Linked Article: A New Commentary for a Changed World (Mishpacha Magazine)

A New Commentary for a Changed World by Rabbi Yirmiyohu Kaganoff

"Torah leaders confronting the Enlightenment were forced to develop innovative and original approaches to preserving and transmitting the mesorah. Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch’s groundbreaking commentary on Chumash stands out. Composed in the vernacular, Rav Hirsch’s work presents the Torah as the primary educational tool for personal growth and impresses its eternal relevance on the reader."

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Shavuous Day Drasha, 5:30-6:30 Aish Kodesh, Upstairs

Shavuous Day Drasha

by Rabbi Tzvi Abraham

5:30-6:30 PM Aish Kodesh, Upstairs
Beit Shemesh, Ramat Aleph
Nachal Maor St.

From the Garden of Eden to the Desert of Sinai:
Tracing the path through tohu v'vohu to Matan Torah

for men and women, mechitza

Ashkenaz Event This Shabbos in Kiryat Sefer

Read invitation

Remembering The Satmar Rebbe ZTL by R' Yaakov Shapiro

Remembering The Satmar Rebbe ZTL - watch

Listen

Na'arei Tzvi for Shavuous

Read

Rav Moshe Sternbuch video and audio in English.

Rav Moshe Sternbuch video and audio in English. It's not so often that one can hear a gadol of this stature speaking in perfect English.

Linked Article: Interview with Rabbi Dr. Moshe Miller of Lander College

‘For Rav Hirsch, All Mankind Is Precious To God’: An Interview With Rabbi Dr. Moshe Miller

by Elliot Resnick, Jewish Press

"The Jewish Press: Rav Hirsch advances a number of what some might consider controversial ideas in Nineteen Letters. One of them is his rather liberal view of non-Jews. Can you elaborate?

"Miller: Rav Hirsch very much stressed the humanism of Judaism. For him, the notion that Judaism allows treating non-Jews with a lower standard of ethics is blasphemy. It’s totally anathema to his way of looking at things. And he’s consistent throughout his writings – including those in Hebrew – about the need to treat non-Jews with dignity and respect and, as he writes in Nineteen Letters, to “bear love in our hearts” for them."

continue reading ‘For Rav Hirsch, All Mankind Is Precious To God’: An Interview With Rabbi Dr. Moshe Miller

Linked Article (Web Yeshiva) You’ll Be to Me a Holy Nation: Contemporary Gadolim on Obligations and Exemptions in Positive Time-Bound Commandments

Why are women exempt from certain commandments to which men are obligated? This question has fascinated some and troubled others. As with any conundrum, we turn to the great scholars of our era, our gadolim for answers. R’ Moshe Feinstein, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, R’ Joseph Soloveitchik, and R’ Avigdor Miller each approached the matter in similar fashion and stressed the general equality of holiness and spiritual worthiness of the two sexes and the differences in their respective roles and natures. Let’s have a look at their words.

Click here for the full article.

What's the connection to Hirsch? His message is the same as the other gadolim presented in this article. 

No other foundation

"Israel should be one nation, an entire nation that should have no other foundation for its existence, survival, activity and significance other than this Torah. It is to see the realization and devoted observance of this God-given "fiery Law" as its one contribution in world history for the edifice of human salvation. What the Phoenicians sought to bring about with the keels of their ships, what the ancient Greeks sought to achieve with their chisels and what the ancient Romans sought to attain with their swords, Israel is to accomplish with its Torah. Nay more, Israel is a nation that became a nation only through and for the Torah, a nation that once owned a land and existed as a state only through and for the Torah, and which possessed that land and that statehood only as instruments for translating the Torah into living reality. This is why Israel was a people even before it possessed land and statehood; this, too, is why Israel survived as a people even after its land was destroyed and its statehood lost, and this is why it will survive as a nation as long as it does not lose this only מורשה, this sole foundation for its survival and significance. That is the kind of nation that Israel, that all of us, should be." 

Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch "The Character of the Jewish Community," Collected Writings, Vol. VI, p. 35

Rav Hirsch Podcast - Bamidbar

The Simmy Lerner Rav Hirsch Podcast

Great child rearing advice here in yet another captivating presentation by Simmy Lerner.

Challenging works that are appropriate for girls

"You do have a variety of challenging works that are appropriate for girls, like the sefarim of Rav Hirsch, which open up their minds to hashkafah, the understanding of middos, and how to meet other people's needs." 

