IN-DEPTH FEATURES
"We Will Run After You" -- HaRav Shach's Early Communal Leadership

Introduction by M. Musman

Recent memories of HaRav Shach are invariably associated with huge crowds: his addresses to Yarchei Kallah in Ponovezh Yeshiva, at the Yad Eliyohu stadium or at Binyanei Ha'Uma when Degel Hatorah was founded and ultimately, at his levayoh. These however, were already the days when his leadership of the Torah world was axiomatic and universally acknowledged.

Of the material that has appeared over the past two years, much has looked back at HaRav Shach's earlier years, identifying the buds from which the godol later blossomed. Much has also been said and written about his having been first and foremost -- in actual fact, solely -- a rosh yeshiva, who saw it as his duty to convey daas Torah and stand up for Heaven's honor. Invariably though, written as they are from the vantage point of his later prominence, their message is overshadowed by his towering stature and undisputed leadership of the Torah community.

The following article takes us back almost half a century to the intermediate period, to the days when only a handful knew whom HaRav Shach was and appreciated him. Nobody ever crowned him leader and he never looked for leadership. He was first approached by the chareidi community's representatives, who sought his Torah guidance. Many of the broader community were not fortunate enough to understand him then or in later years, let alone to appreciate him. Yet he never shrunk from confronting even broadly accepted and comfortable viewpoints, however unpopular this made him. As time and generations passed, however, more and more people acknowledged the truth of his ideas. Unpredictably and unforseeably, his influence slowly grew and then mushroomed.

As much as the article testifies to HaRav Shach's integrity as defender of daas Torah under all conditions then, it is also evidence of our generation's yearning for and willing acceptance of Torah true leadership.

A Generation in Search of Guidance

Looking back over HaRav Shach's long and productive life, it would appear -- to judge from the various public notices bearing his name -- that his involvement in communal affairs began approximately forty years ago. Although there are earlier accounts of him having carried messages between the Brisker Rov and the Chazon Ish zt'l, we know of no personal involvement on his part on those occasions.

I recall an interesting incident that took place after the petiroh of the Brisker Rov zt'l, which took place in 5720-1959. I asked Rabbi Shlomo Lorincz and lhbc'l, Rabbi Shlomo Siroka z'l, who was one of the leaders of Zeirei Agudas Yisroel, "What will be now?"

For a number of years, we had the benefit of the Chazon Ish's direct involvement in our affairs. He led and guided our organization of youngsters through a very problematic time. Spending years in full time Torah study in yeshiva was not yet the self-understood aim of Torah youth, as it is today. We had to provide spiritually sturdy frameworks for bochurim who were working, besides the younger age groups.

The Chazon Ish's guidance was invaluable, particularly during the disturbances that followed the UN decision to establish a Jewish state and the State's coming into existence in Iyar 5708, with all the consequent problems and difficulties regarding army service for bochurim who were not in full-time learning.

We were also close to the Brisker Rov. After the Chazon Ish's petiroh, he was the sole address to whom the leaders of Z.A.I. turned, consulting him on every issue. Now he too was gone. To whom could we turn for advice? This was what lay behind my question to Rabbi Lorincz and Rabbi Siroka.

They told me, "Even after the dreadful calamity of the demise of the godol hador, we boruch Hashem, have someone to turn to, the gaon Rav Elozor Shach."

To me, this reply always stood out as evidence of the Z.A.I. leaders' close links to gedolei Yisroel [and of their keen intuition in divining who among them would provide the leadership that the movement needed]. Their example of what listening to daas Torah and to the guidelines and directives of the gedolim truly meant, was crucial in inculcating this understanding deep in the public consciousness.

Another decisive contribution was made by Reb Moshe Sheinfeld z'l. The message of his articles was absorbed by the youth who were fortunate enough to read them -- both those who even then saw their future within the Torah world and also those who went out to work and even did army service but who later filled the benches of the holy yeshivos with their sons, who chose the yeshiva path. Those articles, the movement's spiritual activities, the meetings, the special "Movement Shabbosos," the summer camps and the conventions -- left deep imprints in the hearts of the participants. It is no exaggeration to say that as a movement, Z.A.I. became the principal channel that articulated daas Torah -- to its members directly, and thereby to the community as a whole.

