Ki Siso - Jews sin at Sinai while Moshe speaks to HaShem

Parshas Ki Siso

Dovid Eidensohn

The Parsha of Ki Siso begins with the building of the holy utensils of the Mishkan. It concludes with the heinous sin of the Jews worshipping the Golden Calf, an act of idolatry even while Moshe was on the mountain with HaShem learning the Torah and the Ten Commandments which included the entire Torah.

We have questions on the parsha. First of all, it is obvious that the mistake the Jews made to worship the Golden Calf was because they anticipated Moshe returning from talking to HaShem on a certain date, and they got the wrong date, at least, the people got the wrong date. This itself is very strange.   HaShem is talking with Moshe, who is supposed to return to the Jews on a certain date which he surely told the Jews, and they all got confused. Everyone, including the brother of Moshe, Aharon, who was the leader of the Jews while Moshe was speaking to HaShem on Mt. Sinai, accepted the cry of all of the Jews that Moshe was no longer alive and that they Jews needed a new god to lead them. Did the Jews have to worship idols because Moshe was a few hours late by their reckoning? And, more important, was Moshe really late? How can somebody talking to HaShem who is supposed to know when to return to the Jews, who told the Jews when he would return, tell the Jews something different than what he made up with HaShem?

This is the small question. The big question is on HaShem Himself. When the Jews assumed that Moshe was dead and that the Jews must create an idol to be their god, it is obvious that the entire date of Moshe’s arrival back to the Jewish camp was unknown to the Jews. And that more incredibly, they assumed he had died, and based on this, decided to deny HaShem entirely and worship an idol that emerged from a fire saying “I am your god.” Why did HaShem not ensure that Moshe gave the right date to the Jews, and why did HaShem not remind Moshe to leave on that exact date. It is obvious from the story in the Torah that there were many hours from the act of the populace in making the Golden Calf until Moshe was finally sent by HaShem on what was obviously a date that HaShem considered too early for Moshe to leave Him. If so, it surely is incredible that Moshe himself and the Jewish people and even HaShem were not prepared to honor the date Moshe told the Jews he would return.

But there is actually another question that quells all of the above questions, and it so stunning that it will, as we will see, answer all of the above questions even though it is incredibly amazing.

To prepare you for this incredibly amazing fact, it is necessary to prepare the process a bit, to make the result more palatable.

We have mentioned earlier in various discussions that this world is filled with people who sin, that the world is filled with darkness, and that “from darkness comes light.” Obviously, if at the time of the Giving of the Torah, the Jews built a Golden Calf and worshipped it, something went wrong. How did that happen? What terrible darkness came into the world to uproot all of the above?

The answer, as taught in Gemora Avoda Zora 4b and 5a, is that HaShem did it, deliberately. It was something crucial for the entire existence of the world, a world where people always sinned and the only thing that would save them from Gehenum was penitence. Furthermore, this heavenly mercy applies to people who sin against HaShem. But people who sin against other people must appease the hurt person and become forgiven, without the act of penitence alone by the sinner. (If the sinner does his best to appease the one he sinned against, this is another thing which we won’t go into now.) If so, sin is a terrible thing and since people are always suspected of doing this or that sin, even some sins that HaShem on his own won’t recognize the Teshuva, it was necessary for HaShem to teach people, along with giving the Torah, that they, as a nation that did a lot of sinning as is obvious from this week’s sedra and other holy works and gemoras.

The above gemora says that HaShem deliberately planned two terrible sins from people who were extremely remote from sin. One was King David who took Bas Sheva against her will. The other was the Jewish people at Sinai who achieved an incredible level of perfection from hearing the Ten Commandments spoken by HaShem and explained by Moshe. Hashem did this to teach everyone that if an individual sins, but HaShem accepted his penitence, then any individual knows they can repent to HaShem. If a community sins, HaShem proves from the Jews at Sinai that penitence will even save an entire people who did a terrible sin.

For HaShem’s plan to work the Jews had to be confused about the day of Moshe’s return. Now all of the questions are answered.

The only remaining question: Do we all know the teaching of the gemora to be sure that our penitence will be accepted? And if we repent, will we do as King David did, to devote his life in the Book of Tehilim to atone for his sin? And another question is: Do we imitate King David who once boasted, “My heart is still inside of me” meaning I cannot sin? HaShem spoke to David and said, “Is that so? I assure you that you will one day sin with a woman who is married to another man.” David trembled when he heard this, and when he saw Bas Sheva and felt a terrible desire, he realized immediately that this was now the test HaShem had promised him. He knew that he was able to conquer his evil inclination with great effort, but to do so would insult HaShem, who told him he would sin. To avoid that, he sinned.

This itself produced an uproar and HaShem was asked how he could forgive David who had stolen a married woman. HaShem answered that all of the husbands engaged in open battles wrote a document of divorce to their wives. Otherwise, maybe they would be captured or killed and no witnesses would know where they were buried to free their wives. To assure the wives, all husbands, privately got witnesses watch them give their wives a GET. It happened that Basheva’s husband was killed in a serious battle so David did not take Bas Sheva until she was divorced properly.

