Speaker 1: Welcome to Jewish History Uncensored with Mark Shapiro. This is
Speaker 1: season sixteen, episode forty three.
Speaker 2: As always, I have lots of stuff to show you.
Speaker 2: I'll try to keep it to fifteen minutes so that
Speaker 2: we can move forward. But some of this is really
Speaker 2: interesting and relevant to what we were doing with the class.
Speaker 2: The first thing I want to show you, let's see. Actually,
Speaker 2: this is not what I meant to show you, but
Speaker 2: it just it popped up. So I'll show you that.
Speaker 2: But someone this has been going around. Now you can
Speaker 2: get your I don't know if it's a caustrous thing
Speaker 2: or just people are too lazy to make saltwater. But
Speaker 2: that's that's that complicated. He takes some winder and put
Speaker 2: a little sult in. But we saw last week about
Speaker 2: the masks. But this isn't what I wanted to show you,
Speaker 2: so let me get rid of that. Where's the pager?
Speaker 2: I have so many pages I want to show you here,
Speaker 2: I don't know where to begin. Okay, uh, you know
Speaker 2: I'm gonna begin with this one with Rabbi if you
Speaker 2: remember Rabbi Amslam. For some reason, he's running in for
Speaker 2: the election Cannesse it he's not any seats whatsoever. You see.
Speaker 2: I put this up on YouTube a few minutes ago.
Speaker 2: But he's I don't know why he's running. He's not
Speaker 2: gonna win any vote for him as a complete ways,
Speaker 2: that's him in the middle. But whatever he's uh, everyone
Speaker 2: has the right to run. So the second person on
Speaker 2: the list is a woman now for some reason. So
Speaker 2: he got the one of the bastins in Jerusalem, Rabbi Abergel,
Speaker 2: who we've also discussed to endorse the party, which it's
Speaker 2: like a Sphardic moderate type of party, which must mean
Speaker 2: there a Barberzelle is not doesn't hold an official government office,
Speaker 2: must be retired or else you can't endorse. But listen
Speaker 2: to what he says for those who know Hebrew, and
Speaker 2: I'll translate it for those who don't.
Speaker 3: Madame i am Ashima that she is gon back in
Speaker 3: the said is money good.
Speaker 2: So this is reb Abraz, author of ten volumes of
Speaker 2: chew Vote, in which he declares there's no issue for
Speaker 2: a woman uh to be in the Kinnesset or to
Speaker 2: be a prime minister. That the whole issue of Serrara
Speaker 2: is like permanent sort of appointments, not temporary thing. So
Speaker 2: that's Uh that that's I think uh of interest uh significant.
Speaker 2: Let me get rid of this. Uh. We spoke about
Speaker 2: the uh the dinner, the dinner that Rabbi Zevatowsky and
Speaker 2: also uh Rabbi Sliffkin had. So now with those of
Speaker 2: you in Israel, if you want to get your locusts
Speaker 2: uh for Pesach, you can pick them up the kosher locusts. Uh.
Speaker 2: I looked in the Gurak's book. I have it here
Speaker 2: Judaism's encounter with American sports, and I see I missed. Remember,
Speaker 2: first of all, his man of the Maychiater is not
Speaker 2: in the preface. It's on page eighty two to eighty three.
Speaker 2: But I was wrong in a different reason as well.
Speaker 2: He tells the story of the may Chater in already
Speaker 2: back in Eastern Europe, I guess in Poland that he
Speaker 2: was once walking with Mayor Berlin and they found some
Speaker 2: youngsters from a gymnasium school in Brisk Actually it was
Speaker 2: in Brisk, Lithuania. And it was then that the Machuature remarked,
Speaker 2: why didn't we have this when we were youngsters. I
Speaker 2: don't think that's true. I don't think that's the story.
Speaker 2: It's not in Brisk The story as I've always heard it.
Speaker 2: It was at Yeshivas or Ritziljana. I don't think that
Speaker 2: they'd be playing basketball or anything in brisk or whatever
Speaker 2: they were playing, I don't whatever. I just don't think
Speaker 2: that's the story. I think Gurak has it confused. And
Speaker 2: I mean Gore's not from a person from Yeshiva. He's
Speaker 2: been teaching in many years. But Rakkefed who grew up
Speaker 2: in Yu and he repeats the story the way I
Speaker 2: said it. It's a legend that I mean, a well
Speaker 2: known story. Sorry at Yeshiva, serbitzel Khanan. I want to
Speaker 2: show you some pictures here. I mentioned the Khabad in Delhi.
Speaker 2: So you're sitting down, which is good because I want
Speaker 2: to show you a couple of things here. Oh, before
Speaker 2: I get to that, I want to show you this
Speaker 2: is well lo and behold. We've been speaking so much
Speaker 2: about Rabbi Mazous. We only have like two more letters
Speaker 2: from him. But he wrote a poem about the rumbum
Speaker 2: and wone behold Hanukah two years ago, who wrote a
Speaker 2: song to the poem. I'll play you a minute of it,
Speaker 2: and if you believe him, he says that he just
Speaker 2: he created this. He hadn't yet seen the poem. He
Speaker 2: did this song for the first time reading it. I
Speaker 2: don't know if I can believe that. I don't know anyone,
Speaker 2: even a person as talented as this can just hold
Speaker 2: something in the hand and start singing. But that's what
Speaker 2: he claims. You'll see this person in a minute. I
Speaker 2: don't know if the s Fardim in the audience know
Speaker 2: what haloma means. Bo and behold look who sang the
Speaker 2: song from rabby Marzus's poem about the Rambam I.
Speaker 1: Know a kiss with his boys? Who young a Smaier.
Speaker 2: This is lipomt Schmeltzer. For those who don't.
Speaker 4: Know, uh.
Speaker 5: Knows you can.
Speaker 4: Here?
Speaker 6: Should I start some say.
Speaker 4: Pammy, Okay?
Speaker 6: Do you know it's puta I ship by yeah, Hay, yeah,
Speaker 6: hayrosay I should by yeah, had foot, Pahndam dog dog
Speaker 6: Habrol ship by yeah, Harol, Reality ship by the Hazel.
Speaker 2: Okay, so there's liebu Schmeltzer. Very good. Now I mentioned
Speaker 2: the last class going to India. I want to show
Speaker 2: you some things because it's really it really speaks to
Speaker 2: the theology I spoke about. We're going to be seeing
Speaker 2: the lebabach Rebby's letters in a few minutes. But I
Speaker 2: want to show I said last week that the people
Speaker 2: in India are are really crazy. So let me show
Speaker 2: you some thing this year. First of all, these are
Speaker 2: if you come to well, here's Dharmshalla, by the way,
Speaker 2: if you should recognize what this is. This is Darmshala.
Speaker 2: It's where the dialama is. That's the same that that's
Speaker 2: seven seventy. I'll show you what seven seventy looks like.
Speaker 2: They make it exactly the same. Here's seven seventy. But
Speaker 2: this isn't really what is of concern. What's concern is
Speaker 2: the following. Look at at this well, first, as you
Speaker 2: can't miss the rabbad house because as you're walking down
Speaker 2: the street in India in a bad neighborhood by the way,
Speaker 2: I should say, a very run down neighborhood, you have
Speaker 2: it tells you where the bab Kabad is. And then
Speaker 2: if you go into it, uh you find yeah, right,
Speaker 2: I'll show you what it looks like right inside. This
Speaker 2: is in Deli. So of course you see here right
Speaker 2: behind the iron Kodesh, you had a name Mariamed. But
Speaker 2: then you have as follows, now, this is the thing
Speaker 2: we need to explain a bit about inside every one
Speaker 2: of the sari. There you have this writing, well it
Speaker 2: says you had a name Rebi Milbavich melm Kai kayam
Speaker 2: lelo Hinoi de Ganisa. So what does this mean that
Speaker 2: the rebbe is alive without without any she noi of Guinisa. Well,
Speaker 2: you can easily look online for instance, if you're interested,
Speaker 2: I'll show you one place and you can see this
Speaker 2: all explained for example in this article here. What does
Speaker 2: it mean in they explain that Nasiha, there's no he
Speaker 2: still is around without any change, Nasiador, He doesn't go
Speaker 2: to another place Ella narva ed but Oto makomaam but
Speaker 2: oh Amhagashami. The Rebbi is still with us in the
Speaker 2: physical world. And if you go down in the article
Speaker 2: with this this idea of Sheoi de Gania, because they
Speaker 2: speak about the aron the Gamara talks about. There's a
Speaker 2: dispute over what happened to the iron after the first base.
Speaker 2: I may just some say it was brought to Bobbo.
Speaker 2: Others say it was nignas it was like hidden. But
Speaker 2: it's still had significance even if it was. And what
Speaker 2: they're saying, is that the Rebby. It's not that he's
Speaker 2: not hidden even I'll read you here. So they say
Speaker 2: he talks about how before the Rebby's passing, or they
Speaker 2: wouldn't say that everyone knew where the rebbe was.
Speaker 4: But uh.
Speaker 7: Uh.
Speaker 2: Then he goes on. They say that this place will
Speaker 2: remain the Rebby's place. Loshinoi nami. So the way I
Speaker 2: understand it is that they're saying that the Rebbe, we
Speaker 2: can't see him, but he still exists in his physical body.
Speaker 2: This is the equivalent of the Shia conception of occultation.
Speaker 2: That is, the final the last of the imams. They
Speaker 2: believe never died, but he was removed bodily. We just
Speaker 2: can't see it. Does that mean that I think I
Speaker 2: think that means that there's no grave, in that there's
Speaker 2: no one in the grave. Although unless they have this
Speaker 2: conception that the Rebbe's physicality continues and the body is
Speaker 2: no longer, the body has nothing to do with the physicality.
Speaker 2: I really don't know about the theology. I didn't want
Speaker 2: to ask, you know. There I was their guests and
Speaker 2: it was very strange weekend. I was there with a
Speaker 2: guy from England, and we're sitting around the shops table,
Speaker 2: and he said something to me like, God, do you
Speaker 2: feel like we're the only normal people here. You're sitting
Speaker 2: with all these Israelis and you're hearing this stuff that
Speaker 2: anywhere else you'd think that this is crazy far out
Speaker 2: and here you're the minority. It's like, Uh, you're looking around,
Speaker 2: You're wondering if you're the crazy people because that's the
Speaker 2: stuff you're hearing. And yet the people were so nice.
