English Translation of Rabbis' Letters

English translation of  letters written  by Rabbis, in response to the beating of  a 70 year old woman.  Also with references to the Child Molestation Accusations in Nachlaot.  A lot of the signatures are those of people living in the Nachlaot neighborhood.  These letters were written as a result of extensive investigation into the matter at the request of the neighborhood by various Rabbis, social workers, the police, and the organization Yad LeAchim.   If anyone would like the original letters in Hebrew, let me know and I will send them to you. Includes a letter from Yad LeAchim and several important Rabbis.

A Shocking and Pained Letter from the Rav the Gaon Yehuda Porush Shlit"a who is trusted in these matters by the Gedolai Yisrael (Great Torah Sages of Israel) and a member of the Vaad HaRabanim in the Offices of Social Welfare Services [in Hebrew: Lishkot Harevacha] in Jerusalem and Bnei Barak

BS"D Erev Pesach 5772 (April 6, 2012)

A Holy Call

To My Brothers and Friends the Residents of the Neighborhood of Knesset and the Surroundings (known as Shteibelach) May Hashem be Upon You and Be Well.

Around the end of Marcheshvan 5772 (end of November 2011) a committee was established for the neighborhood to deal with the serious matters that were under consideration and other things that needed correction.

Around the end of Kislev 5772 (end of December 2011) I was appointed by the personal request of Maran HaGaon HaGadol Rav Zundel Kroizer Shlit"a to serve as the representative of the committee, and so the one signed below (i.e., the writer of this letter) entered into the thickness of the spider's web, with the agreement of the committee.

It became clear to me that the matter was very complicated and that there were professional factors involved in the matter, etc., therefore I recommended to establish a smaller committee that would consist of the writer of these lines, one of the members of the larger committee who would be selected as Rav and Halachic authority, and a social worker. And I expressed my readiness to dedicate a number hours weekly to make progress with the matters that needed clarification and to pass them before the larger committee and the relevant factors.

As a sample of the method of my work I took three names whom the victims and their parents pointed to as participants in the acts of crime that were done in the neighborhood. The victims and their parents knew to point out days and hours of the acts as well as the location of the what was done. And the writer of these lines worked from all directions to "verify" the claims of the victims. To my happiness, I found proofs and clear testimony that on those days and hours the "attackers" were in another place. I passed on the results to the relevant factors, and to my great sorrow instead of the matter making the parents happy that Baruch Hashem their suspicions were false and it was possible to breathe freely, these parents stopped co-operating with the writer of these lines, and turned their arrows in a direction which is not a direction and without permission from the larger committee, and without permission from the writer of these lines who serves as the representative of the committee.

The results were not slow to come, the desecration of Hashem by transferring the matter to the media and the Internet beyond all proportion, people without any yoke of Heaven did not hold back from insulting people without investigations and inquiries to Halachic authorities or Batei HaDin (Rabbinic Courthouses). This and even moreso they allowed themselves to cause sons to be sent far away from their parents and husbands from their wives, and who knows if they don't have a hand and a foot in the death of the neighbor...

Recently it is beyond belief what has occurred: A woman who was a long-time resident of the neighborhood who was known as a righteous convert, received deathly blows from anonymous public activists and required treatment in Hadassah Hospital, do the public activists allow themselves, based on the Halacha that "one needs to feel apprehensive", to transgress 36 warnings and Halachic rulings and so on and so forth!!!??? [Translator's note about the Halacha which is referred to here: the phrase "one needs to feel apprehensive" is a translation of the Aramaic phrase "lemeichash mebai". The explanation of "lemeichash mebai" is that when one hears derogatory information that someone may possibly be dangerous, it if forbidden to believe that the information is 100% true, but one needs to feel apprehensive and take precautions to protect oneself from possible damage.]

My call from the depths of my heart is, please my brothers don't do evil, also to the concept that "one needs to feel apprehensive" there is a limit, you should know that there is justice and there is a Judge. Do not let the history of the years 5770-5772 (2010-2012) cause a blood libel to be done in the midst of our brothers in the Chareidi world and our brothers who are neighbors living in that neighborhood. Please stop taking judgment and power into your own hands without permission from the committee, and return immediately to the tables of joint decision-making, and love truth and peace.

