Wednesday, Nov 6, 2024

My Take On The News

 

The Three Sukkos I Will Never Forget

I have been in dozens of sukkos over the course of my life, but there are three that I will never forget.

The first was my family’s sukkah during my childhood. This was a massive sukkah that stood at the entrance to our aging home next to the railroad tracks. At seudah shlishis on Shabbos Chol Hamoed, all the mispallelim of our shul, Beis Knesses Yehuda, used to gather in our sukkah for a festive communal event. During my childhood years, I was assigned to peel all the eggs for that seudah; there were about seventy eggs altogether. As I went about that task, I felt like a kohen or levi performing their sacred duties in the Bais Hamikdosh. The visitors to my family’s sukkah were an assortment of fascinating personalities, the likes of which no longer exist in our world today. Many of them provided me with material for the various stories that I have written over the years, which were culled from my childhood memories.

The second sukkah that will always remain in my memory was Chalifa Buchnik’s sukkah. I have written several times in the past about Chalifa, who was a close friend of my father, who served as the rov of Beer Yaakov for half a century. Chalifa was the sort of person who would undoubtedly have raised quite a few eyebrows had he appeared on the streets of Bnei Brak; he generally wore shorts, slippers, and occasionally an undershirt, and he even sometimes went without a yarmulke. Nevertheless, he remained dedicated to Jewish tradition with typical Jewish tenacity. Chalifa’s grandsons have become bnei Torah and talmidim of Rav Reuven Elbaz, and one of his grandchildren is a marbitz Torah in Beer Yaakov and teaches in the Sa Nes shul, where Chalifa and his father-in-law, Rav Avrohom Saadah, davened for many years. Rav Avrohom was known as Sheikh Brahm, the nickname given to him in his native Tripoli, where he was a wealthy financier with a small army of servants. I visited Chalifa’s sukkah every year on Sukkos; I even returned to visit him for many years after my marriage, bringing my children along to meet a simple Jew who was prepared to give up everything for the sake of Hashem’s honor.

The third sukkah that has been indelibly impressed on my memory was Rav Ovadiah Yosef’s at Rechov Jabotinsky 36. I was present in that sukkah in the month of Tishrei 5749/1988, when Rav Shach read aloud his famous letter calling on everyone, “especially the children of the Eidot Hamizrach,” to vote for the Shas party in the election for the 12th Knesset, which was due to take place in the month of Cheshvan.

The events leading up to Rav Shach’s visit began with a telephone call received at Rav Ovadiah’s home. The rebbetzin answered the phone and then gave the receiver to her husband. “Rav Shach is asking to speak with the rav,” she said. No one else could hear what Rav Shach was saying in Bnei Brak, but everyone heard Rav Ovadiah’s emphatic response: “Chas veshalom that the rav should trouble himself to come to Yerushalayim. I will come to Bnei Brak within the coming days.” Nevertheless, Rav Shach was insistent, and they agreed to meet at five o’clock in Rav Ovadiah’s sukkah. Rav Ovadiah did not reveal to Rav Shach that the Moetzes Chachamim was scheduled to meet at the same time; instead, he postponed that meeting.

Shortly before five o’clock that afternoon, MK Avrohom Ravitz’s car pulled up outside Rav Ovadiah’s home, and Rav Shach emerged from the vehicle. Ravitz and Shmuel Epstein helped Rav Shach climb the single flight of steps. Rav Ovadiah met them at the entrance to the building, together with Rav Aryeh Deri. A few minutes later, the members of the Moetzes Chachamim arrived: Rav Shalom Cohen, Rav Shabtai Aton, and Rav Shimon Baadani.

While Rav Ovadiah and Rav Shach sat together, I managed to slip inside the sukkah as well, ignoring the words of rebuke cast in my direction. Had I listened to the people who tried to deter me from entering the sukkah, there would have been no documentation of this historic meeting.

As I listened, Rav Shach said, “I have come to inform the rov of the reason that Degel HaTorah was founded, and of the fact that I still view the Shas party as a movement whose success we all desire. The Shas party represents Klal Yisroel, and its representatives have achieved great things without disadvantaging or discriminating against anyone.”

Rav Ovadiah interjected, “Actually, Aryeh Deri has been accused of discrimination in favor of the Ashkenazim.”

