Month: September 2016 – כ״ב באלול תשע״ו

A Chassid once met a Litvak for the first time. This is what their conversation consisted of:

Chassid: Please tell me, what is the difference between us two?

Litvak: Are you sure you wish to find out?

Chassid: Yes.

Litvak: Tell me a Chassidic saying, please.

Chassid: The Alter Rebbe, Rabbi Zalman of Liadi, once said that Shabbos without Kugel is like Rosh Hashana without a Shofar.

Litvak: Eh, so what do you call Rosh Hashana that falls out on Shabbos without Kugel?

Chassid: Thank you for answering my question.

Litvak: You are welcome. And thank you for reminding me to pray for the return of the Temple and Sanhedrin (cf. Maimonides Laws of Shofar chap. 2, end) – in spite of the Meshech Chochma Leviticus 23:24.

I am discontinuing the “Bama’avak” newsletter. It had interesting and important material on the Charedi military draft, but their email subscription was ineffective, and the editors ignored my queries. The final straw: Hyehudi.org just received issue 23# but never issue 22#. So it’s over (but nothing will get deleted).