Hoping for a Good Year
The year 5785 has been a year of suffering, of tears, of hopes, and of prayers for all of us. Everyone certainly had his or her own troubles during the past year. I am reminded of a story that Rav Shimshon Pincus once related: “I once made a mi shebeirach for a sick person in the shul in Ofakim. Before I could finish it, someone approached me and asked me to add another name. Then someone else came with the same request, and then a third person, and a fourth, and so forth. In the end, there wasn’t even a single person in the entire shul who didn’t have a name of someone in need of refuah.” But aside from everyone’s personal burdens and worries, there are communal issues as well. This has been a painful year for Klal Yisroel. The year is now ending in the shadow of the horrific massacre at the Ramot Junction just a couple of weeks ago. If the Chofetz Chaim was capable of speaking about an earthquake in Japan for four years (see below), then we should certainly continue reflecting on this mind-boggling tragedy for a long time to come.
Of course, the issue of the draft is at the forefront of all of our minds. The chareidi community today is suffering from the most vicious persecution it has witnessed in many years. The situation is still highly volatile, and there is no way to tell what lies in store for us in the imminent future. Let’s put aside the economic sanctions for a moment; the community would somehow manage to survive despite the financial hardship, with the help of our brethren abroad. Yungeleit will would to tighten their proverbial belts even more, despite the fact that they are already squeezed for funds, but they would find a way to survive. But what will happen if the police begin arresting increasing numbers of yeshiva bochurim, sending the message that Torah learners are criminals in the State of Israel? What sort of kitrug will that create? The state is cutting off the very branch on which it sits.
I am reminded of my interview with Rav Aharon Dov Freund, which was published in the paper Shavuos-time. I asked Rav Freund about Rav Shach’s famous statement that if the draft is imposed on the bnei Torah, the chareidi community will leave the country. Rav Freund explained, “It doesn’t mean that we will run away out of fear of the draft or we will leave the country out of spite. It is simply the fact that this country has no right to exist without Torah, and it would be considered a place of danger—and the halacha requires a person to flee from a place of danger.” That is an unsettling thought indeed.
Let us all daven for the misfortunes of the year 5785 to come to an end, and for the new year to bring brachos and good news to all of us.
The Tragedy in Ramot
We are all still reeling from the horrific terror attack at the Ramot Junction. When a terror attack takes place at the entrance to Yerushalayim or on the Ramot highway, I always find out about it in real time, since the porch of my apartment overlooks the area. When there is an explosion, I hear it from my home; when there is a shooting attack, I hear the gunshots. This is always followed by a deathly silence, then hair-raising screams, and then the wailing of sirens as emergency vehicles make their way through masses of unmoving cars in an effort to save lives. And whenever it happens, the same emotions are stirred. There are tears of anguish, wordless terror, and maddening thoughts of vengeance. I cannot help but wish that our enemies would be crushed, banished, and destroyed once and for all. But the correct reaction to such misfortune was modeled by the Chofetz Chaim many years ago, and I try to remind myself to learn a lesson from his actions.
In Elul of the year 5683, there was a disastrous earthquake in Japan that resulted in a death toll of thousands. The Chofetz Chaim was shaken by this disaster and reminded his talmidim in the Radin yeshiva that the Gemara states that misfortune comes to the world only because of Klal Yisroel (Yevamos 63). The language of tragedy and disaster, he explained, is a language that can be understood only by us, those who are versed in emunah. And the loss of life in Japan, he explained, was a wake-up call for Klal Yisroel. The talmidim of the Radin yeshiva attested that the Chofetz Chaim continued speaking about the disastrous earthquake in Japan for four years. Four years! One can only imagine how much longer he would have spoken about the disaster if it had taken place in Radin itself. And this month, the earth shook at the Ramot Junction in Yerushalayim.
