תמונת הלילה - fur makes the man

Judge rules 7 year old סאטמארע אינגל may not travel to Israel because he will be influenced by the "splendor of the State..."

This anti-Zionism stuff is pretty serious, aye? Of course divorced couples will use anything to further their cause and to spite the other party, but still. I just wish that Rabbi Chaskel Teitelbaum of Clymer Street would be a bit more truthful. I don't think that the Grand Rebbe opposed all travel to Israel, otherwise why would he travel there several times himself? And why would he then not tell all his followers to get up and leave! 

  Katz v Katz (2013 NY Slip Op 50041(U)) by  

ewwww, but they say it works!

Imagine, if you will, for a second, that this weird treatment was found in the טעמי המנהגים, or in some other "primitive" segulah sefer, how the enlightened ones would howl with laughter. How Prof. Marc B. (aka מלך) Shapiro would have a real problem with it. How Facebook's walls would be "full of it." But now that the NYT prints it it's the height of hygiene. Cutting age medicine, so to speak. Would you call this "repulsive?" I think so. Yet, in the name of science and health we sometimes overlook the repulse of it and do it for the greater good. I wonder what prompted the guy in charge of this study to even try it... Just 4 days after Shapiro's thoughts about one particular segulah we get this story. Coincidence? I think not!

Fecal Transplants, they call it

deh hooson in deh alle mehootoonim

אגרת הקודש - "קרית חוצות" מיאמי ביעטש יצ"ו

Not to be outdone by his older brother, the Rebbe, Reb Aron of Satmar-KJ, who despite being on vacation in faraway Palm Springs finds time to sit and discuss lofty matters on Chof Daled Teves; The Rebbe, Reb Zalman of Satmar-Willi writes that he too is on דאטשע; he is very busy "במילי דשמיא", but he will take a few minutes to write a letter to his dear Bochurim, since there is still קירוב לב. You'll just have to take his word for it as no videos exist.

Brisker "Wikleaks" B O M B (Part II)

(Here's Part I from way back when)

This 32 page treasure full of lies, half-truths and distortions gives us a glimpse into the Ahavas Yisroel that many of the Gedolim had for their fellow Jews - especially Chassidishe Yidden, ובפרטי פרטיות אידן בעלי מסי"נ כמו חסידי חב"ד ורבותיהם נ"ע. And I've only read until page 3... Why do I call them lies, etc.? Because otherwise I have no choice but to lose all respect that I had for many of these Rabbonim and Roshei Yeshiva. What would you do in such a case? Comments asking me to decipher and type this up will be ignored, unless you send me your credit card information and allow me to charge it $35 an hour. I think that's reasonable for this type of work. If you're going to post this elsewhere or pass it around at least link back here.

  Notes Lo Noda Lemi 1 by   neveler

For our non-Scribd users here's a link to Box, which is good with most filters as well.

...תורתנו הקדושה היא חיינו

Photo by Shas HANDOUT/Flash90

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יארצייט א ' שבט

L'kvoid Reb Hershel

I am sending you a picture of Reb Yosef of Niregyhaza. He was born ח' תמוז תרי"ט and died א' שבט תרפ"ז. [which would make today his yohrtzeit] He was the youngest child of Reb Mordche'la Nadvorner. He lived in פעטשעניזין, Pechenizhyn, (Pecz) Galicia, where he led his followers. He lead an ascetic life and barely spoke mundane matters (he was a Shoisek). During the First World War he fled Galicia and settled for a while in Mateszalka, Hungary. He later settled in Niregyhaza, Hungary, where he passed away and is buried. There a many Mofsim attributed to him.

שישו ושמחו בשמחתו של רבינו בעל התניא והשו"ע נ"ע

At the שערי הוראה מסיבה this week for Bochurim who farherred themselves on The Shulchan Aruch Harav. שערי הוראה is a project of Harav Chaim Shmerler, Rosh Yeshivas "אורייתא." As you can see bochurim from many, many non-Lubavitcher Yeshivos participate and attended and were awarded for their efforts. אשרי חלקם of the organizers and supporters!

What a Kiddush Hashem!

 

who knew that Reb Shlomo Brevda der Gro'nik was a בן אחר בן of הרה"ק ר' חיים חייקל מהאמדור זצ"ל, תלמיד הרה"מ ממעזריטש נ"ע?

