Part III
This is the third part of an interview with HaRav Tzvi
Markowitz that took place before Pesach of last year. HaRav
Markowitz is the rosh yeshiva of the Karlin yeshiva, a
member of the Moetzes Gedolei Hatorah of Degel Hatorah and
one of the senior gedolei Torah in Eretz
Yisroel.
In the first part of the interview, HaRav Markowitz spoke
mostly about the integrity of the mesorah and how we
can know that we have essentially the same Torah as our
forefathers had. He noted that all our Torah comes through
the Vilna Gaon, who is therefore its guarantor.
In the second part, HaRav Markowitz spoke about the
important of learning quickly enough to acquire familiarity
with Shas, eventually. He also said that the
increasing troubles of Klal Yisroel require us
especially to improve our fulfillment of loving our neighbors
and removing baseless hatred.
The Four Sons
We met Rav Markowitz on erev Rosh Chodesh Nisan and he
now opened a Chumash to tell us about a fundamental
point that we learn from the Haggodoh:
The Torah addresses four types of boys. There are many types
of boys and of people, but these "Four Boys" cover all the
categories. Some people have a mixture of qualities (part-
tam, part-rosho or part- chochom, part-
rosho and so on) and all these types are subcategories
of the major categories the Torah tells us about: chochom,
rosho, tam, she'eino yodei'a lish'ol. The chochom
asks, "What are all these laws for?" and our answer to him
is, "Ein maftirin achar hapesach afikomon." What does
this mean? This statement contains many hints and
explanations, but the simple explanation is as follows:
This halocho stems from the principle of chibuv
mitzvah: "In order that a taste of the matzo
should remain in his mouth." Therefore, the chochom
who wants to know about the eidos, chukim and
mishpotim "you tell him according to hilchos
hapesach," i.e. tell him all the halochos until
"ein maftirin achar hapesach," which is a chibuv
mitzvah. This too you must tell him, because if the
chochom wants to continue to elevate himself and to
merit the light of Hashem, he has to aspire to perfection,
and you must tell him how to achieve that.
How do we merit this? By fulfilling with perfection the
posuk, "The Torah of Hashem is perfect restoring the
soul" -- when does it restore the soul? When it is perfect,
when all the eidos and chukim are observed;
with the elements of hiddur mitzvah and chibuv
mitzvah we can merit the closeness of Hashem.
The rosho says, "What is this avodoh?
(Shemos 12:26)" We are commanded to respond by being
makheh his teeth, not hitting (with a kof) but
blunting them, weakening their sharpness, thereby preventing
him from biting with them. This is our job. How do we do
it?
If we look carefully at this section in the Torah, we will
see that no answer is given to the rosho. The answer
to the rosho is to be found in the section of the
eino yodei'a lish'ol, where the Torah says,
Vehigadeto lebincho (Shemos 13:7), that you
should tell your son she'eino yodei'a lish'ol that
"because of this Hashem did [these things] for me when I went
out of Egypt" -- for me and not for him; if he had been
there, he would not have been redeemed' (see the Vilna Gaon's
commentary for further details). Why is the answer to the
rosho contained in vehigadeto lebincho?
Because that is the Torah's way of dealing with him:
The rosho does not come to ask. He has no desire to
listen, he only wants to talk. With him it does not say,
"When your son will come to ask you," as it says with
the other sons, but only, "when your sons will say to
you." He is not interested in hearing. His aim is to weaken
and damage. Therefore there was no need whatsoever to respond
to his statement. But since his words are caustic, [and] he
acts with the purpose of attracting simple people and the
she'eino yodei'a lish'ol to his cause, it is incumbent
upon us to weaken his bite [sting]; to blunt his teeth.
How do we do that? By teaching the she'eino yodei'a
lish'ol and saving him from those who wish to do him
harm.
