Week of June 21, 2026

Bracha and Isaac Perlstein Wedding – June 21st

Chavie and Heshie Hirth Wedding – June 23, 2026

Chanie and Mayer Chase Wedding – June 25, 2026

Sunday – June 21, 2026

Got up at 4:00 AM for our 6:00 AM flight to Newark.  Sholom drove us. We have three weddings this week.  Picked up our car.  Mayer got us a rental.  It was a Dodge Durango. Very comfortable.  Made it to Lakewood at about 12:30 PM.  Went to Yankie and Gittie Chase’s house.  Mayer Chase took me shopping to buy two 17.5 shirts, a pair of pants, Yarmulkas, and the book Cullin Illuminated by Lachs. The Yarmulkes I purchased are terylene and very comfortable.  I normally wear suede Yarmulkes.  Also took an impromptu tour of the South part of Lakewood and saw Mayer’s house in Toms River.

At 5:00 PM we drove to the Bracha and Isaac Perlstein wedding. It was at Bell Works. https://bell.works/new-jersey/explore/  Beautiful wedding.  Great to see my brother Pesach.  They gave out Yarmulkas that are also terylene and have been wearing them ever since.

Monday – June 22, 2026

Got up at 7:00 AM to listen to Rabbi Ben Sugerman’s Daf Yomi Shiur.  Sat outside in the backyard,  very comfortable. Yankie took me somewhere for Schachris.  Afterwards, he took me to the Columbus Avenue Shul, where Ephreim Chase davens every Shabbos.  I met Aaron Levitansky’s son, Sroy Levitansky. They are a big Chicago family.  Aaron Levitansky was the Rabbi who married my daughter, Rivkie, to Mordy.  I did not realize when I went over to talk to him I did not know that he is a cousin to Mordy Siegal. As we talked, we put the relationship together.  He works for Lakewood Yeshiva, is an asken , and is a good friend with Aaron Kotler, former CEO of Lakewood Yeshiva.  He confirmed that Aaron Kotler is a good friend of Rabbi Efraim Godberg, senior rabbi of BRS.  Aaron Kotler is a big supporter of the Yeshiva of South Florida and advised on its opening.  I was instrumental in the founding of the Yeshiva.  I asked him if Aaron Kotler was the fourth $1M donation to the BRS expansion, but he did not think so.

Yankie was able to work from home so we spoke and ate lunch together.  For supper, Yankie barbecued hamburgers.  I also had the Chase leftovers from Shabbos. 

Dovie came over at 10:15 PM to give haircuts.

At the Columbus Shul, I saw this dedication from Michael Bauman.  I know Michael Bauman.  About 8 years ago, I made a customer call to LTC, his company, when Sholom Saltz got married.  I got the bank to pay for my flight and car rental because of this customer call.  Michael Bauman ran LTC, a company that ran the receivable and payable departments for nursing homes across the country.  The Shul is dedicated to Leah, the daughter of Rabbi Shlomo Tzvi Strasser. She died in Auschwitz when, tragically, the Nazis killed close to 500,000 Hungarian Jews after Pesach 1944.  I called Michael Bauman, who is a great-grandson and told him the following story I heard from Chazzen Wilhelm Silber. His Hebrew name is Ephraim Fishel.  He grew up in Debrecen, Hungary.  As a kid Chazzen Silber would go right before Shabbos to take Rabbi Shlomo Strasser to Shul.  Rabbi Strasser smoked a long pipe. He put it out and they walked to Shul.  One Friday afternoon, Rabbi Strasser turns to Chazzen Silber and says, “Fishel, I heard that you ate Chazir -pig.”  Chazzen Silber had a puzzled look on his face.  Rabbi Shlomo Strasser continued and said, “I heard that you went to the Agudists (to a Shabbos youth group).” The Hungarian Chassidim, starting with the Munkatcher, hated the Zionists.  Surprisingly, they also hated Agudah whom they felt was too zionist.  I found out that Rabbi Shlomo Strasser left Hungary on Kastner’s train.  https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-kasztner-controversy/

Tuesday – June 23, 2026

Davened by Abadi down the street from Yankie.  Met Lax from LA.  He has a furniture business in Lakewood.  We talked about my brother, Arele, and about LA.  Serka walked with Lisa, and I followed them.  Sat and learned Daf Yomi.  Went to Bingo and I was not sure if I should make a “Sheciaynu”.  

Mayer took me to see Rabbi Mordechai Gifter’s son. We had a great conversation. Rabbi Gifter is working on publishing his father’s Torah.

Went to the Hirth – Shenker wedding at 6:30. Beautiful wedding. 

Kallah

Kalleh and her mother Chavie Hirth.

Lisa Glenner, Gittie Chase, Serka Morgenstern, and Aviva Weinschneider

Myself, Lisa Glenner, Altie Beer, my aunt, and Serka Morgenstern

From East Lakeview to Lakewood.  David Winner and I. At the dessert buffet, I went over to this  man and said that I know you and I think I have met you at all the Hirth weddings.  He said that he does not know the Hirth family but he knows me from Chabad of East Lakeview. He davens there and I did not recognize him.  He is David Winner.

 Rabbi Asher Brander read the Kesuba.  I met him in 1990.  He was Rabbi of Westwood Kehilla, a Baal Tshuva Shul.  He left the Shul and started the Link Kollel of LA.  His partner Eli Stern was there and I remember him from the 1990s.  I told Rabbi Brander that I loved the Shabbos when Rabbi Shlomo Schwartz (Schwartzie) was the scholar in residence.  Schwartzie died in 2021 and he made thousands of Baalie Tshuva.  He was a magnetic person.

 Left the wedding at 11:15 PM and because it was pitch black, went down the wrong street.  It was an $86 ticket.

Wednesday – June 24, 2026

Got up at 7:00 AM and listened to Rabbi Sugerman.  At 8:00 AM, went to Abadi’s Shul for Shachris.  

At noon drove to New York to pick up my daughter, Chani Morgenstern.  Long drive.  Walked in Central Park and had dinner at Noi Due Cafe on Columbus between 82nd and 83rd. I had eggplant parmesan and it was good.  Left for Lakewood at 8:10 PM. Traffic was impossible, and I arrived in Lakewood at 12:30 PM

Chani, I, and my wife.

Thursday – June 25, 2026

Got up at 7:00 AM and listened to Rabbi Sugerman.  Went to Shachris at Abadi’s shul.  I made the mistake of talking to Michael.  He hates Lubavitch with a deep-seated hatred.  The mouth he opened was horrific.  Luckily, I did not talk about YU.  Is this the underbelly of Lakewood, or is it just one person?  What are their newspapers teaching? Sinas Chinom – baseless hatred?.

Regular morning. Went to Rabbi Kahanow’s shul for mIncha.  His son Uri Kahanow built it for him. I had to tell Rabbi Kahanow how much I love his son and how much I appreciate the Yashrus in the way he runs his business.  Uri Kahanow is principal of TRYKO Partners.  They were my customers at MB Financial, and they ran a professional operation.  Financials and covenant compliance came in on time. I could trust them.  They were a Kiddush Hashem.  I told my boss and she agreed that they were my only customers that I would lend them non-recourse.

Went to Bingo and I was not sure if I should make a “Sheciaynu,” as it is a Kosher Costco.

I then drove to Mayer’s house and Serka toured his house.  Mayer then took me to see Rabbi Zalman Gifter, Rabbi Mordechai Gifter’s son. Rabbi Mordechai Gifter was the Rosh Yeshiva in Telz.  We had a wonderful conversation. Rabbi Zalman Gifter is working on publishing his father’s Torah.  His mother is still alive at over 100 years old and lives by Rabbi Zalman Gifter.  Rabbi Mordechai Gifter acknowledged that his knowledge of Torah came from Rabbi Moshe Soloveichik, the father of Reb Aaron Soloveichik and Rosh Yeshiva of YU.  Reb Moshe Soloveichik (1879 – 1041) is the son of Reb Chaim Soloveichik, known as Reb Chaim Brisker.  When Rabbi Mordechai Gifter was asked what did you get from Telz, Rabbi Mordechai Gifter responded, “Yiras Shamayim.”

Reb Moshe Soioveichik

Gifter was born in Portsmouth, Virginia to Yisrael and Matla (May) Gifter. He was raised in Baltimore, Maryland, where his father owned a grocery.^[2] He attended the Baltimore City Public Schools, at the time being known as Max, and received his religious education in after-school programs. He had a younger brother and sister, and both predeceased him.

As a young man, Gifter studied at the Rabbi Isaac Elchonon Theological Seminary in New York City, under the tutelage of Moshe Aharon Poleyeff and Moshe Soloveichik. His uncle, Samuel Saar (Yehudah Leib),^[6] was the dean of the seminary.^[3] At the time, Avigdor Miller, also a Baltimore native, was learning in RIETS. On Saar’s advice, Gifter traveled in 1932 to Lithuania on the same boat as Miller to study in the Telshe Yeshiva. Gifter was immediately accepted for admission and placed in advanced classes. He developed a strong bond with Zalman Bloch, the mashgiach ruchani (spiritual supervisor) at the yeshiva. He eventually became engaged to Bloch’s daughter. In 1939, prior to his wedding, Gifter returned home to the United States to visit his parents in Baltimore. He planned on returning to Lithuania for his wedding and to resume his studies.

When it became obvious that he would be unable to return due to the political climate of the late 1930s, Gifter arranged for his bride’s family to join him in the United States. Only his bride came; the family chose not to abandon their community in its time of greatest need.^[3] The Gifters married in Baltimore, with Mrs. Gifter’s family still in war-torn Lithuania. One of the witnesses at Gifter’s wedding was Bernard Lander, then a rabbi in Baltimore and later founder of Touro College.^[7]

0.01

At 6:30 PM went to Mayer and Chani Chase’s kid’s wedding.

From left to right.  Mother of Chassen, Chani Chase, Kalleh Sarala Chase, Chasen, Eli Wieder, Moishe Weider, Mayer Chase

The three amigos: Moshe, Yakov, Cheskia and Binyomin.

Karen and yours truly.

Pesach and Sidney

I discovered this lecture and have given it numerous times.  It is exceptional.

The Rabbi’s Daughter

A Lecture by Professor Shnayer Leiman

Anything in blue is what I added.

January 7,  2015

Congregation Bnei Yeshurn, Teaneck, NJ

We now move to the second part of the program, which I cannot introduce at length: A) because there is no time to, and B) because introducing Professor Leiman requires either a few days or virtually no time at all.

I am generally allergic to using terminology about human beings that is usually applied to God, but the fact that what passes through my mind involves such terminology says something about our speaker.

One expression that flitted through my mind about introducing him is “for him, silence is the only praise one could give.” Another was the word omniscient. But the blasphemous character of these terms serves as a deterrent.

So I will only say that Professor Shnayer Leiman has a level of expertise in the Jewish experience—from the ancient Near East until today—that is, and I say this without a smidgen of hesitation or exaggeration, unparalleled by anyone else. There isn’t anyone who really comes close.

And so it is my pleasure to introduce Professor Shnayer Leiman.

---

Professor Leiman:

Thank you, Dean Berger, for those words of introduction.

I want you to know that I was very troubled, and lost much sleep before I came here, because I knew I would be introduced by Professor Berger, and I thought he might exaggerate. But thank God, he didn’t even say half of what he could have said about Dean Berger.

Associate Dean Berger, members of the Manevitz family, and if he is present, Rabbi Panski: it is a privilege to present this lecture in memory of Mrs. Ethel Manishevitz, a disciple of great teachers and a distinguished educator in her own right, as we heard. And in many ways, I hope this presentation that you are about to hear is also about her.

In this lecture we will meet the following people, places,  and events:

Yeshivas Maharsha

Ostroh or Ostrog

Rabbi J. Bercovich (Yosef)

Rabbi DJ Chazanovich (Dovid Yosef)

Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinski

Maharsha

Lithuania as an independent state

Vilna

Kovno

Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact 

June 22, 1941 – Operation Barbarossa

Fagel Boegel – the Rov’s Daughter

Stutthof

Ponary 

Trochenbrod

Chelkas Yosef

Rebbetzin Bercovich

Miriam Bercovich

Rabbi Chaim Yakov Goldvicht – Rosh Yeshiva of Keren B’Yavnah

Rabbi Meir Goldvicht – nephew of Rabbi Chaim Goldvicht

Start of Lecture

The Rabbi’s Daughter:  Spiritual Resistance in the Holocaust

Several years ago, a dealer in Jewish antiquities approached me with about ten or so different objects and documents. I dismissed nine of them almost immediately, and one, of course, caught my eye.

You have it, if you would open your folders. You have a four-page handout, and I’ll ask you to turn to page one.

Page one presents a copy of the document that I saw, and the one that I acquired.

Look at it carefully.

As you can see, it is a printed letterhead—blue on cream paper—and printed in Vilna in 1940. It is dated Vasario, which is February, so it is February 14, 1940.

And I have the original document with me. In case anyone has any doubts about it, you are welcome to come up after the presentation, and I’ll show you the original.

This is quite an incredible document.

So let us look at it a little more closely and get a sense of what it is about.

We can all read the Hebrew—or most of us can.

In the upper right-hand corner it says:

Yeshivat Maharsha

So this is a yeshiva—the yeshiva of the Maharsha.

Maharsha is a name familiar to most of us: Rabbi Shmuel Eidels, one of the great gedolim of the seventeenth century. He died in 1631, and he was Chief Rabbi of Ostroh (sometimes pronounced Ostrog), often part of Poland, sometimes part of Russia. In the period when he was there, it was part of Greater Poland. In later periods—and today—it is in Ukraine.

Kotzk Chassidim said that if you do not learn Gemara, Rashi, Tosafos, and Maharsha, you have not learned Gemara.

So there was such a yeshiva.

Then it says, in smaller Hebrew letters, that this yeshiva is now found in Vilna, the capital of Lithuania.

If we look at the left side of the top of the page, we see two names of rabbis.

For the moment, we will simply note that the names are written in Lithuanian. It appears as something like:

• Rabbi J. Berkovichius
• Rabbi D.J. Chazanovicus

Also in Vilna.

It is a good guess that these were the two heads of the yeshiva—the two Roshei Yeshiva.

In the middle, in Lithuanian, they have the equivalent of the Hebrew on the right:

This is the Rabbinic Seminary of Ostroh, known as the Rabbinic Seminary of the Yeshivat Maharsha, again in Vilna.

