Parsha Pearls: Parshas Pinchas

Why the moon is smaller than the sun
But Chassidim Daven Late!
The Zealot Saves Everyone
What to Do When the Rabbi Doesn’t Answer
Pinchas and Yirmiyahu

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The Satmar Rov, speaking in Bnei Brak in 1952, asked: Why was this a fitting reward for Pinchas’s act? Furthermore, the Targum Yonasan ben Uziel adds to verse 12 the following words: “And I will make him a living angel and he will live forever to announce the redemption at the end of days.” Why was this a fitting reward?

The Yalkut at the beginning of the parsha explains it more clearly: “Pinchas is Eliyahu. The Holy One, blessed is He, said: You made peace between Israel and Me in this world, so in the future as well you will make peace between Me and my children, as it says (Malachi 3:23-24), ‘Behold, I am sending you Eliyahu the prophet before the coming of the great and awesome day of Hashem, and he will bring back the hearts of the fathers to the children.’”

Many Jews at the time saw Pinchas as a promoter of divisiveness and a starter of fights, who in his arrogance stood up against the entire tribe of Shimon and its well-respected leader. Thus we find that they degraded him (Rashi 25:11) and even wanted to excommunicate him (Yerushalmi Sanhedrin 48b). But in truth, he who acts with zeal and starts a dispute for the sake of the honor of Heaven is actually bringing peace and unity between the Jewish people and Hashem. On the other hand, those who make peace and unity with the wicked are actually causing disunion between the Jewish people and their Father in heaven. Therefore, since it seemed that Pinchas was causing disunion, Hashem spoke and proclaimed that he was actually a promoter of peace, and his reward was to be the announcer of the redemption, the time when there will be true peace between the Jewish people and Hashem and among the Jewish people themselves. Until that time, there cannot be complete peace and unity, for it is necessary to keep separate from the wicked. (Divrei Yoel p. 193)

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Rashi says that the sons of Korach had thoughts of repentance at the last moment, so when Korach and his family fell into Gehinom, the sons were given a high place to sit on. In 1869 the Reform movement in Hungary, known as the Neologist movement, took over the official Jewish community organizations in each town. The Ksav Sofer and other leaders of the generation went to Budapest and asked the government that the Orthodox Jews be given the right to make their own separate organizations. Eventually their request was granted. The Ksav Sofer said at the time, “Now I have a new explanation of Tehillim 79 – ‘A song of Assaf, G-d, gentiles have entered Your property, they have defiled Your holy sanctuary, they have made Jerusalem into rubble.’ The question is: why is this called ‘a song?’ It should be called ‘a lamentation!” Rashi answers that Assaf was happy that Hashem took out His anger on the wood and stone of the Temple, and not on the Jewish people themselves. Tosafos answers that Assaf, who was descended from Korach, rejoiced that the gates of the Temple sunk into the earth, for Hashem will surely bring them back up, and when He does, He will bring out the sons of Korach from the earth as well. But now I have a new answer: Assaf rejoiced that the destruction was wrought by gentiles and not by rebellious Jews, for when the reformers of our own people rule over us, it is much worse!

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The Gemora (Berachos 27a) says that the word “morning” means the first four hours of the day. Consequently, the morning Shmoneh Esrei prayer, which takes the place of the everyday offering, must be said during the first four hours of the day.

In 1953, after the passing of Rabbi Zelig Reuven Bengis, the Av Beis Din of the Eidah Chareidis, the members of the Eidah wanted to appoint the Satmar Rov as the next rov of Yerushalayim. But there were some who opposed this idea, saying, “How can we appoint as the rov of Yerushalayim a rebbe who davens after the proper times?” Reb Matisyahu Davis went to ask the Brisker Rov. The Brisker Rov strongly endorsed the choice of the Satmar Rov, and explained, “Davening late is the peculiar problem of Chassidim, and it is not the problem of our generation. The heresy of Zionism, on the other hand, is a much more serious problem, and it has already spread to almost all of the Jewish people, including some chareidim. In all the world, there is no true fighter against Zionism like the Satmar Rov, who is ready to give up all his honor and resources just to publicize the pure principles of emunah. There is no one as good as him for the position of Av Beis Din of the Eidah Chareidis, for the war against Zionism outweighs everything else.”

Then he added, “The Satmar Rebbe has a tradition from his fathers; war against the wicked is well-rooted in his family. His father the Kedushas Yom Tov and his grandfather the Yitav Lev were among the main fighters against the wicked [reformers] in Hungary. They established the standard of hisbadlus (separatism), and so they saved thousands of religious Hungarian Jews from being captured by Haskalah, as they were in Lithuania and Poland.”