Rav Shach smiled and continued explaining the reason for the establishment of Degel HaTorah. “I am confident that both Shas and Degel HaTorah will be successful,” he said. “It is my brocha that Shas should receive twice as much as Degel HaTorah.” In that election, Degel HaTorah received two mandates while the Shas party received six. And Rav Shach’s visit to Rav Ovadiah’s sukkah was an unforgettable scene.

Iran Sends a Second Missile Bombardment

Less than 24 hours before Rosh Hashanah, the dreaded Iranian retaliation arrived, in the form of a hail of 180 ballistic missiles. A ballistic missile is more dangerous than other types of missiles, partly because its flight time is only 12 minutes, which gives Israel a much smaller window of time to detect it, sound a warning, and intercept it. A cruise missile, in contrast, takes two hours to make the trip from Iran to Israel, and an unmanned drone can require nine hours to cover the distance, which makes those projectiles much easier to intercept.

The bombardment of ballistic missiles that night resulted in minimal damage, which was utterly miraculous. There was only one fatality—an Arab worker from Chevron who was in the country illegally. Some missiles, or shrapnel from intercepted missiles, landed in the Gush Dan, the Negev, and the mountains around Yerushalayim, and two people were lightly wounded by shrapnel. An army base suffered some damage, but for the most part, the results were miraculous. Iran declared that the attack was a response to the assassinations of Haniyeh and Nasrallah. In the cabinet, Netanyahu announced, “Iran has made a big mistake, and they will pay for it.” As of this writing, Iran is waiting for the Israeli response, and reports from the country indicate that its regular routine has been completely disrupted. It is important to note that other countries, mainly the United States, helped Israel intercept the missiles. Israel is coordinating its response with America, and both countries are in agreement that Israel has the right to respond to Iran’s attack.

Here in Israel, there is tension in the air. The current situation is somewhat reminiscent of the Covid pandemic, when public gatherings were prohibited and tefillos in shuls were banned. In an eerie echo of those days, the Home Front Command has announced restrictions on public gatherings at certain places and times, such as Meron and the nearby communities for the duration of the threat from Hezbollah and Iran; the army is concerned that the military base near Meron is in the terrorists’ crosshairs. Yerushalayim, the Tel Aviv area, and southern Israel are considered further removed from the danger zone at this point, and the air raid sirens in those areas are not as frequent, although even Yerushalayim has experienced sirens in recent days.

Meanwhile, we hope that we will be able to celebrate Sukkos in a state of security and peace of mind, and that the Home Front Command will not order everyone to stay inside their homes. We certainly hope that we will not be ordered to stay out of our shuls and to refrain from eating and sleeping in our sukkos.

Attacks Claim Lives

The conflict between Israel and Iran recently triggered a war of words between Netanyahu and President Macron of France, who called for an arms embargo on Israel and received a scathing response from the Israeli premier. The secretary-general of the UN also managed to infuriate Israel, to the point that Foreign Minister Yisroel Katz declared him persona non grata in Israel and announced that he would not be permitted to enter the country. Israel is at war in the north because the army entered Lebanon in the hope of destroying Hezbollah’s entire arsenal of deadly weapons. It has been reported that the IDF has already accomplished more than half of its goal; however, this accomplishment has come at a steep price, as eleven soldiers have already been killed in Lebanon and dozens more have been wounded.

Lebanon has exacted a heavy price in blood from Israel in the past, and everyone fears the prospect of a protracted war. On the other hand, Netanyahu remains firmly committed to ensuring that the residents of the north will be able to return home in security, and the only way to do that is to obliterate Hezbollah’s stash of weapons.

Meanwhile, a horrific terror attack unfolded on Yerushalayim Boulevard in Yaffo, in which seven people were murdered and many more were wounded. The two terrorists emerged from a nearby mosque after warning the other Muslims in the mosque to stay off the streets, and then opened fire on the passengers on the light rail. Their next step was to open fire on a group of people in the street. The terrorists, Hamas operatives who had arrived from the vicinity of Chevron, were eliminated by civilians and soldiers at the scene. I was especially saddened to hear that one of the fatalities was the son of a close friend of mine, Professor Dmitri Chrosis of Hadassah Hospital. This tragic attack certainly deserves greater coverage, and perhaps I will write about it at greater length in the near future. Meanwhile, as we were preparing to go to print, a husband and wife were killed when a Hezbollah rocket scored a direct hit in Kiryat Shemona. Six people were seriously wounded in a terror attack in Chadera.

