Monday, August 10, 2009

R' Yeruchem Gorelick Zingers

This is extremely entertaining. It seems I have a plethora of yeshiva students who read my blog(at least amongst the ones who declared themselves to me.) Incidentally, if you really exist, you should comment! And did you know that some of the guys in Ner Yisrael read The Observer (or at least they did during my year?) Anyway, one of my friends in yeshivish circles who knows the full story and had it confirmed for him by one of his Rabbeim added to a lecture of R' Aaron Rakeffet-Rothkoff's which is transcribed here on the Harry Maryles blog. (My friend noted that sometimes R' Rakeffet says things in Yiddish but doesn't translate them so you have to know Yiddish.)

In one part of the lecture, R' Aaron Rakeffet-Rothkoff states:
    What bothers me is there is a falshe frumkeit here. Rav Yerucham Gorelick used to use that word. I have to tell you, Rav Yerucham was so insightful that I shiver and I shake today. [For example,] in my days in Y.U. there was [only] one boy who wore his tzitzit out. One boy! [Years later] I taught his daughter. I taught his son. Every time he walked into class with his tzitzit out, Rav Yerucham went crazy. I cannot repeat what he said to him in public. "Falshe frumkeit, ayich mit ayer falshe frumkeit" [false religiosity, you with your false religiosity] Rav Yerucham was going off the wall. f.f., falshe frumkeit! I don't know how Rav Yerucham called the shot. That boy, [now a] man, became a chazan in one of the biggest Conservative shuls in the United States.
So my friend in these circles says that actually, according to R' Rakeffet in a different speech (he told this over in Yiddish but no one in Gruss understood, because they don't speak Yiddish) what R' Yeruchem Gorelick said to this guy went as follows: "Why are your tzitzis out? You have other mitzvos; why don't you have that hanging out?"

The same guy walked in and kissed the mezuzah and apparently R' Gorelick said "You have other mitzvos; why don't you kiss that?"

I thought that was hilarious.

5 comments:

Yosef said...

R. Yerucham Gorelik was one of a kind, apparently.

I heard a story, although I don't know if it's true, that the Rav was to attend some kind of meeting or conference, and that R. Gorelik was opposed to the Rav going. Therefore, at Mincha, R. Gorelik davened shemoneh esrai directly behind the Rav for a really long time so that the Rav could not end his shemoneh esrai. When R. Gorelik was sure that the Rav had missed his meeting, then he finally took 3 steps back.

The Gorelik family, as far as I know, did not remain within the YU fold. His son teaches beis medrash at the Philadelphia yeshiva, and I assume his other children are charedi as well.

B said...

the mishna brurah paskens that one should have his tzitzis out, but not everyone agrees. My hilarious brother, when confronted by one of these mishna brurah extremists, replied, "Bris milah is a mitzvah, do you have that out?"

from Failed messiah files said...

"But- I'm reminded of the great words of HaRav Yerucham Gorelick, a"h, when a Lubavitch kid in shiur made a big show, interrupting the shiur, of passionately kissing the mezuzah on his way out to the men's room. R. Gorelick, upset with the interruption, yelled, "vas kuescht doch azoy?" The kid answered "es is a groyseh mitzvo", to which R. Gorelick on the spot replied "Bris Milah is oyched a groyseh mitzveh"....

Walter Sobchak said...

I don't get it - isn't that the definition of a Chassid? Someone who loves mitzvahs so much that he goes beyond the bare minimum. Especially if this is a harmless expression like wearing tzitis out or kissing a mezuzah.

Why so much animosity towards this? Why suspect his motives and call him "false" because of ardor and passion...

harry-er than them all said...

walter- its a old litvishe thing to do. back when it actually meant something and when people had character