Halevi,
My point isn’t if the Rabbonim can be blamed. I would never presume to judge any Jewish leader in Europe at that time, Secular or Religious. The discussion here is if it is necessarily smarter to listen to someone because they have “Daas Torah” and what meaning and value the term even has. From the example I brought above it would seem that blindly listening to “Daas Torah” is not always the smartest thing to do. That’s all. I would never be so arrogant as to actually judge them as human beings