Rav Shimshon Pincus used to quote the Gemara’s statement (Sanhedrin 100a), “In the future, Hashem will give every tzaddik 310 worlds, as the posuk states, ‘There is something [yeish—a word with the numerical value of 310] to bequeath to those who love Me.’” Rav Pincus raised a simple question: While the posuk implies that the tzaddikim will receive 310 of something, there is no direct indication that this refers to entire worlds. How do Chazal know that this is the posuk’s meaning? He explained, “When you ask a storekeeper for the price of an object and he says ‘one hundred,’ you know what he means based on where you are. In America, it means one hundred dollars, while in Britain he would be referring to pounds, and in Russia the price would be in rubles. Every country has its own currency and its own language. Hashem’s currency, so to speak, is worlds. When He refers to a quantity of something that He will give to the tzaddikim, that is what He means. He is speaking a language that only we understand.”
At the Ramot Junction, as well, Hashem “spoke” to Klal Yisroel in a language that no other nation would comprehend.
During the hours after the terror attack, I perused the writings of Rav Shach in search of some type of perspective on this type of calamity, and I came across the following passage: “Rabi Shimon bar Yochai teaches us that Eisov will always despise Yaakov. This comment is made on the posuk, ‘Eisov ran toward him and embraced him, and he fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept.’ How awe-inspiring is Chazal’s kedushah, that with their sacred insight and grasp of Hashem’s secrets, they knew that Eisov’s desire was solely to cause harm to Yaakov…. There is only one thing that we must do today: to strengthen our Torah learning and yiras Shomayim, and not to become lax, chas v’sholom. For this purpose, we can only establish more yeshivos and more places for Torah learning. This is our obligation, for a little bit of light banishes much darkness. We are living in constant spiritual danger, regardless of whether there will be peace, and our faith and understanding teach us that those who claim to be upholding the state are actually endangering it….”
Did the Operation in Qatar Fail?
The hot topic in Israel today is the recent IDF operation in Qatar. At first, seemed to have been one of Israel’s most brilliant successes; however, as time goes on, it is slowly being exposed as a failure—ostensibly. If Israel’s goal was to eliminate the leaders of Hamas while they were meeting to discuss the latest proposed hostage deal, then it seems that they failed to target the correct location. There are many possible explanations for this, including the possibility that the Hamas meeting was moved or canceled at the last minute. That, of course, begs the question of why it was changed. Did someone tip off the Hamas leaders or the Qatari government about the imminent Israeli air strike? If so, who?
But I had good reason for writing that if Israel’s goal was to strike the leaders of Hamas, they missed their target. It is possible that Israel didn’t actually intend to eliminate the Hamas leadership. Perhaps their goal was to frighten the terror leaders and to show them that they will no longer continue to enjoy immunity in Qatar. Until now, it has been tacitly accepted that the IDF will not strike anywhere in Qatar or in Turkey. Both of these countries host the leaders of Hamas, who live there conspicuously and presumably in safety. But that will no longer be the case. It’s quite possible that Israel had no intention of eliminating the Hamas leaders since there would have been no one left to accept the hostage deal that is—or was—on the negotiating table, and that the goal was simply to frighten them into accepting the deal.
According to the Wall Street Journal and other sources, Arab officials claimed that the Hamas leaders were not in the room that was bombed, and that they were nearby. The Israeli offensive did kill a number of junior Hamas officials and an official in Qatar’s domestic security establishment. The Israeli missiles took out most of the middle floor of the building that was struck, along with the right side of the ground floor; however, the building remained standing.
This operation, dubbed Operation Summit of Fire, was billed by Defense Minister Yisroel Katz as a response to the horrific terror attack in Ramot. Fifteen jets participated in the operation, and the missile that hit the building was most likely fired from outside Qatar’s airspace. One of the participants in the Hamas meeting was Khalil Al-Haya, who was likely Israel’s main target. It appears that he was merely wounded and his son was killed. Again, the question remains: Was this a failure, or was this the plan all along?
Trump’s Harsh Response
In any event, complications have been developing in the wake of the air strike. After the strike on Qatar, the media reported that the heads of Israel’s defense establishment, including Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir and Mossad director Barnea, were opposed to the plan. But one must wonder whether they leaked this information in response to the strike’s apparent failure. According to others who participated in the cabinet discussions before the strike, it is completely untrue.
