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muman613:
--- Quote from: Binyamin Yisrael on March 04, 2013, 12:35:29 AM ---Why didn't Rabbi Nachman's son succeed him as Breslover Rebbe?
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I don't know off hand... It appears several of his children did not survive childhood. Two daughters and two sons died before they reached 2 years old...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabbi_Nachman_of_Breslov
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Rebbe Nachman and his wife Sashia had six daughters and two sons. Two daughters died in infancy and the two sons (Ya'akov and Shlomo Efraim) both died within a year and a half of their births. Their surviving children were Adil, Sarah, Miriam, and Chayah.[10] Sashia died of tuberculosis on June 11, 1807, the eve of Shavuot, and was buried in Zaslov just before the festival began.[11] The following month, Rebbe Nachman became engaged to a woman from Brody whose father was the wealthy Joshua Trachtenberg. (In recent years, a descendant of the Trachtenberg family informed Rabbi Leibel Berger, formerly of the Breslov-Uman Vaad [Committee] of America, that this second wife's name was Devorah [Deborah]. However, this claim remains unverified.) Right after the engagement, Rebbe Nachman contracted tuberculosis.[12]
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muman613:
--- Quote from: 112 on March 14, 2013, 08:20:26 PM ---What's the definition of "stiff necked people"? I kind of saw it like you're not just going to go around bowing down to anyone, which is kinda good, but also kind of bad because you're not going to respect G-d as you should when you're like that. Do you know what the official one is or the consensus?
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Shalom & Bracha 112,
Wow, you have posed a very interesting question. And it looks like you are already leaning toward the correct understanding.
Being 'Stiff Necked' is a double-edged sword. In some senses it is good, we are not to veer to the left or to the right, we are to continue to learn the ways of our forefathers. The Torah clearly instructs a Jew to be 'stiff' against things which seem to steer us away from following Hashems commandments. But this same trait also can make us 'arrogant' and lead us to believe we are 'great' and 'strong' and it is due to our natural abilities rather than to Hashems blessing.
This is my interpretation of the term 'stiff necked'... But of course I will bring sources which I find links to on the internet... So let us see what I can bring...
http://www.torah.org/learning/kolhakollel/5765/eikev.html
--- Quote ---Parshas Eikev
Nothing But The Truth
By Rabbi Elly Broch
"And you should know that not because of your righteousness does G-d, your L-rd, give you this good land to possess it, for you are a stiff necked people". (Devarim/Deuteronomy 9:6)
"For it is a stiff necked people, and you shall forgive our iniquity and error, and make us your heritage". (Shemos/Exodus 34:9)
One of the criticisms persistently leveled against our ancestors was that they were stiff necked. What does it mean to be stiff necked? Moreover, if this is a criticism, why in the book of Shemos does Moshe appear to use it as a means to secure forgiveness for the nation?
Rashi (1) explains that the term stiff necked implies that the nation would turn the back of their necks toward those who attempt to rebuke them and refuse to listen. Sforno (2) further provides the etiology for this characteristic. It is caused by one attempting to follow his own mind and heart even though he has been instructed logically and convincingly that his ideas are incorrect. His stiff neck is manifest in his inability to "move his head" and listen to those attempting to guide and help him. Thus, in Shemos, Sforno understands that Moshe was pleading with G-d that although the nation was stiff necked and prone to commit infractions, nevertheless the nation wanted the Creator of the World to continue to dwell in their midst. Despite their stiff-neckedness He should forgive them.
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This stubbornness is a trait that, like many others, has destructive potential, but if channeled and used appropriately can be invaluable. Like our forefathers, we must thoroughly investigate our heritage, making Judaism integral to our beings and our identity, while maintaining a healthy skepticism of the myriad attractive yet false ideologies that prevail. We cannot simply assimilate the false philosophies that, although unsubstantiated, have engulfed our generation. We must utilize our stiff-neckedness to uncover the truth and live loyally by it.
