We Need Emunah

Continuing a thought from the previous post: 

I recently spoke to a product of the day school system who explained to me that Torah is only what Hashem said [i.e. the Chumash]. Everything else is the rabbis who use and abuse authority that they furnished for themselves. [So I understood from him and it was a long talk]. 

He really believes this. He also knows one gemara - that a rabbi in the gemara did something vulgar [?. I asked him where this gemara appears. He promised to find the source. I know what he was referring to and it wasn't vulgar at all]. 

There are [at least] two problems with his understanding [but in fact many more]. 1] If one negates chachomim then how can he wear tefillin, put on tzitzis, keep shabbos or just about every mitzva which require the explanation of torah she-bial peh. The Chumash never spells out what tfillin are or what tzitzis are or how to keep shabbos. 2] He has a din kofer and his wine might be יין נסך [I wouldn't drink it]. The Rambam says [Teshuva 3/8] that one who is מכחיש מגידיה is a kofer. That means that he casts aspersion on the character or teachings of the chachomim [see Nefesh Harav page 42]. He is also called by the Rambam [Teshuva 3/8] a כופר בפירושה who doesn't accept the binding nature of the Torah she-bial peh. 

For this - his parents [from whom he may or may not have heard his opinions] paid six figures:-).

He is not the only one. I know many boys who only started believing in Hashem a few months into their stay in Israel for the year. Some never make it. 

 Without emunah - a person has NOTHING. All of his mitzvos are empty [we have written about this in the past ואכמ"ל]. 

We Need A Yeshua

My observations after close to 30 years of closely watching the educational system. 

This is in a nutshell how Modern Orthodox Jewish education goes:

First the boy [the same applies to girls but I will limit myself to the boys] is put through 12 years of Jewish day school which costs tens and even hundreds of thousands of dollars. Miraculously, he is still almost Jewishly illiterate. He can't read a gemara, a mishna or even chumash-rashi [without an English translation]. He is also not fully committed to a halachic lifestyle [negiya, minyan, desire to be a talmid chochom, shmiras einayim and often is engaged in drugs and other dangerous habits] and lacks a basic understanding of Jewish beliefs.

Then he goes to Israel for the year. But it is not a year because the actual learning time is about 7 months [mid Elul until mid Tishrei, cheshvan, kislev, teves, shvat, adar, iyar] throughout which there are constant breaks [weekends, tiyulim, parental visits, trips to "town" to hang out with the girls etc.]. Until he gets "into it" [if he ever does] it is the middle of the year. But he can't REALLY get into it because he has an iphone which he carries with him everywhere and he is constantly surfing, texting, calling, following the sports games etc. etc. Constantly. [In my youth, thank G-d we didn't have these כלי משחית]. 

When he actually goes to seder and learns, instead of the emphasis being on learning the rudiments of reading and basic comprehension, he is often presented with complex analyses of the rishonim and even of the acharonim. HE CAN'T READ YET!!!

Then, they marry, have children ..... and send them through the same system.

Wonder of wonders.

My advice: Before you send you children to a school, make sure that he/she will learn something there.

As for the yeshivos in Israel: They try their best but it is a rough battle. De-progamming 17 years of mis-education is no easy task, especially given the little toys everyone carries around all day ensuring that they will never be fully engaged in the task at hand.  

What pains me most is that we lose so many Jewish neshamos to complete nonsense. 

Try to save a Jewish soul today.....:-).

   

Avraham Kohen Gadol

Someone came to the Rogochover and told him that he had asked numerous gedolei yisroel about the medrash that says that Avraham was a "kohen gadol" and therefore could sacrifice Yitzchak as a korban. Why did he need to be a kohen "gadol"? Any kohen is valid for the avoda of a korban??

The Rogochover [the greatest and also - if I amy say - most colorful of the Torah giants of the last few hundred years] was aghast at the question. He covered his ears and said "I can't listen to lashon hara about gedolei yisroel claiming that they don't know the answer to such a simple question".

He explained that the moment he shechts Yitzchak, he has a din of an onein. An onein is pasul to perform the avoda and thus he would not be able to continue performing the other avodos of the korban. Only a kohen gadol is מקריב אונן and may continue after the shchita. 

Pashut:-):-). 

[Heard from Mori Vi-rabbi Shlita]

My bracha to me is that I am zocheh to spread Toras Harogochover כאוות נפשי! Sweeter than sweet, deeper than deep.  

