Emunas Cahchomin

There is something that I would like to comment on about those who criticize the so called ‘ban’ that Rav Elyashiv put on the Hebrew Mishpacha magazine, as well as other so called bans.

Let’s begin with understanding the word ban. First let’s discuss why bans are made. My understanding is that a ban is usually an attempt to influence a company by minimizing its customer base in an attempt to either get the company to reverse its policies or put the company out of business.

Was that what Rav Elyashiv was attempting to do? According to the article in YWN, the problem with Mishpacha was that they are competing with the Israeli Yated. (And therefore I guess this was an attempt to minimize their sales.) Now let’s think for a moment. Does anybody really believe that Rav Elyashiv cares if Yated loses business?

So why did he signing a letter against the Hebrew Mishpacha? I’ll tell you why. It’s not because they are competing with Yated. It’s also not because some gabbai told him it’s a check for Va’ad Harabanim. Rather, it’s because he feels a responsibility to tell those who want to follow Da’as Torah that the views in this paper are unacceptable and therefore prohibited to read. He is not looking at whether they are going to lose business. As a matter of fact he probably knows better that anybody else that his issur will not necessarily hurt their business. That’s not his point. He simply wants people to know that it is wrong to read that paper.

Now let’s get to the next point. Is the information he got correct? Or was it simply that ‘they’ fed him all kinds of information? One thing I can say for sure. Rav Elyashiv is a world renowned genius who served as a rabbinical court judge for many years. It is not so easy to fool him. He is known to be extremely careful about what he signs, and he would never publicly go against anything (especially when nobody else signed the paper) unless he verified the claims to be true.

Another point to ponder. How is it that every left leaning semi orthodox blogger (who never even read the Hebrew Mishpacha) knows by intuition that the stories told to the Rav are false? Do they think the Rav is that naive????? ???????? . They are actually suffering from the very closed mindedness that they are accusing the Rav of having. It’s worth noting that since the letter came out the magazine has hired Rabonim to check the paper, which means the leter already has served a purpose.

Finally a word about the word ban. The Hebrew word for ban is cherem. A cherem is placed on something that is otherwise permitted and the cherem/ban makes it prohibited. Here (as well as the well publicized so called ‘bans’ on the Slifkin and Kamenetsky books) Rav Elyashiv did not place any ban on anything. All he did was say that it is according to Jewish law this material is prohibited to read. If a kashrus agency would publicize that a certain product contains treif ingredients nobody would call that a ban. So why is this any different?

We can all work on our Emunas Chachomim and this is a good place to start.