[The following is based on the speech of HaRav Pam at the
opening session of the American Agudas Yisroel convention six
years ago. HaRav Yitzchok Silberstein, rav of Ramat Elchonon,
said at the time that every avreich should read it. It
is unfortunately very true still in our times. In a
relatively few words, HaRav Pam zt"l describes the
situation of the Jewish People as he saw it, and the task
that lay before them. His efforts in his last years in the
Shuvu educational system in Israel and elsewhere are clearly
the result of this hashkofoh.]
We must appreciate what Agudas Yisroel has done for us by
organizing this convention. It has granted us the opportunity
to reveal what is in our hearts, to converse together, and as
friends discuss together the various problems of Klal
Yisroel. We have a chance to propose methods of action and to
foster improvements so that reverence for Heaven will be
increased and the situation of the Jewish Nation be
improved.
We thank and bless the Agudas Yisroel directorate, headed by
its illustrious president, HaRav Moshe Sherer [shlita]
zt"l, a person who is regularly granted Heavenly
assistance. May Hashem bestow upon him perfect health,
vitality, and longevity. May Agudas Yisroel be reinforced and
achieve great accomplishments in all its future activities
for the benefit of our people.
The theme of this convention is "Fifty Years
After The Holocaust." When one reflects on the Holocaust he
cannot help but recollect the six million Jewish victims,
among them a million children. One thinks about the sadistic
atrocities, the inhuman acts, which it is difficult to
believe ever happened. One recalls the gas chambers, the
crematoria, and the rest.
It seems to me, however, that one point has not been
sufficiently emphasized. This is the fact that during that
period, Hashem's charon af was poured out on His
beloved people, on the entire Am Yisroel. This
Heavenly wrath itself showed that we had lost His love for
us. His love, though still existing, was concealed from our
view.
"`I have loved you,' says Hashem" (Malachi 1:2), we
read in the haftorah for Toldos. Nevertheless,
a Divine charon af fell upon us during the Holocaust.
This itself, besides its results, was an incomparable
tragedy. The charon af is still continuing: the
"King's wrath was not pacified." We are witnesses to
the murders, the threats, the dreadful condition in Eretz
Yisroel, where Hashem's charon af is so evident.
When The Shepherd Is Angry
The gemora (Bava Kamo 52a) remarks that when a
shepherd is angry with his sheep he blinds the eyes of the
leader of the sheep. Every day we see the blindness of the
Israeli political leaders. They do not realize the terrible
dangers hovering over the Jewish settlement in Eretz Yisroel
and over Jews in the entire world. These are dangers to both
our material and spiritual well being. When we see such blind
leadership, we can feel how angry the Shepherd is with His
flock, and that the charon af has not ceased.
We must, therefore, ask ourselves how we can appease
HaKodosh Boruch Hu. How can we remove the charon
af? His wrath is evident in our country too, in the
terrible diseases afflicting people, in the tragic funerals
of young people and of those in the prime of life. These are
all signs of charon af that has not yet ceased.
What needs to be done? What can be done to appease
HaKodosh Boruch Hu so that He will again show His love
for us as He initially did?
We do not have any nevi'im now. If we did, they would
reveal what is demanded from us. We have, however, no
nevi'im, we have no urim vetumim, we have no
baalei chalomos, people who have dreams in which
Heaven divulges to them what has happened.
"And Mordechai perceived all that was done" (Esther
4:1). He knew that Klal Yisroel was endangered as a baal
chalomos told him what had occurred (Rashi). By knowing
the reason for the gezeira on the Jewish Nation,
Mordechai was able to understand how to annul it. We do not
have any baal chalomos. We do not know what to do. The
very fact that we lack nevi'im and urim vetumim
is itself part of the tragedy.
Fifty years ago, after the European churban, Hashem
wanted to appease Klal Yisroel. He granted us some measure of
possession of parts of Eretz Yisroel. This was a good sign.
If we had merited it, a country based on the Torah would have
been established. It would have been a kingdom of Hashem,
with a Jewish nation that would shine forth. We would again
have been privileged to have urim vetumim and a
Beis Hamikdash. Unfortunately, our merits did not
suffice. This is the current situation of Klal Yisroel, and
it pains us very much.
The Child Is Not There
In parshas Vayeishev it says: "Reuven returned to the
pit, and behold, Yosef was not in the pit. He rent his
clothes . . . And he said, `The child is not there! And I,
where shall I go?'" (Bereishis 37:29-30). Rashi
explains that Reuven meant to say that he would be ruined on
account of his father's suffering. Reuven agonized about
where he could hide from his father's misery.
What exactly is our Father in Heaven's suffering? The
novi Amos in the haftorah of Vayeishev
uses harsh words in his penetrating rebuke, a reproof that
pierces our hearts. "I also brought you up out of the land of
Egypt, and led you forty years in the desert, to possess the
land of the Emori" (Amos 2:10). Hashem says that He
led us in the wilderness for forty years in order to bring us
to the Holy Land. He gave us the Torah. He gave us a
mishkan. He gave us mann -- the "bread of the
angels, man did eat" (Tehillim 78:25), a food
saturated with the splendor of the Divine Presence, a food
made in Heaven that prepared our hearts for the entry to the
Holy Land.
"And I raised your sons to be prophets, and your young men to
be nezirim" (Amos 2:11). I provided you with
nezirim from among your young men. They were crowned
with kedushah. What did you do with them? "But you
gave the nezirim wine to drink" (12). You made them
drunkards. "And you commanded the nevi'im, saying: `Do
not prophesy'" (ibid.). You silenced the
nevi'im. You did not want to hear what Hashem was
saying to you.
