העורך Editor

re: Chaim Walder: Busting Some Myths

In response to Friday’s article, a reader writes:

I wouldn’t compare Chaim Walder’s rabbi-hood or lack thereof to that of Deri or Gafni.

Deri, for whatever shortcomings he may or may not have, is a very learned individual. I wouldn’t at all be surprised if he has semichah, though that is irrelevant.
Gafni was a rosh kollel. A certain great Torah personality forced him to drop it and enter politics. If they weren’t politicians, I would certainly call them “Rabbi.”
Walder, on the other hand…

End.

And just like that, I started suspecting all Rosh Kollel’s…

To be fair, yes those were poor examples. But my point still stands (using other names).

Chaim Walder: Busting Some Myths

  1. CW is not a rabbi.  And I don’t mean someone defrocks him retroactively. I mean he simply never was one. He called himself rabbi, apparently the prerogative of Charedi journalists everywhere (and “Headlines in Halacha” hilariously took him at his word, in a badly misnamed episode titled “Rabbis at Risk“). It’s like the Gimmel party papers saying “MK Rabbi Moshe Gafni summoned MK Aryeh Deri”, and the Shas party papers saying “MK Rabbi Aryeh Deri met with MK Moshe Gafni” (referring to the same event). Does anyone think they got semicha?! [UPDATE: Those two are bad examples of my point.]
  2. The family. If they weren’t alive and about, there would be all sorts of speculation. Since no one likes getting slapped with a libel suit, however, and the principal is out of the picture, they are being completely ignored, at least for now. But it isn’t right to then use that silence to make the spurious claim not buying CW’s books unjustly harms his innocent heirs! How can I know that?
  3. CW ended his own life. And now he’s dead. And we know what happened here. What all that has to do with the spy Jeffrey Epstein I haven’t a clue. (In case this is too opaque, I mean I distrust the official story about JE’s suicide.)
  4. CW had enemies? Hardly. Rabbi Tzvi Tau could only point to Supreemie Injustice Aaron Barak — no visible connection to anything relevant.
  5. In Israel, anyone can legally call themselves “Coach”, “Therapist”, Counselor”, etc. There is no oversight either private or governmental.
  6. “CW took a lie detecter test and passed”. If true, he was a good liar. Bravo! But who said this ever happened? CW’s own paid lawyers?! Sue me, but I don’t trust lawyers on retainer. Besides, the effectiveness and reliability of such tests depend on the skill of the expert administering the test, anyway. Who was that?

But… to replenish mythology, let’s create a nice, new myth: Maybe some of his many published books were ghostwritten, ah?

Which ones, you ask? That’s easy; the ones you liked weren’t his.

(Me, I liked parts of dizzying Oleh\Yored\Oleh\Yored “That’s Me, Tzviki Green“.)

Post Script:

So-called “myth-busting” is usually based on alternative myths.

Or pretending to misunderstand the claim in the first place, like wasting people’s time with obvious science written in annoying jargon, such as patronizingly “explaining” yawns weren’t actually contagious. Ha! As though anyone, ANY-ONE, had ever thought invisible contagions were involved, then ending with a whimper, by admitting that, yes, when one person yawns others often do the same soon afterward… Thanks, Captain Obvious!