Speaker 2: But to say that that the Rebbe is still in
Speaker 2: the world, no changes except we can't see it, but
Speaker 2: he remains where he was in a physical way. Person
Speaker 2: wrote to me today. I asked him about this. Yes,
Speaker 2: there are a few people who make the claim that
Speaker 2: they believe in the square circle paradox of the Rebbe's
Speaker 2: continued physical life, which can't be seen, touched, or otherwise
Speaker 2: perceived in the human senses. However, it remains a nonsensical
Speaker 2: statement that can't actually mean anything, so any attempt to
Speaker 2: analyze it will be ludicrous by definition. This is from
Speaker 2: a krabadnik, but that's in all the Sarim, and they
Speaker 2: have a thing on their website you can send in
Speaker 2: an email and you can do. So there's a machine,
Speaker 2: the thing they have online, and it automatically will open
Speaker 2: the pages of the books of ste letters and he's
Speaker 2: and he's giving you the answer that way. So just strange,
Speaker 2: strange stuff going on over in India. There's so I mean,
Speaker 2: wait two more minutes. I want to tell you two
Speaker 2: more things. Remember we spoke last week, but or mainstreamzar
Speaker 2: and I said that if he's summoned by Putin, there's
Speaker 2: no question he would have to go get in the
Speaker 2: car on shabists or jump tiff. And I don't think
Speaker 2: there's any post taking in the world who would disagree.
Speaker 2: We do things. We have doctors violate molachedl ris on
Speaker 2: shabists because we're afraid what it might lead to with
Speaker 2: non Jews, and so all the more so a case
Speaker 2: like this, there's no doubt. And every Rabbi I've spoken
Speaker 2: says doesn't have any question whatsoever. Dove dove s who
Speaker 2: listens to the classes, said that, well, isn't that what
Speaker 2: happened with Mendelssohn. He reminded me, if you Mendelssohn, you
Speaker 2: can read all about it in Alexander Oltman's book on
Speaker 2: Mendelssohn on page two seventy five and two seventy six.
Speaker 2: He was summoned on shaminiat Saras by Emperor Frederick the
Speaker 2: second of Prussia to come in his carriage, which is
Speaker 2: the same thing. It's an issad or abundan. And what
Speaker 2: happened was that they called together a meeting. This anan
Speaker 2: Jho wrote about this meeting. We have experts, the chief rabbi.
Speaker 2: Because Mendelson didn't know what to do. It's jongtove. He
Speaker 2: can't go in a carriage, but he's summoned by the emperor.
Speaker 2: And what this group of experts, convened by the chief
Speaker 2: rabbi decided that, of course in this case he should
Speaker 2: go in the carriage, but in order that because people
Speaker 2: might be ignorant, they might get their wrong impression. When
Speaker 2: he comes to the gate of Berlin, I guess where
Speaker 2: there's a lot of people, then he should get off
Speaker 2: and walk and walk through before entering where the palace is.
Speaker 2: So the same exact thing happened with Mendelssohn, and he
Speaker 2: went to the rabbis. Because Mendelsohn was a showmachabas, he
Speaker 2: wasn't sure what he's supposed to do. Okay, the last
Speaker 2: thing I want to do is as follows, and then
Speaker 2: we'll move on. I want to play you something from
Speaker 2: two weeks ago and show you why I think there's
Speaker 2: a mistake in what Dolphin said. Listen to this, and
Speaker 2: this comes from a student. I was gonna say a talmud,
Speaker 2: and thanks to call, I'll say a student of uh
Speaker 2: Rabbi Ruderman and he says this follows. Once while arranging
Speaker 2: This comes from by Janowski of Miami. Once while arranging
Speaker 2: his library. Rabbi Rudermann related that Rabbi Hutner asked him
Speaker 2: what he thought of his approach, referring to him demanding
Speaker 2: respect kavoratara and practicing an elitist form of God losdom
Speaker 2: the when you stress the greatness of Man, Rabbi Rudeman replied,
Speaker 2: he quotes the Yiddish Dufoyl siglernin Gemura Russian tosvos hostu gemah,
Speaker 2: and I am Derek, you are lazy, too lazy to
Speaker 2: study the talma with the commentators. So you made a
Speaker 2: new approach. That's the and we spoke about that. Now,
Speaker 2: are you elab Brabari laiboll I guess he didn't see
Speaker 2: that I was reading from Dolphin, Chim Dolphin, who he
Speaker 2: spoke about, who's published all these books. I have to
Speaker 2: say I read another one over Shabis. Unfortunately, with all
Speaker 2: the good information, he needs an editor because it's hard.
Speaker 2: You can't even go two pages without a grammatical problem,
Speaker 2: a spelling mistake. It's it's it's unfortunate. But uh Rabai
Speaker 2: e Laibe said that he thought that I was the
Speaker 2: one saying that what he's speaking about is covenatoa the
Speaker 2: new Derrek. But it's I was just reading for Dolphin.
Speaker 2: But Rabari lab says something which is correct. I think
Speaker 2: thinking that I was going who made the mistake? I
Speaker 2: am sure what Rabbi Janowski said is he told him
Speaker 2: Dolphin the story and that Rabbi Hutner asked Rabbi Ruderman,
Speaker 2: what do you think of my new Derek roer you?
Speaker 2: Rabbi Rudeman reply somewhat giving, you know, giving him a
Speaker 2: bit of a jab that that's because you don't want
Speaker 2: to arm Gamara and tos Hos.
Speaker 7: You do this.
Speaker 2: It's not about Coverata. What he was asking about was
Speaker 2: this Dolphin's wrong Dolphin makes it seem as if I'm
Speaker 2: certain of this that that's what Janowski said. Now that
Speaker 2: I'll read it again, Janowski just said the new Derek,
Speaker 2: it's dolphin understanding this to mean this Derek of Colorata
Speaker 2: where the people have to walk out backwards and don't
Speaker 2: give you respect and all that stuff. As rebay Alb said,
Speaker 2: Rav Futner was the only one of the Gadoli from
Speaker 2: LTA who insisted on this respect. But that's not what
Speaker 2: it's referring to. It's obvious he's for Raffutner we know
Speaker 2: was into mashava and philosophy. That's what he was asking about.
Speaker 2: So he asked her, by Rudermann, what do you think
Speaker 2: about my approach? Rav Rudermann said that your approach where
Speaker 2: you focus on Maharral, etcetera, that's only because you don't
Speaker 2: want to, you know, put the time into learning gamarrow.
Speaker 2: That's clearly what it means. So thank you RIVARDI. Late,
Speaker 2: by the way, I had conversation with a number of
Speaker 2: you over this, and one of you asked me what
Speaker 2: about the damorrow? Says in Krasal if you run away
Speaker 2: from cold, colde comes after you and things like that.
Speaker 2: The truth is there is no such statement in Krazal
Speaker 2: and believe it or not. In Revs. Schmol Ashkenazi's new
Speaker 2: book he wrote, Schmuel Volume one, page one ninety two,
Speaker 2: he shows that the earliest citation of this is like
Speaker 2: from a five hundred years ago. There's similar passages like
Speaker 2: someone in sidiment says I ran away from covoed barachtim
Speaker 2: in a vote and Covot came after me, But it
Speaker 2: doesn't actually say there's no such a benic expression if
Speaker 2: you run away from co vote. And as for coverde,
Speaker 2: let me shure you this. This is great. If you
Speaker 2: look in Rebi Rijak of Weinberg, and this is the
Speaker 2: last thing we do in the collected Drushim of Rabbi Weinberg,
Speaker 2: they do shebal Stree Dish, volume three, page twenty eight.
Speaker 2: It says, this follows, this shows the honesty of rebby Weinberg,
Speaker 2: and he's quoted by his student, and I thank his
Speaker 2: student for quoting it. The problem with all these godolim
Speaker 2: is we have to thank Nelson Kamenetsky is most of
Speaker 2: the people knew them well are afraid to say what
Speaker 2: they really said about things. They cover up. They do
Speaker 2: other things. That's why I like the book masaras Moshe,
Speaker 2: at least the first two volumes. And this is what
Speaker 2: Rebbi Weinberg said. He says, once Rebye Weinberg said to
Speaker 2: me Kuwanda bineodum, we're all people gom oni ohef co vote.
Speaker 2: Rebbie Weinberg says, he's one of the good OLiS show.
Speaker 2: I also like co vote Ela Shann Delaharav, but I
Speaker 2: try not to chase after it. But if they're gonna
Speaker 2: give me covode, I'll take it. But I don't try
Speaker 2: to chase after it. That's uh. Who can say they
Speaker 2: don't like a little covode. So Reby Weinberg is being
Speaker 2: honest and saying that, and then he says uh. Then
Speaker 2: he follows with a good story. He says that once
Speaker 2: this important rabbi came to Montreal, Switzerland, and he was
Speaker 2: staying in the Jewish pension. Everybody Weinberg said to me,
Speaker 2: let's let's go visit this rabbi. So I said back
Speaker 2: to him, this ster By Weinberg, why should you go
Speaker 2: visit him. He's visiting Montreal, he should come visit you.
Speaker 2: That's suitable, everybody Weinberg saysso, Deck, you are correct. Are
Speaker 2: But if I go visit him, then I decide when
Speaker 2: it's time to leave. If he comes to me, I
Speaker 2: can't exactly kick him out. And the same story is found.
Speaker 2: Sol Ednmann used to always go visit Rabbi Zeven. He
Speaker 2: wouldn't have to visit him because he said, he comes
Speaker 2: to visit me, and uh, you never know what you
Speaker 2: can get rid of him. We'll keep talking and talking,
Speaker 2: so uh, enough for the stories, let us continue. If
Speaker 2: you recall, we're on Simon one fifty one. We're dealing
Speaker 2: with uh, you know one fifty we're dealing with. I
Speaker 2: gave you the introduction last week. How the how I
Speaker 2: got to have youiros with the rebbe? How Rabbi Herson
Speaker 2: who's the uh the the head? Yeah, he's head of
Speaker 2: Remel College, head of the shurim in in New Jersey.
Speaker 2: By the way, this word schluchim, Well, why shurim? What
Speaker 2: is that?
Speaker 1: Uh?
Speaker 2: Well, the people don't know this, uh. And it's not
Speaker 2: in modern Hebrew. I'm certain David can correct in me eyes.
Speaker 2: And if I'm wrong, it's not modern Hebrew, but in
Speaker 2: a Rabbinic Hebrew, the plural of the word Shaliach is Shlukim.
Speaker 2: It's not sim it's luim comoso, even not in the plural,
Speaker 2: but with the suffix uh the rambam uh in the
Speaker 2: mission to ishkos Uh, what was it shuhim shutin I've
Speaker 2: forgotten now uh, yes, shurin. So it's not uh schlikhriin
Speaker 2: de Gamaris that I found in the mission and mission
Speaker 2: of Russia Shana schuchin yo sin. So that is the
Speaker 2: poral of Shariah. Why that's the pooral look in Benya Huda.
Speaker 2: He doesn't really have a good explanation, but that is
Speaker 2: the that is it. So that's why the Kabbad when
Speaker 2: you refer to them as schluchim, it's not. There's a
Speaker 2: certain rabbi on who also does things online, and sometimes
Speaker 2: he speaks bahabadis he refers to a shahlua. He's a
Speaker 2: shlua because the worl is it's not true, though when
Speaker 2: RaBaD don't say that, they say sh but poro is shuchim.
