This little news blurb on COL caught my attention:
It caught my attention because of a recent story I heard that was once printed in the Algemeiner Journal. Rav Soloveitchik of Boston would give a Shiur in Likutei Torah, the Ma'mar Ani L'dodi, during the month of Elul while vacationing in the country in Massachussets. I don't remember whether it was Cape Cod or Martha's Vineyard. This shiur became more intense as time went on, and it took more of the time from the Shiurim in Nigleh. There was one Talmid who was irked by the fact that the Rav was so excited by a Chassidishe Sefer, especially at the expense of "real" learning. One day he spoke up and voiced his concern to the Rav. "Why are we wasting our time with this, wouldn't it be better if we stuck to the learning of Gemoroh Taysfes?
The Rav regaled them with the story by Yiddish writer --------------- of the Simchas Teyreh spent together by the Brisker Rov and the Bialer Rebbe, (characters may be different) where the joy of the congregation and townspeople reached the heavens. The dancing and merrymaking continued very late into the day, with nobody paying attention to the clock. Late in the afternoon the Brisker Rov began to get nervous about Mincha, but the dancing and singing would not subside. When he could not wait any longer he jumped out of his seat, banged on the Bimah, and yelled "MINCHA!" which immediately caused the dancing to halt.
The Bialer Rebbe was quite unimpressed with this outburst, albeit for a good and just cause. He was to say: "Az Yidden Tantzen un Freien Zich Tzuzamen, un es kumt einer, takeh mit recht, un shtelt es op, iz dos Choshech!" The "Rav" turned to Menachem Genack and said to him: We sit here and learn this Maymer, and we bask in the glow of the light of Toras HaChassidus and you come and try to stop it. Du, Genack, Du bist der Cheyshekh! Rabbi Genack is a good guy, I don't mean to belittle him , Chas Vesholom, I just remembered the story while reading the news blurb, and found it a bit ironic, that's all.
It caught my attention because of a recent story I heard that was once printed in the Algemeiner Journal. Rav Soloveitchik of Boston would give a Shiur in Likutei Torah, the Ma'mar Ani L'dodi, during the month of Elul while vacationing in the country in Massachussets. I don't remember whether it was Cape Cod or Martha's Vineyard. This shiur became more intense as time went on, and it took more of the time from the Shiurim in Nigleh. There was one Talmid who was irked by the fact that the Rav was so excited by a Chassidishe Sefer, especially at the expense of "real" learning. One day he spoke up and voiced his concern to the Rav. "Why are we wasting our time with this, wouldn't it be better if we stuck to the learning of Gemoroh Taysfes?
The Rav regaled them with the story by Yiddish writer --------------- of the Simchas Teyreh spent together by the Brisker Rov and the Bialer Rebbe, (characters may be different) where the joy of the congregation and townspeople reached the heavens. The dancing and merrymaking continued very late into the day, with nobody paying attention to the clock. Late in the afternoon the Brisker Rov began to get nervous about Mincha, but the dancing and singing would not subside. When he could not wait any longer he jumped out of his seat, banged on the Bimah, and yelled "MINCHA!" which immediately caused the dancing to halt.
The Bialer Rebbe was quite unimpressed with this outburst, albeit for a good and just cause. He was to say: "Az Yidden Tantzen un Freien Zich Tzuzamen, un es kumt einer, takeh mit recht, un shtelt es op, iz dos Choshech!" The "Rav" turned to Menachem Genack and said to him: We sit here and learn this Maymer, and we bask in the glow of the light of Toras HaChassidus and you come and try to stop it. Du, Genack, Du bist der Cheyshekh! Rabbi Genack is a good guy, I don't mean to belittle him , Chas Vesholom, I just remembered the story while reading the news blurb, and found it a bit ironic, that's all.
12 comments:
at least the beard isn't an אשכנזישע anymore
It isn't anything anymore....
it's a bit doubtful that r' Soloveitchik would relate such a story re: an ancestor.
the story has been attested to numerous times (including by Rav Genack).
R' Rakeffet I belive cites it twicew in his book on the Rav nishmaso eiden.
a thanks, in different circles, a story like this would be swept under the rug.
Tzib
the "actual" story, that is to say the Simkhas Teyreh dancing, never happened, it was the figment of a Yiddish writer's imagination. (anybody know who?) The story with the Rov did happen, and he related it using a parable from the Yiddish writer's story.
Farshteyst?
my point is even more valid, that in "other circles" a story (parable) like this wouldn't be mentioned
please explain what's your problem with that story?
no problem.
The Rav's (ie RYBS) z"l summer home was in Onset, Mass.
The mincha outburst reminds me of a quip attributed to the Satmar Rebbe zy"a "Ah Yerushalayimer Yid shrekt zikh fuhn tzvai zahkhin...shkia...und arbit'n"
Hirshel or someone, can you translate the rebuke.. I'm not a yiddish speaker, though it seems he's being told that stopping Jews in the middle of a simcha like this is bringing in the darkness..
i'd love to know exactly what he said:
"Az Yidden Tantzen un Freien Zich Tzuzamen, un es kumt einer, takeh mit recht, un shtelt es op, iz dos Choshech!"
Here's what I pieced together:
Jews are dancing and happy _____, and you got up ___ with ____ ________, is the darkness.
thanks,
ps. I know your blogs are primarily aimed at chabad.. but the amount of yiddish used (i know the flavor is different) really inhibits a larger readership of Jews who might otherwise be interested--both ones who have little background as well as those who are fluent in english/hebrew (and could even understand you if you decided to speak in aramaic) but thanks to their (sepharadi in my case) heritage they don't understand most of the words you are saying.
(i'm not chabad but I learn a lot of the Alter Rebbe's chassidut (and more occasionally the Mitler Rebbe and the Tzemach Tzedek) thankfully they had the foresight to commit most of their writing in hebrew and not yiddish or I would be out of luck ;) Of course, if you're speaking yiddish and not Lashon Hakodesh because the matters you are talking about shouldn't be rendered in Lashon Hakodesh, tell me as well, and I'll stop reading :) )
Yitz
didn't mean to keep you or anybody else outta the loop here.
If Jews are dancing and are happy, and someone comes, and he may be right in doing so, and he disrupts the dancing and joy, then that's darkness!
Meaning that his move to daven Mincha comes from the wrong source.
I'll try to find the time and translate more of the Yiddish.
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