As I finish my work day- a quick reply to think Big. I just cannot continue, at nauseum, to discuss the events of WWII and the Holocaust. I don’t think that anyone really knows the ultimate truth. If you believe the worst about someone, you are welcome. I will accept the worst about FDR, because he truly had the jechoiles but I will not accept the worst about jews. And, btw, I have also defended in various forii (plural of forum) our own poor brothers and sisters on why they did not fight back. I am a true believer in “al todin es chavercho at shetagya limkomo”. Not only don’t we know the truth about events in those dark days, who knows how we would have acted ourselves? So, dear think Big and reb yid Joseph, this is my last comment on the Holocaust.
You have actually hit on the head the point where you and I differ when you say that “it is their perspective of daas torah that counts”. This, to a large extent is at the crux of why I have different views on Eretz Yisroel and other issues.
There are two issues here : WHICH gedolim do we follow? I may well have my own and you have yours.
The second point is to what extent is one “mechuyev’ to be “mekabel daas torah”. In an earlier posting I did say that what goes on now as “emunas chachomim’ is a twentieth century invention and I stand by it. The chiyuv of “lo sossur” is for halacha and was never really invoked for “milei de-alma”. For reasons I will not discuss now, this changed in the past generation or so. Suddenly, everything a Godol says is “kodesh kodoshim” and must be adhered to. This view, I suggest, is truly modern and was not the case in our past history. And, because of that, I do not feel that I am bound by ceertain sayings about zionism, or Eretz Yisroel, or college, or kollelim…and a host of other issues.
I predict that,because of that position, Reb yid joseph and jent 1150 and others will call me….guess what..a koifer ! Well, so be it, but you ‘ll have to prove to me where it says that in “milei de-alma’ I MUST follow certain opinions.