B”H


The Bonfires of Lag B’Omer Were Just A Warm-Up This Year


An article appeared in the newspaper דתי צפוני on 24.5.04 entitled
"מרן הגר"ח קנייבסקי שרף פאה עם ברכה". When מרן הגר"ח קנייבסקי, considered to be one of the greatest geniuses of this generation in the Rabbinic world got word from הגרי"ש אלישיב that the wigs that they have been encouraging their women to wear contained human hair that came from India and had also been sold to shrines wherein עבודה זרה (idol worship) is practiced, he ordered that a wig that had hairs in it that had been used for idol worship be brought to him. He immediately set about pronouncing a blessing בלי שם ומלכות, ברוך ה and burning the offending wig next to his home. In so doing, he joined thousands of Charedim who, upon hearing that the wigs they had formerly insisted their women wear contained hair from women from India who were also selling their hair to shrines wherein worship of idols takes place, burned the wigs after having them analyzed. The wigs were sometimes burned in large heaps.

Delighted with himself, he returned to his family and said: "שרפנו עבודה זרה" (“We have incinerated idol worship!”)

Torah says:


"...ובכרת הרע מקרבך" (דברים יז:ז)

"...ובערת הרע מישראל" (שם יז:יב)

מקרבך ומישראל, ולא סמוך לביתך.

May we merit to have true Torah leaders who will be as concerned about the purity of the functioning of the Religious Services and that there is not one single hair of עבודה זרה in what they do (worship of gold and power in particular) as they are about the wigs they buy for their wives at astronomical prices, the money of which should go for צדקה, learning תורה, etc.

Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat
DoreenDotan@gmail.com