The leaders and workers of Z.A.I. held up the life of a ben yeshiva as the ideal for which every youngster ought to strive for. It was no easy undertaking in those days. Zionism's success in establishing the state to which it had aspired gave it first place in general public opinion, to which the chareidi community was exposed. In addition, the vision of "tachlis" was most parents' foremost ambition for their children. It was difficult to persuade even some of them to give preference to continued study in yeshiva over other courses.

With his keen perception, Reb Moshe Sheinfeld saw the approaching revolution. In an article printed in Digleinu in Nisan 5714, he noted that, "Anyone whose eyes are alert can see something out of the ordinary -- the sons are more wholehearted than their fathers."

At that time, the mission of the surviving spiritual leaders was seen as bringing the youth fully back to their forefathers' heritage.

This was [also] the task that confronted the Z.A.I. movement, in whose branches and clubs boys and youths from every stream of chareidi Jewry would gather: both Misnagdim and Chassidim, and Sephardim too, in beautiful fulfillment of the Agudist ideal of, "I am a friend to all who fear You" (Tehillim 119:63).

Alongside the gradual increase in the numbers of talmidim in the yeshivos, bochurim and avreichim also began appearing among the followers of the Admorim. These were the first stages in the renaissance of chareidi Jewry, in all its various groupings.

While Z.A.I. was faithful to gedolei Yisroel of every stripe, and thus educated its members, it was a dynamic movement with daily activities and it needed constant and direct guidance in all its affairs. The doors of the Chazon Ish and the Brisker Rov had always been open to Z.A.I.'s representatives and they now found the same reception with HaRav Shach and the Steipler zt'l who, as is well known, often used to refer questions to the Rosh Yeshiva.

5720: His First Recorded Appearance

A search for HaRav Shach's first steps in communal affairs that I embarked upon among old issues of Z.A.I.'s publication Digleinu, shows his signature on a declaration from the Moetzes Gedolei Hatorah in the issue of Tammuz-Av 5720, (within a year of the Brisker Rov's petiroh), objecting to the P.A.I. (Poalei Agudas Israel) movement's joining the government, in direct contravention of the Moetzes' resolution forbidding it to do so. This followed P.A.I.'s appearance in the elections on the same list as the Agudah and its undertaking to follow all the directives of the Moetzes.

HaRav Shach had joined the Moetzes Gedolei Hatorah while the Brisker Rov was still alive, as a result of the influence of HaRav Aharon Kotler zt'l (as HaRav Shach himself told me in the summer of 5748). HaRav Don Segal related that when Reb Aharon returned from that trip to Eretz Yisroel, he remarked, "Boruch Hashem, I got one important thing done just now; I managed to persuade the Rosh Yeshiva to join the Moetzes Gedolei Hatorah."

A year later (Av 5721), besides a call to vote for the Agudah list in the approaching elections, signed by all the great roshei yeshiva and admorim, with HaRav Shach among them, Digleinu also carried its first transcript of a public address by the Rosh Yeshiva, a role it was to continue in the years ahead. In that address, he elaborated on each individual's obligation to hearken to the views of gedolei Yisroel on the issue of participation in the elections and on the vital need to strengthen Torah Jewry that was subservient to its Torah leadership.

Until that point, HaRav Shach had only been known within private Torah circles -- "They thought that he didn't know anything" about communal affairs, was how HaRav Segal put it -- but he had now come forth with a discourse that excelled in its clarity of thought and outlook, most of whose contents remain as relevant today as they were then.

From that point on, HaRav Shach acceded to requests for his involvement in an array of communal affairs, such as joining the leadership of Chinuch Atzmai, signing calls on behalf of Keren Hashevi'is, appearing at election rallies and at central Z.A.I. meetings and signing a call to strengthen Digleinu.

His next major intervention in public affairs came several years later, in 5733, as soon as news became known of the `hetter,' by which the then Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi- elect permitted mamzeirim to marry, with the support of the governing Maarach (now Labor) and the National Religious Party.