In brief, this is how matters should be run: The elite of the
nation -- the chareidim, the Yeshiva world and Torah Jewry --
have to aspire to perfection to perform mitzvos with
chibuv mitzvah and hiddur mitzvah, to learn
Torah and yir'oh and superlative middos in
order to merit the light of Hashem. As for the rest of the
nation, there is no purpose investing in reshoim. Our
only goal is to save the she'eino yodei'a lish'ol from
them.
Vehigadeto Lebincho
It has to be stressed that real reshoim are few and
far between. The immigrants from Russia are certainly
tinnokos shenishbu. But even those who were born here
and received a deficient education are also tinnokos
shenishbu, in accordance with the ruling of the Chazon
Ish that the bad education of our generation Rachmono
litzlan gives them the status of tinnokos
shenishbu, since the masses of the nation are held
captive by the educational system and the media, which fills
them with poison, alienation and hatred towards Torah and
observant Jews.
Once, a secular neighbor asked me to help him with something,
and when he came into my house and I discussed the matter
with him he was surprised by the intelligence of the rabbis
and how they behaved towards him. He asked me to speak at the
weekly "discussion group" held by his friends, but when he
suggested this to his friends they got a shock: "That we
can't agree to!" they told him. These are tinnokos
shenishbu, and our job is to invest a lot of effort in
them.
That is the sad reality. In the past the she'eino yodei'a
lish'ol was depicted as an innocent, pitiable child (once
there used to be illustrated Haggodos . . . ) but
today in order to qualify as a she'eino yodei'a
lish'ol you can be a leader, a judge, a professor and so
on. The problem is that not only do those important
personages lack the knowledge that they do not know, but they
are quite convinced that they know the answers . . . that is
why it is hard to get to them.
We have to help them by way of at pesach lo. Pesach
and yetzias Mitzrayim are the root of all the
redemptions. May we merit the Geuloh with Hashem's
help, speedily in our days, and when Hashem will return the
captivity of Tzion, we will no longer say that we "will be"
like unto those that dream but that we were like them,
because in the future we will realize how everything resulted
in good and redemption.
*
It had been no easy task to have the rov agree to an
interview, but we were amply rewarded. At the end of our
meeting the Rosh Yeshiva, in his modesty, wanted to
apologize: In our generation the media and the adverts are
the bread [and butter of our society]. That is the reality.
This bread can serve a useful purpose by satisfying us, but
it can also poison [us] by feeding our lust for publicity,
fame, honor, and pride. Therefore, even if someone knows that
having his statements publicized in print will serve a useful
purpose, he still bears a personal responsibility to examine
and search the extent to which he is interested in serving
this purpose or serving his own honor. Although it is
difficult nowadays to speak of "running away from honor" we
are still certainly obliged to guard ourselves against
"running after honor."
In our case, [this means acting] "cautiously with journalists
. . . ", the Rosh Yeshiva smiled with a fatherly apology. "I,
like everybody else, had to examine myself. Therefore, I am
sure that you will not be upset about the difficulty you
encountered [in arranging this interview]."
At this point we asked him, "But didn't Rav Shimon Shkop
agree that his talmidim could celebrate in his
presence the fiftieth anniversary of his serving as [Rosh
Yeshiva]?" The rov answered this as follows:
"It's true that since this event was of benefit to the
Yeshiva, which was in financial straits at the time, he
agreed to the publication of a fiftieth anniversary pamphlet
with articles about him and chiddushei Torah so that
the Yeshiva's financial situation might improve as a result
of the publicity. Still, let me answer your question by
referring to an interesting letter by HaRav Chaim Ozer
Grodzensky ztvk'l in that same booklet in which he
hints at his attitude in general to the topic of [fiftieth]
anniversary celebrations.
