Part 2 - The Second Haskala: BREAKING OUR MESORA FOR FAMILY LIFE AND REDUCING THE GROWTH OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE – A PLAN
This is the second topic in a series exposing those who wish to destroy the mesora of Klal Yisrael.
BS”D
(Please know that the following information is NOT “lashon hara”, as it relates to critical knowledge about someone who is trying to harm Klal Yisrael. It has been reviewed by a Rav who is familiar with the individual.)
BREAKING OUR MESORA FOR FAMILY LIFE AND REDUCING THE GROWTH OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE – A PLAN
Tragically, there is someone from “our own” who has made it his life’s mission to reform the family life of religious Jews, and decrease our population growth. How to have and continue a Jewish family - the family that has been the envy of nations for thousands of years - is part of the Mesora handed down from parent to child, since the Avos and Imahos. Now, we have someone who comes along to break the chain. He wants to replace the paradigm of the Bayis Ne’eman B’Yisrael with other hashkafos – “gutter hashkafos” from today’s universities, from the non-Jewish street, which is at its dirtiest since the Dor HaMabul. That is the template for the influence he is introducing.
The name of this person is Yitzchok Melber, and he presents to the frum world as a chassidishe “Rabbi” who has become an expert in helping women achieve ritual purity, if they face obstacles, and resolve other similar medical issues. In actuality, this is a screen for his agenda of normalizing and encouraging the use of birth control for everyone, and remodeling our home life to be more like that of the non-Jewish world.
Who is Yitzchok Melber, really, and how exactly does he work?
Note: Much of this information comes from an interview which Yitzchok Melber gave to the secular Israeli newspaper, Yisrael Hayom. The link is at the end of the article. Other information comes from Melber’s LinkedIn resume and from the European Journal of Contraception, where Melber’s input is acknowledged. A PDF which includes an excerpt from the journal is attached. The rest of our information comes from Rabbonim and askonim who have been investigating him. Multiple letters from Rabbonim regarding Melber’s duplicity and the danger he poses are attached below.
Swimming in foreign waters
Yitzchok Melber grew up as a Skvere Chassid, but traveled far from home ideologically. In 2007 he went to Bar Ilan University in Eretz Yisrael and studied “family, marriage, and fertility”, according to his LinkedIn resume. He also studied in the Kollel of Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu and received semicha from the Rabbanut. Afterwards, he was sent by Rabbi Pesach Lerner to Bellevue University (2009-2010) to study leadership and social change.
Gedolim recognize Melber as not Torah-true
About twelve years ago, Yitzchok Melber started giving a series of shiurim for the public on winter Motzaei Shabbosim in Yerushalayim, in Bais Yehoshua on Rechov Minchas Yitzchok. They were called Toras Hamishpacha, (as was the book he wrote), and they covered the most highly sensitive topics regarding fertility, complete with diagrams and pictures. The lectures were open for all men, (not just people encountering difficulties or those in specialized fields who had a need-to-know.) Melber presented himself as a talmid of Rav Aharon Dovid Neustadt, with the false claim that he had trained by him in Halachos regarding fertility treatments, and claimed that the shiurim were being given with Rav Neustadt’s haskama.
Melber also traveled around Eretz Yisroel lecturing, and at around the same time, he started paskening shailos. His shiurim and writings caused a big tumult, as it was very apparent that they were “off.” Very strongly worded letters were penned by the greatest people in Klal Yisrael against what Melber was doing, warning that it was forbidden to participate in his courses or read his materials. He was also asked to stop paskening shailos.
The first letter was in 5771, signed by leading Poskim in New York, including Rav Bick, Rav Chatzkel Roth, Rav Chaim Elazar Friedman (Tenker Rav), Rav Efraim Shimon Leichtag, Rav Yitzchok Stein (Faltishaner Rav), Rav Binyamin Zev Landau (Tosher Dayan), Rav Avraham Halberstam of Tartikov, Rav Gavriel Tzinner, Rav Yisrael Menacham Greenwald, Rav Yehoshua Rubin of Bobov, Rav Yosef Yisrael Eisenberger, and others. (It is very telling that Rav Yosef Yisrael Eisenberger told one of the askanim that I spoke to that he (the askan) has a duty to go around the world telling people the truth about Melber.)
The next letter was from the members of the Badatz Eida Hachareidis, with a particularly sharply worded addendum from the Gaon Av Beis Din, Rav Yitzchok Tuvia Weiss, and a third letter was from Rav Shmuel Halevi Vosner.
