Knitted news09.11.22 10:18 Tu in Hashvan Tishpag
(Photo: Zahar)
Rabbi Yuval Sharlo refers for the first time to the allegations made against Rabbi Zvi Tao, and says that the case must be clarified: “It would be good if the victims claim to contact the police so that their complaint can be clarified. It would be good if Rabbi Tao would contact the police so that they would protect him if he did nothing.”
Rabbi Yuval Sharlo’s full post
Many years ago, I wrote to myself the principles of investigating complaints against those in authority: what do you do when you are met with complaints about sexual assaults that were perpetrated according to the complainants by those in authority, chief rabbis, etc.?
A. “And you were clean” – first, we clean ourselves. Cleanse ourselves of preconceived notions, such as “it can’t be”, “great rabbis always offend”, “there are a lot of false complaints”, “the complainant suffers from mental problems”, “everything can be believed about him, and he must have offended”, or Any advance discount. Everything can be. Cleansing ourselves of ancient agendas, chauvinism and feminism, the danger of exploiting the complaint for political, power, religious needs, etc.; Cleansing ourselves of hatred and jealousy, of love and enthusiasm. We do everything possible so that it is possible to act in the proper and correct way, without fear and without bias.
B. “I am the Lord”: memorized to ourselves because duties are imposed on us from both directions. On the one hand, “You shall not gossip among your people”, and much more than that: caution against offending, against whitewashing, against making false accusations; On the other hand, in the same verse it is said “You shall not stand on your neighbor’s blood: be careful not to remain silent, to neglect, to claim that it is not a matter that concerns us, etc. At the end of the verse it is said, “I am the Lord” which is guidance for situations where everything depends on the heart and attunement.
third. Act actively so that the complaint can be properly clarified. working to allow those who claim and those who claim to have been harmed to flood their words; listen attentively, with encouragement and support; Initiate defensive actions so as not to allow harm to those who claim that they have been harmed; Remember that in these situations the injured are the weak side, and it takes a lot of courage to come out with a painful story, as this has many consequences; maintain the dignity of all involved; And at the same time – aware that what we hear is still a subjective story. not working Those who complain against them have the presumption of innocence. We do not allow ourselves to say factual things – the complainant is right, the person in authority is right, etc.; Do not decide based on complaints on the street of a city or in the squares of social networks.
d. Encouraging the appeal to the government authorities, who have the power and possibility to investigate the complaints in the best way; putting pressure on the authorities, if they refuse to enter into the investigation process; They put pressure on those who complained against them so that they respond and answer these complaints, etc. If the government authorities do not deal with this – they turn to social alternatives that operate according to halachic and ethical rules, and for this purpose we established the Tanna Forum, which has done and is doing a lot in this area.
God. Sometimes none of this happens, and no institutional inquiry is made. Here, too, Halacha has various tools to deal with this reality, such as: “to reason with the problem”; “Cla without a comma” and so on. These halachic trainings are conduct in doubtful situations. There is no definite determination in them, but there is a halachic obligation to act in a “soft” manner in order not to allow the evasion of offenders, as well as to prevent situations of future injury.
In this light, the case of Rabbi Tao must be clarified. As the Halacha requires “As small as great, you shall have Simeon.” It is forbidden to determine a position in advance; It is forbidden to use a case that has not been clarified for the purpose of other agendas; There is no other way than to find out the claims. The women who claim to have been harmed have the right to make their voices heard, and to demand first and foremost that their words be recognized;
Rabbi Tau is entitled to the purification of his name, and to claim that things he did not do will not be alleged against him; I was exposed and met with some of the complainants, either in a direct meeting or on camera. Their words are very sharp and clear. Like everyone else, I have no tools to know what really happened, since like everyone else I have not heard both sides. There is no better way than the legal authorities in the State of Israel – the police, and then the bodies that deal with these issues.
It would be good for those who claim to have been injured to contact the police so that their complaint can be clarified. It is not easy to do this. The public must give encouragement and support to follow the ways of God and ask for the persecuted; It would be good if Rabbi Tau would contact the police to protect him if he did nothing, and the public should oppose making a decision on the street of a city or in the squares of social networks. And we will all act in light of these things, which have been written for many years. A large part of the ability to deal with such questions is to think about them in advance, and to set rules and ways of behavior for ourselves that are not born on the background of a certain reality, but fixed and existing muscles.
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