With blessing and prayer that we will merit to guard the holiness of the neighborhood in educating the children in the ways of Torah and fear of Hashem.

A Happy and Kosher Holiday
Yehuda Leib Porush

An Emotional Letter by HaRav HaGaon R' Yosef Zilberman Shlit"a Head of the Talmud Torah Founded by HaRav Zilberman ztz"l in the Old City

BS"D? Nisan 5772 [This letter was handwritten and the date was not clear, may have been approximately on April 6, 2012]

Announcement

I hereby notify in the public gates regarding the matter of rumors that are going around like ghosts passing by; in the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem they are clouding the purity of our settlement, and there are all kinds of fearful suspicions, Heaven forbid, in matters of missionaries and chastity, Hashem have Mercy.

I, as the head of Talmud Torah "Aderet Eliyahu" in the Jewish Quarter, felt a public responsibility to clarify the matter thoroughly!

Immediately when I heard the rumors, I strengthened my loins and entered into the thickness of the spider's web, to investigate and check what was the source of all the rumors, and on what were they based. I didn't quiet down and I didn't rest until I clarified the matter to the end. In clarifying the matter I was assisted by all the factors that it was possible to use in order to investigate the truth of the matter, including clarification with Rabbanim who were knowledgeable about what has been stated above, and afterwards I was assisted by counselors, the organization "Lev L'Achim" (Heart to Brothers), workers in social welfare, juvenile investigators, the police, and others.

I checked, together with the parents, the aforementioned fearful suspicions, investigated the children, and everyone involved from top to bottom.

And I hereby notify in this letter in the most clear manner! That all the rumors and fearful suspicions are vain imaginings, flying in the air, with no basis, and lacking any basis or truth!

In the investigation of the matter by each one of the factors mentioned above, each one of them arrived separately to the same conclusion, that all of the rumors and imaginings had their source in a few isolated parents, who were in pain and agitated, whose children were possibly exposed to unchaste acts, Hashem should protect and save us. And because of their worry and fear for their children, they believed and accepted rumors from children, and they saw a shadow of a mountain to be a mountain. And the children described imaginary mountains, and they built on the basis of their words, a roof on top of a roof, until they arrived at imaginary conclusions that were mistaken and delusional.

And I hereby repeat and declare in the most decisive way that all of the rumors that came on the heels of the aforementioned, don't have any basis in reality, and the matter is lacking basis and truth!

And as in the days of the Exodus from Egypt may there soon be heard the voice announcing peace speedily in our days Amen

And on this I come to sign

Yosef Zilberman

A Letter from Yad LeAchim

BS"D Erev Pesach 5772 (April 6, 2012)         

ANNOUNCEMENT

We were requested by Rabbinic leaders and Rabbis, educators, public figures and worried parents, to investigate and check the horrible rumors that arrived from several neighborhoods in Jerusalem: Nachlaot, Batei Broida, Knesset, Batei Munkatch, Batei Rand, and the Jewish Quarter of the Old City, about a frightening campaign to convert Jewish children to Christianity along with molestation and exploitation of many dozens of children who are G-d-fearing and pure.

We are obligated to emphasize that also we, who are occupied with the battle against missionaries and with rescue projects for about 50 years, never heard anything like it and could never have imagined that there could be a situation so difficult, complicated, and widespread. And in truth, in our preliminary discussion with the families and children we felt the distress, confusion, and turbulence in which they are living, to the extent that their peace of mind was shaken and replaced by panic.

Because of the wide circumference of the events and the seriousness of the matter, and the public responsibility which is placed upon us by the Gedolai Yisrael (Great Sages of Israel) to battle and save in situations like these, we requested from the best activists in the department of the "battle against missionaries" and in the "Listening Heart" (Lev Shomaya organization), and activists in the Jerusalem branch, to clarify the matter till the end, and in the event that there was a need, to prepare a program of action.

To conclude the matter, we request to notify that after the course of weeks of occupying ourselves with an extensive and thorough investigation, and after receiving assistance from educational advisors, psychologists, employees of the branch of social welfare services in the city of Jerusalem and the top police investigators -- it is clear to us in the most unmistakeable way, without any shred of doubt or hesitation that:

There is no basis in reality to the delusional rumors that there is a so-called system of tunnels underground underneath the neighborhoods in Jerusalem and a system of secret transportation in them which brings many children to churches for baptism to Christianity. There was never a basis to them ever and also now there cannot be found any support for them, not the even the slightest! All the dozens of rumors that were brought regarding G-d-fearing and pure children - don't have any basis at all.

