Friday, September 2, 2016

How did RYY of Skver know about Shakespeare?!

Received via e-mail:

Hirshel: Someone told me that in this week's ami Mayer Schiller eulogizes his friend the Hollywood actor Steven Hill. Not before he retells his own life's story....They were both were Baalei Tshuvah who were mesmerized by the old Skverer. Steve went thru hardships in making a living after he became a BT because he would not play unclean parts. He poured his heart out to the old Skverer.  Out of the blue the Rebbe suggested to him he should maybe play some Shakespeare plays (which are probably clean) Shiller writes that he was shocked that a Ukrainian rebbe knew about Shakespeare plays! The million dollar question is now How did the Skverer, considered by his people the greatest קדוש and חסידא ופרישא, know about this תחתון שאין תחתון למטה הימנו? Unless Mayer Schiller isn't telling the truth, in which case all is well... I mean for the Chassidim.

(We attach the relevant part of the article)


40 comments:

ostreicher cookie said...

The rebbe of skver actually got cultured while living in Yas before WWII the 'city people' of Yas liked his mystic personality, and he got used to listen to their 'questions' and issues here in America as in Rumania. so he learned something, so did I .

"The Cultural Capital of Romania, The City of Great Loves, Moldavia, Iași has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Romanian social, cultural, academic and artistic life."

100% bee honey, crc said...

The late Yom Tov Ehrlich z"l was an accomplished artist and played out his many talents beautifuly which truthfully enriches many Jewish homes even more so today, came to 'realization' and inducements of the late skvere rebbe z"l, as he writes.

frau lichtag, dresden said...

think of it there is a lot of stagecraft in the new square, wasn't Shakespeare who said:
"All the world's a (their) stage,
And all the men and women merely players"

Unfortunately they seemed to be frozen in act one.

Anonymous said...

he obviously didn't know much about Shakespeare if he thought those plays would be more appropriate for a chasid.

באנק קוועשער said...

ס'האט פארציילט א גבאי פון איינע פון אונזערע פריערדיגע היזיגע רביס, כ'וועל אוודאי נישט פורש בשמו זיין כ'בין קיין מחוצף, אז ווען דער זושרנאל אין גיווען אנ סטרייק האט זיין רבי גילעכטץ נאכ'ן ליינען "דעם קרימען שפיגעל" א ראמאנע אין פארזעצונגן געשריבן מסתמא נוסח שייגץפער

אחד מי יודע said...

הרבי הראשון דבאבוב באמעריקא, דר לאיזה שנים אחר המלחמה בלאנדאן, והיה מהיודעים המשחק "הסוחר מוונציה" כידוע ליודעים

EXTRA EXTRA said...

Extra!

חסידות באבוב .. "הסוחר מוונציה", הופעה על בימת הגלוב, לונדון אנגליה , 2012,
London Evening Standart, report

Anonymous said...

in the sefer ויהי בנסוע which is the written account of the first נסיעה of the bobover rebbe reb shlomlo to eretz yisroel it is written they were in Venice and reb shlomlo bought something and he told the chasidim that Iam the merchant of Venice and he explained to the Chasidim , Shakespeare anti-Semitic play

nu where did he know it from probably the same place as the skvere rebbe knew it

sarel said...

The question wasn't asked by a chasid.

Tziyoni said...

http://yomtovehrlich.blogspot.com/?m=1

Yom Tov not so Ehrlich

Anonymous said...

http://www.hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?sits=1&req=43986&st=%u05D4%u05E1%u05D5%u05D7%u05E8

ajs said...

Re Early translations of Shakespeare to Hebrew and their availability in the Eastern European Chasidic world, see Fred MacDowell's post here: http://onthemainline.blogspot.com/2010/11/first-hebrew-translation-of-hamlets-to.html Kol tuv, Ariel Segal

Tevya said...

"How did RYY of Skver know about Shakespeare?!"

The question was how did "RYY" know! not Bobov or Muzshoi veculu..

macabre ! said...

my shtetele belz 🎺🎵🎻 in new square..

https://youtu.be/49AgLsbFGtU

Maskel l'duvid said...

nu, how did yosef hatzadig knew 70 languages? could it be the same angel who teached yosef, also knew the shakespeare macbeth languages? and was send to RYY !

hans plimpie, critique said...

kike take a hike, find another poor soul to pester, Yom Tov Ehrlich is a legend in spirit and soul and a playwright, (I used to listen him humming in stoluner shul on Romney st) all songwriters play with words, few bring them alive.

gavruel liner said...

KikesOnBikes: "Yom Tov not so Ehrlich"

In defense of yom-tov-ehlich the original composer!

http://www.kaveshtiebel.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=4286

boo on airmount said...

even hew new of Shakespeare I'm sure it was b'salted beyond trief

M Knobloch said...



"הרבי הראשון דבאבוב באמעריקא, דר לאיזה שנים אחר המלחמה בלאנדאן, והיה מהיודעים המשחק "הסוחר מוונציה" כידוע ליודעים"
the Bobover ruv certainly knew about the Merchant of Venice from Zevins sefer Lor Halacha where he discusses it in light of Halacha

שיילאק said...

כמה גדול הרבי, תורה הוא ונלמד הוא צריך

yom tov in der vochen said...

