י"ט כסלו "happenings"

In Sadiger
In Yerushalayim
In Boro Park

We had a quasi-reunion at the Vizhnitzer hall in BP. People coming over telling me how much they appreciate what I do, it was almost embarassing to hear so many compliments. I also heard some criticism, namely to tone down the "Snag" rhetoric. It was great meeting you all there.

Clueless Shluchim make for BT rappers

Recently we've been witness to a new phenomenon, namely Baalei Tshuvah retaining a part of their former lifestyle. Whether it's rappers or beatboxers, boxers or otherwise, they continue to supposedly use their talents and "flip it to Kedushah." That never happened in the old days. In the old days in Hadar Hatorah Reb Yisroel Jacobson made you cut your long hair off and conform to the rules of Yeshivah. Yes, you could keep your musical instrument, but you played Chabad Nigunim and joined a Chasidishe band. If you were an artist you focused all of your energies into painting the Chasidic lifestyle. Today you do what you want, all the while staying frum, of course, and giving the youth the insipid idea that the two go together, and that pop culture will have no influence on their practice of Yiddishkeit.

The examples are many, and I believe I can trace all of these back to uneducated and unlearned leadership. We can start with Matisyahu, go on to Jew da Maccabi, and on and on. If it were just plain Mekurovim who go on to become more observant, but remain within their old framework החרשנו, but this is different. Here we speak of Baalei Tshuvah who parade around as Lubavitchers, mit di shmeyne begodim, yet they remain very much connected to the outside world. They pepper their repertoire with Jewish, Chabad, and Rebbe references but the affect is the same. It opens up young impressionable kids to a world they need not know about, and that indefensible. Why must little Zalmy know about reggae and beatboxing, because Matisyahu does it,and he sports a berdel?

Why do I blame BT Shluchim? It's very simple, they lack proper Shimush, sometimes being Frum for just a couple of years, and they decide on major policy in Lubavitch. Chinuch of our children is no less important than who becomes Rov in CH or which ad goes into the New York Times. Allowing for such otherwise good people to continue with their now unacceptable lifestyle is a major policy shift. If his Mashpiah in the Village decided that it's OK for him to continue, and this carries into Lubavitch and Frum society as a whole, then we've got ourselves a big problem. Rappers and similar performers must be taught that what they did till now has to be left along with the other sacrifices they made, and if they could leave non-Kosher food behind then they could do without their rap music. Oh, and please don't tell me that the Rebbe said to utilize everything for Kedushah, I don't want to hear it.

December 7th 1941

"A day that will live in infamy."

This seems to be a mix of real and re-enacted scenes.

ווי קום איך צו חב"ד

ר' מענדל וועכטער דערציילט פאר "כפר חב"ד" ווי אזוי ער איז אוועק פון סאטמאר און אנגעקומען קיין חב"ד חסידות און צום רבי'ן. עס דארף צו זיין העכסט אינטערעסאנט
!קויפט און האט הנאה

The Original "Genack" Story

The story here, as printed in the Algemeiner.

Thanks to a Reader.

What's the world coming to?

Wednesday, December 6, 2006 4:00 PM ET

The Conservative movement’s highest legal body moved to allow commitment ceremonies for gays and the ordination of gay rabbis.

The Committee on Jewish Law and Standards endorsed three opinions Wednesday on homosexuality.

Two opinions upheld earlier prohibitions on homosexual activity, but the third endorsed commitment ceremonies and the ordination of gay rabbis, while retaining the biblical ban on male sodomy.

Two other opinions that were under consideration, which would have removed all restrictions on gay activity, were declared takanot, or substantial breaks from tradition that would require an absolute majority of the committee members for adoption.

They were defeated.

[ How can you maintain the ban while endorsing commitment ceremonies? G-d help us all - HT ]

Jew Da Maccabi

That's Yud Tes - not Yat - Kislev

The Invitation to this Year's Melave Malke Lekoved Yud Tes Kislev in Boro Park. This will be the 11th Year of this grand tradition, much to the chagrin of the haters. It shows that the message of Chassidus and of Rebbe is alive and well, יתיר מבחיוהי

Last year TA showed up and was shocked by all the non-Lubavitchers he saw. We met and spoke for a bit, a post ensued. What never ceases to amaze me is the fact that thousands show up every year, even after 10 years. The fact that it's Motzoei Shabbos helps, but is not the only factor.

I cropped the invitation, and posted it as would open, with the outside flap first, the inside flap second, and the outside last. The Zalman Kleinman paintings give it the old Chassidishe Ta'am, and the pic of Reb Mendel brings up the rear. A nice piece of work.