Speaker 2: And David Eisenezi says that a modern Hebrew it's shrichrim
Speaker 2: not but that's not rabbinic Hebrew. So I gave, we
Speaker 2: gave the whole story about the Rebbe. Now, when he
Speaker 2: went to the rebby, my father's an historian. So the
Speaker 2: Rebby said to him, well, send me some of your writings.
Speaker 2: And the Rebbe was always interested. He always wanted everyone's
Speaker 2: writings put it in his library.
Speaker 6: Uh.
Speaker 2: And the Rebbi had correspondence, of course, he a toror correspondence,
Speaker 2: but he also had a correspondence with all sorts of people.
Speaker 2: Here here's a book that came out two years ago.
Speaker 2: Dear Rebbi Rabinachamandel Schniersen corresponds with a singer, a writer,
Speaker 2: a sculptor, and a Holocaust survivor who This is just
Speaker 2: collection of his correspondence with Jacques Ripschitz, who's a sculptor.
Speaker 2: Of course, sculptors are a problem holockily John Pierce, the singer,
Speaker 2: David Chase, the wealthy Holocaust survivor who funded many combat programs,
Speaker 2: including the Renal College, and him Grada, and he corresponded
Speaker 2: with many many others like that. I don't know where
Speaker 2: the Rebbe had the time found the time. It's I mean,
Speaker 2: he'd sometimes have these ichridos going into four am or
Speaker 2: even later. He I don't know when he found time
Speaker 2: to learn to prepare. He's meeting people constantly, he's responding,
Speaker 2: but he must have only needed two three hours sleep.
Speaker 2: So he writes, and after my father sent him the materials,
Speaker 2: he writes back, you know, acknowledging you know you sent me,
Speaker 2: and after the visit with your sons and connection with
Speaker 2: Melech's barmits. So that's myself, and he does. It's a
Speaker 2: long letter here. It's nothing groundbreaking anything. It's the sort
Speaker 2: of stuff you've heard again and again. But let me
Speaker 2: just call attention to a few a few things. He
Speaker 2: points o. Well, first of all, this isn't just a
Speaker 2: form letter. In fact, I have the original and it
Speaker 2: has the Rebby's handwritten, you know, after I was typed
Speaker 2: up he wrote. He read it over and he put
Speaker 2: in some words there that we're missing. And he writes,
Speaker 2: for example, to my father, anyone, especially historian, reflecting on
Speaker 2: the long history of our Jewish people. So this isn't
Speaker 2: just state. This is an actual letter written to my father,
Speaker 2: not one of these letters that they just form letters.
Speaker 2: And he speaks about the things that we all know
Speaker 2: that although the Jews have suffered so much, nevertheless we
Speaker 2: remain and the other people are gone and he says,
Speaker 2: he talks about how the usual factors which are important
Speaker 2: for now identity and preservation in so far as other
Speaker 2: nations are concerned, notably territory, statehood, language, dress, he says,
Speaker 2: is not essential to the Jews. We didn't have this.
Speaker 2: We didn't have a territory, we didn't have state who,
Speaker 2: we didn't have one language, we didn't have one dress.
Speaker 2: So what kept us the people? The Tora this is
Speaker 2: something we all know, but it's very nice to see
Speaker 2: it as the Rebee putting it together. And he talks
Speaker 2: about how the tourist studyed in different languages. It goes
Speaker 2: on and on and on. But then he says at
Speaker 2: the end, and this I think is interesting. I'd never
Speaker 2: heard this before, he says, as a matter of fact,
Speaker 2: which I have had occasion to point out before, our
Speaker 2: contemporary generation is more privileged than the early generations who
Speaker 2: received the terror from motion of being with his successors.
Speaker 2: Why does he say that because they had to rely
Speaker 2: on faith to be connected. But for us, he says,
Speaker 2: we don't need to rely on faith. It's factual. Look
Speaker 2: at the history thousands of years of Jews, all these
Speaker 2: which it was supposed to last forever, they're all gone.
Speaker 2: We're all here. The Rebby says, that's not that's not
Speaker 2: a matter of faith. We actually have something the earlier
Speaker 2: generations didn't have. We have as close as you can
Speaker 2: get to proof that you know, we are being watched
Speaker 2: over and that we have a purpose and we're not
Speaker 2: just some nation, and we have something that the earlier
Speaker 2: generations didn't have. Usually we think that we're much less
Speaker 2: than the early generations, but we have something they didn't have,
Speaker 2: something we can actually look at and see if you
Speaker 2: want to prove, I always say, if you want to prove,
Speaker 2: I don't like proofs, you know, to prove Judaism or
Speaker 2: anything like that. But the closest thing you have to
Speaker 2: the proof is that his history of the Jews and
Speaker 2: what we've gone through and how we're still here and
Speaker 2: it's not normal. So and that's what the Rebby says.
Speaker 2: So our survival is a nation as members of this
Speaker 2: holy nation, you know this is a matter of self
Speaker 2: evident truth, he says, reinforced by the facts and experience
Speaker 2: of our Jewish history. So, I mean, the Rebby says,
Speaker 2: he's pointed this out before, but I think this is significant.
Speaker 2: I think it's significant that Rebbe points it out in
Speaker 2: speaking to a story, and it shows you that someone
Speaker 2: who just met for a few minutes, but in writing
Speaker 2: a letter he's cognizant of he could have written just
Speaker 2: a short little letter thank you. He goes into pages
Speaker 2: expounding on this, and he had to think about this
Speaker 2: when he wrote it. Uh that that's the greatness of
Speaker 2: the Rebbee. And unfortunately many people don't see this, and uh,
Speaker 2: they're always looking for negatives. And but the Rebbe, what
Speaker 2: can you say about the Rebbe? He created a revolution
Speaker 2: in Judaism. So every time you have a revolution, you
Speaker 2: have certain dark spots and unfortunate things. But uh, you
Speaker 2: know what he what he accomplished in terms of the
Speaker 2: Jewish world, no one, no one came close and to
Speaker 2: the Rebbi's credit. And the Litfish don't like this, but
Speaker 2: it's the truth. The Litfish who are so opposed to
Speaker 2: keyre Of and all these things show Markabach had to
Speaker 2: leave lake Wood because of that. Now, of course they're
Speaker 2: leaders in it. It's all because of the success of Krabad.
Speaker 2: Rabbad not gotten into it. They never would have and
Speaker 2: they do the exact same thing that Habad did. How
Speaker 2: do they they're at all these colleges now the litfish
Speaker 2: charadeem and what do they do? They asked people, are
Speaker 2: you Jewish? And they're the same thing that you know.
Speaker 2: Come we're having a sayor we're having this set. They
Speaker 2: do the same thing that Kabad did and Hbad, I
Speaker 2: guess had to break the ice on it. But this
Speaker 2: is the vision of the Rebbe. And there's a lot
Speaker 2: that can be said about the Rebbe. And and just
Speaker 2: because you have some crazy Shuhim in certain places, that
Speaker 2: doesn't take away from all the great things that the
Speaker 2: Shuim do and the and what the Rebby did so
Speaker 2: and the Rebbie is a thinker. And Elliott Wolfson cannot
Speaker 2: Elliot Wolfson, who's so so area died, has written so much.
Speaker 2: You wouldn't have written a whole book on the Rebby's
Speaker 2: cabalistic ideas if the Rebbe wasn't a great thinker. And
Speaker 2: the fact that it's hard to understand one page of
Speaker 2: that book because all the jargon it's written in, and
Speaker 2: derry du and all this postmodern stuff, that doesn't take
Speaker 2: away from the fact that the Rebbie is not just
Speaker 2: a doer, he's also a thinker, and most thinkers are
Speaker 2: not doers, and most doers are not thinkers. So the
Speaker 2: Rebbe is special. Now we're up to number one fifty
Speaker 2: one and we have two letters here from a rehearsal
Speaker 2: chapter from Yu. I have to let me say a
Speaker 2: few things about Reschechter, because Rechechter creates different feelings among
Speaker 2: different people. I understand if people who are on the
Speaker 2: left open orthodox they're not very happy with him because
Speaker 2: of his opposition to really a feminist issue. I think
Speaker 2: mostly so that I understand, but I also think that
Speaker 2: we're dealing with someone who is an authentic not just
Speaker 2: an authentic godd olg an unbelievable totrast scholar. And no
Speaker 2: one's going to be happy with one hundred percent of
Speaker 2: what someone says, as it's never happened that way, but
Speaker 2: always people like to look at the glass half empty,
Speaker 2: even if you think you said something. You know, these
Speaker 2: people sometimes they speak or something like him is speaking
Speaker 2: every single night, literally giving me share him every night,
Speaker 2: and in all different places. I don't know when he
Speaker 2: finds the time to learn every night. He's in a
Speaker 2: different now he's on zoom, but in a different town,
Speaker 2: and all that's all. Occasionally you'll say something which maybe
Speaker 2: doesn't come out so good, but uh, I think people,
Speaker 2: and I say this only to the people who are
Speaker 2: knowing from the distance, I can say that if you
Speaker 2: speak to him personally, he's kind and he's at zadig
Speaker 2: as we'll see. But believing that a part, we should
Speaker 2: be very thankful that we have such an more enormous
Speaker 2: post sake and figure. When I say a leader, if
Speaker 2: Lukensin had never gone to Israel, he would be the leader.
Speaker 2: It says something about American Orthodoxy that a leader is
Speaker 2: a post sake. That's very much more on the Haaradi model.
Speaker 2: I mean, Reschachtor's great, great posts ache. But you're not
Speaker 2: gonna ask him to speak about humanistic concerns of the day.
Speaker 2: And you know how Judy is response to it. Know
Speaker 2: who he is. He's a post sake and an outstanding
Speaker 2: maybe the greatest in America that we have. And that's
Speaker 2: the sign of how American Orthodoxy has gone in a
Speaker 2: certain direction. Had rebellence remained in America, he will be
Speaker 2: a very different leader. But just remember this, look at
Speaker 2: all the things we have with Reschelter. He stands with
Speaker 2: agunas not does he stand with agunas he's the one
Speaker 2: behind this. When they're protests in front of people's houses,
Speaker 2: and there's been a few in recent days, he actually
Speaker 2: marches with the people. He speaks about the importance of
Speaker 2: honesty in dealing with the government, and that should be
Speaker 2: taken for granted. He won't even let some under a
Speaker 2: witness or at a wedding or doesn't believe should give
Speaker 2: him a leaf. He's known to, let's say, be cheating
Speaker 2: on his taxes or things like that. The issues is
Speaker 2: sexual beause I can go down the list, is religious Zionism,
Speaker 2: so I mean the community should feel very fortunate. It
Speaker 2: doesn't mean they have to agree with every aspect. He says.
Speaker 2: He might be more conservative in certain areas, but uh,
Speaker 2: here is someone and even the liberal KREATI look to him.
