The final volume of the set of six volumes by HaRav Yitzchok
Zilberstein, compiled and edited by R' Moshe Michoel Zoren,
has already been on the shelves for some time.
Like its predecessors, it contains hundreds of fascinating
facts and vignettes about Gedolei Yisroel, and at the end, a
comprehensive index of all the six volumes of the series,
which has been received most enthusiastically by the Torah-
true public.
Noted educators testify to the great benefit which this
series has brought, primarily because of its unique makeup of
mussar messages presented in a most readable style,
well adapted to this particular generation.
We present here a selection of stories and facts from the
sixth and final volume of Oleinu Leshabeiach.
*
The Incredible Constraint of HaRav Mordechai
Shulman
Come and listen to a tale about the incredible mesirus
nefesh of a great man who lived in our own generation.
HaRav Zilberstein heard the details of the story in his youth
from the mashgiach of Yeshivas Slobodka, HaRav M.
Tikochinsky zt'l.
In the preparation of this sixth volume, he asked the writer
to authenticate the details once again; in order to do so, I
spoke to Rebbetzin Zaks, wife of HaRav Amram Zaks and
daughter of the rosh yeshiva HaRav Mordechai Shulman
zt'l. She did, in fact, verify all of the details and
even added some of her own.
HaRav Mordechai Shulman zt'l left Europe shortly
before the outbreak of World War II in order to raise money
for Yeshivas Slobodka in Lithuania. When the cannons began
roaring, the Rosh Yeshiva was in America and was unable to
return to his wife and children.
During all the years of the war, he had no inkling of their
fate. Despite the terrible anxiety accompanying this
uncertainty, this great man continued his daily regimen with
its constant regularity, day-in and day-out. He disseminated
Torah in America and continued raising funds for the
yeshiva.
When the war finally came to an end, he was able to clarify
the situation. The news he received was very encouraging. His
wife and children had survived the Holocaust!
What does an average person do at such a time?
Normally, he boards the first plane home to be reunited with
his family, not so?
But the Rosh Yeshiva did not do this. "I owe a Korbon
Todoh to Hashem for having survived and thanks for all of
the kindnesses which He showed to my family. I will, however,
suffice with an act of self-sacrifice. I will not travel to
be reunited with my wife and children, but will remain here
to collect money for the yeshiva so that I will soon be able
to rebuild Yeshivas Slobodka!"
The Rosh Yeshiva said that he owed Hashem a special personal
Korbon Todoh, since the majority of rabbonim and
roshei yeshiva in Europe had not survived . . . They had
perished in the war, and even those who remained — were
left without a wife, and certainly without their children.
And so, he declared that he would sacrifice himself by
suppressing his deep longing for his family, and dedicate
himself to rebuilding the yeshiva that had been destroyed!
This happened in the month of Cheshvan. It was only ten
months later, in Elul, that R' Mordechai Shulman was finally
reunited with his beloved family.
An unparalleled act of sacrifice.
The Morning after Elections
Rabbi Uri Lupoliansky was the candidate for mayor for the
Jerusalem municipality elections, as the choice of the
gedolei hador. Maran HaRav Eliashiv shlita
invested a great deal of time and energy out of his very
compressed day for the success of this campaign, seeing the
victory of this chareidi candidate for the holy city of
Jerusalem and all that this entailed as a great kiddush
Hashem.
The election results are usually announced after midnight.
Maran is known to begin his day at 2:30 a.m., rearing up like
a lion in Torah study. But on that selfsame night following
the elections, a relative happened to be staying over. When
he saw Maran get up at his usual time, prepared to recite the
birchos hashachar, he thought he could gladden him
with the good news of Rabbi Lupoliansky's victory for the
mayoralty.
He approached him to tell him the tidings.
Great was his surprise to see HaRav Eliashiv motion to him
that he did not want to hear anything. His gestures revealed
total rejection of anything that was not connected to Torah
or prayer.
And why?
In my opinion, his reasoning went as follows: So long as he
was called upon to devote his time to the electioneering and
to do whatever was in his power to put a chareidi candidate
in the seat of the mayor, he did so, throwing himself wholly
in the battle without delay or vacillation. But when it was
already after the fact, the results did not really interest
him any more since there was nothing that could still be
done. He must have said to himself as follows:
Having done all that I could possibly do, the final
outcome is not meant to interest me at all. If so, a pity to
waste even one more second in listening to it, especially
since I have not yet recited the morning blessings!
He Disseminated Posters Against the Ruling of a Maggid
Shiur
In one of the election campaigns that took place in
Yerushalayim, Maran HaRav Eliashiv threw himself into the
very body of the operation. One evening, when he was
delivering his nightly shiur in Tiferes Bochurim in
the very heat of election time, someone entered the room and
began distributing election flyers against Maran himself!
