Friday, June 27, 2025

not bound to or dependent on any particular place

 “The poles (of the Ark) shall remain in the rings of the ark. They shall not be removed from it.” (Exodus 25:15) 


“The constant presence of the בדים testifies that God’s Torah is not bound to or dependent on any particular place—testimony that is boldly underscored by the contrast between the Ark and the other furnishings of the Sanctuary, especially the Table and the Menorah, which do not have permanently attached בדים.” (The Hirsch Chumash, 2014, Exodus, 25:15 in the Hirsch Anthology, (New York, NY: Feldheim, 2017) p. 447).

Wednesday, June 25, 2025

Hirschian Humanism After the Holocaust: An Analysis of the Approach of Rabbi Shimon Schwab - Sefoirm

Hirschian Humanism After the Holocaust:

An Analysis of the Approach of Rabbi Shimon Schwab

By Rabbi Shmuel Lesher


In 1959, Rabbi Shimon Schwab[1] made a unique contribution to the way his community and others commemorate the Holocaust. Shortly after he joined the rabbinate of K’hal Adath Jeshurun in Washington Heights, Manhattan, R. Schwab was asked by R. Joseph Breuer[2] to compose a special Tisha B’av kinnah for their kehillah. Although it was originally written for the KAJ community, many other congregations have adopted the custom of reciting it on Tisha B’av.[3] To be sure, there have been others who authored kinnot to commemorate the Holocaust.[4] However, it appears that, especially in America, R. Schwab’s kinnah is perhaps one of the first written by a rabbinic figure to gain widespread popularity.

In addition to his innovative Holocaust kinnah, the events of the Holocaust played a significant role in how R. Schwab interpreted and perpetuated the Torah Im Derekh Eretz philosophy to which he was heir. According to R. Schwab, Torah Im Derekh Eretz was seen by R. Samson Raphael Hirsch as the ideal model. However, openness to secular culture has historically been the minority opinion among gedolei yisrael.[5]


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Tuesday, June 24, 2025

FRIEDMANN, DAVID BEN SAMUEL

FRIEDMANN, DAVID BEN SAMUEL (also called "Dovidel" Karliner; 1828–1917), Lithuanian rabbi and posek. Friedmann was born in Biala and lived for a time in Brest-Litovsk after 1836. On the advice of Leib Katzenellenbogen he moved to Kamenets-Litovsk where he studied under the supervision of his older brother Joseph until 1841. In that year he made the acquaintance of the philanthropist Shemariah Luria of Mohilev, who entrusted to him the education of his brother-in-law Zalman Rivlin of Shklov. Friedmann later married Luria's daughter. From 1846 to 1866 he devoted himself to concentrated study in the house of his father-in-law, where he compiled his Piskei Halakhot. After the death of his father-in-law in 1866 he accepted the rabbinate of Karlin near Pinsk (in 1868) where he remained until his death.

Friedmann's renown rests upon his Piskei Halakhot (pt. 1, 1898; pt. 2, 1901), an exposition and summary of matrimonial law, with a commentary entitled Yad David, an appendix entitled She'ilat David containing responsa on the laws of *mikva'ot ("ritual baths"). The text of the Piskei Halakhot follows that of Maimonides. In his comprehensive exposition, Friedmann endeavors to establish clear-cut decisions. His work is distinguished by the fact that he relies to an overwhelming extent on the Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmuds and on the *rishonim, disregarding the *aḥaronim. He eschewed casuistry and tried to penetrate to the essence of the halakhah by a logical approach. Among the rabbis who turned to him with their problems were Menahem Mendel *Schneersohn, the head of the Lubavitch (Chabad) dynasty, and David *Luria. When religious extremists in Jerusalem excommunicated the bet midrash of his brother-in-law, Jehiel Michael *Pines, because he supported the establishment in Jerusalem of an orphanage "where they would also learn a foreign language," Friedmann attacked them in his Emek Berakhah (1881). It consists of four essays in which he discusses the question of a ban and the regulations and conditions under which it should be imposed, emphasizing that a handful of rabbis of Jerusalem had no right to impose such a ban. Pines wrote a long introduction to the book. Even though he tended to view with favor secular knowledge and the study of languages, Friedmann was opposed to compromise with regard to Torah education and the character of the traditional *ḥeder and in 1913 vehemently opposed the plan of the society Mefiẓei Haskalah be-Rusyah ("Disseminators of Secular Education in Russia") to change the accepted curriculum of the ḥeder.

