67 Responses

1. It would of been better for the sefer torah to stay hidden till yemos hamoshiach rather than going through this utter disgrace in a reform shul.
   The scroll is crying and we all should cry with it……..

2. Poor sefer Torah! This sefer should be used by a Torah-true congregation,not by those who deny the truth of our holy Torah. How dare they? The same Torah that tells you to keep Shabbos is going to be used and disrespected by the desecrators?

3. WHO is this “save a torah org” and how do they have the chutzpah to descrate a sefer torah in this manner. Taking a sefer torah that’s the symbol of mesora and giving it to people who appose everything in it.
   Donors stop donating to this org and everyone should call and protest.

4. Moshe Rabbeinu must be crying in his kever and on Har Sinai.This is painful for the neshomos who were murdered ‘Al Kiddush Hashem’!!!

5. Chuzpa,

   The sefer torah should be given Oswiecim’s few Jewish survivors or their children. They davened in the Orthodox shtibels and in the big shul (whose sefer torah this was) which had one of the gedolim as a Rav, Rav Eliyohu Bombach h”yd. They paid for it. They buried it. Not one store was open in Oswiecim on Shabbos. Why give this srid mutzal me-esh to a temple into where the kedoshim would never set their foot?

6. “…as it has been read by generations of young men and women becoming Bar/Bat Mitzvah”. Huh? Now these Reform rabbis have the chutzpah to say that the torah was read by women becoming “Bat Mitzvah” for generations?!

   This is called “Save a Torah”?

7. “Hakol Tzorichin Mazel, Afilu Sefer Torah Sh’beheichol” (Tikunaei Zohar -69)- Translation – All Need Luck, Even A Sefer Torah In The Heichel (Aron Kodesh).

   The simple translation is that even a Sefer Torah needs luck so that is should be taken out. I recently saw a phenomenal interpretation, that even a Sefer Torah needs needs Mazel (luck) in order “not” to be taken out; in the case where it’s inappropriate.

   This new interpretation strikes home in this instance, since It would have been better that it remained concealed.

8. this save a torah foundation is a proper orthodox org. i assume this is a “posul” sefer, since this org “kashers” seforim, so perhaps this was not possible with this sefer.

   also, i see many conserv (and i assume reform, but i dont go that often enough to know) “synagogues” put these seforim in a glass “case” in the lobby with a plaque that its a “rescued” sefer as an “educational” tool. prob the same in this cae (otherwise, reform use an english sefer, prob bought from artscroll).

   also, i find it hard to believe that there’s no money connection between the “donor” and this “synagogue”

9. is there any way we can stop this from happening? the sadness will mar the happiness of the grand find. the holy neshama that has taken the time to bury this sefer torah did not want it to be deposited into a shul where it will be read, and then desecrated. we’ve got to get this rare sefer torah to a shul where this meshamash would be proud to work in, as he was in the one he works at before he was killed by the nazis ym”s. let us get together and try to save hashem’s kavod, and those of the holocaust victims.

10. Saving a sefer torah from the ashes of Europe & having it restored is a wonderfull mitzvah- The rededication of this holy torah no matter where it takes place is still a “Kiddush Hashem” – you never know how an event like this can spark & transform a non frum person to become a baal teshuva.
    I know the YWN picks up on Jewish news items but, why run an artical that incites people to behave with “Sinas Chenam”?
    How interesting that “Kedoshim” is this weeks parsha!!

11. Nezem zahav b’af Chazir

12. to number 11:STANDING UP FOR KAVOD HATORAH AND SCREAMING FOR KVOD SHOMAYIM IS NOT SINAS CHINUM BUT OUR ACHRAYIS AS BNEI TORAH

13. I understand why some are distressed as to where and how this sefer Torah might be used. I beg someone to demonstrate halachigly that it would preferable to let it remain buried and rot in the earth. If you can, fine. If you can’t, then accept the fact that in life there are imperfect solutions, and move on.

14. It would be better for a Torah to remain buried?

    YES

    On one hand, you relentlessly assail and moan about secular Jews who do not affiliate.

    WE BEMOAN THOSE JEWS THAT DO NOT AFFILIATE WITH THE LAWS AND WAYS OF THE TORAH. WE DO NOT BEMOAN THOSE JEWS THAT DO NOT AFFILIATE WITH APIKORSUS AND ABOMINATION.

    Then when there are Jews, who are TRYING to remain affiliated with their faith,

    THEIR FAITH IS NOT THE FAITH OF JUDAISM.

    and are often doing so in the only way they have ever known,

    THE WORSHIP OF CHR-ST WAS A SIMILAR “ALTERNATIVE” WAY OF FAITH

    we get comments like the ones on here.

    THANK G-D SOME JEWS STILL ARE SERVANTS OF HASHEM

    You think people magically become frum out of nowhere?

