Zeide Shraga Feitel's sefer IMREI SHEFER

Few family members have read it, but today it is easily available online.

https://www.hebrewbooks.org/37087

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Birchas Yitschok:

ספר ברכת יצחק : שרידי חידושים על הש"ס / מאת רב ... מו"ה יוסף יצחק בן ... חיים דוב רבינוביץ ... ומצורפים אליו שלשה קונטרסים ... [א]. זכרון מנחם מחדושיו של הרב ... שרגא פייטל רבינוביץ. -- [ב]. זכרון יהושע, שרידי ח"ת של הגאון ר' יהושע אייזיל קוסטיוקבסקי. -- [ג]. זכרון שמואל, מחידושיו של הרב ... צבי מרקוביץ.

מקום קשורJerusalem (Israel)-place of publication

מחברים/ יוצרים נוספיםרבינוביץ, שרגא פיטל, 1880-1964

מוציא לאורירושלים : דפוס בית יתומים דיסקין

שנהתש"י

הערותע' [קסא]-ריד כוללים: זכרון מנחם : על שם אחי מנחם מנדל רבינוביץ.

ע' [רטו]-רמה כוללים: זכרון יהושע : מחד"ת של ר' יהושע אייזל קוסטיוקובסקי.

ע' [רמז]-רנט כוללים: זכרון שמואל : מחידושיו של הרב ... צבי מרקוביץ ... לזכר אביו הרב ... שמואל מרקוביץ ...

תיאור[21], רסא ע'

24 ס"מ.

שפהעברית

מספר מערכת990020353510205171

קישוריםלספר האלקטרוני באתר היברובוקס הקש כאן

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Siach Yitschok

ספר שיח יצחק : בדברי אגדה והוא חלק שני מס' ברכת יצחק בהלכה / להרב ... יוסף יצחק ראבינאוויץ מכת"י אשר נשאר לפליטה ביד בנו הרב שרגא פייטל ראבינאוויץ ... ובסופו אמרי שפר מאת המו"ל בן המחבר.

מקום קשורJerusalem (Israel)-place of publication

מחברים/ יוצרים נוספיםרבינוביץ, שרגא פיטל, 1880-1964.

מוציא לאורירושלים : דפוס ספרא

שנהתשי"ד

הערותלספר אמרי שפר שער מיוחד.

תיאור20, [2], רח ע'

24 ס"מ.

שפהעברית

מספר מערכת990020670880205171

Upon reading the introduction ('Mavo') of the sefer, you will understand why I felt it is important to make his sefer more accessible, both to the family and to others. After I myself read the sefer years ago I felt that zeide Sharaga Feitel would been pleased if his descendants read it, and I felt that one of the major ways to make it more accessible to them would be to condense it, add section-headings, provide an index and glossary, as well as historical footnotes etc (see for example this page).

Hopefully others of his descendants will join in this project to prepare an annotated & edited version of this and the other family sforim. Part of this would be to excerpt brief 'dvrei torah' and 'vorts' to post/publish separately.

The sefer contains not only his own writings but also some of his father's. Both are represented by a philosophical "drush" and a "hadran al ha'shas". The sefer as a whole is titled "Imrei Shefer", taken from the title of the 'drush' sub-section he wrote.

"Nechomas Yisroel" שיח יצחק: דרוש נחמת ישראל

The drush subsection written by his father (elter-zeide R Yosef Yitschak) is titled "Nechomas Yisroel", a discussion based on the end of maseches makos (see my discussion of that section of gmoro as part of the siyyum for my father's first yahrzeit), focused on providing comforting source-based insights into the contemporary plight of the Jewish people scattered among the nations and of the desolate land of Israel, and an optimistic interpretation of how the eventual ge'ulah will unfold (positively rather than negatively), as deduced from chazal's choice of which nevuah to quote.

In some sense there is a thematic connection between the drush of R shraga Feitel and the one by his father (perhaps explaining why he chose this one [from amongst the many of his father's writings] to print in his sefer.)

R Shraga Feitel added a few footnotes: one of them relates to a saying about Napoleon, another relating the issue to something he himself wrote in Imrei Shefer, and a third is included below.