During a certain period of his life, Friedmann participated actively in the Ḥibbat Zion movement. From 1863 he published articles in the Levanon which reflect his favorable attitude towards this movement, and he thus influenced many observant Jews to join it. He debated with Ẓ.H. *Kalischer on the problems of the movement and, together with L. *Pinsker and Samuel *Mohilever, participated in the *Kattowitz conference of 1885 as a delegate of the Pinsk branch of the Ḥovevei Zion. In a letter to A.J. Slucki he stressed that the noble idea of the nationalist movement deserves to become dear to "our brethren who are anxious for the word of God," and he testifies of himself that "the fire of love for our holy land burns in my heart" (ed. by A.J. Slucki, Shivat Ẓiyyon, 1 (1891), 18–19. In the course of time, however, he changed his attitude and following the decision of Zionist parties to include national secular education among their activities became an opponent of the Zionist idea. His grandson shmuel eliashiv (Friedmann, 1899–1955), jurist and author, served as first ambassador of the State of Israel to the U.S.S.R.

bibliography:

S.N. Gottlieb, Oholei Shem (1912), 172–4; Masliansky, in: Hadoar, 17 (1938), 455f.; Toyzent yor Pinsk (1941), 87, 93, 171, 269–71; Zinovitz, in: Ba-Mishor, 6 (1945), no. 255 p. 4f.; Yahadut Lita, 1 (1960), 250f., 344, 494, 513; 3 (1967), 79; S. Eliashiv, in: Sefer Biala-Podlaska (1961), 334–6.


https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/friedmann-david-ben-samuel

Tuesday, June 17, 2025

Rav Hirsch on Sefaria

 https://www.sefaria.org/topics/samson-raphael-hirsch?sort=Relevance&tab=notable-sources

Always at war

“When, during the reign of Hadrian, the uprising led by Bar Kochba proved a disastrous error, it became essential that the Jewish people be reminded for all times of another important fact; namely, that Israel must never again attempt to restore its national independence by its own power; it was to entrust its future as a nation solely to Divine Providence. Therefore when the nation, crushed by this new blow, had recovered its breath and hailed even the permission to give a decent burial to the hundreds of thousands who had fallen about Betar as the dawn of a better day, the sages who met at Yavneh added yet another blessing to the prayer for the restoration of Jerusalem. This fourth blessing is an acknowledgement that it has always been G-d and G-d alone Who has given us, and still gives us to this very day, that good in which we have had cause to rejoice; and that for future good, too, we may look to none other but G-d, and none besides Him." 

R' Samson Raphael Hirsch, Commentary to the Prayer Book, p. 703



Still at war 70 years later. For the last two years, Israel has dominated the world press with reporting on the conflict in Gaza. Now it's Iran. This country is always in some kind of military conflict. The country started with terrorism by the Zionist militia and then came the war of 'independence.' In other words, the Zionists took the land by force, which the Talmud tells us we are forbidden to do. So-called "Religious" Zionists (a term which shows that for them Zionism is primary and religion merely an adjective) engage in mental gymnastics to eradicate the Three Oaths which tell us of the prohibition to take the land by force. They are members of the Conservative Jewish sect where inconvenient parts of the Torah are ignored. They are like those who drive to synagogue on Shabbos or have mixed pews. They say that the formation of the state shows that it was Ha-Shem's will. I say that the constant military conflict shows that the state was formed in violence in disobedience to the Three Oaths. The state was formed because Ha-Shem leads you in the direction you want to go, even if it be a bad one. They were obsessed with founding a state so they got a state. But look at it. What kind of life is this?