  |
|
| |||||
The next scheduled issue is for the week of Parshas Shofetim.
The Torah world was wreathed in sorrow and mourning upon the passing of HaRav Boruch Shmuel Hacohen Deutsch zt" l, the Rosh Yeshiva of Kol Torah and of Be'er Mordechai, author of "Bircas Cohen," and one of leading talmidei chachomim and Torah disseminators in Yerushalayim for many, many years. He produced many disciples, expert in the depth and scope of Torah and passed away in his eighty-second year, after many years of suffering.
He was born on the thirteenth of Cheshvan, 5703, to his mother Leah, and father, R' Binyomin Zev Hacohen Deutsch. who was a devotee and right-hand man of the founder of Yeshivas Ponovezh, HaRav Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman, in the establishment of Yeshivas Ponovezh and its institutions in Eretz Yisroel. He received his chinuch in this illustrious home as per the tradition of his ancestors.
He began his primary education in the Ponovezh Yeshiva Ketana and continued on to the yeshiva itself where he gained the reputation of an astute genius. He was hailed for his dedication to study, especially during the study breaks, when he would record his insights. For many years, he would sit and study uninterruptedly from eight in the morning until the end of the second study session at seven in the evening, some eleven hours in succession, day by day, during which he acquired his vast knowledge in Torah.
The French writer and philosopher, Bernard Andrei Levi, went to tour a forsaken war in Africa. This war has been waged for many years in Sudan, and according to Levi, it is one of the most vicious ones. Statistics show that so far, 150 thousand citizens have been killed and twelve million uprooted from their homes.
He writes: "I think to myself that this figure is three times the number of the dead in Gaza but no one cares about them on the American campuses. In the midst of the extreme Leftists, "the unsubdued France", no one takes an interest in this faraway war, the massacre being perpetrated on both sides, the heavy humanitarian disaster visiting both sides, the millions of homeless, starving children or, at all, in this endless war. On the 'enlightened' campuses throughout the Western world, not a single sign is posted calling for the liberation of Sudan. No one goes out to demonstrate for the protection of the Sudanese citizens who are being slain en masse by the bloodthirsty ruler in power.
Nor is anyone interested in protecting the Ukrainian citizens being attacked morning and evening by the brutal Russian murderer, whose opponents are 'flown or flung out' in a mysterious way through the windows of their homes or from hotel rooms from high floors.
Part IV
This was originally published in the English edition of Yated Ne'eman in 1993, that is, 32 years ago.
For Part III of this series click here.
HaRav Brevda continues his detailed description of how Jerusalem looked and felt when the Beis Hamikdash flourished. In Part 3 he explained that everyone in Jerusalem was happy because Jerusalem is Mesos kol Ha'aretz. Everyone was happy and children visiting Jerusalem with their rebbe could see this.
The Work In The Ir Hakodesh—Torah
As they would pass a street corner, they would hear a huge amount of noise coming from a building. They would ask the Rebbe, "What's this?"
He would answer, "Let's go to the next corner."
They come to the next corner, and once again there was such a roar. This time it was from two sides. They'd go to a third corner, once again. "Rebbe, tell us what it is."
There were more than four hundred eighty batei midroshim in Yerushalayim, which was a very small city compared to today.
Why so many?
Because most of the Yidden of Yerushalayim sat and learned, day and night. Not only that, but Tosafos teaches us and the Gaon brings it in Shir Hashirim, that when people from all over Eretz Yisroel would come to Yerushalayim for Yom Tov or to eat ma'aser sheini (which you must eat in Yerushalayim), and it would take them one or two or three weeks to complete what they had to do, most of them used to turn into kollel yungerleit afterwards. Why?
They would walk the streets. They saw either Kohanim kedoshim going to the Mikdosh, people who were so holy we can't imagine it, or every other Yid was sitting in the beis medrash, learning day and night.
They would ask them, "So what's with parnassa?"
That eternal question.
They would say, "Do you see us starving? We live like everyone else."
So they used to come back to their towns, and tell their wives, "I want to live a more spiritual life. I wish to devote my life to learning Torah."
If she would ask, "What's with parnassa?"
He would reply...
This Google Custom Search looks only in this website.
Outstanding Articles From Our Archives
Opinion & Comment
[The following was written a year ago.]
