Recently, I wrote in the Yated of a tale making the rounds in Eretz Yisroel. The story was printed in many of the religious papers and was passed around by word of mouth among Bnei Torah on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. It related an anecdote in which Rav Chaim Kanievsky was asked by someone how many times the name Moshe is written in the Torah. Rav Kanievsky, the story went, was able to give the precise number.
We tried to track down and verify the background and details of the story, but weren’t successful. We therefore presented it as a story that is being retold and used it to make the point that it is possible for someone even today—in an age of relative mediocrity—to attain a phenomenal range of Torah knowledge reminiscent of earlier generations.
Surprisingly, this simple story unleashed an avalanche of invective in my direction. “How dare you print such a story!” was the gist of most of the complaints. “So-and-So checked with Rav Chaim’s gabbai and he said the story never happened.”
Others took an even more acrimonious tone. “How can I trust anything written in your paper if you print a story which is obviously false?” one person fumed.
“I demand an apology,” the letter concluded.
The complaints piqued my curiosity. There are many stories told of gedolim, of their dikduk hamitzvos, of mofsim attributed to them, and no one gets upset when they read these tales. Why are people so offended by this particular story? What was there in the tale that so antagonized them?
No doubt the people who were upset by the story are all nice, fine people, and they all meant well. Nothing personal was intended and I have no problem with their firing off a letter to the editor about something strongly felt. But I think there was something deeper here that needs to be explored.
We lull ourselves into being satisfied with our achievements by thinking that in our day and age, a Jew can not reach as high as was possible in preceding generations. With the lapse of each year we draw further and further from Sinai and the towering levels in Torah and avodah our ancestors attained. We tell ourselves that we cannot be expected to achieve a proficiency in Shas due to our generation’s diminished abilities. We can no longer be expected to master all the halachos of everyday life, or to thoroughly understand everything we learn. Nobody expects us to be able to achieve world-class greatness in Torah.
We read biographies of tzaddikim of generations gone by and they all seem the same to us. He was born to great yichus and was a genius himself. By the age of six, he knew all of Mishanayos. By the time of his bar mitzvah, he made a siyum on Shas, and at the age of twenty, he was appointed as dayan in a large town. He was kind to the poor, tough on the rich, and all the good people in the country respected him and flocked to him for his pesakim, eitzos and brachos.
We gobble up those articles and books and they warm our hearts as we read of the greatness these great people achieved. But they have little effect on us, because we easily dismiss their accomplishments as part of reality that is far removed from us. You can’t expect me to be like the Chasam Sofer, Rav Yitzchok Elchonon Spector, Rav Chaim Soloveitchik, Rav Boruch Ber Leibowitz, the Chofetz Chaim, Rav Chaim Ozer Grodzensky, the Satmar Rebbe, the Belzer Rebbe, and so on.
When the story relates to a moifes, a miracle, performed by a rebbe or a master of Kabbolah from a different era, we have no problem with it. But when someone tells us about a moifes performed by a man living today whom we can approach and speak to, many will react skeptically, “Oh, that can’t be.”
Why is that?
Is it because it punctures our bubble of self-confidence?
If there is someone today in Nahariyah who can heal the sick and to whom thousands of people flock to for blessings, then it means that it is possible, even in the demoralized world we live in, to reach very high levels of kedushah. If that man looks like a normal person and is middle-aged—as opposed to being a one-hundred-year-old ascetic who speaks some foreign tongue and is not conversant in the language of the masses—it makes it all the harder. It means that if we would apply ourselves, perhaps we could also reach those high levels.
If people tell you stories about the phenomenal yedios of the Rogatchover Gaon zt”l, you are amazed by what a person can learn and retain, yet you reason that he lived so long ago—obviously, nobody today can be that great.
