ליקוטי מוהר''ן חלק א סימן כ''ח
כי תלמידי חכמים שדין יהודאין הם מקבלים תורתם מהשדין שיש להם תורה נפולה מאלפין נפולים ובאלפין אלו כתיב בשלמה :"וידבר שלשת אלפים משל ויהי שירו חמישה ואלף", כי שלמה זכה להם בקדושה, אבל תלמידי חכמים שדין יהודאין מקבלים מהם דרך הקליפות
Likutai Moharan Vol I:28
"For Torah scholars, that are demons, receive their Torah lessons from the demons who have a fallen Torah from the fallen letters of "א" ("Aleph"). And on these fallen letters it says by King Solomon, 'He spoke 3000 parables, and his song was 1005.' For King Solomon merited to them in holiness, but Torah scholars, that are demons, receive them by way of the kelipot [the dark side]."
Later on in Likutai Moharan Volume I: 61, Rav Nahman goes into detail about the problem of "Semicha" ordination --that is when these Torah scholars that are demons receive from each other ordination.
"These Torah scholars that are demons can not guide themselves, much less so anyone else. And they take honor for themselves to claim to be able to lead everyone. It is important not to give them honor or power or ordination. The Torah scholars that are demons themselves are not all that guilty since they have a strong evil inclination. But those that give them ordination will have to answer for their crimes in the future." [Likutai Moharan Volume I: 61] [Here Rav Nahman is mentioning not just the problem with demonic Torah scholars, but also the problem of giving them power. In the last Tora lesson that Rav Nahman ever said in his life II:8 he also brings this up and also in II:1. There is says that these demonic Torah scholars are the cause of all sexual sin-because they bring that kelipa [evil force] into the world.]
The idea behind all this is simple, that since they get their persuasive abilities and charisma from the Dark Side, they have vast powers to deceive. They can lead whole communities down the path to Gehinom (Hell). And their powers have only grown stronger since Rav Nahman said these things.
[And since the leaders are evil, the entire religious world is corrupt. To make people religious used to be thought of as an important goal , but most people's sins occur because they are religious. As Rav Nahman also said people will have to repent on their repentance.]
[The practical approach to this is hard to know. For me personally I just do my best to avoid them--but that only started because of personal experience and hard learned lessons. If I had been smart I would have listened to Rav Nahman in the first place without having to learn this the hard way. ]
So how do you tell whom to avoid? I try to take the safe approach and simply avoid all of them. I just will not go anywhere near them.] The few people that are aware of this problem are ignored. So it does not do much good to say anything about it. I guess people have to learn the hard way.
I might mention that the great Litvak yeshivas of Europe were generally immune to this problem since they were learning Torah for its own sake and also Musar. That mostly provided some kind of force field against the powers of the Dark Side. Nowadays I am not so sure. To me it looks as the entire religious world have been snatched up by the Dark Side because of their following Torah scholars that are demons.
The main reason why it is allowed to make this known publicly is מפרסמים את החנפים נפני חילול השם or to be more specific in the Hafetz Haim there is the permission to tell people about wicked people even if their wickedness is not yet known because when people look into the matter they will discover that in fact everything that was said about those wicked men is true. חפץ חיים כלל י' הלכה ב
Now the Hafetz Haim is speaking over there in Klal 10 about בין אדם לחבירו (between man and his fellow man) issues. You do not see all of those seven conditions in Klal 4 where the Hafetz Haim is writing about בין אדם למקום (between man and God) issues. In any case, I think it is clear that when Rav Nahman was warning people about religious leaders, that he fulfilled all the necessary conditions about when and how it is permissible-- and even required to warn people about a danger to their physical or spiritual health.
There are five conditions for בין אדם למקום [between man and God] issues in the Hafetz Haim Klal 4 halacha 7 in the באר מיים חיים paragraph 32. (1) to see the crime himself, (2) to think if the crime was really against the Torah, (3) not to make it worse than what it really was, (4) to intend for תועלת some benefit, (5) not to say one thing behind their backs and something else in front of them.
These are different than the conditions for speaking about between man and his fellow man in three ways. there is no requirement of rebuke, no requirement of accomplishing the benefit in some other way if possible, that damage should not be caused more that what would be caused according to the law of the Torah. And the not hiding oneself condition does not exist in the between man and his fellow man arena.
In any case, the only people that I know of that are aware of this problem are the Na Nach group, and it ought to be more well known.
The difficulty here is that there is an obligation to be good, and also to influence others to be good as brought in the Obligations of the Heart [שער הביטחון פרק ד]. [He says there that one does not get into heaven without that last thing]
Another place where you see in the Hafetz Haim that people make a show of their religiosity and yet are dishonest are not in the category of being Jewish is in שמירת הלשון חתימת הספר דף רל''ג.
This is what he writes there: ובעוונותינו הרבים יש אנשים שנזהרים בכל עניני דת התורה כדין ואיסור גזל קל בעיניהם להונות לבני אדם בכל מיני תחבולות וכהאי גוונא, ומורגלים בזה מאד ולא ידעו כי בנפשם הוא. ויוצא על ידי זה מכלל רעך ועמיתיך מלבד מה שהוא פסול לעדות על ידי זה וראיה ממה שאמרו חז''ל [ע''ז כו.] רועי בהמה דקה [שמורגלים לרעות בשדות אחרים] לא מעלים ולא מורדים, והיינו שאם נפלו בתוך הבור אין להעלותן אף שבשאר איש ישראל יש על זה לאו מיוחד "לא תעמוד על דם רעך" שמחויב להעלותו וגם לשכור אנשים להעלותו כדאיתא בסנהדרין ע''ג . אבל בזה מפני רשעו אין להעלותו
The Hafetz Haim writes : "There are people who are careful in all religious matters according to the most strict opinions but the prohibition of theft and fraud is light in their eyes. They trick and defraud people with all kinds of methods. They are very much accustomed to this. They do not know that by this they are not considered Jewish; they have left the category of being one one of Klal Israel even though in externals they are very religious."
It is too easy to put on religious clothing, and thus to signal virtue. Myself I make it a point to not look religious at all. " מה ה' אלקיך דורש ממך... והצניע לכת עם אלקיך" The prophet says, "What does Go ask from you except to walk modestly with God"--that is not to advertise how religious you are.
The point of Rav Nahman was to indicate how the Dark Side has infiltrated the religious world. So for one's moral and mental health the best idea is to avoid it unless a lot of people would wake up. And how would that be? It could be you could have places that learn strictly according to the Gra. That would help a lot. But I know only one place in Jerusalem that goes by the Gra in every detail{Aderet Eliyahu}. But if other places did that, that would help a lot.
[Litvak yeshivas are close to the path of the Gra, but as far as I can see, they are no where near close enough.]
