Rabbi Wein Speaks to President Herzog About his Grandfather, Chief Rabbi Herzog ...

Tonite and Tomorrow Israel observes Yom HaShoah

...Whom Rabbi Wein Knew personally. The conversation took place is the Rabbi’s home here in Rehavia

Strange Plague of Dust Plagues Israel

 

Have You Noticed?  §§  Have You Witnessed This?

The haze which has plagued Israel since Sunday is expected to settle on Tuesday, forecasters predict.

Israel warns of high levels of air pollution

Tuesday will be partly cloudy or clear, with temperatures above seasonal average inland and in the mountains. During the afternoon hours, there may local rainfall in eastern and southern Israel, and there is a slight chance of flooding in the eastern streams.

Tuesday night will be partly cloudy, and vision may be limited in the Jezreel Valley, along the coastline, and in the lowlands.

Wednesday will be clear or partly cloudy, with temperatures slightly above seasonal average.

Thursday will be partly cloudy or clear, with no significant change in temperatures.

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/326418

Rabbi Kessin: The Tikun Process of Passover - Part 3

 - The Extended Shefa of Pesach

BONUS SHIUR

Derech Hashem / The Way of God #92 | The Origin of Jews and Non-Jews

Ukraine and its Jews – One Viewpoint

 with Dr. Abramson

 

CLICK ON THE RERUN ICON TO START OVER:  A discussion of Ukrainian-Jewish identity in historical context. Delivered as the Guthaner Lecture of Congregation Beth Am, Los Altos CA, on April 24, 2002

FOOD WARS: WAR ON FOOD GOES HOT . . .

 . . .  FBI WARNS CYBERATTACKS ON FARMS

 

ICE AGE FARMER:  The food wars have gone hot -- and even the mainstream is noticing. Even as the fires and explosions destroying our food supply are broadly reported, the FBI warns of cyberattacks on farming infrastructure. As this awareness grows, one farm has stood up to NY state, refusing to comply with Bird Flu orders.

Greater Food Insecurity UPDATED

 

A List Of 16 Major Fires That Have Occurred At Key Food Industry Facilities In The U.S. Since The Start Of 2022  [by Michael Snyder]

Can anyone explain why absolutely massive fires just keep erupting again and again at critical facilities all over America?  The tragic destruction by fire of the headquarters of Azure Standard in Oregon shocked millions of people, and since that news broke quite a few readers have been reaching out to me about the long string of unusual blazes that we have been witnessing from coast to coast in recent months.  I decided to look into this phenomenon for myself, and I am sharing what I have discovered so far in this article.  Dr. Benjamin Braddock and others had already been digging into this, and their research proved quite valuable as I began my investigation.  Some of the incidents that people have reported I was not able to independently verify, and others I felt were too minor to be put on this list.  With all that being said, the following is a list of 16 major fires that have occurred at key food industry facilities in the U.S. since the start of 2022…

[. . .] the collective loss of all of these facilities will make the coming food shortages that I have extensively written about quite a bit worse.

#1 Salinas, California (Taylor Farms)

#2 Hermiston, Oregon (Shearer’s Foods)

#3 Conway, New Hampshire (East Conway Beef and Pork)

#4 San Juan, Texas (the largest fresh onion packing facilities in South Texas.)

#5 Jonesboro, Arkansas (Jonesboro factory)

#6 Mauston, Wisconsin (Mauston’s Wisconsin River Meats)

#7 Fayetteville, Illinois (Deli Star Corp.’s St. Louis Innovation Center)

#8 Belfast, Maine (Penobscot McCrum potato processing plant)

#9 Leoti, Kansas (fertilizer company)

#10 Claypool, Indiana (a bag house at its Claypool, Indiana, soybean processing and biodiesel plant)

#11 Winston-Salem, Carolina (Winston Weaver Company fertilizer plant)

#12 Sunnyside, Washington (Nutrien Ag Solutions - fertilizer)

#13 Lecompte, Louisiana (Cargill-Nutrena feed mill)

#14 Maricopa, Arizona (Maricopa Food Pantry)

#15 Dufur, Oregon (Azure Standard, the nation’s premier independent distributor of organic and healthy food)

#16 Planfield, Indiana (Walmart )

To read full article:  http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/a-list-of-16-major-fires-that-have-occurred-at-key-food-industry-facilities-in-the-u-s-since-the-start-of-2022/

 

The BBC reporting on people getting implanted with microchips in their arms in order to buy things. Hmmm. The article reads like an advert for the company Walletmor, which is offering to put the chips literally in people’s hands for just $300. “The implant can be used to pay for a drink on the beach in Rio, a coffee in New York, a haircut in Paris – or at your local grocery store,” says founder and chief executive Wojtek Paprota. “It can be used wherever contactless payments are accepted.”  Prepare!

Learn More: https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/…

A Change in Currency

 

Bloomberg reported that Israel added four new currencies – among them the Chinese Yuan (RMB) – to its central bank holdings in an unprecedented move in the country’s history. Additionally, Israel’s Central Bank will cut US Dollar (USD) and EUR holdings to diversify its foreign reserves.

Israel’s foreign currency reserves, which surpassed $200 billion last year for the first time, were traditionally comprised of US dollars, Euros, and British Pounds. Israel will now consist of Canadian dollars (CAD) and Australian dollars (AUD) in their foreign currency holdings. It will also include the Japanese Yen and the Chinese Renminbi.

