Rav Shmuel Eliyahu Explains his Psak Against Chaim Walder

 

The following Teshuva was posted on the Facebook page of Rav Shmuel Eliyahu, explaining his Bais Din’s psak against Chaim Walder:

Question: How was the Bais Din allowed to establish Chaim Walder’s guilt without hearing directly from the accused? Especially since they paskened (with certainty) that he was guilty?

1. The Halacha requires us as Rabbanim to act against people who defile Bais Yisrael. This involvement is not done with conventional parameters of Bais Din and we are not required to accept testimony before the defendant. Even more so when he regularly threatened women and they feared him.
2. Despite this, we checked, investigated and questioned thoroughly. Witnesses testified that he committed adultery with married women for many years and they were forced to divorce because they were prohibited from their husbands. We saw rulings from other Batei Din about these issues and supported the findings with additional unanimous evidence. In addition, we heard recordings in his own voice that attest to serious immoral acts, and we found him guilty without a doubt.
3. Although it was clear to him that he was destroying homes, and causing Jewish families to be hurt and become tamei, he continued this behavior without stopping for a moment. We heard testimonies about 22 women and girls whom he assaulted, and there is no doubt that these cases are just a small fraction of the evil that he did.
4. The Torah teaches us to treat Walder’s actions iwith the same severity as if it was murder. “For as a man will stand up against another man and murder him so is this thing.” Such acts bring anger upon Klal Yisrael, evil decrees, and prevent our prayers from being heard.
5. According to Halacha we are allowed to publicly lash him, threaten him, and humiliate him. We may remove him from being a shliach tzibbur and stop him from teaching Jewish children. In addition to many other things that are not customary today.
6. We don’t do these things [nowadays], but we are still obligated to stop him. If we don’t warn the public about his actions and he continues, the blame will be on us, chalilah. Due to the great responsibility on us to stop this [behavior] from happening in the future, we were forced to stop these abominations.
7. We called upon Walder to take upon himself a path of teshuva. We sent people to convince him to repent, in order to prevent a huge Chilul Hashem when his actions became public. Instead of repenting, he chose to threaten us through his messengers, just as they tried to threaten Rav Yehuda Silman shlit”a who paskened that people to remove Walder’s books from their homes. It’s a pity that he doesn’t (didn’t) surrender and follow a path of teshuva.