Speaker 2: That's someone who wants so many of the issues, and
Speaker 2: he's not afraid. He doesn't look over his shoulder, doesn't
Speaker 2: care what the you know, the right wingers say.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 2: He tells the truth like he sees it. And it's
Speaker 2: very unusual to have someone like that. So I and
Speaker 2: if you haven't heard a share him, I'm a big
Speaker 2: fan in many many ways, and I'll say, I think
Speaker 2: when you hear see the next letter to me, you'll
Speaker 2: be very impressed as well. Look, I've I've disagreed. Also,
Speaker 2: I've written about some things online and I've told him
Speaker 2: that I've told him that I disagreed, and he doesn't care.
Speaker 2: So but uh, And when I say I disagree, obviously
Speaker 2: I'm not in augh to disagree. But some of his
Speaker 2: other ashuffle things, I don't feel balanced to that. Uh,
Speaker 2: and all the kind so leaving that, you know, it's
Speaker 2: almost embarrassing. I need to say that I think he's
Speaker 2: one of the Godolia sarle. But I know because in
Speaker 2: the in the Jewish Week and the Western and the
Speaker 2: Jewish press, sometimes they like to go after him as
Speaker 2: someone who represents a view they don't like. And I
Speaker 2: can tell you private things. Maybe I shouldn't tell you that.
Speaker 2: You'd be shocked at the liberality. One thing I can say,
Speaker 2: because it's public, telling Orthodox rabbi they should go to
Speaker 2: reform synagogues and speak to the communities there thereof never
Speaker 2: would agree with that, at least I don't think reshucht.
Speaker 2: I think is very important because if you don't go
Speaker 2: to give them torah they're never going to get it,
Speaker 2: to go to removed, to do all these things view
Speaker 2: a view, and I know personally from some things he said,
Speaker 2: I don't know if I have to say it, but
Speaker 2: quite liberal may be quite surprising. So he really is
Speaker 2: a great leader, great post sake. If we had a
Speaker 2: reval scene, that would also be good. Someone who could
Speaker 2: speak about the broader humanistic concerns. But that's that's very important.
Speaker 2: I think to set from the beginning now. One of
Speaker 2: the things I do in Scranton I work there. Of course,
Speaker 2: since i've been there now since nineteen ninety six, I'm
Speaker 2: quite interested in Jewish history in Scranton. I'll get to
Speaker 2: Rabbi Coma what you say later in Jewish history and
Speaker 2: Scranton and Scranton has had a long Jewish history. Everywhere
Speaker 2: I go, I meet people from Scranton, or they say
Speaker 2: they're not themselves, but they say their parents, their grandparents
Speaker 2: from Scranton. Not that much left in Scranton, but a
Speaker 2: lot has come out of Scranton. It's a nice Jewish history.
Speaker 2: There were three great people who lived in Scranton. Oh,
Speaker 2: before you even get to that Life magazine in the
Speaker 2: nineteen fifties, they did a thing you can buy. You
Speaker 2: can still buy it online. I'll show you now. They
Speaker 2: did a thing about religion in America, and lo and behold,
Speaker 2: they chose to focus on a Scranton family. This is
Speaker 2: Missus Fink. Incidentally, the Fink family, They were my landlords
Speaker 2: when I lived in Scranton. She had passed away, but
Speaker 2: her husband was still alive, who ended up marrying the
Speaker 2: widow of Rabbi Louis Bernstein. So Lo and behold, it
Speaker 2: said Scranton mother blesses shaba sites. So when they did
Speaker 2: a thing on Judaism in America, they focused on Scranton.
Speaker 2: Why they focused on Scranton, and of all the places,
Speaker 2: you can read the book Vic Geller's book, his memoir.
Speaker 2: He was the reason why Life magazine went to Scranton
Speaker 2: a number of years ago at the university. We did
Speaker 2: a thing about the Jews of Scranton, and we'll be hodo.
Speaker 2: We put on the cover. So I had a little
Speaker 2: article in here about three great people who were in Scranton.
Speaker 2: And there was a rabbi in Scranton who's a signer
Speaker 2: of the Israel Declaration of Independence. I'll give a minute,
Speaker 2: not even a minute ten seconds, anyone type that in
Speaker 2: who knows who was the signer of israel Declaration of Independence,
Speaker 2: who lived in Scranton is Rabbian Scranton. Of course he
Speaker 2: did many more things after he left Scranton. Let me
Speaker 2: show you. I'm going to show you his picture. Ah
Speaker 2: Barr has it, very good, Barr. So here here is
Speaker 2: Zev Gold Wolf Gold, who also is a founder of Taravdas.
Speaker 2: And he was a rabbi in Willisburg, one of the
Speaker 2: founders of Taravdas. Here, incidentally, you can see him. Let
Speaker 2: me show you him at the march on Washington. He
Speaker 2: was the famous rabbis march. You see he's speaking. I'll
Speaker 2: play him for a second. Over his to the right
Speaker 2: of him is Rabbi Eliezer Silver. He's not wearing his
Speaker 2: top hat, but that's Rabbi Silver. And they gave Rabbi
Speaker 2: Silver spoke a little also, but the major talk was
Speaker 2: Rabbi Zev Gold. Remember this for those who don't know,
Speaker 2: this is a march of many, many Orthodox rabbis, I
Speaker 2: forget the exact number. To try to raise the conscience
Speaker 2: in Washington. They couldn't speak to Fdr. The Vice President
Speaker 2: came out to speak to them, and it was trying
Speaker 2: to show that they're concerned with what's going on in
Speaker 2: Europe and we have to do something to help the
Speaker 2: Jews in Europe. Here here is Rabbi's gold.
Speaker 7: To the Lord. Blessed be he, that our most gracious
Speaker 7: President Franklin Denan of oswell consider and recognize this momentous
Speaker 7: hour of history and the responsibility which did divine presence
Speaker 7: has laid upon him, that he may save the remnant
Speaker 7: of the people of the book, the people of Israel.
Speaker 7: And we pray the Lord.
Speaker 2: Okay. This was nineteen forty three. Incidentally, that March, So
Speaker 2: that was v. Gold's that's number one. Number two. There
Speaker 2: was a great another great builder of Jewish institutions in Scranton,
Speaker 2: and I don't remember if I had a Oh, yes,
Speaker 2: here it is. I'll show you the picture. And it's
Speaker 2: related to Zev Gold. Maybe this even had something to
Speaker 2: do with the founding the issue there of It does
Speaker 2: like a five on Mendoluits we've spoken about in previous classes.
Speaker 2: Really one of the founders of the day school movement.
Speaker 2: He was rabbi in Scranton. It says, teaching in a
Speaker 2: local TALMATOA and the last one. Let's see how many
Speaker 2: recognize this picture. He taught at the Hebrew school also there.
Speaker 2: This is a Hebrew school. They met five days a week.
Speaker 2: They read, let's say, Hebrew literature. That is none other
Speaker 2: than Harry Wolfson, the greatest scholar of Jewish philosophy in
Speaker 2: America in the twentieth century. He's an old Yeshiva bacher
Speaker 2: who then you know, left that and moving to the
Speaker 2: academic ross. I wrote a little piece on each one
Speaker 2: of them. However, I'm reading the old issues of a
Speaker 2: Pardase one day and won behold. I see an article
Speaker 2: in their short article Torah article by a rabbi. Elie
Speaker 2: Mehlerschachter is his name, and he's a rabbi in Scranton, Sylvania. Well,
Speaker 2: I knew that Refersial Schachter's father is Elie Melach. In fact,
Speaker 2: they call him Melech Schachter, just like they call me
Speaker 2: Melch Schmelach. Even though my Hebrew name is not mel
Speaker 2: El Melch, it's just Meloch, but mel Schuchter's. Everyone knows
Speaker 2: him as Melch Schuchter, even though his name was actually
Speaker 2: Elie Melach Eli Melch Schuchter. What I know about. I
Speaker 2: knew that he was a rabbi in Pennsylvania. He had
Speaker 2: PhD by the way, at Dropsy College, the old Dropsy
Speaker 2: college on the Missna as it's quoted I think in
Speaker 2: missiona text quoted in Shawn or something like that. Uh So,
Speaker 2: I wrote to Ref Schachter. So here, oh, here's the
Speaker 2: picture of later he taught at Yu and he was
Speaker 2: known as an expert on gayrus See. They don't even
Speaker 2: call him l a Milch. They just call him Melch Schachter.
Speaker 2: And uh so I see this article in a partis
Speaker 2: So I write to Ref. Schachter. I write that, you know,
Speaker 2: being that I'm in teaching in Scrampton, I've written a
Speaker 2: bit about the rabbi's and the Hajamim who lived there.
Speaker 2: And I found this article on a pardaise from Elia
Speaker 2: Revella Melch Schachter rabbi and Scranton. Apparently this is your father,
Speaker 2: I think, But is it? I want to know, and
Speaker 2: I want to know if you were born or lived
Speaker 2: in Scranton, because here I'm always speaking about the important
Speaker 2: people came from Scranton. And I had no idea either,
Speaker 2: for Schafter might have was from Scranton. So I'm asking him,
Speaker 2: and he says, that's true. I was born in Scranton
Speaker 2: in Mercy Hospital in July twenty eighth, forty one. So
Speaker 2: now you can answer the lists of the people and
Speaker 2: born people from Scranton Orfessional chafter and then he says,
Speaker 2: my sister was born there also. This was the first
Speaker 2: rabonus of my father. And then he says, when I
Speaker 2: was a year old, we went to Reading, Pennsylvania. My
Speaker 2: father was there, and then we went to Philadelphia and
Speaker 2: the Bronx. And then he tells us about the house
Speaker 2: the Epstein family in Scranton, and I know is in
Speaker 2: the is in their house. And then he says this follows.
Speaker 2: He says, when I in my books, when I want
Speaker 2: to cite speak about a small town, like just a
Speaker 2: small town as opposed to a big city like Washington, Washington,
Speaker 2: I give an example of Scranton. Actually also give Scranton
Speaker 2: a paramus, like I said. He sayss like in one
Speaker 2: of his books. He says, I feel, well, asa Scranton
Speaker 2: or paramus. Uh so uh, that's what he uses. And
Speaker 2: then he then he says in paramise, I was a
Speaker 2: rabbi for a few years or by Gutterman, those who
Speaker 2: from Scranton. And remember by Gutterman, he didn't come to
Speaker 2: my brisks for some reason. But he promised he'd come
Speaker 2: to my wedding, but uh In and he wasn't able
Speaker 2: to come. And but we'll see. He doesn't say it
Speaker 2: here that he didn't know about it, but the next
Speaker 2: letter he actually says that that he did not know
Speaker 2: about this letter at all of his father. So that's
Speaker 2: just a historical point that her Schachter came from Scranton
Speaker 2: as well. Now the next letter is also true. Schachter
Speaker 2: and uh I have to tell you the background for
Speaker 2: this letter. I asked Schachter if the only rabbis I
Speaker 2: asked to publish that letters around Maszus and Rabbi Schachter,
Speaker 2: because some of the letters were maybe on the issues,
Speaker 2: not just a lochic issues. There's an assumption when you
Speaker 2: get a letter from a rabbi, a lochic letter, he
Speaker 2: assumes it's going to be made public. In fact, yeah,
Speaker 2: I think the big rabbis assume that every letter is
Speaker 2: going to meet public, even a scuffle letters. But I
Speaker 2: asked rab Maszuos and asked Reschecter about publishing letters, and
Speaker 2: they both said yes. However, I don't know if Schachter
Speaker 2: would agree with publishing this letter the next one. He
Speaker 2: didn't say anything what he gave him the book, but
Speaker 2: I think he might have been upset because of his modesty.
