Pnei Menachem 20th yohrtzeit - Kfar Chabad magazine interview

Hirshel:

The Alter family, more specifically the children of the Rebbe the Pnei Menachem, have a certain gene that keeps them from holding back what they have on their chest. They need to say it, come what may. It's Really not Gerer style. This story is so typical. A chareidi family coming to a Chabad house to stay for Shabbos but they still think the shluchim can not be trusted on the food. They want to cook their own food and bake their own challah. And get this: here is is a new low; They ask for mevushal wine since the other wine would be nesech. He also claims his father was from all the sons the real mamshich of the Imrei Emes. Besides the nigleh in his talks he was a very hartzige person like the Imrei Emes. He said there are still a lot of shiurim from his father that he wrote himself, they need a lot of work.

Wednesday Afternoon Links

the NYT discovers shmaltz
WSJ: How did Moses part the Red Sea?
עתון "המבשר" על ממלכת חב"ד בפאריז
יא"צ: כ"ק אדמו"ר הרה"ק ריי"צ מאוורוטש נ"ע
ראש השנה לחסידות: מנהגי חב"ד לי"ט כסלו
Monah Rosenblum and 28 piece band to perform at Satmar 21 Kislev function
2 Chassidei Shuvu Bonim bochurim die in crash, r"l

יארצייט הגאון ר' ברוך בער פון קאמעניץ זצ"ל - 75 שנה

Remember how Dos Yiddishe Vort would recycle the articles about the Holocaust at every interval? 20 years, 25 years, 30 years, 40 years, 50 years, etc. We'll do a מעין of that and post a few oldies. You can also use the search bar on the top left corner to find more posts about RBBL.  I saw in di bletter that they've located his מקום מנוחה after all these years and are placing a מצבה there. 

2 years ago's post
The ever-popular "?למה נקרא שמו ברוך דוב"
דאס ביסאלע חסידות

Hitler prematurely took our zeides and bubbes from us - יארצייט

zeide a"h during WW2

Friday 12 Av is my zeide's yohrtzeit.

This may sound unreasonable to those of you a generation older than me, but it's how I feel. Hitler took our zeides and bubbes from us prematurely. Schneur will surely tell us how he, nor any of his friends, had any zeides and bubbes growing up, since they never made it out Europe. So, I'm being selfish. I see what my kids, b"h, have and I would've liked it as well. Why should I not have any memories of my zeide because he passed away when I was 8 years old? Had he lived just as long, but had he started to build his family years earlier, just like all others his age did, I could've had at least 10 more of spending yomim tovim and other joyous occasions with him. I say this today because today 12 Av is my zeide's 31st yohrtzeit. The kvius was just like today. The temperature was a whopping 104 degrees. On his return from a hard day's work his heart gave out on the front porch. It was our first experience with death in the family, us young children, and we had a hard time understanding why. Why others still had their zeides and we had lost one. He was just as young as some of the others - it was just not fair.  I was away from home punkt that week and I wasn't there witness the levaya and shivah. Only after the shiva did I return home and see my bubbe, who lived out of town. That lead me to ask questions, and thus I was told about life and death, and how my beloved zeide had left this world. These lines don't do my zeide justice, but nothing I can write here really does, so I apologize ahead of time.

My zeide was born in a small town in Hungary in 1911. His parents were Ashkeneyzishe Yidden who worked hard and had little to show for it. My zeide did not merit to learn in Yeshiva after his bar mitzvah - not everybody did back then. Most didn't. But I dare say that when it came to מעשה, which is the point of the לימוד, he did want. His devotion to Yiddishkeit was beyond dispute, despite losing so much of his family and suffering so much. During WW2 he was taken to forced labor, like many others in Hungary. He married my bubbe o"h in 1942 and they both b"h survived. His labor group was taken as far as Vitebsk, from what I understand. His siddurim and machzorim were worn with use over the years. Shabbos and YomTov were revered and special. Time set aside for learning whenever possible. The chinuch of his child was of utmost importance, no matter the hardship in sending away an only child. The joy of spending time with the eyniklech, which didn't happen that often because we lived in New York, is difficult to put into words. But alas! that didn't last as long as we dare say it could have. He did not live to see the eyniklach grow up, something I know would have made him burst with joy and pride! I had the zechus, together with an older sister, to spend the last Pesach with him and my bubbe, a"h. I distinctly remember the sefirah beard during chol hamoed and how I was tickled by the stubble. To an 8 year old these things stick in your mind. Don't ask why I'm sharing this with you...

I have lots of pictures on my dining room walls. Pictures of zeides and bubbes, going aback as far as I can. With my side it's only elter zeides and bubbes, and even that I'm not quite sure why my bubbe and zeide managed to salvage them. From my wife's side there are several more generations to display; they either got out soon before or were long gone, depending on the particular ancestor. I know the yichus well, on my wife's side I know it better than her siblings and cousins. They have so much to keep track of, it gets difficult for people who aren't into yichus. I try to tell my kids about my zeides, but they have a hard time relating. Even those kids who are named after their elter zeide/bubbe have a hard time. They get the lineage mixed up. "is it bubbe's mother, or zeide's mother," they ask. Then they give me a funny look and tune out. So much for that history lesson. If only they could to spend time with them; it would make life so much easier, They'd have that link to the old country, and they'd have a stronger sense of family. Which is why I say that Hitler, ימ"ש prematurely took our zeides and bubbes, from both us and from our children. Strong grandparent figures do wonders for kids growing up. Every child should have them. The problem is that, like every other good thing, we tend to not recognize how dear and important they are, and how we need to treasure each moment with them.