We want to emphasize in the most clear way that being busy with this topic has brought irreparable damage to hundreds of children who have been exposed to concepts that are not appropriate for them. And in a number of Talmud Torah schools (religious Jewish schools) we heard that the matter has turned into the topic of the day for many children, including going down into the most intimate details, and the damage is huge, and that's enough to say for someone with any understanding.

Peripherally to this whole episode, we heard with shock about the libel and serious physical damage done to a righteous convert without any wrong-doing on her part, and about the black cloud which has been stretched over her head that she was a so-called missionary who was tempting Jewish children to enter churches and do there the most deplorable of all acts. This is not the path of being zealous for Hashem, but hooliganism for its own sake, and Hashem is Merciful and atones for sins, and should plant in the hearts of the terrorists and damagers to have thoughts of repentance and regret.

Before we publicized this Announcement, we were happy to hear that we had understood the matter in the same way as Gedolim (Great Sages), and also that the Great Sages of Jerusalem had rejected the matter and the rumors entirely, and even published a shocking letter on the topic.

May Hashem grant that we will continue to stand on guard for Judaism so that no solitary individuals should be lost from Judaism, and in the cases where there in truth does exist a campaign to convert Jews to other religions, may Hashem cause our hands to succeed to overcome the phenomena and to return the heart of sons to our Father in Heaven.

The Management of Lev L'Achim ('Heart to Brothers" organization)The Department of the Battle against MissionariesE. Sorotzkin

A Letter from Rav Yehuda Silman Shlit"a

BS"D14th of Tevet 5772 (January 9, 2012)To My Dear Brothers the Residents of the Knesset NeighborhoodGreetings and Blessings

In continuation of our conversation when I visited in the neighborhood and heard with great pain the disaster that occurred there regarding molestation of children I see a need to repeat in writing what was stated verbally.

It certainly is your right and responsibility to defend your children and our children so that nothing should occur, but this does not allow people to hurt other people without first clarifying the matter as much as necessary. Therefore it was stated that it is necessary to establish a committee that will have the sole authority to decide what to do and how to act and all the decisions will be together with Rabbanim.

Needless to say, it is not possible to say anything in my name regarding any specific case since during our conversation no names were mentioned and I don't know at all what any specific anonymous individual did or did not do.

And Hashem should repair the breaks in our fences, save our children and also put into our hearts the correct counsel on how to return to Him also those who sinned.

And with this I will close in blessing

Yehuda Silman

[at the bottom of the letter is some handwriting as follows]

I hereby join to all that was said, and certainly there is no permission to act without guidance from the committee that is handling the matter.

Hashem the Good One will pay good to all who do good ... [handwriting hard to read here]

Yisrael Ganz












A Letter Signed by Many Residents of the Neighborhood

BS"D 14th of Shvat 5772 (February 7,2012)

Regarding the matter of the neighborhoods Batei Broida, Batei Rand, Batei Munkatch, Batei Minsk, Knesset Aleph Beit Gimel and the surroundings, a meeting was held for neighbors and those who were involved in the matter, headed by the Gaon Rabbi Yehuda Silman Shlit"a. The matters that were of significance were discussed seriously and it was decided and agreed upon to establish a committee of representatives from the neighborhood. By means of the committee and with their agreement after clarifying the facts, it will be decided on all the actions that will be taken, in order to correct the situation.

To our distress, particular individuals have risen up and done acts without the approval of the committee, such as publicizing in the media and on the Internet and the like, and embarrassing people without any investigations or inquiries of a Halachic authority, and without any Halachic permission, even to the extent of bloodshed, May Hashem Have Mercy.

Therefore we have come to reveal our opinion that there is no permission on any side or in any way for any individual to do any acts based on their own opinions, without the agreement and approval of the committee, and all the moreso besmirching people's names in the media and on the Internet and the like.

And on this we have come to sign

Also we are adding to the above to not do any acts in opposition to the committee, and not to cause desecration of Hashem's name, and may truth and peace be loved.

