א-ל-ו-ל אין סלאבאדקע

While the baalebatishe Yeshivishers like to think that they have a shaychus to the Eretz Yisroel'dikke Olam HaTorah; The Reb Dov Landads and Reb Moshe Hillel Hirshes are already saying shiurim. Let's see them pack up the bungalow colonies and head home before Rosh Chodesh Elul, even if it is mid-August and the Beis Yaakovs only start after Labor Day. Then again, if they wouldn't have their summers who knows how much less giving they'd do. Efsher iz besser azay?

More Photos Here






























Reb Moshe Hillel Hirsh


Reb Dov Landa

CC Levaya

That's what it says, what do I know? Ay, where's the mittah? Maybe they were rounding up the rear. Maybe these were the shleppers who couldn't put the kids to bed earlier. Maybe the old fellow with the beard was there to make seder.

Summer Chizuk - Reprinted with permission from Yated Ne'eman

Summer is a time we can use to be mechazeik people in a way we can’t during the year. For example, on Monday, Rav Yeruchim Olshin, rosh yeshiva of Bais Medrash Govoah in Lakewood, used the opportunity presented by bein hazemanim to visit Shalom Mordechai Rubashkin in prison. But it wasn’t that simple. Reb Yossi Ostreicher, who accompanied the rosh yeshiva and drove him to the jail, worked hard to arrange this visit. Shalom Mordechai was so excited that the rosh yeshiva would be coming to visit him. Imagine this Yid sitting alone in jail, cut off from the outside world. Imagine when he hears that the Lakewood rosh yeshiva is coming to visit him. He couldn’t contain himself. The rosh yeshiva was equally happy that he would be able to be mesameiach the locked-away, humble Yid. I spoke to each of them on Sunday and was happy that the visit was going to come about. Then, Sunday evening, Rav Yisroel Meir Yagen zt”l, a Lakewood kollel yungerman and son-in-law of Rav Gershon Ribner shlit”a, was tragically niftar. Rav Olshin would have to forgo the visit to Shalom Mordechai. He would be devastated, but how could the rosh yeshiva not be at the levayah? How surprised I was when Shalom Mordechai called me Monday afternoon. I learned a serious lesson in middos and in mesirus nefesh for another Yid. I learned a lesson in gadlus ha’adam more potent than a mussar shmuess. Rav Yeruchim woke up pre-dawn, davened vosikin, got into the car for the 2-½ drive to Otisville, NY, stayed with Shalom Mordechai for twenty minutes and then headed back to Lakewood to attend the levayah. He had the best excuse not to go. Who would not understand that he couldn’t make the visit? He had to be at the levayah. Anyone could accept that. Shalom Mordechai, the Lubavitcher Yid he had never met before, would surely understand. But instead of forgoing the five-hour trip on a difficult day, the rosh yeshiva chose to be moser nefesh to raise the spirits of a Yid. They only spent a few minutes together, but every time Shalom Mordechai ponders his fate, he will be emboldened because of the gadlus of a person who used the opportunity presented by summer to lift up a fellow Jew.

תואר פני כ"ק אדמו"ר ר' משה'לע מסטולין זצ"ל הי"ד

With my sincererest apologies to my Karlin-Stoliner friends who don't like to share... This is a visa/passport application in July of 1926. Moshe son of Yisroel Perlow. There are a few pictures of the Stoliner Rebbe, but this is special, in my humble opinion. The others are from a distance and not clear. Reb Moshe'le was a great lover of Israel and the Jewish People and visited the Holy Land on several occasions. He and his family were murdered in Stolin in 1942. Today's Stoliner Rebbe is his younger brother Reb Yochonon's grandchild.

With thanks to Yuri Dorn

Monday Links and Goodies

Artist Zalman Kleiman - 20 years
Hespedim at the levaya of RRK
frum people using Reform Rabbis to fight Beis Din?!
TORONTO SAGES: Prominent rabbis of blessed memory
כיצד כותבים את ההיסטוריה של יהדות הונגריה בישראל

POTD - summertime with the holy Ribnitzer

Did Lubavitcher Chassidim save Rishel Kotler ע"ה's shidduch?!

A young Reb Shneur in Chevroner Yeshiva. Wiki Photo.