    NO
    BUT THEY DONT BECOME FRUM FROM APIKORSUS EITHER, THEY BECOME APIKORSUM

    From the comments here, it seems like many of you think that reform Jews are stam bad people,

    REFORM JEWS ARE DOING STAM VERY BAD THINGS

    which is utterly reprehensible.

    YES, IT IS REPREHENSIBLE TO THOSE WHO WORSHIP THE WESTERN LIBERAL VALUES INSTEAD OF THE VALUES OF TORAH

    Good luck trying to be mekarev someone who has read your comments.

    YOU CAN ONLY BE MEKAREV SUCCESSFULLY WITH EMES, NOT WITH BLEEDING HEART WESTERN LIBERAL APIKORSUS.

15. Rabbi Youlus’ integrity is impeccable. How it got from him to the congregation is a question, the answer to which I can live without knowing. Meanwhile, what’s done is done, and let’s hope that it will be physically cared for with love and dignity, and who knows, with our best, well meaning tefillos, maybe it will light some sparks in the congregants’ hearts and souls.

16. Telegrok

    Very well said.
    Furthermore, imagine it being found and then totally destroyed by a neo nazi or other antisemite , Hashem Yirachem.

    This was certainly not the best solution but it could have been a lot worst. Who knows, maybe the sefer Torah will eventually be redeemed by a Shomer Torah Umitzvohs

17. to #12 post yeh, was waiting for mr illini07 to show up, and as usual, didnt dissapoint us, when comes to yiden(“jews” his language) who are shomrei torah he accuses them as being “every bit as capable…” (see article “crown heights man ..april 25 post #4)but oivrei torah and mechallel shem shomayinm b’ferhesy see “mr koch… article” april 22 all posts with signiture illini07 he is dan l’kaf zechus. there’s no dan l’kaf zezus wh..oh forget it …YOU can have YOUR cake and eat it. ainoi doime a yuchud who is oiver al toarh and we try to be mekarev and one who is public figure or organization that makes mockery of the torah …the gemmorah states in shabbos “rather go into house of idol worship ,oivdei avodah zorah, than baisiem shell uliy” shabbos 116a middle of wide lines… yeh, waiting for usual retort, i cant spell, am 4th grade level… (3rd grade according to mr kaj wh tide. one guy even complimente i’m 6th grade..dont have time to look up …)etc etc etc.. now you will start …”YOU ARE JUST OUT TO ATTACK ME…” for once, stick to the subject and refute…to what mir zogen we bring reyois whch you say “irrelevancies” see “open letter…”april 25 post #8, but your haskafah not one rayoh….

18. This Torah was found possul and given to a posul Temple.This was the minhag in Lita ,they gave it to the Karaim .Check it out with the donator.So it was done in WE….. N.J. 20 yrs ago.The donator made a lot of money for good causes.

19. Well said Feivel, well said.

20. That Kedoshim is this week’s parsha only enhances the sad irony that the Sefer Torah will be used by those who claim, Rachmana Litzlan, that it was not written by G-d but was only “inspired” by him.

    In any event, Hashem obviously has His reasons (here and everywhere) for bringing a holy Sefer Torah to a “reform” temple, and one can assume that it will, sooner or later, find its way to an observant congregation where it can be used by those who rejoice in its divinely WRITTEN words.

    So while some good can certainly come from this, it does not make it a simcha that a non-religious temple is receiving it.

21. to #12 mr illini07…also your language “you people ” is a givaway vu du haltst “u’lefu shehotzi atzmo min haklall…” you know who said it…you say “it would be better for to remain buried..” yes it would’ve been better…dont have reyoh on hand but ask your local SHOMREI torah v’yiras shomayim rov…(do have shtikel rayoh from gem. mes. shabbos in next post that we send (“sent” ..according above 4th grade level spellin’..) already…also on “mr koch article someone mention “give credit that he will have “shema yisroel..” yes, like the guy who ate dover acher and we should give credit that he made a brocha..(l’haloche, machlokes rambam, raved..)..you say “there are jews trying to be affiliated etc., etc,.. we are not talking about yechidem…you say “stam bad people..” which post did you deduct as such?..the derech was discussed, not the people..”yitamu chatuim v’lo chotim..” gee, by the way how is my spelling, improved?.now after yom tov have more time to proove read…can you skip me to 8th grade..

