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...