5 Responses

1. The Raavad speaks the truth. However, his approach to solving the problem by calling Hafganot is quite counter productive. I know of no Chilonim brought back to Yiddishkeit because they were yelled and screamed at or had things thrown at them. I do know many Mesoratim that keep Kosher and Taharas Mispacha that would also keep Shabbos if there was a real day off from work. Sunday as a day off from work would bring many more people to keep JKedushas Shabbos than stone throwing. However, we the Chareidim have been at the front blocking this. Perhaps after 70 years of stone throwing we should try something else.

2. And what exactly has this Rabbi and his followers done to show the beauty of Shabbat to the secular community?

3. He most likely knows what his Rebbe, the Brisker Rav, said: Whenever there are decrees against Yiddishkeit the source of the problem is not because of the secular but because the Shomrei Mitzvos are weak in that particular issue. For example, when there are decrees against keeping Shabbos, the real source of the problem is that we’re weak in our shemiras Shabbos, and if we were to learn and observe Hilchos Shabbos better and spend more time on Shabbos learning Torah, that would take away their power to be mechalel Shabbos. He then mentions a well known saying by Reb Yisroel Salanter (whose yahrzeit was last Shabbos) that when someone in Vilna is slack in saying Tehillim, that gives a Jewish student in Paris the power to eat his treifus. So said the Brisker Rav (brought in a pamphlet by R’ Chaim Kanievski’s son-in-law Reb Yitzchak Kolodetski called Chamdas HaYamim about the great value and importance of learning on Shabbos). What comes out of this for us is that one important thing we can do and put more effort into strengthening our observance of Hilchos Shabbos and in spending as much of Shabbos as possible learning. The Chofetz Chaim (brought in that pamphlet) says that every word of Torah one learns on Shabbos is worth a thousand words learned during the week (and conversely every moment wasted from Torah on Shabbos …).

4. It was hafganos that got Geula and Meah Shearim closed to traffic on Shabbos.
   Hafganos that led to the Edison cinema stopping showing movies on Shabbos in the heart of Yerushalayim.
   Hafganos that made Bar Ilan street a safe place to stroll on Shabbos.
   Shabbos is beautiful but secular people trampling on it is not.
   Those who come here looking for trouble are not open to seeing the beauty of Shabbos. They come to deride the “ghetto Jews” who painfully remind them of their lost neshamos, and they are only interested in justifying their own behavior.
   And Sunday as a day off as a solution… Making it “easy” to become frum has not worked in the past in creating legions of baalei teshuvah. It’s not easy to become frum. Those who become real, committed BTs do so even though it’s hard, because they believe in it. They don’t need Sunday shopping to keep Shabbos.

5. “…..Hafganos that led to the Edison cinema stopping showing movies on Shabbos in the heart of Yerushalayim…..”

   So make more & more hafganot all over EY and watch chillul Shabbos go down and more cinemas close.. Throw more stones and curse moreJews and watch how miraculously everybody will keep Shabbos.
   Meanwhile R’ Shternbuch is saying:
   “There is an increase in Chilul Shabbos from one Shabbos to the next, “