Opinion and Comment
"Go My People, Enter Your Chambers"

by The Admor of Slonim

Until lately, Jewish homes were secure and guarded. There was a time when danger did not threaten and one could raise one's children in peace and serenity, when we trusted in the fulfillment of the words in Tehillim, "Our sons are [pure] as plants... there is no breach and no bad tidings and no outcry in our streets" and that all grow up as blessed seed. But today, we have returned to the previous periods where we needed special siyata deShmaya to successfully rear children who are wholesome and G-d-fearing. We again encounter the phenomenon where fire consumes the periphery of our camp and within the very community of shomrei Torah umitzvos.

To our dismay, we hear of breaches and outcries in our streets; no one is guaranteed protection from this danger. With the proliferation of those devices, many are the victims felled in the fire, both in soul and body. A spiritual war is being waged between the powers of tumah and kedushoh, a war which claims new casualties by the day. And even if the change is not apparent from the outside and the [victims] continue to pose as pious Jews, with the outward body intact, even in Chassidic garb, but inside, these people are consumed corpses; their souls are seared and sometimes, after a period in this sad state, they find that they can no longer make a comeback.

We cannot even imagine the grave danger inherent in those devices and to what lengths one must distance oneself completely from them to the point that if one sees a person who is totally devoid of the aroma of kedushoh, one need not be clairvoyant to know that he must have looked at improper things which sucked him dry of the holy sap of the Jewish soul. Yeshaya Hanovi (29:13) writes: `Since this people drew near and with their mouth and with their lips do honor Me but have removed their heart from Me, and their fear of Me is like a commandment learned by rote.'

What else can be said about all those polluted devices so prevalent today? To what can we compare the impurity and filth in our generation? Whoever has stumbled therein can instantly sink very deeply into the nether Sheol, and once there, he will be unable to help save himself from the clutches of his evil inclination. He has committed suicide, as it were. Whoever enters the murky sea deliberately, may find that even a sea of [remorseful] tears will not help purify what has already been engraved in his mind and heart. Whoever descends to such places fulfills the verse, `All who enter will never return' (Mishlei 2:19). It wreaks havoc on a person's soul.

The primary danger in this pollution is that the very air is filled with toxic bacteria so that even people who are far from it and have no connection to it, are liable to be affected. One who is thus affected - that leper with the lesion - is like a rotten apple spreading its rot to its entire environment; he harms everyone he speaks to. And if cannot save him any more, one is duty bound to maintain a distance from him.

<2 Av p 20>

The Danger in Discontinuing Chinuch Atzmai Transportation

By Yechiel Sever

An outcry for survival for the future of thousands of Jewish children who are coming closer to Torah echoed painfully throughout the emergency gathering of hundreds of principals of Chinuch Atzmai schools throughout the country which took place on Sunday evening in the Wagshal halls in Bnei Brak. Attended by the roster of gedolei Yisrael, it was called to address the budgetary crisis threatening the continuation of transportation for tens of thousands of students seeking a Torah education in the Chinuch Atzmai schools.

The hundreds of Chinuch Atzmai school principals attending the emergency meeting responded to the cry of the organization and that of the Union of Agudath Israel Teachers regarding the spiritual threat hovering over the future of over thirty thousand students from periphery settlements who have been drawn close to a life of Torah. They are totally dependent upon the transportation system gathering them up from remote villages and settlements and bringing them to Torah schools in closer urban locations, a service which is not supported by the government and is in danger of immediate collapse.

<2 Av p 26>

Chinuch Institutions Will Insist on Accepting Students Only From Homes Which Do Not Have Forbidden Devices

By Yechiel Sever

Principals of talmudei Torah schools are joining the determined battle against the Internet and other technological devices in anticipation of an assembly of rabbonim to strengthen the walls of our camp. They have declared, "Chinuch institutions will stand firm against accepting children from homes that have forbidden devices." This, per directive from gedolei Yisrael past and present, including a letter from HaRav Eliashiv zt"l and ybl"a HaRav Shteinman.

In Teves 5770, the directive was issued in explicit words: "Chinuch institutions shall circulate a letter to parents obligating them to sign that they are following the directives of the above regarding Internet and computers, and if it is discovered that they are violating this, the administration shall weigh the continued attendance of those students in that school. All the institutions are certainly obligated to stand firm in rejecting families which do not adhere to these rules - so as not to harmfully affect others."

<2 Av p 34>

Importing Vegetables in Shmittah

By Eliezer Rauchberger

"We must supervise the competition among produce importers in the shmittah year to prevent price gaps of up to 200% as in the past." This was the demand of the government Knesset Supervisory Committee in a special hearing held on the subject of preparation for the upcoming Shmittah year.

Tzvika Cohen, deputy general of the Agricultural Ministry, reported that "In anticipation of Shmittah, we have issued guidelines according to public comment, including the chareidi community and the Kashrus committees, all of which were approved." He said that the ministry would not interfere with the import of produce and would allow the free market to operate. He also noted, "We sat with various kashrus committees, the major chareidi bodies, and required that every product which comes from Jordan be directed to importers at the same time so as to regulate proper competition and to reduce prices."

MK Rabbi Uri Maklev noted in the discussion that the government must help to the utmost of its ability those farmers who are keeping Shmittah. "To help and assist actively those who have opted to lay their lands fallow with all that this entails. Furthermore, there are many hundreds of farms who also will not work their lands but because they do not fulfill the Agricultural Ministry's requirements which have become more strict of late, they are not eligible for funding. In these instances, we call upon the Ministry to be lenient and ease the initial conditions for receiving aid."