Rav Yaakov Weinberg talks about chinuch, 42c, p. 128, Targum Press, 2006.
Rav Weinberg zt'l was the Rosh Yeshiva of Neir Yisroel in Baltimore.

Some Particulars on Chassidic Tznius

Different groups have different strengths. In my view, the Chassidim are the leaders in tznius. It isn't just the women for the men are tznius too in the long black coats and hats, even outdoors in the summer. But obviously with women putting together tznius outfits is more complicated. Heaven forgive me but I investigated the topic, speaking to some people, and here's what I have concluced regarding Chassidic women and tznius at least as we see it in Israel.

1. Elegance. They look classy and well put together. There's nothing frumpy about Chassidic dress.
2. The secret is in the skirt. I think everything builds from there. The skirts are always well below the knee. There's no near knee incidents, no need to tug at the skirt nervously to get it to reach the knee. The skirts are not made from clingy material. No lycra type stuff. It's thick cotton or wool and synthetic with a backing material. They are never tight. Usually the color is dark, maybe brown, maybe black.
3. Once the skirt is simple, they have more leeway with the tops, which generally are quite colorful and full of designs like paisley, but always neck to wrists and never tight. Sometimes you get a simple shirt and then the skirt might have a pattern on it.
4. To attain elegance they double up on the tops. They won't just wear a t-shirt. They'll wear a dress shirt with a sweater. Or a pullover with a necklace. Or a blouse with a vest.
5. Hair is either fully covered or a short sheitel with a hat of some kind. The scarves can be quite colorful. With unmarried women the hair is always tied and never too long.
6. No high heels.
7. That's the clothing part. Then there's the conduct which is dignified just as it is with the men. They don't block sidewalks, don't shout down the block, don't raise their voices. Generally, they mind their own business. One gets the sense of inner worlds, more going on inside because there is less noise outside.

The result is something amazing, something holy, and something beautiful. We all can learn from Chassidim.

Now one does not have to be a Chassid to dress this way. One time I was in a park and saw what I figured could only be Chassidic women and then when I saw the father realized they were Charedi yeshivish people. And I'm not saying that Chassidish style is the only way to be tznius. The women in the burkas are even more tznius but their style is not Chassidish. (I know some say that they are not tznius because they draw attention to themselves, but I really don't agree with that. The first time you see it it draws your attention. After a time or two, you don't notice really, and in times of great sin one is permitted to go entirely the other way. And there is precedent for it. See the Mishnah in Shabbos about the quantity of eye makeup that constitutes carrying.) Anyway, the point is that we can all learn something from the Chassidim on this matter and many others.

sparkling new meaning

"Hirsch's seemingly unending resourcefulness and talent for winning understanding and respect for the Torah and its laws through appeals to reason never ceased to amaze his listeners and readers. He left no question unanswered, no riddle unsolved. Religious observances that had struck enlightened people as obscure, absurd, and repulsive, suddenly shed sparkling new meaning on their noblest thoughts and endeavors. An apparently hopeless, arid desert was changed to a flowering garden." Mordechai Breuer, "Modernity Within Tradition," p. 20.

More on the Authenticity of the Zohar -- Rabbi Charedei

Read

Havdallah in shul

Now this is the way to make havdallah in shul.

Havdallah

Letter Addressed to Rav Hirsch

Being sold on ebay.

Read the discussion on validity of the item

Source: http://menachemmendel.net

Lag B'Omer in Bet

Last night I headed into Beit Shemesh Ramat Bet to see how the Chassidim in Israel handle Lag B'Omer. I took the 12 bus deep into Bet by the Boyan Chassidim. And they had a small fire in front of their shul. The men and women stood on different sides. Some were talking in Yiddish, which is always amazing to hear as a living language. But by the time we got there they were putting out the flame as I guess it was time for bed. One mother become concerned when her son took a rake and played a little too long and close to the flames and called him to move away. Overall the people were peaceful. I saw before me a community and family scene.

So I walked on up Yarden and then up Rebbi Yehoshua St. towards another Chassidic group. And they were holding a concert which featured a Chassid with a terrific voice along with a clarinet and a keyboard. Again the men and women were on separate sides. There were a slew of children in the middle, all dressed up and cute as can be. The women were dressed very modestly and elegantly and everyone was quite peaceful.

I headed on to another gathering on Yehuda HaNasi street. The music there was too loud for my taste so I didn't get so close. But again the people seemed peaceful.

