Tuesday, Mar 26, 2024

My Take On The News

 

A Special Bond with the Gaavad

This week began on a somber note, with the passing of the Gaavad of the Eidah Chareidis, Rav Tuvia Weiss. The rov had been ill in recent times, and the religious community in Israel had monitored his medical condition anxiously. Last Friday, many were aware that his condition was deteriorating and prayed for his recovery. Those who were closest to him remained at his bedside in Hadassah Hospital with great devotion. On motzoei Shabbos, the public was informed that he had passed away on Friday night.

Now, it is true that the Eidah Chareidis of Yerushalayim, of which Rav Weiss was the leader, is a highly zealous and isolationist group that constitutes a minority within chareidi society. The Eidah Chareidis does not see eye to eye with the majority of the chareidi public on many issues, including the question of how to relate to Israeli elections; they do not participate in the elections for the Knesset. Nevertheless, those differences are irrelevant now. Whenever a gadol or talmid chacham passes away, it is a loss for the entire community.

At the request of the publisher, I wrote a separate article about the Gaavad and the massive levayah that was held on Sunday. In this column, I will mention only one small detail—my own personal relationship with Rav Tuvia Weiss. Although he was a kanai who refused to tolerate compromise on issues of importance, he was also an extremely pleasant and pragmatic individual on a personal level. Whenever I interacted with him, I felt that I was dealing with the most pleasant and gracious Yid in the world.

My son and I once visited Rav Tuvia Weiss to request a brocha. We arrived at his home on Rechov Masas Moshe in the neighborhood of Gush Shmonim, and I was told by the family member who answered the door that I couldn’t simply show up at the rov’s doorstep whenever I pleased. He had hours for receiving the public, and visitors needed to schedule appointments in advance.

“Is the rov home?” I asked.

“Yes,” came the reply, “but as I explained to you, it doesn’t work that way….”

“Tell him that the grandson of Rav Binyomin Zev Yaakovson is here,” I replied.

To the astonishment of the rov’s gatekeeper—Rav Tuvia Weiss came to the door and ushered me into his home, where he sat with my son and me for a long time and graciously engaged us in conversation.

A Bond Born in Gateshead

You may be wondering why the Gaavad felt a special connection to my family. That story begins over 75 years ago, when Rav Tuvia Weiss was a bochur, or perhaps a yungerman, in the Gateshead yeshiva. My grandfather, Rav Binyomin Zev Yaakovson, was one of the leaders of Agudas Yisroel at the time; he was the right-hand man of Rav Yaakov Rosenheim and a representative of Keren HaTorah. In that capacity, he would regularly visit yeshivos around the world and was affiliated with the roshei yeshivos of that generation. When he came to Gateshead, I believe it was for the purpose of visiting one of his sons in the yeshiva; my father and two of his brothers learned in Gateshead. To this day, I cannot be sure of which child my grandfather was visiting.

In any event, after my grandfather arrived in Gateshead, he was introduced to Tuvia Weiss, who was known as a brilliant young man. I do not have all the details of the story, but one thing is for certain: My illustrious grandfather and the young Rav Tuvia Weiss had a brief exchange during that visit, and a powerful friendship blossomed between them. As soon as the young man was introduced, my grandfather said, “Are you the young man known as ‘Mishnah Berurah Weiss,’ whom I have heard so much about?” He had been told that the young Rav Tuvia had mastered the entire Mishnah Berurah. Rav Tuvia was flustered by this comment, but the nickname “Mishnah Berurah Weiss” remained with him for many years to come.

Naturally, I asked Rav Weiss if this story was true, and he confirmed that it was. I also asked if it is true that he mastered the entire Mishnah Berurah; he laughed heartily in response.

I recently attended a special event at the Pressburg bais medrash in Givat Shaul, where I daven regularly. When the Gaavad entered the room, his gabbaim (led by Rav Amram Shapiro) instructed the crowd to refrain from approaching him. (I once visited him and asked him to daven for someone who was ill with “the machalah.” He proceeded to tell me about his own condition and the chemotherapy and radiation treatments that he was undergoing and assured me that there was much hope for the patient.) When he left the shul, his entourage formed a ring around him and forbade anyone to approach him. As the group passed me, however, I managed to call out to him, “I’m Yaakovson!” The Gaavad immediately turned to me, motioned for the yungeleit surrounding him to let me through, and struck up a conversation with me. His companions were astonished once again.