Aside from the date, the document itself is basically a certificate—an identification form, if you like—attesting to the bearer’s right of residence in Vilna.

This is a yeshiva student. The name is David Safran, and it is signed by one of the two Roshei Yeshiva, as you can see: Rabbi D.J. Chazanovich, saying that this is a member of our yeshiva, and therefore he has a right of residence in Vilna.

So it is a simple document.

But, as we shall see, it is a very significant document.

I bought it because it was clear to me immediately: this is a treasure.

It may be the last remaining record of a yeshiva that functioned in Vilna in the year 1940—a yeshiva that was destroyed in the Holocaust.

---

Why was the yeshiva in Vilna in 1940?

On August 23, 1939, the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact was signed.

Ostensibly, it was a non-aggression pact agreed to by Stalin and Hitler.

Secretly, it was a pact between Stalin and Hitler that divided Eastern Europe between the two of them. It divided Eastern Europe into two spheres.

Everything east of the Vistula and Bug Rivers would belong to Stalin, and everything west of those two rivers would belong to Hitler.

Independent Poland no longer existed.

And on September 1, 1939, as we all know, Hitler invaded Poland to take the land that now belonged to him.

Jewish life in Poland ceased to exist.

And Jews began to run in every direction.

We have eyewitness accounts of how Jews met on bridges near Warsaw: Jews who were in the eastern part of Poland, now belonging to Stalin, were running westward to get away from Stalin; Jews who were in the western part of Poland were running eastward to get away from Hitler.

There was nowhere to run.

A small miracle occurred.

In October 1939, Stalin created an independent state of Lithuania.

There had been an independent state of Lithuania between World War I and World War II, with Kaunas (Kovno) as its capital. But the eastern portion of Lithuania had belonged to Poland between the wars.

Now Stalin announced that he was not going to keep that land for himself. He was creating an independent country with Vilna as its capital.

And so, from October 1939 until May 1940, when Stalin changed his mind and invaded Lithuania, Lithuania was an independent state.

And this created an eight-month window of opportunity for Jews.

During this time, thousands of refugees poured into Lithuania.  The capital of Lithuania was Kaunas, also known as Kovno.  Kovno is where the Japanese Embassy was located and where Chiune Sugihara handed out thousands of transit visas to desperate refugees, most of them Jewish.

The leading rabbi in Vilna, the Gaon Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzenski, immediately announced—and indeed ordered—all the yeshivot of Eastern Europe to come to Vilna.

All those yeshivot—Mir, Kamenetz, Radin, and so on and so forth—were urged to move to Vilna.

And indeed, they moved to Vilna.

So I am going to ask you now to turn to the second page of the handout.

What you see is a copy of a wonderful document that has been preserved. The original is now in YIVO in New York.

Professor Lucy Davidowicz worked in YIVO in Warsaw in 1938 and returned in 1946 to Warsaw.  The main YIVO archives are in New York.

The YIVO Archives was founded in Vilna in 1926, a year after the founding of the YIVO Institute in 1925. It holds about 1,800 separate provenance based collections, registered as “record groups,” occupying about 17,000 linear feet and comprising an estimated 23,000,000 documents, manuscripts, printed materials, posters, photographs, films, sound recordings, art and artifacts. The collections pertain to Jewish life around the world, focusing on the 19th and 20th centuries, with some documents dating from the 14th through 18th centuries. The collections, which include papers of individuals, records of institutions, and subject collections, concentrate on four main fields, reflecting YIVO’s historic research interests:

1. Yiddish language, literature and culture, including the Yiddish press and theater;
2. European history with a focus on East European Jewish history;
3. The Holocaust and its aftermath;
4. Jewish life in the United States with a focus on the period of migration from 1880-1960.

YIVO Document:fe

ובסערה בסופה .Bnei Brak, 2000), pages:395-396) 

רשימת הישיבות ומספר התלמידים ששהו בוילנא בס”ה הגיעו 2,336 תלמידים של 23 ישיבות. הם נשארו בוילנא מספר חדשים בלבד, עד שנצטוו על ידי הממשלה בינואר 40 להתפזר בעיירות שונות על פני כל מדינת ליטא. בהתאם לצו פיזור התפזרו הישיבות כדלהלן: 

ישיבת מיר, בקיידאני – 273 תלמיד

 ישיבת קלצק, ביאנובה – 241 תלמיד

 ישיבת קאמניץ, בראסיין – 235 תלמיד

 ישיבת ראדין, קצתם נשארו בווילנה וקצתם באיישישוק – 198 תלמיד

 ישיבת בית יוסף מביאליסטוק, בבירגאש – 186 תלמיד

 ישיבת פינסק, בווילקומיר – 128 תלמיד 

ישיבת לומזה, נשארה בווילנה – 125 

תלמיד ישיבת באראנוביץ, בטרוקי – 145 תלמיד 

ישיבת מזריץ, בנימצינצין – 94 תלמיד

 ישיבת גרודנה, בווילנה – 75

 תלמיד ישיבת אוסטראה, נשארה בווילנה -57 תלמיד

 ישיבת בית שמואל מווארשה, בווילנה – 40 תלמיד

 ישיבת וולוז’ין, בזאגרי – 41 תלמיד 

ישיבת אוסטרוב-מאזובייצק, בווילנה — 42 תלמיד

 ישיבת חכמי לובלין, בווילנה – 63 תלמיד

ישיבת לובאביץ, בווילנה – 43 תלמיד 

שיבת לוצק-פינסק, בווילנה – 48 תלמיד

 ישיבת סלונים, בווילנה – 38 תלמיד

 ישיבת רמיילס, וילנה מקומית – 58 תלמיד

 כולל מיר, בווילנה (22 משפחות) – 65 איש

 כולל בית יוסף, בווילנה (18 משפחות) – 75 איש

 ישיבת תורת חסד, באראנוביץ, בטאווריג – 49 תלמיד

 ישיבת בריסק, בווילנה – 27 תלמיד 

---

It is a list of 23 yeshivot that escaped and made their way to Vilna.

You can see on the first line that a total of 2,336 yeshiva students made their way to Vilna, representing twenty-three different yeshivot.

Then you have a list of the yeshivot.

You can see:

• Yeshivat Mir
• Yeshivat Kamenetz
• Yeshivat Radin
• and many others.

In the middle of the page, underlined for you:

Yeshivat Ostroh

The Yeshiva of Ostroh—that is the name that appears on our document on page one.

It remained in Vilna with 57 students.

Fifty-seven students from that yeshiva made their way to Vilna and were there.

What do we know about this yeshiva—this strange Yeshivat Maharsha?

And the answer is:

Almost nothing.

The few surviving records of Ostroh indicate that in 1933, when a revered rabbinic figure died, Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzenski decided to create a new yeshiva in memory of that loss.

He selected scholars to become the heads of a new yeshiva in Ostroh that would be named after—and in a certain sense continue—the great yeshiva of the Maharsha that had existed there in the seventeenth century.

And so it was called Yeshivat Maharsha.

Indeed, these two Roshei Yeshiva were successful. The yeshiva was thriving when the Holocaust broke out.

As late as 1939, it had approximately 100 students in Ostroh.

---

What do we know about the Roshei Yeshiva?

Again:

Almost nothing.

Their names are not mentioned in any of the Yizkor memorial books that were produced after the Holocaust in order to memorialize famous towns and cities that were destroyed.

We have several memorial books for Ostroh. They barely mention the existence of this yeshiva. Some do not mention it at all.

Even those that mention the existence of the yeshiva say absolutely nothing about it, and do not provide the names of the two Roshei Yeshiva.

Even in the two greatest Hebrew works that list the martyrs who died in the Holocaust—and specifically rabbis who died in the Holocaust—neither mentions the two names that appear at the top of page one.

So we have:

• a yeshiva,
• surviving in Vilna in 1940,
• with 57 students,
• led by two rabbis,
• and almost no trace of them in the historical record.

---

But a survivor of the Vilna Ghetto, Joseph Foxman, left us an account of Vilna during the Holocaust.

Joseph Foxman, born in 1905 and died in 1977, was born in Baranovich (today in Belarus) and died in New York.

He was a writer of note even before the Holocaust. He published widely in the European Yiddish press prior to World War II, and he contributed significantly to the memorial volumes that were published after the war.

With the outbreak of World War II, he escaped from Slonim to Vilna, and ultimately was imprisoned in the Vilna Ghetto.

An activist and intellectual, he was a founding member of the FPO (Fareynikte Partizaner Organizatsye / United Partisan Organization) in the ghetto.

He escaped the ghetto, made his way to Poland in 1945, and then to New York in 1949.

Abraham Foxman, later national director of the Anti-Defamation League, is Joseph Foxman’s son.

---

Foxman’s account—which is absolutely incredible—was written in Yiddish and first published in 1957.

From the Pages of Tradition: Faigel Dem Rov’s by Joseph Foxman

But the 1957 version is very rare.

We will come back to it a little later.

That version was reprinted by the noted Yiddish historian and writer Menashe Unger in 1970, and you have the Yiddish text in front of you on pages three and four.

I am going to ask you to turn to page three of the handout.

I am going to read it in English translation—not all of it, but most of it.

If you are adept in Yiddish, please try to follow along in the text in front of you.

And we are all going to become detectives now.

So listen carefully.

Remember: I am trying to solve the problem of:

• Who were these two Roshei Yeshiva?
• What do we know about this Yeshivat Maharsha?
• And what happened to these two rabbis?

Did they survive the Holocaust—or not?

---

The title of the essay is –

Feygl dem Rovs — The Rabbi’s Daughter

In the version you have, the title differs slightly: The Circle of Feygl dem Rovs.

“Feygl dem Rovs” means  

Feygl, the rabbi’s daughter.

Feygl was the daughter of a rabbi.

She was a young woman, perhaps twenty-one years old at the time.

The daughter of Rabbi Bagel of Trochenbrod in Volhynia. Volhynia is in present-day Ukraine.

In September 1941, following Nazi actions in Vilna, she was imprisoned together with all the Jews of Vilna within the walls of the narrow ghetto.

---

Feygl, together with a group of other young women—all of them Bais Yaakov students and teachers from a variety of towns and villages—were housed together.

From the very first day of entry into the ghetto, Feygl took upon herself the task of organizing all the religious girls in the ghetto into a separate group.

The first girls to join the group were women from:

• Brisk
• Mir
• Lutsk
• Pinsk
• Bialystok
• Frankfurt am Main
• and other communities.

Later the group was joined by wives and daughters of distinguished rabbis of Vilna.

---

A majority of the group used to pray together every day, where they engaged in communal prayer and the recitation of Psalms.

The services and recitation of Psalms were led by Feygl.

Every Shabbat, the group studied:

• the weekly Torah portion,
• Rashi’s commentary,
• other commentaries,
• practical Jewish law,
• and excerpts from mussar literature.

Feygl’s popularity, and that of her circle, grew from day to day.

The number of listeners to her Torah and mussar lectures increased considerably.

---

Rabbi Leiman pauses here because this is where the mystery begins to intersect with our lost yeshiva.

We now have women in the Vilna Ghetto, among them wives and daughters of rabbis—some carrying names that may connect directly to the names on our mysterious 1940 document.

And so the detective work begins.

Rabbi Eich’s apartment soon became too small and could no longer house such a large group of women.

So the women’s house of study moved to the home of another woman from Lutsk, on one of the streets of Vilna—all of these streets, incidentally, still exist today.

It was not long before the women’s house of study outgrew that venue as well.

Then, thanks to the intervention of Rabbis Landau and Jacobson, the public kitchen on Dysna Street 31 was placed at the disposal of Feygl.

There, the prayer services, study sessions, Torah and mussar lectures, and the recitation of Psalms continued.

These activities were for women only.

---

We are aware, however, of several instances when Feygl invited men to teach and deliver sermons.

One such invited guest was Rabbi Yaakov Zeldin, one of the great mussar exponents in prewar Poland.

A lecture on the topic:

“Shabbat: The Cornerstone and Foundation of Jewish Life”

was delivered to the women’s group by a young religious poet.

Another speaker presented a short mussar discourse.

Yet another lectured on Kiddush Hashem.

The male presenters were always introduced by Feygl herself.

---

At gatherings held in the public kitchen on Dysna 31, the walls would be decorated with slogans and large posters.

Some of them read as follows:

1. Redemption for any particular generation comes only by means of the merit of its righteous women.
2. Israel was redeemed from Egypt through the merit of its righteous women.
3. Jerusalem was destroyed only because of the profanation of the Sabbath.
4. Be holy.
5. Watch over the Sabbath, and the Sabbath will watch over you.

This is a very beautiful phrase.

יותר משישראל שמרו את השבת שמרה השבת אותם (emphasis in the original) 

Many of us know it from later formulations, but Feygl’s wording goes back to earlier Jewish sources, already appearing in print in the seventeenth century.

---

I am skipping a little bit of the complete Yiddish text.

When despair and demoralization prevailed inside the walls of the ghetto, Feygl taught the young and forlorn Jewish daughters how to preserve the ancient and holy Jewish values of:

• honesty
• integrity
• modesty
• purity
• morality

---

Then the account reaches its tragic conclusion.

On a bright and beautiful summer day in September 1943, Feygl and her followers—heroes of holiness and of passive resistance—were driven by the bayonets of Nazi criminals, Ukrainians, and Lithuanians through the assembly point in Vilna.

Part of the group was ordered to the left.

Feygl and the larger portion of her closest companions were ordered to the right.

That meant they were designated for deportation.

In cattle cars they were sent on their way to Riga.

---

In July 1944, when the Soviet Army reached Latvia, the vast majority of Jews who had been incarcerated in the Latvian concentration camps were transferred by the Nazis to the infamous concentration camp of Stutthof, near Danzig.

Feygl, together with many of her devoted friends, was among those transferred there.

So she survived as late as July 1944.

She was now in Stutthof.

Only two of the women survived.

And that is how the essay ends—as it was published in the version before us.

Only two of the women survived.

But no indication is given as to which women survived.

---

Well, the first thing anyone learns at the Bernard Revel Graduate School is:

Never trust a source—especially if there is an earlier source.

You must always go back to the original.

I already told you that this version was published by Menashe Unger in 1970.

But there was an earlier version, published by Foxman in 1957.

Unger shortened the essay slightly and omitted the last few lines.

So at the bottom of page four, I present for you the lines that were omitted.

Let us now read what it really said in the original account.