The Jews themselves at Sinai began the tradition that all Jews repent on Yom Kippur and many other times. And especially today when everyone learns Musar, penitence is part of life, as is asking forgiveness.

Poem A Special Shabbos

Poem about a Special Shabbos

Dovid Eidensohn

Oh! What a lovely Shabbos when my son from Israel visited us with his family,

And my two children in America came for Shabbos to meet him,

And brought their children along.

And, to get things moving here, I am a grouch.

Now, I am not a grouch when I talk to you. But if you would be a child, say two years old,

I would pretend I was a lion. And they loved it even as they ran away from the ‘lion.’

On this Shabbos when the house was filled with young children and some not so young,

I was busy roaring and chasing and the house was just popping with good will.

My son came from Israel only for a tiny visit. He is perhaps the leading expert on children in the world

And countries around the world pay him ridiculous sums to visit their schools and help with children,

And I his father was thrilled at the opportunity to talk to him about my ideas,

Which had to do with publishing my ideas on family and marriage

Because even secular magazines

Want my material.

Our lovely Shabbos came to an end,

And my son prepared to return home

And while finishing his packing, I approached him,

To show him my treasured Olympus,

A device which allows me to copy music, or sing my own music, or make audios.

He quickly understood how it worked,

And was especially interested in its ability to play music.

I have hours of music on my Olympus and computer,

And he, who travels around the world regularly in his task of helping Yeshiva children,

Needed some music and material to listen to while flying.

Then my son produced his surprise.

He showed me a device which cost five times what my Olympus cost

He took it and copied my material

And my voice boomed out.

So Shabbos came to an end,

A lovely day packed with food brought by all who visited

Meaning the three family of children who live in America

And my son packing after Shabbos indicated

That he was returning home the next morning.

I spoke several times at the table on Shabbos

And emphasized that when my children were young

I would speak on Shabbos for an hour or two

About the greatness of a mother who has children and raises them.

And these children grew up in a small house,

Packed with boxes from my wife’s business,

And that small house was packed with boxes,

And a growing family of children who loved each other and their parents.

Today I have daughters in Israel who are regularly paid large sums of money

To speak on “What it was like to be raised in the Eidensohn family.”

One of the stories was when my son, who now travels the world to help Yeshiva students

Asked me for permission to sleep at night underneath the kitchen table.

This Shabbos he and the other children gushed forth with happiness for those times,

And for their success with their own children, which is considerable.

Once at a grandson’s wedding, I, the grandfather, was honored with the first call to pronounce the wedding blessings

When I finished and turned to leave, the leader asked me,

Give a blessing!

I was stunned. I devoted my life to making happy family and children,

But just what kind of berocho should I give?

Then heaven helped me,

I said “May the couple be blessed with children who make them jealous.”

I then walked quickly from the Chupah into a New York sidewalk

And somebody asked me,

What blessing did you give?

I told him, “May you be jealous of your children.”

I explained that the Talmud says,

Nobody is jealous of their children and their disciples

But if somebody is jealous of his students and disciples,

It is because they are special.

Hebrew - Tsetsaveh - The Cohen is holy but there is a problem getting married

ועשית בגדי קדש לאהרן אחיך לכבוד ולתפארת[1]

דוד אליהו אידנסון

פרשה זו תצוה שענינו עבודת הכהונה בקדושה ובטהרה, ובפרט הכהן הגדול מאחיו שיש לו שמונה בגדי תפארת, גורם להעלות הכהן הגדול למעלה מכל ישראל. וכל כהן הוא מיוחד ונבדל מאחיו מחמת רוב קדושתו ומחמת שהוא לבד שייך לדור בבית המקדש או המשכן ששם שורה השכינה ממש. האמנם הכלל בכל התורה בכל העולם ובכל הדורות שאם יש אור וקדושה יש שטן ההיפוך, ואם הכהן הגדול או הכהן הדיוט מיוחד בישראל, וכולם חייבים לכבדו ולפארו, הכלל הולך ומאיר,  שתוך הגדולה והתפארת יש ח"ו הההיפוך. ופה נביא ראיה לזה.

בש"ע אבן העזר יש אריכות בענין הכהונה שפסולים להם איזה נשים.[2] וז"ל הש"ע – כהן אסור מן התורה בגרושה זונה וחללה ואסור בחלוצה מדרבנן. לפיכך אם עבר ונשא ספק חלוצה אין צריך להוציא. אבל גרושה אפילו אינה אלא ספק גרושה צריך להוציא כו' עכ"ל ואני מכיר איזה כהנים שקשה להם מאוד להשיג שידוך והם באים בשנים ולא זוכים להנשא, הגם שהם מצד עצמם חוץ מן הכהונה אנשים טובים ואוהבים ויראים מהשם בתכלית, בכל זאת קדושת הכהן מעכב מאוד בשידוכים. וכאשר אני פוגע בכהן כזה אני מצטער מאוד. ולידיד אחד שהוא כהן אני תמיד מזרזו שילך לארץ ישראל ואולי יש תקוה. והוא מודה שאולי צריך לעשות זה ואומר לי שהרבה פעמים כבר היה בארץ ובכל זאת לא זוכה להשיג שידוך.

