Part I
We have merited to see the Torah world grow and expand
throughout many spheres. This growth includes Torah schools
for children, yeshivos ketanos, yeshivos gedolos and
kollelim as well as shiurim in gemora
and mussar for those who do not study Torah the whole
day. Many people seriously aspire to advance in Torah study,
good character traits and yiras Shomayim in the way
our gedolei dor have paved for us.
Regretfully, many Jews do not yet know what Torah is. They
neither recognize nor understand the importance of Torah
study and fulfilling its mitzvos. In his opening speech to
the Yarchei Kallah of Yeshivas Ponevezh in Menachem
Av 5745, Maran Rosh Hayeshiva HaRav Elozor Menachem Man
Shach shlita, cried out in genuine pain: "A million
children are given a secular education! Do they know what a
Chumash is? Were they ever taught Chumash in
school? How awful this is! What type of a generation is
being educated here in Eretz Yisroel? It is a generation
that does not know what tefillin is, what Shabbos is,
what Yom Kippur is, what gemora is."
It is common knowledge that every year, activists engaged in
registering children for Torah schools are amazed at how
many young parents who have neither seen the radiance of
Torah nor even fulfill its mitzvos are nonetheless ready to
hear about the educational alternative offered by Torah
schools. This willingness stems from the fact that the
public at large is sincerely disappointed with the general
Israeli public school system. The violence, permissiveness,
and emptiness in those schools worry and disgust many
parents.
Were a single Jew -- and certainly many Jews -- to face a
life- threatening situation, we would do all we can and even
more than we are capable of to help, using all possible
financial resources in an attempt to save them. When Jews
far from Torah and mitzvos sin, they do not even know they
are sinning, and we are undoubtedly required to rescue them.
Chazal in Tanchuma, parshas Pinchas, 3, write:
"Causing another to sin is worse than killing him."
We should volunteer to work in organizations engaged in
kiruv such as Lev L'Achim. During summer vacation,
registration for schools takes place throughout Israel. This
registration is so crucial that some gedolim have
defined these days of registration as being yemei
din, days of judgment, for those young boys and girls
who need to be enrolled in schools. Those zoche to go
to Torah schools will, along with their future families,
study Torah and observe mitzvos. At such a time the
obligation to volunteer is much greater for anyone who can
help register these children for pure Torah education.
It is appropriate to cite what R' Shlomo Cohen zt"l,
a talmid of the Chazon Ish zt"l, wrote during
the Arab pogroms in Eretz Yisroel in the year 5706 (1946) in
which many Jews were slaughtered. When Rav Shlomo Cohen
visited Maran the Chazon Ish zt"l, he told him how
frightened he was and that no day passes without Jewish
casualties. Maran rebuked him: "Why are you not equally
terrified when thousands and tens of thousands of Jewish
children )today hundreds of thousands( receive a secular
education, which is like burning the neshomoh and
leaving only the body? Is this mass murder less cruel than
when Arabs murder only individuals and not such large
numbers? Chazal resolutely write: `Causing another to sin is
worse than killing him.' "
It is obvious that we must do more to save a Jew from his
neshomoh being burnt than from his body being
burnt.
Indeed, each Jew is required to concern himself personally
and to do what he can so every Jew can study Torah and
fulfill mitzvos. "Every Jew is responsible for the other"
)Shavuos 39a(. This joint responsibility is not to be
understood in a negative sense: Despite people being
different, without there being any connection between them,
we request and demand that each one help the other. It
really means that all individuals are but one reality with
others.
Proof can be brought to this. The gemora )Rosh
Hashonoh 29( rules, "One can fulfill another's
obligation with all brochos even if he himself
already fulfilled his own obligation." Rashi )ibid.(
explains that he can do so, "since every Jew is responsible
for the other doing mitzvos." The Rosh too, in his
commentary to Brochos 20, writes that a Jew can
fulfill another's obligation to say a brocho because
of the joint responsibility. The Rosh adds, "He is
responsible for him, he must save him from sin, and he can
fulfill his obligations in mitzvos for him."
One Jew to the other is like one reality. Even when the
first person has already fulfilled his obligation, since the
second has not done so it is like the first also has not, so
he can do the mitzvah for the other. He must also save him
from sin.
