From: engelson-sean@cs.yale.edu (Sean Philip Engelson)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.jewish
Subject: Re: The difference between a chasid and a misnagid
Date: 15 Dec 1992 10:30:15 -0500
Organization: Yale AI Mobile Robotics Project
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: stove.ai.cs.yale.edu


In article <102113@netnews.upenn.edu>, weemba@sagi.wistar.upenn.edu (Matthew P Wiener) writes:
|> In article <1992Dec15.045757.5876@cs.tulane.edu>, david@bourbon (David Kaufmann) writes:
|> >A cute story about Rav Moshe Feinstein, z"l, who of course was no
|> >misnaged.
|> 
|> Which reminds me of _another_ "what's a chasid" story.  It seems a bunch
|> of chasidim were discussing the essense of hassidut, and the more they
|> discussed it, the less hasidic they felt they really were, just doing
|> the motions.  Then one of them said, "Well, maybe we can't call ourselves
|> Chasidim, but Baruch Atah Hashem -- Shelo Asoni Misnagid!!", and they all
|> cheered and had a round of l'chaims.

Genug shoin!  It's time for a different sort of hasid/misnagid story.  This is
a parable that I heard attributed to R. Aharon Kotler Z"TL.

One time, there was a wealthy Jew (in the old country, of course) who had a
good business and owned a large house and a lot of livestock.  He also had two
daughters.  When it came time for the elder daughter to marry, he went to the
yeshiva to find a suitable shidduch for his daughter.  He asked the rosh
yeshiva for the best bochur in the place; the father would support him in his
learning.  The rosh yeshiva pointed out one of the young men, whom the father
then introduced to his daughter, they hit it off, and a wedding was scheduled. 
A week before the wedding, the bridegroom-to-be came to his future
father-in-law and said that he had to tell him something before the actual
wedding took place, and he hoped it wouldn't cause a problem.  The father told
him not to worry and tell him what it was.  The young man then said that he
didn't eat any milchigs, only fleishig.  His father-in-law replied, "No
problem!  I have many cows and sheep---you'll never lack for food!"  The groom
was relieved, and the wedding went as planned, and the couple were very happy
together.

A few years later, the wealthy man's second daughter comes of age, and he
repeats the procedure, going down to the yeshiva to find a husband for his
daughter.  Everything goes as the last time, until, a week before the wedding,
the bridegroom-to-be comes to his future father-in-law with his own revelation,
"I hope it won't cause any problems or anything, but I don't eat any fleishigs,
only milchigs."  The reply is swift: "No problem!  I have many cows producing
milk and cheese; we can set up a second table in the dining room for you two,
so both of my sons-in-law can eat their own diets."  And so it came to pass,
and everyone was happy.

After some time, the economy took a turn for the worse, and the man's business
started to decline.  Unfortunately, he ended up having to sell his livestock to
survive.  The family which had been so well off now had to subside on potatoes.
So, one day the two sons-in-law and daughters sat down to their meals of
potatoes---these two at the fleishig table and these two at the milchig table. 
As they began to eat, the father walked in, looked at the situation, and
exclaimed, "Kinder!  It's all potatoes!  We should all sit together at one
table and eat as a family!"

Hasidim?  Misnagdim?

IT'S ALL POTATOES!  Let's all sit together as one family, already!

	-Shlomo-
-- 
Sean Philip (Shlomo) Engelson		
Yale Department of Computer Science	
Box 2158 Yale Station			
New Haven, CT 06520			
Newsgroups: soc.culture.jewish