22. If it is kept in a glass case and not used by these menuvalim, perhaps it is better than being buried in the ground.

23. why do you post such a heart braking story

24. Knowing Rabbi Youlus personally and all of the good that his organization does, I agree wholeheartedly with # 17. What you detractors don’t know is that Rabbi Youlus’ organization takes the (significant) money it receives from providing irreparable Sifrei Torah to reform and conservative “shuls” and uses that money to subsidize the significant costs it incurs saving Sifrei Torah from Bobov, Munkatch, Belz, Ger, Sanz, and numerous other Mekoimos in Der Alte Heim, and provides those Sifrei Torah to the Heimeshe survivors from these Mekoimos at a far reduced cost. Perhaps a bit of Dan L’kav Zechus is in order here–aside from this week being Parshas Kedoshim, it is also the time when we mourn for the 24,000 talmidim of R’ Akiva who perished M’Pnei Shelo Nuhagu Kavod Zeh L’Zeh…

25. Question: should a sofer refuse to sell a sefer Torah to a non-observant congregation, or reject requests to repair sifrei Torah that are used by non-observant congregations?

    Just a thought – perhaps those who are friendly with a sofer can ask.

26. illini:
    You and I both know that 95% of YW readers speak for “frum Judaism” more than you do.
    Your history of postings from day 1 has been in defense of anything Frum Jews find offensive. You have very liberally applied your misconstrued self interpretations of OUR Torah on a regular basis. You apparently are having a hard time realizing that this is a pretty Chareidi site. And while I’m sure the editor allows all comments without regard to the posters personal preferences (this especially being true in your case), you must surely understand that we are pretty united in our stances. I am proud of my fellow posters who are sickened by this story all the more so due to your protest.
    All this being said, after reading the post of “Toein” in #27, I think perhaps we should see the other side of the story. Assuming “Toein” is correct perhaps we should assume that Rabbi Youlus has asked our Torah leaders and has indeed performed al pi daas torah.
    My Uncle A”H was from Ushpetzeen (as he called it) as were many Bobover Chasidim, and it is my hope that we give true kovod to all Sifrei Torah by cherishing and following their holy words.

27. reminds me of the Abie Rottenberg song – about a sefertorah – known as ‘the place where I belong

28. to #29 three cheers.. we was (ok, so its “were”) going to get a complex already, didnt see any body agreeing with mir. did have “town shrier” in other article(article “crown heights man…post #26). OK mr illini07 and sinisent also have a few others that one can derieve from thier postings with same hashkafa as illini ,sini, but not so often and outright so cant grab onto wording as them.. we’ll say unequivocally(real fancy word for 4th grade level) again see post #19 and #23. mr velicher choosed (#29) yashor koach and now we can say unequivocally “l’o b’chinom holech hazarzir aitzel huorefh ale mipnai shehu mino…” and thats the reason they stick up for kofrim..and ..see #19 first 3 lines

29. Where would we be without Google?

    A Mission To Salvage Holy Message
    Wheaton Rabbi Scours World for Torahs Buried, Hidden During Holocaust
    By Katherine Shaver
    Washington Post Staff Writer
    Friday, September 24, 2004; Page B01

    Menachem Youlus, a Wheaton rabbi, and two other men had been digging for about two hours on a farm in Ukraine when, five feet into the earth, they found the sea of bones.

    The remains of 263 men, women and children were still shrouded in clothing that bore the Star of David, which Jews were forced to wear during the Holocaust. Youlus also discovered what looked to be military body bags.

    Inside, he found two cherished items, badly deteriorated but Holocaust survivors just the same: They were Torahs, sacred handwritten scrolls that contain the five Books of Moses.

    Discovered four years ago, the scrolls were two of more than 400 Torahs that Youlus and a team of scribes have unearthed from a dark past. Youlus has spent the past 19 years scouring Eastern Europe for them, then working with fellow scribes to restore the scrolls and find them new homes.

    “Many of the Torahs come from communities that were completely destroyed in the Holocaust,” said Youlus, 43, as he prepared this week for Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement — a time of confession and repentance, observed by fasting and nearly unbroken prayer — which begins at sundown.

    “No one is left from these towns,” he said. “The only thing that survived is these Torahs.”

    Some lost Torahs have come his way without any digging. In Ukraine, he bought one from a former Nazi sergeant who said he confiscated it from a man entering Auschwitz. Youlus discovered another being sold in pieces to artists who were using the sacred parchment as canvas. Some he smuggled out of then-Communist countries, two panels at a time, in the lining of luggage.

    “He’s an intrepid Jewish 007,” said Rabbi Moshe D. Shualy, ritual director for Chizuk Amuno, a Baltimore synagogue that has two of Youlus’s rescued Torahs.

    “You wouldn’t look at him twice,” said Shualy, whose parents were Holocaust survivors. “But he puts himself in such impossible situations to find, retrieve and resurrect these scrolls.”

    If Youlus can’t track down a Torah’s owners or their descendants, he said, he buys it from whoever has come to possess it. Then, back at his family’s store, the Jewish Bookstore of Greater Washington on Georgia Avenue, he and a team of scribes try to repair 60 years worth of damage from mildew, heat, dirt, bugs and rodents. On many Torahs, Youlus said, he also finds bayonet marks and cigarette burns from Nazi desecration.

