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Op-Ed: What’s Bothering Boteach?

by Mottel

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach

In recent weeks, the pages of Crownheights.info, the Algemeiner Journal and the Huffington post have hosted a series of op-eds, responses and rejoinders about Rabbi Shmuley Boteach’s new book, “Kosher J.”

Taking a step back from the criticism over an (as of yet) unpublished book, noted more for its “fun romp” than its pinpoint historical accuracy or groundbreaking scholarship, one must question the motivation for Boteach’s stream of op-eds.

The initial response, written by Rabbi Yitzchok Wolf, while strong in its condemnation of Boteach’s choice of subject, was hardly brilliant prose and rambling in nature. When Boteach’s response was pulled from the sites, he felt it necessary to bring the discussion to the Huffington post in a series of articles, making claims of ‘Religious Incitement,’ allegorical (one hopes) ‘Crucifixion,’ and a ‘Global Ban’ on his book.

He quotes, at length from anonymous comments left on these community blogs, and notes that “the more incendiary ones… hav[e] been scrubbed under my threat of legal action for incitement.”

At this point, the reader must take pause. Why is Shmuley so upset by anonymous comments on a community blog? I understand his personal response to the comments. They were rude, vicious and cruel – but that, for better or for worse – is the nature of the Internet. Anyone who is offended by anonymous, trollish, comments on ANY website – be it Youtube, Huffington Post, Reddit or Crownheights.info – has either never been on the Internet before or is so naive as to not know that these comments are as baseless as writing on a gas station’s bathroom stall.

I don’t think Rabbi Boteach can be accused of either of these traits.

Had Boteach let the matter go, the issue would have died out within a day. The nature of these blogs is to bring in a constant flow of new stories to drive in hits and with them, ad revenue. What is more, the Crown Heights, and even global Chabad, community is hardly Boteach’s target audience. We’re speaking about a few thousand readers, many of them hostile to Boteach’s legacy after his acrimonious split with Chabad’s leadership in the UK well over a decade ago. Given Boteach’s long-term association with the movement, there may very well be an issue of pride at hand. Nevertheless, these sites, and the communities they represent, are hardly a major demographic for his book. As such, the question remains, what was the motivating the force behind his response?

In truth, despite claims of a global ban against his book, Boteach would only be so lucky for such a response. Had a real ecclesiastical ban been acted against the book, it would have been quite the sensation. Boteach has already tried to draw parallels between the Internet trolls and the current religious tension in Israel. With heightened media attention to Beit Shemesh, news of a ban against Boteach would be written up in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and other periodicals of note. It would become an instant best-seller.

Though the rabbinic and communal response hasn’t succeeded to this degree, by keeping the issue alive, Boteach has been able to create controversy around the book and with it . . . the potential for sales.

Boteach has said as much himself. In a tweet Friday, he wrote “controversy over #kosherjesus seems 2 have made it a best-seller. climbing publishing charts everywhere. but prefer people read it” and his website currently announces the “West Coast Launch of Rabbi Shmuley’s Blockbuster and Controversial book…”

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34 Comments

  • lomichup

    May G-D have mercy on us, because SB’s garbage is certainly not bringing moshiach any closer and I would hate to think that the opposite is true !?

  • well put!

    Mottel, your erudition & analysis made me smile. You articulated what many feel. By continuing the “fight”, Boteach has all but guaranteed not only a place in history (bad publicity is ALWAYS preferable to no publicity!) but potentially, a #1 bestseller. What seems to be the conventional wisdom of those unfortunates who did actually read it is that this drivel is not a work of great literary or scholarly significance. Ironic, don’t you agree?

    In accordance with Rabbi Schochet’s psak I won’t be reading it. But still…..he will make plenty of money & will promote himself worldwide because he is a self-serving individual whose bottom line is always fame & fortune, in equal measure. Perhaps if self-respect was a part of the equation this discussion & its ensuing comments would be moot.

  • kosher boteach

    no-one has done more to destroy chabad and yiddishkeit in a long time. boteach is a complete disgrace. I am going to write a book called Kosher Boteach, it will be full of blank pages because he is treif in gantzen.

  • His community

    The answer to why Rabbi Shmuley Boteach felt the need to respond is simple and one that we should all understand.

    He views himself and his family as part of the Chabad Lubavitch community, (even through he isn’t an official Shliach anymore). His children are educated in our schools etc. Why? Because he believes this is the community he feels part of and wants to be part of.

