• Rabbi Yitzchok Hutner

    From The Jewish Observer, October 1977 “Holocaust” – A Study Of The Term, And The Epoch It Is Meant To Describe, from a discourse by Rabbi Yitzchok Hutner Shlit”a, translated by Chaim Feuerman and Yaakov Feitman Yeshiva and dayschool principals from across the nation posed the questions to RABBI YITZCHOK HUTNER שליטא, Rosh HaYeshiva of Mesivta Rabbi Chaim…

  • Rabbi Yitzchok Isaac Sher

    It happened in the fledgling Slabodka Yeshiva in Bnei Brak. The war was still raging in Europe; the angel of death had almost full reign in the killing fields of Europe. As Lithuania was being decimated Rabbi Isaac Sher resolved to rebuild from scratch in the Holy Land, and founded the Slabodka Yeshiva in Bnei…

  • Rabbi Shneur Kotler

    Rabbi Shneur Kotler said, “People call the Satmar Rav’s ideas a shitah, but it is not. He proves in Vayoel Moshe that this is what Shas and poskim, Rishonim and Acharonim all held. What he holds is what all gedolei Yisroel once held. On the contrary, our Agudah shitah is a new shitah: that in…

  • Rabbi Yisrael Abuhatzera, the Baba Sali

    In the summer of 1952, the Baba Sali traveled from Eretz Yisroel to France in order to take care of some business and then move to Eretz Yisroel, as the rabbis of the generation had advised him. When he arrived in Paris, he found out that the holy Rebbe, fighter of the wars of Torah,…

  • Rabbi Moshe Feinstein

    Regarding your question if there is a mitzvah nowadays to live in Eretz Yisroel, as the Ramban says, or if there is no mitzvah nowadays, as Rabbeinu Chaim says, quoted in Tosafos on Kesubos 110b: Most poskim hold it is a mitzvah. But it is obvious that this is not an obligatory mitzvah in our…

  • Rabbi Eliyahu of Izmir, author of Shevet Musar

    It was claimed by Rav Yitzchok Isaac Herzog that Rabbi Eliyahu of Izmir said that the three oaths are no longer in force today. The source for this is his commentary on Shir Hashirim called Dana Pishra, on 3:5. Since the pesukim above are discussing the redemption, Hashem placed an oath again that they should…

  • Yaakov Rosenheim, founder and political leader of Agudath Israel

    The agreement of Agudath Israel to the establishment of a state before the coming of moshiach is based on the rulings of the Gedolei Torah. However, those rulings depend on two basic conditions, which are far from reality and possibility: 1) the state must be conducted in accordance with Torah and tradition; 2) there must…

  • Rabbi Dovid Cohen, Congregation Gvul Yaavetz, Brooklyn

    I have been asked about a very delicate question. Basically it is almost like religion and politics, something you do not discuss. Is it wise to talk about something that divides us? Yes it is. I would like to be heard with light and not heat, as I would like to make this into an…

  • Rabbi Chaim Chizkiyahu Medini, author of Sdei Chemed

    Hebron, may it be rebuilt, 27 Nissan 5660/1900 To the publishers of the book “Ohr Layesharim” in Kovno, I was honored to receive your book and your letter, in which you ask me to express my opinion about the book and your activism. Although I don’t have free time, since I am busy writing my…

  • Rabbi Elya Svei speaks on the heresy of “never again”

    Keynote Speech at the Agudah National Convention, Motzaei Shabbos November 24, 1990 (just days after the assassination of Meir Kahane on Nov. 5). The following is a loose translation from a recording made available by the Agudah archives. For all of you here who spent Shabbos here in such an uplifted atmosphere, we don’t have…