The affair of Haim Velder and the order to remove his books from the houses caused a great deal of controversy in the religious sector, where in recent weeks they have wondered whether any work whose author was corrupt should be removed from the house.
Lewis Carroll, author of the book Alice in Wonderland, was allegedly a pedophile, and Richard Wagner was a well-known anti-Semite, whose music was very popular with the Nazis.
To this end, we turned to the rabbis who would put the instructions in order.
Rabbi Shlomo Aviner says that a distinction must be made between a person who influences us or is acceptable in our eyes to an ancient creator whose figure does not interest any person.
"The melody of the song Maoz Tzur that we all sing on Hanukkah is from a clear ecclesiastical source. So what? Shall we say that we are all Christians? That we all give status to the church? It is clear that no, it does not interest any of us.
"So what's the principle in the field? There are two basic principles: that we are not influenced by the negative author and do not give him status. So if Shakespeare was antisemitic or if Dickens was antisemitic (and by the way he became a lover of Jews at the end of his life) "Anti-Semites and we do not support their anti-Semitism at all, we do not know this and we are not interested."
"Therefore there is a separation between the creator and his work and this is the point in music in painting and in general, once the work stands on its own and is no longer in the context of the creator then we do not glorify his position and do not support it. Rabbi Aviner.
"Of course with regard to contemporary artists, so if they are influential or have status, it is not appropriate to hold the work, usually this is of course not the case because the author himself is not interested in us at all and we do not have a situation that strengthens him. What to do with his books and in the meantime put them aside and if it is decided not to read them then shelve the books. "
Rabbi David Satyu, chairman of the Tzohar rabbis, explains that there is a difference between the creator and his works.
That is, we often learn both in science and in art things from vicious, antisemitic and disturbed people.
Therefore I do not think that a book should be taken out of the house, there are also rabbis from whom I will not learn Torah or see exemplary people, but they have good and beautiful ideas in books, and I did not take their books out of the house even when they were very badly published.
This, of course, along with a huge condemnation of the person for his corrupt qualities and the vulnerability he committed. "
Rabbi David Satyu, Photo: Yehonatan Shaul
"After all, if we start publishing the books there is no end in sight, we will have to publish a lot of works of the world, and we will go bald from here and there. "I feel an influence from music or a number so he will certainly not learn from it, but these are people with very great mental delicacy and it is irrelevant to most of the public.
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