Zeideh Shraga Feitel describes the death & destruction, the suffering & horror during WWI, and his father, the author of this drush, died in those years. I do not know in which year his father wrote the drush, but one can see that the situation of the Jewish people was dire (and not only of the Jews), and one can understadn why both Zeide Shraga Feitel and his father wrote this type of drush, attempting to make sense of the suffering and misery, and to see somehow a silver lining, a message of hope, rather than the otherwise-overwhelming sense that God had abandoned his people.

And all this was of course only 20 years before WWII, when the destruction was completed; the sefer Imrei Shefer was printed in 1929, halfway between the two wars, in the year when there was also a major Arab pogrom in Eretz Yisrael which killed many Jews in Chevron.

Again, one can only imagine what it must have seemed like for someone coming from that inferno to land on the shores of America, and it takes not much imagination to understand why zeide Shraga Feitel's trip to sell his sefer in America turned into a permanent relocation, sending for his family to join him in the USA rather than going to rejoin them in Europe.

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Some sources useful for this drush: (re my own drush on this gemoro, see below)

בראשית רבה ,וישלח יעקב מלאכים .

The final thought of the drush is:

והנה כבר נחלקו (םגהדרין צ״ז ב,) אם הגאולה תהיה אף אם אין עושין

תשובה והארכגו בזה בדרוש לשה״ג ולזה גתחזק בטחון הגאולה שיעשה ה׳ למען ציון

אף אם לא יגיעו זכיותיו לזה יעשה ד׳ עמנו למען שמו הגדול אחר שיגקומ באויביו

כמבואר שם ולמען ארצו וגחלתו ויקרא שמו עליו ועל עירו כמ״ש כי שמך גקרא

על עירך ועל עמך. ולזה גתחזק ר״ע בראותו שועל יוצא מבית קה״ק

שאף אם אין ישראל עושין תשובה נגאלין, דהיינו שיעמוד להם זכות הארץ הנשמה

וצרת גפשם שהם בזוים מכל אומה, וכ״ד המדרש מתיך צרה כוי ובצרוף כיז יזכו

לגאולה אף אם לא יעסוד בידם תשובה גמורה.

[Footnote by Zeide SF: אשפ״ר: ובזה יבואר הימב לשון הכתוב (מיכה ג, ) לכן בגללכם ציון שדה

חחרש שאמר לשון בגללכם דמשמע למובתכם דאס למנש ורמתם היה צ״ל

בעבורכם ובםבתכם. END FOOTNOTE]

יש לנו לקוות כי יצורף מעלת ארץ הקדש השוממה

וחרבה ויעלה זכרונה לפני השי״ת לצרף לתשובה ולהביא גאולתנו וכמו שאמר לנו

שני פעמים עקיבא נחמתנו, עקיבא נחמתנו.

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Other family members are invited to add material from the sefer, as well as their own explanatory & background information, translations, reference material etc.

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As it turns out, I gave my own drush on the gemoro which formed the basis for elter-zeide's דרוש נחמת ישראל as part of the siyyum we made for my father's first Yahrzeit (in Yerushalayim, within sight of some of the places mentioned in the story brought in the gemoro): To view it,

watch minutes 22:00-32:00 of the video.

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אמרי שפר

Reading the sefer's Introduction and the lengthy 'drush' titled "Imrei Shefer" will give you an insight into who Zeide Shraga Feitel was, what mattered to him, what he felt deeply about. It is largely a Torah-based social & philosophical commentary on the turbulent times, on materialism, war and human suffering, all expressed in a literary style; a passionate cry from a questioning mind in parts very much in the style of kohelet and Iyov, and the condemnations of the nevi'im, spotted with poetic sections, and suffused by the intellectual, scientific and technological currents of that era. (Perhaps it also provides some insight into why he decided to leave Europe for the USA?)

FEEL FREE TO ADD YOUR OWN SUMMARIES, TRANSLATIONS, NOTES ETC; you can email them to me to insert here, or add them in the 'comments' section below.

Preface/Introduction: "Mavo"

Table of contents/basic outline:

• A discussion of the function of an introduction, and various types of introductions; for example the antechamber of a home as introduction or preface to the home, the creation during the 6 days as an introduction to the creation of humanity etc.

• An interesting discussion about the desire of people to write books and how a book offers a glimpse into the soul of the author; the Universe and the Torah as God's books, the study of which allows for an understanding of ruach Hashem.

