Rav Shmuel Eliyahu accuses spiritual leader Rav Shmuel Tal of having affairs with female followers

Rav Shmuel Eliyau

In an open letter Wednesday that blew the lid off of a hushed misconduct accusation involving a prominent spiritual leader in the national religious camp, the chief rabbi of Safed called on the public to stay away from a respected counterpart, accusing him of carrying out several inappropriate relationships with female followers, among them an adherent whom he convinced to divorce her husband.

Three weeks after the national religious Srugim news site broke a story about an unnamed yeshiva head who had been asked to resign due to “personal entanglements,” Safed’s Chief Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu publicly identified the embroiled individual as Rabbi Shmuel Tal, the head of of the Torat HaChaim yeshiva as well as several other religious institutions in the central town of Yad Binyamin.

In his open letter referring to Tal, Eliyahu wrote: “I do not recommend that anyone learn any halacha (Jewish law) from him, nor seek any guidance from him. I do not recommend studying at his yeshiva or at his seminary for women or at his counseling academy.”

Rav Shmuel Tal

Eliyahu opened the letter saying that roughly four years ago, he learned about an improper relationship that Tal, 56, was having with a married woman, who had approached the Torat HaChaim leader seeking marriage counseling.

“I reached out to [Tal] and warned him against the forbidden relationship, the great desecration of God’s name that would come out of it as a result and against coaxing the woman to divorce her husband on the pretext that they are not compatible. He does not have permission to do so while he is having an illicit relationship with her. This is the definition of ‘stealing the poor man’s lamb,'” Eliyahu wrote, referring to the biblical fable cautioning against taking advantage of the weak.

Safed’s chief rabbi said that Tal refused to comply with his request and continued his contact with the woman, even successfully convincing her to divorce her husband. Tal told the woman that the “holy spirit” had informed him that his own wife, Yifat, would soon pass, after which he would marry her in Yifat’s stead.

According to Eliyahu, the still-alive Yifat rejected the subsequent proposal that Tal wed the female follower while remaining married to his first wife.

Upon learning that Tal was not going to marry her, the follower “understood the mistake she had made” and managed to remarry her ex-husband. At which point, however, Tal’s associates began spreading slander about her in the woman’s community, Eliyahu claimed.

“It became clear what was evident from the beginning, that what had caused the woman to separate from her husband was Rabbi Tal’s seduction,” he wrote.

After remarrying, the woman and her husband chose to sue Tal for damages. Eliyahu said that the Tals reached out to him for help reconciling between them and the remarried couple. Tal admitted wrongdoing and agreed to pay NIS 500,000 ($138,287) as reparations. At which point, Eliyahu wrote that he believed Tal had adequately repented and issued a private letter stating that Tal could continue leading Torat HaChaim.

Several days later, Eliyahu said he discovered that Tal had “unhealthy relationships” with other women, both married and unmarried. Moreover, he learned that Tal’s computer contained “obscene content” on it. “Therefore, I agreed with other rabbis from Torat HaChaim that he could no longer be the Rosh Yeshiva there.”

In consultations with Rabbi Asher Weiss — a prominent ultra-Orthodox rabbi whose rulings have been accepted by members in the national religious camp as well — Eliyahu said that it was decided that a special rabbinic court be assembled in order to rule on the allegations made against Tal.