---

Only two of the women survived:

Rebbetzin Berkovich and her daughter.

If you look earlier in the passage, you will see listed among the many people who attended the lectures was Rebbetzin Berkovich, who at the time the article was written was now living in Israel.

All the others died of starvation and disease.

Feygl dem Rovs died of typhus just prior to the liberation of Stutthof.

Very, very sad.

Stutthof was liberated by the Soviet Army on May 9, 1945.

She died only a few days earlier.

English translation of Foxman’s article. https://traditiononline.org/from-the-pages-of-tradition-faigel-dem-rovs-by-joseph-foxman/

---

So now you are wondering:

How does this help us?

Someone was alive.

A Rebbetzin Berkovich was alive.

And what was one of the names on the document on page one?

Rabbi Berkovich.

So at least it suggested to me the possibility that there may be some relationship here.

---

At the same time, I pursued another method.

We have the names of two distinguished Roshei Yeshiva.

It is possible they wrote something.

If I could find:

• a Torah article they wrote, or
• a sefer they authored,

then perhaps I could identify them.

Now, it is rather easy to make a search once you have names.

Of course, I did not have the full names.

I had only initials.

If you look at page one:

“J. Berkovich” could be:

• Yosef
• Yaakov
• Yitzchak
• Yehudah

Anything beginning with the Hebrew letter Yod.

And “D.J. K…” could be:

• דוד יוסף (David Yosef)
• דב יעקב
• many other combinations.

So I tried every possible permutation and combination to see if I could find a sefer by either one of these two people.

And I struck gold.

In 1938, a sefer was published in Bilgoraj, Poland.

I am holding a copy of that sefer.

If you open to the title page, we see immediately that it was written by:

Rabbi Yosef Berkovich.

It is a very rare sefer.

There are no copies in any of the great libraries of Judaica in New York. Almost all of the original copies were destroyed in the Holocaust.

Not surprisingly.

But one or two copies made their way to the Land of Israel, and the volume has since been mechanically reproduced many times.

So now I held in my hand a surviving work by one of the names on the mysterious letterhead.

And on the Polish title page it reads:

Rabin Yosef Berkowicz

So now I knew that his name was Yosef.

---

In the author’s introduction to this wonderful book of profound Torah learning, he writes about the state of the yeshivot of Europe.

Even now, in 1938, he says, the yeshivot are crowded all over Europe.

He refers with reverence to the great academies of Poland.

And then he mentions our yeshiva, still functioning in 1938, where students continue to learn.

So the yeshiva certainly existed and was active immediately before the war.

Then, two paragraphs later, he writes:

“I reserve a special blessing for my dear friend and brother-in-law…”

And he names:

Rabbi David Yosef Khazanovich

So now we have the second man.

We know that one was:

• Rabbi Yosef Berkovich

and the other was:

• Rabbi David Yosef Khazanovich

That explains the initials on the Lithuanian letterhead:

D.J. = David Yosef.

And the sefer also carried a letter of approbation from none other than:

Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzenski

Now for Rabbi Chaim Ozer to write a letter of recommendation was itself significant.

But this particular letter goes beyond his ordinary style.

Among other things, he writes:

“I read your book.”

That is extraordinary praise.

Rabbi Chaim Ozer was not a man who casually wrote such things.

So we now have firm identification of the two rabbis on the letterhead.

But I still knew nothing about their fate.

---

Then came another discovery.

In 1959, this rare book was republished.

I am holding the 1959 edition.

But it was not a simple photographic reprint.

It was completely reset in new type.

Larger pages, larger print, Rashi script—done at considerable expense.

Quite remarkable.

And this edition carried a new introduction by the man who brought it to press.

That man was the late Rosh Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Yaakov Goldvicht, died in 1994.

Rabbi Chaim Yaakov Goldvicht was the founder and Rosh Yeshiva of Keren B’Yavnah, known as KBY.  In 1954, the heads of Bnei Akiva turned to Rabbi Goldvicht, then studying and teaching in a kollel in Bnei Brak, if he would accept the position of Rosh Yeshiva for a new Religious Zionist yeshiva – Yeshivat Kerem B’Yavneh. Before accepting, Rabbi Goldvicht asked the Chazon Ish for his advice. According to one account, the Chazon Ish told him: “If [the Religious Zionists] want to learn Torah, we need to help them.” Rabbi Elyakum Schwartz told me that the story is that Rabbi Goldvicht asked his rebbe, the Chazon ish, whether he should pursue opening the yeshiva, and the response was, if Mizrachi wants to open a yeshiva, run, do not walk.  

Rabbi Goldvicht took a critical part in establishing the Hesder yeshiva program with the Israel Defense Forces, and KBY became the first Hesder yeshiva, combining Torah study with active service in the Israeli army. In recognition of his contribution, he was awarded the Israel Prize in 1991, on behalf of the entire Yeshivat Hesder movement.

The yeshiva was founded in the late 1950s.  Some of you may remember him or knew him.

He was my teacher.

I was learning in yeshiva in 1959, and he was my teacher.

Never did he say a word about the fact that he had republished a sefer of Rabbi Yosef Berkovich.

In those days, teachers did not spend much time socializing with students.

We were frightened simply to be in the same room with him.

---

Years later, when Rabbi Goldvicht would come to New York and the United States to raise money for the yeshiva, he would often come with his wife and stay in my home.

We became the best of friends.

Once I was no longer a student, we hosted him many times.

It was a delight.

And never did they ever say a word about the Holocaust, or about any relationship they had to anything that happened during the Holocaust.

So all of this was an incredible surprise to me.

---

In that introduction to the 1959 edition, he writes as follows:

“I am the son-in-law of Rabbi Berkovich.”

I never met him, he says, but I know him very well, even though I never met him in my life.

He goes on to describe Rabbi Berkovich as one of the outstanding graduates of the Mir Yeshiva in Poland.

He was the founder of the yeshiva in Ostroh, which had a reputation as one of the great yeshivot of its time.

Then he writes:

He died as a martyr.

He was one of the 70,000 Jews of Vilna murdered in Ponary.

And on that same day, his brother-in-law was martyred with him.

That brother-in-law was Rabbi David Yosef Khazanovich.

So both Roshei Yeshiva were murdered together.

---

But his wife survived the war.

And his only daughter survived with her.

They made it to the Land of Israel.

And of course, he—the editor of the 1959 edition—married Miriam, the daughter of Rebbetzin Berkovich.

I remember Miriam very well.

I remember the Rosh Yeshiva very well.

So there is no question:

We have not only properly identified the two Roshei Yeshiva—

We have now learned their fate as well.

https://www.hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=40924&st=&pgnum=3

---

The Nazis could number and kill millions.

But they could not extinguish the eternal light of Torah.

That fiery flame was kept alive in the Vilna Ghetto by Feygl dem Rovs, and handed over to Rebbetzin Berkovich and to her daughter Miriam—the only two members of Feygl’s circle who survived the Holocaust.

In turn, they brought that eternal flame to Israel, where it continues to glow in all its glory.

Foxman’s closing lines in the original essay read—and I will read them first in Yiddish and then translate them into English.

And with that, we close:

May these lines serve as a tombstone
for the unknown grave of a holy Jewish daughter
who taught others how to live and die
by sanctifying God’s name,
and who herself died sanctifying God’s name.
May her memory forever remain holy.

Thank you very much.

Story about Abe Foxman, son of Joseph Foxman:

Abraham Foxman, a Holocaust survivor and national director of the Anti-Defamation League from 1987 until 2015, died on Sunday, May 10, 2026. He was 86 years old.

“America and the Jewish people have lost a moral voice, a passionate advocate for the Jewish people and the State of Israel, and a remarkable leader,” stated Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO and national director of the ADL. “Abe Foxman was an iconic Jewish leader who embraced the ideal of an America free from antisemitism and hate and who strongly believed that these scourges could be defeated if good people opposed it.”

On Sun, May 10, 2026 at 3:24 PM Martin Brody <martinlbrody@gmail.com> wrote:

  ..favourite story.about him.

We often re-enact the Simchat Torah ritual of picking up a child and dancing.

May his memory be a beautiful blessing.

Soldier, survivor have emotional reunion

In the fall of 1945, a Soviet soldier hoisted a 5-year-old boy aloft and paraded him through a Lithuanian synagogue that had been closed throughout a long Nazi occupation.

For 65 years, the boy and the soldier carried that moment in their heads and hearts. Unknown to each other, they told the story to family and friends. A Toronto songwriter memorialized it in song. The boy became a man and included the anecdote in his 2003 book.

On Thursday, they met and embraced for the first time since then in Rabbi Leo Goldman’s Oak Park living room.

“It was very emotional, much more than I would have expected,” says the former small boy. He is Abraham Foxman, the New York-based director of the Anti-Defamation League. In that role, he is a public voice against racial and religious intolerance.

The soldier is Goldman, 91, an Orthodox rabbi in Oak Park and an educator who continued to work as a Beaumont Hospital chaplain until a few months ago.

“We tell this story every year,” says Rose Brystowski, the rabbi’s daughter, who says her father has become too frail to interview. “It’s very moving to us, because it’s about survival, about a child symbolizing the future of our people.”

The memory remains vivid for Foxman: He had lived with his Catholic nanny, separated from his parents and concealed from the Nazis as a so-called “hidden child” for four years.

The nanny saved his life — but also taught him to spit on the ground when a Jew walked by.

In mid-1945, he was reunited with his parents. His father waited four months to take him to a synagogue on the holiday of Simchat Torah, an ancient and festive holiday that celebrates the reading of the Torah — the Old Testament — on hand-written scrolls. “That was very smart of him because it is a fun holiday for children,” says Foxman, who remembers walking by a church and making the sign of the cross entering the synagogue for the first time.

For Goldman, who had been wounded twice as a soldier, and lost his parents to the Nazis, the return to the synagogue in Vilna that day was also momentous. The concentration camps had been liberated, Jews were reuniting with their families across Europe, and in Lithuania, it was no longer a capital crime to be Jewish. Most had been dispersed or exterminated. Only 3,000 of Vilna’s 100,000 Jews remained.

“Are you Jewish?” the Soviet soldier, asked the boy. When he nodded yes, Goldman said, “I have traveled thousands of miles without seeing a Jewish child.” Then he stooped down, lifted the boy and danced around the room with him.

Neither man ever forgot that day, that celebration of religion and survival under extraordinary circumstance.

But only last summer, after an Israeli researcher finally put together a song, “The Man From Vilna,” about the incident with a Michigan rabbi, did Foxman learn that the Jewish Soviet soldier he wrote about in his 2003 book, “Never Again?” was Goldman, still alive and living in the United States. The songwriter had credited Goldman as the story’s source.

Getting to Thursday’s reunion was circuitous: Three years ago, Foxman told the story at Yad Vashem, the Israel Holocaust Memorial Museum. There, a researcher embarked on a quest for the dancing man in uniform that Foxman described: Eventually, she found the song, inspired by Goldman’s story, and the rabbi’s name in the credits. For Foxman, that day “was a memory, a bittersweet memory.” The soldier — a stranger — had embraced him in public, in a synagogue. He had carried him like a trophy around the synagogue.

“That was for me the first time anyone took pride in me,” says Foxman, who as “a hidden child didn’t know who or what I was.”

For both men, the memory was frozen in time, unattached to any living person.

“I thought that story was a kind of legend,” recalls Brystowski. “I always believed it in my heart, but on another level, I wondered, did that really happen?”

She was stunned when she learned last summer, when Foxman called, that “this prominent, grown man” was the little boy she had grown up hearing about.

The mythic boy had become a very real and prominent man. “It shows us that any gesture, any mitzvah or good deed, can have an impact,” she says.

On Thursday, the two men hugged and talked and recited a Hebrew prayer, a blessing that’s a reminder of the importance of celebrating life in the moment.

“It is a privilege to have lived long enough to have this moment,” Foxman says Goldman told him.

Goldman’s parents and older brother were killed by the Nazis. Foxman’s early years as a “hidden child,” living with secrets and lies, led him into a career of speaking out publicly against injustice and hatred.

For each man, the memory of dancing in a Vilna synagogue was a pivotal moment. “I came home and told my father that I wanted to be Jewish,” recalls Foxman. “It was the beginning of my life as a Jewish person.”

Each man had a memory of a moment — a dance in a synagogue — that symbolized then and throughout their lives the promise of freedom and faith and life.

At long last, the boy and the soldier who carried phantom memories, now know each other as two grown men who have, against the odds, survived to find each other.

From The Detroit News: http://www.detnews.com/article/20100409/OPINION03/4090372/1293/OPINION0319/Soldier–survivor-have-emotional-reunion-after-65-years#ixzz0kef0RZPQ

http://traditionarchive. org/news/_pdfs/0089-0094.pdf 

I walked to Chabad of East Lakeview. Serka walked me the first two miles. We met Saltzman, who was walking to Chabad of Bucktown. I got there at 10:30 AM. Alan and Izzy sponsored the Kiddush for Alan’s 30th birthday. Izzy is pregnant. Nice crowd, especially when it got closer to the Kiddush.

Kiddush was excellent. Besides the usual food, there were cold cysts. Peggy made delicious Yerushalmi Kugel. I had brought some diet coke, so I was good. Eveline was there. Her husband, Jacques, was too weak to make it to Shul. The Professor, Isaac Kalimi, also came. He usually goes to Anshei Sholem.

The Shiur started at 2:10 PM. Attendees included Professor Isaac Kalimi, Henry, Matt, Marcel, Tamar, Peggy, and Ray.

I started the Shiur by talking about the need for sacrifices. I stated that we had no sacrifices for two thousand years and that if the Bais Hamikdash were to be absent for an additional two thousand years, we would still be fine. I also said Jerusalem, when there was a Bais Hamikdash, was the cultural center of Israel, the monarchy, and most importantly the Sanhedrin. When people went to Jerusalem at least three times a year, they also visited the great sages of the people of Israel, Hillel and Shammai, and thousands of others. It was the Torah center of the Jewish people.

I feel that overstating the need for a Bais Hamikdash encourages mishugayim, that the Jews must pray on the Temple Mount and build vessels for a future Bais Hamikdash. We had a lively debate in the Shiur.

However, as the weeks progressed, I am wrong. The temple was a magnificent structure and was the cultural center of the Jewish people at the time. I also said previously that when the third Bais Hamikdash is built, not only will they have two places for wine and water, but there will also be a third opening for Coke/Diet Coke. I am not a Cohen, but I will supply the Coke for it.

