[Avodah] Are Upsherin and Bonfires Taken from the Gentiles?

[Micha Berger]

On Tue, May 19, 2009 at 02:51:20PM +0000, rabbirichwolpoe at gmail.com wrote:
: AIUI both Hanukkah and the closing of the Volozhiner yeshiva as examples
: of resisting IMPOSED changes. (Hareidim might say they were bot opposing
: ANY form of secularization)

When the documents were made public with the declassification of much
of the KGB's inherited material from the Czars' era, it turns out this
wasn't why Volozhin closed. At least, it's not the entire story, although
it could be part of a "perfect storm" of causes.

Gov't records claim they shut it down, not R' Chaim, and it was because
the battles over successtion between RCB and RCB (R' Chaim Brisker and R'
Chaim Berlin) seemed to be dangerously close to Alexander III's fear of
anarchy. He already suspected the Jews of fomenting chaos to destabilize
his gov't.

Prof Shaul Stamper rewrote chapter 8 of his "HaYeshiva haLita'it
beChituvatah" (a/k/a "Lithuanian Yeshivas of the 19th Cent") when the
records were released to reflect this change in understanding. Because
this overturned commonly accepted knowledge, the documents are included
as an appendix to part I (Volozhin).

RNKamenetsky agrees with Stampfer's acceptance of the documents at
face value.

Li nir'eh it's possible that simply between both factors, it just wasn't
worth fighting the gov't anymore.

(Thanks to RARR for addressing the subject. The above is based on
recollection from his MP3s on Jewish History rounded out with more
recent Googling.)

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Today is the 40th day, which is
micha at aishdas.org        5 weeks and 5 days in/toward the omer.
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Fax: (270) 514-1507      reliability/self-control mean submitting to others?