5733: His Stand Against the Infamous `Hetter'

Several months before that Chief Rabbi's election and the `hetter's' promulgation, a notice was circulated, jointly signed by HaRav Yechezkel Abramsky, HaRav Yaakov Yisroel Kanievsky, HaRav Shach, HaRav Chaim Shmuelevitz, HaRav Moshe Chevroni, HaRav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach zt'l and yblctv'a HaRav Eliashiv, that stated:

"A spirit of confusion is presently passing through our Holy Land, misleading the public, as though it were possible to modify the halochoh that has been accepted by us since Sinai and subsequent generations, permitting things that are forbidden using false and spurious arguments that lack any basis. We declare that anyone who says so, has no portion in halochoh and his rulings should not be relied upon. All who assist in spreading this view, which endangers the nation's existence, will eventually be called to account by Heaven."

When the media publicized that `hetter' with much fanfare, the central leadership of Agudas Yisroel met in Tel Aviv to discuss the matter. An agitated and shaken HaRav Shach made a wholly unexpected appearance at the meeting and, pained to the depths of his heart over the grave situation, he spoke emotionally to the surprised participants about the duty to respond forcefully to the dreadful breach.

This spontaneous appearance evoked a tremendous reaction, not only in the Torah camp but among the public at large. The Rosh Yeshiva's immersion in Torah to the exclusion of all else, was well known. Many were deeply touched by his appearance and he won over many hearts. None could remain apathetic to the pain that had prompted him to speak when and as he did, not waiting for formalities but seizing the opportunity of the meeting to loudly protest the profanation of Heaven's honor and of Torah's honor.

The front page of Digleinu's issue of Shevat 5733 carried the resolution of the full complement of the Moetzes Gedolei Hatorah that was passed at a special session on the eighth of Shevat (it was the only meeting of the Moetzes that was also attended by HaRav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach and ylct'a HaRav Eliashiv), in response to the `hetter'. The same issue contained a report of a large protest meeting held in Bnei Brak which included HaRav Shach's brief address in the course of which he said:

"Somebody reminded me and showed me the words of the Rashbo, in a teshuvoh to someone who explained the Torah's accounts at variance with their plain meaning [explaining for example] the incident of Avrohom and Soroh as a parable. The Rashbo replied as follows: `You imagine that the Torah has no Owner and that everyone is entitled to expound it as his heart desires. I am still alive and I am standing guard, showing no partiality, and you will not touch [so much as] the point of a yud . . . '

"I cannot say these words of the Rashbo's. There is no one [today] who can utter Rashbo's words. However, this I can say before everybody: as long as the holy yeshivos exist, as long as there are yeshivos in Klal Yisroel that produce rabbonim, rulers in halochoh and dayonim, as there ought to be and as there always have been in Yisroel -- such a thing shall not happen! No baal habayis can propound his own explanations. `May a thousand like him be uprooted rather than a single letter of the Torah be destroyed,' so writes HaRav Y.Y. Kanievsky in his letter. I don't know if it will be me; I am not a young avreich [any longer] . . . but whoever it will be . . . yeshivos there will be . . .

"The Torah has given us an explicit promise: `It will not depart from your descendants . . . ' and be'ezras Hashem, there will be rabbonim in Yisroel -- `If there are two, they are myself and Chanina my son' -- however many there should be, there will always remain a nucleus of G-d- fearing, sincere, Torah observant Jews. We hope that Hakodosh Boruch Hu will allow His word to become fulfilled in full."

Perhaps we may be permitted to point to these words as the key to the sense of mission which HaRav Shach felt: "I am still alive and I am standing guard, showing no partiality." Granted, they are the Rashbo's words and HaRav Shach himself said, "I cannot say these words of the Rashbo's," yet these few -- yet forceful -- words were his guide, as was his continual insistence that the remedy for every ill lay in fulfilling the Torah and in the existence of holy yeshivos, that come what may, there would always continue to be.

5734: His Resignation from the Moetzes

As we follow Digleinu's coverage of HaRav Shach's public remarks, we find in Cheshvan 5734 a shmuess that he delivered in Ponovezh Yeshiva during the Yom Kippur War. In Nisan of that year appeared the hesped for HaRav Yechezkel Levenstein zt'l.

A storm was brewing in Agudas Yisroel's affairs though. The Agudas Yisroel organization decided, by majority vote, that Agudah and P.A.I. would run together on the same list in the Knesset elections that were approaching.

HaRav Shach arrived at the meeting of the Moetzes Gedolei Hatorah already aware of what the outcome would be. He brought with him a letter from the Steipler expressing his determined opposition to the move. When he had finished reading out the letter, HaRav Shach left the meeting thereby, in effect, resigning from the Moetzes.

