Never trust a choosid....

Synopsis: Reb Gedalia Schorr was a talmid in Kletzk in the summer of '39. His family wanted him to come home to America. The American Consulate advised the same thing, citing imminent turmoil in the region, which came soon after. Young Gedalyohu wrote a letter to his Rosh Yeshivah, later of White Plains and Lakewood, and asked for his opinion - Daas Teyreh - on what to do. Should he stay and shteig in Kletzk or go back to the Toomene Amerike. The Rosh Yeshivah was away on vacation and the only way to reach him was by snail mail. The Rosh Yeshivah's reply arrived too late. Gedalyohu could not wait any longer and took the ship back home. He had sold all his furniture and he was afraid of what was in store for him, בתוך כלל ישראל. By the time the letter arrived he was relaxing port side on the Atlantic, probably enjoying the warm breezes with a Ketzos in hand. The story doesn't raise any eyebrows until the last few lines, where the son of RGS - not sure which one - makes a very strong statement; a statement that was APPARENTLY too strong for the editors here, and one which they needed to "water down" just a bit...

"In that difficult time of hester panim the One Above obscured the future gezeirah even from the vision of tzaddikim." So said the son, whom I assume is a very good Jew, just as good as the editors are. The editors added the word "Apparently," probably worried about an outcry of the righteous, screaming about the lack of Kavod HaTorah for Daas Torah and the Meyased Torah here in America. Or something like that. I find it very ironic that the Kletzker Rosh Yeshivah, who's Kavod is במקומו מונח, was given vision of tzaddikim by son of RGS, which is not something that even his talmidim would say that he had, yet that was good enough for the newspaper. This is not meant as a knock on RAK. I just don't get what the issue was here. Why the need to add that word, and what does it accomplish? There was no concept of Ruach HaKodesh amongst Litvishe Yidden at that time. I think that's safe to assume. The last one that was thought of that way was probably the Chofetz Chaim. The fact that most of the bachurim in Mir ignored the opinion of the faculty there speaks volumes about what they thought of daas torah, even with much older Rosh Yeshivos, and Tzaddikim such as the mashgiach Reb Chatzkel, who maybe some DID think had a veite kook.

[I'll go out on a limb here and say that RGS never asked him as a chossid would ask his Rebbe; and if he did it was only because he shtammed from chassidim. But he soon realized that this is no chassidishe Rebbe, so he packed his bags and left. OK, enough of my boych s'vores, back to the story.] The story in and of itself, I think, is not terrible. You don't think MISTAKE when you read it. You see more of an Hashgocha Protis that the letter arrived late, rather than a kashe on a Rosh Yeshiva "how could he be mistaken." The fact that they added those two lines shows that the son had his own doubts about the "veiter kook" of RAK, and shows that he's a shvache believer. I guess the editors could not take out the whole two lines, so they needed to add that one word. The point is never trust a chossid; even if he goes to learn in a pure Litvisher Yeshivah he never really believes all the way. He still doubts his RY, and he sure as Gehennom won't die just so he could listen to Daas Torah. If he thinks his life is in danger he's on the next boat home! Then again, the Mirrer Talmidim were mostly Litvaks and they high-tailed it out of there too... hmmm.... what happened to my whole binyan here?

On the other hand; maybe the writer put in that word, not the editors.....