Month: December 2013

Twisting, turning, Askonim using Gedolay Yisrael

The following made the rounds. Of course, most reported them irresponsibility and with the usual anti Jewish venom. Some salient points.

  1. This is not a letter from R’ Chaim Kanievsky
  2. It is from a Charedi organisation that sets itself up to “purify” communication. It  has an agenda, and will never tell you about a Rav who has no problem with proper use of an iPhone
  3. There is a footnote which is their own fodder for the masses and can be misread to be the words of R’ Kanievsky.
  4. Even if this is true, R’ Kanievsky isn’t making decisions for you and I. A Rav paskens (if he did indeed pasken) for the people in front of him. Frankly, those people aren’t looking for a Psak at all. They are simply look for another bazooka to hold at people’s heads
  5. Anyone who extends the use of such a letter to the “conclusion” that wedding witnesses or mikvah ladies who use iPhones are Pasul even B’Dieved, doesn’t need a Rabbi; they need therapy
  6. There are plenty of Av Beis Din’s around the world who use smartphones.
  7. This has nothing to do with phones, it’s all about the improper use of the internet. Who has an argument with improper usage? My iPhone contains more Shiurim than I have time to listen to.
  8. Of course, toilet blogs like Scott Rosenberg’s blog and others, breed piranhas using such stories. They are irresponsible.
  9. Rabbi Kanievsky defers to Rav Shteinman anyway (the latter of whom isn’t a Posek of note, unless I’ve missed his Tshuvos)
  10. They neither live, nor know about my world, and simply don’t have the information required.
  11. I didn’t ask them for their opinion, and am not obliged to do anything with their letter.
  12. A Rosh Yeshiva is not a Posek anymore than a Posek is a Rosh Yeshiva
  13. There is no such thing as Daas Torah anyway. Speak to your Posek when you have a Shayla. That’s the way it was and ought to remain.
  14. End.

KanievskyiPhone

Rabbi Smason on the Kramer Case

Very Poor attempt at besmirching the IDF and Nachal Charedi

[Hat Tip AN]

There are so many falsehoods in this video, it is beneath contempt. A straw man is created and then attempts are made to turn all those who fight these “secularists” whose aim is to uproot Torah as the enemy that one has to fight. When I got to the part about Bar Kochba, I literally laughed. This is brought by the Rambam in Hilchos Melachim as someone who Rav Akiva thought was Chezkas Moshiach, no less! I guess they would have stoned Rabbi Akiva! Yet, they carried swords and fought. They didn’t fight with a shas. A Shas doesn’t stop a katyusha. Sure, one cannot descend to pure secularism, that is an extreme. We do not subscribe to Kochi V’Otzem Yodi, but the clear message is that is if we DO subscribe to the fact that Hakadosh Baruch Hu OSO es Hachayil hazeh, then it is halachically mandated, either as a Milchemes Mitzvah or Milchemes Reshus.

I don’t see the Rabbi addressing the inordinate number of bench warmers who have no business assuming leadership or positions of influence, and instead, running around the world to collect money for themselves. You’ve got to DO something. Kol Torah Shein Imo Derech Eretz, Sofo Lehisbatel.

These are the archetypical Yoreh V’Rach HaLevov. These are the one’s you could never rely on in times of war. These are the spineless ones who would rather send out their brother to be killed in defending their lives.

To be sure, there are certainly an élite that must be supported. They are the leaders, and they have specific outcomes from their learning. They don’t use their entire lives to play pilpul with no end in sight.

They do not engage in any way. Not in the army, and not in society. Their ability to answer the Apikorus is so banal, they should be hidden. Who of them can assume the role of the Ramban, as needed. Which of them could sit in a Polish Government like R’ Meir Shapira. Next to none.

This isn’t a war of culture. Recalling Jabotinsky and Ben Gurion is living in a time warp. These aren’t our problems. Kibbutzim barely exist. Life has changed. The question is, if they DO want to live in a Jewish homeland, then they should follow the rules. If they do not, then then they should leave en masse and go to Gibraltar or the the Congo.

They want Kedusha and Avoda, but they think that defending fellow Yidden, whoever, that might be can never be done by using a gun. Go tell the next Palestinian Terrorist that one.

