New Book Authored By Rabbi A”Y Kook זצ''ל Published After 130 Years

130 years after it was written and 83 years after the death of its author, a new book by Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Hacohen Kook was published. Rabbi Kook was one of the great sages from the previous century who formed the spiritual backbone of the religious Zionist movement.

When he was only 22 years old, Rabbi Kook was appointed to be the Rabbi of Žeimelis, a town in Lithuania which Jews called Žeimel. At that time Rabbi Kook began writing his thoughts down in notebooks. Some of these notes were comprised of only one line, while other spanned pages of flowing text. In one of the notebooks were 430 separate sections spanning all matters in Judaism, from Halachik philosophy to thoughts on the Parsha.

Over the years, approximately one-third of the notebook was published in various works attributed to Rabbi Kook. However, for some reason, no one knew about the remainder of the notebook, and those who did not see fit to publish it. Then, 15 years ago a photocopied version of the notebook found its way to the hands of Rabbi Harel Cohen, who is in charge of the publishing house for Yeshivat Beit El.

“I received a copy of the notebook from Rabbi Boaz Ofan from Yeshivat Beit El. 11 years later, after we saw that no one is publishing the work, we gathered a staff of 15 avreichim and rabbanim and began the arduous task of publishing the work which took us four years to accomplish.

The book is called Metziut Kattan and spans 750 pages of thoughts by Rabbi Kook over the years. “Damage caused by time, poor copying and the special style of handwriting which Rabbi Kook had caused it to take four years for us to understand each word in the high vocabulary that is a signature of Rabbi Kook’s work. This work puts into perspective parts of his other works that referenced the full notebook, which until now had been unavailable.”

Rabbi Cohen added: It was rare for Rabbi Kook to write books in a linear and ordered format. The majority of his works were written in letter or notebooks such as the one that came into our possession. He thought faster than he could write and was not able to put himself in a place where he could write according to specific linear subjects. This notebook is but the first of dozens that were written in this style.”

Blaze Bernstein Found Murdered

The body of a University of Pennsylvania student who went missing while home in Southern California on winter break has been found and his death is being investigated as a homicide, authorities said on Wednesday.

Authorities had been searching for 19-year-old Blaze Bernstein for days when his body was found Tuesday afternoon in brush surrounding a neighborhood park in the Foothill Ranch area of the city of Lake Forest, the Orange County sheriff's department said in a statement.

Bernstein, who was home visiting his family, was last seen around 11 p.m. on Jan. 2 while entering Borrego Park. Witnesses said Bernstein met up with a friend and the two drove there, and he got out of the vehicle and went into the park, authorities said.

Search and rescue crews looked for Bernstein for several days, with assistance from drone pilots.

Authorities declined to release information about the cause of death, saying their investigation was ongoing. An autopsy was scheduled for Wednesday.

Bernstein, a sophomore, was planning to major in psychology and later study medicine, The Orange County Register reported his father, Gideon, saying last week.

Bernstein was picked up by a high school friend on Jan. 2 and was heading to meet a third person in the park, said Annee Della Donna, an attorney and a friend of the family.

When Bernstein didn't return, his friend began sending him text messages but did not hear back, she said, adding the location device on his phone eventually stopped working.

"The only thing I can think of is that maybe he was abducted," the Register reported Bernstein's mother, Jeanne, saying on Sunday. "I can't figure out why anybody would want to hurt my son." 

Satmar Perfidy (Part 2)

Part 2

Finally the truth about the conduct of the Satmar Rebbe, Rabbi Yoel Teitelbaum and his followers during and after the Holocaust! 

This is the second of a two-part investigation into the life of the Satmar Rebbe. Read part one here.

***

During his stay in the Cluj ghetto, Rabbi Yoel Teitelbaum hid rather than position himself as a leader. 

On the rescue train, he avoided the other passengers, failed to encourage or to comfort them, and did not share the precious commodities provided by his followers with them. In Bergen-Belsen, too, despite the preferential treatment accorded him in the camp, he refrained from assuming a leadership role, even among the observant inmates. After his release, Rabbi Yoel elected to run a rescue campaign from the safety of Switzerland. His efforts to rescue Jewish children raised by gentiles were restricted to fundraising, and even in that task he failed abysmally. Once again, his conduct stands in stark contrast to that of other rabbis, who returned to their hometowns to lead their surviving flocks or worked relentlessly in the DP camps. All the sources describing the rescue activities of the Haredi community during the Holocaust, including archival sources, indicate that compared to other rabbis who survived the Holocaust, Rabbi Yoel’s contribution was negligible in both scope and significance.

