The Degel Hatorah faction of UTJ is initiating a campaign to try to convince Ba’alei Teshuva and others to vote for their party in the coming weeks by bringing the chair of Hagaon HaRav Chaim Kanievsky to different cities so that people can see it. The campaign, which is being titled: “A minute with Maran” is scheduled to begin this week as the Degel HaTorah party will be transporting the chair in a caravan driven by activists from the party.
The campaign is being launched after the Moetzes Gedolei Hatorah of Agudas Yisroel (Admorim) has begun encouraging Admorim from different Chassidish groups to go out and speak to voters and generate support for the party as well.
The chair is being used because it is the chair that the Gadol Hador sits and learns in for hours each day. Activists will also be inviting families who are returning to the fold to come and participate in the activities that will be taking place surrounding the visit of the chair in each city.
Each participant will be invited to sit in Hagaon HaRav Kanievsky’s chair for one minute and read a chapter of Tehillim or will be asked to accept upon themselves one good deed and write a request that will be given to HaRav Kanievsky.
Organizers in Degel HaTorah have told BeChadrei Charedim News site that they hope to reach 5,000 people, men and women, who will participate and merit to sit in the chair. They hope that by doing so, these people will then become ambassadors for the party in their local communities.
BeChadrei also reported that members of HaRav Kanievsky’s household are against the idea and the final decision to initiate the campaign will be made by the gadol Hador himself.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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12 Responses
Where will he sit while they confiscate his chair?
Shlepping around an empty chair from the Rav’s beis medrash and offering a 60 second “sit” in return for voting truly exemplifies the total craziness of Israeli elections version 3.0. No doubt the secular parties have engaged in their own meshugaas. Presumably, some kind soul will get the Rav a substitute chair so he doesn’t have to stand for a week or simply stop learning until he gets his chair back.
Kol hakovod to the Rav’s family for having the common sense to “just say no”
Lol. Sefardim and chassidim become more litvish, so why not the other way round
PLEASE tell me this is a Purim Shpiel!!! This can’t be true. If it IS true then maybe Rebbi Hillel in the gemara was right!!!
ALooks like they made a “cash-cow” out of MARAN! This is “moronic”. It cheapens the gadlus of Rav Chaim. Not enough that every few weeks they come out with a new “rare” letter from him, but, whether he knows or not, they put his name to different SHNORR campaigns almost daily. It has come to the point that his name doesn’t make an impression anymore.
Are these people for REAL?
for election #3 you get to sit in his chair…
and for election #4 (which is not too far off) you will get to wash your hands in his his ‘neigel vaser tepel’?
Maybe … for Election #5 you will be able to listen in (by phone) to him answering some sha’alot?
1. Does halacha actually permit sitting on a king’s throne? The chair is specifically designated as his royal chair.
2. “members of his household are against the idea” – Is the opposition based on halacha, hashkafa, comfort level or fear the chair will get broken/lost?
3. Has there ever been such a historical precedent? I have never even heard of chassidim “renting out” their Rebbe’s chair? (I heard of shirayim – left over of food, I heard of getting a dollar from a Rebbe, I even heard of getting a garment worn by the Tzaddik – like the glasses of Chazon Ish, and I heard of using the siddur or learning from the sefer of a tzaddik …but never sitting in the chair!)
RCK is an elderly Gadol, who deserves respect and dignity. Dragging his chair around is better than dragging him around, but still regrettable. Name another gadol who was marketed in so crass a way. HaShem yerachem,
This cannot be right, and i do not believe this story.
The halocho regarding kibud av ve’eim is one must not to sit in your parents chair.
Surely this is a lack of kovod.
This circus shpiel will finally and definitely convince me and many other intelligent frum yiden to DEFINITELY not vote for these clowns!!
This hillul hashem will also convince many secular to vote for anti haredi parties.
These idiots are just continuing to shoot themselves in the leg.
Serious alternatives:
Offer potential voters a stand of the godol’s hair (collected after he gets a haircut)!
Offer potential voters an opportunity to say one possuk tehillim from the godol’s tehillim!
Or offer a few drops from the godol’s kos shel beracha , from cup of wine on which he recited birkas hamozon (unlimited wine can be added to the original).
But I would be concerned about “buying” votes. If it is illegal to directly pay someone money to vote certain way, this chair shtick may fall into that category.