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This Google Custom Search looks only in this website. (Two Letters) Holy Letter of HaRav Chaim and HaRav Gershon
To my brothers and friends, dear Bnei Torah: Greetings and Blessings.
With the approach of the bein hazmanim, we must bear in mind what Chazal said in Pirkei Avos (3:5), "Whoever shoulders upon himself the yoke of Torah is exempted from the yoke of the government and of parnossa, and whoever shuns it etc." The present situation calls for us to increase merits since a grave danger hovers over the continued survival of the very foundations of our sacred Torah in Eretz Yisroel. Without the merit of Torah, who knows what will be? When there are fewer immersed in Torah study, that merit is lacking for the entire Klal.
Dr. Irving (Shmuel) Lebovics is in Israel at the head of a delegation of Am Echad, sent to lobby the new government of Israel about American Jewry. He sat for an interview with Yated Ne'eman in Jerusalem.
Dr. Lebovics says:
It seems that many in Israel think that the Diaspora Jews are overwhelmingly Reform and Conservative. In expressing concern about relationships with "Diaspora Jewry" the assumption is always that they are the Reform and Conservative with their well-known biases.
First of all, according to a recent study conducted by the Pew Foundation, only 54% of American Jews identify themselves with the Reform or Conservative movements, and the vast majority of them are aged 50 and over. In actuality, only 20% of American Jews belong to a Temple of any of the above. The Reform movement itself claims to have 1.5 million members while the Conservative boasts 600,000 members.
R' Shmuel notes that these figures do not reflect the true situation in America. The facts are distorted and do not properly represent the huge Orthodox public in the country. Since this survey was conducted through email and not by phone, as in the past, it did not reach the majority of the Orthodox public and therefore, failed to represent it properly.
This past Monday, 3 Av, July 12, was a truly special day at Camp Agudah since on that day that the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah held a meeting there on their site at Liberty, New York in the mountains.
This essay was originally published in 1995.
Yet Another Tisha B'Av
It was the night of Tisha B'Av a couple of years ago. Thousands of Yidden were assembled in Kikar Shabbos — the intersection between Geula and Meah Shearim in Yerushalayim. Annually on the night of Tisha B'Av, droshos used to take place at this venue, lamenting the churban of the Beis Hamikdash and the desecration of Jewish graves that continues, and exhorting the participants to rectify those sins which had caused the destruction then, and are blocking its reconstruction today.
The famous maggid Rav Yaakov Galinsky began his speech with the timely words of the novi Yirmiyahu (Chapter 8:20): "Ovar kotzir, coloh kayitz, ve'adaiyen lo noshonu" — The harvest season has passed, the summer has finished, and our salvation has still not arrived." His sweet voice and unique maggid-niggun blended together with the stillness of the night to make a deep impression on his audience. "Who would have believed a year ago, that this year we would be assembled here yet again on Tisha B'Av!" cried Reb Yaakov.
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