Rabbi Shlomo Halevi, rabbi of the city of Burgos in northern Spain, converted to Christianity with his five children at the end of the 14th century following a pogrom against the Jews of his city.
Eventually, Rabbi Halevi became Bishop of Burgos and changed his name to Pablo de Santa Maria.
The extensive responsa literature (halakhic questions and answers) left behind by the rabbi-bishop was set on fire by the Jews of Spain and no trace of it remains.
Nadav Shragai on the moral test of book publishing in the Chaim Velder affair
The author Hayuta Deutsch, who together with the researcher Dr. Yaakov Jacobson recently wrote the book "The Rabbi's Wife, the Bishop's Wife", is ambivalent about the burning of Shlomo Halevi-Pablo de Santa Maria's books. Shalev - "I'm dying to know what was in them," she says. But as a woman who keeps the commandments, she understands the erasure of the books of "he who betrayed his Judaism and converted to Christianity. On Christianity, a tear is torn. He is as if dead. And a dead link comes out of the chain," she says.
Deutsch recalled this week the fate of the converted rabbi's halakhic books, following another, different debate over the confiscation of the children's author Haim Velder's books.
Velder put an end to his life following the publication of evidence that he sexually abused women, girls and boys.
The story of his victims drew with him a secondary, but very practical, argument: How should the works of scribed writers, poets, rabbis, and artists be treated?
Is their creation an independent entity?
Is it at all possible to separate the offending creator from his work, and is it right to do so or should these works be shelved and confiscated?
"Do not give presence to offensive creators."
Rabbi Bnei Lau, Photo: Gideon Markowitz
Deutsch came out this week against censorship and said that alongside the anger over Velder, the discussion about his books made her feel uncomfortable. In a post that drew many responses, she wrote: "I oppose a sweeping boycott, and demand the freedom of reading and especially the freedom to choose. I do not like being restricted or imprisoned in any way. I understand the need to limit by age and agree. It is temporary, but Less agrees to limit according to the author's biography. "
Deutsch quotes writer Ayn Rand who once said: "My life is the end of a spray, and I mean them seriously." "Velder's life," she says, "had no end to his books and he did not mean them seriously. I suppose such a contradiction lies behind some writers. Literature for me is ex-territory and I do not want to involve declarative and political acts in it. I will understand people who do not. "But for me, yes."
She advises brave parents to tell their children, "Look, this book is good / bad / mediocre and its author was a bad and problematic person. Decide for yourself whether to read what he wrote. Choose." In Deutsch's view, "the work can be separated from the creator: there was a dark side to Walder's soul that I very much regret, but when I met him 20 years ago at his 'Order of Reconciliation' event, I met a nice man who I do not think lied when he wrote his good things. .
"I will not boycott Eyal Golan's songs or films by Moshe Ivgi or books by Velder, and if I have the chance," she clarifies, "I will probably read and listen and watch. My choice. On the other hand - if I hear that the grocery store in my locality has decided not to put Haaretz in the store, I'm going to subscribe to the newspaper. Do not censor me. Let me choose. A political act. "
"Every person must and is entitled"
The author Haim Beer, professor of literature at Ben-Gurion University, distinguishes between books and works for adults, whose role is not education but sharing experience, and books and works that aim to impart values and educate.
Beer mentions that Caravaggio was a painter and murderer, "and to this day we enjoy his paintings and consider him one of the greatest painters of all generations. Dostoevsky and Chopin were antisemitic, which is a kind of crime, and we happily consume their works. The French writer Jean Jean also Was a criminal in the underworld.When it comes to an act or work of art that has no educational pretension - I would not disqualify or examine tassels.Aman is an artist and many of the artists are suspected of incest, adultery and other sins and ugly things.
Everyone chooses their art.
Moshe Ivgi, Photo: Coco
"My difficulty with composers and writers who have gone astray," explains Beer, "begins when it comes to works that seek to impart values and morals. In these - the test is not just professional, quality, literary or musical. Presents to children a book written by a person who has established or accumulated evidence against him for crime and sin, as I was not prepared to hear from Rabbi Shechata and Crime. "From hearing lessons and words of halakhah from his mouth, and I would not bring his 'Azure Mordechai' into my house either.
Beer opposes "burning books and confiscating books, both because of the book's honor and because every person is both obligated and entitled."