President Trump’s reaction also didn’t sit well with Israeli leaders. Trump reportedly said that he was displeased by the attack on Qatar and that he hoped that it wouldn’t harm the negotiations for the release of the hostages, which might have been fatally damaged by the IDF’s operation. That is a serious accusation indeed. Rumor has it that Trump even added, “Every time there is progress, Netanyahu bombs someone.” It has also been speculated that if the strike on Qatar causes Trump to be unable to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, which he certainly deserves and deeply covets, he will be even more furious with Netanyahu. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who visited Israel at the beginning of the week and made a heavily publicized visit to the Kosel Hamaaravi, remarked that he would discuss the matter with Netanyahu.
The Israeli strike on Doha, the capital city of Qatar, has complicated Israel’s relations with many countries. It still isn’t clear whether Qatar itself was on Israel’s side throughout this process, but at the very least, they have been the main mediators in the negotiations between Israel and Hamas. Some say this may be a watershed moment in Israel’s relations with the nations of the world, including the United Nations. The UN Security Council already issued a condemnation at the end of last week of the Israeli strike on Qatar. In an unusual step, the United States supported the declaration, and its ambassador to the UN remarked during the debate that Israel’s strike endangers mediation efforts for the release of the hostages and the end of the war. After the strike, Qatar suspended its role as mediator in the talks between Israel and Hamas. Of course, Europe and the UN were never sympathetic to Israel, but the hostility will likely reach new heights now.
Within Israel, as well, Netanyahu’s actions evoked fury, especially among the families of the hostages, who accused him of playing with their loved ones’ lives, a claim that was echoed by Trump. Of course, that is a very serious accusation against Netanyahu, who is claiming exactly the opposite. The prime minister insists that the senior Hamas leaders in Qatar were the obstacle to every deal that was put on the table, and that if there is any chance of progress on the diplomatic front, it will come only now, after and as a result of the strike. Of course, no one will ever know which side of this dispute is correct. In Israel, meanwhile, efforts are being made to deal with the diplomatic tsunami evoked by the strike, while the government still claims that the details of the strike’s impact have yet to be determined.
On motzoei Shabbos, Netanyahu released a brief and vague statement to the press: “Eliminating the Hamas leaders in Gaza will remove the main obstacle to the release of the hostages and the end of the war.” This implied that the Hamas leaders haven’t yet been eliminated, but that their deaths will hasten the hostages’ release. This, ostensibly, is an answer to his critics. Netanyahu added that the Hamas leadership in Qatar is completely apathetic to the well-being of the residents of Gaza. He claimed that the Hamas leaders blocked every effort to reach a ceasefire, and that they have aimed to drag out the war endlessly. The hostages’ families (those who are opposed to Netanyahu) responded acidly, “It turns out that there is only one obstacle to the hostages’ release.” Of course, they were referring to Netanyahu.
As far as we are concerned, there is only one thing that we can do for the hostages languishing in Gaza: We must daven!
A Stabbing at a Hotel
A terror attack took place last Friday and miraculously concluded without fatalities. The incident occurred in the Tzuba Hotel, where an Arab employee suddenly began stabbing guests in the dining room. The terrorist, a resident of Shuafat in East Yerushalayim, took a knife from the dining room and used it to stab two people shortly before Shabbos, at a time when the hotel was packed with people. One of the victims was left in serious condition, while the other was moderately injured. A number of civilians, including an off-duty police officer who was a guest in the hotel, managed to subdue the terrorist with their bare hands and thus quickly put an end to his rampage. The police officer explained that he hadn’t used his gun because he did not wish to harm the guests, and he therefore chose to attack the terrorist with his hands instead.
The Tzuba Hotel is located on Kibbutz Tzuba, near Yerushalayim. It is distinguished by its location in a charming pastoral setting overlooking the Judean Hills. It isn’t very well known to the chareidi community, since it does not have glatt certification; but it is kosher. The hotel includes several dozen suites and a shul.
