Building a Torah for Moshiach
Today’s Split in Orthodoxy and a Troubled Future
By Rabbi Dovid E. Eidensohn
Contents
European Gedolim and the American Generation
Gap
My first volume of the Torah that Was, the Torah that Will Be, was
about my personal experiences pestering Gedolei HaDor Reb Aharon Kotler, Reb
Moshe Feinstein, Reb Yaacov Kaminetsky, and many others. I wrote about these
Gedolim and others of their time who created the Torah world. I described my
personal efforts to speak to them although at the time it was like flying into
space to talk to someone far removed. I realized that if I dallied time was not
on my side. I was very young, and the Gedolim were not. So I went and spoke to
them, asked them questions, presented questions and ideas in Torah, and
observed them carefully. I sensed each
time that one slip and I would… But I went.
As time went on, I continued to pester every important Torah
personality that I could. Born in Washington, DC, I attended Yeshiva Or Torah
DiBrisk, founded by survivors sons of the dayan of Brisk. There were three rebbes and four students. I
went there after public school. I saw first hand the struggle of pure Torah in
a much different world. After three years in Washington, DC, I went to Yeshiva
Chofetz Chaim in Baltimore to learn for three years by the Gaon Reb Yaacov
Bobrowsky zt”l, a talmid muvhak of the Gaon Reb Baruch Ber zt”l. He was one of
the senior rebbes in America then, and many of the top Torah personalities in
America came from his class. I then went to Lakewood to study under Hagaon Reb
Aharon Kotler zt”l for two years until he passed on. That period, from the age
of twelve until the passing of Reb Aharon when I was around nineteen, was a
miracle for those days. My youth was spent learning from European gedolim. They
taught me to fight ferociously for the old and true Torah, even in America.
Yes, being a Ben Yeshiva in those days and learning from such
rebbes was a great challenge, and very, very few people did it. Even in
Lakewood, two people came each term and two people left. There were about
eighty people in the entire Yeshiva. Only a year before he died did Reb Aharon
see success, when students from his American Yeshivas began to arrive. At the
same time, a group of brilliant young students arrived, and thus, in one year,
everything was turned around for the better. And then Reb Aharon died.
Now I will turn to a personal note, to prepare for this volume,
with its emphasis on today’s problems and tomorrow’s future. Somebody in
Lakewood once told me the following from the Mashgiach, the tsadik Reb Noson
Wachtfogel zt”l. It seemed that Reb Nosson, perhaps because he was a chosid or
because of some other reason, had a different opinion about something than the
Rosh Yeshiva did. (I think I know what
the complaint was about, and I think that Reb Baruch Ber had a somewhat similar
difficulty in his Yeshiva on Simchas Torah.) Reb Noson stated his opinion and
then said, “Yes, I disagree with the Rosh Yeshiva on this matter. But I tell
you this. If you open up Reb Aharon you will see a complete Jew. If you are
opened up, there will be a chazerel.” I don’t know about that person having a
chazerel, but I just hope that nobody opens me up. Yes, Reb Noson put his
finger on a terrible problem: the Generation Gap. In Lakewood and in all places
where the American loved a good game of basketball, he had to learn from Reb
Aharon Kotler. Just thinking about it amazes me. I mentioned before that when I
spoke to Reb Aharon and Reb Moshe I felt as if I was floating in outer space
talking to somebody sitting in a rocket. If I made one mistake… And all that I
had was chutzpah. What else could possibly get me to do such a thing?
