Three months ago a huge demonstration took place outside the
walls of the old city under the banner of "I pledge
allegiance to Jerusalem." When it comes to the topic of
Yerushalayim, anti-religious politicians suddenly become
favorably disposed towards tradition and religion. However,
for them it is not so much a matter of holy Jerusalem as
Jerusalem of Gold!
Rav Mordechai Dov Edelberg zt"l was a very talented
speaker in Russian communities before the Second World War.
People thronged to hear this gaon and tzaddik
speak. He used his platform and large audiences to convey
his response to the inroads that were being made into
Yiddishkeit. Some of his droshos have been
published in Chazon Lamoed. In one of them, we see
him dealing with this issue of political parties exploiting
the names "Zion" and "Jerusalem" for purposes very far
removed from everything Yerushalayim stands for. We
reproduce his words, because of their relevance to our
day:
"In addition to the terrible deterioration in religious
standards which has been so painful to witness, we have made
Eretz Yisroel into a political issue. We have
stripped our holy country of all its holiness and nobility
and use it for all sorts of secular purposes. It has become
a ball in our hands.
"Let me illustrate our situation by citing an incident I
heard about a father and his two sons in America. The two
sons took their father to a rov for a din Torah. They
were the plaintiffs and the father the defendant. Their
complaint was a source of amazement to anyone who heard it.
They claimed that they had brought their father over to
America at the age of sixty and supported him honorably. One
morning the father had got up and shaved off his beard. How,
they complained, could a man in the last third of his life
shave off his beard?
"The father kept quiet for a long time, but eventually
responded to their accusations: `I admit that I did it. I
shaved off my beard with scissors in my old age, but I must
divulge the reason for my action to the rov: these sons of
mine are butchers. As far as their customers are concerned,
they sell kosher meat. But they did not bring me here to
work for them so that I might be supported honorably in my
old age. I was only brought over for public relations
purposes. Since I have a beard, and look like a G-d-fearing
Jew on the exterior, I attract customers and give them
confidence in the products.
"`However, in the course of my stay here, I was devastated
to discover that they had started dealing in non-kosher meat
and were selling it as kosher meat. I was unable to raise a
protest because they pay no attention whatsoever to my
heartfelt pleas, nor are they afraid that I would give their
fraud away to the rabbinical authorities. I realized that I
was becoming a big stumbling block because everybody passing
the shop saw amongst the sellers a Jew of the old type with
a big beard and had no idea that they were being sold
neveilos vetreifos. I therefore saw no other way out
of this terrible situation than to shave off my beard with a
pair of scissors rather then chas vesholom cause
people to sin in this shop!'
"A large part of our generation is to be compared to those
sons. They desecrate Shabbos in public and eat
treifos under the cloak of Eretz Yisroel. They
think that the slogan Eretz Yisroel gives them a
license to trample arrogantly and contemptuously on
everything that is holy and dear us. Eretz Yisroel
serves the same purpose for them as the father in that
din Torah did for the corrupted sons. It inflames the
fires of machlokes between the various parties, all
for material purposes. What has happened to the
kedushoh and nobility of our holy city?
"Look at the current situation, at all the destruction
wrought by the Arabs in our holy country. We can see how all
the politics led to nothing, and all the efforts were in
vain. The key to the "natural redemption" (as their false
world view calls it) has been handed from party to party,
each one accusing the other of betrayal of their cause. The
lesson to be derived from this, is that these events must
have happened in order to spur us into handing the keys over
to Hakodosh Boruch Hu and saying, `Since we have not
been faithful trustees, let these keys be only in Your
control!'
"As Chazal tell us in maseches Taanis: `When the
Beis Hamikdosh was destroyed, there was a gathering
of many sects of young kohanim holding the keys to the
heichal. They went up to the roof of the
heichal and said to Him, `Ribono Shel Olom,
since we have not been faithful trustees, let these keys be
handed to You,' and they threw them heavenward. Something
resembling the palm of a hand emerged and took the keys.'
Everyone said that only through his party would Yehuda and
Yerushalayim be saved. When they realized that the situation
was hopeless, `many sects' of groups and parties assembled,
and admitted in front of the whole world that they had no
natural means of salvation and that they were totally
dependant on the Creator. They therefore decided to hand the
keys to Him and accept His Will humbly. When this happened,
the palm of a hand came out and received the keys from
them."
We also hope that everyone will get together to pray for the
rebuilding of Yerushalayim and the establishment of the
Kingdom of Beis Dovid. That will be the true salvation of
Yerushalayim. May it be soon.