He writes as follows: "Many of the top talmidim of
HaGaon Hagodol HaRav Shimon Yehuda HaKohen Shkop
shlita, including great and famous rabbonim, have
roused themselves to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of
their esteemed and elderly rov who has been sitting in the
Yeshiva disseminating Torah to the public for fifty years,
starting at Telz Yeshiva in his youth and now at Shaarei
Torah in Hordona in his old age. In their letters and
articles they portray a picture of the image and character of
the beloved Rav Shimon. I know his pure and refined character
and his modesty, and [I am sure that] he will feel
uncomfortable about these praises and consider them as a
burden. The same applies to the whole idea of yovel
celebrations, which is not a custom that is practiced by
`elder rabbonim.' However, Rav Shimon `Ho'amsuni'
[name of a Tanna, literally "the burdened one"], who
carries the holy burden of the Yeshiva on his shoulders, is
forced to [go against his natural inclinations] and bear this
burden too for the sake of creating a source of income for
the Yeshiva and easing its heavy burden of debts which have
disturbed his peace of mind . . . "
HaRav Markowitz reverted to the previous topic: "You were
unmindful of the Rock that begot you, and forgot Hashem who
bore you" (Devorim 32:18), on which Rashi writes:
"Chazal expounded that when He comes to do good to you, you
make Him angry and weaken His ability to do good to you."
This may be the explanation for the fear of the situation in
Eretz Yisroel in light of the confusion and uncertain
situation here, when "we searched intensively for the
redemption, but it did not come, for peace, but it was
destroyed, many have arisen against us, have exalted
themselves and become haughty."
May Hashem have mercy upon us. We are already in a situation
of, "For Hashem will judge His people, and repent Himself for
His servants, when He sees that their stay is gone, and there
is none remaining, shut up or left at large" (Devorim
32:36). Everybody sees that there is no one to rely on. May
we merit the fulfillment of the posuk, "As in the days
of your coming forth out of the land of Egypt, will I show
him marvelous things" (Michah 7:15).
On Ahavas Yisroel
In the course of our conversation HaRav Markowitz referred us
to the following excerpt from his book, which clearly
illustrates the point he is making:
The litmus test of a person's hatred and love is actually
most clearly seen in respect to those closest to him and with
whom he spends the most time! The Torah says that "You shall
love your neighbor as yourself," your friend to whom
you are close and with whom you have a close relationship.
"You shall not hate your brother in your heart." The
reference is to your brother, because everybody is willing to
love every Jew except for several people with whom he is in
direct contact: it is only natural that their individual
interests will clash rather frequently, and so he will also
clash with them.
Why shouldn't a person love everybody, all those masses of
people far away, that he never meets? It does not require
much effort to feel love towards them, a love that calls for
no action on his part and is not an expression of anything.
It is a very pleasant experience to feel those empty feelings
of love.
However, those people whom he knows very well, if he is in
everyday contact with them in his house or neighborhood, in
his office, place of work or business, in his social life or
[political] party, whose outlook is frequently at odds with
his, and with whom he has to share things that he would very
happily have kept for himself, and they appear to be in his
way all the time - - these people he is willing to devour, he
accumulates feelings of hatred towards them, it is only them
that he does not love, he does not tolerate them, in fact he
hates them somewhat . . .
Such a person does not know the meaning of loving your fellow
man. He has not tasted even a small element of its beauty. In
fact he has not passed the initial test of such love and is
filled with self-love.
Let a person not think to himself: I love every Jewish
person, so what does it matter if I cannot stand a few dozen
people here and there? This person must realize that it is
only and specifically with respect to such people that his
ahavas Yisroel is put to the test. Love and hatred are
real concepts that obligate us towards certain [thoughts,
feelings and behavior].
Any talk of abstract, empty ahavas Yisroel towards a
mere abstract entity of "Jews" is just idle talk. The Torah
deals with real, practical matters. Ahavas Yisroel is
real, active, and binding. It applies to people that are
around you twenty-four hours a day, people with whom you have
business relations, with whom you clash and fight -- only
there does love of your fellow man begin.
(Binesivos Ho'emunoh -- first edition -- Binesivos
Chayeinu, ch.6, pg. 233).
