Monday, October 5, 2009

חאלימויד גערעדעכץ


AP Photo

Hello there. My name is Hirshel Tzig. I have a blog here in the 'sphere that I sometimes update. I hope y'all will stop by here every once in a while, and tell all your friends about the blog as well.

I haven't read the Mishpacha magazine article where R' Yehuda Krinsky tells all to Yitzchok Frankfurter, so I have no opinion as of now. What I did notice somewhere - I think it was on one of the Chabad websites - was the article somewhere about the Ribnitzer Rebbe, zt"l, where his Rebbetzin was asked all kinds of questions about her late, great husband. Somewhere in the article she says that her husband held the Satmarer Shittah. Closed quote. Then she says that he went to the Kosel or permitted others to go, I forget which it was. Even when she traveled to the Holy Land she asked him if she could go to the Wall, and he said it was OK, as long as she didn't go very close to the stones. And why? because of the Kedusha! Not because the Zionists defiled it, or something. So tell me; what kind of Satmarer shittah is that?! Just say it like it is; that he was shlepped to Satmar, because his handlers thought it better for business!

There was this one guy - a protege' of mine, he likes to call himself - where he blasts Mishpacha for doing the interview/article in the first place. A bad business decision he calls it, since the shtarke yeshivishe oylem is gonna cancel their subscriptions en masse. "They don't want their children to emulate that man," he tells me. There are many aspects to such an opinion. First, I find the attitude so high and mighty that yesterday's supper rises to your throat. Who do these nobodies of questionable yichus think they are?! Other than the Rosh Yeshive types most of these Yankee doodle dandies grew up here in America with little direction, and under the auspices of Horowitz MARGARETEN and the Morgen Journal. Where does this phony Kano'us come from?! We discussed this before, I don't want to repeat the same diatribe again. Nu, shoin, vos darf men redden.... VeDal. What gets me is him saying that they crossed the line not when writing about MO Rabbis, movies and when they write "heypech Daastoyreh," but when they write respectfully about the Rebbe.... It would be funny were it not so sad.

Which brings me to another such story; one that shook me to the core, despite the fact that these things shouldn't surprise me at this point anymore. In our Ir haTorah VeHaChesed (Greater) Monsey there lives a certain high profile doctor. It seems like over YomTov some Lubavitcher yungerman crossed his back yard in order to hurry to shul. We can argue the point of whether or not he was allowed to do what he did, but he definitely did no damage and doesn't do it very often. The doctor's wife - a fine Bas Yishmoelroel saw him and yelled something to the effect of "you Lubavitcher pigs are bringing down the property values in Concord..." (Concord area in Monsey) The man was not happy and came to shul that evening to insruct the ROV in our shul to make sure to lecture his kelblech congregants not to G-d forbid cross this man's backyard. This was not enough for the doctor and his friend who tagged along. He came back the next day again, before Maariv Motzoei Yom Tov, and waited for the Rov to finish the shiur before Maariv before confronting him again and making sure that he did his duty. Believe me, I had no idea this was happening until after the fact, because if I did there would be no return visit from this mechutzef/Anti-Semite.

A search of his name told me that he's the head of a department at a prestigious hospital in New York City. Which would make you think that he overcame his MESIVTA-level hate of LUBAVITCH, but I guess old habits die hard, even for doctors... I would imagine organizations honor this man, and meshulochim may even get a nice check from this man if his machshefah wife isn't home to shoo them away. But even all the years spent in college, Med School and at his current practice, where he must have come across situations that he had to control himself, and I'm sure he's had some Lubavitcher patients pass through his office, none of that ever made that deep-seated hatred go away. Which goes to show you that hatred of LUBAVITCH - and maybe it would happen to other groups as well if a beshtreimeled yid used his lawn to cut a path across his lawn - doesn't go away no matter how hard you may try. I would like to pick this guy's brain and get to the bottom of it. Maybe he had a Lubavitcher friend who took his lunch money, or a patient who never paid his bill, or a Lubavitcher once cut him off on the Palisades.

32 comments:

Anonymous said...

Having read Mishpacha's piece, I have to tell you that it made me like the Lubavitch Rebbe much more than I ever have.

It was rich and reverential. while not being drippy Hungarian hyperbole.

schneur said...

"Yankee Doodle" - hashkafoth
People in glass houses should not throw stones... A great many of the machers and rabbis in Chabad today ate the same matzo, and read the same papers and went to the same yeshivos as the people you criticize.
Its one thing for a European to criticize this fact , but Lubavitch is justso chock full of men who joined the movement from the same neighborhoods the roshe yeshiva came from ; east NY, Wiliamsburg, Lower east Side Baltimore etc.

Hirshel Tzig - הירשל ציג said...

sure they do, but they don't claim to be G-d's lawyers who worry that the Jewish people will be contaminated by Chabad.