Harav HaGaon Zundel Kroizer Shlit"a                                       Yosef Kirshenboim

Shmuel Ekshtein                                                                             Yitzchak Genzel

Moshe Dov Salant                                                                          Shmuel Lutzkin

Yisachar Dov Rozental                                                                   Mordechai Porush

Menachem Shtein                                                                           Ya'akov Rabinovitz

Elazar Rabinovitz                                                                            Rafael Livi

Yehoshua Heshel Bloi                                                                    Dovid Tzvi Rabinovitz

Avraham Vinbach                                                                           Mordechai Rotenberg

Simcha Rozenfeld                                                                          Yisroel Yitzchak Shapira

Binyamin Cheshen                                                                         Rafael Porush

Moshe HaGozer Lifshitz (requested to erase his name)           Meshulam Cohen

Yitzchak Ze'ev Rabinovitz                                                             Yisroel Eizenshtein

Yosef Chaim Tzvi Gross                                                                Ben Tzion Valles

Yitzchak Brichta                                                                              Efraim Lutzker

Moshe Dushinksi

A Letter from Rabbi Moshe Shapira Shlit"a, endorsed by other Rabbis, including Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach Shlit"a, Rabbi Natan HaCohen Kopshitz Shlita, Rabbi Nisim Karelitz Shlit"a and Rabbi Yehuda Silman Shlit"a

 

BS"DJerusalem, 6th of Nissan 5772 (March 29, 2012)

The sword of war comes to the world because of the perversion of justice and and for interpreting the Torah decision in opposition to the Halachah. And behold, several people who are not certified to make Halachic decisions took upon themselves to judge a death sentence without witnesses and clear proofs on the basis of imagination and guesses and stories of words from the mouths of young children who were not speaking in innocence. They made a judgment against a woman who was known to be a righteous person for many years, a convert who raised sons who are Torah Scholars and was trusted by the Batei Dinim (Rabbinic Courthouses) that are occupied with conversion of righteous converts. They hit her and wounded her and bruised her from the sole of her foot to until her head, serious injuries that even a young man would have difficulty surviving, and she is a woman of about 70, and it's about a month that she is suffering and being treated at hospitals. And it is a requirement upon the elders of the city to pray "atone for your people Israel which you Hashem have redeemed and do not put innocent blood in the midst of your people Israel". And on how many serious sins do we need a great atonement, on the prohibition to punish without clear proofs as it is written "and a clean person and a righteous person do not kill", and on the prohibitions "do not add more" (i.e., don't give more than 39 whippings when giving a punishment) which are very serious, and on all the 36 places that the Torah warned about the convert, and on the matter of between a man and his fellow which is awesome. Also it is upon the elders to clarify and make known throughout the public gates "our hands did not shed this blood", and we command with full force and beg with every language of request, "stop doing evil deeds which are not according to Halacha". And from this Kosher woman who has not stopped being righteous, we request that she pardon those who injured her against the law and by mistake because in their mind they were doing it for the sake of saving their children.

Moshe Shapira

I hereby join in with a full heart and I came especially to fortify the righteous Kosher woman who is very strong in her pure faith and she should be blessed by the Master of blessings in every way and merit to celebrate Passover with happiness and enjoyment.

Shmuel Ben Adoni Avi Mori V'Rabi Gaon Yisrael Shlomo Zalman zllh"h Auerbach

I hereby join to what was stated above

Natan HaCohen Kopshitz

Nisim Karelitz

[in the handwritten version of the letter there is some handwriting which is hard to read here, which is signed by Rabbi Yehuda Silman]

An Anonymous Letter 

To My Dear Brothers!

This letter which you are holding in your hands is a very rare letter, to the extent that I am doubtful about how many of you have ever held a rare letter like it.It is not only because of its contents that it is so rare, but because of the place from which it is written and the place to which it is sent - from heart to heart: hearts that are being led to the gallows, hearts that are living in the midst of palpable danger.

 

Yes, exactly so. All of us - all of us, are living in the midst of palpable danger, and from that very place of palpable danger, which is certainly apparent, I am sitting to write to you, to each and every one of you, my dear brothers who are residents of 'Nachlaot' and the surrounding areas, who have become accustomed to troubles and suffering, are eaten up by pain and frustration, and have gone through scandals.

