One of the most fascinating laws that we are instructed on in the Torah is that of Eglah Arufa. I believe that this halachah is there to teach us that at the end of the day the rabbonim and leaders are responsible for the communities well being. It teaches that they need to take personal responsibility for the actions and missteps of their respective communities and above all it teaches that Rabbonim, like you and I are fallible and make mistakes, and they therefore every so often need to go in front of the community and say “Kaper Nah”.

Although we do not, unfortunately, today have the method of korbanos that the leaders can use we still have T’shuva. It is still possible for our rabbonim and leaders to get up in front of their communities and declare “Kaper Nah”, we have erred, we have made mistakes, we allowed certain actions to take place in our communities which we should not have and we now humbly stand before you, our community, and we not only ask mechilah but we admit guilt. The torah gives our leaders the tools to make a mends with their community. In recent years, the most public act that I witnessed and that I can remember of “Kaper Nah” was when Rabbi Willig got up in front of a packed YU Beis Medrash and admitted that mistakes were made by the rabbonim in the handling of the Lanner affair. He did not try to push the blame off on anyone else but admitted guilt and as a result at the end of the day truthfulness won the day and everyone was able to move beyond this terrible embarrassing episode for our community, but move on knowing that in the end our rabbonim did the right thing and admitted their mistakes and did not try to hide from them.

Over the last few years it seems that many rabbonim, both in and out of our circles, have steered off course and have come to believe that protecting the institution and fellow rabbonim, even when they are clearly wrong and have erred, is more important than protecting and safeguarding what we know to be right and true. I have spent my entire life surrounded by rabbonim. I have many uncles and cousins that are rabbonim, and in fact, my own brother chose to become a Rav and a communal leader (he is one of the good guys). I have also, as have many of us, had interactions in my schooling, communal and personal life with many rabbonim. Generally speaking the actions of the rabbonim I have been associated with have been honest, straight forward and good, however I also had far too many interactions that left such a bad taste in my mouth that it left me wondering if some of these people understood their responsibility to the community or were they just interested in protecting their own egos and those of their friends and cronies.

YOU are the leaders of the community, and as such you have an obligation to put all personal interests and egos aside and deal with the community in a straight forward and honest way with no ulterior motives. YOU are supposed to be our leaders, YOU are supposed to be the people we look up to to teach us, how then, can so many of you be so off the mark? How can so many of you choose to protect each other at the expense of what is right in general and what is right for the broader Jewish community? At what point do we, the people become so disenfranchised by the actions of our community leaders that we say dayenu AND DEMAND they take responsibility for their short comings and the mistakes that they as a group made?

Don’t get me wrong, there are many, many good honest and decent rabbonim that are true communal leaders that put their responsibility as a leader before all else and that hold themselves to higher standards. But there are also too many that too often put too many things before protecting what is right. They hide behind “daas torah” and as a result have corrupted the meaning of it. They protect the reputation of other rabbonim and defend the indefensible.
But all as not lost. I believe it is time we respectfully request these rabbonim to follow the formula the torah has laid out for you. Yes, errors have been made, but it’s not too late for you to get up and say “Kaper Nah”.