Rabbi Riskin Clarifies: Converts Must Keep Torah Commandments

Rabbi Stav and Rabbi Riskin

Rabbi Shlomo Riskin responded to reports Monday that some of the rabbis on the new independent conversion courts do not require converts to obligate themselves to a full religious lifestyle. 

Riskin, the Chief Rabbi of Efrat, was named by Haaretz as one such rabbi who recognizes converts who commit to a "traditional" lifestyle in place of the Orthodox lifestyle demanded of them by the Chief Rabbinate. 

"The headlines do not match my words," Riskin stressed. "I am all for observance of the commandments and the genuine and meaningful process that leads to it." 

"My position is that the convert, like all Jews, is in a constant and life-long process of learning and deepening [his knowledge] of the Torah, halakha and the commandments," he added. 

According to Riskin, "construing my position in any other way is misleading and a simplistic interpretation that ignores the many layers and nuances of the issue."

Rabbi David Stav, head of the Tzohar organization and a key rabbi leading the new independent courts, told Arutz Sheva on Sunday that "our court doesn't move a millimeter from the instructions of the Torah greats in their various generations, Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, Rabbi (Yitzhak) Herzog, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef."

"Those that are defaming us today, supposedly in the name of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, instead of conducting a fair dialogue, are guilty of slander, as was done to Rabbi (Shlomo) Goren and Rabbi (Avraham Yitzhak) Kook."

"There are people here who really want their children to be Jewish, and I hope the day is not far when (Chief Sephardic) Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef will also recognize our court which works according to the halakhic minutiae, and will invite us to work under the auspices of the Chief Rabbinate," said Rabbi Stav.

Rabbi Stav Gets Police Protection Following Threats After The Launch Of 'Giur K’halacha

Is this our Torah? A Rav has an opinion different than them, so the opposition wants to physically harm him?
Who really knows what "Giur K"halacha" means?
Wearing fur from a dead animal on your head still doesn't make you the final decider...even if you have the Sfardim on your side....
In all of Shas we always had "Yechidim" that ruled differently than the majority, did the "Yechidim" need police protection? Many times in Shas we actually paskin like a "Yachid"! 
I'm not advocating Rabbi Stav's position, but to harm him because he doesn't agree with the Eida Hachareidis, or the Chief Rabbis?
What message to our children is this? "We don't agree with the Rabbi so we will beat the hell out of him?"

Rabbi David Stav

The Shoham police force will increase patrols close to and around the home of Rabbi David Stav, the town’s municipal chief rabbi, due to a concern for his safety following the launch of a new network of conversion courts last week which Stav helped found.
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The launch of the new conversion courts, called Giur K’halacha, created a fierce media storm in the haredi press, with advocates of a strict, centralized system under the chief rabbinate heavily criticizing Stav for what they perceive to be a an overly lenient approach to conversion which would create false converts who could then intermarry with Jewish Israelis. 

Proponents of the new courts argue that their conversions will comply with Jewish law but make use of leniencies for conversion outlined by various rabbinic authorities in the past to convert minors, with parental consent, from the immigrant community from the former Soviet Union. 

In reaction to the new courts, the haredi weekly newspaper Ba’kehillah on its front page last week labelled Stav “a danger to Judaism, a danger to the rabbinate, a danger to the Torah,” and said that he threatened “the walls of religion

Last week’s edition of the Yom L’Yom weekly newspaper, the mouthpiece of the Shas party, called the new conversion system “the rabbinical courts of the Reform with a yarmulke.”

On Thursday last week at a Bar Mitzvah celebration, Rabbi David Yosef, a member of the Shas Council of Torah Sages made the same comment.

Speaking to the Post last week, Stav spoke out against the tone of the criticism against him and the other founders of Giur K’halacha, accusing the haredi media of “incitement” and saying that they had “thrown off any and all restraint.”

On Saturday night, Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, a brother of David Yosef, referenced the controversy for the first time, and claimed that the approach of the new courts was not in accordance with Jewish law.

“A person whose mother and father go to church every Sunday,” said Yosef in reference to the immigrant community from the former USSR who would not give their converted children any Jewish education or life.

Rabbi Seth Farber of the ITIM organization which helped create Giur K’halacha, labelled Yitzhak Yosef’s characterization of the immigrant community as a “populist stereotype,” and said that the new courts would not convert a child if there was not a commitment by the parents that the child would not practice any other religion and would provide him with some form of Jewish education. 

“Most immigrant families see themselves as Jewish, they don’t go to church, and are simply looking to certify their Jewishness and become full members of the Jewish community, for which there is an available halachic solution,” said Farber. 