ובאמת לענ"ד מחמת זה הכהן צריך להנשא על ידי ההורים שלו ככל האפשר קודם שיגיע לשנים שאין בהם חפץ, שהם מה שאיתא בפרקי אבות מי שעובר עליו שנת יח' עד כ' שבאותו הזמן שהוא כבר בן כ' נתקיים בו הצער של תפח עצמותיו. שודאי קל הוא לאדם שאינו מבוגר כל כך לישא אשה ואילו מי שכבר הגיע לשנת כ' קשה לו. וכהן הוא סובל יותר מכולם שאסור לו בגרושה וזונה וחללה מן התורה ואסור בחלוצה מדרבנן. ואסור לו בהחלט לישא אשה האסורה לו, ואם לקח אשה האסורה לו מן התורה אפילו ספק גרושה צריך להוציא.

וכל זה לכהונה. אבל לישראל יש תורה אחרת. ע' ש"ע אבן העזר סימן ב' שמתחיל שישתדל כל אדם לישא אשה הגונה. ושם בסעיף ה' וז"ל משפחה שנתערב בה ספק חלל כל אשה כשרה שנשאת לאחד מאותה משפחה ונתאלמנה אסורה לכהן לכתחלה.

הרי לעיל הבאנו שבש"ע שם שהכהן אסור לישא מן התורה גרושה זונה וחללה. ובש"ע שם סעיף ח' וז"ל איזהו היא זונה כל שאינה בת ישראל או בת ישראל שנבעלת לאדם שהיא אסורה לינשא לו איסור השוה לכל או שנבעלה לחלל אע"פ שהיא מותרת לינשא לו כו' עכ"ל

סעיף י' – אשת כהן שנבעלה אפילו באונס אסורה לו עכ"ל.

סעיף יא' – אשת ישראל שנאנסה אע"פ שמותרת לבעלה אסורה לכהן עכ"ל

סעיף יד' – כהן שקדש גדולה או קטנה ואחר זמן בא עליה וטען שמצאה דרוסת איש נאסרת עלילו מספק שמא קודם קידושין נבעלה או אחר קידושין עכ"ל

והנה בסימן ז' דין אשה שנשבית ואיזה היא נקראת חללה. סעיף א' שבויה שנשבית והיא בת ג' שנים ויום אחד או יותר אסורה לכהן מפני שהיא ספק זונה שמא נבעלה לכותי כו'. ובבית שמואל שם וז"ל אסורה לכהן - ואם היא נשואה לכהן תצא ממנו עכ"ל ע"ש אריכות.

ובסימן ז' סעיף יב' איזו היא חללה זו שנולדה מאיסורי כהונה כגון כהן הדיוט שבא על הזונה או הגרושה וכהן גדול שבא עליהן או על האלמנה או שנשא בעולה ובא עליה הרי אלו נתחללו לעולם עכ"ל

 נאח שמצד אחד גדול קדושת הכהן מאוד ומצד השני כל שיש רוב קדושה יש באותו הקדושה צער גדול מפעם לפעם כגון אם בא הכהן לישא אשה ההוגנת לו כנ"ל.

והנה ידוע המעשה של איש אחד שנכנס לבית הכנסת ושמע איזה איש צועק ובוכה לפני הארון הקודש, נכנס וראה שזו שצועק ובוכה הוא החפץ חיים זצ"ל. והיה אומר "רבונו של עולם! אני כהן! והכהן יכול להיות בכעס. עזרני שאנצל מן הכעס."

הרי עדות צדיק הדור והדורות, שמי שהוא כהן ונכנס בו רוב הקדושה, עדיין צריך לצעוק ולהתפלל לפני הארון הקודש מהשם שינצל מן הכעס.

---

[1] שמות תצוה כח.ב

[2] סימן ו'

Can it be? Such a stunning shock?

A Poem and a Curse

David Eidensohn

A Poem and a curse?

A poem is a song of the heart,

Joy and happiness, to sing and laugh,

How can I talk about curse when I talk about a poem?

But there is for everything a time, a moment of its own,

When we see what we see,

And are stunned, and we groan,

How did this happen?

How did somebody so respected and important,

Jump into hell?

Ask not me, but Yechiel Kailish and Simcha Felder,

For years shining lights battling evil and winning,

And both of them, when it came time to choose between heaven and the Assembly of a powerful government,

Chose to be an Assemblyman in hell.

The newspapers around the country trumpeted the news.

Outrage and ferocious attacks followed,

More and more,

And things are going to get worse,

Not better.

One question I ask of the two of them,

What do their children and families say to them?

Are they still on speaking terms?

Or when they speak,

Do they tell it like it is?

As I do when I talk to them or about them.

