A beyond-capacity crowd remained still, pensive and absorbed
in the thoughts its members heard for three hours on Thursday
23 Kislev-28 November. The hall is designed to hold
approximately 2000 people; it was filled, with hundreds of
others seated or standing in a large lobby area, which had
been outfitted with screens on which the proceedings were
projected. They were broadcast as well on a Jewish radio
station, and electronically transmitted to over a dozen
cities across the country.
The event, a "Leil Hisorerus with Gedolei Yisroel," was
sponsored by Agudath Israel of America, which usually
features its annual national convention the last weekend of
November but postponed that event until the end of December
this year because of Chanukah.
After davening ma'ariv, the assembly recited
Tehillim on behalf of Klal Yisroel in Eretz Yisroel.
Rabbi Shlomo Gross, Belzer dayan; Rabbi Manis Mandel,
rosh hayeshiva, Yeshiva of Brooklyn; and Rabbi Eliezer
Eichler, Boyaner dayan, led the multitude in the
recitation. Donations from those in attendance went to
Agudath Israel's Terror Victims Emergency Fund.
Rabbi Eliezer Dovid Rapaport, rav of K'hal Zichron Avrohom
Yaakov, served as chairman of the evening, sharing short but
poignant thoughts before introducing each speaker.
Communal Crisis, Personal Response
The first address was by the Rosh Agudas Yisroel of America,
Rabbi Yaakov Perlow, the Novominsker Rebbe. He went right to
the point. "We're here," he began, "because we are living in
a serious situation, one unparalleled since the days of the
Second World War, and we need to feel its critical nature
more acutely." We need, he went on to explain, not only to
share in the pain of our brothers in Eretz Yisroel but also
"to make a cheshbon hanefesh about what it demands of
us."
While the crisis may be communal, Rabbi Perlow explained, the
response must include the personal. Among many pesukim
and statements of Chazal he quoted and applied to our
current situation, he noted the Maharal's comment that the
Yevonim had the power to defile the heichal of the
Beis Hamikdosh but not to affect the kedusha of
the place where the Kohen Godol alone can go, lifnai
velifnim. Thus, the miracle of Chanukah pointedly
involved the pure oil in the small container sealed with his
signet- ring. "Klal Yisroel is a heichal Hashem," the
Rebbe continued, "and in the heart of every Jew lies a pure
container of oil. What we need to do is to take it from its
potential into actuality, to ignite it and to allow it to
cast light."
That "nekudah hapenimis," he declared, can express
itself in tears, in setting regular times for Torah study, in
improved davening, in better shemiras Shabbos.
But it must express itself.
The Rebbe went on to make concrete suggestions about
improving in those and other areas, challenging his listeners
not only to study Torah but to do it with joy, to not only
engage in acts of kindness but to realize their full import,
to experience observance in the very depths of our souls.
Opulence as Obstacle
Among the points Rabbi Perlow stressed was the need to
recognize that the material comfort in which we all dwell, so
vastly different from how earlier generations lived, takes a
spiritual toll. That, he contended, is part of why our own
times have not yielded personages like those of earlier ones.
Being steeped in materialism, he said, creates obstacles to
producing spiritual giants and to spiritual growth. In that
vein, Rabbi Perlow exhorted his listeners to give up some
luxury, to undertake some new effort. "We can't," he said,
"go on as usual. We have to lift up our lives and ignite the
spark within us."
Misguided Arrows
One final area that Rabbi Perlow touched on was how the
outside world sees committed frum Jews who stand firm
for the integrity of our mesorah, who are pained when
those ideals are assailed as narrow-minded and bigoted or as
devoid of concern for other Jews. That, he said, is the
contemporary equivalent of the verbal "arrows" that Yosef
Hatzadik had to suffer in his life. The critics, he
explained, don't understand that there are Jews today who
actually care about kevod haShechina and kevod
haTorah. And on such issues, we must look to our
Gedolei Yisroel for guidance. Acceptance and honoring
their words, he declared, "is another area in which some
improvement is needed."
Geulah is Ready and Waiting
Rabbi Matisyahu Salomon, the mashgiach ruchni of Beis
Medrash Govoha in Lakewood, delivered the next address. After
noting the great import of the fact that so many caring Jews
had gathered for the sole purpose of seeking direction and
inspiration, he proceeded to provide precisely those
things.
