There seems to be an impostor running the Yated these days...
In the forefront defending Rubashkin, and now this. Ladies and Gentleman: I believe the Yated bears some re-examining. Gone are the days of 15-20 years ago. This looks and feels sincere, not worrying about repercussions or backlash, straight-from-the-heart cries of anguish. Thank You Rabbi Lipschutz, the Kovner Zeide would be proud.
By Rabbi Mordechai Kamenetzky
ReplyDeleteYated Ne’eman
How does one manage
Not to cry
As he ponders
Wonders, “Why?”
He chose them
Not “Me,” not “I”
To write the saga
Of Mumbai
What’s there to write?
What’s there to say?
About a morbid
Dreadful day
A day of carnage
In Bombay
Brought to our homes
From far away
A world so distant
So far-flung
The banner of Hashem
Was hung
A song of comfort
Was once sung
And now it mourns
Its martyred young
Who did not know
Someone who’d gone
And felt the warmth
of Nariman?
An oasis of Yiddishkeit
In a foreign land
Where Yidden came
To bond
To band
Where golus took
A tiny break
An Indian respite
Where somehow
Diverse worlds would meet
And everyone would fit
But terror’s sword
Reached far and wide
And found us ’round the world
Yishmael’s flag
It would not hide
Its filthy wrath unfurled
A tearful lesson
Did us teach
A thought we all must know
That until we
Correct the breach
There’s no place they won’t go
To run
To hide
We all can try
But where we are
Is still Mumbai
Not the comforts
Of Boro Park
Nor fancy homes
In Sutton Park
Can keep the light
From turning dark
A bustling metropolis
Where the Torah’s
Words do reign
A tiny, lonely shtetel
Somewhere in the Ukraine
Are no safer than
The Nariman
Where Yidden
Came to pray
To find a breath
Of ruchniyus
In the smog of
Old Bombay
A hotel
In Netanya
Or a bus in
Tel Aviv
A rural street
In Iowa
Where Yidden
Hardly live
There’s golus in Bnei Brak
And hatred on the wall
Skinheads in Toronto
And bombs in Montreal
There’s always a reminder
That nowhere
Are we free
And that there is
No “type” of Yid
For every “them” is me
No matter where we’re standing
Whatever street you’re on
We need the understanding
Of “Golus Nariman”
No matter where we travel
No matter where we fly
Golus seems to find us
For everywhere’s Mumbai
There are no sects in golus
And no rift does exist
For we are “one”
To all of “them”
To every terrorist
But if everywhere is golus
And all Jews are just one
Perhaps there is nechama
In the mayhem that was done
We were all shot together
We limp as we are maimed
The dreadful storm we’ll weather
With each bullet that they aimed
We’re Toldos Avram Yitzchak
Chabad and Bobov, too
We are Israeli tourists
And a Mexicana Jew
Maybe we are still standing
Indeed we’re still alive
But maybe we are Moishele
The baby who’d survive
For Klal Yisroel’s yasom
Whose tears wet every heart
Is the symbol of our history
A message to impart
That no matter how they’ll kill us
Whatever time or where
Moishele will yet live on
A hope for our despair
Amongst the smoke and rubble
A babe ‘mongst the reeds
A plant amidst the trouble
The Almighty always seeds
Until Moshiach’s heralding
When all the dead revive
The Moisheles declare our fate
“Klal Yisroel will survive!”
I'm a bit confused. The date at the bottom oft he pages says 7 Av 5768 - August 8 2008. That's four months ago. Yet the text references events of past week. What gives?
ReplyDeletePerhaps it's time to have joint ventures with Lakewood, e.g. partnering with Neir l'elef in certain localities. This would be one practical way of implementing Achdus.
ReplyDeleteShelly it aint, but....its straight from the heart. Very nice.
ReplyDeleteMidos transcend mokhin
ReplyDeleteAs it seems that My words got no exposure in spite of the Ba'al HaBlog's gracious link immediately below, and in light of the lengthy poem already in this thread I submit my post here for the readers review:
ReplyDeleteMonday, December 01, 2008
Merciful Father
By Chaim G. the Bray of Fundie
As if on autopilot I mumble in the Av Harakhamim prayer every Shabbos. But in the wake of the latest tragic incident of Jewish Martyrdom I paid a little closer attention than usual to what I was mumbling. This communal “Yizkor” was inserted into the Mussaf service following the first crusade and so it seemed sensible to look there for pointers on how to grieve for martyrs and how to react to martyrdom. To my chagrin instead of picking up a few pointers I came away with more disconcerting questions.