Hear please what is in my mouth, read what is placed in my heart --

The times are not simple in our neighborhood, and I'm not talking about the big scandals that are accompanying us like a shadow for about two years. Those very stormy and depressing scandals -- of which we are the victims, ourselves and seven (in any event, according to the legal authorities, despite that here or there may be found a few more) of our dear and cherished children -- in spite of all the awful pain, this is not something that ought to cause all of us to feel that there is an immediate danger hovering over our heads. But the last scandal - in which there was innocent blood shed in our names, as it were, and we justify all those sick evils that are included in the outrage and injustice -- that is what causes me to wonder, how are we capable of falling asleep at night ---

Jews! Brothers! The sword which was drawn from its scabbard to spill innocent blood, is still running wildly in our streets. The clubs which beat the pure body, are still being waved above us; curses which were placed in lowliness on a pure and righteous soul, G-d forbid are hovering on our corpses...

And we are silent?! Or is there anyone amongst us who is capable of backing this act, even if not by specifically verbalizing it but by a silence which is thunderous?! Don't we feel apprehensive that also upon us there will be declared a decree when the Creator of the world will come to punish those who desecrate His name in public and those who blaspheme His Holy Torah, when in their name hands were sent to do an abominable crime and they shed innocent blood and no one said a word?! And don't we know that everyone that has it in his power to protest and does not protest is caught in the sin?! -- And all of us are in the category of 'able to protest', for without the backing which was given to those who did this outrage, it would not have been done.

By virtue of the pain and frustration, as a result of the criminal acts that were performed on many childen in our neighborhood, there rose up several lost souls, lacking in understanding and fear of Heaven, who followed blindly after the imaginings of their hearts and taught themselves to lie, by fabricating proofs and by making false accusations, inventing a story that had no connection to reality. And they weren't satisfied to just tell it to Rabbis and bring out a bad name on a righteous woman in Israel, but they contaminated the wholesomeness of many children in the neighborhood, and put into their minds fabricated stories and caused them to believe, that supposedly there was really done to them acts of violence and heresy. The children believed. The parents believed. And for a number of days, also Tzadikim (righteous people) almost believed. And even the tiniest part of all those stories never was and never existed. Not even the slightest shadow of a shadow of anything, even of the slightest weight. Not even a vague hint of something that is slightly analagous to the lively, colorful descriptions given by mouths of the false accusers.

It's unbelievable that deceitful and false stories would be told, which would be implanted by people without any yoke of Heaven into the imaginations of wholehearted children, as if from the house of a righteous woman that lives in our neighborhood there was constructed a secret tunnel, that led to a church of one of the priests who was trying to force the Jewish children to abandon their religion. False accusations of this rotten type, don't just have within them a mixture of malice and mistakenness, but rather their start and their end is in crime, in the will to do evil, to cause damage, and to destroy. The false accusers did not take pity on the body and on the life of a righteous female convert who lives in our neighborhood -- and she is known for many years for her righteousness, her devoutedness, and her abstinence, and also in her faithfulness precisely to the Jewish laws of conversion and for taking care of converts. But just like the false accusations of Korach and his group against Moshe Rabbeinu, the most humble man on the face of the earth, that he and Aharon were lording themselves over the congregation of Hashem, thus there came those people of malice and strife and falsely charged this righteous woman, who had abandoned the false gods of her father's house and brought close under the wings of the Shechina (the Divine presence) tens and hundreds of girls, that she is confusing the hearts and poisoning the pure souls of refined Jewish children in an attempt to make them abandon their faith and to baptize them to Christianity. And with all the foolishness of this false accusation, how much the lies float and rise up with lack of any attachment to reality, those same people grasp onto weak proofs and add to them fabrications and lies, and anyone who doesn't support their opinion and doesn't agree with their imaginary conclusions, he too is suspected to be obviously connected to the Christian missionaries.