Thus, when we read an amazing story about a man who lives, eats, breathes, walks and talks today in Bnei Brak, it bugs us. “If he can do it, maybe I could too; if he can know right off the bat how many times it says Moshe in the Torah, then why can’t I? If he can do it, maybe that means that if I would apply myself to Torah the way he does, I could also be thoroughly conversant in the Dalet Chelkei Shulchan Aruch.”
So we shrug it off as impossible, the story never happened; Lipschutz made it up; the Yated is irresponsible.
Now, while it may very well be true that the story never happened, it certainly could have. How do I know? Let’s take a cursory tour through Rav Chaim Kanievsky’s seforim.
Let’s look in his sefer Taamah Dikrah in Parshas Noach, where he cites 32 instances in Nach, Medrash, Rishonim and Acharonim where individuals were named for people who lived before Avrohom Avinu.
In Parshas Ki Seitzei, on the posuk of “Lo yilbash,” he discusses whether a man may be given the name of a woman or vice versa. He then brings 65 cases of men who had women’s names and women who had men’s names. The list is complied from Nach, Shas, Rishonim and Acharonim.
Let’s take a look at the hakdomah to his peirush on Maseches Kusim, where he lists over 150 places in Shas Bavli and Yerushalmi, as well as Medrash, where kusim is discussed.
Let’s examine his sefer Tashlum Yefei Ainayim, where he lists passages from Yerushalmi, Tosefta, Mechilta, Toras Kohanim, Sifri, Safra, and Medrashim which are missing from the Mesoras HaShas that is printed in our Gemaros.
The gabbai will not deny that Rav Chaim wrote this sefer.
Now, these are but a few lists that come to mind. Look at the very seforim that Rav Chaim has authored. Who cannot be blown away?
Rav Chaim has published several volumes of Derech Emunah, a work akin to the Mishnah Berurah on Hilchos Zeraim, commonly accepted to be the most difficult portion of Shas.
The sefer Derech Sicha is full of answers to questions his gabbai asked him on almost every topic in Torah. The answers were given on the spot.
There is no way to overestimate what Rav Chaim knows and there is no secret to how he did it. It was by learning, and learning, and learning some more. There are no miracle stories of how he attained such vast yedios in Torah; it was through steadfast, incessant learning. There are no shortcuts.
Another true story about ameilus baTorah concerns Rav Chaim’s father-in-law. Someone was watching Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashiv as he was learning a shtickel Torah in the sefer Tzofnas Poneach from the Rogatchover Gaon. The sefer is basically a listing of marei mekomos and is extremely difficult to study and grasp. Rav Elyashiv was running through it with his finger one line after the next.
The man couldn’t contain himself and asked him, “Rebbe, how can you do that? How can you learn through such a difficult sefer so quickly?” Rav Elyashiv answered that it is “dorch lernen, lernen, lernen.” If you learn and learn and learn some more, you can learn and grasp what the Rogatchover is saying.
I am currently reading the newly published seventh volume of the fascinating work Maaseh Ish on the life of the Chazon Ish, Rav Chaim’s uncle. In the sefer, it is related that a person once visited the Chazon Ish and told him that he had trouble remembering what he was learning and that it bothered him terribly. He asked for a brocha that he should remember his learning. The Chazon Ish asked him how many times he reviewed his studies. The man answered, “Six or seven times.” The Chazon Ish told the man, “That is your problem. In order for me to remember what I learn, I have to review it twenty to twenty-five times. You don’t need a brocha; what you need is to chazer – review – more.”
How many of us review what we learn even six times and then want to know why we aren’t as successful in learning as we would like to be?
There are many people among us who are blessed with brilliance and G-d-given talents. There are even more people who, while not being geniuses, would be able to attain true greatness with the right amount of encouragement and support. We all know people in this situation. It is incumbent upon us to help provide them with the support they require in order to be able to reach their potential. We need to appreciate that there really are giants among us, and to recognize, respect and promote them. We shouldn’t belittle their accomplishments and tear them down with petty jealousy.