Noting the unusual and challenging nature of the times, he
quoted the Chofetz Chaim as declaring that, even in his day,
all the steps of history necessary for Moshiach's arrival,
all the travails and terrible happenings envisioned by the
Nevi'im and Chazal, had already taken place.
The Chofetz Chaim, Rabbi Salomon continued, relates how, when
he was asked why, then, the geulah has not arrived, he
answered -- with uncharacteristic assertiveness -- that "it
is clear to me" that Moshiach is being delayed only to
provide us the time and opportunity to adequately prepare
ourselves for our redemption.
"The delay is for our sake," Rabbi Salomon emphasized, "so we
won't be bereft of Torah and mitzvos when Moshiach arrives."
And then he asked: "Are we taking the opportunity?"
Painful but Pointed Bas Kols
And then he posed a second question, not rhetorical but
conceptual: "But why, then, all the tzoros? Why all
the sickness, and parnassa challenges and shidduch
problems? Why must we live in fear of terrorism and
war?"
That, too, Rabbi Salomon explained, was answered by the
Chofetz Chaim himself. "Hashem wants our tefillos."
What we need to understand, the Mashgiach explained, is what
tefilla really is; what we don't sufficiently
appreciate is its potential empowering of our spiritual
development, its ability to change us into different
people.
One important aspect of tefilla is that there is a mitzvas
aseh to daven whenever a tzoroh threatens
or happens. A tzoroh, he said, "is a bas kol
from Heaven saying, `Daven! Daven! Bring your
heart closer to Me!'" In private moments, he said, like those
when we hear of something that has happened in Eretz Yisroel,
we have to stop and daven, and not suffice with
feeling bad after reading the paper. Then, he said "we will
triumph, and the triumph will be the triumph of
tefilla."
And we must, Rabbi Salomon concluded, not think that our
tefillos are less than effective. They may be "lesser"
than those of Jews in earlier times, but like the small
stones that lie atop the larger ones comprising the Kosel
Ma'aravi, the special place for Klal Yisroel's tefillos,
our own prayers can be the ones to stand upon those of
our forebears, "creating a binyan sholeim!"
Spiritual Challenges as well as Physical
Rabbi Elya Fisher, the rosh kollel Gur, was next to
address the gathering. He, too, stressed the importance of
tefilla, but emphasized how we need to be mispallel
as well about our own spiritual states. The threats
Klal Yisroel face today in the world arena, he said,
are paralleled by dire threats against the kedusha
that every Jew must nurture within himself.
The Rosh Kollel recounted how, years ago, when he heard an
older man bemoaning how unaware younger Jews are of the the
pain and tribulations that were suffered by their elders, he
responded that the challenges faced by the younger generation
are themselves not sufficiently appreciated. There are, Rabbi
Fisher explained, not only physical "birth pangs of Moshiach"
but spiritual ones as well, challenges that are every bit as
difficult to those who must face them.
Rabbi Fisher went on to declare that our response to the
challenges we face today, we need to build a higher
mechitza between ourselves and the surrounding
culture, saturated as it is with elements that threaten our
kedushas Yisroel.
Concrete Suggestions for a Meaningful Response
The final address of the evening was from guest speaker Rabbi
Yissocher Frand, rosh yeshiva, Yeshivas Ner Yisroel
(Baltimore). In his inimitable style, Rabbi Frand painted a
vivid picture of what it means to live, as Jews in Eretz
Yisroel do, in constant fear of unpredictable murderous
attacks. "We know how to do bikkur cholim," he
declared, "and nichum aveilim. But what about being
nosei be'ohl im chaveiro [helping fellow Jews carry
their burdens]?"
Most of us, he noted, are not on the level of being able to
constantly keep other Jews' pain in our consciousness. But
each of us, he suggested, can adopt a "nesius ohl
yomi" -- a daily pause to imagine how a Jew in Eretz
Yisroel must feel doing the mundane, but to him potentially
dangerous, things we do each day.
And, he went on, we must change our lives in concrete ways in
response to the challenge of the current crisis. Whatever we
may choose to do differently, he declared, we must do
something. And he challenged his listeners to discuss
resolutions with their families without delay, so as not to
allow procrastination to become inaction.