The Chofetz Chaim, zt"l, in Chomas HaDas )ch.
2( writes that one Jew can fulfill another's obligation in a
mitzvah because if the other lacks a mitzvah it is as if he
himself is also lacking. Likewise, each person should
prevent another from committing a lo sa'aseh, since
if another person does not abstain from committing the sin
when he could have prevented him then he, too, is culpable
for punishment.
The Tomer Devorah )ch. 2( explains that our joint
responsibility is because, "all of Yisroel are related to
each other. The neshomos are combined together, each
one having a part in the other, making every Jew responsible
for the other." The Maharal )Nesivos Olom, Nesiv
HaTorah, ch. 2( writes: "All of Yisroel are responsible
for each other since they are one nation, something you will
not find in any other nation. They are similar to a person
whose whole body hurts when one limb is wounded since he is
one body."
Maran the Chazon Ish )Koveitz Igros III: 62( writes,
"Just like the parts of a person's body are divided
according to their activities: the eye sees, the ear hears,
and hands are busy doing things, so the whole nation is like
one body composed of different individuals, and each person
must fulfill his own purpose."
It is fitting to mention the following story about the
degree to which each Jew is actually connected to every
other Jew. In Pe'er Hador )vol. 1(, the five volume
work depicting the life of the Chazon Ish, the Mendel Beilis
Case )1911-1913( in Kiev, Ukraine is described at length.
The Russian government accused Beilis of murder, saying he
murdered a non-Jewish child to use his blood as part of a
religious ritual. The Russian secret police wanted to
utilize this case to awaken feelings of hatred and anger
towards the Jews and to distract the common people from
their suffering in Russia, using the well-known slogan: "Hit
the Jews and save Russia."
Torah-true Jewry throughout the world felt this libel was
aimed not only at Beilis but rather that all Jewry was
standing trial. Throughout the hearings the following saying
was discussed at length. R' Shimon bar Yochai rules
)Yevomos 61( that non- Jewish graves are not
metamei in an ohel )underneath a ceiling of
some sort( since the Torah writes, "When an odom )a
man( dies in a tent, all that comes into the tent, and all
that is in the tent shall be tomei seven days"
)Bamidbor 19:14(. [It is from here that we learn the
concept of tumah transmitted and filling an
ohel.] The gemora continues: "You )bnei
Yisroel( are called `odom' )"man"(, but non- Jews
are not called `odom'" [and thus they are not
included in the aforementioned posuk].
The Torah was thus accused of having a low opinion of all
non- Jews. This accusation necessitated an appropriate
reply.
Beilis' defense attorney received an urgent letter from
HaRav Meir Shapira zt"l, then rav of Galicia and
later rosh yeshiva of Yeshivas Chachmei Lublin and
initiator of the Daf Hayomi, who at that time was not
even thirty years old. He wrote: "Our Sages taught us in
Shavuos 39 that `all Jews are responsible for each
other.' We learn from this that the fate of an individual
Jew concerns the whole Jewish Nation who are worried about
his welfare and when one is on trial all make intensive
efforts to win his acquittal.
"On the other hand, there are daily occurrences of non-Jews
on trial but no one except their nearest relatives takes any
interest in them. Our Sages, therefore, emphasize, "You are
called `odom,' but non-Jews are not called `odom.'
" The noun odom is unique in that it has no
plural form and is always singular, in contrast to the nouns
ish or gever that in plural are anoshim
and gevorim respectfully. "You are called `odom'
" means that you, all Jews, always feel like one person
and when Mendel Beilis is put on trial all Jews stand behind
him and are concerned with what will happen to him.
"Non-Jews can be called anoshim or gevorim
since they do not feel any partnership between individuals
and it is undoubtedly appropriate to say about them that
they are not called odom."
We also saw this unity in the summer of 5760 )2000( when
Jews throughout the world tried to free the thirteen Jews
who were tried and "convicted" in Iran for spying for
Israel.
We can conclude that each Jew has a distinct commitment to
help other Jews who are suffering and in danger. In Tomer
Devorah, the Ramak writes, "all Yisroel are related to
each other," and as the Maharal comments, the Jews "are
similar to a person whose whole body hurts when one limb is
wounded, since he is one body."
