Jul 4, 2021
the Lakewood aliyah battle
There is some funny fight going on over in Lakewood, Ir Hakodesh, about making aliyah... I am not quite sure what the exact story is and who is behind what, but this is pretty intriguing..
Initially the following ad was posted and spread around:
ok. hatzlacha. sounds nice. best of luck to this group of people who want to move to Israel, or Eretz Yisrael, whichever it may be.
60 families signing up sounds like a pretty impressive group of people! I don't know who is behind it, but kol hakavod for the initiative.
In response, the following ad has been posted in Lakewood:
there are no gedolim behind moving to Eretz Yisrael? I am not quite sure that is true. Rav Chaim Kanievsky himself has been quoted many times, when asked, as telling avreichim and other God fearing Jews that they should be moving to Israel. I don't know Rav Chaim he is behind this specific initiative in Lakewood, or if he was consulted by them, but I am pretty sure it can't be too difficult to find a few gedolim in favor of moving to Eretz Yisrael.
This seems like a funny committee, and I am unsure as to who, or why someone, found the need to form a committee to publish daas torah about the WZO. This just strikes me as a weird topic for a committee.
The recent WZO elections did find unprecedented Haredi participation, and they had daas torah behind them, so whatever 70 year old information this committee publishes about WZO seems like it will likely be irrelevant and out of date. Of course I am sure there are plenty of rabbonim with daas torah who did not agree to the recent Haredi participation in WZO, and quoting them will also be daas torah against daas torah. Of course, each person thinks his daas torah wins and everyone else has to follow it, so they might have a point.
Anyway, I am not quite sure why people who are prepared to leave Lakewood and move to wherever, Israel or elsewhere, need anybody's permission - they should discuss and consult with their family, their mentors, their rabbonim, they can putt together a group of like-minded people if they so wish... they, for whatever reason they remained anonymous, do not need the permission of the other anonymous group of people who oppose the initiative. They are not obligated to stat in Lakewood against their will.
This seems like an intriguing battle is about to play out in Lakewood.
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There's a claim that Reform took off so well because as a result of the Emden-Eibeshitz controversy, and the Litvish-Misnagdish fight, and others, every single rav (and Jew) in Europe was in cherem at one point or another. So lots of Jews concluded that the whole thing was a sham.
ReplyDeleteinteresting. never heard this
DeleteObviously there were many factors, but the claim is that this was one of them. When modernity came-a-knocking and rabbanim started warning against it, lots of Jews thought, "You were wrong on X and declared chassidut to be apikorsut, so..."
DeleteSince the original ad tells you to "text" your name, and that requires a cell phone, which is usually looked down on in those circles, I wonder how authentic it really is.
ReplyDeleteas far as I know, in the USA kosher phones generally include and allow texting, unlike in Israel.
DeleteAgree. There are some chasidim who don't even use texting. But I know some real frummies in lakewood and they all have flip-phones with texting capabilities.
DeleteThey will move to Israel and have English speaking Mosdos? So the kids won't learn Hebrew? But magically they will have parnassa when they finish school? How about a school with great ulpan?
ReplyDeletethere are no gedolim behind moving to Eretz Yisrael? I am not quite sure that is true.
ReplyDeleteThe ad says that this group is being organized with ברכת הגדולים, not just that Gedolim in general would approve of it. That's a much more specific (and falsifiable) claim.
and is it so difficult to imagine a scenario in which they asked a rav or gadol, consulted with one and got his bracha and encouragement for this plan? it does not seem like much of a leap that they would have to rely on a random gadols previous statement.
Deletebesides, the term gadol is as vague as always. they could ask any rav who supports it and say it has the bracha of the gedolim. just about every rav is considered a gadol by his followers.
Life in Lakewood became very unsustainable in the last few yrs, kol hakovod, time to come home, I live in Beit Shemesh, moved from lkwd a few yrs ago and quality of life improved by 100%
ReplyDelete