Israeli Bedouin Commits Terror Attack in Beer Sheva

On the afternoon of Tzom Gedaliah, another heinous attack was committed at the central bus station in Beer Sheva. A 20-year-old woman was killed in the attack, and eight wounded victims were evacuated to Soroka Hospital, two of them in extremely serious condition. The terrorist was a Bedouin who lived fairly close to the site of the attack. He arrived with a gun and positioned himself next to the entrance to the branch of McDonalds at the bus station, where he opened fire. The terrorist was miraculously eliminated within seconds by soldiers who were present in the area with their guns. If he hadn’t been killed immediately, he might have murdered many more victims.

The restaurant workers who saw the terrorist begin his attack hurried to hide in the freezer. Tarin Yaakobov of Beer Sheva, the manager of the restaurant, related, “We were inside the restaurant, and we heard gunshots and went outside, and then we saw the terrorist spraying bullets with his gun; he shattered all the glass and came inside. We closed the door and hid inside the freezer with two soldiers and a civilian woman. We held the door so that he couldn’t get inside, and we waited for fifteen minutes until we could come out. On the way, we saw wounded victims.”

Elias Abu Gamaa of Arara in the Negev, an employee in the restaurant, related that he was the one who held the door closed. “We were together,” he related. “I wasn’t able to see the terrorist. We simply ran away. I have been working here for two and a half years; I was here at the time of the previous terror attack next to the bus station,” he added.

It was predicted in advance that there might be acts of terror at this time. The Shin Bet and the intelligence services are on high alert, but their precautions are not necessarily effective against terrorists who originate within Israel. To make matters more unsettling, Prime Minister Netanyahu revealed to the cabinet that Hezbollah was planning to mimic Hamas’s attack of last year. May Hashem protect us all!

Hezbollah Planned to Replicate the October 7 Massacre

Netanyahu spoke about the increased missile fire from Iran. “Iran has fired hundreds of missiles into our territory and at our cities,” he said, “in one of the largest ballistic missile attacks in history. No other country in the world would accept such an attack against its cities and its citizens, and the State of Israel is no exception. Israel has the obligation and the right to protect itself and to respond to these attacks, and that is precisely what we will do.”

Regarding the events in the north, he said, “The residents of the north, whom we evacuated to prevent a similar massacre on the Lebanese border, have suffered ceaseless attacks of missiles, rockets, drones, and mortars. Although we responded to these attacks with force, that wasn’t enough to restore security in the north, and it wasn’t sufficient to bring them home. But we have pledged to bring them back home, so that they can lead full lives in security in their cities, moshavim, and kibbutzim along the border with Lebanon.”

The prime minister also addressed the assassination of Nasrallah. “About a month ago,” he said, “while we were concluding the destruction of the Hamas battalions in Gaza, we began carrying out the promise we made to the residents of the north. We eliminated Nasrallah and the leaders of Hezbollah, and we eliminated the commanders of the Radwan force who were planning to invade Israel and commit a massacre of our citizens on a broader and more horrific scale than that of October 7. We destroyed a large portion of the missile and rocket system that Hezbollah built over the course of years. During these days, our heroic soldiers are destroying the network of terror tunnels that Hezbollah prepared in secret near our border.”

Meanwhile, Israel has also eliminated Nasrallah’s successor, Saffiedine. This has created a situation in which anyone who is named as a potential successor for Nasrallah fears for his life.

Netanyahu concluded, “We haven’t yet completely removed the threat, but we have clearly changed the course of this war and the balance of power, and we are still at work. You may remember that Nasrallah used to mock us. He called us ‘spider webs.’ He and the entire world have now discovered the iron muscles of the State of Israel. We are a powerful state with an army that is strong, bold, and ethical, a state that is determined to defend itself against any threat. That includes the threat from Iran, which is behind all the attacks on us—from Gaza, Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq, Syria, and, of course, Iran itself. With Hashem’s help, we will win,” Netanyahu concluded. As I mentioned in the past, Netanyahu has begun invoking Hashem in his speeches with increasing frequency.

