This is not meant to "knock" the illustrious Twerski family of Milwaukeee. They have accomplished much for Yiddishkeit, including a fine community in Milwaukee, much fine Jewish literature, and have been a light unto the nations. There's also the lineage that can be traced to the Alter and Mitteler Rebbes, something close to my heart. Rather, it's an observation I've made regarding the good Rabbi Dr. Abraham Twerski of Pittsburgh, Pa. He seems to be intent on calling out and publicizing the ineffecacies and shortcomings of Jews, especially Religious and "Charedim". Whether it be Alcoholoism, Drugs, Domestic Abuse, and Compulsive Gambling, he's there to say "us too", and we're no better than some other groups.
Here's Exhibit A, a Speech on "The truth about Gambling in the Jewish Community", held at a Shul in New Jersey. Listen if you have the time, and tell me if you don't think he's exxagerating the problem. That's not to say that the problems don't exist and that they don't need to be dealt with, but does the alarm need to be sounded like he does?
I have a sneaking suspicion that it's got something to do with him feeling somewhat out of the mainstream, with his family growing up in America and the subsequent college education of all of father's children, something unheard of even amongst the college-educated Chassidim themselves. I may, however, be totally wrong. His brother Aron Twerski, although he's risen to beome the dean of Hofstra Law School, maybe by living in Boro Park, has become SO mainstream that he's a lecturer at Agudah conventions, and it don't get more "Mainstream" than that.
(EDITED ON 1/13/05)
51 comments:
I think he just has found a niche & a way to make a parnassah out of these "eye catching" subjects.
Please spare us all with your nonsense, if you have nothing to post then don’t.
ferd, poshut, there are major problems, eh why even bother, your such a looser, you had to have stayed up all night trying to think of a post to write and that’s what you came up with, what a gelechter, close down your pathetic site
I have had and have that concern as well. However, it may be that in the past it was totally denied that there could be such problems in the Jewish community, which was wrong, so now, some people have gone to the opposite extreme, which is also wrong, as a reaction to that previous wrongful stance. Hopefully people will realize that the truth is in the middle.
I am not familiar with a banishment from Bobov. I thought his father was just his own Rebbe and had Chassidim in Milwaukee who invited him out there. The fact that the sons are college-educated, as opposed to some Chassidim elsewhere, may have to do with the fact that they are from 'out of town' and the time in which they grew up. In that dor things were different than now.
Another thing that can be focused on is his major role in advocating that psychology, psychiatry and things like that be accepted in the frum community. In a way he has kashered it for many people (albeit with certain modifications). If someone with such yichus, a Rebbishe kind with a long white beard is pushing it, it's alot harder to oppose it. The question is, if that is a good thing. I think that in that matter too, while perhaps in the past the attitude was too negative, of late it has gone in the direction of the other extreme, of too much uncritical acceptance of modern psychological and psychiatric theories, some of which could be quite dangerous, even if those pushing them have yarmulkas, beards and sheitlech.
There is so much ingorance and denial regarding mental health issues in the frum world. Rabbi Twerski has decades of first hand experience and is able to fues his Torah knowledge with his psychology knowledge and help frum people face and deal with their problems. It is high time we stop pretending that being frum means we do not have the same human foibles as the rest of society. It is high time we educate ourselves about the basics of good mental health instead of hiding behind our frumkite. Rabbi Twerski is a trailblazer, especially in the area of abuse. Unfortunately, there are still too many frum people who are fearful of what they do not know regarding mental health issues, and this ignorance translates into generations of human misery. Wake up to the fact that davening, kashrus, and all the mitzvot will not make one immune to having emotional issues, and that with all our observance we still need to recognize that we have an inner self that needs attention.
Aron Twerski is Dean of Hofstra Law School.
He lives in Boro Park davens in Bobov and is a regular at the Bobover tishen. He sits at the head table with the Rebbe.
Following the Tayreh properly gives us good mental health.