I want to tell a story mentioned in the other volume of the Torah
that Was, but it is crucial for this book, when I develop it. It was about me
in the barbershop on Friday afternoon in Lakewood. I came to the barbershop and
took my place in line; then somebody very important came in. Of course, I
offered him my place and he accepted it. However, he knew that I liked to say
Torahs, so he told me to say a Torah. I told him the Torah I had prepared to tell
Reb Aharon that night. I saw his expression and added something, and he
approved. That night, I said over the Torah to Reb Aharon, and he was thinking,
and out of habit, I added what I had added to the Very Important Person. Reb
Aharon exploded. He said, “You are going away from the proper path in
learning.” When I heard that, I was amazed. That was a terrible criticism, but
what a compliment! Reb Aharon noticed that I understood the compliment, but he
also understood that I would never make that mistake again. From that time on,
I didn’t speak to anybody except Reb Aharon or my Rosh Chabura who was the
major bochur in the Yeshiva. What was wrong with talking with the Very
Important Person who at that time was at the very top of the list of important
people in the Yeshiva?
From that incident when Reb Aharon exploded at me, I eventually
realized something absolutely incredible. Reb Aharon was not the rebbe in
Lakewood! Let me explain. That Very Important Person, who is today a major Rosh
Yeshiva, one of the important ones in the world, surely spent all of his time
learning, and he was a top learner. But, and here is the point. He was not a
Talmid muvhak of Reb Aharon, because he, perhaps like the majority of Yeshiva
students in Europe and America, had a different style learned most likely from
the students of the Elder of the European Rosh Yeshivas, Reb Shimon Shkop zt”l.
Reb Shimon taught to say “what” and then “why.” Reb Chaim Brisker, his student
Reb Baruch Ber, and Reb Aharon, held, “Never say ‘why’.” When I told my Torah
to the Very Important Person in the barber shop, I said “what” and stopped. But
he wanted “why” because that was the style of the major Rosh Yeshiva in Europe,
Reb Shimon. But Reb Aharon accepted the style of Reb Baruch Ber who was the major
disciple of Reb Chaim Brisker zt”l, who is the father of the Lithuanian Yeshiva
Derech of Brisk.
Why did Reb Aharon choose Reb Baruch Ber instead of Reb
Shimon? There is to that a simple
answer. Reb Aharon learned in a musar Yeshiva in Slobodka under the Alter. But in
nearby Kovneh was the Yeshiva of Reb Baruch Ber that was not a musar Yeshiva.
Reb Aharon used to go regularly to Reb Baruch Ber’s Yeshiva to hear his
shiurim. Reb Aharon interrupted the
shiur and Reb Baruch Ber kept arguing and fighting with him until Reb Baruch
Ber’s major Talmid Reb Shlomo Heiman zt”l would go over and calm down the
protests of Reb Aharon. This lasted for a while until Reb Aharon exploded
again, and once again, there was war, and once again, Reb Shlomo went over to
Reb Aharon, etc. There are many pictures of Reb Baruch Ber talking to Reb
Aharon in learning in the summer vacation places. Incidentally, in the book
about Reb Baruch Ber called HaRav HaDomeh Lmaloch, there are many pictures of
Reb Baruch Ber with Reb Shimon Shkop. It is obvious that Reb Shimon is the
senior person. He was the Elder of the Rosh Yeshivas.
Our point is that Reb Aharon had a Yeshiva where perhaps most of
the students came in their twenties to learn by him after they had spent years
learning from students of Reb Shimon
Shkop. When I spoke to Reb Aharon and gained his style, which was the style of
Reb Baruch Ber which was the style of Reb Chaim, I thus, because of my youth (I
came to Lakewood when I was seventeen) and because I spoke frequently to Reb
Aharon and reviewed for him my findings in learning, I was not influenced by
Reb Shimon’s Derech. Indeed, my previous rebbe, Reb Yaacov Bobrowsky, was a
talmid muvhak of Reb Baruch Ber. I believe that my rebbes from Washington DC
also learned by Reb Baruch Ber, although at that time was I too young to know
the different between “what” and “why” in the Talmudic discussion.
