The Bottom Line: Twenty Bochurim Behind Bars
The bottom line, as they say, is all that matters. Putting aside all the answers and explanations, all the rationalizing and all the justifications, the bottom line for us—meaning the chareidi community in Eretz Yisroel—is the simple, cold fact that twenty yeshiva bochurim spent this past Shabbos in military jail.
It may seem as if the chareidi community in Eretz Yisroel has grown accustomed to this state of affairs. To some people, it may appear as if this has come to be accepted as the reality with which we must live. But that is not the case. No one has made peace with the arrests of yeshiva bochurim, and no one has become resigned to this reality. However, the bottom line is that this is what is happening. Twenty young men were jailed over Shabbos for the “crime” of learning Torah in yeshiva.
Of course, there are all sorts of excuses that can be made to account for this ongoing phenomenon: The Supreme Court justices are the true rulers of the state, and they are all anti-religious, without exception. Even if they hide behind pompous words such as “equality in sharing the burden,” framing their campaign against Torah learners as a quest for some sort of social justice, that does not change the fact that they are driven by sheer animosity for the Torah and Yiddishkeit. And the judges are aided and abetted by a willing accomplice—namely, Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, who is constantly pushing for stricter sanctions, more arrests, more draconian budget cuts, and, in general, a tougher approach to chareidim who do not enlist in the IDF. And yes, it is true that the government is powerless in the face of the Supreme Court and the attorney general, and even Prime Minister Netanyahu does not have a real way to oppose them. But while we may be able to explain away the fact that nothing has been done to put an end to this shameful phenomenon, the bottom line remains the same: Twenty yeshiva bochurim spent Shabbos in jail, and that is a terrible stain on this country.
Speaking of the Supreme Court, the following may or may not be surprising, but it is certainly saddening: The Supreme Court has its fingerprints on everything, and not only the court in general, but Judge Noam Sohlberg in particular. For instance, the legal advisor to the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Miri Frankel-Shor, is insisting that the draft bill must include draconian sanctions, on a level that the chareidim will not be able to tolerate. This doesn’t appear to indicate spite or malice on her part; she is simply responding to the Supreme Court’s orders. She has repeatedly quoted Judge Sohlberg’s statement that “it will be necessary to give significant weight to the positions of the relevant professional authorities, and it will not be possible to disregard or refrain from considering measures that the professionals expect to have high effectiveness.” But who are the “professional authorities” who will decide on these measures with “high effectiveness”? The army? The Treasury? And why is Sohlberg so certain that those professionals have real insight into what can sway a ben Torah who desires nothing but to learn Torah? Can they possibly have the tools to understand the chareidi mindset? I will never forget how “experts” in the Treasury claimed that reducing the government child stipend would slow the chareidi birth rate, a claim that turned out to be false. These government officials pretend to be capable of understanding the religious mentality, but they will never be capable of comprehending it.
And that isn’t all. At Sunday’s cabinet meeting, Gil Limon claimed that Israel is facing a constitutional crisis due to the government’s failure to carry out the Supreme Court’s ruling against yeshiva bochurim. Once again, Sohlberg was in the picture. Fifty days earlier, Judge Sohlberg had written that the government was required to discuss and decide on “strengthening the existing sanctions against draft evaders” within 45 days. Under duress from the judge, the government held a brief discussion on the subject at the end of the cabinet meeting, but Limon decided that it wasn’t a serious enough effort and therefore declared that Israel is in a constitutional crisis. The government stands accused of violating a Supreme Court ruling.
My point, however, is that all this trouble came from Noam Sohlberg once again—the judge who wears a yarmulke.
Stalling for Time
You are probably wondering what will happen next and how this situation will be resolved. To be honest, we here in Israel are asking the same question, as is Prime Minister Netanyahu, and no one knows what to expect. As of now, Netanyahu is presumably trying to advance a new draft law, which will set annual target numbers for the chareidi draft (although there is also a good deal of debate as to who is considered chareidi) and will impose sanctions in the event that the targets are not met. At this time, a major debate is underway in the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee over the scope and nature of those sanctions. Even if the bill is passed, it will probably lead to only another year or two of quiet. But for some period of time, at least, yeshiva bochurim will not have the threat of arrest looming over them.