Rav Chaim Kanievsky and Rav Nissim Karelitz wrote a fourth letter together, in Shevat 5772, stating emphatically not to participate in the “Toras Hamishpacha” courses, not to read the materials – by whatever name they may be called - and not to listen to the shiurim. (See the letters below.)
Why were the Gedolim so horrified by what Melber was doing?
Among the very serious problems which were already apparent over a decade ago: 1) In his public talks, this 28 year-old was “paskening” flippantly on the most serious Halachic questions, which even the most senior and greatest Halachic experts would tremble to speak about publicly. Melber was treating these issues – involving kareis prohibitions - as if they were a simple question of reciting ya’ale v’yavo or not, saying “Some assir, some are matir.” In this way, he lowered the Yiraas HaCheit and the perceived gravity of the issues, making every listener think that now he too has the expertise and license to judge these grave Shailos for himself and his friends. 2) It was unclear (and still is) what respected poseik was taking responsibility for Melber’s Halachic pronouncements, which involve the most serious prohibitions in the Torah, and affect the kedusha of the doros and the yichus of Klal Yisrael. Apparently, it was, and is, none other than he himself. 3) Melber trampled on tznius by lecturing in an open public forum about topics of the highest sensitivity, which are meant to be taught privately, and showing shockingly inappropriate pictures. In his writings, he quoted straight from the internet sources, using unclean language.
In 5773, a yungerman came to Yerushalayim and was doing shimush by Rav Aharon Dovid Neustadt. He and his friends saw the disturbing lectures that Melber was putting on in Bais Yehoshua and came to Rav Neustadt, wondering whether he truly was endorsing them. The Rav was shocked. He said that Melber had only studied marehs by him, not fertility issues, and he was very upset that Melber was falsely using his name as an endorsement of his inappropriate lectures. (I spoke to this yungerman and he personally related the story to me.) Soon after the conversation with Rav Neustadt, the Toras Hamishpacha lectures stopped.
Melber lay low for a year or two, and then bounced back into business by changing the name of his activities from Toras Hamishpacha to Tahareinu. He even presented a letter in 5774 from Rav Yitzchok Tuvia Weiss, Av Bais Din of the Badatz, “recommending” his new organization. It is unclear whether the letter was simply forged, or whether Melber obtained it through false means, by not telling Rav Weiss his true identity. (It is quite easy for chesed organizations to get recommendations, by which they can raise money so that they can service the klal.) What we do know is that last spring, on Erev Rosh Chodesh Iyar 5782, when Rav Yitzchok Tuvia Weiss was still alive, the Badatz put out a new letter stressing that their warning against Melber is still in effect. Additionally, to avoid any possible confusion from the 5774 “recommendation” that Melber was advertising, on 16 Iyar, Rav Weiss’s gabbai, Rav Amrom Shapira, wrote the following: (letter is summarized here but original is attached below.) “Regarding the question about the advertisements of the organization Tahareinu (formerly called Toras Hamishpacha), which is publicized as if its activities are with the blessing and recommendation of Maran the Gaon Av Bais Din Shlita, I come to make aware that the facts are not correct, and already in 5772, Maran and the Chavrei HaBadatz (some of whom are no longer alive), came out with a clear warning to the Rabbonim of our kehilla about the activities of this organization. I was told to give over this message – it is obvious that there is no blessing or recommendation, and what is being publicized has no truth to it.”
Back then in 5774, when he was just starting Tahareinu, Melber succeeded in getting accepted into the community by skipping the men, and asking women to make fundraising parties in their homes for the new organization that was helping with staining issues. He learned to be a bit more careful to whom he says what, and this time he has managed to slip in through the cracks. Yitzchok Melber now travels the world lecturing to Rabbis and people of influence in frum society.
He even recently advertised himself again as a poseik. He uses it both ways: When it suits the need of the moment he is “a poseik”, but when he is confronted as to how he could pasken shailos, being that the Gedolim clearly felt that he was not worthy of that role, he denies it, and claims that he simply gives people information for them to take to their own Rav.
“Tahareinu” – a nightmare for Klal Yisrael
Under the umbrella of Tahareinu, Melber lectures to Rabbonim in major Jewish communities worldwide, and maintains a hotline which receives over a thousand calls a week, according to his website. While birth control is not the only topic of discussion, it is his passion and his purpose.
