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HaRav Yaakov Dov Unger shlita on the Importance of Bein Odom Lechavero
Why is the subject of interpersonal relations so weighty?
HaRav Chain of Volozhin is quoted in "Nefesh HaChaim" as saying, in the name of his master: "The Gaon of Vilna said: the main toil of a person must be focused on the sins between man and his fellow man in all of their fine points."
In order to understand how such a great person should regard even one sin against a fellow man, let us describe a point from a story of one of the giants of generations, HaRav Zalmale of Volozhin, brother of HaRav Chaim, one of the [spiritual] giants of his times.
As a young man of twenty, he already knew the entire Torah by heart! Once, when Rav Zalmale was sitting in the beis medrash, he was approached by a man who told him a chiddush which did not find favor with Rav Zalmale. He said: Your words are like fruit that is not tithed. Shortly afterwards, he regretted what he had said and went out to seek him in order to appease him, but couldn't find him.
Rav Zalmale had a wealthy father-in-law. He hired a man to seek that person throughout 365 botei medrash, but he was nowhere to be found. Rav Zalmale was so distressed that he became ill. His father-in-law saw the situation but was helpless. ]
Finally, he found someone who was willing to go to Rav Zalmale and 'confess' that he was the man but Rav Zalmale was not fooled, and his condition worsened. All this — because of a single act denigrating a fellow man!
Rav Zalmale went to the Vilna Gaon who said to him: When someone seeks to repent wholeheartedly, Hashem will see to it that the insulted person will forgive him. This declaration finally succeeded in reassuring him.
From this incident, we can learn an inkling of the importance of a sin towards a fellow man even if the slight was negligible and incidental.
This is the character of an extremist Leftist publication Ha'aretz daily newspaper, which in the past referred to itself as "the paper for thinking people," and changed to being the representative of terrorist organizations in the Israeli media. Not only flouting in the orders of the Israeli censorship which publications are liable to endanger lives, but going as far as denigrating the State of Israel before the entire world.
The paper's present editor in chief called the subhuman Hamas terrorist organization as 'freedom fighters,' while some of its correspondents expressed support of the sanctions against Israel and its high ranking leaders, and spoke about genocide and other such terms which are used by the major anti-Semites in the world.
Jew-haters everywhere, including the Hamas terrorist organization, quoted excerpts from the so-called 'Zionist' Jewish newspaper to prove the justice in their battle in the war being fought by the Israeli army against the Nazis of Gaza.
The unanimous decision arrived at by the government to stop all government ads in the paper was imperative...
Originally published in 1994, 31 years ago.
A beacon of light in a stormy sea of Messianic fervor, fog, legend and rumor =- one man remained firm as stone, one man saw clearly. From where did he derive his strength? Why did he entertain no doubts? What caused him to endanger his life by dispatching a warning letter? The longing for truth, for Torah is truth.
To verify each rumor according to the light of Torah, to examine each account, to uncover the fraud - that was his mission Titein emes LeYaakov.
Surely everyone has heard about the gaon, Rabbi Yaakov Sasportes and the battle he waged in Hamburg, against Sabbatianism. Alone, oppressed and defamed, he fought against a popular movement at the peak of its success, precisely when the masses were mesmerized by it.
The Background: Sha'Tz
Shabsai Tzvi's main arenas of activity were Turkey and Eretz Yisroel. Situated between Germany and Holland, Hamburg was not only geographically distant from the hub of Sabbatianism, but also culturally and religiously different. They were separated by the abyss that lies between Western Christianity and the Islam of the East.
Despite these distances, stories of Shabsai Tzvi's feats filtered into Jewish communities the world over—including Hamburg. The reports startled, stunned and amazed. `Prophecy has returned to Israel.' `Nosson of Gaza has crowned Shabsai Tzvi Moshiach.' `The masses have accepted his authority.' `In Constantinople, women and children are prophesying, and are calling Moshiach's name. They are heralding the geula.' `Shabsai Tzvi is going to Constantinople to take the crown of the Islamic ruler. He will continue on from there on a lion, using a poisonous snake in its mouth as a bridle, and set out to redeem the Ten Tribes.'
The masses were deeply moved. Nosson of Gaza, the herald (who claimed to be a prophet), answered letters sent to him from all around the world. He "revealed" the tribal origins of everyone who turned to him. He prescribed frantic teshuva-tikkunim in light of the forthcoming geula: a thousand fasts, endless whiplashes, public confessions.
