"How much they have deteriorated in the last 25 years"

The rift in the Lithvishe public is deepening, but does not interest the Hassidic public, which is preoccupied with domestic problems and its own splits. Despite this, this week there was criticism and a veiled reference from the Rebbe of Shomrei Emunim, Bnei Brak over developments in the Litvishe community.

The things were said by the Rebbe a few days ago a in front of few of his followers.

First, the Rebbe described the character of Hagaon Rabbi Menachem Zemba hy"d and made an analogy with the present days: "In Warsaw lived a Jew named Rabbi Menachem Zamba who was a genius of the generation, and who made an issue of him, and at the Gur Shtibble they called him "Menachem Asher Yotzor", and their entire conduct was a completely different style , while if he was alive in this generation, they would make eight splits in his honor, and for the sake of "Judaism" purely he would bring twenty seats in the municipality, etc., and everything to sanctify Hashem's name, and without that it is not worth anything.

"Look and see, in the previous generation there was a huge genius, a Jew named Hagaon Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv zt"l who was sitting holed up in his room contemplating Torah day and night, not knowing what they want from him, and my grandfather the Rebbe Maharash of Zevil testified about his great grandfather the Leshem zt"l that he studied Torah lishma.

"My father of blessed memory would send me to Hagaon R' Yosef Shalom in my adolescence, to ask tough and complex questions, and it was not yet at the time they admired him so much, and my father told me: I like to hear his da'as Torah, for this Jew studies Torah lishma, and where do I know this from , because the way he would sit and study Torah in his youth, so he sits now without any change and without any forms of dignity, and it never occurred to him to make an issue of his learning, but he sits and studies Torah for its own sake really.

"And when you see how a person is walking down the street and his behavior, this is a sign that has siata dishmaya and he studies Torah lishma, and he is much greater than many others about whom Hagaon Rabbi Yosef Shalom himself said great things."

Here the Rebbe continued and surprised, "Then when he rose to prominence my father told me, it says "Ki gadol ad shamayim chasdecha" and it is a great pity they pay a person with honor in his old age and not let him alone. And unfortunately in the last generation when a person studies Torah je immediately seeks the payment in cash, and no longer makes an account if his actions will bring about a kiddush Hashem or chilul Hashem.

"And when you see the pandemonium in the street between yeshiva students and avreichim who do not know what to do for themselves, how can you explain that in previous generations there were Jews for whom all these things of parties and the like were in the definition of "treif", which this was one generation ahead, and if they would contemplate how much they deteriorated over the past twenty-five years, they would start trembling."

'בחדרי' גם ברשתות החברתיות - הצטרפו!