Ha’azinu: Torah Giants Across the Entire Spectrum Ruled

For a long time we heard from the attorneys of the holy Tzaddik Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a that the accusations against him are baseless, and that they were going to prove this in court—so why did you come to a plea bargain?! This question, which has been occupying many people in recent days, was put to attorney Meir Cohen, the architect behind the plea bargain.

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"Because of my past work in the State Attorney’s Office, many of the Torah giants of Israel from across the entire spectrum—Chassidim, Litvaks, Sephardim and Ashkenazim—approached me and demanded that we get the Rav shlit"a out of this Gehinnom as quickly as possible. The Rav shlit"a accepted upon himself the decree of the Torah giants of Israel, after they ruled that he must return and lead his community, but it did not happen immediately."

"We visited the Rav shlit"a in his cell a number of times and told him about the decree of the Torah giants of Israel, but the Rav insisted that he is innocent and that he did nothing. After we returned again and again with rulings from additional Torah giants of Israel, the Rav shlit"a finally agreed to admit to marginal, minor matters—despite the fact that it is clear to him that he is not guilty. The Rav must return to his community; we are speaking here about thousands who are constantly like sheep without a shepherd."

"The indictment that was filed now after the plea bargain is completely different; the clauses are entirely minor—truly tiny. By contrast, if there had been no plea bargain, they would have kept the Rav shlit"a detained until the end of proceedings. The trial could have gone on for 11 months and more, in addition to all the many months they already imprisoned him inside. Things could have dragged on and on, and in the meantime the Rav would have been sitting inside at his advanced age and with his difficult health condition."

"The only reason we reached a plea bargain is the Rav’s detention in the remand facility. If the Rav had been outside, we would have conducted the trial to its conclusion and proven the Rav shlit"a’s innocence. This is the prosecution’s method: to keep the defendant detained until the end of proceedings, and meanwhile to try to break his spirit and not allow him to reach a just trial."

The interview is courtesy of the information line: 02-800-8800; from the USA: 18456400007; from England: 442038073333