Speaker 2: But I felt it was important to publish, and so
Speaker 2: I did. So let me tell you the story because
Speaker 2: I think it says a lot about the man as
Speaker 2: an individual and people who know him as a person.
Speaker 2: There's many great rabbis who they're great in terms of learning,
Speaker 2: but if you see them up close, you know things
Speaker 2: are not so good. The great ones when you see
Speaker 2: them up close and you come away with the same impression.
Speaker 2: We have many stories of a great tell me to coming,
Speaker 2: but when you see them up close, you see the personalities.
Speaker 2: There was difficult people. Everyone who knows herschel Schachter up
Speaker 2: close speaks about him a very kind et cetera. But so,
Speaker 2: what's the Why am I telling you all this? Because
Speaker 2: it's I think it's a very interesting story. I thought
Speaker 2: it was important to include the letter. He comes, as
Speaker 2: I said, every two months or so, used to come.
Speaker 2: Now they do it on zoom to my town to
Speaker 2: give these shearms so sometimes I go if I'm around.
Speaker 2: So this was in I think like four years ago,
Speaker 2: so he came. It was before Paysach. He gave a
Speaker 2: sheer on Pasach. I've mentioned this before. I think it's
Speaker 2: one thing. When he comes in to give a shear
Speaker 2: just to speak about issues, that's fine. I find it's
Speaker 2: strange when they invited him in, like as the rabbi,
Speaker 2: because there are local rebunny but so fine. But if
Speaker 2: the as, I guess the rabbis will say, well, well
Speaker 2: we're morel and you can ask him. But the problem
Speaker 2: is U Schachter comes in and he sometimes says things
Speaker 2: an opposition to what the rabbi said. And at that
Speaker 2: night I mentioned this before he came in and he
Speaker 2: was asked about using the those listine strips on young Kipper.
Speaker 2: Wasn't pace off but the young for young Kipper because
Speaker 2: you could ask any question it was answer because the
Speaker 2: same thing. I guess it will be pace if it's
Speaker 2: mutter on Young Kipper's mutter on pace. Also it's not oha,
Speaker 2: and he said it's permitted on Young Kipper. Uh, And
Speaker 2: that was indifferent than what people in the community had
Speaker 2: been told. So you always run into these problems. But
Speaker 2: after the class was over, someone asked me the person
Speaker 2: who runs it, he organizes it. He asked me out,
Speaker 2: would I drive him back to uh New York. So
Speaker 2: it's not far. It's that time of night. You get
Speaker 2: to Washington Heights thirty minutes thirty five minutes from West Orange,
Speaker 2: New Jersey. So I said fine, Sure, I said fine.
Speaker 2: It's a big list here, especially because you can talk
Speaker 2: all this time, and when you talk to Ruschefti hear
Speaker 2: all sorts of interesting things. He tells that it tells
Speaker 2: it like it is. So the few times I had
Speaker 2: spoken to him before that. So I said sure, I'll
Speaker 2: take him. And and I don't use I'm like the Rev,
Speaker 2: I don't use this third person. The rabbis in town
Speaker 2: they speak to him in third person, like does the
Speaker 2: roseshiva say this? It's famous. They once ask the love this.
Speaker 2: Someone asked them what does the Russaeshiva think? And the
Speaker 2: Rev was like, well, which roseshiva? And they said you,
Speaker 2: I mean, which was shiva?
Speaker 1: No you?
Speaker 2: So I said, so, why don't you say you in English?
Speaker 2: It doesn't work like in German or Yiddish third person?
Speaker 2: And you speak to the president, you speak first person
Speaker 2: a second person, so it's a bit I can never
Speaker 2: get into the third person unless you're trained in a
Speaker 2: certain yeshiva. But whatever, So we I have him in
Speaker 2: the car. Now, I've been driving for well, talking thirty
Speaker 2: by that time, thirty five years or whatever. I've only
Speaker 2: had one fat in my entire life. I've had a
Speaker 2: number of times that we all had where you come
Speaker 2: outside and maybe in the morning and you see the
Speaker 2: tires a little low when you go and there's a
Speaker 2: nail in it. But actually on the road, it was
Speaker 2: like when I was nineteen in my town, just a
Speaker 2: mile from the house, I've never had a flat. Well,
Speaker 2: and behold. I get him in the car and we're going.
Speaker 2: And right when we get on the highway to eighty
Speaker 2: to eighty, if you know West Orange, it's that's the
Speaker 2: road you'll take then to get to New York City.
Speaker 2: So literally three minutes four minutes from the show, right
Speaker 2: when you get on too eighty go and behold a
Speaker 2: big noise. And this is like ten o'clock at night,
Speaker 2: now ten to fifteen at night. And because we don't
Speaker 2: have in my riv after the shear or the sheer
Speaker 2: went to like nine thirty and then to have my
Speaker 2: riv and then people asking questions, and we didn't get
Speaker 2: out of there till like ten or five after ten,
Speaker 2: so maybe ten after ten. It was a big noise
Speaker 2: and all of a sudden, you hear like the wheel going.
Speaker 2: So I pulled to the side and I get out
Speaker 2: and I'm like, we have a flat. So so he says, okay,
Speaker 2: so we have a flat. So I called the triple
Speaker 2: A and I get into car and we're waiting fifteen
Speaker 2: twenty minutes. We're talking, and then I realized that they
Speaker 2: said it'll be like within an hour, but it's already
Speaker 2: now like ten thirty, ten forty or something. I'm like thinking,
Speaker 2: this is not such a good idea. So I tell
Speaker 2: him I'm gonna because I said, with the time they
Speaker 2: get here or might be after eleven. And I said,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna call my friend, the guy who asked me
Speaker 2: to drive you and say I have a flat to
Speaker 2: take you home. And he says, no, I don't want
Speaker 2: you to do that. He said, why not? He says,
Speaker 2: because I'm not going to leave you here on the
Speaker 2: side of the road all by yourself.
Speaker 3: So we sit.
Speaker 2: We sit for a little while longer, and and you know,
Speaker 2: he has to be up early in the morning, he
Speaker 2: has to give sheer. So I'm like, no, this is crazy.
Speaker 2: So I say to him, I'm calling I'm calling him up.
Speaker 2: He has to take you. This makes no sense. So
Speaker 2: we get an argument. He says, no, it's not right,
Speaker 2: it's not I can't leave it. I said no. I said, well, well,
Speaker 2: I'm going to go home. Don't bring me. I'm five
Speaker 2: minutes from home once they change the tire. But you're
Speaker 2: not going to get home. It's not going to be
Speaker 2: to after a minute. You got to be up Berlin
Speaker 2: a more. You have to do a share. So I
Speaker 2: convinced him. I convinced him to to So I called
Speaker 2: got on the phone and I called this guy and
Speaker 2: he comes and he picks him up. He gets there,
Speaker 2: I coast to eleven or so or a quarter to eleven.
Speaker 2: He picks him up and takes them home. And then
Speaker 2: then the guy triple A came like eleven fifteen, didn't
Speaker 2: I tire. I went home. A couple of weeks after that.
Speaker 2: I told him about the things I'm writing in the
Speaker 2: Swaran blog. So I sent him something I wrote and
Speaker 2: he writes back to me cavodi kiri, he says. The
Speaker 2: first thing he says, am, I am very thankful to
Speaker 2: you that you volunteered to bring me to New York.
Speaker 2: Who meets the air on the alsha. This is two
Speaker 2: weeks later, he says, I I'm sorry he's still feeling
Speaker 2: sorry that I left you in the middle of the road.
Speaker 2: Lojayaze min animos. That was wrong. I shouldn't have done it.
Speaker 2: In other words, it not wasn't respectful. I think that's
Speaker 2: an incredible thing. I know, I think re check to
Speaker 2: probably wouldn't want that included here because but I think
Speaker 2: it's important for the people to see that this is
Speaker 2: a goudabe serle who has so much on his mining.
Speaker 2: People are calling him day and night. He's giving me
Speaker 2: share him day and night. And two weeks later, the
Speaker 2: first thing saying is I had to force him to
Speaker 2: get in the car. Basically is that it still is
Speaker 2: bothering him and that he's upset that he left me
Speaker 2: on the road. And I think that says something about
Speaker 2: his citcus that because I know many rabbis one thing
Speaker 2: twice and wouldn't bother them. Maybe at the time, not later.
Speaker 2: This letter I think is important to show the me
Speaker 2: do't the ethical characteristics of this great yeshivah rosseshiva That
Speaker 2: weeks later, it still is bothering him, and he's upset
Speaker 2: that he left me, even though of course he should
Speaker 2: have left me. What is he gonna do? He has
Speaker 2: to be up early in the morning, he has to
Speaker 2: teach all day. What's he how is that gonna I'm
Speaker 2: a big boy. I can wait for the UH, for
Speaker 2: the uh guy, the triple A to come UH. So
Speaker 2: I think that this I I didn't ask him about
Speaker 2: when he had I didn't ask him in particular this
Speaker 2: letter because I thought he probably say, don't include it
Speaker 2: because he's a onn of But I think it's important
Speaker 2: for our community to see this. And then he says,
Speaker 2: thank you very much for what you sent me. I
Speaker 2: sent him a post dealing with the Davar Avraham the
Speaker 2: roof of Coveno, and then thank you again for what
Speaker 2: you sent me about my father, which I still haven't studied.
Speaker 2: And I'm very thankful because I didn't know it all
Speaker 2: from this. So this is just a small letter. I
Speaker 2: called it I Gerrit Shallom, but I think it's important
Speaker 2: and for our community to know who who he is,
Speaker 2: especially since so many people like to attack him for
Speaker 2: positions that they don't like, which is fine, you can disagree.
Speaker 2: But I sent him something where I expressed a different opinion,
Speaker 2: or I cited someone who expressed a different opinion. This
Speaker 2: is a lotic issue having to do with Corona. And
Speaker 2: he says, he said, thank you for sendement. I never
Speaker 2: said accept my opinion. I give my opinion if people
Speaker 2: want to. He wrote this to me, it'll be in
Speaker 2: volume two. He said, if people want to accept my opinion,
Speaker 2: that's fine. But I never said Kibu did accept my opinion.
