העורך Editor

‘Anyone Who Dwells Outside Israel Is As if He Worships Idols’ – Rebutting A. Neiger’s Distortion

Anti-Zionists are forever relegating universal Torah truths to the safely-distant future of the Mikdash (Ha! They need to follow the news…) to evade their force in the present.

In a recent video Rabbi Aviad Neiger argues the famous Chazal in the title applies only during Temple times. To prove this, he quotes Rashi on the verse (לך עבוד אלוהים אחרים, היוצא מארץ ישראל לחוץ לארץ בזמן הבית, כאלו עובד עבודה זרה. ויונתן תרגם: איזיל דוד ביני עממיא פלחי טעותא).

Of course, this is strange; where would Rashi derive this surprising limitation? And did David Hamelech have the Mikdash in his day? In truth, Rashi is simply supplying a likely situation when Jews have sovereignty over the land. (I think he has the beginning of gemara Rosh Hashana in mind; a Jewish king would build the Temple pronto.)

For example, see Rashi Brachos 58b; ברוך מציב גבול אלמנה, כגון בישוב בית שני. The halacha, as the Mishna Brurah says (224:14), is to recite the bracha whenever Jews have control over the area.

Rabbi David bar Chaim once pointed this out in another connection.

Removing Tefillin on Rosh Chodesh?!

Regarding Rabbi Avi Grossman’s article against the “custom”, a dear reader sent me a draft bio of sorts (אשר יצוה), apparently written by one of Rabbi Chaim Greinemann’s sons. The work includes unreliable or inaccurate information, but on the whole, it is unquestionably valuable.

Copying from page 5:

אמרו לש”ץ של מוסף של ראש חודש, כי טוב שלא ימהר באשרי ובא לציון, כדי שיהיה לציבור עוד כמה דקות עם תפילין, שיש בהם שמונה מצות עשה בכל רגע, ולפעמים היו מתקשין בדבר הסרת התפילין לפני מוסף דראש חודש, מי לקח על כתיפיו ביטול שמונה מצות עשה מכל כלל ישראל לזמן רב כל כך, דבר שלא נמצא בגמרא, והיו רגילין כל השנים לחזור ולהניח תפילין לאחר קדושה של מוסף בלא ברכה.

 

re: R’ Sternbuch Against the Shtei Halechem

A reader wrote, responding to this post:

You wrote:

הרב משה שטרנבוך בילדותו עוד קבל עול מלכות שמים ועול מצות מצות שתי הלחם בשבועות, ואף ניסה לגבור על מניעות מעשיות.

But his maskana already there and then is like now? (Requires קדושת מזבח)

Response:

Truth is, the previous article wasn’t clear enough. Let’s fix that now.

Bottom line: Rabbi Sternbuch, as we showed in the past, opposes the pillar of Avodah itself!!!

Again, follow the link.

Shtei Halechem is just one manifestation; this was meant to be a rhymey jab, a poetic pierce.

The rabbi doesn’t mention the Mizbeach or any other technical obstacle, nor reference his prior “maskana” (the book “Moadim Uzmanim” was explicitly not written Lemaaseh [even more so than Teshuvos Vehanhagos]!), and he certainly never lifted a finger himself to figure out how to build a Mizbeach.

So, truth is, it wouldn’t surprise me if he himself said “SHNEI”. Wouldn’t surprise me if he even forgot that there are kulos here that other korbanos lack. Who says he even recalls what he wrote there? Even if he does, what makes you think he even knows there was, in fact, no Mizbeach? Or any other factual details whatsoever? Nothing whatever to suggest he relearned the topic since his youth (Beis Yosef O.C. 3: ואף על פי שהעולם נוהגים כדברי התוספות, נראה לי שהוא מפני שאינם מעיינים בדברי הרמב”ם בהלכות בית הבחירה, אלא חד או תרי בדרא).

If this is all simply him going by his old “maskana”, then why does he drag in all those who ascend the Mount (his opposition not entirely clear)? Most bizarrely, why drag the “Kedushas Tzion” organization into this?! Clearly, his grasp of the facts regarding KZ and those who ascend Har Habayis comes from our enemies, and he never bothered to find out anything from the source before issuing his dumb denunciations.

 

So, to repeat what I wrote in the original article, the truth, Hashem’s will, halacha, facts, etc. are nowhere to be found in the rabbi’s attack on Shtei Halechem: “בהתנגדות עקרונית, ללא טעם ומטעמת, וכנראה בלא בירור העובדות”.

 

Note: I didn’t hear the classes themselves, of course, but judge by their written presentation by Rabbi Sternbuch’s students.