After the terror attack, large numbers of Border Guard officers from Yerushalayim, officers from the Yerushalayim District Police, police sappers, and forensic investigators arrived at the scene and collected findings and evidence. At the same time, Shin Bet agents arrived as well. The terrorist was transferred to police custody and taken for questioning by the police, and the knife used as a weapon was confiscated as well. On motzoei Shabbos, police investigators petitioned the court to extend the detention of the terrorist and an additional suspect who was arrested on suspicion of involvement in the crime. “Involvement” generally means providing information to a terrorist or assisting him in some other way.
The police decided to move quickly to implement punitive measures, and police and Shin Bet investigators raided the terrorist’s home in Shuafat in Yerushalayim. This isn’t a particularly effective form of deterrence, however, and there have been many calls for terrorists’ homes to be demolished and their families deported immediately after such incidents. The destruction of a home and deportation of a family is considered an unbearable punishment, certainly for the Arabs, and Arab youths might be effectively deterred from committing acts of terror if they know that their parents and other family members will suffer severe consequences.
During the raid on the terrorist’s home, a suspect was located and attempted to flee. The suspect was shot by the soldiers and was brought to the hospital for treatment. The police continued their search and seized additional materials for their investigation. The terrorist’s brother was later arrested as well. During the operation, dozens of suspects engaged in disturbances of the public order, throwing stones and a pipe bomb at the soldiers, and the Border Guard officers used riot control measures in response. As you can see, even Israeli Arabs who live in Yerushalayim identify with acts of terror against Jews.
Is a Political Assassination in the Works in Israel?
The murder of Charlie Kirk at the University of Utah shocked America, and for good reason. What is most astounding is that there are people who have been exulting and rejoicing over the murder, which is a heinous response indeed. Even if one abhors someone else’s political views, there is no justification for rejoicing over a murder.
Here in Israel, we were all shocked and appalled by the murder, for several reasons. For one thing, any murder is abhorrent, regardless of the victim’s identity. But we also felt that it was a direct attack on every Jew or Israeli, since Charlie Kirk was one of the most effective advocates for Israel. In addition, there are strong parallels between the atmosphere of tension and polarization in America and the political climate in Israel, and the killing in America gave rise to the fear that a similar incident could happen here. After all, no one can deny that the incitement against the prime minister and several government ministers has reached unprecedented heights; there have even been explicit calls to assassinate Netanyahu. Indeed, discussion has already begun in Israel about the fear that this could happen here.
The subject was brought up at the cabinet meeting on Sunday as well. Prime Minister Netanyahu and Ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Yoav Kisch spoke strongly against Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara during the session, which was meant to be a festive session marking the fiftieth anniversary of the establishment of the IDF counterterrorism unit. Perhaps that topic was actually the reason that the discussion took this turn. Kisch, who serves as minister of education and is an air force reserve pilot, declared, “I see violent protests outside my home every day. Ten cases have been filed against the demonstrators, and the State Prosecutor’s Office does nothing.” It’s important to note that in Israel, it is the prosecution rather than the police that decides whether to press charges against an offender. The police transfer the criminal files to the prosecutor’s office for review, and the decision is made there.
When Kisch made this comment, everyone turned to look at the police commissioner, Danny Levi. The question hung in the air: Is it true that the police transfer cases of violence and incitement to the prosecution, and those cases are stalled in their hands? Levi was forced to admit that Kisch was correct. “No minister or public official should feel threatened; the police force is doing everything in its power to protect them.” Nevertheless, he admitted, “Thirteen cases have been submitted to the prosecution, but we need their cooperation.” Evidently, that cooperation hasn’t been forthcoming.
During the same intensely charged cabinet session, Minister Shlomo Karai asked the commissioner, “Is the prosecution cooperating with you?” The commissioner replied evasively, “This is one of the issues that I will discuss with the attorney general. This needs to be addressed.” The implication was obvious.