• Description of the content of the book, and of the manuscripts not yet published.

• An account of the ravages of WWI on Jewish communities in Europe, on Zeide's family, on his parents, and on him - specifically his depression as a result, and the role of this sefer in bringing him back to himself.

Part I: מאמר ראשון

מעלת האדם ותכליתו

12 chapters

Part II: 5 chapters

Part III: 1 chapter

My method of preparing the condensed version: After reading the three ma'amarim and obtaining an understanding of what Zeide was saying, I went through each chapter to determine the briefest way to make the point, while hopefully maintaining the style and the charm. Using a pencil I underlined - in my copy of the sefer itself - specific words and phrases and sometimes complete sentences and paragraphs. On occasion I created sentences by combining individual words or phrases taken from several sentences or paragraphs. The sentences thus constructed reflect the meaning of the full sentences or paragraphs, but in briefer form.

Some years later, I photocopied the underlined pages and gave them to a typist, and then edited the result. Since I felt that it is not my place to change his words, I generally only added a few necessary 'linking words' here and there, with all of the additional words indicated. On occasion I placed some sentences in parenthesis, but noted where I did so. A series of semicolons ;;;; or other such symbol signifies that a lengthy piece was skipped at that point. Of course a condensation of necessity cannot contain everything, and so interested readers are referred to the original after reading this version. Especially-interested readers can compare this condensation to the original and offer constructive critique/suggestions.

I also added section-headings and explanatory footnotes, some of which provide historical background, and then asked an editor to go through the material, recommending changes, adding form the original as needed if the reading was too terse or omitted a phrase too beautiful to skip, and creating additional section headings. I hope to add other comprehension-aides, for example a glossary of Yiddish words, translation of unusual Hebrew words, and references for some obscure quotes.

There will also be biographical information taken from Zeide's other sforim, and from various other sources. I hope at a later stage to add brief choice excerpts from various other sforim written by him containing chidushim of his father Yosef Yitschak, and written by other family members, for example by Mordechai Eliyahu, brother of Yosef Yitschak (see photo of his wife Zlateh Rivka's matzevah, which I found on my visit to Zablin).

My intention is to make the condensed version with my notes available on the internet, perhaps eventually with an English translation, howeverI would not think of doing so without first allowing family members to offer critique and suggest changes, and so what I present is only a preliminary version.

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Below are photos of pages; for the text version see the attached files (also at the bottom of the webpage).

This is the opening page of Imrei Shefer, the 1st page of a 9-page Introduction (this is the original text); below it you can see the 3-page condensed version:

Example of how I indicated to the typist what to type for the abridged version; I placing opening and closing 2-sided indicators into the original text

(below are pages 4 & 5 [VI & VII] of the 9 pages):

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To set the tome for Part II, the above has all the original text from the first page and a little after it, but from that point on the condensed version includes only snippets, until reaching to the second chapter, and takes on pieces form chapter 2: comparing the below to the original will indicate how I considerably condensed the discussion, but hopefully maintained the essential points and the flow:

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Some of the Poems

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Explanatory material regarding the central midrash quoted in the sefer:

MIDRASH DEGEL OF SHVATIM SOURCE AND EXPLANATORY MATERIAL..DOC (620K)

Reading even this condensed version will not just provide you with biographical information, but more importantly it will allow you to develop some insight into who Zeide was by seeing which issues he felt deeply about.

Zeide was niftar when I was very young, and I remember my delight years later at being able to obtain a real glimpse into his soul (read the mavo and you will see that this is an appropriate phrase) even though it was long after his death. I can easily trace some of my own interests back to those of my father, and - via the Imrei Shefer - from him back to Zeide. Perhaps after reading the sefer others too will recognize aspects of themselves or of close family members.

Imrei Shefer is beautifully written in a very literary and flowery but 'rabonishe' Hebrew of that time. It may surprise some that it even has poems scattered throughout (not all of which appear in the condensed version). My hope is that after reading this version, readers will want to read the full original version.

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I must thank: Asah'el Shmeltzer for providing a 'second opinion' as to what to include or exclude, and for helping greatly with the headings and footnotes, as well as re-typing the material from the underlined text in my copy of the sefer; my mother, Rachel, for helping to make this possible by contributing funding, by being supportive of the project, and in providing editorial input for this introduction.

