Friday, May 2, 2008

Fire!

Once, Rav Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld, zt”l, was informed that an ostensibly observant Jew had been seen violating the Shabbos by lighting a fire. The Rav rushed to the home of the perpetrator and, indeed, spied a column of smoke rising from the man’s chimney.

Without even so much as knocking, the Rav burst in the house and exclaimed, “Could it be that you profaned the holy Shabbos and lit a fire? It’s an act that is chayav kares!”

The homeowner remained absolutely calm. He had anticipated all along that his pious neighbors would surely take offense at his blatant disregard for Shabbos and react violently. With aplomb, he retorted with a question of his own.

“How can you burst into my house without even knocking?” the man fired back. “Is this proper etiquette—to barge into another man’s domicile without even asking his leave? Have you no respect for the rights of a man over his own private space?”

Rav Sonnenfeld shot back vehemently, “Rules of etiquette hardly apply when there is clear and present danger to life and limb! I heard that there was a fire in your house—naturally, I burst in to try and avert the catastrophe!”

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sholom aleychem. I found your site through A Simple Jew's. I saw that you mentioned that you visit shiurim of Reb Ytzchok Moyshe Erlanger. Some of his shiurim I found on Kol haLoshn site. Are there more shiurim available from him? Is it possible to get somewhere a CD/DVD with all his shiurim?

Also, do you know if there are any shiurim in existence from Reb Noson Tzvi Kenig o"h on Likutey Moharan or any other ones? I've heard he gave gevaldike shiurim, but so far I din't find any recorded ones.

Currently I work on digitizing (from tapes) shiurim from Reb Gedalya Kenig ztz"l, and I collect them from whoever has some recordings of him. So if you know of such or have some - please let me know, it can really help my project.

A sheynem dank!

Bahaltener ( http://bahaltener.livejournal.com )

Anonymous said...

Aleychem Shalom.
Wow, sounds fascinating! I heard about Rav Gedaliah Kenig's letters and kesavim which are as yet unprinted and am trying to get a copy for the longest time. Please let me know when his shiurim are available.
I will email you about Rav Ehrlinger's shiurim.
I don't know about tapes of Rav Nosson Tzvi Kenig's shiurim, but I will try and find out about them too.
Have a wonderful Shabbos Kodesh.

Anonymous said...

Sorry, I thought you had left an email address.
Do you mean kabbalah tapes too?
Please write what tapes you have so I know what to ask about?
My email is: micha.golshevsky@gmail.com
Have a great Shabbos Kodesh,
Micha