Two people with everything: honor, money, prominence,

Whose future was only about more honor, more money, more prominence,

Now walk into the Assembly with the pace of a warrior,

And return home to children and family.

And?????

To conclude,  on a fact,

If either or both of them, Kailish and Simcha, become gay,

That will be an improvement.

Because  people will at last realize that no rabbi can believe in heaven,

and deny the passages in Vayikro18 and 20, that sodomy is a capital crime.

Rabbi Eidensohn is a winner of national and international poetry contests for other poems. This poem was written just today.

Refusal of Torah Jews to Fight Cuomo: Refusal of Torah Jews to Fight Invalid Gittin and Mamzerim: Why?

Dovid Eidensohn   eidensohnd@gmail.com         845-578-1917

I have written often of the catastrophe of Cuomo in Albany creating hideous laws. One is to allow people to poison a pregnant woman who wants her baby. The fetus dies and the husband has no punishment. He killed a fetus which according to Cuomo may be murdered with no punishment. Of course, if the husband damages the mother with a knife for instance, he is a murderer. Where are the thousands of Orthodox Jews many of them Torah scholars who are silent?

New York State has long had a GET Law which allows a woman to force a GET. A forced GET says Rambam beginning the laws of divorce, (and the poskim in Shulchan Aruch Even Hoezer 77.2)  forbid forcing a GET.  But nobody cares about the many mamzerim who are springing up in New York. Also, throughout America, senior ‘rabbis’ are telling women to force a GET from their husband. Some tell her to remarry with no GET on the ridiculous grounds that husbands who had children with the wife are not of a status to merit Torah marriage. One senior Rosh Yeshiva who did this is descended from a great Gadol HaDor from Europe who surely would never approve of such a thing. And when the scandal erupted, basically from me and my brother Rabbi Dr. Daniel on our blogs, a senior ‘Rosh Yeshiva’ got involved to get the monkey out of the tree. Then that mamzer maker was restored to his previous status as a pillar of a major ‘Torah’ organization. That is part of the reason I despise and attack that ‘Torah’ organization and don’t recognize it.

Let us tell a story about the Baal HaTanyo and a very wealthy Jew who refused to give charity. If he gave, it was a mere pittance. The time came when a couple needed money to marry. In those days the poverty was terrible and getting married was not always possible without large sums of money. In a particular town the leaders pondered the problem and had no solution. Finally, the Baal HaTanyeh volunteered that he takes the responsibility for raising the money, on the condition that he decides who to visit for it. With no alternative, this was accepted.

There was in that community an extremely wealthy Jew who gave tiny amounts to charity. The Baal HaTanyo chose to go to him, which shocked everyone. The Baal HaTanyo rapped on the man’s door and was admitted. He asked for help so the couple could marry and the wealthy man gave, as he was wont to do, a very small donation. Usually, such would arouse in the person who asked for the money outrage. But now the Baal HaTanyo thanked the man profusely and gushed blessings upon him. The man had never seen such an attitude. He always saw the opposite. In shock, he escorted the Baal HaTanyo out of his house and watched him descend the steps. Suddenly, he called out, “Rabbi! Don’t leave. I want to increase my contribution.” The Baal HaTanyo returned to the house with the man, and took the now larger donation. Again, the Baal HaTanyo didn’t criticize the amount given which was still not what was needed. Instead he gushed blessings on the man and thanked him profusely. The Baal HaTanyo left, and soon, he was again summoned back to the wealthy man’s house. This kept up until the entire sum needed was given by the wealthy man. The Baal HaTanyo departed from the man gushing blessings on him and assured him that the couple now able to marry will be noticed in heaven. This will bring great blessings and happiness to the donor.

The question, however is, why did nobody else think of such a strategy with a very wealthy man? Was it the holy spirit of the tsadik or what? I don’t know. But I can surmise as follows. The Rov of Brisk Reb Chaim Brisker in the period that he served as a major leader of Vollozhner Yeshiva, was once commanded by the head of the Yeshiva to get money from a wealthy man. Reb Chaim travelled to him and explained the crisis in the Yeshiva and how much money it needed, a very large sum. The gevir immediately agreed and went to his safe and pulled out a huge sack of money. He began counting it out, but only counted very small coins, one at a time. This went on and on. Finally, Reb Chaim, who was losing all of this time when he should have been learning with students in the Yeshiva, asked the gevir if perhaps he had large coins. He replied, “When I prepare to give for a mitsvah, the Soton comes to me and begins to complain and tells me not to give the money. When that happens, and he is banging away with his complaints, I have a strong temptation to keep the money for myself. But I respond to him, “NO!” And I keep counting the money, tiny coin by tiny coin, to utterly confound and destroy the attack of the Soton.”

A wealthy man once promised a million dollars for a Yeshiva and everyone was sure he meant it. But he never gave the money and nobody knew why he changed his mind. It was obvious that he really wanted to give the money. Then a prominent scholar said, “Yes, he surely wanted to give that large sum of money, but he did not have the merit to do so.” And so it was.