Chazal say, “Elef nichnosim v’echod yotzei…one thousand students enter the study hall, but only one of them masters the subject.” The question is asked, if that is indeed the case, why do the other 999 students study? Various answers are offered. I once heard Rav Yaakov Kamenetsky zt”l say that the other students are there to create the ruach in the bais medrash that is necessary for the ‘one’ outstanding talmid to reach his potential.
Even if we think that we cannot be that ‘one’, we can at least contribute to the ruach that the person requires. None of us can say that we can’t even do that much!
Chazal accept it as a given: it is characteristic of human nature that only a select few will attain the highest pinnacles of achievement. That reality does not get us off the hook and provide us with an excuse to say that we are not worthy of achieving greatness. If we would set our hearts to it, if we would really concentrate on our learning and not waste our time with silly pursuits, we would be able to rank among those privileged few in our mastery of Torah. If we wouldn’t let ourselves get sidetracked with shtusim and idle away our time, we could become great people.
It requires extraordinary perseverance and dedication to the goal. Though these traits are uncommon in our day, it is possible for every one of us to adopt them if we are sufficiently motivated.
This is no exaggeration. It’s not me saying this; it is the Rambam. He writes that every Jew has the ability to be like Moshe Rabbeinu – if he would only want to and apply all his energy and talent in that direction.
Perhaps we shouldn’t be asking how many times it says Moshe in the Torah, but how many potential Moshes are out there who could use some encouragement from us. We should be asking what we ourselves can do to become like Moshe, as the Rambam writes.
It’s not easy, but it is possible. But how?
Rav Chaim’s son, Rav Shlomo Kanievsky, was in the United States a few months ago and we had the honor of meeting him and speaking to him. My son asked him to relate something peledik – fascinating – about his father. He said that the most fascinating thing about his father is the way he learns and the amount of learning he does.
But then, with a twinkle in his eye, he said, “You probably want to hear a peledikeh story. I’ll tell you one that happens daily. Every day, when he finishes eating his meal, my father asks my mother which brocha acharona to make, because he doesn’t know what he ate!”
There you have it. You want to be a Moshe? You want to achieve greatness in Torah? You want to be a peledikeh mentch? Stop being so areingeton in your food and Olam Hazeh and become more pre-occupied with your Olam Haboh! It won’t happen overnight, but day by day you can grow until one day you won’t realize what it is you are eating. You will then know that you are on the path to netzach.
May we each be zoche to realize our potential and help others realize theirs.
© 2007 Yated Neeman.
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
43 Responses
You’re right.
But your still wrong to tell a story that will only perpetuate an incorrect legend.
I agree. If stories that could be verified are printed because it may have happened then it may lead people to think that the true stories are also something that may have happened. Its wrong.
the quote “People dont say that about you or me” is totally not applicable here
He wrote that it is an unverified story!! Why is everyone attacking him as if he wrote it as absolute Emmes? Do you read the secular media and get as upset if you find out it is not true? You shrug it off as that is that is the way they do business. Anyone who does a little snooping will realize they are pulling the wool over your eyes. But here was a story that was really amazing and made a great point and he WROTE that it was not verified by the gabbai but he wrote it for the value. Perhaps someone can be inspired to pay more attention to their learning. That is not Sheker as far as I can tell. Also remember, this was written in an editorial, not in a news piece. Let us all strive to become our very best and bring Moshiach as soon as possible!!
PS I think this editorial brings out the point that R. Chaim is a Adom Gadol who worked very hard and that we too must constantly work if we wish to accomplish any of our worthwhile goals.
Interesting how most YW posters are proving Rabbi Lipschutz’s point. (:-)
Rav Pinny
Peledige article every word you write is so true, the many people who wrote you negatively besides the above reasons that you so eloquently enumerated, more then all they did not know even how to even swallow this story, after all Reb Chaim Kanievsky is the undisputed Talmid Chochom of this dor, and yet he knows verbatim to count of hand the number of times it says something in the torah, what does that have to do with being a lamdan they ask themselves , but little do they realize like the gemorah says chachomim are called sofrim because the count every ois in the torah. It makes them have to face reality to be a true lamdan one must first be sofer every ois and remember it, and to this there are no shortcuts.
