Hundreds of gedolei Torah, talmidim past and present
and neighborhood residents gathered on the first day of Chol
Hamoed Succos to welcome a new sefer Torah into
Yeshivas Heichal Hatorah of Har Nof, Yerushalayim.
The sefer, which was written in memory of the
gaon, HaRav Elya Kushelevsky zt'l, av beis din
of Be'er Sheva and father of the rosh yeshiva yblctv'a
HaRav Tzvi Kushelevsky, was completed several weeks earlier,
on the twentieth of Elul, HaRav Elya's yahrtzeit.
After being taken to HaRav Eliashiv, who wrote a letter, the
final letters were written in the home of Rebbetzin Feige
Kushelevsky by family members and by an array of
distinguished rabbonim and roshei yeshiva.
Towards evening of the first day of Chol Hamoed,
crowds gathered outside the Rosh Yeshiva's home in order to
escort the sefer to the yeshiva. Led by the Rosh
Yeshiva, dancing with all his might, rabbonim, talmidim
and local residents proceeded with great joy, bearing the
sefer adorned with ornaments donated by the bnei
hayeshiva, towards the entrance of the beis
hamedrash where the other seforim had been brought
out to receive it. Following ma'ariv, guests and
hundreds of alumni attended a gathering in a specially
erected succah next to the yeshiva.
In his address, HaRav Kushelevsky quoted an astonishing
posuk (Nechemiah 8:17), which says that from the times
of Yehoshua, only two generations made succas: those
of Yehoshua and Nechemiah. How is this possible, the Rosh
yeshiva asked? Certainly the mitzvah of succah was
fulfilled by the intervening generations!
He explained that the posuk wants to convey that it
was only at these two junctures that Klal Yisroel as a
whole felt the complete and utter reliance on Hakodosh
Boruch Hu which dwelling in the succah is supposed
to engender. The generation that entered Eretz Yisroel had
experienced open miracles in the desert and in their initial
conquests in the Land. The generation that returned from
Bovel also witnessed Hashem's open intervention in their
affairs, in the Persian king's seemingly unaccountable
consent to their return and their rebuilding of the Beis
Hamikdosh.
At the time, these events enabled the Jews who lived through
them to actually feel the protection of the anonei
hakovod with which Hashem enveloped them. The events of
our times too, HaRav Kushelevsky added, are such as should
lead us to experience this same awareness. However, the
terrible confusion of the period immediately prior to
Moshiach's arrival clouds our vision. The only hope at
such a time is to cleave to Torah with all one's might. Only
through Torah can one hope to extract the truth from our
bewildering situation and derive a clear perspective on
current events. This is the spirit that the yeshiva attempts
to impart to all its talmidim.
The Rosh Yeshiva then mentioned how it was his late father
zt'l who introduced him to both the toil and the
profound pleasure of Torah. He recalled how his father taught
him sections of Avnei Miluim before his bar
mitzvah, and the chavrusa that they had, to learn
the Rambam's Sefer Hamitzvos together before
tefillah. He then expressed his prayer that, together
with the hachnosoh of the new sefer Torah, the
spirit of laboring and delighting in divrei Torah,
which he received from his father, the talmid chochom
and gaon, should also inspire the yeshiva.
The alumni, both junior and senior, who to this day feel that
it is the Rosh Yeshiva who introduced them to the toil
and pleasure of Torah, mounted their chairs and burst into
song.
The guest speaker, HaRav Yitzchok Ezrachi, one of the heads
of the Mirrer Yeshiva, cited the posuk in Shir
Hashirim (1:4), "We shall rejoice . . . boch, in
You," where the numerical value of boch, twenty-two,
alludes to the twenty-two letters of the alef beis.
The key to the special joy which permeates the learning
in the yeshiva, said Rav Ezrachi, is the care taken and the
effort expended in explaining and elucidating every single
letter of the Torah being studied. The resultant clarity
leads to the joyous atmosphere in the yeshiva and to the
lasting bonds between the Rosh Yeshiva and his
talmidim.
A distinguished array of gedolei Torah graced the top
table in the succah. Among the guests were, HaRav
Karp, one of the elder rabbonim of Tel Aviv, HaRav Chaim Ozer
Gurvicz, Rosh Yeshiva in Gateshead, HaRav Doniel Farbstein,
ram in Yeshivas Ateres Yisroel, HaRav Yitzchok
Tzfasman, rosh kollel in Kiryat Sefer, HaRav Moshe
Goldstein, rosh yeshivas Shaarei Yosher and HaRav
Steinmetz, rov of the Vishnitz community in Har Nof. A
majority of the hundreds of talmidei chachomim who
packed the succah were alumni, and they were joined by
many distinguished neighborhood personalities.
The Rosh Yeshiva then led a Simchas Beis Hashoeva
celebration in the beis hamedrash, which was attended
by crowds of current and former talmidim and
neighborhood residents. The participation of so many local
residents indicates the yeshiva's growing role in the
neighborhood at large after its recent move to Har Nof, on
top of its established reputation as one of the foremost
yeshivos gedolos in Eretz Yisroel, attracting
talmidim from all over the country and all parts of
the world.
