Wednesday, July 30, 2008

ויהי בימי קציר החיטים

Many of you may read the frum picture papers these days and see lots of pictures of Rebbes/Rabbonim out in the wheatfields of the "fruited plain" cutting wheat, riding on those big old International harvesters and sifting through kernels. You see them in the blazing sun, whether locally or in Arizona, and you see them in their tish bekitshes, and you say to yourself: "what mesirus nefesh they have for their scruples!" To sit out in the 115 degree Arizona sun in the black clothes can only stem from true love of and connection to G-d! ! Well, my friends, it seems like the fear of the digital lens has forced many of them to dress up for the camera. It looks like in the old days, when REAL people roamed the earth, things were a little different. They acted natural, just like they would when others were not around. The proceeding pictures prove my point to a degree. Pictured here is the old Kopycynitzer Rebbe, Harav Avrohom Yehoshua Heschel, zt"l, at one of those wheat-cutting ceremonies.

THE PHOTOS HAD TO BE REMOVED DUE TO ---- WHATEVER, NEVER MIND.
Would any Rebbe today be caught dead in the presence of a burly old man with an undershirt and straw hat? And the classic car in the background, it's beyond classy. Where have those days gone?!

THE PHOTOS HAD TO BE REMOVED DUE TO ---- WHATEVER, NEVER MIND.
The shades, man, The shades!

When did the PR wonks decide that it was taboo for Rebbes to act like human beings when their predecessors didn't see that way at all? Is it all for lack of substance? There's some truth to that. Take away the substance and you're left with zero, hence the need for trappings like never before. Big bowls of fruit in 10,000 dollar bowls, and $3 Kedem wine in $5000 dollar decanters... Kind of like the empty Bekitshes who grace the picture pages of today.

19 comments:

Yoine Cohen said...

I am surprised that you say this; isn't Reb Aron Teitelbaum being seen in the Fliesh factory of KJ and also in Arizona cutting wheat?

But what you say is so true. So many of our so called biggies don't have the basic qualities of being first of all a mentch and at the drop of moment get into action.

Let me cite 3 examples of what I don't think would be common today.

Tzanzer Rav, had a widow come in and cry to him that nobody buys her apples in the market because somebody is spreading rumors that her apples are no good. He said what? thats not true "they are very good and I'll prove it to you" he grabed his hat and went to the market WITH HER and went to her apple stand, and started shouting "who wants the best apples in Tzanz?" of course the whole market went crazy all came running and 'chap' those 'heilige' apples.
The Tzanzer turned to the widow and said "see they werent bad apples".

2nd Story. and I know the person involved.

A Women in Benei Brak came to the Reb Chaim Meir of Viznitz that her husband is beating her. So he advised her first to immediately leave him and go to her family in Yerushalayim. She told him "but Rebbe I'm afraid to stand at the bus stop alone" The Rebbe then grabbed his hat and told her I'm standing near you at the bus stop come with me. The bus stop was close to the Rebbes home and THATS WHAT HE DID!
[he had five gabo'im he cuold have been sent but he didn't think of that idea]

3] I heard that from the Rav of Chabad in Montreal Rabbi Hendel's zt"l mishpacha. He was Rav in the Vaad Harabonim of Montreal, and was in charge of the Mikvah (thats maybe 50 yrs ago) when Satmar Rebbe visited Montreal, somebody told the Rebbe that the Mikva is not OK So when Rav Hendel came to visit the Satmar Rebbe aksed him in learning in Mikvah halochos and then asked him who is in charge of the mikva, Rav Hendel said "I am and I have the keys in my pocket, would the Rebbe wan't to come and see?"

The Rebbe wen't with Rav Hendel and took off his wide brimmed hat and colored bekishe and crawled with Rav Hendel on the floor of the Mikva and pronounced "kusher Kusher"

After that, when Satmar built their own mayan Mikva the Rebbe instructed his Kehilah and Rabonim to invite Rav Hendel to oversee because the Rebbe was so impressed .

So there Hirshel you have 3 examples that I don't know why we don't see or hear so much in these days.

Yosef718

Anonymous said...

hershel, now this is vintage tzig! keep it up!

Anonymous said...

I love the old pics you dig up. I just wish there would be more of a hemshech from that great oheiv yisroel the kapitchnitzer rebbe zt"l.
genuine ahavas yisroel can't be marketed or faked.

Anonymous said...

copyright? after all those years? strange...

baalbatish said...

I'll treasure those pictures forever.

Hirshel Tzig - הירשל ציג said...

you saved them?

Anonymous said...

R' Hirshel

In Likutei Diburim the FR describes chassidim cutting the wheat for Pesach while wearing bigdei shabbos.

Mendel

Mindy Schaper said...

DUH, DUH, DUH.

Thank you for addressing one of the biggest issues we have in our society today.

baalbatish said...

Railroaded for sure.

Anonymous said...

yosef- you are forgetting the story of rav gifter- a rebbetzin of one of the chavrei kollel or hanholo complained to rav gifter that her husband says "es past nisht az er zol nemein arois the garbage" the next morning there was a knock on the door and much to the surprise of the avreich , rav gifter was standing there asking to take out his trash

chchick said...

Don't you know that you can find deleted entries by searching Google's "cache"?

Hirshel Tzig - הירשל ציג said...

how would you search for that particular post?

chchick said...

I copy/pasted this text:
Kopycynitzer Rebbe, Harav Avrohom Yehoshua Heschel

Anonymous said...

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=circus+tent

Look at who is toppermost of the poppermost for this search?

Click on "cached" for your entry and there yuh go.

Anonymous said...

Anyways, I seem to recall similar pictures of Rav Ashkenazi from K'far Habad doing the Ketzir Chitim thing in Ukraine in recent years; shirtsleeves and all. And I am sure he is not the only one. The Kopycynitzer's (ZT"L) example has had good Hashpa'ah on later generations.

Anonymous said...

found them, saved them. sue me...

baalbatish said...

http://72.14.205.104/search?q=cache:Hs2QfJJkXhgJ:theantitzemach.blogspot.com/+arizona+sun+wheat+theantitzemach&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1

Anonymous said...

Don't you know that you can find deleted entries by searching Google's "cache"?


So how does Tzig do Teshvuah?

Anonymous said...

cache has been cleaned.