I once heard from an odom gadol that people that jump to negate an accomplishment of statue attained in learning by someone on their own supposed level or someone in their own generation, is nothing more then SINAS AM HORETZ TO A TALMID CHOCHOM, and this is even if the negativity comes from a supposed “talmid chochom”. The story by itself bothers people like you said more then anything else because we realize how far removed we are from the attainable, do we even begin to learn and approach pesukim that way , our chachomim were called sofrim says the gemara “shehayu sofrim kol os shebatorah”, we all know the story with the Vilna Gaon of how many times it says the word sukah in maseches sukah…keminyan the machlokes choser and maleh.
Yes this is true Gadlus Betorah that is attainable “oib men vilt nor ken men zain a gaon”.
Rav Shach once said people follow me every move I make because of daas torah.. daas torah, but when it comes to torah itself, how to learn what to learn suddenly I have no daas torah. look how many letters Rav Shach writes about derech halimud, , the Steipler told every 14-15 year old to learn 2 daf just gemarah rashi a day, and by eighteen every bachur can know all of nashim nezikin gemorahs well. Rav Shteinman tells chadorim to instill children with yedios and chazaros of magnitude in tnach and mishnayos. These Gedolim knew and know what it takes, and that is what Rav Chaim followed, henceforth he can tell you verbatim how many Moshes in the torah or like your examples from his sefarim how many times kuti in shas etc.
And when there are those individuals who don’t take the easy trend, and don’t go with the tide, but rather try to accomplish as they said to learn, or chadarim that try to emulate such musagim of gadlus betorah, to know verbatim tanach and mishnayos, there is no lack of negativity to be heard by the naysayers who cant fargin or better yet look themselves in the mirror and say…as the odom gadol said it is nothing more then sinas am horetz to a talmid chachom….
Rav Pinny aleh vehatzlach and continue being the emmisary to true daas torah.
Rav Pinny: please explain this to me , Harav Chaim did not know which brocho achrona to make: what did he do for a bracha reshona?
i wont accept an apology until he tracks down the true source of the story – find the sombody that made it up and lets roast him
Thank You TZEE KLUG!! You are EXACTLY the type of commenter that Pinny was refferring too! Here is a story that Pinny heard himself from a reliable source and yet you assume that because the Yated wrote it and you have a question on it because you dont comprehend such a lifestyle, therefore it must be made up and sheker! Obviously R, Chaim could see the food and decide which Brocha Rishona to make; however once the food is no longer on the plate he assumes he ate it and now has to ask what he ate. It doesnt say that R. Chaim is totally oblivious, just that his mind was not DWELLING on the gashmius.
TO TZEE KLUG:
The answer to your query is simple.
When he began eating, he looked at the food and made the appropriate bracha. by the time he finished eating he forgot what he ate becausethe food is so meaningless to him and he was areingetun in learning while he was eating.
TZEE KLUG ain’t too klug at all! He missed the whole point of the story. By the time he finishes eating he forgot what he ate because the food is so meaningless to him and he is areingetun in learning while he eats.
As for the other Yated haters, the Yated reported that the story was being retold everywhere, not that the story was true, though it certainly could have been true, there was no way to verify if it happened, but it surely could have happened. You guys are just proving Pinny’s point by harping on it. You learnt absolutley nothing from the article. And its not becuase you were areingetun in learning when you read it!
Many people feel the need to end a story about Gedolim by saying: “We cannot even imagine these levels” or “nobody can do that”.
Rac Sheinberg once got upset when he heard Reb Chatzkel Levenstein described as a malach. “He is a Basar v’dam like anyone else”. By calling someone a Malach we are absolving ourselves of trying harder.
