Re: Brocha, there was an article in Yated Hebrew today about it, with Shu"t from Rav Chaim Kanievsky Shlita. The point of some posters here was that if Rav Zilberstein or whoever says the Bracha, to imply that it was thoughtless, careless etc, as if they do not care about brocha levatala, is sheer unintelligence and chutzpa. Even if there were 2 mil. Rav AJ would still not make the brocha maybe. That is fine, that is the brisker mehalach, but it does not have bearing on other Rabbanim following their shita in halacha.
Can someone find and post the letter from Rav Shmuel Eliyahu about why he is supporting the Atzeres even though he is from the DL community? He is the Rav of Tzfas. Almost no DL ppl came. I heard and can agree that it was better that they did not come, it would have diluted the impact. Now everyone sees that almost a million Charedi ppl got together. It is their loss, whoever missed the event.