The Saba Kadisha, the Chofetz Chaim, wrote about those who arouse the public regarding Shabbos observance (Shem Olam), "They circulate in the streets and market places, reminding people to close shop before Shabbos, in time for candlelighting. They also exhort the public regarding the necessary preparations for keeping food warm for Shabbos day. They circulate in the bathhouses to urge people to don their Shabbos clothing quickly. How meritorious are their deeds for the public good so that all can share the holy mitzvah of whom it is written, "And those who bring merit to the many resemble the very stars forever more. The merit of Shabbos shall surely stand them in good stead to protect them from all harm and that they merit to bask in the pleasantness of Hashem.

"These people should truly rejoice in being actively involved in such holy work. It would be worthwhile for them to gather and reinforce one another with new ideas lest they fall lax, for the evil inclination, alas, is very strong. Would that they succeed in injecting new fervor for this mitzvah. Especially so in this week of Parshas Beshalach where the Torah also encourages us in the mitzvah of Shabbos."

We have already written, and will continue to do so, that the entire subject and 'need' of drafting chareidim into the army — aside from the fact that Torah study is the very base of survival of the Jewish people — is altogether fictitious, lacking any substance and reality. The army does not want chareidim, period.

Perhaps it does need soldiers — so long as they are not chareidim. And even if they started off as chareidim, the army will see to it that they forget about it very quickly. Here and there you may find 'nature reserves' of soldiers who define themselves as such but that is merely a camouflage for the army's purposes. It needs such soldiers to display to the outside as if they really and truly want chareidim, that is, so long as they don't really 'see' them. So long as they remain a negligible minority and can be dealt with, one way or another.

But beyond that, the army is not prepared to compromise its principles of licentious freedom. So, all in all, it is mere empty prattle.

In a discussion which took place in the Knesset Foreign and Security Committee on the subject of military service, a soldier representing IDF chareidi wounded soldiers, spoke from the very blood of his heart, very acute words regarding the army's total disregard of said soldiers.

Part III

This was first published in 1994.

The first part introduced HaRav Zeitchik and the general Novardok experience. The focus here is on his later years in Eretz Yisroel. It discusses serious ideas and themes that were part of the life of HaRav Zeitchik zt"l.

*

Siberia. The lashing rod of Hashem. Siberia, no-man's-land, which sucks up all sap of life. Siberia also became the purifying Novardok crucible for that mighty fountain of sensitivity and arousal. He would recall Siberia and its scholars for dozens of years afterwards. It represented a fearsomely glorious battle between the Novardok courage against the satanic might of the Siberian plains, which left deep, ingrained scars.

He would wax poetic about that period and say: "Those who passed through the vale of weeping transformed it into a fountain."

When the tempest tossed, suffering, persecuted and starving Bialystocker exiles of Siberia would gather together and sing, their emotive weeping would send waves of yearning deep into the night.

R' Chaim owned a small notebook in which he would record his poems. It revived him in that barren, hostile land.

"Play, O my fiddle, play me a tune,

A melody of hope to make me whole,

Awake in my heart a feeling of trust,

Create in my matter a soul.