Speaking to the Post last week, Chairman of the Jewish Agency Natan Sharansky criticized the Chief Rabbinate for its stance on conversion, its apparent opposition to Giur K’halacha, and its opposition to a government resolution passed in the last government but repealed by the current coalition to liberalize the state conversion system. 

“They want to keep a monopoly and to preserve their own importance but it’s not control which gives power,” said Sharansky, arguing that rabbinic attitudes to conversion had changed in accordance with Jewish political realities throughout history. 

Sharansky said that the chief rabbinate “would have more influence” if it recognized this principle and allowed rabbis with ordination from the Chief Rabbinate, such as those who established Giur K’halacha, to adopt this position.

Speaking to The Jerusalem Post last week, Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, another of the founders of Giur K’halacha also insisted that all conversions would conform strictly with Jewish law and called for the Chief Rabbinate to support the new system 

“We care about halacha [Jewish law] desperately, and what we are doing is in accordance with halacha, and are commensurate with the rulings of former chief rabbis of Israel,” said Riskin. “We are a strong Orthodox voice, and we cannot only have a haredi Orthodox voice on such issues, in light of the circumstances and fabric of Jewish society here in Israel,” the rabbi argued.

Matisyahu concert canceled in Spain because he refused to say that Arab Savages are entitled to a State!

It's ironic, the country that tortured Jews and then expelled them, is now banning a Jew from singing!

Jews for years would never even step into the country because of Spain's murderous past. 

Not to worry, the country will soon be taken over by ISIS! 

Now Read:

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is now causing a rift in reggae.

A music festival in Spain has canceled the performance of American Jewish rapper Matisyahu due to pressure from the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement and because the artist wouldn’t sign a pledge supporting the Palestinian state, according to Spanish media citing a statement from the event organizers.

Matisyahu, who is not Israeli but has visited the country several times, was to perform at the Rototom Sunsplash festival on Aug. 22. His concert slot was filled by Jamaican artist Etana.

The event director, Filippo Giunta, asked the singer on Thursday to issue a “signing statement or video” that expressed in a “very clear” way that Palestinians are entitled to their own state, according to Spanish newspaper El Pais. Other artists at the event threatened to cancel their own performances if Matisyahu was allowed to take the stage because he was “seen to represent Israel,” according to the Times of Israel. The local BDS movement accused Matisyahu of being a “Zionist” who supports the practice of “apartheid and ethnic cleansing.”

The festival, which began in 1994, has strong social justice overtones, including a particular affinity for promoting a Palestinian state. In a translated Facebook statement regarding the Matisyahu controversy, Rototom used the words “occupation” and “occupied” to describe Israel’s relationship with what the event organizers see as Palestinian territories. The festival’s website features a 2 ½-hour video focusing on pro-Palestinian activists, according to the Times of Israel.

The festival has a “social forum,” which has discussed the issue numerous times, according to the Facebook statement. Though permitting Matisyahu to perform his music, which is not characterized as pro-Israel but does draw on Jewish tradition, is apparently not part of that discussion.

Matisyahu, a Pennsylvania-born Jew whose real name is Matthew Miller, has not yet addressed the debate.

Ben Carson stands firm on suggestion that Obama has anti-Semitic views

Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson on Sunday defended his recent suggestion that President Obama holds anti-Semitic beliefs. 

Carson wrote in a recent op-ed piece for The Jerusalem Post that a speech this month by Obama in support of his Iran nuclear deal was “replete with coded innuendos employing standard anti-Semitic themes.”

Carson told “Fox News Sunday” that upon a recent visit to Israel that he “couldn’t find a single person there who didn’t feel that this administration had turned their backs on Israel.”

“All you have to do … is go to Israel and talk to average people on all ends of that spectrum,” continued Carson, a retired pediatric neurosurgeon and social conservative.

Carson, like most Republicans, does not support the deal, in part because he thinks it would put Israel in greater danger of a nuclear or non-nuclear attack by Iran.

President Obama has, since almost the start of his administration in 2009, been accused of weakening relations with Israel, considered the United States’ strongest Middle East ally.

The deal would lift billions in crippling economic sanctions on Iran in exchange for the rogue nation curtailing its nuclear development program, which critics say is to build a nuclear weapon.

Carson also argued Sunday that the president’s speech included anti-Semitic rhetoric because “anything is anti-Semitic that is against the survival of a state that is surrounded by enemies and by people who want to destroy them. … And to sort of ignore that and to act like everything is normal there and that these people are paranoid, I think that’s anti-Semitic.”

