The third convention of Degel HaTorah which opened this Tuesday is another milestone in the annals of this holy movement, founded in kedusha by HaRav Shach, joined by the gedolei Torah of his times, in order to unite the entire body of the Torah world under one flag. And since its inception, the movement has thus been steered along its difficult path of growth and blessed development.
There will surely be those skeptics standing on the sidelines who will ask: wherefore the need to bring up the forgotten past? What was - was. But it is our obligation to recall the past in order to understand how the chareidi public looked before the unification under Degel HaTorah in order to realize its importance today. And now, twenty-eight years after its establishment and in the light of current developments, there are still those who view it as no more than another political party. They fail to understand its uniqueness and the realized forecast of its inception some three decades ago, as well as the importance of strengthening it increasingly in these very times, of reinforcing its representatives who are the veritable proxies of our rabbonim.
All bnei Torah communities receiving the good news of the establishment of Degel HaTorah so long ago rejoiced enthusiastically, sensing that indeed, the time had come that the Torah world and its mentors, giants in Torah, implant a strong underpinning in the ongoing steering of chareidi public interests. This was a total mobilization of the Torah world for the sake of the difficult battle which was a necessity of the times. It was not run in a normal fashion. Those who analyzed the hard facts and statistics could not help concluding that it was a futile, if not lost, cause. They were swayed by outside critics who viewed the Torah community as a marginal minority undeserving of political representation. Furthermore, they failed to take into account the actual Heavenly clout accorded to any activity assumed by someone propelled by lesheim Shomayim motivation. Who better represents this than Rabbeinu, who was totally one who loved peace and pursued it, one who bore upon his shoulders the burden of the entire nation, felt its pain and nursed its concerns, who sensed a heavenly mission imposed upon him to bond the Torah world together under a strong public body which would be able to express to the nation the word of Hashem assertively.
Recalling those early days, in which he was involved as the Degel candidate for mayor of Bnei Brak, HaRav Yerachmiel Boyer said, "The askanim of those times, those who toiled days and nights for the success of the elections, were eminent avreichim, toilers in Torah. The head of the election headquarters in Bnei Brak was one of the most outstanding avreichim in the city, a renowned talmid chacham and Torah disseminator who `took leave' of his family for many long weeks in order to coordinate the election campaign in the city."
Rabbi Tzvi Baumel, one of the early activists and longtime representative of Degel HaTorah in the management of Chinuch Atzmai, told Yated Ne'eman, "The establishment of Degel HaTorah and its supernatural success in the first elections transformed the representatives of the Torah world into spiritual pacesetters in all public forefronts. This was an amazing revolution which cannot even be appreciated by someone who did not live through the period preceding it.
"From the very first day of Degel haTorah, its end purpose, as envisioned by Torah leadership, was one and only: To augment the honor of Hashem, to increase Torah and enhance it, beginning with days of HaRav Shach and following via HaRav Yosef Shalom Elyashiv up to these very times under the leadership of HaRav Aharon Leib Shteinman shlita."