So, when another Jew is in pain or sick, it is like every
other Jew's limbs, as the Maharal writes, and every Jew is
required to do as much as he can to cure him.
Similarly, a Jew unacquainted with Torah and mitzvos who
does not fulfill the Torah is in a sorrowful situation and
his neshomoh is sick. Unquestionably, each Jew must
do everything he can to strengthen, cure, and save him, as
we cited in the name of Maran the Chazon Ish zt"l,
"Causing another to sin is worse than killing him."
Another possibility also exists to assist Jews who have gone
astray. Maran the Chazon Ish, zt"l, writes
)Koveitz Igros III:62(: "If bnei Torah were
truly toiling over Torah they could save many children and
people from thinking of sinning and from heresy and the
like. This they could do through the abundance of sanctity
they [would] create that makes a spirit of tohoroh
surge throughout the world. In the vicinity of a real ben
Torah great influence on many people is evident and his
neighbors attain a spiritual uplift. Likewise, those far
away are also influenced, although we cannot sense this
influence since it is so fine."
This is astounding! The responsibility to engage in Torah is
amplified. Besides the obligation for each Jew to engage in
Torah study for himself, he has an additional obligation
because of his joint responsibility for Klal Yisroel,
since when he studies Torah he is also saving others from
sin.
In addition, the whole aspiration and desire of each Jew
must surely be, as Dovid Hamelech writes: "One thing have I
desired Hashem, that will I seek, that I may dwell in the
house of Hashem all the days of my life" )Tehillim
27:4(. Our entire aim should be to engage and labor only in
Torah, and by doing so, a Jew fills his duty properly.
We find in Chazal, however, that someone who travels to
places where people have no knowledge of Torah and
influences and teaches them to come nearer to Torah and
without his effort they would not know or study the Torah,
is on a more elevated level than someone who studies Torah
itself.
"R' Chanina and R' Chiya quarreled. R' Chanina said to R'
Chiya: `How can you quarrel with me? If, chas
vesholom, the Torah is forgotten I can return it through
my pilpul.' R' Chiya said to R' Chanina: `How can you
quarrel with me? I caused Torah not to be forgotten in
Yisroel. What did I do? I sowed flax and made nets. I hunted
deer [with the nets] and fed orphans from their meat. I made
parchment from their skin and wrote the five Chumshei
Torah. I went to the city )where there were no
melamdim for children( and taught five children in
five separate Chumashim and taught )orally( six
children six sedorim )of Mishnayos(. I told
them that until I return they should review their
pesukim and their Mishnayos. I insured that
the Torah would not be forgotten from Yisroel. This is what
Rebbe would say: "How great are Chiya's deeds' " )Bava
Metzia 85b(."
The Maharsha )ibid.( writes: "It seems that R' Chiya
answered that what he was doing is preferable to what the
other was doing. [He argued:] If the Torah is forgotten,
chas vesholom, surely what you do is preferable,
since through your pilpul you will restore it. But I
insure it will not be forgotten. If so, your power is merely
potential, while mine, which is already in force, is thus
more praiseworthy. [R' Chiya] said that I sowed . . . that
every act already in its beginning was for the sake of
Heaven. It had no matter nor intent that was not for the
sake of Heaven. [The gemora] concludes and points out
that Rebbe said, `How great are Chiya's deeds.' What he has
done is greater than what R' Chanina has done since R' Chiya
actively accomplished something while what R' Chanina could
do was only in potential."
How great is the power of those who work devotedly, who go
out to the nation and persuade them to enter their children
in Torah institutions. Today it is easier to succeed, since
people see the bankruptcy of secular education. The more
people join in helping register students and the more we
finance these activities, the more Jews will be saved from
their deteriorated condition, and we will ascend the path to
the House of Hashem.
We live today in a period where, Rachmono litzlan,
many suffer and are harassed with harsh decrees. Each person
must reflect on what he can do to annul this. Rebbe himself
said, "How great is what Chiya has done." Rebbe surely did
much so that Torah would not be forgotten from Yisroel in
the way of R' Chanina --"to return it through my
pilpul."
End of Part I
HaRav Moshe Man is the rosh yeshiva of Yeshivas
Be'er Yitzchok.
