COL
Sorry to ruin it for some of you.....
I saw it and I felt like I had to post it here. After all, I wasn't the one who asked the question "did he have Shaychus to Lubavitch?" You thought I had some ulterior motive other than to mention his passing. There was none, I just felt like I had to mention it, even if it was mentioned in every other Jewish news website. Reb Shmuel was a man of Torah, he lived it, breathed it, and would do anything to strengthen it. Others, unfortunately, were only interested in furthering the divides amongst Yidden, and worked hard to perpetuate it. I'm glad I found this, since it reinforces what we already knew about him. Does this mean that he endorsed everything Lubavitch did? no. What it does show is that he didn't allow the new-age thinking to skew his mind.
Which reminds me; a friend of mine has a daily Chavruseh, a Talmid Chochom from a Satmarer Rabbonishe family, first tier Satmar, if you will. This morning he asked him if he heard about Reb Shmuel's passing, to which the Chavruseh asks "Who's that?" "The Mirrer Rosh Yeshivah," he says, "Mir on Ocean Parkway." To which the Chavruseh asked "Mir has a Yeshivah in America?" I thought they have one in Yerushalayim..... If you're raised exclusively in one society, and especially in the pre Rebbe-picture craze days, it's possible to never really leave your own immediate circles, especially if all others are "Treyf" in your mind. And you thought Lubavitchers were ignorant of going ons in the rest of the Jewish world....
if it makes you feel better to compare yourselves to satmoirim.... well go ahead.
ReplyDeleteRav Shmuel was willing to speak in lerning or give a shiur anywhere. I am sure he would have been more than wiling to go to Morristown to speak also. Note the topic he wrote about...
ReplyDeleteAND BTW, he was a rabid admirer of Rav Sach, who he esteemed greatly for his hasmoda and learning.
ReplyDeleteIn the COL video I watched with great attention as Rabbi Ebert described his early years in Crown Heights. He is a virtual halber-CBer too.
ReplyDeleteHe learned in Rav Chaim Segal's Mesivta of Crown Heights. Rav Chaim Segal was Gerrer chusid and one of RYH's closest disciples. He eventually merged his Crown Heights Mesivta with the Mesivta High School of CB becoming its illustreous menahel under RYH and RAS until he was niftar about ten years ago.
Then Rabbi Ebert says that he was a talmid of Yeshivas Nachalas HaLevi'im that was headed by Rav Feivel Cohen and Rav Pinchas Kahn, both two of RYH's greatest talmidim and chasidim. They were not able to keep their yeshiva going and Rav Feivel became Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva of Brooklyn for a while until he decided to devote himself to writing his Halachik magnum opus, the Badei HaShulchan, and Rav Pinchas Kahn became Rosh HaYeshiva of Breuers Yeshiva in Washington Heights, succeeding Rav Yaakov Perlow, the Novominsker Rebbe (another of RYH's great talmidim) who decided to build his own Novominsker Yeshiva.
Rav Pinchas Kahn was then selected by RAS to fill the vacuum in CB created by RYD's absence (since RYD was heading up YPY in Yerushalayim) and appointed Rav Pinchas as the senior Rosh Yeshiva below RAS.
All this positive interaction with the CB oilem, and the good words for RYH in his Crown Heights days, are duly noted by Rabbi Ebert and mercifully in his time there was no RSC who was the mashgiach, something that was a few years down the line from the years he (Rabbi Ebert) was in CB.
Every cloud has its silver lining and this, for me, was the silver lining about CB, on this blog, so far. No RSC, no swe, for now...
Good job.
CB:
ReplyDeleteI'm impressed you bothered to scroll down and watch the video. I remember Reb Chaim Segal well, his brother was our neighbor years back, and my father would point out to us that Reb Chaim is a brother, he looks just the same only without the Spodik.
The Hebrew is for the books....
;-)
Thanks for the compliment.
