Millions of Israelis Run to Bomb Shelters Again
Last week, I began my column with the news that two million Israeli citizens in the center of the country were sent rushing to their bomb shelters due to a missile fired from Yemen. I also wrote about a couple of daring operations carried out by the IDF. This week, I can begin my column on exactly the same notes.
On Sunday, two million Israelis once again found themselves rushing for shelter, but this time it was in the north. Air raid sirens blared across a large swath of the country, from Nahariya to Haifa, including Rechasim and Nof Hagalil. It was deeply unsettling, but it was also easy enough to predict in advance. No one doubted that Hezbollah would feel the need to strike back in response to the severe blows that it had been dealt.
The official announcements began rolling in on motzoei Shabbos. The municipality of Tzefas announced that schools would be closed the following day, including special education programs. The Yeshiva of Sanz in Haifa instructed bochurim to refrain from returning to yeshiva that night. And that was only the beginning. Soon enough, similar announcements arrived from Teveria and Nahariya as well.
Rambam Hospital in Haifa asked for volunteers to help transfer the hospital’s operations to the underground parking lot. If a major hospital wanted to move its operations underground, then that must mean that they are concerned about missiles striking the hospital.
Indeed, missiles did strike the area—hundreds of missiles, in fact. On motzoei Shabbos and Sunday morning, 150 rockets, missiles, and drones were launched into northern Israel. Many people tried guessing Hezbollah’s exact target—which most believed to be an IDF base in the north—but regardless of where they were aiming the weapons, two million Israelis were forced to take refuge in bomb shelters and other fortified areas. The problem was that not everyone had access to a protected space. Boruch Hashem, there were no tragedies, and one can say that there were quite a few miracles as well. There were a number of direct hits and fires, but in the scheme of things, it amounted to relatively little damage. All in all, Hashem has been protecting us. The missile fire resulted in only one fatality, which was indirect; a driver in the vicinity of the settlement of Zarzir in the Yizreel Valley lost control of his car upon hearing an air raid siren and crashed into a fence, killing a young yeshiva bochur who was in the vehicle. Another bochur in the car was seriously wounded. The bochur killed in the accident, Noam Yechiel, was a talmid in Yeshivas Bnei Yissochor in Chadera who was returning to his yeshiva from Meron.
Pager Attack Shocks the World
The “pager attack” on Tuesday afternoon was considered one of the most severe and embarrassing blows ever suffered by Hezbollah. It was a bold and brilliant operation in which Israel managed to strike thousands of Hezbollah terrorists simultaneously, wherever they may have been. The attack also served to identify Hezbollah operatives whose ties to the terror group hadn’t been known—such as the Iranian ambassador to Jordan. Hezbollah was stunned and wounded by the operation, which left thousands of its people permanently injured or dead.
After the series of explosions, the Lebanese media carried images of men bleeding from their wounds, with severed fingers or other injuries, which caused widespread panic. Shortly after the blasts, the roads were filled with unusually heavy traffic, which made it even more difficult for the wounded to be transported to hospitals, and Lebanese officials began appealing to the civilians to stay off the roads. Hundreds of videos taken in the hospitals showed scenes of bedlam as numerous wounded victims filled the emergency rooms and the doctors were unable to treat them quickly enough. Tents were hastily erected on the Hadi Nasrallah highway in Dahiye, Beirut, where emergency blood donations were collected. Lebanese sources reported that 500 Hezbollah terrorists lost their eyesight due to the blasts. A doctor who visited the hospitals in Tzidon where some of the victims were taken told the New York Times that there were so many eye injuries due to the blasts that the country was suffering from a shortage of eye surgeons. The Lebanese minister of health announced that at least nine people had been killed in the attack and 2750 wounded, including 200 who were in serious condition.
It was clearly a bold and brilliant operation, and much of the world expressed admiration for Israel’s accomplishment and the manner in which it was carried out. It also evoked a record level of wrath and vengefulness from Hezbollah. The terror group vowed revenge: “After examining the facts, we consider the Israeli enemy to be responsible for this attack, which also affected civilians and caused deaths and injuries.” They added, “Our fatalities and casualties are symbols of our struggle. Our support for resistance will remain a source of pride in this world and the next. The enemy will be punished for this attack.”
