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HaRav Yigal Rosen shlita Explains Why Now is the Time to Attach to Torah
HaRav Yigal opens with an amazing story that he heard from an avreich from Petach Tikva who teaches in a Chinuch Atzmai cheder in Herzliya. A large community of French immigrants has developed in Herzliya who choose to send their children to other chadorim which offer a government curriculum of secular studies.
A week ago, an affluent French building contractor came to the Chinuch Atzmai. cheder, asking to enroll his son and another boy from the eighth grade. It is very unusual to accept a new student in the middle of the year, especially to the eighth grade, when only a few months are left until the end of the year. The father was naturally asked why and he replied that he wanted his son to continue on to a regular yeshiva ketana, but his present school does not do this.
"What has made you decide such a thing at this late stage?" the father was asked.
General Zamir met with the Knesset Committee for Foreign Affairs and Security in order to present a report on the progress of the war on all fronts, while repeatedly insisting on the army's need for more soldiers. During the hearing, MK Rabbi Meir Porush asked the Chief of Staff, "In the period of your tenure as head of the Security Ministry and with your backing, a committee was formed under Aluf Shkeidi which recommended administering the topic of mobilizing the draft through negotiation with the chareidi sector while not drafting those who were studying three full shifts daily. Why, then, are you permitting the military police to contend with chareidim in opposition to the recommendations of the Shkeidi committee?"
Zamir refused to answer, and not arbitrarily. Top rabbinical heads of the National Religious stream, including heads of the Hesder institutions which do send their star graduates to fight in the army, have been requesting for a long time to meet with the General. They have serious complaints regarding the army's dealings with the Hesder inductees and its trampling upon all previous agreements, where every promise and guarantee to preserve the basic Jewish values during their military service has been flouted.
The rabbonim of these institutions, who have already called upon their students to refrain from enlisting to certain divisions where many ethical Jewish values are blithely disregarded, are seriously deliberating to forbid their students to enroll to the armored divisions for precisely those reasons. They request meeting with the Chief of Staff in order to present their arguments but the latter simply refuses to meet with them.
The army is not lacking soldiers but is lacking basic Jewish values...
In honor of the seventy-third yahrtzeit of R' Zelig Reuven Bengis (7th of Sivan, 5713 — 21 May 1953). This was first published 33 years ago, in honor of the fortieth yahrtzeit.
There was something about the young visitor which disturbed him. R' Zelig Reuven Bengis, the elderly gaon, who had assumed the position of Ravad of Yerushalayim in 1937 at the age of seventy-five, was accustomed to the steady flow of famous talmidei chachomim and select yeshiva students who loved to ask him their questions, to speak in Torah with him and to draw from his ever-flowing wellsprings of wisdom. The door of his dilapidated house in the Batei Neitin neighborhood of Yerushalayim remained half-open all day, so that callers could enter even without knocking.
Yerushalayim's geonim and brilliant lamdonim knew that in that small abode, they would find the gaon with the beaming countenance, bent over a sefer, studying with the verve and vigor of a youth who was savoring the sweetness of a Talmudic sugya for the first time in his life. They knew, too, that they would be received by the elderly gaon with joy and warmth, as if each caller were an only child, who only occasionally visited his father to speak with him in Torah.
This time, though, an odd scene unfolded. The yeshiva student who had just entered found R' Zelig Reuven engrossed in his studies. As usual, R' Zelig Reuven greeted him pleasantly. Yet something seemed different, nonetheless. At the very onset of the conversation, something about the youth disturbed the gaon. With his keen and brilliant mind, he detected a trace of strangeness in the youth's personality. Perhaps he was struck by the tinge of sternness and the subtle overtones of conceit in the youth's voice.
