Anonymous Enemies and Friends

Within the last day, I received two anonymous communications.

One was from a person who named himself as "The Torah Coach from Volozhin." His email, sent to me and to several other people I know, included the following:

One of the most cloudy areas in today’s world is regarding the correct ideology about the Authority and Kedushah of Chazal and our other great Sages throughout the generations. We are surrounded and sometimes infiltrated by “scholars” who would like to lower the correct level of Chazal in our eyes. And yes you can be assured that they have a wicked agenda in their attempt to do so.

The Torah Coach from Volozhin has a solution to this problem:

A few years ago an amazing anthology on this subject was printed under the name “Haim BeEmunatham”. This anthology is collected from 100’s of seforim over the ages which discuss these issues. It is absolutely a must-read for every authentic Jew as especially those that are in any Chinuch position.
Since this very important work is almost impossible to find at your local Seforim store, we are including it here. Please take the time to read it, digest and incorporate it into your life. Get it here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_ZDQZczx7cpXK6H1LhRDxl7CGbLAl3OF/view?usp=sharing
Have a great day in Torah and Yiras Shamayim
The Torah Coach from Volozhin 

Now, long-time readers of this website may recall that the notorious Chaim B'Emunatam is one of the most dishonest works ever written. Written by Reuven Schmeltzer, one of the engineers of the ban on my books, it distorts and even edits the Rishonim so as to claim that nobody ever said that Chazal made scientific errors, and that it is heretical to do so. So I replied to him as follows:

Dear Anonymous "Torah Coach from Volozhin,"
If, as you claim, you are concerned about the honor of great Torah scholars, how can you recommend this sefer? Perhaps you have not read it carefully, but I have never seen a book which shows more DISrespect to  great Torah scholars. The author of this book actually re-arranges the words of Rambam in order to distort their meaning! And he slanders the writings of Rav Shimshon Raphael Hirsch! And he disregards countless Rishonim whom he doesn't like!

Attached is a critique of the book, in both English and Hebrew, which details many of the problems with it. I trust that you write to all the people that you recommended this book too, and tell them that you were unaware that the book actually demonstrates tremendous disrespect to our greatest Torah scholars among the Rishonim and Acharonim.
Best,Natan Slifkin

The reply was swift in coming:

I know you Slifkin.  I read chaim bshakrusom.  You are not an authentic jew.  You are an authentic elephant rider.  You are also a certified supreme idiot and ignormous. A bum and a scum. Go to Africa  leave judaism to authentic jews. It is forbiiden to debate anything with  with you. Dpaker Tfei  Maybe Sid Leiman will talk with you i will not. 

How charming!

It was slightly unpleasant to receive this correspondence. Subsequently, I was informed of another anonymous communication, received by the museum foundation office. Sent by way of a charitable foundation that disguises the source of the donors when they so request, it was a five-figure contribution to The Biblical Museum of Natural History!

I think that the latter anonymous communication more than made up for the former! Thank you, whoever you are!

UPDATE: It wasn't too difficult to discover the identity of the Torah Coach from Volozhin, because his email address, therabbicoach@volozhinyeshiva.com, revealed his website, where he is announced as Rabbi Yehoshua Skolt, leading disciple of Rav Avigdor Miller and chavrusa of Rav Chaim Kanievsky. I have no idea if they would describe him in the same way.