GEN556 … the sage Rav considered it a chilul HaShem [desecration of God’s name] if he were to buy meat from a butcher without paying for it on the spot, lest someone suspect that he did not intend to pay for it – even though buying on credit would surely not be seen as anything wrong if done by an ordinary individual.  Therefore, my brother and friend, take great caution to protect your soul.  If you encounter a rabbi, Chassidic Rebbe, Rosh Yeshiva (yeshiva dean), or any other spiritual leader of this nature, who shows disregard for the mitzvos between a man and his fellow --- let along if he shows disrespect for Torah scholars – keep as far away from him as the distance of a bowshot. [Based on the language of Genesis 21:16.]  You too could easily become ensnared in his trap, and instead of drawing you closer to the true Torah, he will draw you close to a counterfeit Torah.  For there is no greater falsification than this: He contemptuously transgresses many explicit Torah prohibitions, because the are “only” mitzvos between a man and his fellow men, yet the masses still consider him a tzaddik [holy person] – even if he is caught stealing from the public!  And all this, in spite of the explicit statement in the Talmud Bava Basra 88b that “the punishment for sins of [faulty] measures [Overcharging customers by using measures that overestimate the actual weight or amount of product] is even more severe than the punishment for sins of sexual impropriety.”  Moreover, the Ramban writes in his commentary on the Torah [this verse] that “the punishment [of the Great Flood] was only decreed against them on account of their robbery, because [the criminality of this act] can be inferred by human logic, and need not be taught by a Torah law.”  If so, how severe must the punishment be for us Jews, who have also been commanded against wronging or defrauding our fellow man through a number of explicit prohibitions.  Now, all this applies to any Jew who commits these transgressions. However, when the perpetrator is a spiritual leader, the magnitude of his sins is far greater, as the Kli Yakar indicates in his commentary on Moshe Rabbeinu’s statement to his brother Aharon Leviticus 9:7, “And provide atonement for yourself and for the people.” EYES 151