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“Today,” the Brisker Rov concluded, “the problem of the hour is Zionism. We must use all our strength against them – un tzvei milchamos ken men nisht firen (we can’t fight two wars at once).” (Uvdos Vehanhagos Leveis Brisk, v. 4 p. 67)

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When Rabbi Menachem Schneerson became Lubavitcher Rebbe in 1950, a copy of his first public discourse was brought to the Brisker Rov. The Brisker Rov read it and then said, “He thinks he is moshiach, and we will eventually suffer from him.” Then he added, “But we cannot waste energy fighting him, because the main fight today is against Zionism, and one can’t fight two wars at once.”

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The Haftarah for this week is the first chapter of Yirmiyahu. Hashem gave Yirmiyahu the unpopular mission to speak out against the leaders of his time: “And you shall gird your loins and arise and speak to them all that I command you; do not fear them, or I will cause you to fall before them. And I, behold, have made you today a fortified city, a pillar of iron and walls of copper against all the land: the kings of Yehuda, its officers, its kohanim and the people of the land. And they will fight against you but will not defeat you, for I am with you, said Hashem, to save you” (1:17-19).

But the very first words Yirmiyahu was commanded to say publicly were in praise of the Jewish people: “Go and call in the ears of Jerusalem, saying: So said Hashem: I remember for you the kindness of your youth, the love of your bridal days, how you walked after Me into the desert, an arid land. Israel is holy to Hashem, the first of His harvest. All who persecute it will be guilty; evil will befall them, said Hashem” (2:2-3). This was to emphasize that the criticism that was to come was all from Hashem and was motivated solely by Ahavas Yisroel – like Pinchas’ act.

Yirmiyahu had to fight not only against the nations’ leaders in Jerusalem; he also had to fight those Jews already in Babylon who wished to return to Eretz Yisroel prematurely. Rabbi Naftali Adler was the chief rabbi of England in 1899, and in reaction to the then-new Zionist movement, he said as follows: “When the Jewish people went into the Babylonian exile, there were among them some who found no rest under the enemy government, and their only thought all day long was to return to their land. The false prophets among them told them to rebel against the king of Babylon.

“At that point, Yirmiyahu the Prophet wrote a letter from Jerusalem to the elders, Kohanim and Levites who had already gone to exile. The letter said, ‘Thus said Hashem Tzevaos, G-d of Israel, to all the exiles that I exiled from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and live in them, plant gardens and eat their fruit. Take wives and beget sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, give your daughters to husbands, let them have sons and daughters, increase there and do not decrease. And seek the welfare of the city to which I have exiled you, and pray on its behalf to Hashem, for with its peace you will have peace. For so says Hashem Tzevaos, G-d of Israel: Do not let your prophets and sorcerers fool you; do not listen to their dreams, with which they answer your queries. For they prophecy to you falsely in My name; I did not send them, said Hashem… And you shall call Me, and go to pray to Me, and I will hear you. And you shall seek Me and find Me, if you seek Me with all your heart… and I will restore your captivity, and gather you from all the nations, and from all the places where I have scattered you…’ (Yirmiyahu 29:4-9).”

Rabbi Adler continued, “The prophet’s letter is indeed long, but very fitting for this movement. And I say: In the Babylonian exile they had a well-known and short time limit of seventy years, yet Yirmiyahu found it necessary to warn them so much with the word of Hashem to stay put and not take any action on their own. Now that the end is hidden and sealed, and we are forbidden under oath from taking any action, certainly we must not deviate from the words of the prophet in his letter that he sent to the exiles.

“My brothers! I look at this movement with worry in my heart, since I see it as opposed to the Torah of Hashem and to politics. There is a great danger involved in it. That is why I don’t see in it the great quality of love of Zion.”

Full Reading:

https://torahjews.org/2023/11/26/parsha-pearls-parshas-pinchas

Tags:

Ksav Sofer – Zelig Reuven Bengis – Satmar Rebbe – Brisker Rov – Menachem Shneerson – Naftali Adler -

 

Tens of Thousands Gather in Jerusalem to Protest Against Draft

 

Tens of Thousands Gather in Jerusalem to Protest Against Draft

July 1, 2024

Tens of thousands of Jews squeezed into Zupnik Square in Jerusalem, and the surrounding streets, for a protest called by the Eidah Charedis against the Israeli government’s draft law.

Most Orthodox Jews refrain from enlisting in the IDF due to their opposition to the existence of the state and its wars.