תורת ה' תמימה משיבת נפש
R' Shtusim,
Which Bobov would that be?
I understand you people all think I'm totally ignorant and stupid, but please don't show ignorance if you're to attack my supposed. Abraham, Aron, Michel, Mottel et.al's FATHER was banished from the TOWN of BOBOV by Reb Benzion the first 80 YEARS AGO because of his supposedly being too edimicated.. He left and traveled to America. There were no Chassidim in Milwaukee waiting for him.
After the war they kissed and made up, so hackt mir nisht in kup about Aron davening in Bobov today.
If it's Hofstra then I apologize, but I remember hearing that he got the Fordham job last year. Is Hofstra a Catholic school, because I remember the school being Catholic.
Shepsel
anything coming from you is acompliment, so keep it coming, pal.
דארף מען עם אנפייפען whistleblower אויב ער איז א?
אויב איז ער א פייפערבלאזער מוז מען אים הארכען, און מ'דארף אים רופען רעדן אין חרדישע ערטער, נישט נאר אין מאדערנע שוהלען
Chitas
I do not doubt that these things exist. I am just wondering about the extent of it, and is there a cause for such alalrm, that's all.
Ah "mushel": When somebody works as a "hoyzin tragger" maker he will notice everybody's "hoyzin traggers", simple as that. I don't think he's exagerating, it just happens to be his lifework so thats all you'll hear from him.
"was banished from the TOWN of BOBOV"
If that was the case, maybe that saved their lives, in retrospect.
Re R. Aaron Twerski - there is an article at http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0905/twerski_hofstra.php3
I think the school is stam a university, without a religious connection.
C
it may have saved their lives, but then again most of RBZH children survived the war. I believe RSH had something like 8 or 9 siblings after the war.
I heard the "banished" story way before Lubavitch was a part of my life, FYI.
Mental health issues are far worse in the frum kehillah than in your average secular Jewish one. The denial of the issues and the stigma attached to it make it so these issues are generally ignored.
Wife abuse (not just physcial but emotinal too) especially in certain insulated Cheriedi circles, is rampant. See Twerski's 'Shame Born in Silence'. This book is an invaluable break through.
Neurotic patterns have been passed down through the genrations through unhealthy child rearing practices that are commonly accepted in the frum society. These are reflected in how yeshivas educate children. All of this is couched in being the 'Torah way' when in reality it is not at all.
Few of us are on such a high level that we can feel safe that since we live a Torah life we are therefore immune to mental health problems.
And how many times do we hear Rabbis give bad advice, like telling depressed people that they only need to increase Torah learning and this will cure them. Depression is a disease and many frum Rabbis have no clue as to its symptons or how to help.
Eating disorders, co-dependency, personality disorders, abuse, and many other dysfunctional behaviours, are easily hidden under a Torah pretext.
"And how many times do we hear Rabbis give bad advice"
And how many times do we hear psychologists and psychiatrists messing up people ? Oh, sorry, they never give bad advice, they know all the answers....it's just the Rabbis who mess people up, huh? I wonder what the AR would have said about frum people and psychologists and psychiatrists......like when he talks in Tanya about atzvus, merirus, un azay vayter. Does he say to see a 'mental health professional' ?
c,
You are expressing the typical denial common among the frummers that says--because there are bad shrinks, we do not need to educate ourselves about good mental health.
I wish that it were so that all we need is Tanya, and that covers us for life, but most of us are not on that level and need more consciousness raising. If Tanya were all that was needed, then we wouldn't see all the craziness we see going on in Chabad today. The Yechi issue is at root a spritual and a mental health issue combined.
For your information, mental health awareness may have nothing to do with shrinks--one can be completely aware and educated and work on these things without professional help.
Yes, there are many bad mental health professionals. But by way of analogy, just because there are bad medical doctors, does this mean we do not need modern medicine? No one would say such a ridiculous thing. We need modern medicine just as we need Torah, and we need mental health education too, but the latter has been sorley neglected for too long.