My point in all of this is to display the Generation Gap. It was
not a question of years. It was a difference between European geniuses and
people like me. That is quite a generation gap. Reb Aharon Kotler was a major
genius in Europe and was being primed by the Chofetz Chaim and Reb Elchonon and
Reb Aharon’s father-in-law Reb Isser Zalman, to become Gadol HaDor. Reb Aharon
was an incredible genius, even in Europe he was famous for this. How in the
world could we Americans learn from such a rebbe?
Another great European genius who was a Rosh Yeshiva was HaGaon Reb
Yaacov HaLevi Ruderman zt”l. He was the Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivas Ner Israel. At
an early age he memorized the entire Talmud. Americans were far removed from
his level. But Reb Ruderman merited that people from his family such as Rabbi
Newberger arranged the Yeshiva so that the students got exactly the kind of
teachers that they needed, and the entire Yeshiva basked in the glow of the
Rosh Yeshiva. Such an arrangement is excellent for most students, but the
Generation Gap is obvious.
There were other great Rosh Yeshivas who struggled with Americans
even as they had lofty positions in Yeshivas. The bottom line is that the
generation that learned from the Gedolim was limited in its relationship with
them. The Gedolim were far too great to shine their light on the majority of
Yeshiva students without making problems, and the students did not know what to
do about that. I solved the problem with pure chutzpah. I went to talk to Reb
Aharon, and he told me the truth, and it hurt, and I came back for more, again
and again. As I mention in my first volume, I was not the biggest mechutsef in
Lakewood. Somebody came to Lakewood for a summer program who was far removed
from advanced learning. But he wanted to learn from Reb Aharon. So he went to
Reb Aharon, put a sefer down in front of him, and asked him to explain it. Reb
Aharon was very kind and gentle with him. When some of us wanted to send the
boy to another Yeshiva, Reb Aharon insisted that he stay. But those who wanted
him elsewhere got the job done, and I suppose I have to worry about this in the
Other World.
After Reb Aharon Died
Before Reb Aharon died, the Lakewood Yeshiva was low on students,
low on funding, and low in being appreciated in America. After he died, all of
this changed. People began to arrive in numbers in the Yeshiva. A girl sought a
good learning boy for a husband and her parents supported them at least for a
few years. The new Rosh Yeshiva, Reb Aharon’s son, Reb Shneur, was like his
grandfather, Reb Isser Zalman, who was a man of peace. Reb Aharon was a man of
war, and made so many enemies among the modern Orthodox rabbis and even among
haredi rabbis that he had few backers for the Yeshiva. But all of this changed
when Reb Yosher Ber the Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva University instructed his
students, the YU rabbis, to support Lakewood. Therefore, the new Lakewood was a
different world than the Lakewood I knew. But not everyone was thrilled with
the new situation.
True, beautiful new buildings were built, and they were filled with
large numbers of students heavily engaged in Torah learning. But the new status
of Lakewood as a status symbol was troubling to some people. The old Lakewood
was only for the rare person who was ready to suffer everything in order to
study Torah. The new Lakewood was for everyone who sought the new status, the
easy shidduch, the beautiful building, etc. At this point, for better or worse,
the Torah in America achieved a higher appreciation and incredible success.
But let us remember our previous discussion. We said that Reb
Aharon was not the rebbe muvhak, the prime rebbe of perhaps the majority of his
students. They came to Yeshiva because they wanted a high Torah level. But very
few engaged directly with Reb Aharon. As we explained, Reb Aharon was a
European genius, a fire, a fighter, and we Americans could not just go over and
talk to him. I did it because I called upon my ample reserves of azuce ponim. I
forced myself to do this because I realized that Reb Aharon and Reb Moshe and
others were old people and I had to make my move now. But those who learned
diligently in the same Beis Medrash as Reb Aharon but did not connect with him
his departure from the world severed what could have been, a personal
connection to a Gadol. When I spoke to Reb Aharon and Reb Moshe at length, I
was always worried that maybe somebody would come over to the Rosh Yeshivas and
take them away from me. After all, they had a right just as I did to talk to
the Roshei Yeshiva. But rarely did anyone come. Later when I moved to Monsey
and Reb Moshe Feinstein would often visit with his rebbetsin his daughter
Rebbetsin Tendler, I taught in the same shul that Reb Moshe dovened and would
spend a lot of time talking Torah to him. I was terrified that somebody would
take away “my Reb Moshe” but after years, I only recall a tiny amount of people
who came to talk to Reb Moshe. Only one of them as I recall was a Rov who had a
problem with a GET. Thus, when the Gedolim from Europe passed on, there was an
emptiness. I felt it keenly.