The "goody-bag" is well-stocked this year, and the food'll be just fine, so come on down and enjoy the warm words and Vareme Nigunim.






(Too much Alter Rebbe in the invite, once would suffice)



(I've never heard Sholom Feldman Farbreng, so that should be a treat)





(The FR quotes add a nice touch)

!דו, גענאק, דו ביסט דער חושך

This little news blurb on COL caught my attention:


It caught my attention because of a recent story I heard that was once printed in the Algemeiner Journal. Rav Soloveitchik of Boston would give a Shiur in Likutei Torah, the Ma'mar Ani L'dodi, during the month of Elul while vacationing in the country in Massachussets. I don't remember whether it was Cape Cod or Martha's Vineyard. This shiur became more intense as time went on, and it took more of the time from the Shiurim in Nigleh. There was one Talmid who was irked by the fact that the Rav was so excited by a Chassidishe Sefer, especially at the expense of "real" learning. One day he spoke up and voiced his concern to the Rav. "Why are we wasting our time with this, wouldn't it be better if we stuck to the learning of Gemoroh Taysfes?

The Rav regaled them with the story by Yiddish writer --------------- of the Simchas Teyreh spent together by the Brisker Rov and the Bialer Rebbe, (characters may be different) where the joy of the congregation and townspeople reached the heavens. The dancing and merrymaking continued very late into the day, with nobody paying attention to the clock. Late in the afternoon the Brisker Rov began to get nervous about Mincha, but the dancing and singing would not subside. When he could not wait any longer he jumped out of his seat, banged on the Bimah, and yelled "MINCHA!" which immediately caused the dancing to halt.

The Bialer Rebbe was quite unimpressed with this outburst, albeit for a good and just cause. He was to say: "Az Yidden Tantzen un Freien Zich Tzuzamen, un es kumt einer, takeh mit recht, un shtelt es op, iz dos Choshech!" The "Rav" turned to Menachem Genack and said to him: We sit here and learn this Maymer, and we bask in the glow of the light of Toras HaChassidus and you come and try to stop it. Du, Genack, Du bist der Cheyshekh! Rabbi Genack is a good guy, I don't mean to belittle him , Chas Vesholom, I just remembered the story while reading the news blurb, and found it a bit ironic, that's all.

With whom do I speak?

Thanks to Hasidic Rebbele for the cartoon

The blog has picked it up a notch these last few weeks, mainly since TA was kind enough to link to a Post by the Neo-Tzig, and then again after the unfortunate incident in 770 two weeks ago. However, I've noticed, that save for a few select bloggers the majority of the activity here happens only when Snags and politics are discussed, and more so when dirty laundry is aired or a Chabad Rabbi criticized. There have been times when a story does get attention, but even then it often stems from a tangential turn the story takes.

We then have people that comment only a very particular issue. They're history buffs and such and they only comment when an historical question is raised. I understand the reason to comment then, but have they no other interests? Can nothing else be discussed here? Sometimes a guy can work for parts of 2 and 3 days till he puts together and perfects a thread, and to his dismay he gets only 6 or 7 comments! There's almost no worse feeling in the world. I don't mean to complain, after all; nobody's forced you to comment, and people have been very kind. I'm just venting a bit, it's way overdue for me.

א גוטן תמיד

הירשל ציג

Suggested Reading and Listening

'Tis the season for Menayres

Lakewood Guy has a Review of the Helfgot concert

The Brook children remember their father on His first Yohrtzeit

Watch Chabad News Online, (a little weird)

"Nusach HARI" in Detroit

Friendly anonymous sent me this pic from the same site! a "Nusach Hari" shul in Detroit now a church. Ouch!

Then again this shul did not necessarily belong to today's Lubavitch, although the date on the plaque is 5708. They could not necessarily stop the sale of the building, unlike Stolin. Then again, maybe Stolin could not stop it either? I wonder if we know anything about this Lubavitcher shul. Any help would be appreciated. If it turns out that I was wrong about Stolin (and about Lubavitch, the shul that is) I'll be Mekabel Nezifeh.

Careful when you click, it's full of Tslomim

Comments on the shul: Just recently while I was riding my bike down 9 mile Rd in Oak Park. I saw the synagogue Nusach Hari. This is their second synagogue since they moved out of Detroit in 1958.
-Dana

This was my Zaide's schul which I occasionally attended. I had my "other" Bar Bitzvah there. My first was at reform Temple Israel. But, being the only grandson, I couldn't disappoint Zaide Levine, so I learned a second one. It was good for me.

........ס'טוט זייער וויי

Gregorian and Julian Dates

(click to enlarge)

Lekoved 14 Kislev Shturem Continues to analyze wedding invitations. It's a little much if you ask me, after all, is there really a need for 100 different invites? But that's Shia Mondshine for you.

