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How to Interpret the Hashgochoh
After HaRav Nissim Karelitz suffered a heart attack, those close to him used to give him a copy of the Musaf Shabbos edition of Yated Ne'eman to provide him with easy Torah writings that required less mental effort.
In the edition of Parshas Poroh of 5757, he read an article about HaRav Meir Posner, the author of Beis Meir, as follows:
It is brought in the sefer Tel Talpiot that our fathers told us about his (HaRav Posner's) holiness and piety, including the fact that he was very magnanimous in charity to such a degree that he was only left with enough to sustain himself.
There was another story which his fathers were wont to relate. He once involved himself in marrying off the daughter of a distant relative but had no money to give. He decided to go to a wealthy Jew of the community to raise money for the kallah.
The rich man said he was willing to give the entire sum needed, three hundred reichs-thaller, on the condition that when he passed away, HaRav Meir would guarantee, in writing, to study a perek Mishnayos every day for his soul.
My grandfather was so determined to help the kallah that he agreed. They shook hands, wrote up the agreement and the transaction took place. The rich man lived a long life and at one point, moved away. The entire matter was forgotten.
Part I
Seventy-nine years have passed since the end of the worst war in world history. Among Jews, this war is often called the "Holocaust," because of the six million Jews who were murdered. Without entering into questions of what was the main part of the Nazi plan and what was not, many things happened that were not directly connected to the Nazi genocide of the Jewish people.
The Nazis sought to establish a German empire that would dominate all of Europe. Even as the storm clouds gathered, in America, across the Atlantic Ocean, many people argued that it was only an internal European affair, and they therefore preferred to adopt an isolationist policy. Even the Polish neighbors of Germany only adopted a ten-year plan to upgrade their army against the German threat.
This year marks the seventy-ninth anniversary of the end of that terrible war. We present here a short review of the major events of those years.
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On the second of Shvat, 5693 (1933), the arch-murderer, Hitler, yimach shemo was appointed Chancellor of Germany. Adolph Hitler, who had no higher education, but did have a criminal record, had nevertheless risen to power as the leader of the German nation — one of the most powerful positions in the world. It was he who later caused the deaths of tens of millions of people all over Europe and millions of Jews and destroyed Europe.
Ten days prior to Hitler's appointment, in a clear act of Hashgacha, Franklin D. Roosevelt was sworn in as President of the United States of America. Hashem had preceded the terrible wound with a remedy.
Despite the harsh criticism heaped against him during the first years of the war, President Roosevelt was a brave man, who succeeded, in the end, in vanquishing Hitler and in bringing about the victory of the Allies.
Who was the person, whom Hashgacha had chosen to head the Allies, to vanquish Hitler, and to crush the soldiers of the mighty, aggressive and suicidal Japanese Navy?
The top officials of the security system, together with army commentators and other such experts, have been running a propaganda campaign touting the strength of the Israel army as being the best equipped and most efficient in the entire Middle East, and which is fully prepared to deal with all enemies surrounding them. "Our long arm," they like to boast, can pursue, overtake and overcome them all. This is the very army which conquered our enemies in the Six Day War, and also succeeded in deflecting the Egyptian and Syrian armies in the Yom Kippur War. It can also stand against the terrorist organizations surrounding us and felling them with a mortal blow if they dare attack Israel.
When this boast is repeated over many years — and there are no national event when such cliche's are not voiced by the chief leaders of the country — everyone is convinced of their truth. Not only the naive masses but even by those experts in the power struggle in this area. If there be any military figure who dares to malign the army and suggest an opinion contrary to that of the 'experts', he is put in the stocks so that no one else will dare voice such thoughts.
And when the lies collide with the truth, everyone stands back in astonishment: how can it be that such a trained and well-armed army is prone to... Where is their 'long arm'? Why aren't they vanquishing the enemy and routing them?
This top brass has trouble digesting the bitter, painful truth...