I presented the following chart of Korbonos at the Shiur, and it received a warm reception.

At 5:00 PM I walked back home. Tamar accompanied me to the corner of Lincoln and Addison. I sat down at a bench for 30 minutes to rest my back. An Ann Leibovitz was walking by, wearing a Chicago Marathon T-Shirt, and we talked about running the marathon. I made it home at 7:30 PM and davened at Bais Ment.

My questions on the Sedra:

Rabbi Breitowitz:

Does the below make sense? I did take some liberties. I am not an articulate writer, but I believe in the basic principles I have laid out.

Rabbi Breitowitz

In looking at this Sedra, several thoughts come to mind.

1 – I would assume that the laws of Korbanus were given at Mount Sinai, not in the Ohel Moed after the Mishkan was put up. How are we to understand the first Pasuk?

2 – We have the disagreement between the Rambam and Ramban on the idea of sacrifices. I believe both statements are true, and I offer the following explanation:

I have always wondered how Adam, Cain, Hevel, Noah, Avrohom, etc. knew to sacrifice animals to Hashem. God is unseen and does not really need our sacrifices. Did they suddenly wake up one day and decide, “Well, I believe I will sacrifice an animal to God today”? I answered that God instilled in human nature a natural instinct, an understanding that worshiping Him in this way is the proper thing to do. The entire idea of why the original generations knew to offer Korbanos was the divine plan and this extends to why Hashem commanded the Jews to offer Korbanos.

Why did Hashem choose to run the world this way? I have no clue. Perhaps a society requires people to not only believe in something but also to do a physical act. Without belief accompanied by a physical act, anarchy would prevail. Although the ancient world was a brutal world, even with korbanos. The world became corrupted with power.

This is what Rabbi Sacks writes about the unity of the Jews in building a Mishkan to create a unified nation. Belief alone is not enough.

The Mishkan makes sense. God could have let individuals have their own altars and have a Mishkan for communal sacrifices. This was the model in the pagan world. Why did Hashem centralize everything in a Mishkan and then in the two Bais Hamikdash’s temples? Its purpose is to create unity among people. The Jews would have to come together. In addition to the sacrifices, the Sanhedrin, the center of Torah, was right next to the temples to create a centralized location that is to be the heartbeat of the nation of Israel. The source of Hashem’s divine presence in this world and the Torah.

Once the Torah was given, there was probably no need for human sacrifices. The Torah could be the sole unifier. However, I would answer that this was not enough at that time.
Rabbi Yitzchok Breitowitz’s response

jjudge5@aol.com March 21, 2026

1) Moshe Rabbeinu received these commandments at Sinai but was not authorized to communicate them to Bnei Yisrael until the Mishkan was set up .This is true for many, many mitzvos of the Torah that were given to Bnei Yisrael over a period of 40 years. We did not get the whole Torah at Sinai; only Moshe did.

2) Your thoughts are very true and I agree with you . Much bracha and hatzlacha ,yb

My niece Tzipporah Schwartz’s response:

I do not know Rambam and Ramban’s opinions on korbanot – please can you share?

In my opinion, offering sacrifices seems like it would come from 2 inherent places

(1) the idea of giving up something you value greatly for the sake of proving fealty/submission to the Gd makes sense to me. Cattle and livestock were the currency at the time so that would make sense as the thing to choose and say here is our expression of total devotion to You.

(2) it was a prevalent practice at the time in other cultures/religions so I’d assume some influence, hope that’s not kfira to say lol

(3) another thought that comes to mind is that preparing an animal for cooking was a way of bringing people together and welcoming guests, as we see when Abraham welcomed the angels and instructed Sarah to get a few cattle ready. I wonder if that instinct of extending that same kind of offering to Gd felt natural since that was also how you showed people you valued and welcomed them?

Eliott Baral’s answer:

Good questions.

I thought Cayin invented it. He of course knew that Hashem created him as well as his parents. And that everything he had, including the ground he walked upon and the air he breathed, came from Hashem. Cayin was so grateful to Hashem for providing food with which to sustain himself and his family, that he couldn’t hold himself back from trying to connect with Hashem, and to thank Hashem. He refrained from connecting by shechting himself “to Hashem”, and instead thanked Hashem in the same terms that Hashem had blessed him. Namely, by offering some of those G-d-given vegetables as a korbon to Hashem.

Why burn them? Perhaps because fire was the first thing a human being ever invented. Maybe Cayin reasoned, “Let me combine G-d’s gift — vegetables — with that crazy thing Pop invented — fire.” He was trying to give of himself. Without, of course, doing any damage to the body Hashem had given him.

I would say, it is this that is instinctive in human beings. The need to connect with Hashem, to express one’s love for Hashem, to thank Hashem, and to offer of oneself to Hashem, something of the greatest value one could possibly offer. Hashem created human beings with this instinct, this need, because Hashem loves each of us and wants the closest possible relationship with each of us.

If one is realistic with oneself, one wouldn’t think of trying to help out Hashem (“Here, G-d, would you like some wine with your asparagus souffle? I think you’d like a nice dry red.”).

– Elliott

Jay Orlinsky’s response, which I completely disagree with.

Rambam states the exact same thing in his Hakdama to Mishneh Torah
and explains it explicitly in Moreh Nevuchin
There is no oi vey there
If we look at the Torah and what it relates as children then you need to receive
‘stories’ as answers otherwise you need to think things through

On Fri, Mar 20, 2026 at 12:42 PM Mitchell Morgenstern \<mitchellamorgenstern@gmail.com> wrote:
Oh vey.

Mitchell A. Morgenstern
773-647-8097

On Fri, Mar 20, 2026 at 11:33 AM Jay Orlinsky \<shamein@gmail.com> wrote:
Lol
Re your question about how Adam …. knew to offer Korbanos
Not sure you’ll like this answer
Am not a believer of accepting the story of Adam and Chava and Gan Aden literally
So let’s start with Avraham Avinu and why di
d he offer Korbanos
to Hashem
Society at that time viewed sacrifice as an acceptable way to appease the ‘spirits’ and the
Gods they believed in…it was an upgrade from offering sacrifices to Avodah zarah to
sacrifices for Hashem…thats the basis of why Rambam says the origin of our Korbanos
was to alleviate the desire for Avodah Zarah

On Fri, Mar 20, 2026 at 11:53 AM Mitchell Morgenstern \<mitchellamorgenstern@gmail.com> wrote:
Less? I say this with a smile.

On Fri, Mar 20, 2026 at 10:46 AM Jay Orlinsky \<shamein@gmail.com> wrote:
Reb Mitchell
All that you’ve said I agree with – more or less.
What comforts me most is the thought of Rav Kook o”h
that sometime in (the near) future we will not have Korbanos
because inherently they are a brutal way to worship a
Transcendent God. Korbanos in our modern world makes no sense.
Rambam explains the sole reason for Korbanot was to assuage the
the desire for bloodlust and Avodah zarah
A Lichtige Shabbos
jay

Chabad of East Lakeview

Gabriella and Matt’s Engagement

Almoog

Walked to Chabad of East Lakeview.  I found out that Matt proposed to Gabriella.  I joined with Paul to sponsor the Kiddush in honor of the engagement.  They are set to get married on or around Lag B’omer.  I did the Haftorah and Musaf.  I am always self-conscious because I have a flat voice. At the Kiddush the Rabbi said that I should start speaking.  I wished the new couple a joyful marriage.  I told Gabriella that I just want to let you know, in case you did not realize, that Matt is stubborn.  Everyone laughed.  I then opened the floor.  Peggy spoke about the actual engagement proposal.  Matt could not get it out completely, and Gabrialla had to put words in his mouth.  The first time in Matt’s life that he was at a loss for words.  The engagement happened on March 21st, which is the spring equinox.  There is a Chicagohenge effect looking down Madison Avenue at the Bean: https://secretchicago.com/chicagohenge/ ..  People nearby clapped.  Marcel was not at the Koddush, so I asked if anyone could channel him, and our incomparable Ray stepped up.  He said that we are having  an “uplifted” celebration.  The Kiddush was “uplifted” because it was moved upstairs to the second floor  from the basement because of Pesach.  Perfect, something that Marcel would say.  Matt said a few words thanking everyone. The Rabbi ended off with very nice words of Mazel Tov.  The food was excellent.  Wraps from Sandwich Club and their homemade potato chips and, as always, a great Pesach-style Cholent.

The Shiur was okay. I really did not have good Torah.  I spoke about when the 7-day dedication of the Mishkan started. I quoted Rashi who said that it started on the 23rd of Adar which is the 8th day on the first of the new month of Nissan.  Rashi says that there is no chronological order in the Torah.  The Mizrachi brings down the Sifrei, who says the 7-day training period known as the 7 days of dedication started on the first of Nissan and the eighth day was the 8th day of Nisan and this Parsha is in chronological order.  This is dependent on who the impure people were who could not bring the Korban Pesach on the 14th of Nissan.  Either the people who carried the bones of Yoseph or they were Eliezer and Itamar, Aaron’s youngest two sons who carried out the dead bodies of Nadav and Avihu. The Mizrachi said the 8 days of dedication depend on the Taniam’s disagreement over who was impure.   I was unclear.  I lost the Shiur.  We had a nice hour-long discussion after that, but I don’t remember what it was about.

Almoog:

I put in sliding glass doors in my lanai in Florida.  I asked the owner of the firm, Gil, if they did window treatments and he said no but referred me to Almoog. I called Almoog and we decided that he will come when we get back to Florida on April 16th.  I asked him what Almoog is all about and he said that it is a modern Israeli name and means “coral” as in a coral reef.  The name is from Tanach.  I told him that I heard of names like Moshe and Aaron, Mah Zeh Almoog?  He told me, Mitch, you are old school.  His name is modern.

From AI:

Almog (אַלְמוֹג) is a Hebrew unisex given name and surname meaning “coral”.  Primarily used in Israel, it evokes natural beauty, the sea, and is considered a modern nature-inspired name. It is also used to represent strength and resilience, sometimes associated with precious wood mentioned in the Bible, though the common modern meaning is the marine organism.

He told me that he recently had a baby.  I asked him how his business was doing, and he said it was slow.  In the meantime he had walked into a pizza store and asked for the special consisting of two slices of pizza and pop.   He was told that there is no special.  He started to say, “Okay, give me one slice.” I interjected and said, “Almoog, lunch is on me.”   I am sure that money was tight for him and although he had the extra $5 to spend on a second slice, he just couldn’t.  Better in his pocket than the store owner and he would forego the extra food.  It is a mindset of keeping your wallet closed.  I have somewhat lost that mindset and am paying the price for it, as I am living on my retirement money, which is running out quickly.

March 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, and 19 2026

March 13, 2026 – Friday night

Sholem Zachor of my grandson, son of Rivkie and Mordy Siegal

Friday night we ate at home and walked to Mordy and Rivkie’s house for the Sholem Zachur.  We arrived at 8:40 PM and the Shalom Zacher had started.  It was very leibidick as well over 100 people streamed into the house over a 5-hour period.  There were about 8 shortish speeches.  I led off the parade and talked about the Zhalom Zachur of the Shem M’Shmuel in 1855, the son of the Avnei Nezer.  I read the following story:

The Kotzker’s son-in-law, Avrohom Bornstein, known later in life as the Avnei Nezer, married the oldest twin daughter from the Kotzker’s second marriage.  They got married in 1853 and in 1855 had their first child, Shmuel.  The Avnei Nezer brought a bottle of wine and fruit to his father-in-law, the Kotzker, during Shalom Zachur.  The Kotzker tasted the wine and said, “Whoever watches the covenant in his youth has, on Shabbos, the treasure of kings.”

I focused not on the interpretation of the words but on the scene of joy, of serenity, of calm, of love.

Ricky Rothner spoke and talked about Mordy being a hard child and he gave aggravation to his parents.  He was very funny.

Rabbi Elisha Prero spoke longer and was great.  He talked about Mordy and told a great story about his brother-in-law, who at age 15 was asked to read the Torah on Shabbos at Anshei Motole.  It was over a mile’s walk from his house, and he was thinking of not accepting it.  He asked his father, and his father replied, “What have you done for the Jewish people?”  His brother-in-law understood the message and walked to Anshei Motole and read the Torah.  This change altered the trajectory of his life, leading him to become a Torah scholar, write Sefroim, and grow close to the Kaneifsky family in Israel.  Rabbi Chaim Kaneifsky who died a few years ago, was the leading Torah sage of this generation.

The Mohel, Rabbi Unger, also spoke elegantly.  He is a Bobover Chasid with all the garb, yet his English was excellent.

Mordy received as a gift a $2,500 bottle of liquor.  He opened it up late in the evening.  I have zero appreciation for liquor, so I passed on tasting. 

Food was excellent, and I had some good Cholent.  

We left at 12:30 AM and got home at 1:00 AM.  We walked with Jeffrey Ostrow. We found out that Aish had a Shabbaton and the kids came over to the Shalom Zacher after 1:00 PM.

March 14, 2026 –  Shabbos Parshas Vayachel-Pekudei

Bar Mitzvah of Shmuel Pancer, son of Ari(sh) and Tzippi Pancer.  

It was at Rabbi Fine’s Shul in Lincolnwood.  We stayed for the meal and I schmoozed.

March 15, 2026 – Sunday

Itamer Yakov’s first grade siddur party at Arie Crown.

March 16, 2026 – Monday

Bris of Yosef Menasha Siegal, son of Rivkie and Mordy Siegal

The food was tasty, and there was an omelet station, along with bagels from Emma’s and sandwiches and lox from Lincoln Cafe. Presentation was beautiful.  Aviva Applebaum did an excellent job.  The colors were blue and green, reflecting Ralph Lauren.  I thought it was for St. Patrick’s day.

My new grandson is named after Mordy ‘s grandfather, Joe Siegal.  Joe Siegal lived to over 100 and enlisted in the US Army right after Pearl Harbor.  He raised a beautiful family and Mordy was close to him.  Joe Siegal was good friends with my grandfather, Rabbi Sholem Sklar.  The second name is after Mordy’s, Uncle Avrohom Menasha Siegal, my good friend.  Avrohom Menasha raised two great kids and was successful in life, doing well financially.  

I spoke along with Nesanel Siegal, Mordy’s father, and Mordy himself.  The following are the highlights of my speech:

Discussed Joe Siegal, Mordy Siegal’s illustrious grandfather.