We need to protect our self confidence, but be also need to realize our potential.
Don’t yearn to SEE a tzadik; yearn to BE a tzadik.
For the record, Reb Sheinberg was, and possibly is, a (Brooklyn) Dodgers fan. Reb Moshe Aharon Stern YBd”L (his nephew)was a Yankees fan.
Just because it didn’t happen doesn’t mean it’s not true! 🙂
This is one of my old sayings, thanks for giving me the opportunity to use it….
BTW: I don’t think that sholom bayis is served when a husband lets his wife know that he doesn’t even know what she’s serving him…..but maybe if the wife is like R Akiva’s, or because he respects/trusts her regarding knowing which brocho to make. Maybe in fact he only asks her which brocho to make to show that although he knows 39 ways to prove that you make hamotzi on a carrot, nevertheless one should trust one’s wife…or at least pretend to, so that she feels good…what a gevaldige maiseh this is, a hidden story to influence people to care about their wives!!
Anyway I like/respect R Chaim K because he sent me a postcard many years ago in response to my question re what Rambam wrote in the intro to the Moreh re the medrash about meshalim (Shir HaShirim) (he quotes it in reverse, making the opposite point), and he simply stated that he didn’t know, that impressed me.
What I didn’t like about the story was simply that it sounded like someone trying to disparage computers, and by association technology/science.
On a related issue: In general I think Torah should be considered great enough by its proponents not to need to knock anything else (other religions, non-frum people, science etc) in order to build it up.
Actually, you’re right – Rav Sheinberg was definitely a Yankees fan (too).
Also when his future Father-in-law, R’Herman asked if he had yichus, he said “I don’t – but my grandchildren will”.
torahhis, Its easy to understand why YW would censor you, based on your previous knee-jerk anti-chareidi comments.
The author wrote in the original story that it was an unverified story making the rounds. He did not present it as if it was Toras Moshe MiSinai.
Your outright bias stands in the way of you publishing many comments. Anyway, it does not cost me money so I will state it anyway.
I work at the Department of Housing and Urban Development
torahhis, it would be unsurprising if yw rejected your comments based on your past knee-jerk anti-chareidi posts.
Reb Pinny noted this is an unverified story, and presented it as such in the original article.
What is the deciding factor on whether OR NOT a story is true?
For instance, it has been said that the Chofetz Chaim was on a train travelling from one city to the next on a freezing cold day. During the journey, one of his gloves fell out the window. Immediately after , he threw out the other glove as well. Why? because he realized that one glove wont do him any good, but the man outside who will find the first glove, will be in need of the other. AMAZING STORY and I DO believe it because it is told of a Tzaddik. Many think this story is
a bubah maaseh but where do we draw the line?
And a s an aside, I don t think an average Ben Oni would do this, it takes a great tzaddik
‘MIDVAR SHEKER TIRCHAK ?’
lol! you make it sound like some vicious, miserable lie! Most of these stories, even if exagarrated or untrue have a basic message and Musar for all,,,,,
The opituaries are also silly. He died, he was an Adom Gadol, AND ALL OF HIS OFFSPRINGS FOLLOW IN HIS FOOTSTEPS……Who says? Did you check it out? Whenever something is exaggerated the whole article comes into question.
Go Pinny Go!!!!!!!
Maybe all the Laydergayer’s who spend hours everyday reading other Ladergayer’s posts on YW and devise wisenheimer names like KISHKA, FEIF MIR UN, ICH BIN SHVITZY etc. will think about opening a sefer once in a blue moon!!
I ‘heard’ (although this too may not be the truth) the story got off like this, and you’ll see how a tiny detail can make something go in the wrong direction.
