Yeshivas Pressburg - the original YU (At least in the eyes of the אונטערלאנדער)

Shnayer Z. Leiman translates an article of the writer Greenwald, the story of his leaving Chust to go to Pressburgh, and stopping on the Rombach street to meet  the Meshumad/apikores Goldtzhier who was an idol of his. You may wanna Google his name. He describes his meeting with that professor as - you might say - a Gerer chusid describes meeting the Gerrer Rebbe, Reb Avhrom Mordechai, trembling legs..... דא לדא נקשן. He was harassed everywhere in Unterland for going to the "impure"  Pressburgh, It seems that in the holy yeshivah של מרן בעל הערוגת הבושם in Chust where only "mid-size" (younger bochurim - HT) boys attended, some boys were reading the הצפירה and writing letters (not emails on smartphones) to the editor ...... I guess Greenwald (being a real Unterlander) could not understand his Rebbe's newfound accent upon his arrival to Chust...so he did not hear the פתיחה that reading treifene books is a Neveira....

אנעבירה

55. Rabbi Leopold Greenwald Tishah Be-Av at the University of Leipzig by Hirshel Tzig on Scribd

Things you may not have known about the Erlauer Rov...

.... He had worn תכלת on his טלית קטן for some 50 years. Apparently he wore it under his shirt for many years, with the regular tzitzis on a second tallis koton that he wore above his shirt. Then, as t'cheyles became more popular he began to "wear it out," so to speak, for all to see. I'm not sure if that works well with the idea of keeping the Chasam Sofer shittah in all matters, but it seems like he was ברייט enough to do some things as he saw fit, even if there was no precedent from the CS. Maybe he figured that the CS would do it too if he saw the t'cheyles that we have today. The picture is from tikkun chatzos at the kosel, which some Ashkenazishe Jews still say. I think Nitra Yeshiva still does it as well, or at least they did until not so long ago.

Shabbos in the shtiebel with new books... tough to get away and daven...

Hirshel: This Shabbos in shul I saw 2 new fat volumes, totally new, (a few years ago they printed already 2 volumes) of Reb Akiva Yosef Shlesinger, Baal Lev HaIvri. I really could not daven... Let me tell you and readers what I saw there. Maybe add some Torah to this blog. I hope I won't bore them; I definitely was fascinated by it. Well, as usual he does not disappoint, Each teshuvah is a treasure. I'm suffering from information overload and cannot recall all that I read. [There was no yotzros at davening.] He has a teshuva about wearing and accepting a medal with a cross, something that many of the European countries would do, and still do; he is machmir and says don't accept it! Write a nice letter, he says, tell them that your religion forbids it, they'll respect you for that. In the footnotes they bring the Arugas haBosem who agrees with that psak, but they bring מקילים too. He has another interesting question on some roof trusses that were built by a company who built like a cross, with some missionary emblem on it, that came to Palestine to try propagate and do missionary work in every way possible. He writes some history which I never knew about an early BDS movement that was leading a campaign against buying by Jews. Whatever they sold they put a cross on the packaging to know its was not Jewish.... He has a long teshuvah against the big shiur of the צל"ח, he writes nobody is doing it....some interesting important facts......

He has a teshuvah about photography, if it is prohibited, he claims that our new photography is good even al pi Nistar, and the יערות דבש that the קנאים like to quote as the source of the איסור of being photographed is irrelevant. and especially pictures are very important for shidduchim, (I assume that was probably the reason of the Arugas haBosem sending his picture for a friend,,,,, it was probably for a shidduch) has a long teshuvah about 70th birthday brocho.... has a long teshuvah about the new law enacted then which required all Jewish kids to attend public school, he writes that he attended SCHOOL in Pressburgh WITH the CHASAM SOFER FAMILY. He himself he got out of going to school after a while because he was a genius as a kid and he answered a tough mathematical question, and his father pushed him up some grades. So he was out of school very quickly. That's his father, pictured here above, not him. Rav Kornitzer, son in law of Reb Shimon Sofer of Krakow, paid the fine for each day not sending his kids, from his nadan money, till the money ran out!! after that he couldn't pay the fines, so they threatened the parents with prison, to which he said to prison I don't have to go for this cause so off to public school they went......BTW, I heard this Shabbos from an elderly Jew from Munkacs that when the city was in Czechoslovakia, you could get out of going to Public School, but not when the Hungarians took over, they were very strict about it.

