בס"דT
The Committee for Real Achdus in RBS-A
We are happy that people in RBS are meeting to promote achdus! It’s wonderful when people come together to learn Torah and promote feelings of unity in our community. Whenever possible, communal decisions should be made with achdus as a primary goal. However in RBS, this is unfortunately not always the way it has been done, and a painful example of this is the issue of mikvaos.
In other communities (Bnei Brak, Har Nof, Ramat Eshkol, Sharei Chesed, Lakewood, Monsey, Boro Park, Flatbush, Kew Gardens Hills…) there is a community mikva and everyone uses it: end of the story. Why is it that only in RBS we hear “I don’t use that mikva, that one isn’t kosher enough for me, I only go to this mikva…?” The mikvaos in RBS are currently run with many chumros. The Rabbanim of RBS have been repeatedly invited to meet with the Rav Hamachshir, who has even expressed his willingness to offer optional “mehadrin-checking.” Unfortunately, it seems that there is an attitude of “if we’re not in control, we won’t be part of it” and therefore the rabbanim are unwilling to work together, b’achdus.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with the actual mikvaos on Lachish and Dolev. The proof is that Lachish is currently used by everyone on Friday night. Dolev will soon be transferred over to the very rabbanim who currently say “it’s not mehardin.” No physical changes to the mikva will be made at all, just different staff will work there. It will then be magically considered “mehadrin.” Clearly most people saying "the mikva is not mehadrin" or "it's better not to use that mikva" are not in possession of the facts and do not realize that their words are promoting Sinas Chinam. However, when we go up to shamayim after 120 years, it will not help if we say, "everyone else did it too.” A community cannot claim to have achdus and not share one mikva. (Even in Bnei Brak, Chasidishe and Litvishe use the same mikva.)
Not only is the Dolev mikva with 10 rooms being given over to be run privately as “mehadrin,” but there is also a plan to build another “mehadrin” mikva on Luz, at a cost of ONE MILLION DOLLARS. Building an unnecessary mikva will not promote achdus. It is also a huge waste of money. (Let’s build a community swimming pool instead!)The writers of this letter are yeshivish people. (It is a sign of how little achdus we have that we are afraid to sign our names). We write this letter because we hope that, given all the facts, people will do the right thing.
For those who will react to this by saying or thinking: “Isn't frummer always automatically better?” The answer is that as the Satmer Rebbe, the Divrei Yoel, famously said, "Es iz zeir shver tzu zein frim, uber es iz zeir gring tzu zein frimmer." Translation: It's very hard to be frum, but it's very easy to be frummer.Due to the sensitive nature of this topic, many significant details could not be mentioned in this forum, and are available at rbs-achdus.blogspot.com or via email at rbs.achdus@gmail.com.
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I found this blog through the RBS yahoo group.
ReplyDeleteMy wife says that she enjoys the fact that many women will not use the downstairs at Lachish Friday night, because she goes downstairs and is in and out much faster.
This doesn't sound possible. How could all of the rabbanim be agreeing to this? I am reserving judgement until I get a chance to talk to my Rav and ask him for the real explanation for all of this.
ReplyDeleteI really feel like a fool. I can't believe I've been sitting and waiting on Friday nights, because I thought there was a problem with the mikva downstairs. I just spoke to my rav and he said "there is no problem with the downstairs mikva on Luz."
ReplyDeleteI find it hard to believe that the Satmer Rebbe said something bad about being frummer.
ReplyDeleteYoni - the Satmar Rav was an anti-Zionist, he wasn't afraid of going against the mainstream.
ReplyDeleteMrs. RBS - you mean Lachish, not Luz.
ReplyDeleteOops! I guess I wrote that cuz I live on Luz!
ReplyDeleteCan anyone tell me the difference between the checking that is done in the downstairs mikve to the upstairs one?
ReplyDeleteShani- according to our information, which was verified with the mikva ladies, the downstairs on Lachish is usually only open on Friday nights. Friday nights the mikva lady downstairs checks women's hands, nails, feet, toenails and asks the usual checklist questions. (Mikva ladies contacted in the U.S. report that that is not standard practice there. They don't check AT ALL. Since it's "too late" they rely on the woman and don't look themselves.) Upstairs on Lachish, they do basically the same thing but they are more "machmir." We were given a first hand report by a woman who went upstairs and was told she can't tovel because her toenail was not perfectly smooth. She insisted that she always cuts her toenails that way and is sure that it is fine. The mikva lady then said that since she said she davens in BTYA, if she wants to go to show it to Reb. Malinowitz who could describe it to her husband, and he says it's okay, then she would be allowed to tovel. The woman refused to do this. On her way out of the mikva, she decided to try going downstairs. The woman there assured her it was completely fine. After shabbos she spoke to various rabanim who assured her that she had done the correct thing in tovelling nder that circumstance. Other similar stories abound. However, most women report that it is exactly the same upstairs and downstairs, which leads to the question: if both mikvaos are equally kosher, and the checks are the same, why make a rule about using only the upstairs which is under the control of Rav Perlstein?