What struck me most is that although there are repeated requests in this prayer for revenge and retribution the appeal is consistently being addressed to Divine Mercy… not to rigor or justice. Permutations of the word rakhamim=mercy are repeated three times in the first sentence. In the proof texts that the prayers author cites we find the Tetragrammaton (shem havayah )connoting the Divine attribute of mercy as often as the name Elokim connoting the Divine attribute of justice. I find this odd in that we'd expect the name Elokim would be dominant in an appeal for retribution and justice.
We venerate martyrdom but unlike Muslim’s do not desire it. It isn’t our “Plan A”. It would seem that HaShem would have better exercised His mercy in saving those in the Chabad House of Mumbai from the fate of Martyrs. But post-mortem? How is it merciful to punish the killers? What mercy accrues to the victims if their murderers suffer as much as they did? Eight to eighteen years from now when Moshe Holtzberg will be old enough to digest his own biography will he feel that HaShem had mercy on him and his parents because the terrorists were successful shahedis?
I also found it ironic if not downright paradoxical that although we consider Jews murdered on account of their Jewishness as having died Ahl Qidush HaShem = for the sanctification of the Name of G-d, the mere fact that they were allowed to be killed by their enemies, rather than being rescued, constitutes a great, if not the supreme, khilul HaShem= desecration of the Name of G-d. לָמָּה, יֹאמְרוּ הַגּוֹיִם-- אַיֵּה אֱלֹהֵיהֶם= Wherefore should the nations say: 'Where is their God?.
Just wonderin'
unlike the Yated, DER YID has a Vile Shamefull editorial against shluchim and chabad, it is one thing to rail against zionism but they couldnt control themselves and wrote a hate article agaist chabad what a shame, and this im writing as a satmar chosid i cant come to myself after reading their editorial i need to go to mikveh after sucjh a hatful vile disgusting piece.
ReplyDeletea fellow jew
can you scan it and send it to me?
ReplyDeletehershel ,
ReplyDeletei will try, i can tell you this we in the satmere velt have fallen really low far far from the ahavas yisral that the rebbe zt'l had for a fellow yid im mamesh aufkekucht fron this
Anonymous 12:42
ReplyDeleteThey're not against it. I heard that they were tested after the shidduch and didn't want to break it up. UNCONFIRMED, of course.
hershel i have it how do i send it to you?
ReplyDeletee-mail it to neveler@gmail.com
ReplyDeleteThanks
will do, read the second half
ReplyDeletegot it?
ReplyDeleteHow can the organ of the Satmar community...Der Yid, blast Chabad Houses when in Rav Ahron's glilos, Mr. Meir Hirsh hosted a fund-raiser for Chabad House of Palm Springs this past Summer?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.vosizneias.com/15037/2008/04/04/kiryas-joel-ny-partners-in/
Or is Der Yid a Rav Zalman Laib mouthpiece? I though Rav ZL was supposed tobe LESS extreme than RA. What's up? an attempt to be
פייפסטליכער ווי 'ן פייפסט?
Bray
ReplyDeleteהיא הנותנת
Der Yid is Zalmen's organ....
Hershel,
ReplyDeleteWas that a Fruedian slip? ;-)
slip? where?
ReplyDeleteHT, Go to Lakewood, hear what the average yungerman has to say about PL and the Yated. What Lubavitchers call a misnagdesher yeshivisher newspaper, the misnagdisher yeshiversher call a pro Lubavicther baalebatesher rag. No, Im not making this up. Ask any Lakewood guy, they will tell you this.
ReplyDeleteThe man never had any real SOLID values. "Written for Bnei Torah by Bnei Torah", Oilam hafuch ra'esee. Or maybe the its kollel guys that despise him, who are really balei batim and PL is the real Ben torah. His own rosh yeshiva Reb Elya disowned him 10 years ago. Yes, last year he was against Open Orthodoxy, give him another 5 years...