Anyway, Here's an eyecatcher: an invitation to the wedding of Reb Shmuel Gurary's son, Mendel. We see that each side sent an separate invitation with the Kallah's side adding the Gurary's last name when mentioning the Chosson, presumably for effect. Gurary is a better known name, I guess. Besides for the simplicity of the invitation the one thing I noticed, and was not brought in the ensuing analysis was the appearance of a dual "secular" date. November 28th and December 11th. I know as much as that in Russia and in other Eastern Orthodox regions they still follow the old calendar, but only as far as when the Khugges fall out. They don't say that today is December 15th. Was this change made after the fall of the Czar, and until then they went according to the "later" date? Was the dual date only made for OysLand, so that they too should know the Gregorian date?

Another Shul bit the Dust

Aaron Israel
2567 Elmhurst at Linwood (Detroit)

AKA the Stoliner Shul

Now
Williams Memorial Missionary Baptist Church

Called the Stoliner Shul because the people who founded the synagogue came from the town of Stolin, Russia.From "The Lost synagogues of Detroit"

Memories of Aron Israel shul

Related Article: My Neighbor, The Rebbe: The Stoliner Rebbe From Artcroll.com About Reb Yakov Chaim of Stolin, aka Di Detroyter, because he passed away while visiting this shul.

It's stories like these that reinforce the belief in the Rebbe. The Rebbe fought for every shul in Crown Heights, not allowing for the Shuls to be sold as churches Rachmono Litzlan, as they were elsewhere. In the surrounding areas of East New York and Brownsville the Mogen Dovids are still very visible on the buildings, as are the Jewish stained-glass windows. Many times the battles fought for those shuls made enemies for Lubavitch that still do not forget. Just ask the Bostoner Rebbe's family, or the Spinker Rebbe's. But what would you rather see, the Spinker Rebbe's shul as a church?

This particular shul in Detroit was still maintained by Lubavitcher Chassidim in Detroit until the Stoliner Rebbe sold the shul, just like he did to his Zeide's shul in Williamsburg. They still come every year to his Tziyun, but I guess they don't daven in the Shul anymore...Great Chassidim of his Zeide who still lived in Williamsburg never forgave him for that. Yom Tov Erlich even took him to Din Torah! But he lost (what else is new, eh?) I guess the few dollars are what's most important. I'm quite aware of the situation in Detroit, with all Jews running away like it was the plague or worse. But it seems like there could've been a more favorable solution for this shul. A church doesn't seem like a fitting ending for this house of worship.

My Ramblings elsewhere

Here's what I wrote in Response to Schneur's comment on mentalblog:from Minsk to Pinsk about Stoliner activities in the Former Soviet Union

he wrote:

This shows that Chassidim can do Kiruv work, build communities etc without publicity associated with the Other group.
I can't even find a picture of the current Stoliner rebbe in the Karlin Gazette.
Schneur | 12.03.06 - 3:08 pm | #

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here's my response there:

Schneur

If only it were that simple. With Karlin NOT taking pictures is their publicity. Meaning, that the whole shtick is for the Rebbe to stand there at all public appearances and cover his face so that Chas Vesholom nobody should take a picture.

There's even a video clip at a Siyum Hashas in Israel where the KR stands there while all others are dancing and holding hands with his hand over his face! A Very strange pose, indeed. He took it from his Zeide who was very against pictures. In Karliner shul if they catch you taking a picture G-d help us.

As far as Propagating their Rebbe, Lubavitch has nothing on Karlin. They're Farkeyft in him like no other. ,em>Mamesh a Kodeysh MeyRechem, based on a supposed blurb from his Zeide that he'll be born with a major birth defect. They threw Kvitlech into his crib! And all this without seeing Epes Gadlus in Teyreh or Aveydas Hashem like was seen in the Rebbe.

They even have a Moshiach twist, singing ויצא חוטר מגזע ישי about their Rebbe. All they're missing is a little Sefardi and BT influx.

I have a great love for Karlin. When in Eretz Yisroel I would go to the Tish every week. But don't judge a group you know very little about based on a visit to a website.

Query "Helfgott" in Google Video

This is the only result. Can anybody tell me why?

Exposes gone wild

What is it about Jewish writers that they feel the need to "expose" large corporations 70 years later? First it was IBM and their record-keeping devices. Now it's GM and their Opel cars and trucks. Jews don't buy Ford and Mercedes, although that may be limited to America. Are we forever to blame CEO's and board members that have long since gone and hold the current companies responsible?

