew all that. And then did nothing, except a comment or two to a confidant, not even a whispering campaign. The only thing that pushed them to finally, finally speak out was the outrage of Chushim-ben-Dan-type youngsters.

Now, certain great rabbis still counsel silence… This may have happened with Shabtai Tzvi and the rabbis of Jerusalem, too! Gershom Scholem’s biography (Sabbatai Sevi: The Mystical Messiah, passim) logically hypothesizes their relative silence (not sending copies of their early excommunication pronouncements abroad) greatly enabled Shabtai Tzvi’s movement. Their logic, too, was presumably to refrain from “giving him life” by extra publicity. Yet people assume הואיל והוו יתבי רבנן ולא מחו ביה ש”מ… As Shlomo Hamelech says, don’t be too smart.

Update: I deleted the example of Shalom Arush, who variously pretends he supports or opposes Berland yemach shemo based on who he is speaking with at the time, the snake.

Simple. He instructed “Fera Zera” to counsel vulnerable young women (against halacha)…

The facts, as recorded and admitted by “rabbis” Eliezer Berland and Ofer Erez (his apologist) yemach shemam themselves:

The original video was since removed, but here is a substitute:

From YouTube, here.

Note: For more on Eliezer Berland, search for this and this.

There is a pronouncement going around to the effect a Beis Din is adjudicating the matter, so no one may speak against E. Berland.

But…

First of all, this “injunction” (and the not-disrespectful title for Berland yemach shemo) is temporary, until the court reaches the verdict.

And this prohibition pertains only to those who signed a Shtar Berurin, his full-time opponents, not me, nor you. We still have the full obligation to warn Jews away from a man whose guilt is beyond doubt (the Chafetz Chaim doesn’t require a Beis Din).

Why is a new court case needed when the matter was already decided by a prior court (headed by Rabbi Nachman Ze’ev Frank and Rabbi Ya’acov Meir Shechter shlita) — find the verdict here (and translated)?!

Originally, the matter was supposed to go before more important courts (like the present tribunal), but these had insisted a decision first be rendered by Breslov’s own rabbis. So, here we are (after quite an interval, let me add!). And Berland didn’t show to the original court’s hearings, claiming they were biased. (“Biased” because they already knew him, but not because they had opposed him before! (Indeed, many rabbis had long known of his extreme wrongdoing but inexcusably did nothing about it when they could have saved countless victims until things became public anyhow.) Are they even allowed to re-open the case?!

By the way, there is good reason to assume the document’s language and signatures are at least partially false. Beis Din rarely issues such announcements, let alone paying for wide distribution, so these are typically re-assembled and altered by the side who wishes them made public.

Update: That same Beis Din subsequently found the abominable Berland guilty as sin, of course:

• KIDDUSH HASHEM: New, Enlarged Beis Din Rules Eliezer Berland *yemach shemo* Be Ostracized
• פסק גדולי הדיינים נגד ברלנד ימ”ש וכת דיליה – בעיצוב חדש
• התאחדו 3 בתי הדין הגדולים בא”י נגד כת השבתאים החדשים בראשות אליעזר ברלנד ימ”ש
• פס”ד בענין ברלנד שר”י – אין אחר מעשה ב”ד כלום
• פסק הדין נגד ברלנד וכת השבתאות שלו – חתמו גם הרב נפתלי נוסבוים והרב מ”מ שפרן
• פסק גדולי הדיינים בארץ ישראל נגד כת ברלנד – מאחורי הקלעים 
• סילוף דברי הרב שריאל רוזנברג אודות הפסק נגד כת ברלנד הנואף

Check out the Hebrew video lesson from Rabbi Cheshin on Hyehudi here.