DaMoshe

I’ve never learned Emek haMalech, so I can’t really comment one way or the other. Being that it predated the Besht by quite a few years (it was published in 1648, the Besht wasn’t born until 1698), I’d guess that the definition of “tzaddik” isn’t the same.
I also agree with what you quoted – you should definitely connect with a Rebbe, and gain higher understanding and revelations in Godliness. But that’s not what the Besht taught – he taught that the tzaddik has to lower himself into realms of tumah in order to lift others out. Do you not see the difference between having a Rebbe to learn from, and the claim that people are incapable of lifting themselves? A person can learn Torah on their own, and grow from it. Having a Rebbe to guide you makes it easier and quicker to grow, because he will guide you in regards to what is correct and what isn’t.

sechel: arguing with someone who lived just a few hundred years ago, especially when you have someone like the Gra who actually called their teachings apikorsis, is not being an apikores. The idea of the Tzaddik being born without a yetzer hara and incapable of sinning is apikorses, because it says that there is no person who lives without sinning. We all have bechirah, even the Lubavitcher Rebbe had bechirah, and even he sinned at times.

Sechel: the idea that a person can’t get to higher levels on their own without a Rebbe lifting them up in preposterous. It’s one of the main issues I have with chassidus.

Chaim, I agree that the whole idea of Daas Torah is a recent innovation. R’ Bender once bemoaned to me that people were asking their Rabbeim about things that had nothing to do with their Rebbe, and they should have been consulting experts in the field instead. As he said to me, “some people won’t blow their nose without asking their Rebbe first!”
As for R’ Chaim, people should not have been mevatel to him, at least not in every issue.
I only once went to a Rebbe for a bracha, because my Rebbe told me to go see him, and it would benefit me. I visited a different Rebbe once, only because he knew my wife’s family, and my wife asked me to go see him and mention the connection (this was while he was visiting my community once). While I was seeing him, he asked me how many children we have, and I told him 2. He asked me if we considered having more, as it would be a big bracha. I explained that we needed fertility treatments for the 2, and I’d be thrilled to have more. He then offered a bracha to me.

Mods, was my response not approved, or did it not go through?

It’s not “filling a void”. Unfortunately, Chassidus draws people in because it’s “feel-good Judaism”. The mesorah of the litvaks is a true mesorah, not something that was invented just a couple hundred years ago.
Just because people are drawn to something doesn’t make it right. Look at home many Jews were nebach lost to the haskalah movement.

I love how Joe is making a comparison between an Iranian who at the time was missing after an accident, and his imagined scenario of Netanyahu being captured by the enemy. How can you compare those? Yes, the Iranians called for prayers. When a Jewish person goes missing, Jews daven. Look at how many people started wearing Tzitzis and wrapping tefillin because of the war!
If Iran thought Israel killed their president, you better believe they’d be attacking!

Small One: You always claim that there was nothing miraculous about Israel’s victory in 1967. The Ponovezher Rav wrote that there were “obvious miracles” that even blind people could see.
No doubt you don’t celebrate Purim, because the miracles that occurred then were nistarim.

Israel is a Jewish state, regardless of what you may think. Is it perfect? No, but there have been rulers who were far worse than what exists now, and it was still considered a Jewish state. Kings such as Yeravam, Menasheh, Achaz, and others, made it illegal to keep certain mitzvos. They were oved Avodah Zarah, and encouraged others to do so. Yet it was still a Jewish kingdom.

HaKatan, when will you realize that not all Zionists are the same? Your claims may have been true for many of the founders of Israel in the 1940s, but it isn’t true today. Look at the number of baalei teshuva in Israel! Look at the videos of the soldiers davening, of the commanders leading their units in tefillah before they go into Gaza. Read the shailos coming in from soldiers, who want to know exactly how to conduct themselves while in active combat situations!
Most Israelis are no longer anti-religious. The dream of a Jewish homeland filled with Jews who are shomer Shabbos is alive and well! “Kochi v’otzem yadi” is barely heard anymore in the IDF – now we hear them being mekabel Ol Malchus Shamayim!

I believe that the potential is there. It’s up to us to do what is necessary to bring him, though.

