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29 Adar 5762 - March 13, 2002 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
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NEWS
AN URGENT CALL TO ALL JEWS

The following statement, from the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah in Eretz Yisroel, has been endorsed and is being promoted by the Moetzes in America as well. It refers to a day of prayer on Wednesday 29 Adar/March 13 -- Yom Kippur Kotton. Even though this will have passed before our date of publication, we feel that the message is important even after then.

Reports from America say that many individual shuls organized minyonim of people fasting on Yom Kippur Kotton, including reading Vayechal. The rabbonim did not call upon the community to do so, but the initiatives have their blessing.

Nation of Hashem! Awaken, Arouse Yourselves and Call out to Hashem!

We are seized with trembling over the difficult situation that has developed in our Holy Land as danger threatens our fellow Jews and no one knows what each day will bring. Evil people plot and attack our nation, and Jewish blood is spilled like water.

The cry of the Jewish people is loud in the face of the heavy and terrifying tragedies, including the death of young people, may it no longer come to pass. Every heart is pained and broken over the terrible, bitter illnesses that have stricken the Jewish sick, may Hashem strengthen and heal them.

Our power lies only in seizing the means of our forefathers, and it is incumbent on us to call out with a great and bitter outcry, as the Rambam describes in Hilchos Ta'aniyos:

"It is a positive Torah commandment to cry out and sound trumpets on every calamity that threatens the community, as it says, `In the face of the enemy that attacks you, you should sound the trumpets' -- meaning in the face of whatever causes you harm, cry out and sound the alarm. This is one of the paths of repentance, that when a threat appears and the people cry out and sound the alarm, and all recognize that it is their sins that cause them harm, as it says, `your sins have tipped the balance,' this is what will cause the threat to be removed from them."

"In gatherings praise Hashem." Let large numbers of those who fear Hashem and cherish His name gather together to pour out their prayers before the Creator of all in all the shuls and botei medrash wherever they live, throughout the world, on Wednesday, Adar 29, erev Rosh Chodesh Nisan. Let the special prayers of Yom Kippur Katan be recited, and chapters of Tehillim, especially perakim 83, 130 and 142, before He Who Dwells On High, so that He will show us favor and redeem us from all our travails.

Let us return to Hashem with full force, let us better our ways both with regard to things between man and G-d and those between man and his fellow. Let us distance ourselves from loshon hora and rechilus, and increase our love for others. Let each of us perceive the positive in others and not their shortcomings. Let us strengthen ourselves in Torah and fear of Heaven and in the fulfillment of mitzvos. Let us become strong in our prayers and supplications, and let Hashem hear our entreaties, show favor to His people and mercy to the remnant of His portion. Let reports of tragedy or loss among us no longer be heard, and let Him strengthen and bind the brokenhearted in their mourning. Yisroel's salvation is in Hashem, a salvation for all eternity.

Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of Eretz Yisrael

*

The following is a separate statement from the American Moetzes:

A CALL AND A REQUEST

In this time of travail, we come to request from the stalwarts of the beis medrash, students of yeshivos and members of kollelim everywhere, to increase their Torah-study during the coming bein hazmanim intersession, and to summon every strength to establish set times for the learning of Torah and its public study in yeshivos and botei medrash in their local neighborhoods. May the merit of Torah prove pleasing to the Master of All on behalf of our fellow Jews living in our Holy Land, who are in a situation of great crisis.

Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of America 20 Adar, 5762

 

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