I also was talking about the laymen, not the Roshei Yeshivah who at least have some yichus.

moshe shmeel said...

tzig , the kosel is not the shitah of satmar.
there are many who accept the satmar in regard to all other aspects , but do go to the kosel!

Hirshel Tzig - הירשל ציג said...

and the Satmar Rov would be Ok with such a shittah?

berl, crown heights said...

I read the Krinsky interview. Made me nauseous. I tried my very best reading with an open mind... Alas, I could have kept my mind closed for the same price! "The Rebbe was an erlicher Yid." Feh! Firstly, the Rebbe doesn't need anyone's defense. And even if he did, it shouldn't have be done by this balagole fool who wasn't exactly an intellectual giant in his best days. (OK, he has SOME talents – I assume he was indeed a good driver and a decent manager of paper files.)

A gut'n meied!

Shmuel said...

Berl,

So if you give Yudel a ride, you'd be the Balagoleh's Balagoleh :)

berl, crown heights said...

Shmuel, no I would still be me and he would still be a balagole...

Not Brisk said...

Respectful crticism can not be handled by some.... Imagine HT writing about Lubavitchers upset about a magazine without poking fun at Talmeday Chachumim

berl, crown heights said...

Not Brisk,

Where did anyone poke fun at talmidei chachomim?

dovy said...

berl,
you did not explain at all what you didn't like about the article, much less why it made you nauseas. sounds like you had something against yudel beforehand and are just happy to grab a chance to bash him. probably a wacko meshichist loser.

Anonymous said...

" I would like to pick this guy's brain and get to the bottom of it."

so go knock on his door. How do you know if his Lubab neighbors would not also yell at unwanted tramplers?
Story is "pass nicht fir dir"

Yudel said nothing at all to anyone in the parasha....what indeed does anyone read between the lines upon analysis?

UD said...

Berele, Reb Yudl was perhaps the closest person to the rebbe for decades on, and I'm sure the rebbe chose him not just for his driving skills. If you'd arrive to licking his ankles, your life could be considered a success in rochnius and gashmius as well ...

Anonymous said...

Di doktorke is nisht makpid oif Lubabs. She barks at everyone. Be nice to him. Ehr is a yoosim.

Anonymous said...

Goat Bastard,
You are a hater and a kool aided freak and a big loser.
I happen to know the family involved and it has nothing to do with Lubavitch.
Go hang yourself.

berl, crown heights said...

UD, your pinko-commie approbation for Yudel is all one really needs to form an opinion of him. You just can't let go of grandpa Lenin's dream of a time when "a kecherin vet firen di regirung". Can you?

"Closest person to the Rebbe"? Make me laugh! Using your logic, the Rebbe's barber was even closer! And what do you know about this anyway? When did you even show up on the scene? The guy was a driver and fulfilled purely administrative duties. He is a total am hooretz and has zero power in Lubavitch today and even less influence.

As for the interview: Yudel spoke in a tone of a grobe balagole, not in a tone of a chosid (never mind a kluge chosid!).

berl, crown heights said...

Btw, I am not out to minimize the real zechus of anyone who was meshamesh bekeidesh, be it driving, cooking, doing laundry, cleaning, organizing papers, etc., etc. My problem is the chutzpoh of presenting such worthy activity as something more than what it was.

Elchonon said...

Berl,CH
It sounds like Yudel stepped on your toes by mistake years ago and you won't forget it.Get over yourself,will you.
Yudel has "zero power" in Lubavitch.Yeah?Now that is a pure lie!
(You don't sound like the old Berl,CH at all.Is that you or somebody trying to stir up trouble?)

berl, crown heights said...

I is me, and I am not interested in continuing the conversation about Yudel. If you have something to say to defend the tone of his interview, do so. "The Rebbe was an erlicher Yid" - is this how Lubavitchers speak these days?

UD said...

Berele, it seems that the current powers-that-be in 770 forgot to throw you your bone and a kuvodzicher like you obviously are, you're taking it out on those not present here. To call Y"K an amhooretz is downright motzi she ra, as I know for a fact that the man can and does learn avelt. And from badmouthing him you're not far from spitting on your rebbe himself. Or have you already ?

Wait, we forgot that you're objecting to rebbe having been an erlicher yid ... It was good enough for Kalever and it's good enough for anyone who is one, but you don't seem to think so ...

Friendly anonymous said...

Does anyone dispute that the Rebbe appointed Yudel to his leadership position?

We can only speculate, as Reb Schneur is wont to do, the reason why the Rebbe appointed Yudel rather than Leibel, who is much more shayech to rebbeshaft.

Elchonon said...

