Part I
We must first make clear that what we write here is only
intended for those who accept the daas Torah of Maran
HaRav Elazar M. Shach shlita.
During the heated machlokes against R' Yehonoson
Eibshetz, the author of the Urim VeTumim, that
gaon sent his disciples a letter emphasizing that he
is not at all writing to those who think he is not acting
"for the sake of Heaven." He is, however, amazed that those
fully aware that his intents are only lesheim
Shomayim remain silent in the face of others insulting
him. Why do they not protest against those people who are
humiliating the Torah's honor?
We too are only writing for those who know how gedolei
Torah of the past esteemed Maran shlita. In our
times too, even during the last years of "the pillar of
fire" that went before the camp, HaRav Yaakov Yisroel
Kanievsky zt'l, better known as the Steipeler Rav, we
heard his great esteem for the Rosh Yeshiva shlita.
He said that Maran has disseminated Torah in Klal
Yisroel for decades, and is a transmitter of the Oral
Torah, someone possessing real daas Torah. All that
HaRav Shach does is only lesheim Shomayim, and the
Shechinah speaks from his throat.
What the Steipeler Rav said about Maran shlita is not
something we are making public for the first time; it is
known to all.
Fifteen years ago Maran shlita set up the Shearis
Yisroel Kashruth Organization. Since we realize that some
people are not sufficiently aware of the need and benefit of
this body, we therefore write the following:
We must stress that the main consideration to set up this
kashruth organization was (the following is, of course,
according to how we understood what Maran shlita
said, and what we heard from him on various occasions)
because of the following factors, and the aim of this
article is to make this known to the public at large.
First we will start off by emphasizing that the aim was
not to set up a body more mehudar in kashruth.
At any rate, the level of kashruth of those
hechsherim at that time was not the factor that
prompted the decision to found Shearis Yisroel. It was the
opinion of Maran shlita that if we are forced to set
up a kashruth organization that we can trust, it is proper
that it be on a level that bnei Torah meticulous in
kashruth can doubtlessly rely on. It must be a kashruth
organization that does not rely on any leniencies.
It is no secret that those truly loyal to our Torah have
needed in the last decades to wage unremitting bitter
battles to preserve the pureness of our Torah
weltanschauung and the unique character of Klal
Yisroel. The main battle was because of the spiritual
dangers emanating from secular, nationalist, and various
national-religious movements, from whom we suffer until this
very day. Lately we even needed to contend with Chabad,
which had become exposed as a dangerous nationalist-
messianic movement whose views have even somewhat penetrated
within our camp. Even today Chabad continues in their warped
way and they profess nationalist ideologies, their outlook
being identical to the extremist segment of the National-
Religious Party.
It is well known that Maran shlita once said about
those groups in which Mizrachi ideologies have penetrated
that they follow an additional principle to the Rambam's
"Thirteen Principles of Faith," and someone who understands
the depth of this matter realizes that anyone who follows
fourteen principles is actually missing all of the
principles.
It is general knowledge what the Chofetz Chaim and the Imrei
Emes of Gur zy'a wrote that "national-religious"
outlooks are dangerous for Klal Yisroel. Nonetheless,
no one at that time except Maran shlita warned about
the above- mentioned danger.
We also have not forgotten how the Eidah
HaChareidis of Yerushalayim awarded official acknowledgment
to the publication of the Shteinzaltz Shas in which the
commentary treats Chazal like primitive people who are
driven by basic urges, honor, and politics. Maran
shlita sighed when he commented, "How can we rely on
the kashruth supervision of those who gave a hechsher
to something that could not be more treif?"
And also various attempts in several ways have been made to
imbue alien hashkofos and ways within Judaism. There
were the attempts of Chief Rabbi Shlomoh Goren, the
Michlalah in Yerushalayim, and presumably chareidi yeshiva
high schools, and others.
Who stood up gallantly against them if not Maran
shlita together with Maran the Steipeler Rav
zt'l to protect the Torah-observant. If they had not
so firmly stood up against the above their ideologies would
have undoubtedly penetrated and been absorbed within us,
chas vesholom.
Even today we see who is fighting against the "show" of the
so-called heter mechirah that makes a farce of the
mitzvah of shmita, against those educating the public
that the laws of the Torah are "problems that must be
solved" according to the spirit of the times, and was not
afraid to defy the Chief Rabbi and others, since only the
pure truth guides him.
In a related topic everyone knows who are concerned that
Sephardic boys integrate the true yeshiva outlook and shake
off superficial world outlooks that some try to imbue within
them. Those Torah leaders know what is truly important and
protest strongly against anyone wanting to minimize the
problem and create an attitude that guarding the character,
form, and essence of the yeshivos is not a life-threatening
matter.