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http://www.torah.org/learning/dvartorah/5768/kisisa.html
--- Quote ---Parshas Ki Sisa
A Stiff-Necked Nation
By Rabbi Label Lam
And HASHEM said to Moshe, “I have seen the nation and they are a stiff-necked nation.” (Shemos 32:9)
A stiff-necked nation: They turn the back of their neck to the one rebuking them and they refuse to listen. (Rashi)
A stiff-necked nation: You might think this is an insult to Israel but it is really their praise. After they accepted upon themselves the Mitzvos of the Torah, they give their lives entirely to sanctify the Name of HASHEM. Rabbi Avin says that until this very day Israel is referred to amongst the nations of the world as a “stiff-necked people” because of their devotion to the Torah without deviation. (Shemos Rabba)
Is this description of the Jewish Nation as a “stiff-necked nation” intended as an insult or a compliment? Which is the truth? If it is meant as praise, then why mention it here by the sin of the golden calf? The context would clearly tilt in favor of an unfavorable image. Why then does the Midrash choose to color it in more flattering tones?
With prophetic vision Dovid HaMelech describes “us” as follows: “All this has come upon us and we have not forgotten You, nor have we been false to Your covenant. Our heart has not turned back nor have our steps turned away from Your path. Even though You crushed us in the place of reptiles and covered us in the shadow of death. Have we forgotten forgotten the Name of our G-d and stretched out our hands to a strange g-d? Would not G- d have searched this out for he knows the secret of our hearts!? It is for Your sake that we are killed all the day, we are considered as sheep for the slaughter.” (Tehillim 44:18-22)
In the Teshuvos HaRashba 1548, he writes about our people: “Israel the inheritors of truth, the descendants of Jacob, the man of truth, seed of truth, would prefer to suffer continued exile and its horrors rather than accept something without critically and thoroughly analyzing it, step after step, to separate out any doubtful validity… even when it appears to be miraculous and absolute”
It’s recorded in a book about the Klausenberger Rebbe, The War Years: “Even during the most terrible times the Klausenberger Rebbe never lost his focus on Avodas HASHEM. Right under the noses of the Nazis, he studied and davened, and observed Mitzvos. Without regard for his personal safety he avoided the most minor transgression of the law. A survivor named Asher Brenner recalled, “In Auschwitz I was placed into the same group as the Klausenberger Rebbe. The Rebbe suffered even more than the rest of us because of his stubbornness. He refused to eat non-kosher food. He managed to bring his Tefillin into the camp with him, and he put them on every day. Notwithstanding the great danger he organized daily minyanim for prayer services. We often forgot about Shabbos but the Rebbe avoided desecrating Shabbos every week and made sure that no one else did the work that was imposed upon him. All this, of course, drew the attention of the Kapos, and they punished the Rebbe with vicious beatings. The Rebbe accepted the beating calmly, whispering to himself verses of consolation.”
Like any other trait, stubbornness can be used for good or the opposite. Therefore, for the sake of our survival, a stinging rebuke was needed, as it were, to reset the broken bone so it would not grow firm, committed to some corrupt value. So we have survived!
The historical record of the Jewish People’s enduring loyalty, under extreme duress is not less than a glorious testament to the truthfulness of that proud title The Almighty Himself draped lovingly over us as a talis-“A Stiff-Necked Nation!”
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muman613:
Here is a brief discussion of the idea of the Jewish forefathers establishing the idea that the descendants not veer from the path of the fathers...
--- Quote ---http://www.aish.com/tp/i/gl/106401929.html
The most striking aspect of Isaac's actions is that they very closely followed those of his father. When there was a famine in Abraham's time he headed for Egypt; Isaac planned to do the same thing until God told him not to leave the land of Israel. Then he returned to the wells that his father had dug but were now sealed, and he dug them again, calling them the same names that his father had called them.(1) Rabbeinu Bachya states that from Isaac's actions, we derive the concept of mesoras avos, following in the traditions of our fathers for all future generations of the Jewish people.(2) Isaac did not want to veer one inch from the path trodden by his father.
Rabbi Mattisyahu Salomon explains Isaac's role among the forefathers: Abraham was the trailblazer; he set the precedents and established the guideposts. Isaac's job was to consolidate everything that his father had done, to follow precisely in his father's footsteps and thereby establish for all future generations the primacy of following the mesora (tradition). Isaac's life work was not to seek new ways and new paths but to follow faithfully on the path trodden by his father. Therefore when a famine came to the land, he immediately thought of going to Egypt because his father did so. And when he came to Gerar he dug the same wells and gave them the same names that Avraham had given them.(3)
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muman613:
Now I gotta plug Prodezra's 'Stiffneck' hip-hop song:
muman613:
Alright, I like Prodezra, here are another couple of his tunes from last years release...
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