Rabbi Kachlon is Av Beis Din Tzedek, Beis Din BeEzrat HaShem, Givat Shaul, Jerusalem
Video Link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVuOXgp4VbI
English Translation:
Good evening, my friends and beloved ones. With the help of Hashem, we shall do and succeed. With heavenly assistance, we are here with you for another Torah lesson on current events and Judaism, together with you into the night.
We need to discuss something new that has appeared and been publicized recently. I very much hope that you are not familiar with it, haven’t seen it, and don’t know about it — that it will be like ancient Chinese to you. But unfortunately, we must talk about it.
There is too much, too much satanic work here that has, sadly, succeeded. Let us explain what it is about.
From a Torah perspective, why did it bother me enough to make a lesson about it? Everyone knows the terrible phenomenon of igun (women being chained in marriage). Igun means a husband who refuses to give his wife a get (Jewish divorce), for whatever reason. This igun hurts the woman very badly. She cannot rebuild her life, cannot establish a new home in Israel. In most cases, the man also cannot remarry because of the cherem of Rabbeinu Gershom and the oath in the ketubah. But the main pressure is still placed on the husband: “You can release her, it’s in your hands — do it.”
When the husband doesn’t release her, there are various halachic measures, with God’s help, that we can discuss — when it is truly permissible according to Jewish law to pressure him to give the get. But there are some people, especially certain women lacking proper understanding, who suddenly “discovered America.” And this came specifically from America.
They call themselves Haredi women — that’s why we need to talk about it.
The New Phenomenon of Public Shaming
These so-called Haredi women decided to engage in public shaming on the internet. Until now, shaming usually meant filming a person, publicizing him, and calling him a me’agen (one who withholds a get). Sometimes this is justified according to halacha — there are ways to do it when a Beit Din sees fit, with rabbinic approval. But this new “shaming” is something completely different.
It is something entirely unlike anything you thought, heard, knew, or saw. These women who call themselves religious, Orthodox, Haredi, take a camera and film themselves in covered parts of their bodies. Each one — and the more the better, according to their foolish claim — uploads it to the internet with the tag and the campaign of that particular woman they are “helping.”
They sacrifice their own bodies in order to put pressure on the husbands. The husband suddenly sees a picture of his wife, God have mercy, exposed like a prostitute in various places — God have mercy. He is shocked. Then she says to him: “You know why I did this? To free that woman. Go do shaming on her husband.” He says, “What does this have to do with me? I don’t even know the husband.” This is happening in New York, Monsey, Lakewood — huge communities.
But why now? Why did you photograph yourself in such a way that even a prostitute wouldn’t photograph herself like that? “I’m participating in her pain.”
This is what they are doing. If it weren’t real, it would sound like a nightmare.
Previously they had another method — refusing to go to the mikveh to punish their husbands. That is also terrible. The Torah brings severe curses on such behavior; we won’t discuss that in this lesson. But we will discuss this new forbidden phenomenon.
They say: “We will violate a prohibition and do this.” As long as they were doing it as progressive feminists demanding “equality” — a man can walk in a shirt, so a woman can too — that’s one kind of madness. Those crazy progressives who say you can be a cat, a dog, a tangerine, marry a cucumber — whatever you want. That’s progressive stupidity. But now they are doing it in the name of Haredi Judaism, in the name of religion.
The Three Claims
Today someone came to me claiming they have proof — even three proofs.
- First proof: On ben Pelet’s wife uncovered her hair during the dispute with Korach to drive people away. We’ll look at that proof.
- Second: Esther the Queen exposed her body to save the Jewish people — so we too are saving the Jewish people.
- Third: Judith during the Hasmonean period exposed her body so they wouldn’t take women. So we too are doing it.
This is the twisted thinking of these women. And unfortunately, many men also join them — because the evil inclination works overtime when seeing immodest women. They support it: “Yes, yes, post another picture, another video — it’s a protest, it helps a lot!”
My friends, it is difficult to speak about such a topic, but we have no choice.
