Below is a letter that I was forwarded. It highlights to me that within Chabad there are those who are very much aware of what is going on and are prepared to take action to rectify the situation. The fact that we have reached this stage is a truly sad state of affairs. Either way, I am doing my part to get the message out there and hope these type of announcements will be more forthecoming in the future.

24 Shvat, 5770

To all Shluchim and friends of Chabad Lubavitch,

It has come to my attention that Alexander (Sasha) Milschtein – who is an “elokist”, rachamana litzlan, and who “celebrates” Tisha B’av with a public barbeque (complete with an announcement r”l in his published calendar) – has been traveling all over the world, fraudulently presenting himself as an affiliate of Chabad Lubavitch of Milwaukee/Wisconsin. 

He and his representatives, Yevgeny (Shlomo) Seskutov and Aleksander Shteyn, appeal to people in your community and are being supported by unsuspecting, rachamonim bnei rachamonim. 

It is my unpleasant duty, as a Jew and a Shaliach, to bring this to your attention in order to prevent you from supporting a fraudulent and a r”l… operation.  Needless to say, it is an absolute prohibition, an isur chomur, to say the least, to offer any support to anyone of his camp.  It is every Jew’s duty to prevent his constituency and acquaintances from R”L supporting the above, per these letters by Vaad Rabonei Anash and Beis Din of Crown Heights:

Letter by Vaad Rabonei Anash concerning Milschtein
 

Letter by Beth Din of Crown Heights about Milschtein

[I call your attention below to r”l similar letters from rabbonim.]

May the Al-mighty cause them to do teshuvah immediately.

Sincerely,

Rabbi Yisroel Shmotkin

Director, Lubavitch of Wisconsin

Additional links: 

http://community.yeshivahcentre.org/index.php?article=2283 

http://www.col.org.il/show_news.rtx?artID=52516

http://www.col.org.il/show_news.rtx?artID=52540

Public Notice by Rabbi Telsner

A letter by Rabbi Axelrod – Haifa, Israel

Public announcement by Rabbi Axelrod

Rabbi Yisroel Shmotkin
Lubavitch of WI | Executive Director
3109 N. Lake Dr, Milwaukee, WI 53211
t 414.961.6100 | m 414.807.4900

e ris@chabadwi.org | w www.chabadwi.org

* I cannot vouch whether they are halachicly jewish, but either way, this is music to my ears :)

Its now 12:18am, Sunday, 24 January 2010. I arrived back in Sydney on Friday morning and I am wide awake and jetlagged.  I have decided to put pen to paper and reflect on my first trip to Israel while its still refresh in my mind.

Here is a brief high level oveview of my trip, I will be posting some more detatailed entries on some key events and observations, this is just really a very high level summary of places, people and things I saw.

For the first two weeks I was  the Machon Shlomo Step program. (http://www.machonshlomosummer.com/index.asp) with 4 other guys. Really enjoyed the program, learned the first perek of Kiddushin and the fourth perek of Brachos. We got a lot of individual attention and were able to go through the material at our own pace. Overall was really quite impressed by the Machon Shlomo yeshiva, interesting bunch of normal, highly educated and friendly students and teachers. Strong emphasis on introspection and Slabodka style mussar. Food was very good, which was definitely a big plus, this was not your typical yeshiva style menu. Overall would would definitely recommend the Step program and the Machon Shlomo yeshiva for those looking for a dose of serious learning and personal growth.

After Machon Shlomo stayed with my cousin who lives in Har Nof for the remaining two weeks. My cousin, his wife and their family are truly wonderful people who really went out of their way to make my stay enjoyable. While there my cousins wife gave birth to a little girl and another cousin and his family visited us from London. It was very special to be with family at that time, I hadnt seen them all together in about 6 years. 

Below is list of things I did while on my trip:

• Went for a swim in the Dead Sea at night with a full moon in the sky glistening on the water
• Hiking in Ein Gedi and Ein Bokek
• Shabbos in Old city, stayed in an apartment right behind the Aish Hatorah building overlooking the Kotel
• Went to Chassidic Tisches – Toldat Aharon, Slonim and Pinsk Karlin. Went back to Slonim, they have this cool meditation thing they do after the tisch in complete darkness.
• Went to Geula, Meah Shearim, Bnei Brak, Beyit Vegan
• Walked through Machane Yehuda at night, also worked around the centre of town and Ben Yehuda Street
• Yad Vashem, absolutely incredible, sad and depressing but well worth the visit
• Visited the Mir Yeshiva, Merkaz Harav Yeshiva, the Belz Shul (was locked but got to walk around the court yards,)
• Spent shabbos in Tzefat, davening in the main Breslov Shul and the Carlebach Bei Rav Shul.
• Davened in Rav Ovadia Yosefs minyan, met Rav Moshe Sternbuch (had a 15 – 20 minute discussion with him, a very interesting personality, not at all what I expected, enjoyable experience)
• Heard shiurim by R’Noach Orlowek (Mashgiah Torah Ore), R’ Gershenfeld (Rosh Yeshiva Machon Shlomo), R’Baruch Horowitz (Rosh Yeshiva Dvar Yerushalayim).
• Had a long interesting conversation at the apartment of Rav Prof Yehuda Levi, truly a remarkable individual, being in his presence you see what makes him great and how he has been able to achieve so much in life
• Had shabbos lunch with Dr Daniel Eidensohn (author of Daat Torah blog and other seforim), thoroughly enjoyed it, very interesting conversation around a myriad of topics. Looking forward to his new upcoming sefer on Child Abuse, etc, I think this one will make some real waves, in a good way

 Thats all I can think of for now, I will be posting some further updates and some other musings on the culture, people and Israeli society. For now I have to try and get to sleep, start work first thing Monday morning!  Good night everyone.

This coming Thursday (24th Decemeber 2009) I am flying to the holy land for my very first time, Thank G-d. It is a special privilege and honour that I have been given, which I am very grateful for. I will be there until the 22nd of January.

If there anyone out there in Israel who reads my blog and would just like to say hi, please feel free to contact me ralevinsohn @ gmail. com perhaps we can meet up, would be great to meet some readers face to face.

Anyways, all the best to you all, chag samayach and hope to meet some (anyone?) of you in person.

Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks is a true gadol and outstanding spokesman for our people. Please take the time to listen and absorb his thought provoking  and deeply insightful commentary how we as mankind can live in peace and harmony. Enjoy (Note the introductions lasts about 10min) Please distribute this lecture widely, it is truly remarkable.

(Hat tip to R'Dovid Sears for the link)

The Matzav newspaper recently published an interview with Artscroll co-founder Rabbi Nosson Scherman. The whole article was interesting, however the following paragraphs stuck out in my mind. On the one hand humorous, on the other hand a truly sad depiction of the quality of general education in certain sectors of our community.

Y.H.: How did you get such a strong background in English language skills?

N.S.: Yeshivos in general in those days had stronger general-studies departments than they have today. A very important influence was my friendship with Rabbi Nisson Wolpin and Rabbi Mendel Weinbach. They were two of my classmates, and we used to correspond. Rabbi Wolpin was from Seattle and Rabbi Weinbach was from Pittsburgh. During the summers we used to write letters. Does anyone correspond today? We wrote to each other-that helped. We tried to outdo each other; we were big-shot teenagers. The only way to learn how to write is to write. You know that. That is your craft. But it was those correspondences that helped a lot.

Y.H.: I have noticed that the word “ArtScroll” has taken on a new connotation in some circles. It has replaced the expression “highfalutin.” I have heard people say, “I can’t read that! It is written in ArtScroll English”-meaning with too high a vocabulary. Do you have any comment about that?

N.S.: We try as much as possible to avoid complex terminology. Simplify, simplify, simplify. I do try to avoid hefty words. When I edit others, I try to simplify what they are saying. If people feel that our English is not intelligible, it reflects the fact that they just don’t know English. It’s the American educational system.

Rav Hertzog and Rav Uziel (Full Size )

Rav Shimon Shkop (Full Size , Full Size 2) 

Hat tip to Circus Tent

There is a fascinating article "How not to make halachic rulings "  by Dr Daniel Sperber that is worth while reading. However, there is one particular segment that really came as a surprise to me. In the context of the sheitls made from India he goes into a whole debate whether in fact Hinduism (at least in some versions) is really monotheistic and compatabile/acceptable(?) to Judaism. Read the entire article for some important cavets, but the following extracts should serve as food for though - very interesting indeed:

On the fifth and sixth of February this year, I participated in the first "Hindu-Jewish Leadership Summit" at Delhi, India. This summit was attended by a delegation of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel and some prominent European rabbis, and religious leaders of the Hindu Dharma. I was asked to participate, perhaps because I had served briefly as a rabbi in India many years ago, and was therefore thought to have some understanding of Indian culture and religion.

Many leading Achariahs and Swamis from all over India were present, and a very lively and probing dialogue took place. In our discussions we asked them whether Hinduism is a polytheistic and idolatrous religion, and they all unanimously and most vigorously denied such an assertion, explaining the apparent outward manifestations of idolatry in a completely different fashion.