Someone came to him and told him how many times ‘Moshe’ is written in the Torah. Now Rav Chaim obviously figured out that he got it from a computer because no one goes around counting these kinds of things manually. So he told him if he got it from a computer, then the computer is overcounting two times when the letters mem, shin, heh, mean something else, and the computer didn’t diffrentiate between these two extra words. All well and good, but some guy went off on a tangent and assumed from the answer that Rav Chaim knew the exact count from before and without a computer, which this story proves nothing of the sort.
Again the guy who said this could be assuming this is how it started, but it makes sense to me.
Torahis1 how do you know so certainly that it is not true? His gabai isn’t with him 24/7. The story still is exactly what was printed- a story being told. If anyone is saying sheker it is YOU!
baki, it doesn’t matter if its true or not, as long as torahhis can use it to criticize chareidim.
The fact is that, to use the lawyer’s comment to the judge in the famous story with the Chofetz Chaim (unless you don’t believe that story either): “They don’t tell such stories about you and me”. Unfortunately!
Thank you Reb Pinny for an excellent article. I calls for some soulsearching. Which is, as you say, exactly what so many of above commentators are afraid off.
To MichaelR…. I don’t appreciate your making fun of my name. It’s not Feif mir un…. it’s Fafdichune!
Is THIS the way we talk to each other? This week’s sedra starts with the importance that words spoken have and how they reflect our level of spirituality Imagine Mosheh Rabbeinu or Mosheh,the Rambam reading and answering on this post!מ ש ה does not always spell out Mosheh .Mi’seh,and masheh,for example.
I don’t understand the problem here. R’Pinchus did not say it’s all right to print false stories because they might have been true. He wrote when heard the story he had no reason to believe it was false and every reason to believe it was true. I heard a very nice story about R’Yaakov Ruderman Z”L and related it to an acquaintance. He said he also heard the story and he knows a guy that asked R’Ruderman Z”L and the story is not true. Wether or not his story about knowing a guy was true, or if the story of the guy who he knew is true, does not concern me. What bothers me is, when you hear a nice story about a gadol, where’s the little doubt that it could have happened, what is the urgency about rushing to try to and disprove it and where does it stop? The stories about the Rogotchover could surely have been true, but maybe they weren’t? And the stories about the Maharal? And the rishonim and Tanaim? Where do we stop? I believe the best approach is old the chasidic adage “If one believes all the stories about the Ba’al Shem Tov to be true, he’s a Na’ar (fool). But if one doesn’t believe that they couldn’t have happened, he’s an apikoris.”(heretic)
_
Dvora,
Well you dont knwow for a FACT that its NOT TRUE. You are just assuming that there is baal Tashchis when in reality even if there is a chance that somoene outside in the cold will make good use of it, it might NOT be.
Besides , I think this kind of middoh suits a Tzaddik perfectly!
As a follow up to the Baal tashchis issue its says’ shlach lachmecho al hamayim uverov yomim timzeno’
If you put bread in the sea, eventually a poor man will find it and eat it! So obviously there is no baal tashchis there either!
To Fafdichune and Feif Un:
If you read my post #27 you will see that I was very careful not to direct anything against you to Feifer’s. I only mentioned Feif MIR Un!!!
Not a plain Feif or a Feif DICH.
So there! I hope I set the record straight and you can both go into shabbos happily.
Gedolim stories on the one hand can inspire us to believe in gadlus haTorah and gadlus lomdeha. They can also lead to yiush, where we think we can never reach those heights, so why try. There definitely is a value to hearing about the actions of Gedolim. For instance, I heard a first hand account that at the end of shalosh seudos each week, Reb Moshe ZT”L used to chazer the daf yomi for the week, in case any baalei batim asked him questions. I also heard first hand that Rav Henken ZT”L was asked how many times he had learned Maseches Eiruvin. He wouldn’t answer. The questioner then asked if he had learned it 100 times, and Rav Henken said zicher he learned it 100 times but still wouldn’t say how many times he had learned it.
