I address these remarks to those of you who criticized me (although many others blessed me) for my outcry against the violent physical attack on Maran HaGaon Rav Aharon Yehuda Leib Steinman shlita an incident that crossed every red line the culmination of the ugly and unnecessary machlokes that is wreaking destruction on the litvishe community in Eretz Yisrael.

You were right when you wrote “Don’t involve us in the machlokesim you’re having over there in Eretz Yisrael. Your problems have nothing to do with us. Here in America there is unity among all stripes of chareidi Jews. We can tolerate difference we can live and let live.”

I truly agree with every word you wrote and I confess that on occasion while visiting the United States I’ve envied you. I could see that unity when I was a guest at an Agudath Israel convention some years ago for example or at the huge gathering in honor of the Siyum HaShas. In America I had the privilege of seeing Litvaks and chassidim sitting together simple Jews alongside talmidei chachamim all sharing a basic sense of brotherhood despite different lifestyles and interests. And that is how it should be. Indeed I envied that peaceful unity and I said so in the pages of Mishpacha adding a prayer that we here in Israel should see such gatherings l’Sheim Shamayim with everyone taking part under one banner and one slogan.

There is no question that we have much to learn from you.

Our policy at Mishpacha is not to take sides in the machlokesim that unfortunately rage in our society. We don’t see it as our job to decide which posek is right about any particular issue. We aren’t up to that task. Our goal is to serve as the publication where every community within the spectrum of Torah-true Jewry can find its place.

We may have our lapses now and then but on the whole we maintain a neutral stance among the various groups. We have always tried and we continue trying to accord the utmost honor to gedolei Torah from all communities. We have suffered many attacks from groups that were displeased at our failure to come out against a rav whose psak they disagreed with. But through it all we’ve remained committed to our policy of allowing free expression to all opinions and personalities within Torah-true Jewry. Each of our writers may hold to whatever opinion he or she favors but their personal biases aren’t mentioned on the pages of this publication.

By following this vision we’ve given our readers a message that fundamental differences of opinion don’t necessarily have to raise walls between Jews. So it would certainly be out of character for Mishpacha to export an Israeli machlokes to America.

In fact I previously published two columns condemning machlokes both of which refrained from taking any side in the actual machlokes currently raging in Eretz Yisrael. The reason for these columns: In encounters with Jews from America I learned that the repercussions of the machlokes had already reached their shores. These readers’ take on the situation was so full of disinformation that it became
necessary to clarify matters. But our editorial board in conjunction with the rabbanim we consult decided to go no further than publishing pieces warning against the dangers of machlokes.

Why did I then write a much more direct and pointed article after the shocking attack on Rav Steinman shlita triggering an angry response from several readers who thought I was trying to draw you chas v’chalilah into taking a side in the machlokes?

First to clarify: That column had nothing to do with the actual dispute between the two camps. It focused only on the terrible
outcome of the friction an event that should shock any Torah-true Jew wherever he lives be it New York Australia or Zimbabwe. Any Jew who knows the meaning of kvod haTorah cannot help but shiver upon hearing of a physical attack on a Torah scholar — a man of enormous stature who has led the yeshivah world for years who was renowned since his youth for his life of holiness and purity who was admired by the Chazon Ish ztz”l. In fact I can still remember the years when his signature appeared directly under those of the Steipler Rav and Rav Shach ztz”l on their public announcements.

Consequently when the situation hit such a nadir that a physical attack on a gadol hador could occur I felt it necessary to expose the terrible campaign of incitement that one man has been directing for over a decade against Rav Steinman shlita. My purpose in fingering this source was to cleanse the community as a whole from blame. There is no question of lashon hara in mentioning his name because an inciter is not to be judged favorably. As the former all-powerful editor of the Hebrew Yated Ne’eman or by any other means he and his messengers missed no chance to spread their libels. And as we know propaganda tends to find its mark. By exposing his campaign I aimed to inform the general public that all this incitement was the work of one man and his underlings and that no group who voted one way or the other could be blamed for what occurred.

Of course the attack could be dismissed as the work of a mentally disturbed individual. Nu nu there is always that possibility. But it is a rare form of mental illness that expresses itself only on one occasion in a predawn attack on one Jew who happens to be Rav Aharon Leib shlita who happens to be at the center of a big public storm. And that incident is far from the only sorry result of the campaign of incitement that has poisoned all too many minds.

It is with genuine pain and distress that I am forced to illustrate this campaign’s reach but at the behest of prominent rabbanim
I must tell you just how poisonous the atmosphere here has become. I have heard of incidents where young impressionable students questioned the authority of our revered gedolim. Adults as well have drunk the cocktail of propaganda and imbibed the skewed messages of disrespect and disinformation.

I am surprised at those among my honored readers who instead of being shocked at a physical attack by a yungerman on a gadol write to accuse me of involving them in a machlokes that has nothing to do with them. Supposing that chalilah someone had physically attacked Rav Moshe Feinstein ztz”l would you also have said it has nothing to do with you? Would you not have felt the enormity of the
offense against the honor of Torah? That was the whole point of my outcry to alert all yerei Hashem to the decline of kvod haTorah in Eretz Yisrael and to redirect the antagonism toward the single individual who stirred up this turmoil a person whose own followers are regarding him
with increasing unease.

The Gemara in Maseches Gittin relates the story of Kamtza and Bar Kamtza a story you all know well and which you recognize as
an eternal warning of the devastating consequences of interpersonal strife. Despite the familiar story line one detail bears repeating: When the host of the party publicly shamed Bar Kamtza not one of the people present protested not even the great scholar Rabi Zecharia ben Avkoles. We all know where Bar Kamtza’s revenge led; it set in motion a chain of events leading to the destruction of the Beis HaMikdash.
Of this Rabi Yochanan said: “The humility
of Rabi Zecharia ben Avkoles destroyed our sanctuary and
burned our temple and exiled us from our land.” Because he did not protest the sorry consequences of the party were attributed to him.

“Truth and peace you shall love” we are told. Yes of course we must flee from machlokes as if from fire. And we would do well to “live and let live ” to tolerate individual and communal differences. That is the alef-beis of our holy Torah whose ways are ways of pleasantness and whose pathways are peace. But there are moments
when we must protest when we dare not turn a blind eye. When incitement prompts someone to attack the gadol hador we would do well to
remember the words of Rabi Yochanan.

For it is only when truth is joined to peace — when emes underlies our achdus — that we can extend our love. —