Finally, I headed over to Satmar. I'm always curious about Satmar. And they had a small fire upon a tall stand in the middle of Hillel St. They also had a live singer on a platform on top of the building on the East Side of the street. But surrounding the fire was a huge circle of men, hand in hand, rocking back and forth to the music. It was an amazing site, their unity, their slow rhythmic motion, and their beautiful coats and streimels. I watched them a bit and a man turned around and invited me to the circle. He wasn't pushy. It was a pleasant invitation. So I danced with them a while. Then I stepped out and watched some more. I found myself getting entranced by the music and the rocking back and forth, back and forth. Another man turned around and seeing me watching smiled at me and also seemed to invite me to join. I needed to go home at this point but couldn't pull myself away. There was something so holy about the sight. I felt almost drunk watching it and found myself transported back to Eastern Europe to a shtetl in the 19th century. No cell phones. Perfect tznius. Togetherness. Peacefulness.  I believe that the Chassidim are some of the most peaceful people in Israel. How do they do it?

Post Script: It's the next day now and I realize what I saw that made me feel as if I were drunk. I believe it was the shechinah.

New Names New Identity

Yitzhak Shamir was born Yitzhak Yezernitsky

Shimon Peres was born Szymon Perski

Golda Meir was born Golda Mabovitch

David Ben-Gurion was born David Grün

Levi Eshkol was born Levi Shkolnik

Yigal Allon was born Yigal Peikowitz

Yitzhak Ben-Zvi was the son of Zvi Shimshelevich who changed his name to Shimsi

Moshe Sharett was born Moshe Shertok

Why the name changes? Was it part of the excitement of returning to the land and a new identity that came with it? Was it a shaking off of the residue of bad treatment by the gentiles in golus and names, that while Jewish in a way, had gentile origins? Was it part of a complete departure from the past including that of mitzvah observance and traditional Jewish identity?

Simmy Lerner - Parshas Emor

Listen

"For this week's discussion, we will learn a stirring lesson on what it means for a Jew to be free. Why do we count 50 days of Sefirah? Why the phrase "7 full weeks"? And how does Rav Hirsh connect the Sefiras Ha'omer to both Shabbos and Milah?"

Munk's

Golders Green Beth Hamedrash Congregation - Munk's

"The Golders Green Beth Hamedrash (popularly known as Munks or GGBH) is an independent Ashkenazi Orthodox Jewish congregation located in Golders Green, London, United Kingdom. It was founded in 1936 in the King Alfred Shul,^{[clarification needed]} and was located for many years in the Lincoln Institute in Broad Walk Lane. It moved to its present location in The Riding in 1956. It was founded by "Yekkish" Jews (strictly traditional Ashkenazic Jews mainly from Germany), among them the Chover, Henry (Heinrich) Aharon Meir Rosenfelder." (Wikipedia)

Official Site

jewishgen.org page

Newspaper Notice of Rabbi Eli Munk's Passing

I'm not sure but I believe this book was dedicated by the congregation in memory of R' Munk.

This is not the same Eli Munk we know from being a  translator of Torah works.

Klal Yisrael lives only through the family

"Throughout our history we have faced extraordinary dangers against our physical and spiritual existence, from Korach all the way to the Karaim and the Maskilim. But there has never been, in all of history, as dangerous an attack on Klal Yisrael's existence as the one that the feminist movement presents to us today. We have been able to survive heresy and idolatry, but we cannot survive feminism.

"You have to understand that Klal Yisrael was given a Torah only because the women accepted it. If the women had not accepted the Torah first, there is no way that the men could have maintained it. If there will continue to be a bris between Hashem and ourselves, it can only be if the women of Klal Yisrael want the Torah and accept it with enthusiasm, willingness, and desire. And it is not simply because they are the guides and primary teachers of Jewish children; it is a great deal more.

"Klal Yisrael lives only through the family. Those in the secular world somehow manage a little without a family, but we cannot. That is because we require a morality and a value system that goes against that which is prevalent among the population in which we live. And giving our different values, outlooks, and purpose in life requires a family environment; there is no other way by which that can be accomplished."

Rav Yaakov Weinberg talks about chinuch, 42a, pp. 124-5, Targum Press, 2006.

Returning to what once was

Igros Moshe Orach Chaim 4:24

"Behold it is known that all the people of Poland, Hungary, and Russia...are children of Ashkenaz even Chasidim. And until Chasidus spread they all prayed with nusach Ashkenaz. However, the Chasidic leaders lead them to pray in a different nusach with various changes...They changed the customs of their ancestors and our great rabbis of Germany and France. The reason for the change is not clear nor how they permitted a change from the established nusach....If one desires to change back and pray in nusach Ashkenaz, since it is the nusach of our ancestors and rabbis, he is permitted as he is returning to what once was.

