Baruch Hashem, the author of the Bilvavi Mishkan Evneh and Da Es seforim, Rav Itamar Shwartz, will be arriving in the United States on Sunday morning! The Rav will be speaking in Aish Kodesh 9:45 Sunday morning so please come to that! We are still seeking sponsorships in any amount to help the Rav put more of his amazing Torah in print. So please contact me using the email address in the right side-bar if you can help!
Please see below for the Rav's full schedule this week, and please spread the word by email/Facebook/Twitter/etc. Thanks!
Sunday May 25 - Woodmere – Flatbush – Far Rockaway
9:45 AM Woodmere Aish Kodesh (Men and Women) - 894 Woodmere Place
12:15 PM Flatbush Beit Medresh Bnei Levy - 1950 East 21st Street (btw R and S)
5:00 PM Far Rockaway - Kollel Zichron Ephrayim in the Agudas Yisroel of Long Island 1121 Sage St. - Far Rockaway - Connecting to Hashem Brings Brocho Daily
Monday May 26th - Monsey
10:30 AM Ohr Samayach (Men and Women) How to Make Hashem Feel More Real - with English translation.See announcement flyer »
6:00 PM Yeshiva Ohr Yisroel 21 Rita Ave.
Tuesday May 27th - Lakewood - Philly
1:15 PM Lakewood Beis Medresh Ohr haMeir 30 Fifth Street
8:00 PM Philidelphia Politz Torah Academy (Men and Women) How to Feel Pleasure from Spirituality - with English translation - 9225 Old Bustleton Ave., Phily 215-969-5960
Wednesday May 28th - Lakewood
Private Appointments, please text: Rabbi Zvi Cohen 732-966-7743
10:00 PM Beis Medresh Toldos Yehudah127 Courtney Street
Inyan Mitzvah Talmud TorahSee announcement flyer »
Inyan Mitzvah Talmud TorahSee announcement flyer »
Thursday May 29th - Passaic
12:00 PM Mrs. Aviva Aberman (Women Only)
Kehillas Bais Yosef, 580 Broadway How A Woman can Prepare Herself for Shavous and Experience it Fully - with English translation
Kehillas Bais Yosef, 580 Broadway How A Woman can Prepare Herself for Shavous and Experience it Fully - with English translation
9:00 PM Aberman Home, 325 Dwasline Road (Limited to 15 couples - $200 per couple) Raising Children with Emunah - with English translation
PLEASE RSVP- limited space left | Contact aviva@aberman.net
See announcement flyer »
Private appointments in Passaic aviva@aberman.net
PLEASE RSVP- limited space left | Contact aviva@aberman.net
See announcement flyer »
Private appointments in Passaic aviva@aberman.net
Shabbos May 30-31st - Lakewood Westgate
6:40 PM Shul at 49 Radin St.
For all private appointments in above locations
please text Rabbi Zvi Cohen 732-966-7743
please text Rabbi Zvi Cohen 732-966-7743
21 comments:
I think the Bilvavi's following should re-assess him in light of this disturbing sicha:
http://bilvavi.net/english/tefillah-erev-rav-today
I'm familiar with that and it's very difficult for me too, which I"m sure you can understand if you've seen my blog and tweets recently. But the Rav is a tzadik and has an unbelievable perspective, even if I can't understand the Rav's perspective on this issue.
הצדיקים הטהורים אינם קובלים על הרשעה אלא מוסיפים צדק, אינם קובלים על הכפירה אלא מוסיפים אמונה, אינם קובלים על הבערות אלא מוסיפים חוכמה.
- הרב קוק
{ מתוך הספר "ערפילי טוהר" (עמ' ל "ט)"
Ergo...
True, but thay does not change the fact that Rav Shwartz is a tzadik we can learn from, nor from the fact that Rav Kook often spoke against many people and things, including other tzadikim who "complain about the darkness." The question, relevant to the Rav Kook quote, is how much do they focus on adding light versus complaining about the darkness. And there's no doubt that adding light is the main focus of Rav Shwartz's seforim and shiurim.
My only personal encounter with him was in line with what I would have expected based on his erev rav diltoria on Am Yisroel. Reb Aryeh Levin he is not!
While your limited experience with this particular tzadik makes your original comment more understandable, it might be worth having a broader knowledge of someone of that caliber.