The kovner zaida is turning over in his grave. And the very people he claims hes part of spit when they see him.
So HT I wouldnt start celebrating the acceptance of Lubavitch in the yeshiva world just yet. The yated, YWN.com have zero in common with the Yeshiva World.
read the 1:46 post...slowly
ReplyDeleteולבושת ערות זלמניך
ReplyDeletebut Satmar has plenty in common???
ReplyDeleteI have the cure for Yeshivisha non-acceptance.
ReplyDeleteEvery Yeshivaman should spend a Shabbos somewhere in the boonies (here defined as at least 250 miles away from the nearest Frum community boasting a minimum combined elementary school enrollment of 1000+)in a Chabad House.
Prejudices often melt away through real life exposure. (See Eli Wilner's remarks in the first Mumbai post) It's easy to hate "theories". Living breathing mostly kind-hearted human beings are a lot tougher.
Try it.. You may like it!
John
ReplyDeleteThey are fringe in Lakewood against everything that walks, Harav Solomon the Roshie Yeshivos etc.. But they are powerless as of now.
The same is with Satmar, the establishment as Moshe Friedman and his buddies plus the Rebbe (has no views on anything), are far from the hatred views spewed in the Editorial. The article on Holtzberg is extremely positive, but they had to throw some bone for the fringe
I am an insider; facts are, PL got Levi when he davened in the famed alumni minyan, a mark of distinction reserved only for the real Yeshiva inner circle.
ReplyDeleteAs for the Lakewood fringe, they are powerless they dont like R Mattisyahu and he has THREE THOUSAND ppl at his shmoozen
IMHuO my last comment was mine-worthy
ReplyDeleteI envy PL, Nisht Poshut he got Levi in the famed..
ReplyDeletePL represents the yeshivish community like Tommy Lapid represents Agudah.
ReplyDeleteTzig, Im sure the yeshiva community will all agree: If Chabad wants PL, please take him and enjoy him!
Both of us will gain.
so who DOES represent the Yeshivishe Olam????
ReplyDeleteThe fact is that every Yeshivishe Mosed and dinner and occasion and event and shoe sale gets advertsied in the Yated. As far as the world is concerned he speaks for the Litvishe. Like it or not.
Does the Agudah speak for the Yeshivishe? or do they have no collective voice???
Tzig if the yated and hamodia were not around everyone would advertise in the Jewish Press. That does not mean they represent who they advertise.
ReplyDelete"As far as the world is concerned he speaks for the Litvishe. Like it or not."
Thats exactly the problem, he says he speaks for us, and the world believes it. And the world he says he speaks for is far'ekeled from the guy.
Its like Shmuly Boteach representing Chabad. You get my drift?
I think you went a bit overboard by comparing him to Boteach.
ReplyDeleteRPL started YN just to counter the JP and everybody flocked to him. I'd dare say that he started it בפקודת ראש ישיבת פונוביז' והסטייפלער זצ"ל
what better Haskomoh can the Yeshivishe crowd ask for?!
Hirshel
ReplyDeleteSomething you got wrong,
The yeshivisher oilam is represented by the Rashba Ritva Reb chaim Reb elchanan..
You Mean the Balie batim, for them PL is fine
1) not every yeshivisher is a Ben Torah. Those who are NOT need Torah'dike literature.
ReplyDelete2) without Ballebatim there is no Torah. without Heshy Friedman and the Rieders there is no Lakewood....
so please
DER Yid is a Zaly publication,it does not represent Satmar
ReplyDeleteHirshel,
ReplyDeleteI got your point but I think there is something wrong in this all Toradige Media. The chariedi gedolim established newspapers for the basic business,Intl. and local news, in order the laymen crowds should be immune from the Yiddish Socialist Zionist views,And they delivered a product of strictly neews, and by that it ended.But who said that this balie batim should churn out there views as ironclad torah on a daily basis, they are just Balie Batim and Rebetzin, Mi Somcho
Tzig said... "not every yeshivisher is a Ben Torah. Those who are NOT need Torah'dike literature"
ReplyDeleteExactly. Thats why PL should stop calling himself a ben torah. (specialy since hes not yeshivish either)
Hershel, The steipler never told him to start the yated. Thats redicules.
