Harav Moshe Pivovoz zt''l - "Ehr is gevehn fun di shtile vos haltn oif di velt"

Hamodia - On the morning of Shabbos Shuvah5775, Harav Moshe Pivevoz, zt”l, a beloved talmid chacham, rebbi to many people in the community, and a Gaon in middos tovos, passed away suddenly at the age of 96 — after spending Rosh Hashanah immersed in tefillah at his beloved Tzemach Tzedek shul on the Lower East Side.

 Rav Pivovoz-Hamodia

On Sunday afternoon the crowd at the levayah poured out from Mesivta Tiferes Yerushalayim onto East Broadway to give kavod achachron to a man, small in physical frame, yet larger than life in his Torah and yir’ah — who shunned the smallest measure of kavod his entire life. True to his character, Reb Moshe forbade hespeidim, and any words that his children said were strictly with the purpose of internalizing the lessons of his life.
Reb Moshe, a fixture on the Lower East Side, was born in the town of Plotnitze, and spent his childhood in Pinsk, near Karlin, then in Poland. He and his family were close to the Rebbe Harav Avraham Elimelech of Karlin, and continued their relationship with the Stoliner Rebbes on these shores.

Halachos laws and minhagim for Erev Rosh Hashana 5775

Laws for Erev Rosh Hashana- erev shmitta 5775

1. This year since erev shabbos is on second day of RH remember to make an Eruv Tavshilin on Wednesday Erev yom tov. One may not cook on Thursday for shabbos but only on Friday.

2. Some have a Minhag to write a PRUZBUL on erev shmitta most dont do it until the end of the shmitta year. download it HERE

3. Following selichos we say hataras nedorim on erev Rosh Hashana

4. Some have a minhag to purchase a new knife on Erev Rosh hashana as a segulah for parnassah.

5. The minhag is for men to fast on erev Rosh Hashana up to chatzos.

6. Some go to visit kivrei tzadikim on erev Rosh Hashana

7. Minhag is to go to the mikva on erev yom tov.

8. The beracha on candle lighting for Rosh Hashana is lihadlik ner shol yom tov, without mention of    Yom Hazikaron

9. We do not blow the shofar after shachris on Erev Rosh Hashana.

For general halachos of Rosh hashana, regarding the simanim, shofar, davening etc.. click HERE

Video- Agudath Yisrael yom Iyun for selichos- Rav Mattisyahu Solomon

Do we write a pruzbul at the begining of the shmitta year?

The minhag is to write a pruzbul at the end of the shmitta year. Is there a point to make a Pruzbul at the beginning of the Shmita year?

 In principle the lender can write a pruzbul (פרוזבול‎)  and give over his loans to Bais Din at any time he wills, even years before the beginning of the shmitta year. However the pruzbul will only have an effect on loans made before this pruzbul was signed. Poiskim disagree as to when shmittas k'safim or the cancellation of debts instructed by the Torah takes effect. Most maintain that it is only at the end of the shmita year and it is then that the pruzbul should be signed. (Rambam – H. Shmitta 7, Shulchan Aruch C.M. 67: 30, Chinuch 477 et. al.) The Chasam Sofer (C.M. 50) testified that so was his and mentor's minhag. Shaarei Tzedek (21: 9) writes that this was and still is the Yerushalmi tradition and it is the most accepted custom worldwide.

However, the Rosh (Gittin 4: 10) and Tur (C.M. 67) and others maintain that the prohibition to collect loans takes effect already at the beginning of the shmitta year, therefore the pruzbul would have to be written before the end of the sixth year. Nitey Gavriel (Shmitta p. 16 ) quotes Minchas Yitzchok mentioning that the Chasidim of Lubavitch following the opinion of the Shulcham Aruch Horav and the contemporary Rebbe that one should make two puzbulin, one at the end of the sixth year and another one at the end of the shmitta year.

Why are they silent, where are the child abuse activists ?

Why are the bloggers silent?? why are they not worried about the safety of the children. A bus driver in Monsey working for the  East Ramapo school district  private school route taking kids home from Cheder Chabad of Monsey,  was arrested for allegedly ditching students a mile from their designated stop. He was charged with a misdemeanor and suspended from his job. Floyd James was charged with child endangerment. Freed without bail, he is due in Ramapo Town Court on Oct. 7, police said Monday.

