another book ban

Another book has been banned this past week. This ban for some reason mostly flew in under the radar, probably because the author is dead.

The Tzitz Eliezer, Rav Eliezer Yehuda Waldenberg, was one of the gedolei haposkim of our generation who passed away recently. He wrote a monumental work called the Tzitz Eliezer, after which he was "nicknamed", along with a number of other books. He was 89 when he passed away and was a contemporary with Rav Elyashiv, as they sat on the same beis din together for a long period of time, among many other connections.

His only son served as a Rav (affiliated with the Badat'z) of a neighborhood in Jerusalem until his own death last year.

The Tzitz Eliezer wrote a set of books in 1952 called "Hilchot Medina" - halachos of the State [of Israel], dealing with issues involving Medinat Yisrael and rulership.

The book has been out of print for a long time now and is considered fairly rare. In honor of the completion of the shloshim (30 day mourning) period of Rav Waldenberg's passing, the 3-volume set has recently been reprinted, to the dismay of the family. They feel that the original sefer should remain out of print due to the conflict it effects with their Haredi lifestyle. They do not wish to be portrayed, nor for the Tzitz Eliezer to be portrayed, as anything but Haredi, but this book being reprinted threatens that image.

The Bada"tz has assured the book, possibly at the urging of the family members against it, and has banned it. In addition, they have sent out enforcers to local bookshops in Meah Shearim-Geula and in Bnei Brak to make sure the reprinted books are taken off the shelf.

Let us not forget that in the time of the Rambam they banned his books and even burned them because they did not like his style. Only later were they able to look back objectively and realize he was a gadol b'torah and his books have taken the place they deserve in the Jewish world.

I am not a big fan of book bannings. Unless a book was written with mistakes and has no founding, there is no reason to ban a book. Let the readers decide whether they like and agree with the thoughts presented in the book or not.

Yet now the Badat'z has banned the book of a gadol, because they did not like the way it portrayed him. Rav Waldenberg, as a Rav dealing in practical halacha, felt it important to write a sefer dealing with the halachic issues involved in running a jewish state. Yet that conflicts with the anti-Israel stance of the Badat'z and therefore they ban it.

Does that mean the book is assur to read? Are they objectively banning a book because they say it is mistaken and will lead someone astray? Is it just against their worldview and they have to ban it?

As a simple person, how am I supposed to deal with such bans?

I am a product of the yeshiva world. I spent my whole life until the age of 26 in yeshiva. As a result of that I naturally trust the gedolim. I have a problem when people say, gadol x is influenced by the askanim around him, gadol y never actually said what has been attributed to him, gadol z signs letters that he has no idea what they are about, gadol q bans books without reading them, etc.

I have a hard time believing that these gedolim are so great yet are so easily influenced and have no idea what is going on around them.

I am torn when I see something from a big Rav (gadol) that makes absolutely no sense and then people say he had no idea, or he never really did/said that.

I do not know how to deal with that situation.

Yet here we have a sefer being banned just because it puts some people into a dilemma because it makes it look like the State is something that has halachic consequences.

Do we trust these great Rabbis that there really are problems with the book in question (otherwise they could have simply ignored it) or do we say that they are influenced by subjective motives?

And this is just the latest example. Every letter that gets put up on the walls of Yerushalayim assuring something or somebody in the name of Rav Elyashiv or Rav somebody or other puts me in the same dilemma. Are these bans real and to be taken seriously or does somebody just have an identity crisis?

Do the gedolim really know what is going on or are they really so easily influenced and so quick to sign their names on pieces of paper without actually paying attention what the agenda is?

I am torn with no good answers.