There's a bit of legend mixed up in the facts, but the basic story is as follows. (Lubavitchers always get their facts wrong, don't they?) The late BMG'er Rebbetzin escaped to Shanghai via Kobe, Japan. (Regardless of what Wikipedia says. she didn't go Eretz Yisroel in 1940) Before the war she was already engaged to Reb Schneur, who made his way to Eretz Yisroel, studying in Chevroner Yeshiva. After the war RSK traveled to the US to be reunited with his father. Rishel was stuck in Shanghai until 1947. So said her son Aron at the levaya. So the chosson and kallah were apart for some 6-7 years. During that time Rishel contacted typhus or TB. I forget which. She of course recovered, but only after Reb Meir and his Rebbetzin nursed her back to health. She was also apparently smuggled into the US by Lubavitcher bochurim. That's how the Lubavitcher version goes. The Kotler family was still worried and thought about breaking off the shidduch, as we say in Brooklyn. The story goes that the late Shanghai'er Rov, Reb Meir Ashkenazi, grandfather of the late KfarChabad'er Rov, who was held in high regard by all who came in contact with him, was asked to intercede on Rishel's behalf. He went to the Frierdige Rebbe who sent him to the Rebbe who told him what to do. Basically, that since they wrote the Tenoyim already that they're required to keep the shidduch and they should be told as much. In the end it all worked out - and the rest is history.

Reb Aryeh Malkiel Friedman. Photo Source

The funny thing is that the Kotler family made no mention of it at the shiva. Despite the fact that R' Shragie Kotler married a granddaughter of Reb Meir Ashkenazi. They have a totally different version. I heard from people who were there at the shiva that according to the sons SHE was the one who wanted to break off the shidduch - or at least she told them that she was no longer a yachsan, since her father was a Baalbatisher Yid  and a Talmid Chochom, but he's no longer alive. Her father was, after all, a Slabodker talmid and a chaver of RAK, and she saw that as her only right, so to speak, to enter into a family such as the Kotlers. And also that she had been ill and that the doctors say that she will not be able to bear children. According to the family it was her future shver that was to have told her that since Reb Elchonon Wasserman הי"ד was the one who made the shidduch in the first place that there was nothing to worry about, and that the shidduch must go on. B'chol ofen, ווי עס זאל נאר ניט זיין, it makes for good conversation. Agav, I mentioned to a Lakewood talmid friend of mine who grew up there that based on what they say of her, how she cared poshut b'gashmius for every talmid, that the title "Mother of Klal Yisroel", which was bestowed on the very righteous Rebbetzin Kanievski by the editors at Artscroll, would be much more suited to the BMG'er Rebbetzin than to her, simply for the amount of talmidim and talmidos she came in contact with and helped out. Zol zee zayn a gutte betterin far di gantze BMG mishpoche.

זעלבסטמארד איז א רעזולטאט פון תורה און אמונה'לאזינקייט - Guest Post

Hirshel 

I see you are busy on some big project,  but in the meantime put this on for all the Suscher Katzes and Shulem Deens, they didn't invent the wheel of misfortune.

Poland in the 20's and 30's, when the OTD winds blew in to the charedi homes; suddenly the rash of suicides started. A unknown phenomenon. But they called it "a result of foresaking Torah and faith." They weren't mental health professionals, but that's what they were saying. 2015 is no different, the great organization Footsteps will not help these inflicted souls. Reading up on this issue I see that there is much disagreement about the achievements of Footsteps, some claim Footsteps does not deliver anything other than the 4 times a year party, while others say otherwise. I have no real opinion either way, just passing it along.

(the views and opinions expressed in the above post are those of the guest writer, and do not necessarily represent the views of the host of this blog.)

------- ביז'ן קרעטשמע דארף מען אויך א שנעפסל until I can finish what I'm working on enjoy these pictures

Reb Yosef N. Kornitzer of Krakow, left, with his cousin Reb Shlomo Sofer of Bergsaz, right.

(right) Reb Zalman Sorotzkin of Lutzk, son in law of Reb Lazer Gordon of Telshe, and (left) Reb Shmuel D Unger of Nitra.

