Rishon L’Tzion Rabbi Yitzchak Yosef Shlita during his weekly motzei Shabbos shiur spoke of kovod for talmidei chachamim. He shared with the tzibur that a man approached him, explaining persons in Bnei Brak had paid him a sum of money to write against the Rav.
The Rav spoke of the severity of insulting a talmid chacham. Rav Yosef explains this person asked mechila for writing against him on the internet, adding “so and so paid me to do so, to write against you, and I am asking mechila”.
The rav explained his response. “I told him that in line with halacha, I should give you ‘nidui’ (a Cheirim) for insulting a talmid chacham and you did this publicly! Then you come and seek mechila? What kind of mechila is this? A talmid chacham does not have to be so forgiving, immediately. Let him come [and ask mechila] a number of times. Let him bow down and cry and after all this, perhaps I will be moichel him”.
The rav lamented the situation today in which one is willing to write insultingly against a talmid chacham for money, and then simply come and seek forgiveness.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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2 Responses
What or who is a talmid chacham?
Is a person who learnt all of shas a talmid chachum? a person who knows all of shulchan orech a talmid chacham?
If the person learns much but say foolish things does it take away from being a talmid chacham?
we need an article on what constitutes a talmid chacham and what is NOT….
I’m having some difficulty (not only due to the poor grammar) with this article. Somehow, I can’t see Rishon L’Tzion Rabbi Yitzchak Yosef Shlita referencing himself as a Talmid Chacham. He’s an Onov and would not likely use himself, in the context of this kind of a story, to teach a lesson. It’s likely that it happened with another Odom Godol. Perhaps the details were misconstrued in the translation.