In order to "touch the Tree of Knowledge" of Kelm, we dared seek out Maran Hagaon R' Dovid Povarsky [now zt'l], rosh yeshivas Ponevezh, disciple of the giants of knowledge from that great Torah-producing institution of Kelm. His master and mentor, was the Mashgiach, R' Yeruchom Levovitz ztzvk'l, and he actually studied there for a certain period in his life. The Rosh Yeshiva granted us an interview which enriched us with several facts, to which we have added a compendium of words addressed by him in his home at the occasion of a seuda shelishis gathering of a rapt audience of talmidim.
The Moment that R' Yeruchom Was Accepted in Kelm
They used to say, in the Talmud Torah of Kelm, that the Alter possessed full control of his eyes like we have control of our hands. It required a special voluntary effort on his part to move his eyes, just as we consciously will our hands to move.
The Mashgiach R' Yeruchom zt'l studied in Slobodke by HaRav Nosson Tzvi Finkel (the Alter of Slobodke) ztzvk'l, who was a disciple of the Alter of Kelm. R' Yeruchom was sent by his rebbe to Kelm to remain there for the period of Elul through the yomim noraim. After this period, he decided to stay over for the succeeding winter session, but he was not officially accepted as a ranking yeshiva student.
The Alter was very strict in allowing only the talmidim of the Talmud Torah to listen to his talks. Each time before the shmuess began, R' Yeruchom was obliged to leave. Then, one time, the Alter focused his glance upon him and with a gesture of his hand, motioned him to remain. It was at that very moment that R' Yeruchom was officially accepted into Talmud Torah Kelm.
Healing the Soul
There were numerous rules and regulations governing the yeshiva. They considered it like a hospital, a House of Healing. To cite just one characteristic example: garbage receptacles are generally constructed to be wide at the bottom, so as to receive everything thrown into it and to remain sturdy. In Kelm, they used a tall, narrow waste bin which was very prone to tumbling over. Whoever was not careful in disposing of his waste and caused it to fall over, was obliged to gather up all the garbage that scattered all around. This was to train the talmidim in zehirus, caution.
Opinion & Comment
Part I
The Achilles Heel
"And it will be -- eikev tishme'un -- on account of your listening to these laws, and your guarding and keeping them, [then] Hashem will keep the covenant and the kindness which He promised to your forefathers" (Devorim 7:12). Rashi explains the words eikev tishme'un as follows: "And . . . if you listen to the easy, `insignificant' mitzvos, that are usually trodden under heel . . . Hashem will keep . . . "
Why does Rashi single out these mitzvos, and what is their deeper connection to the eikev, the heel, on account of which the Torah refers to them specifically by this name?
The reason for this allusion is that the heel is the part of the body that is least necessary for the maintenance of life, yet it nevertheless supports the entire body. In the same way, insignificant as certain mitzvos may appear to be, the stability and the observance of all the mitzvos that are incumbent upon us to fulfill depend on the wholehearted fulfillment of those mitzvos that are usually trodden underfoot.
If a person is careful to keep these "insignificant" mitzvos then he will keep all the other mitzvos as well.
Dovid Hamelech expressed this idea in the following posuk (Tehillim 49:6), "Why should I fear the days of evil [the infirmity of old age, in and of itself] when [it is] the sin of my heels [that] surrounds me [which I should truly fear]?" Chazal comment (in Yalkut Shimoni at the beginning of the parsha) "Dovid said, `Ribono Shel Olom, You gave us taryag mitzvos, of which some are of greater and some of lesser severity. I am not afraid of [having transgressed] the more severe ones, for on account of their very severity I take special care to avoid them. However, I am afraid of [having transgressed] the less severe ones, [those] to which people pay no attention, trampling them underfoot, whereas You have instructed, `And be as careful with a less severe mitzvo as with a severe one . . . '
The posuk therefore says, "And it will be eikev tishme'un . . . Dovid said to Hakodosh Boruch Hu, `Ribono Shel Olom, Your servant is also careful about them, for they carry eikev rov, great consequences [reward]' " (Tehillim 19:12). "How great is Your goodness . . . (Tehillim 31:20), this is the reward of the easy mitzvos." Here we see explicitly that the less severe mitzvos are termed eikev because they support a person, as above.
The Torah of the Easy Mitzvos
What is the next condition mentioned in the posuk? " . . . And you guard and keep them . . . "
|
|||||
.jpg)