There is a vast amount of ignorance of mental health within the frum community. Rabbi Twerski is indeed so valuable because he combines his Rabbinic expertise along with his psychiatric expertise, as there is no contradiction between them, in fact one enhances the other. It is not a case of one or the other, rather we in the frum community need to educate ourselves
in these areas because so many of us just don't know. And this ingorance is causing untold misery on our chevraot.
Just look at all those kids at risk from Torah homes. There must be many mental health issues within their families that have gone unaddressed. Those types of problems do not come from a lack of learning Torah--things are far more compliacted than that, unfortunately.
Chitas
why then do the Charedi publishing houses like Artscroll and Feldheim et.al. not publish his books on such issues? The "Torahdike" books they publish!
avermel,
You obviously do not know much about how the publishing world works. Rabbi Twerski gets a much wider audeince then if he were to go to Artscroll or Feldheim who cater to a specific narrow social group--it's all about economics, not Torah, even for them.
I highly recommend Rabbi Twesrki's book 'Shame Born in Silence' about abuse. He disucsses the frum community's attitudes.
I gave this book to a friend of mine when she was in marital stress. This book actually gave her the understanding that she was in an abusive relationship and it taught her how to get out of it. She got a get and remarried to a lovely man and is happy as can be today, thanks to Rabbi Twerski's help. None of the Rabbis gave her any worthwhile advice, could not even recognize the situation for what it was. As a matter of fact, the most prominent Rabbi in our town gave her abusive husband the highest praises.
chitas
even I knew that, but if he's interested in helping the frum community he can only do it by publishing his books at pub. houses that cater to chredim. Otherwise all of the exposure is to the outside world.
Not true, Avremel. It is naive to think frum people only read books from Felldheim and Artscroll. Rabbi Twerski;s words also appear on the website Jewish World Review regulary. Apparantly, you have not read his books, because if you did, you would know he makes tremendous efforts in the frum world, butnot exclusively there.
Why are you seemingly picking on him? he helps alot of people, Jews, non-Jews, frum and frie. You see something wrong with that?
avremel- "why then do the Charedi publishing houses like Artscroll and Feldheim et.al. not publish his books on such issues? The "Torahdike" books they publish!"
chitas- "Rabbi Twerski gets a much wider audience then if he were to go to Artscroll or Feldheim who cater to a specific narrow social group--it's all about economics, not Torah, even for them."
Most of Twerski's books seem to be under the Shaar Press imprint, which is basically Artscroll (check the contact info and distributing to confirm that if you don't believe me). The reason why Twerski's books are published under that is because they are considered somewhat controversial. That why Artscroll has the 'Shaar Press' imprint - for stuff they put out, but don't want to have the label 'artscoll' or 'mesora' on, for whatever reason. The one about domestic violence ('Shame Born in Silence') was even more controversial - too hot to handle even for the Shaar Press imprint I guess. So he had to put it out himself. His 'peanuts' related book(s) were published by more general publishers, I assume to appeal to a broader market (either that and/or that they were not Jewish enough for the Shaar Press imprint).
"Rabbi Twerski is indeed so valuable because he combines his Rabbinic expertise along with his psychiatric expertise, as there is no contradiction between them, in fact one enhances the other."
