Sunday, March 7, 2010

לכבודה של תורה

From Here

If you're from Boro Park or Flatbush you know the name Karfunkel. It seems like the brothers donated a new wing to Yeshivas Slabodka, named after the great Yeshivah in di Litta, but in name only. Slabodka is where the chassidishe bachurim who want something different go to. There they get a taste of Benei Beraq, complete with 7am shabbos morning davening and Litvaks with long peyos and such. Nothing like they've ever seen, really. They also have Reb Dov Landau, a Rosh Yeshiveh in the Litbvishe style, a tremendous lamdan, but one who comes from a very chassidishe/Rebbishe background. He can definitely relate to them and make them feel at home. Slabodka managed to get to the Karfunkels, from what I understand some of their kids went there, and they donated a new wing to the yeshivah, which was just dedicated. All the big-wigs came, all the Bnei Berakers that is, no major Yerushalayim presence it seems. They all came to pay their respects to the brothers and to the great Roshei Yeshivah who lead it.


A Spinker (Weiss) Eynikel, son of Reb Aizik Spinker, IIRC. It doesn't seem like they've met before, but the young man is not deterred, he's determined, despite the discomfort very apparent here. He'll make himself known to Karfunkel yet, whether he likes it or not.


This one takes the prize. The handshake, the beychel, the big smile. It's a homerun.


Dancing with the mechutonim...


The Spinker got to sit next to the Baalei Simchoh!

The Belzer himself couldn't make it, but he sent his trusted gabbai, Reb Shimen Volf Klein. Mr. K is obviously very amused by the Koved enjoys a good laugh with RSV.


Reb Nissim Karelitz - בכבודו ובעצמו - was matriach himself, נאר לכבודו של תורה despite his advanced age and state of health and Mr. K is humbled by the gesture. He really is.


יתגדל ויתקדש שמיה רבא....


26 comments:

jack said...

why the disgusting and not called for sarcasm
CHAIM

Yerachmiel Lopin said...

Tzig,

When its for your own cause it is the holy respectful work of development of engaging people in understanding your effort, assisting them in their spiritual development so they understand why they should write out that check for you.

Of course when you are unsympathetic to a cause, it is flattery by those soliciting, and foolish pride by those being flattered.

Alas in a real world, both statements are true.

Personally, I found your commentary snarky, and I found the litvak/chosid dichotomy a bit overdone. Yet I was amused.

I have always appreciated your penchant for great photography on this site. I would love a photo essay of every parlor meeting in Lawrence over several weeks to see if the flattery and its response looks any different depending on either the marks or the shnorrers.

To be completely fair you also have to show us some photos of the more talented shlichim at work doing fundraising. I know there won't be as much colorful satin, but the gap between them and the givers is likely to be even more dramatic.

Personally, I have always been amused with the photos of the celebrity seated uncomfortably between two givirim with whom he has no shaiches.

Hirshel Tzig - הירשל ציג said...

Yerachmiel

your points are duly noted.

Here it's at the expense of the leaders of the generation... A bit different, wouldn't you say?

Anonymous said...

rebbe machabed ashirim but not fryouts

Anonymous said...

every Oshir is a freiout...

Anonymous said...

every Oshir is a freiout...

Anonymous said...

every Oshir is a freiout...
Is every commenter here an anti Semite ?
its a kiddush hashem such a kinnus that has no frei people in attendence vamach kilom tzadikim

Voiceoftruth said...

Did Karfunkel turn down a request for money that you made? Did the Spinka einikel cross you? What about Reb Nissim Karelitz? What is his great sin that he deserved such animosity and such nisht-farginnen. (Or, as we like to say- who pi**ed in your cornflakes?)
And your lubab ignorance got a chance to shine once again. Rabah with a Hei? Are you kidding me? Are you trying to spell the Amorah's name?
All in all, a terrible post. One that exposes the rotten underbelly of this Yungerman in Oilam Hazeh trying to do what's right.
I dare you to post this. Let the oilam decide who is right.

voiceoftruth said...

And I can just see you scurrying to find a siddur to check if I'm right. Tell me it ain't so! Maybe in the chitas it's spelled like you!

Chaim Berlin tragedy said...

Rav Yitzchok Hutner (RYH) (himself a famous alumnus of the classical Slabodka yeshiva in Lithuania and of its branch in Hebron) is re-puted to have once declared that "Slabodka in Bnei Brak hot azoy fil shaychos mit Slabodka in Lita vi ich hob mit Honolulu"! (Translation: "The Slabodka yeshiva in Bnai Brak, Israel, has about as much connection with its namesake yeshiva of Slabodka in Lithuania, as I have a connection with Honolulu, Hawaii.")

It's a tragedy that this is what has become of the name Slabodka!

Anonymous said...

Hirshele

Your captions are cute and insightful, but...Chabad takes the cake on being mechabed money. Enxcept that the K's are ehrliche yidden and not Hollywood-media- sports bigwigs. So, puh-leez!

Anonymous said...

