Posts Tagged Ponevezh
Rabbi Meir Sadok, Bnei Brak, Israel
Moishe Alexander extends hand to Rabbi Meir Sadok
Bnei-Brak
In a short period of time most of Bnei Brak’s secular and Religious Zionist residents migrated elsewhere, and the city has become almost homogeneously Haredi. The city has one secular neighbourhood, Pardes Kats. Names of streets that had had a Zionist connotation were changed and named after prominent Haredi figures, the most recent and final change being the renaming of Herzl St. to HaRav Shach St. The Israeli flag is barely seen in Bnei Brak, since the State of Israel is seen as a secular entity; however, it is certain to be seen flying atop the Ponevezh yeshiva, as the practice was originally instituted by Rabbi Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman. Bnei Brak is one of the two poorest cities in Israel.
Bnei Brak has multiple chief rabbis, catering to different groups in the city. The most important are Rabbi Moshe Yehuda Leib Landau, and Rabbi Nissim Karelitz.
Canadian Friends of Kupat Hair
Kupat Hair is a charity based in Bnei Brak in Israel.
Bnei Brak is the only large city in Israel whose inhabitants are mainly ultra-Orthodox Jews. The city is located in the Dan metropolitan region east of Tel Aviv. Its small physical size and large number of inhabitants (some 150,000) make it Israel’s most densely-populated city. Moreover, its birth rate is one of the highest in the country.
Bnei Brak started out in 1924 as an agricultural settlement established by a group of Polish Hassidim (members of a Jewish mystic movement founded in the 18th century in Eastern Europe). However, due to a lack of land, many of its founders were forced to turn to other occupations, such as commerce and handicrafts, and soon Bnei Brak assumed an urban character.
It was officially declared a city with the establishment of the State of Israel, and in the early 1950s, many Admors (Hassidic “Grand Rabbis”) began moving their courts from Tel Aviv to Bnei Brak. Within several years, Bnei Brak had turned into the largest ultra-Orthodox Jewish center in the world, and assumed a marked ultra-Orthodox Jewish character. The city’s religious character gives it a special charm. It has no modish fashion shops, yuppie coffee houses, or posh restaurants, but it has an extraordinary simplicity, modesty and uniqueness which culminate in the hustle and bustle as the Jewish Sabbath day approaches, when crowds of Hassidic Jews throng to the synagogues to pray.
Ultra-Orthodox Jews are divided into different Hassidic courts and into different communities, and the city is divided along the same principle. There are neighborhoods specific to particular courts (for example, the Vizhnitser neighborhood) and to particular communities (such as the Ponevezh district, whose residents belong to the Lithuanian stream of non-Hassidic ultra-orthodox Jews). Interspersed among them are a large number of Yeshivas (institutes of learning sacred Jewish texts), Admor courts, Kollels (institutes for advanced students of religious texts), and other religious institutions.
Yeshiva Ateres Yisroel
The Yeshiva also frequently referred to as a Beth midrash, Talmudical Academy, Rabbinical Academy or Rabbinical School is an institution unique to classical Judaism for study of its traditional, central texts. These comprise Torah study, the study of Rabbinic literature especially the Talmud (Rabbinic Judaism’s central work), Responsa for Jewish observance, and alternatively ethical (Mussar) or mystical (Hasidic philosophy) texts. In some institutions, classical Jewish philosophy (Hakira) texts or Kabbalah are studied, or the works of individualistic thinkers
Organised Torah study was revolutionised by Rabbi Chaim Volozhin, a disciple of the Vilna Gaon (an influential 18th century leader of Judaism). In his view, the traditional arrangement did not cater for those who were looking for more intensive study.
With the support of his teacher, Rabbi Volozhin gathered a large number of interested students and started a yeshiva in the (now Belarusian) town of Volozhin. Although the Volozhin Yeshiva was closed some 60 years later by the Russian government, a number of yeshivot opened in other towns and cities, most notably Ponevezh, Mir, Brisk, and Telz. Many prominent contemporary yeshivot in the United States and Israel are continuations of these institutions and often bear the same name.
“Today their are many Yeshivas across the world” says Moishe Alexander “and the Jewish people need to support them. Yeshiva Ateres Yisroel is one of many that I personally recommend.”