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family tree from Zeide's sefer:

Hopefully people will contribute whatever information they have to the family tree both forward and backward. Some additional material related to Zeide is already available on Shutterfly's zablinrabinowitz, a site meant for the family (for example the postcard below), and I hope to be able to add far more.

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Map shows Vilnius with a star in the upper middle of the map, Brest (Brisk) in the extreme lower left, and Volkovysk (different spelling) almost exactly half way between them. Turetz is not far, see Map in appendix.

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Imrei Shefer was written between WWI and WWII and mentions or refers to WWI frequently. He refers mainly to two aspects: the destruction of Jewish communities, and the terrible use of modern technology. The former was not only a tragedy of the Jewish people, it was also a personal tragedy, as his parents and other family members lost their lives as a direct or indirect result. The latter was horrifying both due to the fact that human knowledge of nature and brilliant advances in technology were abused by being adapted for the purposes of warfare, and also due to the ability of the new weapons to kill on a massive scale. Unfortunately of course all this was taken to an even greater extreme in WWII. As a result, by the time WWII was over, it had made the memory of WWI - the destruction of communities, the perversion of technology and the new massive scale of killing - pale in comparison. [Relevant background material about WWI is available in the Appendices.]

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Zeide uses a very literary style, and I found sources for some of the phrases and included them below.

He mentions post WWI-era financial disaster, suicide as a result, people's attachment to material possessions, and mentions Benjamin Franklin's tombstone. The material below provides some background information regarding these.

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Some background material taken from various websites:

The depression ("the great depression") began with the stock market crash of October 29, 1929 (though the fall in stock prices began early in September. There were rumors of people jumping from buildings in the stock exchange as a result of having lost their fortunes[1].The first chapter of Imrei Shefer speaks of people who committed suicide because they lost all their money, especially people who had been rich. The sefer was printed in Vilna 1929 – if it was published at the end of that year, it is possible that this is the source of the reference.

August 30, 2002

Dear Cecil:

Did investors really jump to their deaths when the stock market crashed in 1929? If so, was it just on Wall Street or all over the country?

— Alex Baxter, Aurora, Illinois

Admit it, you want this to be true. You want to believe there was a time when ruined tycoons, brought low through their own foolishness and greed, would do the decent thing and commit suicide, in contrast to the modern practice of going before a congressional committee and taking the fifth. You want to think that if you'd walked down Wall Street on Black Thursday--October 24, 1929--bankrupt plutocrats would have been falling out of the skies like rain. In short, you want to believe in a better world.

And you know what? People wanted to believe in it at the time. Even while the financial meltdown was in progress, reporters in downtown Manhattan were checking out a rumor that 11 busted brokers had jumped out of windows. London newspapers gleefully told of pedestrians threading their way through the bodies of fallen speculators. Legend has it that the cops dragged one poor guy off a ledge, only to discover that he was just a window washer. Will Rogers observed, "When Wall Street took that tail spin, you had to stand in line to get a window to jump out of, and speculators were selling space for bodies in the East River." One senses in these stories an element of wishful thinking on the part of ordinary folks, many of whom had also lost money in the crash. Who can blame them? "The market has tanked! My life savings are gone! These people DESERVE TO DIE!"

Well, they probably did, but they probably didn't, at least not on October 24 or the even more catastrophic Black Tuesday, October 29. No less an authority than economist John Kenneth Galbraith addressed the subject in his book The Great Crash, 1929, first published in 1955. Studying U.S. death statistics, Galbraith found that while the U.S. suicide rate increased steadily between 1925 and 1932, during October and November of 1929 the number of suicides was disappointingly low.

That's not to say that a few failed investors, executives, etc., didn't kill themselves in the wake of the crash. But the suicides happened all around the country, didn't necessarily involve jumping out the window, and for the most part didn't take place immediately following the crash. For example:

On Friday, November 8, J.J. Riordan, president of the County Trust Company, took a pistol from a teller's cage at his bank, went to his home in downtown Manhattan, and shot himself. The news was suppressed until after the bank closed at noon Saturday, to avoid causing a run on the bank.

A vice president of the Earl Radio Corporation jumped to his death from the window of a Manhattan hotel. His suicide note read, "We are broke. Last April I was worth $100,000. Today I am $24,000 in the red." But this happened in early October, weeks before the crash.