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Outstanding Articles From Our Archives
Opinion & Comment
Toiling In Torah, A Program For Life: A Shmuess for Parshas Bechukosai
By HaRav Sholom Schwadron zt'l
Regret, Not Depression
At the beginning of parshas Bechukosai, the Torah first lists blessings such as, "I will give the rains in their season and the earth will give its produce," and then it lists curses, whose purpose is to make people afraid. However, there is a danger that people will become depressed when reading this part of the parsha, chas vesholom. Sadness and depression are the roots of all impurity in the soul [and are therefore certainly not the response which the Torah intends].
Why should a man be sad? Is any aspect of creation the result of his work? After all, absolutely everything that people enjoy throughout their lives is a gift from Hakodosh boruch Hu. "A person should offer thanks and praises to Hashem for every breath that he takes" (Bereishis Rabbah parsha 14:9). If it is an occasion for thanksgiving every time one breathes, how can one ever become sad over what one lacks? One should instead think about how much one has!
Why then does the Torah write the curses? Their purpose is to instill the fear of sin into a person and to break his spirit into submission -- not chas vesholom to make him depressed -- so that he should feel bitter regret over [succumbing to] his yetzer hora.
The Kotzker Rebbe zt'l, commented that, "There is a very fine difference between depression and regret. The way to tell them apart is that when a person experiences regret over his yetzer hora, he will sit down to learn, or will involve himself with the mitzvos which he has to fulfill, whereas after experiencing depression R'l, he will go to sleep. Others, upon feeling depressed, go and buy themselves a sausage and a bottle of beer or spirit, thinking that they'll be able to dull the pain of their feelings and dispel their gloom in this way.
"Both of these approaches are mistaken, for the relief that they provide is only temporary, whereas the tumoh which depression has brought upon the person damages his soul, making him unclean R'l."
All this is by way of introduction to what we shall discuss, be'ezras Hashem. We want to show how beloved we are to Hashem, how much He loves us and how He never abandons a single member of Klal Yisroel, "For Hashem is good and upright, therefore He points out the way to sinners" (Tehillim 25:8).
Even on the Lowest Rung
Opinion & Comment
Shavuos
In preparation and anticipation of the giving of the Torah, the following is an excerpt from HaRav Meir Tzvi Bergman's classic work, Sha'arei Orah explaining how Torah must be transmitted.
Transmitting the Mesorah
In Parshas Bo it is written: G-d said to Moses, "Go to Pharaoh, for I have made his heart and the heart of his servants stubborn so that I may demonstrate these miraculous signs in his midst, and so that you may relate in the ears of your children and grandchildren how I made a mockery of Egypt, and how I placed My signs among them" that you may know that I am G-d." (Shemos 10:2)
Ba"al Haturim explains that the mitzvah of relating the story of the Exodus from Egypt applies in particular to one's "children and grandchildren," as opposed to later generations. And the reason for this, the Ba"al Haturim goes on to explain, is because this [i.e., two generations] is the extent of fatherly love.
Ba"al Haturim's comment is difficult to fathom. We first encounter this concept of two generations being "the extent of fatherly love" in Midrash Rabbah, in connection with the verse, "Now swear to me by G-d that you will not deal falsely with me, nor with my son, nor with my grandson . . . " (Bereishis 2:12 and Rashi) Here Avimelech and Fichol his general sought to make a pact with Avrohom stipulating that neither side would deal treacherously with the other. Commenting on the fact that Avimelech did not demand that the pact be extended beyond his grandchildren's generation, Chazal say, "Because this [i.e. two generations] is the extent of fatherly love." Within this context, the idea is perfectly clear. But why does Ba"al Haturim cite it in relation to this verse in Parshas Bo? What could fatherly love possibly have to do with the mitzvah of relating the story of the Exodus from Egypt to one's descendants?
To reach an understanding we must elaborate upon two verses in Parshas Voeschanon : "Only take heed and greatly beware for your soul, so that you do not forget the things which your eyes saw and that you do not remove them from your heart all the days of your life. Teach your children and grandchildren about the day you stood before the L-rd your G- d at Horeb." (Devorim 4:9"10). The day you stood before the Lord your G-d at Horeb -- "when you saw the thunder and the flames. (Rashi on Shemos 20:15)
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