This prohibition comes from the verse: “Let there not be seen in you any nakedness” (Devarim 23:15). The Gemara in Berachot 25b says that even ervah b’ashashit (nakedness through a glass) — meaning a picture of a woman on a screen or in a video — is considered ervah b’ashashit. Maran Harav Ovadia Yosef and all the poskim rule that if there is immodest content on television, one may not recite the Shema in front of it. Even though you’re not seeing the actual nakedness, only its reflection, it is still forbidden because it causes arousal.
Yet these people come and say: “We will expose our bodies in order to fix the world.” They are violating “Let there not be seen in you any nakedness.”
At a time when the Jewish people are under siege and distress, these so-called righteous Haredi women decide to break through the fences. I thought about it and found their true source and rabbi — the one who teaches them how to destroy the world and influence public opinion in this way.
Their rabbi is Balaam.
The Gemara in Sanhedrin 106a brings the verse from Parshat Balak. After Balaam failed to curse the Jewish people and instead blessed them, he said he has advice for Balak on how to harm them in the end of days. The advice was to set up tents with prostitutes — old women outside, young girls inside — selling linen clothes (which the Jews lacked in the desert). This led to the sin with the daughters of Midian.
The Gemara says that at the time of the sin of Peor, the women came out naked. This is where these women got the idea from — from Balaam the wicked. They decided to do even more than Balaam and Balak: expose everything on the internet for all the nations to see “Haredi” girls (who are not Haredi at all).
True chareidim are mentioned twice in Tanach — those who tremble at the word of God and keep His mitzvot. These women are not trembling at God’s word — they are trembling for their ego, their honor, and their Satan.
Refuting the Proofs
Now let’s address their “proofs” one by one.
First proof — On ben Pelet’s wife:
According to Rashi, she sat inside the entrance of the tent and combed her hair so that the people coming to call her husband would see her and, being modest and holy men, would not enter. She did not expose her body publicly. She acted with wisdom from within the house. “The wisdom of women builds her house” — she did not post on the internet or expose covered parts.
Second proof — Esther the Queen:
She was taken by force. The only time she seemingly went willingly was for the salvation of the entire Jewish people. We will soon see what really happened there.
Before that, after Esther was taken, the holy Zohar says twice — once in Zohar Part 3, page 276a, and once in Tikkunei Zohar, Tikkun 21, page 58a — that Mordechai actually sent a spirit in the form of Esther. Esther herself did not go to Achashverosh at all. Therefore, she was not truly defiled, not even with Mordechai. As the Gemara says in Tractate Megillah 13b: “She was not defiled.”
This teaches us that up until now, there was no prohibition involved at all. She was taken by force, and even then it was a spirit that Mordechai sent in her place. She said to him: “Just as I was orphaned from my father’s house…” and so on.
What happened there? Rabbeinu the Maharik (Rabbi Yosef Colon) has a famous question on this. Listen carefully.
The question is: If a woman was in some group of people fleeing from place to place, and a robber, an enemy, came and in order to prevent him from killing everyone, she sacrificed herself — is this considered a merit for her husband or not?
The Maharik answers: Bring me a proof from Esther. Because Esther’s case was different — it was by the Holy Spirit, by the command of the leader of the generation, through prophecy.
The proof is that the Gemara in Megillah says Esther had the Holy Spirit. How could she go and commit such a transgression if she had the Holy Spirit? This teaches us that there is no proof from Esther for ordinary cases.
Therefore, any woman today who says “I will go sleep with Muhammad Jihad to save the Jewish people” or “I’ll go with so-and-so so they won’t throw stones” — no, that’s not correct. You are not a posek (halachic authority) for yourself.
So once again, this proof they bring is not even nonsense — it’s completely invalid.
The third proof they bring is the story of Judith, from Otzar HaMidrashim:
Let’s see what happened with Judith. I will read to you from Otzar HaMidrashim, Eisenstein, Chanukah, page 192:
“The Rabbis taught: In the kingdom of the wicked Greeks, they decreed upon Israel that anyone who had a door in his house must write on it that he has no share in the God of Israel. And they further decreed that whoever marries a woman, the governor must be the first one to be with her. The first one to be with her would be that wicked gentile, and only afterwards could she return to her husband. They practiced this for three years and eight months.”
Many people got married during those years, but they had no choice — that was the law.
