The following statement, from the Moetzes Gedolei
HaTorah in Eretz Yisroel, has been endorsed and is
being promoted by the Moetzes in America as well. It
refers to a day of prayer on Wednesday 29 Adar/March
13 -- Yom Kippur Kotton. Even though this will have passed
before our date
of publication, we feel that the message is important
even after then.
Reports from America say that many individual shuls
organized minyonim of people fasting on Yom Kippur
Kotton,
including reading Vayechal. The rabbonim did not call
upon
the community to do so, but the initiatives have their
blessing.
Nation of Hashem! Awaken, Arouse Yourselves and Call
out to Hashem!
We are seized with trembling over the difficult
situation that has developed in our Holy Land as danger
threatens our fellow Jews and no one knows what each
day will bring. Evil people plot and attack our nation,
and Jewish blood is spilled like water.
The cry of the Jewish people is loud in the face of the
heavy and terrifying tragedies, including the death of
young people, may it no longer come to pass. Every
heart is pained and broken over the terrible, bitter
illnesses that have stricken the Jewish sick, may
Hashem strengthen and heal them.
Our power lies only in seizing the means of our
forefathers, and it is incumbent on us to call out with
a great and bitter outcry, as the Rambam describes in
Hilchos Ta'aniyos:
"It is a positive Torah commandment to cry out and
sound trumpets on every calamity that threatens the
community, as it says, `In the face of the enemy that
attacks you, you should sound the trumpets' -- meaning
in the face of whatever causes you harm, cry out and
sound the alarm. This is one of the paths of
repentance, that when a threat appears and the people
cry out and sound the alarm, and all recognize that it
is their sins that cause them harm, as it says, `your
sins have tipped the balance,' this is what will cause
the threat to be removed from them."
"In gatherings praise Hashem." Let large numbers of
those who fear Hashem and cherish His name gather
together to pour out their prayers before the Creator
of all in all the shuls and botei medrash
wherever they live, throughout the world, on
Wednesday, Adar 29, erev Rosh Chodesh Nisan. Let
the special prayers of Yom Kippur Katan be recited, and
chapters of Tehillim, especially perakim
83, 130 and 142, before He Who Dwells On High, so
that He will show us favor and redeem us from all our
travails.
Let us return to Hashem with full force, let us better
our ways both with regard to things between man and G-d
and those between man and his fellow. Let us distance
ourselves from loshon hora and rechilus,
and increase our love for others. Let each of us
perceive the positive in others and not their
shortcomings. Let us strengthen ourselves in Torah and
fear of Heaven and in the fulfillment of mitzvos. Let
us become strong in our prayers and supplications, and
let Hashem hear our entreaties, show favor to His
people and mercy to the remnant of His portion. Let
reports of tragedy or loss among us no longer be heard,
and let Him strengthen and bind the brokenhearted in
their mourning. Yisroel's salvation is in Hashem, a
salvation for all eternity.
Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of Eretz Yisrael
*
The following is a separate statement from the American
Moetzes:
A CALL AND A REQUEST
In this time of travail, we come to request from the
stalwarts of the beis medrash, students of
yeshivos and members of kollelim everywhere, to
increase their Torah-study during the coming bein
hazmanim intersession, and to summon every strength
to establish set times for the learning of Torah and
its public study in yeshivos and botei medrash in
their local neighborhoods. May the merit of Torah prove
pleasing to the Master of All on behalf of our fellow
Jews living in our Holy Land, who are in a situation of
great crisis.
Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of America 20 Adar, 5762