Is this why we have tragedies with governments destroying lives and few protest? Is his why we have many ‘rabbis’ who give invalid divorces and the wife remarries with an invalid GET and her child from the next husband is a mamzer and few protest?

Perhaps, if the people who do nothing about tragedies would summon their souls and fight back, and begin, even with one small step to improve and achieve the ability to fight, they would do more and more until we saw them out on the street with signs and songs and ferocious complaints, and surely, there would be hope.

Do Yeshivas in New York State have a future?

Rabbi Responds to Attack on Yeshivas by New York State

David Eidensohn

First, we begin with an article in the Lohud Journal News of Rockland New York and other New York State environments, attacking the present Yeshiva system based on laws passed years ago but never enforced until the Cuomo administration. For the first time with a Democratic majority, it has passed hideous laws permitting killing fetuses and not being challenged by the government. The attack on Yeshivas is in line with this new attempt to do away with biblical values for all people and much of respect for woman and children. Here we present from me, David Eidensohn, a defense, not on all of the hideous murderous inventions of Albany which began on Jan 22, ’19 anniversary of abortion law Roe vs Wade, but on this article attacking Yeshivas in New York State. Cuomo’s Democrats did not invent this law which has been law for many years, but they have insisted on enforcing it, and there is great fear that their efforts will spill out into great changes in that very law similar to what they did with the abortion law. Here is the article of the Journal News which simply explained that all of this was state law, and my defense of those who opposed it.

From Journal News

It was clear that state Education Commissioner Mary Ellen Elia was going to have a hard time producing private-school curriculum guidelines that would meet state law and satisfy the Orthodox community, especially those protective of Hasidic yeshivas.

But who could anticipate the wrath directed at Elia and her updated guidelines for enforcing that academic instruction at private schools is "substantially equivalent" to public schools? The timing of the release, just before Hanukkah, fed numerous comparisons of Elia and the state Education Department to the Syrian-Greeks, who tried (and failed) to Hellenize the Jews in the Hanukkah story.

Grand Rebbe Aharon Teitelbaum of the Satmar Hasidic movement, for one, has declared war against Elia. In a major speech before thousands of followers in Brooklyn, he said his community "will not bow down or surrender to the wicked, not even before the Commissioner of Education." 

Almost 55,000 people have signed an online petition opposing the new state guidelines and rejecting Elia's "attempt to impose her curriculum on our yeshivas."

Attacking from another front, the New York State Council of Catholic School Superintendents, which represents about 500 Catholic schools, also rejects the new guidelines. The group opposes having Catholic school instruction reviewed by local public school officials, with whom they say they are in competition for students.

THE GUIDELINES: Yeshivas could face closure, eventually, if academics fail

Much of the vitriol directed at Elia and "her system," though, is way off base. Critics seem determined to ignore the reality that Elia is trying to enforce existing state law, which is her job. She did not create instructional rules for private schools; nor did she design a system to inspect what private schools teach. 

But blaming her is an easy out. Comparing her to Jewish oppressors of yore is nonsense.

The simple truth is that state law — since at least 1947 — has required that academic instruction at private schools be "substantially equivalent" to what public schools teach. Section 3204 of state Education Law has also required that public school districts be responsible for making sure that private schools within their boundaries teach what they're supposed to teach.

The law, by and large, has been ignored. Until now.

Two years ago, Elia decided to update state guidelines for enforcement of the law. Why she did so is one point of conflict. Many Orthodox critics insist she was unduly influenced by an advocacy group they don't like, Young Advocates for Fair Education or YAFFED. State Education Department officials told me they received requests to clarify requirements by many, including public schools, private schools and BOCES.

Ruminating on Elia's motivation is just a distraction. The law is the law, and Elia is doing the right thing, the only thing, by trying to enforce it. Wishing she would look the other way, as her predecessors did, is not a credible position. 

End of Journal News Article. Now is my defense of Yeshivas.

My Defense of Yeshivas in New York State

 by Rabbi David Eidensohn

The above article from the Journal News simply describes government law in New York State and the article seems to be accurate. My response is that any governmental force on religious people to violate their religion is not only anti-religious but also a violation of a Supreme Court ruling in Wisconsin v. Jonas Yoder, 406 U.S. 205, is the case in which the United States Supreme Court found that Amish children could not be placed under compulsory education past 8th grade. The parents' fundamental right to freedom of religion was determined to outweigh the state's interest in educating its children. The case is often cited as a basis for parents' right to educate their children outside of traditional private or public schools. Cuomo government violation of this is a direct contradiction to Federal Law and the Supreme Court that voted 7-9 that religious right of an organized religious group trumps state power to change it. Incidentally, the two justices who were not part of the 7 who voted for it, did not oppose the idea that religion trumps the state, but for other reasons.

This is not about judicial issues for which I am not an expert on American law. This is about religious law, and how the religious community of all religions is upset with a secular government creating new ideas that are anathema to major sectors of that country. New York State and many states have very large amounts of deeply religious people. These anti-biblical and anti-family laws have now taken place in England and other countries. A senior rabbi in England declared that now religious people will have to leave England. What about the thousands of religious New Yorkers?

