Problems with Toldot Aharon

B"H

Menashe Darash earns a living by installing solar systems on the roofs in the city of Haifa. He said that once while he was working in a Vishnitz area in Haifa, he looked around and became interested in Chassidim. A little later he went to Jerusalem, put on a black Kipa and walked right into Mea Shearim. There he spoke to chassidim of the extreme group of Toldot Aharon and they took him to their Beit Midrash. They seemed to think that he might be interested in their chassidut and decided to teach him. For five years, Menashe Darash was sometimes studying with the group. Obviously, the Chassidim got the impression that he intends joining the group later on.

Suddenly everything was over. Darash never intended to join the group but was rather collecting material to write a book about them. He wrote a novel about the forbidden love between a Toldot Aharon girl and a non – religious Israeli.
The Toldot Aharon group was furious and according to Darash, the Chassidim were threatening him on the phone. Furthermore, they dumped 50 mice into his living room. The Toldot Aharon' lawyer tried to stop the book from being published. Reason: Menashe Darash was lying at the Chassidim in order to find out the secrets of the group which he now wanted to publish. Another reason was that the Toldot Aharon youth could read the book and get wrong impressions about their own chassidut.
So far, the book has not been published and the chassidim have to pay about 10,000 $ damages to Menashe Darash.

I think that Menashe Darash behaved completely irresponsible and selfish. He should have told the Chassidim, and they even might have accepted it. Who knows ?
Instead he kept his ideas as a secret and now other writers or people interested are likely to face the worst suspicion by the group.
One of my next articles will deal with Toldot Aharon and its branches Avraham Yitzchak and Shomrei Emunim (Guardians of Faith). For me it is quite hard to write about groups such as Vishnitz, Satmar or Toldot Aharon, as you never know how they react.
In the case of Menashe Darash, Toldot Aharon was afraid that he could publish certain modesty secrets. However, those things have already been published a long time ago by the Israeli writer Amnon Levy. And by the way, everyone can just buy those books written by Rabbi Daniel Frisch in any book store in Mea Shearim and read the "secrets" himself.

In the near future I am planning to write stories about Chassidim. However, I would never mention names of groups, let alone certain customs which would identify them.