There are contradictions in some areas, even Twerski admits that. He does some good things. However, I think it's very dangerous because he is giving cover to a big movement, supported strongly by the mental health industry naturally, to move problem solving in the frum community in areas that relate to frumkeit and choli hanefesh, away from our Tayreh leadership and to secular-trained professionals. Even if the latter wear yarmulkas, hats, sheitlech and beards, the problem is that often their main approach is be'ikar based on non-Jewish sources, even if they farputz it a bit and try to make it look frum by throwing in a few Jewish expressions or maamorei Chazal. I agree that many Rabbonim are not sufficiently competent in this area either, but I would say that the solution is to have the Rabbonim and other manhigim (mashgichim, mashpiim, stam askonim) better educated to handle such things in a Tayrehdiker way rather than transfer this whole area to the mental health industry. I know that it's easier said than done, but it's the right way. There are many churbonos made by the so-called professionals, though you may not be aware of them since they don't publicize them naturally. That includes 'frum' institutions like Ohel too, who employ some of them. You have to realize that when you drug up someone and kill their potential for a meaningful life, that is not a success. For example, if someone had serious difficulties and was screaming in the street and then Ohel gets him and puts him on drugs (which they refer to as 'medication' in attempt to imply that it cures them), and he cannot function because of them on the level that he could before his difficulties, that is not curing them. That is ruining the man's life by making him into a zombie. But they nevertheless claim that they saved him, since he's not screaming on the streets anymore. Okay, maybe that is something, but at what cost? To keep him drugged and operating at a juvenile level like a little kid instead of an adult ?
These issues are too complicated to be given justice in a blog forum. Nevertheless, a few points:
There are certainly quite a number of excellent mental health professionals who are frum. And I have sadly encountered too many respected Rabbis who are in need of their services.
Of course, there are churbans the mental health professionals will not publicize, but that still does not negate the fact that it is far better to raise awareness of these issues within the frum community than it is to keep on with the present denial and stigmatization of them.
I do not agree with over use of 'medication', but we are discussing Rabbi Twerski's approach, and he is not a big advocate of that either.
Too many families in the frum community are suffering from varous types of dysfunction, and it is well hidden.
I am advocating that the frum world, and specifically the Rabbinical world, get educated in the areas of basic psychology. This could only help to alleviate so many of our crises.
By the way, Artscroll, and especially Feldheim, can be overly fuddy duddy and conserative, (just look at how they stereotypically portray frum women, and at all the sickeningly saccharine bad novels they print) and they often think anything that is somehwat sophisticated, and deals with mature 'real world' subjects is controversial, so their opinion of Twerski's works doesn't affect my view of his work.
Raising awareness could be okay. The main question is though, who, be'ikar, should have the tafkid of being madrich people with tough problems. People in the mental health industry, cause we think that our heiliger Tayreh is weaker in this area, the area of human understanding and insight, than the 'Tayreh' of Sigmund Fraud and his chaveirim, or should the ikkar hadrocho be from our spiritual leaders ?
c,
you're view is too black and white. This is not an 'either or proposition'.
I am not implying that our holy Torah lacks the answers. Everything, all knowledge, ultimately comes from Torah. But psychology, like medicine, should be used as a tool, to help us reach our Torah lifestyle goals.
Rabbis should know enough to know when they do not know, when they cannot help, when they must refer a Jew to a mental health professional. Just as teachers must know how to recognize the symptons of an abused child so they can be reported to the proper professionals, a Rabbi should also know how to recognize when one of thier flock needs to seek professional help.
Sigmund Freud is not generally followed anymore, and many of the current 'new' ideas in psychology have now come around to the teachings of Torah from thousands of years ago.
"But psychology, like medicine, should be used as a tool, to help us reach our Torah lifestyle goals."
Psychology is different than Cardiology and similar disciplines which deal with hard facts. Psychology is much more subjective. The argument that if you're not against doctors bichlal, you shouldn't be against psychology or psychiatry is lacking, as there is a big difference, despite the efforts of the mental health industry to reduce problems into issues of brain chemistry.
"many of the current 'new' ideas in psychology have now come around to the teachings of Torah from thousands of years ago."
So now that psychology is finally waking up, and gradually, seeing the wisdom of Tayreh (a trend that may pick up further in coming years), we should abandon Tayreh hadrocho and go running to the psychologists for them to tell us that we had the answers in our backyward the whole time???
Don't you get it? I am not supporting the abandonment of Torah, G-d forbid. Why are you so defensive?
