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To Bnei Yeshivos and Avreidhei Kollel Who are Faithful to the Torah, May they live lo"yt:
As all know, for more than a year we have been in a period of difficult quandary, since the legal status of lomdei Torah with regard to their being drafted to the army has not been settled as it had been for all the years. Many in the government openly work to draft lomdei Torah to their army. The time is delayed time and again and to our sorrow no legal solution such as there was has been found.
Our thoughts are always on this matter, that the learning of the bnei hayeshivos and kollelim take place in peace and tranquillity for them and their families. But if choliloh they will compel being drafted we will not be able to stand aside, and we will be forced to take actions that we do not wish to take. We all stand behind each and every individual that choliloh he not be drafted.
As we stand before the holiday of Matan Torah...
It is difficult to sever ourselves from what is going on outside the world of world of Torah. The atmosphere of Shavuos is in direct contrast to the rising persecution of the world of Torah and its adherents so apparent these days. I would like to clarify that the Torah has no significance in that other world while the persecution has a direct impact on us.
These are the opening words of HaRav Margolios, Rav of Carmiel.
They say that the Rav of Brisk noted while the atmosphere preceding Yom Kippur is so publicly visible and apparent but in direct contrast, Shabbos does not share that public awareness. This is because Yom Kippur comes only one day a year while Shabbos comes every week.
We can say that by us, as well, Yom Kippur is more weighty, being more holy and this is reflected upon the public at large. The same goes here: if we see how intense is the persecution of the Torah public, it shows that we, ourselves, do not attribute enough respect and importance to Torah study and the privilege of sanctifying ourselves to that cause.
I believe that Shavuos 5785 should be like a milestone to teach us the advantage of Torah study and cherish it more and more.
The world has become sick and tired. How many more pictures can it take of children dead and dying, people starving, houses in ruins, unimaginable tragedies of hundreds of thousands of citizens remaining without homes, food and a future. This is what the world is viewing, morning and evening, day after day. A war without end.
The world wants to see an end, that this tale will finally come to a finish and that it all will be behind us. Who remembers that a year and seven months ago those selfsame 'wretched' citizens, together with their dispatchers, massacred over a thousand Jews in vicious and brutal ways? To whom does it matter a whit that for the same amount of time, Israeli hostages are being held captive and treated inhumanly? The world is tired of this unending war and wishes to see a culmination to it all.
The most difficult problem of all is that apparently President Trump is also sick and tired of it all. As is well known, this president has a short fuse, perhaps too short, and also wants to see results here and now. He made an impressive tour among the Gulf nations and in Saudi Arabia, arrived at economic agreements of many billions of dollars, and even received a coveted little 'toy' in the form of an exclusive and extravagant presidential airplane. Only this annoying war beclouds his well-known dream of signing additional peace agreements and even hopefully arriving in Oslo to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.
Part III
This article was first published 30 years ago.
The following is the third part of a four part article on Warsaw as a microcosm of Polish Jewry. In the first two parts, we provided background on Warsaw before the Holocaust, discussing the prominence of the kehilla of Warsaw in all respects. Warsaw boasted many talmidei chachomim, mosdos Torah and mosdos chesed. When the Germans arrived in 1939, nearly one quarter of a million Jews fell into their hands and by 1940 the Warsaw Ghetto was erected.
Subsequently, the Jews were driven into the Ghetto, and forced to exist under harrowing conditions. All Jewish valuables were plundered and starvation was rampant. Epidemics took the lives of many, and those who remained lived a life of quiet desperation.
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It is written in parshas Yisro 19:4, "Vo'eso eschem al kanfei neshorim ve'ovi eschem eilai, and I carried you on eagle's wings and I brought you to Me." Rashi explains, like an eagle that carries its nestlings on its wings.
We can further explain this comparison to an eagle. Just like no bird can fly like an eagle because the eagle flies higher than all birds, so too am Yisroel. HaKodosh Boruch Hu raised Bnei Yisroel from the lowest depths in Mitzrayim to the high heavens at kabolas haTorah as it is written, "ve'ovi eschem eilai, and I brought you to Me."
Am Yisroel felt themselves becoming closer to Hashem, because in Mitzrayim they were on the forty-ninth level of tumah and each day after leaving Mitzrayim, for fifty days, they left one level of tumah and ascended one level of kedusha. This is the purpose of sefiras haomer -- to prepare for kabolas haTorah in kedusha and taharo, like we say after counting sefirah, "You commanded us to count Sefiras HaOmer to make us holy and purify us with Your exalted holiness." Chag Ha'azeres is called Shavuos because we prepared our soul by counting the days and weeks to reach kabolas haTorah.