The danger that a ben yeshiva may face arrest at any time is no small matter. One of the bochurim from the Yeshiva of Ponovezh who was arrested last week was involved in a traffic accident and was asked by a police officer for his ID card. Since he was listed as a draft evader in the police database, this led to an immediate arrest, trial, and sentencing. That is the type of scenario that the chareidi parties would like to avoid in the future. Furthermore, they would like to see government funding returned to yeshivos and kollelim. The loss of that funding is a serious economic blow.
Everyone knows that any draft law that is passed will inevitably be bad for the chareidim. Nevertheless, the community’s longstanding policy, since the founding of the state, has been to delay an outright confrontation over the draft as long as possible. The aim right now is simply to stall. Even though it is most likely that the Supreme Court will strike down the next law—and after all, the petitions against it will surely begin arriving as soon as it is passed—the process could easily take many months, or even years, and the bill can at least buy a certain period of relative calm. In addition, there is one other reason for hope: The government is working on reviving the bill known as the Override Clause. This bill, which was debated in the past, would grant the Knesset the authority to pass a law again after it is struck down by the Supreme Court, effectively overriding the court’s decision. In plainer terms, if the Supreme Court decides that a law is unconstitutional, the Knesset will have the power to restore the law and declare that it should remain on the books despite the court’s opposition. The law will then be immune to further judicial intervention. The chareidim are hoping for the combination of a new draft law and the Override Clause.
Of course, there are some elements within the chareidi community who disagree with this approach. They maintain that there should be no negotiation with the government and the state at all, and the battle for bnei yeshivos should be fought from Shomayim. Last weekend, the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of Agudas Yisroel met to discuss their strategy. At first, they appeared to be planning to decide that the Knesset members from Agudas Yisroel would vote against any draft law that reached the Knesset, but at the last minute, the decision was not made—or perhaps they simply decided not to publicize their ruling. Rumor has it that Netanyahu marshaled his connections and used his personal influence to prevent the decision from being made.
Netanyahu Weighs In on the Draft Law
Netanyahu spoke about the draft law at a 40-signature discussion in the Knesset last week. As I’ve explained in the past, Netanyahu is required to listen to all the speakers during these discussions, which often means that he is subjected to a barrage of insults and tirades, and then to deliver a response. Due to Knesset regulations, his response is followed by a speech from Yair Lapid, the leader of the opposition, and the Knesset then votes to determine whether they will accept the prime minister’s response. As could be expected, Netanyahu discussed the draft law, and I would advise you to pay close attention to what he said—which, unfortunately, did not contain good news for the chareidim.
“I would like to speak about the draft law now—the real draft law, not your own law of draft evasion,” Netanyahu said, addressing the opposition. “I stand behind everything I have said about the things that are contained in our law and do not appear in yours. I understand that there are some people who are not pleased by this. I know that you are displeased, because you want the law to fail. Unfortunately, I have also heard some other distressing comments. I forcefully condemn all the talk about yellow stars. Serving in the Israel Defense Force is nothing like a yellow star. Hundreds of chareidi youths showed up yesterday to enlist, and that is a good thing. At the same time, we will also uphold the Torah world. Without the Torah world, we would not exist here; we wouldn’t have survived in the past, we wouldn’t be existing today, and we would also have no future. Therefore, we intend to sustain both the IDF and the yeshiva world together, and rightly so. If you read the history of the Jewish people, you will learn about everything that happened to them in exile and how they were banished from one place to another, how they were slaughtered and robbed and abused, and all the terrible things that were done to them, but during that time they held on to the Torah and studied the Torah. The Jewish heritage was preserved in spite of everything, and we would not be here today without it. Therefore, I respect it, I do not look down on it, and I will not attempt to eliminate it. I want to see coexistence—people learning Torah as well as people serving in the army. Boruch Hashem, it is already beginning to happen, and it will happen soon, and it will increase exponentially. That is something that you should encourage, if you care for the future of the state.”