    After using an infrared camera attached to a scanner that shows cracked letters and other details the naked eye can miss, Youlus and his team painstakingly re-ink each one by hand with a goose or turkey quill. Each Torah contains about 302,000 Hebrew letters. Some words must be written with one drop of ink. It requires hours of concentration.

    “You have to think about only one thing: that you’re writing for the sake of God,” Youlus said. “It’s not to get a high or because you’re better than the next Jew.”

    Seven scribes restore the scrolls in a warehouse near Baltimore. Youlus often does his work with his brother-in-law, Rabbi Ayson Englander, at the bookstore. Cardboard boxes containing 40 to 50 Torahs, some new, are stacked to its 20-foot ceiling. It takes between seven weeks and six months to repair a Torah. Youlus estimates they are able to restore about 85 percent of them.

    When he’s done, Youlus finds them new homes in synagogues, schools and Jewish community centers across the country.

    “He’s one of the world’s great people,” said Rick Zitelman, a Rockville investment and merchant banker. Zitelman and his wife, Cindy, helped buy one of Youlus’s Torahs for Sixth and I Historic Synagogue on the edge of the District’s Chinatown.

    Youlus — who has a Web site devoted to his mission, http://www.saveatorah.org — estimates that as many as 2,400 scrolls survived the Holocaust. He believes so strongly in saving them that he has gone into debt $170,000 to finance his work, he said.

    “He doesn’t see it as a sacrifice,” Zitelman said of Youlus using his own money. “He just sees it as his life’s mission.”

    Perhaps nothing captures the intrigue and often profound sadness of Torah rescue as Youlus’s gruesome discovery in Kamenets-Poldosk, a small town in Ukraine.

    Youlus went there in spring 2000 to meet with an antiques dealer who had a Torah. That deal fell through, but while sitting outside the store drinking a soda, he said, a farmer approached him, offering to sell him a map. The farmer said his father had told him to offer the map to someone wearing a yarmulke.

    Youlus said he bought the map for $1,500. “My driver thought I was pretty nutty, but I had a gut feeling,” Youlus said.

    The hand-drawn map, marked with an “X” surrounded by a large circle, led to an overgrown area of the man’s farm. Youlus said the farmer made him pay $1,500 more to buy the plot of land before he could dig on it.

    In two hours, Youlus said, he, his driver and the farmer came across the bones. He eventually hired a company with a backhoe and unearthed the mass grave with the hidden Torahs.

    “That was a little more than I bargained for,” Youlus said.

    Elderly people in the town recalled four Jewish men being forced to bury the massacred bodies, Youlus said. Those men likely saved the Torahs from a nearby synagogue by wrapping them in the body bags and sneaking them into the grave.

    Youlus said he spent several more weeks helping to rebury the remains in separate plots. He also found five more pre-Holocaust Torahs in nearby towns, hidden in basements or kept by non-Jews.

    He credits his zeal for Torah rescue to a “deal” he struck with God 21 years ago. He was a 22-year-old accountant in New York when his father and his sister’s boyfriend were struck by a car while crossing a road near their Montgomery County synagogue.

    Youlus said doctors told him to begin making burial arrangements. If God would save their lives, he prayed, he would devote a year to studying the Torah. Both men survived.

    He didn’t know then, he said, that he would end up devoting the rest of his life to saving it.

    Staff researcher Karl Evanzz contributed to this report.

    © 2004 The Washington Post Company

30. The stupidity is mind boggling

    just keep those comments coming i need them as on outlet when i have to relax

31. to #16 feivel..very good..v’da mah shetushuv…

32. What is ironic is how they embrace the Torah, but they don’t see any relevance of the Torah to their daily lives. The way they practice religion is cult like, for they worship objects, contrary to us in orthodoxy, that see it as the Instruction Manual of our lives. We are a religion.

33. It is far better for a posul Sefer to be buried then to reside in a house of apikorsus, such as a reform or conservative church.

34. Isn’t it mutar al pi halocho to do geneiva to be matzil a sefer torah from reshoyim?(i used lashon koidesh words on purpose, for obvious reasons)

35. mister #39 what is your source?

36. illini
    “I am no better than a goy” are an interesting choice of words, but they are yours not mine.
    That being said I am honored by your criticism and proudly stand by my words. You and the town crier are always the first to defend the indefensible. Obviously I do not speak for Klal Yisroel nor do I claim to be any more a member than you or those you defend.
    I’m sorry I hurt your feelings, the truth does hurt though.

37. the desecration of a Torah IS the worst thing possible. At least in a Reform temple maybe it or the service will inspire someone to want to be more then reform and maybe this Sefer Torah will be zoche to bring someone back to yiddishkeit. who are we to decide it should remain buried!