This is "our Father's suffering." HaKodosh Boruch Hu
guided the footsteps of am Yisroel, starting from our
Patriarchs. He set up the nation and made them fitting to be
a Holy Nation in the Holy Land, with their nevi'im and
nezirim. What is left now of all the nevi'im
and nezirim? This is "our Father's suffering."
We see today that most Jewish children in Eretz Yisroel study
in the Israeli public schools and we all know what type of
education this is. The vast majority of the Jewish children
there, holy offspring from whom nevi'im and
nezirim should have come, are studying in public
schools. We know well what `blossoms' from such education.
This is "our Father's suffering."
How To Appease Our Father
How can our Father be appeased? What can we do to change our
harsh decree and remove the charon af? How can we
bring back both the endless love of HaKodosh Boruch Hu
for am Yisroel and of am Yisroel for
HaKodosh Boruch Hu?
Hashem, in His great kindness, has left us a way. This course
of action is undoubtedly a chesed from Hashem. From
within His charon af He showed us a way to appease
Him.
The politics of the State of Israel is not in our hands. It
is in the hands of people foreign to Yiddishkeit. The
State of Israel's laws are opposed to the Torah and its
mitzvos and we have no control over them. One avenue of
activity has, however, been left for us: the children's
education. In this area we have a free hand. We are
unobstructed and may do what we want. We can take as many
children as possible from heretical education and transfer
them to institutes of Torah education. These children can
grow up to be true gedolei Torah, tzadikim,
nevi'im, and nezirim.
We have this capability and this is what HaKodosh Boruch
Hu has shown us. Although other ways are closed to us,
Hashem is, at it were, saying that He has left this way in
our hands. He has left it in our power to do what we want and
what we can. A spiritual revolution can be brought about in
the entire nation. We are capable of doing it!
The same is true in America. How many Jewish children are
lost to their heritage only because we lacked the necessary
self- sacrifice to find them and register them in schools
where they could study Hashem's Torah? We see that even with
the little we are doing, those children who are given the
chance are completely transformed. We are, however, not doing
enough. We are satisfied that we have, boruch Hashem,
a generation of bnei Torah, of yeshiva students, and
of bnei aliya. But they are only a small minority of
Klal Yisroel. What about the majority of our nation, the
majority of Jewish children? We can make a change if we
want!
Rashi in parshas Vayeishev (Bereishis 36:22) comments
that Reuven said, "I am the eldest of them all. Only I will
be blamed." Reuven put himself in jeopardy for Yosef since he
knew that he would be held responsible. As the eldest, he
would be blamed. This teaches us that those who themselves
have gone astray will not be held responsible, since they are
anyway far from Torah observance. The Torah world, the
chareidi public, will be blamed -- the "eldest of them all."
If we want to appease HaKodosh Boruch Hu and reverse
our harsh decree we must first remove "our Father's
suffering" for "the child that is not there." This we have
the means to accomplish.
Our options are great and consequential. Klal Yisroel has
financial means. We, boruch Hashem, have exceptionally
wealthy people among us. Hashem has given them this wealth in
order to utilize it for Klal Yisroel, for Hashem's honor, and
to return our lost sons to their roots. If we had utilized
our resources, the picture of our nation today would have
been completely different. Unfortunately, we have neither
properly nor sufficiently utilized the potential we possess.
We must exert ourselves to the fullest in this momentous
mission of spiritual rescue.
"And With All Your Might" -- Our Era's
Test
If we reflect, we will discern that the test of that dreadful
period, the era of the Holocaust, was "bechol
nafshecho." Millions of Jews sanctified Hashem's name and
accepted their harsh decree with faith and happiness. They
sang ani ma'amin on their way to be slaughtered. That
was the test of that period.
What is the test of our period? Our test is what Chazal
(Brochos 54b) expound from, "And you shall love Hashem
bechol me'odecho" -- that we must love Hashem
bechol momonecho -- with all our wealth. If one really
loves Hashem he does the unusual. "Love breaks down the line
of the norm" (Bereishis Rabbah, Noach 11). If we will
behave in this way then we will behold a different
generation, a different Klal Yisroel. We will see once again
the immense love of HaKodosh Boruch Hu for the Jewish
Nation, a boundless love, a love that cannot be assessed.
I will conclude by mentioning the zechuyos of our
nation. "Look from Heaven and see! Ribono Shel Olom,
see that we have become an object of scorn and derision among
the nations, we have been regarded as sheep led to slaughter,
to be killed, destroyed, beaten, and humiliated"
(Tachanun, ArtScroll translation). See what has
happened to us, yet "nevertheless we have not forgotten Your
name" -- we have not severed ourselves from You. Any other
nation would have rebelled against You, but we have not
forgotten Your name.
The remnants who survived the great fire, the survivors, have
immersed themselves in the immense endeavor of rebuilding
Torah study and avodas Hashem with love, even after
all they had undergone. "Nevertheless we have not forgotten
You!"
"O Guardian of Yisroel, protect the remnant of Yisroel, look
upon us with favor and be appeased with this poor generation,
for there is no helper." We have no one to deliver us except
You, and we want to appease you. "Look upon us with favor and
be appeased with this poor generation, for there is no
helper." Show us the radiance of Your face and let us
speedily be privileged to see am Yisroel in its entire
strength, glory, beauty, wealth, and joy.
HaRav Avrohom HaKohen Pam was rosh yeshivas Torah Vodaas
and member of the Council of Torah Sages in the U.S.A. He was
niftar on 28 Av, 5761.