VIN which reported the story only less then 10 comments posted, FM didn't post it yet. Even more shocking is Rabbi Horowitz who is at the forefront of protecting children did not tweet or mention this story at all. Not only that but VIN reports this is not an isolated case. A similar incident happened in 2012 at Yeshiva Darchei Noam ( Where R' Yakov Horowitz is dean)  and officials did nothing about it initially. 

 The answer is simple the bus driver here is not a frum Jew. He is not a charedi its a non news story. So what if children were dehydrated and had to walk in high temperatures to their home. It dosent serve their agenda.  Had the driver been a yid  the haters would have come out  in droves. Even if he would have been arrested they would blame the frum for not obeying laws you would hear about the need to educate the frum bus drivers etc..Boy would the comments come pouring in. Its obvious, that charedi bashing is  their agenda masked and disguised as advocates for child abuse.

NYT, profiles the power of the frum Chasidish Jewish Vote

New York Times- For generations, American Jews, and particularly Jewish New Yorkers, have largely been identified as ardent liberals.
Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe formed a substantial core of early 20th-century progressives and socialists. More recently, 70 percent of Jews voted for President Obama in 2012, about the same as Hispanics, and were exceeded in their enthusiasm mainly by African-Americans. But that liberal image is poised to change. A 2012 demographic study by UJA-Federation of New York found that 60 percent of Jewish children in the New York City area — the Jewish center of the United States — live in Orthodox homes, which suggests that in a generation a majority of the city’s one million Jews may be classified as Orthodox. A sizable percentage of those children happen to be Hasidim, the group that has fueled Orthodox growth with its astonishing fecundity. (Seven or eight children per family is common and one Hasidic woman, Yitta Schwartz, had about 2,000 living descendants when she died in 2010.) read more HERE

Photos- President Obama motorcade erev shabbos visit to frum neighborhood in Baltimore

This past erev shabbos president Obama attended a fundraiser at the home of Howard Tzvi Friedman in Baltimore. According to this report  close to 200 Frum yiddin who live nearby or on the motorcade

 Obama in Baltimore photo by Israel Orange

Hamodia newspaper redesigned

Always improving Hamodia has redesigned its weekly newspaper edition.  From Hamodia.com

The changes you are about to experience were implemented after fielding research to determine what we could do to make the Hamodia experience an even better one for our loyal readers.  Part of the process involved listening to both the compliments — and the criticism — of our regular readers, first and foremost, as well as to occasional readers, and even non-readers.

Among the key elements we chose to focus on were:

• A more compact paper, with fewer, more organized sections
• Additional photos and visuals throughout a full-color paper
• Expanded Inyan on higher quality paper with Kinyan content integrated
• Redesigned Binyan to make following the news entertaining while edifying

We took your feedback seriously! To that end, you will find the news, columns and features

The pitfalls of a "historic meeting"

A few months a go some frum bloggers were patting themselves on their backs, in a self congratulatory way for a historic meeting a groundbreaking meeting, known as the Monsey summit . Its purpose was to identify problems within the frum orthodox Jewish community spend an experimental, intimate evening of discussion together. Each speaker identified a problem in the community, its negative consequences, and proposed improvements and solutions.

Eleven people were at the meeting  five "prominent" members from the orthodox community and five "prominent" members of the formerly Orthodox Jewish community. The Orthodox members were from the non-Modern Orthodox, non-chasidic, non-Lakewood communities. Those who attended were, (in alphabetical order only dont know who the five and five are)
 Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein,  Ms. Avital Chizhik. Rabbi Ron Eisenman. Rabbi Aaron Fink, Eli Fink, Ms. Adina Kadden, Mr. Ushy Katz, Rabbi Avi Shafran, Ms. Frieda Vizel, Ms. Leah Vincent, Anonymous, Rabbi Yakov Hororwitz,was unable to attend simply because of a conflict.

What went  on at the meeting is a state secret (here is a report from one of the OTD who attended.) only those who attended are privileged to that. What we do know is that a great chilul hashem has come out of this meeting. Torah misinai, Frum Yidden are now being questioned of their practice and emunah bahashem. The orthodox members who were there, listened to those that are no longer frum, explain the reasons why they left the fold.

