Thursday, October 5, 2006

Shazar's Rosh Yeshivah Yarmulke



Was it לכבוד Zushe Partisan, a former Novardiker? I don't believe the Novardiker wore them, maybe it was too חיצוניות'דיג for them.

Did he consider himself a Rosh Yeshivah being that he was once Sar HaChinuch?

.........הנסתרות לה' אלוקינו

Hungarian Jews' greatest fear:



A DNA TEST

If you are looking for that long lost relative, or if you feel that some day, someone may use a DNA repository to look for long lost relatives, you should consider doing this simple DNA test.

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mtDNA: By testing the mtDNA, males and females can determine the origin of their maternal line. Once your results are in, you will be compared to the data from the landmark study from Dr. Doron Behar, our Chief mtDNA Scientist, quoted by NY Times, CNN, BBC and other major media outlets. Note that the mtDNA strictly checks the maternal line, with no influence of any males along that line. Both males and females receive the mtDNA from the mother.

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The Paternal DNA, passed from father to son, tests the Y-chromosome, which is only found in males and is useful in verifying common ancestry.
A single test allows you to verify:

- if 2 males are related
- your suggested geographic origins
- if you could be of Jewish ancestry
- if you have Cohanim ancestry
- your deep ancestral ethnic origins


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The Maternal DNA test is available for both males and females, to uncover information about your mother, and her female ancestors.
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A S J: Guest Posting From Chabakuk Elisha

What have they done to Uman?!

Why is the main Shul for Ashkenazim only? (or at least that's how they want it to be)

Why is Reb Lozer Kenig taking Pidyon Nefesh? Is he a Rebbe?

Why does a Lubavitcher say Tikun HaKloli? What does he hope to accomplish?

What will Uman look like in 5 years from now? Will Yerushalmim cease to come at all?

Wednesday, October 4, 2006

שששאא! ר' מענדל שלאפט



Reb Mendel Futerfas resting his weary head after a night of Farbrengen in 770 during Chodesh Tishrei. Soon he'd wake and begin another day.

Even the most rabid Lubavitch bashers had respect for Reb Mendel, - which is somewhat perplexing being that he was such a staunch דור השביעי חסיד. Was it all the white beard and Kasket? - The same goes for Reb Yoel Kahan. What I find so perplexing is that some of Reb Yoel's biggest "Talmidim" would never step into 770, even to get a dollar from the Rebbe.

How does one separate the two? How can you sit and listen to Shiurim by an individual who's Rebbe you consider unworthy?

Rebbe Videos and then some

Frum "YouTube" goes online

Highlights include:

Mosdos Ger pampers its rich

More Ger

PAIN IN SLUMS OF CHAVEZ



CARACAS KIDS LIVE IN FEAR

Why the Press here in the US chose to not report this when he visited here, and made as if he gives a darn about poor people is beyond me. They trumpeted that scam about selling cheap oil to poor New Yorkers as if he were some kind of Robin Hood. Then he says that oil should not fall below $60 a barrel!

Maybe the press in the US is a 5th column?

Friday, September 29, 2006

Trailer for Paul Mazursky's "YIPEE".

(a.k.a. אומן ר"ה)



Famed Hollywood director (Not that I ever heard of him, but what do I know? - HT) Paul Mazursky traveled to Uman, Ukraine to make his first feature-length documentary, YIPPEE.

Paul is there as 25,000 Hasidic Jews from around the world come to celebrate Rosh Hashanah as the grave of Rabbi Nachmann. (25,000 already? not too shabby - HT)

(Paul also makes time for some real pleasure, with his usual crowd, although I'm not sure if that happens on Rosh Hashonoh as well. I mean the beer drinking and dancing with non-Chassidim. - HT)

Those that care will notice lots of Lubavitcher Taleisim in the footage, I find that quite compelling. - HT.

Thursday, September 28, 2006

I wanna learn in Kolel too!



My boss is on the phone with his "prize" son-in-law who's living in Eretz Yisroel and learning in Mir-Yerushalayim. They're discussing a shtikkel Teyreh that he heard in a Shiur to BaaleiBatim by a certain well-known Rosh Yeshiva from Upstate NY. To be able to talk Teyreh during work . איז ממש מעין עולם הבא

The איידעם sits in the Mirrer Kolel in Yerushalayim and has all his expenses paid, including a couple of R/T tickets to the States twice a year. He probably does learn, not just "Kvetching di Bank", although it probably is אף די אמעריקאנער שטייגער, without too much effort. The Eidem calls the patron of this nice יששכר-זבולון venture, his shver, and reports on his so-called progress, telling him a Vort he read in either לקח טוב or a similar Sefer, and the coming week's expenses are in the bank.