Torah is critical. Torah however includes being a part of society, and unless you are a protected person because you are part of an élite intelligentsia, so many are just pre-programmed robots without an original thought in their heads, and with spite filled agenda based on 100 years ago.

A nice production on the Internet (no less) which one is not allowed to look at. They use and abuse the internet when it suits them, and put people in Cherem for having a “smart” phone. Hypocrites personified.

Jewish Spite filled Anti Semites

[Hat tip SH]

The Heimlich family is an honourable family in Adass Yisrael, full of Talmidei Chachomim, born and bred in the Charedi (hungarian) community in Melbourne, Australia. One of the sons, is a renowned Posek to whom most Adass folk turn to for their Sheylos today. He sits in the Gerrer Shitibel daily and learns, and is a fine man.

One brother Nachum is a Rosh Kollel in Satmar. You can hear his vituperative and spite filled anti zionist/jewish speech on youtube, where he tells the non Jews that we don’t need a country, we don’t need an army etc and publicly criticises Israel. To Nachum I say, come back to Australia. Your place isn’t in Israel. Why torture yourself by staying there.

Pull out, I say. Get your kinsman out of Israel. Cross the border into Ramallah. Go live there in peace and harmony. Get the heck out of Israel. It’s really Avi Avos HaTumah for you and means nothing to you. Get lost!

Shame on you Rabbi Nochum Tzvi Heimlich on the youtube (listen at about 10:42) The Australian accent is unmistakeable. What a Chillul Hashem. Remove your sackcloth, and come wear Australian sheepskin.

Screen Shot 2013-12-26 at 11.23.41 pm

I call on his brother in Melbourne to condemn his statements. I doubt it will happen any more than the clandestine visits of Rabbi Beck to his infamous extremist brother.

We in Melbourne are fools for supporting and allowing these extremist elements to take our money through their various businesses. Next time you deal with one, ask him whether he supports Satmar and Toldos Aron or similar. This is a Shandeh.

I call on Adass to distance itself explicitly in the press from these extremists and condemn them and their sentiments.

Slurpees and the intrepid one man hashgacha

[Hat tip BA]

A reader formally asked 7/11 in Melbourne about their slurpees. In Melbourne we have a reliable and respected kashrut authority where the finances are overseen by a lay body and a team of supervising Rabbis and applied chemists have no involvement or inducement via financial gain in regards what they approve or otherwise.

This was not the case in the days of yore when various communal Rabonim provided their own hechsher and benefitted financially from the activities. I remember, for example, that strictly kosher people did not eat from the then Melbourne Beth Din or Rabbis Rudzki or Lubofsky et al. Many times I would buy a shawarma before a gig because I did not have confidence in the hashgacha. Nowadays, it’s almost never the case.

Things have improved greatly. Kosher Australia is trusted locally and internationally. It is not a one Rabbi entrepreneurial organisation but has a board and includes a cross section of the community. Finances are audited etc

Here is the readers response from the 7/11 people. I will leave my readers to draw their own conclusions.

Unfortunately not all of the Slurpee flavours that we have are certified as Kosher, however we did receive an unprompted email out of the blue last week notifying us that kosher certification was awarded by “It’s kosher authority” for the following flavours this December.

1. Lemon Lime Bitters
2. Classic Lime
3. Zilched Fruit Salad

Visiting the cemetery when Yohr Tzeit falls on Shabbos in the first year

For various reasons, some halachic, I have not gone to the cemetery during my year of Aveylus except when we dedicated my father’s הכ״מ Matzeyva. Again, there are two sides to the coin. On the Friday I’m still an Avel, on the Sunday I won’t be. I asked Rav Schachter and the response was that he isn’t familiar with these minhogim as he doesn’t attend a cemetery. Of course, this is consistent with the Brisker way, which follows the Rambam, that it is a place of impurity because there are only bodies with their kedusha departed to a higher realm. I was impressed that he never sought to pasken according to his minhag and the manner of the response.

