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A Special Kennes Against Internet
A special gathering was organized before Shavuos for the kollel graduates of Yeshivas Slobodka designed to fortify the walls against the ills of technology. Highlighting it were the speakers Maran HaRav Dov Lando and HaRav Moshe Hillel Hirsch shlita. The event took place in the Beis Hamedrash Hagodol of Chanichei Hayeshivos Rambam in Bnei Brak.
Rabbenu HaRav Lando said: "The gemora in Brochos states: Rav Chama, son of Rabbi Chanina asks: Why was the subject of the tents placed near that of the streams, as is written, "Like the winding brooks, like gardens by the riverside, like aloes which Hashem has planted, and cedar trees beside the water."? This comes to teach us that just as flowing brooks purify man from his impurity, so do tents uplift a person from liability to merit. Rashi there comments that 'tents' refer to the halls of Batei Medrash.
"The commentary of the Vilna Gaon on the aggodos of Rabbah Bar Bar Chono states that the Torah is compared to water which purifies a person. Sometimes, a person may believe that he becomes purified immediately when he begins his study and that the evil inclination departs from him, therefore is it written, 'Fortunate are you who sow upon all waters.' Rabbi Yochonon says that this refers to Torah scholars to teach us that just as water cannot purify until it contains a full forty sa'a-measure, an amount that covers an entire body, similarly, Torah must squeeze an entire body before it can swing a person from a state of demerit to one of merit.
"We sit here together, scholarly avreichim who are the crown of Creation, who are totally encircled in pure Torah study, whose only desire is — to dwell in the House of Hashem all of their lives.
The decision of the Israeli Lands Authority, under the directive of the Government Legal Advisor and her 'subordinates', the High Court, to deny the chareidi public its rights to "government lotteries for apartments of reduced price" is an unprecedented decision, perhaps the very first one of its kind in the annals of the history of the State of Israel. A state in whose Founding Document is written clearly, black on parchment, that it will provide complete equal social and political rights to all of its citizens without discrimination of religion, creed or gender, has decided to officially and arbitrarily convert itself into a totalitarian dictatorship which categorizes its citizens' rights according to their social standing.
If this derogatory decision had included denying rights to Arabs — who despise the government — from the same lottery, it would have raised a huge hue and cry from one end of the world to the other.
But the Lands Authority was careful not to include Arabs in this decision. ...
Part II
In the first part, the author discussed the great importance of Mishnayos in general, and cited several important gedolim who stressed the great merit of learning Mishnayos for deceased relatives, exceeding the merit of leading the davening and saying Kaddish. This part is a further discussion of studying Mishnayos to benefit deceased relatives.
Especially Suited
Many siddurim contain a special order of learning for a yahrtzeit which includes certain specific mishnayos and special times for learning them. We quote from the introduction to one of these siddurim: "The order of learning for one's father and mother for the first twelve months and for the anniversary of their deaths, called the yahrtzeit. It is propitious to learn Seder Taharos. Shelosha Terisin. The twenty fourth perek of maseches Keilim, is especially suitable for it contains seventeen mishnayos, each of which ends with the words, "completely pure," while the perek ends with the words "...is pure both from within and without."
This is what I have heard from the holy rebbe of Ruzhin zy'a. Whoever has more time, should learn the perakim beginning with the letters of the name of the deceased person and also mishnayos beginning with the letters of the word neshomoh, which are found in the seventh perek of Mikvo'os (Yesh Ma'alin)."
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Opinion & Comment
The More Children the Better
by Mordecai Plaut
The Knesset plenum gave a preliminary approval to a proposal of UTJ MK Rabbi Shmuel Halpert to link the children's grants distributed by the National Insurance Institute (NII -- Bituach Leumi) to the average wage rather than the cost of living. Every other grant distributed by the government is linked to the average wage, which rises faster than the cost of living in good times, on the principle that these are income supplements and should keep pace with rising national income. At the beginning of the current year, for example, most grants rose more than six percent while the NII grants rose only 1.3%.
Efforts to bolster the government's support of large families are met with opposition and even open hostility from anti- religious MKs who see it as a religious issue which they oppose on principle.
They would do well to rethink their opposition -- and the State of Israel should rethink its approach as well. After 52 years, the State of Israel still has a cabinet minister in charge of immigration while those who advocate aid to large families are thought of as representing narrow, sectorial interests. It is as if in the economic sphere there were a minister in charge of imports while those who want to encourage local production are accused of pushing their own agenda. The reality is that it is always better to produce your own needs.
People are a real need for a modern society, aside from our own consideration of the infinite value of human life. Social observers are identifying disturbing trends that show what problems low birthrates will cause.
...
IN-DEPTH FEATURES
A Divine Prince in our Midst
A new forthcoming sefer, Rabbon Shel Kol Benei HaGola, will review the life story of Maran Rabbenu Chaim HaLevi of Brisk. Much of the material was previously unpublished. The compilers graciously agreed to allow us to publish a drop of their large sea about the life of Maran HaGrach Soloveitchik zt'l.
Reb Chaim did not grow up in a home in which they trained him to learn Torah. Indeed, we wouldn't say that R' Yoshe Ber taught his son to learn Torah and fear Heaven like we wouldn't say that he taught his son to breathe air. In this house, learning was like breathing, which one cannot exist without.
Even his bar mitzva speech was not a topic of conversation as it is in every other home. On the day of his bar mitzva, Reb Chaim learned maseches Zevochim for the first time in his life. As Reb Chaim later related about his first night as a grownup, "I learned the entire night without a break from the beginning of the masechta until the chapter of Kol Hatodir. I learned in depth and did not leave a single difficulty unexplained. I thought about everything there was to think about." In ten hours, the youth learned eighty-seven pages. This was not ordinary learning; it was that of Reb Chaim!
"But Say What I Want to be Said"
Reb Chaim did not prepare his bar mitzva speech in advance. Actually, he did not prepare it at all. When the guests gathered for the seudas mitzva, R' Yoshe Ber called over his son. Together they went into a quiet corner in one of the rooms of the house. Reb Yoshe was holding a Rambam. He opened the sefer, pointed to a certain halocho and told the boy, "You will speak about this Rambam. But say what I want to be said."
The boy thought a bit, turned it over in his head and went out to give his speech on what he was mechadesh right then. The speech was to his father's approval.
The speech discussed treif, an animal with a blemish like a hole in its lungs, and neveilo, an animal that died and was not shechted [both of which are forbidden to eat]. He said that the fact that a treif, which was shechted, is not tomei does not mean that the shechita made the animal altogether permitted and a new prohibition [of treif] makes the animal forbidden to eat. Rather, the shechita did not make the animal permitted to eat, but it just removed the tumah. And since its din is like a neveilo, it is essentially forbidden and is not like an external prohibition.
His speech proved that the prohibitions of treifo and neveilo are essentially one name. And he brought a number of proofs that astonished his audience. When he finished, R' Yoshe Ber did resist from citing the words of wisest of all men, "A wise son makes his father happy."
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