It is bad journalism to publish stories that are uncorroborated. I don’t agree with the harsh tone of the critics, however. A mistake was made, the article was retracted and an apology was given. Or are the critics saying that there is no such thing as teshuva for a blog writer?
I would say the contrary. Because of ‘yeridos hadoros’ , people were held on a much higher standard then ,than they are today! Certainly Gedolim on the level of the Chofetz Chaim were not Maykil on anything!
“the Chofetz Chaim was not maykil on anything” ask your husband or father or Rav or anyone who learned his writings whether or not this is true. There is nothing wrong with being maykil as long as you are on solid ground. The Poskim are full of this. Even Bais Hillel was considered maykilim.
I meant to say that they were Maykil on others but not on themselves! For instance they will allow people to carry on Shabbos when there is an eiruv, but THEY will not carry!
Rabbi Lipshitz,
I must take issue with you on this essay because this article is so much more offensive that anything else you have ever written.
Instead of admitting a mistake or clarifying the point you tried to make, you came out with a blistering attack on those who point out your mistake.
My reaction wasn’t “Oh that can’t be because I couldn’t do it”. The reaction was this is not how Reb Chaim SHLIT”A talks and behaves and no one would dare “test” him out this way. It is not disbelief that he could do it, of course we know that he could do it. Anyone who learns as much as he does with his talents and gifts from HASHEM could do it.
How dare you attack those who take issue with your printing of this fake story in such a manner.
The mass reaction that you saw took issue with your propagandizing to make what is admittedly a good point, that we have to constantly shtieg more and more in learning. Using sheker to promote emes is a krum methodology.
What rankles me is that your use of this story and your subsequent defense of it indicate that you don’t get the point. You as the editor of such a prestigious paper have a responsibility to the emes. If you are seen as doing anything less, then the reputation of your paper suffers and your message also is diluted. This is the power of sheker.
By defending your decision to print this story you are in effect saying “We condone the telling of sheker as long as it promotes an ideal that we subscribe to.” PRAVDA would have been proud.
If your point is that we can’t rely on technology to replace shteiging, then tell the story as a moshol, without ascribing names to it.
You yourself admit that you tried to verify the story but were unable to. You then made the unbelievable decision to print it anyway. There are enough stories which can prove your intentions without having to resort to sheker.
You have reduced the nemonus of the Yated NEEMAN. For next time you print a story about a gadol, then how can we believe it. Maybe you also tried to verify it and were not able to and just printed it anyway.
Tzaddikim are always careful to tell only stories which have a yichus. It seems that this principle does not apply to the YATED and whatever rumors are flying around the yeshiva world you seem fit to print.
At the very least print that you were not able to verify the story and the story may not be true.
Alright, this is an actual story. The Noam Elimelech’s son, in his hakdama writes that the Rambam writes that a human must ultimatly make mistakes.
R. Chaim Kanievski said that there is no such Rambam. R. Yerachmiel Zeltzer in his kuntres on quotes attributed to chazal brings this down, and doesn’t find the Rambam.
So, is there really no such Rambam….??….
If the Noam Elimelech’s son wrote something it must be so, perhaps there was a typo and it says Rambam instead of Ramban? Or maybe it is a general idea from the Rambam, but in any case remember that a godol is a godol and needs to be treated as such!!
‘who exactly is Reb Elimelch’s SON,?’
If its lack of education his name was Reb Luzer and his yartzeit was this past week!
Guten Chodesh
Actually he had two other sons , one was Reb Yaakov and the other was Eliezer Lipa, I am not sure which one was being referred to but I think it was Reb luzer
I didnt write that post . I would think its Reb Luzer but I am not sure,
well, suprise!!! It’s a mefuroshe Rambam in Pirush Hamishnayos in the beggining of maseches horayos! Extent in all versions.
that the Rambam was right?
😉
actually, I have a lot to say on this and related subjects, but ain kan hamakom.
I am a proud reader of Rabbi Lipshitz articles may he be blessed with long life.