העורך Editor

הרב ברנד מקשר את הקורונה עם פאות מתקרובת ע”ז…

I was asked what I meant in the recent article describing “the ויגזול את החנית strategy of Yerushalmi rabbis versus the hot-heads” hinted at in the Imrei Emes’ famous letter.

Rabbi Malinowitz says it best (see the rest here):

RM: Those who quickly made this a case of us against them –would they do so if a chareidi robbed Bank Mizrachi?

Questioner: If a charedi robbed Bank Mizrachi in the name of the Torah, and if R. Kopschitz sat on the dais of a gathering organized by the robber, then I hope so.

RM: R’ Kopschitz is not a kook. Rav Kopschitz was doing what that community does when the kooks get the headlines. They make a harmless asifah about the inyan and rail against it..this marginalizes the kooks within their community even more, and lets steam be let out in a harmless way, and shows that their leaders agree in principle for what is being fought for (that the school should move out). That is how they function. You may not like it, you may want the asifah to be against the violence, you may not like the idea that they are advocating the school’s moving–but that is not the point. This is their way of cooling tempers. (I do not want a discussion about that — I was merely addressing Rav Kopschitz’s intentions, to answer your questions)

“I ate breakfast last week with the president of a network news division and he told me that during non-election years, 70% of the advertising revenues for his news division come from pharmaceutical ads. And if you go on TV any night and watch the network news, you’ll see they become just a vehicle for selling pharmaceuticals. He also told me that he would fire a host who brought onto his station a guest who lost him a pharmaceutical account.”

Robert F. Kennedy, in a 2015 interview with Jesse Ventura

I searched for the original, unabridged version (abbridged\shushed by both sides for obvious reasons) for a long time…

Download (PDF, 1.1MB)

What we learn:

1. His interesting opinion of Rabbi A. Y. Kook…
2. How he saw the Agudah, and explaining the Belzer opposition, such as it was (similar to Rabbi Chaim of Brisk here).
3. Rabbi Kook is quoted saying he is neither Zionist nor Mizrachi. (Me, too. Strictly speaking, I’m anti-anti-Zionist. אכמ”ל.)
4. The author all-too-briefly elucidates the ויגזול את החנית strategy of Yerushalmi rabbis versus the hot-heads — still intact today. I explain more here.

So, I cannot fully or even mostly endorse the following article, but if you take it with a kur of salt, for both entertainment and edification, well… there are worse articles trying to tackle these questions. At least, this will give you a window into the mindset expressed.

I don’t know how to say more than that, so, without further ado, I present:

“Mask Policy in Judaic Thought: An Urgent Rabbinic Statement” by Rabbi Michoel Green