Third of Elul: HaRav Kook's Final Requests

HaRav Avraham Yitzchak Hacohen Kook, Israel's iconic first Asheknazic Chief Rabbi, returned his soul to G-d on the third of Elul.

It was the first of Elul, 5695 (1935), when Rabbi David Cohen (known as ‘the Rav HaNazir’) arrived at the guest house where Rav Kook was staying in Kiryat Moshe.

Exactly twenty years had passed since their first transformative encounter in Switzerland. 

This time he held in his hands a special document to show his dying master.

For twelve years, the Rav HaNazir had labored to organize Rav Kook’s writings into a systematic, comprehensive work. 

As his revered master lay on his death bed, he showed him the beginning fruits of his labor - the title page of the first volume of Orot HaKodesh. Rav Kook rejoiced; and he shed tears.

On the day of his death, Rav Kook motioned to his son, Rav Tzvi Yehudah, to come close. “Please pay off any outstanding debts. I do not want to owe anyone, not even the smallest amount.” He then made a second request: “Please prepare my writings for publication. But take care that the only title given to me is ‘rabbi.'”

With great effort, Rav Kook turned his face towards the scholars in the room. When it became clear that his soul would soon depart, the people cried out, “Shema Yisrael!” Rav Kook whispered after them, “Shema Yisrael,” breathing his final breath with the word echad - one. “The Eternal is one.”

The Rav HaNazir wrote:

“When the Rav passed away, We heard a heavenly voice. The voice called out, “Haim, ad olam!” ‘Life, forever!’ Even after completing life in this world, the soul continues, and it grows even stronger, with blessing, in eternal life.”

(Stories from the Land of Israel. Adapted from Malachim Kivnei Adam, p. 420; preface to Orot HaKodesh, pp. 24, 30 RavKookTorah.org)

Kold Kuts & Premiere Catering in Flatbush... Do they have Hashgacha or Not? What's the Story?

Both advertisements below appeared in this week's edition of the Yated!

Question: Is Kehilah Kashrus playing games? Or is Rabbi Nesanel Sommer playing games?

Is Kold Kuts/ Premiere Catering playing games?

Can the public eat at Kold Cuts?

Can the public eat at any event at The Agudah of Avenue L?

What "violations" happened in the kitchen of the Agudah of Avenue L that Kehilah Kashrus took off their Hashgacha?

And if there was a Kashrus Violation, why is Rabbi Nesanel Sommer still giving an Hashgacha?

Why did Premiere Catering have two Hashgachos in the first place?

If Premier Catering had Kehilah Kashrus as their Hashgacha, why did they need an outside Rabbi from Monsey as an additional Hashgacha?

Why wasn't the local Kehilah Kashrus enough?

And if Kehilah Kashrus continues to be vague about the circumstances because of Loshon Harah, why did they place a paid ad in the Yated? So now the Halacha of Loshon Harah is only partial? 

Whats the story folks?

More Questions:
Who is Kehilah Kashrus? Why isn't the ad signed? 
Will Premiere Catering refund all deposits for the events already booked?
Who is Rabbi Nesanel Sommer? How many establishments in Flatbush does he give an Hashgacha to?
How many establishments in Monsey where he actually lives does he give an Hashgacha?
The big question now is:
Can a goy eat at any of the establishments that Rav Sommer gives an Hashgacha?

Meir Kin the "bugeye" polygamist will contaminate Tiferes Rivka Wedding Hall on Sunday

Meir "Bugeye" Kin

Well guess who's'  coming for dinner on Sunday August 16 in Boro Park?
The arrogant sick deranged polygamist Bugeye Kin!
He is scheduled to show his ugly face at the Tiferes Rivka Wedding Hall, 1257 38th Street, Brooklyn, New York 11218. 

There will be a rally at the front of the hall...
If you don't want your daughter to wind up with a sick misogynist like bugeye, come support the rally!

Here see bugeye shlepping his latest victim past guests 

Hillary finally hands over her server—after it's been professionally wiped clean

After years of holding herself above the law, telling lie after lie, and months of flat-out obstruction, HIllary Clinton has finally produced to the FBI her server and three thumb drives. Apparently, the server has been professionally wiped clean of any useable information, and the thumb drives contain only what she selectively culled.

 Myriad criminal offenses apply to this conduct. Anyone with knowledge of government workings has known from inception that Hillary’s communications necessarily would contain classified and national security related information. Thanks to the Inspector General for the Intelligence Community, it is now beyond dispute that she had ultra-Top Secret information and more that should never have left the State Department.