Given that reaction, it didn’t take much convincing for the residents of the north to prepare to take cover in their bomb shelters. We all knew that the missiles would come, and the killing of Ibrahim Aqil (see the following section) only served to make the next attack even more inevitable.
Nasrallah’s Right-Hand Man Eliminated
On Friday, Hezbollah suffered another serious blow, which would have been enough on its own for them to launch a murderous rampage against Israel. This time, it was the targeted killing of Ibrahim Aqil, the terror group’s director of operations and a mass murderer who was responsible for hundreds of deaths. Aqil was a close advisor and right-hand man of Nasrallah, the head of the terror group, and was the commander of the Radwan Force, which is Hezbollah’s elite unit. There is no question that he deserved to die. And Aqil wasn’t the only fatality in the Israeli strike; at least ten terrorists were killed along with him, many of them similarly high-ranking figures in Hezbollah.
The IDF attacked the group of terrorists while they had meeting underground, beneath a residential building, using civilians as a human shield. According to the IDF spokesman, ten Hezbollah commanders were present at the site of the strike. Lebanon also reported that at least nine people had been killed and 59 injured in the Israeli air strike. IDF chief of staff Herzi Halevi said, “The Hezbollah commanders whom we eliminated today had been planning another October 7 on the northern border for years. We reached them, and we will reach anyone who threatens the security of the citizens of the State of Israel.” Once again, Israel demonstrated remarkable intelligence and military capabilities in this operation, as it knew exactly where and when to strike.
The IDF spokesman called on the citizens of Israel to exercise caution and to remain alert. “We are in a tense time,” he said. “The army is fighting on several fronts, and our enemies will try and are trying to challenge us.” In essence, he was telling the citizens of Israel to expect what all of us are instinctively anticipating: Hezbollah is likely to strike back hard in order to uphold its honor. But it would be hard to say that they have actually succeeded in recouping their dignity.
The IDF reported that Aqil began his career in Hezbollah in the 1980s as a member of the Islamic Jihad Organization, which was responsible for Hezbollah bombings outside Lebanon, and took part in many terror attacks committed in foreign countries against international bodies and innocent civilians. He also served as the commander of the Radwan Force and was responsible, among other things, for the anti-tank missile fire against Avivim in 2019 and a series of terror attacks and attempts to infiltrate Israel, including many in the past year.
Netanyahu Vows to Bring Northern Residents Home
The deputy secretary-general of Hezbollah sent a warning to Israel at Aqil’s funeral on Sunday night. “We are entering a new stage,” he declared. “This is a battle of reckoning.” In case someone didn’t get his drift, he added, “You [the Israelis] will die through terror, your economy will crumble, and you will not achieve your goals. Israel has committed three painful crimes with barbarism that we have never seen before,” he continued. “They tried to kill 5000 people with the pager massacre, but they did not succeed. In the attack against the Radwan officials, Israel tried to paralyze Hezbollah, to incite the area around the organization against it, and to halt the support for the Palestinians, but Hezbollah activists prevented that. The residents of the north will not return to their homes, and the displacement will increase. The military solution will only add to the troubles of Israel and the residents of the north. We are prepared to deal with any military possibility, and you will see the results.”
Almost at the same time, Prime Minister Netanyahu was telling the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee at a closed session that the key to effecting dramatic change was altering the balance of power in the north. Regarding Israel’s recent operations in Lebanon, including the pager attack and the elimination of Aqil and other senior terrorists in Dahiye, Beirut, he added, “What we are doing in the north isn’t a series of isolated moves; it is a strategy with a direction. We are weakening Hezbollah and driving them away from the border.” Netanyahu also discussed the next stages of the campaign: “We will cut off their hands and feet until they no longer attack us.” Regarding the fact that he did not decide to attack in Lebanon when the war first broke out, he said, “We made a correct decision. Focusing on one area was the right thing to do. Had we gone to war in Lebanon at the time, we wouldn’t have managed to free the hostages and to subdue Hamas.”