Mishpacha is NOT a Chabad publication and Yudel was very smart in giving an interview that the average frum non Lubavitcher person can relate to with superlatives they are used to.Lubavitch is getting very decent coverage in Mishpacha lately and there is no need to jeopardize this with using what for the average frum person would be seen as bombastic.
So we have on the one side the Rebbes confidence for many,many years in Yudel and Berel,CH's name calling.Who would you go for?

Anonymous said...

Hirshel,
the Shvei style misnagdim will have to cancel alot of newspapers after this yom tov, the Hamevaser, Hamodia and Bakhila all had pro chabad aricles and quoted the Rebbe with great reverence as "Hagoan Hakodaseh" a tiltle the Hungarian chasidim are very fond of. its like the americam communist party after the Berlin wall fell.

Anonymous said...

Schneur
did your buddy Moshe Hecht of Ct. eat Horowitz?
Your great Rebbe Berie probably ate for the seder Horowitz matzoh I assume

berl, crown heights said...

UD, you want to believe Yudel is an intellectual and a talmid chochom? Fine with me - אשרי המאמין ...

Elchonon, I did not suggest that Yudel had to say something bombastic in Mishpacha magazine, or even in Kfar Chabad magazine, for that matter. There is much room between what he said and something "bombastic". The language he used would surely get him a frashk at a farbrengen in the days of yore.

This interview reminds me of the statements Yudel made during the aftermath of the Rebbe's stroke. Anyone with a bit of honesty knows those statements became fodder for the extreme meshichists. Y'all can safely thank Yudel & Co for the yellow crazies running around CH today. But I am done explaining this. Those that understand, understand. Those that don't, won't.

Also, you sycophants can't have it both ways. The fact that the Rebbe might have appointed Yudel to something (I will agree, for arguments sake, that this is indeed so, but before you all get carried away, please remember – an unsigned Will is just that, an unsigned Will) doesn't mean Yudel has received an unconditional gushpanka for all his deeds and words. He has bechira and can still screw up. This is the very logic you people used in your open opposition to the members of the CH Beis Din, who received a VERY PUBLIC, unambiguous and enthusiastic endorsement from the Rebbe! So when the same logic is applied to Yudel, all of a sudden you scream, "der Rebbe hot em memane geven!" Why weren't you screaming the same thing about the Beis Din?
...

Anonymous said...

i read the interview. it is probably one of the greatest articles about lubavitch.

berl doesn't like it because to him the rebbe wasn't an erliche yid--but an idol.

Anonymous said...

The papers also referred to the Lubavitcher Rebbe as Zichrono Livrocho, which you don't. Is that Kovod for your Rebbe? Sounds hypocritical to me.

Anonymous said...

Anon 8: 34

Bang-on. The highest praise is to be an ehrliche Yid, but they dont want to see their Rebbe as such. Ehricle Yidden do things like go to the bathroom too, and that doesnt fit.

Anonymous said...

Tzig,

You rarely surprise me because you're so darn predictable but this time you managed. I saw the FEATURE article about the Rebbe and one of the first thoughts that came to mind is, "Boy, will this make the Lubavitchers happy. Even the worst haters won't be able to complain now about Mishpachah." Somehow you managed. You post some drivel about boatloads of misnagdim cancelling their subscriptions because of it.
All pure baloney! It never happened. I spoke to someone who works in their American office and he said they had far less complaints about this article than anyone would have suspected and perhaps a few cancelled subscriptions but not more than five. Don't let that stop you from ranting about the horrible misnagdim. It really shouldn't after all. If you run out of material just make some up or pick up some garbage on some other blog that makes them up and then keep up the good fight.
Jeeeeeepers!!!

Hirshel Tzig - הירשל ציג said...

HEY, MAN

I thought they taught you basic reading comprehension in the school you went to. I guess not...

I was quoting another website, HE was the one that made those very BOLD predictions!!!

A Shliach said...

as a geboroneh (thought I am a shvache meshichist unlike berl who is anti) I really did like yudel's way of expression, me thinks it's his americanisms that seem grub (I still remember his 'greatest leader of the century' post gimmel tamuz, cringed then too)
thought it was just me but i guess some of us dont like a certain style, I thought it was a calculated move by mishpocho cuz they realize they need to be lubavitch friendly, since the belsky debacle but they were going to close so get yudel about the rebbe instead of a talmid chochom or at least someone who know the language like r' yoel or binyomin (even leibel with his chaloimos would do a better job)that way lubavitch doesnt come out to good but no one can complain.
seems di farbisener like me are anyways unhappy and di fabissene son'im like not brisk r complaining anyway (was surpirsed, didnt realize such sin'a still existed, though still not sure he is a soinei or its in his mind bout others)

either way they dont need to satisfy me for their business and it seems oilem goilem (which makes up majority of luabvitch and others) liked it so it's good for the bottom line

Anonymous said...

well.. it's like I thought!