Rabbi Aharon Leib Steinman replied the yeshiva student should find a different marriage partner and exclaimed in Yiddish, “Nebach! A rachmanus on a Yiddisher daughter…rachmanus on the daughter of Israel,” essentially meaning that the girl is “a mercy case” because she profaned herself by studying secular academic subjects – even though her school is haredi run. Steinman opposes all secular education for haredim.
Above: Rabbi Ahaon Leib Steinman
Top Haredi Rabbi Opines On Nepal Earthquake, Secular Education
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
The supreme Ashkenazi haredi rabbinic leader, 102-year-old Rabbi Aharon Yehuda Leib Steinman, was reportedly asked about the meaning of the massive earthquake in Nepal which killed thousands of people: Is God trying to tell us something? If so, what is it?
“God is certainly trying to communicate with us,” Steinman responded. We must strengthen [spiritually and religiously] – but who is paying attention to this?”
When asked for the specifics of what God wants haredim to do, who should be strengthened and how and what that strengthening should be, Steinman replied, “A person who wants to know already understands exactly what God wants from us, but a person who does not really want to know will not understand [even if I tell him].”
Steinman was also asked about the suitability of a potential shidduch (traditional arranged marriage) between a haredi yeshiva student and a girl who is studying in a haredi college.
Steinman replied the yeshiva student should find a different marriage partner and exclaimed in Yiddish, “Nebach! A rachmanus on a Yiddisher daughter…rachmanus on the daughter of Israel,” essentially meaning that the girl is “a mercy case” because she profaned herself by studying secular academic subjects – even though her school is haredi run. Steinman opposes all secular education for haredim.
Steinman was then asked if he is concerned the girl will not ever find a shidduch [because of what he just said].
Steinman replied that he is not worried about the girl’s marriage prospects. And that won’t change, Steinman said, until the girl returns to the correct and true haredi way of life and rebuilds her fear of God – fear which clearly is missing in her life now because she went to study secular subjects in a college.