Netanyahu was certainly correct to accuse the opposition of hypocrisy. When they controlled the government and the Knesset, they tried to promote a draft law that was less draconian than the one currently being advanced, yet they have repeatedly attacked the current law. Unfortunately, Netanyahu also revealed that the current law is much harsher than its predecessor. The bill promoted at the time by Lapid, Bennett, Gantz, and Lieberman came under fire from certain elements within the chareidi parties for various reasons, but as it turns out, we are now receiving an even worse law.
Distort and Attack
Netanyahu’s words, unfortunately, misrepresented a statement that was made by a certain chareidi MK. Yitzchok Goldknopf, the leader of the Agudas Yisroel slate in the Knesset, recently spoke in the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. (Even though the Agudas Yisroel leadership has decided to boycott the bill, Goldknopf attends the committee sessions.) Goldknopf slammed the sanctions on Torah learners as intolerable, unethical, and unlawful, and likened the sanctions on yeshiva bochurim to the yellow star that the Nazis forced Jews to wear on their garments. Regardless of what you think about his statement, we should pay attention to what Goldknopf actually said, not what Netanyahu claimed that he said. Remember, Netanyahu declared, “I forcefully condemn all the talk about yellow stars. Serving in the Israel Defense Force is nothing like a yellow star.” But Goldknopf was denouncing the state, not the soldiers in the IDF. He didn’t equate a military uniform with a yellow star; on the contrary, he claimed that branding Torah learners with a mark of shame is the equivalent of forcing a Jew to wear a yellow patch on his clothing.
It’s very possible that Netanyahu was confused by Yair Lapid. His comment about the yellow star was made in his second speech at the Knesset podium, which was a reaction to Lapid’s response to his first speech. Lapid said, “During the short time when you weren’t here, one of the most embarrassing, cynical, irresponsible, and heartbreaking scenes that this state has ever witnessed took place in the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. Bereaved families are heartbroken when they see the efforts to exempt the chareidim from bereavement. Because that is what it is—an exemption from loss. Maya Ochana Moreno, the widow of the Israeli hero Emmanuel Moreno, appeared before the committee and spoke about her orphaned children who insisted on enlisting in the army and serving as combat fighters. And the answer she received was from Goldknopf, who came to the committee session to announce that telling the chareidim to join the army is like forcing them to year a yellow star. A yellow star! My father wore a yellow star in the ghetto, and then he came to this country and joined the Jewish army so that it would never happen again. My grandfather wore a yellow star as well, and there was no IDF at the time, so the Nazis murdered him in a concentration camp.”
As usual, Lapid combined all the most potent elements in his speech to whip up outrage against the chareidim and to incite people against them. And as usual, he twisted the statements he was quoting to evoke the maximum outrage from his listeners. He twisted Goldknopf’s words. Goldknopf did not say that drafting chareidim is the equivalent of forcing them to wear yellow stars; he applied that analogy to the punishments and sanctions meted out to yeshiva bochurim and kollel yungeleit.
While I personally would not have made such a statement, certainly not at a time when the chareidi community is under such heavy fire with incitement coming from every direction, that does not mean that anyone should falsely accuse Goldknopf of saying something he didn’t say. Netanyahu and Lapid falsely quoted Goldknopf in their respective speeches to the Knesset, and then they attacked him for making a comment that had not been spoken.
A Demonstration Turns Deadly
On the topic of incitement, of course, we must turn our attention to the tragic death of young Yosef Eisenthal at a protest on Rechov Shamgar last week. Just last week, I wrote in this column, “The time has come for a conversation about incitement against the chareidi community. In fact, the time has come to take action against it. We all know that words can kill; words can incite to violence, and the results can be horrendous.” But I did not dream that a chareidi child would be killed within days as a result of that very incitement.
I won’t go into the details of exactly the death took place, but I will tell you that many people are mistaken about the facts. A widely circulated video shows a boy between the bus’s front wheels, but that young man wasn’t Yosef Eisenthal. Thousands of people attended Eisenthal’s levayah last Wednesday, which set out from Yeshivas Ohel Torah in Ramot, where he was a talmid. Yosef was eulogized by Rav Ezriel Auerbach, Rav Shmuel Markowitz, and his father, the mara d’asra of Ramot Gimmel, Rav Uriel Eisenthal, among others. The niftar’s father delivered a speech that moved everyone to tears.