38. On the eve of Yom Hashoah I am appalled by this lack derekh eretz exemplified by many of these comments. Did the Germans and their henchman ask people religious affiliation when they stood on the ramp at Auschwitz? Do you think the Rebbono Shelolam cares?

39. to #45.. you say “do you think the riboni shel olom cares” can you please be more explicit …cares about what..we have a shulchun urech that the riboni shel olm cares we should adhere to ..so if you mean he doesnt care ,then you are joining all other apikorsim who have that shita EG: does he really care if smoke on shabbos, if you make a bracha on… etc., etc., so what are you refering to ?

40. Dear readers,
    I am a student that unfortunately has to deal with
    liberal views from our unfortunate brethren.

    Have any of you have an idea what to answer when a
    uneducated liberal Jew dismisses Torah and always promotes his secular humanisitic veiws on yiddishkiet and jewish history science and also the holocuast he dissmisis esav soneh liyakov as hogwash and bigotry I am imposing on them I even try to bring a proof of esav sone lyakov using the principals of the scientific method they love so much. dosent help they live in there own world
    its a big disgrace to give a sefer torah to people whom we still have to educate about their own heritige.

41. just a thought.
    by the way you guys are forgetting all the people that are coming back to yiddishkiet?

42. To 11:
    This is not about frum vs non frum orthodox vs reform this is ABOUT A SEFER TORAH
    THEY UNFORTUNATLY DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH ONE ITS NOT THERE FUALT ITS THE CRAZY LEFT WING REFORM MOVEMENT IT STARTED 100 TO 150 YEARS AGO MASKILIM
    THEY BY THE WAY THEY THINK ARE SANE, AND WE CRAZY YOURE GOING TO TRUST A LEFT WING CHILONI WITH OUR MOST PRECIOUS TORAH ARE YOU NUTS?!

    Though I see youre point thats why there is something called chinuch we educate the victims of the spirtual holocuast!!!!

43. Left Brooklyn,

    “On the eve of Yom Hashoah I am appalled by this lack derekh eretz exemplified by many of these comments. Did the Germans and their henchman ask people religious affiliation when they stood on the ramp at Auschwitz? Do you think the Rebbono Shelolam cares?”

    Who cares what the Germans did and what their evil motives were? This is a ridiculous argument.

    Hashem cares so much that he brought about the destruction of Europe and the Holocaust to bring punishment on those who abandon the Torah (Refer to Rabbi Avigdor Miller’s commentary).

    Handing over the Torah to these desecrators is a crime. It definitely would have been better for it to remain buried. The righteous denizens of Auschwitz certainly would have wanted it this way.

44. Ani Tapuach- I was thinking the same thing. A lot of relavent words.

    I was made way back in 1842
    By a humble man, a real g-d fearing jew…

    But the hatred of the west came to Kiev
    And they rounded up the jew who had not fled
    But Moishele the shamas, he was brave and he was bold
    He hid me in his cellar, dark and cold

    And for years and years I waited all alone
    For the people of my town to take me home…

    But it was someone else who found my hiding place
    And to America they sent me in a crate
    the people who took me off the boat, they said I was a prize
    But they were jews I did not recognize

    In a case of glass they put me on display
    Where visitors would look at me and say
    How very nice, how beutiful a stunning work of art
    But they knew not what was inside my heart

    And across the room I saw upon a shelf
    Some old friends of mine who’d lived back in Kiev
    A silver pair of candlesticks a menorah made of brass
    We’d all become mere relics of the past

    So if you hear my voice why don’t you come along
    and take me to the place where I belong…

    It’s a lot longer (and yes, I do know the whole song by heart), but I only included relevent parts. Maybe the torah itself will have the koach to make many baalei tshuva