Last Sukkos in the West Side of Chicago in 1956

Using doors for the walls of the  Sukkah.  Came from the thousands of houses

knocked down in the 1940s to build the Eisenhauer expressway.

Independence Square, Mitchell Alan vs Alan Mitchell

Moving to Greenleaf, bypassing Albany Park vs. the Sklars moving to Albany Park.

March 17, 2026 – Tuesday

Went to the Mesivta of Chicago, Rabbi Gross, to learn and work on my Sefer.  Stayed from 11:30 AM to 4:30 PM.  Worked on my below Torah from Shabbos.  I texted the following to Ricky Rothner:

Ricky: Mitch Morgenstern here. I am sitting in the Bais Medresh of Mesivta of Chicago. I am blown away by what I am seeing. There is discipline, the boys listen in Shiur, it is a real Yeshiva. There is real learning happening. It is not Hefker. BEH the boys will grow personally and in learning. Thanks for helping establish the Yeshiva.

Talk is cheap and the yeshiva needs money.  I told Rabbi Gross that I cannot give any meaningful donations.  I told him that occasionally I will let him charge $250 for billers.  He showed me his latest monthly electric bill, which was over $1,700.  They only have electric heat which is expensive.  It was cold as there are large windows, and the building is old and does not have proper insulation so I was cold the entire time.  A Rabbi Goldson spoke and he was good.  Not entirely my style, but his story is inspiring.

March 18, 2026 – Wednesday

Gave a scrap dealer $20, a bottle of pop, and a Think Thin bar.  I arrived at Mesivta of Chicago at 12:00 noon.  Davened at Chabad of East Lakeview and caught up on Daf Yomi.  Left Chabad at 10:30 AM.

March 19, 2026 – Thursday

David S. called and said that Hatzalah is taking his wife to the hospital.  He needed money and I zelled  him $150.00

Torah on VaYakhal – Pikudei

Hur is mentioned five times in the Torah and once by Rashi.

1. 17:10 in BeShalach.   Moshe, Aaron, and Hur went to the top of the hill.

Rashi says that Hur was the son of Miriam and Caleb was her husband.

Caleb gets introduced to us in Bamidbar by the spies.  He was 40 years old at the time of the spies.  Miriam was 84 years old.  THe Gur Aryeh discusses how Caleb could have had a great-grandson 13 years old.  I did not understand the Gur Aryeh.

Seifsei Chachomin – Rashi had to tell us who Hur was because he is not mentioned before in the Torah.

2. 17:12 in Beshalach.  Hur stood with Aaron, holding up Moshe’s hands during the battle.

Rashi does not mention that Hur is the son of Miriam, obviously.

3. 24:14 in Mishpatim.  Hur is to stay with Aaron at the foot of the mountain of Sinai until Moshe comes back.

Rashi says the Hur is the son of Miriam and his father was Caleb ben Yiphunah and Rashi mentions the gemora in Sotah 11:b

4. 31:2 in Ki Tzitzah.  Hashem speaking to Moshe, telling him that Betzalel, the son of Uri, the son of Hur, is being chosen to build the Bais Hamikdosh.   This is right before the sin of the golden calf.  No mention that Hur is the son of Miriam.

5. Rashi Ki Tzizah  on verse 32:5.  During the sin of the golden calf, Rashi mentions that Aaron saw Hur being killed.

6. 35:30.  Moshe is telling the people that Hashem has chosen Betzalel, the son of Uri, the son of Hur to build the Bais Hamikdosh.

Rashi says Hur was the son of Miriam and does not mention that Caleb is his father or Miriam’s husband.

Seifsei Chachomin says that Rashi is telling us why Betzlal merited to have divine providence;  because he was a (grand) son of Miriam and Miriam was a prophetess; therefore, he (Betzalel)  merited to be made chief architect.

The Seifsei Chachomin is difficult.  There is a Medrash that says that Hur’s sacrifice was rewarded by making Betzlal chief architect.  Secondly, why would Miriam being a prophet flow down to Bezlael?  There were many outstanding people.  What did Betzalel do in his own lifetime to merit this position and have divine wisdom put in him?  Additionally, it says in the Midrash that Betzalel was 13 years old when he became chief architect of the Mishkan. Awfully young, and how did the people accept Betzalel as a chief architect?

My answer is that why did Betzalel “merit” to be the chief architect.  His great-grandmother, Miriam, bravely fought and sacrificed her life for the Jewish people by opposing Pharaoh.  He had a grandfather Hur who stood up to the people when they wanted a golden calf and was killed.  Betzalel was taught from a very young age to fight and work on behalf of the Jewish people.  His “merit” was his inner drive to be a leader and work for the benefit of the Jews.  This is why God rewarded him.  This is what Rashi is telling us.  

I read a book, Iron Rose, about Rose Kennedy, the mother of JFK.  There were nine kids in the family, and at dinner, they were expected to be prepared to discuss the politics and issues of the day.  She gave them reading material.  She was training her kids to be thoughtful and become leaders, which is what happened.  She kept her family together.

The Maskil L’Dovid uses a different reason to explain Rashi than the Seifsei Chachomin and supports my explanation.   

The Maskil L’Dovid:

The Medresh is in Shmos Rabbah 48:4 and speaks about Betzalel.  

א״נ י״ל כדאי׳ בש״ר מהיכן זכה בצלאל לכל החכמה הזאת בזכות מרים שנאמר ויעש להם בתים יוכבד נטלה כהונה וכו׳ ומרים נטלה חכמה שהעמידה בצלאל וכו׳ ע״כ והיינו דק״מל קרא באמרו בן חור וז״ש רש״י א״ה מהיכן זכה לחכמה גדולה כזו בנה של מרים היה

From where [did he merit] all this distinction? From the tribe of Judah. *This is implied by the phrase, “Betzalel, son of Uri, son of Ḥur, of the tribe of Judah.” From where did he merit all this wisdom? It was due to the merit of Miriam, as it is stated: “He established houses for them” (Exodus 1:21). What were those houses? They were a house of priesthood and a house of royalty. Yokheved took priesthood and kingdom; Aaron was High Priest, and Moses was king, as it is stated: “He became king in Yeshurun”

(Deuteronomy 33:5). Miriam took wisdom, as she produced Betzalel, from whom David, who became king, emerged, *Thus, she was awarded wisdom and royalty. 

I think the Maskil L’Dovid may be supporting my explanation. The language he uses is Miraim  העמידה Beetzlal.  This word is translated by Sefaria as “produced”.  To state it a drop better, it העמידה means to cause to rise.  How? Through her example, her mentorship of her family.  Not just because she was a prophet, Betzalel was chosen as chief architect because she put into his inner psyche leadership and dedication.  I would add that even at a young age of 13 he was already exhibiting leadership and wisdom.  Therefore the people accepted him.  This is what Rashi means.

The problem with this Maskil L’Dovid is that the Medresh he uses seems to contradict the Rashi in Shmos 1:21 – ויעש להם בתים. בָּתֵּי כְהֻנָּה וּלְוִיָּה וּמַלְכוּת שֶׁקְּרוּיִין בָּתִּים, כְּמוֹ שֶׁכָּתוּב: “לִבְנוֹת אֶת בֵּית ה’ וְאֶת בֵּית הַמֶּלֶךְ” (מלכים א ט׳:א׳), כְּהֻנָּה וּלְוִיָּה מִיּוֹכֶבֶד וּמַלְכוּת מִמִּרְיָם‪.‬ כִּדְאִיתָא בְּמַסֶּכֶת סוֹטָה:‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬   

The answer is that the wisdom led to the leadership of the house of Dovid.

 His grandfather Hur was killed roughly two months earlier on the 16th of Tammuz.  

As I always say, we were not there, and context is everything

My pshat and it mirrors Rabbi Frand in his 2014 Torah,  https://torah.org/torah-portion/ravfrand-5774-tetzaveh/

Who was Hur?  From Chabad.org

The story of Hur is one of heroism, tragedy, and, ultimately, redemption.

Let us start from the beginning.

According to tradition, Moses’ older sister, Miriam, married Caleb, son of Yefuneh. Miriam and Caleb had a son, whose name was Hur.

The first time we meet Hur is during the war with Amalek. It was very soon after the Exodus, and the nation of Amalek aimed to poke a hole in the invincibility of this newborn nation:

Moses said to Joshua, “Pick men for us, and go out and fight against Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill with the staff of G‑d in my hand.” Joshua did as Moses had told him, to fight against Amalek; and Moses, Aaron, and Hur ascended to the top of the hill.

It came to pass that when Moses would raise his hand, Israel would prevail, and when he would lay down his hand, Amalek would prevail. Now, Moses’ hands were heavy; so they took a stone and placed it under him, and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur supported his hands, one from this [side], and one from that [side]; so he was with his hands in faith until sunset .  Hur, one of the three people who went up the hill to pray for salvation, was obviously a man of stature who was close to his venerated uncle Moses.

The next time we meet him is when Moses is climbing Mount Sinai for a 40-day learning session with the Divine, and tells the elders, “Wait for us here until we return to you, and here Aaron and Hur are with you; whoever has a case, let him go to them.”

At the most important junctures of Jewish life in the desert, Hur was there, together with his uncle Aaron.

The subsequent—and final—time we meet Hur is just a few weeks later. Moses had told the Jews that he would ascend the mountain and remain up there for 40 days. The Jews miscalculated, and when Moses did not descend the mountain by the deadline, they decided to create a Golden Calf.

Just 40 days after hearing the words “Thou shall have no other god,” they danced and celebrated before a Calf of Gold. And just twoscore after saying yes to “Don’t commit adultery,” they broke that cardinal rule as well. Idolatry, adultery—and murder. They also committed murder at the scene of the Golden Calf.

Says the Midrash: 

The sixth hour of the day arrived, and Moses had not descended from the heaven . . . They immediately gathered around Aaron. At that time Satan took advantage of the opportunity and made an image of Moses visible suspended lifeless between heaven and earth. The Jews pointed to the image with their fingers and said, “For this is the man Moses . . .”

At that moment, Hur arose against them and said, “You severed necks! Do you not remember the miracle that our G‑d did for you?” Immediately, they arose against him and killed him.  You read that right. It was six weeks after “Thou shall not murder,” and there they were, murdering Moses’ own nephew!

At the foot of Sinai, the Jews committed the three cardinal prohibitions. Moses would break the Tablets and beseech G‑d for mercy, and history would be changed forever in many ways as a consequence of this one morning.

You might think that Hur, who had just helped save the Jews from a terrible enemy a few weeks prior, and was now murdered for standing up for the honor of G‑d and His servant Moses, would end his story here at this all-time low.

But there is a postscript to Hur’s story. The Torah tells us that when it came time to build the Tabernacle, G‑d told Moses to appoint an architect for this endeavor. The name of this young architect? Bezalel, son of Uri, son of Hur.⁶ The honor to build the home for G‑d was given to the grandson of he who stood up to sanctify G‑d’s name.

Meaning of the Name

The Ohr Hachaim offers an insight into the name Hur. Hur (Chur) shares the same root word as chorin, “freedom.” He explains that it was only through building the Tabernacle that the Jews were finally freed from the blemish of their sins at the Golden Calf. Building a home for G‑d was their rectification of the sinful behavior that pushed G‑d away from them.

In other words, Betzalel, grandson of Hur, provided the Jews with the freedom from their sins that included killing his grandfather.

Hur, the lover of Jews and defender of the faith, must have been deeply proud that the honor of G‑d and the unity of His people has been restored, thanks to his own grandson.

Thus, Hur’s story ends not with tragedy, but with forgiveness and redemption.

February 28, 2026

Setsuzo Kutsuji

Lucy S. Dawidowicz – Nancy Sinkoff

Rabbi Professor Marcus Jastrow

We are still in Florida.

This Shabbos finished the book published by Koren, Kotzuji’s Gift: The Daring Rescue of Japan’s Jewish Refugees.  The book has a foreword by Rabbi Meir Yaakov Soloveichik. It contains two smaller books.  1) The autobiography of Setsuzo Kutsuji, written in English in 1964, and 2) an English translation of Jundai Yamada’s Japanese book, which is a biography of Setsuzo Kutsuji’s life.  His book is titled “Sanctuary Secured: The Man Who Extended the Visas For Life.”  His book is excellent.  One of his sources is Rabbi Marvin Tokayer.  

See my blog post https://kotzk.com/2025/05/18/november-23-2024-updated-may-18-2025/&nbsp;

Professor Lucy S. Davidowicz

I also read two essays in Lucy S. Dawidowicz’s book, The Golden Thread.  She has selections from two secular jews who were in the revolutionary movements of socialism and communism, Pavel Borisovich Axelrod 1850 – 1928 and Chaim Zhitlowsky 1865 – 1943.  Both had turned their backs on their Jewish heritage and assimilated in Russian culture.  They worked for the Russian people until they came to the realization that their alleged compatriots were anti-semitic.  They themselves believed in the worst of the Jews, that all Jews were exploiters of the working man and found fault even with impoverished Jews.  They both saw the pogroms, and it did change their feelings.  At least Chaim Zhitlowsky did somewhat come back to identifying with the Jewish people.  

This was the tragedy of the Jewish people from the early 19th century all the way to WW II.  The Jews faced constant discrimination, even after the ghetto walls fell, and they tried to assimilate but were unsuccessful. Read Moses Hess’s “Rome and Jerusalem.”  The Jews had to hide and not acknowledge their Judaism to fit into the larger society. They had to look down on their religion and Jews.  Hundreds of thousands of Jews gave their lives for communism, socialism, and other non-Jewish ideals.  It got them nowhere.  They gave up their lives for ideals that hated Jews.  It ended with a Stalin who wanted to call all Jews and a Hitler who almost did.

Read what Professor Nancy Sinkoff wrote in her book, From Left to Right.  It is the story of Lucy S. Dawidowicz, about her starting as a leftist and ending up as a conservative.

My February 11, 2026 email to Nancy Sinkoff:

Professor:

I am thoroughly enjoying your book.  Lucy Davidowitz’s disagreement with Hannah Arendt and Raul Hilberg was excellent reading.  On page 207 you write, “For her part Lucy Dawidowicz was acutely aware of the influence of the Jews’ long history in the European diaspora on the contemporary reality of American Jews.  She rejected the enshrinement of liberalism as an essential characteristic of being Jewish much earlier than the New York intellectuals did.”  Later on you continue, “Historically, European Jewish leaders .  .  . ”  Excellent.  