Look, theoretically, if we lived in a generation that was on a higher level that actually could internalize healthy mental attitudes from Torah alone, we would not need psychology. But it is my view we do not live in such times. And many of our Rabbis are not equipped to handle the myriad of problems we face.
So, to clarify for you once again, do not leave the Torah fold or stop spekaing to our Rabbis, G-d forbid, and do not go to secular or bad shrinks, but do raise awareness and educate ourselves on how to define mental illnesses, and utilize the treatments of Torah professionals when needed.
Why should this threaten you?
Therefore, is is wise to utilize psychological knowledge, along with our Torah knowledge, where they overlap, and often they do reinforce each other, in order to foster bettter mental healthy.
Okay, I think our positions are not that far apart, but still the question is 'mi berosh' ? You could draw upon both Tayreh and, lihavdil, secular wisdom (not all of which is what it's cracked up to be), if necessary, but where do you look for hadrocho and eitzo primarily and where just secondarily. I say we must look at and to Tayreh wisdom first and foremost, and only secondarily, if necessary, elsewhere. Some others have it reversed.
"Look, theoretically, if we lived in a generation that was on a higher level that actually could internalize healthy mental attitudes from Torah alone, we would not need psychology. But it is my view we do not live in such times. And many of our Rabbis are not equipped to handle the myriad of problems we face."
I agree that many Rabbis are not equipped. Your solution is that we should therefore look to the mental health industry. My solution is to work with the genuine talmidei chachomin/Rabbonim that are on the level to deal with this using Tayreh for now, as much as possible, and, for the future, to have laymdei Tayreh learn the parts of Tayreh that deal with these inyonim, which are often, unfortunately, neglected. I think that is a big part of the reason why we are in this mess. People are only learning certain parts of the Tayreh, and are therefore lacking the shleimus and yedios which would enable them to handle such challenges.
'Before Lubavitch was part of my life'
Hirshel, when did you become Lubavitch?
monroe
long, long ago.
c,
let's say there is a young man who is depressed. He finds it hard to function at all, he has suicidal thoghts. How many Rabbis do you know of personally who can help him? What should a Rabbi do? I don't know of any (and I know alot of them) who could get him better. According to you, the Rabbi should help him learn those parts of Torah that deal with these subjects and learn how to cope. But if the man is clinically depressed, he most likely will not be able to learn Torah properly.
There are so many pathologies and disorders that, yes, in an ideal Torah world, the Torah could be the answer, but we do not live in that type of time. We have to dela with the time we are liing in now. And these days even the best Chabad Rabbi is trained to organize Torah classes for secular people, and run a Chabad House, but this same Rabbi has absoltuely no expertise or training in how to deal with psychologicaly issues, outside his narrow realm of some marital counseling, or how to try to keep people from intermarriage.
Get real c, your dream world of Rabbis who can utilize Torah teachings to help people with their personality disorders is just that--a pipe dream.
Chitas
that's all good and well, but a Rabbi who's also a friend can be an immeasurable source of comfort, as well as a confidant. Psychiatrists are tough to feel close to.
A Tag team would be ideal.
What's a tag team? If you mean they can work together, that is exactly what I am advocating.
Let the Rabbi be a friend, that is invaluable. But also recognize that friends are not always the best people to help with our mental health issues and often times we need a more objective person to intervene.
It has been my observation that too many Rabbis have rigid views of a woman's role. I have known plenty of women who were being abused (emotionally) in their marriages, and the Rabbis could not recognize them as victims. Rabbi Twerski writes about this at length in 'Shame Born In Silence'. And if the abusive husband has money or status, his transgressions are often completely overlooked.
We need a complete re-education on these issues in the frum world. We need kosher women's shelters, we need to stop covering up when teachers abuse kids in our yeshivas, we need to teach our young people what abuse is, and how to avoid getting into abusive marriages, or how to get out of them.
The Rabbis in general have been asleep on all this--except for Rabbi Twerski and maybe a handful of others.