Jesse Livermore, perhaps the most famous of the Wall Street speculators, shot himself--but not until 1940.

Several well-publicized suicides did fulfill the stereotype. Winston Churchill, visiting New York, was awakened the day after Black Tuesday by the noise of a crowd outside the Savoy-Plaza Hotel. "Under my very window a gentleman cast himself down fifteen storeys and was dashed to pieces, causing a wild commotion and the arrival of the fire brigade," he wrote.

In 1929: The Year of the Great Crash (1989) historian William K. Klingaman says asphyxiation by gas was the most common method of doing oneself in, although there was considerable variety. He writes:

The wife of a Long Island broker shot herself in the heart; a utilities executive in Rochester, New York, shut himself in his bathroom and opened a wall jet of illuminating gas; a St. Louis broker swallowed poison; a Philadelphia financier shot himself in his athletic club; a divorcee in Allentown, Pennsylvania, closed the doors and windows of her home and turned on a gas oven. In Milwaukee, one gentleman who took his own life left a note that read, 'My body should go to science, my soul to Andrew W. Mellon, and sympathy to my creditors.'

You have to admire a guy like that. Now if only some of the current crop of pirates would take the hint.

— Cecil Adams

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http://history1900s.about.com/od/1920s/a/stockcrash1929_2.htm

October 29, 1929, "Black Tuesday," is known as the worst day in stock market history. There were so many orders to sell that the ticker quickly fell behind. (By the end of close, it had lagged to 2 1/2 hours behind.) People were in a panic; they couldn't get rid of their stocks fast enough. Since everyone was selling and nearly no one was buying, stock prices collapsed.

Rather than the bankers rallying investors by buying more stocks, rumors circulated that they were selling. Panic hit the country. Over 16.4 million shares of stock were sold - a new record.

The Drop Continues

Not sure how to stem the panic, the decision was made to close the stock market on Friday, November 1 for few days. When it reopened on Monday, November 4 for limited hours, stocks dropped again. The slump continued until November 23, 1929, when prices seemed to stabilize. However, this was not the end. Over the next two years, the stock market continued to drop. It reached its low point on July 8, 1932 when the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 41.22.

Aftermath

To say that the Stock Market Crash of 1929 devastated the economy is an understatement. Although reports of mass suicides in the aftermath of the crash were most likely exaggerations, many people lost their entire savings. Numerous companies were ruined. Faith in banks was destroyed.

The Stock Market Crash of 1929 occurred at the beginning of the Great Depression. Whether it was a symptom of the impending depression or a direct cause of it is still hotly debated.

After the 1929 stock market crash, did investors really jump out of windows? [1]

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See file attached at bottom of webpage: MIDRASH DEGEL OF SHVATIM SOURCE AND EXPLANATORY MATERIAL..DOC

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Besides the passion with which Zeide infused Imrei Shefer, his writing style is beautiful, and every page contains quaint literary phrases, and scattered here and there through it are poems!

Although the Hebrew is not the same as in contemporary Israeli usage the first editor/typist I chose told me she didn't think the language should be changed at all:

A note from Asa'el, the more recent editor/typist:

One would have to study all of tanach, gemoro, midrash and commentaries to be familiar with all these words and phrases, and so a source-text accompanying Imrei Shefer would have to be an encyclopedia on its own. Just to provide an example, here are some sources for a few of the literary phrases Zeide uses (other readers of Imrei Shefer are invited to add to this list):

בעכרינו

מלכים א פרק יח

טו ויאמר, אלייהו, חי ה צבאות, אשר עמדתי לפניו: כי היום, איראה אליו. טז וילך עובדיהו לקראת אחאב, ויגד-לו; וילך אחאב, לקראת אלייהו. יז ויהי כראות אחאב, את-אלייהו; ויאמר אחאב אליו, האתה זה עוכר ישראל. יח ויאמר, לא עכרתי את-ישראל, כי אם-אתה, ובית אביך--בעזובכם את-מצוות ה, ותלך אחרי הבעלים.

17 And it came to pass, when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said unto him: 'Is it thou, thou troubler of Israel?'18 And he answered: 'I have not troubled Israel; but thou, and thy father's house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the LORD, and thou hast followed the Baalim.

