Buses from Beit Shemesh
Sunday, March 20, 2022
R' Chaim z"l a short bio
The largest funeral in the history of the country, took place for a great rabbi, Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, who died on Friday at the age of 94. He was at home, collapsed and died.
Estimates of up to one million people were expected to "attend" the funeral, or at least, attempt to get somewhere near it. Already major roads and highways are closed and will be used for immense parking lots for buses bringing in the mourners from all over the country. Our local Health Care provider just called and with a recorded message informed us that no testing will take place today since they will be unable to get samples to the laboratory. Police have cautioned people to avoid the metropolitan Tel Aviv area entirely.
This was massive.
And so, who was this rabbi that few outside of the Orthodox Jewish world knew or even heard about? What did he do to warrant such a huge funeral?
To begin with, you should know who Rabbi Kanievsky was not. He was not involved in politics, he was not a great speaker (he rarely spoke in public), he may never have ever been interviewed on radio or television or by a newspaper. He was not the head of a yeshiva (higher rabbinical academy) or a some Chassidic sect or the like. He was not the appointed rabbi of a community or city. He held no official position of any type, whatsoever.
Rather, he was acknowledged as the supreme Talmudic scholar whose rulings were considered absolutely authoritative. He was noted for his unusually extensive knowledge of every important Jewish text in our vast library of more than two thousand years of rabbinic writings including the Torah, the Mishna, Talmud, Codes of Jewish Law and all the major commentaries. He was noted for his extreme diligence in what is known as "learning", meaning his exceptional ability to sit and study for hours each day, late into the night, sleeping very little, and his ability to retain to memory all that he learned.
He did, however, publish exceptionally lucid books on Jewish Law, and more. I have one of his sets in my library.
He was the scholar's scholar to whom all questions of Jewish theology and Law were addressed and whose answers were considered "final". He rarely, if ever, was challenged or questioned. (If you want to know who is at the top of a specific profession, ask people in that profession who they consider "the best" and then ask those "best ones", who they think is on top.)
As a person, he was soft-spoken and never argumentative. He lived in small, modest apartment crammed with holy texts. His table was always piled with books which he pored over every minute he could. He received visitors from all over the world who came to him with questions, asking for advice, and requests for help. He would respond, by mail, to inquiries about Jewish Law from rabbis and individuals everywhere. Typically, his responses were surprisingly brief, such as "Yes", "No", "Maybe" or "Check this source for your answer".
He had the good fortune of being the son, the son-in-law, brother-in-law and nephew of other extremely well-known and important rabbis. These things tend to run in families. But, independent of his family connections, he earned his reputation on his own by his dedication to learning and his angelic personality. He had a sense of humor, too, and there are video clips of him enjoying a good joke or story.
What I find interesting, was his response to whomever came to him for a "blessing", something that Jews ask for from great sages and religious leaders. He would simple say, "Blessing and Success". (In the Hebrew, he would abbreviate this even further with "Bu-ha".) Short and sweet. Straight to the point.
You see, what matters at the end of the day is scholarly erudition and modesty. Reb Chaim (as he was fondly known) lived a simple, honest, respectful life. He was a scholar supreme and what we call a "Mensch", i.e. a truly good and honorable person. He served G-d by his Torah wisdom and piety.
It is because he personified these character traits the Jewish world respected him more than any other public figure or celebrity could. He showed us how to behave and how to prioritize our values.
This CNN Amanpour Interview Didn't Age Well
Hey @amanpour still stand by this
— Sean Spicer (@seanspicer) March 19, 2022
pic.twitter.com/ZSzoNXaKN0
Biden’s Priority is Appeasing Iran, NOT Helping Ukraine
But as news broke this week about the administration’s success in reviving the disastrous 2015 Iran nuclear deal, that assumption is being called into question. If, as appears to be the case, the United States is giving Russia “written guarantees” that nothing in the new, even weaker accord with Tehran will interfere with Russia’s activities in Iran, then it’s clear that not only is Washington signing off on Moscow’s ability to evade sanctions, but clearly signaling that nothing—not even an act of aggression that created a humanitarian disaster—is more important to President Joe Biden and his team then their quest to appease the Islamist regime.
Saturday, March 19, 2022
The 51 CIA Agents That Lied and Misled the Media to Get Biden Elected
They are the supposed nonpartisan group of top spies looking out for the best interest of the nation.
But the 51 former “intelligence” officials who cast doubt on The Post’s Hunter Biden laptop stories in a public letter really were just desperate to get Joe Biden elected president. And more than a year later, even after their Deep State sabotage has been shown again and again to be a lie, they refuse to own up to how they undermined an election.
The officials, including CNN pundit and professional fabricator James Clapper — a man who was nearly charged for perjury for lying to Congress — signed a letter saying that the laptop “has the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.”
What proof did they have? By their own admission, none. “We do not know if the emails . . . are genuine or not,” the letter said. They’re just “suspicious.” Why? Because they hurt Biden’s campaign, that’s evidence enough.
Keep in mind this was written Oct. 19, 2020, five days after The Post published its first story. Neither Joe Biden nor Hunter Biden had denied the story, they simply deflected questions. Didn’t these security experts think that if this was disinformation, the Biden campaign would have yelled to the heavens that the story was false?
Meanwhile, though the letter was advertised as being signed by people who worked “for presidents of both political parties,” a majority of the officials were Democrats.
Politico picked up the letter and ran the false headline “Hunter Biden story is Russian disinfo, dozens of former intel officials say.” That headline is still online today, even though the letter clearly says they don’t know if it’s Russian disinformation.
That headline was tweeted out by legions of Democrats, including current White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki, as proof that it was all a con. That tweet also is still up despite being proven false.
Thus pure speculation by a group of biased officials became gospel among the media. This was “fake news,” and could be safely ignored.
UN report: Israelis among happiest people in the world
Israel is the ninth happiest country in the world, according to the World Happiness Report, a project of the United Nations’ (UN) Sustainable Development Solutions Network.
Israel has moved slowly up the rankings in recent years, going from No. 14 in 2020 to No. 11 in 2021. The report, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary, says it factors a country’s GDP, social support, life expectancy, “freedom to make life choices,” citizen generosity, and perceptions of corruption into its ranking.
The UN is known as a harsh critic of Israel, singling it out with continual condemnations and more critical resolutions than any other nation. Its Sustainable Development Solutions Network was founded in 2012 to advance UN sustainability, anti-poverty, and industry goals around the world.
Each country’s response to COVID-19 was also a factor in the ranking, the report noted. Israel was one of the first countries to successfully vaccinate a large percentage of its population.
“Deaths from COVID-19 during 2020 and 2021 have been markedly lower in those countries with higher trust in public institutions and where inequality is lower,” the report reads.
As usual, the Nordic countries held their spots at the top of the list, with Finland ranking as the happiest country in the world for the fifth year in a row. Denmark, Iceland and Switzerland placed in the top four, with the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Sweden and Norway the only others ahead of Israel.
Police Estimate One million will attend Rabbi Kanievsky's funeral
Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, a leading Lithuanian-haredi rabbi, will be laid to rest on Sunday.
Rabbi Kaniesvky passed away just before the start of Shabbat (Sabbath) on Friday afternoon. He was 94.
The funeral will begin at 11:00a.m. Sunday morning. The exact hour will be decided Saturday evening by the family.
Israel Police estimate that between 700,000 and one million people will attend the funeral in Bnei Brak.
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