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HaRav Emanuel Toledano shlita on the War
Soon the avreichim and the bnei yeshivos will begin their bein hazmanim, says HaRav Emanuel shlita. "It is important to know before this that every avreich and bochur be fully aware just how great his potential is. Also, he must be aware of how much he can lose in these days, choliloh.
They say in the name of the Chazon Ish that every bochur can grow and become the godol hador! Know all you bnei yeshivos that each and every one has the potential to be a great leader. This is on condition that you use your life properly and not waste it on shtuyot. If you see to it that you learn strongly and are not tempted by havolim you can actualize this power.
You were zoche to spend the learn in the yeshiva or kollel, and now you are leaving those walls. You should know that the dangers outside are truly awesome and they can take a pure bochur who has spent months growing and make him forget everything R"l.
It is not every day that the American president — or any head of state in the world, for that matter — directly reacts to a report in an Israeli newspaper. But President Trump is not like any other head of state in the world, and he says whatever is on his mind, even if it is not quite politically correct.
In an interview which Trump gave to a Rightist Israeli channel 14, he related to an article written by columnist Barak Ravid which claimed that there was a significant strain between the top echelons of the Israeli government and the government in Washington. Ravid's analysis is a direct continuation of the media reports almost since the beginning of Trump's entering office which report consistently of a tension existing between the two figures, pointing to a discord on Trump's side regarding Netanyahu's behavior and warning of a crisis soon in the offing.
Trump is apparently updated of all these matters, which is why he feels free to use sharp words in order to discount the 'report' which Ravid publicized. He dubbed it as "one big mistake, a blatant lie and fake news." But Trump, like Trump, does not spare words and even went as far as to call it "fake news at a third grade level." The "actual reality," maintains the American president, "is altogether the very opposite of what is described in the public media." The fact, he noted, quite pleased, is that "the relations between our two nations were never better."
This is the third of four articles we plan about HaRav Moshe Feinstein that were first published in 1996, exactly 30 years ago.
This 13th of Adar marked the 40(10)th yahrtzeit of the legendary gaon and tzaddik, the poseik hador, HaRav Moshe Feinstein zt'l.
Part 3
Extracts From Igros Moshe
They Know of No One to Turn to But Me
Although it is not for me to give a definitive ruling in a matter which is subject to a difference of opinion between Rishonim, there are nonetheless instances where it is impossible to follow a course which encompasses all the differing opinions. In such cases, one is compelled to issue rulings to those who come to ask and they know of nowhere else to turn but to me...
I am therefore forced to render a clear decision, that I can teach to those who ask to know my humble opinion as to what appears to be correct. Not only is it permitted for the wise men of the generation to issue practical rulings of this nature, they are obliged to do so, ruling according to the conclusions they reach after much toil and labor in clarifying the halacha from the gemora until the works of the poskim, according to their capabilities, earnestly and with the fear of Heaven. (Orach Chaim IV:12)
No Mistakes In Klal Yisroel's Practice
I am prefacing my reply with an important general principle. By calling something practiced by all of Klal Yisroel a mistake, your honor is presuming himself to be greater than all of our teachers, the Rishonim and Acharonim, and all the great scholars of our own generation as well. You consider all of them to have been mistaken, whereas you alone have spotted the mistake.
May your honor forgive me, but just to entertain this idea betrays excessive pride, let alone to utter it and write it down. Your honor should be aware that any practice that we find a large community observing, is no mistake. Since the community consists of observant Jews, we can assume that the practice was surely instituted under the guidance of a Torah scholar. It is therefore incumbent upon us to seek a reason for it, rather than simply to imagine them to be mistaken, just because this is not the practice in other communities. Such a practice is not followed when one is on one's own however, because it nevertheless remains the practice of just one community. Every matter should be considered on its own merits.
When however, a practice is followed by all of Klal Yisroel, halacha obliges the individual to follow it, even if he thinks it is a mistake. One ought to know that Klal Yisroel as a whole acts correctly. Even though you may have some difficulty which you do not know how to resolve, it is nothing. (Orach Chaim IV:17)
Rain and Kinneret Watch by Dei'ah
Vedibur Staff
Our weekly report of the rain and the level of the Kineret
- Winter, 5786.