I read it in the Hamodia yesterday and almost fell off my chair! except that I was standing when I read it... For years you'd see the small posters announcing his weekly shiur in Telsher shtiebel minyan... Truth be told it's a fascinating life's story, how he went from almost being a college boy to a maggid and baal mussar of world renown. (כידוע דער סיפור מיט א חסיד פון אלטער רבי'ן וועלכע האט געהאט א חבר א חסיד פון ר' חייקל'ן שקינא בחבירו שהי' מתפלל בהתלהבות גדולה ונכנס ליחידות לרבו ושפך לבו שאין לו את ההתלהבות שיש לחבירו - וענה לו רבינו הגדול: "ער ברענט דען? ר' חייקל ברענט אין אים!) His ancestor Reb Shmuel of Hamdur sat in prison because of chassidus! Isn't it a shayleh of אל תטוש תורת אמך to abandon that rich heritage? I realize that he was "born again" - sorry about that - as a mekabel from the Mashgiach Reb Chatzkel, but RYL passed away some 40 years ago, right as he was turning 40... Forty is when you can start learning Kabboloh. Substitute Chassidus for Kabboloh and voila!

But so goes it. Der Eiberhster fihrt di velt.

"New revelations" about the Alter Rebbe's Yichus to the MaHaRaL?

 Historian/Genealogist Reb Naftoli Aron Vekshtein is certainly a very respected חוקר יחוס. Maybe the best. The fact that he's frum also works in his favor; he has the necessary respect for the personalities he researches and for other Rabbonim and Tzaddikim, even if he reaches different conclusions, which helps his acceptance among people like yours truly. The non-frum simply are arrogant and disrespectful, they know better than anybody - not so here. Vekshtein quotes the Rebbe extensively, but reaches a different conclusion, even quoting the Rebbe who he says was always looking for more information about Reb Boruch the AR's father, so here he is giving that information.... Having said that - and I'm a total amateur here - it seems to an amateur like me that he's shooting the arrow first and then drawing the bull's eye, to use an overused cliche'. Much of what he concludes is based on his choice who he prefers to believe - one eynikel of the Rebbetzin Rivka over another, (i.e. Yisroel Ber Ginsberg Schneersohn ben Chaya Mushka Menachem Mendel ben MaHaRaSH) an old timer who heard it in his hometown, and so forth. Obviously a Lubavitcher Chossid chooses to believe his Rebbe, who also says that he heard it from the RR - not to mention the fact that Rebbe knows best anyway.

See Chapters 1&2 of Reb Berel Levin's תולדות חב"ד ברוסיא הצארית

 There are several items here that differ from accepted Chabad opinions - some of them he doesn't even bother to note when he mentions them!

 1) Was it Boruch or Yisroel Boruch?

 2) Was Reb Boruch's father Schneur Zalman - as per Hayom Yom, or was it Avrohom?

 3) Was the AR a Ben achar Ben of the MaHaRaL, as per Hayom Yom? (Was he bichlal a descendant?)

 4) When was the AR born, was it Chai Elul תק"ה as per Hayom Yom, or another date?

 5) Is the Matzeivoh in Selish/Sevlus/Vinogradov the AR's father?

Much of what RNAV concludes is based on the Matzeivoh in סעליש that says ישראל ברוך ב"ר אברהם, ח' תשרי תקנ"ב. The Mesorah in that town was that this is Reb Boruch's מקום מנוחה, and an ohel was built there some 10 years ago. Yet, practically, nowhere in Chabad literature will you see the name Yisroel mentioned. RNAV seems to think that the name was dropped by Reb Boruch since he was a talmid of the BeSHT andit was not befitting to be called בשם רבו. But if that were the case the that tidbit should have been mentioned when mentioning RB. Also, despite the fact that the date of RB's passing is debated by virtue of the fact that the AR's descendants were only named Boruch from a later date; yet nobody mentions - as far as I could tell - that none of them were named Yisroel Boruch! Another point not mentioned is that if the AR's zeide was Avrohom and not Schneur Zalman, where did he get the name Schneur Zalman from? They just pulled it out of a hat? And despite the fact that the date of the AR's birth is not discussed and argued in this kuntres, he does make mention of the date תק"ז, which some use as his DOB. Truth be told I was relieved to see that he decided that the Yichus - although not Ba"B - is confirmed even by Monday morning QBs... היינטיגע טעג קען מען דאך גארנישט נישט וויסן... There's much more to discuss on this topic, but in the interest of time let's get this out now. Discuss.