He just got married when the steipler was nifter, and probably never dreamt of starting the english Yated then. I'l be surprised if he ever met the Steipler. And BTW Rav Schach never told him to start it either. (Nor reb Elya or Reb Shmuel). It was the gemorah that told him, yes the gemorah staring boringly and blankedly at his face every day he went to learn in Kollel.
Besided if Rav Schach or the Steipler would know what type of twisted garbage he prints in that (tissue) paper, they would probably prefer to shtitz Kfar Chabad Mag.
now you're stam hakking.
ReplyDeletethe steipler was niftar before the English came out, you're right, I confused it with the Hebrew.
But not the Ponovizher Rosh Yeshivah, he was quite active in the English too.
I don't know what RPL's was with the Gemoroh.
"But not the Ponovizher Rosh Yeshivah, he was quite active in the English too."
ReplyDeleteThats what the left wing media (A.K.A. YN) will have you believe.
The only source for this is PL.
Either you believe it or you dont. I dont, nor do alot of people.
"I don't know what RPL's was with the Gemoroh."
With the gemorah there was a very intense realtionship. Eyes closed, nose pefectly fit in the binding of the open gemorah. It was deep.
The fact is that Maran R shach asked R shmuel deutch to start a yated in english to in those days basically counter chabad and RSD came to PL and MT to start it these are the facts. What has happened since then is definitely open to interpetation
ReplyDeleteRecently Yated ran a story about the alte rebbe without mentioning that he was lubavitch. Quote. "The poor man went to Liadi to visit the known rebbe Rabbi Shneur Zalman" (RABBI. when every am ha'aretz with a beard gets rav under his picture.) Shortly before that they did a spread on Bris avraham without mentioning it was chabad. My mother wrote a letter exposing all the chabad stuff they claimed weren't and they printed it under the heading "chochma bina da'as" I think they decided anyone who wears a black hat is tolerable if only barely. My mother claims she shamed them into showing some ahavas yisrael.
ReplyDeleteJust an FYI, Mr. Annoymous posting above bashing PL and the YN, is none other then Malkiel Svei. Yes, the son of Rabbi Svei from Philly.
ReplyDeleteHard to beleive this, but it is. Seems that he's really bitter about the fact that PL even mentioned the six-letter-word CHABAD.
"The fact is that Maran R shach asked R shmuel deutch to start a yated in english to in those days basically counter chabad and RSD came to PL and MT to start it these are the facts."
ReplyDeleteThis is the funniest baubba maisa I have heard in months.
The real story is: Mendel T and PL were asked by RS deutch to work in the produce section a Shoprite.
Again they wouldnt listen to Daas torah.
Modeh
ReplyDeletethe AR was Liadi not Lubavitch,
I think they should start calling the last Rebbe the Yaktireneslever Rebbe and everyone will be calm.
Okay, my friends,the facts. RPL was working for Torah Umesorah and on the fast track when R Shach asked him to do this. Within two years it was a profitable ventue, they shook off Jonathan Rosenblum, MT is still part owner.
ReplyDeleteIs it yeshivish? Suffice it to say that in Lakewood, it is oneg Shabbos. The Hamodia is crap- staid and boring and dry- and anyone with imagination and breadth can't handle it.
RPL was honored by Lakewood, is on presidium of T.U. and taken very seriously. He broke ties with Agudah, they have modia, and he identifies with TU much more.
R. Lipschutz is a very shvache snag, if you can call him that at all. Look at the pictures in his paper, esp. in the centerfold. So many are of various Rebbes and Rebbelech. Sometimes I wonder if he has more coverage of the Chassidishe velt than the Litvishe. Look at the news tidbits. A 'Litvish' newspaper has to tell us when any Rebbishe einikel or ur einikel is engaged or married?
ReplyDeleteTo get an even better fix on RPL himself, look at the pictures that feature him personally, like the recent ones when his son got engaged. He is regularly busy cavorting with Chassidim. Why does he visit RAT in Kiryas Joel with his young son ? Where is his Litvishe pride? Does he have to kowtow to anyone wearing a streimel ? It seems that when he meets someone with a bekishe he is struck with a Litvish inferiority complex.