What use is Torah learning if we allow abuse and mental illness to go unabated in our midst?
The solution is not to abdicate and concede and give over this area to the mental health industry (who are nogeia bidovor, since they make much $ from such things). The solution is to tap into the great wisdom of the Torah with regard to the human situation and human relations.
People like 'chitas' seem to think that Tayreh is good for telling you if a pot or chicken is kosher, and for being mikareiv people - but that it can't be used to help people with serious life problems. That's what the Rabbis are good for - telling you what you can eat and what you can do on Shabbos - but to advise people about sensitive life situations? No - they are fools ! Only the 'professionals', students of Sigmund Fraud and his chevra are chachomim for such things.
What a terrible chillul Hashem to see frum people thinking that way and advocating that.
"Get real c, your dream world of Rabbis who can utilize Torah teachings to help people with their personality disorders is just that--a pipe dream. "
With all due respect, your dream world of the mental health industry solving all problems and people living happily ever after is also a pipe dream. The mental health industry is making many churbonos. They are putting loads of people on drugs which have serious, lasting side effects, for short-term and short-sighted gain (and long-term loss). They are bribed by the drug industry (pharmaceutical companies) to prescribe unncessary and dangerous drugs. This even extends to little children, who are being put on ritalin for the terrible aveira of not having enough zitzfleish.
More defensive reactions based on fear, denial, or ignorance.
Once again, as I stated many times in this blog already,I am not advocating giving over our power to mental health professionals at all, I am advocating utilizing their expertise in conjunction with Rabbis and our Torah perspectives.
Rabbis are not negiah b'dovor? They sure can be! They have their own biases, and are not immune to bribery. For instance, in many abuse cases, when the abusive husband is a major donor, he still gets all the honors the Rabbi bestows upon him, no matter how many times he beats his wife.
Once again, as I already wrote before, (can't you get it the first time? This is getting repetitve): This is not an 'either or' situation, this not an 'all or nothing' deal. I have not stated that it is either the Rabbis or the mental health professionals--things are not so simplistic as that.
No, the Rabbis are not fools, but they have their limitations, like everyone does. They can often counsel people with mental health issues, but it would be foolish not to recognize the simple fact that there are many instances in which the Rabbis are not at all equipped to help. Rabbis in general today are not exerting their talents and influence enough in the areas of alleviating the mental health issues of their flocks. Too often, rather than confront and deal with the issues, they cop-out by allowing people to believe that learning more Torah, another kapital Tehillim, and another chapter of Tanya etc, and the solution to their problem is right around the corner. They wind up keeping people to stagnate or worsen, in their tragic situations this way for years, with false hopes, and never realizing that it is not an aveira to recommend a competent and Torah observant therapist, along with their prayer and Torah learning.
The Chillul Hashem is from the ignorant people with closed minds who feel threatened and who advocate allowing our fellow Jews to suffer without considering that in many cases there are many kosher avenues to be explored in order to help them: this is the aviera.
Pyschology has come a very long way away from Freud, and our communities have also come a long way from the simpler generations of yesteryear. We face bigger problems now, more emergency situations that we never had to face before, and we need to understand that and do everything in our power to save our fellow Jews.
Alot of what you said is correct, but the point is that we still need to be wary of the mental health industry. The mental health industry is not Moshiach and will not bring us the geula. Maybe we could make use of them (under careful supervision) in some extreme cases, but we shouldn't sign over the house to them.
As frumme yidden, we have to deal with problems of this nature from a spirtual angle primarily, first and foremost.
am I the only one curious as to what the story of the Twerski "banishment" from Bobov, as Tzig put it, was?
I never wrote anything that implied that the I think the mental health industry will bring Moshiach. Are you reading into my words things I did not say?