Kenessiah Gedauloh

מרן רביה"ק מסאטמאר זצ"ל בעת ביקורו בארה"ק ת"ו

Noam Elimelech 1942 edition censored

"Dear Tzig,

I recently came across an edition of the Noam Elimelech printed in New York in 1942 by Joshuah (Osias!) Wagschal. Interestingly it also contains letters of recommendation by the RAYATZ and Rav Herzog. Needless to say that later reprints of this specific edition ( I also have one from around 1980) have these letters deleted." - end of email.

The two letters both address him as הרה"צ, yet the emailer calls him Joshua (Osias!). Maybe that's what his stationery said? I'm kind of at a loss here. I should ask him, I know. Maybe he'll chime in in the comments. Is it the קארטשינער-פריסטיקער רבי? hard to tell. Let me see what we can learn from our readers.

scenes from the life of HaRav Dov Yehuda Schochet ע"ה

Seems like all in Toronto.

2nd from left may be Rav Mordechai Ochs, according to RYGB

at the pulpit, 1950

Walking to a drosho with other dignitaries

Guest Post - Being Menachem Avel משפחת קטלר - by Rabbi Isser Z. Weisberg

I went to be menachem ovel the Kotler family today at the modest home of their mother Rebbetzin Rishel a"h at 515 5th St. in Lakewood. Incidentally the Rebbetzin would always mention to members of my wife's family, the Schochets, that they were related and the families were close (exactly how, I could not ascertain). I came together with Reb Nochum Kaplan, who now serves as the head of the "Central Office of Education" of Chabad in Crown Heights. R' Kaplan started his career as the principal of the Bezalel Hebrew Day School in Lakewood almost 40 years ago. He was reminiscing with the Kotler family about the early years of Lakewood and his close and warm relationship with Reb Shneur and the Rebbetzin z"l. (They were also related somehow). Incidentally R' Nochum was one of the first to introduce me to the world of Chabad while I was learning in Lakewood. While there in the Rebbetzin's home I snapped a picture of the famous list of the founding 13 talmidim which was hanging on her kitchen wall for over 50 years. (The number 15 quoted from the NYT in Wikipedia is incorrect). The Yeshiva opened its doors for the Pesach zman of 5703, hence, the list indicates summer 1943. This list was created for the Draft Board, and lists in which yeshiva each talmid obtained their 4D status. (which is the exemption for ministers & divinity students.

(See Here).

The first on the list is Reb Yisroel Kanarek z"l founder of Peekskill Yeshiva and the last is my father z"l, Reb Yaakov Weisberg. If I am not mistaken my father is the only one of the group born in America. From the book "The Legacy of Moran Rav Aharon Kotler (Dershowitz)" p. 74: "Rabbi Yaakov Weisberg was the very first American bochur to "hear" the Rosh Yeshiva's public call to Bnei Torah to "forge a new link" in the chain of Oskim BaTorah Lishmoh and join the fledgling Lakewood Yeshiva. He was a Talmid Chochem of note who loved and built Torah. Loved and did countless Chassodim (with devotion, Simcha, and true modesty) for countless individuals."

life in pre-War Telshe and Lithuania

The following are pictures recently received via email. They were sent to me by R' Doniel Schochet, a grandson of the late Rabbi Dov Yehuda Schochet, last of Toronto. Mostly of Telshe and Lituania. Some Switzerland and other places. I'm not gonna bother and watermark all of them, but can you be nice enough not to take them and publish them as your own, please? 

Telshe Yeshiva, 1932/5692. Of the 5 members of the הנהלה pictured, Reb Avrohom Yitzchok Bloch, Reb Zalman Bloch and Reb Ezriel Rabinovich were murdered with the Yeshiva and townspeople on 20 Tammuz, 5701. Reb Elya Meir Bloch and Reb Mottel Katz were in America and were thus saved. Their wives and children, however, were murdered, הי"ד.

Telsher Bochurim, Elul, 5684/1924, Rabbi Dov Y Shochet, standing, 2nd from left

Telsher Bochurim, RDY Shochet seated 2nd left. Note picture on wall of Reb Yosef Leib Bloch of Telshe, aka Der Alter Rov, who passed away in 5690/1930.

a Chevra Shas, somewhere in di Lita, (after all, where else did they finish Shas?) Adar 5690/1930

First graduating class of Yavne, the Telshe Girls' High School/Gymnasium, 1926/5786. Reb Mottel Katz, son-in-law of Reb Yosef Leib Bloch, אב"ד ור"מ טלז, pictured, right, with long beard. I count 9 students and 8 (!) staff.

