Arizal: There Are ZERO Ishmaelite Converts (and Why)!
See Chida’s “Pnei David” on Lech Lecha (p.32 on HebrewBooks’ version here):
We have written about this in the past.
Year: 2019
Is It Too Early for Juvenile Purim Humor?
Q: What do you call a rabbi who cares about Minhag Ashkenaz?
A: “An Amaliker Rav.” (Yiddish)
HILARIOUS In Retrospect…
The story is told Rabbi Sh’ar Yashuv Hacohen visited Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson and mentioned a certain custom of his. Rabbi Schneerson asked him why a Litvak such as himself observed what is, in fact, a Chassidic custom, and Rabbi Hacohen responded by mentioning his grandparents’ roots in Breslov.
To which Rabbi Schneerson asked: Breslov? What kind of Chassidus is that? They don’t have a Rebbe!
The end. Get it?
נתנה ראש ונשובה מצרימה
ראיתי עוד מודעה מהסוג שמקפיץ אותי כל פעם מחדש – “מכירה – חוזרים לחו”ל”!
מה זה “חוזרים”? מילא היו כותבים “עוברים לחו”ל”, לכסות על זה שבעצם מוקעים ומוקאים מארצנו הקדושה, אבל “חוזרים”? כאילו אנחנו משם במקור!
וימאסו בארץ חמדה…
Zealotry: ‘You Can’t Beat Something With Nothing!’
לא ליסתור בי כנישתא עד דבני בי כנישתא אחריתי… משום פשיעותא (מגלה כ”ו ב’).
I read Rabbi Nosson Shulman opposed the opposition to “Shemiras Shabbos Kehilchasa” because no alternative was (then?) available. (I don’t know if he meant all written opposition; “Lechoshvei Shemo”, Rabbi Benyamin Zilber, etc.)
The same is true for showing certain Jews their rabbis are ignoramuses.
This is also the lesson behind the tale of the scholar who tried to correct an isolated simpleton’s prayer. Then, the simpleton forgot what he was taught, had no one to consult, and ceased praying altogether.
That’s what various “zealots” refuse to grasp…