דברי הימים א פרק ב

א אלה, בני ישראל: ראובן שמעון לוי ויהודה, יששכר וזבולון. ב דן יוסף ובנימין, נפתלי גד ואשר. ג בני יהודה, ער ואונן ושלה--שלושה נולד לו, מבת-שוע הכנענית; ויהי ער בכור יהודה, רע בעיני יהוה--וימיתהו ד ותמר, כלתו, ילדה לו, את-פרץ ואת-זרח; כל-בני יהודה, חמישה. ה בני-פרץ, חצרון וחמול. ו ובני זרח, זמרי ואיתן והימן וכלכול ודרע--כולם חמישה. ז ובני כרמי עכר עוכר ישראל, אשר מעל בחרם.

7 And the sons of Carmi: Achar, the troubler of Israel, who committed a trespass concerning the devoted thing.

משלי טו כז עֹכֵר בֵּיתוֹ, בּוֹצֵעַ בָּצַע; וְשׂוֹנֵא מַתָּנֹת יִחְיֶה. עוכר = מקלקל ומשחית

He that is greedy of gain troubleth his own house; but he that hateth gifts shall live.

AR: Maybe he chose this word due to the context of rejection of materialism, and the mention of a house.

.....טַח מֵרְאוֹת....

ישעיהו פרק מד

16 He burneth the half thereof in the fire; with the half thereof he eateth flesh; he roasteth roast, and is satisfied; yea, he warmeth himself, and saith: 'Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire';

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20 He striveth after ashes, a deceived heart hath turned him aside, that he cannot deliver his soul, nor say: 'Is there not a lie in my right hand?'

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....מרישא לסיפא מדרש ומסיפא לרישא מדרש....

Examples of usage of this expression: in this sefer:

אין אדם יוצא מן העולם וחצי תאותו בידו.

אֲנִי קהֶלֶת הָיִיתִי מֶלֶךְ עַל יִשְׂרָאֵל בִּירוּשָׁלִָם:וְנָתַתִּי אֶת לִבִּי לִדְרוֹשׁ וְלָתוּר בַּחָכְמָה עַל כָּל אֲשֶׁר נַעֲשָׂה תַּחַת הַשָּׁמָיִם

הוּא עִנְיַן רָע נָתַן אֱלֹהִים לִבְנֵי הָאָדָם לַעֲנוֹת בּוֹ:רָאִיתִי אֶת כָּל הַמַּעֲשִׂים שֶׁנַּעֲשׂוּ תַּחַת הַשָּׁמֶשׁ וְהִנֵּה הַכֹּל הֶבֶל וּרְעוּת רוּחַ:

מְעֻוָּת לֹא יוּכַל לִתְקֹן וְחֶסְרוֹן לֹא יוּכַל לְהִמָּנוֹת:

א [יג] ונתתי את לבי לדרוש ולתור בחכמה מהו ולתור בחכמה תור לחכמה לעשות תואר לחכמה המד"א (במדבר י"ג) שלח לך אנשים ויתורו את ארץ כנען מאן דקרא טבאות יתיה לגביה דתני טבאות יתיה לגביה ד"א לדרוש ולתור לתור ולהותיר הדין פוייטנא כד הוה עביד אלפביתין זמנין חשל לה וזמנין מחסר לה אבל שלמה כד הוה עביד אלפביתין הוה מותר לה ה' אתואן הה"ד (מלכים א' ד') ויהי שירו חמשה ואלף ויהי שיורו של משל חמשה ואלף ולא בדברי תורה בלבד היה שלמה תייר אלא על כל אשר נעשה תחת השמים כגון היאך ממתיקין את החרדל וממתיקין את התורמסין והיאך שותין את החמין יין ומים ופלפלין בשליש הוא ענין רע נתן אלהים לבני האדם לענות בו ר' בון אומר זו שיפוטו של ממון אמר ר' יודן בשם ר' איבו אין אדם יוצא מן העולם וחצי תאותו בידו אלא אן אית ליה מאה בעי למעבד יתהון תרתין מאוון [מי שיש לו מאה רוצה מאתים], ואן אית ליה תרתי מאוון בעי למעבד יתהון ארבעה מאה [ומי שיש לו מאתים רוצה ארבע מאות]"