He clarifies that he did not know Haim Velder and his books, but to his children and grandchildren he would "choose to give books whose authors have the presumption of innocence not only legally but morally and that they have the power of 'sanity'. If I had Velder's books - I would not take them out "But I would keep them modest and try not to stand out. My heart aches for the victims of Walder and also for the man and his family."
How did you react to Galia Oz's publications about her father, the writer Amos Oz, who allegedly beat, cursed and humiliated her?
Beer: "I do not know what was there but even after reading her words, my opinion of him and my emotional relationship to him and his books did not change."
Without Carlebach tunes
“ "Our initial commitment is to the victims, not to the works of the perpetrators."
Commitment - In what way?
Lau: "In a way that I will not quote in the lessons of things of such people. I will not hurt the victims a second time. Think of a person who fell victim to such a figure. A rabbi stands in the synagogue, with the victim sitting in it, I'm hurting him again. "
Is this also true for writers?
Lau: "Yes. As long as the victims are not a distant memory; as long as they live among us - I will not give a presence on the bookshelf in my house to offending authors. My attitude to them and their products is: Be respectful and return to your homes. You and your works from my home. I make sure not to hear music by Eyal Golan, because he hit and polluted the air. I really liked Rabbi Motti Alon's lessons, but I no longer hear recordings of his lessons, because some people were hurt by him. , But the principle is the same principle.
"Caravaggio was a painter and a murderer. Dostoevsky and Chopin were anti-Semites and Jeanne was a criminal."
Haim Beer, Photo: Arik Sultan
"If you come to me praying in the synagogue and tell me, as many testimonies have often been published, that she is one of the victims of the well-known composer and musician Shlomo Carlebach - then first of all I will be sensitive to the victim.
In the world of Torah, Lau clarifies, "the expectation is even higher. I believe that a person who writes Torah is somehow connected to Mount Sinai, and when his Torah becomes polluted it should be shelved."
Stash works? forever?
Lau: "Not necessarily. Years pass, generations pass, and people who have experienced the injury and their sons and grandsons leave the world, and then you begin to judge the work and not the creator. The ability to distinguish between the creator and the work from the years is possible. The Gemara brings us a story about one sage who had very bad rumors about him, and in the Beit Midrash they debated whether to study his Torah. "That the Torah should be flawless, and that if there is a bad rumor about a wise student, then one does not study his Torah."
The Gemara also tells us about Elisha son of Abijah, who became a heretic and a friend of the Romans and yet learned from him.
Lau: "Ben Aboyah was a heretic who harmed the honor of heaven. We do not know that he harmed human beings, but his story really presents a second side. About Rabbi Meir who was a disciple of Ben Aboyah it is said: "Relative - the ability to differentiate between the 'inside' and the 'shell.' This is a high level of filtering ability."
A few decades ago, Lau says, Rabbi Moshe Feinstein was asked about a great musician who wrote sacred songs, and a rumor spread that he was doing deeds that would not be done.
The question was is it permissible to listen to his melodies and sing them?
"Rabbi Feinstein replied that in principle, the works may have been created at a time when man was pure and pure; at a time when man was connected to his inner and clean point, and the perversion came later, from another place.
However, Lau clarifies that in his opinion, "as long as the victims of the creator live among us, then we are in the fence: 'Open your mouth to the mute' - I should be here to the mute.
Is this true only when it comes to the works of rabbis or even when it comes to the works of those who are not observant?
Lau: "From a creative person who does not come from worlds of Torah I expect cleanliness, morality, fairness and good values, but when it comes to a Torah creator and a Torah work, I expect much more. I expect an 'angel of the Lord of hosts', as quoted in our sources.
"And anyway," Lau emphasizes, "time is a significant factor. In our generation it is still difficult for many people to hear works by the Nazi musician Richard Wagner. I imagine the next generation will be much duller to this. You must remember like me that for years, there was a whole movement that did not consume German made. In our house, even a nail made in Germany would not come in. Today it is almost non-existent. Time passes. Boycotts change. There was once a decree that a Jew did not step on Spanish soil who murdered and tortured and deported Jews. "Rabbi Meir knew how to do - 'he ate inside, threw away his shell' - we, the ordinary people, need the distance of time for him."
Bestselling has stopped printing.
Moti Alon, Photo: Yoav Ari Dodkevitz
The power of the market
In New York, Haim Velder's books have already been taken off store shelves.
