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HaRav Dovid Cohen shlita Explains Our Situation
A most impressive gathering took place this past Thursday evening in the batei medrash of Beis Yeshaya of Yeshivas Mir when HaGaon HaRav David Cohen shlita was requested by the Rosh Yeshiva HaRav Eliezer Yehuda Finkel to fortify the avreichim against the threatening waves of these present times. He also agreed to answer complex questions arising during this period from the audience, presented to him by HaRav Hillel Mann, from the staff of Nesivos Aviezer and Bircas Shmuel. The replies constituted a document for all times.
He began by clarifying that never have we experienced such a dreadful period where we are faced with Divine concealment to a degree that no one has previously imagined possible. It is a reality whereby beis medrash scholars are seized and cast into prison like hardened criminals, merely for the 'crime' of dedicating their lives to Torah. Including in these harsh times are the economic hardships imposed upon them which find them financially and altogether helpless.
He said that the Vilna Gaon's view of the fourth exile, which he named as that of the rabble, the erev rav, was erroneously accepted by the public who think that this specifically refers to the government Legislative Advisor or similarly, to the High Court, which represent the erev rav. But the Gra did not have this in mind at all but included all of the government heads of that exile.
Everyone knows that doing business with Donald Trump is problematic and Binyamin Netanyahu, who knows a thing or two about politics, knows this better than anyone. The American president is undoubtedly fond of Jews, surely much more than his predecessors, but first and foremost, he loves a man who goes by the name of Donald Trump. He loves him so much that he would be willing to sell the whole world in order to satisfy the whims and wants of that selfsame person, who, by coincidence, happens to be he himself. And en route, he recognizes no obstacles. He is prepared to sell them all down the river in order to achieve his objective, even if this seems to be an impossible one. And this can be said for the present subject at hand: a deal with Iran.
In Iranian terminology, there does not exist the concept of conceding. Submission is not a question at hand. There is the system of deception, of so-to-say, a temporary submission in order to arrive at the final objective. If this was true in the war of Shaagas Arye last year, it is sevenfold more true in its aftermath.
Part I
This series was first published 33 years ago, in 1993.
During the past generation we are accustomed to secular domination of Jerusalem, with several religious enclaves. However, it was not always thus. Jerusalem considered itself a holy city, and it was a deliberate effort on the part of anti-religious elements to break the kedusha. It was a war that began around the first World War, and continues to this very day. However, many crucial battles were fought during the first years of the State. One of these was the opening of the first mixed swimming pool in Jerusalem in 1958.
Every new insult to the sanctity of Jerusalem was fought. Each caused its pain and left its scars. Important to understanding the struggles that continue to this very day are the accounts of these earlier struggles. As Jews returned to their ancient homeland, they brought the golus back with them in the form of the life of hefkeirus as lived by the goyim. The Holy Land itself, left empty for almost two thousand years, and then beginning to be filled with the kedusha of the yishuv begun in the nineteenth century by the talmidim of the Besht and the Gra, was brought into exile by the insistence of those elements that wanted an anti-religious lifestyle. We are confident of long-term victory, but there is a long road back.
Many Waters Can't Quench The Flames
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Opinion & Comment
The Key to Torah Success -- Ignore Material Pleasures
by HaRav Michel Yehuda Lefkowitz zt"l
Part II
In the first part of the discussion about success in Torah learning, R' Michel Yehuda discussed the life of learning Torah mitoch hadechak -- while living in a condition of material deprivation. He explained that in this state, it is as if one receives his wisdom directly from Hashem yisborach. He talked of the difficult material conditions that prevailed in yeshivos in the days when he was young in Europe, but how such things as having no food on Sundays had no effect on the level of Torah learning, and such conditions produced true greatness in Torah. Importantly, he suggested that today one can "simulate" that condition by attaching no value to material pleasures and setting Torah study as his main aim in life. He quoted the Chofetz Chaim as saying that the seforim he owned were acquired with money, that was time that is in turn life itself.
Continuing , R' Michel Yehuda discussed the concept of "being a talmid," and the extraordinary way that the rebbei'im that he knew in his youth related to their talmidim. He quoted R' Boruch Ber as saying that producing talmidim today is one of the most basic components of Torah learning itself, and gave examples from the behavior of HaRav Sholom Heiman and HaRav Isser Zalman Meltzer. He continues with more examples of the way that R' Isser Zalman related to talmidim.
It so happened that once both Yeshivas Hebron and Yeshivas Eitz Chaim studied the same gemoras of Gittin and Pesochim. A chabura from Yeshivas Hebron would go to HaRav Isser Zalman Meltzer every Shabbos afternoon to hear the shiur he had said during the week in Eitz Chaim.
One Shabbos when we were about to go to Maran HaRav Isser Zalman's house to hear the shiur it rained heavily and we decided to remain in the yeshiva. Later when we apologized to Maran, explaining why we could not come he answered modestly: "It's very good you did not come. If you would have come in such a storm I would not have had with what to pay you for doing so" (meaning that the Torah he had to teach them would not have been an ample reward for their suffering). The humility with which this was said is indescribable. People saw that Heaven helped him encourage every individual exactly in his needs, and in such a way that he could build that person's foundations of life and elevate himself in ruchniyus.
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IN-DEPTH FEATURES
The Belz Beis Medrash in Yerushalayim: Full Circle
by Yisroel Spiegel
The dedication of the new beis midrash was the crowning glory in the reestablishment and rehabilitation of the Chassidic court that was razed to its foundation during the Holocaust. Herewith a tour in the magnificent Belzer complex against the background of personal reminiscences over a period of fifty-six years dating back to the wondrous rescue miracle of the previous Admor of Belz zy'o, and the moving reception he was given upon his entry to Jerusalem:
The spectacle is awesome and breathtaking. From outside, one already finds it difficult to absorb the full dimensions of size and its impact, and all the more so when one stands within, inside the huge heichal, where you must crane your neck to see the beautifully geometrically sculpted ceiling rising to a height of eighty-one meters (about 250 feet), and to focus on the nine crystal chandeliers that erupt in prism-shattered majesty. Feeling overwhelmed by this sight alone, your eyes are then drawn to the magnificent Aron Hakodesh towering in front of you in its elaborate carved bas-relief, reaching up almost the full height of the hall and almost as wide as it is high. To the right and the left on this southerly wall, and on the eastern wall, are huge windows admitting the brilliant sunlight. Along the two sides and the northern wall are spacious galleries while along the main hall itself are the many rows of seats capable of seating two thousand worshipers. The interior design is extremely tasteful and pleasing to the eye, creating an atmosphere of grandeur and stateliness, "To glorify the House of Hashem."
This, in a nutshell, is the new gigantic beis midrash standing proudly in the heart of the new complex of the Belzer Chassidic court in Jerusalem, a center teeming with never-resting life reflecting both Torah and chassidus, from which the sound of Torah never ceases, but carries on, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, all year round.
Only two days before Pesach was the actual work on the crowning glory of this complex, its beis midrash, finally completed. The event was celebrated in a most original manner: through `A day that was all-Torah,' literally, a full twenty-four cycle 'round the clock of Torah study, with massive shifts of hundreds of studiers manning them, from eve to eve. This memorable day was further heightened with the moving dedication of eight new sifrei Torah into the new premises amidst tremendous joy and celebration, in true simcha shel mitzva, an exhibit of "The joy of Hashem is your stronghold."
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