I learned today that R' Ysoscher Katz is also an opportunist

Otherwise it would make no sense for him to write an article about a girl he knew nothing about a day after her passing and blame an ENTIRE community for it. מילא all her supposed friends looking for revenge - we can expect that. But Rabbi Katz?! Could he not wait a week until the shiva was over? Could he not respect the obviously grieving parents who lost what seems to be one of two children? Parents who went out of their way to placate her current friends and thank them publicly for coming! Does this sound like parents who "shunned" her? And to compare his situation to hers is just absurd. The only reason I can think of for him to write such a piece is his need to either get his name in on the conversation, or worse, just stick it to the frummies who "shunned" him. Kind of like Eli Fink with a beard. I see now that he did not write the screaming, incriminating. The Forward people do that, as do all newspapers - write the title, that is. But wow, they sure are objective....

I am disappointed.

POTD - more R' Kornitzer!

Looks like Marienbad.

POTD- HaRav Yosef Nechemia Kornitzer in Krakow shul

Monday Morning Links

h/t Gruntig

Photo Essay: Levaya of Rebbetzin Rishel Kotler a"h
9 Days reading: פון נאצישען יאמעראטל
KJ yingel makes good
הרב משה קופיץ חתן הגרי"ז סג"ל מספר על הפגישה שלו ושל חותנו עם רבינו מליובאוויטש זי"ע

do we encourage untruthful behavior?

photo source

So over Shabbos I davened in a shtiebel frequented by mostly Hungarian Charedim. Nice people, friendly and all. No complaints. A lot of Chassidus Mevueres seforim, as well as other Chabad Seforim. Several Tehillas Hashem siddurim as well. The Rov is a sweet Rebbishe type. He even shows me the end of the aliya when I'm called up. A-1 service. So there's this one bochur there, 14-15 years old. Seems to be a nice kid, but his davening irked me. While writing this I'm thinking that I may have written about it once before, when I had the same thoughts the last time I encountered his behavior. It may have even been the same kid! Anyhow, most of you don't remember anyway... So this kid davens with tnu'os meshunos. Strong shukkeling. Fists clenched. Veins popping. שמונה עשרה is a long ordeal. But he seems like someone who knows from this world. clean hat and shoes, etc. That's not to say that he's a total bluffer! He seems like a kid who means well. But my point is simply that he's getting way ahead of himself! He's not at that level of dveikus, and it doesn't seem like he's ever going to be there. But in his mind, since he maybe wants to be there all the outside trappings of being at that level are justified. And in his mind this is the way to get close to Hashem! Can it be that since we allow ourselves to be untruthful, דהיינו מ'נארט זיך, in ענינים של עבודה, that it spills over to all other aspects of life as well? That we're untruthful in our business dealings or with our children and spouses? Then again, what does the משנה say? וכל מי שאינו לא חיגר ולא סוּמָא ולא פִּסֵּחַ ועושה עצמו כאחד מהם  אינו מת מן הזקנה עד שיהיה כאחד מהם, שנאמר 'צדק צדק תרדוף - so maybe he has a point.

the levaya of HaRav Reb Yosef Nechemia Kornitzer, אב"ד קראקא יצ"ו, 1933

There's a picture of the Rov under a chuppa waiting to greet the Polish President. I guess the chuppa is for the sifrei torah that were brought out? The Baaleibatim are mostly of the unbearded top hat wearing variety. I wonder about the position of Rov in Krakow at that point in time, like who considered him their Rov. I mean no disrespect, c"v. I'm just asking, historically. A city like that, where most people were chassidim of certain Chassidishe Rebbes, who considered him their Rov? Kind of like Boro Park or Monsey of today. Or even Bnei Brak, for that matter. Did they all go to him with their shayles? to sell their chometz? Was the position a רב מטעם kind of position? And were these baaleibatim of the modern variety? The sheine yidden whose observance was questionable at best?

Just wondering.

הה"צ ר' יעקב יצחק ז"ל ממאקאריב

Source

Son of R' Menachem Nochum, son of Reb Mottele Tchernobeler, זצ"ל.