Wednesday, June 16, 2010

A Rav of Principle

Note from a neighbor:

This morning at Rabbi ____'s Shul, at __address__, a man walked in for shacharis wearing a kippa with the words; 'yechi adoneinu...' on it. Being that it is 'gimmel Tammuz,' he may or may not have been making a statement. After all, there is a Chabad practically across the street. Rabbi ____ had him ESCORTED OUT OF THE SHUL! Then, after davening, the Rabbi made a statement. Seeing that there hadbeen a little tumult, he said the following; "I don't care if there are 10,000 of them or 1 of them." This is "my Beis Midrash" and i won't have them here. It's "APIKORES"! (HERESY) He then went on to quote a Rambam about not including apikorsim in a minyan.

I'm not offering an opinion, b/c I'm not sure what I think. I do know that another rav of my acquaintance, who used to run a Daf Yomi minyan in a Chabad shul in another city, would not give an aliyah to an adult with a Yechi yarmulke. Kids wearing them, it's what's "cool" or what their friends are doing. Adults wearing them are making a theological statement. He's no longer in that city, BTW.

5 comments:

S. said...

What if this man of principle's principle was ואהבת לרעך כמוך זה כלל גדול בתורה? And what if this man of principle dedicated to implementing the views of the Rambam treated him the way the Rambam directed that we treat Karaites (with honor, friendship, charity)? (See Teshuvos HaRambam II #449, and also #263 where he clarifies that the Karaites aren't minim.) What about the Mishna that suggests pushing away with one hand, but drawing closer with another?

It's one thing to have a principle which requires him to not allow this guy to be one of the 10, but to publicly escort him out and create a "tumult"? I bet this guy with the yarmulke goes ahead and informs to the Caesar.

Yosef Gavriel Bechhofer said...

I'm acquainted with that Rav who used to run that Daf Yomi in a Chabad shul in another city. I don't think he held that the men who wore such yarmulkes were apikorsim, but he felt that when they were representing the "yechi" doctrine they should not be given kibbudim. Kind of like said Rav would be averse to giving an aliyah to someone wearing shorts.

Yosef Gavriel Bechhofer said...

But you better ask that Rav if I understood him correctly.

snag said...

Bravo!

Anarchist Chossid said...

Idiocy and ignorance.