What would be considered an extreme case? And who decides this? Is a mom who is suffering from post natal depression that won't abate an extreme case? How about a man with borderline personality disorder that makes him into a control freak, making his family miserable? What about narcissistic personalities who cheat and steal to get ahead, putting their families at risk from their criminality? What about people who have food disorders that make them either obese or aneorexic? What about just plain old bad parenting? Who can help these people? Who is helping them? Rabbis? I don't see most Rabbis (in general) even recognizing these as problems. And if they do, then telling a depressed mom, or a victim of abuse, to study more Tanya,say more tehillim, or increase emunah and bitochon, without recommending that they also seek professional help, is totally irresponsible.
We talk all the time about ahavas yisorel. We talk all the time about controlling our anger. But we need the tools, al pi Chassidus, and through enlightening ourselves about human relationships and behaviour. Modern cognitive psychology has alot of kosher tools to offer in this area.
The reality of it is that we are losing many of our young people simply because they see too many frum people are full of angst, anger, hostility, and unhappiness. This causes them to question the Torah. We also lose a number of potential mekuruvim for the same reason. Massive education is required
WOW this is amazing, Chitas, u words are sharp and to the point. let me make two comments:
1. there is a very fine organization calles nefesh, which is an association of orthodox mental health professionals. they meet every year in Baltimore, u can go online at nefesh.org and check the workshops they are having there, it's amazing. whoever want to stay ignorant, will be hurting himself his family and his children.
2. HT: i will forward ur blog entry and all the comments to Horav Hagaon Hachosid Heshel Twerski Shlito and i will ask him to comment, if its not below him...
Zuravitzer
If he'll comment on this here blog I'll be nothing short of honored. I have great respect for him, a man of great caliber to say the least. I would also have some other questions to ask him, about quotes attributed to his father, z"l.
Zuravitzer
if you e-mail it to him send him the edited version, please.
where is a edited version?
I edited the post since you commented last. If you send it to him, please send it to him as it is now, which is the only version you CAN send him. If, however, you did already send it to him then maybe re-send it to him as it is now.
I hope I made myself clear enough....
What is clear is that you spoke disrespecfully about a great man that has contributed to the Jewish Community more then you did... What is clear is that you are embarassed about it, and trying to rewrite your comment in a more respectful way... What is clear is that you know nothing about mental health issues in the Jewish Community including the Orthodox and Ultra-orthodox... What was made clear to me by Rabbi Twerski is that he doesn't think a response is appropriate... Go figure...
I didn't buy the theory that maybe Rabbi Dr. Twerski has an agenda as was put forth. However, I do think that we should not accept everything he says totally. He doesn't get a free pass, no matter how much yichus he has.
I ask - what did the Lubavitcher Rebbe hold about psychologists and psychiatrists ?
Zuravitzer
there's a story about alle Naronim being in Zhuravitz, no? :)
You'll excuse me, but I also thought that I went a bit far in my original post and that's why I changed it.
All I said was that it existed (vices did) , I didn't speak about mental health issues.
I'm glad he chose not to comment, we are not people of his educational caliber, and I wouldn't like to "debate" him.
Lakewood
it wasn't a blanket criticism, and nowhere did I say that he does it for the money.
Hirshel Tzig said...
I understand you people all think I'm totally ignorant and stupid, but please don't show ignorance if you're to attack my supposed. Abraham, Aron, Michel, Mottel et.al's FATHER was banished from the TOWN of BOBOV by Reb Benzion the first 80 YEARS AGO because of his supposedly being too edimicated.. He left and traveled to America. There were no Chassidim in Milwaukee waiting for him.
After the war they kissed and made up, so hackt mir nisht in kup about Aron davening in Bobov today.
If it's Hofstra then I apologize, but I remember hearing that he got the Fordham job last year. Is Hofstra a Catholic school, because I remember the school being Catholic.
Shepsel
anything coming from you is acompliment, so keep it coming, pal.
Monday, January 09, 2006 4:00:00 PM
There were Twersky/Twerski chassidim all over America who welcomed them
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