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<font size=3>At 06:25 AM 5/20/2009, R. Micha wrote:<br><br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">When the documents were made
public with the declassification of much<br>
of the KGB's inherited material from the Czars' era, it turns out
this<br>
wasn't why Volozhin closed. At least, it's not the entire story,
although<br>
it could be part of a "perfect storm" of causes.<br><br>
Gov't records claim they shut it down, not R' Chaim, and it was
because<br>
the battles over successtion between RCB and RCB (R' Chaim Brisker and
R'<br>
Chaim Berlin) seemed to be dangerously close to Alexander III's fear
of<br>
anarchy. He already suspected the Jews of fomenting chaos to
destabilize<br>
his gov't.<br><br>
Prof Shaul Stamper rewrote chapter 8 of his "HaYeshiva
haLita'it<br>
beChituvatah" (a/k/a "Lithuanian Yeshivas of the 19th
Cent") when the<br>
records were released to reflect this change in understanding.
Because<br>
this overturned commonly accepted knowledge, the documents are
included<br>
as an appendix to part I (Volozhin).<br><br>
RNKamenetsky agrees with Stampfer's acceptance of the documents at<br>
face value.<br><br>
Li nir'eh it's possible that simply between both factors, it just
wasn't<br>
worth fighting the gov't anymore.<br>
</blockquote><br>
Rabbi Dr. J. J. Schacter discuses this in his <b>Haskalah,Secular
Studies and the Close of the Yeshiva in Volozhin in 1892</b> which can be
downloaded at
<a href="http://www.yutorah.org/_shiurim/TU2_Schachter.pdf" eudora="autourl">
http://www.yutorah.org/_shiurim/TU2_Schachter.pdf</a><br><br>
YL <br>
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