Deputy Governor Andrew Abir called the decision a change in Israel’s “whole investment guidelines and philosophy.” He explained that the increase in Jerusalem’s foreign exchange reserves compelled the Central Bank to mull “the need to earn a return on the reserves that will cover liability costs.”

The Central Bank, which held 67.4% of its foreign exchange in USD, 30.1% in Euros, and 2.5% in British Pounds in 2020, now intends on having the British Pound and Japanese Yen each comprise 5%. The Chinese Yuan will comprise 2% of its holdings, while Australian and Canadian currencies will account for 3.5% each.

A decrease in US dollars and EUR holdings will take place to enable the new reserves. USD holdings will go from 66.5% in 2021 to 61% – a roughly 8.3% reduction – while Israel’s Euro holdings will be reduced from 30.8% to 20% – a staggering 35% decline in investment.

China pushed for a more significant role in the foreign exchange space for their currency, the Chinese Yuan Renminbi – without much success. IMF data reveals that the RMB’s share of global currency reserves increased to an unprecedented 2.79% by 2021 – though attempts to expand RMB holdings were criticized by Bei Jing’s tight regulation, limits on an exchange, and accusations of currency manipulation.

Amid a bevy of sanctions against Russia to cripple their economy for attacking Ukraine, several countries have become cautious of the risks involved with a USD-based global economy in what is being coined “de-dollarization” – possibly paving a path for the Yuan to increase in international prominence.

https://www.israel365news.com/268702/for-first-time-israels-central-bank-replaces-us-dollar-reserves-with-chinese-currency/

Shalom Pollack – "Nochri"

 (During Chol Hamoed Pesach:)

I went to the shuk the other day and stopped at a stall featuring beautiful strawberries.

I asked the(Arab) man behind the counter about shmita..

He immediately assured me that it was "nochri”, (non-Jewish and thus it was permissible during the shmita year. He was aware of the halachic nuances) Arabs in Israel wait expectantly for the seventh year of shmita , a time when their product has a special advantage welling to Jews.

To reinforce his claim, he told me they were specifically from the Arab village of Araba in Galilee.

That rang a bell. I am familiar with that village and it's not known for its warm feeling toward the Jewish state or for  Jews in general.

So, what should I do?

There was no logical reason that I could say not to buy them. Good produce. Good price. What else is there?

I might even make a "minority" seller happy. That would be in the fine Jewish Liberal tradition, wouldn't it?

Maybe it's just me but I found it difficult supporting those who, likely don't have positive feelings about me, my people, and country ; especially at a time when Arabs are killing Jews in the streets and the killers are celebrated in villages like Araba.

I just couldn't do it.

There were other Jewish customers there waiting their turn , witnessing our little exchange.

One told me, encouragingly, that he comes every week to buy here.

Expecting me to buy the beautiful "nochri", shmita safe strawberries, I said "no, I'd rather support my brothers who love me"

The seller asked me to repeat what I said.

Apparently, he could not believe his ears.

There was  silence and expectation on the line

I repeated it, mostly for the benefit of my fellow Jews.

As I walked away, I was curious what the people online thought of what I said.

Perhaps:

The Arab: surprise, indignation, embarrassment, hate, the realization that there are indeed some Jews with principle and national  pride and solidarity (who thought they still existed these  days ?)

The Jewish customers:

Those right wing religious fanatics are destroying any chance for coexistence. The only way that  Arab Israelis will stop hating and killing us is if we make them as comfortable as  possible in this country.

Support them and they will appreciate us more. There is no other  way.

Another might have felt fear; fear of a violent reaction on the part of the surprised Arab.

Jews do fear Arabs today.

Another might have been,  "That strange Jew may have something. I actually agree with him and wish I had the guts to say it out loud. Perhaps I should find another place to buy my fruits.

Did he have the guts to leave his place in line?

I didn't look back to check.

It is certainly interesting how a few (nochri) strawberries can become a focused social/cultural moment.

My book, "Jews. Israelis and Arabs"  was written to better understand  the soul of Israel today

There are still places left for my special  Pesach tours.

Chag sameach to all of Am Yisroel!

May we achieve true Jewish freedom.

shalompollack613@gmail.com

Krias Yam Suf – The Splitting of the Sea of Reeds

 

https://www.thelakewoodscoop.com/news/2016/04/chag-sameach-2.html

"Stand firm and see HaShem's salvation!"

(Exodus 14:13)

Nisan 20, 5782/April 21, 2022

"Pharaoh drew near, and the children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold! the Egyptians were advancing after them. They were very frightened, and the children of Israel cried out to HaShem. They said to Moshe, Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us to die in the desert? What is this that you have done to us to take us out of Egypt?" (Exodus 14:10-11)

The seventh and final day of Passover, which begins this evening, is the anniversary of the crossing of the Sea of Reeds. We witness by the words quoted above that the infant nation of Israel, barely seven days old, was caught between a rock (the Sea of Reeds which spread before them) and a hard place (the army of Pharaoh, which closed in on them from behind), and their immediate reaction, while understandable, was not particularly flattering. Their fright turned quickly to anger, which they directed at Moshe. But fear is no way to move forward, and certainly not the path to freedom. Moshe responded prudently, saying, "Don't be afraid! Stand firm and see HaShem's salvation that He will wreak for you today!" (ibid 14:13) In other words, trust in HaShem.