It looked like good was coming from the excitement. The ``teshuva'' movement flourished. The descendants of the Marrannos returned to their roots; assimilated Jews returned; synagogues were filled to capacity. Prayers were very fervent and the sermons of the rabbis were carefully heeded. Christians listened with raised eyebrows, and publicized the information which seeped through from the Islamic empire.
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IN-DEPTH FEATURES
Part II
In his three-volume work HaGaon (that was put together under the supervision of HaRav Chaim Kanievsky) Rav Dov Eliach brought together an enormous amount of material to try to give us some concept of what the Vilna Gaon was. The Gaon was outstanding in many aspects of human development. Our concepts do not do justice to what the Gaon really was. The section printed here is taken from Chapter Five, and is centered around the breadth of knowledge of the Gaon. When reading it, one should keep in mind that this is just one of many areas in which the Gaon lived at such an outstanding level.
Rav Eliach has added a new series of volumes to the bookshelf of works related to the Gaon with the ongoing publication of Chumash HaGra, an arrangement of the comments of the Gaon arranged according to the parshiyos of Chumash, with the full Chumash text. So far Bereishis, Shemos and Bamidbar have appeared, and we eagerly await the completion of the series.
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Immediate Responses
The Sages say, "The words of Torah should be sharp in your mouth so that if someone asks you something . . . you [can] answer him immediately." The Vilna Gaon always answered this way. Almost before a question was finished, he had already answered it.
Rav Yehuda Leib of Levov writes in his introduction to Shenos Eliyahu: "He did not neglect any matter, large or small . . . he saw everything with absolute clarity. Not [merely] as a boki; rather everything was preserved and organized before him, so that he could answer every questioner immediately."
The Gaon's mechuton, HaRav Avrohom Danzig, author of the Chayei Odom, testifies:
He was a great scholar, boki in all of Shas Bavli, Yerushalmi, Sifro, Sifrei, Tosefta, halachos, aggodos, large matters meaning Ma'aseh Merkovoh , small matters meaning the arguments of Abaye and Rovo. The entire Torah was arranged before him like a set table, so that if one asked him something, he would respond while the question was being posed. Who is a greater Torah scholar than he? (Sha'arei Rachamim )
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An incident involving Rav Chaim of Volozhin proves that the previous two accounts are even understated.
IN-DEPTH FEATURES
NOTE: A weekly story from Libby Lazewnik appears in Yated Ne'eman, but is not usually posted on Dei'ah Vedibur. Because this story captures a Torah learning experience that is widely shared but rarely written about, we are posting this week's story, with the kind permission of the author.
Gershy had nearly drifted off to sleep when he heard the signal.
It was very faint, just a light tap-tap-tapping against his wall. If his head hadn't been near the spot on the wall where the tapping was coming from, he would never have heard it. As it was, he was so nearly asleep that he almost didn't hear it even then.
The signal came again, more urgently now. Gershy shook himself awake and listened. This was no mere "Hi, there!" Nor was it, "I can't fall asleep, how `bout you?"
This was the emergency signal - the tap sequence that meant, "I need help. Come as soon as you can!"
Gershy lay back and wondered what Binyamin's problem was.
They had started their secret code three years earlier, when Gershy had been only nine and his brother Binyamin seven-and- a-half. That was when Zevy, the baby, had moved in with Binyamin, and Gershy had been given his own very small room next door. The house's original owners had used it as a sewing room. Now it was Gershy's own tiny kingdom, and he and Binyamin, instead of sharing a room, shared a wall instead. That wall had quickly become their method of communicating at night.
Usually, they tapped at each other out of boredom, or restlessness, or just for the fun of it. Only rarely did one of them use the "emergency" signal. But Binyamin had used it tonight. And so, much later, when the house was quiet and everyone in it seemed to be asleep, Gershy tiptoed out of his room and across to his brother's.
He found Binyamin lying with wide-open eyes, waiting. The moment the door opened, he sprang into a sitting position, a smile of relief splitting his face. "Oh! There you are. I wasn't sure if you were coming." He whispered, so as not to wake three-year-old Zevy, snoring lightly in the other bed.
Gershy came closer and asked, also in a whisper, "What's the matter? What's the emergency?"
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