  |
|
| ||||||
HaRav Chizkiyahu Yosef Mishkovsky shlita says There are only Ten Days to Judgment!
A certain talmid chochom told me... these are the opening words of HaRav Chizkiyahu, ...that HaRav Shach suffered from inflammation in his legs and became house bound, unable to go and deliver his usual shiurim. After the Shabbos prayers, two avos beis din who prayed in the yeshiva, HaRav Shlomo Tenne and HaRav Mordechai Ilan, came and said to him: 'Why don't you go to a doctor?'
He replied: We are in Elul now. Who has time in Elul to visit a doctor?
In previous times, the awe of Elul was truly tangible. People were not afraid of wars, soldiers or police. [They feared the judgment on Rosh Hashanah.] They prayed the psalm of "LeDovid Hashem" and were reassured.
"If an army encamps upon me, my heart shall not fear; if war is declared, in this will I place my trust." That made them altogether calm.
Today, the situation is the very opposite. We tremble before the army and the police, but Elul? "I am confident about that."
One thing we have to know: Each Rosh Hashanah is a new Rosh Hashanah. It is nothing like last year.
...
Elul is a time for drawing closer to Hashem. "The voice of my beloved" refers to these days. It is a form of intimacy and affection, of familiarity. Everyone learns this fundament already in cheder, without realizing all that it entails. One must know that the door is open during these days.
This vital foundation, of drawing close to Hashem during Elul, is discussed in Chayei Odom (Vol. II;138:1). He brings it from Pirkei deRabi Eliezer: "While Teshuva is beneficial at all times, nevertheless, during Elul it is enhanced, conducive and more attainable in that it is preferential over the rest of the year. These have been days of favor since the time of our nationhood. When Jewry sinned with the Eigel and the Luchos were shattered on the 17th of Tammuz, Moshe Rabbenu ascended Har Sinai, prayed and was commanded by Hashem to carve [new ones]. He was appeased and in Elul, he again ascended to Heaven, remaining there until Yom Kippur. These were days of favor and have been so ever since. This is why, year in and year out, during Elul, Hashem makes Himself accessible to Jewry, and despite the fact that they stumbled and sinned, He opens an entrance way for them once again."
The IDF is not geared for mitzvah-observant Jews, and not only for Torah students. Let them not tell you fantasies as if the army is prepared to tailor itself to them. It is all lies, deceptions in order to tempt the naive ones and suck them into the army trap from which it very difficult to escape. From time to time, another story makes the headlines, which only reveals the tip of the iceberg of army abuse against soldiers who seek to preserve their Judaism within the army.
Most soldiers simply bow their heads in submission to the dictates of their superiors who lack minimal understanding and sensitivity to Jewish values. But occasionally, a story comes to light about soldiers with backbone who are not prepared to yield to the whims of their opinionated, value-lacking commanders.
This is a story that took place this past week when 16 Givati soldiers, Hesder students, declined to obey an army order forcing them to agree to a joint maneuver with female soldiers. They called their rabbis.
...
Part 1
This was originally published in 5636.
"Everything is dependent on mazal, even the sefer Torah in the heichal," said Chazal. Just as sifrei Torah in the heichal are dependent on destiny, so, sometimes are living sifrei Torah, the talmidei chachomim of each generation. Even one who has labored in Torah and, with siyata deShmaya has grown very great, is still to a degree, dependent on mazal.
So it was with the gaon, R' Dovid Oppenheim, Rav of Nicholsberg and then of Prague and the Bohemia region. This illustrious gaon was one of the greatest gedolim of his time enjoyed outstanding Torah and wealth. Although he was highly esteemed by his co-generationists, nonetheless, after his death, his name was eventually forgotten. Many bnei yeshivos don't even know that there was such a person.
The same fate befell his written works. Except for a few responsa that were printed in various other seforim, all of his writings remained in manuscript without anyone attempting to publish them. All this occurred, despite the fact that many of the works of the rishonim which Torah students and scholars use on a daily basis, were made accessible only due to his unstinting efforts.
His works began to be redeemed in 5732, , when Machon Chasam Sofer published his shut, Nishal Dovid. This sefer, which is beautifully printed with illuminating letters contains an extensive preface describing his life and his works.
...
This Google Custom Search looks only in this website.
Outstanding Articles From Our Archives
Opinion & Comment
Restraining One's Mouth and Desires -- Some Thoughts for Elul
by HaRav Nosson Meir Wachtfogel,zt"l
Profound and important thoughts for Elul.