תנצב"ה

Rav Ruderman's 25th Yohrtzeit

The (Chabadsker Yingel cum) Slabodker Talmid who founded and became the Rosh Yeshiva of  Ner Israel in Baltimore is seen right, with glasses, with Rav Moshe Feinstein left, [Rabbi Zakheim,?] the Kopycniczer Rebbe, Reb Moshe Mordche, holding the becher. Quite "malchus'dig," I might add. RYYR passed away on this day in 5747/1987. The picture is sometime between 1967, when the old Kopycniczer passed away, and 1975, when RMMH passed away בדמי ימיו, in 1975. The Rebbishe benkel has been vacant ever since.

תנצב"ה

Wiki page on RYYR

יארצייט

דער זיידע ז"ל שטייט דער דריטע רעכטס

זיידי, מיר בענקן זיך נאך דיר

Photo from Yad VaShem

Is Areivim out of touch?

 You may not get to see this fine publication; it may be Monsey-area only. I didn't see last week's issue, where they mentioned Shlomo and Meir Kahane's Yohrtzeits, so I don't know what it was exactly that they wrote. But my son ZG"Z (= zol gezunt zein) brought this to my attention. He knows by now what gets my goat, I guess. What strikes me as really weird about this is the fact that I'm sure that an organization like Areivim - "From Crisis to Control" - is not a very rigid operation when it comes to saving at-risk youth. Meaning that they'll allow things like watching sports and maybe even non-Jewish music at their centers/functions - if they have any. I'm sure that Carlebach is just fine too. Now I know that allowing it doesn't make it right, but being that Shlomo was active in saving at-risk and lost youth you'd think that they would cut him some slack. Also, if you teach kids that people like SC and Kahane are not "true gedolim" will that make them wanna come and be helped by an organization like yours? Aren't you then like the Mesivta Rebbi or principal that he so dislikes?? That's all besides for the fact that Shlomo and Kahane resonate very strong with OTD and AR youth. I assume that there were complaints about them, but complaints can be handled in several different ways. Writing a childish retraction like the one here is just that, childish.

The Cover. Notice how they only use Rabbeinu Tam's zman for מוצש"ק.

Guest Post - השבת אבידה

 (click picture to understand what the post is about...)

Dear Anonymous Lady;

You probably came to the yortzeit of the Satmar Rebbe, whose Ohel is in the background of this picture. I don't know you, but I'll take a wild guess that only a lady who is not used to this kind of head gear would 'lose' it upon leaving such a  place. I have seen your kind of peeps come from Queens, Flatbush and all over. I am sure that you are unaware that the Satmar Rebbe held your sheitel, your dress and your sheer stockings in utter contempt. You are also probably not aware that he held, Lehalacha, that if you heard your husband's kiddush in those thin stockings he and you were never yotzei. As a matter of fact every  Rosh Hashonah he announced before the Aron HaKodesh that he is not motzei with Shofar those women not wearing thick stockings. So  you came with your thin hose and a temp tichel to his grave to ask him to daven for you? Well, it's still there waiting for you, but I assume you're busy baking Challah with 40 other ladies, or you're busy filling out a form for The Vaad to give your name to Maran Rav Kanyevsky or Rav Eliyashov. Not to worry, those Satmars in their kindness will leave it there till next year, or the elements will claim it before you come by again.

By Yosef718

(the views expressed in this post are not necessarily those of the publisher of this blog.)

Does this count for White Russia/Chabad?

These are recently released photos of Harav Kook's (יא"צ ג' אלול) visit to the US and Canada in 1924. He was accompanied by  the Kovner Rov, the Dvar Avrohom, Reb Avrohom DovBer Kahana Shapira, as well as Rav Moshe Mordche Epstein of Slabodka's Knesses Yisroel Yeshiva. RAYHK was already back in the Holy Land since 1919 or so, yet he made the long journey to America to help the Yeshivos in Europe. It's ironic that many of those Yeshivos, including Slabodka, are quite unaware of the great help he was in saving their Yeshiva. I would imagine that none of his seforim and writings can be found in any of the many branches and satellites of Slabodka, both in Israel and abroad. Yet, despite the badmouthing and brainwashing that has been going for generations his writings have enjoyed a tremendous renaissance among many Haredim, who see him as a great visionary whose only crime may have been that he has slightly ahead of his time... His teachings are quoted, at least verbally - we have yet to reach the stage where he'd be quoted in a Haredi sefer - and if you repeat a vort from him you may not even get a "gasp!" from the man listening to you... Rav Kook's Chabad connection is well known; his mother was a Bas Chassidei Lubavitch, and many of his writings are based on Chassidus Chabad, as well as MaHaRaL. His adversaries also knew about it too, as mentioned here many years ago. Despite the differences in opinion that he had with him and even the Agudah, the Frierdige Rebbe visited him - twice, I believe - when he visited Eretz Yisroel in 5689.

with RMM Epstein and an unknown figure of authority. Wiki says that it was the Mayor of NYC that he's pictured with. Yet, According to Wikipedia, John F. Hylan was mayor of NYC at that time, and this is not him. So either I'm confusing the dates of the trip or they got it wrong. click on photos to enlarge!

On the porch of the Yeshiva D'Montreal with the Kovner Rov and RMME listening intently to RK's words.

With the KR and RMME. Note that they wore their top hats while RAYHK wore his Rabbonishe Shtreimel the whole time. I wonder if that was some kind of arrangement that they made between themselves...

A "צאתכם לשלום" poster from his Yeshiva "Mercaz HaRav." 

Closeup of the porch at Yeshiva D'Montreal

with Rav Hirsh Pesach Frank, member of his Rabbinate and later Chief Rabbi of Yerushalayim. This picture is unrelated to the rest and was taken in the Holy Land.

Photos from Here and Wikipedia