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?"