The Willful Blindness of Scholars

Every hail of rockets or missiles that has been fired at Israel, whether from the north or from the south, has been accompanied by miracles. When the media reports that a missile fell in an open area, or that there were no injuries, or that there was only damage to a building, it is always miraculous. The missile bombardment on erev Rosh Hashanah injured a bus driver, for instance, but the ten passengers on the bus emerged without a single scratch. Failing to recognize these miracles is tantamount to showing a lack of gratitude to Hashem and denying His hashgocha. After all, the purpose of a miracle is to debunk the false perceptions of heretics, as the Ramban famously states, “When Hashem shows favor to a community or individual and performs wonders for them by deviating from the nature and normal functioning of the world, the falsity of those views will be revealed to all.” Rav Chatzkel Levenstein, the illustrious mashgiach, once commented that a single miracle should be sufficient to instill emunah in the average person.

But not everyone is willing to admit to the phenomenon of miracles. I came across a “scholarly” article in the media that discussed the various miracles that took place since the war began last Simchas Torah and dismissed all evidence of Divine intervention. This article was written by academics who have apparently made kefirah into their personal religion. It begins by citing the well-known story about the group of terrorists who were about to enter Netivot on Simchas Torah and then saw the images of three tzaddikim and fled. Dr. Dudu Rotman, a lecturer in the Department of Hebrew Literature and teacher of comparative folklore at Hebrew University, researched the stories of miracles that were told over the past year and dismissed them as “manipulation” and “exploitation.” Professor Yoram Bilu, who is a winner of the Israel Prize for sociology and anthropology, claimed, “These stories help people cope with the tremendous anxiety caused by an existential threat.” Professor Aviad Kleinman, president of the Ruppin Academic Center, felt that there was a common theme in the stories of the three tzaddikim in Netivot and the elderly woman at the Nova festival: They proved that the chilonim are not part of the nation. The academics all agreed that the stories of miracles reportedly told by soldiers in Gaza were part of an “industry of miracles” with the goal of raking in money and generating baalei teshuvah. In other words, they rejected the miracles and denied Hashem’s kindness, preferring to dismiss the stories as cynical efforts to promote an unrelated agenda.

The article includes a number of examples of the miraculous stories told by those who experienced them. There were survivors from the Gaza border area who related that they had made kabbalos and had been saved. There were people who had decided to begin observing Shabbos and therefore hadn’t gone to the festival that became a bloodbath. There was the story of the tzitzis and the survivors who were inexplicably overlooked by the terrorists. None of this served to persuade the academics. Professor Bilu wrote confidently, “Delusions and hallucinations are considered signs of mental disturbance… Stories of miracles are one of the main factors in recruiting believers.” Perhaps someone should direct these unseeing anthropologists to the video of Roy and Eden Asraf, who experienced a series of miracles on that day: the box that they “accidentally” left on their car and that helped them find it when they were fleeing from the terrorists, the bullets that missed them, the decision to race forward rather than turning around, and their rescue against all odds. “Only the Creator saved us on that day; it wasn’t anyone else,” Roy’s wife declares at the end of their interview.

“He protected us, and we need to give thanks to Him, so we pledged to begin keeping Shabbos,” Roy adds.

“And he will wear tzitzis and tefillin every day,” Eden says.

“We must have emunah and be strong,” Roy concludes. “It was an unmistakable miracle.”

Why Close the Religious Affairs Ministry?

If I understood correctly, it seems that some professionals in the Treasury have identified several government ministries that can be closed as a cost-cutting measure, with their functions distributed among other ministries. To be honest, I am sure that the Treasury itself, which includes the Tax Authority, the Capital Market Authority, and the Bank of Israel, has some departments of its own that could technically be closed or integrated into others. But the Treasury officials have decided to place the following ministries on the chopping block: the Ministry of Strategic Affairs, headed by Ron Dermer; the Ministry of Regional Cooperation, headed by David Amsalem; the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs, under the aegis of Amichai Chikli; the Ministry of Yerushalayim Affairs and Israeli Heritage, which is headed by Meir Porush; the Ministry of Heritage headed by Amichai Eliyohu; the Ministry of Social Equality and Advancement of Women, headed by May Golan; the Ministry of the Negev, Galil, and National Resilience, under Yitzchok Wasserlauf; the Ministry of Settlements and National Missions, under Orit Struck; the Ministry of Innovation, Science, and Technology, under Gila Gamliel, and, last but not least, the Ministry of Religious Affairs, headed by Michoel Malchieli, which manages a budget of 557 million shekels per year.

