Transitioning to Elul
Every year, I use the platform of my newspaper column to alert the world to the arrival of Elul. I began this practice at the behest of my illustrious rebbi Rav Chanoch Henoch Karelenstein, who passed away on 22 Elul 5759 at the age of 42. With his passing, the Torah world lost a brilliant man who could have become one of the gedolei hador. He came to my home during his illness and asked me to announce the arrival of Elul in the newspaper as a zechus for his recovery. With his keen foresight, he looked at me affectionately and said, “You will start the trend, and everyone else will follow your lead.” And he was right. That year, the word ELUL appeared in large red letters on the front page of the newspaper where I worked. It came as a surprise to everyone at the time, but it has since become quite normal. Today, there isn’t a frum newspaper that doesn’t discuss the onset of Elul, as the sound of the shofar strikes fear into every heart.
Rav Chanoch was unmatched by anyone in his generation. His wife was a granddaughter of Rav Aryeh Levin, which made him a relative of Rav Elyashiv and Rav Chaim Kanievsky, both of whom visited him frequently during his illness. He was also a beloved talmid of Rav Shach. He was an expert on every area of the Torah, including Kabbolah, and was a highly admired maggid shiur, a rebbi to thousands of bochurim and yungeleit, and a gifted orator. He left behind a treasure trove of brilliant writings including marei mekomos on sugyos throughout Shas and kuntresim on all the holidays of the year, all of which demonstrate his phenomenal breadth of knowledge. The famous kuntres Eitzos Lizkos Badin Bayomim Hanoraim is a sefer with universal appeal, which can help anyone make it through the daunting period of Elul and the Yomim Noraim. Each of the 13 chapters of the sefer focuses on another concept culled from Chazal that can help a person receive a favorable judgment, whether it is showing mercy to others, increasing one’s toil over the Torah, making oneself needed by others, judging others favorably, or another virtuous practice or quality. The ideas are clear and practical, are backed up by extensive evidence, and clearly emerge from a pure heart suffused with love for Klal Yisroel.
And so here we are. Elul is upon us, the days of Slichos are approaching, and the air is filled with yearning for closeness to Hashem. The Gemara famously states that if a person performs an act of kiddushin to marry a woman and stipulates that it should take effect on the condition that he is a tzaddik, we must be concerned that the kiddushin may be valid even if he is known to be a rosha, since it is possible that he repented for his sins. This leads to the astonishing concept that a person can be transformed into a tzaddik in a single moment. Today, in our generation, many people are experiencing such instantaneous transformations.
Every year, I find myself remembering the experience of Elul during Rav Ovadiah Yosef’s lifetime, when teshuvah rallies were held throughout the country and the rov traveled to every location by car or was flown by helicopter to the more remote events. I used to make my way to the helicopter pad next to the Knesset to watch his departure; at times, I even had the privilege of accompanying Rav Ovadiah on the flights. Rav Ovadiah would sit in his seat, immersed in thoughts of Torah or perhaps mentally preparing a drosha, and occasionally cast a glance at the scenery below. I always felt as if I was in the presence of spiritual splendor that was a throwback to an earlier generation. And that heady feeling only intensified at the rallies, where thousands of people echoed Rav Ovadiah’s passionate cry of “Hashem hu ha’Elokim!”
Two Peoples in One State
Israel is inhabited by two peoples. The majority of the country consists of Jews who cling to the Torah, the source of all life, but there is a minority that is completely estranged from it. Unfortunately, the majority is often silenced and helpless in the face of the vocal minority.
This week, as Sephardim begin reciting Slichos, the media will express shock once again at the sight of tens of thousands of people streaming to the Kosel for that purpose and hundreds arriving at Yeshivas Ohr Hachaim in Yerushalayim every night. In contrast, there are plenty of people in Tel Aviv who will hear the word Elul and respond, “What’s Elul?” The concept of a spiritual awakening during this time of year escapes them completely; they are completely unaware of the meaning of the days leading up to Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. And that is not the only sad example of the Jewish ignorance that is rife in secular Israeli society. One day last week, when I left the Knesset shul, I washed in preparation for lunch and hurried to my office to begin my meal. As I was about to enter my office, someone approached me to strike up a conversation, and I motioned that I had just washed and was unable to speak. He stared at me in utter bewilderment; the meaning of my gestures had completely eluded him. Unfortunately, there are many such people in Israeli society, who were raised without familiarity with even the most basic concepts of Judaism.
