Profile Rabbi Dovid E. Eidensohn

Thursday, March 22, 2018

Great Jews and Great Sins

I see that Rabbi Betsalal Friedlander has established a group with a large membership to study tanach. This reminds me of a story about the Gaon Rav Yaacov Kaminetsky. Once a person was showing off his ability to know tanach, and he was proud of himself and his knowledge. Reb Yaacov who had learned thoroughly Tanach dozens of times, turned to him and began testing his knowledge of Tanach and that was the end of that session with the "expert."
In truth, I find that the study of Tanach is a very sensitive thing. One thing that bothers me very much is when passages in the Torah Neviim and Kesuvim offer strong criticism on great biblical people.
Let us discuss the biblical teaching in Melochim (kings) about Shlomo HaMelech, about Solomon the son of King David. It begins "and HaShem gave wisdom to Shlomo as He spoke to him about it." In chapter 8 passage 22 we find the great prayer made by Solomon in public to HaShem. But a few passages later we are given the statement of HaShem that only by true piety can Solomon merit the greatness of ruling the Jewish people. There is a threat not to be unfaithful to HaShem, which later on was to happen.
We find in chapter ten passage 11: "And the King Shlomo loved many strange women and the daughter of Pharoah...from the nations that HaShem forbade the Jews from marrying....with them Solomon was close with them in love." The passage then tells how Solomon was influenced by these foreign women to sin against HaShem. It seems that these strange women turned Shlomo against HaShem. "and Shlomo did what was evil in the eyes of HaShem."
And yet, Solomon produced great literature and built the Beis HaMikdosh. But he also did very serious sins. Yes, the study of Tanach is a mixed bag, unfortunately.
Actually, the mistakes of great Jews is a central theme of the Tanach. But it is painful to have to read about the terrible sins some great Jews committed.
Those of us like myself who have intense pain from parts of Tanach have a problem. The Torah tells it like it is. But that story is the whole story, leaving out nothing of the good and the bad. The story of the Jewish people and their great leaders is a very sensitive project.
One idea is that yes many great leaders did some sins, but if we as a Jewish people lasted so many centuries, perhaps these people who sometimes sinned had a lot to do with it.
I don't know a good explanation for the terrible sins of the greatest Jews. I could mention some teachings from various sources, but let us leave it for now, and accept that we as a nation survive all of the sins committed by people who shock us when they do these sins. And that requires a separate study and who knows if today anyone has the proper approach. Maybe the Malbim has succeeded there. Or maybe we can just keep things simple. The great Jews had tests from the Satan and sometimes they failed. And maybe they did penitence.
We know that Aharon was punished for making the Golden Calf, and he was as pious as his brother Moshe. But Moshe went to heaven regularly to talk to HaShem, and Aharon was blamed for the terrible sin of Jews worshipping the Golden Calf. Because Aharon was great, his sins are clearly spelled out and described. But who could have done better than the greatest saints?

Monday, March 19, 2018

Insights into Orthodox Jewish Religion

Insights into Orthodox Jewish Torah Religion

By Rabbi David Eidensohn 

Today there are people who no longer believe in traditional values even spiritual and religious ones. Some of these people are happy with denying their earlier beliefs in religion, and some of them are not happy without a spirituality. This is written for those people of various customs and former beliefs who feel they need a true spirituality. I am an ultra-Orthodox Jewish rabbi and I feel that these people who are looking for a true belief and religion can investigate Orthodox Judaism. I am not going so far as to call these people to my religion because I know that Orthodox Judaism is a strict code and not everybody can just jump in and be happy. But I rather ask these people seeking spirituality to just hear what I have to say and what appeals to them, so be it, and what they don't accept, that is fine as well, as I appreciate their giving me the time and effort.


Today Orthodox Judaism is growing faster than other religions, especially as many major religions especially the Jewish non-Orthodox type, are declining even close to disappearing. I have ten children, and all of the children are exactly as I am in their religious beliefs. The children are strongly trained in schools where many other children are successfully assimilating the teachings of the Orthodox Jewish ages. And I am happy to say that my children are having children, usually more than I have. And they are nearly all faithful to what I trained them to believe.


I live in a community filled with synagogues and people who basically all believe in what I do, and our great rabbis encourage everyone to maintain the teachings of the Torah that go back thousands of years, without change. Our belief is what Moses received from G-d and even today people are not anxious to change it.


Anyone interesting in learning about Orthodox Jewry can contact me at eidensohnd@gmail.com or they can call me at 845-578-1917.Shalom, David Eidensohn

