Rav Michael Zada, active in Lev L'Achim in Sderot, delivers his shiur regularly, as he has done for the past sixteen years. Aside from this, his days are packed with a full, broad spectrum of activity for the sanctified goal which is above all — to draw more and more sons to their Heavenly Father.

"A Rosh Hashanah such as this one has never yet been experienced in the South, and probably not in the entire land." he says to us at the very beginning of the interview. "This is the first time that so many words and prayers in the 'Ovinu Malkeinu' touched us all so relevantly after the horrors which Klal Yisroel encountered this past year. Understandingly, the shrill outbursts of 'put an end to hostage-seizing' and memory of 'those murdered in sanctifying Your Name' were at unbelievable decibels."

That terrible massacre which took place there on Simchas Torah continued in further stages.

They tell of HaRav Boruch Ber of Kamenitz who was once ill during Aseres Yemei Teshuva. The doctors ordered a blood test to determine if he could fast on Yom Kippur. HaRav Yehoshua tells his listeners that this required a trip to Warsaw which had a laboratory.

He did so, staying over by a Chassidic leader to await the results of the test. Time passed as he continued to wait in vain, fearing that if he did not pick himself and return, he might not reach Kamenitz in time for Yom Kippur. He therefore decided to remain in Warsaw.

Yom Kippur was imminent and he still had not received the test results. What to do? His host saw his distress and said, "Why are you so anxious? In either case, you will be executing the will of Hashem - either through fasting or eating according to requirements. By not fasting, you will be fulfilling your obligation of pikuach nefesh. So why be so apprehensive?"

HaRav Boruch Ber replied, "Very true, but that is not what is disturbing me. I know that in either case, I will be fulfilling a mitzvah. But I do wish to know which it will be — that of fasting or of eating for self-preservation. I want to know for what I am supposed to prepare myself."

We, too, must know for what to be prepared...

One of the secular newspapers wondered why the chareidi media did not commemorate the 7th of October, as did all the other media. That awful day will be remembered as one of the for the Jewish people. All of the media were full of special supplements, interviews, and never ending articles discussing that day and the past year. The chareidi media had nothing about it.

The reason is not all the complicated or subtle. To us the disastrous day was Simchas Torah 5784. The Jewish calendar sets the days for the Jewish community and not the Gregorian calendar instituted just about 500 years ago and still less accurate than ours. Most of the world uses that calendar but we use the Jewish calendar that dates back to Creation.

There was an interview with the father of one of the soldiers who was killed last Simchas Torah. The interviewer asked him how he felt on this year's October 7. He answered that to him it was just 5 Tishrei. The first yahrtzeit of his son will be on Simchas Torah.

October 7 has become a familiar phrase. But that is fixing the date by the non-Jewish calendar. The Jewish people have their own calendar, and that is what we use.

Part 2

HaRav Shlomo Wolbe once said, "It is almost impossible to do teshuva without being familiar with these letters in Or Yisroel (7 & 8)." We are happy to be able to present Letter 7 here in translation, along with some other selections. Readers are advised that the material is dense and difficult, and it requires attentive and serious study.

Every year the prime cause for self improvement is the fear of every believing person that he will come to a bitter end if he abandons Torah and mitzvos. However, our desires overpower us. One should get used to studying poskim (although one should not stop attending one's regular shiurim, for "a synagogue should not be demolished" (Bava Basra, 3b)).

When one comes across a din that is relevant to him, he should study its sources, and delve into the matter deeply in accordance with his intellectual capabilities. Study of this kind will leave almost as big an impression on his soul to fulfill that din as reflection on the fear of G-d.

This essay was first published by us exactly 30 years ago.

We ask of Hashem, "Who is like You, merciful Father, who mercifully remembers His creations for life." The repetition of the reference to mercy, after we have already described Hashem as merciful, requires explanation. Another of our supplications which needs explaining is "...that the Beis Hamikdash be built speedily in our days and grant our portion in Your Torah." What is the connection between the two requests which are mentioned together?

We begin our explanation by quoting the mishna and gemora, (Yoma 19,) which describe the efforts made to prevent the Cohen Godol from falling asleep on leil Yom Kippur: "If he wanted to nap, the young cohanim would snap their forefingers in front of him and say, `My master, the Cohen Godol, stand up and display a kidda on the floor to dispel your drowsiness.' They would occupy him until the time for shechita arrived."

The gemora adds, "We have learned: they occupied him neither with lyre nor harp but by word of mouth etc. The distinguished men of Yerushalaim would not sleep all night long so that the Cohen Godol would hear their noise and not be overtaken by sleep. We have learned: `Abba Shaul says, they would do so in the rest of the land as well, as a remembrance of the Beis Hamikdash but they used to sin.' What is the purpose of mentioning the shame of Bnei Yisroel and their sins in this context?

The explanation appears to be as follows: Yom Kippur is a holy and fearful day, one which we spend entirely in prayer. When the Beis Hamikdash stood, people would come there to watch the day's special avoda. They watched the Cohen Godol offer the korbonos and send off the goat, and they watched the burning of the goat and bull outside of the Beis Hamikdash.

That there were spectators watching the avoda is apparent from the mishna's comment (Yoma 68), "Whoever watched the Cohen Godol read [from the Torah] did not see the burning of the goat and the bull." One must nevertheless see to it that even on this day, the obligation of "vehogiso bo yomom volailo," learning Torah day and night, is fulfilled.

I heard from my master, my father and teacher zy'a, how he once entered the holy chamber of his grandfather, the holy sage of Tzanz zy'a, on leil Yom Kippur, and found him sitting poring over a Ketzos Hachoshen, (whose author was almost a contemporary of his.) The gemora, (Megilla 3,) says: "Learning Torah is greater then the offering of the regular daily korbonos." This is because Torah is compared to both fire (as the posuk says, "Are these words of Mine not like fire, says Hashem") and to water (as it says, "All who are thirsty, go to the water") for through Torah it is possible to mollify all the harsh judgments and to draw mercy and kindness upon ourselves.