Let us now turn to the religious Jews who instigated forced change in policy mentioned above where Yeshivas are under attack for not spending the time that public schools spend in teaching various subjects. These religious Jews follow a history of “our destroyers come from us.” One of them, a deeply pious Jew, caused the destruction of the Second Temple. They always know better than the senior rabbis of the generation. And the rabbis whose Yeshivas are heavily populated by believers surely don’t want the atheists of Cuomo telling their children about atheism. This is a capital crime.

The greatest rabbis in the world going back a few generations made it clear that forcing a woman by the government for any reason is a capital crime. I heard this from a relative who was the one who trained the present Stoliner Rebbe; Reb E. Brizel, the grandfather of my daughter.

The greatest rabbis in the world held that any governmental pressure on women for any reason is a capital crime. These rabbis are Rabbi Aharon Kotler, Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, Rabbi Yitschok HaLevi Soloveitchik, and other major Torah personalities.

The Brisker Rov Rabbi Yischok haLevi Soloveitchik says that the sin of forcing a Torah woman even to join a social program not the army and to help people in nursing homes is a capital crime. Rabbi Brizel told me further that a Jewish woman must be guided only by her husband and parents. To force Jewish boys and girls into a school where they will be taught things that are against the Torah is a very serious sin.

I conclude by saying that if Cuomo fulfills his dream of becoming President of the United States, there is a great fear that America, the only friend of Israel, will force Israel to accept its policies that Cuomo believes in very strongly or lose its help from America.

The only hope is to stop Cuomo now, especially when all biblical and family people will publicly pronounce their opposition to destroying religion and family. There is a letter I have from Reb Moshe Feinstein commanding everyone to do this and to attend governmental decisions on toeivo and protest. 

Cuomo is a murderer and a great hater of heaven and family.

Light before Darkness, bringing Moshiach. Are you helping?

The Mishneh in Sota 49 that before Moshiach the world will be led by people who reject heaven

Dovid Eidensohn

The above Mishneh is a lengthy description of the Destruction of the Temple and subsequent deaths of great rabbis which led to great decline. Earlier in the Mishneh, the decline and death of great rabbis led to a situation where prominent Jews were ashamed to go among people because the dominant attitude was even among Jews a negative feeling towards those who truly worshipped HaShem.

The end of the Mishneh prophesied that just prior to the arrival of Moshiach the leaders of the world would be deniers. That today, has taken place throughout the world. England and Canada have turned against biblical and family people. A senior rabbi in England has said that now Jews must leave England. New York State and New Jersey have openly declared a policy of murder in certain instances. It is getting worse all of the time.

There is, however, in this lengthy agony, a ray of light. The Mishne says, “And we have no one to turn to other than our Father in Heaven.” The senior disciple of the Chofets Chaim, Reb Elchonon Wasserman, explained that this is not a call to despair. HaShem controls the world. When he sees pious people turning to Him, He is sensitive to their efforts. Ultimately, Rambam says, in the Messianic Era, even gentiles will turn away from their idols and beliefs and worship HaShem. When he was being led by the cursed Germans to be slaughtered, he spoke to his students and told them, “If we die, heaven is watching. In our merit of giving our lives for HaShem, the Torah will come to America.” Reb Aharon once repeated, in America, the belief from Vollozhner Yeshiva, run by the senior disciple of the Vilna Gaon, that the process of Moshiach will go first to America and then to Israel. This has happened to some degree, but Moshiach is not yet here. But we see so many miracles that we have hope. HaShem’s holy fingers are on the wall, and revealed every day in every newspaper.

The rule is that from darkness comes light. This world is filled with sin. But people repent and HaShem forgives them. Angels don’t sin, and their light is less than the light of people, who struggle with darkness to find HaShem. The Messianic era is a time of revealing the greatest heavenly light, and the end of darkness.

The process of Moshiach, the greatest light, began, as was necessary, with the greatness darkness. Hitler killed six million Jews. The war ended in 1945, and the State of Israel was declared in 1948. True to form, the people who founded the State of Israel, the Zionists, were not  heavenly people, not at all. The senior leader of Jews in Israel was David ben Gurion. He was completely irreligious. So where was the light? His greatest general was Moshe Dayan, so removed from heaven that he stole from treasures in graveyards, and confessed that he was ashamed that he had a daughter. Where was the light? But Ben Gurion who was absolutely not religious, and Moshe Dayan, also completely not religious, both trusted in heaven. Ben Gurion spoke of  his trust in miracles, and Moshe Dayan, when urged to force Yeshiva students into the army to fight, replied, “They do their share.” He knew from his army experience, that success of the Jewish army was a mighty miracle lit by HaShem’s determination to save the Jewish people and bring Moshiach.

When the State of Israel was founded in 1948, the Arabs declared war and determination to destroy the Jews living in Israel. They strongly outnumbered the Jews in the best weapons purchased from the British who formerly controlled Israel and soldiers thoroughly trained by the British to shoot and to fight. The Jews were mostly Holocaust survivors who when given a gun they had never used would end up killing their fellow Jews.