However, this man does not represent the majority of Israelis, a fact that is illustrated by the following story from this past bein hazemanim: A yungerman borrowed a car from a friend who was traveling abroad for a vacation. “There has been some noise coming from beneath the hood,” the car owner informed the borrower before he departed. “I’d appreciate it if you can take the car to a mechanic to have it examined.” The yungerman obediently brought the car to an auto repair shop in Romema (known as Gavi and Erez) and asked the mechanic to place the vehicle on a lift and examine it to find the source of the disturbing noise. It turned out to be nothing more than a loose screw, but that is not the point of this story. While the yungerman was waiting for his turn, he leaned against a wall outside the garage and began perusing a sheaf of printed pages that he had brought with him, which contained a transcript of a complex shiur delivered by Rav Moshe Wolpin. While he was standing there, a secular man approached him and the yungerman tensed, expecting to be challenged to a debate over Torah learning and the draft. He kept his gaze studiously fixed on the printouts he held in his hand, hoping to avoid a contentious confrontation, but the other man leaned forward and asked, “Are you learning Torah?” The yungerman nodded silently, and he was surprised when the other customer said, “In that case, you should go before me. You deserve to go first.” This secular Israeli was awed by the sight of a chareidi yungerman taking advantage of the time he spent waiting for the mechanic to engage in Torah learning. And this was not the only surprising demonstration of respect for bnei Torah that he encountered that day. When the mechanic finished inspecting the car, the yungerman asked how much he owed for the visit. The garage owner replied, “It’s free. I won’t take a cent from someone who learns Torah as you do!”
While there are enemies of the Torah world here in Israel, they are in the minority!
Speaking of the eirev rav among us, Rebbetzin Leah Romm (the mother of the famed Rav Yaakov and Rav Aharon Romm and wife of the late Rav Moshe Romm, who taught in ITRI and Mishkan HaTorah and later founded Kollel Halacha L’Moshe) remarked pithily this week, “I would like all the enemies of religion to explain to me why they celebrate a holiday like Chanukah, when they are attempting to do exactly what the Yevonim tried to do to the Torah learners in their times.” Perhaps I should express my appreciation here to the rebbetzin for the insightful comments that she sends me on occasion regarding my writings in Yated Neeman. In any event, perhaps I can add to her sagacious question by pointing out that we should also question why they celebrate Yetzias Mitzrayim, Kabbolas HaTorah, Rosh Hashanah, and all sorts of other holidays, when they are attempting to achieve the exact opposite of what Klal Yisroel accomplished on those sublime occasions.
Why Does No One Try to Draft the Arabs?
People have begun talking about the fact that Arabs do not serve in the IDF. This week, a letter was made public that was written by the state prosecution in response to a citizen who demanded to know why the government does not cut off funding for academic studies for Arabs who do not enlist in the army, just as the budgets of yeshivos and kolelim have been slashed. Here is the official response of the State of Israel to this question: “In the current legal situation, members of the Arab populace are not called up for army service. This is a relevant distinction between this group and the members of the chareidi community who are summoned for service. It is not clear why anyone would a demand to place sanctions on individuals who are not called to serve and therefore haven’t violated an obligation. Therefore, we do not see any reason at this time to intervene in this matter.”
This answer blatantly sidesteps the crux of the question: Why don’t the Arabs receive draft orders? Since there is no law exempting them from army service, what is the basis for the fact that they aren’t called up to serve? Is it an administrative decision? Well, on what basis did the government make that decision? Even more to the point, the Supreme Court ruled that the government can grant draft exemptions to chareidim only by passing a law to that effect. When the government tried to continue issuing deferrals in the absence of a law, the court ruled that the move was unlawful and that an administrative government decision wasn’t sufficient for the deferrals to be valid. Therefore, the question stands: While it’s true that the Arabs do not receive draft orders and therefore are not violating their legal obligations, the government has no justification to refrain from sending those orders to them! Furthermore, the attorney general has already ruled that even if a yeshiva bochur hasn’t received a draft order, he is still considered to have criminal status if he doesn’t enlist in the IDF on his own initiative. By the same reasoning, the Arabs should be considered criminals for their own failure to enlist, despite the fact that they haven’t received draft orders. After all, there should be no legal difference between a yeshiva bochur and an Arab.