At that point, Netanyahu could no longer hold himself back. “There hasn’t been a single cabinet meeting where this issue hasn’t been raised,” he said. “There is no enforcement against people who incite violence. This is the responsibility of the attorney general and the state prosecutor.”
Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who oversees the police, added bluntly, “It’s only a matter of time until the next political assassination. I intend to hold a meeting in my office in light of the murder of Charlie Kirk. There is a representative of the attorney general here, and I am telling her that the handwriting is on the wall. It’s time to wake up!”
The Pilot Who Saw but Did Not Open Fire
From time to time, the army publishes the results of its internal inquiries following every failure (and every success as well). The events of Simchas Torah 5784 are still being examined case by case and location by location. Every inquiry has identified failures, and it can sometimes be maddening to see how delinquent the army was in performing its responsibilities. Time after time, the reports create the distinct impression that Divine hashgocha blinded everyone to the events unfolding before them. There were places where the IDF commanders failed in their duties, and there were other places where the soldiers lost their nerve and fled for their lives. In most cases, if anyone was saved from the Hamas terrorists, it was due to the intervention of armed civilians or soldiers and police who arrived on their own initiative. I haven’t written about these inquiries until now, although perhaps they deserved some attention.
Last week, a record was broken. Ayala Hasson, a journalist known for exposing shocking information, recently reported an incident that deserves to trigger an immediate investigation of its own, if it is correct. According to her report, a combat helicopter was spotted circling between Kibbutz Beeri and the area of the Nova music festival four hours after the beginning of the massacre. The pilot of that helicopter encountered dozens of Hamas pickup trucks but did not open fire. According to the documentation, the cameras mounted on the helicopter, which was armed with missiles, clearly picked up a large convoy of vehicles packed with armed terrorists. Moreover, the images were transferred in real time to the air force strike command center.
If this story is true—and it certainly appears to be accurate—then it demands explanation. This helicopter was scrambled specifically for the purpose of dealing with terrorists in the area of the Nova festival, and its pilot spotted the convoy of vehicles carrying the terrorists but failed to open fire. And this happened four hours after the beginning of the massacre, when the media had already flooded the country with clear images of those pickup trucks carrying terrorists and invading our territory.
In Israel, this report has already given rise to conspiracy stories. Some point to it as evidence that there were traitors in our midst on Simchas Torah. At the same time, other air force pilots have defended the pilot in question, insisting that the images captured by the helicopter’s cameras do not reflect what the pilot actually saw. In fact, the footage that appears to show terrorists exiting the trucks actually contains images of IDF soldiers. As always, there are two sides to every coin. But the pilot and everyone who was with him in the helicopter should certainly be expected to give answers. Until they do, a cloud of suspicion will undoubtedly continue to hover over them.
The Strange Story of the Prime Minister’s Advisor
The story of Yonasan Urich, an employee of Prime Minister Netanyahu, seems to defy explanation. Urich was an advisor, spokesman, or some other type of close associate of the prime minister and was arrested on suspicion of transferring sensitive information to an enemy state or something of that sort. Every Israeli (and every human being) is appalled to hear about someone who has the audacity to betray his country, and the initial reports were indeed shocking. But then it was revealed that Urich’s alleged crime was far more trivial than it seemed: He was accused of leaking a document to the German newspaper Bild. This document was given to him with full authorization, presumably with the knowledge and approval of Prime Minister Netanyahu, with the goal of proving that Netanyahu was correct about who had opposed the deal with Hamas at the time. Perhaps the affair should have ended there, but the problem is that when the police climb a tree, they don’t know how to climb down gracefully, and this is certainly true of Shin Bet. And the story thus grew increasingly complicated and problematic.
One by one, inaccuracies in the charges were revealed. First, the police had claimed that Urich dealt with an “enemy state,” but Qatar is defined as a friendly state and certainly not an enemy. The police also claimed that Urich fit the definition of a “state employee,” but he was actually an external contractor. Netanyahu himself also asserted that Urich, in his view, had acted for the good of the state.