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Outstanding Articles From Our Archives
IN-DEPTH FEATURES
Cellar Under a Cellar -- The Inspiring Story of the Maizlik Family of Kiev
by Yisroel Spiegel
In his search for a home where one could eat kosher food in Soviet Russia, Rabbi Tzvi (Harry) Bronstein z"l discovered the amazing house of Mrs. Baila Maizlik o"h, where she resided with her only surviving daughter who now lives in Yerushalayim. This is a report of that first captivating, thrilling description from over forty years ago, which was then kept as a deep secret.
This is the heroic tale of a righteous woman, Mrs. Baila Maizlik o"h, who made aliya to Jerusalem at the end of her days. She was niftar here a few years ago, and tbdlcht"a her daughter, Mrs. Batya Berg, who moved to Jerusalem with her mother at that time, still lives here. Mrs. Berg is well-known for her lectures, her shiurim, and her wide-ranging involvement in kiruv rechokim, especially with immigrants from the former Soviet Union. This story has been published at length several times, and the book Kol Bedmomo Nishma, the work of Rav Shlomo Zalman Zonenfeld of Jerusalem tells it well.
I was privy to this story many years before it was known to the public. Our acquaintance Rabbi Tzvi Bronstein, z"l revealed this to me as a trusted secret, for reasons soon to be understood.
I cannot forget the excitement and the thrill that surrounded him after his amazing discovery in the city of Kiev. He literally trembled when he told me the details about the mother and her daughter, about their basement apartment in which a vibrant Jewish life thrived, under the almost impossible conditions. I had the feeling that more than the chizuk that he gave them, he drew chizuk from them. They gave him the impetus to continue his devoted but risky work, for which he later paid a dear price in imprisonment and cruel interrogations from which he emerged a broken vessel.
Even though the story of this outstanding family is well- known, as we said, it seems to me that it's worthwhile to tell about the first time they were "discovered," as Rabbi Bronstein transmitted to me at the time on condition "not to publish it." Here we write about the moments of fear and about the first contact that was formed between activists. These bonds continued afterwards for many years, in a joint effort which I later observed, when Mrs. Berg was already living in Jerusalem. Together they planned various projects both for Jews that were still living there and for others who had managed to emigrate from the Valley of Tears and to settle in Israel.
In the rest of this article, in which Rabbi Bronstein describes the events in first person, we present a few more fascinating episodes from that dreadful period in the Soviet Union.
Full of Glory
I visited Kiev many times, but I didn't always have kosher food on hand. So, on one of these visits, I had reached a situation in which I was no longer able to stand the hunger. I got up my nerve and asked the shamash in the shul to help me find a family that was shomer mitzvos, where I could get kosher food.
"You are an American," the shamash, Reb Hirsh Bernstein, answered me. "Jews are wary of inviting you to them."
Opinion & Comment
Principles of Education
by HaRav Nosson Einfeld
HaRav Einfeld explained the tremendous obligation that an educator has toward his students. He is like a paid shomer who is constantly on duty, like Noach who had to feed the animals in the teivah night and day. R' Yeruchom compared it to the poles of the Oron Hakodesh in the Mishkan: they had to constantly be in their supportive role of the Oron. He is given the tools to teach his students properly, and is held to a high standard of success. Furthermore, the teacher must be filled with love for his students.
Malkos Without a Strap
The Mishnah demands of us, "Let the honor of your talmid be as precious to you as your own." Without embracing this principle it is impossible to teach others Torah, as the Baal HaTurim writes on the posuk, "Now therefore, when I come to your servant my father, and the lad is not with us -- seeing that his life is bound up in the lad's life" (Bereishis 44:30). The Baal HaTurim writes that there is a similar posuk in Mishlei (22:15): "Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child." This is intended to teach us that "since he is bound with foolishness, it is necessary that the educator's life be bound up in the lad's life, so that he can educate him."
How foolish it is that some educators overlook their students' feelings! They degrade them and even insult them. Not only are they disregarding what the Mishnah in Ovos writes, they are failing to obtain their objective, the aim of all teaching. They are not carrying out their shelichus and are sinning against Hashem, against the child, and against his parents.
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