Until they came to take the daughter of Yochanan the High Priest. When they wanted to bring her to the governor, they understood they had no choice. She removed her head covering, tore her clothes, and stood naked in front of the people. Immediately, Judah and his brothers became filled with rage at her and said: “Take her out to be burned!”
The matter became known to the kingdom because it endangered lives. Meaning, she had the audacity to stand naked in front of the entire people. They wanted to sentence her to death by burning. Even though according to strict law a woman who goes around naked does not deserve to be burned, they said such chutzpah cannot be tolerated.
She then said to Judah Maccabee: “Wait a minute. Here I am standing naked before you — people who know me — and you are so angry that I exposed myself. Yet you agree to send me to the governor, to be humiliated before that unclean and impure man, to lie with him?”
When Judah and his friends heard this, they consulted together and decided to kill the governor. They carried out the whole plan — they got to him, she entered, they cut off his head, and dealt with him as he deserved.
What does it say here? For three years and eight months, Jewish daughters were being raped one after another. She understood that this was the only thing that would awaken them. And even after she did this, they still wanted to burn her.
Do you understand what the result is when a woman shows what should not be shown? This is what Judah the Maccabee ruled.
And you are comparing that to what you are doing today with your narrow minds? Maybe because husbands aren’t giving you enough money, or because according to halacha the husband has to give the get — from now on you should walk around naked in the streets? Or maybe from now on you want to decide that the wife gives the get to the husband? What kind of Haredi women are you?
Maybe some of you will protest that it’s forbidden to drive on Shabbat by exposing all kinds of strange body parts, because “there’s nothing else to do.”
A Lesson From Rabbi Avigdor Miller zt”l
I want to tell you something I heard from one of the students of Rabbi Avigdor Miller zt”l, a true tzaddik. This is exactly what I have to say to those women who call themselves Haredi:
Once, an immodest woman entered the beit midrash of Rabbi Avigdor Miller in a very brazen way. She apparently came to make provocations. Rabbi Victor Miller (as he was known in America) was a unique figure in American Jewry — called the Chazon Ish or Chofetz Chaim of America. Despite all the American culture, he succeeded in raising a generation of wise, Torah-loving scholars.
She entered very impudently. Rabbi Miller turned to his students and said: “Go tell the cow to cover her udders.”
Today if a rabbi would say such a sentence, the whole internet would explode — “the rabbi compared her to a cow!” Yes, she is a cow — and worse than a cow. A cow is born that way. She remained like a donkey without understanding that she needs to cover certain things.
If you are not ashamed to expose yourself, it is a sign that you have lost your mind. And if you have lost your mind, you are truly like an animal — even less than that. “The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master’s crib; but Israel does not know, My people do not understand.”
The Halachic Solution
So people will say: “Okay, but what should we do? How can we force those husbands to give a get?”
There is a solution for this according to halacha. The Rambam in Hilchot Gittin, Chapter 2, Halacha 20:
“If the law requires that we force him to divorce his wife and he refuses, the Jewish court in every place and at every time may beat him until he says ‘I want to’ and writes the get — and the get is valid. Similarly, if gentiles pressure him and say ‘do what the Jews tell you,’ and they beat him through the gentiles until he divorces — the get is valid.”
The Rambam explains that the Jewish soul always wants to do the right thing. After the pressure and the beating, the evil inclination leaves, and the inner will remains. Therefore it is not considered a “forced get” in a forbidden way.
However, there are cases where it is considered a forced get (and invalid). Today this has become a big problem. Some people make false and terrible accusations against the husband that are not in accordance with halacha. This leads to get me’useh (forced divorce), and the children born from such unions are mamzerim.
What kind of Haredi woman are you that you go and marry four mamzerim in Israel?
This is the terrible destruction we see today: everyone takes it upon themselves in the name of “da’at Torah” to create a new religion, new fixes, and new ideas. This is the greatest destruction and ruin of the Torah.
If you want to do something in your own name — go ahead. But when you do it in the name of Torah and falsely attribute it to the Torah — oy vavoy! This is falsehood. Sheker! Sheker! Sheker!
Writing by Dr. Dannielle Blumenthal 