Trusting in HaShem is a prerequisite for moving forward, for freeing ourselves of the Pharaohs and other demons that threaten to hold us back, to keep us down. But even as we feel their breath on our necks, we need to trust in HaShem. Trust in HaShem and He will stand behind you, keeping your demons at bay. Trust in HaShem and He will stand before you, showing you the way forward. Trust in HaShem for He is also standing on the far banks of the great Sea of Reeds, waiting for us to cross over.

Immediately after Moshe gave the directive to trust in HaShem, HaShem Himself piped in, saying "Why do you cry out to Me? Speak to the children of Israel and let them travel." (ibid 14:15) Trust in HaShem, and get a move on it! Achieving freedom requires but these two basic components: placing our trust in HaShem and putting our feet in motion. Standing still is never a solution. The seemingly impassable objects that lay before us are but challenges set before us by G-d, testing our mettle, knowing that we have it within us to cross the deepest and widest Sea of Reeds. If we just place our confidence in HaShem and step forth, the dry land will come out to meet us.

Having met and overcome our challenges, having set ourselves free of those things which held us back, having made it to the other side, the side G-d placed before us, there remains but one thing left to clinch our new found freedom: to give our thanks to HaShem!

"And Israel saw the great hand, which HaShem had used upon the Egyptians, and the people feared HaShem, and they believed in HaShem and in Moshe, His servant. Then Moshe and the children of Israel sang this song to HaShem, and they spoke, saying, I will sing to HaShem, for very exalted is He; a horse and its rider He cast into the sea. The Eternal's strength and His vengeance were my salvation; this is my G-d, and I will make Him a habitation, the G-d of my father, and I will ascribe to Him exaltation. HaShem is a Master of war; HaShem is His Name!" (ibid 14:31-15:3)

This, in a nutshell, is the message of the seventh day of Passover. Trust in Hashem, for He is the source of freedom. Trust in ourselves, for only we have the power to move ourselves forward. And give thanks to HaShem for placing His trust in us, and showing us the way.

Never stop moving forward. Seek freedom and pursue it, for freedom is precious. And always, always trust in HaShem. Chag sameach - happy seventh day of Passover!

Source:  https://templeinstitute.org

The Meaning of Techeilet (Biblical Blue)

Joel Guberman, the founder of Ptil Techeilet, has dedicated his life to the renewal of the ancient art of and holy commandment of preparing the unique blue dye used in Temple times for the garments of the Kohen Gadol (High Priest) and Parochet (curtain) that separated the Temple Sanctuary from the Holy of Holies, and for the tzitzit - the fringes - which Torah commands us to wear on the corners of our garments. 

After 2,000 years, following the Roman seizure of the ancient Jewish industry of producing the blue techeilet dye, and the subsequent loss of the knowledge of the source of the dye and the science of processing the dye, Joel, with Ptil Techeilet, following extensive research and experimentation, rediscovered both the source and the science of producing the original blue techeilet dye used in ancient times. 

In this video, filmed in the Samarian town of Shilo, at the site of the Tabernacle, which for nearly four hundred years stood in Shilo, Joel explains the meaning and spiritual significance of the blue techeilet day. Next week we will be posting a longer video that demonstrates the dying process of techeleit, as well as the dying process of biblical crimson, (Tola'at shani) and biblical purple, (argaman).   

The Zohar's Secret to Manifesting Miracles at the Pesach Seder & All Year Round

 

The Zohar's Secret to Manifesting Miracles at the Pesach Seder & All Year Round. 

 Rav Doniel Katz & The Elevation Project

PLAGUE OF LOCUSTS AGAIN ON PESACH

Rabbi *Bahya ben Asher, 

a 13th-century Spanish commentator, …  wrote, 

“In Egypt, G-d used only part of His strength. 

When the final redemption comes, 

G-d will show much, much more of His power.”

AFRICA: UNPRECEDENTED “PLAGUE” OF LOCUSTS ON PASSOVER; 

A POTENTIAL SIGN OF MESSIAH

While Jews remembered the story of the Exodus from Egypt, South Africa was experiencing a real-life plague of locusts marking the worst infestation it had suffered in decades with local media reporting the swarms as appearing “in Biblical proportions”.

The outbreak of brown locusts is now affecting the provinces of the Eastern Cape, Northern Cape and Western Cape.

“The current outbreak is classified as a plague,” entomologist and locust expert Dr. Roger Price told the media. “We have small outbreaks very often in the Karoo, but big outbreaks only occur about once per decade. Previous plagues have been bigger in extent, such as the 1985-1986 outbreak as well as the outbreak in the early 1970s. Uncontrolled plagues during the 1920s and 1930s used to infest the entire southern African region, right the way up to the Zambezi River,” he said.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), this was the worst invasion in 70 years.  

Solitary, non-swarming brown locusts are always present in the region and some eggs hatch with very little rainfall. The female locusts lay eggs in dry soil and the eggs can cope with a lack of water. Eggs can remain in the soil for at least one to two years in a dormant state, and maybe longer. The female locusts tend to lay their eggs in the same area year after year, creating a build-up of eggs in one area over the non-outbreak years. When rains do fall, the accumulated eggs all hatch. Due to the build-up of eggs, an exceptionally large number of locusts emerge and begin developing into the gregarious phase which will form the locust swarms.

The infestation began in September, getting progressively worse over the winter, exacerbated by heavy rains that came after a decade-long drought. The government is engaging in a program of spraying but this is being hampered by pandemic supply chain shortages. 

