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This Google Custom Search looks only in this website. Kovod and Friendship in Sefirah — Remarks of HaRav Yehoshua Eichenstein shlita
The very fact that Rabbi Akiva's disciples did not accord due respect to one another, says the Rosh Yeshiva of Yad Aharon, HaRav Yehoshua Eichenstein, encompasses two aspects. One of them is their lack of showing honor to the Torah, as the Maharsho writes - that they did not feel reverence for their fellow talmid's Torah acquisition, for there is no esteem outside of that for Torah. Additionally, they lacked proper respect for their fellow students per se.
This can be explained by noting that a person possesses two forms of strength: one positive and the other, negative. The positive one is the ability of a person to see the good in another and what he can add to him. The opposite one is to belittle another and downgrade him.
A person should augment the good side by honoring his fellow and certainly not by making fun and disparaging him. When two scholars sit together in study, each one listening avidly to what the other says, it demonstrates that they hold one another in high esteem, employing their positive strength. The fact that Rabbi Akiva's disciples did not do so, it shows their lack in respect for Torah itself.
The research arm of the organization Ad Kan has found out that the funds that support the anti-Israel demonstrations on college campuses across America, also support the prominent radical Left groups in Israel including Shover Shtika, Adallah, Gisha, Yesh Din and Akeivot.
The organization also found that prominent members of the Democratic party in America, including senior advisers and even US president Joe Biden, also are recipients of financial support.
Funds that supported these demonstrations and sometimes illegal activities that include support for Hamas terror and calls for Jewish genocide, include Tides, the Rockefeller Foundation and even the Libra Foundation of the Pritzker family.
Some examples...
"These are extremely difficult times. The physical situation in Eretz Yisroel was never as critical. The plan [of Hamas] on Simchas Torah was to seize all of Israel. They also have a detailed design to go join Iran and we cannot help but feel a situation of danger."
These were the words of HaRav Moshe Hillel Hirsch to the Zvhil delegation of chassidim, headed by the Admor himself, which visited him this past Motzei Shabbos to hear his message regarding our obligation at such a time.
Rav Wolff Rosengarten Speaks to Yated Ne'eman about his friend and colleague HaRav Moshe Soloveitchik zt'l, in honor of his first yahrtzeit. He was niftar 19 Iyar, 5755. This was first published in 5756 (1996).
Introduction
Rav Wolff Rosengarten is a highly esteemed talmid chochom and a pillar of the Jewish community in Zurich. In his youth, he both witnessed and participated in the world of the European yeshivos. Before the war he learned in the yeshivos of Montreux, Telz (where he was one of the outstanding talmidim of the gaon HaRav Avrohom Yitzchok Bloch) and Kamenetz. He was also close to Reb Chaim Ozer Grodzensky.
During the war years, he was very active in rescue work. One of his achievements was the procurement of a passport for HaRav Elchonon Wassermann zt'l. The passport was unfortunately impounded by the Swiss authorities, in whose archives it remains to this day.
Rav Rosengarten first met HaRav Moshe Soloveitchik zt'l during the war and ever since then, their paths were closely intertwined. Rav Rosengarten was one of the leading members of the board of the yeshiva which Rav Soloveitchik opened in Lucerne and he has been a staunch supporter of the yeshiva for many years.
The Israel media is ever ready to point, unmistakably, a finger at who is to blame for the unending drag in the Hamas negotiations.
The American Secretary of State who visited a week ago knew well enough who was to blame: Hamas itself. Blinken, who is very critical of Israeli procedures, apparently knows better than others, what is going on behind the negotiation doors. And if he reproached Hamas for the stalemate, he probably knows more than a thing or two better than others.
His statement did not prevent Israeli media from finding a different scapegoat for this non-ending holdup. What, or who else than Binyamin Netanyahu? He is to blame for everything.
And one can even add: of course. So many columnists, on their own, suffused with the antiquated conception that the more one gives in to Hamas, the quicker will peace reign. Here is what one veteran newspaper man writes: "The obstinacy of the prime minister Netanyahu not to come to a political agreement and transfer Gaza sovereignty independently is understood by many in the world at large as a designed resolution that Israel intends to reestablish the settlements that were banished from Gaza — and oust the Palestinians living there."
And if you did not savvy this, he goes on to write, "In the interviews given by Professor Davidai at Colombia University, he said that in his opinion, this is the first occasion since the times of Nazi Germany where a Jewish lecturer is denied entry to his workplace. But in the era of Nazi Germany, there was a persecuted minority which was sent to the incinerators, without a backing of a country or army. Today, an Israeli professor is termed as representing the established Jewish State which erred and stumbled, leaving no signs that the government intends to right the situation. For this reason, it behooves that we protect it."
If you have failed to understand, allow me to explain...
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Outstanding Articles From Our Archives
IN-DEPTH FEATURES
by Rabbi Refael Berelson
Part I
The Chofetz Chaim's Advice
When Reb Abba was six years old the Chofetz Chaim visited Lodz for a meeting. Crowds turned out to catch a glimpse of the aged gaon.
Rav Shaul Yosef arrived accompanied by his young son, whom he wanted his rebbe to test in learning. The Chofetz Chaim questioned the boy on the gemora and Tosafos at the beginning of perek Hamafkid, where dovor shelo bo le'olom is discussed. He was very impressed by the child's knowledge and understanding and instructed his father not to let word of the youngster's abilities become public for it would have a harmful effect. He then added, "Even the Vilna Gaon could have become greater had he not become publicly known while he was young."
We Have Abba Lodzer!
IN-DEPTH FEATURES
by Refoel Gartner
Correspondence from the period leading up to the closure of Volozhin yeshiva that lay in the State Archives in Minsk for a hundred and ten years but published a few years ago in Toldos Beis Hashem BeVolozhin, a book chronicling the history of the first and greatest of the Eastern European yeshivos.
Volozhin was the premier yeshiva of its day for many years, and the flagship of Torah Judaism, as it were. There was a struggle for the Jewish soul going on, and the prestigious Yeshiva was one of the main targets of the self-described "enlightened ones."
The letters afford a glimpse of the obsession with closing the yeshiva that gripped the maskilim. All means were fair to achieve their end, including denouncements and slanders as well as the accusation that the bochurim were dodging army service. The more things change . . .
We have slightly edited some of the documents, omitting out some of the stronger terms that the writers applied to the rabbonim of the yeshiva. (We have put in "***" where we have omitted these.) On the other hand, in the interests of authenticity, no honorary titles have been inserted, as the original letter writers certainly did not use them.
Letter #1: November 23rd 1891
Signatories: Twenty members of the Volozhin Yeshiva.
To: Mr. Steinberg, City of Vilna
Honored rabbi and chossid, respected linguist, morenu HaRav Yehoshua Steinberg! and rabbi and chossid morenu HaRav Feivel (? . . .) !
We write to Your Honors with a heavy heart and a groaning soul. Woe! Great troubles have befallen us, one disaster after another, one catastrophe after another . . .
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