 Equal to Ms. Clinton’s outrageous misconduct is that of the entire federal law enforcement community. It has long chosen to be deliberately blind to these flagrant infractions of laws designed to protect national security—laws for which other people, even reporters, have endured atrocious investigations, prosecutions, and some served years in prison for comparatively minor infractions. 

It’s high time for a special prosecutor to be named to conduct a full investigation into Ms. Clinton’s likely commission of multiple felonies, including a conspiracy with Huma Abedin, Cheryl Mills, and possibly others, to violate multiple laws. 

While the FBI and Department of Justice have willfully ignored Hillary Clinton’s outrageous conduct, they didn’t hesitate a minute to investigate and prosecute former CIA Director and national hero, General Petraeus. He was just tarred, feathered and ridden out of the CIA on a rail for sharing some information (his own notebook) with his biographer who was both in the military and had a top secret clearance. Yet, Petraeus did not have a secret server set up to house his classified and top secret information or digital satellite imagery; he destroyed nothing; and, there was no “leak.”

 But that’s not all. During the same years that Hillary was communicating about national security and world affairs off the grid, the Department of Justice has had no qualms threatening news reporters and prosecuting whistleblowers under the Espionage Act. To hell with the First Amendment and Supreme Court precedent, even the New York Times reported that this administration prosecuted more reporters and whistleblowers for “espionage” than all prior administrations put together.

 Remember Fox news reporter James Rosen? The Holder Justice Department not only seized his emails immediately and without his knowledge, they suggested he was a criminal “co-conspirator” in a leak case—under the Espionage Act—which carries a ten-year term of imprisonment. 

And they quickly indicted former House Speaker Dennis Hastert and Senator Menendez on extremely stretched or tortured views of vague criminal statutes and factual allegations of conduct that may well not be criminal. Senator Menendez can’t vacation with his best friend but Hillary Clinton and her “Foundation” can accept millions of dollars from foreign governments seeking to curry her favor. Yet there’s been no criminal investigation of Ms. Clinton and her cabal? 

They couldn’t seize her server months ago while it contained all the emails? They couldn’t put a stop to it from the beginning?

Oh right, I forgot. As the Wall Street Journal reported, Ms. Clinton had declined to allow an Inspector General at the State Department during her entire tenure—so there was no internal oversight. And oh yes, her name is Clinton, and she has long deemed herself above the law. The rules only apply to everyone else.

 But wait, there’s still more. The current Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice, Leslie Caldwell, and her Chief of the Corporate Fraud Section, Andrew Weissmann, destroyed Arthur Andersen and its 85,000 jobs on unfounded charges of obstruction of justice for destroying documents the Supreme Court said it had no legal obligation to keep. The laws governing Ms. Clinton’s obligations are clear. Nonetheless, they haven’t even convened a grand jury to look into Ms. Clinton’s longstanding assertion that she wiped her server clean—of documents she was legally required to keep? 

On top of that, there can be little doubt that Eric Holder and other high-ranking FBI and DOJ officials themselves wrote Ms. Clinton at Clintonemail.com—not to mention countless communications with the President and “All His Muses”—Counter-terrrorism advisor Lisa Monaco, National Security Advisor Susan Rice, and then White House Counsel Kathryn Ruemmler (not to mention Valerie Jarrett)—about Benghazi and all other top secret and classified issues. The DOJ hasn’t subpoenaed the emails from any of the recipients—or the internet service providers? Or looked for them on the backup government servers of the accounts of all the recipients? And the State Department still today is making statements defending her?

 Not only did Ms. Clinton deliberately demonstrate disdain for the Federal Records Act and nullify the protections of the Freedom of Information Act, she violated the Espionage Act by having information relating to the national defense on her server at all. And her deliberate disregard for national security made the job of all hackers that much easier. 

As Andy McCarthy explained it in the National Review:
 In fact, the espionage act—which regulates the handling of intelligence by government officials — does not refer to classified information; it refers to information relating to the national defense. Moreover, it does not prohibit solely the transmission of such information; it criminalizes the communication, delivery, or transmission of that information; causing communication, delivery, or transmission of that information; permitting the removal of that information from its proper place of custody through gross negligence; permitting that information to be lost, stolen, abstracted, or destroyed through gross negligence; or, failing to make a prompt report to superiors in the government when an official knows that the information has been removed from its proper place of custody, communicated to someone not authorized to have it, lost, stolen, abstracted, or destroyed. See also Title 18 United States Code Section 2071 (prohibiting destruction of records). 

Aside from that, her knowledge and intent do not matter under some of these statutes and are indefensible under others. 

