I am sorry, but I no longer know who I am supposed to kill.

About six months ago one influential rabbi called Dati Leumi people "Amalek" .

And yesterday a different influential rav, one close with Rav Shteinman, called followers of Rav Shmuel Auerbach and the Yerushalmi Litvishe group "descendants of Amalek". (source: Kikar)

Maybe they are cousins.

I am at a loss. How do I decide which is really amalek? Do I have a mitzva to be machmir and kill both, just in case? Maybe we apply the concept of "Eilu vEilu Divrei Elokim Chaim" and assume they are both right? Would killing both be a chumra or a kula?

Note: I do not advocate the killing of any of these people. It just seems to be what the rabbis are telling us to do. It seems people don't know how to behave and talk in any way that is not extreme and outrageous..

I saw in shul today a pile of pamphlets containing a listing of all the gedolim (I don't know how inclusive the list is - I did not even really read the list) and what time, and where, they each light their Chanukah candles.

The purpose is, obviously, to allow the people the ability to go to the gedolim of their choice and watch them light their menorahs.

Personally, I am not a "groupie" of any specific gadol, and going to watch them light candles is not something at the top of my "to do" list. However, I do recognize that other people do enjoy that kind of stuff, and either pick the gadol they want to watch or they make the rounds among various gedolim and watch as many as they can. I recognize the desire to be inspired, even just by watching an important rav light candles.

I do wonder though, as I was glancing at the pamphlet, how this jives with halacha. If you are going after the hassidic rebbes in the list, it should work out ok for the most part. Many of them light later in the evening, so a regular person could light his candles at the proper time and then go to the rebbe of his choice. The litvishe rebbes (I call them "rebbes" because the litvishe community has become very hassidic in style in the past 15 years or so in the way they treat their gedolim and rabbonim) on the other hand all light at the same time the regular people are supposed to be lighting at -eith the sunset minhag or the tzeis minhag. So halachically speaking is it ok to not light on time because you want to drive out to Bnei Braq to watch Rav Steinman or Rav Kanievsky (or whichever other one you prefer) light their candles?

My Rosh Yeshiva from my yeshiva days was a fairly eccentric fellow. That is pretty common among these "iluy" types, that they are kind of quirky.

His main quirk was that he cared about nothing else aside from getting the right pshat with clarity in the gemara.

Nothing else mattered.

He did not care about appearances. He did not care about what people thought. He wanted to learn, to teach, to get the true pshat, and that the boys should learn. That's it.

Any time he tried to change something in the yeshiva for appearance sake (e.g.. to make it more "yeshivish"), it was always because other people pressured him to do so. They would tell him if he wants a better caliber boy, he has to do x, y or z. A different rebbe would say if he wanted to attract boys from yeshiva x he had to implement y or they would not come. A mashgiach would say they had to change q so the yeshiva would have a better name. Sometimes he became convinced of it and followed the advice, and sometimes not.

One thing I remember clearly was how he would run for the bus. At the time the yeshiva was in a different neighborhood than the one he lived in. He would travel to and from by city bus. That's right - you could often see this big-time rosh yeshiva sitting on an Egged bus muttering to himself (he was always learning).

The most interesting thing was to see him run for the bus. If he was caught up in something and only realized at the last minute that his bus was coming, he would just pick up and run. I think he would have give Car Lewis a run for his money! You would see him dash out towards the bus stop with his frock tails flying behind him as he waved to the bus driver to wait for him..

Eventually some people told him it was not respectable and made the yeshiva look bad and they insisted he take taxis rather than the city bus. He held off or a long time because he saw no reason for it, as the bus was just fine. But others insisted that it is not respectable for such a important rosh yeshiva to be on the bus. He gave in and took taxis or got rides, but he could still sometimes be seen getting on the bus.

Why do I recall this now?

I just read about how Rav Wosner is planning a trip to Switzerland. When one of his supporters heard that he will be travelling, he approached Rav Wosner and offered to arrange for him a private plane, all expenses paid. He felt it was not appropriate for the great Rav Wosner to be travelling like the common man on a regular flight.

Rav Wosner first accepted, but after a few days he contacted his benefactor and rejected the offer. he said I am just like any other Rav and I do not need any special travel arrangements. I can travel like everybody else.

That is a breath of fresh air to me. We have gotten so used to treating our rabbonim like chassidishe rebbes that we lose perspective. In the chassidishe world and the sephardic world it is common. Their supporters pay big money to be able to sponsor something for the Rav/Rebbe/Chacham.

I just read about the Satmar Rebbe will be going somewhere (do not remember where) and anybody who wants to sit with him will have to donate some astronomical sum, something like $50,000. The sephardic Rabbonim all drive the top luxury cars, which are sponsored by supporters.

I know of a sephardi shul where the Rav decided to open up a new shul. he went to collect to build a building. He raised a million dollars for the building in one fundraising trip. The only problem was he had nobody to daven in the shul. He built a large building very quickly, not completed but built enough to use, and one can see often people outside the shul looking to shlep someone in to help complete the minyan. But he has his big building.

It is something cultural in these communities. The litvishe community however always eschewed that style. The litvishe community always looked for simplicity. Torah was the main thing and everything else was minor.

Yet as time goes on, the litvishe community has begun treating its rabbonim like chassidishe rebbes. A Rav needs to take a trip and he gets a private plane!! Certainly the trips can be difficult and, especially for an elderly Rav, anything to help ease the discomfort can make a big difference. But it always made me uncomfortable to see the change in the way the Rabbonim were treated and how they allowed themselves to be treated like that.

To read that Rav Wosner decided such a luxury was unnecessary and wasteful, as he can travel like everybody else, is a breath of fresh air.