Accordingly, I then asked Dayan Usher Weiss (who is a chassid and would likely have a minhag to visit kever avos and tzaddikim) through his kollel of rabbonim who check with him as need be. The response I received is below

Question: I’m soon completing a year of Aveylus after my father הכ’מ His 1st Yohr Tzeit will be on Gimel Shvat. For reasons brought by Achronim, I have refrained from visiting his grave site. The Matzeyva was set up a number of months ago, and of course, I was there. I am a Cohen, although that’s not entirely relevant, as I don’t go close anyway. Gimel Shvat is a Shabbos. When should the family go according to Minhag. My father’s family originally stemmed from Amshinover Chassidim (my mothers from Brisk). Should we go Erev Shabbos while still in Aveylus technically, or is it preferable to go on the Sunday, which will be the first day after the Aveylus? Or, does it not matter much?

Answer: The custom to visit the grave of family members on the day of their “yortzeit” [the anniversary of their petirah], while being an ancient and universally accepted custom, it’s sources are somewhat obscure. Nowhere in the Talmud or Shulchan Aruch do we find a direct reference to this custom. Various sforim [see Shu’t Shem Aryeh O”C 14, Shu’t Ksav Sofer Y”D 179] point to the words of Rashi in Yevamos 122a [s.v. tilsa] who mentions a custom to visit the graves of great scholars and study Torah by their gravesites on the day of their yortzeit. Being that this is a practice rooted in custom, it would seem there is no strict preference on a yortzeit which falls out on Shabbos to visit the day before or after. In fact there are differing customs in this regard, to visit before or after. For one who does not have a specific family custom it would seem preferable to visit the day before the yortzeit, this being for 2 reasons. 1) See Shu”t Chasam Sofer [O”C 162] who explains that part of the reason for visiting the grave is to pray for the niftar, give charity and increase merit for the niftar, to protect them from any judgment which occurs on the yortzeit. If not possible on the yortzeit one should bring these zchusim before the day of the yortzeit and not when it has already passed. In fact most poskim quote this as the preferred minhag, see Kaf Hachaim 568:94, Ikrei Harav D. Terani Y:D 36:35 [found in back of shulchan aruch]. 2) While visiting on the day of the yortzeit is not recorded in Shulchan Aruch, another minhag is in fact recorded. In Y:D 344:20 Shulchan Aruch quotes from the Geonim a custom to visit the grave on the last day of the 12 months, which is the day before the first yortzeit. Although common practice is to visit on the yortzeit itself* it would seem here where this is not possible to preferably fulfill this other minhag of Shulchan Aruch. *[one reason suggested for the minhag to visit on the yortzeit and not in accordance with Shulchan Aruch, is the words of the Arizal [Sharei Hamitzvos Parshas Veychi] who explains that once the neshama goes up on the Shabbos before the end of the 12 months it doesn’t return for the remaining days. On the yortzeit however the Neshama returns to the gravesite.]

Yohr Tzeit on Shabbos: which Aliya should a Cohen seek

This isn’t a new question by any stretch. That being said, there are two sides of the coin. I am a Cohen muchzak, and will have Yohr Tzeit on a Shabbos. I asked Mori V’Rabi Rav Schachter, and this was his response.

Is it better to get Maftir on that day, or should I get the Aliya of Cohen, there also being a Minhag to “accumulate Maftirs during the year, something I have never sought to impose or ask for wherever I daven)”

Joe Alpert (niftar 2 years ago) told my father that the first year he had yartzeit he went to Rav Moshe on Friday morning on his way to work and asked which aliyah he should take in honor of his father’s yartzeit. rav Moshe said it is better to take one of the ז’ קרואים and not maftir. Later that afternoon when he came home from work he had a message that rav Moshe had called back and said that he made a mistake and more proper is to take maftir as there are more brachos, and it will be a bigger zchus when more brachos are recited.

Thank you

To my readers et al who have wished Mazal Tov on the ‘quick fire’ double Brocha on the engagement of two of our daughters to chasanim from South Africa ( where I am at the minute)
Coupled with our soon to be married niece, I can only acknowledge חסדי השם כי לא תמנו. I’m soon to complete a year of aveylus after אבי מורי הכ״מ who no doubt has been involved and who I miss daily, especially at these auspicious occasions.

Nice post from Rabbi Wein

(Hat tip BA)

Read it here