The Shylos People Ask

A young man approached me one night and asked me what the halacha is when he put on his tefillin earlier that day about 25 minutes after sunset. The Kotzker in me had one response:-). 

Instead, I told him that according to Rabbeinu Tam - he is A.O.K. He flashed a winning smile and thanked me.

Baruch Hashem for shittas Rabbeinu Tam - whatever the pshat may be [we touched upon this not long ago on these pages].   

Those Were The Days

Rabbi Ron Eisenman 

As I glanced at the news this morning I could not help but notice the headline: “Miracle Mets Are Headed to The World Series!”

The New York Mets would be heading to the World Series for the first time since 2000.

Although it’s been years since I have followed baseball, as I looked at the headline my mind waxed nostalgic as I recalled the ‘original’ Miracle Mets of 1969.

Perhaps even more importantly, I remembered ‘me’ and who I was from that long ago time.

It was a grand time when the Mets won the World Series in 1969.

It was a time of excitement and of hope.

If the Mets could win the World Series could Mashiach be far behind?

The 1969 Mets were everything a Jewish child could want.

They had a Jewish player by the name of Art Shamsky who was the hero of every Jewish kid in Brooklyn!

Gil Hodges, the manager lived on Bedford Ave in Flatbush.

My brother and I would bike to his house and if we saw him on the porch or picking up the paper from his lawn we would shout, “Let’s Go Mets!”

He would smile and wave and life was great.

It was a time of racial turmoil in the city and it was a time when Jewish neighborhoods such as East Flatbush were in flux.

And when the Yeshiva of Eastern Parkway was badly burned in an arson attack and suffered $200,000 worth of damage, it was only natural that the Mets raised $500 for the rebuilding of the yeshiva.

Rav Meilech Silber who was Rosh Yeshiva of the Yeshiva arrived at the Shea Stadium on May 28^th to receive the check and presented Gil Hodges and Art Shamsky a Seder Plate as a show of gratitude.

By May 28^th 1969, the Mets had played 41 games and they were 18–23.

Beginning with the game which was played immediately after Rav Silber received the $500 check from Gil Hodges, the Mets reeled off a club-record 11 straight wins.

Starting with that 42nd game, the Mets’ win/loss record was 82–39, an impressive .678 winning percentage!

Eventually of course, they would go on to win the World Series against the mighty Orioles of Baltimore.

My Rebbe at yeshiva taught us that Tzedokah can help bring about miracles.

What could be more of an affirmation of his teaching than the fact that hours after the Mets give Tzedokah they win 11 straight games!

Those were special, simpler times.

It was a time when a Jewish baseball player named Shamsky would not play on Rosh Hashanah and a Catholic man named Hodges from Bedford Ave could give $500 to help build a Yeshiva.

And it was a time when a red-headed pudgy little boy went to sleep at night feeling safe and secure.

His parents and brother were in the adjacent rooms and the Mets were winning.

What else could a boy want from life?

As I write these lines I realize that I am now whiter than I am red…

My parents are no longer in this world and life is certainly more complicated.

I wonder, ‘Can I ever recapture the pristine innocence of youth?’

I doubt it.

Those were the days….

New Shiurim

Lots of new shiurim!!! 

Don't miss. INCLUDING - a fascinating shiur reviewing the correspondence between two great Torah Titans from Brooklyn regarding the famous tefillin campaign of Lubavitch - Halachic or not?

יחי אדוננו מורנו ורבינו!!!!:)

Preparations For Davening

קודם התפילה יטבול ב' פעמים, א' להעביר רוח הטומאה, ב' להמשיך קדושה וטהרה, וליזהר בנקיות גופו ולא לעבור על בל תשקצו, ובפרט קודם התפילה, ולהתפלל בגוף נקי ולא בגוף משוקץ, ובפרט מכוח זה באים לידי מחשבות זרות. 

[מאור עינים הנהגות ישרות]

Before tfilla one should immerse himself twice, a] to remove the spirit of impurity, b] to draw upon oneself holiness and purity. One must be careful about the cleanliness of his body and not transgress Bal Tishaktzu [the prohibition of "holding it in"], and specifically before davening and to daven with a clean body and not with a dirty body, and particularly because it causes impure thoughts.

We may add to the words of the holy Maor Einayim the gemara in Brachos [8] that says that one must first enter an amount of "שני פתחים"-  two openings, and only then daven. This can mean that the first opening is the removal of the spirit of impurity and the second opening is that one must draw upon himself a spirit of holines and purity.