Swarms are often tens of square kilometers in size and a swarm of just one square kilometer eats the same amount of food in one day as 35,000 people. Swarms also can travel 93 miles a day making efforts to control an outbreak even more difficult.

[. . .]

Jewish sources predict that all of the plagues will reappear in the final Redemption but in even more powerful forms. It is written in Midrash Tanchuma, homiletic teachings collected around the fifth century, that “just as G-d struck the Egyptians with 10 plagues, so too He will strike the enemies of the Jewish people at the time of the Redemption.”

This concept was explained by Rabbi Bahya ben Asher, a 13th-century Spanish commentator, who wrote, “In Egypt, G-d used only part of His strength. When the final redemption comes, G-d will show much, much more of His power.”

Full Article:  ADAM ELIYAHU BERKOWITZ  https://www.israel365news.com/268560/africa-unprecedented-plague-of-locusts-on-passover-a-potential-sign-of-messiah/

AT THE KOTEL 4/20 TODAY. פסח בירושלים 2022 ברכת כהנים בשידור חי (י”ז ניסן תשפ”ב 18/04/2022)

 TODAY AT THE KOTEL  https://youtu.be/yqkJPnPwzdg

Jerusalem to Egypt, 418 BCE: The Passover Papyrus …AND...The Jews of Egypt after the Exodus

 

 

Jerusalem to Egypt, 418 BCE: No Beer on Passover! The Passover Papyrus

Just a quick note on a fascinating letter sent from Jerusalem to the Jewish military colony in Elephantine, Egypt, in the 5th c. BCE.

The Jews of Egypt after the Exodus

A brief overview of the history of Jewish life in Egypt. After looking briefly at the Exodus itself, we look at some major population centers in Elephantine, Alexandria, and Cairo, to the present day. 

To avoid any possible confusion: this lecture does not argue for  continuity between the Jewish population described in the account of the Exodus and the communities that appear in the historical record in the centuries before the Common Era.

Lecture delivered to Montefiore College, London, on March 15, 2021.

Maccabeats – My How Things Have Changed!

 

Maccabeats 2015

 

The Maccabeats 2021 - 

Rabbi Weissman – Schedule Notice

 

Since Thursday night is Yom Tov, I will be doing both my weekly Root and Branch programs on Wednesday back to back.  My Torah class will be at 7 PM Israel time, with 20 minutes each devoted to Tanach, Jewish thought, and Chafetz Chaim. 

The link to register is https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwvcO-oqz8pG9PDvcL87wmJfsoMAnMqGHTn

Episode 36 of my Medical War Crimes series will follow at 8:15 PM.  This week we will do a special show devoted to the shidduch world.  If you have any specific questions or topics you would like me to address, send me a message. 

The link for this program is https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUld-6upj4tGdYQ6wzjPJDWqwGGZ8jz36gJ.

*   *   *

Just a thought: They whine about "cultural misappropriation", then they hijack Pesach and the Seder for their fake cause du jour.  Of course they do.

__________________________

chananyaweissman.com/

rumble.com/c/c-782463

If you received this from someone else and want to receive future articles directly, please send a request to endthemadness@gmail.com.

WILL THE KINNERET RISE TO GEULAH LEVEL? See UPDATE

Israel faces some more Rain as Kinneret Continues to IY”H Rise 

I’VE UPDATED THIS POST:  HDG caught A7 posting an old article, that I missed. 

Read her comment below to get the correct Kinneret level. 

Chilly weather and light rains to continue until weekend, 

before giving way to warmer weather.

Though the Passover holiday in Israel began with hot, dry, summer weather, Tuesday will be partly cloudy, and there may be light rainfall. Temperatures will drop sharply, becoming average for the season.

Wednesday will be partly cloudy, and temperatures will drop slightly once more, reaching just lower than seasonal average, especially in the mountains. There may be light rainfall.

According to Meteo-Tech, Thursday will be clear, and temperatures will rise slightly, becoming average for the season. During the evening, the weather will be slightly chilly.

Friday will see a significant rise in temperatures, especially inland and in the mountains, and it will be warmer than usual for the season. From the afternoon until the evening, harsh northern winds will blow along the coastline.

[Shabbat] Saturday will be clear. In central and southern Israel, temperatures will drop, reaching close to seasonal average. In northern and eastern Israel, temperatures will rise to above average, and the weather will be hot and dry.

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/326071

Five Planets Align in our April – May Skies

 Begin Watching at 2:47

 

April 2022: 5 Planets Have Aligned With A Comet And An Asteroid – and then an ECLIPSE

***RABBI WEIN *** UPDATED LINK Shabbos HaGadol Drasha - Excellent ***** PLUS Interview Article

 Rabbi Wein Shabbat HagAdol Drasha 5782-2022 - Elijah.mp4

Try this link to hear the lecture

https://www.dropbox.com/s/zwjvgdy5du13mk2/Rabbi%20Wein%20Shabbat%20HagAdol%20Drasha%205782-2022%20-%20Elijah.mp4?dl=0

THE STORY THAT NEVER GROWS OLD

by Yonoson Rosenbloom

https://mishpacha.com/the-story-that-never-grows-old/

I have discovered the perfect cure for anyone who finds fast days difficult: Sit down with Rabbi Berel Wein for as many hours as you want, and let him take you on a panoramic tour ranging from Jewish history to the current scene. I can guarantee that you will soon forget about the fast entirely, and the hours will roll by. I know because that is how I spent several hours this past Taanis Esther seated with Rabbi Wein at his living room table.