Many were deeply pained by this development, especially those who followed the Steipler and HaRav Shach. This crack in the Agudah's unity boded no good. At Z.A.I.'s meetings there was a lot of difficult soul-searching as the elections drew closer. Rabbi Lorincz, Z.A.I.'s president who had been chosen to head the united list, decided to resign his post. However HaRav Shach's entreaties prevented him from doing so. Nonetheless, he still refused to say a single word in public about how to vote.

I remember that Rabbi Dovid Sankevitz and myself were asked to go and see HaRav Shach and explain to him the dilemma and the concern of the Z.A.I. members, who wanted to know how they should vote. We carried out our task and fully presented the issues that the members wanted to know about to him but HaRav Shach remained silent. He did not react at all, until our parting greeting.

At the time, we heard that he instructed those living in the outlying towns and settlements to vote, but to the bnei Torah close to him, he said nothing. His silence however, was more eloquent than a stream of words, for beneath it, his deep pain was discernible.

The elections results reflected, for the first time, the great growth in the size of the community that followed him in every respect. The unified list lost an entire mandate. Prior to the elections, Agudah had four seats and P.A.I. had two. The new, combined list only gained five mandates and the loss was wholly the Agudah's, for the sixth place had been slated for one of its candidates.

This outcome, whereby HaRav Shach's publicly-known silence had such a powerful effect, emphasized the strength of his leadership. As of yet, no split whatsoever was in the offing, certainly not between the groups that followed the roshei yeshiva and those that followed the admorim.

5736: Clarifying Klal Yisroel's Uniqueness

The front page of Digleinu's issue of Cheshvon-Kislev 5736 carried a special letter that HaRav Shach wrote in response to the UN resolution that equated Zionism with racism, which raised a storm throughout the Jewish world.

In this letter, HaRav Shach conveyed a clear and fundamental message about Am Yisroel's spiritual uniqueness, upon which the security of its position is at all times conditional: " ` . . . That they should guard Hashem's path, to do righteousness and justice . . . ' (Bereishis 18:19). Without a doubt, this means that if the land is to belong to your descendants, it must be a country of halochoh and of Hashem's laws, not of the rules and laws of the nations, which they invented . . . "

The letter continues, "The truth is that those nations are not the ones who are endangering our existence here. Am Yisroel is used to, and has withstood, many decrees, massacres and killings, and is alive and well. The ones who are really endangering Klal Yisroel are those who have propounded a new idea: that one can be a Jew without Torah and mitzvos; that one can even be married to a non-Jew and yet be an Israeli, a nationalist and a Zionist. This is how they educate the children in their schools. They are in power and can make propaganda that conceals the truth, in their quest to make "Beis Yisroel like all the nations" -- like Rumania, like Yugoslavia, without Torah and mitzvos. This puts Am Yisroel at the risk of wholesale destruction, chas vesholom."

The letter ends with a reference to the propaganda that then called for every Jew to respond to the UN resolution by wearing a label that declared, "I am a Zionist."

"To those who ask how to relate to the demonstrations, the protests and the meetings, and to sticking a label onto one's lapel that says, `I am a Zionist,' the answer is: a Jew whose whole appearance attests to the fact that he observes Torah and mitzvos is [himself] the greatest demonstration of his Jewishness and [of the fact] that he prays three times a day, `and may our eyes behold when You return to Zion'. He has a greater connection to our Holy Land, wherever he is, and he needs no slogan to announce who he is.

"As for the secular Zionist ideal, the gedolim of the past generation have already warned us that we have no part in it. We can see ourselves how bankrupt it has become. They thought that Yisroel would command more respect in the eyes of the nations and that there would no longer be any antisemitism. But the opposite has happened. Antisemitism has grown even greater and all the protests and demonstrations are utterly useless, for to whom do they protest? To those who hate us, for all of Eisov['s descendants] hate Yaakov. We shall therefore continue on our path, strengthening our faith in Hashem and His salvation and not turning to vanities, because the novi says, `for My salvation is close' (Yeshaya 56:1)."