Back to Reb Akiva Yosef : he  has a teshuvah if homosexuality is of the 3 cardinal sins, he paskened it is. He has a teshuvah about a weak person eating before davening, he writes he should rather daven early than eat. This e-mail is getting to be a bit too long, but I have to mention that in the "Ami" interview last week of Rav Reuven Feinstien with Itche Frankfurter he reveals that his father davened all the Shabbos morning tefilos early B'yechidus, since the shul davened too late. He then would make kiddush - which his kids never heard because they were either still asleep or in shul davening. Reb Akiva Yosef has a teshuvah before that, on eating early before a fast day, he writes that everyone should eat, and he ate also, and it helps that you say some tefila so the דאורייתא part of davening is done and you can then eat before the rest of davening. He has a teshuvah about davening early on Friday afternoon, he writes about the Kosover Rebbe - who he calls "Harav Hakodosh"- who davened very early, he visited him he writes. The Chasam Sofer davened very early on Friday afternoon and stayed in shul for a long time with bochurim saying for them a derush, and then he repeated Kerias Shma. Reb Akiva Yosef was very unpredictable,,,,,, I don't think it will be on otzar haChochma any time soon.I think you should get all 4 volumes.

א גרויסע ציממעס פון די ציממעס

Hirshel: Some of us got rebuked by our fathers for laughing of the holy Besh"tonian tzimmes. We felt that Besh"t and tzimmes is an oxymoron. I see that the Hungarians were also very tzimmes oriented. The Satmars claim that by the Chasam Sofer the holy tzimmes was so holy that he was ברוגז when Reb Meir א"ש served it on a weekday. And the מהר"ם שיק was also very pro tzimmes. I don't believe this nonsense, but the chasidic wing of Talmidei Chasam Sofer are inventing stories about him non-stop, all full of lies. What I don't see by the other wings of Chassidus I tend not to believe. But that's for sure, by the Hungarian chasidim the tzimmes is not to be messed with.

the holy Chasam Sofer tells us that they will hate us even after Moshiach comes

We look at today's yesterday's events in France, where one of אחב"י was murdered בתוך שאר חפים מפשע, and the haters from Jewish mothers seem emboldened. They say that it's the fault of those who provoke the beast by printing cartoons and so on. That it's no different than what the Israeli Government does, and that they provoke an animal that would otherwise sit quietly by and live peacefully. The holy Chasam Sofer says that it's not the cartoons and it's not the wall or the blockade or the tanks in Gaza. It's because they are jealous of our religion and our relationship with the Eybershter. Why those who claim to carry the torch of the CS insist that it's the Zionists that created this hate, is beyond us.

deh hooson in deh alle mehootoonim

ח"ו - how to lose your shidduch - פון די הייליגע חת"ם סופר זצ"ל

So basically if your zivug is from a poor family and you say no because the Rushiveh told you that you should insist on 10 years plus an apartment in some new development so that you can learn Torah במנוחת הנפש ויישוב הדעת, and you think that it's in the bag because of everybody knows that "if it's bashert there's no way to lose it," Think again. As a bachur some well-intended relative told me the same thing, but he said it only happens if you join Lubavitch... The CS seems to think that it's not that limited. Anybody can ruin his "bashert," for any reason. The problem is, how is one to know that this is the right one?

א מורא'דיגע חתם סופר

וואס מ'טוט ווען דער הייליגער חתם סופר זי"ע איז נישט בדעה אחת מיט אונז

מען איז מזייף.

It's weird if you ask me. Why not just change what we do, instead of revising the words of the Holy Chasam Sofer? Which is what ultimately happened - as far as I know. Most people of that persuasion, the persuasion of those who tinkered with the loshon of the Chasam Sofer, do not openly do melachos after the shkiah these days, despite the fact that they're fans of Rabbeinu Tam. And despite the fact that in Europe they would. That was changed in America post-WW2. They use it at times when a leniency is needed, just like a Lubavitcher often davens mincha post-shkiah, or a Yeshivaman davens shachris after zman tfilloh during bein haZmanim or Chol Hamoed. But I don't think they still do melachos regularly just because they feel like they can. So why then change the text and make yourself צו נאר? The מו"ל here was the Debrecener Rov, zt"l, a champion of the derech HaChasam Sofer, who seemingly was forced to censor. Why do we go so far as to say he was forced? Only because that's the only logical reason why he would do it. He himself would never conduct himself with a leniency such as using the Shitas Rabbeinu Tam לקולא, even if the situation called for it. And he would surely never censor his holy Zeide's words.

So that's the only reason.