Reb Boruch's Matzeivoh in Sevlus. 

Photo and PDF from Yiddish Velt

אההה, ווי געשמאק איז צו זיצען תחת תאנתו אין פאלם ספרינגס

(Clip updated Wednesday 11:27am - it's now several minutes longer - H/T:Gruntig)

This is where we see that a Rebbe or Rov really needs the vacation time. Can it get any better than this? Sitting in Palm Springs with 12 people talking Chassidishe Dvorim B'teilim & Sippurei Tzaddikim! But any Rov or Rebbe that sits down in such a setting really needs to know his stuff, because he's gonna get grilled, and he better have the answers, otherwise he looks foolish. But the Rebbe Reb Ahron - as in Rebbe Reb Ber... - seems to pass this test as well. Looks like my former menahel - sitting to the Satmar Rebbe's left - also needs a vacation from his Spinka job; years ago he didn't go to Palm Springs... I guess times ARE changing. And the shliach, Rabbi Denebeim, also makes his voice heard - which is nice to see!

Rabbi Avrohom D. Hecht - Igud HoRabbonim conference, 1956

Rabbi Hecht - who passed away on Motzoei Shabbos Chof Daled Teves - is heard here introducing the Israeli Consul General at the same conference that featured the late Ponovizher Rov as well.  He was Rov in the Sefardic "Shaarei Zion" shul for over a yovel, until his retirement soon after the Rabin assassination. The above link will give you the biographical sketch you seek.

כ"ד טבת מאתיים שנה - יום עיון בתורת רבינו הגדול בעל התניא והשו"ע נ"ע

at Chovevei Torah - Watch Here (Yiddish)(Opens in IE only)

 12 hour "marathon" from several speakers (English)

איגוד צאצאים מלוה מלכה אין קראון הייטס

COL has tens of links about 24 Teves in Haditch, as well as all over the world,

As does Shturem

בעל התניא היה בראשון שנהג כאדמו"ר בפועל

סופה של קהלת חב"ד בהאדיטש

ויהיו רחמיך.... טאטע זיסער.... מתגוללים על עם קדשך

התוועדות כ"ד טבת תשכ"ג

Listen Here @ Chabad.org

Reb Burechel's efforts to save Jews during WW2

from Kovetz אורייתא

Is Gil Student gefallen ofen kupp?

Otherwise why would he post a thing like this?!

But the truth is I can relate. After some 7.5 years of grinding out this stuff on a near-daily basis you sometimes get desperate. Speaking about Chabad, especially when juxtaposed with words like "heresy," gets people to read and talk about you. So he really meant no harm.

Chakira tells him as much:

"What an offputting title to a post. I realize you end up in the right place. But the idea that you or the people you quote are remotely qualified to render judgments on two of the greatest contributors to Jewish theology in modern times is so laughable and farfetched as to border on the offensive. Even someone whose spent years reading Kabbalistic texts and understands the implications of the Kabbalistic terms at play might be flummoxed and confused by this debate. It really relies to a great extent on arcane of how you read Lurianic and Zoharic texts which are not explicit on this point. Also on how you parse a few disputes in 13th cent. Kabbalah which are not at all clear. I really don’t think more than half a dozen or so people in the world are qualified to weigh in on this question from either traditional or academic perspectives. Certainly not to render definitive judgments. This is like headlining a post “Was Descartes Wrong?” or “Socrates, what a moron!” without really understanding the entire oeuvre and reading copious amounts of secondary material. It's provocative to juxtapose a picture of the Alter Rebbe with some trash talk. What it isn’t is productive."

משיירי דור דעה

.....אפילו אין ווייטן בארא פארק קען מען אנדעקן אוצרות

  תודה להשולח

The Sadigerrer Rebbe, זצ"ל

כ"ק אדמו"ר ר' אברהם יעקב פרידמאן מסאדיגורא זצ"ל

כל מה שרציתם לדעת על הממשיך

a younger Rebbe in the early years of his Rebbistive.

The Rebbe's father, the Rebbe of Sadiger-Pshemishyl, brother, o"h, and great uncle, the Rebbe of Sadiger (The Avir Yaakov) somewhere in Europe. Marienbad, perhaps. His father was a "melech yisroel" while in Pshemishyl, but lost it all during the War, and never really had anything after that. It was the niftar that rebuilt it somewhat.