Yes really. what are you jealous of....that you do not have.... tell me that in your own shul that it is not that the people with money get or determine who gets the aliyahs in the main minyan before Gimmel Tamuz and Yuddie Shevat?
Do the chashuve rabbis ever ask how the peons are and shake their hands?

Hirshel Tzig - הירשל ציג said...

you guys are funny.

Namefake said...

Reb Yitchok Huttner: sais that people in crown heights have such a sheiches to chasidus as The Slabodka yeshiva in Bnai Brak, has a connection with its namesake yeshiva of Slabodka in Lithuania,

Hirshel Tzig - הירשל ציג said...

voiceof truth

Reb Nissim was supposed to take me for an eydim by his son, then they found out about my Lubavitch connection and that was that...

same goes for Mr. K

seen it all said...

Anon 11:18,
I'm a born & bred lubavitcher and agree with you 100% on this one. It is disgusting how some shluchim and big guns work gevirim. The fawning over $$$$ is poshut ekuldik. It seems though that the litvishe world is learning from us and falling into the same mishugas.

Friendly Anonymous said...

Lubavitch.com was going nuts over Guma Aguiar's commitment to chabad until it turned out that he really was nuts and was committed.

Did he honor his pledges, or did he plead insanity?

Anonymous said...

Are the Karfunkels not satmar chasidim? from the Zali faction? Does Salabudka take money from The Medina Hatmahe? I think they consider themselves real Chazon Ishniks learning his derech halimud,

schneur said...

The rosh yeshiva, donors and talmidim you describe at Slobodka show the sad state of litvishe Yidden after World War 2. And velo od these popel call themselves Litvishe Yidden or Litvakes. they should be called yeshivishe people.
Anyone familiar with Slobodka before the War knows that Chevron or RSA in the US are more Slobodka than the school called Slobodka. If lernen was everything in Slobodka and other yeshivas what rolw did Der Alter play after all he was not Rosh or even mashgiach ?

snag said...

Schneur - This case is an extreme case, LAY lilameid al haklal (shel Litvishe Yeshives) kuley yotzo. Other Litvishe Yeshives are different. It is like if someone would say that Yeshiva Shaarei Yeysher in Boro Park is a Litvishe Yeshive, since R. Koppelman shlite was there years ago, and see, it is full of Chassidishe talmidim now. But such cases are exceptions. Emes that some aspects exist elsewhere too, but not to such an extreme degree.

R. Maysheh Hillel Hirsch shliteh is from Ungarishe opshtam, by the way.

Anonymous said...

Salabodka produced the big Tzadik Tzvi Mier Zilberberg as his talmud

Ira said...

why are the mishkenos haroim such kanoim if their previous rebbe was a chusid of the boyaner (the current boyaner seems to be the most non kanoi imaginable)

schneur said...

Rabbi YY Domb is a major kanoe nd Strikover Chasid. Reb Uriel Zimmer was an NK man and a... Lubavitzer Chasid. In Poland there were Gerer Chassidim who were loyal members of the mizrachi (see the book Ishim sheHikarti by the late Dr. Hillel Seidman.,) and in Israel a good deal of Poalei Aguda were Gerer men like rav Binyomin Mintz and yet they defied the Gerer Rebbe Rabbi Israel Alter and stayed in the coalition.It was well known that the RayaatzZT"L was anti Zionist and he had no tolerance for their policies. Yet rav M. Kuperstock of Gluboke was an ed witness at the wedding of the last Lubavitcher rebbeZT"L despite the fact that Anash in my father's shtetel of Kurenitz refused to elect him as rav of Chassidim because of his Mizrachi affilaition.(They went on to chose RavMoshe Eli Uszpol father of rabbi Yitzchok Dov Uszpol) Go figure it out.
My point is in the days of yore there were more than few independent minded Chasidim. An example of this is the zadik Rav Hillel Zeitlin who despite his Chabad background as a teen became a Ostrovcer chasid all the while remaining a strong adherent of Nietsche etc. when he became a Baal teshuva. Being a chasid of a rebbe does not mean you need to accept every nuance of that rebbe.

Unknown said...

האחים גארפינקעל גם נדבו סכום גדול לביהמ"ד של קהל ויאו"מ סאטמאר במאנסי, וקראו אותו ג"כ בית חמדת ישראל, בהיות שאביהם היה מתפלל בביהמ"ד סיגעט בב"פ.

צבי, אתה יכול לילך לשם ולעשות תמונה ולהעלהו לפה.

גם לרבי שמעי' גרינבוים נתנו סכום נכבד לקרוא את הפירושים שלו בתוך המשניות סייעתא דשמיא שלו לע"נ אביהם.

צבי, מי מופיע בהתמונה מאיר אביש או ישראל חיים ?

Anonymous said...

CBT is back.
We missed you in Yeshiva on Purim.
I didn't see your son either.
Stop quoting RYH like you knew him.

Hirshel Tzig - הירשל ציג said...

אחיו של מאיר אביש, ישראל חיים, כמדומני