A major American general, the senior advisor to President Roosevelt, told a friend of the Jews, “I hope that you win your war with the Arabs. But as a military person, I don’t believe it is possible for you to do this.” Ben Gurion, who knew better than this General that it was impossible to defeat the Arabs, launched a war with them that achieved with miracles which nobody believed was possible.

For instance, there were two mighty and huge Arab armies, bristling with the best tanks, weapons and skilled and ferocious fighters. The Jews had few weapons, few good soldiers, and nothing that made sense to stop the Arabs. But Ben Gurion said, “We have faith and we will win.” First there was the problem with two mighty armies of Arabs pounding on a small army of broken Jews who didn’t know how to use weapons, even the simple and primitive ones that they had. The Jews had the ability to be clever. They approached the general of one of the armies of Arabs, and asked him, What do you think of the general of the other Arab army? The Jew who asked this question knew the answer, that the two hated each other. The Arab general asked this question readily admitted that he hated the other general. The Jew then asked, “And if we kill him, what will you say?” “I will say, go ahead full steam with my good wishes.” The first general promised not to get involved in the fighting with the second general. The Jews slaughtered the second army and killed the general. They then continued on to destroy the first general and his army. Here was faith and heavenly light shining in the worst darkness. It will continue to shine until Moshiach will do away with hate and evil for all humans.

The terror in the world in England, Canada, New York State and New Jersey, is a terror of the darkness before the coming of Moshiach. But those Jews who jump into the war before them, and fight, merit a light from heaven. I began fighting and asked advice from people who were experts and things started to move. Amazing changes came about. We need many more people to get involved because we a few Jews are fighting a whole world that hates Jews. But the light of Moshiach is surely shining. Those who leap into the war as did Nachshon ben Aminodov will merit to see that what in his time will be done in their time. He saw the miracle of HaShem to split the water and the Jews marched over in peace. Then HaShem destroyed the entire Egyptian army. One person did that. If you are that one person to fight darkness, HaShem is watching you. Do it!

New Jersey Permits Murder of Living People

Regarding the Recent Decision in Trenton, NJ, to permit two witnesses to testify that somebody in a Nursing Home should die and one of them can be the owner of the home. This is murder.

David Eidensohn

I am a Monsey rabbi who studied under the greatest Israeli and European rabbis in the past generations. They taught me that the world is filled with anti-biblical ideas and we must turn to heaven to survive them. I have been doing this all of my life. I merited that my children and grandchildren are just like me. I live in New York and the new laws which will affect religious people of all religions are terrifying many people, especially those with children. Many of the hideous and murderous teachings of Cuomo in Albany are terrifying women with babies who want them born, and anybody can slip her a pill that will destroy the baby and in NY it is not against the law. Now the goverment of New Jersey has produced the murder of people in Nursing Homes using the owner of the home as one of the two witnesses required that the person should be murdered such as allowing the murder of people who have never expressed an interest in dying.People who see these laws and are silent will be judged by heaven and they may go to great suffering in this world or a hot place in the other world.

Unfortunately, many of those who do nothing are religious people. And they will suffer much more than people who don't practice religion. Some of this disinterest has already arrived in New York State and the suffering will be intense if it is ever revealed. There is a law in New York State called the GET Law, which permits a woman to force a Jewish religious divorce against her husband. If she remarries, her new children are mamzerim, and may not marry a Jewish woman. These children will ask their mothers why it is that nobody will marry them. Who can know their anguish, but it is probably less than the anguish of the mother.

Rabbi Responds to Attack on Yeshivas by New York State

David Eidensohn

First, we begin with an article in the Lohud Journal News of Rockland New York and other New York State environments, attacking the present Yeshiva system based on laws passed years ago but never enforced until the Cuomo administration. For the first time with a Democratic majority, it has passed hideous laws permitting killing fetuses and not being challenged by the government. The attack on Yeshivas is in line with this new attempt to do away with biblical values for all people and much of respect for woman and children. Here we present from me, David Eidensohn, a defense, not on all of the hideous murderous inventions of Albany which began on Jan 22, ’19 anniversary of abortion law Roe vs Wade, but on this article attacking Yeshivas in New York State. Cuomo’s Democrats did not invent this law which has been law for many years, but they have insisted on enforcing it, and there is great fear that their efforts will spill out into great changes in that very law similar to what they did with the abortion law. Here is the article of the Journal News which simply explained that all of this was state law, and my defense of those who opposed it.

From Journal News

It was clear that state Education Commissioner Mary Ellen Elia was going to have a hard time producing private-school curriculum guidelines that would meet state law and satisfy the Orthodox community, especially those protective of Hasidic yeshivas.

But who could anticipate the wrath directed at Elia and her updated guidelines for enforcing that academic instruction at private schools is "substantially equivalent" to public schools? The timing of the release, just before Hanukkah, fed numerous comparisons of Elia and the state Education Department to the Syrian-Greeks, who tried (and failed) to Hellenize the Jews in the Hanukkah story.