On that note, the Gaavad was a frequent visitor to the Pressburg shul and was a close associate of its late rov, Rav Simcha Bunim Schreiber-Sofer, who was a descendant of the Chasam Sofer. Rav Tuvia Weis considered himself a close friend of the Sofer family and closely connected to the Pressburg shul.

To make a long story short, I feel that I had my own personal version of the Gaavad in my own life. To me, he was the sweetest and most pleasant man in the world, a giant among men and an outstanding talmid chochom who even spoke to my young son as if they were equals, and who was still warmed by the affection that my grandfather had shown him 75 years earlier.

Is UTJ Heading Toward a Split?

Of course, we cannot have a week without political news. The election is less than 90 days away, and the political playing field is beginning to take shape. On one side, we have the Likud, the chareidim, and the political right, but the exact picture has yet to become fully clear. At this point, it is still unclear if United Torah Judaism will break into its two component parties—Degel HaTorah and Agudas Yisroel. (I hope to get some clear information on this subject from MK Uri Maklev very soon.) If their ongoing talks prove fruitless, it is possible that the Religious Zionism party will split, with Betzalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir each heading their own respective parties. The exact breakdown of the parties is therefore unlikely to be known until the last possible minute.

On the other side of the divide are the centrist parties: Yesh Atid, headed by Yair Lapid, and Benny Gantz’s party, Blue and White, which recently joined forces with New Hope, the party headed by Gideon Saar. The purpose of this union, in addition to preventing Saar from being washed out of the political scene altogether, was to create a larger party that would pose a serious threat to Yesh Atid. If Gantz and Saar manage to rack up enough mandates to compete with Yesh Atid, then Gantz will be able to argue that he is no less fit than Lapid to serve as prime minister.

It is clear that neither Lapid nor Gantz will be capable of forming a government alone. However, if Netanyahu likewise fails to receive the support of 61 members of the Knesset, then a three-way competition will begin. Netanyahu will try to attract defectors from the political center, Lapid will try to attract the chareidim and the Arabs (lehavdil) to his corner, and Gantz will also lay claim to the crown. Ever since Naftoli Bennett used his paltry six mandates to seize the premiership, it seems that everyone feels entitled to vie for the position. Gantz has been claiming repeatedly that he is the only person who can form an alliance with both the left and the chareidim; this is an implied jab at Lapid, whom the chareidi parties will have a hard time agreeing to join. Having set his sights on the top position in the country, Gantz believes that every additional mandate that his party receives, even if it comes at a high cost in the form of concessions to Gideon Saar and his colleagues, is worth the sacrifice, since it will place him in a better position to jockey for the office of prime minister.

Yamina Enters a New Alliance

But that is not all the news on the political scene. There are two left-wing parties—Labor and Meretz. The Labor party recently held its primaries; as could be expected, the winner was Merav Michaeli, the current transportation minister. Meretz, meanwhile, is in the process of working out its own slate and has run into many complications. The party chairman, Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz, stepped down as the leader of the party and decided to serve only as an ordinary member of the Knesset. According to the polls, Meretz is hovering somewhere around the electoral threshold and is in danger of being left out of the next Knesset; they have therefore called on their former chairwoman, Zehava Galon, to submit her candidacy for the position, in the hope that she will boost their performance at the polls. Galon will be vying in the primaries against MK Yair Golan, a radical leftist and a general in the IDF reserves. If Golan wins the primaries, then Meretz will almost certainly be wiped off the political map altogether in the election. Some of its members, fearing the potential disappearance of the left, have been calling for Labor and Meretz to merge. Zehava Galon is a strong proponent of this idea; however, Merav Michaeli is vehemently opposed to it. This has led to significant tensions.

Then there is Avigdor Lieberman’s party, Yisroel Beiteinu, which is an enigma. There is no apparent reason that this party should garner enough votes to cross the electoral threshold, since it has nothing to offer voters. During this government’s term, Lieberman served as the finance minister and turned out to be a complete failure. The soaring cost of living is the most significant issue for the country at this time, and Lieberman is to blame for it. Without going into detail, I will add that the war between Russia and Ukraine has also resulted in a negative impact on Lieberman’s voter base.