Some people may wonder what is wrong with birth control education, as there are certainly women who are obliged to use it for the sake of their health. This is a very important topic, and Be’ezras Hashem I hope to discuss it at length in another article. The short answer is that having children is the first mitzva in the Torah, and one of the most important ones. The Torah illustrates in numerous places the priceless value of every single child, the immense blessing that a large family is, and that a person should not refrain from having children even if he already has “fulfilled his obligation.” When someone needs to use birth control for a valid, serious health reason, it is a bide’eved. The question of permitting even a “permitted” form of birth control is a very serious question which must be weighed carefully by a senior Rav with the proper experience and judgement, who evaluates the woman’s individual situation carefully. What Melber is doing with his across-the-board birth control education and legitimization is no less than tearing down the mitzva of p’ru u’rvu.
The way things were, years ago, a few senior Rabbonim in each location who knew how to judge these questions with the proper seriousness, were the go-to Rabbonim for birth control questions. Now, every young beginner Rav, who has been “educated” by Melber, believes that he has the expertise to be mattir birth control. We are not only talking about situations of women who unquestionably cannot become pregnant because of serious health reasons, but about people who have simply been influenced by the non-Jewish street. An experienced Rav with the correct hashkafos would set them on the proper track. Instead, now, the army of young Melber-trained Rabbis are dispensing birth control like candy. The matzav is infinitely worse than it was ten years ago. Melber is wreaking destruction on our people by normalizing birth control and making it accessible to all. Even new couples are now being “given permission” to “wait a year or two.”
Melber is immensely proud of his Tahareinu hotline, where women can call and get guidance from women volunteers about a range of personal topics, including staining, infertility issues, medical problems interfering with married life, etc, and birth control. His website and the testimonials from the women who were helped to get to the mikve, or to conceive, look so beautiful. It appears that a very important need is being met. The problem is that while women and couples certainly need help with these things, the guidance needs to be from authentic Torah-true sources, not from a wolf in sheep’s clothing who is using this need in the community as a means to infiltrate and gain trust, for the sake of his agenda of remodeling our hashkafos and tamping down our population growth. Melber and his organization, with his treife ideologies, are the worst ones to be providing this assistance to the tzibbur. Once you understand who Melber is, you realize that the other types of guidance which Melber dispenses exist as a cover for his passion of introducing widespread use of contraception into every corner of the global frum community, and breaking our Mesora - changing our family life to be similar to that of the secular world.
While there are some older, ehrliche women that take calls on the Tahareinu hotline, there are other sorts as well. There is no Rav taking achrayus for the information and advice that the volunteers dispense. Based on guidance and know-how received from the hotline, there are women who are going onto birth control without even speaking to a Rav or discussing it with their husband.
Remember, every single child has the potential to have thousands of descendants within just five generations. And Melber is promoting birth control to our people on a wholesale basis. Who would take the achrayus to prevent millions of souls in Klal Yisrael from being born? The destruction of our people that this man is causing is unfathomable.
Subterfuge to engineer “social change”
In Melber’s interview with Yisrael Hayom, he boasts of using code words when speaking with Rabbonim, so as not to have them grasp his full meaning. For example, instead of “family planning”, which wouldn’t fly, he’ll say “child spacing” or “women’s health.” What he really means, though, is “reduce the birth rate.” His agenda for widespread birth control normalization in the frum community and reducing the number of children in a family is very clear when you see what he says to a non-chareidi audience. For example, in the Yisrael Hayom piece, Melber prides himself on his intentionally small 4-child family with generous spacing between offspring, saying, “Ani na’eh doresh v’na’eh mekayem” (I practice what I preach.) In the same interview, he muses with wonder at his success in getting into the most sheltered places to give his talks, for example, Meah Shearim. Using a Hebrew expression, he says, “It’s not that I stepped into a small niche; I stepped right on the soft belly.” While gushing writeups about Melber in frum newspapers may lead the unsuspecting to believe that his purpose is to help with fertility and tahara – as in “Taharienu” – his interview with the secular press makes it very clear that birth control is his true passion, as do the contraceptives prominently displayed on the table for the Yisrael Hayom photo shoot.
It is noteworthy that in his publicity over the last half a year or so, Melber started emphasizing his organization as a fertility-help address. Based on everything else that we know about him, it is clear that this is a decoy, an attempted shield from the backlash he’s getting as a result of his contraception agenda. Helping a hundred couples have a baby while pushing a thousand couples onto birth control results in a net loss of nine hundred babies to Klal Yisrael, while acting as a great cover for population reduction.