Saturday, March 17, 2018

A T almudist and Talking to Strangers



I am a Talmudist who studied under the greatest rabbis of the past generation, Rabbi Aharon Kotler, Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashev, Rabbi Shmuel HaLevi Wosner and others. On the other hand, I live in a world which is in flux, and various forces are at work to bring new elements to the control of our world. I have a friend who has spent years studying these various forces, and he is very pessimistic.
Therefore, on the one hand, I feel confident presenting my books and blog materials to the public, rooted in my ancient reliance on Talmudists and Torah. On the other hand, there are huge numbers of people who are restless and seeking and who have strong opposition to what is going on in the world today. Therefore, I have to decide whether to just talk Talmudic, or to talk directly to those who demand changes in the world, or else, and they are growing stronger every day. Do I have a right to talk about them when I surely am no expert in their grievances and ambitions?
My friend actually gave me an idea that might just work for me. He told me that in the many masses of people who are upset with our systems for various reasons, there are among them two basic responses. One holds that our masses do not have reliable attachment to spirituality and are therefore hungry for somebody to help them with it. Others have other grievances and are looking for some hideous solutions to the problems.
One person who succeeded in reaching these people big time began by talking Talmud to them and succeeding with prominent leaders! On the one hand they are seeking something new, but on the other hand, they know that spirituality is crucial for them and for the world, and they have no clue how to achieve it, after they have basically dropped faith in previous religions. But when presented with Jewish Talmudic teachings they often feel that this is closer to the truth and they want to hear more!
As my friends tells me frequently, the world is splitting into various groups who are angry at much of what is happening socially and spiritually. But these angry people have questions and no answers. They desperately want to re-connect to beliefs that can point to a spirituality that has a history and a future. There is no solution for these people other than to learn a bit of Jewish Orthodox beliefs. Here is why.
The Jewish Orthodox community is growing by leaps and bounds while other religions are disappearing. We have a solid source going back thousands of years of a G-d who is loving and caring and who wants to listen to the feelings of humans. We have a bible written by Moses with the help of G-d and we have thousands of years of great rabbis teaching and explaining so that people realize that they are involved with truth.
If anybody wants to talk to me about these matters, write to me at eidensohnd@gmail.com or ask for my phone number, which could take a bit longer.

Thursday, March 15, 2018

This Morning was Special


By David Eidensohn


This morning something happened that made me happy that I believe in HaShem! That may not sound so special, especially for all Torah Jews who worship HaShem daily. But listen to my story and then let me see if you agree with me, at least, partially.
The story begins some years ago, and I will cut to the quick, to get to what happened today, Thursday March 15, 2018. I had such a strong sensation and excitement about HaShem taking care of us even people who have great problems, that I spent hours contacting people about the great miracle, and it was only in late afternoon that I got working on other things.
Really, the story is about my wife, who realized that somebody was suffering, and decided to do something about it, even though nobody seemed available to do something about it. But my wife powered on. She said, "I live in Monsey. It is a city of kindness. If your child needs some attention, you snap your fingers and ten very busy mothers are heavily involved in kindness. There is no such thing in Monsey as a mother or a child or any individual just rotting away. There are people everywhere who see what they see, know what they know, and get to work along with a lot of other people. At any rate, that was a fact as I lived in Monsey many decades, and my wife knew it was a fact, and now, she stood alone while somebody is in a terrible situation.
After I had digested my wife's pain, I went into another room, opened up a Tanach with the entire Torah in it with no commentaries, and flipped open a passage in Yeshayeh 29, where Hashem explodes with anger and showering destruction. It was not a solution for my problem, but I took it as a sign that I keep thinking. And as I did, I realized that the solution is right in my pocket. I got to work, made some phone calls to the right people with the right suggestions, and pretty soon I had a small group of men and women who were going to devote themselves to giving broken people strength, and organizing people to help others.
Now let me go to phase two if we call it that. Phase two I am in shull, a baby is being prepared for a bris mila. The baby is shrieking. A friend tells me, "If a baby screams, that is a sign that HaShem will shower us with mercy." Okay, I was ready for that if ever I was. I went over to the Rov, told him basically that I had a problem, and I wanted Eliyohu HaNovi, who comes to everyone's bris, to some into the shull and participate to establish an atmosphere of miracle.
The Rov was happy to cooperate with my request, and I repeated my request to the Mohel and some others. Then, I went home after the bris, and I felt a great pain that my relative was suffering so much. My wife was upset. I was upset. Who wasn't upset? Surely our niece was upset.
I called up a friend and we had a long talk. He is a friend that I talk to regularly. He is very smart and we get along well. While we are talking, my wife barges into my room and shrieks, "She succeeded in going to court without a lawyer, with no money, and tangled with somebody loaded with money from him and his family, a person determined to tear the children away from our niece and afterwards to make sure that she has desperate poverty that could destroy her." And now this woman has succeeded getting a court of law to give to her her five children? Did they go further than that? How? Somebody suggested that the judge ruled that her ex-husband with his parental alienation antagonized the judge who realized that the former husband is such a wretch that the children will really suffer living with him, which they are never allowed to do, as he likes privacy.
I will stop here, after I made a lot of phone calls and talked up our group. Yes, yesterday I spoke to about six people about making a group to help people with kindness. And today the heavens opened and what a miracle it was.
If anyone has an article they want to write for my group, please do so. I can be reached at eidensohnd@gmail.com and by phone at 845-578-1917. Let's turn the world into Monsey, into Chesed.
I have long been busy studying marriage problems. One day I will discuss my findings. But the first step is to be kind, and to love people who are hurt, who need some love. And when the Satan comes over with some ideas on how to hate people, just tell him that you can hate people, but only people who are cruel to good people.


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Wednesday, March 14, 2018

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