31
Dec 2020
By Rabbi Rueven Gerson When Rav Tzvi Markowitz zt”l, the chief rabbi of Ramat Gan was asked why he doesn’t tell stories of his great Rebbe, Rav Shimon Shkop, he would say, “generally people who tell stories about their rebbe are usually telling stories about themselves, I don’t like talking about myself.” Writing about our Rebbe Rav Mordechai Gifter zt”l, after 20 years, is an expression of how the void created by his passing is still evident. Hardly a day goes by without the feeling that his wisdom and guidance are......
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12
Feb 2018
The 15th yahrzeit of the Rosh HaYeshiva HoRav Mordechai Gifter, זצוק״ל has arrived (he was niftar on the 23rd of Teves.) I am a Telzer talmid, Baruch Hashem, and it was the only yeshiva where I have learned for many many years. I want to thank Hashem that I had the merit to learn in this yeshiva and my children as well, B”H. I came to the yeshiva at the age of 13 years old in the 1960’s. I remember seeing the Rosh HaYeshiva HoRav Gifter, זצוק״ל the very first time. He......
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12
Feb 2018
Chanukah has become a festival in Jewish life although it lacks, in its origin, all the elements of the Yamim Tovim. These eight days were orginially days dedicated to Hallel and Hoda’ah — Praise and Thanksgiving for the miracle of salvation from the Greek hordes. It has but one ceremonial, the mitzvah of kindling the lights. The lesson of Chanukah, however, has served to give to it the aura of a Yom Tov. The meaning of faith, the Almighty’s guardianship of Israel, are driven home in the story of Chanukah. Israel’s feeling......
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12
Feb 2018
By Rav Mordechai Gifter, ZT”L, Rosh Hayeshiva, Telshe Yeshiva Originally published in Elul, 5747 We have entered the month of Elul in the Jewish year, the month preparatory to the High Holy Days. The need for self-evaluation is the motif of the Yamim Noraim — the Days of Awe, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Life must be governed by periods of retrospect in which Man is able to examine himself in the light of past experiences and future hopes. Therein lies the secret of that great idea called teshuvah — which connotes......
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12
Feb 2018
What would you do if you saw a person puncturing his own life vein, drawing forth his own blood? You might say to him, “What is wrong with you? You are committing suicide!” What would you do if you saw a person approach someone else and puncture his life vein causing him to bleed out before you? We might cry out, “You are a murderer!” What are we to say when we see a Jew wagging his tongue in wasted talk and conversation, let alone lashon hora, gevalt in der velt! Why......
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12
Feb 2018
Submitted to a publication anonymously as “Observer” by HaRav Mordechai Gifter, zt”l. There is a tendency in American culture, and Western culture in general, that youth understands the problems of present day living better than their elders. The tendency reaches its extreme in the inhuman outbursts on the academic campus and in various other manifestations such as Chicago’s “trial of the seven.” There is a spill-over of this tendency in the world of Orthodox Judaism. It manifests itself in continuous outbursts of young men in the American rabbinate against the wisdom of......
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12
Feb 2018
An English abridgement of a lecture delivered on Yom Tov, and published in Pirkei Emunah pp.333-334. Translated by Rabbi Israel Schneider. The Sages have compared Sukkos and Shemini Atzeres to one who invites his many friends to a joyous affair. As the party ends, and the guests drift away, the host invites his most beloved friend to a tete a tete, in which only he and his beloved intimately rejoice. [The seven days of Sukkos correspond to the general party, in which all the world’s denizens celebrate. Shemini Atzeres, however, is HaShem’s......
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12
Feb 2018
This sophisticated yet clearly written article by Rav Gifter, zt”l, about Torah law was published in the fall of 1958 in a journal entitled “Law in a Troubled World” by Cleveland College and the Franklin Thomas Backus School of Law at Case Western Reserve University. Please link back to www.kollelateresmordechai.org if you utilize this article in any way. Thank you. We will attempt, within the limited scope of one article, to present a fragmentary concept of that great body of law known as Talmudic Jurisprudence, and in so doing, it will be......
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12
Feb 2018
Delivered at Telshe by Rosh HaYeshiva Maran HaGaon HaRav Mordechai Gifter, ZT”L on the Holy Shabbos Va’eschonon, 1969 “Beware, lest your heart become allured, and you will stray to serve other gods and prostrate before them.” Devarim 11:16 The Abeyance of Torah Learning Leads to Idol Worship. In explanation of the words “and you will stray,” Rashi quotes from Chazal: “to depart from the Torah, thus serving other gods. For when one strays from the Torah he will then go and attach himself to idol worship.” We find this concept (that departure......
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12
Feb 2018
by Rabbi Rabbi Israel Schneider. Rabbi Schneider studied in Telshe Yeshiva for about 20 years. In that period of time, he was privileged to hear shiurim from Rav Mordechai Gifter, zt”l. He is a researcher at Ofeq Institute under the directorship of Rabbi Avraham Shoshana–an institute which is dedicated to editing and disseminating the lost works of the Rishonim (medieval masters). Rabbi Schneider served as a writer/translator for the Mesorah Heritage Foundation (ArtScroll) for fifteen......
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