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Lessons from the Maggidim of Old
One of the maggidim/darshanim preachers in Lithuania was HaRav Yitzchok Lipman, son of HaRav Yisroel Salanter. Several of his talks for the Yomim Noraim remain. Once he said:
The shofar is like a violin, and just as one can play soul music or happy tunes, similarly, the shofar can, through joy in the terua and its resonance, stimulate us to improve — leshaper — our deeds or, alternately, evoke sentiments, like the ominous sound of doom of 'the day of shofar and terua' and similarly, 'for the day of Hashem is great and terrible indeed, and who can absorb it.'"
A violin requires a hollow interior to resonate the sound produced. The quality of the violin depends on its hollow structure. If someone were to play the strings on a piece of paper, nothing of quality could emerge.
The strings in this analogy are the sounds of tekiya, shevarim, terua, which must tune up the heartstrings of the listener.
The heart is likened to the wooden hollow structure of the violin itself...
HaRav Avrohom Kalmanowitz, zt'l was active for over fifty years engaging in rescue activity on behalf of Klal Yisroel and especially the Torah world. His career spanned two world wars, and he was deeply involved in rescue operations conducted behind the scenes in Communist Russia and in Nazi Germany. Fascinating correspondence between R' Avrohom and R' Nochum Partzovitch, regarding the battle against the Sherut Leumi decree, is included. His career sheds much light on the important issues of those days.
The book Kolmus HaLev spans fifty years of chizuk HaTorah and rescue activity conducted on behalf of individual Jews and the klal, in various countries and periods. It shows the unique character of the gaon and tzaddik who, even as a young man, was considered a "giant of the spirit" by the gedolim of the past generation who recognized that he was sent by Hashem to rescue the Torah world in an era between two world wars — an era marred by the spiritual upheavals caused by the Haskalah and the Zionist movements.
The book opens with an interesting kuntres written by Rav Kalmanowitz over 100 years ago, when the vicious Communistic regime cast its fear on all the regions of Russia, maltreating its Jewish residents in a particularly cruel manner. The kuntres, "El Ha'amim ve'el Ami," describes the atrocities of the Soviet regime. It was composed with the blessings and encouragement of the gedolei hador: the Chofetz Chaim and R' Chaim Ozer Grodzensky, who recognized the importance of its publication.
In his approbation to the kuntres, R' Chaim Ozer writes: "In his closeness to the border, [HaRav Kalmanowitz] saw misery in the Valley of Tears and saw the tears of the disconsolate, the oppressed. He is familiar with the terrible persecutions perpetrated by the secret police, especially with the decrees against Torah and its learners. They closed the talmudei Torah, the chadorim and the yeshivas. They imprisoned melamdim and roshei yeshiva, exiling some to Siberia.
The evening of Sunday, sixth of Nisan, this year, the date of one of the most dramatic events in Israel and perhaps in the entire world. Over 300 missiles and drones were shot from Iran and its subsidiaries, all of them intercepted with no harm to lives and only minimal damage to property. This night followed an intensive security scrutiny on Iran and a full mobilization of all aerial defense systems, coupled with the coordination of Israeli supportive world allies. All were enlisted to foil the Iranian attack, and the consolidated efforts were far beyond all expectations.
It was a formidable weaponry show, not a single projectile causing any damage. Altogether, an amazing, incredible, unprecedented show.
A supernatural feat, a true miracle. Except, as often enough, the object of the miracle was unaware of its scope, and equally so, the State of Israel, which is still enchained in the coils of 'my strength and the might of my arm,' even after it was shattered to smithereens on the past Simchas Torah.
In contrast. one single missile shot from Yemen, made its way to Israel for many long moments...
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Home and Family
They tell the story of Rebbi Yeshaya Bardaky zt'l who picked himself up and went to live in the Holy Land. He packed his belongings and took his little son and daughter with him. In those days, ships were not as seaworthy as they are today: the travelers hit a storm, and the ship was tossed about like a piece of flotsam, until it was split into two, and sank to the bottom of the sea.
Although all the passengers were cast into the sea without lifeboats, Rebbi Yeshayahu stayed calm. He set his little ones on his back, told them to hold on, and began to swim: hoping that he would reach dry land before very long. He swam and swam, but there was no sign of any land on the horizon.
His strength was failing him and he knew that he would have to abandon one of the children, otherwise all three of them would perish. They were both equally dear to him, yet the boy could grow up to keep all the mitzvos, whereas the girl had less obligations. As he reluctantly released her hands from round his neck, the child screamed, "Tatte, I have no other father! Please, please save me!" The father could not ignore the plea, and felt that the words infused him with extraordinary strength. He managed to pull her up again and began to swim with superhuman energy.
When they finally reached shore, the three of them collapsed onto the sand and lay there for quite some time. When Reb Yeshayahu recovered somewhat, he said to his girl, "I want you to remember what we went through for the rest of your life. It broke my heart to leave you, but I just did not have the strength to carry the two of you any further. Your cry instilled extra strength into me, phenomenal strength, which I did not know I had, and thus we were all saved. If you are ever in despair, do not lose hope, use the same words with which you called out to me, `Tatte in Himmel, I have no other Father besides You! Please save me.' He can always help!"
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Opinion & Comment
Part II
Part Two: Menuchas Hanefesh
We all desire and value sholom. Nevertheless, sholom is a vague term. It is also an elusive reality. We generally think of peace as being the lack of conflict between people. This definition, however, does not indicate the need for menuchas hanefesh.
Sholom is the result of personal, inner peace. We must achieve peace among our own inner drives and motivations before sholom can be expected to flourish among people. We must be happy with ourselves before we can be happy with other people.
We are responsible for sholom. Sholom begins with us, and the success of our marriages depends on us. The more menuchas hanefesh we have, the more we will be able to be calm in our homes and supportive to our families. If we have menuchas hanefesh, then even in the face of daily challenges and ordeals, the quality of our home life will be peaceful.
If we achieve menuchas hanefesh, we enable others - especially our spouses and children - to achieve menuchas hanefesh. Therefore, the Torah home, above all, must foster menuchas hanefesh, a harmonic balance between our physical needs and our spiritual aspirations.
Lack of menuchas hanefesh leads to discord within the home...
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