But the most interesting story of all concerns Yamina, the party that was headed by Naftoli Bennett until he decided to abandon it and resign from political life. The members of Yamina have scattered in every direction, leaving Ayelet Shaked as the party head. In the most recent development, Yoaz Hendel decided to join Shaked. Do you remember Yoaz Hendel? He is a right-wing politician who founded the Derech Eretz party along with his partner, Tzvi Hauser; the two men later joined the ranks of Blue and White. Hendel is the Minister of Communications and has fought a pitched battle against the kosher cell phone industry. He has now forged an alliance with Ayelet Shaked, and Yamina and Derech Eretz will now fuse together as a new party calling itself the Zionist Spirit. There is no logical reason that Shaked and Hendel should attract voters even after joining forces; however, the first poll after the union shows them crossing the electoral threshold in an election. For the chareidim, it would be a good thing if they do make it across the threshold, since they have both announced that they will support Netanyahu—even though Hendel himself has always spoken against him.

In a word, the political scene in Israel is a mess.

The Supreme Court Sides with the Chareidim

Having mentioned Yoaz Hendel, I must tell you about the defeat that he suffered last Thursday in the Supreme Court. I am not familiar with all the details of what Hendel has been trying to do, but I am aware that all the gedolei Yisroel opposed him, yet he remained intractably committed to his plan. A group of admorim met with him and appealed to him to scrap his plan to “reform” the cell phone industry, but Hendel refused to back down. He insisted on believing that he could reeducate the chareidi community, although he suffered a humiliating defeat in the Knesset when a bill rejecting his reform passed by a small margin. That defeat has now been compounded by the Supreme Court’s partial acceptance of an appeal filed by chareidi organizations against his initiative.

At this time, the Supreme Court has issued a temporary order suspending the reform of the cell phone industry introduced by Hendel. The court added that the issue will be reviewed again in January or February of the year 2023. The chareidi representatives in the Knesset expressed satisfaction with this decision. “This is a victory for justice and integrity over the government’s aggressive attempt to force foreign values on a large populace that is interested in clean media,” Aryeh Deri declared. Meir Porush added, “Even the justices of the Supreme Court understand that Minister Yoaz Hendel’s efforts to destroy the character of chareidi society crossed a red line. The chareidi political leadership is committed to advancing the law that will protect the kosher cell phone industry. In keeping with the instructions we have received from the gedolei Yisroel, we will do so as soon as the next Knesset is elected.”

Uri Maklev announced, “The Supreme Court’s verdict shows the degree to which Hendel’s reform was offensive and tainted by personal considerations. He scoffed at the sincere concerns of the gedolei Yisroel and the entire community, and he conceitedly rejected every attempt that was made to reach an understanding on the issue. One cannot ignore the lack of professionalism, the appalling arrogance, and the haste with which this decision was made in an effort to reshape the community’s way of thinking. The advancement of Hendel’s reform was based on narrow political interests; he hoped to score political gains and earn accolades from the public. With siyata d’shmaya, this scheme ended up teaching him a lesson; he was humiliated and disgraced in the eyes of all of Israel, to the point that he was politically ostracized and was relegated to knocking on doors in order to seek some sort of political placement.”

Emes L’Yaakov, one of the organizations that appealed to the court against Hendel’s initiative, responded to the news with the following statement: “After the court put the brakes on the day care reform, and after the additional achievement today in the appeal against the public transportation reform [a topic for another article -TY], we are proud to be signatories on the appeal that halted this egregious assault on the hundreds of thousands of users of kosher cell phones in the chareidi community. We will continue fighting against every form of harm to our community and every attempt to trample on the rights of over a million people in the State of Israel.”

Lapid Is His Own Worst Enemy

Yair Lapid continues to be the running joke of the Israeli political world. I recently wrote a separate article about his many failures, which may appear in this newspaper either this week or next week, but with every passing day, I have come to realize that I did not write enough. Lapid simply comes across as a mentally deficient child.

Last week, one of Israel’s foremost writers had the following to say in a newspaper editorial: “When this superficial man spouts nonsense, it is humiliating. When he stands at the helm of our government, it is frightening. What did he say to Biden during their private meeting? What did he promise the king of Jordan, without understanding what he was talking about? What does he do during his meetings with the IDF chief of staff and the director of the Mossad? Does he push the intelligence reports aside and talk to them about schnitzel?”