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ובפלא יועץ ערך מותרות הביא: "ידוע רעת המותרות כי רבה, אם במאכל ומשתה מנפש ועד בשר יכלה, שאם אוכל ושותה הרבה, ראשו ואיבריו כבדים עליו, וכמה חלאים יכול לגרום לעצמו. וכן אם הולך על גחון אחר מאכלים טובים ותענוגות בני אדם ואחר מלבושים נאים ודירות נאות ועליות מרווחות ומצוירות ומכוירות, עובר על בל תשחית, ומה גם אם מוציא יותר מכדי חכרו וברכת ה' אשר נתן לו, שגורם רעה לעצמו יכול לבא לידי לווה ואינו משלם ולהיות גוזל וחומס, ח"ו. ואף אם חננו ה' עושר ראוי לחוס על ממונו שהתורה חסה על ממונם של ישראל וצדיקים חביב עליהם ממונם יותר מגופם, לפי שאין פושטים ידיהם בגזל, שבזמן שאדם מתנהג ללכת בגדולות ובנפלאות, אם יבואו עליו ימי הרעה, ח"ו, שגלגל הוא שחוזר בעולם, יהיה מוכרח לעשות עול, וכל מום רע כדי לבקש למודו, כמו שאמרו גבי בן סורר ומורה, אבל המתלמד במדת ההסתפקות ומסתפק במועט, כל ימיו טובים ואותו המותר שמוציא לבטלה והולך לאבוד, אם היה נותנו לצדקה – מה טוב חלקו ומה טוב חליפתו, ואף אם מרבה ומפליא לעשות צדקות ומעשים טובים, לא מפני זה הותר לו להשליך מעותיו לאבוד, שעדיין לא העשירו העניים".

החפץ חיים הידוע בהנהגת הפשטות ודלות שלו, התאונן על ריבוי ספרים שלא השתמש בהם הרבה. למרות צורך לימוד התורה בהם, להשיגם צריך עוד כסף, שעלה בזמן – בו היה אפשר להשיג דברים חשובים יותר.

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דורשי רשומות

דף קד,ב מסכת סנהדרין פרק יא See gmara, three lines from the bottom.

דורשי רשומות היו אומרים כולן באין לעולם הבא שנאמר (תהילים ס) לי גלעד ולי מנשה ואפרים מעוז ראשי יהודה מחוקקי מואב סיר רחצי על אדום אשליך נעלי עלי פלשת התרועעי לי גלעד <ולי מנשה> זה אחאב שנפל ברמות גלעד מנשה כמשמעו אפרים מעוז ראשי זה ירבעם דקאתי מאפרים יהודה מחוקקי זה אחיתופל

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See Rashi on Brochos 24a,דורשי רשומות 2^nd line from bottom in the below:

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Dt18-03d וְזֶה יִהְיֶה מִשְׁפַּט הַכֹּהֲנִים מֵאֵת הָעָם מֵאֵת זבְחֵי הַזֶּבַח אִם שׁוֹר אִם שֶׂה וְנָתַן לַכּהֵן הַזְּרעַ וְהַלְּחָיַיִם וְהַקֵּב וְהַקֵּבָה

And this shall be the kohanim's due from the people, from those who perform a slaughter, be it an ox or a sheep, he shall give the kohen the foreleg, the jaws, and the maw.

Rashi: עם הלשון. דורשי רשומות היו אומרים, זרוע, תחת יד, שנאמר ויקח רומח בידו (במדבר כה ז). לחיים, תחת תפלה, שנאמר ויעמוד פינחס ויפלל (תהלים קו ל

Those who interpret the symbolism of Biblical verses say, the זְרוֹעַ [which is, in effect, the “hand” of the animal, became the due of the kohanim , as a reward] for the “hand” [which Phinehas, the kohen , raised against the sinners], as it is said, “and he took a spear in his hand” (Num. 25:7);

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Zeide mentions several aspects of WWI relevant because of the effect on his community, to his family, and to himself personally. Here is some interesting background reading collated from various sources on the web.

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Initially there was some opposition among some of Zeide's sons to any 'editing' of his sefer, but later on my father seemed to come around to the idea, indicating this by writing the following:

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MAP of way to Zeide Shraga Feitel's kever on Har HaMenuchos

Related pages: Ship records of our (Rabinowitz) family's immigration to the USA, and HISTORICAL REFERENCES IN SHRAGA FEITEL'S IMREI SHEFER