This rings true even more today, where a Jew has to submerge and even deny their positive feelings towards Israel to be accepted in progressive and perhaps even liberal circles.  

And her response to me:

She was prescient. A Cassandra.

Dr. Nancy Sinkoff

Academic Director

The Allen and Joan Bildner Center for the Study of Jewish Life

Professor of Jewish Studies and History

Rutgers University

nsinkoff@rutgers.edu

http://jewishstudies.rutgers.edu/people/core-faculty/nancy-sinkoff

Professor Lucy S. Davidowicz’s most famous book:

Rabbi Ahron Rakeffet

Rabbi Professor Marcus Jastrow

I have been listening to Rabbi Rakeffet religiously. His speeches focused on reading Sefrim from people who may or may not have been Orthodox.  He started with the Tshuvos of Reb Menashe Klien, the Ungaver Rebbe that discussed Professor Marcus Jastrow and using his Aramaic dictionary. Reb Menashe Klein was told that Professor Marcus Jastrow was not an Orthodox Rabbi.  The Rebbe said you cannot use the Jastrow Dictionary.  Rabbi Rakeffet argued with this Tshuva and brought out amazing  history.  First he said that one has to be in awe of the scholarship of Pabbi Professor Marcus Jastrow.  He did not have a computer, yet he put together an amazing list of Aramaic words and provided sources of how the Aramaic words are used through Bavli, Yerushalmi, and Medresh.  An amazing feat.  He then discussed the issue of whether or not Rabbi Professor Marsuc Jastrow was a reform Rabbi.  Rabbi Rakeffet said that Jastrow was a Shomer Torah and Mitzvos. He kept Shabbos, the Mitzvohs and learned Torah.  The reason why people called him a Reform Rabbi was that he was a longstanding rabbi of Rodef Shalom in Philadelphia, which started out as an Orthodox synagogue and then became affiliated with the Reform movement.

The issue that Orthodox people cited for why Jastow was not orthodox was that in his synagogue, people wanted to get rid of or shorten Migilas Esther.  It was written in Hebrew, a language that his congregants did not understand.  It seems like he did shorten the reading of Migilas Esther.  Additionally, Wikipedia states that although he opposed the reform’s Pittsburgh Platform, he allowed an organ to be installed in the Rodeph Shalom Congregation.  Rabbi Rakeffet addressed these issues. Rabbi Professor Marcus Jastrow did not want the Rodef Shalom to become a reform temple. He tried to innovate so that the synagogue remains Orthodox with some modifications. Rabbi Rakeeffet said that there was tremendous pressure in those years to  bow to the reform movement and Jastrow felt he had to do something to stem this tide.  Yes, he did things that today we would not do, but he looked for areas to change that did not affect Halacha. Rabbi Rakeffet strongly disagreed with Reb Menashe Klein and said that Reb Menashe Klein was misinformed.

I read an article by Professor Mical T. Galas titled Jewish-Polish Relations in the Writings of Rabbi Marcus Jastrow, which seems to paint a different picture of Jastrow. In alignment with Rabbi Rakeefet, the article reads:

”He was also an advocate and promoter of the development of education and learning amongst the Jews of Warsaw, in order to link the traditions of Judaism with the spirit of the Haskalah (Jewish Enlightenment), and Reform Judaism. In this field he undertook a series of initiatives that had reverberated among the Jewish inhabitants of Warsaw and the Polish elites. As Jastrow wrote after leaving Warsaw: “Promotion of learning and culture, this is progress, and for this I was offered in Warsaw a great field which I worked to the best of my strength.”

I am sure the Chiddusshai Harim who also lived in Warsaw during this time did not agree with Jastrow. However, as can be seen by Rabbi Rakeffet, the Wikipedia article, and the above that  Jastrow remained faithful to the Torah.  He criticized the Reform movement and warned his congregation in Philadelphia not to align with the Reform movement.  It seems he tried to adopt practices that were more liberal and innovative where he could without violating Torah principles.  He aimed to incorporate the best aspects of Haskalah and implement reforms that did not contradict Torah principles.  

His struggle is the eternal struggle of jews who want to live in modern society and integrate however possible with the country they live in.

From Wikipedia:

In the autumn of 1866 he went to Philadelphia as rabbi of the Ashkenazi congregation Rodeph Shalom, with which he was connected until his death, remaining in active service until 1892 and identifying himself with the interests of the Jewish community.

The problem under discussion at the time was organization, urged in the East by the Orthodox Isaac Leeser and in the West by the Reform Isaac Mayer Wise.

Jastrow initially allowed his congregation to join the Reform Union of American Hebrew Congregations. After the Reform movement united around the radical “Pittsburgh Platform” in 1885, Jastrow, along with many other rabbis of the time, withdrew his congregation’s membership.

In 1886, together with Rabbi Henry Pereira Mendes, founder of the Orthodox Union, he helped Rabbi Sabato Morais establish the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. It was only in 1913, ten years after Jastrow’s death, that the next generation of management altered the Orthodox principles of the school, and from them emerged Conservative Judaism.

He was removed by his congregation in September 1892 in favor of the Reform-ordained Henry Berkowitz. Jastrow attributed this decision to the growing popularity of radical reforms and the congregation’s desire to compete for membership with the more liberal synagogues. In his farewell speech, he chastised his congregation, insisting that “he who does not feel himself in unison with the tenets of Israel’s religion as they have been transmitted from generation to generation, [is] not justified in occupying a Jewish pulpit established for the proclamation of Jewish doctrines.” He made several efforts to prevent the introduction of certain reforms, including articles in the public press. In 1894, the Board felt the necessity to write him to ask him to refrain from publishing articles that might create strife in the congregation. He served as rabbi emeritus of the congregation until he died in 1903 on the Jewish holiday of Shemini Atzeret in Germantown, Philadelphia.

January 31, 2026

What does סִגְנִיּוֹת – Signeyos Mean

The Drowning of the Egyptian Army

The Kotzker Rebbe and the Crimean War

Brigadier General Winfield Scott Hancock during Pickett’s Charge

Chapter 14: verse 24 says:

וַֽיְהִי֙ בְּאַשְׁמֹ֣רֶת הַבֹּ֔קֶר וַיַּשְׁקֵ֤ף יְהֹוָה֙ אֶל־מַחֲנֵ֣ה מִצְרַ֔יִם בְּעַמּ֥וּד אֵ֖שׁ וְעָנָ֑ן וַיָּ֕הׇם אֵ֖ת מַחֲנֵ֥ה מִצְרָֽיִם׃

At the morning watch, GOD looked down upon the Egyptian army from a pillar of fire and cloud, and threw the Egyptian army into panic.

What does  וַיָּ֕הׇם mean?  English translations translate as panic, confounded, confusion, and discomfited.

Rashi – ויהם. לְשׁוֹן מְהוּמָה, אשדורד”ישון בְּלַעַז, עִרְבְּבָם, נָטַל סִגְנִיּוֹת שֶׁלָּהֶם. וְשָׁנִינוּ בְּפִרְקֵי רַבִּי אֱלִיעֶזֶר בְּנוֹ שֶׁל רַבִּי יוֹסֵי הַגְּלִילִי: כָּל מָקוֹם שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר בּוֹ מְהוּמָה הַרְעָמַת קוֹל הוּא, וְזֶה אָב לְכֻלָּן “וַיַּרְעֵם ה’ בְּקוֹל גָּדוֹל וְגוֹ’ עַל פְּלִשְׁתִּים וַיְהֻמֵּם” (שמואל א ז’):

ויהם has the meaning of confusion. old French estordison. He cast them into confusion; He took away their  סִגְנִיּוֹת – Signonos.  And we read in the Chapters of Rabbi Eliezer, the son of Rabbi José, the Galilean: Wherever it speaks of מהומה (forms from the root המם) it signifies a thundering sound; and the following passage is the father of all of them (i. e. that from which this meaning is quite evident):

 (I Samuel 7:10) “And the Lord thundered with a great sound … upon the Philistines and discomfited them (ויהמם)”.

Let us analyze this Rashi:

1. What does סִגְנִיּוֹת – Signeyos means.  It seems that this is an Aramaic word, although I am not sure..

There are three translations:

1 – Commanding officers – Amara N’kei in Artscroll footnotes

2 – English blue cover Linear Chumosh  and Sefaria – Ensigns

3 – Sifsei Chacomin, Artscroll – senses, their special

Sefsei Chachomim on this Rashi – נטל סגניות שלהם. פי’ שכל שלהם, לשון סגנון אחד עולה וכו’:

He took away their senses. סגניות means intelligence, as in: “One thought ( סגנון ) is presented to many prophets. . .”  This is a Gemora on Sanhedrin 89A –  דְּאָמַר רַבִּי יִצְחָק: סִיגְנוֹן אֶחָד עוֹלֶה לְכַמָּה נְבִיאִים, וְאֵין שְׁנֵי נְבִיאִים מִתְנַבְּאִין בְּסִיגְנוֹן אֶחָד.  but two prophets do not prophesy employing one and the same style of expression.

B) Continuing the Rashi.   And we read in the Chapters of Rabbi Eliezer, the son of Rabbi José, the Galilean: Wherever it speaks of מהומה (from the root המם) it signifies a thundering sound; and the following passage is the father of all of them (i. e. that from which this meaning is quite evident): (I Samuel 7:10) “And the Lord thundered with a great sound … upon the Philistines and discomfited them (ויהמם)”.

How do we understand Rashi?  First Rashi says ויהם means confusion.  Then Rashi seems to say – how did Hashem throw them into confusion?  נָטַל סִגְנִיּוֹת שֶׁלָּהֶם – he took away either their senses or  their ensigns or their commanding officers.  Rashi then brings down a Pirkei D’Rav Eliezer that he took away their senses through thunderous noises.  Rashi is telling us that do not  think they were thrown into confusion losing their senses  was based on the next verse,verse 25 

 וַיָּ֗סַר אֵ֚ת אֹפַ֣ן מַרְכְּבֹתָ֔יו וַֽיְנַהֲגֵ֖הוּ בִּכְבֵדֻ֑ת וַיֹּ֣אמֶר מִצְרַ֗יִם אָנ֙וּסָה֙ מִפְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל כִּ֣י יְהֹוָ֔ה נִלְחָ֥ם לָהֶ֖ם בְּמִצְרָֽיִם׃

[God] removed (by burning them off via the pillar of fire) the wheels of their chariots so that they moved forward with difficulty. And the Egyptians said, “Let us flee from the Israelites, for GOD is fighting for them against Egypt.”

However, Rashi is telling us that they lost their commanding officers and their senses due to thunderous noises.  What were these thunderous noises?  Verse 14:21 says that God brought an strong east wind – וַיֵּ֨ט מֹשֶׁ֣ה אֶת־יָדוֹ֮ עַל־הַיָּם֒ וַיּ֣וֹלֶךְ יְהֹוָ֣ה ׀ אֶת־הַ֠יָּ֠ם בְּר֨וּחַ קָדִ֤ים עַזָּה֙ כׇּל־הַלַּ֔יְלָה וַיָּ֥שֶׂם אֶת־הַיָּ֖ם לֶחָרָבָ֑ה וַיִּבָּקְע֖וּ הַמָּֽיִם׃

I think Rashi is saying that even though there were extremely thunderous, discomfiting strong winds, the Jews were protected by the walls of water.  Once the Egyptians entered the reed sea, the walls did not offer them protection from the thunderous east wind; they could not think and lost their senses, they lost their order of the battlefield, and their commanding officers no longer could lead their army.   They hit a brick wall of sound.

Translating Rashi like the Amara N’kei that it means “commanding officers,” means that he threw the Egyptian army into chaos by destroying their command structure.  Their field generals and officers lost control of the battlefield because of the thunder of the “east wind”.   The chariots and troops lost their way in the Reed Sea, crashing into each other and heading in every direction.  In fact, verse 14:7 said the Egyptian army was strong because  they had officers.  The verse says וַיִּקַּ֗ח שֵׁשׁ־מֵא֥וֹת רֶ֙כֶב֙ בָּח֔וּר וְכֹ֖ל רֶ֣כֶב מִצְרָ֑יִם וְשָׁלִשִׁ֖ם עַל־כֻּלּֽוֹ׃ –  he took six hundred of his picked chariots and the rest of the chariots of Egypt, with officers in all of them.

Bartenura has both explanations; their senses and their commanding officers – ויהם לשון מהומה ערבבן נטל סגניות שלהן פירש דעת וחכמה שלהן ויש מפרשים סגנין וראשין שבהן מלשון ויבא סגנים כמו חמר:

Divrei Dovid – ויהם כו’, נטל סגניות, פירוש בערוך ענין חכמה ודעת:

This Rashi may be the source for the Kotzker in the following story from the Sefer The Rebbe of Kotzker and the Sixty Warriors Surrounding Him.

During the Crimean War, which lasted from 1853 to 1855 and involved the allied forces of England, France, and Turkey fighting against Russia, the Rebbe of Kotzek took a stand for the allies and yearned for their victory. He followed with great interest what was happening on the battlefield. He once asked one of the Hasidim who came to him: “What is the news of the battlefield?” The Hasid replied: “I heard that Tsar Nicholas sent an order to the battlefield, that the officers remove their golden decorations from their uniforms because the decorations are shiny and attract the eyes of the enemy sharpshooters.  The army is in great need of officers.”   (The sharpshooters were targeting the officer, killing many of them, and the Russian army was losing too many experienced field officers.)

“So,” said the Rebbe of Kotzk, “if they removed the decorations, they lost the battle.”

And indeed, the days did not last long, and as he said, so it was.

When the war ended with the signing of a peace treaty, Russia undertook not to maintain an army for several years, resulting in the release of many Jewish soldiers and the “cantonists.”  The Kotzker’s sister-in-law, Feigli, the wife of the Chiddushi Harim, traveled specifically from Warsaw to Kotzk, to tell this news to the Rebbe, because it was known how much he had expected to hear that the Russians were defeated.  (Warsaw is 83 miles from Kotzk and before trains she had to go on horse and buggy, quite a distance.  This was the joy in the family.)

What was the Kotzker worried about even during the days of Hester?  He was worried and prayed that the thousands of cantonists, Jewish boys grabbed by the Russian government to serve 25 years in the Russian army, would be released and be able to go home.  I assume that the Kotzker Rebbe realized that the defeat of the Russians would bring about the release of the cantonists.