Although maranan verabbonon zt'l vyblc't waged and
wage arduous and continuous battles against those groups,
unfortunately what the Maharal of Prague, "the wise man who
is greater than a prophet," wrote in Gur Aryeh in
parshas Mishpotim, has come true. Our Torah leaders
were ridiculed publicly and many of those who call
themselves frum not only stood on the side and did
not dare say openly what is daas Torah, they also
cooperated with them either overtly or covertly. Even to the
present day they are trying to intimidate those following
the way of the gedolei Torah, who are ensuring that
no crack in the wall of Torah and mitzvo observance should
evolve in which shatnez ideas could penetrate.
Without full cooperation from the public, success in the
current battles for guarding the pureness of our camp is
almost hopeless.
Our spiritual leaders, the Chofetz Chaim,
HaRav Chaim Ozer Grodzinsky, the Chazon Ish, HaRav Yitzchak
Soloveitchik, the Steipeler Rav, zt'l, and
ybtc"t the contemporary gedolei Torah
continuing their way, guided us and outlined for us ways to
protect those few who have remained loyal to the Torah from
the influence of the dangerous world views from the above-
mentioned sects, and how to save ourselves from them. The
main aim of these gedolim was to teach us how we can
implant within us true Torah outlooks and also disseminate
them to the rest of the nation.
One resourceful idea was to unite the Torah-observant into
one organization and reinforce within them the clear Torah
path. Such an organization ties the masses together, makes
them into a fortified wall, and prevents spurious ideologies
from penetrating into our camp. This can only be
accomplished when we act together. The power of individuals
doing a mitzvah is incomparable to the power of many doing a
mitzvah. This is somewhat as the novi Malachi
(Malachi 3:16-17) writes: "Then they who feared
Hashem spoke to one another and Hashem hearkened and heard
it and a book of remembrance was written before Him for
those who feared Hashem and took heed of His name. And they
shall be Mine, says Hashem, Master of Hosts, on that day
which I appoint as My particular day; and I will spare them
as a man spares his own son who serves him."
Only in this way can we be saved from the poisonous
atmosphere immersed with alien ideas that is widespread
before the advent of the Moshiach Tzidkeinu, as the
before-mentioned pesukim teach us. The zechus
that the public has when it collectively strengthens itself
to be saved from those false ideologies helps tremendously.
Only in that way can come true the promise of the
novi in the name of Hashem that HaKodosh Boruch
Hu will have pity on the camp of yirei Hashem and
save them from the misfortunes that will destroy the
resho'im who possess the bogus ideologies that are
today popular.
The Akeidas Yitzchak in parshas Lech
Lecho writes that one benefit that the Torah wanted to
bequeath us through the mitzvah of milah is so, "all
members of the bris, those who possess a marvelous
sign and imprint, unite in added love more than others . . .
to become one heart to call in the name of their G-d, Who is
their partner in the bris." From this mitzvah we can
construct additional frameworks both uniting us and fencing
us from others.
Our gedolei Torah, whose entire aim is to benefit us,
have set up organizations to unite us so we can know what is
the unadulterated Torah. These bodies save us from false
ideologies and enable us to intensify the influence of the
true Torah scholars, so that their opinions and advice in
all we need, without any deviation from the way passed down
to us from Sinai, will be loudly heard even by those far
from Torah observance. If all of Torah Jewry would have gone
in that way, and would have bravely, openly, and clearly
declared all of the above, we would neither have needed a
special newspaper nor a special kashruth organization. But
since, unfortunately, indifference was rampant for all the
above, indifference that lowers the level of yiras
Shomayim, we therefore needed a special newspaper in
which special ideologies would be expressed, and also a
special kashruth organization that would unite us all into
one group, which would be obedient to the spiritual
leadership that follows the way of our mentors, the Chazon
Ish, the Brisker Rav, and the others, zy'a.
The enormous benefit derived from organizations of yeshiva
alumni throughout the country or other organizations that
exist among other parts of Torah-true Jewry is well known.
Through them we can as much as possible save ourselves from
the magnetism of society. Without them who knows what we
would look like today.
Today we see how important closing ranks around a certain
topic is. Only by doing so can we withstand the trend to
uproot Torah from the Jewish Nation. It is evident that the
strength of our organizing together for the sake of Judaism
has caused that the enemies of the Torah must take into
consideration the needs and opinion of the yirei
Hashem.
Rabbenu Yonah (Sha'arei Teshuvah III:168) writes
about the punishment for those detaching themselves from the
public: "When the heads of the nation and the sacred
communities assemble together to worship Hashem, and agree
to set up mitzvos for themselves, they are sanctifying
Hashem, as is written, He was king in Yeshurun when the
heads of the people and the tribes of Yisroel were gathered
together (Devorim 33:5)'. . . The man who separates
himself from their ways denounces the consensus to serve
Hashem . . . and shows he does not desire to share their
secret and be written together with them . . . has no part
in the World to Come. Secondly, when they detach themselves
from the ways of the public they are dissuading the hearts
of those weak in their acceptance and are causing them to
sin."
End of Part I