On the recent occasions when the police and the Shin Bet appeared before the Magistrates’ Court to make requests about the Urich case, whether to extend his detention or to prolong the period when he was barred from working with Netanyahu, they were rebuked by the judge. But instead of accepting the judge’s criticism, they repeatedly appealed to the District Court, which accepted their petitions. Despite the verdicts in their favor from the higher court, the police and the Shin Bet have lost a good deal of public approval and confidence. Their behavior is generally perceived by the public as pure persecution with no real basis. The situation reached the point of absurdity when the police announced last week that they had added another charge against Urich: wearing an IDF uniform without reason. This was viewed as petty and vengeful on their part.
Last Thursday, the state (read: the police, the Shin Bet, and the prosecution) submitted another request to extend the period when Urich is banned from returning to work. This time, Judge Menachem Mizrachi of the Magistrates’ Court lost his temper. “What do you want?” he demanded. “Without the testimony of Jay Footlik [the American lobbyist who hired Urich] you have no case, and the Americans have already told us that they will not allow Footlik to be questioned. How long do you want to hold Urich hostage?” The judge also revealed another astounding fact: Someone had inadvertently relayed an internal police document to him, in which a senior figure in the police department wrote that he did not believe there was any basis at all for criminal charges in the case. Mizrachi was furious not only because of the document’s contents but also because there had been a deliberate attempt to conceal it from him. And the state’s request was denied.
Fierce Criticism from the Judge
This story is very troubling, since it illustrates the intolerable ease with which law enforcement authorities in Israel are ready to pull the trigger. Urich has also reached the end of his own endurance. This week, he wrote, “The ease with which a person’s life is destroyed is a crime. My life has changed completely since I was arrested and thrown into prison.”
The story concerning Footlik is also fairly troubling. The American Department of Justice canceled his interrogation at the last minute. The interrogation, which was supposed to be held last July, was called off in a surprising decision from the Americans that was given no official explanation but was certainly not for technical reasons. The presumption is that it was due to the Trump administration’s political and diplomatic considerations. That, too, is a very significant fact.
As I mentioned, the Magistrates’ Court rejected the request from the police to extend the restrictions imposed on Yonasan Urich, which include distancing him from the Prime Minister’s Office. (Incidentally, Urich has been taking steps toward Yiddishkeit during his ordeal.) As soon as the verdict was issued, the state asked for a delay of 72 hours before the decision went into effect, to give it time to appeal. The judge agreed to this request, and yet another appeal was submitted to the District Court.
As of this writing, the higher court hasn’t rendered its decision yet. But even if the District Court accepts the appeal, the police and the Shin Bet have already suffered a serious blow to their public image. Judge Mizrachi wrote in his ruling that in the police documents submitted to him, it is clear that senior police officials believed until March of this year that there were no criminal actions involved in the Qatar-gate case: “An examination of these documents indicates that the authoritative position of the Israel police, based on the evidence presented until that time, was that there were no criminal offenses. I have also found that an authorized official took the position that the suspect was not considered a state employee and that no security offenses were identified.” Judge Mizrachi also noted that if the documents had been submitted to him for review when the scandal first erupted and everyone was certain that it was a huge breach of national security, he might never have approved the arrest in the first place. “These documents were not presented to me when the investigating unit arrived in court a few days later with various requests for arrest warrants,” he wrote. “That is unfortunate, because had they done so, things would have been different.” He also mentioned that although the police had explained that Urich had to be barred from the Prime Minister’s Office on the grounds of “danger to state security,” no evidence to this effect was presented to the judge, since the Shin Bet opinion that was supposed to support it was an unsigned draft. He described the request for an arrest warrant as “arbitrary” and added, “This is an unfocused investigation drifting in the sea without a captain, and the court must not accept it.”
The significance of this affair must not be underestimated. An advisor to the prime minister was arrested on the suspicion of committing an extremely serious crime, and now it seems that those allegations were heavily exaggerated. Was Urich targeted as part of the campaign of persecution against Prime Minister Netanyahu? That may well be a reasonable conclusion.