I have studied this topic in depth, and I can tell you with certainty that the government does not have answers to these questions!
The State Backtracked on Its Promise
My research on this subject has turned up another interesting fact: About twenty years ago, a legal expert named Liav Orgad wrote an article for the law journal Hamishpat titled “The Arab Minority in Israel and the Obligation of Military Service.” Orgad concluded that while there was a legal arrangement in place for chareidim to refrain from serving in the army, there was no such arrangement for Arabs, and the government simply refrained from sending them draft orders with no legal basis for doing so. Allow me to remind you that the Supreme Court ordered the army to draft chareidim on the grounds that there was no law permitting draft exemptions (which was the case because the court struck down the law) and, in their view, the principle of equality requires chareidim to be drafted. As I mentioned, the court insisted that the draft deferrals must be anchored in an actual law, not a government decision. This begs the question of why the court has declared all-out war on the chareidim, while no one is making the slightest effort to drag unwilling Arabs into the army. And the answer is not that no one bothered petitioning the Supreme Court about the Arabs; Minister David Amsalem has lodged complaints on this subject with the court several times already but has been repeatedly told to bring his case to the government instead. The inescapable conclusion is that the outcry against chareidim is nothing but sheer hypocrisy.
At the end of his article, Orgad wrote, “At the same time, one cannot ignore the legal difficulties posed by the lack of an arrangement for draft deferrals for the Arab minority. The arrangement in its current form rests on a shaky legal basis, and it is unclear whether it is done lawfully. Therefore, it is necessary to see to it that the government fulfills the attorney general’s commitment to the Supreme Court to introduce a new law that will anchor this subject in legislation.” At that time, the attorney general had apparently promised to ensure that the lack of a draft for the Arabs would be regulated by a new law. But no one seems to care about that today. Orgad quotes a ruling of the Supreme Court in 1997 regarding the draft for Arabs: “The attorney general’s instructions are to relate to the Arab populace as was determined for yeshiva bochurim. A law must be passed to regulate this matter [the draft exemption], as is stipulated in the aforementioned court ruling.” In other words, the government made a commitment 25 years ago to pass a law concerning the draft exemption for Arabs, and no one has carried out that commitment. Despite the uproar over the exemptions for yeshiva bochurim, no one is concerned in the slightest about the Arabs’ failure to serve!
The Only Solution Is to Daven
I presume that you have heard that a number of yeshiva bochurim were arrested during bein hazemanim for dodging the draft. Gedolim visited the bochurim in military prison, and several tefillah rallies were held on their behalf. This situation has been a source of deep aggravation. Today, yeshiva bochurim in Eretz Yisroel are facing the daily threat of arrest, especially those who have already been officially defined as deserters. The Vaad Hayeshivos and other organizations have launched programs to assist bochurim who are detained, but there is very little that they can do. The situation is complex, and the law in its current form poses a serious challenge. There is no real solution at this time.
Given the myriad problems that are facing us—the persecution of Torah learners, the hostages in Gaza, and the many people in our nation who are in need of personal salvations—there is only one thing we can do. That, of course, is what our forefathers have done in every generation—to daven! In Parshas Vayishlach, after the Torah lists the twelve sons of Yaakov Avinu, the posuk identifies them as the children “who were born to him in Padan Aram.” However, the Chizkuni points out that Binyomin was not born in Padam Adam. He goes on to explain that since Binyomin’s birth was a result of Rochel Imeinu’s prayer in Padam Aram, the Torah views it as if he was born there. Similarly, the Gemara states (Brachos 54b) and the Shulchan Aruch rules (Orach Chaim 218) that a brocha is recited upon seeing locations where miracles were performed for Bnei Yisroel, including the boulder where Moshe sat during the battle against Amalek. Many meforshim question this, pointing out that the miracle ostensibly happened on the battlefield, not at the boulder. The Maharsha, along with others, posits that the miracle is indeed attributed to the place where Moshe sat, where he raised his hands to daven to Hashem and caused the people to defeat their enemies.
