Rabbi Moshe and his brother Rabbi Yitzchok Lichtenstein (Rosh Yeshiva Torah Vodaath) are the children of Rav Aaron Lichtenstein z"l who co-founded Yeshivat Har Etzion.
Yeshivat Har Etzion, known as "The Gush" is a hesder yeshiva located in Alon Shvut, an Israeli settlement in Gush Etzion outside of the "green line." This is a Yeshiva that combines army service with Yeshiva study in a five-year program ....
But let that not fool you about one of its Roshei Yeshiva, Rabbi Moshe Lichtenstein..
R' Moshe Lichtenstein leans radically to the left and supported the eviction of Jews from Gush Katif ...he constantly attacks Netanyahu for having success in foreign relations and chastising him, telling him to forget foreign relations and concentrate solely on domestic issues ...
Either way, here comes a "respected" frum Rabbi and not only degrades the President of the United States calling him "mentally disturbed" but totally questions frum Jews voting for him...
He mocks that Jews support Trump for moving the US embassy to Yerushalyim stating "here people applaud him for opening an embassy in Jerusalem."
But the Rabbi doesn't mention and ignores the fact that the first thing that Trump did when he became president was cut all relations with the Palestinians and close the PA office in Washington. The Rabbi ignores that Trump backed out of the murderous Iran deal and recognized the Golan Heights as part and parcel of the Jewish State. He chooses to ignore that Trump just arranged peace with Israel and 4 Arab hostile countries ...He is basically mocking over 85% of Frum Jews that will vote for Trump...
This Rabbi Moshe is trying hard to stay relevant and is very immature and basically a child who seeks attention and I'll give you an example ...
In November of 2010, Israel was going thru a draught with hardly any rain, and so the Chief Rabbinate declared a day of prayer and fast....
Who would oppose this? And why would someone oppose this?
Rabbi Moshe Lichtenstein opposed this and was overruled by his own Yeshivah ....that supported the ruling of the Rabbinate ...
Rabbi Moshe Lichtenstein asked that his "dissenting" opinion be published, which is actually against halacha... a Bais Din doesn't have the rules of a secular court that publishes opinions of dissention, a Bais Din publishes only on how they finally ruled..at any rate they gave him permission to publish his childish psak..
What was his reasoning for his ruling .....?
"In my view, of fasting for rain nowadays: it is ludicrous to fast for rain while the sprinklers at the yeshiva, at the homes of its rabbis, of local residents, and of public gardens-here and everywhere else-operate as usual. How can we fast over a dearth of rain when we continue to water our ornamental garden? "
Did you guys read that? Do you believe it?
He actually included this ludicrous bizarre paragraph in support for his opposing view ...
He is against prayers for rain because today we have "sprinklers!" His twisted premise is because his yeshiva and some rabbis want to water their 2 and 1/2 foot garden, with sprinklers, we should not daven for rain ...
Hey Rabbi? Why? Aren't you the Rosh Yeshivah? .. why don't you be an example and close the sprinklers?... and because some like your yeshiva and your rabbis openly flaunt the regulations that state that one should not to use sprinklers during a drought we should stop davening for rain? How absurd?
Fasting for rain is not about the sprinklers of your yeshiva and the sprinklers of the home of your rabbis.. it's not about you, rabbi..we are davening for rain for very serious reasons and potential dangerous situations if G-d forbid we don't have rain ..
How about forest fires that not only destroy the forests and vegetation but can destroy total villages ...the forests need rain for it's very survival..there are no "sprinklers" in the forests.. there are many farms in Israel that totally rely on rain and the "sprinklers" cannot possibly do the job.....why don't you ask the farmers that live near the Gaza borders if they need rain?
and what's wrong with trying to beautify our gardens in Eretz Yisrael?
His entire premise and you can link to his "teshuvah" is childish and very immature.....written on a 12th grade level ..probably for Seminary girls that he was teaching ...
But I will now tell you the real reason why he paskened against the prayers and the fast and it's in his very last paragraph and that's where the "dog" is buried ....
מעמד הרבנות הראשית. לא ארחיב בכך, ורק אסתפק בקביעה, שמכל מיני סיבות, מעמד הרבנות הראשית רחוק מן המציאות המתוארת בגמרא בתענית שגזירת ריש גלותא חייבה את כלל הציבור ואינני רואה את מעמד הרבנות או את העומדים בראשה מחייבים את הציבור בימינו. הלוואי והמציאות היתה אחרת, אך היא איננה.