Other people who did not talk directly to the European gedolim had
a different solution to their new status. They turned to those who were now the
senior Roshei Yeshiva and Talmidei Chachomim. These were usually not Europeans
at all, but were students of Europeans. I had a problem with this. The new
Torah was much different than the old Torah, and I didn’t feel comfortable with
it. Until today, I am fighting the new generation with its different ideas, as
I will discuss. And this reality, that the new generation did not have a full
relationship with the old one, other than a few individuals, made problems, problems
that we will discuss in this book, and show that the new leadership was not the
old leadership.
Briefly, the new generation has a Torah that believes in learning
Torah, becoming “gedolim” as the great goal. The old generation believed in
fighting for the entire Torah. My criticism of the “new” generations are as
follows: One, they are not fighting important fights, as I will explain, but
putting their energy into building Torah learning with some exceptions. Two,
the Yeshiva structure as it is now, creates frustrated people and no Gedolim,
as I will show and quote Gedolei hador of the present and past generation.
What are Today’s Issues? What are Today’s
Problems?
Here is a small list of today’s issues and problems:
1.
Gender
war between men and women in family, between husband and wife. This leads to a
terrible problem of divorces and a large population of people who are single.
2.
Feminism
infects the Orthodox community in various ways. The world is heavily influenced
by feminism. One objective of the feminists is complete equality between men
and women. The latest target is to register for the American military to draft
all females just as all men must register for the draft. I spoke to “leaders”
of the Torah community and they had no interest in fighting about this now. And
yet, if there is a law passed for women to register for the draft, there will
be a very serious question of martyrdom, besides jail and fines.
3.
Years
ago, the European gedolim encouraged me very strongly to fight against the Gay
Rights movement. Why this should be done is something that everyone should know
but almost nobody does. A few years ago, major rabbis in Monsey made a major
campaign to elect a lesbian as Family Court Judge, although the opposition was
a religious gentile who was against gay ideas. The senior rabbi in Monsey told
me to hang up a ferocious letter that I made attacking them in his Yeshiva and
shull. But someone asked me, “Why are you the only one to protest this?”
Because today people have a new “Torah.” Those rabbis and some in New York find
an advantage in backing a gay or lesbian for politics, because then the person
is beholden to them for their political needs. This is pure gangsterism and
corruption. At least, I protested, and a lot of people were happy that I did.
But the major rabbinical positions in the community are held by people who have
different ideas.
4.
There
is today a terrible spate of broken marriages in the Torah community. I
personally know people from senior rabbinical families who are being torn apart
by divorce battles in secular court.
5.
There
are many things to elaborate in the above four things. But I want to turn now
to a frightening story that I personally witnessed and heard from gedolei hador
of the past and present generations.
Monsey Gets a Video Store Years Ago
Some years ago
the Magid of Jerusalem Reb Shalom Mordechai Schwadron zt”l used to visit Monsey
regularly to raise funds for Israeli Yeshivas and Torah programs. I tried to
talk to him when he came, and he was very kind and wise.
