by Rabbi Yair Hoffman
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There is a machalah that is affecting talmidim in Eretz Yisroel as well as the United States. It is a hidden elephant in the room.
Thirteen years ago, Rav Matisyahu Solomon zt”l spoke at a Torah uMesorah convention to mechanchim. His message answers a question that many have. Why is this happening? To see what he said, watch this video. It is only 21 minutes long and very very powerful.
This author believes that his words can make a significant difference – if it was spread. Another factor that can help resolve the situation would be if we made son sort of game show on hilchos tefillin with an emphasis on Matan Torah with some very serious prizes. Rav Grossman shlita did this last year and ten years ago or so regarding hilchos brachos and it was enormously effective. And now, with so many people in Klal Yisroel coming back to yiddishkeit – now is the shaas hakasher..
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I can’t understand. He is a person who does not believe that HKB”H ever wanted us to tie the Teffilin onto the head and hand. So how is this Drasha going to persuade him?
I have the greatest respect for our Rabbanim but I feel like sometimes they live in a bubble without a real connection to what’s going on in the real world.
I’ve been all over the spectrum & have close relatives that range from Chasidish to intermarried & everything in between.
It seems like many ensconced in the Frum world are unaware of different issues that cause these problems.
1. Intellectual: A truth seeker that investigates everything. There is an entire field called historiography or the study of how history is written. In this area everything needs confirmation to be true (though lacking proof doesn’t necessarily mean it’s untrue). How do we know Abraham Lincoln existed? We have thousands of ways to prove it. Pictures, eye witness accounts, writings, mentioned thousands of times in newspapers all over the world, signatures, grave, etc.
How do we know a man named Moshe existed & gave the Torah? Because the Torah says so, & who wrote the Torah? Moshe of course. Is there any outside source or proof? No. Do we know where his grave is? No.
So for that type of person, how will explaining “Mesorah” help when they don’t believe in the Mesorah the Ruv spoke about?
2. Laziness: In my experience most men who didn’t put on Tefillin had a hard enough time waking up & getting to work on time that getting up an extra even 5 minutes earlier didn’t happen. Often they’d put on at work or even in the afternoon but after a time they missed one day (& felt bad), missed a 2nd day (& felt bad) & after missing a few times that became the norm that they didn’t even think of it any longer.
3. (Connected to #2 ) I’ve asked people about something & their response was, “You know me, I’m not that religious.” They’re not Anti & in fact they enjoy fulfilling the Mitzvos they connect with but day to day Yiddishkeit is just not for them. I remember in camp 15 kids got up when woken to say Shma before the zman, while 2 went back to sleep. It was nothing negative, just that motivation to deeply feel the obligation was not there. I think some people are wired to be more Frum & some less so.
I’m just not sure how telling teenagers concerning Tefillin, “Mesorah, Mesorah, Mesorah” is going to change anything for the 1, 2, or 3 type of boys.
Stop with the BS. You mention “Kids”. That is not the full truth. There are many adults who no longer do either for the same reasons spelled out here. You see it more with Kids because “change” comes easier to them as opposed to grown ups. When an incident occurs that is surely a tragedy people want to know what’s going on. Decades of “It could be worse”, “It’s not for us to understand”, etc. and worse when it’s combined with personal agenda …. no longer works. I’m old enough to have seen it as it changed (this includes the once great Agudah and Lakewood). The hypocrisy, coverups, police state mentality, greed and stupidity do not serve us well and you can clearly see the results.
I’ll just share this as an aside. A few weeks after a college friend got married she called and told me that her husband doesn’t put on Tefilin(this was 40 years ago). She told me that he hated his 11th grade Rabbi and this was his way of getting revenge. I called my friend a few weeks ago and she told me that he never changed. Interestingly they raised a beautiful frum family with their kids all marrying Yeshivish. Obviously, the man’s behavior makes no sense, but anger is irrational. BTW Menachem Shmei, you now know my actual first name, it’s not qwerty. And you see that I do weigh in on subjects other than Chabad.
interesting that the mitzvah of Tfillin is being discussed. For 150 years we were taught by our ‘scientific and historic community’ that tfillin is an artifact that is no older than the middle ages, as before then we did not have the tools nor expertise to make tfillin. And then Yigal Yadin found a pair of Tfillin at Masada!
What a kofer beikar you are! A real rasha merusha! You have no chelek in olam harah! Wicked evil man.
Who told you ?
How do you know this?
Rambam’s letter seems to have been influential in saving Yemenite Jewry, but I wonder whether it’s factually correct that the challenge came from Karaism or had anything to do with Karaism. Rather, it was from a charismatic person who had declared himself Messiah and was spreading a religion that combined Judaism and Islam. And this was in the context of terrible persecution by Moslems against Yemenite Jews, who were under great pressure to accept this pseudo-Islam.
It would also seem that the Rambam would advocate rationalism as a response to heresy, not the emotionalism advocated by Rav Mattisyahu. This doesn’t mean that Rav Mattisyahu was not correct that emotionalism, not rationalism, is the right response for our times. But the emotionalism he proposes would not be the derech of Rambam, neither in Iggeres Teiman nor anywhere else in his writings.
As for non-believers or skeptics potentially being inspired through exposure to the wisdom of present-day Torah leaders, I would be curious to know which present-day Lakewood Rabbonim Rav Mattisyahu felt would fit that bill.
As an aside, a famous question concerning Tefillin & Mesorah (I’m sure there is a great answer but it doesn’t generally sit well with doubters).
The Ruv explained we have a Mesorah directly from Hashem through Moshe. So did Moshe wear Rashi or Rabbeinu Tam Tefillin?
Kids are not supposed to put on tefillin. Men are, starting from 13.
The idea of tefillin is a Chabad thing. Chabad is “into” tefillin. Those who oppose Chabad naturally are lax in tefillin. I would rather my son be lax in tefillin then to c’v join Chabad.