Linked Article: First Hebrew-German Prayer Book in 100 Years Printed on Holocaust Remembrance Day (https://www.breakingisraelnews.com)

"For the first time in over a century, a one-volume Orthodox Jewish prayer book (siddur– סדור in Hebrew) has been printed in Germany. This siddur includes all of the daily and holiday prayers along with a contemporary German translation, explanations of the prayers and Jewish instructions for proper prayer. The siddur was intentionally launched in time for Holocaust Remembrance Day, April 24."

Read more here

Guest Post: The Distinctive Character and Importance of Minhag Ashkneaz

by Rabbi Tzvi Avraham

In the West, there are basically two styles of worship: high church and low church. High church emphasizes ritual, continuity with tradition, and  decorum.  Low church acquires its character from its  concern with religious feeling, which it promotes and expresses in various ways. Neither is better than the other:  these are not value laden terms, and, at the extremes of the spectrum, both can fall into serious shortcomings:  high church worship into spiritual aridity, low church worship into antinomianism that considers religious feeling reason enough to suspend the rules.  “High church” and “low church” are  useful terms because they suggest a simple, polar typology.  A typology always oversimplifies, but in its simplicity it helps us see through complexity to basic distinctions.   In Judaism, Yekkishe davening belongs to the “high church” type,” Chassidic davening in its early days to the “low church” type.

The Jewish paradigm for “high church” worship is the Temple service,  where the service of G-d lies in performing Divine commandments.   As Divine commandments, they are as fundamental as the laws of physics, for  like the laws of physics, they govern the order of creation, but they govern it as it serves the spiritual purpose for which it was created: the Jewish people and their service of G-d.  Keeping those laws inspires the kohen who believes in them.  The more profoundly he believes and understands them, the more profoundly his spirit conforms to them, the more deeply they take hold of him and lift him above the physical plane into knowledge, fear and love of G-d.  

The Temple service is centered in fulfilling the Law.  When that Law prescribes a time limit, for example,  there is no place for delay in favor of spiritual inspiration or devotional preliminaries because, in the high church paradigm, devotion  begins with reverence for Divine Law.  That reverence is what empowers obedience to lift the spirit to G-d. It is unthinkable that a Kohen would compromise his obedience to the Law  to express his religious devotion, because that devotion is anchored in reverent submission the Law that is  more meaningful and more compelling than any impulse to disobey the Law in favor of religious self-expression.  The Yekkishe concern for conducting things as law and custom prescribe, and the Yekkishe character that subordinates feeling to practice  suggests that the way the Yekkes worship is inspired by the Temple service, that, for them, the synagogue is truly a mikdosh m’at.

I see that symbolized in the way that  a Menorah is placed in front of the Aaron Kodesh in Breuer’s (Washington Heights) and in the synagogue of Machon Moreshet Ashkenaz in Bnei Brak. It is as though, when we enter the synagogue, we step into the Heichal of the Temple. The Lechem Haponim and the Mizbeach Hazahav are missing because the mitzvos that pertain to them can no longer be fulfilled. But the mitzvah of learning Torah and observing the commandment it teaches, and the mitzvah of lighting the Menorah,  still apply.  The minhag of placing the menorah near the Aron Kodesh  declares:  “You have entered a mikdosh m’at!”

Chassidism began as a kind of Jewish “low church,” indeed, as an extreme version of it:  the  antinomianism of the early Chassidim turned many Gadolim against the movement.  But in the course of time, things straightened out, and surely, no one would say today that Chassidim are lax in keeping the mitzvos. On the contrary, no one demonstrates more concern to keep the mitzvos than the Chassidim. But the antinomian origins of the Chassidic movement help explain the way Chassidim worship and the changes that the Chassidic masters introduced into the Siddur.  Not all Chassidim jump, clap, or wave their hands while davening, but it was once the signature of Chassidic synagogue; and it would seem that is was an antinomian impulse that drove the Chassidic movement to take the radical step that defied Law and tradition when the universal nusach of European Jewry was changed to create what is called Nusach Sephard.