In those days
Monsey was a city of Torah Jews, Yeshivas, some apple orchards, plus a few
snakes and an occasional bear or deer. One day, in the center of town near a
Yeshiva, a video store opened. My friend and I were determined to do something
about this. Rav Schwadron was in town and after a lecture he gave, we
approached him and told him that a video store came to Monsey. I then
anticipated a furious anger and a determination to speak publicly on this
outrage. But no. Nothing. Rav Schadron simply ignored me. It was as if I didn’t
say anything to him. I looked at his face. It was solid granite, turned away
from me, in a pose that said, “You don’t exist.” I realized that this was no
accident. The Rov was deliberately telling me that he had absolutely no interest
in talking or hearing about a video store. I was stunned. I repeated myself, twice, three times, and
not a change in the face. Well, I said, I am Mr. Azuce Ponim. And I am going to
pursue this further!
I raised my voice and said, “Rebbe! Hashchoso!!”
That did it. The cold granite face turned directly at me. A
professionally maneuvered hand moved directly at my face. A finger pointed at
me and eyes were blazing. Slowly and professionally Reb Shalom said, “A Yeshiva
is haschoso!”
That story took place many years ago. But even then, Reb Shalom knew that the rabbinical
world had its problems. The major problem is when rabbis encourage women to
force a GET from their husband against his will and remarry with that GET. That
GET says Rambam is worthless, as a GET must be given by the husband willingly.
And today, when Reb Shalom is no longer with us, there are ‘rabbis’ who tell
married women whose husband won’t give them a GET to remarry with no GET. A
senior rov in Brazil called me to tell me that they did this in his city. No
husband was involved in giving the GET, and a woman is freed of her husband in
defiance of the Torah and the Talmud. The same was done recently by a senior
rabbi in France.
We are talking about a world that will soon be gripped in a crisis
of children born of women who left their husbands with an invalid GET or no GET
at all. The New York State GET law empowers all women to force their husbands
to give a GET and to get slapped with financial punishments or worse. Rabbi
Bleich says that today all Gittin given in New York are given by husbands who
realize that to refuse to divorce their wives will lead to court and it will
destroy him, maybe take away his children and money. So, they give a GET. And
this fear makes the GET invalid, and the children of the wife when she
remarries with the invalid GET are mamzerim, or maybe doubtful mamzerim. A
mamzer can marry a mamzeres, but a doubtful mamzer may not marry a mamzeres,
and neither a mamzer or a doubtful mamzer may marry a regular Jewish woman. And
people are silent. My rebbe Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashev zt”l was shocked that
nobody protested the New York GET Law in its second phase, with its surrender
to the woman and the destruction of kosher Gittin in New York State.
What can be done? One idea is from a prominent Rov in Israel Rav
Abirgil who recommends today that people marry with Pilegesh, not Kiddushin.
Kiddushin makes a woman a slave to her husband who can torment her at will and
not give her a GET until he dies; and she can do nothing about it. She could
listen to the wicked ‘rabbis’ who advise such women to force a GET from their
husbands and remarry. Some such wicked ‘rabbis’ actually set up a scheme to
torture a husband for sixty thousand dollars, with tortures so sophisticated
that no human being could tolerate without surrendering and giving a GET that
was forced, even though the children of the wife when she remarries will be
mamzerim. But a couple without Kiddushin but with Pilegesh cannot make
mamzerim. They simply live together in one house until it is time to leave, and
either one of them can just get up and leave, preferably saying good-by! The
husband can not torment the wife because she is free to just get up and leave
any time she wants.
In early generations where great rabbis like Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashev zt"l kept a close watch on what rabbis do and cracked the whip when necessary, it was one thing. Today, big 'rabbis" tell women to violate the Torah and force a GET and some invent reasons to cancel their marriage without a GET but with pure wicked invention. The women who force a GET or leave husbands without a GET at all and have children from the next husband make mamzerim. The next generations will be a sad time of crying mamzerim, crying mothers who did the wrong things to make mamzerim, and nobody has a solution for these problems. The only solution is to marry today not with Kiddushin but with Pilegesh. In Shulchan Aruch Even Hoezer in the beginning of the Laws of Kiddushin 26:1 we find the Ramo permits Pilegesh, the Vilna Gaon there #6 says the source to permit Pilegesh is in the gemora Sanhedrin 21. He concludes that the Ramban in Meyucheses and the Rambam permit Pilegesh.
