It is a sad day when gedolei olam act and suffer with the failings of regular simple people. Tomorrow, Tuesday December 16, the Spinka Rebbe will begin serving his 24 month sentence for his role in a large tax evasion and fraud scheme in which many people donated money fictitiously to a charitable organization as a way of getting tax deductions, then most of the money was passed back to them under the table.

I thought the way he did not pass blame around and incriminate underlings while getting himself off, rather he took the blame and bit the bullet and took the punishment, to be an honorable response. Lots of people commit crime, in many different ways. I have no problem with that. We each have our tests and our failings, and we don't always pass them all. Committing a crime involves the risk of getting caught. If you behave honorably when you get caught, that is ok in my book. Obviously I dont mean it is ok to commit crimes, but the honorable response is at least a small amount of making up for it. You commit the crime, you pay the time, as they say.

What is sadder though is when the crime and punishment is then turned into a holy act. The rebbe should have kept his honorable behavior, taken the punishment and moved on. Instead he has now compared himself to Yosef HaTzaddik, saying in a speech of divrei chizzuk to his followers and chassidim, that just like Yosef served time in prison and it all got turned around for the best, so too he will now be serving time in prison and it will be turned around for the best.

The rebbe is not going to jail on a trumped up charge based on hatred and anti-semitism. He is not going to jail as the fall guy in an intricate conspiracy. He is not Yosef HaTzaddik. he is going to jail for a crime he committed, and there is nothing Yosef Hatzaddik-esque in the punishment he is about to receive.

Yes, his jail time can be turned into a kiddush hashem of sorts. he can do great work in the prison, especially considering that he is being placed in a prison that holds many frum prisoners (isnt that fact sad on its own?), he can lead, he can help people rehabilitate themselves, he can rehabilitate himself (and from what I understand he began such a process even before beginning to serve prison time).

But to turn himself into a Yosef HaTzaddik, serving time in prison as a martyred victim?