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HaRav Gavriel Yosef Levy shlita on the War Against Yeshivas in Eretz Yisroel
In recent months, HaRav Gavriel Yosef Levi, Rosh Yeshiva of Be'er HaTorah, begins his message to the public, we are being subjected to budget cuts and various financial decrees where it is very clear to all that we are in the midst of an open war which does not stand up to the dictates of logic, even according to their reasoning and laws. These are in addition to the sword of the army mobilization being flaunted above the heads of our holy yeshiva students. The question facing us is how to handle this dangerous war which has faced our Torah public in recent generations.
Let us reflect: Yaakov Ovinu went off to study Torah before he set out for Choron, but before he actually came to Lavan's house, which was so totally different from his father's home, the home of a wicked man amidst the residents of a wicked city, he realized that he must prepare himself so as not to be influenced by them. The dozens of years which he had already devoted to Torah study were not sufficient but required greater preparation under stringent circumstances, and he therefore ensconced himself in the yeshivos of Shem and Ever.
There is good news within the Israeli society. Forget about the anti-dati racket generated by the media and let's deal with the happy facts that indicate a blessed and amazing trend of religious renaissance taking place within the Israeli public. Soldiers going to pray before being sent to the front lines; tefillin being donned in secular high schools with long waiting lines; returned hostages telling how it was pure emunah that kept them going during those very difficult times of brutal captivity and actually saved them many times from the hands of murderers.
Agam Brenner told how she made every effort to keep Shabbos and fast days and refrained from eating non-kosher meat; Ohad Ben Ami davened every day, made Havdalah during his captivity, did not eat chometz on Pesach and began putting on tefillin after his release; Sasha Trifanov put on tefillin for the first time in his life and another {woman} captive recited "Mizmor leDovd! Hashem is my light and salvation..." daily. Emily Damaris hurried to the Kosel to thank Hashem for her miraculous release from captivity while captive Eli Sharaabi recited the Shema and made Kiddush.
These are the open facts, together with the stories from outreach organizations about the tremendous search for spirituality far beyond their capacity to satisfy...
29 Adar marks the thirty-ninth anniversary of the passing of one of the gedolim of America: HaRav Yaakov Kamenetsky. In this important article, Rav Yosef Elias brings together several major themes that HaRav Yaakov developed, to teach some very important lessons about Chumash and education. The ideas and issues that are clarified here are matters of daily contact for anyone who has an ongoing relationship to Torah, and the lessons of Reb Yaakov will certainly have a profound effect on this relationship.
This interesting important essay was originally published in 1996, 29 years ago. It emphasized and summarizes some of the central ideas of HaRav Yaakov Kamenetsky zt"l.
Part I
There are many facets that we can observe in gedolim: encyclopedic knowledge of Torah in all its parts, ability to dispense halachic direction for all eventualities, clarity in teaching complex Torah subjects, perfection in avodas Hashem and dealings with others, and extraordinary ability and readiness to provide guidance to individuals and the klal. Anybody who had the privilege of knowing the Rosh Yeshiva could note these features. But when Moron the Steipler zt'l called him chakima diYehudo'i — "the wise man of the Jews" — he appears to have meant more: in the Rosh Yeshiva all the features mentioned were welded together into an overarching vision and understanding of the world and our task in it (Machaneh Hachareidi, 14 Adar II 5746). Thus, in his teaching and his guidance, he gave expression to fundamental ideas that we should take to heart.
Rain and Kinneret Watch by Dei'ah Vedibur
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Led by maranan verabonon, gedolei haTorah vehaChassidus, hundreds of thousands of Jews, from all circles and sectors of the religious and chareidi community of Eretz Yisroel assembled for a prayer rally in Yerushalayim to ask for Heaven's help against the persecution of the Jewish religion in the Holy Land.
Long before the beginning of the rally hundreds of ushers and activists fixed street signs, set up barriers, and connected microphones to the amplifier systems, in anticipation of the hundreds of thousands of participants. A special barrier was placed in front of the dais where maranan verabonon, the gedolei hador were seated throughout the rally.
The stirring spectacle will not be forgotten for a long time. Hours before the rally began, masses of people streamed to the area on Yaffo Street, near the former (and future) central bus station.
Nearly 1000 busses were supposed to bring the hundreds of thousands of participants to the rally, from both out-of-town and the city itself.
In most of the out-of-town regions, the busses filled to capacity rapidly. In places like Eilat, Rechasim, Ashdod, Netanya, Katzrin, Kiryat Shemonah, the Jordan Valley region, Rechovot, Ofakim, Herzliya and other areas, things proceeded very smoothly.
IN-DEPTH FEATURES
In recent weeks, a monumental three-volume work on the life of HaRav Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman, the Ponevezher Rav, zt'l, was published by the Mochon Chayei Yahadus Lita of Bnei Brak. Written by the well-known author Rabbi Aharon Surasky and the product of many years of research, it sheds light on the life and times of this great leader of Torah Jewry in Europe and Eretz Yisroel. The Ponevezher Rav was a major public figure for more than twenty years in Europe, and then in Eretz Yisroel, and a detailed account of his works gives important insights into the state of all Jewry in his times.
The Rav was born on 28 Iyar, 5646 (1886) in the town of Kuhl, a small town of about 500 of which about a third were Jews. At the age of 14 he went to the Telshe Yeshiva, where he learned until he was twenty. He then spent a half year in Novardok, after which he spent three years in Radin under the Chofetz Chaim. He married the daughter of the rov of Vidzh, and took over there at the end of 5671 (1911), when his father-in-law became the rov of Wilkomir. During the upheavals of the First World War, he spent three years in Coltinan cut off from his family, but not from the Torah.
Eighty years ago, HaRav Itzele Rabinowitz the rav of Ponevezh, passed away on Friday 21 Adar I, 5679 (1919). Within a few weeks HaRav Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman was appointed the new rav of Ponevezh, a major Jewish community, at the relatively young age of 33. His father soon passed away, on 28 Adar II in Kuhl. In honor of these occasions, we present the following excerpts from this new major work. These selections are but a small sample of the entire three volume masterwork.
Intense Learning in Coltinan
To HaRav Moshe Portman, a survivor of Yeshivas Ponevezh in Lithuania and a close friend and assistant of the Ponevezher Rav, he poured out his heart on a rare occasion: "Who can bring back bygone days, those pleasant, good years that I lived in Coltinan . . . I learned the entire Shas there . . . During the day, we learned in deep friendship and had scholarly discussions, and at night, I learned alone . . . There was no proper lighting, no candles to be found, not even a drop of oil . . . All I could get was kainelach . . . very thin, long, dried, wooden toothpicks that the destitute villagers used to dispel a bit of darkness . . . These kainelach are inserted into the wall, and before one burns out, [one uses it to] light the second one . . . It is impossible to describe the intense desire with which we learned during those hours, when those kainelach were burning in front of us, emanating a weak glow of light that flickered on the letters of the gemora . . . Picture this: all around, everything was pitch black, a thick darkness pervaded both outside and inside; there was light only on the page of gemora that I held in my hand . . . The entire world was enveloped in darkness; there was light only in the Torah . . ."
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