Litvish Judaism has taken over everywhere. Few are themselves anymore. Up in Breuer’s in Washington Heights, you see only a trace of the old Yekke sensibility. Sure, they are punctual. Sure, the synagogue is orderly. But the boys all go off to Lakewood. Rav Schwab himself, though Frankfurt born, went off to the Mir and came back talking about learning, learning, learning. He commented on baalei teshuvah how they start in goyish clothing, talking about goyish things, and then you hear them all excited about Torah study, by which he means Gemara lomdus.
What about mitzvos? What about Hashem?
And then there’s the Sephardim. I used to visit a Sephardish beis keneses in Flatbush. They were more inviting than Litvacks, but they sure looked like them in their black suits. Yes, they still kiss the chocham’s hand. But they talk like Litvacks. Torah, Torah, Torah. I asked about this. Torah is gold, mitzvos but silver, said the rabbi smugly. I have a Sephardish acquaintance who tries to maintain Sephardish identity. He used to daven at the bi-weekly Shabbos only Sephardish minyan in Passaic. But you meet him on the street. He’s staiging in the meshecta. That’s all he talks about.
What about mitzvos? What about Hashem?
Chassidim too. I walked around a Boyan shul in Kiryat Sefer. I walked around the Beis Midrash of Vishnitz Monsey in Beit Shemesh. Gemara and Mishneh Berurah are all I saw in any hand, on any desk. Yes, they are warmer. Anybody but a Russian goy is warmer than a Litvack. But all they know is Gemara. Maybe they are not quite as caught up in the Brisker lomdis, at least not in Satmar. But it’s Torah, Torah, Torah, which means Yeshivisheh mesechtas and lomdus.
What about mitzvos? What about Hashem?
As for the Litvacks, we all know about them. You go to a yeshiva dinner and hear about one thing, and it’s not God. It’s not mitzvos. You watch a video for a baal teshuva school. You hear about one thing. Yesterday, they were smoking on Shabbos. And today? They are learning Gemara. Wait, what about Shabbos? Oh, they don’t talk about that. They are so excited about their learning. You read an article about a deceased rav. It might very well be called “Nothing Else Mattered.” I have seen a few like that recently. He learned, learned, learned, and he had good middos too, allegedly. Nothing mattered to him but his learning.
What about mitzvos? What about Hashem?
Dovid the King said:
הַֽלְלוּיָ֨הּ
| אַשְׁרֵי־אִ֖ישׁ יָרֵ֣א אֶת־יְהֹוָ֑ה בְּ֜מִצְוֹתָ֗יו חָפֵ֥ץ מְאֹֽד:
Hallelujah. Praiseworthy is the man who fears the
Lord, who greatly desires His commandments. (Tehillim 112:1)
I will pursue with delight Thy commandments which I have come to love. (Tehillim 119:47)
Shlomo the king and wisest man said:
The end of the matter, everything having been
heard, fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the entire man. (Koheles
12:13)
My son, forget not My instruction, and may your heart keep My commandments for they shall add length of days and years of life and peace to you. (Misheli 3:1)
Sounds like a different religion from what the Litvacks do. But what about the Vilna Gaon, their champion? He said:
All God’s service is dependent upon the improvement of one’s character…The prime purpose of man’s life is to constantly strive to break his bad traits. Otherwise, what is life for? (Even Shelaimah 1:1-2)
The purpose of Torah is mitzvos, just as the purpose of a tree is its fruit. (Even Shelaimah)
So what do they do with that? Well, we have to go by today’s gadolim they’ll say. Now, that’s going to be a problem if their leaders have strayed from the basic principles. Say you lived in the Northern Kingdom as they engaged in idol worship, can you hear someone saying, doesn’t matter if the Chumash would call this idolatry, our gadolim say to do it.
But Rav Soloveitchik said that the main thing is doing, not learning, the learning brings you to do. The Lubavitcher Rebbe talked endlessly about the goal being to create a dwelling place down here for Hashem and that requires doing.
No wonder the Litvacks were so vicious towards them. You can hear the hiss, they sound like angry snakes. Somebody is messing up their little plan.
Doesn’t that make sense, in the end of days, that even the Torah Jews would be off the mark? So it would go, that the group that is dominating everybody is preaching a false Judaism, one that takes us from Hashem? The world is drenched in sheker, right? So us too.
The Litvacks love to say that they have all the talmidei chochamim. This is so false. There are great scholars in every group. But if it were true, and if they have more, that’s in part because they have hijacked the people from the other groups. It’s like America attracting great scientists born in India and Greece. They are not American. Moshe Feinstein came from Chassidic stock. So did the Steipler and Rav Chaim Kaniefsky and Rav Ruderman. And the others? Could be sitra achra giving them a certain kind of success. I learned to talk like that from them. I have heard it said about Chabad and YU.
Like America, the Litvacks took over. Does that make America good? We know it’s all going to collapse, that it’s fake money at this point. America is the world's primary source of immorality and violence. Wasn't always like that and the Litvacks weren't always like this. They changed.
Say what you want. I’m going with Dovid and Solomon. We seek Hashem and mitzvos, which includes Torah. Our engagement in both is dependent on Torah. Torah is central, but it’s not the most important thing. Hashem and mitzvos are the main thing.
Start with that and see who honors it.