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20 Kislev 5762 - December 5, 2001 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
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NEWS
South African Jews Mourn Passing Of HaRav Shach
by D. Saks

Hundreds of members of Johannesburg's Torah community, including many of the youth, crowded into the beis hamedrash of the Kollel Yad Shaul to hear hespedim for the godol hador, Maran HaRav Shach zt"l at the end of the sheloshim. Speakers included HaRav Tzvi Kushelevsky, Dayan Boruch Rapoport and the rosh kollel, HaRav Boruch Dov Grossnass. HaRav Kushelevsky, the rosh yeshiva of Heichal Hatorah in Jerusalem, was especially brought out for the occasion.

HaRav Boruch Grossnass, who delivered the opening eulogy, began by asking why a figure so obviously great as HaRav Shach and having lived so long, should even need a hesped. He answered by recounting how the Mabul was delayed for seven days so as to allow for a period of mourning for the great tzaddik Mesushelach. As important, perhaps more so, than honoring the dead was the need for those remaining to realize that there was something to be maspid about. When Rabbi Akiva lacerated his flesh in grief on the passing of his rebbe, it was not to mourn the loss of the individual but because the Torah he represented was no longer present.

"We are eulogizing the void, the great chasm that has been left here by his passing," Rabbi Grossnass said. "When such an individual is taken away, a hesped is mandatory; we are in need of it, as much as it is in honor of the departed."

Rabbi Grossnass said that even in the era of globalization, where modern technology had brought Jews all over the world in touch with the multiple hespedim that had already been delivered for the Rosh Yeshiva, it was necessary to have a hesped in Johannesburg. This provided an opportunity for Jews to come together to mutually express their sorrow at this great loss to the Torah world, rather than mourning solely as individuals.

HaRav Kushelevsky commented that Rebbe had on his deathbed specifically asked to be eulogized, and not in the small towns, after he had left the world. This was certainly not out of pride, since Rebbe was known throughout his life to be the epitome of humility and as someone who had always gone to great lengths to avoid receiving kovod. What Rebbe wanted was for the Torah to be elevated through him, since once people saw how much a talmid chochom was honored, they would be awakened to a realization of how important the Torah was. During his lifetime, Rebbe had not dared to receive honor since he was afraid of the possible negative effect this might have on him. Once he had left the world, however, being given kovod could no longer harm him and therefore he could wholeheartedly ask to be eulogized for the Torah's sake.

HaRav Kushelevsky said that this was also the case with Rav Shach. In his great humility, he too would not have been interested in being eulogized for his own sake, but he would certainly have been interested in any means of ensuring there was more Torah in the world. The Rav had epitomized someone who learned Torah lishma, and the whole of creation was worthwhile just for one such person.

Dayan Rapoport said that during the times of the Beis Hamikdash, a sefer Torah was kept in the Aron Hakodesh together with the luchos. This was, in effect, a "master copy," an eternal guarantee that the Torah would never be changed. Similarly, Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi had, like the Aron Hakodesh, been a receptacle for Torah truth. Just as the Aron was the container of pure, unadulterated Torah Shebichsav, so was he a "container" for true Torah Shebe'al Peh. In the modern era, HaRav Shach zt"l had played the same role.

"The niftar was the Aron Hakodesh of Klal Yisrael of the last few decades," Dayan Rapoport said, "The Torah he embodied he received, totally unchanged and undoctored, from the yeshivas of Europe. This is what he gave over to his talmidim, exactly as he received it."

Hespedim were also given at the two chareidi boys high schools, Yeshivas Toras Emes and Mesivta Darkei Noam, with Rabbi Chanan Coblentz, Rabbi Moshe Shirkin (mashgiach of Yeshivas HaNegev) and Rabbi Yitzchok Lewenstein speaking at the first, and Rabbi Tuvia Goldschmidt at the second. Rabbi Coblentz also delivered a hesped at the Vilna Gaon Torah center in the once heavily Jewish suburb of Yeoville. The kehilla was founded in the early 1980s by HaRav Moshe Sternbuch.

 

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