The Secular Media Foments Hate
The media has extraordinary power to shape perceptions not only by virtue of what it reports but also, or even more so, with the messages inserted between the lines. The media is capable of manipulation and trickery often bordering on the nefarious. People with a journalistic background can often detect the hidden slants in the most innocuous-looking articles. Sometimes it is a commercial entity promoting a project of some kind, but it is more often a political or ideological agenda.
Here is an example: Last Monday, two headlines appeared on the front page of a popular newspaper. On the right side was a quote from a reservist in the IDF: “Holding it up alone for a long time is pure suffering.” This was followed by a seven-line subheading. On the left side of the page, meanwhile, was a quote from chareidi askanim instructing their listeners, “Do not open the door for the army under any circumstances.” Here, too, there was a seven-line subheading, which read, “While tens of thousands of reservists leave everything behind and report for another round of duty, the Peleg Yerushalmi has opened a hotline to help young chareidi draft-dodgers evade arrest.” This was actually more accurate than a previous article, which claimed that the goal of the hotline was to help the youths evade the draft. That is untrue; its entire purpose is solely to help prevent arrests. But even this headline is deceitful and manipulative; the reader cannot help but subconsciously note the contrast between the suffering reservists and the chareidim refusing to serve in the army. The goal is clear: to cause the chareidi community to become despised.
I also came across subliminal messaging with a similar anti-chareidi slant in a different article, this one reporting on a request to the minister of defense to permit davening to be held on Rosh Hashanah at Kever Yosef. Most of the article was phrased reasonably, but the title was striking: “Defense Minister to Weigh Permitting Festivities on Rosh Hashanah at Kever Yosef.” The use of the term “festivities” is evidence either of ignorance or of malice, and I am not sure which is worse. This, too, is part of a narrative of hate: While the entire people of Israel are facing mortal danger, the “settlers” are depicted as being busy with their “festivities,” blissfully oblivious to the people’s suffering.
Undefeated by Terror
Forty years ago, on 12 Elul 5745, masked terrorists attacked a tzaddik in the Old City who was making his way to the Kosel. After that day, until his death in Tammuz 5763, Rav Moshe Meir Prague—who was married to Rebbetzin Sara, the youngest daughter of Rav Chaim Leib Auerbach—was disabled and confined to a wheelchair. Two weeks after the attack, as the first night of Slichos approached, he asked someone to consult with his brother-in-law, Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, as to whether he should fast during Slichos as he always did or he should listen to the doctor who forbade him to do so, and, in the latter case, if he should perform hataras nedorim.
Rav Moshe Meir Prague was a talmid of the Chazon Ish, Rav Isser Zalman Meltzer, and the Brisker Rov. In 1952, when he was 24 years old, he received an award from the Ministry of Religious Affairs presented to iluyim; the other recipients included Rav Zimbalist, Rav Dzimitrovsky, and Rav Ovadiah Yosef. He later became the head of Kollel Shomrei Hachomos. I knew him well, since he lived in Givat Shaul, in the building adjacent to the Zupnik shul, where he continued delivering shiurim. The shul was only a few meters from his home, but it took him a half hour or more of laborious effort to cover the distance. The next time you read about someone who was “wounded” in a terror attack, think about Rav Moshe Meir Prague and his decades of disability to give you an idea of what it means.
At the time of the attack, the city of Yerushalayim was deeply pained. Rav Moshe Meir was categorized as a terror victim after his passing as well. He set a powerful example with his refusal to succumb to his suffering. I once noticed that he insisted on keeping a single slat open in the shutters in his home, where the window opened directly onto the street. When I pressed him to explain his conduct, he reluctantly said, “I do that instead of putting a sign with the words ‘shivisi Hashem l’negdi somid.’” The opening in the shutters reminded him to keep Hashem before him at all times.
With that, allow me to wish all of us a sweet new year.