How happy we must be on Shavuos that we were zoche to receive the Torah on this day, as it is written in posuk chof, "Atem re'isem ki min haShomayim dibarti imchem, you saw that I spoke to you from heaven." Rashi explains, "Hirchon Shomayim ushemei shomayim vihitzi'o al hahar, He bent the heavens and spread them out on the mountain." After kabolas haTorah, Klal Yisroel was exalted; they saw with their own eyes that Hashem spread out heaven before them. No other nation was zoche to this, only am Yisroel, the chosen nation.
We bless Hashem in bircas haTorah, "Who has chosen us from all the nations and has given us His Torah." Likewise we say the brocho of shelo osani goy, who had not made me a gentile, everyday. HaRav Yitzchok Aizik Sher zt'l said that even the most simple Jew who goes into shul and says the brocho of shelo osani goy, to which gentile is he referring? Even to a gentile like Aristotle, a great philosopher.
Every single Jew thanks Hashem that He did not make him a gentile like Aristotle who investigated and, at the end of his life, recognized his Creator with his intellect. Still, he was a goy. His recognition of his Creator does not compare to the recognition of the most simple man in Klal Yisroel who was chosen from all other nations because Hashem gave us His Torah.
Chazal say, "I created a yetzer hora, I created Torah as its anecdote." The gentiles, who do not have the Torah, steal and murder worse than wild animals. We saw how their leaders, Stalin and Hitler yemach shemom, killed many millions of Jews with all types of cruelty. Klal Yisroel, who received the Torah, has the ability to overcome the yetzer hora which is why we say the brocho of shelo osani goy.
The Final Redemption
"That will not be measured nor counted."
We are now in the last generation before the upcoming redemption, be'ezras Hashem. I will tell you something I heard from HaRav Isser Zalman Meltzer zt'l and HaRav Elya Lopian zt'l that he heard in London from HaRav Elchonon Wassermann zt'l when he delivered his last speech before returning to Baranovitch.
IN-DEPTH FEATURES
Chazal tell us that when Hashem was creating the world He saw that the tzaddikim would be only a small minority of the overall population and He therefore distributed them throughout the generations. One of these tzaddikim was HaRav Yitzchok Yaakov Weiss zt'l who is popularly known by the name of his sefer of she'eilos uteshuvos, the Minchas Yitzchok.
Even before the Second World War HaRav Weiss was famed throughout Hungary as a talmid chochom of repute and he was consulted by all sections of the community. In the years after the War, when thousands of women waited anxiously for a heter to remarry and release them from being agunos, Rav Weiss came to their rescue and took upon himself the tremendous responsibility to pasken. In his later years, when new technology brought all types of complicated sha'alos, about Shabbos, about ethics, about medical practices and indeed about almost every imaginable sphere of life, HaRav Weiss was consulted and his rulings were accepted throughout the world.
The initial role that the Minchas Yitzchok played in rebuilding Yiddishkeit and directing and deciding how to act, was perhaps best defined by HaRav Weiss himself. In a drosho given at a meeting of rabbonim in England shortly after his arrival there from Hungary after the War, HaRav Weiss spoke about an interesting comment of the Tana, Reb Elozor ben Azariah. The gemora relates that on three occasions after Reb Akiva had expanded on a certain topic in aggada, Reb Elozor ben Azariah stood up and said, "Akiva, why are you delving into aggada? Go back to Nego'im and Oholos." (Nego'im and Oholos have many difficult halachic sha'alos.)
Concerning this gemora HaRav Weiss asked, "What was so terrible if Reb Akiva delved into aggada? Surely the aggada is just as much a part of the Torah as any other section of the Torah?
"To understand Reb Elazar ben Azariah's complaint we have to remember the period in which Reb Akiva lived. It was a time of terrible suffering for Klal Yisroel, and the goyim persecuted the Yidden terribly with harsh decrees and edicts. Reb Akiva was the head of Klal Yisroel and he was the one who had to address all the difficult sha'alos of the time. Thus when Reb Elazar ben Azariah saw that Reb Akiva diverted his attention to something else, he straight away begged him to return to the halocho and not exempt himself from his obligation to rule on the complicated sha'alos which had to be decided.
"Similarly," ended Rav Weiss, "we are now living in a time of anguish, and the problems and sha'alos are many and complicated, but those who are able to pasken them are few indeed. Therefore anyone whom Hashem has granted to be able to pasken and to rule correctly has an obligation to do so. Not only has the war left in its aftermath many difficult issues that need to be solved, but the new inventions and technology has also brought many new types of sha'alos which are waiting for answers. Hashem should give us the siyata diShmaya that we not err."
His Youth
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