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Agudath Israel has issued the following statement:
Thank you President Trump for bringing the hostages home!
As we entered Yom Tov a few days ago, Agudah celebrated the good news that the living hostages were released and expressed our appreciation to President Trump and his administration for brokering this historic deal. Organizational statements are important, but this deserves your personal voice as well.
Please join us in expressing our communal appreciation to President Trump and his administration by contacting the White House directly.
We ask that every person in our community call 202-456-1111 Monday through Thursday between the hours of 10-3 to leave a message at the White House comment line or use the online form here: https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/.
Feel free to personalize the following message template:
The average Israeli cannot help wondering why yeshiva bochurim and avreichim are not being drafted into the army and 'sharing the burden' of the national effort to protect Jewish lives from the enemy, while insisting on enjoying civil rights like all citizens. What apt reply can we give to the secular citizen - and how can we, as well, understand the reply to this question?
I believe that this question extends far beyond the issue of the draft. It involves the very concept of the essence of our people.
The average Israel thinks in terms of the State, of national security, of protecting our borders — and this is legitimate.
But the Jewish People never existed merely as a regular nation or a regular political entity. The survival of our people never depended on a function of military might, but as a spiritual people. Its survival is coupled with the prophecies of the Tanach, for the better or worse, and if we delve into the study of the Tanach and of Jewish history, everything becomes much clearer.
When a yeshiva bochur sits and studies Torah, he is not rejecting his national obligation, rather, he is assuming a deeper, more qualitative role. The army protects the 'body' while the Torah preserves the nation's significance and when this is lacking, the very body collapses.
If we honestly contemplate on what took place on October 7th, we see that the collapse of the warning mechanism and the attack that resulted, were not due to a lack of manpower, even chareidi. It was not because of the absence of this tank or another fighter. What was lacking was a united heart, a cohesive nation dedicated to our Father in Heaven.
It is necessary to view Trump's electoral victory through a Jewish eye, an interpretation which is so manifestly clear and true. The hostages were not released because Trump was elected. Rather, Trump was elected in order for them to be freed. So simple and obvious.
Trump was elected against huge odds. Five years ago, when Trump lost to Biden, it was clear without doubt that he was being rendered a marginal figure in American history, a president whom no one would remember, or better yet, whom no one would want to remember, a passing episode in the annals of a great nation. When, at the time, he declared his intention to try again for another term, the public looked at him pitifully, like someone who was no longer relevant, one suffering from delusions of grandeur.
But he did, in fact, return to the White House in a smashing victory against the faltering incumbent and his standby who was all the more a stumbling figure. A moment before he was elected, he almost found his death from an assassin's bullet. A few millimeters separated his head from the deadly bullet and with a slight tilt of his head, we would be talking today about a candidate for the presidency who was killed by the bullet of an assassin.
Trump survived the attempt as well as the campaign against him throughout almost all of the U.S. media, all past politicians, all of the Who's Who in the whole world, and was elected president, in spite of everything, because the A-mighty Providence destined him for a chief role in history. And even if we have no information about the future, at this very point, he is the one who was instrumental in returning the twenty living hostages, and for this may he be blessed.
This essay was originally published in the Succos edition of 1996-5757 in anticipation of the following year when the 200th yahrtzeit of the Gaon fell out. This was 29 years ago. We are reprinting it because there is much of interest still today.
Our circles traditionally commemorate fifty year periods of the passing of gedolei Yisroel. Whenever a round figure elapses, a noteworthy date to conjure up memories, impacts and lessons, the public enjoys essays of esteemed evaluation. Sometimes the memories are brought to the fore orally at special public occasions or in memorial journals published expressly for that purpose in which the teachings, acts and exemplary conduct of that great person are reviewed.
In these days, on the nineteenth of Tishrei to be more exact, the fourth day of chol hamoed Succos this year, 199 years will have passed since the demise in Tishrei 5558 of HaGaon R' Eliyohu of Vilna — known as the Vilna Gaon. The reader will surely wonder why this particular year is commemorated in our newspaper. Why has Yated seen fit to note the day of his passing one full year before the bicentennial of his departure?
Part 2
For Part I of this series click here.
Medrash Eliyohu
Another activity that was renewed in the year of the Gra's 100th yahrtzeit took place in Jerusalem, where his disciples had realized the Gaon's lifetime wish decades before by immigrating there and renewing the Ashkenazic Jewish settlement in the Holy City.
The year was 5658, having the numerical value of Aderes Eliyohu. "In the hundredth year of Eliyohu's ascent to Heaven, the Beis Midrash Eliyohu was established for prayer and study according to the school of Maran HaGra z'l to serve as an eternal memorial to his name, to cleave to his attributes and deeds," as it was stated in the charter publicized by its founders.
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Opinion & Comment
The Palestinian Police Commander Ghazi Jabali received a special waiver -- as a humanitarian gesture -- from Prime Minister Ehud Barak to travel from Gaza to Ramallah to attend his father's funeral, despite the outstanding warrant for his arrest for involvement in terrorist activities.
Jabali, a fairly high-ranking police official in Gaza, recruited and organized a gang of Palestinian police officers to carry out terrorist activities against Jews in the Shomron area. It was a minor miracle that the Palestinian police were caught by Israeli security forces and the gang broken up before they committed any serious terrorist acts. The Palestinians all said that they had been recruited by Jabali. Israel issued a warrant for his arrest and since then Jabali has not left Gaza.
All this took place well after the Oslo agreements between Israel and the Palestinians, when we are supposed to be in a process that will lead to peace. By normal humanitarian standards, which are well entrenched in every civilized society, someone like Jabali would have been removed from his position immediately and put on trial in his home country for his part in planning terrorist activities. It is absurd that he could just continue in his job as if nothing had happened.
Opinion & Comment
The first basic rule in communication: Listening. Understanding the world of the child is acquired through listening; this is the basis for a positive bond between him and the parents and this, in turn, enables the parents to educate their child and have him accept their guidance and guide rules and to execute them in the manner which will satisfy them.
If we examine ourselves and our conduct, we will find that all too often, when children speak, we wait impatiently for them to finish so that we, his parents, can have our say. Sometimes we don't even have the patience to wait, and we interrupt him in the middle.
Even if we are polite enough to let him finish, we find that at the very moment a child stops talking, we already have our answers pat. And all the while we are waiting for him to finish, we are busy formulating those answers in our minds and how best to impose our opinions upon him. Even in our silences, we often do not hear what the child is saying. And since he senses that we are not listening, he will not listen to us, either. The result: broken communication. A child who grows up with listening parents, will become a listener.
How can we train ourselves to listen, even artificially? We must make a conscious effort and work upon ourselves not to react immediately, even if the subject is familiar to us and we have excellent answers or brilliant comments. If we put this advice to practice, we will note some interesting results. A person who feels impelled to answer right away, thinks of what to say and how, while hearing, and cannot absorb what is being said. He will only catch a few key words while preparing his reply.
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