… With regard to Rabbi Asher Zeilingold's "investigation" of the alleged worker abuse at Rubashkin's Postville slaughterhouse. Rabbi Zeilingold is visually impaired, legally blind. He sees shapes, and can distinguish between faces at close range, although he does not see the faces clearly. It would be difficult if not impossible for Rabbi Zeilingold to see fear on the face of a Rubashkin employee, or to see who may be watching from a distance. Would his aidut (testimony) be accepted in a beit din? Without caveat? I don't know.
I don't hate Rabbi Z; I don't even dislike him. I just wish he wouldn't do crazy things like trying to exonerate Rubashkin with transparently a skewed "investigation." Teaching his old friend Rabbi Sholom Mordechai Rubashkin about workers' rights in halakha would be a far more productive endeavor, and one far more befitting his position as a rabbi and morah d'asra. And to drag Casriel into this …