That was an allusion to another video released this week, in which Lapid was seen addressing a group of graduates with the following inane message: “I would like to give you a piece of advice as you prepare to enter the work force and to begin your life as adults: Do not be a schnitzel. A schnitzel is a person who thinks that he knows what will happen in the future only because he remembers what happened in the past. The world is full of schnitzels.” This, in a nutshell, is Yair Lapid: He makes himself sound philosophical and authoritative, but his speeches are nothing but collections of empty, meaningless words.

The Midget Threatens the Giant

The most devastatingly accurate depiction of Lapid that I saw this week was a political cartoon, in which a giant with the face of Vladimir Putin can be seen standing next to a midget with the appearance of Yair Lapid. In the picture, the midget, who is barely visible next to the gargantuan figure beside him, can be seen wagging his finger disapprovingly at the despot who is many times his size.

I simply cannot come to terms with the fact that Yair Lapid is the prime minister of Israel. This country has entered a state of insanity. The diplomatic crisis with Russia is maddening, and Lapid’s arrogant behavior would cause anyone to cringe. May Hashem save us from this prime minister! The newspapers report that Lapid is threatening Russia with serious consequences for its behavior, and I cannot help but wonder what sort of ammunition he has that can pose a threat to this superpower? If anything, I believe he is holding the gun backward….

As the foreign minister, Lapid caused Israel to become embroiled in conflicts with many other countries. Now, as the prime minister, he has the audacity to threaten Putin. What else can he do wrong? All that is left is for him to plunge the entire region into war by instigating a conflict with Syria as well. There is good reason that foreign leaders despised Netanyahu, who stood his ground despite their determined efforts to force him to bend to their wishes. As Netanyahu himself told me, the American government would prefer to see Lapid occupying the office of prime minister, since he would comply with all of their whims. President Herzog wisely told Lapid, “The less we talk, the better.” Translated into less statesmanlike terms, this was his way of saying, “Do everyone a favor and close your mouth!” And Israel is in a sorry state indeed if Yitzchok Herzog is now playing the role of the responsible adult.

Once and for all, let it be made clear: This country would be much better off with Bibi Netanyahu, a responsible statesman, at its helm, rather than a joker like Yair Lapid.

Lapid’s empty threats somehow remind me of the famous story of Hershele of Ostropol, who found himself facing a storekeeper who refused to allow him to purchase food on credit. “If you don’t let me buy something now, I am going to have to do what my father did!” Hershele warned the proprietor.

“What did your father do?” the other man asked.

Hershele paused and then replied, “He went to bed hungry!”

The Police Failed to Guard the Walls

The state comptroller recently released his report on domestic events during Operation Guardian of the Walls, the military operation carried out by Israel in the Gaza strip in May 2021, in response to rocket fire directed at Yerushalayim and the Gush Dan region of the country. During that time, the Arab residents of Israel began rioting. All of the cities with mixed populations of Jews and Arabs (Yaffo, Haifa, Ramle, Acco, and especially Lod) were rocked by waves of violence, as Arab rioters destroyed their neighbors’ homes, pelted Jews with stones, carried out lynches, and even murdered Jews. Tragically, the Arab rioters torched numerous shuls, mainly in the city of Lod. You may recall that I visited Lod about a year ago and reported to you on the aftermath of the violence there.

This past Wednesday, the state comptroller released a scathing report accusing the police of not being sufficiently prepared for the Arab violence. The report also found fault with the Shabak for its handling of the situation. The weak response of Israel’s security forces placed hundreds of thousands of Israelis in danger. The report reveals that the police and the intelligence agency grossly underestimated the severity of the situation, the two bodies failed to coordinate their operations with each other, and did not recognize the government’s instructions for dealing with the issue. Part of the problem was the lack of a program to collect information from social media, as well as a paucity of Arabic-speaking intelligence agents. The comptroller also found that the number of police officers assigned to deal with the Arab violence was insufficient from the outset, the officers were not adequately trained, and they were not given the means to contend with the rioters. In other words, it was only by Hashem’s grace that this country survived the wave of rioting.

The comptroller added, “Even when the police understood the severity of the situation, they did not provide the operational response that was necessary to deal with the threat that they identified. The police hotline also collapsed under the burden, and thousands of calls for help from citizens in danger went unanswered. Today, one year and three months after the events, the police do not have enough evidence against the rioters, and charges were pressed only against 18 percent of the detainees.”