He is a self-hating Litvak, he is busy promoting Chassidishe minhogim like upsherin (RPL, I want to know, did your zeide and elter zeide have an upsherin?), and various other Chassidishe zachen. By him, a Yeshivishe misnaged means that you write out Lubavitch and MO and kiss up to anyone with a streimel. Of course, that is not what a misnaged is, but he has his own definition.
Okay, I understand that some of it is for commercial reasons, but the problem is that he seems to believe it too.
But you see now that that is falling apart. His whole Litvishism was a sham. Either you oppose all Chassidus or accept all of it.
YN of EY and his YN were separated a long time ago. Why does it seem like he represents the Litvishe velt ? Well, what alternative do they have? Hamodia? True, there are some Litvish and non Chassidishe that use Hamodia, but others have difficulty doing so. YN has really been hurt by Hamodia. It seems that YN circulation has basically stagnated, or even declined in recent years, if you look at his declared circulation stats.
even worse, PL is busy kissing the you-know-what of "franken"..... yes, rav dovid abuchatzeira.
ReplyDeleteThis IMHO is worse then chassidim.
So now, hes a chasid-frank.
All he's mising is a little yekke in him, and he'll be complete.
What a faker.
From The New York Jewish Week
ReplyDelete12/03/2008
http://www.thejewishweek.com/viewArticle/c39_a14153/News/International.html
At The Shabbos Table With Gabi And Rivkah
by Joseph Telushkin
Special To The Jewish Week
Walking to the Chabad House in Mumbai on a Friday evening in February 2007, my wife Dvorah, our daughter Rebecca (who is currently living in India) and I were passing half-naked families living on the cement streets. Outstretched hands. Wide, hollow eyes. We literally had to step over swarms of dejected souls.
But entering the Chabad House was like encountering a lighthouse in the middle of a dark ocean. It did not take long to realize that its proprietors, Rabbi Gavriel and Rivkah Holtzberg, were extraordinary people and practitioners of kindness. Thirty-five guests attended the Shabbat dinner, a mix predominantly made up of Israelis, many of them doing business in India, a fair number of Americans and scattered Jews from other countries.
Many of them, we learned, came to the Chabad House often. I remember one Israeli in the group — who had earlier that day, at Rabbi Holtzberg’s request, helped us find a hotel room — telling us that in Israel he was not a religious Jew, but that there was nothing he wouldn’t do for Rabbi Holtzberg, and how often he spent Shabbat with the rabbi and rebbetzin.
I have a vivid memory of conversing at length with Rivkah Holtzberg as she was preparing shakshuka for about 30 people coming to a Saturday night Melava Malka. All this, after serving 35 people Friday night and then a big lunch on Saturday. Yet as she told me about Afula, the Israeli town where she was raised, she was very calm and so upbeat, a truly religious neshama (soul).
On Shabbat afternoon, Rabbi Holtzberg pulled out a copy of Taharat Mayim, my grandfather Rabbi Nissen Telushkin’s sefer (book) on the laws concerning the mikveh, which also contains directions on how to build a ritual bath. He told the assembled guests that he had used the book as his guide to building the mikveh in Mumbai.
He handed me the book, with a request that I teach from it. I opened up to my grandfather’s introduction in which he described how he had been driven, in part, to delve so deeply into the laws of mikveh when the Communists seized power in Russia and made it nearly impossible to observe this mitzvah. In societies like India with very few Jews, there are no government obstacles to building a mikveh, but there are few Jews to use it, and I commented on how moved I was that Rabbi Holtzberg had built a mikveh. The pages of his copy were worn from use. I understood that my grandfather’s book had found a sacred home 60 years after it was written.
And later, when Reb Gavriel also taught from the sefer, I recognized on his face his profound joy of learning.
On Sunday he took us to see the mikveh, and we toured the Bene Israel synagogue where it was located. The whole day was magical. A listing of names, founders of the synagogue, was engraved on one wall. One of the people recorded bore the same name as my stepdaughter, Rebecca Menashe. What was apparent as we went around the synagogue with Rabbi Holtzberg was that he was beloved in the community.
At the Shabbat table, everyone was a participant and was called upon to say something. Benjamin Holtzman recalls how Reb Gavriel gave each participant at the Friday evening meal an option, to say something about the parashah (the Torah portion), teach or lead a song, share an inspiring story, or announce some mitzvah they were committing to undertake. It took well over an hour to go around the room, but by that time friendships had been generated and there was a great feeling of oneness among us all.
