A remark overheard again and again as the more than 2,000 men
and women who had just spent more than an hour praying
together for the safety and security of their beleaguered
brothers and sisters in Eretz Yisroel filed out of the large
beis medrash in Yeshiva Rabbeinu Chaim Berlin on Coney
Island Avenue in Brooklyn was: "The davening felt a
lot like Yom Kippur."
"It was not just the influx of people into the shul that made
it feel like the temperature in the air-conditioned room had
gone up from 60 to 90 in half an hour," said one participant.
"It was the fervor of their prayers."
The prayer rally commenced with mincha at 7:45 p.m. on
Wednesday 19 Tammuz (July 19). Next, Rabbi Yaakov Perlow, the
Novominsker Rebbe and rabbinical head of Agudath Israel of
America — which had organized the event — spoke
briefly and emotionally about the dangers that are facing the
Jewish people.
His voice laden with deep concern, Rabbi Perlow emphasized
the importance of "public prayer" at a "time of travail," and
the importance of each Jew's taking account of his or her
personal life - "in matters between man and G-d, and in
matters between man and man." Especially, he stressed, the
latter.
And he extolled, above all, the power of Torah-study. "We in
other lands," he said, "can contribute to the safety of the
Jewish people in the Land of Israel." He then read the names
of the Israeli soldiers who were kidnapped by terrorists, and
asked that they be held in the hearts and minds of the
assemblage as they prayed.
Then, the Psalms and supplications, led by a number of
respected rabbis, were cried out in unison. The overwhelming
intensity of the davening, both in sound and spirit,
reached a crescendo during the event's final moments, when
"Hashem Hu HaElokim" — the final words of the
kabbolas ohl Malchus Shomayim that ends the Ne'ilah
prayer on Yom Kippur — were recited.
And, indeed, it felt a lot like Yom Kippur.