5737: His Return to the Moetzes

There was another turnabout in Agudas Yisroel's affairs in the winter of 5737. HaRav Shach's prolonged absence from the Moetzes Gedolei Hatorah weighed heavily on everyone's heart and was the subject of many debates within the Agudah institutions. Widely quoted was Rabbi Lorincz's pained comment that the table of the Moetzes, "was missing its fourth leg" and that every effort ought to be made to rectify the situation.

Knesset elections were again in the offing and a delegation of distinguished roshei yeshiva visited the Gerrer Rebbe, the Beis Yisroel ztvk'l, to beg him to return to an Agudah list that was independent of P.A.I. The Rebbe agreed, just a few days before his petiroh. Two weeks later, the Agudah's central bureau met and decided on a separate list from P.A.I., a move which paved the way for HaRav Shach's return to the Moetzes.

This was one of the most impressive junctures in HaRav Shach's public standing, as he was regaled with waves of affection and admiration. It was apparent that he felt the full weight of the responsibility for the separate list that he had so longed to see. At a small meeting of roshei kollelim in Bnei Brak on chol hamoed Pesach, he spoke stirringly of the duty to work for the success of the Agudah list in the upcoming elections.

Several weeks later, HaRav Shach was the sole speaker at a large meeting in Tel Aviv halls, that Z.A.I. arranged at very short notice at his request through telegrams sent out by the movement's energetic secretary, Rabbi Chaim Brillant. This was an extraordinary experience for all the participants. Hundreds upon hundreds of roshei yeshiva, roshei kollelim and avreichim from all over the country streamed into the hall, until there was no more room. To this day, the writer recalls the current that went through the crowd at the sight of the Rosh Yeshiva, who stood and spoke at length, with youthful energy, generating enthusiasm for taking part in the campaign, with excitement and vitality.

This writer's report of the event, which was the flagship for the entire campaign, was given prominence in Hamodiah. There was no doubt at the time that this meeting was one of the crucial factors in the subsequent success in the elections, in which the Agudah won four seats. This achievement had important results, with the subsequent `revolution' and transfer of power from the Labor Party to the right wing Likud, led by Menachem Begin. The Moetzes, with HaRav Shach now playing a full role, decided to join the governing coalition -- without any ministerial or deputy minister positions but accepting senior parliamentary positions. Rabbi Shlomo Lorincz chaired the Knesset Finance Committee.

That Knesset was the most fruitful of all in terms of concessions won for the chareidi community, with HaRav Shach and the Steipler presiding over all the proceedings. The draconian draft exemption committees, before which any girl seeking exemption from military service had to appear, whatever her background, were now abolished. All that was necessary was a declaration of her opposition to conscription, on religious grounds. Several difficulties concerning the deferment of army service for talmidim in the holy yeshivos were also removed, such as the problems faced by baalei teshuvoh who had embarked on national service and who now wished to integrate fully into the yeshiva world.

Another new law, of supreme importance, prevented autopsies from being performed arbitrarily, against the expressed wishes of the deceased or of the surviving family. This law put an end to the intolerable situation that had existed for many years, causing misery and anguish to tens of thousands of families throughout the country.

5740: We Received Torah Without the Land

The Agudah's increased influence, which it won mainly as a result of its enjoying HaRav Shach's full backing, led to a further escalation in his communal standing. Henceforth, he was subjected to very broad and intensive media coverage. Each of his public appearances aroused interest, with one of the peaks being reached at his unforgettable address at the opening session of the Sixth Knessia Gedolah in 5740.

The media gave wide coverage to -- and widely decried -- his masterly discourse, in which he bemoaned the spiritual malaise gripping the nation at large and, despite the Agudah's coalition partnership, did not hesitate to attack Zionist ideology. His remarks came under particular attack from the National Religious camp. In view of the spread of nationalistic ideas, in the form of the settlements and determination to keep the occupied territories, he reviewed the fundamentals of the Torah outlook on this subject. His key message was conveyed in the following terms:

"The Torah was given to Yisroel in the desert, in a desolate and empty region. There was no Eretz Yisroel yet, no territories. Yet we became an eternal nation, without Eretz Yisroel and without territories! We had only one thing to hold onto: the holy Torah! Through it alone were we able to survive and are still surviving. When there is Torah in Yisroel, there is everything and when there isn't, chas vesholom, there is an entire parsha [about what will happen] . . . How foolish are those who think that there can be a Jewish nation without Torah and that nowadays, we can survive and overcome eighty or a hundred million Arabs who are banded around us in order to destroy us, with all the nations of the world against us and hating us. Certainly, we will be victorious! But how? Only through Torah! Torah shall be eternal but without it . . . that spells destruction for Am Yisroel! We have no other guarantee. Soldiers won't help and neither will the IDF. We are Jews! You can be Turks or Germans without Torah but under no circumstances Jews."