45. Comment 13 pretty well sums it up. Regarding a sefer Torah, a reform temple is no better than a bathroom or a church. And I hope that my comment is read by reform Jews so they realize their hypocrisy in allegedley “cherishing” an object that regulates every aspect of their behavior and lives, but they no problem disregarding everything that this cherished object demands from them. (Like marrying Jews for instance so their grandchildren stand a chance of being Jewish.) Hashem promised the final redemption and he likewise promised us the holocaust. Yom Hashoah should be “celebrated” be reading the toichachah. It was visited upon European Judaism, beginning in Germany and due in no small measure to the 42% intermarriage rate in Germany, chillul shabbos, and the abondonment of Torah. Hashem delivered the toichachah in full measure letter by letter. The Holocaust should serve as source of faith for the nonbeliever. Hashem told us to grow a beard and payos, to wear tzitzis and inscribe the ois bris in our flesch. In order that a Jew should be clearly recognizable when he walks down the street. The Jews in Germany cut their beards and payos, wore short jackets, and stopped being mal their children (For you Zionist, your great hero Herzl did not circumcise his son. [Amnon Yitzchok has a great expose’ on Herzl on shofar.net]) But Hashem is really really big and he gets way. We can do it the easy way or the hard way, but it’s gonna be Hashem’s way. So the German Goy told the Jew to put a big yellow star on the outside of his Jacket “In order that a Jew should be clearly recognizable when he walks down the street.” and he inscribed an ois in the flesch of the Jews left fore arm. (For those of you who like to shout “never again” and you think you can outwit God if you buy a $400 gun and learn karate, you have a very little God, this for real believers, not you.) For those that seek to question G-d or me for that matter: What about the righteous that were killed? See Yer. Yevamos 3:8 “every 60-70 years…”
    Nachzor li’inyunanee
    A reform temple is a place where torah is ridiculed and relagated to antiquity. Reb Aharon Soleveitchik ruled in a printed tshuva that it is assur to stand outside a Conservative temple on Rosh Hashana to hear shofar blowing. A reform place much more so. The place has no kedusha and the act has no signifigance. The less liberal Hungarian Hardliners probably would have said burn the place to the ground. It is food for thought that in the USA, Madison Square Garden, that was built for Goyish entertainment, was used for the Daf Yomi siyum hashas (chutch the Rebbezchusoyuganalanee nisht gehalten fun dem) And in Europe, the Huge Neologe (reform) Temples that survived or were restored (some seating 2000-3000 people), are by and large used for Goyishe theatres, clubs, and museums.

    There is a lack of paralellism in the toichachah. Parshas bechukosei begins “If you walk in (the ways) of my statutes…” When the toichachah begins it should seemingly start with just the opposite: “And if you don’t walk in (the ways) of my statutes…”, but it doesn’t. It says “v’im bechukosei timasu – If you make my statutes disgusting.” This is talking about a reform Rabbi. The Rabbi says there is a torah. The Torah tells us to keep the Sabbath, that we should have a day of leisure because it’s good for our health, because it builds family ties to spend a day with the family, one should have time for fun and relaxation, etc. This is a person taking G-d’s statute and recreating it in his own image, this is called bechukosei timasu and is followed by the toichachah which we sometimes refer to as the Holocaust. Hashem does not sit around passing out lollypops. He demands much from us and if we have an inkling of what “ana avda dikudsha breechu” means, we do what out master commands us, or we are no different than the reform.

46. #44 and 45 very reasonable comments!!

47. #45: Maybe you should return to Brooklyn, to get back some of your lost hashkafos!

    Yom Hashoah was declared by reshoim gmurim, who complain why the chareidim don’t stand during the minute-long siren, but give more substance to the 24000 talmidim of Rebbi Akiva.

    I ask them back: If for 24K we mourn 33 days, shouldn’t we do a little more than 1 minute for 6 million?

48. levtov, I completely agree with you. These comments are hilarious. While everyone blasts each other with anonymity, it would be ironic if it turned out that these idiots were neighbors in their close minded communities or even friends.

    Everyone is missing the point that a sefer Torah was found and restored. I am not to judge who gets what and who does what. It is because of close mindedness like this that the Enlightenment Period took place to begin with. This hatred in frum Judaism was the cause of the “apikorsims” creation of the Reform and Conservative movements of the 19th century. Nice to see that it is still present in our frum communities today.
    My parents converted to Judaism, first through a Reform congregation, than Conservative, and then converted thru an observant rav and became frum. I glad words like this were not around while they were in their search for religion. They would most likely have stopped their process if they saw how much religious Jews hate each other and other’s who are not like them. A convert and a ba’al teshuva is supposed to treated with the highest respect and kavod, yet people on here treat their upbringing as insignificant and against the torah. What we would have done without the Ravs who came from this lifestyle who are now mekareving hundreds if not thousands of Jews every year? What is the point of the stories when all it does is bring out the worst in Jews who are commanded to respect one another and love their fellow man.
    YWN posts these stories about atrocities going on in the Jewish world, why not write a story about how Jews are being so disgusting to each other on it’s website?

49. They are filling in the last letters. I believe that is enough to posul it.

50. Sorry to burst anyone’s bubble here, but knowing Rabbi Youlis as a stand-up Yorei Shamayim, I’d certainly be inclined to be melamed zechus. This is not the first time that he has presented a Torah to Reform or Conservative temples. I have no doubt that he consulted with a competent Daas Torah before getting involved in his avoidas hakoidesh. I venture to say that if any of you hockers on this blog would come up with the $$ to be poideh the Sifrei Toirah and donate them to your basement Shtiblach in Flatbush or Lakewood, he would welcome that offer with open arms.

51. Well, let the reform jews have the torah, they are probably quiet during davvening and have more Kovad Hatorah than a lot of Frum talking shuls. Maybe the Torah CHOSE to go there!

52. “Did the Germans and their henchmen ask people’s religious affiliation when they stood on the ramp at Auschwitz?