This holy couple was dedicated to bringing Judaism to the four corners of the earth, and to doing so with carefree spirits. Both Gavriel and Rivkah smiled easily and often. Yet their lives were not easy. They had lost one child, and another child was very sick (both due to a genetic disorder), in addition to the healthy son whose life was saved this week. But they kept their sorrows inside. There was no self-pity about them.
In India’s vibrant business capital, a city also overwhelmed with need and despair, they responded with unending hope. Two beacons of light blazing in the darkness. Two living exemplars of Judaism’s teachings of hachnasat orachim (hospitality), a value so esteemed that the rabbinic sage, Rabbi Judah, went so far as to declare that “hospitality is even greater than receiving the divine presence” (Shabbat 127a).
Reb Gavriel collected inspiring stories around his Shabbat table. Yet, as devastated and profoundly sad as I feel at this moment, I also realize that the sacred lives of these two shluchim was perhaps the most inspiring story of all. n
Rabbi Joseph Telushkin is the author of “A Code of Jewish Ethics: Volume 1: You Shall be Holy” and “Jewish Literacy.”
lets get the facts straight reb shach came to m.t. and asked him to start a yated in english. m.t. was not writer so he intrduced reb shach to p.l.. after a number of years of being partners m.t. realized that p.l. is anti daas torah and left the paper although he still retains 50% ownership against p.l. will. p.l. does not repsent daas torah just ask his cousin yudi svei or reb shmel deutch who tried to shut him down a number of years ago
ReplyDeletePinny is a good man. But facts are facts and the yated of today has as much to do with R Shach as yeshivah univesity has to do with R C. VOLOZHINERS YESHIVAH.From being Aryeh Deris mouthpiece a couple yrs back to putting in pictures of R OVADIA AND YANKELEH GERRER to taking ads from touro college to the final nail in the coffin printing this editorial basically saying our diffrences with chabad are minor.It has become a buisness 'visou loi'.the talmidei r schach have long since stop reading the paper. I wonder what the late shrage n. who was so heavily involved in the paper would have said about this latest outrage.
ReplyDeleteold timer
ReplyDeleteI didn't realize the hate went that far back. I thought that since you guys only became holy rollers after sending your boychiks and girlies to Israel and being embarrassed by them to change, that the old timers would be a bit more accepting and understanding of others who tried to be somewhat inclusive.
Btw, your Ponovizher Rosh Yeshiva is the one that made Rav Ovadia mainstream, he was OK in 1988, so why the outcry about that?
The GERRER REBBE is a problem too?
Besides, Lipschutz pretty much tows the line, never putting anything about Lubavitch. You knock him for writing an editorial THAT WEEK??? You would've liked for him to totally ignore the story, or just no happy editorial?
Man, it looks like somebody forgot to take his metamucil today....
tzigeleh I was simply pointing out that if you want to pride yourself on being r Shachs paper then you have to tow his line that he was moser nefesh for in many cases.Does tragedy and the fact that 2 shluchim died as kedoshim now cause us to lose 20 yrs of deep hisnagdus ?Of course we cry bitter tears over these great kedoshim
ReplyDeleteTzig here's some historical backround.After R Shach mainstreamed R ovadia wher R.S. FIHRED UHN a milchemes oilam with the leftist meretz gov. R OV. (as is his minhag I.e deri) stabbed R Shach in the back and joined the govt. As an aside when deri was being led into jail he publicly asked R.S. mechilah saying tht he believed that backstabbing was the cause of all his trouble. anyhow since then ovadia and his seforim are persona non grata in the yeshivaworld. As to yankeleh gerrer as is well known when R Shach broke with the agudah and mainly ger the present rebbes father was then rebbe the lev simcha and he was suffering from alzheimers with his son the present rebbe in charge and he was the one that caused most of trouble. As a matter of fact when his uncle the pnei menachem took over he immediately made peace with R Shach
ReplyDeleteObviously I like your web-site, but you need to check the spelling on several of your posts. Many of them are rife with spelling problems and I find it very troublesome to tell you. However I will surely come back again!
ReplyDeletevery good forum
ReplyDelete