Moreover, these Jews are part of a community that existed for over a century prior to the establishment of the State of Israel, coexisting peacefully with the local Arabs. They see the decision of the Zionists to establish a state as a tragic mistake, and do not wish to fight and die in the wars that resulted from that decision.

A few hours before the event, the Rosh Yeshiva of Brisk, the Gaon Rabbi Avrohom Yehoshua Soloveitchik instructed that all must participate in the Eidah’s demonstration.

The Slonimer Rebbe also told his Chassidim a short time before the event that they should be present.

The protest was led by the foremost halachic authority of our generation, the Gaon Rabbi Moshe Sternbuch, and the members of the Badatz of the Eidah Charedis, and with the participation of the greatest Chassidic Rebbes: the Toldos Ahron Rebbe, the Toldos Avrohom Yitzchok Rebbe, the Pinsk Karlin Rebbe, the Shevet Halevi Rebbe, the Mishkenos Haroim Rebbe, Rabbi Chaim Tzvi Meisels, Rosh Yeshiva of Satmar Bnei Brak, Rabbi Nosson Kofshitz, the head of the Nachlah Umenucha neighborhood of Beis Shemesh, Rabbi Yitzchok Moshe Erlanger, Rabbi Gamliel Rabinowitz, head of the kabbalistic yeshiva Shaar Hashomayim, Rabbi Nosson David Keviak, one of the leaders of Breslov, and many other rabbis and halachic authorities.

Leaders of the Sephardic community were also present: Rabbi Moshe Tzadka rosh yeshiva of Porat Yosef, and Rabbi Avraham Cohen, a leader of the Sephardic Eidah Chareidis.

The keynote address was delivered by Rabbi Moshe Sternbuch, followed by speeches by Rabbi Moshe Tzadka, the Toldos Ahron Rebbe, and a number of members of the Badatz.

In his speech, Rabbi Sternbuch stressed that according to Jewish law it is forbidden for any young man, even one who is not studying in a yeshiva, to go to the army. “There is no difference between a yeshiva student and someone who is not a yeshiva student,” he said. “Even if one was not privileged to study in a yeshiva, G-d loves him and it is forbidden to abandon him to the army, which is a place full of defilement and heresy.

“We demand from the government one thing: leave us alone! Allow us to live according to the Torah. That is more valuable to us than anything. And we hereby inform you that even if you place penalties upon us, we will not compromise on even one young man. Even if they want to put us in jail, we will not give in, because we are the servants of G-d.”

Some demonstrators carried signs reading: “We were here before you and we lived in peace with our Arab neighbors. We did not want a state because its existence violates the Jewish religion. You have no right to demand of us to share a burden that we were opposed to. You did want it? So eat it.”

Others signs read: “We Didn’t Create the Problem by Founding the State of Israel Don’t Ask Us to Fix it by Joining the IDF.”

A century-long anti-Zionist struggle

 

Clashing with the Jewish state: ultra-Orthodox Israelis who reject Zionism

March 22 2018 Mondoweiss Report

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Mordechai Mintzberg, a rabbi in Mea Shearim whose family resided in historic Palestine generations before Israel was founded, told Mondoweiss that the establishment of the Eda Haredit was a “counter reaction” to Zionism in the early 20th century.

According to Mintzberg, as Zionists tightened their grip on the British Mandate of Palestine following the Balfour Declaration in 1917, Jews were forced to determine their relationship to the Zionist movement.  

“The ardent anti-Zionist Jews decided to establish a self-sufficient community that was unquestionably opposed to the Zionist movement,” Mintzberg says.

The Eda Haredit developed its own separate school system – taught entirely in Yiddish – and an independent religious court, known as a Badatz. 

When Israel was established in 1948, the group’s struggle against Zionism intensified.

Although Israel has always hosted anti-Zionist Jews across the political spectrum, the Eda Haredit stands apart for the strict adherence to their beliefs.

In the early years of the Israeli state, Eda Haredit members refused to accept Israeli IDs and some even rejected the use of Israeli currency, Benjamin Brown, a professor of Jewish thought at Hebrew University, told Mondoweiss.

Other ultra-Orthodox groups identified with the self-proclaimed Jewish state and integrated into government institutions with their constituents now participating in Israel’s parliament. Leading political parties like Shas and Agudat Yisrael have members who are ultra-Orthodox yet ardently support the state of Israel. 

The Eda Haredit considers these ultra-Orthodox groups “traitors” for “collaborating with the Zionist enemy,” Mintzberg said.

For the Eda Haredit, he says Israeli IDs and citizenship are now “forced” on the community, but members “do everything in [their] power to disassociate from the state.”

