See Pages 3, 4, 5

$1.00 WWW.5TJT.COM VOL. 10 NO. 14 15 TEVES 5770 hjhu ,arp JANUARY 1, 2010

INSIDE FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK RABBIS URGE US: GO BIBLICAL

MindBiz BY LARRY GORDON
Esther Mann, LMSW 25
Stairway To Peoplehood
Rabbi Avi Shafran 30
The Shalit Dilemma
Malkie Roth was 15 years old deal for the release of Gilad
An Accomplishment in August 2001, when she was Shalit is reached with Hamas.
Hannah Reich Berman 34 murdered as she stood in line The inclusion of these mer-
for pizza at the old Sbarros on chants of terror on the list is not
Real-Estate Allergies King George Street and Jaffa what is delaying the conclusion
Anessa V. Cohen 40
Road in central Jerusalem. Ten of the deal.
Soul Art other victims, people simply Arnold Roth, Malkie’s father,
Riva Pomerantz & N. Fein 63 waiting to order or eating their told CNN last week that he is L–R: Rabbi Sholom Gold, Mr. Marc Sievers of the U.S. Embassy in Israel,
lunch, also died that day. adamantly opposed to the Rabbi Dov Lior, Rabbi Joseph Gerlitzky, U.S. Ambassador James
Cunningham, Rabbi Moshe Havlin, and Rabbi Avrohom S. Lewin. The
The terrorists who organized release of those responsible for rabbis handed the ambassador a halachic ruling this week, signed by over
the bombing are on the list of 350 rabbis in Israel, that forbids giving up land controlled by Israel today.
those who would be freed if the Continued on Page 5 See Story, Page 36

STUDYING HEARD IN THE BAGEL STORE

NECHAMA LEIBOWITZ
BY JUDAH S. HARRIS
Susholz–Kanner wedding.
See Page 65 If you weren’t fortunate
enough a number of decades
ago to sit at the “learning table”
in Nechama Leibowitz’s modest
Jerusalem apartment where she
taught her regular Torah classes
or to grab a place in one of the
outer rows where students yet
found room to sit, you still
could have secured a comfort-
Continued on Page 12
Matchmaker, Matchmaker
BY LARRY GORDON
The hiatus is over, and I
guess you could say I’m back in
the hunt. I knew this day
would come—or rather, I was
hoping this day would come—
and lo and behold here it is.
The “hunt” that I refer to is a
rather casual forage for a suit-
able match, a shidduch, for my
next eligible child, this one a
formidable young gentleman
23 years of age.
Nechama Leibowitz, a’h After my three oldest chil-
dren were married, I thought
over these last several years that
for this next one I would be able
to apply all the wisdom and life
experience I had acquired in
dealing with the first three. In
other words, I was going to use
all my accidentally acquired
acumen to his and our benefit,
and perhaps even enjoy the
process, not unlike a surfer who
navigates his way through one
of those storm-induced tumul-
Continued on Page 8

Achiezer: Always On Call When CHAREIDI PATROL:

Darchei dinner guest of honor.
See Page 18
Rabbi Hamburger to speak in
Far Rockaway. See Page 23
Scholars Fall VIGILANCE OR
BY RABBI YAIR VIGILANTISM?
HOFFMAN
There is a well-known mitz-
vah to honor Torah scholars
(Sefer HaMitzvos 209). Although
the Rishonim cite different vers-
es as to the source for the mitz-
vah, it is almost universally held
that the mitzvah is a Biblical
one. Indeed, it is such an impor-
tant mitzvah that the Meiri
(Yuma 71a) writes that it is a
At the recent inaugural reception for the benefit of Achiezer–The
Comprehensive Chesed Community Organization (L–R): Rabbi Paysach greater mitzvah to honor a
Krohn, Rabbi Boruch B. Bender, Executive Director Josh Szpilzinger, host
Rabbi Mordechai Kamenetzky. See Story, Page 44 Continued on Page 15
BY SAMUEL SOKOL
ISRAEL CORRESPONDENT
Chareidi residents of the
Ramat Bet Shemesh Bet neigh-
borhood have formed a neigh-
borhood patrol in response to a
string of break-ins by Arab labor-
ers working on the many build-
ing projects throughout the city.
There are no hard numbers as
yet, but in the two weeks since
the founding of the “vaad
Continued on Page 23

CANDLE LIGHTING
Jan. 1 – 4:20 PM
Jan. 8 – 4:27 PM
Restoring The Askenaz Tradition Chareidi Patrol
Continued from Front Cover