After the Holocaust, Rabbi Yoel also turned his back on all those who had helped to rescue him. After settling in Palestine in 1946, he refrained from expressing any gratitude to the people and institutions that had been instrumental in his rescue and had endeavored to obtain certificates for him, among them Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Herzog, Agudath Israel leaders Rabbi Yitzhak Meir Levin and Rabbi Moshe Porush, and Ha-Mizrahi’s Rabbi Joseph Yitzhak Rotenberg. He scathingly attacked the institutions they headed and, unlike other Hasidic rebbes they helped rescue, refused to make even the slightest symbolic gesture of gratitude. Moreover, it seems he repudiated his benefactors on a personal level, too. As far as we know, Rabbi Yoel never sent any letters of gratitude or appreciation to any of the people or institutions involved in his rescue.

Satmar Perfidy (Part 1)

Finally the truth about the conduct of the Satmar Rebbe, Rabbi Yoel Teitelbaum and his followers during and after the Holocaust!

We have posted this before, but will re-post it to those who are new to this blog!

This article is adapted from an essay that appeared in Dapim 28:2 (2014), available here, and in Menachem Keren-Kratz’s  biography, The Satmar Rebbe, Rabbi Yoel Teitelbaum.

In her book Be-Seter Ha-Madrega (In the Covert of the Cliff), Haredi Holocaust historian Esther Farbstein writes, “Rabbi Yoel (Yoelish) of Satmar was unquestionably chief among leaders [of Haredi Jews in Hungary].” If Farbstein is correct in her claim, Rabbi Yoel’s conduct before, during, and after the Holocaust may explain, albeit only partially, the extraordinary devastation suffered by the Hungarian Orthodox community, which had regarded him as “chief among leaders.”

The first section of this article describes Rabbi Yoel’s life and actions during the Holocaust, both on personal and public levels, as reflected in his writings, the contemporary press, memoirs written by his Hasidim, and archival sources. In many cases, researchers note that Rabbi Yoel’s position regarding the Holocaust was extreme and exceptional compared to views held by other rabbis and spokespeople of the Haredi community. Yet the worldview he cultivated, coupled with his theological explanations of the Holocaust and its mystical meaning, drew a growing number of followers, in whose eyes he was the last remnant of a dying ideology. His anti-Zionist worldview, representing as it did to them the Eastern European “Old Home,” expunged his failures during the Holocaust. As his public stature grew, criticism from within diminished, while criticism from without was disregarded and dismissed as Zionist defamation.

Rabbi Raziel Shevach a father of 6 Murdered by Arabs

Rabbi Shevach arriving at hospital

Rabbi Raziel Shevach, a 35 year-old Jewish father of six, has died of his wounds following a shooting attack near Havat Gilad in Samaria this evening.

Rabbi Shevch with family in above photo and as a Mohel in lower photo

Rabbi Shevach was a mohel and volunteered with Magen David Adom. About a year ago, he finished studies for the rabbinate, and was currently at the peak of studies to be a rabbinical arbiter.

Medics provided aid to the wounded man and evacuated him to Meir Hospital in Kfar Saba.

Initial reports indicate that terrorists shot from a passing vehicle and escaped the scene.

Security forces are combing the area.

MDA medic Elyashiv Reichenberg described the scene.

 "I departed in an MDA ambulance from the nearby community of Kedumim, arriving at the scene within a very short time. On the side of the road near the security rail, I could see a private vehicle which bore signs of gunfire. Approaching the vehicle, I saw that the driver was partially conscious, with bullet wounds to his upper body."

"Residents who live in the community nearby heard the shooting and arrived to help. With the help of an IDF medical team that also arrived the scene, we provided emergency life-saving treatment, then evacuated him to the hospital in critical condition," the medic described.

Samaria Council head Yossi Dagan responded to the tragic incident, saying, "It's inconceivable that terrorists feel free to shoot at innocent civilians. Nevertheless, I want to send a clear message to our enemies: We will not give in to terror. We have chosen the path of life."

Skeverer Rents Home to Illegals in New Hempstead without even owning it!!