Grand Rebbe Aharon Teitelbaum of the Satmar Hasidic movement, for one, has declared war against Elia. In a major speech before thousands of followers in Brooklyn, he said his community "will not bow down or surrender to the wicked, not even before the Commissioner of Education." 

Almost 55,000 people have signed an online petition opposing the new state guidelines and rejecting Elia's "attempt to impose her curriculum on our yeshivas."

Attacking from another front, the New York State Council of Catholic School Superintendents, which represents about 500 Catholic schools, also rejects the new guidelines. The group opposes having Catholic school instruction reviewed by local public school officials, with whom they say they are in competition for students.

THE GUIDELINES: Yeshivas could face closure, eventually, if academics fail

Much of the vitriol directed at Elia and "her system," though, is way off base. Critics seem determined to ignore the reality that Elia is trying to enforce existing state law, which is her job. She did not create instructional rules for private schools; nor did she design a system to inspect what private schools teach. 

But blaming her is an easy out. Comparing her to Jewish oppressors of yore is nonsense.

The simple truth is that state law — since at least 1947 — has required that academic instruction at private schools be "substantially equivalent" to what public schools teach. Section 3204 of state Education Law has also required that public school districts be responsible for making sure that private schools within their boundaries teach what they're supposed to teach.

The law, by and large, has been ignored. Until now.

Two years ago, Elia decided to update state guidelines for enforcement of the law. Why she did so is one point of conflict. Many Orthodox critics insist she was unduly influenced by an advocacy group they don't like, Young Advocates for Fair Education or YAFFED. State Education Department officials told me they received requests to clarify requirements by many, including public schools, private schools and BOCES.

Ruminating on Elia's motivation is just a distraction. The law is the law, and Elia is doing the right thing, the only thing, by trying to enforce it. Wishing she would look the other way, as her predecessors did, is not a credible position. 

End of Journal News Article. Now is my defense of Yeshivas.

My Defense of Yeshivas in New York State by Rabbi David Eidensohn

The above article from the Journal News simply describes government law in New York State and the article seems to be accurate. My response is that any governmental force on religious people to violate their religion is not only anti-religious but also a violation of a Supreme Court ruling in Wisconsin v. Jonas Yoder, 406 U.S. 205, is the case in which the United States Supreme Court found that Amish children could not be placed under compulsory education past 8th grade. The parents' fundamental right to freedom of religion was determined to outweigh the state's interest in educating its children. The case is often cited as a basis for parents' right to educate their children outside of traditional private or public schools. Cuomo government violation of this is a direct contradiction to Federal Law and the Supreme Court that voted 7-9 that religious right of an organized religious group trumps state power to change it. Incidentally, the two justices who were not part of the 7 who voted for it, did not oppose the idea that religion trumps the state, but for other reasons.

This is not about judicial issues for which I am not an expert on American law. This is about religious law, and how the religious community of all religions is upset with a secular government creating new ideas that are anathema to major sectors of that country. New York State and many states have very large amounts of deeply religious people. These anti-biblical and anti-family laws have now taken place in England and other countries. A senior rabbi in England declared that now religious people will have to leave England. What about the thousands of religious New Yorkers?

Let us now turn to the religious Jews who instigated forced change in policy mentioned above where Yeshivas are under attack for not spending the time that public schools spend in teaching various subjects. These religious Jews follow a history of “our destroyers come from us.” One of them, a deeply pious Jew, caused the destruction of the Second Temple. They always know better than the senior rabbis of the generation. And the rabbis whose Yeshivas are heavily populated by believers surely don’t want the atheists of Cuomo telling their children about atheism. This is a capital crime.

The greatest rabbis in the world going back a few generations made it clear that forcing a woman by the government for any reason is a capital crime. I heard this from a relative who was the one who trained the present Stoliner Rebbe, Reb E. Brizel, the grandfather of my daughter.

The greatest rabbis in the world held that any governmental pressure on women for any reason is a capital crime. These rabbis are Rabbi Aharon Kotler, Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, Rabbi Yitschok HaLevi Soloveitchik, and other major Torah personalities.

The Brisker Rov Rabbi Yischok haLevi Soloveitchik says that the sin of forcing a Torah woman even to join a social program not the army and to help people in nursing homes is a capital crime. Rabbi Brizel told me further that telling a Jewish woman must be guided only by her husband and parents. To force Jewish boys and girls into a school where they will be taught things that are against the Torah is a very serious sin.

I conclude by saying that if Cuomo fulfills his dream of becoming President of the United States, there is a great fear that America, the only friend of Israel, will force Israel to accept its policies that Cuomo believes in very strongly or lose its help from America.

The only hope is to stop Cuomo now, especially when all biblical and family people will publicly pronounce their opposition to destroying religion and family. There is a letter I have from Reb Moshe Feinstein commanding everyone to do this and to attend governmental decisions on toeivo and protest. 

Cuomo is a murderer and the greatest toeiva in the world.