General Petraeus certainly had no criminal intent, and neither did any of the reporters. Ms. Clinton, however, established her entire system to avoid the law and in violation of the Espionage Act—as she and her co-conspirators removed all records from the State Department from its inception. 

Compounding her crimes, she knowingly and willfully destroyed whatever she wanted to destroy—despite or more likely because of—the incriminating information it contained and in the face of the Benghazi investigation.

 There’s still more. 

The countless false statements are crimes under 18 United States Code Section 1001—both by Ms. Clinton to Congress (“no classified information”) and in writing by Cheryl Mills to the State Department and just filed with Judge Sullivan—in which she states:

 “On matters pertaining to the conduct of government business, it was her practice to use the officials’ government email accounts.”

 We already know that Ms. Clinton used her personal server exclusively. Title 18 United States Code Section 1001 makes it a crime for anyone to “knowingly and willfully” falsify, conceal, or cover up “a material fact,” or make “any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or misrepresentation,” etc. 

Countless people are convicted felons under this statute—some for offenses that would never occur to anyone even to be a crime. And these are just a few of the possible statutes that it would appear to any federal prosecutor that she and her corrupt cabal violated. 

As Lt. Col. Ralph Peters had the guts to say last night on FoxNews, “Hillary Clinton is a criminal.” Military heroes who have risked their lives for this country have gone to prison for less. 

The Department of Justice’s selective prosecutions have been well-document. Its favoritism and targeting practices must end. As discussed on NewsMaxTV’s Hardline last night, it’s time for a national outcry for the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate and indict Ms. Clinton’s flagrant violations of some of our most important laws. Anyone else would have been arrested by now. Until there is a massive change in this country, justice is a game.

Tosher Rebbe the holy tzaadik succumbs to his illness at 95

Rabbi Meshulem Feish Lowy, the Tosher Rebbe, known for his magnetic personality and an ever present aura of holiness, died today at the age of 95.

The Rebbe was born in Demetch, Hungary and was the son of the Grand Rebbe Rabbi Mordechai Segal Lowy, the third rebbe in the Tosher dynasty which had strong links to the Chozeh of Lublin, Reb Elimilech of Lizhensk, the Magid of Mizritch and the Baal Shem Tov.  According to one source, the Tosher Rebbe was able to trace his patrilineal ancestors all the way back to Rashi.

A Holocaust survivor who served in the Hungarian Labour Service before being liberated by the Red Army in 1944, Rabbi Lowy was proclaimed the new Tosher Rebbe by his father’s surviving Chasidim. 

The Rebbe first settled in Nyiregyhaza in northeast Hungary, and married his wife Chava Weingarten, a direct descendant of the Noam Elimilech in 1946.  Fearful of the nearby Communist government, the Rebbe and his Chasidim relocated to Montreal in 1951, establishing Kiryas Tosh in Boisbriand, Quebec in 1963.  The first Tasher Rebbetzin passed away in 1996 and the Rebbe remarried in 2007.

A 1966 article in the Canadian Jewish News by Norman Abrahams described the Tosher Rebbe’s dedication to his followers, many of whom were Holocaust survivors who turned to the Rebbe for guidance.

“Indicative of the Rebbe’s devotion to Judaism and his followers, this great man stays up most of the night fulfilling the many requests for advice and prayer and it is not uncommon to see him eating breakfast, his first meal of the day at five o’clock in the afternoon.”

A Talmudic expert, the Rebbe was incredibly knowledgeable in many other areas, frequently offering medical advice and guidance on other topics.

“His wisdom extends to other fields, particularly those of politics and law,” wrote Abrahams. “It is said that even lawyers come to him for advice.”

Renowned for his insistence to read from the Torah on his own for over 50 years, the Rebbe would complete the entire Sefer Tehillim daily and could stand in shul for over five hours, according to Israeli news site Kikar HaShabbat.

Over the past five decades, Tosh became a destination for those seeking spiritual counsel, advice and brachos, with thousands coming every year from all walks of life to seek out the Tosher Rebbe’s guidance. 

A six volume set titled Avodas Avodah features the Rebbe’s discussions of the parsha, yomtim tovim and other insights, in both Yiddish and Hebrew, as well as a Yiddish/Hebrew collection of the Rebbe’s teachings about yahrtzeits of various tzadikim.  Satellite Tosher communities have been established in various locations including Borough Park, Williamsburg, Kiryas Joel, Monsey and London.

The levaya for the Tosher Rebbe is expected to take place at 7 PM tonight in Kiryas Tosh.

Raizel Morgenstern buried in Monsey

The Grandfather R' Leibish Morgenstern giving hesped