Instead of standing up to the criticism of the orthodox frum community, they took what was said and  are now writing articles attacking yiddishkeit. These articles, have generated debates which openly question ikrei haemunah.  Frum Yidden are now portrayed as orthoprax , Harry the middle of the road blogger has opened the floodgates of koifrim and apikorsim to spew their hate against Torah Misinai R''L. The nation of maaminim bnei maaminim has now become non believers r''l. Another wrote Articles on staying frum that appear to be based on a warped view of the few he met that abandoned yiddishkeit.

Torah is Vibrant today, klal yisrael is strong. There are thousands of children learning, thousands of yidden serving hashem with emunah, doing mitzvos and maasim tovim.  Its time to end all this madness, time for the skeptics to move away, time for these rabbis to get offline, to stop tweeting, and facebooking.  Let us daven that hashem bring all his children back to him and we can all say in unison hashem echad ushmo echad. 

President Obama will taste some טועמיה this Erev Shabbos in Baltimore

After ditching his first chance of eating chulent , President Barack Obama will have a second crack at tasting a bowl of hot cholent or stew, this erev shabbos at a fundraiser in Baltimore. President Obama is scheduled to attend a fundraiser for the Democratic senatorial campaign committee on Friday afternoon at the home of noted askan  past chair of AIPAC, Mr. Howard Tzvi Friedman. The event is called for 4:00 pm. With shabbos just a few hours later, there should be a pot of cholent simmering nearby for the president to taste, along with a piece potato kugel of course.

Agudath Israel -exercize your right to vote this primary election Tuesday September 9th

Another website joins the charedi bashing band wagon

For a while this site labeled itself as "a journal of thought and reflections, from an array of Orthodox Jewish writers". On their about us page they write:

 Like most journals in blog format, editorial control is extremely loose, and writers are free to disagree and debate. Through reading Cross-Currents, we hope that you will become aware of diverse views representing a traditional Jewish perspective. Any impressions you may have had of the Orthodox as being monolithic or humorless should rapidly be dispelled; we’ll see about the other stereotypes as we go. By hearing about Orthodoxy from the Orthodox, it is our hope that you will — if not a member of our community — develop a more balanced and nuanced perspective than that which you find in the general and Jewish media.

However recently there's been many articles, that portray charedim and frum Jews in negative light. Articles poking fun at the Torah world, articles questioning and making fun of the kollel system. Articles calling for achdus -only to blame the frum Torah community for the ones not working on achdus, by sticking to their core beliefs.

The articles, as they say in yiddish iz a halbeh Tzurreh. The comments in the comment section,

Gedolei yisrael in Tzaar- Petirah of Rebbetzin Chana Shteinman A''H

  

Rebbetzin chana shteinman A''H,61, was nifteres earlier today following an illness she was the

Nichum availim R' Shteinman  at home of Rav Chaim kanievsky

daughter of Rav Chaim Kanievsky shlita and married to Rav Shraga Son of Rav Aaron Leib Shteinman shlita. The Levaya took place in Bnei Brak.  Her husband is the Rosh Yeshiva of kehilos Yaakov. She took great care of her father in law all her years, preparing his food for him and cleaning the house. Many times she was appointed to ask shailos to her father, Rav shteinman reffered to her as an אשה כשרה.  Shiva will be at the home of Rav Chaim kanievsky.
         

Harav Naftali Landau Zt''l Chuster Dayan

 Hamodia : On Sunday, 12 Elul, Klal Yisrael lost one of the last of the pre-war Hungarian Rabbanim with the passing of Harav Naftali Landau, zt”l, at age 97.  Known as the Chuster Dayan, Harav Landau was a trusted posek for the most intricate Choshen Mishpat cases for over 65 years.

Harav Landau was born in 1917 in the Hungarian town of Legenmihay, where his father, Harav Binyomin Zev, was Rav.  Learning mostly under his father, young Naftali absorbed the Hungarian method of study and halachic teshuvos.
All his life, he clung to the practices and traditions he had been brought up with. To compromise on the minutest detail of a minhag or practice was unthinkable. This dedication to the ways of his ancestors was at the core of who he was and what he inculcated into his children.
He married the daughter of Harav Yaakov Friedman, zt”l, Dayan in Chust. A short while later he joined the town’s beis din, beginning his long career in Choshen Mishpat — adjudicating business halachah.