Both Rabbi Wein and I would identify ourselves as Chicago natives, though there is a difference, as Rabbi Wein himself once pointed out. Over 15 years ago, I had the honor of introducing him at a pre-Rosh Hashanah program at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, and I noted that though his “Chicago accent” is world famous, through over 1,200 recorded tapes, I don’t recognize it as the same as mine.

Rabbi Wein replied, “Jonathan isn’t from Chicago He’s from the suburbs.”

As we talked, inter alia, about what a wonderful place Chicago was to grow up in, I realized how much wisdom was contained in the remark. Rabbi Wein lingered over each of the old litvishe rabbanim under whom he studied, including his maternal grandfather Rabbi Chaim Zev HaLevi Rubenstein, who was one of the founders of Hebrew Theological College, the first yeshivah in the Midwest; Rav Mendel Kaplan; Rav Chaim Kreiswirth; Rav Mordechai Rogoff; and his father, Rav Zev Wein. He is still nostalgic for the old West Side, from which all the Jews fled over a period of four years, with only six (two of which became “traditional” — i.e., separate seating but no mechitzah) of the 42 shuls that had dotted the neighborhood successfully moving to new neighborhoods. 

In short, Rabbi Wein lives with a sense of place that no suburban kid carries with him.

Rabbi Wein even knows more about my maternal grandfather, Maxwell Abbell, the most prominent Chicago lay leader in his youth, than I do. (I was five when he passed away.)

“You would not find a lay leader like him today,” he tells me, “who, despite not being fully observant, was totally committed to both the physical and spiritual survival of the Jewish People, aware that an intense Jewish education is the key to that survival, and who served on the board of Hebrew Theological College [Beis Medrash L’Torah].”

The occasion of our conversation was the publication of Rabbi Wein’s new book Struggles, Challenges, and Tradition: How Jewish Communities Defended Orthodoxy 1820–1940 (ArtScroll/Mesorah Publications), which served as a jumping off point for numerous other topics as well.

Still Going Strong

The first time I called to make this appointment, your secretary said that you were in the midst of a fundraising campaign for your Destiny Foundation. So I gather that you have multiple new projects on the horizon.

Rabbi Wein: Yes. We have a new film on Don Isaac Abarbanel that is 90 percent complete, and for which I was very involved with the screenplay. Most of what we know about Abarbanel is secondhand. But in the midst of his commentary on Shoftim, he veers off into a lengthy retrospective on his fascinating life, in which he served as the chief financial advisor to the royal family of Portugal and subsequently that of Spain. He wrote his commentary on Shoftim after he was already in Italy advising the king of Naples. There is a discernable bitterness to his retrospective look at his life, in particular that he had used his great talents in the service of two monarchies, which despite his service had expelled their Jewish populations.

I’m also working on a commentary on Malchuyos, Zichronos, and Shofros. And the Jewish Destiny Foundation is making a film on the tumultuous period in modern Jewish history between the Six-Day War in 1967 and the Yom Kippur War of 1973.

It doesn’t sound like you are slowing down at all, as you approach the end of your ninth decade.

Rabbi Wein: That would be somewhat of an exaggeration. My eyesight has deteriorated to the point that I can barely read. My Gemara chavrusa has to do all the reading. And I don’t see myself leading any more tours to Jewish historical sites, which allowed me to pretty much travel the globe.

 

I had meant to ask you why, given the broad sweep of your new book, you had not included a selected bibliography for those wishing to delve more deeply into some of the topics raised. Now, I suspect that’s because the book was written or dictated from memory.

Rabbi Wein: Precisely.

 

And yet you continue to write books. You must have a photographic memory.

Rabbi Wein: I have a good memory. My father had a photographic memory. He was in Mercaz Harav the first year that Rav Avraham Yitzchak HaKohein Kook opened the yeshivah, and Rav Kook used to say of him, “Zev Wein is my bookshelf.”

A Chicago Youth

I don’t know if you remember, but you once asked me to moderate a discussion between you and Rabbi Emanuel Feldman, at your shul, Beit Knesset HaNasi, on the changes in American Jewry in your respective lifetimes. I had absolutely nothing to contribute, and spent the entire evening wondering what I was doing onstage. But I do remember that you told two stories that have remained with me, albeit in fragmentary form. The first had to do with your dining room table growing up, and the second with Chief Rabbi Isaac Herzog’s 1946 visit to Chicago to raise money for the Vaad Hayeshivos and for refugees to Palestine.

Rabbi Wein: Both those stories loom very large in my life. After World War II, a number of a refugees arrived in Chicago, including a number of very distinguished talmidei chachamim. One of those came to Chicago, with his wife and one or two children. He did not have a stick of furniture. My mother suggested that we give them our dining room set. Since we were only a family of three, we could eat our Shabbos meals at the kitchen table. And that’s what we did for years.

That incident captures something characteristic about the litvishe Jews among whom I grew up. They had very low expectations out of life, and least in terms of material goods. And as a consequence, whatever they had was more than enough.

Rav Herzog’s visit to Chicago had a lifelong effect on me. I was 12 at the time, and my father took me with him to greet Rav Herzog on the tarmac. All the rabbanim of Chicago were there. He was a commanding figure, with a silver-handled rabbinic cane in one hand and a Tanach in the other.

