A story of the בית ישרא-ל in honor of his Yohrtzeit.
מספר הרב שבתי סלבטציקי: אני למדתי בישיבת 'קול-תורה' של הגאון הרב שלמה-זלמן אויערבאך זצ"ל. בישיבה, היה מתקיים שיעור תניא אותו מסר הרב יוסף סגל. שיטתו של הרב סגל, הייתה מעניינת: הוא היה נוהג להסתובב בישיבה, לקבל מידע על 'חברה' שהיו נחשבים כמוכשרים שיודעים ללמוד, אבל רוצים ומעוניינים במשהו מעבר לזה וכך היה יוצר איתם קשר. למעשה, כך, הוא בעצם הגיע אלי.
הפעם הראשונה בה פגשתי אותו, היה זה בדרך לטיש של האדמו"ר מגור ה'בית-ישראל'. הרב סגל החל לדבר איתי בלימוד על ה'קצות' הידוע בענין שליחות להנחת תפילין. לאורך כל השיחה, אני מאוד התפעלתי מהעמקות שלו. במהלך הערב, נפגשתי איתו שוב והמשכנו את השיחה.
שיעור חשאי
מספר ימים לאחר-מכן, ה'חברותא' שלי, חסיד גור, סיפר לי בסוד שיש שיעור תניא. כששאלתי אותו מי מוסר את השיעור, הוא ענה: הרב יוסף סגל, זה שפגשת בטיש של ה'בית-ישראל' והתפעלת ממנו. אם לומר את האמת: בתחילה לא רציתי ללכת לשיעור. אחרי הכל, נולדתי במשפחת ליטאית שהייתה רחוקה מאד מחסידות בכלל ומחב"ד בפרט. מה שהכריע את הכף, היה הסקרנות לדעת למה בעצם אנו "מתנגדים".
בבית-ספר בבית-וגן בירושלים, התקיים השיעור החשאי. להשיג מפתח למקום, היה סיפור ארוך, אך ניגש לנקודה. אט-אט החלו לזרום בחורים לבית-הספר. כל אחד מהבחורים היה צריך לדפוק דפיקות מסוימות, שהיו מעין סיסמה. רק אז נפתחה הדלת.
במשך מספר שבועות נמשך הדבר, עד שאחד מרבני הישיבה, עלה על דבר השיעור ואסר את ההשתתפות בצורה שאינה משתמעת לשתי-פנים.
לא הייתה לנו ברירה והפסקנו את השיעור. כעבור מספר שבועות, שוב התחדש השיעור וכמו מקודם, זה נודע לרב אחר מהישיבה ואולצנו להפסיק כליל את השיעור.
הצימאון ללמוד את התניא בער בקרבנו והחלטנו לאחר תקופה ארוכה, לחדש את השיעור. בכדי לשמור על חשאיות, קבענו את השיעור בבית-הכנסת של האדמו"ר מאמשינוב בבית-וגן.
מדוע אתם לא לומדים בישיבה ?
ה'בית-ישראל' נהג לצאת מביתו בלילה, באותו לילה בו ישבנו ללמוד תניא, אנחנו מבחינים לפתע באדמו"ר מגור. הוא התיישב בצד והקשיב לקול לימודינו. לא יכלנו להמשיך ללמוד מרוב התרגשות והפסקנו ללמוד. הוא אמר לנו להמשיך ללמוד, ניסתי למלמל כמה מילים... אך ללא הצלחה. לאחר-מכן הוא שאל אותנו: מנין אתם? וענינו לו: מישיבת 'קול-תורה'.
"מדוע אתם באים ללמוד כאן ואינכם לומדים בישיבה?" - שאל. לאחר רגעים של שקט, סיפרנו לו את כל האמת כמו שהיא - שבישיבה לא מרשים לנו ללמוד תניא...
תגובתו של 'בית-ישראל', הייתה חריפה והוא אמר: "רויטע בלעטלעך טאר מען און דאס נישט?!" [=דפים אדומים (כינוי לעיתוני "מעריב" ו"ידיעות" שהכותרות שלהם נכתבו בצבע אדום), מותר לקרוא, ואת זה לא?!].