"It will be when he hears the words of this curse, that he will bless himself in his heart, saying, `I shall have peace though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart,' to add drunkenness to thirst. Hashem will not spare him, but then the anger of Hashem and His jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and Hashem shall blot out His name from under heaven. And Hashem shall mark him off for evil out of all the tribes of Yisroel, according to all the curses of the covenant that are written in this book of the Torah" (Devorim 29:18-20).
What terrible sin has this man committed? How has he angered Hashem to such an extent that Hashem's "jealousy shall smoke against that man?" Why does he deserve to be punished with all the curses written in the Torah and for his name to be erased from under heaven?
The Vilna Gaon, in his famous Igeres, reveals to us many principles of man's service of Hashem. "The rosho realizes he is acting wickedly but it is difficult for him to stop. Man must concentrate on overcoming this difficulty. He must not allow his innate physical urges to dominate him; instead he should overcome them. Until death a person should torment himself. This should not be done by afflicting his body but by restraining his mouth and desires . . .."
The Gaon is telling us that man has a natural inclination to do evil. Desire is anchored in his heart and continually tempts him to satisfy his bodily instincts without taking into consideration whether doing so is good or bad for him. Man's desires drive him to seek gratification from them, forcing him to strive for them.
...
IN-DEPTH FEATURES
A Manifesto For Chinuch In Our Times: An Interview With HaRav Noach Orlowek
By Udi Mor
This period is one in which we have to educate ourselves to come closer to Hashem. Though this interview was originally conducted around Pesach time, it is relevant year round, and certainly at this time.
Part One
Our interview took place in the living room of HaRav Orlowek's home, on Yerushalayim's Rechov Sorotzkin. Outside, a panoramic view of the neighborhoods of Ramot and Ramat Shlomo fills the horizon. The view inside is dominated by the two giant pictures that hang on the walls -- the only ones in the room -- of the Chazon Ish zt'l, and HaRav Aharon Kotler zt'l. The walls around the entrance to the apartment are adorned with sayings of Chazal and pictures of other rabbonim, such as HaRav Simcha Wassermann zt'l, whom Rav Orlowek ylct'a reveres as his rebbe muvhak.
Rav Orlowek serves as a mashgiach in Yeshivas Torah Or. However, he specifically requested that if his position were to be mentioned, it be clarified that he is mashgiach only for the yeshiva's American division; the mashgiach of the yeshiva as a whole is HaRav Zeidel Epstein. Rav Orlowek's heavy workload of teaching, counselling and advising, in numerous other institutions besides Torah Or, as well as to the many individuals who turn to him, leave him with virtually no free time. What should have been his midday break was the only slot which he was able to give me for this interview. And what's more, it was done "very gladly," as he put it.
The Key: recognizing Individuality
Q. In the Haggodo shel Pesach, Chazal refer to four types of youth: the wise, the wicked and the simple sons, and the son who does not know how to ask. How do these definitions manifest themselves among today's youth and what is the best approach to adopt for each one? (In this context, we take the wicked son not as wicked per se but rather as referring to either the badly behaved child, or to the estranged, irreligious youth.)
A. Today we lack the wisdom and insight that is needed to label children. Many different elements make up each personality. A child can be wise in one respect and simple in another. The educator's attitude has to be adjusted according to the particular aspect of the child's personality that is being addressed.
Opinion & Comment
Judaism in the Secular Street
by Mordecai Plaut
It is all our fault, they tell us. Listen to Sever Plotsker, a well-known leftist journalist: "Chareidi Jewry lost the Shabbos because it tried to force shemiras Shabbos through power and not via the spirit onto all citizens of Israel. . . . If the religious-chareidi leadership only had the sense to work through darchei noam, with convincing and compromise, shemiras Shabbos would be much more widespread that it is today, but the leadership chose to use its political clout to impose a dati-chareidi lifestyle onto Israel. . . . Thus it lost, and caused heavy damage to the Jewish religion."
Plotsker is only one of many who are so "concerned" for the religion of Israel that they have even taken time out from bashing it to counsel us on how they think we should and should have worked to preserve it.
There is no doubt that we can and should do more to advance the cause of kovod malchus Shomayim, and it is something that we are particularly sensitive to in these days of Elul. We certainly have to start with ourselves and our own community, and to concentrate on the tried and true principles of Torah and avodas Hashem as we are taught by our Torah leaders.
But trying to pin the blame on us for the state of the street in Israel is ridiculous. It ignores the raw and brutal power that was used to secularize hundreds of thousands of immigrants, most from Arab countries, starting with Yemenite and Moroccan immigrants of the fifties and continuing with Yemenite and Russian immigrants of the nineties. Parents were refused work unless they sent their children to secular schools. The social and emotional pressures of the army separated many from their traditions.
It would certainly have been easier for us to withdraw into our own communities
...
|
||||||
.jpg)