All this time I sit here and listen to this conversation where the Shver (I presume) is shepping buckets of Nachas of his Tchachke. Instead of me having the "best of both worlds" I have none. Nisht all expenses paid and nisht swimming in the ים של תלמוד, worse than that, my dream of making some kind of difference, whether by Shlichus or Chinuch never materialized either.

The eidem has weeks of בין הזמנים where he gets the time to prepare properly for all of the Yomim Tovim, aaaaand spend time with the family. Us working zhlobs need to work Erev RH, Erev YK (although not this year with YK on Monday) Chol HaMoed and even Hoshana Rabboh. Imagine riding the train to the city when all good Jews are basking in the glow of Hashem in Shul!

If I had the chance to do it all over again I would insist on being able to learn in Kolel for at least 15 years, when by then it would be too late to start going to work already, and I'd continue to live in spiritual bliss for all eternity.

אמן כן יהי רצון

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

א ליכטיגע צורה



הרה"ח ר' שמוא-ל (מולע) פרוס ע"ה

בצער רב נתקבלה הידיעה על פטירתו של הרה"ח הרה"ת, איש מסירות הנפש ר' שמואל (מולע) ע"ה פרוס. המנוח נפטר היום בערב, ליל ו' בתשרי, והוא בן 91. ר' מולע נולד ביום ט' באלול תרע"ה בעיר הורודוק, ומאז ילדותו התחנך בישיבות "תומכי תמימים" בפולוצק, נעוול וויטבסק. זכה להתאבק בצלם של גדולי החסידים ולהיות 'מקבל' ו'מושפע' מובהק שלהם: הרה"ח ר' זלמן משה היצחקי, הרה"ח ר' ניסן נעמנוב, הרה"ח ר' איצ'ה דער מתמיד, הרה"ח ר' פרץ מוצ'קין, הרה"ח ר' יצחק רסקין ועוד

פעל רבות למען אחיו החסידים, והוזיל ממון רב בשביל לעזור לזולת בשנים הקשות והטרופות. כמו כן היה תורם סכומים עצומים לאחזקת רשת ישיבות 'תומכי תמימים' המחתרתית. נאסר כמה פעמים על ידי אנשי הנ.ק.וו.ד. ואף נשלח למחנות עבודה בארץ גזירה למשך שלוש שנים.

היה מעמודי התווך של קהילת החסידים בריגא, ותמך רבות באחזקת מוסדות היהדות שם.

בשנת תשי"ט עלה לארץ הקודש עם בני משפחתו, ומיד נרתם לסייע לאחיו החסידים שנשארו מאחורי מסך הברזל, אם במשלוח מזון, בגדים ומצות לקראת חג הפסח – וזאת על פי הוראה של הרבי. בגין פעולותיו אלו עמד בקשר רצוף עם אנשי ה"מוסד" וראשו שאול אביגור, וכן עם אנשי ארגון "נתיב" החשאי, שפעל מטעם משרד החוץ בקרב יהודי רוסיה.

שימש שנים רבות כגבאי בית-הכנסת 'בית-מנחם' בכפר-חב"ד, והיה ראש וראשון לכל דבר שבקדושה.

הותיר אחריו ארבעה בנים: הרה"ח ר' בערל פרוס מכפר חב"ד; הרה"ח ר' זושא גרוס, מפקח בתי הספר "אור אבנר" במדינות חבר העמים; הרה"ח ר' חיים פרוס, שליח הרבי בבוסטון, והרה"ח ר' ישראל פרוס. .

ת.נ.צ.ב.ה.

.........אזעלכע אידן מאכט מען מער ניט

Death comes to a traitor



Tokyo Rose dead at 90

Monday, September 25, 2006

Never underestimate the power of a Rebbe



Get a load of this:

We have here a person who claims for the last 20 years or so to be totally disillusioned with a movement and its leader. He goes as far as "digging up dirt" on all his predecessors, publicizing any little-known facts about them for all to see and read. He criticizes every silly thing he reads about the movement and belittles all their accomplishments.

Yet, on Erev Rosh Hashonoh, where does his Neshomoh pull him? To the Tziyun, to the Ohel, because that's where a Neshomoh goes to cry and plead, especially before the new year.

Yes, he was accepted with open arms and his prayers will be "forwarded" just like the greatest Chossid's, simply because the Tzaddik, the נשמה כללית, intercedes on behalf of EVERYONE, regardless of who you are and what you say.