 We reported on Dec 2, how Skver is dumping hundreds of illegal latinos in New Hempstead, a town bordering New Square, to prevent young Jewish families from moving close to New Square. 

They buy homes and then rent them out to illegals, many of them violent criminals to discourage frum Jews from buying reasonable homes in the neighborhood. 

The motive behind these bizarre Skverer actions is that they don't want the Skverer children to know that there are other Jews in the world that are not Skver who are Shomrei Torah Umitzvois ....

Now they are renting homes to illegal criminals with homes they don't even own!!!

Rockland County Executive Ed Day announced the county is suing two men who they allege illegally occupied and rented property that had been foreclosed.

The county is suing Joseph Greenbaum and Elazer Dancziger for renting foreclosed apartments in New Hempstead that the county owned.

"Their actions were not only illegal, they were outrageous," said Day. "It's a scam – like renting the Brooklyn Bridge. They represented that they owned a property that they did not own."

In a complaint filed in Rockland County Supreme Court, the county is seeking to recover damages for the unlawful occupation of the property.

Greenbaum, the property owner, had failed to pay taxes on the property since 2012, the county said.

After the county took possession of the property, all tenants were told they had to move though the two men continued to rent the property. Tenants told investigators that they had paid $2,000 in rent per unit, the county said.

The case has been referred to the Rockland County Sheriff's Department for criminal investigation.

Matzeivah of Rav Shteinmen vs Matzeivah of Satmar Rebbe

Yeshivah Bochur stone-thrower arrested for attack on IDF soldier

Police arrested an anti-draft extremist in Beit Shemesh Monday evening, hours after an IDF soldier was injured in a stone-throwing attack that caused him to lose control of his vehicle and crash.

The attack occurred Monday morning, when a 21-year-old soldier driving in a predominantly-Charedi neighborhood of Ramat Beit Shemesh.

Anti-draft radicals spotted the driver’s IDF uniform, the soldier later said, and began hurling rocks at the vehicle.

During the attack, the soldier lost control of his vehicle and crashed into an electric pole.

MDA emergency first responders were called to the scene, and treated the soldier before evacuating him to Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem. MDA officials say the soldier suffered light injuries in the crash.

“When we arrived at the scene, we saw the driver walking around a car that had crashed into an electric pole,” an MDA medic who treated the soldier reported.

“He told us that he hit the pole after a rock was thrown at him. He was lightly injured. We gave him medical treatment and evacuated him to the hospital in light condition.

Police units were also dispatched to the scene of the attack, and opened an investigation into the incident.

On Monday night, police arrested one suspect in connection with the savage attack, Behadrei Haredim reported.

Beit Shemesh Mayor Moshe Abutbol condemned the attack.

“It is sad that we have these kinds of extremists living here. I once again call on the extremists, as I called on them at [last year’s] Memorial Day honoring fallen IDF soldiers: 

get out of our city.”

Chareidim Go to Har Habayis Every Day Now!

Chareidim now go up to the Har Habayit every day relying on Rishonim such as the Me'erie, that allowed it ...

I don't have enough knowledge on this topic to have an opinion, but if those Chareidim have their "Dass Torah" that allow it ... then Kol Ha'kovod! 

It's important to have a Jewish presence there so the world sees that we haven't abandoned it and that we hope to return in mass to the Har Habyis very soon!

Yeshivah Boys Throw Rocks At IDF Soldier’s Vehicle Leading To Accident

An IDF soldier was driving his vehicle in Ramat Beit Shemesh today,  during the morning hours. He was attacked with rocks and trash thrown by Yeshivishe thugs . As a result, he lost control of the vehicle and struck a pole.

United Hatzalah volunteer EMT Yitchak Levinger, who runs a store that was two streets away from the incident, was the first responder at the scene.

“When I arrived I found a young man, 18 or 19 years old who was highly agitated and pale after the car he was driving in had been attacked, according to his statement, by a group of charedim. 

The assailants had thrown rocks and bags of trash at his car and screamed at him. He lost control of his vehicle and his car slammed into a lamppost resulting in serious damage to his vehicle. Luckily, he sustained only light injuries in the form of lacerations to his face. 

After the accident, his car was surrounded by a bunch of Yeshivah Bochrim acting crazy. 

I approached the car and calmed the driver down, I treated his wound and stayed with him until the police and ambulance team arrived."