Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Holy City Number Five



Whatever floats their boat.

In the end I decided that I like the fact that a tract of land in Spring Valley off State Route 45 became "holy." I like that they stick by their Rebbe's words that he was mamshich the holiness of the Holy Land in his village. More power to them. Yeah, I know. "Kan Tzivoh." But this seems - to me, at least - to take it one step further. UPDATE: I see some of you just don't get it! There's a difference when you write Ir HaKodesh, as in Jersalem, Safed, Hebron and Tiberias, to writing that there's brochoh in a neighborhood because a Tzaddik, a Rebbe lives there. It's not rocket science, people. Don't think you're Einstein when you tell me about what the Rebbe called Crown Heights. Nobody ever referred to CH as Ir HaKodesh, nor to Mezibuzh, Mezritsh, Lubavitch, Warsaw, Otwock, Riga, Rostov, Leningrad or any other station.

Thank You for your understanding.

17 comments:

Minkatcher Aynikle said...

Brings to mind the Meshech Chochma about those who say Berlin = Jerusalem and what will follow. Scary.

voiceoftruth said...

You gotta be kidding me. You? Of all bloggers, you? A lubab having a problem with calling a city in Chutz Laaretz "holy"? Tell me you're just goading us on.

voiceoftruth said...

Must I remind you of something you wrote pretty recently? "Even a wonderful, glorious, derhoybene Shabbos next to the Kodesh hakodoshim biZman HaZeh"
Note the double "holy of holies" while they only gave their city one. You make me sick when you aren't truthful.

Yehupitz said...

אין כל חדש תחת השמש

http://academictalmud.blogspot.com/2009/06/remember-days-of-old.html

Feivel ben Mishael said...

Kodesh HaKedoshim has to do with the fact that there is a dwelling of the shchina by tzaddikim NOT because the etzem makom has kedusha.

voiceoftruth said...

Feivel- so maybe that's what it means there too? The Rebbe of that city also dwells in that city. Nu? Wouldn't that make it at least once Heilig? (And he's still alive!)

Anonymous said...

Hirshel,
Didnt the rebbe quote the Tzemach Tzedek Mach Do Eretz Yisroel,and he found some source in the Meiri.
I f you a village where the law of the land is that couples are forbidden to walk together on the same road then obviously you reached the highest goal of Kedusha, which even Malchei Yisroel street in Yerusheliem doesn't have

seen it all said...

Hirshel,
The way I heard it, the Satmer Ruv (Reb Yoilish Zt"l) said that since the previous Squarer Rebbe was moiser nefesh with sweat and tears to build this community, he was mamshich kedushas EY in it. I also heard from Harav Wolfson Shlita that he once came to the Rebbe for a Sunday dollars. The Rebbe gave him an extra one and said (I'm paraphasing and don't have the exact quote) that since you've just come from EY, you have the toisfos kedusha. He didn't understand the Rebbe's words since he wasn't in EY recently. Then he realized that he just spent that shabbos in square, and he put the two together. You can take this any way u want, veyesh l'hoir al zeh v'ten l'chochom v'yechkam oid.

Anonymous said...

So anywhere outside EY cannot be kodesh, unless there is a Chabad Rebbe there (dead or alive - its up to the readers to choose).

Why do people go from EY to Crown Heights for yom tov ????

schneur said...

There isa teshuva from rabbi Shlomo Kluher arguing against the development of a autonomous Jewish settlement in Galicia or any place outside of Eretz Israel. a project supportd by the Ruzhiner Rav Israel. .
I saw this discussed in a biogrpahy of the late Faltishaner rov rabbi Stein which appeared several years ago.In thisc ase the satmarer rebbe ignored the opinion of rav Kluger.

yehupitz said...

Taken from http://academictalmud.blogspot.com/2009/06/remember-days-of-old.html

"Instead of longing for Zion, some Babylonian Jews, from Rav Yehuda to Pirqoi b. Baboi decided that they already occupied it. The Shekhina could be found in certain synagogues, discussion of pedigree led to the drawing of boundaries reminiscent of the Holy Land, Jews could be buried guilt-free in Bavel (well, almost), and like Eretz Yisrael there was a prohibition against abandoning Babylonia. In a way, after the destruction of the temple this development was inevitable. Knowledge became more important than space, and since it is also transportable, it could pick up and go and the space must follow..."

Hirshel Tzig - הירשל ציג said...

so, Reb Yehupitz, you're accusing Skver of abandoning Zion for Spring Valley?!

yehupitz said...

I'm saying that it's clear that ever since Churban Bayis Rishon, Jews understood the concept that "When they were exiled to _____ the Shechina went into exile with them".

Whether it was the Temple in Alexandria, or Bavel, as the linked article speaks about, or "the Aron is in Medzibuzh", or Uman, or 770 according to the Rebbe in the "Beis Rabbeinu She'b'Bavel" Kuntres, or Vilna the Yerushalayim Shel Lita, Jews attribute 'Kedusha' to their new shrines in Golus, for better and for worse. Nothing new.

Friendly Anonymous said...

Reb Schneur,

I would like to read this Teshuva. Could you please provide a reference?

Thank you

Feivel ben Mishael said...

Voice of Truth:

I was only making a distinction in what Tzig said. I am not ruling out that what you are saying can be true.

x said...

Rebbetzin H. Clinton was mekadesh the ort for them.

Menashe said...

There's a difference between ir hakodesh and the shechina being in a place. By yerushalayim, hevron, tzfas and tiveria, both are true, by virtue of location. By CH, etc. only the 2nd is true.