Will this happen in Israel as well?
Will book publishers, editors and publishers take off the shelves books written by writers who have sinned and sinned?
Ilai Meltzer, publisher of the "Attic Books" publishing house, says that if it turns out that one of the authors whose books he publishes and distributes, he is raped - he will withdraw his books from the stores and of course stop printing them, even if his work is miraculous and if he loses money. .
Meltzer points out, however, that when it comes to marvelous works whose creators are no longer among the living, and in fact the work has disengaged from the creator, let's say Dostoevsky's sin and punishment, and suddenly dark details of Dostoevsky's past 160 years ago will be revealed. .
"Some people will not listen today to Frank Sinatra, who was a terrible man," Meltzer explains. "I myself do not watch films by Roman Polanski who was convicted of rape. In his house.
"There is a wide gray area, where I will exercise discretion and moral judgment," says Meltzer. And significant. "
Shimon Abutbul is the publisher of the Beit El Library, which previously published Rabbi Moti Alon's books.
"In the past there was less expectation of moral behavior."
Orna Landau, Photo: Hila Shiloni
Aboutball believes that the question of whether to take a book off the shelf depends on the type of offense and the certainty of its commission by the author.
"In the case of Rabbi Alon," he recalls, "we completely stopped marketing and printing his books, but after a while, after his story went off the headlines, we were able to sell the few copies we had left. On the part of Rabbi Chaim Druckman, who then strengthened Moti Alon and even brought him to the Or Etzion Yeshiva, so that he could teach there.
"In any case," says Abutbul, "we did not print any more editions, even though before the affair was published, 'Azure Mordechai' was a huge bestseller.
According to Abutbul what determines is the market test.
"I know that the followers close to Alon tried to publish his writings even after the affair exploded. It was very difficult for them to market it to the public. In principle, in my opinion the work can not be separated from the writer who wrote it, certainly in books with a moral spiritual message."
Between the legal and the moral
Like the waiter, Orna Landau, a writer and publisher at Shatayim Publishing House, a former head of the translated literature section at the Kinneret-Zmora-Dvir publishing house, defines the question of removing off the shelf of offending books and works by offending authors and writers as a complex question.
"It's not always black and white," Landau explains. "The first is a distinction between the legal and the moral plane. When, according to the legal test, it is a person who has deviated - it is much easier to say that we are not interested in publishing his works."
And when it comes to the moral test?
Landau: "The name of the matter is more complex, because to a large extent the judgment is individual. Should a poet or writer against whom accusations were published - even if he did not stand trial - receive the Israel Prize or light a beacon on Independence Day? No. There are enough artists who donated and did not injure souls along the way "In immoral behavior, which can be given the honor. Should such a person's book of songs be taken off the shelves and shredded? I would also answer in the negative."
However, when asked if she would consider publishing a book by an author accused of harassment or serial harm, Landau emphatically answers "yes." She will exercise her moral judgment, because "we are all judges of ourselves.
I do not need the state for you to tell me whether handsome or not handsome what someone did.
Even if a person does not stand trial - if I have a basis to think that there is a moral defect in his act, still, as "lit, I will exercise the moral judgment".
A false expectation of cleanliness and morality.
Haim Velder,
Landau says a manuscript of a writer accused of harassment and sexual assault has only recently reached her, for two publishers.
"I read the material. If it had been a masterpiece, I might still have considered publishing it, but I was spared this deliberation, as it was not a very fine manuscript. I exercised moral judgment."
Bottom line - can the offending creator be separated from the work?
Landau: "At least in some cases - it is possible. Suppose there is a wonderful work, and years after it was created, it turned out that the creator sinned and hurt - in my opinion it would be puzzling if he was invited to lecture, demand in synagogues or speak at conferences. This offending person is wrong, ".
And what about the victims? Are you not hurting them again, when you are not removing the offending books from the shelf?
Landau: "I understand the sensitivity, but it has no end. There is the legal test I talked about and there is the normative test, where we differ from each other. I actually see the practice of the normative test as an excellent thing. In the past, the main question was whether a person was convicted Or not convicted. There was less expectation of moral conduct. The very expectation and prosecution that is intensifying now is important to me. It's important when it comes to public leaders and it's important when it comes to creators and writers. "He will ensure, even if not perfectly, that before they act and behave improperly, the fear of condemnation will also nest in their minds."
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