Tefillah is our main recourse and the only solution to the troubles that face us. I spoke to a talmid chochom who was traveling to Meron to visit the kever of Rabi Shimon bar Yochai. He remarked, “The posuk in Tehillim states, ‘A maskil for Dovid when he was in the cave, a prayer.’ A tzaddik once remarked that this posuk doesn’t mean to tell us simply that Dovid davened while he was in the cave. Rather, when he was in the cave, he discovered that tefillah was his only recourse!”
Another talmid chochom commented to me this week, “People make the mistake of thinking that our first order of business is to seek the assistance of doctors and lawyers as hishtadlus, and then we must daven for our efforts to succeed. This is a misconception; in truth, davening is our main task, and hishtadlus comes second.” He added, “Everyone was amazed by the miracle at Soroka Hospital in Beer Sheva, where the area that was struck by a missile had been evacuated the day before. Many people thought that that wing of the hospital was emptied as a stroke of hashgocha because a missile was going to strike. But the opposite is true: The reason the missile struck the hospital is that the wing had been cleared of patients on the previous day!”
As someone once remarked, the last person to cross the Yam Suf might have said, “What a miracle this was! We managed to make it through the sea just before the water flooded the area again!” But this isn’t the correct perspective. On the contrary, the water returned to its place because the last members of Klal Yisroel had finished traversing the sea.
Rav Gershon Edelstein and Rav Chaim Kanievsky wrote several years ago, at a time of distress for Klal Yisroel, “There is an absolute obligation for all of us to practice the craft of our ancestors and storm the gates of Heaven with tefillos.” Today, the gedolei Yisroel continue exhorting us to daven for salvation, and many Yom Kippur Katan services were organized last week, on erev Rosh Chodesh Elul. We are all beseeching Hashem with great fervor to save us from our enemies.
Appreciating Torah Learners
What did a bochur from Yeshivas Kiryat Melech in Bnei Brak do during the second week of bein hazemanim? I’ll give you three guesses…. If you guessed that he made a siyum, then you hit the nail on the head.
The Appel and Weisfish families have honoring the Torah and those who study it, and the siyum, which they arranged and oversaw, was a special event. Everyone was particularly moved by the appearance of Rav Moshe Goldstein, the rosh yeshiva of Ayeles Hashachar and former rosh yeshiva of Shaarei Yosher, a noted talmid of Rav Shach who is known for his expertise on chinuch. Rav Goldstein, the rebbi of the host of the event and of his brothers-in-law in the Weisfish family, spoke succinctly but meaningfully, and I will quote his central message.
“There is much talk about the disrespect that is being shown to lomdei Torah, which is a very real problem,” Rav Goldstein said. “However, I want to point out the other side of the coin: We are fortunate to witness a talmid chochom completing a masechta. This is an event that deserves honor and appreciation. It behooves us to increase the honor shown to talmidei chochomim. It is important to rejoice at the sight of a ben Torah increasing his elevation. A siyum is a wonderful reason to celebrate The more we honor and appreciate talmidei chochomim, the more Hashem will help us and see to it that lomdei Torah receive honor from the other side as well.”
The Protests That Help Hamas
The recent videos showing the Israeli hostages languishing in Hamas captivity, their bodies reduced to nothing more than skin and bones, were too horrific for the average heart to bear. Everyone was undoubtedly thinking the same thoughts: That could have been me, or my brother, or my father…. Every Jew is in danger of being abducted by terrorists, wherever he lives.
Amazingly, the recent revelations seem to have triggered a rapid transformation. Until now, the people were deeply divided. The Kaplan protestors demanded an immediate deal at any cost and an end to the fighting in Gaza, while their opponents called for an all-or-nothing approach, demanding the release of all the hostages at once and the destruction of Hamas. Bibi Netanyahu’s enemies pilloried him with a wide range of deprecations, calling him a traitor and a murderer, for his stubborn insistence on reaching an agreement that would see all the hostages freed at once rather than giving in to Hamas’s demands for a piecemeal deal. The protestors claimed that this was a sign that Netanyahu has no interest in the hostages’ well-being; however, that attitude has changed. Today, even Netanyahu’s enemies are demanding the release of all the hostages at once.