How did the Kotzker Rebbe declare with certainty that if the Russian generals and field officers removed their distinctive clothing, then the Russian Army would lose the war?  How did he know war strategy?    The Kotzker was learning and dealing with Chassidim all his life.  He did not attend war college.  When I first read this story, I did not understand the relationship between removing the decorations until I took a trip to the Gettysburg battlefield in 2014 and spent a few years studying the three-day battle of Gettysburg. 

On day three of Gettysburg, the Confederates lined up over 12,000 troops to march across an open field, about 8/10s of a mile, to attack the Union center where the second Corp were dug in.  It was over  90 degrees and the confederates were wearing woolen uniforms.  This has been called Pickett’s charge.  The Confederates were decimated.  I read that the Confederate Army lost so many generals and experienced field officers that they would not be able to win the war in battle. 

More importantly, during Pickett’s charge, the Union’s Second Corps was under the leadership of Major General Winfred S. Hancock.  During Pickett’s charge, Major General Winfred Hancock was prominent on horseback, reviewing and encouraging his troops.  When one of his subordinates protested, “General, the corps commander ought not to risk his life that way,” Hancock is said to have replied, “There are times when a corps commander’s life does not count.   Hancock was wounded, and despite his pain, he refused to evacuate to the rear until the battle was resolved.  He had been an inspiration for his troops throughout the three-day battle.

This is what the Kotzker understood.  An Army needs its commanding officers to lead and show courage on the battlefield.  He understood that once the Russian officers were indistinguishable from the regular soldiers, the morale would collapse and that they would be defeated.

I am blown away by this, the wisdom of the Kotzker.  I thought that this was because the Torah gives its great leaders and scholars all types of knowledge.  However, during Shabbos Parshas VaYishlach, January 30, 2026, I may have found the source of the Kotzker in Rashi. 

 When the Torah mentioned the Egyptian army, Shmos verse 14:7 says:  וַיִּקַּ֗ח שֵׁשׁ־מֵא֥וֹת רֶ֙כֶב֙ בָּח֔וּר וְכֹ֖ל רֶ֣כֶב מִצְרָ֑יִם וְשָׁלִשִׁ֖ם עַל־כֻּלּֽוֹ׃

“He took six hundred of his picked chariots and the rest of the chariots of Egypt, with officers in all of them.” I thought to myself that the Torah speaks about the lethality of the Egyptian army, not only in terms of its weaponry, but also because they were well organized, with capable officers leading the army.  

Verse 14:24 talks about the Egyptians entering the reed sea and encountering all difficulties.  The verse says:  וַֽיְהִי֙ בְּאַשְׁמֹ֣רֶת הַבֹּ֔קֶר וַיַּשְׁקֵ֤ף יְהֹוָה֙ אֶל־מַחֲנֵ֣ה מִצְרַ֔יִם בְּעַמּ֥וּד אֵ֖שׁ וְעָנָ֑ן וַיָּ֕הׇם אֵ֖ת מַחֲנֵ֥ה מִצְרָֽיִם׃

“At the morning watch, GOD looked down upon the Egyptian army from a pillar of fire and cloud and threw the Egyptian army into panic.”

Rashi saysויהם. לְשׁוֹן מְהוּמָה, אשדורד”ישון בְּלַעַז, עִרְבְּבָם, נָטַל סִגְנִיּוֹת שֶׁלָּהֶם. וְשָׁנִינוּ בְּפִרְקֵי רַבִּי אֱלִיעֶזֶר בְּנוֹ שֶׁל רַבִּי יוֹסֵי הַגְּלִילִי: כָּל מָקוֹם שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר בּוֹ מְהוּמָה הַרְעָמַת קוֹל הוּא, וְזֶה אָב לְכֻלָּן “וַיַּרְעֵם ה’ בְּקוֹל גָּדוֹל וְגוֹ’ עַל פְּלִשְׁתִּים וַיְהֻמֵּם” (שמואל א ז’): 

ויהםויהם means “confusion” in Old French as estordison. He cast them into confusion; He took away their commanding officers. And we read in the Chapters of Rabbi Eliezer, the son of Rabbi José, the Galilean: Wherever it speaks of מהומה (forms from the root המם) it signifies a thundering sound, and the following passage is the father of all of them (i.e., that from which this meaning is quite evident): (I Samuel 7:10) “And the Lord thundered with a great sound … upon the Philistines and discomfited them (ויהמם)”.

Let us analyze Rashi in  his interpretation of verse 14:24

ויהם. לְשׁוֹן מְהוּמָה, אשדורד”ישון בְּלַעַז, עִרְבְּבָם, נָטַל סִגְנִיּוֹת שֶׁלָּהֶם.  He threw the Egyptian army in disarray because he took away their “סִגְנִיּוֹת.”   What are סִגְנִיּוֹת?  This term is not a common word.  Sefsei Chachomin translates the term as their שכל, which means senses or intelligence.  This definition is based on a Gemora in Sanhedrin 89B.  This is how Artscroll translates this word.  The Divrei Dovid also says – ויהם כו’, נטל סגניות, פירוש בערוך ענין חכמה ודעת:

A second explanation is The Minchas Yaakov says it means “banners” “insignia”  This is the translation of Sefaria of Ensigns.

However, the best Pshat is that of the Amar N’kei, as quoted in the footnotes of the Artscroll and also mentioned in the Bartenura  . Amar N’kei renders it as “commanding officers.”   This is perfect.  The Egyptians were praised in verse 14:7 for having a strong officer corps that made their army invincible.  When the Egyptian army went into the reed sea, he took away the effectiveness of their strong command structure by taking away their ability to lead.  This beautiful rashi can be the source of the Kotzker Rebbe’s knowledge of when the Russians effectively lost the war.

February 28, 2026

Parshas Tzavah – Parshas Zachor

Setsuzo Kutsuji

Lucy S. Dawidowicz – Nancy Sinkoff

We are still in Florida.

This Shabbos finished the book published by Koren, Kotzuji’s Gift: The Daring Rescue of Japan’s Jewish Refugees.  The book has a foreword by Rabbi Meir Yaakov Soloveichik. It contains two smaller books.  1) The autobiography of Setsuzo Kutsuji, written in English in 1964, and 2) an English translation of Jundai Yamada’s Japanese book, which is a biography of Setsuzo Kutsuji’s life.  His book is titled “Sanctuary Secured: The Man Who Extended the Visas For Life.”  His book is excellent.  One of his sources is Rabbi Marvin Tokayer.  

See my blog post https://kotzk.com/2025/05/18/november-23-2024-updated-may-18-2025/&nbsp;

I also read two essays in Lucy S. Dawidowicz’s book, The Golden Thread.  She has selections from two secular jews who were in the revolutionary movements of socialism and communism, Pavel Borisovich Axelrod 1850 – 1928 and Chaim Zhitlowsky 1865 – 1943.  Both had turned their backs on their Jewish heritage and assimilated in Russian culture.  They worked for the Russian people until they came to the realization that their alleged compatriots were anti-semitic.  They themselves believed in the worst of the Jews, that all Jews were exploiters of the working man and found fault even with impoverished Jews.  They both saw the pogroms, and it did change their feelings.  At least Chaim Zhitlowsky did somewhat come back to identifying with the Jewish people.  

This was the tragedy of the Jewish people from the early 19th century all the way to WW II.  The Jews faced constant discrimination, even after the ghetto walls fell, and they tried to assimilate but were unsuccessful. Read Moses Hess’s “Rome and Jerusalem.”  The Jews had to hide and not acknowledge their Judaism to fit into the larger society. They had to look down on their religion and Jews.  Hundreds of thousands of Jews gave their lives for communism, socialism, and other non-Jewish ideals.  It got them nowhere.  They gave up their lives for ideals that hated Jews.  It ended with a Stalin who wanted to call all Jews and a Hitler who almost did.

Read what Professor Nancy Sinkoff wrote in her book, From Left to Right.  It is the story of Lucy S. Dawidowicz, about her starting as a leftist and ending up as a conservative.

My February 11, 2026 email to Nancy Sinkoff:

Professor:

I am thoroughly enjoying your book.  Lucy Davidowitz’s disagreement with Hannah Arendt and Raul Hilberg was excellent reading.  On page 207 you write, “For her part Lucy Dawidowicz was acutely aware of the influence of the Jews’ long history in the European diaspora on the contemporary reality of American Jews.  She rejected the enshrinement of liberalism as an essential characteristic of being Jewish much earlier than the New York intellectuals did.”  Later on you continue, “Historically, European Jewish leaders .  .  . ”  Excellent.  

This rings true even more today, where a Jew has to submerge and even deny their positive feelings towards Israel to be accepted in progressive and perhaps even liberal circles.  

And her response to me:

She was prescient. A Cassandra.

Dr. Nancy Sinkoff

Academic Director

The Allen and Joan Bildner Center for the Study of Jewish Life

Professor of Jewish Studies and History

Rutgers University

nsinkoff@rutgers.edu

http://jewishstudies.rutgers.edu/people/core-faculty/nancy-sinkoff

Parshas Vayechi – December 31, 2025

Chabad of East Lakeview – My Sermon

Dr. Leonard Kranzler Memorial Shiur

Beautiful Explanation by Matt on Verse 48:20 –  יָדַ֤עְתִּֽי בְנִי֙ יָדַ֔עְתִּי 

Heated Debate at the Shiur

My Torah

The Good Hands People

https://www.allstatecorporation.com/stories/good-hands-logo-slogan.aspx#:~:text=Finding%20the%20right%20hands%20to,Saturday%20Evening%20Post%20and%20Collier’s.

Shabbos Day:

The Rabbi was away for Shabbos to attend Rabbi Hertz’s – his father-in-law’s 60th birthday.  The 60th is a huge celebration because once a person hits 60 years old, he no longer is in the category of Karas, which is death with excommunication.  The next milestone in a person’s life is 65 when one is eligible for medicare.

The Rabbi asked me to speak.  I love speaking.  During my 6-mile walk to Lakeview, I focused on my sermon and was peripherally aware of my surroundings.  It was a “fast” two-hour walk.  I spoke from the Torah below.  Paul timed me and said I spoke for 17 minutes vs. the Rabbi who speaks for 15 minutes.  I am not a proponent of Musser or Jewish thought.  I love explaining the meaning of the Chumash, Rashi, and other Rishonim.  The Rishonim (Hebrew for “the first ones”) were pivotal medieval rabbis and Jewish legal authorities (poskim) who lived roughly from the 11th to the 15th centuries, bridging the gap between the earlier Geonim (Babylonian leaders) and the later Acharonim (post-Shulchan Aruch scholars).  I think my sermon went off well.

The Kiddush was at its usual excellence.  The Professor came and was part of the Shiur.  I davened at Anshei Sholem for Mincha and Maariv, and then Sholem picked me up.

Attending the Shiur were the Professor, Paul, Henry, Marcel, Peggy, Tamar, her brother Oren, Eva, and Ray.  I was loaded with Diet Coke.

At the Shiur we had a heated debate on the authorship of the bible.  We Frum Jews (it should be all Jews) know that the bible was composed by God and given to Moshe at Mount Sinai.  Once you reject Torah from Sinai, everything is off the table, and Jews can do whatever they want and assimilate into the greater culture.  This is what always happens.  I was rolling my eyes when someone seemed to be saying that Torah is not from Sinai.  He said, Mitch, stop rolling your eyes.    

I present my Torah on the Sedra.  Not to brag, but I think I outdid myself.

First Torah on the Parsha:

וַיְחִ֤י יַעֲקֹב֙ בְּאֶ֣רֶץ מִצְרַ֔יִם שְׁבַ֥ע עֶשְׂרֵ֖ה שָׁנָ֑ה וַיְהִ֤י יְמֵֽי־יַעֲקֹב֙ שְׁנֵ֣י חַיָּ֔יו שֶׁ֣בַע שָׁנִ֔ים וְאַרְבָּעִ֥ים וּמְאַ֖ת שָׁנָֽה׃

Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years. The years of his life were one hundred and forty-seven years.

When one reads this Pasuk, one has to feel the joy of Yaakov during these years.  Every day he woke up every day he was ecstatic, on cloud 9.  These were 17 glorious years.  Yaakov had a very difficult life.  Once Yaakov got  to these 17 years, the previous 130 years melted away and were as if they never existed.  Said another way, Yaakov felt that these 130 years were only a prelude to the 17 years.  I saw this with my grandparents and my mother.

Da’as Zekanim continues on this theme:

ויחי יעקב בארץ מצרים. למה הזכיר הכתוב סך חייו בארץ מצרים לפי שמצינו שיוסף היה עם אביו קודם מכירתו י”ז שנה וכשם שפרנס יעקב ליוסף י”ז שנה כך יוסף פרנסו וכלכלו י”ז שנה כנגדן הה”ד אלה תולדות יעקב יוסף בן שבע עשרה שנה:

‘ויחי יעקב בארץ מצרים וגו, “Why did the Torah mention the number of years that Yaakov lived in Egypt? We could have figured this out from the data the Torah already provided us with about how old Joseph was when he left the house of his father (Genesis 37:2) how old he was when he was appointed as viceroy by Pharaoh, and from the age of Yaakov (130) at the time of his death which is listed in the same verse. The point the Torah wished us to appreciate is that just as for the first seventeen years of his life, Yaakov, his father, had provided for him, during the last seventeen years of his life, his son Joseph provided for his father.

I love the imagery and the words of this Da’as Zekanim.  To extend the words of the Da’as Zekanim.  Every day of these 17 years Yaakov woke up and smelled the roses.

The imagery of Yosef’s interaction with Yaakov and his family is from Allstate.  Allstate used to have a commercial which they called their company the Good Hands People. I remember the image of a house within cupped hands.  https://www.allstatecorporation.com/stories/good-hands-logo-slogan.aspx.  

This is what Yosef did for his father and for his family.  They were under his protection.  Similarly, we Jews have to provide for our families, for our friends and for our community so that we have them under our protection.