While the chareidi community reeled from the tragedy, the Arab bus driver responsible for the boy’s death was released to house arrest. On that note, it is important to quote Yosef’s father, who made the following comments in an interview with Avi Mimran: “Every believing Jew knows that when a father strikes his child, the child finds it difficult to understand, but an adult would know that it is an act of love. The same is true here: There is no reason to focus on the details of the incident and whether it was a hit-and-run, an act of terror, or something else. The size of the stick isn’t the most important thing.” In a pained tone, he described the feeling of emptiness that plagues bereaved parents, who are naturally distraught by the fact that they can no longer do anything to care for their child. But he immediately pointed out that this isn’t the perspective of a believing Jew. “We can still send ‘gifts’ to him in Shomayim, in the form of spiritual improvements,” his father said. “I am not referring to great, dramatic accomplishments but to small, practical, everyday things. We can commit to reciting one brocha with kavanah every day, to making a small improvement in tznius, or to disregarding insults from others. These things tend to last longer than major commitments, which are liable to fade.”
Rav Shmuel Eisenthal, the bereaved father, revealed that his son hadn’t been participating in the protest; he was simply on his way home when he was hit by the bus. He refrained from weighing in on the public debate over the details of the protest, and he emphasized that he viewed the tragic loss as a blow from Shomayim and the impetus for a massive kiddush Hashem, as many Jews, united in grief, stood together to listen to his words of inspiration.
Incitement Decried in the Knesset
Many of the reactions to the boy’s death were utterly appalling. Instead of expressing pain and horror over the tragedy, some people openly celebrated it and even insinuated that the chareidim deserved this suffering. Someone wrote mockingly, “You always say that you would rather die than be drafted. Well, this child died and wasn’t drafted.” Others conveyed the message that since the child was chareidi, they weren’t pained by his death at all. And these reactions came from hundreds or even thousands of people, not merely a handful of individuals!
The remarks of MK Nissim Vaturi (Likud) in the Knesset reveal just how far the casual attitude toward chareidi blood has spread. “I would like to speak about the child Yosef Eisenthal, may Hashem avenge his blood,” Vaturi said. “This was murder, a murder committed by a bus driver who was too quick to floor the gas pedal. Some said that the driver simply had a quick trigger finger, but I would say that the boy’s blood was cheapened by the people who are constantly inciting against the chareidim. There are many sectors of Israeli society whose members do not enlist in the IDF, but the blood of the chareidim has become cheap. This was a truly innocent child, a boy who was only fourteen years old. In this case, the judiciary and the opposition have joined forces to attack the chareidim for the fact that they do not serve in the army, and they have been cheapening chareidi blood at all times, day and night. Yet the chareidim have enlisted; over 400 chareidim showed up for that purpose two days ago, but no one pays attention to that. That is because their true goal is to bring down the government, to burn the chareidim, and to create a civil war. This must stop before that civil war erupts. Remember the day when Yosef Eisenthal was murdered. You are attempting to cause a civil war, but we will not allow it to happen. We will pass the draft law, which is a good law that calls for enlistment and contains sanctions. You have already received everything you wanted, yet you still want to bring down the government. Yosef Eisenthal’s blood is on the hands of the judicial system, with its incitement against the chareidim, and of the extremists in the opposition.”