    NO, THEY DIDN’T CARE THAT SOME JEWS DID NOT KEEP THE TORAH

    “Do you think the Rebbono Shelolam cares?”

    YES, HE DOES CARE

53. Well, let the reform jews have the torah, they are probably quiet during davvening

    THEY DONT DAVEN, THEY PRAY, AS DO RELIGIOUS GOYIM. YES THEY ARE QUIET

    have more Kovad Hatorah than a lot of Frum talking shuls.

    BEING QUIET IN THE MANNER OF IMITATING THE GOYIM IS VERY FAR FROM KOVOD HATORAH

54. Basmelech,

    Please use a bit more diplomacy ona public web site.

    Having said that, is there anyone on this blog, critical of this issue, who even tried to be Mekarev
    a reform Jew, who even tried to INSPIRE them back to Yiddishkeit?? Until you have attempted to do so, please assume that they are under the category of Tinok Shenishba. Dont forget this is a younger geneneration and they just follow their parents who PERHAPS DID know they were apikorsim ; But can they be held responsible for something they dont know?

    I have tried on numerous occassions to arrange weekends for these young people for the purpose of Kiruv and have been successful a few times.

    Please, please, we are now mourning the plight of Rabbi Akiva”s Talmidim. Lets be a bit more careful
    wiht our expression.

55. We should all call this place and let them know we don’t approve. Perhaps if enough people ask, they will agree to move the holy Torah to a kosher and kavodika home. Here is the info

    652 Lexington Avenue at 55th Street

    Administration Office
    and Community House
    123 East 55th Street
    New York, NY 10022-3566

    (212) 838-5122

56. Deleted.

57. ATTN: the town crier,

    I think you misunderstood my statement (comment #37). The point of a torah is not to worship a piece of animal hide with some spilled ink on it. The point of holding the torah sacred is because it is Hashem’s chochmah written in it, as well as that it is the written word of our religion (yiddishkeit obviously), which guides us how to live our life (keep Shabbos, teffilin etc.). But if you are reformed and believe that the Torah is Shtus and outdated non truth, then your holding the Torah sacred (minus the words written in there) seems to me to be cult like. They are deifying an object. Get it?

    That is not to say that if you are non frum and hold a torah sacred there is anything wrong with it. I am not either observant 100% of the time (though I try). Meaning you can acknowledge the Torahs relevance to our lives, and acknowledge that it’s truth and not outdated fairytales, yet opting out of observing Torah completely.

    The point is; if you deny the torah’s truth, yet hold the torah sacred regardless, then how do you justify holding an OBJECT sacred?

58. YESTERDAY I READ THE STORY OF HOW THIS TORAH WAS FOUND IT IS A AMAZING STORY.

    READ BELOW:

    The Torah was recently found in the city of Oswiecim which is where the death camp of Auschwitz was located.

    There was a tradition amongst the survivors of Oswiecim that two days before the Nazis came to burn down the synagogue of Oswiecim the Torahs of the synagogue were taken and buried in separate metal boxes in the Jewish cemetery. The Nazis took a perverse pleasure in destroying Sifrei Torah in terrible ways that purposefully desecrated the Torah.

    Many had tried to find these Torahs and indeed, the spot where the synagogue stood was excavated but no Sifrei Torah were ever found.

    So Rabbi Menachem Youlis thought that perhaps the tradition told over the years was correct. Maybe there really was a Torah buried in the cemetery.

    He traveled to Oswiecim to check the cemetery but he did not find even one Torah.

    When he returned home he was despondent. But then his son told him, “Maybe the cemetery was bigger back then…” Lo and behold the original cemetery was built over and today it is just twenty-five percent of the size that it once was.

    So Rabbi Youlis took his metal detector and started searching the original cemetery by looking under the homes where the cemetery originally was.

    Lo and behold, he found a metal box. He opened up the metal box and found a Torah scroll.

    There was only one problem…the Torah scroll was missing four panels. Without these four panels, the Torah scroll could not be kosher…. Where could these panels be?

    He took out an ad in the local paper and asked if anyone had panels of a Torah from before the war.

    The next day he received a call from a Priest who said he had four panels.

    The panels were an exact match in pagination, style and content. Obviously they were originally from the Torah he had found buried in the cemetery.

    Rabbi Youlis learned that the Priest was born a Jew—named Zeev—and was sent to Auschwitz. Before the Torah had been buried in the Oswiecim cemetery these four panels had been removed and smuggled through Auscwitz by four different people.

    As each person who had a panel was about to die they passed along the panels. Eventually the four panels made it into the hands of Zeev who guarded them as a Priest for over 60 years.

    Rabbi Youlis lovingly restored the Torah and made it kosher once again. He added these four panels to the entire Torah. The four panels were all selected for a good reason:

    The first panel contained the Ten Commandments from the book of Exodus. The Ten Commandments contain with it the word Zachor—the obligation to always remember.