The ears will ring and the hearts will be shocked, how low is the point to which these good-for-nothing people are able to sink, while they drag after themselves troups of slanderers, bad-mouthers, and speakers of evil talk, amongst them dozens and dozens of children and youths from the best of our precious families. And they are chained to such a great extent by the handcuffs of the Satanic lies, that they are capable of bringing false accusations and to charge the clear representatives of our Teachers and Rabbis Shlit'a, with belonging to the missionaries, only because they did their work faithfully and easily exposed the lowliness of this despicable libel. It's shocking! Are also the Gedolei Yisrael (Great Ones of Israel) not believed any more by those people?! Are these people capable of being brazenfaced toward the Righteous Ones of the Beautiful City, Maran HaGadol Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach Shlit"a and Maran HaGaon HaTzaddik Moshe Shapira Shlit"a, and other Rabbanim of the Gedolei Yisrael whose guidance we live by, and to claim that they (by believing their representatives) are mistaken and that they themselves are are being misled by the Christian missionaries?!

And when there is so much brazenness, it can be derived that when the Satan places a sack over the head of a man, he is capable of blinding his eyes completely, to cloud his sight and to confuse his mind, until he is able to slander everything which is holy and precious, provided that his own interests, which have their origins in foolish egotism so that it is difficult for them to admit that they are the ones that are mistaken, are served.

But we - I and you, my dear brothers - if the Satan has not yet forced his sack onto our heads, how are we able to quote those very people who are no-goodniks, to discuss it and to conclude that "there's no smoke without fire", without being apprehensive that perhaps they are the very ones who are flaming the fires and just maybe the smoke is also surrounding us...

Despite the fact that I don't believe there is anyone in the neighborhood who has not heard the deeds of that group, and in spite of the embarrassment and wrath that floods over me when coming to write even briefly about what they did in their great foolishness and wickedness, I will do so, with your permission.

I will begin by saying, that it's possible to judge favorably a certain part of that group, several naive people who were carried away on the tide by the instigators, without considering what kinds of dark interests they were serving. They didn't realize that a lot of money had been promised to anyone who would succeed to prove that missionary activity existed in the neighborhood, with the main point being to point to guilty parties and to punish them. But that was the reality.

A lot of money was promised, and those people didn't have the boldness and strength of character to stand up and say: 'Thank G-d we haven't been struck by missionary activity, and in any event we don't have the need for this large amount of money'. Instead of that, they have the courage to speak bold-faced lies, to try to make righteous people stumble by giving false testimony, to contaminate the souls of children - also their own children, what cruelty - to hit with cruelty their victim, to shed innocent blood, with blows that are sufficient to kill.

When they falsely accused that righteous convert that she was turning aside Jewish children to impurity and Christianity, and even after they heard that the Rabbis ordered the opening of a professional and exacting investigation, they meanwhile hurried up, and performed a violent crime within our neighborhood, participated in by young men who were considered to be Kosher and thought of as G-d-fearing (but they proved now, that they don't fear Hashem and by their deeds they fulfilled the verse "but there is no fear of Hashem and they will kill me").

My hands are trembling as I am about to place in writing the slightest bit, only the tip of the rotten atrocious act. But I don't find any alternative. For I request that also you will tremble, that the hearts will palpitate from the fear of the Judgment, that your hair will stand up from the great atrocity that was done in our names, supposedly with our knowledge and agreement. Yes. I am here in order to shake you up! In order to shock! In order to jolt the entire world! In order to drag you by the corners of your heads and to declare in a loud voice: Gentlemen! We are in a situation of danger which is terrifying and palpable, apparent and certain! For if a lowly act like that will not be denounced with a powerful protest, and if all of us do not take counsel together in unision on how to request pardon from that righteous woman and how to appease her - who knows what will be produced in our midst by the wrath of Hashem...

And this is the description of the deed...

On Monday in the evening, on the night before the fifth of Adar, a gang of thugs waited outside of the house of the righteous woman, may she live for length of good days, and one of them was even sent to verify that there wasn't anyone with her at home, and then several strong-armed types came and knocked on her door. Some of them were dressed in Chareidi (ultra-Orthodox)attire and there were also evil-looking types in the group. Immediately after she opened the door - they fell upon her, threw her to the ground with cruelty and brutality, covered her mouth by tying something on it, and began to curse and insult her while requesting that she give them the disgusting material that according to their thinking she had in her house, that she should reveal to them the secret trap door that leads to the cave where there are baptisms to Christianity, etc. Those very people, them and those that sent them, had never come to investigate her, had not called her to come before Rabbis and to stand up and answer their questions. They had marked out a target and as far as they were concerned that was sufficient reason to kill, G-d forbid...

