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
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
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
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
In December of 1973, Rav Mordechai Gifter addressed over 500 people at the annual banquet of the Telshe Yeshiva. Israel had just endured the Yom Kippur war. Rav Gifter’s remarks about those times bring the point of truth to bear on the terror being perpetrated by Arab violence against Jews in our world today. Today more than ever we sense the isolation of Jews among the peoples of the world. Just as Avrohom because of his monotheism was on one side of the world and everyone else on the other, so, too,......
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11
Feb 2018
Based on a Shiur Daas delivered by the Rosh Yeshiva HaRav Mordechai Gifter, zt”l In the liturgical thanksgiving which we recite on Chanukah, it states: “When the wicked Greek kingdom rose up against Your people Israel to make them forget your Torah and compel them to stray from the statutes of your will.” Ordinarily, the word חק, “statute,” connotes a specific type of commandment whose reason is unknown. The usage of this term here indicates that in all the commandments of the Torah, even those which seem logical and readily understandable, there......
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14
Jan 2018
Comments on the State of the Union Address Given By President Lyndon B. Johnson in January of 1968 By Maran HaGaon HaRav Mordechai Gifter, Zt”L. The President in his last State of the Union message dealt with two salient points. In our pursuit of happiness the nation has achieved prosperity as has never been recorded in history – higher paychecks, humming factories, more and more new homes equipped with more than seventy million TV sets. Yet, the President said, there is restlessness in the land – a puzzling restlessness. It is as if material prosperity......
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