ReplyDeletePlease let me clarify a few facts.
ReplyDeleteIt is imperative if we wish to ever reach the goals of the "achdus campaign" for each and every one of us to watch what we say. If you don't have your facts clear then don't post them.
Rabbi Perlstein had nothing to do with the coalition agreement. The person on the agreement was Rabbi Davidovitz. He was chosen because is very level headed when it comes to halach versus chumra. (not to imply anything about anyone else. Just to repel any blogger who doesn't know him personally, and will claim that he will be imposing unnecessary chumros on women)
I don't know where RBSAchdus gets his facts from, but if he thinks there are only 30 RBS A women out of nearly 4000 using the mikva per night (900 per month), then our problems are a lot more serious than he thinks. We obviously need to go on a taharas hamishpacha campaign.
The new mikva in Luz is being planned for two reasons only.
1) There is a serious need for more than 20 rooms. Fact. If you don't think so then do the maths again. I have researched this area and spoken to experts on the subject. The number of rooms needed to satisfy the current needs of RBS A is no less than 30 rooms. This is a minimum. Other formulas ended up with more. Between now and Succos, the number of families in town will have grown by another 6-700. We must bear that in mind too. We currently only have 20.
2) There are a lot of women (especially Americans) who wish they would have something a little bit more aesthetic than what is currently available locally and with a bit more attention paid to the privacy (eg not waiting in a waiting room together with their friends, neighbours etc.)
Going to the mikva is a precious mitzva which has been preserved for generation after generation and is the essence for the continuation of klal yisrael. Making this mitzva a little bit more beautiful will go along way. Furthermore, a mikva with greater attention paid to the aesthetics would encourage many of our fellow sisters who do not currently visit a mikva, to start doing so. What greater bein odom lachaveiro is there than this.
Seeing as the aim is to make a mikva which will be used by everyone, the plans have incorporated a very high standard of kashrus and a very high standard of aesthetic planning. To say any one Rav is behind the Luz mikva project is absolutely false.
Another one of the key points of the plans are to have balaniyot who will treat people as they wish to be treated WITHOUT imposing any chumras on anyone.
I am very involved with the project and can assure anyone who is interested in hearing, that there is absolutely no political intent involved with the new mikva project. The project was actually started around 4 or 5 years ago (when a lot of the messy politics of today did not exist) with applying for a plot of land, securing a grant from the iriya, drawing up the plans again and again until they are just right. Now that all the chips are in place and the fundraising for the project is about to be launched with intent on having the place up and running within a couple of years (really!), it is such a shame to turn it into a political forum. By doing so, we will only be shooting ourselves in the foot.
We have 2 options ahead of us:
1) a massive influx of ahavas chinam emenating from the entire community of RBS A working together on a project where we all stand to gain. Surely, in the merit of the Ahavas chinam, we will have extra siyata dishmaya to successfully see the project through to the end.
2)Turn the project into another source of sinas chinam. As a result, half the town will support it and half won't. End result: Mikva likely doesn't get built and we all lose out.
I vote for the first option. And I would like to think that all of my fellow neighbours think this way too.
Anyone who wants to get more involved with the new mikva project, or has questions and wants real answers, can e mail me on themikva@gmail.com.
First of all we would like to state for the record that there is no connection between us and the achdus campaign. We apologize for any misunderstanding .
ReplyDeleteInstead of being accusatory, why don't you do what we did, and call the mikva on Lachish and Dolev and you will be told that 30 women on average come each night. The fact is that regardless of your maths and experts, the number of women who are pregnant, nursing or post-menopause means that a large proportion of women are not using the mikva at any given time. That seems fairly obvious. Your numbers in terms of current and future residents are over-inflated in any case.
When you say that "a key point" of the Luz mikva is that balaniyot will not impose chumras on anyone, does that mean that women will be clearly offered a choice of standard Lakewood/Boro Park type checking like they do at Lachish vs. having "superchecks"?
Unfortunately, once again we have not received a straight answer to our very simple question. Since Rav Perlstein will soon have control over 10 rooms on Dolev, why not wait and see if the long lines actually form before rushing into building another mikva? Why not make apointments there like they do in Lakewood and Passaic if women are so uncomfortable seeing their neighbors in the waiting room like they do in Flatbush and Queens? Many women have mentioned that they prefer to go to the mikva in another neighborhood where they are less likely to meet friends. (Which may account for the impossibly low number we were given).
Lastly, your statement that if there was a more aesthetically pleasing mikva "our fellow sisters who do not currently visit a mikva" would come shows how out of touch you are. Try being dan l'kaf z'chus. The mikva ladies on Lachish report that contrary to your accusatory remark, the women in the neighborhood who look "not frum" (wear pants, don't cover their hair) do come to the mikva, despite its lack of aesthetic decor because the mitzva is so important to them. They are also made to feel very welcome when they come.
The real fear is, that if the "very high standard" that you refer to is imposed on all the mikvaos in RBS-A in the coming months/years ahead, those women and many others may no longer be willing to come- despite the classy decor and under the floor heating.