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Opinion & Comment
This is the Segulah of the Torah
Part II
"He left behind a son like him." This is how Maran the Rosh Yeshiva, HaRav Shach ztvk'l expressed it in his eulogy for Maran the Steipler ztvk'l. In a rare moment, the editor of the Hebrew Yated's Musaf Shabbos Kodesh, R' Yisroel Friedman, and writer of these lines, HaRav A. Chefetz, were admitted into the inner sanctum of HaRav Chaim Kanievsky.
It is over twenty years since the passing of the Kehillos Yaakov ztvk'l on 23 Av, 5745. We lesser beings will always find difficulty in grasping the greatness of such cedars of Lebanon. It is daunting to attempt to encompass the stature, impossible to touch at the depths of their internal workings and the exalted level of the personalities of these Torah giants who Hashem implanted in every generation, figures like the Steipler.
We are so limited in vision; we cannot even touch a single thread of the hem of their garments. But since it is our task as writers to present, to the extent of our own limitations, a portrait of the great life of the Steipler, we knew that only those of similar stature could even begin to approach the task.
So, one way to do this without being great enough to appreciate greatness ourselves, is to come and listen to the voice of one of the gedolei Yisroel whom Hashem has seen fit to leave behind for our salvation.
This is the approach of Musaf Shabbos Kodesh, and this is how we came to HaRav Chaim, fully appreciating the rarity of such a precious interview and the value of those moments.
We did not record everything; not everything needs to be written, not everything can be written. After we transcribed the recorded interview onto paper, we returned to seek permission to publicize the interview in the honor and memory of Maran the Steipler. And upon that approval, we hereby offer excerpts of the conversation which took place in the home of HaRav Chaim shlita, so that they serve as an illuminating beacon for days to come.
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Did the Steipler write Chayei Olom to address the problems of the times?
Opinion & Comment
by Mordecai Plaut
This is already the longest war the State of Israel ever fought. Although it is far from the worst in terms of casualties, it is also unprecedented in the fact that so much of the Home Front has been under fire.
The human suffering in Israel has been tremendous. Dozens killed, hundreds wounded, huge amounts of damages. Even when the report says that the missiles fell on an open area and there were no injuries and they caused no damage, that is not fully correct. It means that no buildings were damaged, but it does not include damage to crops and forests. Some 10,000 dunams (2,500 acres) of forests were destroyed, and there was extensive damage to crops.
In addition, hundreds of thousands of people have been living under a constant threat of sudden death or injury for over a month, and have been spending their time in structures like shelters that are cramped and oppressive. It is hoped that the immediate nightmare is over for them, with the implementation of a cease-fire.
Hizbullah appears to have been surprised by the strong reaction to its provocations, though in a larger sense this is certainly what it has been preparing for during the six years it controlled south Lebanon.
Opinion & Comment
by S. Yisroel
Who is Afraid of Elul?
In opposition to the call of the shofar that echoes these days in our botei medroshos, the Soton raises his voice and seeks to decrease and weaken the influence of the shofar's call. As the shofar's call arouses our hearts to strengthen ourselves in avodas Hashem, the Soton claims there is no reason for this strengthening. Many Eluls have passed, followed by Rosh Hashonoh and Yom Kippur, and yet I have remained the way I am; I have not progressed. If so, why should the hoped-for change occur precisely this year?
This thought weakens all hands and all hearts that beat with the avodoh of the days of Elul -- our sincere avodoh in the days of Elul. In search of an answer to this difficulty we should ask the Soton himself: What are you afraid of?
As is known, when the Soton hears the shofar's blast he is afraid that perhaps his time to be eliminated from the world has come. Despite the fact that many Eluls and many Rosh Hashonohs have passed, he is still afraid and becomes afraid again anew each year. "Maybe the Great Shofar" has arrived; maybe his time to disappear from the world has come!
But did he not hear the shofar last year? Did they not sound the shofar blasts two years ago, and three years ago, and four? Why is he still afraid this year?
Maran HaRav Chaim Shmulevitz zt'l said that this teaches us that the Soton himself knows and understands correctly that "an awakening of the slightest amount is liable to nullify him from the world. This is the reason for his great fear!" (Sichos Mussar, 31, p. 105).
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