Interesting Psak: no public shaming of yeshiva bachur that doesn't lay tefillin

Kikar paints the image:

some guys in yeshiva,  who all share a room together in the dormitory, became curious about their roommate. They had no idea when he ever davened and put on tefillin. He would learn every day until late at night, and go to sleep late. H ewould also wake up late in the morning and miss the davening in the yeshiva. When he would wake up, he would go immediately to the beis medrash to resume learning, but his roommates never saw him daven or put on tefillin. They were disturbed and curious and decided it required more investigation.

They began by asking him directly - when do you daven? He responded that he davens in the dorm room when nobody is there as they are already learning in the beis medrash.

Unable to ever catch him in the act of davening and/or wearing tefillin, they decided to lay a trap. A bit of subterfuge is always fun. They took out his tefillin from their place in the cabiet and tied the straps of the hand tefillin with the straps of the head tefillin. There was now no way for him to put on the tefillin without untying the knots, and thus they would easily be able to check if he had used them or not.

After a week they checked the tefillin again and found them tied exactly the way they had left them. It was clear they had not been touched all week.

They decided this was unacceptable and planned a public shaming of their roommate. They were going to confront him in public and demand answers and the truth.

One of the young men felt this was wrong and changed his mind about participating in this plan. He decided they need to ask if this is halachically ok to do. To that end they sent the question to the dayan Rav Dovid Axelrod. Can they confront and shame him publicly about not davenign and laying his tefillin?

Rav Axelrod responded that it is prohibited to do so and prohibited to continue with the plan as it was devised. They must immediately untie the tefillin straps and rewrap them in the bag the way they normally are. They should then tell the mashgiach of the yeshiva about all this.

Rav Axelrod said they cannot publicly shame him, and doing so is a situation that would cause a risk to his life - it is like dealing with a capital crime. Rav Axelrod said if we would have a sanhedrin today, we would have to convene the full sanhedrin of 71 to decide what to do about this. He cannot be shamed and they cannot even hint to anyone else in the yeshiva about this. Doing so would be pikuach nefesh and would be akin to murder.

Rav Binyamin Chuta also reacted similarly to the question when sent to him. Rav Chuta responded that the tefillin must be rewrapped the way they always are - the concern being that the shame he would experience by the public outing might cause him to leave religion entirely. He should be allowed to continue to learn and hopefully the light experienced in learning torah will bring him back fully.

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