BY RABBI SHMUEL is minhag Ashkenaz. With this knowl- ha’shemirah,” the number of burglaries by
LICHTENSTEIN edge, Rav Hamburger set out to find out Arabs is rumored to have dropped dra-
what minhag Ashkenaz was. Since his matically.
Did you ever wonder why the yekkishe father was niftar when he was very Residents of the Sheinfeld neighbor-
shuls use a vimpel instead of a regular young, and there were not many German hood, a Modern Orthodox area that bor-
gartel to wrap the sefer Torah? How kehillos in Eretz Yisrael, Rav Hamburger ders Ramat Bet Shemesh Bet, are uncom-
about why the German Jews pronounce had no choice but to start his research fortable with the idea of the patrol. A
a cholam as “ow” rather than “oy” or “oh.” from scratch. This was the beginning of local resident, who spoke with the Five
Sensing the neglect of German meso- Rav Hamburger’s lifelong mission to Towns Jewish Times on condition of
rah, in 1985 Rav Shlomo Hamburger uncover and bring back to life such a pre- anonymity, admitted that a neighbor-
founded Machon Moreshes Ashkenaz to cious old mesorah to the yeleidei hood watch is a good idea in principle,
research the source of minhagei Ashkenaz. He believes that just as the var- but expressed reservations about the peo-
Ashkenaz, dating back to the times of ious groups of Sefardim (Syrian, ple leading the group.
the Rishonim. Moroccan, Yemenite etc.) each have their Posters have been plastered on walls
On Motzaei Shabbos, parashas own shul, unique to their nusach, so too, throughout the chassidic neighbor- Poster calling for volunteers for the va’ad
Vayeira (January 16) Rav Hamburger will those of German descent should have hood, which contains a sizable expatri- ha’shemirah.
present a shiur on these issues at the their own shul based on their unique ate population from such chareidi cen-
Young Israel of Wavecrest-Bayswater, mesorah. Rav Hamburger is single hand- ters as Bet Yisrael and Meah Shearim in in stone-throwing, physical assaults,
2716 Healy Avenue. The event will edly responsible for numerous shuls Jerusalem, calling on residents to volun- and threats against those found to be in
begin at 8:00 p.m. with introductory around Eretz Yisrael, Baltimore, and teer for the patrol. violation of the group’s value system.
remarks by Rabbi Eliezer Feuer, mara Lakewood following the oldest of meso- Two of the men listed on the broad- Some residents have expressed their
d’asra of YIWB. Rav Moishe ras existing today, including his own sheet are known members of a small reservations regarding the new patrol,
Katzenstein, rosh yeshiva of the Yeshiva shul at Mayenei Hayeshua Hospital in group of zealots, known as “kannoim,” fearful that it will soon be used to
Gedolah of the Five Towns will also Bnei Brak. The gedolim have the highest who have terrorized the community of
will be speaking and a Q&A session will of praise for his work. ❖ Bet Shemesh in recent years, engaging Continued on Page 24
conclude the session.
Rabbi Hamburger, who has a great
German yichus, has printed numerous
sefarim which eludicate the reason for so
many of the halachos and minhagim that
those of German descent perform on a
daily basis. One of the many sefarim pub-
lished by the institute is an updated ver-
sion of the Sfas Emes siddur, used by
German Jews, which was originally pub-
lished by R’ Wolf Heidenheim in the city
of Roedelheim, near Frankfurt, in 1799.
Noticeably absent from the Sfas Emes sid-
dur are almost all kabbalistic tefillos. Rav
Hamburger explains, “The non-kabbalis-
tic siddur is the most original form of the
German nusach, predating the kabbalistic
influences of the 17th and 18th centuries.”
The great leaders of Western Europe, the
Chasam Sofer and Noda B’Yehuda, and
leaders in Germany itself, all rejected the
kabbalistic tefillos. There are various rea-
sons brought down for this: either they
didn’t want to expose kabbalah to the
masses, or they didn’t believe that these
tefillos represented the real kabbalah.
The Sfas Emes siddur has its share of
problems, says Rabbi Hamburger. “Had
Wolf Heidenheim had available to him
the sources that have become available
to us, he would have not made a num-
ber of grammatical changes, which he
held were corrections of typographical
errors.”
When Rabbi Hamburger, a descendent
of the Chasam Sofer, was growing up,
some of his chassidish neighbors told
him that the Chasam Sofer was really a
chassid. Never having heard this before,
he set out to research his zaide’s true
identity. What he discovered was that
the Chasam Sofer was definitely not
chassidish; as a matter of fact he was a
true misnaged. The Chasam Sofer simply
followed the oldest of minhagim, which

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Chareidi Patrol
Continued from Page 23
enforce the moral standards of
the Bet Shemesh kannoim.
Dov Lipman, a local rabbi,
was quick to point out that the
situation in Bet Shemesh has
been relatively calm in the
past year. However, in the past,
local residents have been
24 January 1, 2010 5 TOWNS JEWISH TIMES
threatened with violence by
some chassidim who moved
into the neighborhood and
were disturbed by the sight of
televisions in their neighbors’
homes.
The throwing of rocks at cars
on Shabbat and attacks on
women whose skirts were
deemed unacceptably short
were a regular occurrence in the
area for some time. The situa-
tion had become so bad at one
point that an Egged driver
whose bus was attacked pulled
his gun and shot in the air in
order to ward off his attackers.
According to neighborhood
residents, many, if not most, of
the local chassidim object to the
methods of the kannoim, who
only number a few families, but
{picture of poster shmira1 / shmi-
ra2}
other residents have been ter-
rorized into acceptance of their
ways.
Rafi Goldmeier, a popular
Israeli blogger who lives in the
adjacent Ramat Bet Shemesh
Alef development, described one
of the men listed on the signs as
a patrol organizer, as a leader of
the zealots who has “sat in jail a
number of times for his violence
around the neighborhood.” In a
statement to the Five Towns
Jewish Times, that individual
denied any connection with
Shabbat demonstrations.
A. Eizenbach, one of the lead-
ers of the community patrol,
explained that his group deals
only with the issue of break-ins
and does not have a connection
with any other type of activity.
He denied both reports that his
organization works in conjunc-
tion with the local police and
that the police have been
harassing patrol members. We
could not reach Bet Shemesh
police chief Kobi Cohen for
comment.
Due to pressure and threats
of violence from the zealots,
projects such as a new school
for national-religious girls in a
primarily Modern Orthodox
neighborhood have been
slowed. The zealots claim that
the neighborhood is theirs and
that a Zionist school impinges
on the sanctity of the area.
The presence of older rabbis
in the neighborhood, who have
begun reining in the young
men, and the formation of a
national-religious community
patrol, have been credited by
some with calming Bet
Shemesh. ❖
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