This week, the entire country was shocked once again when President Trump suggested that some of the twenty hostages presumed to be surviving in Gaza are no longer alive. Trump also said that Hamas has no reason to free them all, since the terrorists are well aware that as soon as they lose their bargaining chips, Israel will hunt down and kill every last leader of the terror organization. The hostages are therefore an insurance policy of sorts for Hamas. Trump is correct in his analysis, which is why this situation is so terrifying. I am sure you will not be surprised to hear that the plight of the hostages in Gaza is causing even more distress to the citizens of Israel than the missile launched on Friday night from Yemen, the wedding of Avner Netanyahu that may or may not take place this week, and even the attorney general’s latest edict prohibiting subsidized day care. Last week, Ambassador Mike Huckabee made an astounding statement concerning the hostages. After emphasizing that he hoped that the deal to release the hostages will materialize soon, and asserting that Hamas is the main obstacle to such a deal due to their constant insistence on adding new terms and creating new hurdles, the ambassador said bluntly, “Leaving Hamas in the Gaza Strip would be like leaving the Nazis in Germany!”
The issue of the Israeli hostages in Gaza will surely evoke great puzzlement and consternation when it is studied by historians in the future. Every intelligent person understands that in any negotiation, a person cannot afford to let the other side know when he is wavering. Unfortunately, the Kaplan protestors have been tying the hands of the government and the army since this situation began. If there is someone in Hamas who is making decisions, what do you suppose he thinks whenever he sees the protestors exerting massive pressure on the government to cave to the terrorists’ demands? Isn’t it obvious that the protests are harming the hostages’ cause? When Tzvika Mor and his fellow members of the Tikva Forum, along with other parents of hostages, demanded a deal that would secure the release of all the hostages at once without ending the war or providing humanitarian aid, that was because they believed that this was the only way to bring all the hostages home. They argued that an agreement for the hostages to be released in multiple phases would serve Hamas’s agenda, and they seem to have been correct about that! Today, the people who accused Tzvika Mor of giving up on his own son (a horrific accusation) have come to see the matter from his perspective as well. It doesn’t take a genius to understand that Netanyahu isn’t turning his back on the hostages by insisting on unrestrained warfare in Gaza, and that he is actually trying to see to it that the captives are retrieved. Even the government ministers who speak about prioritizing the war over bringing the hostages home are actually hastening progress on a deal for the release of all the hostages. The people who are demanding concessions and accusing Israel of genocide are the ones who are delaying the hostages’ return and abandoning them in the terrorists’ hands. May Hashem protect them!
A Murdered Soldier’s Father Speaks
Every year, Mrs. Teichman of Los Angeles holds a memorial event for her husband Chaim Shlomo Zalman (Sol), who passed away in Elul 5778/2018 at the age of 91. The story of Mr. Teichman’s life is mind-boggling. He was born in Munkatch and lived through the horrors of the Holocaust, eventually settling in Los Angeles, where he became a wealthy businessman who went on to contribute huge sums to institutions of Torah learning and chassidus. Mr. Teichman, who was blessed with a noble personality and exceptional middos, built many botei medrash in Eretz Yisroel and throughout the world. He often spoke longingly about the town of Munkatch and the Minchas Elazar; he remembered vividly how the Rebbe had begged the Jews of America, in a video taken during his daughter’s wedding, to observe Shabbos. In 1940, shortly after Sol Teichman’s bar mitzvah, his father was deported to a labor camp in Hungary. On the second day of Pesach 5704/1944, the Jews of Munkatch were given a single hour to leave their homes and were confined to a ghetto. Several months later, they were deported to Auschwitz. That was the last time that Mr. Teichman saw his mother, his sister, and three of his brothers. He once remarked, “If you didn’t have emunah there, you would have no reason to live,” a statement that is an eerie echo of the comments made by almost all the returning hostages from Gaza.