I won’t weigh in on the other ministries on this list, but I do not understand why the Ministry of Religious Affairs should be any different from any other ministry in the government, such as the housing ministry, the education ministry, the health ministry, the foreign ministry, or the national security ministry, whose importance is disputed by no one. The Ministry of Religious Affairs wasn’t created to placate a coalition partner or to provide a job for a politician in search of a position. It has been in existence since the founding of the state, and it is the single government agency responsible for all religious services in this country, from cradle to grave—or, better yet, from bris through kevurah. Just this past year, it has become very clear that the ministry’s functions are vital to this country. So why have the Treasury officials decided that it is expendable? I am reminded of the story of the passengers on the ship who decided to throw their tefillin overboard first, when it became apparent that the ship was too heavy to sail. It is simply a sad commentary on their priorities.

Police Violence Continues

The episodes of police brutality are continuing to pile up. First there was the 14-year-old boy who was attacked by a policeman armed with a club and sustained a serious head injury. Next, there was an American bochur who was beaten by police officers on the light rail in Yerushalayim. This time, the extremist community in Beit Shemesh suffered the police’s wrath.

At a demonstration in Beit Shemesh, a police officer was heard asking, “Do we have authorization?” When his colleagues answered in the affirmative, he began viciously beating several chareidi men with a club as they lay in the street. It was an appalling sight to witness. The Department of Internal Police Investigations immediately announced that they would be probing the incident, which was “not in the spirit of the police force.” However, something about that statement does not seem credible to me. After all, the officer was heard asking explicitly if he was authorized to use extreme force, and he received confirmation! How, then, could his actions have violated the “spirit” of the police force?

In any event, one thing is clear: The demonstrators may be causing havoc in the lives of the local residents, and they may not be the type of tzaddikim that they pretend to be, but the police officers in this story are evil.

This reminded me of something that seems to have been forgotten. At the end of Iyar last year, after the police terrorized civilians in Meron and elsewhere, the Public Security Committee met to discuss and condemn police brutality. The committee session was held at the request of several Knesset members from the Shas party: Avrohom Betzalel (who focused mainly on the violence on Rechov Yechezkel and the use of skunk water that penetrated the dormitory rooms of Yeshivas Rashi), Yoni Mashriki, and Simon Moshiashvili. It was a highly charged discussion, and even the committee chairman, Tzvika Fogel, bluntly accused the police force of harboring a number of bad apples who should have been filtered out by advance screening before they were even hired. At the end of that meeting, Fogel promised that the committee would reconvene to discuss the matter again at a later date, and he insisted that the police and the DIPI arrive with clear facts and statistics to present to the committee. The first committee session was covered extensively in the media; however, I do not recall reading about the second session at all.

Recent events inspired me to do some digging, and I discovered that the committee indeed met again to discuss the subject, just as Fogel had promised. This took place at the beginning of Tammuz, one month after the first session. The DIPI reported that between January 1 and June 10, 2024, over the course of a 162-day period, they had received a total of 753 complaints concerning the use of excessive force by the police. Following the incident in Meron, the DIPI received nine complaints about the use of force, and eight investigations were opened (with two of the complaints merged into a single case). Advocate Ronen Yitzchak of the DIPI claimed that three police officers were questioned on the very next day and that criminal cases were opened against them. Chief Superintendent Moshe Elfasi, who headed the command center in Meron on Lag Ba’omer, claimed that the Border Guard officers who committed the acts of violence were “dealt with” by the DIPI, and that on the regional level, lessons were learned regarding how the police should interact with the public. Of course, his claim that “lessons were learned” is fairly ambiguous, and I would not put much faith in the DIPI. But the Knesset members of the Shas party will certainly continue monitoring the situation.

After the second committee session, Tzvika Fogel sent a long letter to Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, with copies sent to Yariv Levin and Meir Porush as well. (Fogel, incidentally, is a member of Ben-Gvir’s party, Otzma Yehudit.) The letter dealt with the degree of force employed by the police and the use of a water cannon, and revealed that the police have a fleet of 80 such vehicles. Regarding the violence in Meron, Fogel wrote, “The committee heard that two male Border Guard officers and one policewoman are being handled by the DIPI due to their involvement in these incidents. The cases will be investigated and dealt with, while the rights of the police officers will be protected. The conclusions drawn from this incident include the following: The rules of conduct for the police in dealing with the chareidi populace will be updated, instructions for the proportional use of force will be reviewed, officers will be reminded of their objectives, the use of force at critical points of conflict will be refined, and there will be greater efforts to communicate information to the chareidi public, with the collaboration of the Ministry of Yerushalayim Affairs and Israeli Heritage.” Unfortunately, I don’t expect this to result in much benefit at all.