Netanyahu added emphatically, “No other country in the world would allow its residents to be displaced from their cities as our residents have been forced out of the north, and Israel will not allow it either. Our military actions now are for the purpose of moving Hezbollah out of firing range so that the residents of the north can return to their homes in security.”
No one can deny that he is right about that: No other country would tolerate this situation, and Israel is justified in rejecting it as well.
Bias in Washington
The elimination of Ibrahim Aqil drew the following response from White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan: “Whenever justice is done to a terrorist with American blood on his hands, it is a good thing.” Take note of the specifics of his statement: When a terrorist who murdered an American is killed, then the White House applauds the action. But if the terrorist’s victims weren’t American, if they were “only” Israeli Jews, then what?
Let me remind you of the reason that Washington is celebrating Aqil’s death. He was responsible for the murders of so many Americans that the United States government placed a bounty of seven million dollars on his head. To understand the background, we must turn the clock back to the year 1983, when American forces were dragged into Beirut because Israel was unable to withdraw. The Reagan administration demanded that Menachem Begin withdraw from Beirut and offered to send the Marines to take the IDF soldiers’ place. The Americans proceeded to enter Lebanon and quickly became a convenient target for the newly formed terror organization known as Hezbollah.
Hundreds of Americans died in Lebanon at the time, first when Hezbollah attacked the American embassy in Beirut and then in the bombing of a US Marines barracks. The Americans suffered 241 deaths in the second blast, the highest death toll on a single day since the battle of Iwo Jima in 1945. Aqil was held responsible mainly for the attack on the embassy, which resulted in 63 deaths, but he was believed to be responsible for the attack on the Marines half a year later as well. Now that the score has been settled, the Americans are jubilant.
Argentina’s President Dubs Hezbollah “Forces of Darkness”
I am already running out of space, but there is so much more to write about. I could tell you about the hostages in Gaza and the hopes that many of them can still be brought home alive, as well as the recent proposals for a hostage deal and the torment experienced by their families, who are discovering that we can rely on no one other than our Father in Heaven.
Given the opportunity, I could also write about the UN’s hypocrisy and their knee-jerk anti-Israel reactions. Meanwhile, President Javier Milei of Argentina met with Knesset speaker Amir Ochana in his presidential palace in Buenos Aires on Friday.
I have written in the past about Rav Shimon Wahnish, the president’s friend and the current ambassador of Argentina to Israel. In fact, I interviewed him for this newspaper several months ago. Wahnish was recently installed as the Argentinean ambassador, and he visited the Knesset two weeks ago to meet with MK Erez Malul of the Shas party, who serves as chairman of the Israel-Argentina Friendship Group in the Knesset. At that meeting, Wahnish told Malul that it will become clear very soon that President Milei is a close friend of Israel. Sure enough, his prediction came true on Friday, when Milei declared, “Argentina stands with Israel in this war. This isn’t a local conflict; it is a war of the forces of darkness against the free world and the champions of liberty.”
Amir Ochana participated in a ceremony at the former site of the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires, which was destroyed in a terror attack in 1992 in which 29 people, including embassy employees, were killed. He was accompanied by Avraham Chassidim, father of Naor Chassidim, who was murdered in Kibbutz Kfar Azza on October 7, and Elchonon Danino, whose son Ori was murdered in captivity. The group installed a mezuzah on the door of the Israeli embassy in Paraguay.
Lapid’s Lies Are Becoming Loathsome
Yair Lapid’s penchant for flipflopping has become his trademark. I am not sure if there is any yardstick in the world to measure the embarrassment and disgrace that he brings upon the Israeli government. During Shimon Peres’s times, the media often reported on his tendency to make a statement and then backtrack on it without batting an eyelash, but his reversals pale in comparison to Lapid’s shameless doubletalk. I once commented that a journalist could easily find plenty of fodder for a weekly column on this subject alone.
