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1. The rebuilding of Yeshivos, Baitai Chinuch, and Bais Yaacov’s is no less an expression of Avavas Yisroel for every Yid then sending Shluchim. It was (and is) and disagreement regarding what you is the best meathod of Harbatzas Torah.
2. Demanding Halachic proofs against Mashichist beliefs is besides the point. If you make an error regarding a Halacha in Shulchan Aruch or Ramabam that’s one thing. But let’s say you believe in something for which there is no direct positive evidence and insist that it is your religious duty to believe so based on personal feelings, revelations, miricles, etc. You have just legitimized the revelation narrative of every world religion and cult.
3. I take personal offense at the statement made by CS that the Vilna Gaon saw the Alter Rebbe of Lubavich through a key hole, realized that if he would meet him he would have become a chossid and ran away. But this is just a symptom of the above stated problem.
(Continued from my previous post)
Or maybe the above is just a very krum hashkafa taken to its logical end.
Thanks to the abundant mercy of the Ribbono Shel Olam the Da’as Torah of R’ Yochanan Ben Zakai and the Sages of Yavneh preserved the continuity of the Torah and the survival of Am Yisroel. Much like the great Torah Leaders in the generation of the Shoah succeeded to fan a mighty flame of Torah from ashes and burning embers.
Zahavasdad wrote “Because of the actions of Rabbi Zecharia ben Avkolos (The Godol at that time) the temple was destroyed”
My point exactly. After all even the Senhedrin HaGadol could err (see first Mishnah in Horiyos). So what we learn from this is that since it is possible that Gedolim can err, especially errors of such great magnitude in matters of such importance to Klal Yisroel the logical solution is to just ignore them altogether. Come to think of it who says the ma’atikai ha shmuah got it right, and maybe the navi’im also misinterpreted their nevuah. So who knows what the truth is anyway, it’s all relative. So everyone should just do what “feels right” and “makes sense”. Let’s just go back to the drawing board and set up a society based on the enduring, timeless values of western democracy, humanism and rational self interest.
All initial efforts to establish Yeshivot and Frun communities in this country had met with failure. The success enjoyed by the Architects of Torah after the Shoah by their own account was simply not b’derech ha-teva. One does not willingly put themselves in a place of certain spiritual destruction.
But then again maybe I’m missing something. Maybe upon carefully examining the words of our prophets, sages, and the history of klal Yisroel we will discover that the churban bais rishon and sheini, expulsions, crusades, inquisition, and other mass tragedies we survived by the grace of Hashem could have been averted if only we had done a better job of ignoring the instructions of our Gedolim.
There are 2 issues here
1) Pushing people away. This is a very real issue and a difficult tightrope to toe. Consider that Timna was pushed away by our Avos Avracham an Yitchok. Obviously they had very good reasons for pushing her away – and yet from the gemmara (Senhedrin and Rashi there)it is clear that we are still suffering for this. Any decision that effects a yiddish neshamah has to be made with the requisite fear and awe – sadly this is not always the case.
2) The continued fable that people who choose an assimilationist life-style and publicly trample on clear-cut halacha somehow have rebbonim they rely on that sanction this. This creates much confusion for many people who naivly belive that this is just another machlokes between legitamite opinions.
Now Sam2 tells us that there exist poskim that allow knees and elbows to be uncovered. We are even treated to a remarkable bit of lumdus regarding tephach b’isha erva. (no doubt a self made biyan av / ma-metzinu from R’ Moshes teshuva about married womens hair. This is truely an impressive exercise in self delusion. We are STILL waiting with baited breath from a real source that allows women to do out in public with their knees and elbows uncovered.
Menachem Melamid – Still waiting to see the name of gedolim and poskim who say that knees and elbows do not need to be covered.
Statements based on wishful thinking with nothing whatsoever to back them up only serve to cloud the issue when it is indeed clear cut.
Not covering hair and elbows is against halacha. PBA made this point above a number of times and it keeps getting ignored in favor of self serving justifications.
A women who today publicly refuses to comply with halachic standards which are widely observed and known has nothing in common with a Europeen or American women in the mid 1900s who was making an effort to learn and do the right thing.