Speaker 2: That's like the rev used to be like that. Okay,
Speaker 2: we had time for one more. No, actually we don't
Speaker 2: have time because this will take a few minutes. The
Speaker 2: next Schouvan it's the last one we're going to have
Speaker 2: from the Rabbi Mazous. We've seen so many from the Mazous.
Speaker 2: I've introduced you to Robert Mazus, an interesting figure that
Speaker 2: many of you hadn't heard of. He was in the
Speaker 2: news just yesterday because of the election. He said as follows.
Speaker 2: Someone asked me who he supports as Prime ministry. Supports
Speaker 2: in the Tan Yahoo, but not in terms of political party.
Speaker 2: So so he said in his Saturday Nights here, if
Speaker 2: you're a Ben Torah, that is Yeshiva student, I guess
Speaker 2: you should vote for one of the Haredi parties. But
Speaker 2: if you don't want to vote for the Haradi parties,
Speaker 2: then vote for the Religious Zionist party. The problem with
Speaker 2: the Religious Sionist Party is they got this. They made
Speaker 2: this these technical coalitions where you have this u kahanis
Speaker 2: they're not it's not one party, but they joined together
Speaker 2: to pass the it's just as a technical thing. So
Speaker 2: they join the votes together to pass the level limit
Speaker 2: that you can get into Knesset. So that's that. That also,
Speaker 2: he said, some strange things smoke trich but but so
Speaker 2: here you have the Mazu saying, if you don't want
Speaker 2: to vote Karadi, vote vote for the Religious Zionists. And
Speaker 2: it could be the Religious Zionists is going to get
Speaker 2: more votes than they think. Apparently many Karadi are disillusioned. Yankee,
Speaker 2: the grandson of Rachaem Konevski, says that you have to
Speaker 2: vote for the Karadi party to show your member of
Speaker 2: the community. It doesn't matter what they do, how good
Speaker 2: a party they are, just to show your community, so
Speaker 2: we will see what that does. So let me then,
Speaker 2: well it's nine twenty five, so you we can take
Speaker 2: the questions now and the comments. So we're going to
Speaker 2: pick up just so you see next time the last
Speaker 2: thing from mazu ose getting us into a little bit
Speaker 2: of maybe higher criticism of the talmud coming from Rabbi
Speaker 2: Musus and how this is relevant to other adders, and
Speaker 2: then we'll see Robe and Rappaport Professor Yakov Lewinger. We're
Speaker 2: into a new section beginning next week. We only have
Speaker 2: about forty pages to go, dealing with books and authors,
Speaker 2: and we're gonna hear about all about the art scroll
Speaker 2: forgery or it's just say, censorship of Rashomo Yosef, other
Speaker 2: interesting stuff. But we're coming to the end. I said,
Speaker 2: I don't think we'll get to fifty five, but maybe fifty.
Speaker 2: But we still have lots of interesting stuff. So let
Speaker 2: me go back now to the questions. We'll start at
Speaker 2: the beginning here. David says, since one may not prepare
Speaker 2: the saltwater prior to yomtov Ah, very nice. Buying it
Speaker 2: this year is one last thing to repair before the satyr.
Speaker 2: I bet you though it'll be back next year and
Speaker 2: every year. Barr says, basketball was invented in the US.
Speaker 2: Don't think it was big and your point and he says,
Speaker 2: jumping around. The story is told his basketball. Look, it's possible.
Speaker 2: It's possible that he saw the people, the irreligious people
Speaker 2: of playing and he said it. But the story in
Speaker 2: the Halls of Yu, the story deals with the Yu guys.
Speaker 2: I already showed you the yearbook. They Yu had a
Speaker 2: tennis team, they had a basketball team, hit all these things.
Speaker 2: It was real sports. Barr says, is this the Rabbad
Speaker 2: ideas similar to Christian doctrine of Jesus? At first, no,
Speaker 2: because they well maybe well they do say that the
Speaker 2: tomb is empty, uh, but they do believe he was
Speaker 2: killed and then he was raised. So that's but this
Speaker 2: Rabbad doctrine, this strange Rabbad doctrine, says losh know de Ganisa.
Speaker 2: It's like Hanoch over Earlyiahu, that sort of thing. And
Speaker 2: this is but you have it's called occultation the Shiah.
Speaker 2: You wait for the final, the Mahdi, the finally mom
Speaker 2: who's going to be brought back. And this is an
Speaker 2: important for another reason. Bernard Lewis pointed this out that
Speaker 2: before he died, well, this is when Ahmadenijad was president.
Speaker 2: With the Soviets, we always knew that there was a
Speaker 2: mutual assured destruction. They're Communists, so they don't believe in
Speaker 2: afterlife or anything like that, and they don't want to die,
Speaker 2: so they knew that if they want a nuclear bomb
Speaker 2: on us, we'd want a nuclear bomb with them. So
Speaker 2: at least you can understand where each one was and
Speaker 2: you could be assured that they're not interested in committing suicide.
Speaker 2: The problem with the Iranians is and Ahmedenijad was a
Speaker 2: member of a group, this religious sort of group that
Speaker 2: believes in working for the working to bring Mashiach, that is,
Speaker 2: working for the return of the losty Mom. And one
Speaker 2: of the ways that they think that they could bring
Speaker 2: him is if the world becomes in such a difficult circumstances,
Speaker 2: if there's a great conflagration, or through martyrdom. There's all
Speaker 2: certain ways. So if you have people who really believe
Speaker 2: that we can help bring them you know the hidden
Speaker 2: me mom, and that if we were to let's say,
Speaker 2: launch a nuclear weapon on Israel and Israel would respond
Speaker 2: by launching it on us, and that will create we
Speaker 2: cleanse the Holy Land of the infidel, and we all
Speaker 2: this martyr dom. In other words, this is the sort
Speaker 2: of thing Lewis said that could help bring the final
Speaker 2: you know, it's creating this apocalypse. It could bring the
Speaker 2: last d mom. And we know they're willing to commit
Speaker 2: suicide and kill themselves. We've seen it again and again,
Speaker 2: so you know, just simply like you hear people say, well,
Speaker 2: who cares if they have nuclear weapon? They know they
Speaker 2: can't use it because they know that they'll be destroyed
Speaker 2: by Israel or America. Who says said, maybe that's exactly
Speaker 2: what they want. They want, especially Armadenijad, who was a
Speaker 2: member of this group that would wanted to help bring
Speaker 2: through their actions, they thought they could bring the hiddeny mom.
Speaker 2: So when people who believe in suicide as the service
Speaker 2: of God, you don't want to give them the opportunity
Speaker 2: to do that, I would say, yes, thank you Mel
Speaker 2: for pointing it out. Bars what I'm told is that
Speaker 2: the people in India. You probably have some in Israel
Speaker 2: as well, but the people in India are known as
Speaker 2: the real crazy ones in this respect. I've met RaBaD
Speaker 2: rabbis who say that they don't even consider them rabbad.
Speaker 2: They speak of them as I don't know if the
Speaker 2: people who were with me on a couple of years
Speaker 2: ago in Centre Europe, I don't know if you're here,
Speaker 2: were in the Savor Tarifl. That's how you remember when
Speaker 2: the Savor tterifle. So there was a big habad rabbit
Speaker 2: from California who was there that weekend as well, and
Speaker 2: he said to me, they're not even RaBaD so there,
Speaker 2: I've never seen anything like these people. And but loook,
Speaker 2: I hate there and everyone goes there and they try
Speaker 2: to avoid that unless you hold idea have burger that
Speaker 2: you can't eat their food. But I didn't go that
Speaker 2: far and show you them a serious Nephish. I had
Speaker 2: extra chocolate which I brought, so I know they keep
Speaker 2: Paul Vistra, which is a huge and serious nephishir. But
Speaker 2: I gave it to them because they have all these
Speaker 2: Israelis there. The reason Abados is in the bad neighborhood
Speaker 2: that the poor neighborhood is because these Israelis can't afford
Speaker 2: anything to stay at these chief hostels. So I gave
Speaker 2: it to him, thinking, you know, you'd give it to
Speaker 2: some of these Israelis you have some closher food, hardly
Speaker 2: any of them ashell mashabas or anything. Some of them
Speaker 2: you do find some religious ones, but most or not.
Speaker 2: And he said, well, it's not calvitralos, so we can't
Speaker 2: use that. I said, but you can give it to people.
Speaker 2: He said, no, he'll give it to the non Jewish worker.
Speaker 2: And that's what he did when I was there. It's
Speaker 2: really sad. You know, all these Israelis they're there, they're searching,
Speaker 2: they're these there's villages there which are full of Israelis.
Speaker 2: They're looking for something which obviously they don't find in Judaism.
Speaker 2: At the Shabist table, there even was a guy. He
Speaker 2: rode his motorcycle right up to the rabbat house. He's
Speaker 2: his father is a is decently well known. He told me.
Speaker 2: I never heard of it, but his father is decently
Speaker 2: well known in the religiou Zionist world. He runs a school.
Speaker 2: So you have even from religious people who are not
Speaker 2: religious anymore. But he told me about he had visited
Speaker 2: that week. There's an Israeli who was caught smuggling drugs
Speaker 2: and from Nepal and it's been like three years then
Speaker 2: he still hasn't come to trial. Is being held up
Speaker 2: in some prison near the border, and he took his
Speaker 2: motorcycle to go visit him. I mean, you have all
Speaker 2: sorts of cases like this where people just chews caught
Speaker 2: in terrible situations. Schmol says, how do the gis go
Speaker 2: from the iron being hidden to applying that to human being?
Speaker 2: Is there any source that applies such a concept to
Speaker 2: a righteous person? Well, they try to derive it from
Speaker 2: something the Rebbe said in his in one of his
Speaker 2: seat about the nasihador, But really do they need the
Speaker 2: prince of the generation? But do they need to have
Speaker 2: a source? They assume already by definition at the Rebbe's
Speaker 2: so he can't die. They assume it's at least they
Speaker 2: assume I guess, of course, can die but then be resurrected.
Speaker 2: But they assume because understand their attitude is like he
Speaker 2: controls the world and that nothing happens without the Rebbey's approval,
Speaker 2: and that you can turn to the Rebbe and he'll
Speaker 2: do things for you. I mean they view him as
Speaker 2: a kin't It's almost like he's part of the Godhead
Speaker 2: in their understanding of it, so, David says, here's a
Speaker 2: similar quote from ervin thirteen. D uh, anyone who chases
Speaker 2: after good goodua runs away from him. So, but that's
Speaker 2: not cove. That's not the exact phrase Covid, although it
Speaker 2: means sort of the same thing. Borrow said, how much
Speaker 2: of the letters come from the rebbie how much from
Speaker 2: a secretary's I think the rebbe definitely write it over
Speaker 2: because it has his handwriting in it. I assume he
Speaker 2: dictated it to him, but I I don't know how
Speaker 2: much he didn't. He didn't type it up. He wasn't
Speaker 2: doing that himself, typing it up. It's a good question.