Indeed, some journalists seem to have taken my suggestion, and there is a regular news corner dedicated to Lapid’s fickleness. He also features frequently in the fact-checking column published by Globes. This week, Lapid was caught in a lie again when he proclaimed, “There hasn’t been a single poll in the last eleven months in which the liberal right didn’t come out on top.”
After citing that claim and then countering it with evidence, Globes concluded dryly, “The bottom line is that Lapid’s statement is not true.”
Lapid has two major enemies: his mouth and his pen. Whenever he says anything, it turns out that he has already said the exact opposite in the past. Whenever he writes something, it contradicts something else that he wrote in the past, and it undoubtedly conflicts with a third statement that he will write in the future. He has even given two conflicting answers to the question of when he wakes up in the morning, not to mention whether he took the Bagrut matriculation exams, whether he was a combat soldier in the IDF or held a desk job, and whether he defines himself as an Israeli or a Jew. He announces that he refuses to be dragged into combative discourse, and then he does exactly that. He declares that he has no interest in attacking others, and then he attacks them. He favors a referendum when it benefits him, but when it works to his disadvantage, he insists that only an election can determine the government’s policies. He condemns everyone who speaks in terms of “us and them,” and then he is caught using the same type of language. He slams anyone who calls on others to resist the government, and then he makes that very demand. He insists that there is no religious coercion in this country, and then he decries religious coercion. He is both for and against evacuating Jews from their homes. He calls the gas agreement a historic pact, and then he derides it as an empty agreement over a stretch of water. He regularly contradicts himself without batting an eyelash. It often seems that he is embarrassed when he is actually caught telling the truth. One video shows him declaring firmly, “There is no need to get up in a city square and shout that we have won.” And then Lapid himself is seen standing in a city square and triumphantly proclaiming, “We have won!”
A few months ago, Lapid said, “I am in the process of submitting a bill to promote the stability of the regime.” Well, I checked the parliamentary database, and no such bill appeared.
This week, someone located an article written by Lapid seven years ago, in which he declared unequivocally, “We need to change the rules about releasing terrorists.” Lapid listed a number of terrorists who were set free and went on to murder Jews, and then he concluded, “We release them, and they kill.” Today, from the benches of the opposition, he is passionately shouting the exact opposite message, insisting that the government must release imprisoned terrorists to secure the hostages’ freedom.
Lapid claims that he has no intention of attacking anyone, but his tongue is vicious and venomous. A week ago, in a speech delivered in the Knesset during one of his visits to Israel (Lapid, after all, is a world-class jetsetter), he said, “Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, and Almog Sarusi were supposed to be released in a hostage deal in July. At the last minute, the decision was made to reject the deal. This was your decision [the coalition]; do not try to evade it. They lived for another three months after that time, and they were alive last Thursday. Now they are dead; they have been murdered, and you need to take responsibility.” That is the height of malicious rhetoric.
Hypocrisy Is the Greatest Threat
To be honest, my fear and outrage are reserved for the hypocrites, such as the politicians who have been denouncing the so-called “rabbis’ law.” This is a law that will make it possible to appoint new chief rabbis in cities where the previous chief rabbis passed away long ago. The secular media has dubbed it the “job law,” claiming that it is designed to provide positions and salaries to people with connections in the government and does not really serve the public interest. One of the arguments made by the bill’s detractors is that the middle of a war is not an appropriate time to pass such legislation. But some of the people making that argument are on record voicing the exact opposite sentiment. When the Knesset speaker did not permit any bills or motions to be discussed that were not relevant to the war, the same individuals loudly complained that the government and the coalition were paralyzing the Knesset because of the war. Which means that their current criticism is shamelessly disingenuous.