Prologue:

Back in Vayeshev, 22 years earlier, Yaakov is reunited with his father and wants to retire.   Yakov is 108 and what does Rashi say  בִּקֵּשׁ יַעֲקֹב לֵישֵׁב בְּשַׁלְוָה, קָפַץ עָלָיו רָגְזוֹ שֶׁל יוֹסֵף – צַדִּיקִים מְבַקְּשִׁים לֵישֵׁב בְּשַׁלְוָה, אָמַר הַקָּבָּ”ה לֹא דַיָּן לַצַּדִּיקִים מַה שֶּׁמְּתֻקָּן לָהֶם לָעוֹלָם הַבָּא, אֶלָּא שֶׁמְּבַקְּשִׁים לֵישֵׁב בְּשַׁלְוָה בָּעוֹלָם הַזֶּה:

“Jacob wished to live at ease, but this trouble in connection with Joseph suddenly came upon him. When the righteous wish to live at ease, the Holy one, blessed be He, says to them: “Are not the righteous satisfied with what is stored up for them in the world to come that they wish to live at ease in this world too! (Genesis Rabbah)”

Twenty two  years later, Yaakov can now retire and live a peaceful and great life under the protection of his favorite son.  

I love the phrase  רָגְזוֹ שֶׁל יוֹסֵף – it is a very strong word and should be translated as the fury of Yosef. Artscroll translates as “the ordeal of Joseph” and JPS translates as “ but this trouble in connection with Joseph suddenly came upon him.”   These are wrong translations and that ‘s why one has to know Hebrew.   I have always loved the title of William Faulkner’s book, “The Sound and the Fury,” which I owned, started to read a few times, and never read.   This Sound and Fury of Yosef took 22 years to pass and once it passed, how glorious it was.  Yaakov got the life that he desired and not just playing golf every day or going on a cruise down the Nile, but love of family, love of Torah, and love of the success of the son of his favorite wife. Learning with his grandchildren and great-grandchildren.  He embraced his entire family.  He saw the growth in Yehuda and I would presume all of his sons. (Thanks to Leonard Grunstein for this concept of the growth and maturity of Yehuda and Yosef.)    Yaakov saw his grandchildren and great-grandchildren grow and he taught them.  He died seeing the success of his family.  Yosef was still in power, and although there might have been signs of Yosef’s weakness, Yaakov was living what Martin Bordy would call “a glorious life.”  

With Yaakov’s death, an era had ended.  Yaakov died knowing that he had succeeded with his kids.  The era of stability and complete freedom had ended, and a slow descent into brutal slavery had started.  Yaakov hoped that he had mitigated the ultimate slavery to some extent but he knew that hard times were to come.  He knew about the prophecy of Avrohom Avinu at the Bris Ben Habesarim that  Avrohom’s descendants would end up in bitter slavery.  As I argued based on a Rashi in next week’s Parsha, the slavery was going to be a  benign 9 to 5 slavery, but through Jewish treachery, it turned into a brutal slavery.

This is the 3,000 year destiny of the Jewish people.  Times of greatness were followed by times of slaughter, quite often precipitated by Jews themselves.  

Perhaps this is the underlying message of verses 49:1 and 49:2.  Be unified together and in the faith of Hashem.  Be loyal to God and to your brothers.  Obviously this is not how these Pesukim are learned. However, perhaps we can read this into the verses.

וַיִּקְרָ֥א יַעֲקֹ֖ב אֶל־בָּנָ֑יו וַיֹּ֗אמֶר הֵאָֽסְפוּ֙ וְאַגִּ֣ידָה לָכֶ֔ם אֵ֛ת אֲשֶׁר־יִקְרָ֥א אֶתְכֶ֖ם בְּאַחֲרִ֥ית הַיָּמִֽים׃

And Jacob called his sons and said, “Come together that I may tell you what is to befall you in days to come.

הִקָּבְצ֥וּ וְשִׁמְע֖וּ בְּנֵ֣י יַעֲקֹ֑ב וְשִׁמְע֖וּ אֶל־יִשְׂרָאֵ֥ל אֲבִיכֶֽם׃

Assemble and hearken, O sons of Jacob;

Hearken to Israel your father:

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Second Torah on the Parsha:

Rashi is the first Pasuk says:

ויחי יעקב. לָמָּה פָּרָשָׁה זוֹ סְתוּמָה? לְפִי שֶׁכֵּיוָן שֶׁנִּפְטַר יַעֲקֹב אָבִינוּ נִסְתְּמוּ עֵינֵיהֶם וְלִבָּם שֶׁל יִשְׂרָאֵל מִצָּרַת הַשִּׁעְבּוּד, שֶׁהִתְחִילוּ לְשַׁעְבְּדָם; דָּבָר אַחֵר: שֶׁבִּקֵּשׁ לְגַלּוֹת אֶת הַקֵּץ לְבָנָיו, וְנִסְתַּם מִמֶּנּוּ. בִּבְ”רַ:

This commentary is based on a Midrash.  However, the Medrash has three reasons, as follows:

וַיְחִי יַעֲקֹב בְּאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם (בראשית מז, כח), לָמָּה פָּרָשָׁה זוֹ סְתוּמָה מִכָּל הַפָּרָשִׁיּוֹת שֶׁל תּוֹרָה, אֶלָּא כֵּיוָן שֶׁנִּפְטַר אָבִינוּ יַעֲקֹב הִתְחִילָה שִׁעְבּוּד מִצְרַיִם עַל יִשְׂרָאֵל. דָּבָר אַחֵר, לָמָּה הִיא סְתוּמָה מִפְּנֵי שֶׁבִּקֵּשׁ יַעֲקֹב אָבִינוּ לְגַלּוֹת אֶת הַקֵּץ וְנִסְתַּם מִמֶּנּוּ. דָּבָר אַחֵר, לָמָּה הִיא סְתוּמָה מִפְּנֵי שֶׁסָּתַם מִמֶּנּוּ כָּל צָרוֹת שֶׁבָּעוֹלָם.

“Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years; the days of Jacob, the years of his life, were one hundred and forty-seven years” (Genesis 47:28).

portions?* Why is this portion more closed than any of the Torah portions?* Typically between Torah portions there is a nine-letter long space in the Torah scroll. Leading into the Torah portion of Vayḥi, which begins with this verse, there is merely a one letter space. This is because the enslavement in Egypt began immediately after the death of our patriarch, Jacob.

Another reason, why is it closed [setuma]? It is because Jacob, our patriarch, sought to reveal the End of Days, and it was prevented [nistam] from him.

Another reason why it is closed [setuma]? Because he was shielded from all the troubles of the world.* Jacob had suffered greatly over the course of his life, but during these seventeen years, he was shielded from troubles.

Why doesn’t Rashi mention this third reason in the Midrash?  Yet in the next verse, when Rashi quotes another Medresh as to why Yaakov did not want to be buried in Egypt, Rashi gives all three reasons stated in the Medresh.

Why did Yakov want to be buried in Chevron and not Egypt?

Verse 47:29

וַיִּקְרְב֣וּ יְמֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵל֮ לָמוּת֒ וַיִּקְרָ֣א ׀ לִבְנ֣וֹ לְיוֹסֵ֗ף וַיֹּ֤אמֶר לוֹ֙ אִם־נָ֨א מָצָ֤אתִי חֵן֙ בְּעֵינֶ֔יךָ שִֽׂים־נָ֥א יָדְךָ֖ תַּ֣חַת יְרֵכִ֑י וְעָשִׂ֤יתָ עִמָּדִי֙ חֶ֣סֶד וֶאֱמֶ֔ת אַל־נָ֥א תִקְבְּרֵ֖נִי בְּמִצְרָֽיִם׃

And when the time approached for Israel to die, he summoned his son Joseph and said to him, “Do me this favor: place your hand under my thigh as a pledge of your steadfast loyalty; please do not bury me in Egypt.

Rashi provides three reasons from the Midrash:  

אל נא תקברני במצרים. סוֹפָהּ לִהְיוֹת עֲפָרָהּ כִּנִּים, וּמְרַחֲשִׁין תַּחַת גּוּפִי, וְשֶׁאֵין מֵתֵי חוּצָה לָאָרֶץ חַיִּים אֶלָּא בְּצַעַר גִּלְגּוּל מְחִלּוֹת, וְשֶׁלֹּא יַעֲשׂוּנִי מִצְרַיִם עֲבוֹדָה זָרָה:

אל נא תקברני במצרים BURY ME NOT, I PRAY THEE, IN EGYPT — Because its soil will ultimately become lice, which would swarm beneath my body. Further, those who die outside the Land of Israel will not live again at the Resurrection except after the pain caused by the body rolling through underground passages until it reaches the Holy Land) And another reason is that the Egyptians should not make me (my corpse or my tomb) the object of idolatrous worship (Genesis Rabbah 76:3).

However, notwithstanding Rashi and the Midrash, the most obvious and simple reason is that the Cave of the Machpelah in Chevron was his burial spot.  Of course he would want to be buried in Chevron, where his wife was buried along with his parents and grandparents.   We can add that he was also afraid Eisav would take the spot.  Even temporarily, like his sons, Yaakov did not want to wait until they left Egypt.   Reb Moshe Soloveichik did not agree with what I said.  He and the Ohr Hachaim say that it is reasonable for Yaakov to be buried temporarily in Egypt.  I shout from the rooftops, no, no.  Yaakov had a burial spot in Chevron and did not want to be buried in Egypt, even for one night.  

There was another fundamental reason for Yaakov not wanting to be buried in Egypt.  Yaakov knew that human nature is that having your family patriarch, grandfathers and ancestors buried in a country ties you to that country.  You feel that you are part of the country; you are an Egyptian.   Yaakov did not want his descendants to feel Egyptian.  Yaakov insisted on being buried in the family’s  homeland, in Israel.  This is where we belong, in Eretz Yisroel.  This was very important in keeping his family Jewish.

Yaakov knew it was a hard ask.  His son Yosef was the viceroy and ran the country.  It would be expected by Pharaoh that Yosef’s father would be buried in Egypt. Yosef was an Egyptian, ruled the country, “walked like an Egyptian and talked like an Egyptian,” so it should be natural for Yaakov to be buried in Egypt.  Additionally, Yaakov brought blessing to Egypt and was revered by them.  The Egyptians presumably wanted Yaakov to be buried in Egypt so that Yaakov in death would continue to bless Egypt.  After all, the Egyptians believed in the afterlife, and ancient Egyptians strongly believed the dead continued to exist and actively influenced the living, acting as intermediaries, protectors, or even sources of trouble if neglected.  They maintained this connection through offerings, rituals, and maintaining tombs so the deceased’s spirit (Ka and Ba) could thrive and help them. 

When Yosef asked Pharaoh to bury Yaakov in Canaan, this came as a shock to Pharaoh and if not for the oath, Pharaoh may not have allowed Yosef to take Yaakov to Israel. Per Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, Yosef paid a price for this and after Yaakov died, Yosef’s relationship with Pharaoh changed and going back to the first Rashi of the Parsha, the slavery started after Yaakov’s death. 

Yaakov knew that it would be a hard ask for Yosef and made Yosef swear to Yaakov.  The Gemora says that חכם עדיף מנביא, a wise man is greater than a prophet.  

In the Sefer Mesoras Harav, page 307 on verse 50:5:

The following incident explains the significance of this exchange:  Edmond de Rothschild, the well-known French philanthropist, wanted to be buried in Israel, but his wish could not be immediately acted upon because of hostilities related to the 1948 War of Independence.  Although he was buried in France,  when conditions in Israel permitted, Rothschild’s children made a request through the French interior ministry that he be reinterred in Israel.

Time passed and they did not receive a reply.  After some inquiries they were told that President De Gaulle himself was delaying the response.  When asked, De Gaulle responded that he was troubled by the request.  He had considered de Rothschild a loyal Frenchman.  A true Frenchman is born, lives, dies and is buried on French soil.  Rothschild’s request was therefore troubling, and although De Gaulle eventually acceded to the family’s request,  his opinion of the family Rothschild as Frenchmen was irrevocably diminished. 

Joseph’s dilemma was similar.  He had spent many years as the Viceroy of Egypt and was considered a true Egyptian.  How could he possibly want to have his father buried in a foreign land?  Joseph therefore wished to communicate to Pharaoh that it was because he took an oath to his father that he was compelled to accede to Jacob’s wish. 

The question for me is: Why didn’t the Medresh and Rashi mention the two simple and obvious reasons for Yakov not wanting to be buried in Egypt?  What authority do I have to present my explanations?  My answer is that the Rashi and definitely the Medrash are not here to provide us with the obvious reasons.  Rashi wants us to think and answer it ourselves.  He then gives us three additional reasons we would not know and these are from the Medresh.  These reasons are also true, and Rashi wants to inform us of the other reasons why Yaakov did not want to be buried in Egypt. 

Perhaps this is also why the first Rashi omits the third reason from the Medresh, which is “because he was shielded from all the troubles of the world,” this was more obvious, and Rashi felt it unnecessary to state this reason and to also think for ourselves. 

Third Torah on the Parsha:

Verse 48:20

וַיְמָאֵ֣ן אָבִ֗יו וַיֹּ֙אמֶר֙ יָדַ֤עְתִּֽי בְנִי֙ יָדַ֔עְתִּי גַּם־ה֥וּא יִֽהְיֶה־לְּעָ֖ם וְגַם־ה֣וּא יִגְדָּ֑ל וְאוּלָ֗ם אָחִ֤יו הַקָּטֹן֙ יִגְדַּ֣ל מִמֶּ֔נּוּ וְזַרְע֖וֹ יִהְיֶ֥ה מְלֹֽא־הַגּוֹיִֽם׃

But his father objected, saying, “I know, my son, I know. He too shall become a people, and he too shall be great. Yet his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his offspring shall be plentiful enough for nations.”

What does  יָדַ֤עְתִּֽי בְנִי֙ יָדַ֔עְתִּי mean?  Rashi says, “I KNOW IT, MY SON, I KNOW that he is the firstborn.

There is a major question here.  How could Yaakov favor the younger son over the elder?  He did this 39 years earlier and it created havoc.  Why would he repeat this mistake?  Matt in our Shiur mentioned an idea from Rabbi Nachman Kahana on this double language.   Yaakov is in effect saying that I know what you are thinking: how can I repeat the same mistake again?  On this Yaakov answered, I know the personality of Menashe; he is grounded and understands that Ephraim is destined for greatness and he accepts it.  I have to give Ephraim the greater blessing because Yehoshua in the future (Rashi) needs this blessing.  This is similar to King David and Yonasan, King Saul’s son.  Yonasan should have been king, yet he recognized that David has greater potential and must be king.  He saved Israel by recognizing his talents and David’s greater talents.  How did Yaakov know that Menashe would accept what happened?  This goes back to the 17 years of Yaakov living in peace.  He learned with his children and grandchildren constantly and knew their personalities.  He molded them into outstanding men.