Well, Think Big, you wrote two long answers to my posting. Thank you for your compliments but I must tell you that ,great, I am absolutely not. I do, however, feel, that civility in a debate is a must. The greatest zaddikim were always civil to everyone. R’Moshe Feinstein zz’l (to choose a litvishe godol) NEVER said a bad word about anyone. Check his teshuvos. Even when he excoriates other so-called “movements”, he couches it in moderate terms. My own rebbe,zol gezund zein, never says a bad word about people who do not go in the same ‘derech”. For example, I suspect he is not exactly a Zionist,as I may be(see other discussions),but I have never heard him say anything negative ,in a political sense, about the tzionim. So, let us heed the mmamar”divrei chachomim benachas nishmoim”.
As far as the comments you mentioned, if you “heard’ these words from me , then I know the occasion when it happened. I truly am pained about the words ‘sonei yisroel”. That one gives me palpitations because it was a throw-away line and I should never,never have used it. Al zeh, ani bochioh. The other term (elitist) we can argue about, but I will not use it again.
Concerning stories of all kind and the chassidische maasses,you are absolutley correct in saying that any story CAN happen,including the story of the coma.You may be familiar with the saying that anyone who believes that all the rebbeshe maasses actually happened is a “tipesh”. BUT anyone who says that they CANNOT happen, is an “apikorus”. In other words, the potential of a nes is always there, but it does not mean that it happens all the time. Hence, I do believe that Rav Kanievsky shelita said what he said about the non-decomposed state of the body, because that you can easily check if true or not. However, the story about the long coma has to be verified before accepting it. If it is verified, absolutely, I will believe it.
By the way, I can attest that I actually know of a coma of 35 years in my own community. On that, I can give chapter,name and verse. So, long comas can happen.
Well, I do have a day job to which I have to attend, so for now, I’ll have to postpone the discussion about emunas chachomim for another time.
Incidentally, if you live in Lakewood ( I think), then we are familiar with each other. A kleine velt.