Similar sentiments were expressed by Culture Minister Mickey Zohar. When he began speaking, Zohar implied that the bus driver was guilty of murder, evoking a chorus of shouts from the opposition that he was too quick to judge the man. A fierce exchange erupted, and Zohar remained adamant about his position. Addressing MK Merav Ben-Ari (Yesh Atid), he demanded, “Why are you saying these things? Because it happened to chareidim? Would you have spoken this way if it had happened on Rechov Kaplan? If one of the Kaplan protestors had been run over and killed, would you have spoken this way? May I ask you a question, Merav? You are speaking because of your position. Perhaps it is because the victim was a chareidi boy that you believe that his blood could be spilled. But with all due respect, I do not share that view. I will tell you where your problem lies: Your incitement against the chareidi public is what caused this. Yes, it is because of your incitement against the chareidim. You created the perception that there is nothing wrong with spilling chareidi blood. You should be ashamed. You are constantly depicting them as some sort of enemies of the people. They are a precious, important community with many contributions to Israeli society, but you have been attacking them every day, from morning until evening, and you have turned them into enemies. You have made it seem permissible to spill their blood, to the point that a bus driver allowed himself to speed recklessly into a crowd of chareidim and to kill a child. Think about what you are saying, because every word you utter has significance. Take responsibility for what you say; be responsible in your words against the chareidi community. Think twice before you speak.”
One Day It Will All Make Sense
Everyone recognizes that we are living through a period of hester ponim—Divine concealment. Yeshivos and kollelim are flourishing, but at the same time, the enemies of the Torah have gained power. Jews throughout the country are wrapping themselves in tzitzis, knocking on the doors of shuls and botei medrash, and seeking a closer connection to the Torah and Yiddishkeit, but at the same time, darkness covers the earth. Divine Hashgocha is evident both in darkness and in light, and we all recognize that these events are functions of a Heavenly decree. We believe that it is all meant for the best, as Rav Shach famously remarked, “The posuk states that Hashem will hide His Face from Bnei Yisroel and the people will suffer from ‘raos rabos v’tzaros—many evils and troubles.’ The Torah then adds that the people will say, ‘It is because my G-d is not in my midst that these evils befell me.’ Why does the Torah mention only the raos, the evils, in the people’s statement, but not the tzaros?” Rav Shach answered this question, “When Hashem is not in our midst, we are distressed by our troubles and consider them tzaros. But when Hashem is in our midst, when we believe in Him, then we will recognize that everything is for the best.”
Here in Israel, authorities are constantly scheming against the Torah world and thus working hard to undermine the foundation of this country’s existence. Their actions are utterly incomprehensible, but I cannot help but be reminded of the experience of the shevotim during Yosef’s elaborate deception. The brothers found themselves facing a bewildering and rapidly escalating series of hardships: They were accused of espionage, their brother Shimon was imprisoned, and then they faced the potential loss of Binyomin. And then, in a single moment, the two words “ani Yosef” suddenly tore away the veil of concealment and made their entire ordeal make sense. The hostile viceroy was their brother Yosef, and the reason for all of his perplexing actions suddenly became clear. What seemed to be a senseless series of calamities was exposed as part of a master plan.
Every generation has its own “ani Yosef” moment. With Hashem’s help, we have confidence that we, too, will soon experience such a moment, and the reasons for all our troubles will become clear.
In Givat Shaul this past Shabbos, I attended the Toldos Shmuel shul (informally known as the Tausig shul), where I, like everyone else, benefited from the kindness of the gabbai, Rav Chaim Yehuda Lieder, who manages the institution faithfully and affably. He is the first to arrive for the second Shacharis on Shabbos, he opens siddurim for the regular mispallelim, and he makes sure that the Shemoneh Esrei begins before zman tefillah. But I digress; my point isn’t to sing the praises of the Tausig shul and its gabbai but rather to share with you a powerful vort that I heard from its rov, Rav Aharon Yosef Deutsch. Rav Deutsch drew a connection between the brothers’ “ani Yosef” experience and the Torah’s account of the rise of a new Pharaoh “who did not know Yosef.” He explained that this Pharaoh believed that the world is ownerless, that there is no Judge and no judgment, that no Divine Being manages the world and there would be no punishment for wrongdoing. In short, the posuk implies that he had never heard of the concept of “ani Yosef.”
Who Will Be the Next Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv?
Another interesting story in the news concerns the election for the position of chief rabbi of Tel Aviv. The city of Tel Aviv is perhaps the most famous Israeli city (with the exception of Yerushalayim, of course), but the sizable religious presence in the city is sometimes overlooked by outsiders. Rav Yisroel Meir Lau once listed the shuls in the city for me, and I couldn’t believe my ears. While the municipal government insists on maintaining the city’s liberal, secular image, Tel Aviv is home to hundreds of shuls with tens of thousands of mispallelim.
