The new U.S. ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee clarified an unusual opinion, reflecting that of the new president, Trump. regarding the subject of army enlistment. It was presented on the Channel 14 news among other topical public issues in the course of a conversation with President of Dirshu, Rav Dovid Hofstetter. Huckabee is an evangelical Christian and an ordained Baptist minister.

Huckabee, a non-Jew, addressed the very touchy subject of the draft of yeshiva students and said, "There are many ways in which someone can serve, and not all of them are militarily-connected. There are jobs which are not at all connected to war. We dealt with this in our system as follows, and it might work for you as well."

Notwithstanding the exuberant joy at the return of the hostages, let us not forget the stunning blow to hundreds of families who lost their loved ones through devastating terrorist attacks and now see how the despicable murderers are going scot-free, celebrating their liberation instead of rotting away in prisons for the rest of their lives.

And this is a steady process in chilling repeated series, when every murderer of Jews, if not eliminated on the spot but captured and imprisoned, simply waits the time when he will be exchanged and freed in some agreement or another. There is no doubt that the knowledge whereby those who sent him on his mission of murder will do all in their power in have him freed as soon as possible is present and waiting. And this only reinforces his motivation.

The Israeli government, throughout its generations, employed different methods. ...

This appreciation of the Ozharover Rebbe was originally published in 1996, 29 years ago.

Part 1

"I toiled in order to demonstrate that every single Jew is capable of realizing his true potential in Torah [study]. That despite the plagues afflicting this generation — the deep spiritual darkness, the utter confusion wrought by false ideologies, the intellectual obtuseness — it is still possible to see light and to walk in the path of righteousness" (Excerpt from R. Moshe Yechiel Epstein's introduction to Be'er Moshe on Devorim).

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R. Moshe Yechiel (Halevi) Epstein — known simply as "the Ozharover" — was born in 1890 in Ozharov, a small shtetl in Central Poland. He was the fifth heir to the Ozharover chassidic dynasty, which had originally been founded by Rabbi Yehuda Arye Leib (Halevi) Epstein, a disciple of the Chozeh MiLublin.

By the time of his death in Tel Aviv on 1 Shvat, 5731 (1971), the Ozharover became a renowned Torah luminary who provided spiritual guidance to large numbers of Jews in Poland, the U.S., and Israel. He also made two important contributions to Torah literature: The Aish Das, a 7,000 page encyclopedic synthesis of Torah ideology and chassidic lore, and the Be'er Moshe, a 5,000 page commentary on the Pentateuch and early Prophets (reprinted by Rabbi Tanchum Becker, the present Ozharover Rebbe).

Nowadays, many people refer to the Ozharover as "the Aish Das." Perhaps this is an indicator of the tremendous impact his classic sefer had on the Torah community. Even so, those who merited to come into personal contact with the Ozharover glimpsed a saintly tzaddik whose gadlus extended far beyond his literary accomplishments. Indeed, to focus exclusively on the Ozharover's written works would only be telling half his story — literally — since he only began committing his thoughts to writing halfway through his lifetime, when he was 40 years old.

In order to gain a deeper appreciation of who R' Moshe Yechiel Epstein really was, we must learn more about his personal experiences: the challenges he faced, the trials he experienced, the manner in which he expressed his profound love for his fellow Jews.

As the Ozharover himself wrote in his introduction to Aish Das, "I named the book Aish Das (lit., "Fire of Religion") because it is founded upon [my] three `burning loves' — love for Hashem, love for Torah, and love for one's fellow Jews." These three "burning loves" glowed within his heart since youth, and flared increasingly brighter with each passing year. His story crowds the throat with emotion and inspires us to reach ever higher in our avodas Hashem.