Sunday, June 6, 2010

Perfect Public Protest Poster for Ramat Beit Shemesh!

Check out THIS POST by Rabbi Yaakov Haber. Great one. Here's an excerpt:
Now, I live in Ramat Beit Shemesh where new pashkevil were just plastered around the city regarding a new Yeshivah for boys, that in the opinion of the plasterer, does not conform to the ‘long standing’ traditions of Ramat Beit Shemesh. (Ramat Beit Shemesh was founded in 1998).

Pashkevil’s are anonymous. Although they carry the signatures of great Rabbis, these signatures are dubious at best and have seldom been proven to be authentic. To my observation, they seldom accomplish anything positive, while they serve the purpose of promoting division and hate amongst Jews.

This is what the Chofetz Chaim said about Pashkevil’s:
“I must speak out my heart about the manner of conflict taking place among the Jewish people... All of Israel is burning like a fire as each side places more and more ads condemning their opposition... I don’t know who permitted all of these terrible sins. Everyone is sure that he is saying the truth and it is the other opinion that is creating the argument. This is a grave error, because even if both are right, they have no right to violate the Torah. So many mitzvos are being violated. No good can possibly come out of this. Right or wrong, they are creating a chilul Hashem (desecration of G-d’s Name). Twenty-four thousand students of Rabbi Akiva died in one month, not because they argued, but because they argued improperly and caused a chilul Hashem. Certainly each one of these giants felt that he was right.”
So, with the help of my esteemed congregation, Kehilas Shivtei Yeshurun in Ramat Beit Shemesh, I designed a pashkevil of my own. The pashkevil is a verbatim letter of the Chofetz Chaim, signed by the Chofetz Chaim. We will cover every Pashkevil we can find with our pashkevil.

This is the pashkevil to end all pashkevil!


If you’d like to participate in our campaign or for your own copy of the “Chofetz Chaim Pashkevil” – please contact me.
Rabbi Haber has links to PDFs of his "pashkevil" in both Hebrew and the English translation. Definitely check this out.

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4 comments:

Shmuel said...

While I enjoyed the concept of this pashkevil, my wife raised good questions about the possibility that this will be seen not only in a negative light, but will also seem extremely hypocritical.
While I answered that this can be considered along the lines of introducing a refuah through the same medium as the makkah, I do agree to an extent with her he’orah…
This sign won’t really accomplish much, unfortunately; if anything, it will fan the flames. The people who print up these venomous signs will not be shamed into submission, and Rabbi Haber’s pashkevil will only raise their ire to the point that they’ll produce MORE signs.

DixieYid (يهودي جنوبي) said...

Shmuel, I thought about your point about hypocracy, but then I remembered that one of the things the Chofetz Chaim said was to "protest" the making of all of these protest ads. Meaning if the good people don't stand up to the bullies in some way, it will go on forever with them thinking their causes are just.

As to your second point, how can a *verbatim* quote by the Chofetz Chaim raise their anger? They have got to have some limit!

Shmuel said...

"As to your second point, how can a *verbatim* quote by the Chofetz Chaim raise their anger? They have got to have some limit!"

While I don't want to condemn anybody, I have to doubt that. I personally have seen the blood spatter let on a Meah Shearim wall from a beating that was the result of a dreadful pashkevil campaign.
Who said that the words of the holy Chafetz Chaim will have any effect on such thugs?

Anonymous said...

Good man.Perfect plan, any updates?