The Halakha Most Violated By Rabbis – And Chabad

Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir has a column on taking donations from unscrupilous individuals:

…There are many problems involved in accepting donations from unscrupulous individuals.

In the worst case, the donation money itself is stolen or otherwise tainted. In this case, the organization directly benefits from the crime and attains a kind of complicity. (1)

Another common problem with these donations is chanufa, often translated as flattery. By honoring a person who is identified with sinful behavior, your organization would almost certainly be seen as condoning his actions. The Talmud severely criticizes some prominent rabbis who tried to reassure King Aggripas that his rule was kosher, despite the fact that he attained the kingship in an illegitimate way. (2)

…[I]t does seem like an attractive option to accept the money without making the donation public. However, this attractiveness is illusory. There are two reasons you should avoid this route:

   1. By accepting the money in a surreptitious way, you seem to get the best of both worlds - obtaining the money in a legitimate way yet avoiding controversy. Actually, you get the worst of both worlds. Since you accept the money in a quiet way, people will assume the donor is unworthy. So you have been complicit in tainting his name. Yet you have still accepted the money. So people will assume that your organization is condoning wrongdoing.

   2. Giving recognition to donors is a basic ethical obligation. The prominent medieval authority Rabbi Shlomo Adret writes that honoring donors is not just a gesture to their vanity; it is a mitzvah in and of itself to give honor to those who perform good deeds - including giving charity. By giving in to public pressure you will be falling short of this obligation and simultaneously denying a deserved honor from the donor. (3) …

SOURCES: (1) Shulchan Arukh Choshen Mishpat 356:1. (2) Sota 41b. (3) Responsa Rashba 582, cited in Rema's glosses on Shulchan Arukh Yoreh Deah 249:13.

Of course, the haredi world largely ignores these halakhot. Yeshivot and other haredi organizations regularly take money from from convicted felons, stock swindlers and other assorted theives. Chabad-Lubavitch even elevated one such donor-felon to president of the Crown Heights Community Council.

I guess everything is all right as long as the meat is 'kosher.'

Comments

[for balance]

That is a general problem for charities in general. Not limited to haredim. There have been cases like that with JTS and Reform - as well as with non-Jewish charities.

Does every charity need a staff of investigators to thoroughly investigate every contribution/contributor?

[Nigritude Ultramarine]

May I borrow your broad brush? There's a barn I need to paint and I'm in a hurry.

[Isa]

Money talks- everything else walks.
Long time ago I saw something from Chabad-maybe even from theb Rebbe about:
"Money is like manure-all by itself it stinks, but if you put it in the ground then wonderful things can sgrow from it"

[Shmarya]

Here are some other prominent Rabbi-criminals:

http://jewishwhistleblower.blogspot.com/2005/05/former-rabbinical-alliance-of-america.html#comments

Note their high position in Orthodox society.

[Nigritude Ultramarine]

>Here are some other prominent Rabbi-criminals:

You posting stuff from TAC via JWB? The Awareness Center -- run by someone who claims to have sacrificed a Jewish infant.

--------

"When I was very young, I was forced to participate in that -- in which I had to sacrifice an infant."

--Vicki (a/k/a "Rachel")
Oprah Show
May 1, 1989

[Allegedly Alleging Allegations]

http://jewishwhistleblower.blogspot.com/2005/05/former-rabbinical-alliance-of-america.html

The words alleged, allegedly, allegations, occur 24 times at the above URL. If the assertions are ALL true, why the heavy reliance on these words? After all, the defense for a libel suit is the truth. The author is so cautious, one can't help but wonder if any of this stuff is true.

[Harboyne]

Chabad is mehadrin on taxing the non-observant .
The worse is a person , the more kiddush shem chabad .
It is not that they are non judgemental , they are and how , but behind his back .
A shaluach would smile at the donnor , hug him , take a picture with him , take the money and tuck it in his pocket , and then will talk about him behind his back .
At the end of the day , a tochecha is administered but not to the right guy !

[Amorphous Blob]

Release your inner Satanist -- read the book that "Rachel" mentioned on the Oprah Show:

Lilith's Cave: Jewish Tales of the Supernatural by Howard Schwartz, New York, Oxford University Press, 1988

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0195067266/qid=1116249215/sr=8-1/ref=pd_csp_1/102-0344274-0830536?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

[judaism]

Taking money from convicted felons has nothing to do with taking money from 'bad' people. We are jews and we consider good and bad from a Torah perspective. Taking money from a Mechallel Shabos, from the cursed Zionist state, and through methods of forcing and antagonizing Goyim (Holocaust Swiss bank claims) are bad, dangerous and irresponsible.