The hypocrisy is blatantly apparent even from the Knesset’s daily schedule. Every week on Wednesday, the Knesset discusses private bills (i.e., bills that were introduced by individual Knesset members, rather than being sponsored by the government), and one can find proposals on every topic imaginable on the Knesset’s recent agendas. There are bills calling for funding for election campaigns in local governments (where the opposition has candidates running), closing bank branches, prohibiting unsolicited text messages, and dealing with the regulations for public libraries. There is even a bill headlined “cancellation of a remote transaction for tourism services in Israel.” I have no idea what that is about, but why is that bill acceptable while the appointment of chief rabbis is somehow an improper subject to raise during a war? In fact, just before the Knesset began its recess, MKs Yasmin Friedman and Yorai Lahav-Hertzano submitted a bill dealing with cruelty to animals, and no one uttered a peep about the impropriety of focusing on such a measure during wartime. Merav Michaeli also submitted a proposal dealing with the construction of a subway. Somehow, the fact that soldiers are being killed in Gaza did not deter her from promoting it. Their ire is reserved for a bill that would make it possible to appoint new rabbonim; nothing else troubles them.
In fact, let’s take a look at the bills submitted in the past week alone. Along with a number of bills relevant to the war, there is a proposal to institute a term limit for the prime minister, a bill requiring women to be represented on boards of directors, a law that would require the Israeli flag to be displayed on the uniforms of Israeli sports teams, a law abolishing the criminal offense of loitering, and an absolutely crazy bill that we will not mention at all. What makes all these things permissible during wartime, when a law regulating the appointment of rabbonim is somehow off limits? There is only one word for this: hypocrisy!
Police Show Contempt for Chareidi Crime Victims
A recent court case has made an uncomfortable fact fairly evident: The chareidim are viewed as second-class citizens in Israel, even in the eyes of the police. Here is the story, as it was told to me: A judge on the Magistrates’ Court in Yerushalayim recently rejected a plea agreement that the police had reached with a 23-year-old Arab. Omar Rani Yassin was convicted of assaulting a civilian and deliberately damaging a vehicle. Justice Elazar Bialin, who rejected the plea bargain, based his decision on the severity of the crimes and the need for significant deterrence. The defendant was sentenced to 23 months in prison (instead of the twelve specified in the plea agreement) and a fine of 2000 shekels and was ordered to pay 5000 shekels in damages to his victims.
The details of the incident are as follows: The Arab defendant was sitting with friends on a bench near the Gan Eden Junction in Beit Chanina, Yerushalayim, when a car carrying a chareidi family—a husband and wife and their three children under the age of four—pulled up at the intersection. Spotting the car’s occupants, the defendant decided that they were easy prey and delivered a fierce kick to the car window. The window shattered in the driver’s face, causing him to briefly lose consciousness and wounding his neck and his left arm. The victim’s wife later described the hysteria and terror that gripped the family during that fearsome attack.
The Arab defendant denied any involvement in the incident at first, but Judge Bialin rejected his version of the story and convicted him. “The defendant acted out of rage and with the desire to harm the people of chareidi appearance who were in the car,” he said. As the court prepared for sentencing, everyone was surprised to learn that the police had already made a plea bargain with the defendant calling for an incredibly lenient sentence: imprisonment for one year, a payment of 3000 shekels to the complainants, and a commitment to refrain from committing similar crimes in the future. The defense attorney claimed that his client had undergone a rehabilitation process. “I am generally in the habit of honoring plea agreements,” the judge said, “but not when they depart so dramatically from what is reasonable. In this case, the plea agreement, both in terms of the timing when it was reached and its actual provisions, does not properly reflect the severity of the deed and the perpetrator. I have therefore concluded that in this case, the agreement should not be honored and the deal should be rejected.”
The next part of his ruling coldly castigated the police for their flippant attitude toward the victims’ ordeal: “People with a chareidi appearance are not meant to be stepped on. Anyone who attacks a vehicle in motion, whether by throwing an object at it or kicking it with his foot, with the intent of harming its occupants must know that there will be a price to pay. In essence, the crimes for which the defendant was convicted are acts that express hatred for people or communities with a certain appearance, in this case those with a chareidi appearance. Such hatred may stem from a misguided social perception or some other motive. Either way, this has no place in our society. Thie hatred must be eradicated. A properly functioning society cannot make peace with incidents or acts of this nature.”