HaRav Shach's determined stand regarding the territories were like thorns in the eyes of the nationalist groups and of those in the Lubavitch movement who followed them. He nevertheless stood firm, despite all the opposition to his path and to his positions.

He was also unafraid of taking a public stand, together with the Steipler, against some of the other goings on in the above movement, particularly the messianic trends. In so doing, he exposed himself to the most venomous kind of propaganda campaign against him, yet nothing could deter him. He once even told Rav Shlomo Lorincz that he was not even afraid of being physically harmed, so long as he could publicly declare the truth, as it emerged from the daas Torah that we have received from our teachers and from the gedolim of previous generations.

5742: The Torah World Rallies to Defend his Honor

In Teves 5742, at the height of the campaign against him (which was aided and abetted by assistants who did not belong to the Lubavitch movement) an extraordinary protest was issued by the gedolim of America, led by HaRav Moshe Feinstein, HaRav Yaakov Kamenetsky and HaRav Yaakov Yitzchok Ruderman zt'l, and countersigned by tens of other roshei yeshiva. The circular protested, "the slander and vituperation [being leveled] against one of the greatest of our generation's gedolim, the elder of the roshei hayeshivos in Eretz Yisroel, who raises the banner of daas Torah high and expresses the Torah's views on every matter relating to Klal Yisroel."

A similar call was circulated in Eretz Yisroel, while a particularly scathing editorial in Hamodiah (penned by the present writer) observed that, "while HaRav Shach and his ilk are in no need of our defense, and his stature is not affected in the slightest by the those whose coarseness and ignorance render them incapable of understanding even his mundane speech, Torah Jewry and Agudas Yisroel, among whose heads and leaders he is numbered, cannot forgo his honor. As noted, the insult is not only to him but to the entire Torah world, the Moetzes Gedolei Hatorah and Agudas Yisroel too."

At this point, things took an unexpected course. Sadly, not all the groups in Agudas Yisroel saw matters in the above light. When HaRav Shach realized that behind the scenes, a partnership with the Lubavitch movement was in the offing, he decided to leave the Agudah framework altogether. In the meantime, an additional factor was greatly distressing him -- the repudiation of a full undertaking that had been given to a Sephardic representative to sit in the Knesset for half the term; this was something which HaRav Shach had personally guaranteed.

Later, in 5744, this led him to rule that Sephardic Jewry should run for the Knesset on an independent list -- which enjoyed an astonishing success, winning four mandates all at once, while the Agudah dropped to two mandates.

Establishing an Independent Framework for the Torah World

From this point on, all the rules of the game changed and steps were taken that later led to the Torah world's organization into an independent entity, headed by the gedolei haTorah and led by the Rosh Yeshiva. To begin with, Yated Ne'eman started publication, at the behest of the Steipler and HaRav Shach. It succeeded in establishing itself, against all odds and despite all forecasts to the contrary (including the present writer's, who was closely acquainted with all the problems and obstacles involved in both starting but principally in maintaining, the publication of a daily newspaper).

Later, in 5749, HaRav Shach established Degel Hatorah and what followed after that is well known, including the establishment of the Shearis Yisroel kashrus organization, headed by the HaRav Chaim Sho'ul Karelitz zt'l, who was another of Z.A.I.'s guiding lights. Today, there is no doubt whatsoever that all these enterprises succeeded in the merit of HaRav Shach, who was universally recognized as, "a man whose Master assists him."

Finally, in closing, the part played by the Z.A.I. movement and its publication, Digleinu, in the days before Degel Hatorah and Yated Ne'eman, must be acknowledged. Ever since HaRav Shach first entered the communal scene as a leader of Torah Jewry, Z.A.I.'s leadership, workers and members dedicated themselves to the furtherance of his reputation and his Torah outlook, among the broader community. No sacrifice was too great for them, quite literally, for the sake of this sublime end.