    So, it’s only natural for him to feel the need to respond when attacked on the Chabad community’s main blogs and websites, with the intention to defend himself.

    It is one thing to feel be rebuked and condemned from an outside community that isn’t your own, but its particularly and personally hurtful for him to be attacked and condemned by the community he feels he is part of.

  • stop

    let stop discussing SB or his BS let it go away the more we discuss him the more chyaos he gets it like learning on Nital night.

  • who cares

    Shmuley Boteach is so 1997 he love to live on the fringe he needs to just get over himself

  • Shame

    This article is as biased as every other article written against Rabbi Shmuley by these Chabad websites. You say the criticism would have died down but you are completely wrong as Rabbi Schochet would have banned the book eventually and it would have gone right back to the headlines. Furthermore Rabbi Wolf and Rabbi Schochet’s condemnation were for all intents and purposes an attempted excomunication aimed at Rabbi Shmuley, and he had to defend himself. And the comments section were not just trolls, they represent a good portion of what the Lubavitch world was believing after their thinking was twisted by these foolish bans. Furthermore I ask you to show me any other article on COLlive or CrownHeight.info that has the hateful comments directed towards a Jew as the articles against Shmuley had.

  • Funny

    i totally love your comment, number4!!!
    It really cracked me up!!Had a real good laugh!!
    Well done, n well said!!!

  • Sam

    The guy has a wedding to pay for. He is doing his best to support his family with no real degree! Bravo

  • the need to respond

    The reason why Rabbi Shmuley Boteach responded to the Chabad community websites is for the same reason Rabbi Wolf felt it important to condemn Rabbi Boteach in the first place on these websites.

    Does Rabbi Wolf condemn every Orthodox Rabbi who does something or prints something controversial? No. So why did he feel the need to do so now? And why the need for Rabbi Wolf to condemn him on the Chabad community websites?

    Simple, because Rabbi Shmuley Boteach is a Lubavitcher just like he is, and Rabbi Wolf felt that Rabbi Boteach did something un fit specifically for a Lubavitcher Rabbi.

    It is for the some reason Rabbi Boteach felt the need to respond, and do so on those same website’s, since he is a Lubavitcher, he doesn’t what he has done to be viewed as something outside of what a Chabad Rabbi should do, hence he felt the need to defend himself, as not to be excluded from his community.

  • MMB

    With all due respect to SB, he writes a book like the one he did and what does he expect the Jewish world, the Chabad world to slap him on the back and say ‘well done, old boy’.
    Give me a break, he knew that this book will cretae a major controversey that will not only backfire on him but he’ll end up getting verbally crucified,no pun intended, by the majority.
    What was he thinking, or did his ego supress that too.

  • Moshe Hakatan

    What Shmuley is really upset about is that after years of working his way back into Chabad “leadership,” this controversy set him back at least 5 years. No more Krinsky photo ops, no more hanging around with the who’s who, and probably worst of all, he will not be the keynote speaker at the Kinus for a long long time (never say never…).

    The fact that he ran around to everyone that will print anything is more a sign of his narcissism. Would he keep quiet after Rabbi Wolf’s post everybody would’ve forgot about it and he would be able to continue doing his thing. But he just can’t help himself…

  • Moishe Sachs

    The author of this opinion piece states, “Taking a step back from the criticism over an (as of yet) unpublished book, noted more for its “fun romp” than its pinpoint historical accuracy or groundbreaking scholarship, one must question the motivation for Boteach’s stream of op-eds.” No they mustn’t. This paragraph itself is grounds for his and my concern as well as the concern of every fair-minded person. If it hasn’t been published how in the world could the book be described as a “fun romp” rather than historically accurate? I watched Rabbi Boteach talk about some of the content. His presentation was excellent. His understanding was superb. I started listening to Rabbi Immanuel Schochet’s tapes of presentations on Chrisianity thirty years ago. I’ve read a number of books on the subject, all from our Jewish perspective. Rabbi Boteach’s approach is incredibly sophisticated and novel. I cannot wait to read it. That it has awakened normally dormant people who then spew complete ignorance and hatred is far more an indictment of them than of this excellent book. For more on the subject, there was a book written long ago of the translation of the Ramban’s Disputation called, “The Disputation.” There are also books called The Jew & the Chrisian Missionary, You take Jesus, I’ll Take God, & others. Cut out all of this ignorant hateful nonsense. Rabbi Boteach should, God willing, make a fortune on this book. He deserves it. It is the result of a tremendous amount of research and effort.