To quote your words in a recent thread, ביג דיל.
ReplyDeleteIf R. Shmuel was duped into giving a shtickel Tayreh in the early 1980's for a Lubavitcher kovetz, that doesn't mean too much. At that time, Lubavitch messianism was still relatively muted and maybe he didn't fully realize the extent of the problem. Not every godol, even Litvishe, was as prescient about this as מרן הרב שך was.
That was before מורנו האדיר מוואבּוילניק זצוק"ל founded Degel and the Yosed as well.
I didn't realize Reb Shmuel was "dupable".....
ReplyDeleteDidn't you know this essential element in Daas Torah? When someone turns out to have been duped, they must have been duped by someone else's Daas Torah!
ReplyDeletehirshel tzig: I honestly don't know why people are picking points with Rav Shmuel Berenbuam zt"l when it's still the week of his shiva, the man was a total anav, tzadik and gaon.
ReplyDeleteHe hated falshkeit and was a true ohev Yisroel. He avoided all politics like poison. There are not too many people like that in the Torah world. I know of one yungerman who is today a big lamden and a menahel himself who went for a farher with Rav Shmuel 30 years ago. He said they spoke in learning based on the Ketzos and he got the impression that Rav Shmuel knew the entire Ketzos cold be'al peh backwards and forwards. That's just the Ketzos. What about other meforshim and shas.
The bottom line is that Rav Shmuel Berenbaum loved all Yidden, as we can see with the love and mutual respect between Rabbi Ebert and Rav Shmuel even though Rabbi Ebert had chosen the derech of Chabad.
I once heard from an old-time talmid who learned at the Mir that he was once baby-sitting one of Rav Shmuel's younger sons. He couldn't resist taking a look at what the Rosh Yeshiva had in his refrigerator. Guess what? Almost nothing. I think he said he saw a bottle of milk and that's about it. The man lived with nothing, just lived for learning and his yeshiva.
He would take the geshmakste walks on his own down Kings Highway with his eyes sparkling and his kapppote unbuttoned and he could be seen taking it all in. He would always acknowledge anyone who said sholom aleichem. He hated BS. I once heard him talk at a vort where he basically told the choson that he was a total jerk and baal gaaveh. What could they do, who would argue when Rav Shmuel said it in such a sweet and self-efacing way.
A big mystery was why he always wore his hat slightly at an angle. In CB they would have assurd this, but it seems the frum Rav Shmuel could not let go of his dapper side from his youth. He was showing that he was still a human being who liked to wear his hat "his way."
Anyhow, he lost two sons bechayav. The one Leibel was into kiruv they say and left a family in Bnai Brak. Rav Shmuel spent his last few years being with them in Eretz Yisroel for Yom Tovim helping to marry off the yesomim of his son.
And the real tragedy that few seem to recall happened about 32 years ago on a beach in Eretz Yisroel, when one of Rav Shmuel's sons (I do not know know his name) who was learning at the Mir in Eretz Yisroel and was a close friend with the oldest son of RAS, Rav Mordchai Zelig Shechter, who is today the new mashgiach at CB, when they were strolling down a beach in Eretz Yisroel together and the light was not so good (either early morning or evening) and they were spotted by an old Israeli civil guard who ordered them to halt. There was a mix up and the guard fired his rifle at them and Rav Shmuel's son was shot and killed. It was in the papers. The guard was an older yid. This was a time when there were attacks by the PLO from the sea so everyone was nervous and Rav Shmuel's son became the korban then. As for RAS's son he was ois mentsch for a long, long time from this true tragedy.
Rav Shmuel was also very respectful of RAS. In the 1970s and 1980s there were many times that he was seen coming to meet and talk with RAS in his office. The two men respected each other. And when RSC was booted out of CB, Rav Shmuel and the Mir made sure to welcome RSC and give him a shtender by the mizrach vant any time RSC davend there for the Yomim Noraim and other times. Only Rav Shmuel could give kibud melochim to RAS and at the same time warmly welcome RSC to the Mirrer bais medrash. Klal Yisroel has lost a gadol in chochma, pikches and above all, pure old fashioned heimishe Litvishe mentschlichkeit!