On another unfortunate note, an overview of the disciplinary rulings issued against violent police officers was released this week, which made it very clear that the punishments for these offenses are ludicrously trivial. For instance, two police sergeants, Mohammed Abbas and Ahmed Kabha, were fined only 500 shekels each for engaging in violence against a civilian and filing a false report about the incident; Abbas was also ordered to pay another 500 shekels in damages to the complainant. In another incident, Sergeant Idan Abu-Chatzeirah was conditionally demoted after turning off his body camera in two separate incidents so that his acts of violence and the brutality of another police officer would not be captured on video. In both cases, he used disproportionate force against a civilian. Sergeant Yosef Vahav was similarly demoted for a month after using force against a civilian and failing to turn on his camera. In addition to monitoring the investigations of the DIPI, it seems that the Knesset should also be keeping tabs on the disciplinary measures used against the offending officers.

Rav Uri Zohar on the Radio

In my thick file on Rav Uri Zohar, I found a copy of a transcript of a radio program aired in July 2005. The transcript begins by announcing that the program’s host “refused to be excited by Rav Uri Zohar joining Radio Darom.” I will keep the host’s identity under wraps, especially since he told me this week that he regretted expressing that sentiment, and we must respect the value of teshuvah. In any event, the presenter declared sardonically, “Rav Uri Zohar missed you all; have no doubt about it! He wanted to appear on the radio even more than you wanted to hear him. Beginning next Monday, on Radio Darom, you will be able to hear the man who disappeared from the air waves during the program Night Birds on Galei Tzahal, about 35 years ago. He has already returned to several television programs and has been heard on pirate radio stations, and now he is coming back to a legal radio station…. This new program will consist of discussions with listeners and will be aired at night. It will be dedicated to his advice to callers on the subjects of Judaism and education, of course. Zohar also needed an editor, and Radio Darom aimed high, perhaps too high. The program’s editor will be Shimon Alkabetz, the stockholders’ representative, who has no experience on the radio or in journalism.” The host went on to deride both Rav Uri and Alkabetz.

Despite the presenter’s dramatic description, my impression is that Rav Uri’s return to the radio was part of an effort to convince parents to send their children to religious schools and had nothing to do with his yearning to return to the media. At the behest of the gedolei Yisroel, Rav Uri tapped into the widespread public admiration for him and sought to channel it to accomplish the goals of kiruv. Indeed, the records of Lev L’Achim attest to tens of thousands of children who joined its kiruv schools. The criticism of Alkabetz is also quite bizarre, since he was actually a journalist and the editor of a local publication in the south, and he later became the commander of Galei Tzahal. This year, Alkabetz suffered the tragic loss of his daughter Sivan, who was murdered in the Simchas Torah massacre; one of the videos taken in the ravaged communities shows an image of her home, which was torched by the terrorists, in which a white siddur was found with her name embossed on its cover in gold letters. Based on my acquaintance with Alkabetz, I can attest that he is one of those good souls who spend their lives cloaked in simplicity.

I contacted Shimon Alkabetz recently and wrote the following message: “Shimon, my friend, forgive me for troubling you about such minutiae, but I would like to write about Rav Uri Zohar and I came across the attached document in my archives. It contains cynical mockery of Radio Darom, Rav Uri Zohar, and you. I would like to ask a few questions: Why did the host despise you so much? Were you really so inexperienced at the time? Who had the idea of giving Rav Uri Zohar a slot on the radio, and why? Most important of all, was that program a success or a failure? Thank you very much, and I continue to share your pain.”

Alkabetz’s first response was to ask where I planned to publish this information. I answered his question and added a few more questions of my own: How long did the program remain on the air? What was its rating? And how successful was it?

