“I want it to say the following: ‘In the name of the Vaad Harabbonim, and for reasons of modesty and holiness, from now on, all girls in our holy communities needing psychological counseling should be sent only to women psychologists approved by the Vaad.’ I will sign it, and you will ask the other rabbonim on the Vaad to sign it. I’ll write up a note for you to give them.”

“And then what will we do?”

“We will run off hundreds of posters with this proclamation, to be plastered all over Boro Park, Flatbush, Williamsburg, and Crown Heights, endorsed with the signatures of the entire Vaad Harabbonim. Or as many as we can get.”

“The Bobelger will never sign.”

“Don’t be so sure.”

Sure enough, the Bobelger Rebbe was the only one who refused to sign.

Rav Alter called the nephew.

“This is Rav Alter. I’m calling on behalf of the Vaad Harabbonim. Can you please explain the Bobelger Rebbe’s objection to joining our psak? After all, doesn’t your Hasidus pride itself on being the strictest when it comes to tznius? And is it not more tzniusdik for a young girl to talk of intimate things with another woman rather than a man? Look what happened with Weberman! I’m sure if you explain this to your uncle, he will be only too happy to join us.”

“Don’t think I don’t know what this is all about!” he replied nastily, all pretense gone. “You are very close friends with Yaakov Lehman even though his wife, the baalas teshuva, is an immodest woman who has been seen—”

“Please no loshon hara!”

“—dancing around with no head covering and worse? That she is a moissar and a motzi shem rah who threatened the Bobelger Rebbe himself! And now she is spreading loshon hara and rechilus about a good man, a family man, with a wife and many children to support—and who just happens to be my brother-in-law. She is even threatening to go to the police, to ruin his reputation and destroy his parnosa!”

Rav Yoel Grub was the nephew’s brother-in-law. This explained everything.

Rav Alter took a deep, calming breath. “You know, it takes time for baale teshuva to understand how we do things here in Boro Park. I’m sure if I spoke to Leah Lehman, explained to her that the matter is now closed and that she and her family will no longer be harassed and all the harm done to them already”—and here Rav Alter raised his voice—“will be corrected and compensated”—he paused briefly, allowing his voice to return to its natural mildness—“then maybe I can agree to convince her and her stepdaughter to show a similar chesed and forget about filing complaints with the police. But just so you know, Shaindele Lehman is not the only one of your brother-in-law’s young women patients to make these kinds of complaints against him.”