[Harboyne]

"Taking money from convicted felons has nothing to do with taking money from 'bad' people. We are jews and we consider good and bad from a Torah perspective. "

A Gut woch !
I see , we are jews . Hmmm ! Must be then that taking money from convited felons creates kiddush hashem and represents the thing to emulate for the youth !
Hmmm, steal and plunder is good for us ! Remarkable .
It must generate great tikkuns in the upper spheres .
May be should recite before stealing , bidchilu urchimu , urchimu udchilu , leshem yichud .... mitzvat 'asseh of rob , steal and plunder .
It occured to me in such case , it would be great to print the Tanya in penitentiaries of the land . Imagine the kedusha and corrective energies released to mend the world ?
Long live our teacher master etc.....
And may we all be conforted with the building of Jerusalem , speedily in our redemption days amen .
Imagine the felons tzaddikim sitting in olam habo , ateroseihem beroisham venehenim miziv hashkhino !
Hear hear !

By the grace of G-d
Shalom uBrocha!

This issue is mentioned here:

http://www.lchaimweekly.org/lchaim/5761/665.htm#caption5

in a letter from the Rebbe King Moshiach writen in 1966

he says that:

20th of Iyar, 5726 [1966]
Greeting and Blessing:

...In your letter you ask my opinion as to whether a religious or charitable group may properly receive donations from a company which is conducting its business in an un-ethical way, at usurious rates of interest, etc.

Generally speaking, it is not my function to answer Shaalos [questions of Jewish law], for which there are special Rabbinical bodies in each city. Moreover, it would be impossible for me to give you a definitive answer to your particular question, in view of the fact that many important points of information are missing. For example, one essential factor is whether the acceptance of a donation from that company would be tantamount to an expression of approval of its methods, either explicitly or implied; or whether it can in no way be so mistaken by anyone, not even by the company itself, in which case it would be a question of in no way encouraging the policy of the company, but only giving it the Mitzva of Tzedoko [charity], or withholding it. It is only after you have all these facts available and ready to be presented to a Rov, that he would be able to give you his decision.

You do not mention anything about yourself and your affairs, from which I gather that all is in good order. And "in good order," insofar as a Jew is concerned, means that it is not stationary, but is progressing and advancing.

This brings me to the timely message of the present days of Sefira, the Counting of the Omer. It has been noted that in counting the Omer we use the cardinal numbers rather than the ordinal numbers. In other words, we say, for example, "Today is thirty-five days of the Omer, etc." rather than "Today is the thirty-fifth day of the Omer." This means that it is not a case where each day constitutes merely a single additional day, but each day constitutes a part of the whole and, in fact, complements the previous days. Considering that the counting of the Omer symbolizes the counting of the days of preparation for Shovuoth, the Festival of the Giving of the Torah, the lesson of the Counting of the Omer, and the significance of each day of this period, are obvious.

With blessing,

The issue is obviously not as one sided as Shmarya tries to present it (if you didn't know it yet).
By the way Shmarya why didn't you post a notice here:
https://www.charitybox.com/sdf/
That: "By donating money for this cause I certify that none of this money was gained thru illigal and or unethical activities including but not limited to tax evasion, theft, drug and arms trafficking usury prostitution or the like. " Even better according to your stated criticizm of others you shouldn't accept donations before conducting a deep background check of the donnor. So what if the man needs a Kidney as long as Shmarya didn't make sure 100% of the money came from 100% kosher sources he can't help him sorry Baruch Tegegne.
And if you realize this is silly what right do you have to make a wholesale acusation against others if you either don't think this violates any actual halocha or you are publicly violating it yourself on the same site?

Brocha veHatzlocha!
Ariel Sokolovsky

http://www.MoshiachTV.blogspot.com
http://www.ChabadTravel.com
http://www.GeulaInvestmentTrust.com

Long Live our Master our Teacher and our Rebbe King Moshiach Forever and Ever!

[Shmarya]

1. Pekuakh nefesh is not tzedaka. Its halakhot are different.
2. Taking a donation from an unknown person whose name is never going to be publicized removes any fear of encouraging theft, etc.
3. One does not have to do an investigation of donors (unless you are contending that bad donors are in the majority). We go after the majority. But, if it is *known* that a donor is a thief, embezzeler, etc., or has been accused of this, you must investigate and then ask a posek before taking the donation (one who has no potential benefit or loss from answering you).
4. If donor "A" makes his living selling non-kosher beef and pork, and if that is widely known among Jews in the community, taking money from donor "A" is wrong. If donor "A" has a controlling interest in the town's biggest non-kosher barbeque joint, but this is not public knowlege, then it *may* be permissable to take the donation, but it also may not. Ask a posek (one who has no potential benefit or loss from answering you).
5. Chabad disregards this all the time, and takes money from pretty much anyone. As the Rebbe wrote many times, he was not a posek. (Not much of a surprise for those of us who have read his work.) Therefore, Mendel Schneerson was not and is not the person to ask. By his own admission, he was unqualified to answer.
6. The Rebbe is dead. Get over it.