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Is Rosh Hashonoh in Uman all you need?



A good friend of mine left for Uman ysterday to spend Rosh Hashonoh there. He also took his 3 sons with him, it's quite a task to deal with 3 kids for a week in a foreign land. Before he left we we're discussing the trip and it's benefits, as perscribed by Reb Nachman himself:

1) That Rosh Hashonoh is עולה על כולנה and he'll go all out to draw the man out of the deepest spiritual depths if he spends Rosh Hashonoh with him, which now is done at the Tziyun in Uman.

2) That a child who comes to him before the age of seven (I'm not sure if that needs to be Rosh Hashonoh too) is under the full responsibility of Reb Nachman zt"l, and is guaranteed to come out OK.

Not knowing much about Breslov, (but a big fan of their music!) I asked if that was all it took, just come to the Tziyun and say the Tikkun HaKloli and you're good to go? He wasn't absolutely sure, with himself out of the Breslover scene for a while. It seems like there's a Kaboloh in Breslov that after a Breslover Chossid is Niftar they tell him to "demand" to see the Rebbe in his Heichal in Gan Eden, where supposedly the Rebbe "vouches" for him, but only after "passing a test".

Can any of my Breslover readers verify any of this?

Watch the "מעמד תיקון הכללי" on Erev Rosh Hashonoh in Uman LIVE!

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

NYT: Friction in the 5 towns

At Odds Over Schools

I wonder how the "assimilated Jews" there would feel if they paid all that Property Tax and got no school funding for it.

("hattip" Yiddish Wikipedia)

Monday, September 18, 2006

Hey, it's only an Esrog, OK?



HaRav Moshe Sternbuch choosing Esrogim in Kfar Chabad

I always thought he never liked Chabad, being a descendant of the Vilner Gaon and a שטארקער בריסקער, maybe I was wrong.

I don't think I've ever seen the man smile....


(who's on the right?)


(who's on the left?)

Andy Statman on NPR



- Andy Statman made a musical name for himself as a pioneer of progressive bluegrass. But his eclectic approach to recording and performing has often kept his music from the public. But two new CDs are on their way to the market. -

Worth a Listen

Dovid Sears hits the proverbial nail on the head when he says that Andy's music, some of the greatest Jewish music out there, is unappreciated. Instead the masses listen to Shwekey and Fried.

Sad.

Saturday, September 16, 2006

?סליחות מוצאי שבת



It seems that those who say the 1st Selichos on Motzoei Shabbos don't have it right. They're missing out on the way it should be done, it's just not the same.

Take case 1:

Reb Yid goes to shul at Mincha, eats or doesn't eat a big 3rd meal, hears שאלישידעס תורה or a מאמר חסידות, sings Niggunim and so on. When he gets home there's not much he can do to prepare for Selichos, since he has to wrap up the Shabbos and attend to the mundane chores of Motzoei Shabbos. The מלוה מלכה is a hurried one, and if he's really religious he Chaps a Mikveh before Selichos since G-d knows what he did since the morning Mikveh. At 1am he says Selichos, usually without as much as a word of preparation from the Rov or Rebbe, watches the clock all Selichos, and is in bed by 2:15 or so, barely mumbling Krias Shema, and as tired as can be. The next morning he can barely get up, misses זמן תפלה, and the 1st Day of Selichos's davenen has יענער פנים.

Now imagine this:

Reb Yid (2) has the same schedule up until Motzoei Shabbos, but his night is different. [He's nervous about the next day and not getting enough sleep, so he rushes through the Motzoei Shabbos rituals, yes, but all for a good cause, after all he's gotta be up at 4am!] The next morning he's up at 4am, rushes to the Mikveh, and listens to an impassioned Droshoh than can melt a heart of stone. (Anybody heard the קלויזענבורגער רב'ס דרשה פון תשכ"ז?) The Selichos obviously goes accordingly, and the Davenen follows suit. He may even fast half a day, since he already had his coffee in the pre-morn hours, so that he's good to go till 1pm, and especially since he may eaten at the Atrium in Monsey 4 years ago.

See if you can figure out to which group or קרייז Reb Yid #1 belongs to, and where Reb Yid #2 belongs. I apologize to my father in adavance if he may take offense to this post. It's all in good fun.

א גוטע סליחה

Thursday, September 14, 2006

Klezmer Modzitz

Not half bad for a guy playing by ear. 2 hands, and using the pedal too, wow! It beats the Casio or Yamaha anyday, 'cause there ain't nothing like the real thing.



More Modzitz Piano from this dude.