Rabbi Rafi Feuerstein removes Rabbi Tau's books over Chaim Walder case

Rabbi Tzvi Tau, one of the senior rabbis of religious Zionism and the head of Har Hamor Yeshiva, condemnws the accusations made against children's author Chaim Walder, who committed suicide due to allegations of sexual harassment. A few days later, Rabbi Rafi Feuerstein, chairman of the Tzohar Rabbinical Association and the president of the Feuerstein Foundation, removed the writings of Rabbi Tzvi Tau from his personal libraries.

"Last week I removed Walder's books, which my children and later my grandchildren read. And this week I removed Rabbi Tau's writings from my library and from my home," said Rabbi Feuerstein, explaining: I do this to show the desecration of G-d's name that results from this great man. For the Rambam writes (Yesodei haTorah Chapter 5 Verse 11): "There are other deeds which are also included in [the category of] the desecration of [G-d's] name, if performed by a person of great Torah stature who is renowned for his piety - i.e., deeds which, although they are not transgressions, [will cause] people to speak disparagingly of him. This also constitutes the desecration of [G-d's] name."

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Rabbi Feuerstein comments on Rabbi Tau's statement that the accusations are 'completely built on a lie'. "As a community rabbi in Israel, I fear that the members of my community, their sons and daughters, will see Rabbi Tau's books in my library and will be wrong to think that they should not complain if G-d forbid they are harmed. And that their words, if God forbid they are hurt, will be considered by the great men of the generation "as a bluff, and a lie."

"If Rabbi Tau had established a court, summoned the complainants, interrogated them with interrogations and demands and came to the conclusion that they were lying, I would respectfully reconsider my position. But to draw a conclusion, without hearing any testimonies or do any investigating, to decree it is all a falsehood? There is potential here to do great harm by the rabbi to the victims or any potential future victims," concludes Rabbi Feuerstein.