In case you are thinking that it is quite unusual to hear a judge in the State of Israel speaking in this way, I made the same observation. I looked into the matter and discovered that the judge is a graduate of Bar Ilan University, which certainly had an impact on his worldview. But even more importantly, he was born in Ethiopia. Perhaps that explains everything.
Troubles or Evils?
There are some divrei Torah that have a penchant to be permanently etched into a person’s memory. The Gemara states (Brachos 31) teaches to share a dvar Torah with a friend before taking leave of him, so that he will be remembered. This is a powerful insight. A person might encounter someone who insists that they have met before, but he will have no recollection of their previous exchange. Even an assortment of details may not be enough to do the trick: The other person may remind him of what he was wearing, what sort of car they were traveling in, the weather at the time, and so forth, but the malach of forgetfulness will see to it that he draws a blank. However, when the stranger says, “Don’t you remember that I told you a vort about the ben sorer u’moreh?” and even repeats the vort word for word, that will inevitably jog his memory.
Let me share one particularly memorable insight with you. The Torah tells us that if a thief absconds with an ox or sheep and subsequently sells or slaughters it, he must compensate his victim with five oxen or four sheep. Why does each type of animal incur a different penalty? The Gemara, quoted by Rashi, explains, “Rabi Yochanan ben Zakkai says: See how great is human dignity. For an ox, which walks on its own feet, the thief pays five oxen, but for a sheep, which he carries on his shoulders, he pays only four” (Bava Kamma 79). A group of cheder children once visited Rav Shach to be tested on their learning, and Rav Shach asked them, “How much is the dignity of a Jew worth? A million lirot? Two million?”
Of course, the children agreed that the value of a Jewish person’s honor is inestimable. After all, they pointed out, the Gemara states that a person should cast himself into a blazing furnace rather than embarrass another person in public. Rav Shach approved of their answer and then challenged them with another question: “If a Jew’s honor has such extraordinary value, then why is a thief’s penalty reduced by only one sheep because he carried an animal on his shoulders? How is it possible that his self-respect is worth only a single sheep?”
The children were stumped, and even their rebbi was unable to divine Rav Shach’s intent. The rosh yeshiva then provided the answer: “It’s true that a Jewish person’s honor and self-respect are worth millions of dollars, but the thief in this case is an exception to the rule. He debased himself by carrying a stolen sheep on his shoulders, and thereby showed that he attached very little value to his own honor. If he was willing to disgrace himself to steal a sheep, then that is the extent to which he values his own honor!”
On a similar note, the Torah warns us in Parshas Vayeilech, which we will read this week, “My wrath will be kindled against it [the Jewish nation] on that day, and I will abandon it and hide My face from it, and it will become prey, and many evils and hardships will find it. And it will say on that day, ‘Is it not because my G-d is not in my midst that these evils have found me?’” Rav Shach pointed out that the posuk first states that Klal Yisroel will encounter evils and hardships, but then it refers only to the evils. Why are the hardships omitted from the second statement? Rav Shach explained that it is specifically the “evils” that were the product of the fact that Hashem was not in their midst, so to speak. When Klal Yisroel recognizes their mistake, then they realize that Hashem does not inflict “evils” on anyone. True, they may have experienced hardships, but no evil ever comes from Hashem.
A Nation’s Kindness
As we approach the Yom Hadin, let us shine the spotlight on some of Klal Yisroel’s most virtuous individuals. Last week, I happened to be visiting the non-ambulatory emergency room at Hadassah Hospital in Yerushalayim before Shabbos, where I discovered a world of chessed. Shortly before shekiah on Friday afternoon, a Belzer chossid took a tour of the room, offering everyone cake and reading material for Shabbos. Rav Chaim Yechezkel “Chezky” Braun, the askan and baal chessed, was also collecting mitzvos as he made his rounds in the emergency department as well. And I must mention the special hospitality room with the code “mezuzah.” In case you are not familiar with it, I will fill you in: There is a room in Hadassah Hospital that is kept fully stocked with food and beverages by a group of Yerushalmis from Mea Shearim. This room is intended for the benefit of religious patients and their companions.
