13 Responses

1. when exactly was this letter written?
   it says on the bottom in shvat and we’re at the end of adar alef already.

2. Benevolent country you say.

   Why then do they not make mi shebairachs for the nasi v’es mishnaihoo, eveery shabbos in the various Agudah minyonim.

   All machzorim from the turn of the 20th century had such tefillos printed in their siddurim and machzorim for such people as Franz Josef, etc.

   Why is it treif to give Hakoras Hatov on Shbbos morning in Shul for the president of this benevolent country?

3. Rav Shmuel Birnbaum zatzal instituted that the mirrer yeshiva make a mi shebeirach each yom kippur for the presidents of the US (at least since 9/11).

   so stop with your attacks.

   if you have a question on any rov who signed the above letter, then go ask them.

   bye bye

4. Shmendrik,

   Basic course in civics.

   How many presidents does the US have at any given time? You indicated that the Mir Yeshiva makes a mi shebeirach for the presidents of the U.S.

5. what does a mi shebairach have to do with going out to vote?

6. Just be careful who you vote for. Don’t vote for people who advance the agenda of immoralty and child-murder. It’s a Chilul haShem for us to do that.

   You have an obligation to get informed on the positions of the candidates on these issues.

7. It appears as if they are saying that one should vote based on a candidate’s position on Israel, although they never actually refer to the state of Israel. (“Second, Divine providence has placed the United States today in the position of being the single greatest ally of the Jewish nation that lives in the Holy Land, concerned with protecting it from the “70 wolves” that surround it to destroy it, G-d forbid.”) Does anyone know what previous statements urging people to vote have said on this subject?

8. Non Kollel Man, perhaps your question would be better directed to an Agudah Rabbi, rather than publicly denying (implicitly, if not outright) Agudah’s gratitude of the benevolence of this country.

   For the record, I do not recall meeting even one Jew (of any stripe) who is not grateful to this country.

   Why don’t you wear Tefillin all day? Doesn’t that show a lack of love for Hashem? Obviously, there are other factors that dictate when to and not to wear tefillin, and not wearing your tefillin does not mean you don’t want to wear them or that you don’t respect them and what they represent. Same idea here.

   That the mishebeirach is not recited on Shabbos does not connote a lack of gratitude towards the US Government, but is, most likely, a matter of whether the mishebeirach belongs from a liturgical point of view, or some other external factor.

   Incidentally, I have seen the mishebeirach said on Yom Kippur in a shul run by a Agudah-type Rabbi.

9. we need more kol korehs! todays dor has gotten too comfortable with acting ‘ish kol hayashar be’einav’…we need our gedolim to continue to give us the proper hadrocho in each and every aspect of our lives, be it concerts, voting, or anything else for that matter! the more kol korehs, the better it is for klal yisroel!

10. #9 – Sammy: I think it’s precisely those MO/YI et al. shuls that are the “center of town shuls”. Most Agudah/shteibel-type shuls are shteibels in comparison.

11. 11, maybe if we would take seriously what our shul and community ravs had to say there would be minimal need for kol koreis. The more they proliferate, the cheaper they become. To have an effective kol koreih involving a number of gedolim necessitates meetings and discussions which is extremely demanding. I would say, to quote you, the more kol korehs, the greater the strain on our gedolim. Let’s restore the community and shul ravs’ chashivus.

12. If you dont vote, no one cares what you say. No politician will care to help shuls with security funding, help yeshivot with lunch funding, etc etc etc.
    So if you want politicians to know that jews dont care, dont vote. If hopefully you want politicians to know that we do care, and our vote counts, then you should vote.
    Obviously this is my personal opinion,as well as many gedolims opinions , that if you dont vote you are doing a disservice to your fellows jews.
    How many stories do we know of gedolim in past generations going to plead with dictators, kings etc on behalf of klal yisroel. In 2008 all you have to do is take 20 minutes and pull down a lever. We all waste more than 20 minutes in a day so theres no excuse not to vote.

13. #13, Sammy, Yes, you said that, but my understanding of your comment was that it was an incorrect practice that the traditional orthodox shuls omit the mishebeirach.

    My reply to that was that since, as you said, the traditional orthodox shuls are smaller, they don’t need to say it, so today’s practice of large MO/YI et al “community” shuls being the only ones who say it, seems correct to me.

    The only point that may need clarification is where one opens a shul in a religious middle of nowhere; would the Rabbi of this new area, then, be required to say this mishebeirach which, as a Yeshiva product, he never gave thought to needing to say, before?