A neighbor of mine told me that he bought 4 lbs of hand matzos. From the 4 lbs, he had a total of 5 matzos that were whole. He had to borrow matzos from someone else just to have enough for lechem mishna during the days and for the sedorim. That’s not ok, not at $40 per lb.

I tried some of the matzos from Ukraine this year. They were significantly cheaper, which was a big draw, as I try to only use hand matzos the entire Yom Tov. They were really thin, nice and crispy, and almost all of them were whole. Next year I’ll likely try to get all my matzos from that brand.

Joe, there’s been no proof that the story isn’t real. I heard the same story years ago, although I forgot from whom.

Is Joe a bigger troll than anyone else in the CR? I think that’s an obvious yes.
Is any normal person superior to a big CR troll?
Is a person who doesn’t obsess over trying to rank people superior to Joe?

Avira: “a king was chosen BECAUSE of his lofty spiritual accomplishments.” While this may have been true for Shaul and Dovid, I don’t think that was the case for future kings. Future kings were chosen because they descended from Dovid. There were plenty of kings who were horrible people, yet they still held the halachik status of a king.

CTLAWYER: Maybe the degrees changed with time? I don’t know about that, but I do know that on Columbia’s site, it says “Henkin received a B.A. from Yeshiva University, an LL.B. from Harvard University, an L.H.D. from Yeshiva University, and an LL.D. from Columbia University. He also received an honorary J.D. from Brooklyn Law.”

AAQ: The Chofetz Chaim and R’ Soloveichik had sons who had PhDs. R’ Henkin had a son with a doctorate-level degree, but it was in Law, so it was an LL.D. not a PhD.

Eliezer, is there a reason you constantly bump your own threads?

Avira, you said “The yatzer hora for apikorsus, however, is very strong, and we are told by many tzadikim that it will be an almost insurmountable challenge באחרית הימים.”
Do you have some sources for this?
You know, I’ve unfortunately seen many people who are faced with this today, even family members of mine. But it’s not based on Israel, it’s because of other issues. I have a sibling who fell into the trap of modern liberalism, and she told me that she can’t accept a God who says that 2 people loving each other is wrong just because of their gender. I’d say that qualifies as apikorsus, and sadly, there are many today who feel the same way she does.

Avira, what makes you think that anyone is choosing Bibi over a King established by a Navi? Right now, we don’t have a Navi, and we don’t have a King. We do have a State of Israel, and it has a leader. If a Navi came today and established a King, do you think I’d choose Bibi over him? Absolutely not! I just look at what exists now. In no way does that diminish my longing for Mashiach’s arrival.

Avira so you think the Ponovezher Rav wasn’t following the Torah when he said that? Or when he flew the Israeli flag in front of the yeshiva, and didn’t say Tachnun on Yom Ha’atzmaut?

Avira, the Ponovezher Rav disagreed with you. After the Six Day War, he wrote an article where he said the war was an open miracle.

sechel, it’s not just my word that R’ Sternbuch said this. He first published a pamphlet about it, about a year after the book was published in Israel (1968), and later wrote about it in his sefer, Teshuvos v’Hanhagos: https://www.hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=20027&pgnum=414&hilite=

Joe, Sarah Schenirer wrote in her diaries that she learned Chok l’Yisrael every day. This is a daily seder which includes Chumash, Nach, Mishnah, and Gemara.

As I said in another thread, Sarah Schenirer learned Gemara. Please explain that.

Avira, you’re wrong yet again. Teaching women Gemara has nothing to do with science. As I wrote earlier in the thread, there are opinions from major rabbonim (such as R’ Henkin) that it’s permissible to teach Gemara to women as long as it’s by choice, and not mandated. So it can be an elective class, not a required class. I posted a link to an article from R’ Jachter which goes through all the sources.

As for RABBI Lamm’s thoughts, if only we’d all be on the level where we looked at everything we learned from a Torah perspective, then yes, we probably should recite Birchas haTorah. For example, when the Gra wrote his sefer explaining trigonometry, even though it’s math, it was used to properly understand Maseches Sukkah. Studying trig in order to understand the Gemara is learning Torah.