This man belonged to a group that was opposed to
participating in elections altogether, and sought to gain
adherents by "conquering the queen in her own chambers" and
disrupting Maran's own shiur.
I remember being astounded, all the more so by the fact that
none of the participants reacted by as much as a single word!
No one shouted; no one protested. Rather, they continued
sitting in decorum and listening to the shiur. No
comment was made throughout, and the intruder, having
finished his job, left the premises.
To be sure, it was unseemly and very crude to enter in the
middle of a shiur and distribute flyers against the
very person delivering that lesson. But the very fact that no
one protested prevented a terrible clash that could easily
have erupted there, the repercussions of which — who
could have foretold?
"Ima, Forgive Me"
I once went to visit someone in the hospital, when I heard
terrible screams emanating from one of the rooms on the ward.
"Ima, Ima," said the voice, "forgive me!" This sentence was
repeated frantically, at the top of the person's voice, over
and over again.
I went in search of the source of the cries and encountered a
terrible scene. A mother was lying in bed in the final throes
of death, and her daughter, who had sinned against her or
hurt her in some way, was pleading that she open her eyes for
one minute to indicate that she forgave her.
Realizing that these were her mother's final moments of life,
the daughter would not desist. Since I could not bear
listening to these screams without doing something, I quickly
gathered several people to the bedside and asked them to pray
that the mother regain consciousness.
Hashem hearkened to their prayers and the mother did open her
eyes, whereupon the daughter tearfully begged for her
forgiveness. Summoning her final strength, the mother uttered
one single word — "Forgiven" — and breathed her
last.
What I would like to say to the dear readers is that one need
not wait for the last, critical minute.
First of all, one should not do anything hurtful to any
fellow Jew. Second, if it happened that one did sin in some
way and he needs to ask forgiveness, why wait until the very
last moment, until right before death? Who, anyway, is the
prophet to know when a person's life is about to end?
What is worst of all is that it sometimes happens that a
person does not even realize that he must ask for another's
pardon. And if he wishes to do so, it is not always clear how
to do so.
For example: I once was walking along when I saw a person
crossing the street in the middle, instead of at the regular
crossing. A passing bus had to screech to a sudden stop to
avoid running him down, but a boy riding in the bus fell
down, was injured and had a brain hemorrhage which resulted
in his death a short while later.
The man who had crossed at the wrong place did not know what
damage he had caused and what finally resulted from his
misdeed. Can someone explain to me how one does
teshuvoh for such an act?
This is no simple matter! To cause the death of a child! One
can only pity the culprit and decide to act in every way
possible according to the laws of the Torah. This is our best
safeguard in avoiding mishaps of any kind, greater or
lesser.
The Second Visit
I heard the following story from my sister-in-law, Rebbetzin
Kanievsky tichyeh who heard it from our
mechuton HaRav Osher Tannenbaum who heard it, in turn,
from his father HaRav Moshe Dovid zt'l. The latter
served for many years as the director of the Vaad Hayeshivos
in Eretz Yisroel and was a partner in the decision-making of
critical issues dealing with the exemption of yeshiva
students from military service.
Most people know about the historic meeting between the first
prime minister, Ben Gurion, and Maran the Chazon Ish, in
which Maran asked for a full release for bnei yeshiva.
But not many people know of an additional visit which the
prime minister paid to the Chazon Ish in his home in Bnei
Brak in which he informed the godol hador that he had
acquiesced to his request not to draft yeshiva students.
The news conveyed at this second meeting gave Maran great
satisfaction. When the prime minister was about to leave,
Maran declared several times, "Gold, gold, gold."
Rabbi Tannenbaum was present at this meeting. He later told
people that the impression was that Maran was overjoyed at
the news that Torah students could continue to study
undisturbed and that he had been referring to the verse in
Tehillim 19:11 referring to Torah study that states, "
. . . which are more pleasant than gold and much pure
gold."
Years later, however, it was revealed that the Chazon Ish may
have had an additional meaning in his mention of `paz,
paz, paz.'
Shortly after the second visit, David Ben Gurion became ill.
Few know that at the time that he sent a letter requesting
that the Chazon Ish pray for him.
Maran asked how old he was and when they told him that Ben
Gurion was seventy-three, he replied, "He still has many
years of life ahead of him."
As is well known, the first prime minister passed away at the
age of eighty-seven, the arithmetical value of paz.
It is very likely that the Chazon Ish had blessed him at this
second visit with long life to the numerical sum of
paz as a result of his decision to exempt bnei
yeshiva from military duty.