Sol Teichman and his brother survived the death march and were herded into a train. When the Allied forces began bombing the area, the two youths jumped out of the train to save themselves. After the war, the two brothers were among the 200 orphans granted entry to the United States; these were the first children to leave Europe. The ship arrived in New York on Shabbos afternoon, and the Teichman brothers refused to disembark until Shabbos had ended, remembering the Minchas Elazar’s promise that if the Jews keep Shabbos, things will be good for them. The brothers made their way to Los Angeles, and Sol celebrated his marriage a few years later. Since he was a supporter of Kollel Halacha L’Moshe, his levayah was held there. Rav Yaakov Romm, the rosh kollel, has been organizing a yahrtzeit event in memory of Mr. Teichman every year since his passing. This year’s event was held last Sunday, and Tzvika Mor, the head of the Tikvah Forum and father of hostage Eitan Mor, was scheduled to speak. Nevertheless, Mor made a last-minute decision to travel to Washington and asked his good friend Yehoshua Shani, a Holocaust survivor and one of the leaders of the Tikvah Forum, whose son was recently killed in action, to deliver the speech in his place. Tears flowed freely at this event, which I attended; I hope to report further to you about it soon, bli neder.
A Visit to the Sochachev Bais Medrash
When I was a talmid in the Ponovezh yeshiva ketanah, there was an orphaned boy from Tel Aviv named Shmulik Bernstein who was admired by the entire yeshiva. Shmulik was a brilliant young man with a noble personality and outstanding character traits who was deeply admired by his peers. He seemed capable of becoming one of the greatest roshei yeshivos and marbitzei Torah of the generation; however, he was slated to become a chassidish rebbe instead—the Sochachover Rebbe. I once nicknamed him “the yenuka” and the nickname took hold in the yeshiva; I believe that he held it against me afterward. In any event, I wonder if any of you can likewise claim that you once had a future chassidish rebbe as a classmate.
Last week, I visited the Sochachov bais medrash in Bayit Vegan for Mincha and Maariv and I found myself recalling a previous visit when I watched Judge Tzvi Tal (the former religious Supreme Court justice who headed the Tal Commission; he passed away on the 12th of Tammuz 5781) teaching halacha between Mincha and Maariv. There is something highly appealing about this bais medrash. When I arrived, I spotted the Rebbe in his usual seat at the front of the room, where he sat immersed in his seforim during the period between Mincha and Maariv. When he caught sight of me and recognized me, he smiled.
Several copies of Kovetz Imrei Kodesh, a collection of the Rebbe’s divrei Torah, lay on the tables in the bais medrash, and I would like to share an incredible insight that I found in one of these seforim, on the posuk (Devarim 8:7), “You shall observe the commandments of Hashem your G-d, to follow His ways and to fear Him, for Hashem your G-d is bringing you to a good land….” The logic of this posuk seems somewhat difficult to follow. Why does the Torah present Bnei Yisroel’s impending entry to Eretz Yisroel as a reason for them to fear Hashem? What is the connection between Eretz Yisroel and yiras Shomayim, and, for that matter, how is it even possible for Bnei Yisrael to be commanded to fear Hashem? Will a person experience yiras Shomayim simply because he is commanded to do so?
According to the sefer, the Rebbe quoted an answer to this question attributed to his father. Regarding Moshe Rabbeinu’s desire to enter Eretz Yisroel, the Gemara comments (Sotah 14a), “Did he need to eat its fruit and sate himself from its goodness? Rather, this was so that he could fulfill the mitzvos dependent on the land.” The meforshim point out that the brocha of al hamichya states specifically that Hashem granted Eretz Yisroel to the Jewish people “to eat its fruits and be sated from its goodness.” Why, then, does the Gemara take it as a foregone conclusion that Moshe’s desire to enter Eretz Yisroel wasn’t for this reason?
Parenthetically, the current Rebbe’s father, Rav Menachem Shlomo Bornstein, the Sochachov-Radomsk Rebbe, was the rov of the Yad Eliyohu neighborhood of Tel Aviv, the rosh yeshiva of the Sochachov yeshiva in Yerushalayim, and rosh kollel of the Radomsk kollel in Bnei Brak, whose yahrtzeit was observed last week; he perished in a car accident on the 27th of Av 5729/1969 after visiting a talmid in Tel Hashomer Hospital. The massive and deeply emotional funeral in Tel Aviv, which began at his home at Rechov La Guardia 67, was attended by thousands of people, including gedolei Torah and other public figures, headed by the Gerrer Rebbe, who had come from Yerushalayim. The newspapers reported on the following day that the niftar’s son, eight-year-old Shmulik, had recited Kaddish. That son, of course, is the current rebbe of the chassidus. In Yerushalayim, the aron was brought to the Sochachov bais medrash, where numerous speakers eulogized the niftar, including Rav Michel Feinstein and Rav Isser Unterman, the chief rabbi of Israel at the time.