At the end of the conference, a "Declaration of Mutual Understanding and Cooperation" was co-signed by all participants. Perhaps the most significant clause in the whole document in this context is the opening one:

The participants affirmed that:

1) Their respective traditions teach Faith in One Supreme Being
who is the Ultimate Reality, who has created this world in its
blessed divinity and who has communicated Divine ways of action
for humanity for different peoples in different times and places.

[1]  They base this assertion on passages from the most ancient and canonical of their sacred writings, whose formulations surely attest to such belief. The following are some examples that they offer:

Rgveda Sambita

There is one reality; the wise speak of it in various ways. Rg. Veda.I.164.46c

Chandogya Upanisad (Sama Veda)

Only one non-dual limitless reality. ChU 6.2.1

Brhadaranyaka Upanisad (Shuklayajur Veda)

There is no second thing here at all. BrU 4.4.19

Taittiriya Upanisad (Krsnayajur Veda)

The one that is in this person is the one that is in the universe; he is one. TaiU 2.8.5

Katha Upanisad: (Krsnayajur Veda)

He has no sound, no texture, no form, is changeless, free from taste, time and smell, has no beginning or end, is beyond the intellect and absolutely constant. KaU 1.3.15

A series of verses (2.2.9-12) in this Upanisad uses illustrations to show that the one being is both immanent and transcendent.

Just as fire, which is one, having entered the world, assumed a form corresponding to each of its manifestations, so too the being self within all beings, who is one, assumed a form corresponding to each, yet is apart (transcendent). KaU 2.2.9

Just as air, which is one, having entered the world, assumed a form corresponding to each of its manifestations, so too the being within all beings, who is one, assumed a form corresponding to each, yet is apart (transcendent). KaU 2.2.10

Just as the sun, which is the eye of the world, is not touched by the defects of external things that are seen, so too the being within all beings, who is one and transcendent, is not touched by the grief of the world. KaU 2.2.11

One being within all beings, who is the master, who makes a single form manifold – those wise ones who recognize clearly that one who abides in themselves, have lasting happiness, not anyone else. KaU 2.2.12

Svetasvatara Upanisad (Krsnayajur Veda)

The one effulgent being, hidden in all beings, all-pervasive, the being/self within all beings, who presides over actions and their results, who dwells in all beings, the witness, consciousness, who is absolute and free from attributes, SvU 6.11

Kena Upanisad (Sama Veda)

That which is not revealed by speech, and by which speech is revealed; know only that as Brahaman, not what people worship as an object. KaU 1.5

That which is cannot be thought of by the mind, and because of which, they say, the mind thinks: know only that as Brahman, not what people worship as an object. KaU 1.6

That which one does not see with the eyes, and because of which the eyes see; know only that as Brahman, not what people worship as an object. KaU 1.7

Mundaka Upanisad (Atharva Veda)

The one who cannot be seen or grasped, who has no lineage or class, no ear or eye (no limitation in knowledge) or hand or foot (no limitation in power), is free from time, all-pervasive, extremely subtle, changeless and the source of all beings, the wise ones recognize clearly. MuU 1.6

• Lubavitch Messianism and theological positions regarding manifestations of Divinity
• The Slifkin Saga: creation and contemporary science, the existence/non existence of mysterious creatures, the fallibility/infallibility of scientific statements in rabbinic literature
• Making of a Gadol: censorship, the white washing of history and the fallibility of rabbinic authorities
• Kashrut Scandals: Sheitals from Indian Hair, Brooklyn Water, Treif meat in Monsey
• The Limits of Orthodox Jewish dogma: Marc Shapiro book on the Rambam's Thirteen Principles of Faith
• The removal of the settlements in Gush Katif
• Cases of sexual abuse and their cover ups
• Cases of rabbinic misconduct
• Cases of prominent Jewish individuals breaking the law )
• Chumrah society: the shifting to the right, once permissible practices and opinions that are now no longer acceptable
• “Daas Torah”

Full Sized Picture: ger_rebbe_boxer.jpg

Source: Pg 82, Hasidism (Popular Judaica library), Aryeh Rubinstein, Keter Books 1975

See here for the entire photo gallery

To attain victory over unconstraint and destructive atheism, we must educate Torah scholars who are healthy physically and healthy in all their non-physical aspects.

They must be educated intelligently with the ability to recognize the sweet feelings that come from dealing with the most elevated aspect of beauty-whether in song and poetry, the glory of nature, or whether it is the beauty that stands out in the works of mankind.

"A beautiful dwelling place, a beautiful wife and beautiful clothes broaden a person's mind" (Talmud).

Orot Ha'Emunah, p. 17 (http://ravkook.net/poetry.html)

Gheorghe Zamfir - The Lonely Shepherd -  In my opinion one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever created. B"H, Enjoy!

  Also a great new single, from Matisyahu - One Day, literally brings tears to your eyes