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Instead of the convention that Agudath Israel has held for many years at this time of year, the Agudah will have "Action Days" in which gedolim and others will come together to discuss important topics.
The program is...
HaRav Moshe Hillel Hirsch delivered a special address:
With the permission of our great master, with permission of the rabbonim, roshei yeshivos and this holy audience:
We read in the Torah today about the disagreement of opinion between Yitzchok and Rivka regarding the parental blessings — whether they be granted to Yaakov or to Eisov.
The commentators explain this as follows: What did Yitzchok have in mind? He surely knew that Yaakov was the deserving one but he wanted to include Eisov in the picture as well, envisioning a kind of partnership. He wanted all of Yaakov's descendants to be immersed in Torah, mitzvos and holiness, the possibility of which would be provided by Eisov through a division of responsibilities.
Bnei Brak is making history: in the coming year, one of the largest, most impressive municipal parks in Israel will be established in the outskirts of Bnei Brak. The huge expanse will cost over 140 million shekel and spread across 320 dunam (80 acres). This constitutes a rare municipal venture, the first of its kind in a chareidi city, providing its residents with a wide range of attractions never yet seen in this sector of population.
This park, being built by the municipal commercial company of Bnei Brak, will incorporate a huge amphitheater seating 15,000 participants for communal events, presentations, rallies and municipal events which were not possible in the past in this congested city. Featured as well is a rope-scaling attraction ...
We cannot overlook Netanyahu's trial which is being prolonged ad infinitum, and where each passing day unearths more disgusting tricks of the prosecution.
In these days, the inquiry is Case 4000, the most severe one since it includes a charge of bribery. This charge is the only serious one in all the cases since the rest are only vague misdemeanors. Furthermore, months ago after earlier revelations of prosecutorial misconduct, the judges advised the prosecution to drop this charge, but it stubbornly refuses since without this allegation there is nothing serious to charge Netanyahu.
The basis of the accusation of bribery is a meeting in which Netanyahu supposedly gave guidelines to the then Director-General of the Communication Ministry, Shlomo Filber, who was supposed to serve as State witness against Netanyahu. He was alleged to have told Filber to make a favorable ruling about Bezeq, which was owned by Alowitz, in return for receiving an advantageous coverage in the media he owned.
This is an original claim in the prosecution of Netanyahu since every politician who ever lived tries to get favorable press coverage. ...
Part II
The first part told of R' Rosenberger's early life in Europe and how he wound up in America and began to become interested in shatnez.
R' Rosenberger married his wife, Miriam, a fellow refugee, in 1945, and moved to his own flat in Williamsburg. The laboratory went with him and occupied the front room of his home. A few years later, he moved to his final home at 203 Lee Avenue, and this became the laboratory's headquarters for the following 50 years until Rosenberger finished his stint on earth.
His wife gladly joined him in his endeavor, and with the time she became part of the shatnez checking team. She undertook much of the tedious work involved in shatnez checking — opening up collars and labels, replacing the backing, stitching them back — while Rosenberger focused on the search for forbidden thread mixtures in Jewish garments.
From the beginning, Rosenberger sought endorsements from the entire spectrum of religious Jewry. He accomplished the near impossible of having a Kol Koreh published with signatures from the Mizrachi, PAI, Young Israel, Shomer Hadati and Aguda organizations, as well as every Litvish and Chassidishe group known in the U.S., including Satmar, Lubavitch, Belz and more.
Although the trickle of people who were observing shatnez was slowly increasing, shatnez was far from being considered of the same importance as kashrus and Shabbos. For shatnez testing to filter into the consciousness of every religious Jew, Rosenberger felt that he had to reach the youth who were being educated in the Jewish day schools and yeshivas.
Beginning in 1945 and continuing on well into the 1970's, Rosenberger visited classes from third grade and up to spread the message that one of the Torah's mitzvos was alive and well.
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Opinion & Comment
Part II
To Rationalize Hedonism
"The novol said in his heart, `There is no Elokim.'" (Tehillim 14:1) We need to understand the connection between the term novol, whose plain meaning is a hedonist, someone full of worldly desires and the thoughts of heresy and denial, which the posuk attributes to the Novol.
Rav Saadiah Gaon explains that heresy stems from corrupt character traits. There is a simple explanation for this: How is it possible for a person who views creation, with all its wonders and its amazing order, possibly able to say, "There is no Elokim"?
Only if he is corrupted by the evil trait of rejecting any yoke will he try to argue thus.
We can understand this better through a story which involved Reb Chaim of Brisk ztvk'l. Reb Chaim had a talmid who fell under the influence of the maskilim, members of the so-called enlightenment, which corrupted an entire generation R'l. The standard of the talmid's behavior began to drop, to the point where he visited his friends in Berlin and joined them in chilul Shabbosand other aveiros, R'l.
Later, as he was passing through Brisk one day, the talmid, who was extremely gifted, called upon Reb Chaim. "Where have you come from?" his rebbe asked him, "And how did you come to sink so low?"
"Rebbe," the bochur began, "I have questions regarding religion . . . "
"First," said Reb Chaim, "There's something I want to ask you, and answer me truthfully." The bochur agreed and Reb Chaim continued. "When did these questions present themselves to you, before you started being mechalel Shabbos or afterwards?"
The talmid replied, "After I started sinning . . . "
"If so," Reb Chaim told him, "then your conscience must have troubled you after you sinned and in order to calm it, you produced these questions. That means that they are not questions but answers to your own conscience. And how do you expect there to be answers to answers?"
Wonderful! This explains the matter of Novol. He wanted to indulge his desires but his conscience bothered him, so he denied Hashem's existence. When he wanted to sin and his yetzer hatov told him that he would receive punishment in Gehennom, he rationalized his conduct by arguing that he is a heretic anyway, and he said "There is no Elokim!"
This is what Chazal meant when they said that reshoim are controlled by their hearts.
Opinion & Comment
"'The one with whom you find your gods will not live' -- and from that curse, Rochel died along the way (Rashi, in the name of the Midrash)."
Chazal state that a curse that issues forth from the mouth of a sage will not fall flat; it will not be without effect. Even if it is said conditionally, to begin with, and that condition is not realized -- it will still have an impact.
The list of examples related in Tanach is a long one. One involves the warning Eli gave to Shmuel not to withhold the difficult prophecy he had heard regarding him -- that his children would die in his lifetime. If he did, the sentence would revert to Shmuel's own `head.' Shmuel did not conceal it; he revealed the prophetic decree he had heard to Eli, but nonetheless, due to this Shmuel suffered: his sons turned out to be improper (Rashi, Shmuel 3).
It was the same when underground waters were gushing up and could not be stemmed, thus threatening the world with another flood. Dovid warned that whoever had wise council and did not reveal it, would die of suffocation. Achitofel heard it and told Dovid what to do. Years later, we learn that he gave his last will and testament -- and died from choking. From here we learn that the curse of a sage comes true, even if the conditions do not apply, that is, even if everything was done according to the sage's own request (Makkos 11)!
This is also what happened to Yehuda, who declared, "If I do not bring him back to you, I will have sinned -- I will be ostracized." But he did bring Binyomin back alive. Nevertheless, his bones were subject to this niddui for a long time (see: Bovo Kama 92 and Rashi there). And the list goes on.
The question arises why this is so? From where is derived the tremendous latent power inherent in the speech that emits from the mouth of a Torah sage? A power that strikes and hits, come what may.
This question, however, stems from a double error. A misjudgment in the estimation of the power of speech, and an error in estimating the power of a single word.
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