Full discussion here:

Full discussion here:

Full discussion here:

Full discussion here:

Full discussion here:

Hat tip Hirhurim:

Chakira writes: "For many people in the Hassidic world, the excesses and people magazine style lives of Rebbes seem corrupt, meaningless, venal and lacking in spiritual content. Indeed, many of my Hungarian friends began life with a cynicism of Rebbes cultivated by Der Yoelish and now continue to spew their antipathy on any einikel they can find. One prominent Rov of Satmar extraction has written a serious sefer against rebbes and their followers. Others are just completely cynical; not returning to Derech HaChasam Sofer like that Rov, but rather insulting even their own Rebbes. This latter group seems to be where the person who made this video comes from."

Binyomin Eckstein writes:

I’m trying to think what the Chofetz Chaim would say about the video. I don’t think it would be "we have to know how to laugh at ourselves or we have big problems."

I am literally nauseated by the video.

To quote from "Journey to Virtue", page 141:
"One common manifestation of this category of leitzanus is unfortunately so widespread and deeply entrenched as to require special attention. It has become routine for members of one group to make fun or belittle the practices and custons of other groups, e.g. Chassidim and Misnagdim; Ashkenazim and Sephardim… and followers of various rebbes tzaddikim and gedolim. This practice is strictly forbidden. The customs of these groups were generally instituted by great tzaddikim for profound reasons far beyond the understanding of those who deride them."

Shmuel writes: The point is not to be mevaze Talmidei Chachomim or Torah but to shine a bright light on the rebbe-centric and gashmius adoration which has krept into Yiddishkeit. Rather than being focused on Torah, chassidim seem too focused on the individual rebbes and the "malchus" aspect of their leaders.
This is what the Gra and the misnagdim found objectionable about Chassidus 200 years ago.
This threatens to enter the yeshivishe velt too unless we are attuned to it and conciously work to avoid the cult of the person and worship of materialism.

Rabbis Steven Weil of Beth Jacob, Elazar Muskin of YICC and Yosef Kanefsky of Bnai David-Judea all rank at the top of any list of America’s leading Modern Orthodox rabbis.

Various Angelenos are honored in the Forward’s latest list of 50 influential Jews.

As with the following case, the public stands that bring popularity to Orthodox rabbis among the non-Orthodox are the very thing that marginalize one in the Orthodox world.

Brad A. Greenberg writes:

Rabbi Yosef Kanefsky learned last fall the danger of voicing a political opinion last fall when he wrote a column for The Jewish Journal that said Israel should be free to determine the fate of Jerusalem without having to kowtow to Diaspora Jews who demand the city remain undivided.

“To be sure, I would be horrified and sick if the worst-case division-of-Jerusalem scenario were to materialize. The possibility that the Kotel, the Jewish Quarter or the Temple Mount would return to their former states of Arab sovereignty is unfathomable to me, and I suspect to nearly everyone inside the Israeli government,” he wrote.

“At the same time though,” he continued, “to insist that the government not talk about Jerusalem at all [including the possibility, for example, of Palestinian sovereignty over Arab neighborhoods] is to insist that Israel come to the negotiating table telling a dishonest story—a story in which our side has made no mistakes and no miscalculations, a story in which there is no moral ambiguity in the way we have chosen to rule the people we conquered, a story in which we don’t owe anything to anyone.”

Nauseated or not, by simply suggesting that American Jews should butt out Kanefsky had broken an Orthodox taboo and the damage had been done.

“We heard sales, er, give-aways of the Journal spiked—in Gaza,” Robert Avrech wrote on his blog Seraphic Secret. “As we said, we’d like nothing better than to ignore Kanefsky, an arch leftie crank in Pico Robertson area, who leads a Romper Room congregation, but naturally the story was gleefully snapped up by the Los Angeles Times, a paper that would like nothing better than to see Israel disappear from the map. And of course, all the usual leftist Conservative, and Reform suspects jumped in to greet their lone Orthodox colleague to the Official Neville Chamberlain Appeasement Club. One of these characters labels Kanefsky a—get this—visionary.”

Well, last week The Forward agreed with that visionary label and named Kanefsky to its list of 50-most influential Jews, which includes a handful of Angelenos.

“A former associate rabbi at the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, a New York congregation led by maverick Orthodox Rabbi Avi Weiss, Kanefsky has long taken positions at odds with the Orthodox establishment,” The Forward stated. “He has allowed women to read from the Torah in their own single-sex services. As a past president of the Board of Rabbis of Southern California, he is far more engaged with the non-Orthodox Jewish world than most of his peers. But his nontraditional approach seems to be helping his cause: Over the past year, Kanefsky’s congregation of 300 families has grown by more than 10%.”