Eda Haredit members boycott elections and refuse to accept Israel’s national insurance. If members receive unwelcome assistance from the state, it is immediately placed into a fund dedicated to supporting members organizing against the Israeli army, Mintzberg said

‘We are struggling for our very existence’ 

The community speaks Yiddish and only uses modern Hebrew with outsiders. They consider the language spoken by most Israelis today a “perversion” of ancient Hebrew, Mintzberg explained.

Jews were expelled from ancient Israel because they had gone against God’s commandments, the group believes. Jews are not allowed any form of a state until the coming of the Messiah, which is expected to occur following a Jewish “spiritual redemption” that would right the sins of the past.

Zionists have used Judaism to further their political goals in the region and “conquer” the territory, Mintzberg told Mondoweiss, adding that a Jewish nationality is antithetical to the teachings of Judaism. He considers Zionism to be a “parasite” on the Jewish faith.

According to his beliefs, Jews inside Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory should be living under Palestinian rule.

Brown estimates the population of the Eda Haredit to currently be at least 30,000. He says official statistics do not exist because the Eda Haredit refuses to cooperate with Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics.

Lizi Sagie a secular anti-Zionist Israeli activist, told Mondoweiss that, “no one in Israel practices anti-Zionism like the Eda Haredit.”

“They don’t just talk about being anti-Zionist, they really live it,” she said. “I have never witnessed such pure justice like I found in Mea Shearim.”

In the larger Israeli society Eda Haredit members are characterized as “violent extremists” owing to the group allegedly throwing objects, spewing insults, and at times spitting on uniformed Israeli soldiers who wander into Mea Shearim.

The community has also come under fire for its practice of gender segregation. The state has previously intervened to upend barriers on public sidewalks.

But in Mintzberg’s view his group is attempting to survive and defend itself inside a state aiming to consume them into a Zionist society.

“We are struggling for our very existence,” he says.

Forced conscription

The most important battleground between the Eda Haredit and the Israeli authorities has opened up around the country’s compulsory army draft.

Israeli law mandates that Jewish-Israeli citizens be conscripted into the army at the age of 18. Men must spend three years in the army, while women are conscripted for a mandatory, two-year term.

Brown says that the some 900,000 ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel have usually been able to gain unofficial exemptions by proving they are full-time students at yeshiva, a seminary school.

A 2014 bill to restrict draft exemptions spurred a wave of protests from the community, including one of the largest marches in Israel’s history. The issue has remained in the public eye as Israeli lawmakers negotiate a bill to axe the draft exemption for ultra-Orthodox Jews.

However, unlike other ultra-Orthodox groups, Israeli attempts at recruiting the Eda Haredit are futile. For the Eda Haredit, even entering a draft center and showing documents to gain that exemption is considered “collaborating with the enemy”.

“We would never seek Israel’s permission to be exempted from their army, because we don’t recognize the Zionist regime’s authority at all,” Mintzberg said.

“If any of us were ever to accept being drafted into an army, it will be one that is fighting against the Zionist state,” he added.

For Eda Haredit members, it is an honor to be jailed over refusing the draft. Their children are “excited” to reach the age of conscription because “the draft refusers become the stars and heroes of the community,” Mintzberg said.

The rift between the Eda Haredit and other ultra-Orthodox groups in Israel has deepened over recent years. The Eda Haredit sees Israel’s draft as an attempt by officials to further “corrupt” and “Israelize” the larger ultra-Orthodox society.

Over the last decade, ultra-Orthodox enlistment into the Israeli military has climbed from 288 in 2007, to nearly 2,000 today.

Sagie points out that Israeli authorities will often send Ultra-Orthodox army officials into Mea Shearim “just to provoke residents.”

“They want to show the community that, ‘Look, even your own kind is wearing our uniform,'” Sagie told Mondoweiss.

The Eda Haredit holds frequent protests against the draft and distributes pamphlets outside draft centers discouraging other Ultra-Orthodox Jews from joining the army.

The group has also been known to ritually hang Israeli soldier dummies in Mea Shearim to protest Israel’s army draft, evoking condemnation among Israeli leaders.

Last year, Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman confronted the community on Twitter, saying it was a “shame” that Israeli citizens were “risking their lives to defend the homeland”, while an “extremist, violent and anti-Zionist group is attempting to prevent the enlistment of ultra-Orthodox Jews into the army.”

Frequent raids

Israeli forces frequently raid Mea Shearim, according to Mintzberg, arresting draft refusers or members active in the protests.

The police operations are often conducted during night hours, when Israeli officers break into homes without any prior warnings – a police strategy usually saved for Palestinian communities in occupied East Jerusalem.

