![]() If one had a bad dream, or if God forbid, one's phylacteries fell off, the Rabbi would direct that twice chai was to be dropped into Rabbi Meir's little box. At every opportunity, be it a joyful occasion, or God forbid, a time of trouble, coins were dropped into the box. This was a sacred ritual special to the Hasidic homes, where every Friday before sundown, prior to the lighting of the candles, a few groschen were dropped into the collection box. The Collection Box of Rabbi Meir Baal HaNess The boycott against the Hasidim of Radzyn persisted until the Holocaust. After this loss, the ritual slaughterer from Markuszow vanished. Since they were not experienced butchers, they were powerless in their attempt to capture the ox that had run free, and it disappeared. A group of young folks from the Hasidic shtiblakh cut the rope, and the beast ran away. ![]() One time, on a Saturday night, they were leading a large ox to be slaughtered. The purchased cattle and Itta Hant'shels, as a mitzvah, sold it to them at no profit. Having no alternative, the Radzyn Hasidim decided to do their own slaughtering, on their own account. However, the other Hasidim from all of the shtiblakh contested this, and did not permit them access to any of the butchers, nor to the slaughterhouse. Accordingly, they decided to retain their own ritual slaughterer at their own expense. I do not remember his name, only the story, which was as follows: The Hasidim of Radzyn felt very put out because not one of the servants of the community, such as Rabbis, ritual slaughterers, Hevra Kadisha, etc., was one of the Hasidim of Radzyn. R' Eliezer Gershon Teicher was the bookkeeper. ![]() The activists were: Pinchas Szparer, Chaim Hymowitz, Yehoshua Fishl's Goldstein, and myself as a youngster. It was from this income that the institution sustained itself. ‘ Linat HaTzedek’ was recognized by each and every Jew as an important activity, and a special tariff was imposed on ritual slaughter for its use. Its activity consisted of dispensing medicaments at no charge, good food, such a bread rolls, for sustenance, milk and butter, and volunteer nights to sit with the ill. It was especially active in the First War, and immediately after the War, in which disease, God forbid, were rampant, and the poverty was great, and Linat HaTzedek saved many young Jewish lives. This was one of the first and wonderful institutions for the common good that Tomaszow once had. The argument is based on a close reading of one chapter of the last volume of Menasseh ben Israel’s Conciliador (1651) as well as Daniel Levi de Barrios’s poem Libre Alvedrío y Harmonia del Cuerpo, por disposición del alma (1680).Tomaszów Lubelski, Poland (Pages 55-84) « Previous Page This article uses the example of the Catholic Controversia de auxiliis, and the Protestant fight over Predestination before and after the Synod of Dordt (1618-1619) to argue that Portuguese Jews such as Menasseh ben Israel and Daniel Levi de Barrios recognised the cross-confessional dimension of the Christian debates on divine grace they used their Iberian background and knowledge to order and explain what they observed and they displayed their position as outsiders to deconstruct religious boundaries, imagine alternative religious landscapes, and finally re-insert themselves into their newly created religious maps and orders. Until now, scholars have often argued that Portuguese Jews discussed Christian concepts of divine foreknowledge and human free will because they were either struggling with their own Christian past or sought to help their ‘New Jewish’ coreligionists to turn into reliable members of the Amsterdam Sephardic community. Studies in the Jewish reception of Christian theological discussions beyond the proper field of polemics are rare and only in their beginnings.
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