העורך Editor

A Yeshiva Ketana youth told me his Mashgiach quoted the Rambam in the Moreh as saying the act of eating together was equal to people defecating together without shame.

So, that’s why we have mitzvas Zimun?

He was ruffled to read the Rambam in the original referring to alcohol:

אך הקיבוץ על השתייה המשכרת, ראויה שיהיה אצלך יותר חרפה מהתקבץ אנשים ערומים מגולי הערוה נפנים ומתריזים ביום בבית אחד. ובאור זה כי היציאה ענין הכרחי אין לאדם תחבולה לדחותו והשכרות הוא ממעשה האיש הרע בבחירתו; וגנות גלות הערוה מפורסם לא מושכל והפסד השכל והגוף מרוחק לשכל. ולזה צריך למי שרוצה להיות אדם שירחיק זה ולא ידבר בו.

I cannot get enough of the rabbi’s properly dismissive language toward the abusers of rabbinic authority:

“The rabbanim are not talking halacha,” Rabbi Moshe Tendler told The Jewish Press. “They’re issuing a political statement.”

“I wouldn’t accuse the rabbanim of talking halacha,” he said, “because then I’d have to accuse them of being am haratzim [ignoramuses]. The rabbanim, baruch Hashem, are talmidei chachamim and know exactly what I know. I believe they’re just backing up a government position.”

See the rest here…

פאה נכרית הרב אלישיב וחסידות בעלז

Jun 10, 2021

מאתר יוטיוב, כאן.

See here…

A precious reader wrote, in disagreement with Hyehudi’s perspective on certain matters, and I heavily paraphrase:

“Regardless of the proofs, either pro or con, some ideas may be קרוב להפסד ורחוק משכר for the המון העם who do not make the proper (sometimes hair-splitting) distinctions between legitimate actions and beliefs and dangerously illegitimate ones.

“Simpler to stick to [the basics].”

Well, this ignores competing ideas, both inarguably wrong and harmful. Arid, intellectual Jewish “basics” don’t keep the masses (or the elites, in a weaker moment!) away from attractive, fashionable idols.

The Torah is for everyone, all the time.

Which is why, well, Hashem in fact inserted surprising, but absolutely legitimate actions and beliefs into the Torah, in the first place…