What am i missing here? Is it a big avla to have heard of Shakespeare?
Heshy, we've discussed numerous times your penchant to attack Skver, whether its via emails you "got" or otherwise.
Pot calling kettle black?
There is much in Lubavitch which carries similarities to its fellow Russian chasidic hoyf
Kol uman soneh ben umnosoi?

polish parve said...

yum: "Kol 'uman' soneh ben umnosoi?"

The whole "uman" mamesh?

Chol Hamoed said...

Yom Tov
"Heshy, we've discussed numerous times your penchant to attack Skver, whether its via emails you "got" or otherwise."
who is the "WE"

יוסף מזרחי said...

.. ואלו הן הפסולים - לדון ולהעיד

ברטנורא: המשחק בקוביא - פסול לעדות. לפי שאינו מתעסק בישובו של עולם, "ואסור לאדם שיתעסק בעולמו אלא או בתורה וגמילות חסדים, או בסחורה ואומנות" ומלאכה שיש בהן ישובו של עולם

סגן וויצלער said...

Anonymous Thursday, September 08, 2016 "in the sefer ויהי בנסוע which is the written account of the "first" נסיעה of the bobover rebbe -- he told the chasidim that Iam the merchant of Venice"

ויסעו מהר ד' היה הנסיעה הראשונה, "ויהי בנסוע" כבר היה הנסיעה השניה

רש"י ויהי בנסוע הארון. עשה לו סימניות מלפניו ומלאחריו לומר שאין זה מקומו, ולמה נכתב כאן כדי להפסיק בין פורענות לפורענות

במדרש: שנסעו מהר סיני בשמחה כתינוק הבורח מבית הספר, אמרו שמא ירבה ויתן לנו מצות, וזהו "ויסעו" מהר ה' . ויסעו היה הפורעניות הראשונה, והשניה היה ויהי בנסוע הארון

Torah U'mada said...


Shakespeare is for actors and teachers! or rebbes!

hmaryles says:
"Oh, I absolutely agree that studying Shakespeare is valuable in its own right. You forget that I am an adherent of Torah U'mada. I was just countering Mr. Stall's point that secular education is useless in terms making a living unless you become an actor or teacher. .. pointing out that Shakespeare is not the sum and substance of a secular education."

chaim gravitzer said...

Please have a look at the index of the library in 770. You might be surprised by the ammount of secular literature ( novels, poetry etc ) to be found there.

The Management said...

Post!

Attention commenters due to overflow of comments here we Institute a new system, comments as received will be put into a shaker-basket when half full will shake it up in the shaker-basket, and the first three picked will be printed, by that God's will will be done! not our mere creatures at the management.

Hillary for President said...

"How did RYY of Skver know about Shakespeare?!"

who said he did. who?

Pendragon said...

This is strange when I was young i over heard people joking about the rebbe's and the merchant of venice, curious what's this all about..!? I inquired about it and got to know of Shakespeare the shylock in my discovery process, that shizer didn't come up into my mind until this lamb broke her silence here, and bought up these dudes at once as a topic.

זאב said...

אסור לכתוב בחול המועד אלא אם כן לאחת משלוש סיבות: א) "דבר האבד". ב) צורכי רבים. ג) צורך המועד

זעליג פון סקרענטן said...

אין אונגארן עסט מען פארקעס, אין פוילן עסן די יידן כאלאפטשעס, אין דער אוקראינע עסט מען איין ביישפיל איז גארשיצע (ניט צום פארמישן מיט גראשיצע!) אבער לחיים גראביצע? ווייס איך נישט

בעלזר משכיל said...

הרשב"ם התייחס בשלילה לספרים החיצוניים, וכתב "אין לחוש לספרים חיצונים", אך מאידך גיסא, הביע הרמב"ן דווקא יחס חיובי אליהם, ובהקדמתו לפירוש התורה הוא מביא קטעים מספר חכמת שלמה, שהיה מצוי אצלו ככל הנראה בתרגומם הסורי

Klapholtz Y said...

Belzer Mashkil
in Belz even 8 perokim was too sophisticated... whoever learned was blacklisted...

תוס' הרב ש(וו)אנץ said...

ארטסקרול החליטו למחוק את כל דברי רשב"ם ה"בעייתיים" בנוגע לתחילת וסיום היום. פשוט השמיטו חלקים מפירוש הרשב"ם ממהדורת מקראות גדולות שלהם

לדעתי יש לחשוש שמא חלו ידי קראים בדברי הרשב"ם, כידוע

prof bearish laufer, UCLA said...

"How did RYY of Skver know about Shakespeare?!"

Examine the ways in which Shakespeare uses language in Macbeth to create characters, atmosphere and horror. to fit a 'square' peg in a round hole.

two dinim said...

so that's why they became maskilim.

Chader Ruv said...

Shvantz
"לדעתי יש לחשוש שמא חלו ידי קראים בדברי הרשב"ם, כידוע"
I think they try to show a Kosher Chazer Fisel

Tevya said...

..and Yiddish Theater plays on Friday evenings.

Tevya said...

I think they try to show a Kosher Chazer Fisel

Can the Ruv show his כח דהיתרא on this chazerei?