Last week Rabbi Yitzchok Hendel -a former student of the Yeshiva Tomchei Temimim in Otwock (Warsaw) and the Rav Anash in Montreal- passed away. This picture was taken of him on Lag B'omer 5765 by the dedication of a Torah scroll by the Fellig families.
Right after writing on A Simple Jew about Kitzur Shulchan Aruch, an interesting story came up . . .
Several dozen copies of this booklet could be found in Yeshivah . . .
Their subject? A test on Shulchan Aruch Admor Hazakan ('Harav') with twenty tickets to Lizhensk as the grand prize . . . A host of Gedolei Yisroel speaking . . . standard Israeli fare.
Standard that is, except for the subject of the tests -Alter Rebbe's Shulchan Aruch . . .
It seemed odd that a kach would come out of the Chassidisher Velt on Shu"a Harav with out some secret Chabad backing.
There had to be Lubavitchers hidden behind it.
But besides for a Lubavitcher's ad inside, there seemed to be no Chabad influence; just the opposite -the Rosh Yeshivah from Punavitch spoke!
Today the story came out.
Before the war the Posek Achron of the those in the camps of Chassidus was the Alter Rebbe.
As a child Rabbi Hendel z"l of Montreal grew up deep in Poland, from a Chassidic but not Chabad family. He related that his teacher in cheider asked him to bring a Shulchan Aruch to learn from. When the class began to learn, however, he was unable to follow along. He asked the teacher for help; and upon seeing the sefer the teacher informed him that he had been given a copy of the Alter Rebbe's Shulchan Aruch, while the class was learning mechaver/rema. From this he pointed out that when he had asked his mother for a shulchan aruch, she assumed that b'pashtus he meant the Alter Rebbe's.
But due to many factors, after the war there was a shift towards Mishna Berura.
Now, however, a chissidisher group has come out with a movement to bring back the Alter Rebbe's work to its former status as the final say in the Chassidic world.
How do we know all this?
Rabbi Berel Levin, who worked on re-typesetting the AR SHu"a, heard about what was going on in the Holy Land and called up the people in charge.
"Is there anything I can do to help your cause?"
"Yes," they replied, "For you see, we do not have connections to America and Europe . . . perhaps you could spread our literature there?"
"It would be my pleasure," Berel Levin responded. "I'll have five thousand copies printed and given out."
"Five Thousand?" they said, "In Israel alone we made fifty thousand copies!"
A few calls latter, and Forty Five Thousand copies were made for distribution. Hence the Lubavitcher's add.
The Rebbe once said that hafatzis hamayanis includes not just the chassidus of the Rebbiem, but their nigleh as well.
This seems to be a good start.
Drinking on an empty stomach can leave undesired effects. Therefore,
tradition dictates that the usual drinking party involves a lot of
eating between shooters of vodka. This custom is called a zakuvski, an
expression akin to what we call an entre. Zakuvski comes in a large
variety of choices: caviar on blinis, smoked fish, black bread, pickles
and even wedding cake when desperate . . .
As simple as the idea of drinking vodka may
seem, there are a few things one must know for proper vodka etiquette.
Let us further explore the methodology of vodka drinking.First Rule: Drink what is served to you in one gulp. Nobody measures the quantity
of alcohol poured, this is left to the discretion of the pourer.Second Rule:Never sip or mix vodka. Mixing is perceived as a western way of doing
things since orange juice is often more expensive than the vodka itself . . .
Common practice
when drinking as part of a group is to synchronize your drinking;
everybody drinks at the same time . . . Keep some traditional Russian medication handy for your hangover: pickle juice. Like they always say: Nas zdarovia : To our health!
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