Speaker 2: I'm going to ask, in fact, the author of that book.
Speaker 2: I'll get to the report for next week, David Zakokowski,
Speaker 2: who wrote it?
Speaker 4: He?
Speaker 2: I mean, when he's writing to people, when he's writing
Speaker 2: to my father, he's talking about historical thing. He's not
Speaker 2: giving it to someone else. The typical letters, which don't
Speaker 2: say very much like the letter I got. I'm assumed
Speaker 2: that the secretary wrote it. He just signed it. But
Speaker 2: I'll ask. But you can see in many of these
Speaker 2: letters they're personal letters. So he dictated it to him.
Speaker 2: I guess I don't think he. Maybe he wrote it
Speaker 2: in long hand. I will ask, though it's it's a
Speaker 2: good question. I don't know. David says, the legal term
Speaker 2: for agent and Israeli agency, well is schuim. Not so
Speaker 2: in sixty five it was still schurim. But David says,
Speaker 2: Schlikraim in Hebrew offer first to the apostles of Jesus,
Speaker 2: and not Jesus himself, as per the polemical text in
Speaker 2: the Hagadavo a YadA a Shuliach. I didn't know that
Speaker 2: that was polemical. I never assumed that. But maybe what
Speaker 2: you mentioned about Shuhim and Hebrew referring to the apostle
Speaker 2: of Jesus. In fact, rab By Mazou says that the
Speaker 2: reason in Ribbinic Hebrew they the pooral of Shriach is
Speaker 2: schruach Shurim and not Shlichrim, is precisely because of what
Speaker 2: David says, that Schlichriim refers to the apostle of Jesus.
Speaker 2: But to which I have said, I wrote this in
Speaker 2: print that I have found no evidence whatsoever that in
Speaker 2: the days of the Mishnah, that or in the days
Speaker 2: even in Earlierbinic literature, that that's what they referred to
Speaker 2: the apostles as in other words, so therefore the mishnah,
Speaker 2: would you schuhim ave, I don't believe that that is
Speaker 2: found until at least medieval period. Rabaike Helma said he
Speaker 2: is a supposed to be in vircial Schachter for four
Speaker 2: years before he was famous. Mel says that Rabbi David
Speaker 2: Kat spoke about doctor Montalto yesterday and pointed out that
Speaker 2: when he was summoned to treat French royalty on Shavis,
Speaker 2: he was driven there in a carriage by a nanjou.
Speaker 2: He was attacked for doing what he did, and wrote
Speaker 2: a shuva defending what he did. The problem is, I
Speaker 2: don't know who doctor Montalto is, so if you can
Speaker 2: tell me who uh Rabbi Montalto, who wrote a chuva?
Speaker 2: I don't know who that is, so maybe you can
Speaker 2: tell me Mel him I've never heard of. And Rabi
Speaker 2: Kelman says that he followed of Shachter's view in Toronto
Speaker 2: that although it's not a popular view in Toronto among
Speaker 2: the rabbi is that to speak together with a reform rabbi,
Speaker 2: the reform rabbi gives his position, and then you give
Speaker 2: your position. The tower position. Barral says a doctor treating
Speaker 2: royalty is not necessarily the same as fine to Olympics
Speaker 2: on Shabas. He didn't fight Olympics of Shabas. He flew
Speaker 2: back before Shabas and then he had to walk up.
Speaker 2: But I said, if a car came to him because
Speaker 2: he was summoned, I believe that any post Sake, and
Speaker 2: I've asked a few rabbis would say if if Putin
Speaker 2: summons you and says he wants you coming here, of
Speaker 2: course you do that. It's a rabbinic prohibition. And the
Speaker 2: po nephesh that we allow all sorts of things. I said, we, uh,
Speaker 2: we treat patients, not just da rosa. Uh So I
Speaker 2: have no doubt that any posts overlander him. Not and
Speaker 2: Rebbi was himself as Atma, so he doesn't need h
Speaker 2: anyone else. But uh, I mean, he can side himself.
Speaker 2: But I have no doubt that any post Sak would
Speaker 2: And I know post Scheme have told people like zach
Speaker 2: Kim and others. They and these are people who positions
Speaker 2: are not at anywhere near the level of Putin. Remember
Speaker 2: of the Lazarre Lazar could pick up the phone and
Speaker 2: call Putin and get through to him. It's David says.
Speaker 2: The question I have is with the Rove today postulated
Speaker 2: in the fifties, that's preferable to miss Tis the chauffeur.
Speaker 2: Then here it in a conservative show. Perhaps this view
Speaker 2: stem during a time of mon Orthodox who was facing
Speaker 2: extinction being swallowed up by conservative movement, whereas no lore
Speaker 2: concern both in the light of the rise of Orthodoxy
Speaker 2: and the Wayne and Conservan movement. I think ref Schechter
Speaker 2: that's his position that I don't think he says he's
Speaker 2: disagreeing with the rov I think he says that today
Speaker 2: we're not giving them legitimacy. First of all, they don't
Speaker 2: need our legitimacy. And it's not a battle anymore. They're
Speaker 2: the ones who are declining. It's we're not in a struggle.
Speaker 2: In the fifties, Orthodoxy was in the minority, and it
Speaker 2: looked like the future was with the Conservative movement, and
Speaker 2: you had many of the younger generation, including children of rabbis.
Speaker 2: If you look at the rabbinical school in the seminary
Speaker 2: in the forties and fifties, most of them came from
Speaker 2: Orthodox homes, even from most of them came from Yeshiva College.
Speaker 2: I think in the nineteen forties, I have the figures
Speaker 2: in the Libraman book. So it's very different today. And
Speaker 2: Habad doesn't have that issue either. They have no uh.
Speaker 2: I spoke when I in New London, Connecticut. This is
Speaker 2: taking back to nineteen ninety six when I was teaching
Speaker 2: at Yukon. I was invited to e vent There it
Speaker 2: was I think it was a reform snega, not a conservative.
Speaker 2: Maybe it was conservative and it was me, the Habad
Speaker 2: rabbi and the conservative and we each gave our talk
Speaker 2: and no one thought we're giving them legitimacy. That's why
Speaker 2: Lee moved. We moved in England. The Garadi Rabbi is
Speaker 2: very opposed to it. But Schachter said, when I was
Speaker 2: at the firstly Mood conference because I was inviter, I
Speaker 2: Brander was there and I said, I asked for Schachter
Speaker 2: of Shachter said, oh, it's very important. So that's I
Speaker 2: this idea. And today if you go to the Adam
Speaker 2: Furzer has an article. If you go out west, let's
Speaker 2: say you go to places like Denver, texas the Haredi
Speaker 2: co os the Lakewood colos are doing classes a conservative
Speaker 2: synagogues and reform synagogues. It's everyone is concluded that today
Speaker 2: this is not an issue. Borah says, was I named
Speaker 2: after someone whose named Melach?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 2: I was not named after melahor Malcolm. My parents just
Speaker 2: like the name. I mean Malcol. They figure Malca, so
Speaker 2: why not Malach. But there's a Meleach, this one off
Speaker 2: from the people from Tink. He's a he. His son
Speaker 2: is the one who this one off, so you can see.
Speaker 2: He's Garrett Sedeka. But his wife is from a Yiddishist background.
Speaker 2: It's their son who translated Harry Potter into Yiddish. They
Speaker 2: made such a big deal about it. But Melech, his
Speaker 2: name is Mela also, and we're Meyoch together. It won't behold.
Speaker 2: I run into him in India where he was on sabbatical.
Speaker 2: But anyone who lives in Teeneck knows Meyochem and a
Speaker 2: great great Jew, so I'm happy that we share that name.
Speaker 2: Barry says, there Amel Schachtter was my teacher of Ordea.
Speaker 2: He taught me how to sign my name properly as
Speaker 2: a witness and aid when he was in Sara conditioner,
Speaker 2: and I said he was also an expert in conversion.
Speaker 2: And how many years ago was the flat tire? The
Speaker 2: flat tire was about four five years ago. I think
Speaker 2: it was five years ago. He doesn't have the name
Speaker 2: the date on the h the juve i just has
Speaker 2: a date, not the year. David's apropos. Addressing rabbis and
Speaker 2: the third person, a student in Hertzione asked his friend
Speaker 2: named Iron, Hey, Iron, what's the time? Where let's see
Speaker 2: it was a near shut of the two students immediately
Speaker 2: after soon asked his friend records seeing Immediately chimed in
Speaker 2: and told the students what was the time? Rabbi Wineberg
Speaker 2: tells the story, tells a story about they were baking
Speaker 2: monsters with it's all a blauser and someone says he
Speaker 2: it's luck to one of his friends, and it answers
Speaker 2: the question, Jay Yellen, our good friend Rubyakov I had
Speaker 2: the honor and pleasure of sitting next to Rabbi Schachtra
Speaker 2: and ou dinner in la in twenty fourteen. First, he
Speaker 2: behaved exactly to describe warm, friendly, and even occasionally funny. Also,
Speaker 2: my first wife had died a number of months before
Speaker 2: the dinner we used to attend, I know ou West
Speaker 2: Coast together or a Schachter found out that, during of
Speaker 2: course our conversation he was incredibly kind of ready to
Speaker 2: come great. I had a great comfort and rama. I'm
Speaker 2: quite certain he would not remember the conversation at dinner,
Speaker 2: but I will never forget it. Thank you for recording that.
Speaker 2: And Schwolz says, do I offer the background to the letter? Yeah?
Speaker 2: I do offer the background, otherwise people wouldn't know what
Speaker 2: it's about. Zahav says a few more questions. Israel. Noel
Speaker 2: writes about the idea of resurrection at the start of
Speaker 2: the first millennium in regard to a Jewish general successful
Speaker 2: for about three years then killed, and seems to suggest
Speaker 2: that it is where what became the Christian sect got
Speaker 2: it from there. There there are some things that there's
Speaker 2: another text. I think maybe that's what he's referring to,
Speaker 2: of a of a resurrected Messianic figure. So we do
Speaker 2: have a few passages like that, not mainstream sort of things.
Speaker 2: But Rabbi Sandy Schulna says, at the time of the
Speaker 2: depression JTS and why you almost merged, Yeah, that you
Speaker 2: can look in one of our Kafat's articles. He has
Speaker 2: all the primary documents on this. The sticking point was
Speaker 2: Mortorgai Kaplan. Finkelstein refused to get Rudmorta Kai Kaplin. If
Speaker 2: fink Olstein would have got the rumort Ki Kaplin, they
Speaker 2: could have because in the seminary was still committed to
Speaker 2: Hawaja and the differences were not that much. Probably, and
Speaker 2: yesterday was Sol Liberman's York site. I did not know
Speaker 2: that when we finished with these classes, I'm gonna do
Speaker 2: many classes, not this many, maybe six, five or six
Speaker 2: on Soul Liberman. He died on the plane on the
Speaker 2: way back to Ericisterral he died. If I should now,
Speaker 2: my teacher of Aaron Rothcoffe told us at BMT that
Speaker 2: JTS and why you came co to Merger. Yes, it
Speaker 2: was because of the money situation. I think the attitude
Speaker 2: was that JTS the rabbinic would be absorbed and the
Speaker 2: scholarship that was fine. So you'd have, like there's a
Speaker 2: Bernard Revels that would be seminary. At that time, you
Speaker 2: didn't have any real theological issues that were really distinguishing them.