As the posuk states, if Hashem does not protect a city, the watchman stands guard in vain. Let us not forget that it is only Hashem, not the police or the army, Who protects us from our foes.

Terror Lurking on the Roads

Over the past two weeks, there have been many traffic incidents in Israel, some of which resulted in fatalities. We have reached the point where the Israeli people can no longer tolerate hearing so many tragic reports. There is a limit to the human ability to assimilate disaster. Of course, even a single accident is tragic, and even the loss of a single life is a reason to mourn. Nevertheless, it is even more painful to hear about a spate of such tragedies.

Let us begin with the numbers. Since the beginning of the secular year, 197 Israelis have been killed on the roads. And let us keep in mind that we are only seven months into the year! Last Thursday was one of the bloodiest days of the entire year; there was a fatal accident in the Sinai, another fatal accident in the south, and a third in the city of Kiryat Malachi. The third accident was perhaps the most shocking of all: Sholom Dov Ber Lifsh, a Lubavitch bochur who lived in the Chabad neighborhood of Kiryat Malachi, and who had set up a tefillin stand catering to passersby, was struck and killed by a passing car. The city of Kiryat Malachi was plunged into mourning.

It wasn’t only the number of fatalities that left the country reeling from these tragedies; it was also the identities of the drivers responsible for the accidents. In every one of those three accidents, the driver who caused the crash was a non-Jew. The roads in the south are plagued by reckless drivers from the local Bedouin settlements, while Palestinian motorists are known for driving wildly on the roads in Yehuda and Shomron. The Bedouins have a reputation for sheer recklessness and wild driving habits; as for the Palestinians, some believe that they deliberately cause traffic accidents to murder Jews. The Palestinians attempt to cause Jewish drivers to veer off the road or to crash into objects, and thus to cause a loss of life. These are indisputable facts.

Last week, after a crash near Maaleh Levonah that took the life of six-year-old Matan Zinman, his mother attested that she was certain that the Arab driver had deliberately tried to kill everyone in her car. “The car crashed into us head-on,” she attested. The car crash in the south on Thursday, which took the lives of two prominent figures in Israeli industry, also killed the Bedouin driver responsible for the accident; it was later discovered that he had never even received a driver’s license. The residents of Yehuda and Shomron are outraged by the government’s refusal to label the accidents on their roads as acts of terror; the residents of the south, meanwhile, cannot understand why the police are doing nothing about the lawlessness of the Bedouins.

Moshe Saada Speaks

There is another issue that has been attracted significant attention over the past week. All of the country’s newspapers, including the chareidi publications, dedicated multiple pages in their Friday editions to this story, but I will give you a brief overview of the issue.

As you know, former Prime Minister Binyomin Netanyahu is currently being tried in criminal court. The trial deals with several different indictments, one of which involves the Bezeq telecommunications company and the web site known as Walla. In that case, Netanyahu stands accused of providing benefits to Bezeq in exchange for positive coverage on Walla, which is owned by the owner of Bezeq. To date, two things have become clear in the course of this trial: Netanyahu did not provide any benefits to Bezeq, and Walla did not provide any favors to him. But the trial is still in full swing. In the second case, which was recently discussed in court, Netanyahu is accused of having accepted large quantities of champagne and cigars as gifts from wealthy businessmen. In this case, as well, it has already been shown that the facts presented by the prosecutors are not exactly accurate; the quantity of gifts received by Netanyahu has been shown to be much smaller than the prosecution alleged.

Last week, a man named Moshe Saada testified in court and made a series of severe accusations against former state prosecutor Shai Nitzan and former police chief Roni Alshich. Saada accused the two men of engaging in every possible impropriety in order to ensure that the investigation into Netanyahu moved forward. He also accused them of misconduct in the Ahuvya Sandak case (on which, as you may recall, I reported at length in the past). According to Saada, the police violated every protocol in the book to prevent Ahuvya’s death from being properly investigated—even though the officers who crashed into his car were suspected of preventing him from receiving lifesaving medical treatment and should have been punished accordingly. Since Saada himself held a high-ranking position in the state prosecution and served for many years as deputy director of the Department of Internal Police Investigations, his claims represented a serious blow to the entire criminal justice system. I will spare you the intricate details of his testimony, which could easily fill three or four pages. As I mentioned, the Israeli press has been dedicating large quantities of space to this story.