Back to the sefer: Rav Shmuel Yitzchok, the current Rebbe, quotes his father, Rav Menachem Shlomo, who quoted his own father, Rav Chanoch Henoch, who quoted his brother, the previous Rebbe and author of the Chasdei Dovid, as asserting that the fruits of Eretz Yisroel engender yiras Shomayim. With that, he explained, “The reason we recite a special brocha acharonah on fruits from Eretz Yisroel is that they have the power to create yiras Shomayim. However, Moshe Rabbeinu had no need for this; the Gemara states (Brachos 33b) that yiras Shomayim was a trivial matter in his eyes, since he possessed it. Thus, the Gemara indicates that Moshe couldn’t have wished to enter Eretz Yisroel for the sake of absorbing yiras Shomayim from its fruits. Similarly, this explains why the posuk implies that there is a direct connection between entering Eretz Yisroel and developing yiras Shomayim, and how it is possible to command a person to have yiras Shomayim: Since Bnei Yisroel would have access to the fruits of Eretz Yisroel, which are conducive to yiras Shomayim, they would have a guaranteed method of developing that state of mind.
A Miracle in Binyomin
There is always much to write about, and at this time, in the week after bein hazemanim, there is even more to report than usual. For one thing, Arab terror is continuing. Last Thursday, Arab terrorists opened fire on a group of young Jewish boys working as shepherds at the Malachei Hashalom outpost in the Binyomin Regional Council. The IDF spokesman reported that the terrorist fired at the Jews and then a physical altercation began. Paramedics treated a 20-year-old wounded victim, who was evacuated to the hospital with minor head injuries. This incident was truly miraculous, since the terrorist’s gun jammed when he began his attack. If not for that malfunction, the incident could have ended in a horrific slaughter. IDF forces proceeded to seal off several nearby Arab villages as they hunted for the terrorist, who had been seen by witnesses fleeing to a nearby village. On Thursday afternoon, there was another incident in which a terrorist approached the Tamar checkpoint in Chevron carrying an air gun and was neutralized by the soldiers.
On Friday, a Palestinian in his thirties from the village of al-Mughayyir was arrested on suspicion of carrying out the attack against the Jewish shepherds. Spokesmen for the Shin Bet, IDF, and police reported that the terrorist was located through focused searches of the village near the scene of the attack. The troops first located the gun that was believed to have been used during the attack, and sources within the police force pointed out that the quick capture of the terrorist was made possible due to the exceptional collaboration between the Shin Bet, the police, and the IDF. “When every unit brings its own relative advantage to the table, the mutual collaboration gives rise to quick results,” the spokesman pointed out. This was clearly a reaction to the claims that relations between the Shin Bet and the police department in Yehuda and Shomron have been rocky in recent times.
Chareidi Majority in Yerushalayim Schools
There is plenty of additional news to report, such as the measles outbreak that has already led to the deaths of two children in Yerushalayim and has prompted rabbonim to call on the public to receive immunizations, as well as the discovery of mosquitos carrying the West Nile virus. I would also have liked to write about the embarrassing malfunctions that shut down train service, and about a historic development in Yerushalayim: This year, for the first time, the majority of students in the city’s schools are chareidi. I believe that I will write about this in further detail next week, and I will report on the phenomenon of anti-Semitism in Europe as well. I have an explanation for the spike in anti-Semitism that has nothing to do with the starvation of children in Gaza.
But the news about the chareidi majority in schools brings us back to the topic with which we began: the month of Elul. This is the beginning of the Elul zman in yeshivos and chadorim throughout the country, and the new academic year for girls will begin in just a few days. Excitement is running high as our children are heading to their schools and yeshivos to embark on another year of learning, and the kol Torah is beginning to reverberate in our botei medrash. With Hashem’s help, we will soon see the fulfillment of the promise that when the voice of Yaakov is heard, the hands of Eisov become powerless.
