What We Can Learn From Gedolim Whose Response to the Walder Affair Was ‘Lashon Hara’ Blather

I’ll tell you: NOTHING!

When you give the wrong message at the wrong time, there is nothing good or holy or anything positive about it.

I won’t judge the writers who made one little lie as lip service (Sotah 35a: ?וכי זו בלבד עשה לנו בן עמרם) to get across the opposite message.

Such as Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein on Cross-Currents:

Rav Gershon Edelstein’s, shlit”a, words are a powerful reproach about how we use speech. But they cannot be the last word, the only takeaway from this horrible story.

Or Rabbi S. E. Zeitlin:

צריך להיזהר מאד לא לקחת את דברי הגרי”ג שליט”א למקום לא נכון. מסופר כי הח”ח ביקש מהגאון ר’ חיים עוזר זצ”ל לחתום על כרוז שדיבור לשה”ר כאכילת חזיר, והגרח”ע סירב, ונימק, שחושש כי אחרי כרוז כזה אנשים לא יפסיקו לדבר לשה”ר, אלא יתחילו לאכול חזיר. גם כאן צריך להיזהר שלא ייווצר מצב שבמקום להיזהר יותר בבן אדם לחברו, יזלזלו באיסורי עריות ורציחה של נפגעים.

Not my way, but more power to them.

But what of sly Fifth-Columnist-columnist Rabbi Yehoshua Pfeffer speaking out of both sides of his mouth? And the usual suspects; Mishpacha, etc.?

What can be learned from the “Gedolim” who turned darkness into light and light into darkness, made bitter as sweet, and sweet as bitter?

If you insist, here are some lessons:

1. If someone can get up and contradict the whole Sefer Chafetz Chaim — the one book studied by every Charedi man woman and child from Dan to Be’er Sheva — without 75% immediately pointing out the speaker’s nakedness, this means we don’t have a Hilchos Lashon Hara glut. (Or, well, we have bigger problems…!)
2. Next time this new Gadol leads a Daas Torah crusade to throw non-Charedi “infidels” out of the Holy Land, let’s regard this glaring gem of geonus as Achashverosh’s “Iggros Rishonos” (Megillah 12b: אלמלא אגרות הראשונות לא נשתייר משונאיהן של ישראל שריד ופליט) and not ask how high to jump or how many times to vote.
3. Did you ever hear any sort of apology? Anything other than R’ Edelstein-toady Rabbi Y. Eichenstein of Yad Aaron’s vile “clarifications” digging themselves all into a deeper pit? Me neither.
4. We learned how to write their own obits: We should definitely append the “Zatzal” word to their names. Don’t worry! Now CW’s mates at Yated used it on CW, it means nothing, anyway. We can also say they “knew what Bein Adam Lachaveiro was”, and even “held the correct worldview and pure Fear of Heaven”. It’s alright! Rabbi Natan Zochovosky of the Israeli Yated Ne’eman publicly eulogized CW using these exact words, presumably following Rabbi Edelstein’s instructions. There can surely be no greater honor. And so on…
5. Never forget that CW was actually a mouthpiece for so-called “Da’as Torah” in the “Da’as Torah” paper. So, they were defending themselves.

Enough for now.