I don't think my knowledge is all that limited. Why don't you expound on what defines a tzaddik, and why and how the Bilvavi qualifies. So far, knowing what I know of the Bilvavi, its seems that you are of the opinion that Ahavas Yisroel, Limmud Zechus on Am Yisroel, and tolerance - let alone respect - for different shittos in Avodas Hashem are not essential qualities of a tzaddik.
Rabbi Bechhofer,
I'm sure you're already aware of the points I'm about to make. But it could be that the pain you feel based on the limited number of teachings to which you have been exposed to from Rav Shwartz have blinded you to that which you surely already know.
Rav Shwartz certainly doesn't need the haskama of a pisher like me, but there are very few tzadikim who imbibe the widest variety of Torah from all areas and sources than Rav Shwartz. Again, you may not heretofore have sufficient exposure to the Rav understand that there are few people who embrace "different shittos in Avodas Hashem" as much as him.
Also, let's imagine the only things one had ever heard about Rav Ovadia Yosef, zt"l, or Rav Shteinman, shlita, were the statements that many small-minded people use to depict them in the worst light. Let us further imagine that someone commented on http://rygb.blogspot.com/ asking you how you could possibly define Rav Shteinman or Rav Ovadia as tzadikim or gedolim given those statements?
Surely you would advise the person that he should consider cranking up the humility a bit and not judge great people in their totality based on extremely limited information and statements which he (and you) cannot understand.
Gut voch!
Binyomin Wolf
Reb Binyomin:
You make several assertions, but without substantiating them. I am perfectly willing to learn more to convince me of your position. But with evidence, please.
BTW, neither ROY nor RALS have made statements of the type I have read of and heard from the Bilvavi.
GV,
YGB
Try this one:
http://bilvovi.net/audio/dl.php?file=%d7%93%d7%a8%d7%a9%d7%95%d7%aa/%d7%93%d7%a8%d7%a9%d7%95%d7%aa%5f%30%32%36%5f%d7%a9%d7%a7%d7%a8%2e%d7%91%d7%aa%d7%95%d7%9a%2e%d7%a2%d7%95%d7%9c%d7%9d%2e%d7%94%d7%aa%d7%95%d7%a8%d7%94%2e%d7%aa%d7%a9%d7%a1%d7%96.mp3
...
Or this:
http://bilvavi.net/english/droshos-torah-life
I was not familiar with these particular shiurim, though I have heard others that are very difficult for me to understand. I'm not sure why the first one is so hard for you to understand though. He's speaking to bnei Torah.
But more broadly, I think more humility is in order. If I brought Rebbi Shimon Bar Yochai to speak at my shul, would you also object that he had previously killed people who went out to work with his eyes, saying they "abandon eternal life and involve themselves in temporal life" the first time he left the cave?
Why don't you answer my question?
Which one? That I should prove that a tzadik or gadol is a tzadik or gadol such that their difficult statements deserve some humility and efforts to understand? I'm sure you can appreciate the silliness of that request.
But why haven't you answered my questions? Perhaps it is because you haven't yet clarified a more basic question about your position. I think if you answer the following question, it will help me understand where you're coming from:
Assuming you already think of someone as a gadol or a tzadik, is it your position that they remain a gadol/tzadik only so long as they only say things you're already able to fully understand and have no difficulty with? Or does making a statement that is difficult for you personally to understand automatically uproot their status as a gadol/tzadik?
Thanks.
To quote myself in an earlier comment: "Why don't you expound on what defines a tzaddik, and why and how the Bilvavi qualifies?"
The answers to your two questions to me are:
1. If I don't understand it is one thing. If I do understand and I find disturbing it is another.
2. See my answer to no. 1.
Seeing my blog posts might help clarify my perspective:
http://rygb.blogspot.com/2012/01/why-i-cannot-respect-satmer-rebbe-zl.html
http://rygb.blogspot.com/2012/01/satmer-rebbe-ztl-revisited.html
For your question in your first comment after my 9:16 comment, please see the first paragraph of my 9:16 comment.
As to your other comments answering my question, thank you for the clarification. I see that your position is that if a tzadik or gadol makes a statement that you think you understand and which you find objectionable, then they lose their status as a tzadik or gadol in your eyes. All that really can be said based on that is that one should really examine his mida of anava.
Ah-ha. So to ask how one defines or identifies a tzaddik is silly. OK...
I don't think I have a problem with anavah. Anavah does not require surrender of the responsibility to make assessments. To surrender that responsibility means to succumb to the status of a "ksil."
Prove to me yout father's really your father.
(Hint: The very act of proving it is an insult to both your mother and your father.)
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