As you may be aware, Rav Yisroel Meir Lau, who retired on account of his age, was the last chief rabbi of Tel Aviv. There was a time in the past when the rabbinate in Tel Aviv was considered a springboard to the position of chief rabbi of Israel. Previous chief rabbis of Tel Aviv included Rav Avrohom Yitzchok Hakohen Kook, who served as the rov of Yaffo before the state was established; Rav Ovadiah Yosef; Rav Yitzchok Yedidya Frankel, the father-in-law of Rav Yisroel Meir Lau; Rav Benzion Meir Chai Uziel; Rav Shlomo Goren, Rav Lau; and Rav Shlomo Amar. Many of those rabbonim went on to occupy the position of chief rabbi of Israel. Since Rav Lau’s retirement eight years ago, Tel Aviv hasn’t had a chief rabbi. Mayor Ron Chuldai is probably no interested in filling the position; however, the Ministry of Religious Affairs hasn’t exactly sought his opinion.
The ministry began the process of electing a new chief rabbi after the passage of new regulations that make it possible to do so without the mayor’s approval. In two weeks, the electoral body is scheduled to convene in the offices of the Tel Aviv religious council to appoint the next chief rabbi of the city. Many rabbonim have set their sights on the prestigious position, including Rav Zevadia Cohen, head of the rabbinical courts in Tel Aviv and the brother of Rav Zamir Cohen, the director of Hidabroot and a rosh yeshiva in the city of Beitar Illit. It is rumored that the Shas party supports Rav Zevadia’s bid for the position. The mayor is opposed to him because he did not serve in the army.
The Lau family, which has produced two generations of chief rabbis (Rav Yisroel Meir Lau and his son, Rav Dovid Lau, who recently completed his tenure in the position) will also be vying for the position in Tel Aviv. The current candidate from that family is Rav Tzvi Yehuda Lau. He is the rov of a community in the Yad Eliyohu neighborhood of Tel Aviv and serves as a rosh yeshiva as well. In recent years, he has been delivering shiurim on Yiddishkeit in various contexts, occasionally to secular audiences and sometimes outside Tel Aviv. He is also involved in organizations that provide medical assistance.
Other contenders for the position include Rav Aryeh Levin, rov of northern Tel Aviv; Rav Tzion Algazi of the hesder yeshiva in Ramat Gan, who is actively serving in the IDF reserves and hopes that this will give him a boost in the election; and Rav Avi Reznikov, rov of Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv.
A chief rabbi in an Israeli city is responsible for overseeing the municipal kashrus certification system, marriage registration, and religious services such as mikvaos, shuls, and burial services. In many cities, the chief rabbi also plays a leadership role that involves guiding the population through life cycle events such as bar mitzvahs, weddings, and funerals, as well as the holidays of the year. The chief rabbi of a large city also heads the city’s bais din system and serves as a member of the national Chief Rabbinical Council. The chief rabbi is elected by an assembly consisting of 31 members of the municipal council, 21 representatives appointed by the minister of religious services, and 11 public representatives.
A Hachnossas Sefer Torah in Givot Eden
There are many more topics that I wish I could cover. For instance, there is much to write about the attorney general’s ongoing battle against the government to force the dismissal of her arch nemesis, Itamar Ben-Gvir. The events in Iran also deserve attention, especially given their impact on Israel. I could also easily fill an entire article with news from the Knesset, and there are many other topics to discuss as well, but in light of my usual space constraints, I will have to draw the line somewhere. Therefore, I will end with the following story, which I found deeply moving.
It began with an invitation to a hachnossas sefer Torah. The sefer was dedicated in memory of Shimon Yaakov Edri, son of Esther and Dovid, and as a source of merit for his widow, Shoshana Edri, daughter of Jamila and Moshe. At first glance, it seemed like dozens of other such events that I had attended. But then I noticed the location—the shul in the community building in Givot Eden (Eden Hills).