CAPTION: The Bobover Rebbe zt"l and his sons, zt"l

Ha'Admor Reb Ben-Zion Halberstam zt'l Hy"d of Bobov

In honor of his yahrtzeit, 4 Av 5704-1944

A pall of sadness and mourning hung over the court of Bobov. The Rebbe Reb Shloime had passed away, shattering his many chassidim and talmidim. His son and heir to the Admorus, Reb Ben Zion, was visibly broken.

But the strange storm which was gathering on the horizon gave no time for complacency or even real mourning.

Reb Ben Zion saw the threat of Haskalah looming ever closer. It was aimed at the talented young Jewish boys who could soon, choliloh, be caught and lost to Yiddishkeit.

Casting aside his personal grief, the new Rebbe immediately set about opening a yeshiva to attract boys away from the foreign youth movements that promised great ideas and principles, but eventually led their members into the abyss of a life devoid of Torah.

Reb Ben Zion succeeded in attracting bochurim from all walks of Jewish life, whether they were close Bobover chassidim who lived nearby or boys from as far as Germany, Holland and Belgium.

All who came found in the Rebbe a mentor and guide, a listening ear and a fatherly figure, enabling them to grow with confidence in Torah and yiras Shomayim.

"What is the secret of his success?" wondered the gedolim of his time. How does he succeed to raise these boys and save them from falling by the wayside as so many of their counterparts in other institutions and yeshivos?

His clarity of vision to the goal he had set and how to achieve it, is one of the answers. As one bochur who poured out his heart to the Rebbe relates:

"Every bochur in the yeshiva was given time to speak to the Rebbe in private.

"During one such audience, I bared my thoughts and feelings to the Rebbe, informing him that I had decided to take on fasting and various other physical afflictions in order to do teshuvoh. In his sage wisdom, the Rebbe replied, `My dear son, don't measure our generation with the same yardstick as those before us. The previous doros broke their bodies with fasts and suffering and their minds and hearts were strengthened. However, nowadays we are frail and weak. If we break the body, we break the spirit too and have no more endurance.'

"`Then how will I fully repent?' I asked miserably.

"The Rebbe's answer: `Nowadays the only way to attain teshuvoh is omol baTorah!'"

***

It was early morning, still before shacharis, and the Rebbe was pacing up and down his room, his brow furrowed, creased with worry. His young son Shloimele stood nearby, watching, and feeling his father's pain. He knew that the financial straits of the Yeshivos Eitz Chaim that had been set up all over Galicia were the cause of his father's troubled look.

The debts that Reb Ben Zion was trying to shoulder were growing, with no salvation in sight. During this era of the great inflation in Poland, the value of the zloty was falling daily. Yet the roshei yeshiva and teachers in Yeshivos Eitz Chaim were the only people who received their wages in dollars for, in the Rebbe's own words: "They need yishuv hadaas to teach Torah. How would they ever be calm if they had to reckon each day the value of the coins in their pockets?"

It was no small wonder then that the situation pressed him terribly, so much that he needed to prepare himself for a long while before he could find the peace and correct mind track to daven shacharis before the King of Kings.

Seeing how his son was party to his pain, Reb Ben Zion turned to him lovingly.

"Shloimele my son, do you know that our grandfather, the holy Divrei Chaim of Zanz would penalize himself every evening by passing his fingers through a flame. Besides, each winter morning he would immerse himself in the biting snow and ice.

"These types of afflictions are difficult for us to deal with, but they are an ascent on the road to Torah and avodoh.

"What could I do? I took upon myself the burden of all the yeshivos' many debts. This penalty is to me like burning my hands in fire and rolling in snow and ice."

***

In the world of Chassidus, many are the well-known songs of Reb Ben Zion, songs of the soul. Many of these stirring melodies were composed specifically to draw the youth away from the maskilim and toward the world of Torah-true Yiddishkeit.

The Rebbe would capture them with his heartfelt rendition of "Beni, Beni, my son, don't go with them or their way, prevent your foot from stepping on their paths . . . "

When the song, "Yismach Moshe bematnas chelko," came out, nobody knew why the Rebbe had chosen these words particularly, until the shamash related:

"One day last week a beautifully wrapped parcel arrived in the post. We opened it, revealing a large donation of new seforim for the yeshiva.

"The Rebbe's expression did not match my elation. A donation of books without having been asked for immediately aroused his suspicion, and he asked to examine the seforim closely.

"As he opened the package properly, removing the top seforim, he discovered books. Books that spewed apostasy and secularism. Books that were sure to inject the yeshiva boys with a deadly poison.

"The Rebbe lost no time in burning the parcel, fancy wrapping included, thus preventing the scourge it could have caused.

"If the maskilim work so hard and go to such lengths to try and mislead Jewish boys, surely we must work at least as effectively in the opposite direction."

He then proceeded to compose in honor of Shabbos the song "Yismach Moshe," which proclaims how fortunate we are to have the Torah.

***

The pleasant tenor of his voice and his'orerus while davening were uplifting to all who heard him, even as a young man.

One morning during his father's lifetime, the Beis Medrash of Bobov was already emptied of its mispallelim. One lone figure remained at his place, his body swaying, his voice echoing in fervent, pleasant sound. The young Ben Zion had started together with everyone, but stayed on to finish davening for a long time after.

Seeing this, the dayan Reb Betzalel Bernstein, zt"l who had come from Yerushalayim to live in Bobov, asked Reb Shloime why he allowed his son to tarry so long in his tefillos, fasting until midday.

"Come with me," motioned the Rebbe to Reb Betzalel. Quietly they stood outside the Beis Medrash and placed their ears to the door. From within came a voice so sweet and sublime, a voice of tefilloh to Hashem that alternated between joyous singing, pleading and fervent yearning. Mesmerized, they listened for a long while and, as he stood entranced, Reb Betzalel understood that such a tefilloh could not possibly be disturbed.

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