  • Chaim

    Mottel Mottel Mottel, you are fueling his fire.
    Nice of you to point this out but all you did was bring more publicity to the book.
    So, as a counter analist I just gotta ask.
    If you know that the reason he wrote the response and brought the issue to national papers was because any PR is good PR then how much did he pay you to bring the issue back?

  • care770

    as far as this comment: Boteach has said as much himself. In a tweet Friday, he wrote “controversy over #kosherjesus seems 2 have made it a best-seller. climbing publishing charts everywhere. but prefer people read it” and his website currently announces the “West Coast Launch of Rabbi Shmuley’s Blockbuster and Controversial book…”

    all I can say is:
    MAYBE its true, maybe he is making money off the book. But the one thing that this money will not buy:
    his full acceptance in Chabad
    the Rebbe’s nachas. zehu.

  • chaim

    Shumel Boteach is in a no-man-land. Chabad doesn’t want him. Orthodox Jews don’t want him, for sure misnagdim have nothing in common. He has no choice to belong to chabad. No other Jewish organization wants a Rabbi who has no torah bases, just book selling. A Rabbi job is to teach yiddishkeit to yidden not to goyim. I have read his books about how the Jewish religion should be universally accepted. Is this a rashba? ran? or belly aches? Lubavitch chassidim need to seriously look at the current rabbonim, shluchim and pulpit Rabbi’s who call themselves Lubavitch. First its torah, then Rebbe, then you own belly opinionated seforius.

  • Just asking,

    Is it true that SB has been invited to be keynote speaker at a Jews for J conference?

  • Mottel

    -Moishe Sachs: The permilinks embded in the article were removed when CHi posted it here. The quote is from Jeremy Rosen’s review for the Algemeiner Journal. Numerous articles, including the Haaretz write-up that sparked all of this, have noted that many of RSB’s ideas are based on Haim Maccabby. Rabbi Riskin made a statement to the same general thesis – and was called on it as well. Perhaps *you* should better research things

  • I often disagree with Mottel-s op-eds

    But this time you said exactly what was on my mind! boteach is a louse who writes, speaks, breathes, and lives for one purpose and one purpose only: yisgadal v’yiskadesh shmei rabbah d’“Rabbi Shmuley.”

  • Shmuley for President

    Rabbi Boteach is a has been. His own advocates that paraise him for his ‘courage’ to buck the trend also quickly concede that his book is something much less than scholarly. In fact SB himself is the only one I’ve seen giving the book the haskomah of a work of scholorship. It’s the equivalent of page 5 of the NY Post. It sells and that’s why it’s there. I hope SB makes money on it and can retire in peace. If that doesn’t work my reccomendation to SB is to team up with Paris Hilton and co-author a book on how the US can balance its budget. The book may not grace the libraries of Harvard and Wharton but it will sell and the masses will gush how sophisticated the book is and all will agree how all our problems can be solved if only the likes of Shmuly and Paris would be in the white house and lead the federal reserve.

  • chaim fishman

    where he got his information I don’t know , but he dhould have looked into thechesronos al hashas who the oiso haish was, the hundeds ofthousands of yidden who perished al kidush hashem because of this individual. and the roshie tayvos of his name is ymach shemo vezichro.

  • to #8

    i cannot understand how you even call him a “rabbi” he dosent have a place with any rabbi, you can see for yourself, Rabbi Schochet who knows of these matters READ the book and told every one NOT to buy it!! he is a true expert in these things so go some whre else and try stiking up for the wrong people…

    (sorry for my spelling)

  • spread the 7 laws of noach

    we are now in the middle of geula and we know that the world will become jewish. how much we all want the redemption, l appause s botech for his efforts

  • yisorel

    A Rabbi is a teacher, not a preacher or missionary. Teach Torah and mitvos not converting or exposing Jewish ideas to the public for self gratification.SB needs to expose himself to a kollel, chavusa and real torah nigelah and chassidus. He has lost the mark, crucial point of being a chossid.

  • .?.

    Honestly what’s the point if this extremely poorly written article? It kills braincells just reading it

  • Kolel Yungerman

    @31: If you can’t qualify your statement, are you not a troll yourself?

  • truth seeker

    whatever will come out of all this which Botach is doing, we will see in time. meanwhile, I have to say, that what seems like his over confidence/ego-centric ways seem to have put him into a very unfriendly situation among the true Chabadniks. He is truly not settled with who he is, and he will play whatever side gives him public attention etc. He may be bright, but he is dangerous because he is taking whatever side works, to get more well known…..and this is like a typical politician. uh oh