The violent attackers tied her hands and feet with cuffs and for the duration of many long minutes they hit her with cruelty on all the parts of her body, while simultaneously some of the thugs caused a 'pogrom' in her house, breaking and shattering closets and items and taking with them booty (how many times was it stated and on the booty they did not send their hands, and in this case they appropriated and despoiled and took silver items including expensive jewelry, that were not returned and apparently were sold on the pretext that they needed to cover the expense of the hoodlums).

They were not satisfied with that: they brought an iron rod from the courtyard, tied her to a chair and hit her with the rod on her head and shoulders, arms and legs, until they made certain that her leg was broken in several places. Also at that they did not stop and they continued to hit her until they broke her arm and elbow with an open fracture until the flowing of blood, and that's not to speak of the the many wounds on every part of her body, including her head and eyes. Before they left, they threw her to the foor and piled on her furniture so that she would not be able to get up, and then they abandoned the apartment while she was wallowing in her blood...

By the great help of Heaven, on that day she was supposed to travel abroad and therefore she left a key by one of the neighbors. He was suspicious when he saw the gang fleeing from her house, and hurried up to go check if these people hadn't been thieves. He discovered the atrocity, called the emergency medical services and her life was saved. She underwent several surgical procedures, her arm and leg were put in casts, large screws were inserted in her bones in order to stablize them and join them. She has been hospitalized in a hospital for over a month.

And I ask, how many of us that heard about this act concluded and said "This is the only way to teach a lesson"?! How many people that we are acquainted with, even expressed explicit support for those men of strife who were leading the course of the false accusations from its beginning?! How many are there that participated in gossip in which the woman was smeared and no one got up to denounce the act and to defend her good name?! Or at least to cry out that there is Justice and there is a Judge! Was she ever called to a Rabbinic court?!

And on the other hand: how many are there among us who where shocked and condemned the crooked act? How many people that we are acquainted with approached the great Rabbis (and I'm not speaking about Rabbis who are really 'biased in the matter' from the viewpoint of Torah Law) and requested their guidance in this complex story?! How many are there that searched and clarified where she is hospitalized in order to go to visit her? Is there anyone that thought about the necessity to organize all the residents of the neighborhood, in order to request from her pardon and to appease her?!

Are we so impenetrable to the extent that it's possible to bring about an atrocity like this in our neighborhood and we don't get agitated about it?! Do we not understand that we are bringing down upon all of us disgrace and disaster, and who knows what else is coming if we don't come to our senses?!

In truth I will request to ask: is there anyone who thinks that there is no reason to be apprehensive and fear the Judgment of Heaven?! Is anyone sure that the Creator of the world will be quiet and will not take revenge for the blood of his servants which is shed?! For nothing did the Holy Torah warn us 36 times to be careful with the honor and well-being of the convert?! And it's worthwhile to learn well the Midrash Tanchuma on Parshat Vayikra in which it is brought: "Said Rabbi Yehuda Bar Shalom: you find 48 times the Holy One Blessed Be He warned in the Torah about converts, and in parallel to those He warned about idol worship. Said the Holy One Blessed Be He it's sufficient that he put aside idol worship and came to be near you, I warn you to love him, because I love him as it is said, and love the convert to give him bread and clothing etc."

Will those who are able to protest and they remain silent, also sit and be silent when they will be given the honor of making eulogizies at funerals or shaking up people's hearts at mass meetings for the sake of repentance?! Gentlemen, is someone waiting for tragedies?! ---

From Heaven I have not been placed on a chair from which I can guide you on the straight path, but I still hold onto the right and the ability to shout and to protest in public. I don't have the boldness to gather assemblies together in public and to shout in the streets of the city, but I was given sufficient understanding to use the pen in order to express the murmurings of my heart which is stormy from anger and shame and terrified with anxiety and fear. And especially since many rely upon me, both in matters of Halachic instruction as well as matters of outlook, and also because I merited to serve the Gedolei Yisrael (Great Ones of Israel) in the previous generation and in certain matters they said about me that I am actually on the level of being 'a copy of their teachings'. Because of this the responsibility that I feel in relation to all this holy congregation, to shout and shake up the hearts, is doubled.