JOE EMAILS LUKE:

The verdict on Kanefsky’s brand is not yet complete. There is no other orthodox shul in l.a. whose mission seems to be tolerance above all, with authenticity left for the accuracy of the torah reading and the checking of bugs in salad. He is the only rabbi to show a gay movie (Trembling Before God) in the shul, to say that Jerusalem could be split, and to do these hoky women’s services. it is as if he wants to piss someone off - I doubt he has more members because of his actions, his shul’s growth is due to the capacity at other shuls and the inferiority complex of most of its members vis a vis YICC and BJ. The members of Bnai David are "downstat" compared to the tonier members of YICC and BJ.

It does not play to a base of committed jews, it is trying to be open to all. Many in his synagogue send their kids to shalhevet. Lots of parents in my shul whose kids go to shalhevet go to shul less and less. Some don’t even keep shabbat. We will see where Kanefsky’s airy fairy brand is in 20 years. Do those who grew up in that shul return, or do they take the tolerance of a kanefsky the next step and end up in the library minyan in Beth Am, with their kids taking the next step and leaving the religion altogether?

As a teenager growing up and on my way to yeshiva in israel, a tolerant rabbi who could state that jerusalem was on the table would not attract me. If i am spending 10 hours a day in school to do both secular and religious studies, and on to 12 hours a day of talmud, i do not want some rabbi spending his time with the homeless on :ico instead of making sure that the women in the congregation do not wear pants. I want a code not good karma.

Kanefsky seems to do well among jewish men and women in their 30s-50s who have to work their asses off to make the 200 plus it costs to live in any type of normalcy in the hood. Those people are so concerned about bringing home the bacon that they are sick of the code. They want Judaism to be less inconvenient, they want their rabbi to read like Fareed Zakaria and not like Rabbi Chaim Luzatto. They do not want the polish shtetl, they want the Upper West Side.

There is no doubt that Rabbi Kanefsky is influential and has the candle power. If he went black hat, he would kick the ass of any rabbi in La Brea on every day of the week and twice on Sunday. I just do not know if he realizes the genie he has unleashed won’t come and knock him off.

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The Torah portion is Chayyei Sarah (Genesis 23 - 25:18). Rabbi Ari Kahn

I emailed Joey Thursday morning that I was too sick to do Torah talk.

Then at 4 pm, he calls to say he’s picking up Helen and will be right over.

I sprayed Fabreze air freshener, cleaned up the hovel, and skimmed the portion.

I asked Joey to run the show.

 

From Hirhurim:

It all sounds a bit suspicious to me.

He doesn’t even know if he was shot with a gun or hit with a rock.

It doesn’t sound to me like he was shot.

Here’s his interview with The Awareness Center.

From the Jewish Week:

A Williamsburg community activist who has spoken out frequently against child sexual abuse in the Brooklyn Orthodox community claimed Monday that his life had been threatened multiple times as a result.
Rabbi Nuchum Rosenberg claimed that the threats culminated last month when he was “shot” on Berry Street, near the Williamsburg Bridge by unknown assailants.

Speaking at a press conference outside the 90th Precinct Police Headquarters in Williamsburg, Rabbi Rosenberg complained that police were unable to protect him. He pointed to a scarlet wound seared in the middle of his forehead to indicate the spot where he was hit.

But in interviews he gave before and after the press conference, Rabbi Rosenberg said he was actually uncertain just what hit him on the forehead, saying it could have been a pellet gun or even a rock.

“A car flew by as I was walking, and I felt something hit me,” he told The Jewish Week. “I didn’t see what it was.”

Police sources confirmed Rabbi Rosenberg had filed at least three complaints about being harassed or threatened over the last several months. But he acknowledged that he filed a complaint about the attack on him last month several days after it had occurred. Rabbi Rosenberg said the assault took place on Oct. 16, the fourth day of Sukkot, but that he went to the police only after the eight-day Jewish holiday.
Rabbi Rosenberg, 58, said that prior to this incident he was threatened twice at gunpoint by an unknown person speaking Hebrew who warned him to close down a telephone hotline he operated. The Yiddish language hotline featured recorded messages on which Rabbi Rosenberg addressed a host of sensitive community issues, including child sex abuse, and on which he made often incendiary charges.
On one recorded message obtained by The Jewish Week, Rabbi Rosenberg denounced various individuals by name as an “extortionist,” and a “mafia thug.”