I was unfamiliar with Givot Eden, but when I plugged the address into Waze, I was instructed to drive to the Tunnels Road and to proceed past Beitar Illit. I asked Chaim Rabinowitz, who had relayed the invitation to me, if the community was over the Green Line. “Not at all,” he replied. I chose to drive to Givat Shaul, and Waze recalculated automatically, instructing me to take Highway One to Beit Shemesh. That sounded like a less intimidating route, and was much more comfortable for me. I drove past Beit Shemesh and found Givot Eden just a short distance from Zanoach. The settlement turned out to be a beautifully maintained community, the sort of place where anyone would be happy to live.
I entered the well-lit building where the event was taking place and discovered a magnificent crowd. Many of the men wore disposable yarmulkes, the children were decked out in brand name clothing, and the crowd was decidedly not chareidi, but they all seemed to share enthusiasm about showing honor for the Torah. It seemed as if the entire community had turned out to celebrate the occasion. A local resident explained that the building serves as a community center during the week and is transformed into a shul on Shabbos. The sefer Torah sat on a table in the center of the hall, and Rabinowitz, who was hosting the celebration, invited the participants to take turns writing the final letters, a privilege that he offered to me as well.
The Edri family was there as well, including the friends of the niftar’s son, Moshe Edri, who once served as a police superintendent and works today as director-general of the Knesset. I watched as the men honored with writing the letters stood before the sefer Torah with visible awe. The Jewish spark within them was alive and well.
Mrs. Shoshana Edri sat beside the sofer, watching the proceedings as tears glistened in her eyes, presumably tears of joy over the occasion mixed with tears of longing for her late husband. “My husband passed away one year and three months ago,” she informed me. “He was an incredible, upstanding person, a yarei Shomayim and a man of virtue who worked hard to support his family throughout his life. Early in the morning and late at night, he could always be found in the shul in Kiryat Shmuel [a suburb of Haifa]. Ask Charlie Toledano, the gabbai and chazzan; he will tell you all about it,” she added, indicating a man who stood nearby.
The late Shimon Yaakov Edri, as it turns out, was one of the pillars of the shul. An immigrant who arrived in Israel at the age of ten, he brought a sefer Torah from Meknes that had been written in memory of his late brother. Mrs. Edri, a typical Sephardic tzaddeikes, immigrated from Morocco as well—in her case, at the age of three and a half. “My maiden name was Deri, and after my marriage I became an Edri,” she said with a laugh. She related that she has lived in Kiryat Shmuel since her marriage. “I am overjoyed to be writing a sefer Torah in my husband’s honor,” she said. And then she added a detail that piqued my interest: “My husband grew up in Bnei Brak, and then moved to Chofetz Chaim and then to Kiryat Shmuel, where he remained for the rest of his life.”
“Bnei Brak?” I asked. “Tell me more.”
“He grew up in the home of the biggest rov in Bnei Brak,” Mrs. Edri said. “The rov adored him. My husband used to clean his garden and make trips to the grocery store for him, just as a son would have done.”
I immediately tried to guess the identity of the rov. “Was it Rav Refoel Boruch Toledano?” I ventured.
“No,” Mrs. Edri replied. “I can’t remember his name; perhaps you should ask my son.”
Moshe “Chicho” Edri, today the director-general of the Knesset, was able to fill in the missing information. “My father was very close to the Ponovezher Rov; he grew up under his tutelage. He was a talmid in the yeshiva,” he added, probably referring to the famed Botei Avos institution for orphaned immigrants. “Thanks to him, I was a guest of the city.”
When Moshe Edri completed his tenure overseeing the police force in the Tel Aviv district, the Bnei Brak municipality threw him a farewell party, and the mayor surprised him by inviting his parents from Kiryat Shmuel to attend the celebration. At that time, Moshe’s father told the story of his experiences in Ponovezh, revealing that he had been close to the Ponovezher Rov and had also been closely acquainted with Rav Shach. “My father used to hold the cup of wine for Rav Shach at havdolah,” Edri said. “The mayor of Bnei Brak therefore surprised him with a very meaningful gift: a kiddush cup that was almost an exact replica of the one he had held in those days.”