Later he gave a shiur in the yeshivah in the sugya of ein shaliach l’davar aveirah to about 200 people from all over the Midwest. Then he spoke about what brought him to Chicago.

“I’ve just come from meeting the pope of Rome,” as he referred to Pope Pius XII. “I presented him with the names of 10,000 Jewish children who had been hidden in monasteries and other Church institutions by their desperate parents. I asked the Pope to return those children to the Jewish People.

“But he refused. He told me that once they entered a Catholic institution, they would have been baptized immediately, and were therefore now Catholics.”

Then Rav Herzog put down his head and sobbed, as I had never heard any adult sob, before or since. It was if the pain of 2,000 years of galus was pouring out of him.

Eventually he stopped. And when he did, he addressed each and every person there.

“I can’t do anything more for those children. But what are you going to do to rebuild the Jewish People.” When we went in a line to shake his hand, he asked me, “Did you hear what I said?” followed by, “Remember what I said.”

I still hear those words ringing in my ear. And when I think of my contemporaries in the yeshivah and what they have achieved, I’m convinced they too were deeply influenced by Chief Rabbi Herzog’s words that day: Rabbi Dr. Avraham J. Twerski ztz”l; Rabbi Yehudah Copperman ztz”l, the founder of Michlalah, who opened up the Meshech Chochmah and Seforno to a larger public with his remarkable super commentaries; Rabbi Aryeh Rottman ztz”l, who originally brought me to Miami Beach as his rabbinic replacement, when he left for Eretz Yisrael to found Mercaz HaTorah; Rabbi Chaim Zelikovitz ztz”l, one of the founders of the Yeshivah of Belle Harbor; Rabbi Chaim Fassman ztz”l, who started the Lakewood Kollel in Los Angeles and led it for decades; Rabbi Shmarya Meltzer, a major talmid chacham and rosh kollel in Jerusalem: and Rabbi Naftali Kaplan, who heads two major yeshivos in Jerusalem today, each of which has one of his sons as rosh yeshivah.

 

Transitions

Despite the fact that both your father and grandfather were shul rabbis in Chicago, you practiced law for almost a decade before entering the rabbinate. Why was that?

Rabbi Wein: When I graduated college at 18, my father took me aside and spelled out the facts of life. We had little money. The number of shuls in Chicago was in rapid decline, and the chances of securing a pulpit were slim. A relative told my father that he would bring me into his small firm if I passed the bar.

I was accepted at the University of Chicago Law School, one of the country’s best, but I wanted to continue in the semichah shiur at HTC, and so went to DePaul Law School at night.

 

How did the practice of law suit you?

Rabbi Wein: Not much. In the practice of law, you tend to see people at their worst, and since most of my clients were Orthodox Jews, I found that extremely disheartening. Rav Chaim Kreiswirth, who had been my rosh yeshivah, often told me on his frequent visits to Chicago that there were enough Jewish lawyers. And indeed, I eventually started a tool-and-die business to enable me to get out of the practice of law.

One day, as I was closing the business, I found my old friend from yeshivah Rabbi Aryeh Rottman waiting for me.

“I’m leaving my shul in Miami Beach, and Rabbi Kreiswirth says you should be my successor,” he told me.

I replied that I wasn’t interested, but Rabbi Rottman was not someone who took no for an answer, especially when on a mission from his rosh yeshivah. Eventually, he prevailed on me to go for a probe, and I was offered the job after a very narrow congregational vote. Fortunately, by the time I left nine years later, I think I would have won a unanimous or near unanimous vote.

 

And how did you get your next position as head of the OU Kashrus Division?

Rabbi Wein: While I was a rav in Miami Beach, Rabbi Alexander Rosenberg, the director of the OU Kashrus Division, appointed me as a mashgiach at various nearby food producers. We had a very close relationship. He was smart, incorruptible, a great negotiator, and struck fear into all those with whom he dealt. Over little more than 20 years, he built the Kashrus Division from 40 mashgichim, certifying 184 products of 37 companies, into an organization with 750 mashgichim, 2,500 products, and 475 companies.

When he retired, I succeeded him. One story will serve to capture his stature. During the 1973 Arab oil boycott, I received a call from Mead Johnson in Indianapolis, which produced a children’s vitamin, in which the vitamin was suspended in glycerin, an oil derivative. They could not get any oil, and were sitting on 100,000 kosher labels. They asked me for help in locating kosher glycerin.

I put in a call to Proctor and Gamble, the only other company producing glycerin that was OU-certified. I explained the problem to a vice president, and asked him to supply Mead Johnson’s needs at a fair price. After mulling the request over, he had only one question for me. “Will Rabbi Rosenberg in Heaven know what I’m doing?”

So great was his respect for Rabbi Rosenberg that he could imagine no better intercessor in Heaven. Mead Johnson received the needed glycerin and used all the labels.

 

The Importance of Jewish History

You have done many things in your life. You’ve led congregations in both the United States and Israel; served as director of the OU Kashrus Division; were a rosh yeshivah; and have written two volumes of chiddushei Torah, commentaries on Trei Asar and the Haggadah; and produced a year’s cycle of shiurim on each of the major modern Biblical commentators. But I think it is fair to say that you are best known to the general public for your books, movies, and tapes on Jewish history. Who first piqued your interest in Jewish history?