Here's this from the JTA Daily Mail

HITLER’S CARMAKER (Part 2)
As the Nazis amassed power,
what did GM know — and when?
By Edwin Black
November 29, 2006


I hate Nazis and such just as much as the next guy, but all this avenging, uncovering, and exposing can't be good for the already tarnished image of the Jew as a lover of Gelt.

Edwin Black is the author of the award-winning “IBM and the Holocaust” and the recently published “Internal Combustion: How Corporations and Governments Addicted the World to Oil and Derailed the Alternatives.” Seems like Edwin's on a Jihad here. Let's see what he comes up with next.

Massacre at Kaunas (Kovno)

Ya gotta love how they link these barbaric acts by the (Goy) Litvaks to "revenge", a somewhat noble act. "Jews they believed to be Communists," Yeah, right. And my name is Lazar Kaganovich.

Ungarischer EBay Offerings

(a Tze'enoh U'Re'enoh just like my Bubbe had)

Hungary was the only place in Europe (outside of Germany, but that's another story) where the Yidden spoke the Sfas haMedinah. Not only did they speak the SH, but they new little Yiddish, especially the women. The Yiddish that they spoke was of the very German variety, so much so that a Russian/Polish/Rumanian Yid would probably understand very little. The need, therefore for Hungarian-language books was great. Most people had Hungarian-language Siddurim, Machzorim, and books. Can you imagine that in Poland or Russia?! a Yiddeneh in Poland reading the TR in Polish? never!

After WWI most kids in Poland did go to Government schools, and their Jewish education consisted of a tutor or Rebbe after hours. All that paid off; so that now in Boro Park old Polish women, survivors of the Holocaust can live to see and hear Polish spoken in the streets of Boro Park and Williamsburg. They must be real happy to see the sons and daughters of their family's murderers come and live amongst them after all those years...


(Sefer Chut HaMishulash, a Halachic primer, if you will, for Public School students)

Still, there was very little change in culture, especially amongst the Frum. Nobody actually spoke Polish at home or between friends. They didn't consider themselves Polaken. For some reasons Hungarians did consider themselves Hungarians, and do till this very day. Most first generation Hungarians, the children of the Survivors, speak Hungarian quite well because that's what they were spoken to by their parents. The same goes for many second generation descendants too. This is what Hertzel Apshan means when he says that Yidden in Marmures האבען זיך נישט מאדיאראזירט, They didn't become like their Hungarian brethren.

Having said that, Hungarians still managed to maintain a high level of religious observance, faring much better than their Polish, Russian, Litvish, and Bessarabish/Bukovinish co-religionists, but there's more to that than meets the eye. Most of it can probably be traced to the fact that poverty in Poland/Russia etc. was far greater than in Hungary. Any collection of pictures, especially Roman Vishniac's, will attest to that. Polish etc. children were dirty (Kipshuto) and their clothes were tattered and rags. Hungarian children had decent clothing, for those days anyway, and were clean and kempt. A hungry child looks for food anywhere he can.

(Thanks to A Simple Jew for the Ebay listings)

Riches to Rags - The Uri Zohar story

Uri Zohar and Son debate religion amongst the palm trees in Jaffa where Uri lived before finding G-d. He was tired of the partying, the drugs, and the need to belong, so he gave it all up for a small apartment in Mattersdorf. It seems like the son has issues with Yiddishkeit, and his father tries to reason with him. Watch the video, it's a recording of a broadcast that was shown on Israel's Channel 2 TV.

I never liked Uri Zohar. I found him to be "the answer" to Chabad Kiruv activities, and therefore an affront to Chabad. In 5748-49 he was paraded around as the solution to the Chabad "Kiruv" problem. They had him speak at the Degel HaTeyreh conventions telling the people not to be impressed by Chabad's Shluchim and Kiruv, because they did it all wrong. He instead had all the answers. That at a time that he was Frum for all of maybe 13 years.

More on Uri from Wikipedia Hebrew.



Over the years I believe he lost much of his anti-Chabad rhetoric and has begun to focus on true issues, namely that of Jewish education. He does run Lev L'Achim, which was originally set up to push out Reb Sholom Lipshitz from Yad L'Achim because he wouldn't be Mekabel Morus of מרן in B'nei Brak, but even LL has branched out into other activities. He was Aryeh Deri'i's main defender during his trial and subsequent jail time, and even would sit with him at the Yeshivah that they set up for him in prison for long periods of time.

I have since been able to overlook his past indiscretions (I Mean as a Frum Yid...) and see him as a great asset to the Jewish community. Lubavitch cannot appeal to all Jews, so he does fill a great need. He has the know-how to reach the masses with his acting and directing background, and he does it quite well, using both humor and the mass media to appeal to an Israeli public that still loves him after all these years.