העורך Editor

A teacher of mine, out of character, once said something in Kabbalah, then regretted going over our heads and told us to forget (and hide) he ever said it.

Until today, that class is one of the only ones I recall from him!

There is a lesson here…

So today, I am going to tell you what I would’ve, should’ve, and could’ve deleted.

Bava Basra 74a:

אמר לי תא אחוי לך בלועי דקרח חזאי תרי ביזעי והוו קא מפקי קוטרא שקל גבבא דעמרא ואמשינה במיא ודעציתה בראשה דרומחא ועייליה התם וכי אפיק הוה איחרך איחרוכי אמר לי אצית מאי שמעת ושמעית דהוו אמרין משה ותורתו אמת והן בדאין אמר לי כל תלתין יומי מהדר להו גיהנם להכא כבשר בקלחת ואמרי הכי משה ותורתו אמת והן בדאין.

First I was going to make this gemara the answer to a challenge: Find Shawarma in Parshas Korach.

Then, realizing a “kalachat” was mentioned (oops!), I creatively decided to focus instead on why it must be a pot, and not shawarma (idly thinking of the mashal in Yechezkel 11:3).

Until I realized a rotating roasting spit fits better here than shawarma anyway. But roasting spits are boring and unisraeli…

Then I recalled what Chazal say נפל תורא חדד לסכינא.

I was just about to shlep this dialectical article behind the barn and put the beast out of its misery, except… I was still an article short, so decided to tell this tale.

(Sorry, no Kabbalah!)

I wonder because his latest (new but posthumously published) article, ends plainly:

Tzitzit, with their thread of blue, remind us of heaven, and that is what we most need if we are consistently to act in accordance with the better angels of our nature.

No added jawing about how we no longer have this blue thread, etc., etc.

P.S., I see BlueFringes.com answers our question in the positive, but I cannot access the page. UPDATE: It’s here.

by Rabbi Shalom C. Spira

Read it here on Daas Torah…

I said, once I was out of striking range.

But-but… he has Ruach Kodesh!

“Korach had Ruach Hakodesh!”

(Meaning, one level under Nevuah, not the simpler kind)

Elazar Stern is hated by many for his central role in perpetrating the Expulsion of Jews from Gush Katif, but other reasons exist, as well. His integration of Hesder students into the regular army platoons (around the same time as the Expulsion, too) wasn’t appreciated by many in the Dati camp.

The best story in Elazar Stern’s autobiography, “Struggling over Israel’s Soul: An IDF General Speaks of His Controversial Moral Decisions” is on p. 244.

Assuming Daddy got permission to tell the following cheery anecdote:

One Saturday morning, my daughter Adi was the officer on duty on her base, and she went to pray in the synagogue. When prayers ended, the soldiers sat down together to eat breakfast, and at the meal, Adi met five yeshiva boys from the settlement of Peduel. The boys asked her what her name was and where she was from. She answered, “My name is Adi and I’m from Hoshaya.” The soldiers responded immediately, “The village where that filthy Stern lives?!” and they proceeded to curse me out.

Adi asked them calmly if they had ever learned any manners or a least not to gossip. Then she cut them off and said, “You didn’t ask me what my last name is. It’s Stern. Now, thanks to you, there is another issue on which I disagree with my father. He should have kept the Hesder students in separate units, so that I wouldn’t have to be around any of you.”

Do all Hesder youth chat with girls so freely?! And yet, to take the lady at her word, would a non-promiscuous woman in the army truly prefer non-Hesder soldiers (ceteris paribus)?

Throughout the book (p. 268, 289) Stern describes his daughters as religious (well, as much as he himself, anyway!).

Meanwhile, Stern himself suppressed serious complaints of sexual abuse when approached for help by women under his command…