Rabbi Wein: My grandfather, Rabbi Chaim Zev Rubenstein, who was my hero growing up, urged my parents to remove me from public school when I was 11 and put me in a class of 16-year-olds in the yeshivah. (Until then, my mother used to review my school lessons with me every day, telling me what I should ignore.) Rabbi Rubenstein had been a chavrusa in Volozhin Yeshivah of the famous Meitscheter Illui, Rabbi Shlomo Polachek.

Hebrew Theological College (also known as Beis Medrash L’Torah), of which Rabbi Rubenstein was one of founders, possessed a magnificent library, with 30,000 volumes, which were housed in a separate building. Since my classmates were much older and taller than I was, instead of playing basketball with them during lunch break, I wandered into the library building. The librarian, Mrs. Mishkin, whose husband was head of the Vaad Hachinuch of the Associated Talmud Torahs of Chicago, would give me books to read, most of them on Jewish history. I still remember the first one was a biography of the Rosh.

The Vaad Hachinuch of HTC ran a summer school, In addition to hearing shiurim from Rav Aharon Soloveitchik, and classes in Jewish thought, I had classes in Jewish history from Rabbi Mishkin. I loved those classes. Even when I was practicing law, after having received my semichah while going to law school at night, I started giving classes in Jewish history.

 

What, in your mind, makes Jewish history so important?

Rabbi Wein: In my opinion, a lack of knowledge of Jewish history, a lack of attachment to the Jewish story, is the greatest cause of the secularization of the Jewish People today. Without knowing Jewish history, we know neither who we were nor what we are meant to be.

And I’m not talking only about the secular Jewish world. The ignorance of Jewish history in the Orthodox world is also appalling. The movies of the Destiny Foundation are one means for remedying that ignorance. Our movie on Rashi has been viewed over one million times, and that on Maimonides has also become a staple of Jewish education.

I believe the Hand of G-d is always visible in history, though sometimes one has to look hard to discern it. But there will always be inexplicable “coincidences” driving the story. For instance, why was Theodore Herzl, the founder of modern Zionism, present at the Dreyfus trial? Herzl was the drama critic for a Viennese newspaper, and he was in Paris to report on plays, not espionage trials. It must be that the paper’s political reporter in Paris was unavailable, and out of desperation the assignment was given to Herzl. It was that trial that awakened a dormant concern with the Jewish People and their future in Herzl.

True, history moves in a haphazard and even capricious manner. Upon closer inspection, however, one can see that Heaven has placed events and personalities in such an order that the ultimate will of Heaven will be done, even while human beings, who are the instruments of heavenly guidance, are unaware of the flow of their actions and behavior. Certainly, the continued existence of the Jewish People, as a lamb among seventy wolves — and, in particular, those Jews who remain attached to the study of Torah and the performance of mitzvos — is one of the great proofs of Hashem’s guiding hand and protection.

One of the interesting developments at the beginning of the 18th century CE was a new consciousness that the Jewish People themselves have a role to play in the miraculous restoration of the Jewish People in its ancient homeland, even though it would be up to Hashem to bring their plans to fruition. That can first be seen among the students of the Vilna Gaon, the talmidei haGra, who followed his example in seeking to make aliyah to the Holy Land.

 

Given your sense of the importance of Jewish history, I assume that you look favorably at the fairly recent phenomenon of trips to Poland to visit the death camps.

Rabbi Wein: Not really. I guess I’m old-fashioned in this, but Jews did not return to Spain for 500 years from the expulsion in 1492, until the Spanish government formally apologized for the expulsion. I have no interest seeing Auschwitz become a major tourist attraction for the Polish government.

I have never been in Germany, except on one occasion when my plane made an emergency landing in Frankfurt, and even then I made a point of not leaving the airport, though there was time to do so.

The Jewish People will not be built on museums. Ours is a Toras Chaim, a Torah of life, and our questions are not focused on what happened, but what is happening today filtered through the prism of the past.

 

Change in Order to Preserve

Your new book does not neatly summarize any general rules of either Jewish history or plans for conducting the battle against antireligious societal forces. About the most specific you get is: “One size does not fit all.” For example, the response in Germany, where a strong Reform movement developed very early, and in Lithuania, where it did not exist, were of necessity very different.

If I had to guess at one of your bedrock lessons, however, I would put it: Sometimes we must change as individuals and societies to preserve that which is most precious to us. What worked in one set of circumstances may not work in another set of circumstances.

Rabbi Wein: If that was a guess, it was a pretty good one. I recently gave a talk in shul in which I likened the Jewish People to Omicron. The point is that mutations are often crucial. Chassidism and the Mussar movement, for instance, were both mutations. But they responded to deeply felt needs within the broader Jewish society.

The Mussar movement for the perfection of character came into being in relatively backward and impoverished Lithuania, and thus provides support for the Gemara’s observation that poverty better suits the spiritual development of the Jewish People than affluence. One of the most important lessons I learned from my years practicing law, with a largely Orthodox clientele, was the corrosive effect money can have on people and the bitter disputes it can lead to.

The major commentaries on Chumash over the last two centuries can be seen as direct responses to works of the Maskilim. Such luminaries as the Malbim, Rav Yaakov Tzvi Mecklenberg, author of Haksav V’hakabbalah; Rav Shimshon Raphael Hirsch; Rav Meir Simcha of Dvinsk (Meshech Chochmah); and Rav Naftali Tzvi Yehudah Berlin (Ha’amek Davar) demonstrated in their commentaries a level of knowledge of the grammar and usage of Lashon Hakodesh that their opponents could only aspire to, as well as how a close reading of Chumash reveals how the halachah and main points of Jewish hashkafah derive from a close reading of the text, without emendations.

