  |
|
| |||||
This Google Custom Search looks only in this website. A Holy Letter of HaRav Dov Lando, Signed by Other Elders of the Generation
Torah study has always been wholesome and pure with no vestige of outside elements.
Our Torah leaders sacrificed their lives for this and fought the holy battle against all programs attempting to inject other studies of any kind within the walls of our holy yeshivos.
Lately, we have heard of a body intending to establish an institution in Beit Shemesh, presuming to call itself a yeshiva gedolah, which will include secular studies together with the limudei kodesh.
It is our duty to warn against this with a trumpet call and rouse those Torah-true Jews everywhere not to dare send their sons or students to such a place. We must reach out to support such Jews in every possible way.
"You must surely receive many communications of this kind, but just to present myself, I am a student going for my second degree (M.A.) in cognitive psychology. I suppress by opinions because the atmosphere in our lab is very hostile. If you intend to publicize facts about those who are forced to suppress their views in Academia, include my words as well. I was standing at the far side of a corridor, together with a top lecturer of the faculty. He told me that he, too, despite his stature as professor, is simply afraid to express support of the judicial reform. Then, suddenly, a figure from the university's administrative corps approached us and said, 'Why are you whispering? Do you also support the Reform?'"
This article was first published in 1995. Now in 5783 it is 99 years since these events and it is being published online for the first time.
Part IV
Seventy-one years ago, on 29 Sivan, 5684, three pistol shots put an end to intensive efforts which would have nipped the Jewish-Arab conflict in the bud, when Dr. Yisroel Yaakov DeHaan was murdered on his way home from ma'ariv by agents of the Zionist leaders. His death marked the end of the last efforts of the old yishuv to take an active role in the political and diplomatic processes that surrounded Eretz Yisroel. Without DeHaan, the rabbonim of the old yishuv felt they had no way to influence or even participate in international negotiations, and the Zionists were more than happy to assume full responsibility for the future of Eretz Yisroel and even for the Jewish people as a whole, Rachmono litzlan.
The attitude and general policy followed by our rabbonim towards the Arabs — seeking peaceful coexistence, willingness to compromise and high priority for human life — is not something adopted recently as many think, but rather is the same consistent approach that was followed by HaRav Yosef Chaim Zonnenfeld and the other gedolim of the time a century ago. The rabbonim are guided by principles and not political expediency or a desire to favor one or the other political party.
Prior to his murder, Dr. DeHaan had worked for a long time to bring the views and attitudes of the rabbonim of the old yishuv to the attention of the Arab leaders. A long series of meetings and delegations, declarations and written summations took place under the direction and leadership of R' Yosef Chaim Zonnenfeld, zt'l, the rav of Yerushalayim.
This week we describe the facts that came to light over the years. We also have an appreciation written by HaRav Moshe Blau who was a community leader in those days.
The Full Truth as Eventually Revealed
No one has ever admitted to being the one who actually pulled the trigger, but several of the principles have confessed to participating in the plot. In addition to the policeman David Tidhar, Manya Shochet and Rachel Yanait were also involved in the plot. The assassins fled to their homes and hid out there, either right after the crime or soon thereafter. However, they certainly did not pull the trigger on Rechov Yaffo.
The murder team was two of the Haganah top brass who had come to Jerusalem from Russia a short time before. They were fired up with the revolutionary spirit of the Bolsheviks. It seems that the man who actually killed DeHaan was probably Avrohom Tahoumi and the cover man across the lane was Avrohom Kritzovsky. Whatever their individual roles, it is virtually certain that they were the two immediately involved in the crime (see letter from Tahoumi printed in this issue).
The Swedish court demonstrates to one and all the existing absurdity in human law, showing to what depths mankind can plummet. Not that we need examples, but sometimes things reach ridiculous dimensions to the point of inanity where even the knights of democracy are forced to admit that matters have completely gone out of hand.
A Swedish citizen presented an appeal to the court demanding permission to burn the Koran near a mosque filled with Moslems, on the grounds that this fell into the category of freedom of expression. Any basic human consideration realizes that such an appeal should be utterly dismissed. With all due respect to freedom of speech — and this value is one that deserves not so much respect — any blow to human sentiment, especially to the sensitivity of millions of people, supersedes this value.
Freedom of speech is only one value, alongside which stand many other values, no less vital, that must also be quantified.
* * *
Outstanding Articles From Our Archives
IN-DEPTH FEATURES
by Rabbi Y. Friedman
Introduction
One Man's Self Sacrifice
The morning sun shone on the huge marble sphere, bathing its white half in golden light. Its black half remained shaded, almost as though the moment of our arrival had been precisely coordinated in advance. A giant letter shin, hollowed from one side of the sphere to the other, declares this a Jewish memorial.
At this early hour, the wide square was still fairly empty; an elderly gentleman out with his dog watched us in bafflement. On the sphere's granite base appear the words, Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki - Commentator and Guide, in Hebrew and French. A huge tree spread its green boughs overhead; there seemed something maternal about its protective shelter. A few children scattered crumbs to the pigeons, causing them to take fright and flutter away.
My companion, Rav Yisroel Meir Gabbai, took out a heavy marble plaque and, kneeling down, began shoveling cement onto the paving stones. The plaque's inscription reads; You are standing at the site of the cemetery of Troyes. Many Rishonim are buried here, Rashi among them. Today, nine hundred years after his petiroh, a monument to him marks the approximate site of his resting place.
IN-DEPTH FEATURES
by M. Musman
22 Tammuz, 5765 marks the 61st yahrtzeit of HaRav Avrohom Grodzensky zt"l, the mashgiach of Slobodka. Last year on parshas Voeschanon, we published some material describing his background and some of his accomplishments. This week and next we continue. These two articles describe the last years of HaRav Grodzensky's life that were lived in the Kovno Ghetto. As HaRav Efraim Oshry wrote, "Death in the ghetto was not always heroic. [But] ghetto life . . . [was,] in the spiritual sense, extremely heroic." HaRav Grodzensky's life and work, which ended very painfully in the Kovno Ghetto, is nonetheless an inspiration for us to see what man can reach, even when weighed down by unimaginable adversity. It is a lesson we must learn during the period of Bein Hametzorim.
Part II
The first part described the German attack on Lithuania and the events leading up to the formation of the Kovno Ghetto. Rav Avrohom's last three years, which he spent in the Kovno Ghetto, were the crowning chapters of his life of teaching, guiding and inspiring others. Rav Avrohom maintained his equilibrium under all conditions.
The Bochurim Came on Shabbos
His daughter writes, "Every Friday night the surviving bnei Torah of Slobodka Yeshiva would meet in our house and Father would tell them divrei Torah and give them support and encouragement. The bochurim were broken in both body and spirit. They were left by themselves, sole survivors of their entire families. That and the crushing labor that they did in the German factories left them utterly drained. They were also continually starving. They had no clothes or other belongings that could be bartered with the gentiles for supplementary food. They therefore suffered more from hunger than others did.
"Yet despite everything, the bochurim were most particular about coming to our house every Friday night to hear Father's shmuess. It wasn't easy for them to maintain concentration and listen. Their weakness, hunger and exhaustion almost overwhelmed them. But the words of comfort and encouragement that Father lavished upon them were a wellspring of support that gave them the strength to continue without breaking. [When one of his talmidim collapsed under the burden of the forced labor, Rav Avrohom arranged for him to be spirited out of the ghetto to one of the nearby villages where he could recuperate.]
|
|||||
.jpg)