Reb Yaacov Emden asks a kashyo on the Ramban who says that the Rambam permits Pilegesh, but the Rambam in Melochim says that only a king can have a Pilegesh. But the answer is that the Ramban says that the Rambam is only permitting a Pilegesh to a king Derech Zenuse, but he permits Pilegesh to plain people as long as it is a true marriage. The problem with this is that a king who marries a woman with zenuse usually means that she has two husbands. But a king who marries a woman and she sleeps with another man besides the king would probably be killed. So how does the Rambam permit zenuse for a Pilegesh? Therefore, we must find another meaning of zenuse in the Ramban. I believe the Ramban was referring to the Rambam in Ishuse 4:1 that a woman can be forced to marry somebody but it means nothing. She cannot be forced to marry. This is based on a gemora in Kiddushin 2b. However, a king is different. A king like Pharoah took Sarah against her will because he had the right to take for himself a very beautiful woman. Dovid took Bas Sheva who was a beauty. This is not an act of marriage, or an act of Pilegesh, but a taking permitted for a king. As Shmuel the Prophet told the Jews, that the king they wanted would take members of their family for his needs, and it was permitted. That is, Rambam permits a king to take a beautiful woman along with the other people and family members he needs to sustain his monarchy. This is considered a marriage Derech Zenuse meaning the woman does not agree to it to marry him, but he forces her to come to him. Only a king may do this. But plain people may marry a woman as a Pilegesh, if both them want a real marriage.
In early generations where great rabbis like Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashev zt"l kept a close watch on what rabbis do and cracked the whip when necessary, it was one thing. Today, big 'rabbis" tell women to violate the Torah and force a GET and some invent reasons to cancel their marriage without a GET but with pure wicked invention. The women who force a GET or leave husbands without a GET at all and have children from the next husband make mamzerim. The next generations will be a sad time of crying mamzerim, crying mothers who did the wrong things to make mamzerim, and nobody has a solution for these problems. The only solution is to marry today not with Kiddushin but with Pilegesh. In Shulchan Aruch Even Hoezer in the beginning of the Laws of Kiddushin 26:1 we find the Ramo permits Pilegesh, the Vilna Gaon there #6 says the source to permit Pilegesh is in the gemora Sanhedrin 21. He concludes that the Ramban in Meyucheses and the Rambam permit Pilegesh.
Reb Yaacov Emden asks a kashyo on the Ramban who says that the Rambam permits Pilegesh, but the Rambam in Melochim says that only a king can have a Pilegesh. But the answer is that the Ramban says that the Rambam is only permitting a Pilegesh to a king Derech Zenuse, but he permits Pilegesh to plain people as long as it is a true marriage. The problem with this is that a king who marries a woman with zenuse usually means that she has two husbands. But a king who marries a woman and she sleeps with another man besides the king would probably be killed. So how does the Rambam permit zenuse for a Pilegesh? Therefore, we must find another meaning of zenuse in the Ramban. I believe the Ramban was referring to the Rambam in Ishuse 4:1 that a woman can be forced to marry somebody but it means nothing. She cannot be forced to marry. This is based on a gemora in Kiddushin 2b. However, a king is different. A king like Pharoah took Sarah against her will because he had the right to take for himself a very beautiful woman. Dovid took Bas Sheva who was a beauty. This is not an act of marriage, or an act of Pilegesh, but a taking permitted for a king. As Shmuel the Prophet told the Jews, that the king they wanted would take members of their family for his needs, and it was permitted. That is, Rambam permits a king to take a beautiful woman along with the other people and family members he needs to sustain his monarchy. This is considered a marriage Derech Zenuse meaning the woman does not agree to it to marry him, but he forces her to come to him. Only a king may do this. But plain people may marry a woman as a Pilegesh, if both them want a real marriage.
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