Friends of Jewish Renewal in Poland
Dr. James Diamond’s book on “Raging Hassidic Sermons of R. Kalonymous Kalman Shapira” will soon be published. We are fortunate to hear of the unique teachings of a Hassidic master known as the Piaseczner Rebbe. R. Kalonymous Kalman Shapira continued to deliver sermons from September 1939 until the summer of 1942. Sermons from the Years of Rage and his other writings were included in the buried archives of the Warsaw Ghetto known as Oneg Shabbat.
There is no peace—said GOD—for the wicked.
(Isaiah 48:22)
Our Sages, particularly, the rabbis of Talmud, loved all kinds of linguistic, semantic and logical approaches to the Torah, as well as intellectual experiments in terms of uncovering its hidden meanings and messages. They played with logical principles, often reversing logical implications. As a result of that, the verse I just quoted became a base for a talmudic concept which holds that if a person has a difficulty finding inner peace, it may be a sign that this person is wicked, or at least has done something bad or wrong. Today we know that while this may be one of the possibilities, the matter is much more complicated and typically a difficulty in finding inner peace does not indicate that the person affected by it is immoral or wicked. But there is some truth in this rabbinical concept, in this rabbinic judgement and we can find still some signposts for our spiritual life in it.
Freighted Legacies is a webinar on the cultural life and times of Jews from Poland, Ukraine, and Eastern Europe.
Menachem Mirski is serving Temple Shalom of Long Beach after completing the Ziegler Rabbinic Program. He often appears on our pages, and he frequently discusses the weekly Torah portion in both English and Polish. While very busy in developing a revitalized young generation at Beth Shalom, he supports the re-development of the Sunday and Hebrew schools. Rabbi Menachem Mirski is an outstanding musician with a Ph.D. in philosophy from the Maria Curie-Sklodowska University in Lublin.
We are pleased that we will learn more about Rabbi Mirski’s journey from Przemysl to Lublin to Warsaw and Long Beach.
There is a talmudic story about a Rabbi who traveled to a foreign city, and asked a little boy what’s the best way to enter that city.
“Which is the road leading to the city?” asked Rabbi Yehoshua ben Chananya of a youngster sitting at a crossroads. “This is the shorter one,” replied the lad while pointing to one road, “but it is longer. The other road is longer but shorter.” Rabbi Yehoshua decided to take the first road, which had been described as the shorter one, but when he approached the city he found access to it blocked by gardens and orchards. He returned to the crossroads and challenged his young guide for suggesting the shorter road that had turned out to be the wrong one. “But I told you,” replied the boy, “that although it is shorter in distance, it is longer in reaching your goal.” (Eruvin 53b)