Oftentimes, residents are arrested and then released the next morning. “It’s all just meant to try and break the community,” Sagie said.

Unlike Palestinians, who often use Whatsapp groups and Facebook to warn residents of Israeli raids, the Eda Haredit’s strict anti-modern lifestyle prohibits them from using the internet.

Instead, “we have kosher phones”, Mintzberg says, taking out a weather-beaten mobile phone from his pocket. The phone only has the ability to make and receive calls.

The community has developed a “hotline” that provides details on goings-on in the neighborhood and updates on jailed residents.

During emergencies, like a night raid, the hotline sends out calls to its registered numbers. Once someone receives the call, they dial the number back and a recorded message plays.

One of the recordings, heard by Mondoweiss, was loud and frantic: “The Zionist kidnappers are invading a home!” the message blared out of the phone’s speaker, in Yiddish.

The recordings often inform residents about which houses are being raided, prompting hundreds of residents to flock outside in an attempt to prevent arrests and push Israeli forces out of the neighborhood.

When group members are arrested, oftentimes they will refuse to cooperate with Israeli officials, while others hold daily protests outside the jails where members are being held.

Outside of every synagogue in Mea Shearim, there are posters listing the names of each jailed community member, so that “the entire community will pray for them,” Mintzberg says.

‘A threat to Israel’

Meanwhile, Mintzberg says he and others in the community identify as being Palestinian. “I live on this land, so what else would I be except Palestinian?” he said.

Mintzberg explained that while the group’s strict anti-Zionist views are derived from a religious origin, these values also merge with their sense of morality.

The group’s members feel a strong connection to the Palestinian struggle, he said, “We are clearly bound to each other. We share the same history and the same struggle.”

He accused the Israeli government of seeking to turn the image of ultra-Orthodox Jews into the “enemy” of Palestinians and divide the two groups.

“The state has invested a lot of money and energy into trying to divide us from Palestinians,” he said.

A few families in the Eda Haredit are activists in Neturei Karta, a group of ultra-Orthodox men who organize with Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. However, even these small initiatives to support Palestinians are often targeted and shut down by the Israeli government, Mintzberg noted.

Nevertheless, Mintzberg believes his community’s struggle is a powerful challenge to Israel.

“We are a threat to Israel’s narrative because our continued existence as anti-Zionist Jews defies every myth perpetuated by the Israeli state,” he said.

Full Reading:

https://mondoweiss.net/2018/03/clashing-orthodox-israelis/

Eidah Hachareidis Rabbinical Court Condemns So-called Religious Newspapers

 

Eidah Hachareidis Rabbinical Court Condemns So-called Religious Newspapers

December 19, 2023

Statement in Response to the Religious Newspapers, and Temple Mount Visitors

By the Beth Din Tzedek of the Eidah HaChareidis of Jerusalem

Sunday evening, 6^th of Teves 5784 (December 17, 2023)

Everyone has long been aware of the damage done by newspapers that claim to be chareidi, when in fact they spread ideas that are far from the Torah. This is especially evident now, as the spirit of nationalism makes inroads into our camp, with many influenced by the falsifications of the Torah published by writers who are far from adhering to authentic Jewish belief. Some of them are even encouraging boys and girls to enlist in the Israeli army, which our rabbis never dreamed of permitting. These newspapers are tearing down our community’s fortified walls.

This problem is not new; the greatest rabbis of the prior generation already denounced newspapers like these. We are simply reiterating their call to every Jew not to read these newspapers. No one should buy them, and if they are distributed for free, no one should bring them into the house.

Every Jew should instead teach his household the holy Jewish tradition: to have faith and trust in G-d, not in human power. “As the old proverb goes, wickedness comes from the wicked.”  (I Samuel 24:13) We must pray continuously for the safety of every Jew and the redemption of our people as a whole.

At this time, we cannot remain silent in the face of the damaging influence of the spirit of nationalism, spread by the newspapers and other means, which is arousing the hatred of the non-Jews, making it seem as if Jews in religious garb are provoking the non-Jews, as if those who keep Torah and mitzvos are somehow involved in the Israeli-Arab conflict, G-d forbid.

And especially, everyone must speak out against those who encourage the public to visit the Temple Mount, a sin carrying a severe Divine punishment, as rabbis have ruled in the past. Besides, as long as the Jewish people is in exile, we have no power, nor do we even desire, to take away anything from the control of other nations.

May Hashem Yisborach have mercy on us and bring an end to our suffering, and may the messiah come soon.

Source: Torah Jews