So, as I said, Rav Shmuel was a true tzadik who went through a lot. He lost two golden sons in his lifetime and I am sure that there was more tragedy in his life. Noone should be saying anything bad or suspicious about him or his motives.
Yehi zichro boruch!
CBT:
ReplyDelete"and mercifully in his time there was no RSC who was the mashgiach"
I'm not sure what you mean by that.
RSC happened to have been very beloved and respected by the bochurim when he was in CB.
Both for his seichel hayushur in dealing with people as well as his Toirah which was extremely popular Bksav and Baal Peh.
His subsequent machlokes with RYH and RAS was a separate issue. Don't confuse the two. Before the Machlokes broke out RYH and RAS as well as all the other CBers gave him the greatest Kovod and Derech Eretz.
Lets try to keep the two issues separate.
Dear cb alumni: I happen to agree with your above comments 100%.
ReplyDeleteWhen I menioned "and mercifully in his time there was no RSC who was the mashgiach" I was talking in the context of what has been going on on this blog, and not to diminish from anyone'e kovod.
Relax. I admire RSC as much as, if not more than, most people. But I also know all sides of the coin, so let's keep objectivity and not come down on one side or the other on this blog for the sake of fairness and yashrus as the matter between RSC vs CB or CB vs RSC has tragically still not been resolved in the absolute sense, as we all still know.
Seems like R' Shmuel had a sense of humor. I wonder why the דבר תורה he chose to publish in a Lubavitcher journal was about קר"ש לאחר זמנה. :-)
ReplyDeleteLubavitchers are probably more Makpid than others about Zman Krias Shma. You confuse it with Zman Tfilloh.
ReplyDeleteBy makpid you surely mean
ReplyDelete"מקפיד נישט צו זאגן ק"ש בזמנה" . Meila, those who get up at ten I understand. But those who get up at eight or even earlier - what's their excuse ?
by makpid I mean to say stupidities, like the comment you just made.
ReplyDeleteמיר זיינען מקפיד אויפ זמן ק"ש אזוי ווי נאטשאלניק איז מקפיד אויפ זיין א הולך בדרך אבותיו אין פארשפרייטן שנאה און פירוד הלבבות
ReplyDeletetzig, everybody within chabad agrees (is Leshes "gezher" enough for you, tzig, or only hungarians are allowed ?) that zman krias shma is a no-more.
ReplyDeleteguravitzer, sin'a and pirud levovos is your middle name. your hatred is all-encompassing, except maybe a freier here and an atheist there; rule of thumb is that the more chazer one eats, the more guravitzers love him.
באבוד רשעים רנה is about your ilk, במהירה בקרוב ממש ממש as the Rebbe used to say.
Now suck up to tzig, so he can pay you back the favor.
U N
ReplyDeleteeverybody agrees? bulls---!
You're a no-good liar.
Tzig, when have you last time seen a tomim saying krias shma after getting up ?
ReplyDeleteOh never mind, you've never seen a tomim at all given that you never stepped into a chabadishe yeshiva, not to mention their dorm.
Let me amend "everybody" to "everybody with a knowledge and without a paranoid habit to deny facts".
natchalnik
ReplyDeleteLike I said: I see you have a hard time conjugating facts and making a story of them. So here goes:
I've been "in Chabad" since 5749, that includes some years in Chabadishe Yeshivos."
Capisce?
Most (not all) Chabad Bochurim say Krias Shma immediately following Birchas HaTeyreh, which they do as soon as they dress, which is as soon as they get out of bed, which is soon after they wake up, which is a number of hours after falling asleep, which is soon after Saying Krias Shma SheAl HaMitoh.
Ponyimayet?