Modern Yeshivish

Recently, I was studying the shiurim listing at a shul. Every class was Gemara except for one short ein Yaakov class. Nobody needs to study the topic of emunah? Now there's emunah in the Gemara but from experience I can tell you that the shiurim weren't studying those parts. And what about halacha? This was a shul for baalei batim. They all know the halacha they need? No way.

Who is leading these people? What has happened to the rabbinate? Are they completely out of touch with reality? Many of them live in a bubble, in their own little world.

I spent some time recently with a Litvish rabbi .When I say Litvish I don't mean true Litvish. I mean American/israeli contemporary yeshivish. We need a new word for it really as they aren't Litvish anymore. Americanish? Israeli-ish? Modern yeshivish? Traife?

He never mentioned Hashem ever. Everything was for Torah and by Torah he meant intellectual gymnastics in the Gemara. The guy never talked hashkafa.

One day he went to give a drosho to baalei batim. I was encouraged by the hope that he'd talk about bitachon finally. And the subject, the importance of Torah study. That's a drosho to a Modern yeshivish rabbi. It tells you that Modern yeshivish Gemara has become a god in itself, a false one.

Who Was Barry Gourary?

Who Was Barry Gourary?

Concern for Humanity in Lubavitch

The Backstory of the Chassidim Who Got Criminal Justice Reform Done

Inspired by the Lubavitcher Rebbe, a group saw prison reform through from proposal to law

By Dovid MargolinDecember 27, 2018 3:05 PM

“If a person is being held in prison, the goal should not be punishment but rather to give him the chance to reflect on the undesirable actions for which he was incarcerated,” the Rebbe said in Yiddish in a 1976 talk. “He should be given the opportunity to earn, improve himself and prepare for his release when he will commence an honest, peaceful, new life, having used his days in prison toward this end.

“In order for this be a reality a prisoner must be allowed to maintain a sense that he is created in the image of God; he is a human being who can be a reflection of Godliness in this world. But when a prisoner is denied this sense and feels subjugated and controlled; never allowed to raise up his head, then the prison system not only fails at its purpose, it creates in him a greater criminal than there was before. One of the goals of the prison system is to help Jewish inmates and non-Jewish inmates ... to raise up their spirits and to encourage them, providing the sense, to the degree possible, that they are just as human as those that are free; just as human as the prison guards. In this way they can be empowered to improve themselves ... ”

Hayom Yom: Tackling Life's Tasks - 24 Teves

from Chabad.org

[This date is the anniversary of] the passing of the Alter Rebbe in the village of Piena, on Motzaei Shabbos, Parshas Shmos, 5573 (1812). His resting place is in the township of Haditch.

My revered grandfather, the Rebbe [Maharash], once asked [his father,] the Tzemach Tzedek: “What did our zeide1 want to achieve with the ways of Chassidus2 and [through the study of] Chassidus?”

The Tzemach Tzedek answered: “[The goal of] the ways of Chassidus is that all chassidim should be like one family, [united] in love according to the Torah. Chassidus is vitality, bringing energy and light into everything, even into those things that are undesirable. We should recognize our own evil as it is, so that we can correct it.”3

A Mini-Farbrengen

The last lines of the above teaching summarize a dialogue between the Tzemach Tzedek and the Rebbe Maharash. After the Tzemach Tzedek said that “Chassidus is vitality, bringing energy and light into everything,” the Rebbe Maharash asked him: “Even into undesirable matters?”

The Tzemach Tzedek answered: “Yes, we must illuminate even evil,” and then continued as quoted: “We should recognize….”

With this approach, the Tzemach Tzedek shed light on the Chabad approach to confronting and refining one’s own negative traits.

It is related that the saintly disciples of the Maggid of Mezritch embodied three different approaches when confronted by the evil in others. One approach was personified by R. Zusya of Hanipoli, who simply never saw wickedness in a fellow Jew. No matter how bad the person was, R. Zusya saw only the good in him.

Another approach was personified by R. Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev, who could see the evil in a fellow Jew, but would never accept it. He would pray for him until G‑d washed the evil away.

The third approach was personified by the Alter Rebbe. He would see the evil in others, yet despite the unpleasantness of dealing with such traits, he would face those people and talk to them about their problems. Thus, he taught them a path of Divine service that enabled them to correct their difficulties themselves.

A similar concept applies to facing the evil within ourselves. Only after we confront ourselves and look at ourselves honestly can we correct our faults. This approach also relates to the above-quoted call by the Tzemach Tzedek for unity among chassidim, for the work of self-refinement is easiest when we are part of a community whose members relate to each other lovingly — as within a family — and actively support each other’s strivings toward personal growth.

6th Rebbe

6th Rebbe - the Destiny Foundation

"In New York he faced a new threat: a largely apathetic Jewish world. He said, “America is no different” and that even in such a materialistic country, the Torah could take root and flourish. He established yeshivas, day schools, youth clubs, publishing house for Jewish books and social services. Hundreds of people turned out to hear his public lectures. He targeted America as a whole, sending out small groups of highly trained rabbis to teach Torah across the nation – a method used by Chabad today.

"In 1948 the Rebbe founded Kfar Chabad near Tel Aviv, Israel. Today it is a community of 400 Chabad families.

"He passed away in 1950. In his seventy years, he personally stood up to and confronted three major threats to Orthodox Jewish life: Tsarist Russia with its pogroms, Communism and its war against religion and assimilation in the melting pot of America.

"Rabbi Schneerson initiated a worldwide movement to bring Jews back to their religious heritage and observance. He was devoted to helping resettle Jewish refugees after WWII. He published hundreds of commentaries, articles and essays. He also kept a diary documenting the history of Chabad-Lubavitch Chassidism.

"The Rebbe had no sons. Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, his son-in-law, became his successor.

"The seeds the Rebbe planted are visible today all over Russia. When he left in 1929, his underground infrastructure of Jewish life continued, spreading the teachings of Torah and Chassidism.

"Today, there are hundreds of synagogues, Jewish schools and mikvaot that the Rebbe himself had built. When the USSR collapsed in 1991, they emerged from the cellars and attics into vacant Communist Party buildings. The Communist plan to destroy the Jewish religion had not succeeded, mainly due to the valiant efforts of Rabbi Yosef Yitzhak Schneerson."

Tears and Action

After Yosef revealed himself to his brothers, he fell on Benyamin's neck and wept  and Benyamin fell on his neck and wept. Rashi tells us the tears were future oriented. They were tears for the destruction the Temple, built in the tribal area of Benyamin, and Shiloh, built in the area of Yosef. Why the neck? The Temple is like a neck that connects something higher, the head, to something lower. Why crying for the other? Because tears may be cathartic but what we need most is action. We must build anew, tapping into our potential. But when it comes to another person, or group, each of us can offer advice, encouragement, but ultimately the action is in the hands of the other. So we weep. 

7th Lubavitcher Rebbe on Vayigash

Rabbi Nissan Mangel

Rabbi Nissan Mangel