“The program began on Radio Darom Beer Sheva and was aired simultaneously on the radio in Yerushalayim as well,” he responded. “I used to go to the Radio Yerushalayim studio once a week and broadcast on both stations. It was wildly successful, and the rov did everything in his power to be mekareiv other Jews. He spoke about chinuch and derech eretz in his inimitable style and with his unique humor. He once said to me on the air, ‘Reb Shimon, how can we know if anyone is actually listening to us?’ I replied, ‘I would like to ask anyone who is listening to this program now to respond to Rav Uri by calling the radio station.’ The phone lines at the radio station were immediately overwhelmed and collapsed. ‘Did you get your answer, Reb Uri?’ I asked him. The rov was shocked.

“The question that challenged Rav Uri more than anything else,” Shimon Alkabetz continued, “was the following: ‘Reb Uri, you have done so much in life and been through so much. Why did you choose to become a baal teshuvah now?’ This prompted many conversations with callers and with guests whom the rov wanted to have on the program. There wasn’t a single person who turned down a request from Rav Uri to appear as a guest on the program. Everyone accepted his invitations. I was very fond of the rov,” he added. “Working with him and with his aides, Rav Shimon Shachar and Rav Nosson Cheifetz, was challenging, enjoyable, and an extremely special experience.”

A Letter from Rav Aharon Kotler

A biography was recently published about Rav Yechiel Benedict, a distinguished Agudas Yisroel activist in the previous generation. As a young man, Rav Yechiel attended the Knessia Gedolah in Vienna in Elul 5683, where he had the privilege of seeing the Chofetz Chaim and Rav Chaim Ozer Grodzinsky. Rav Yechiel later related that he remembered the shiur that the Chofetz Chaim delivered after Shacharis. After he moved to Eretz Yisroel, he became one of the most prominent activists in Agudas Yisroel and was involved in the party’s Tel Aviv branch. He worked in the Agudas Yisroel office in the city of Tel Aviv, which was home to numerous rabbonim and admorim at the time.

I think the following story will be of interest to you: In the summer of 1959, Rav Yechiel received a telegram from Rav Aharon Kotler offering him a position on the Agudas Yisroel slate for the Knesset election. This is an interesting sign of the extent of Rav Aharon’s involvement in the affairs of Agudas Yisroel in Eretz Yisroel. Rav Benedict responded by telegram three days later and informed Rav Aharon that he did not want the position, which he felt would be detrimental to him and to his children. When he finally sent his response, his wife asked him why he had delayed it for so long. “Did it take you three days to decide?” she asked. “Did you even consider taking the position for a moment?”

Rav Yechiel replied, “It is not respectful to give an immediate no to a great man of Rav Aharon’s stature.”

Rav Yechiel’s son related that he once met Rav Shneur Kotler in Lakewood, and Rav Shneur filled him in on the continuation of that story: “Many years ago, my father received a telegram. When he opened the message and read it, he stood up and began pacing back and forth, immersed in thought, as he mused aloud, ‘How do I respond to him?’ I was very surprised to see my father’s reaction, but I did not know what the telegram was about; all I knew was that it had come from Rav Yechiel Benedict of Agudas Yisroel in Tel Aviv.” Naturally, Rav Shneur asked Rav Yechiel’s son about the contents of that telegram, which affected his father so deeply.

And the story does not end there. Shortly after receiving Rav Benedict’s response, Rav Aharon sent him a letter asking him to assist Rabbi Menachem Porush in his bid to be elected to the Knesset on behalf of Agudas Yisroel. The letter begins with a string of honorifics for Rav Yechiel and continues, ‘I hereby appeal to you regarding the Knesset list, for it would be correct to place Rabbi M.P. in the third place of Agudah’s list, which would be the fifth slot in its united list with Poalei Agudas Yisroel, if that occurs. This would be greatly beneficial for Chinuch Atzmai, in which Rabbi Porush is one of the main figures, for several clear reasons, aside from his involvement in other religious matters and in strengthening the Agudah and increasing its respect in general. It is clear to me that he is deserving of this due to his past accomplishments and, even more importantly, because of the future benefit. I will also inform you that several of the tzaddikim of Yerushalayim asked me to advocate for this while I was in Eretz Yisroel, including a number of outstanding talmidei chochomim who have no personal agendas at all.”

Once again, this letter stands as a testament to the depths of Rav Aharon’s involvement in the internal affairs of Agudas Yisroel in Eretz Yisroel, to the point that he weighed in on its choice of candidates for the Knesset. In this case, however, his principal motivation might have been his concern for Chinuch Atzmai, which was very important to him.

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