So long as we cannot include ourselves - all of us as one man, both men and women - in the category of being able to say with a full heart "our hands didn't shed this blood and our eyes didn't see", we will not have the right to express the request in the continuation of this verse: "atone for Your people Israel which you Hashem have redeemed and do not put innocent blood in the midst of Your people Israel and atone for them on the blood". So long as we don't arouse ourselves to repentance, so long as we don't unite to request pardon from that righteous woman, to beg for our souls and to request her to arise up in prayer for us that an avenging sword should not hit us - until then, all of us are in the category of dwelling in mortal danger, just as those who are led to the gallows who can only be saved by a miracle...

And she, the righteous woman that in those frightening drawn-out moments didn't open her mouth to express a disparaging word, but rather whispered verses of prayer and declared after them "I believe in the Creator of the world throughout all the blows that you hit me" (according to the testimony of one of the thugs, who broke down and came to request a way of repentance from the Rabbis); that Rebbetzin who was a convert, when the Gaon HaGadol Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach Shlit"a came to visit her and to comfort her at her sickbed in the hospital, what did she say to him in tears: "Pray upon them Honorable Rabbi that they will return in repentance, so that there will not be an Accusing Angel. And on this she is weeping."...

That's what preoccupies her. And what preoccupies us? Or: what ought to preoccupy us in the days to come, in the weeks and months to come?...

On this I don't have an answer in my mouth for the masses. I know what I need to do, because I have consulted with my Teachers and Rabbis and received from them guidance, how to go to appease her and in what way to express myself in protest and to shake up all the community because of the danger and the Accusing Angel. And you, my dear friends, please shake yourselves up! Your souls should be stormy with terror! Turn over in your beds for entire nights! Be apprehensive about the fear of the Judgment that is stretched out over everyone who is involved in the matter! All this is what a Jew who is G-d-fearing does when he finds himself in an awful and terrifying situation like this.

But first of all: a call of condemnation should go out to all those people of strife and malice, who knitted this false accusation and put it upon the head of a Kosher woman (and by the way, the same evil people are involved these days in an additional, similar plot in another neighborhood in the city, and also there their disgrace was revealed and the Rabbis there publicized the matter in the public gates), who caught up in their net dozens and dozens of children whose wholesomeness was damaged forever and who knows how many of them will go off the path of being religious because of them, who brought hoodlums to spill innocent blood in our neighborhood, and who put upon all of us disgrace and shame.

For behold it is impossible for the mind to tolerate, that a small group, delusional and lacking responsibility, supported by several women whose minds are easily influenced, who were in pain and grumbling, and who dragged along with them a number of men, would determine the outcome of the balance-pan, when on the other side of the balance-pan were placed hard proofs and precise investigations (including investigation by the police and the professionals from the social welfare and services). These investigations were accepted as valid by Tzaddikim and Gaonim such as Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach Shlit"a and Rabbi Moshe Shapira Shlit"a, and along with them the HaRav HaGaon Rabbi Nisim Karelitz Shlit"a, HaRav HaGaon Rav Yehuda Silman Shlit"a and HaRav HaGaon Rabbi Natan Kopshitz Shlit"a. There were investigations by Lev L'achim which has almost 50 years of experience and is trusted by all the Gedolei Yisrael (Great Ones of Israel), and investigations by HaRav HaGaon Yehuda Porush Shlit"a from the Rabbis of the Va'ad HaRabbanim in the Offices of Social Welfare. And what the mind cannot tolerate - also we should not tolerate!

Together let us declare: we don't have a part in your acts! We don't agree with your ways! And we beg the Creator of the world that He will distance you from us and keep your feet out of our boundaries, because you have brought upon us a great evil! And perhaps, when Hashem will see that in truth and sincerity we regret that this came upon us, He will remove from us His anger and save us from the Harsh Judgment and the Accusing Angel.

Please, my brothers - don't do evil!!!

Your friend, who loves you truly and sincerely, who desires that you have goodness and peace all the days, but is forced to hide his name because of the apprehension that "Only there is not fear of G-d in this place and they will kill me"...

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