Collaboration with enemies of Hashem and shocking, harmful advice
The United Nations has a stated agenda of curbing population growth worldwide. It goes without saying that this is in direct contradiction to the ratzon of HKB”H and the whole spirit of the Torah, in addition to promotion of terrible aveiros, as they encourage abortion, etc. The entire UN agenda flows from a lack of belief in Hashem and trust that He has enough resources for all. The UN makes it clear in their “Sustainable Development Goals”that a critical path to the achievement of their aims is emphasis on “women’s health,” which means education about, and access to, birth control and abortion for all women. (See attached.) It is apparent that Yitzchok Melber has adopted as his own the UN agenda – that of Pharoah and of the enemies of Hashem throughout the ages, “pen yirbeh.”
On July 28, 2015, he sat in a Knesset meeting and testified about his organization, saying that their main purpose is to bring contraception to the chareidi population in a way that would be accepted by them. He even offered to help do the same for the religious Arab population.
The European Journal of Contraception and Reproductive Health Care partners with the UN on their population reduction goals. Yitzchok Melber is acknowledged for the information he provided on Jewish law in a European Journal of Contraception article (2016, Volume 21, Number 6) titled “Religion and family planning”, which discusses “permitted” forms of birth control in each religion. The goal of the piece is that medical providers may understand how to talk to members of each religion in culturally sensitive ways, in order that they will be more likely to adhere to the contraception discussed. Aside from the cataclysmic clash of the values promoted by the article with mitzvos and Torah goals, some of the recommendations listed - presumably with Melber’s approval - were particularly horrifying and ruinous to shalom bayis, such as abstinence chosen by the wife, or the woman delaying mikve in order to miss ovulation.
Melber’s newest partnership is a three-way between Tahareinu, the virulently anti-Torah Hadassa hospital, and the ultra-Modern Orthodox organization Mercaz Eden (The Eden Center.) Mercaz Eden is of the stream that encourages institutional Gemara learning for women, and women taking on Rabbinic-like roles not permitted in Halacha. Mercaz Eden trains mikva ladies in a new, “improved” style of service – they want to have the mikva ladies serving as social workers/”Rabbonim”, to look out for problems among women attending the mikva and offer guidance (undoubtedly, birth control chief among them.)
False claims and lies
About seven years ago – around 5775 – Melber traveled the world collecting recommendations for Tahareinu. Since he has the appearance of a respectable chassidishe yungerman, presents as a Talmid Chochom seeking to promote tahara and help with fertility, and knows what not to say to Rabbonim, he managed to collect many hamlatzos. He presented a whole collection of these recommendations on his website. However, it is critical to know that some of the letters were forged, and others are no longer in effect.
For example, Rav Menachem Mayer Weismandl in Monsey came out strongly protesting the forged haskama in his name. Rav Weismandl proved that Melber’s letter supposedly from him was fake, by demonstrating that in every real haskama he writes (except for kashrus), he quotes his father’s name. When Melber faked Rav Weismandl’s letter, he overlooked this detail.
When Melber came to Lakewood, he claimed that he had the approval of Rav Yaakov Forcheimer – but when Rav Forcheimer was approached about this, he said that he never even heard of Melber! This shameless sheker is a constant theme.
Other Rabbonim who previously endorsed him, before they understood who he really is, have publicly withdrawn their haskamos, yet Melber continues falsely telling the public that he has their support.
Melber was claiming that he had the haskama of the Forshay Rebbe in Monsey, Rav Chaim Leibish Rottenberg. Last year after Pesach, the Rebbe, who had the full documentation of Melber’s activities, requested that Melber come to his home, and questioned him in detail. Melber brazenly denied everything to Rav Rottenberg’s face, and even wrote down his false claims in his own handwriting. The Rebbe had the proofs to show him that he was lying, and Melber was backed into a corner. The conversation became heated, and when Melber walked out, he left on the table the lies that he had written, which Rav Rottenberg still has. Among the falsehoods Melber wrote were a list of ten Rabbonim whose support he claimed to have. Rav Chaim Leibish Rottenberg called these Rabbonim, and in nine out of ten cases, it was simply untrue, and they were not supporting Melber. One Rav indeed liked him but didn’t have any real awareness of his activities.
It is important to note that Rav Rottenberg made it clear to Melber during the meeting that he may not quote his name in support of Tahareinu, and Melber agreed, and indeed took the Rebbe’s name off his ads. But a few months later, he put it right back on!
