Sometimes, when writing in these pages, I feel forced to focus on negative developments in our communities. This week, I have chosen to write about something positive, amazing, and wonderful about Klal Yisroel.
In truth, this article is a spin-off of the one that appeared two weeks ago in these pages. Regarding that article, I must say that I was blown away by the response. It touched on the messages we are receiving from some of the music being marketed to the frum public in our time. Wherever I went—to shul, to simchos, to meetings—I was accosted by people commenting on it. I received phone calls and emails from so many people. The overwhelming majority said that they had been thinking along similar lines regarding the messages in some of the songs being released today, but they felt that no one cared anymore, so they assumed that they should just give up and make peace with the situation.
Are things really that bad?
This got me thinking: Are things really that bad? And the answer is no. Just this week, I heard about an incident that I would like to share with our readers.
A father of a boy who attends a local mesivta in Lakewood related that his son came home one night looking very troubled. When his father asked if everything was okay, the bochur replied, “I was coming home on the bus tonight, and the non-Jewish bus driver, who had apparently downloaded Jewish music onto his phone, began playing Jewish music on the bus’s speakers. It was awful! I mean, I knew there was such a song, and I’ve even heard boys singing it, but it was the first time I heard the original song and it was…”
This bochur, who grew up in a relatively sheltered home, was so bothered and flustered that music being played on the bus was considered “Jewish music” that regular frum people were listening to. He had never heard a song like that, and it disturbed him that so many other bochurim were listening to it without compunction.
Now, I don’t know about you, but I am constantly hearing people speak with such yiush, such despair, about our times. I hear sentiments such as, “What is going to be?” “Our dor is so shvach…” “Who is Moshiach going to come to? There is such yeridas hadoros. We drop a generation every five years, or even every two years!” or, “We don’t have the talmidei chachomim we once had.” These comments are common and reek of sadness and despair.
In Some Ways, We Are Light Years Ahead
Believe it or not, I think that there are aspects of our dor that are light years ahead of previous doros. Yes, it is true that in asei tov we probably do not have the gaonim and tzaddikim we had one hundred years ago. However, what about sur meira? I do not believe that there was ever a dor that had such baalei madreigah in sur meira as ours.
Our dor has gaonim, tzaddikim and kedoshim who have reached levels in sur meira, in overcoming nisyonos, that previous generations could never have imagined.
There is an entire generation of bochurim and yungeleit who are among the most amazing, enviable people in the world. Perhaps they are the minority, even among frum Yidden, but there is still a strong nucleus within our communities who, even in this difficult dor yasom, are literally heroes.
All of us, even those who have been more exposed to the challenges of our generation, should take chizuk from knowing that these Yidden exist. And no, I am not talking about just a minyan of Yidden holed up in some cave, but thousands upon thousands of such Yidden.
That being said, we should not walk around with feelings of yiush and despair, worrying about how difficult the dor is. Rather, we should walk around with pride and happiness, knowing that there is a large group of such Yidden among us, precious neshamos who, despite living in a generation of hyper-exposure to everything impure, are still so sensitive to kedusha and have such lofty aspirations to continue on this path.
Decreased Attention Spans…Simultaneous Sophistication in Learning?
It is well-known that Rav Yosef Elefant, the amazing R”M at Yeshivas Mir Yerushalayim who has done so much to be mechazeik our dor, often decries the fact that our generation is so distracted and cannot focus on anything longer than a text message.
He is right with regard to a large segment of our young people. However, there is also a segment of our youth who are simultaneously much more sophisticated in learning than people of a similar age were in my generation. Today, there are mesivta bochurim who have a deeper and more developed understanding of learning than even bais medrash bochurim had thirty or forty years ago.
So yes, on the one hand, we must do everything in our power to fight the forces that cause us to lose focus. At the same time, we must also appreciate the large community among us that has retained its focus.
Even those who have not been able to maintain the level of purity that this nucleus of Yidden has achieved should take chizuk from the fact that there is a beautiful segment of our tzibbur who, despite everything going on in today’s global world, remains clean and pure.
Why Efraim and Menashe Earned the Status of Shevatim
A friend of mine pointed out an idea from last week’s parsha that illustrates this point. Yaakov Avinu told Yosef that his sons, Efraim and Menashe, would be considered regular shevatim, just like Reuven and Shimon. Why did they merit this? They were counted among the shevatim in the zechus of their father, Yosef. Yosef was all alone in Mitzrayim, a land filled with immorality and corrupt middos. He was not living in his father’s home, surrounded by a sheltered, Torah-infused atmosphere that could help him stay on the right path. Nevertheless, he remained Yosef the tzaddik yesod olam, despite the tremendous challenges he faced.
The Lakewood mashgiach, Rav Nosson Wachtfogel, explained that the avos—Avrohom, Yitzchok and Yaakov—were called avos, fathers, because they initiated a new path in the knowledge of and service of Hashem. So too with Yosef. Yosef initiated a new path, remaining pure and pristine even when surrounded by a society that was the diametric opposite of purity. For that reason, he merited to be an “av,” and his first two sons, born while he was entirely alone, merited to become shevatim.
The “Yosef Hatzaddiks” of Our Dor
Living among us is a tzibbur of “Yosef Hatzaddiks,” amazing, principled young people who, despite everything, remain pure. They may not be the majority, but they are a significant minority. They are giants of spirit, and all of us, regardless of our level of exposure to foreign culture, should feel proud of them and grateful that they exist among us. Perhaps we can even encourage and guide our children to emulate them.
It is these “Yosef Hatzaddiks” who will be the conduits to transmit pure Torah and mesorah to future generations.
Let me conclude with a story from World War II, as related by the previous Sanz-Klausenberger Rebbe:
I will never forget the harrowing war years, when Hitler ym”sh had already risen to power and begun wreaking havoc on European Jewry. I was in Romania at the time and urgently needed medical attention. Somehow, I was put in touch with an elderly Romanian doctor who agreed to treat me.
During our conversation, he asked, “What do you think will be the fate of the Jews?”
I replied, “I cannot tell you my personal fate, but one thing is clear to me: Hitler will eventually disappear from the world scene, but the Jewish nation will always remain.”
Looking at me in astonishment, the doctor asked, “Are you a prophet? How can you say such a thing?”
“No,” I answered. “I am not a prophet. But if I were to tell you that the sun will rise tomorrow, you would not consider that a prophecy. It is simply the natural order of the world. So too, the eternal existence of the Jewish nation is the natural order of the world. Just look at our history—there could be no greater proof.”
Yes, the challenges of our generation are ripping the neshomah of Yiddishkeit from so many of us, even as many of us look the part and act the part. Yet, just as surely as the sun rises and sets each day, we can be confident that the purity of Klal Yisroel will endure. There will always be a nucleus of Yidden who remain pure and who will ensure our future until we hand the keys to Moshiach and say, “We did our utmost to guard and preserve the purity of our Torah.”
We can be confident that the purity of Klal Yisroel will endure.