כעבור מספר שבועות, קראו לי לחדרו של ראש-הישיבה, הרב אויערבאך. כשנכנסתי, הוא שאל אותי: "למה אתה אומר שכאילו אני לא מרשה ללמוד תניא בישיבה?".
היססתי. לא ידעתי מה לענות. אך הוא הפציר בי ואז עניתי: "לא אמרתי ח"ו שהרב לא מרשה. אך יש רבנים, בהנהלת הישיבה, שאסרו עלינו ללמוד תניא בישיבה".
הרב אויערבאך הקשיב ולאחר-מכן אמר: "מעכשיו מותר לכם ללמוד, רק 'בלי רעש'".
You like my Peylishe transliteration? :-)
25 comments:
Nice fairy tale.
Fyi, non religous newspapers were strictly prohibited.
Reminds me of another of Slavotitzkys 'pearls' where he describes how his zeideh beat up his father because he looked into a chasidisheh seifer or how he agreed to be the snitch/rat on the other attendees at the Tanya shiur.
As they say in 'eilem hayeshivos' (mit deym grobben finger oon niggun...)'Mimo nafshoch' az dee maysehs zennen emmes, he is prepared to baredt an eigenem zeideh ltoivas anash, reminiscent of the young boy who snitched on his own dad to the Stalinist regime and was 'celebrated'.Same goes for the mayseh where he agreed to be a 'rat'.If the mayseh is shayech to oilem hadimyon, where it probably should be he is stam a 'fantazyoner'.
Btw he studied for a short while in Ponovez and than went to Kfar Chabad.I'm to lazy to search now but there is a radio interview with him on some Israeli Chabad station on the web with these and other babbeh maysehs.Last but not least, Yeshivas Kol Torah is a very strict Yeckisheh yeshiva, not Litvish.
Yea, yea, Motti.
Only stories that support your beliefs are true.
This isn't a story told about a guy that lived two hundred years ago, ya know...
Here we go,
You also tell babbeh maysehs about your own zeideh to make the 'snags look bad?
If you do you should hook up with Slavotitzky
Kol Torah Yekkish? really? do they learn SR Hirsch there?
Yekkish. Right. Maybe Sikh?
The definition of the yeshiva's denomination consists of a bunch of points, including but not limited to the student body, hanholo, majority of teachers, etc. etc. To say that Kol Torah is not a Litvishe yeshiva redefines ludicrous.
The same goes for newspapers. Every yeshiva short of Mizrachi will prohibit them on the formal level; whether they are tolerated (albeit בלי רעש, exactly like the Tanya shiur) is another matter. To claim to not have understood that is to plead guilty to hypocrisy, pervasive stupidity, or both; feel free to choose.
And the transliteration is cute, if a bit confusing; at first, I had thought you wrote Lakewood.
If the story is true, which i highly doubt, there is a bg diference between "roite bletlech" and tanya, firstly anyone knows that newspapers are forbidden in any yeshiva, but even if it is read you know you are reading kefirah (if it touches on hashkafah etc') so the sakanah is not as great compared to tanyah where you might think that its yidishkeit.
And the end of the story (if true)just shows how the gerre mafias called up Reb Shlomo Zalman and threatened him or something so he had to let it but not beraash, typical GER.
Glick
I think your perverted way of thinking is refreshing. It's nice to see that you weren't pressured by the Chassidic mafia to acceptt their reform Judaism. Keep up the good fight, I'm sure Avigdor must be proud of you.
Hirshel aren't you happy that there was an Avigdor 200 years ago, so that whenever sombody was critical of the Chasides you had joined you could side step everything and say 'Avigdor'?
No Lulav
It's not being "critical" of Chassidus here, it's claiming that Chgassidus מיום הולדה is ch"v Kefirah that I have a problem with? Can you get that?
HT
Wake up and smell the coffee, that's what its all about its not about being critical, its about kefirah that has been the argument all the years, from hiskashrus to a rebbe to a median to being mevazeh halacha and talmidei chachomim to name a few
Hershel
I think chezy is right, you started this argument, if you can't hack it don't give it.
"hack" what you fools?!
Is there any doubt that you believe in a new religion called Torahism where there is only Torah and Talmidei Chachomim yet no G-d and no belief system?