Last Friday night—on Shabbos, no less—Shai Nitzan was interviewed by the media and tried to dispute Saada’s claims. Moshe Saada’s reaction was a public statement lamenting the fact that Nitzan had chosen to be interviewed on Shabbos, at a time when Saada, who is Shabbos observant, was unable to watch the interview and respond in real time. “But do not worry,” he assured the public. “I will prove once again that Shai Nitzan is lying, and this time I will present documents that will back up my story.”

On Sunday night, two former heads of the DIPI released a letter in support of Saada, in which they attested to his personal integrity. This story is certainly not over yet.

Where Is Moishy Kleinerman?

Sixteen-year-old Moishy Kleinerman from Modiin Illit has been missing for 130 days. I try to avoid writing about crime, a topic that is generally eschewed by the chareidi media in Israel, but this case is an obvious exception to that rule. For one thing, it isn’t clear that Moishy’s disappearance is a criminal matter at all. Furthermore, the real issue at here isn’t the crime involved, but the failure of the police to take action.

Moishy Kleinerman is a charming, rambunctious youth who is known for his fondness for participating in interesting excursions. He has a habit of frequenting kivrei tzaddikim throughout the country, even those that are dangerous to visit. Several months ago, he left his home in Kiryat Sefer to travel to Meron, and then he vanished. It took a long time for the police to take the disappearance seriously and to begin searching for the missing youth. At this point, there are fears that he may no longer be alive.

It is true that Moishy’s family wasn’t particularly concerned during the first few days after his disappearance. They are accustomed to their son traveling around the country, disappearing for short periods of time and then returning home from another adventurous trip to various kevorim or the like. But even when the family began to worry and notified the police about their missing son, the police were in no rush to take action. The turnabout took place only when the police were criticized for their inaction, and the family drew public attention to their lackadaisical response. This was enough to spur the police to act. In the meantime, however, their search has yielded no results. Moishy has simply disappeared, as if he was swallowed alive by the earth. The burden of fear has become intolerable for his family; of course, we are all davening that he will be found alive and well and that he will be safely reunited with his family. For the time being, though, his mother’s tearful pleas are simply heartrending.

House Calls on Tisha B’Av

Tisha B’Av is rapidly approaching, and we are all keenly aware of the fact that the Bais Hamikdash still lies in ruins. The Gemara states that one of the questions that will be posed to every person in the Bais Din shel Maalah is the question of whether he awaited the geulah. Until just a short time ago, we had the privilege of living alongside a man whose entire being was suffused with emunah, a man who was supremely dedicated to learning Torah, who was filled with yiras Shomayim, and, above all, who yearned to witness the final redemption. He had no doubt that Moshiach’s arrival was imminent. He always spoke admiringly of the tzaddik in Yerushalayim who kept a special coat ready to greet Moshiach, and he frequently noted that Rav Chaim Kanievsky regularly advised people who came to him for advice to move to Eretz Yisroel, since Moshiach is already on the way. That man was Rav Uri Zohar.

Rav Uri felt a special connection to the Kosel Hamaaravi. He made a point of visiting the Kosel at least once every 29 days, together with his chavrusa, Rabbi Sholom Wilensky. The Kosel Project of Lev L’Achim was launched on his initiative. I remember accompanying him on a visit to the Kosel tunnels and then the Kosel itself, and I marveled at the fact that he seemed to have been transformed into a different person. He was immensely serious, deeply pensive, and visibly filled with yearning.

On Tisha B’Av, that yearning is shared by much of Klal Yisroel. Visit the Kosel plaza on Tisha B’Av, and you will see legions of Jews mourning the destruction of the Bais Hamikdash. Rav Uri himself, however, used to have a different approach to Tisha B’Av: He would travel to Givat Zeev and Ramle and make his way from door to door, urging parents to register their children in religious schools. This week, an activist from Lev L’Achim told me, “Rav Uri used to dedicate Tisha B’Av every year to making house calls. It is prohibited to learn on Tisha B’Av, and he knew that even chilonim were bound to be home, since they had nothing else to do. Therefore, he considered it the optimal time to go out and speak with parents. Today, there are dozens of bnei yeshivos and kollel yungeleit who are the products of those Tisha B’Av visits….”

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