"I will not expand on this, but merely assert that for all sorts of reasons the status of the Chief Rabbinate is very far from the reality described in the gemara in Ta’anit in which the decree of the exilarch obligated the entire community. I do not view the status of the Chief Rabbinate or its heads as being binding on the community nowadays. I wish the situation were different, but it is not."
Being the radical leftist that he is, he only ruled against it because the Chief Rabbinate ruled for it ...
He is a childish immature, has-been, irrelevant attention seeker and should be totally ignored.....
כל הפוסל, במימו פוסל
In Brisk (he thinks he is a Brisker) they would question whether something is a "cheftzeh" (an object) or is it a "gavreh" (on the person itself)
There is no question ..... he is not a "gavreh" .. the question I have is he even a "cheftzeh?"
.While the majority of Orthodox Jews are expected to vote for Donald Trump in next week’s U.S. presidential election, a major Israeli Orthodox rabbi who also has a large following in the United States strongly condemned the president in an interview this week.
Rabbi Mosheh Lichtenstein, one of the heads of Yeshivat Har Etzion, questioned Trump’s mental and moral fitness in an interview with the Israeli magazine Makor Rishon.
“This is a mentally disturbed person without any inhibition or judgement who controls the button of the the most powerful nuclear weapons in the world — and here people applaud him for opening an embassy in Jerusalem,” Lichtenstein said.
“They don’t stop for a moment to think about the moral damage that he inflicts on the United States, or even on the world. They don’t ask how it’s possible to abandon the fate of humanity to such an unbalanced man, who doesn’t recognize the concepts of truth and falsehood,” he said.
“All of this will harm us, even if there’s an embassy in Jerusalem,” he added.
Lichstenstein is the grandson of Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik, who led New York’s Yeshiva University for decades and is considered the leading spiritual authority of American Modern Orthodoxy in the last century. Lichtenstein is known for his left leaning opinions and supported the disengagement from the Gaza strip.
In the interview, Lichstenstein also spoke out against Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who has widespread support among religious Israelis, saying he had focused too much on foreign policy and security at the expense of domestic issues and suggesting he may have been influenced by Trump.
“Part of it is connected to what’s happening in the United States, where norms are being trampled,” Lichtenstein said. “It’s possible that Netanyahu feels that Trump legitimizes certain behaviors, like screaming at representatives of the media in the middle of a gathering of journalists.”
5 comments:
This fellow inherited his father's Yeshiva but not his father's brain.
This megalomaniac uses his pulpit as a megaphone.
His attention seeking puts Klal Yisroel in danger.
Take away his megaphone, that guy is crazy!
Remember "Chaim, the Rov's"?
His father, the Brisker Rov said on him:"Shote Eyn Merachmim Alav" (One is not allowed to show pity on a mentally disturbed person).
Chaim, the Rov's, is quoted as the author of many memorable lines.
One of his most famous lines was: " It is true that in our Soloveitchik family there is one crazy member in each family branch, but who decided that the crazy one is me?".
Moshe Lichtenstein just confirmed: "The crazy one in the Lichtenstein branch of the Soloveitchik family branch is himself".
One positive thing that he may garner from expressing his views is to provide assurance for "left-leaning" Yidden who may have come around to think there is no "place" for them as Frum Yidden if they do not agree with many of Trump's policies and approach. Those people won't necessarily feel as estranged because R' Lichtenstein's views provide them with some legitimacy. In other words, although I am an Australian whose only real intersection with American politics is the extent to which a candidate supports Israel, I can see that it is nonetheless important that those who prefer Biden and dislike Trump, don't think that they can't be in the "religious camp". R' Moshe Lichtenstein's views then serve to effect a sense of inclusiveness for such people.
10:07
"do not agree with many of Trump's policies and approach. Those people won't necessarily feel as estranged because R' Lichtenstein's views provide them with some legitimacy."
So are you telling me that it's ok for a Rabbi to be nasty?
So those backing Biden are nasty like this rabbi? ...
My point was that Moshele is a nasty low-life demeaning a sitting president of the USA
@DIN, Does his brother R' Yitzchok and the name of his Yeshivah need to be mentioned?
In regards to Hashkafah, I believe they have very little in common, don't see why he should have to suffer for a family members actions, the article can just as easily not have included that info, without affecting the substance of the article.
Thanks for your blog, I enjoy it very much, Hatzlocha!
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