ELUL! hundreds of listeners scream E-L-U-L live on the air as they get ready for the yomim noraim

Hear 500 listeners yell the word ELUL, live on the kol chai radio in Israel, as they get ready for the yomim noraim with אלול. This feeling of fear overflows into the preparatory month of Elul. Rav Yisrael Salanter describes it thus: "Every man is seized with terror at the holy, summoning voice of Elul.
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Statement of Agudath Israel of America on the Lakewood School district

STATEMENT OF AGUDATH ISRAEL OF AMERICA – NEW JERSEY OFFICE
The new school year has started in Lakewood, New Jersey and more than 30,000 nonpublic school students came to school and discovered that there were no nurses on premises to deal with their

basic medical needs, no textbooks to help them learn, no remedial classes for those who require some extra help – despite the fact that by law, and by longstanding precedent, nonpublic school children in New Jersey are entitled to receive and have in fact received textbooks, remedial education and nursing services.  It was especially disheartening to learn that nonpublic school students are being deprived of these services and benefits while their counterparts in the public schools are continuing to receive them.  This selective withholding of benefits and services is unprecedented and unacceptable.  

Satmar Rebbe speaks about ALS ice bucket challenge and Niggun Hastara

Update:
We could not verify or authenticate the speech attributed to the Satmar Rebbe. There is no audio of it. The source is an internet post which could be a good piece of satire, therefore unless proven otherwise, we are pulling the speech. We in no point meant to besmirch or make fun of the Satmar Rebbe shlita we ask him mechilla in the event that there was a zilzul talmidei chachomim and kavod shomayim.

Look who ordered the sefer ויואל משה of the Satmar Rebbe mashal from QATAR

 A man in Qatar, by the name of Mashal  ordered a copy of  vayoel Moshe- ויואל משה‎  the sefer written by Rabbi Yoel Teitelbaum, previous Satmar Rebbe  in 1961. The order was placed online at Z. Berman Jewish Bookstore. Rav Yochy Berman of Z. berman books in an interview to Kol mevaser news line said that the credit card was declined and they tracked the IP address to Qatar. The man emailed them about his order to which they are checking into why the credit card was declined. This book is considered one of utmost importance by Satmar Chasidim  who follow the Satmar doctrine regarding Zionism. 

ואפילו בהסתרה- the words for Niggun Hastureh English translation

 דער אויבשרטער זאגט אונז קינדערלך

"ואנכי אסתר אסתיר פני ביום ההוא" אבער דער רבי זאגט

ואפילו בהסתרה שבתוך הסתרה בוודאי גם שם נמצא השם יתברך

גם מאחורי הדברים הקשים העוברים עליך אני עומד

Words taken from Rabbi Nachman of Breslov Ztl in Likutei Maharan. ליקוטי מוהר”ן ח”א תורה נ”ו
English translation-

 "Hashem says to his children I will conceal myself on that day but the Rebbe Rav Nachman says that even in the Hidden concealment Hashem yisborach is definitely present there, even during the hard times your experiencing Im here standing before you. 

Why did they not search and find Aaron Sofer Z'L right away

The pundits and Monday morning quarterbacks are out there. A cell phone would have saved his life they say. Why was he wearing his hat and jacket dont these charedi yeshiva guys know the proper dress for a hike. Blame the yeshivos for not letting bochurim have cell phones. On and on the commentors got it down pat. Guess what, experienced hikers get lost too. Cell phone batteries run out and there isn't always reception. Do we know what realy happened in this case?

Why dont they blame themselves for not searching the entire area right away? why did it take so long to decide on the specific area where he was found . They should have done a walk through of the entire forest immediately. why did it take 6 days for these professional organizations to find the Niftar.

 A freak story like this has no answers its a cheshbon from shomayim, and it is worse to use it to attack and besmirch the yeshivos and charedim. The circumstances here dont call for any of this second guessing. In the hesped for Aaron Z'L the Rosh yeshiva Rav Tzvi Kaplan spoke how the Bochur went like a yeshiva man with his hat and jacket. Its a shame when a tragedy is used to further an agenda of hate to the Torah world masked behind saftey.