On that note, I visited the shul in Shaare Zedek Hospital two weeks ago. The rov of the hospital announced that sandwiches were being distributed in the corridor outside, and I hurried to find out the identity of the mysterious baal chessed. The man handing out the sandwiches, a Gerrer chossid, tried to evade my questions. When I asked him about the hechsher, he replied tersely, “It’s badatz.”
“And who prepared these sandwiches?” I asked.
“I did,” he admitted. Rummaging in a baby stroller piled high with food, he asked, “Would you like a tuna sandwich?” I snapped a picture of him, and he begged me not to publish it.
One minute later, I was asked to participate in another chessed—forming a minyan for an elderly American man who was hospitalized in one of the wards.
If all this chessed wasn’t enough, I also encountered Dovid Tzarfati and his organization, Osim Sameach. Every day, Tzarfati and his volunteers distribute drinks and baked goods in every ward in the hospital; these yeshiva bochurim earn the gratitude of hundreds of patients and their companions. Their network of largesse extends to numerous other hospitals as well.
To make a long story short, the Jewish nation contains a rich and diverse world of chessed.
Rav Moshe Shmuel Shapiro once remarked in a shmuess, “The Vilna Gaon says that the obligation to bring happiness to other people makes up more than half of the Torah. And that means that if someone causes a person distress rather than bringing joy to him, he is violating the majority of the Torah.”
Rav Ovadiah Yosef once exhorted his listeners, in a drosha at the end of Elul, to engage in copious acts of tzedokah and chessed. “It is a segulah for atonement for one’s aveiros,” he said. “Tzedokah brings forgiveness.”
May we all be inscribed in the books of the righteous.
Hundreds of Mentors Means Hundreds of Orphans
Another word about chessed: Zeh Lazeh is an organization headed by Rebbetzin Rottenberg, the sister of the rebbes of Toldos Aharon and Toldos Avrohom Yitzchok. The organization recently published a four-page pamphlet featuring the pictures of the many young mentors serving the orphaned children who avail themselves of Zeh Lazeh’s services. There are over 200 mentors, which leads to the conclusion that there are over 200 orphans serviced by this organization. And since the organization caters to the needs of young boys, one can assume that most of these children have sisters as well.
Two months ago, I received a copy of Mishulchanam shel Bnei Melochim, a collection of chiddushei Torah written by orphaned boys who celebrated their bar mitzvahs and took part in a festive siyum. Every essay in the sefer is preceded by a few words from the child’s mentor. Here is a short paragraph written by Yechezkel Posarino, the mentor of Yaakov Simcha Faraga, who wrote about the halachos of tefillin: “You are a young man with many talents. You are blessed with quick comprehension and a sharp mind. We learned together on a high level on Shabbos, and it brought me much enjoyment and energy. It was always pleasant to see the smile on your lips, which accompanied your bashful, charming gaze. It is my wish for you to continue rising in the levels of Torah knowledge, to have simchas chaim, and to succeed in everything you do. You are greatly admired.”
Even if all the prosecuting malochim in the world crowded onto one side of a scale, there is no question that Mrs. Rottenberg alone, with her prodigious acts of chessed and her veritable army of righteous mentors, will outweigh them.
The Right Kind of Ponytail
Let me share one last little vignette with you, which I hope you will find amusing. It is the standard practice in Israeli preschools for the children to be photographed in advance of Rosh Hashanah; the pictures are then used for shanah tovah cards to be sent to their proud grandparents. Miri the preschool teacher, who works in the fourth-grade nursery class on Rechov Neriah in Beit Shemesh, sent the following note home with her students last week: “Tomorrow, we will be taking pictures of the girls. Please send them in Shabbos clothes and with ponytails that were not made by their fathers.”