About six months ago, Melber put out a propaganda booklet about Tahareinu. He mailed it to every Rav in the United States, (and likely also the UK and Eretz Yisrael.) It is full of recommendations of Rabbonim, many of which, from past experience, are likely to be forged. For the first time, he also stated publicly that there are five Rabbonim (from different areas worldwide) who oversee and who take responsibility that Tahareinu activities and guidance provided are according to Halacha. One of the askanim that I spoke with, (who has spent hundreds of hours investigating Melber), checked the truth of four out of the five claims of Rabbinical oversight, together with a friend, whom I spoke with as well. The responses they got were astonishing. None of the four Rabbonim they called were willing to take achrayus for Tahareinu’s activities.
Rav Yochanon Vosner, supposedly Tahareinu’s main Rav, said that he has not spoken to Melber in five years, so he certainly isn’t taking any achrayus for Tahareinu’s activities. Another Rav, Rav Neustadt of Yerushalayim, whom Melber claimed was taking achrayus for all the difficult shailos in Eretz Yisroel, thought Tahareinu is doing something good “because they help women with vestos” (menstrual problems), but he was shocked that they were involved in fertility treatments. He said “I haven’t spoken to Yitzchok Melber in two and a half years, so how could I be overseeing Tahareinu?” Now you understand how the deceit goes.
Even the UK Rav listed, who is a big fan of Melber’s, helped him build Tahareinu in England, and doesn’t want to hear a bad word about him, nevertheless said that it’s impossible for him to take responsibility for the goings-on at Tahareinu because he doesn’t know what they do.
If you are one of the many people who has only heard positive information about Melber until reading this article, now you understand why. He has a massive PR campaign of false haskamos.
Taking on Halachic roles he is unsuited for, disregard for Halacha, and degradation of Gedolim
Even years ago, when he was a yungerman, Yitzchok Melber was flippantly paskening extremely weighty questions, of the type which are reserved for the Gedolei Hador.
More recently, reports have come back to askonim from naïve couples who went to Melber for fertility help and were sent by him to do very Halachically questionable tests – the kind of things that are so problematic that they need to be discussed with senior poskim. Melber was machshil them by advising them to go for these procedures without mentioning that a Rav needed to be consulted – and the couples had no idea of the Halachic problems. The fertility organizations which do operate according to Halacha – Bonei Olam and ATime – would never do such a thing.
On his hotline, Tahareinu, he guides people in how to ask Halachic questions to Rabbonim in order to get the desired answer. It gets much worse though: Melber stated in his Yisrael Hayom interview that when Jewish people who are not religious call his hotline, he will guide them not according to Halacha. Shocking as this is, it may not surprise those who know him. People who attended his classes related that when he became Heimish with them, he started being mezalzel Gedolim, such as Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach and Rav Moshe Feinstein.
It is difficult to adequately express in words the danger that Yitzchok Melber poses to the Jewish people. He is passionate and driven to effect a societal transformation in Klal Yisroel, and arrogant, sly, and deceitful enough to pull it off undercover. He has studied intensely the phases of how societal change happens, and he is purposefully, ever-so-slowly, working to lead us through the steps. He is fearless and has no shame. Being uncovered as a fraud by some of the Rabbonim in a community does not stop him from arranging a seminar for Rabbonim in a nearby community – or even coming right back to the same city, brazenly using his forged endorsements over and over again. His chutzpa and his disdain for Yidden – his belief that he can “play” with us and fool us for the sake of his agenda – are breathtaking.
The last six months, Melber has started in earnest to advertise his classes for chassan and kalla teachers, and even for chassanim and kallahs themselves. His twisted hashkafos and “new” ruach from the “freie gas” are the last thing that our next generation needs as they start their bayis ne’eman b’yisrael.
May Hashem save us from his clutches.
(Note: Somehow, Melber - with his destructive agenda - has been scheduled to speak at this year’s Agudah pre-convention event for kallah teachers. Please do anything you can to alert the relevant decision makers about the danger.)
Attachments:
Someone has done a tremendous amount of work putting together documentation of Yitzchok Melber’s true activities. The PDF of the kuntres, called “Pen Yirbeh”, is attached at the end. It includes pictures of the Yisrael Hayom article and much, much more. I am including some pictures from it for those who cannot click to download. You can also send an email to therealmelber@gmail.com to receive it as a google drive document.
(Above is the European Journal of Contraception article which I mentioned. Not the entire article is included here. For the full article, see attachment at the end.)
Here is the Yisrael Hayom article link: https://www.israelhayom.co.il/article/485645
Kuntres “Pen Yirbeh” below:
European Journal of Contraception:
May HaKadosh Baruch Hu save our people from all the evil plans of our enemies and may Klal Yisrael be as numerous as the stars and the sand, b’karov b’yameinu.