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Expansion Plans for Mir Yeshiva in Jerusalem
With an amazing development for Torah Jewry in Yerushalayim, the Local Committee for Planning and Construction in the Municipality, headed by deputy mayor Rabbi Eliezer Rauchberger, certified a major project for the development and conglomeration of the scattered sites of Yeshivas Mir in the neighborhood of Beis Yisroel. The project, historic in scope, was formulated and presented, to the municipality with the purpose of providing a solution for the blessed expansion of its student body.
Yeshivas Mir, the largest in Israel and in the entire world, operates now in a chain of buildings providing separate and independent premises.
Rabbi Tzvi Bogomilsky notes: "My great-grandfather, HaRav Tzvi Hakohen Kaplan, studied in Yeshivas Mir, whose remains lie in Belarus, and was privileged to be the study-partner of the renowned mashgiach, HaRav Yeruchom Levovitz. He emigrated to the U.S. in 1925, settled in the Bronx, where he served as rabbi of Congregation Anshei Volovisk. He was also a maggid shiur in Yeshivas Torah Vodaas.
"When his eldest daughter, my grandmother, became, in 1935, of a marriageable age, he wrote to the mashgiach, HaRav Yeruchom, that he could not find a suitable match for her and asked for his advice. Rav Yeruchom replied: 'Send her here to Mir and we will see to it that she finds her match.'
HaRav Shalom Schwadron told how he used to attend the shiurim of the Ponovezh Mashgiach, HaRav Yechezkel Levenstein. Upon one occasion, the Mashgiach said that he had heard the Chofetz Chaim predict that World War I would be followed by another world war which would make the first one seem like 'child's play,' and that would be followed by a third war which would be all the more terrible.
This threw his listeners into a panic, "I dared to ask him," said HaRav Shalom very apologetically, "why it was necessary to say such difficult words? Rather, we should begin praying that Hashem would not bring such a terrible war upon us. Why be such a dooms sayer?"
The Mashgiach grew fiery as he replied, "You did not begin to understand what I said or what the Chofetz Chaim intended with his words! How then should we interpret them? ...
Part 4
This series was first published 33 years ago, in 1993.
During the past generation we are accustomed to secular domination of Jerusalem, with several religious enclaves. However, it was not always thus. Jerusalem considered itself a holy city, and it was a deliberate effort on the part of anti-religious elements to break the kedusha. It was a war that began around the first World War, and continues to this very day. However, many crucial battles were fought during the first years of the State. One of these was the opening of the first mixed swimming pool in Jerusalem in 1958.
Every new insult to the sanctity of Jerusalem was fought. Each caused its pain and left its scars. Important to understanding the struggles that continue to this very day are the accounts of these earlier struggles. We are confident of long-term victory, but there is a long road back.
Chareidi Jewry decided to try to buy the pool and its site from Haim Shiff, the consummate businessman for whom the times were smiling. He drove a hard bargain. Trying to put pressure on him, the Rabbanut removed the hechsher from his hotels. He demanded compensation for his loss. They seemed at an impasse, and sought a third party to arbitrate.
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Late that night, the muted sounds of their footsteps could be heard on the narrow side-streets of Mishkenot. (A neighborhood in Jerusalem.) It was after midnight, and the moon cast their shadows across the sidewalk. Arriving at a house, they knocked softly on the door. The door opened, revealing HaRav Arye Levin.
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Outstanding Articles From Our Archives
IN-DEPTH FEATURES
Signs From Heaven -- Written in 1938 about Rising Antisemitism
By HaRav Avrohom Yitzchok Bloch Zt'l, Hy'd
The following article was published in Yiddishe Togblatt in Warsaw in 1938. Although the current situation in Eretz Yisroel is very different from the one prevailing sixty-two years ago, just before the outbreak of the Second World War, the article's message is as applicable today as it was then.
Hatred of our nation is by no means a thing of the past. Sixty-two years ago, HaRav Bloch demonstrated through the events that were unfolding, that Hakodosh Boruch Hu was calling upon us and demanding a response. This is even clearer to us now, in the light of all that has transpired since then. This is the light in which we must try to understand all that we witness and strengthen our resolve to act upon this realization.
Introduction
Many signs are sent to us in order to serve as pathfinders, imparting understanding to wayward souls. Some of them are obvious in the general shape of events while others are only apparent in the private sphere of the individual. Let us contemplate some of these signs and try -- even to some small degree -- to illuminate and elucidate their meaning for us.
Worsening Persecution of the Jews in Europe
Before our eyes, the following are transpiring:
1) An extraordinary sequence of events;
2) Revelation of the pattern of "measure for measure" in the way Heaven treats us;
3) Concealment (apparent) of Heavenly kindness by misfortune.
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Opinion & Comment
A Shmuess For Parshas Pinchos
By HaRav Sholom Schwadron zt'l
Begin Hostilities Against The Midyonim!
"And Hashem spoke to Moshe saying, `Be hostile towards the Midyonim and smite them, for they are enemies of yours, in the trap which they laid for you in the matter of Pe'or..." (Bamidbor 25:16). We need to understand why the Torah stresses that the Midyonim were to be outlawed for the incident involving Pe'or, and not for having hired Bilaam to come and curse Yisroel, by which means they wanted to wipe Yisroel out entirely.
The answer which Chazal give to this question is, "One who causes another to sin is more guilty than one who kills him" (Sifrei 252, quoted by Rashi on Devorim 23:9). Following Bilaam's advice to lead bnei Yisroel to sin was far more serious than having brought him to try and get them destroyed.
Bilaam's Corruption
What is surprising is that Bilaam with his great perception of the Divine, who is described by the posuk as "knowing the mind of the One above" (Bamidbor 24:16), and whose level of prophecy Chazal say was closest to that of Moshe Rabbenu (" `And no further prophet arose in Yisroel like Moshe...' (Devorim 34:10); in Yisroel, none arose like Moshe but among the nations there did, and this was Bilaam" (Rosh Hashonoh 21), acted as he did.
Following his failure to curse Yisroel, Bilaam told Bolok, "And now I am going to my own people..." (Bamidbor 24:14). After seeing the level of Klal Yisroel, he should have become a convert. No other gentile recognized his Creator to the extent that Bilaam did. Yet he fell from his lofty level and said, "I am going to my own people," remaining the same foul and abominable person that he always was. Although he did utter the words, "May my soul die the death of the righteous" (Bamidbor 13:10), he only wanted to die as one of Klal Yisroel, not to live as one of them.
What caused him to fall so dramatically? The answer is that "Jealousy, lust and honor take a person out of the world" (Ovos).
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