Numerous cases of child abuse, rape, homosexual abuse have occurred in Rabbinic institutions – yeshivas, or by supposedly Orthodox people, observant of both the Written and Oral law sets. This has not been unlike what has happened in the Catholic Church for many years.
The response to these terrible crimes has often been suppression, denial, and threats against the accusers or publicisers, and calls of “informer”. Some changes have occurred in recent years. In the Religious Orthodox Zionist world, which was also hit by such scandals, a forum of leading rabbis was set up to tackle this problem, and they boldly took down some people who were even heads of yeshivot. In the Ultra-orthodox (Hareidi) world the leaders have at last advised any victims to go directly to the police.
A current scandal is so contorted that it has to be explained in several steps:
1) A Chareidi author, who wrote many books for children, as well as being a rabbi, also became a self-appointed child therapist. He was accused of multiple rapes and abuse of children put in his care for “therapy”, as well as conducting adulterous affairs with married women. All this from a Bnei Brak “rabbi”.
2) 2 courageous Rabbinic courts, one of Rabbi Eliyahu, the Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Safed, and another in Bnei Brak itself , under the auspices of leading Ashkenazi rabbinic Dayanim , attempted to deal with this problem.
3) The alleged paedophile, by the name or Chaim Walder, refused to cooperate with either Beit Din, and in the meantime removed himself from public life.
4) The Safed Bet Din received testimonies form 22 different people, who all accused Walder of various types of sex abuse, rape and adultery.
5) It was rumoured that the Police had received reports of these accusations, and had contacted Walder.
6) A recording of a phone conversation between a married woman and Walder was leaked to Haaretz newspaper, who originally broke the story. In this conversation, Walder appears to be telling his married lover who to lie her way through everything, the way he does. She was going through divorce proceedings as a result of her adultery, which was carrying on for 6 years.
7) Some 5 weeks after the story broke, Walder had acquired a gun, and shot himself dead, leaving a suicide note, placing the blame of Rabbi Eliyahu of safed, and rabbi Silman of Bnei Brak, and claiming a fair trial is not possible in this world , and hence he is summoning these Dayanim to the great bet din in the sky! Suicide is strictly forbidden in Orthodox Judaism, and is considered to be equivalent to murder.
8) In the Orthodox Rabbinic world, several groups have emerged, with varying opinions on this whole shameful episode:
The Modern and Zionist orthodox have largely backed Rabbi Eliyahu, as have essentially the entire Sephardi world, whether modern or Chareidi. I should add that secular Israelis who have followed the story also support Rabbi Eliyahu.
The Chareidi Ashkenazi world has split into several parts. The “modern” end of the hareidi spectrum, together with Chabad Lubavitch have tended to back rabbi Eliyahu. The leading Ashkenazi rabbi Gershon Edelstein has made 2 contradictory statements. The first one accused people who publicised the matter of having shamed Walder, and ultimately are guilty of “murdering” him. A few days later, this statement was retracted, and attributed to other people. He then made a more measured statement, saying people should go direct to the police if they have suffered abuse, and also notes that suicide is strictly forbidden.
However, an extremist sector in the Chareidi world, has only accepted the first statement, i.e. blaming the press, and the court of Rabbi Eliyahu (whilst also ignoring the Bnei Brak court) of being guilty of “murdering” the mass rapist, Chaim Walder. Also, some “religious Zionist” rabbis, who are somewhat closer to the Chareidi world view, but not entirely, have also joined in the anti-Eliyahu chorus.
The problems that this scandal raise are quite troubling. The Rabbanites, and the Chareidim in particular, are obsessed with the separation of the sexes, “modesty” eg in dress, closing off the outside world, eg movies, TV, smartphones etc.
Yet, when their own people behave in the most depraved manner, they deny, cover, or even justify and consider them to be righteous. Adultery, suicide, rape, which are severe crimes, are brushed off as being insignificant compared to those who speak “loshon hara” - gossip.
The fixation on laws of “loshon hara” and embarrassing another person, are stifling them from doing what the Torah commands, eg to do justice, to plead the cause of the widow and orphan, to drive out evil from the Land etc. At the same time, many Hareidi rabbis have no problem in embarrassing and speaking against those who don’t agree with their interpretations or politics.
Despite claims to the contrary, these episodes show that even highly organised religion of Rabbanite Orthodoxy is subject to the same psychological drives as any other group of people. What occurs in the Catholic church , also sadly occurs in the orthodox yeshiva – and the psychological reasons are most likely the same. Restriction heaped upon restriction has not managed to control this type of behaviour, and it is in fact not even a matter of great concern to some in that world. Also , the other myth, that Talmud study is a cure all, and that mental illness is not so prevalent in the Orthodox world, appear to be completely false.
Do the overly strict laws and regulation of the rabbanites cause mental harm? Or is the kind of mental illness that leads to such depravity something that is more genetic, and not learned form the environment? Or would a relaxation of many restrictions actually make things worse? These are important questions, but would require a systematic research programme, which I am unable to do at this moment.