In our own time, the knowledge of Lashon Hakodesh displayed by Rav Yaakov Kamenetsky in Emes L’Yaakov open up new and remarkable understandings of the text and the derivation of the halachah.

 

I would guess that the area of greatest change to meet new challenges is in the area of chinuch, and the transmission of the Torah to subsequent generations.

Rabbi Wein: Indeed, the changes in education have been widespread and profound. In late 19th and early 20th centuries, for instance, the vast majority of boys, certainly in Eastern Europe, were already working or apprenticed by the time they were 11 years old, and only a small percentage continued on in any formal yeshivah structure. And there was almost no formal Jewish education system for young women until the start of the Bais Yaakov movement.

Just remember that one of the great innovations of all was the creation of Volozhin Yeshivah, widely known as “the mother of the yeshivos.” As secular education became more formalized, it became imperative to develop a Jewish alternative.

Today, it is assumed that boys will receive a Jewish education until at least the age of 18, and in most cases for many more years. But as Rav Yaakov Kamenetsky, with whom I became close during his winter stays in Miami Beach, when I was a rav there, and later in Monsey, observed to me, “An educational approach that was designed for a small percentage of young men of exceptional abilities and dedication — the handful of great Lithuanian yeshivos generally had no more than 200 bochurim at a time — and has become the norm for an entire population.”

 

I would also guess that you are a subscriber to what has been called the “Great Man theory of history” — i.e., the view that history is large driven by a few outstanding individuals. Except for the introductory chapter, the text is almost devoid of statistics or economic background. At the same time, your writing is most alive when writing about great Torah leaders and even their differences from one another.

Rabbi Wein: I do believe that individuals often have a decisive impact on history. And in a Torah-based society, those likely to have the greatest impact are the recognized Torah leaders.

 

A Proud Litvak

While making allowances for the varying circumstances between the different countries covered in your new book, I must confess that you still come off as a bit a fan of the Lithuanian Jewry for its ability to adapt in order to preserve Torah life. You have already written one book, The Legacy, with South Africa’s Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein, that might be called a paean to character of Lithuanian Jewry.

Rabbi Wein: I suppose I must again plead guilty. I grew up around Lithuanian-bred and trained gedolim. That is my world. Besides our rabbanim in yeshivah, we were exposed to a number of other great talmidei chachamim. A small group of us maintained a formal learning seder every Motzaei Shabbos, and often one of the local rabbanim would give a shiur: Rav Ephraim Epstein, brother of the Slabodka Rosh Yeshivah; Rav Moshe Mordechai Epstein; Rav Isaac Small, who was married to Rav Moshe Feinstein’ sister; Rav Leib Schur, one of the leading anti-mussarniks in Telshe Yeshivah in Europe; and Rabbi Yaakov Diamond.

 

It is said in the name of Rav Yaakov Kamenetsky that of the approximately 300 Lithuanian rabbanim murdered by the Nazis and their local accomplices, there was not one who could be caught on a Tosafos anywhere in Shas. Do you think Reb Yaakov could have said such a thing?

Rabbi Wein: Based on the Lithuanian rabbanim whom I knew, I can well believe the statement to be accurate.

 

What other qualities do you identify with Lithuanian Jewry?

Rabbi Wein: I already mentioned their low expectations from life, and thus their ability to avoid the mad rush after money. That quality may also have contributed to their being less excitable and less subject to lures of messianic movements. Their cautious nature did not allow Lithuanian Jews to harbor expectations that radical means and utopian projects would succeed.

I can still summon up the atmosphere in my father’s shul on Rosh Hashanah. During the Shemoneh Esreh, one could feel the intensity and that we were truly hanging between life and death, chayim v’maves. And many of those who davened in his shul felt compelled to work on Shabbos.

Lithuanian Jews also tended to be open to the outside world and not afraid of it. That quality allowed them on many occasions to co-opt the very methods of the secularists who challenged tradition. There was an explosion of Biblical commentary by the great Lithuanian Talmudists: Their insights and deep analysis of the Biblical text refuted the attacks of the Bible critics…. They illustrated that the modern Bible critics had little understanding of what the text really meant.

Finally, whether they were Zionists or anti-Zionists or belonged to one stream or another of religious Zionism, Lithuanian Jews had an instinctive tie to the Land of Israel, at least from the time of the Vilna Gaon, whose influence permeated every aspect of Lithuanian Jewish life and of the talmidei haGra who moved to the Holy Land.

 

Do you have any more general rules you would like to share?

Rabbi Wein: There is one that is very much on my mind of late: Every exile ends, and that end is not usually a happy one. I can well imagine an America in which the government tells religious Jews what they can and cannot teach in their schools, and in which religious liberty is gradually whittled away. Witness Yale Law students recently trying to prevent from speaking a woman attorney, who has won a number of cases in the Supreme Court, which recognized the right of religious citizens not to be required to affirm by word or deed principles in which they do not believe

By contrast, in Israel, I have witnessed over the last 30 years, that the society as a whole has become more and more Jewish. That can easily be missed if we focus too much on the day-to-day religious battles and ignore the long-term trends.

But the one absolute principle of Jewish history is that Jewish communities only flourish when there is a strong core of Torah learning and mitzvah observance.

 

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 905)