Minhag Ashkenaz contrasts with the Litvisha yeshiva world in different way. After the forced migration  and dispersion of Jewish communities caused by war and social change, local traditions no longer served to govern Jewish practice. Halachic standards once established by tradition now had to be formulated by scholars. But the standards of practice they prescribe arise out of an effort to resolve the practices of different communities, anchored in their local poskim and traditions, into a universal standard of practice that, insofar as possible, takes them all into consideration. The result:  we no longer do things because “That’s the way my father did it,” but because “That’s what it says in the  Mishnah Brurah,” and not infrequently we are told to conduct ourselves in a way that satisfies all the shitos while, paradoxically, doing things in a way that it is not actually prescribed by any one of them, in a way that neither expresses or ever formed the religious devotion of a Jewish community!     The certainty and simplicity of traditional observance is replaced by piskei din that arise out of a forum in which one opinion is almost always contradicted by another, and then, what’s considered right today may be deemed inadequate tomorrow because of a new chumra.  The result is that practice loses its “magic” for a different reason:  the heart gives its all only to that which is certain. When there is doubt, or when authority is compromised by being subject to refutation, the heart holds back and the emotional/religious satisfaction in keeping the law is diminished.

Consider, for example, the psok  pertaining to wearing tefillin on Chol Hamoed.  The Sephardim have a clear tradition that goes back hundreds of years:  they don’t put on tefillin.  German Jews also have a clear tradition.  Minhag Ashkenaz prescribes putting on tefillin as usual, blessings and all.  But those who have no tradition and rely on the guidance of poskim are left in doubt.  The Mishnah Brurah  (אורח חיים לב:ב) writes that it is not clear whether the mitzvah of wearing tefillin  applies on Chol Hamoed. Therefore, they should be worn in a way that expresses our doubt. No blessing should be recited, and when tefillin are put on, they  should be put with the following intention: if I am obligated to wear tefillin on Chol Hamoed, I do so to fulfill the mitzvah, but  if not, then I am not putting them on to fulfill the mitzvah. “This satisfies the opinions of all the poskim” [those who say that that the mitzvah applies on Chol Hamoed and those who say it doesn’t].  The psok of the Mishnah Brurah is based on doubt and prescribes a practice that expresses doubt. Perhaps, in the absence of an authoritative tradition, there’s no alternative.  But can a person who is not sure that G-d desires what he is doing put on tefillin with deep intention and heartfelt devotion?  The simple faith that draws the heart into the deeds of the hand is complicated by doubts and distinctions that, however easy to understand,  are hard for the heart to handle. The mind can manage doubt, but the heart is overcome and stifled.  Indeed, the Mishnah Brurah concludes his discussion saying that those who have a tradition of putting on tefillin [with a blessing] should not change their practice. Tradition is not required to defer to other opinions. Tradition trumps all the doubts that complicate the halachic guidance of the poskim. Tradition sustains the certainty which is the precondition to the whole-hearted practice of the commandments.    Moreover, although the practice which the Mishnah Brurah prescribes “satisfies the opinions of all the poskim because even those who hold that the mitzvah of tefillin does not apply on Chol Hamoed  would agree that a person who does not put on tefillin with the intention of fulfilling a mitzvah does not violate the prohibition of בל תוסיף, the practice that the Mishnah Brurah prescribes to satisfy all the shitos  was not prescribed by any one of them!  This is a second way in which, with the loss of tradition, the continuity of Jewish observance is broken.  

Tradition bespeaks the consent of the gedolim of times past who approved it, as well as the collective wisdom of the Jewish people who sustained it. An ancient tradition has proven itself to be the external form of Jewish love and fear of G-d, for if it were not, it wouldn’t have lasted.  Religious practice that is obedient to  scholarship  and argument is qualitatively different from religious practice that is dictated by the way Jews have worshipped for hundreds and hundreds of years.
So it seems to me that besides the intrinsic value of minhag Ashkenaz,  returning to tradition is important in its own right, because it enables a Jew to say: “Whatever the discussion in the later poskim and whatever their doubts, I have my authoritative tradition and I can rely on it to teach me what Hashem wants me to do. I have no doubts, and every assurance, that I am doing things as G-d wants them done, as they were always done and always will be done, at least by those who share my authoritative tradition. Tradition restores the certainty that empowers the practice of the commandments to carry the heart to G-d.

מורשה

"The Teaching which Moses commanded us" so runs the national creed which is to be the heritage of Israel from generation to generation. It is this Torah which is מורשה, the real inherited estate, not the Land and what if offers, the Teaching is the national Jewish heritage, land, and power are only the conditional consequences of this treasure.

Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, Commentary on Devarim 33:4