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Rabbi Yisroel Reisman [a highly-respected Orthodox Rabbi] spoke out against those Jews who plan their vacations for locations like: Switzerland, France, or Italy, where the people hate Jews.
[He said:]
“It would be better to visit the Land of Israel to benefit from its holiness and help our brothers economically.”SOURCE: Flatbush Jewish Journal, 2010/6/17, page 32
What’s even better is to take a family vacation to the scenic prospect park and give the 3000 you would have spent to tzedaka. You’ll find you’re not stressed out, jet lagged, nor will you have whiny kids complaining about things
“It would be better” isn’t “speaking out” against.
Where in the Torah does it say to take vacations? (beyond shabbat, chagim, shalosh regalim, shmita)?
It says in my siddur in the kiddush: “sheshes yamim saavod”. Not sure whether this is counted as a separate mitzva.
Aaq,we finally agree on something
As I mentioned recently, if you quote a pasuk directly, an Yid will admit to it, whatever his level of stubbornness or ignorance is! Mi kamocha …
A historical tidbit: doctors recommended to Netziv to go on vacation to the lakes. He ran away from there back to Volozhin, he could not stand idleness …
On the other hand, R Grozdensky and others were “summering” away from Vilno towards Grodno (Druskene), but probably formed a community there so were not totally idle.
Also, R Salanter took a trip to the “waters” and even ate pas akum bread there. he explained that he would be ok to eat stale pas yisroel bread instead, but he was gifted money to improve his health and using money to eat bad food instead would be stealing. I did not know his source before, but it seems to be Nedorim 50 where a doctor sees the patient being fed with hard food and refuses to treat him: what is the point of treating a patient if he has an unhealthy diet!? Modern doctors should take this to heart.
The correct term is pas palter, which is mutar, and not pas akum, which is treif, and unable to be eaten just for health improvement.
The “Datche” vacations that many gedolai yisroel took in the summer consisted , for the most part, of them learning in forested areas and taking walks while speaking in learning with other Talmidei Chachomim .
Many of the beautiful pictures of Rav Baruch Ber speaking in learning with other Gedolai Roshei Yeahivos and also various Admorim are from those “vacations”.
Please stop telling people what they could have done with their money. It’s their money to spend, as the Gemara tells us, האי עלמא לבי הילולא דמיא. No, they aren’t looking for a money receptacle. They are looking for vacation and they Baruch Hashem have the money to spend on it. Again: theirs, not yours.
This is few steps away from the communist mindset, of deciding if people deserve their own money.
Rabbi Reisman, on the other hand, was advising people on where and how to do what they set out to do.
By the way, to quote Sheshes Yamim as an Issur or Chiyuv, is מגלה פנים בתורה שלא כהלכה.
If you need to, go quote יומם ולילה לא ישבותו, which is at least mentioned by Chazal for such a purpose.
haleivi, im not the government forcing people to do things with their money.
Hashem gives people money as a pikadon, like a bank teller. It’s not “yours,” to do whatever you want with it – it’s there as a tool for avodas Hashem. Now I ask, how are vacations avodas Hashem? If you need relaxation, we live in a wonderous area of the world, where driving one hour brings you to a wonderland of nature. Driving only 15 minutes lets you see all kinds of flowers, animals in the zoo, and bodies of water. There are a million kosher activites in NYC; there’s no need to go loifenzich to far away places just to say you went there.
Halevia
I’m not big on telling people what to dobut I have to say I winced at your calling tzedaka a “a money receptacle.”
And while his view is a few steps away from Communism. yours is close to “eat drink and be merry for tomorrow we die”As an aside ‘v heard the OP’s idea from Rabbi Resiman many times. I’ve also heard him say that Eretz Yisroel is Artzeinu hakedosha, not a place to go on a vacation
Vyesh leyashev
עירובין נד.
אמר ליה שמואל לרב יהודה שיננא חטוף ואכול חטוף ואישתי דעלמא דאזלינן מיניה כהלולא דמירש”י
חטוף אכול – אם יש לך ממון להנות עצמך אל תמתין עד למחר שמא תמות ושוב אין לך הנאה:
כהלולא דמי – היום ישנו ולמחר איננו דומה לחופה שהולכת מהר:This is brand new Hashkafa, that your money is not yours. Yes, there are Mitzvos to do with your money. I’m sure that a Yid with a חזקת כשרות did those Mitzvos. Telling someone he should have given money away, just because he spent it on himself, shows an attitude akin to the Wallstreet protesters. No, this person got ברכת השם and he isn’t stingy but is able to spend it to his benefit.
If you want someone to give Tzedaka and feel that he can afford it, speak Divrei Chizuk, convince him of the cause, and realize that he doesn’t owe you anything.
And now traveling to an interesting vacation became the mark of gluttony? No, bantering on how others could have spent their own money is the mark of jealousy. Calm down. It’s only עולם הזה.
I am not, H’V, telling people not to go to vacations, just suggesting not to see this is a mitzva or dvar kavua.
Just because your neighbors are going and it is “a thing” to do. I saw one smart school asking on the application – what camps/vacations did you children go to? Seemingly as background info on how much financial help you would require. Maybe it is the usual thing.
Avira, you may be right. I am not sure what is considered commercial during 19th century travel. I imagine, small inns and bakeries. Probably not pas akum, not sure.
Aaq, there’s no difference between pas akum and goyishe wine – maybe it’s alright to drink and eat whatever you want if you’re doing it to be healthy?
Avira, as I said, you are probably right, I used incorrect term, thanks for the correction.
To clarify, his sevorah was not to eat healthy, but he was given money for the purpose of improving health, so spending his money otherwise would be geneiva.
As to eating healthy, I pointed above to Nedorim seemingly approving of a doctor who refuses to treat patient who is eating things inappropriate for a sick person.
As the Mishnah says in Kelim, Israel is holier than… But that is probably only Bizman Habayit, sheyibaneh bimeheyra.
So going forward, we shouldn’t expect to see stories in YWN showing photos of some chashuvah Rebbe with his entourage/gaaboim boarding a private jet chartered by his chassidim flying off to some high-end resort in Switzerland, California, Florida etc. to offer chizuk to the locals??
Gadol, a good question. I do not hear much about going to vacations from most Rabbis I know. Usually, a reason to cancel a class is a bar mitzva or a trip to Israel. I heard descriptions of summer trips to mountains when their kids were young. Maybe I am in a wrong crowd.
And I did hear people in summer camps in Catskills some time ago talking to R Kamenetsky there.
I remember years ago, a Rav of a big shul in Boro Park raised money for Israeli Bonds. He was attacked in public only to be saved by a member of the Moetzes who called him Mein Dovid’l. So you see the division of supporting Israel even while making profit was not unanimous at that time.
As ubiquitin correctly stated, Rav Reisman is not much of an advocate for “exploring” EY. He visits several times a year, much of it learning in yeshivos. He’s not so much pushing people what to do with their time as what to do with their time – an area usually seen as appropriate for a rov. He makes it clear that you should stay away from EY if your time will be wasted (or worse. It is a holy place, and our behavior must be even better there.
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