Speaker 2: Bark I didn't give the example of flying to the Olympics.
Speaker 2: I said, if he was summoned and he had to
Speaker 2: do that, or then I gave a different example. If
Speaker 2: the car pulls up on Shabis and says that Putin
Speaker 2: wants you, Rabbizar, that that that's there's no post tak,
Speaker 2: you would say not to do that. What I said
Speaker 2: was that he food of the Olympics and when he
Speaker 2: came back he had to then walk home and all
Speaker 2: the Missnagdi mocked him and saying, what kind of rabbi
Speaker 2: is this?
Speaker 4: That?
Speaker 3: Uh?
Speaker 2: You know Ari of Schabas, he's at the Olympics and
Speaker 2: not understanding that when Putin asks you to come there
Speaker 2: you go. We have no idea what goes on behind
Speaker 2: the scenes in Russia. How many people in Wizar has
Speaker 2: been able to help and because of his close relationship
Speaker 2: to to Putin. Doctor Montalto was a famous converser. Doctor
Speaker 2: left Portugal and f flod to.
Speaker 1: Judy is.
Speaker 2: Okay, now I remember he went to He ended up
Speaker 2: in Istanbul, if I if I recall correctly, he went,
Speaker 2: but he was not able to write at Chuva. Yes
Speaker 2: he he uh if anything, he got some rabbi and
Speaker 2: he ended up in correct men, he ended up in Istanbul.
Speaker 2: That's what it was. Yes, oh, yes, okay. And finally
Speaker 2: the last question, can I repeat the source of the
Speaker 2: material you referred to about the respective merger of JTS
Speaker 2: and YU. Well, you can read about it in a
Speaker 2: few different places, but the primary documents, there's this annual
Speaker 2: called Michael Michael. It doesn't appear anymore. It came off
Speaker 2: from Televiv University and Aaron Rakkeeffet. Most of his stuff
Speaker 2: is more of like the rabbinic stuff, quasi bigiography some
Speaker 2: of it. But that's a pure academic article in which
Speaker 2: he publishes the original documents from the YU side about
Speaker 2: the discussions about the merger between jts and and YU.
Speaker 2: I mean, look, Kaplan was a sticking point. That doesn't
Speaker 2: mean that if it wasn't for Kaplan they would have
Speaker 2: been able to in the end do it because the
Speaker 2: Roushi Yeshiva would have put up a fight. The question
Speaker 2: is how important are the Russia Ashiva in determining things?
Speaker 2: The Russia Ashiva have put up fights about lots of things.
Speaker 2: Put up a fight about changing the charter of YU.
Speaker 2: They put up a fight every year. They'd have this
Speaker 2: like a social where they called the deans something or
Speaker 2: another where the boys and girls were to come together
Speaker 2: the Ashiyashiva. I have done lots of things and they
Speaker 2: haven't had the They didn't control it. So I don't
Speaker 2: know if in the end, but we don't know, but
Speaker 2: what would have happened, But that was always the sticking point.
Speaker 2: Mortora Kaplan by Hertzog came to America during the war years.
Speaker 2: He refused to step foot into I think this is
Speaker 2: during the Warriors. He came one time Warriors was after
Speaker 2: he refused to step foot in the seminary even though
Speaker 2: Saul Ribman was there, because he said he cannot step
Speaker 2: foot in the building. That allows Mortora Kaplan to teach
Speaker 2: implication being a kapain wasn't there. At least he could
Speaker 2: have stepped in to go visit Lieberman. You'll see when
Speaker 2: we finished with these things and we do sel Lieberman.
Speaker 2: It appears at least mortor Haik Kaplan claimed that sel
Speaker 2: Leiberman held to the Haram while they were at the seminary,
Speaker 2: at least for a certain time on him. So okay,
Speaker 2: So finally the last thing now says a cat's quote
Speaker 2: that you've written by Montalto, and so they probably had
Speaker 2: helped writing it. He must have had help. He was
Speaker 2: a doctor like this. But I'll have to investigate this.
Speaker 2: And Sandy says, should know Rabbi Gerson Cohen moved the
Speaker 2: portrait of Caplain so and Cohen spoke, Kaplan's portrait was there.
Speaker 2: All I can tell you about Gerson Cohen is that
Speaker 2: traditionalist rabbis. Just give you an example, David Feldman, I
Speaker 2: mean you're saying it that he he he wanted to
Speaker 2: see the portrait of Captain. I'm assuming that's what you're saying.
Speaker 2: Rabbi David Feldman, the father of Rabbie Feldman of hy
Speaker 2: You in fact refshach. Here's something I think I could
Speaker 2: say this because pub knowledge, everyone went to the Jewish
Speaker 2: center of ten Neck would have seen it. He told
Speaker 2: his son. Rabbi Feldman's son is Daniel Filman, a big,
Speaker 2: big Tom mclachelm Bucky. He'll be a russiashiva. I think
Speaker 2: he's a rasheva now that he could dovin in his
Speaker 2: father's shoal conservative show as long as he you know,
Speaker 2: there weren't because it was it was It wasn't egalitarian,
Speaker 2: it was just conservative. There's no Maritza, but that he
Speaker 2: should find a place where there's no women around, and
Speaker 2: dovinaire out of keybod of for his father, respect for
Speaker 2: his father, he should find a place. And then that's
Speaker 2: sock therev Maybe the Rove would have given it privately, publicly,
Speaker 2: he never would have said something like that this. David
Speaker 2: Felman also was a very fine time of Hoffling wrote
Speaker 2: the standard book on birth control and Jewish Law, which
Speaker 2: you could read like any Orthodox work. But David Felman
Speaker 2: said that gers Son Cohen was a secularist. I'm not
Speaker 2: saying it, that's what That's what David Felman said. So
Speaker 2: Gersn Cohen's approach to Judy is and now Feldman, of
Speaker 2: course was on the right wing group that fought Cohen
Speaker 2: over women, rabbis and all that thing. But they there
Speaker 2: was no love lost between the conservative sides. And you're
Speaker 2: saying that Gerson Cohen loved Kaplin. A lot of people
Speaker 2: loved Kaplin. He had a big following. That's one of
Speaker 2: the reasons that Finkelstein rid of him. Also Finkelstein loved him.
Speaker 2: Finklestein was a student offense. So, okay, there's a lot
Speaker 2: more to say. We will end here. Thank you all.
Speaker 2: We'll see you in a few weeks. Rabbi Leman, if I.
Speaker 8: May I just on this last point. I believe you
Speaker 8: mentioned on one of our trips that David Feldman, had
Speaker 8: he been in the Orthodox world, would have been one
Speaker 8: of the plus game of our community.
Speaker 2: Oh, there's no question about it. I asked him why
Speaker 2: he I had a long conversation with him. In fact,
Speaker 2: one time one of my own conversations was in Toronto
Speaker 2: where he spoke for Torren motion. Remember many many years
Speaker 2: we had for.
Speaker 8: My mother's yards. Say Danielle rob Danielle came with his
Speaker 8: parents and they spoke, the father and son, and it
Speaker 8: was it was, it was very nice.
Speaker 2: And his father was a rabbi out in Los Angeles,
Speaker 2: wrote a book on the Turta Mima. This was the
Speaker 2: time in the fifties where they thought that the future
Speaker 2: was in the conservative movement, and he went there. But
Speaker 2: he he had a great, great learning, and uh, it's
Speaker 2: it's our loss that uh. Although Rabbi Hudart's Lincoln writes
Speaker 2: that his book on birth control, it's a perfect book,
Speaker 2: no problems, anyone could use it. But he uh, he
Speaker 2: at the end he was very disillusioned. I know someone
Speaker 2: who was at the the one of the conventions of
Speaker 2: the Ra towards the end when of his life. What
Speaker 2: he went or the one of the less was he
Speaker 2: went to and Robby Feldman got up and started very
Speaker 2: emotionally saying, all this stuff you're talking about, what about shabas,
Speaker 2: what about kostros? Have we forgot to know about it?
Speaker 3: So?
Speaker 2: Uh, I'm assuming he saw that as a career move
Speaker 2: and as and when you see how he educated his children,
Speaker 2: I mean the children came out a wonderful, wonderful children
Speaker 2: in a traditional total environment. Uh. I am certain. I
Speaker 2: needn't ask him this, but I am certain at the
Speaker 2: end of his life he realized he made a mistake
Speaker 2: and it was He's not the only one, uh, but yes,
Speaker 2: he would have been. It's a loss for our community.
Speaker 4: He was a conservative.
Speaker 8: Stop father father.
Speaker 2: He has bublic she flappers showed the pinnacles and his
Speaker 2: system follow was too the old confert of rabbis usually
Speaker 2: usually the other way was there, the money was there,
Speaker 2: the job was there.
Speaker 6: But so you sent to the she.
Speaker 4: Wins.
Speaker 2: She went off to show central.
Speaker 7: No.
Speaker 2: But I think for someone like Selman, he didn't think
Speaker 2: that it would develop the way it did. It just
Speaker 2: became a form of UH. I mean for most of them,
Speaker 2: which quite well failed me. I felt this was the father. Okay,
Speaker 2: thank you all, thanks, Okay, everybody like, thank you Barry doctor.
Speaker 3: We'll see you.
Speaker 2: Please go on in three weeks.
Speaker 3: I have.
Speaker 8: Servis math enjoy.
Speaker 4: Everybody on the best.
Speaker 2: Market.
Speaker 8: Doctor Benny on on to hill him and uh. On Wednesday,
Speaker 8: I mentioned after on Thursday eleven a m. Eleven am
Speaker 8: per sure that shavu. That's the three more shearing coming
Speaker 8: up this week, so I hope you can join us.
Speaker 2: And there I want just say one more thing. If
Speaker 2: Daniel stillone, I think ye. I can tell you that
Speaker 2: people called him thinky, even not as a negative, just
Speaker 2: as a foreman endearment, thinky. Like when I went to BMT,
Speaker 2: we called it a Rabbi Horwitz call him whitey. So
Speaker 2: I yes, there were he was at odds with Finklestein
Speaker 2: could read the book, and he had issues with fink
Speaker 2: Ostein about certain things. But just be calling him thinky
Speaker 2: doesn't in a private diary doesn't necessarily mean a negative thing. Okay,
Speaker 2: leave it at that. We'll pick up more later. Thank you.
Speaker 1: This series was originally recorded in twenty twenty and twenty
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