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Gedolei Yisroel Discuss Chinuch Goals
Hundreds of mashgichim and spiritual administrators of yeshivos gathered for the annual convention of Ha'azinu, an organization founded by Torah leaders, to discuss and formulate action through combined counsel regarding the spiritual growth of yeshiva students in Torah and yiras Shomayim.
Prime attention at this occasion, was accorded to the words of HaRav Dov Lando, aired from his home, as follows:
"Fortunate are you, spiritual principals and mashgichim of the sanctified halls of yeshivos who gather together for the sake of improvement through joint guidance in order to scrutinize and upgrade the desired path to be taken in aiding students to rise in Torah and yiras Shomayim."
He noted that "the role of educators is to intensify in the hearts of their students the feeling that there is nothing greater than their advantage, and no greater joy than their success."
At the very height of the gathering, HaRav Moshe Hillel Hirsch delivered a profound speech...
The sight of the three released hostages who returned last week from Hamas imprisonment reminded many people of the horrific photos of prisoners on the day of their release from the Nazi extermination camps. Those survivors of the gas chambers appeared emaciated, skeletal, 'Musselmen' as they were called then, after months or years during which they were starved by the Nazis.
The three survivors of the Hamas extermination camps appeared identical to those starved Jews to the point that even their relatives found it difficult to recognize them at first. Their terrible outward appearance did not reveal even an inch of the brutal, tortuous treatment to which they were subjected during the 490 days of captivity by the Hamas Nazis.
The designed starvation was only a part — a small part — of the course of horrible suffering which they underwent. The entire world saw these sights and were shaken up, excepting some extreme anti-Semitic media channels which made comparisons between the sight of the disgusting murderers released from Israeli prisons and those innocent citizens snatched from their beds by the Hamas fiends.
HaRav Zerach Braverman: a gaon for whom boundaries were nonexistent. He made no distinction between his family and the recipients of chesed who entered his home. There was no border between Torah, avoda, and gemilus chassodim. No differentiation was made between his own talmidim and others, his yeshiva and others, his city of Yerushalaim and the lowland settlements. He devoted himself equally to them all, with unlimited time and energy.
Part 2
This was originally published in 1993.
B>Emunah and Bitachon
The following story portrays the Rav's diligence in learning, charitable deeds, and faith in Hashem: Whenever R' Zerach ran out of money for his "guest house" (meaning his hachnosas orchim in his own home) he would borrow so that it could continue to function. When the date of repayment arrived and R' Zerach still had no money, he would fast and pour out his heart in prayer, begging that he not be forced to face the lender empty- handed and thereby cause a chillul Hashem.
Once, the date of repayment arrived and R' Zerach had no money. He fasted, davened with great emotion, and turned to his learning. The lender came to his home, and, not finding R' Zerach there, went to the beis medrash. There, he found the Rav immersed in learning. The lender returned repeatedly throughout the day, but couldn't bring himself to interrupt the Rav's studies.
When R' Zerach returned home that evening, someone gave him money to watch over, permitting him to use it for his own needs. The amount of money was identical to the sum he owed. Immediately afterwards, the lender came, and received the full sum of the loan.
A Mitzvah In Which One Is Actively Engaged
Rain and Kinneret Watch by Dei'ah Vedibur
Staff
Our weekly report of the rain and the level of the Kineret -
Winter, 5785.
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Opinion & Comment
Why do differences of opinion exist in Judaism?
Question: "It is extremely difficult for me to understand how there can be differences of opinion among the different groups within Torah Jewry. Why is this all necessary? The situation confuses me, and it causes a chillul Hashem among secular Jews."
Answer: Almost every baal teshuvah, when taking his first steps, is dumbfounded by the differences of opinion found in the Torah World. It seems to him that all Torah- observant Jews should have one identical way of thinking and live in complete harmony.
First of all, Judaism is not disturbed by having differences of opinion within itself -- as long as they are all lesheim Shomayim, for the sake of Heaven.
"Beis Shammai and Beis Hillel disagreed for three years. Each side maintained that the halocho is as they determined it. A Bas Kol emerged [from Heaven] and proclaimed: `Both of these [opinions] are the view of the Living Elokim, but the halocho is like Beis Hillel'" (Eruvin 13).
HaRav Eliyahu Dessler zt'l (Michtav MeEliahu II, pg. 353) explains, "The two opinions are two views about the matter, both of which are true.
Opinion & Comment
Tension was high; you could sense it palpably. The absolute silence which reigned in the cemetery at midnight was disturbed only by the measured hacking of pickaxes.
In the circle of dim light provided by hand-held flashlights, one could see a group of men standing around one of the graves. Two of them, in work clothes, were digging up a grave whose tombstone had been removed and lay ineffectually on the side. One lone woman stood there as well, an elderly mother supported on either side by two sons in their late fifties. All eyes were riveted, as if mesmerized, upon the rectangular plot of land which was being assaulted by the steady blows of the pickaxes and spades, rhythmically, again and again, and as the sods of earth were cast upwards and sidewards, the pit below deepened and widened.
The two men finally reached the desired level and the stones by the corpse were revealed. One of the workers descended into the trench, a small hole about the size of a four-year- old, as the old, discarded tombstone testified. He lifted one of the thin cement slabs and heaved it out. Everyone leaned forward to stare at the space underneath to study what was left of the small, shrouded remains of a body, now -- after decades of burial.
"It's empty!" exclaimed the man below, in shock and disappointment, as he lifted and hurled the final cement slab out of the grave and climbed out, himself. This uttering, which had been muttered as if to himself, resounded like a supersonic boom that came crashing back down to reverberate throughout the cemetery. Everyone stared unbelievingly at the empty grave whose rock bottom had blackened with ancient mold. Then came the cry, the shuddering, spine tingling scream of a mother: "Where is my son? I've been visiting this grave site for the past fifty years to pray for my dead son, year after year! I've lit a memorial candle for his soul for the past fifty years! Where is he? Where is my son?"
The two sons supported and steadied their faltering mother as the doctor in the group came forward with a hypodermic, prepared in advance for this expected contingency. After the tranquilizer had been administered, the sons led her slowly to the car parked by the path. The motor was ignited and within moments, the car had zoomed off.
The climactic episode behind them, the two gravediggers began filling up the empty tomb and when they were finished, set about replacing the falsified gravestone, taking care that no vestige remained of this illegal investigation. The group of remaining men stood by the side. It included several family members, a doctor, a psychologist, and a rabbi who had once worked in the Chevra Kadisha, all of them friends of the family. They exchanged comments sotto voce as they awaited the completion of the activities.
"If you hadn't been so quick with the needle," noted the psychologist to the doctor, "I would have had the chance to tell her the good news that her son was probably still alive, and that she had an excellent chance of being reunited with him."
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