    The second panel spoke about the curses that will befall the Jewish people on the day the God hides His face from us. These curses came true during the dark days of the Holocaust. But we know that since these curses came true, the blessings that Hashem promises us will also come true.

    The third panel contained the section from Parshat Pinchas that spoke about korbanot—sacrifices, burnt offerings—that were offered to God.

    The last panel contained the Shema from Deuteronomy. In that same panel was also found the Ten Commandments from Deuteronomy.

    The Ten Commandments from Exodus say, Zakhor et hashabbat, remember the Shabbat.

    Explain the rabbis, Zakhor ve-shamor bedibbur echad neemru, at the same time that remember was said, so was the word shamor, to guard.

    At the same time that we have an obligation to remember the past we also have an obligation to guard the memory of the korbanot of the shoah—the victims of the Holocaust.

    When Rabbi Youlis looked at this Torah he noticed that the word shamor (in Deuteronomy) was missing the letter, vav. The Torah had been originally written without this letter included in it. The vav, has a numerical value of 6, but it also represents the six million. Rabbi Youlis added the vav to the Torah and thereby made it kosher. By adding the vav to this Torah he also symbolically made an eternal memorial to the memory of all those who perished from the town of Oswiecim and in Auschwitz.

    FACT: RABBI YOULIS IS A TORAH JEW, YAREI SHAMIYIM.
    THEREFORE HE MUST HAVE ASKED A RABBI BEFORE LETTING NON ORTHODOX SHULS SPONSER AND RECIEVE THESE TORAHS.

    FACT: IF A NON RELIGIOU JEW READ THIS WEBSITE THEY WOULD NEVER EVER WANT TO BE COME FRUM.

    HAVE A GOOD SHABBOS!

59. 52, the thing is that the congregants do not see their synagogue as a museum, and their aron as a sterile cage housing an archaic artifact. I think that if any congregants are following this thread, they might be find it thought-provoking (“ok, what is the difference between our aron and a museum section? Is our religious expression live and growing, or is sterile? Hm, where do we go from here?”) but I think more likely they would find it extremely offensive.

    63, would you like to provide a sample text of a letter? I am afraid that the letters that might emanate from the readers will do much more harm than good, and hope the moderator will delete the address. If anyone is moved to call or write, I implore you, express yourself with concern, empathy, and good grammar and spelling.

60. Deleted.

61. #66

    QUIET IN THE MANNER OF IMITATING THE GOYIM

    you misunderstood me
    quite my fault
    writing tersely has its pitfalls.

    of course one should be quiet and respectful during davening
    my statement meant to differentiate the “manner” of being quiet. more clearly i meant essentially the “kavanah” of being quiet.
    one should be quiet in Shul out of awe and respect for Hashem, and because it is a Halacha.
    the Reform are quiet in imitation of the way of chr-st-insanity. they certainly have little knowledge or devotion to Halachah, and whether or not they believe in the Omnipresent Creator, is a difficult matter, but certainly many do not.

    i did not mean “quiet (comma) in the manner of goyim”
    but “quiet-in-the-manner-of goyim”

62. to #68 ..rayacho b’mitzvos… you ignore the rest of the memra…. the “v’iduch zil g’mor “

63. I love reform jews like any other Jew. It’s just that it’s bizzare how in reform theology they have a respect for torah despite what I have already explained. You embrace a Jew without embracing his theology.

64. #70:

    Imagine if one day you meet Hashem, and then your friend asks you how the meeting went. If you say to your friend, I appreciate the value of Hashems conversation although everything he related to me is not completely true as well as somewhat mythical, that is an insult to Hashem. Having said that, you have done the same thing because the Torah is god’s written word transmitted to us through Moshe.

    Please don’t take offense to this. It’s a theological debate, not a personal one.

65. #70……………

    i dont cry easily.
    but i came pretty close, just a little water collecting along my lower eyelids.

    Please, RibbonoShelOlam, please bring Moshiach today.

66. to anybody..what dimyon to a ehrliche shul to the others…we go 3 times a day 7 time a week 354 days a year, learn there spend time there . the gemmorah says “why is it called “bei rabbonon”, beacause the rabbonon “live” there so although nit kein teretz, but no comparison to those who go once or twice a year and also only if he feels like it “godol metzivah v’oiseh..”…so the comparison is out of whack.. there is a story with hagaon reb yoinoson eibshitz ztvk’l had debates with galochim…so one asked him how come by us in kirche always clean he answered your obgot has mame to clean up ours not…anyway bottom line ,no tzugleich..to# 31, #51 mr illini07..you are not dissapointing us see article “crown heights man..” april 25, post #14

67. Juris Doc is a pure apikorus. Not sure how your second comment got posted, but the Torah is 100% TRUTH.