You might as well drop the whole facade of so-called Chumros in Mitzvos because you really don't believe in what you're doing!
Two points in Glick's diatribe are worth addressing:
Prefatory warning:
If you entertain any doubts as to Tanya not being kefirah, then this comment was not intended for you. Go back to the year 1700, do not pass go, do not collect 200 brownie points in your rotten gan eden. And let's hope that in that year, you land in between 97% of the Jewish people of that time; the simple, hardworking Jews that were looked down on and scorned without pity by those heartless so-called "Gedolim" you so adore.
If you do not belong to that vile category of Jews, please continue:
1) There are many Jews, possibly the majority of Orthodox Jewry, who feel that while Tanya is a perfectly kosher sefer, and would bristle at any attempt to categorize it otherwise, do not consider it to reflect their derech. That is perfecly normal; there is nothing wrong with learning a sefer that you consider not to be your derech, and will therefore learn it with the proverbial grain of salt. For the same reason, there is no proper objection to such learning.
אלא מאי, one who knows not אין וואס פונקט באשטייט זיין דרך, such a person is indeed susceptible to getting hooked by a derech which has proven to be the catalyst of guaranteeing Jewish religious survival in our times. But if we are dealing with someone who didn't know (or care about) the difference anyways, then what exactly are we discussing?
2) One would assume that any decent man, moreover a Rosh Yeshiva of the caliber of Rav Auerbach זצ"ל, would understand the above, and would not need Mafias to instruct him in such. (By contrast, if for whatever reason he thought otherwise, it would be expected of a man of principle such as him to "stick to his guns", and not be affected by some hooligans). Glick's description of events is therefore patently absurd, and a bizayon to Rav Auerbach's memory. יסלח לו היושב במרומים.
Nathan
I don't agree with glick (eventho i think he just meant to bring across a point about chabad today, not the ba'al hatanyah ch"v)
But your language of "heartless so called gedolim" I would be careful when talking about the gedolim of previous generations "rishonim kemalachim onu kechamorim" don't steep to his level.
Nathan / H.T.
I dont agree with glick either but why is it that any deragatory statement about the menagdim usually preached in chabad is ok (like about r.a.k or the ch.i.)as evident on these blogs
anonymous
read his words again, he mentioned the Baal HaTanya, not "today's Chabad".
Snags must be real bad.............
Based on the 'very intelligent' rhetoric seen here.
Grow up EVERYONE.
Anon
It seems I need to clarify a bit.
I certainly did not mean a "blanket" on past Gedolim ch"v. To do so would indeed be to stoop to unacceptable lows. I did refer to a certain class of people, immediately prior to and during the time of the Baal Shem Tov, who considered themselves to be the elite of Israel, and had no compunctions about saying so. Moreover, this class of people considered it a mitzvah to assert their "place" vis-a-vis less fortunate, hardworking, far more sincere Jews who due to financial circumstances were unable to reach the level of erudition of the said class; these never hesitated to denigrate them, instead of using the Torah they knew to help the situation. It is this class of people that morphed into the first "Misnagdim"; the Previous Rebbe gives the issue broad treatment in his Sefer Hazichronot.
In any event, there is a clear difference between a competition of sorts between ideals, which regrettably can occasionally spill over into areas where hostility does not belong, and the vitriol spewed by a select few on this blog, who frankly nobody (myself included) ought to be dignifying with a response. ומסיימים בטוב.
והאמת והשלום אהבו
Gershon
occassional derogatory statements with individuals you crossed paths with is one thing. non-stop statements like Kefirah etc is quite another.
Can someone describe what these misnagdim were doing that was so corrupt and terrible?
(Before the attacks begin, let's remember these were the main-stream frum yidden at the time, and should be spoken of with basic respect)
Could you believe I had this whole long thing typed up for you "hold on", and it was lost due to a technical problem?
For verification of this story
see
http://www.shturem.net/index.php?section=artdays&id=292&lang=hebrew
Eli
we're talking about a person repeating a story that happened to him, not some hand-me-down from 5 generations ago, so please stop.
HT,
Sorry to hear that. I await your secomnd attempt.
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