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(JOY-vin) n. -a delicious, low-alcohol wine that will bring you JOY during Purim. Adar 5762 • February 2002 U.S.A.$3.50/Foreign $4.50 ·VOL XXXV/NO. 2 THE JEWISH OBSERVER (ISSN) 0021-6615 is published monthly except July and August by the Agudath Israel of America, 42 Broadway, New York, NY10004. Periodicals postage paid in New York, NY. Subscription $24.00 per year; two years, $44.00; three years, $60.00. Outside of the United States (US funds drawn on a US bank only) $12.00 surcharge per year. Single copy $3.50; foreign $4.50. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: The Jewish Observer, 42 Broadway, NY., NY. 10004. Tel: 212-797-9000, Fax: 646-254-1600. Printed in the U.S.A. RABBI ELAZAR MENACHEM MAN SHACH m"13J r.n1:1 "' RABBI NISSON WOLPIN, EDITOR A Biographical Appreciation, EDITORIAL BOARD Rabbi Mordechai Kamenetzky RABBI JOSEPH ELIAS Chairman 16 The Roots of His Greatness: His Share in Torah, His Dedication to Truth, Rabbi Yisroel Friedman, RABBI ABBA BRUDNY JOSEPH FRIEDENSON translated and prepared for publication by Yonoson Rosenblum RABBI VISROEL MEIR KIRZNER RABBI NOSSON SCHERMAN 20 A PonevezherTalmid Remembers Rav Shach ';'""'• PROF. AARON TWERSKI based on a tribute by Rabbi Raphael Wolpin DR. ERNST L. BODENHEIMER Z"L Founding Chairman 27 Passion, Purim, and Snow, Baruch Leff MANAGEMENT BOARD AVI FISHOF NAFTOLI HIRSCH REPORTS FROM ERETZ YISROEL ISAAC KIRZNER RABBI SHLOMO LESIN NACHUM STEIN 3 I Living Where Everything Is Ground Zero, Sarah Shapiro 3 3 Terror, Debbie Shapiro RABBI YOSEF C. GOLDING Managing Editor 3 S A Little Light, Miriam Zakon Published by Agudath Israel of America POETRY U.S. IBADE OlSTRIBUTOR ISRAEU REPRESENTATIVE Feldlleim Publishers lnlnl. Media Placement 40 Almost Trashed, by Bracha Druss Goetz 200 Airport ExecutivP. Park POB 7195 / 5 Even Israel Nanuet. NY 10954 Jerusalem. ISRAEL Blessings, by Mina Friedler BRITISH REPRESENTATIVE BELGIAN REPRESENTATIVE M.T. Bibelman Mr. E. Apter Grosvenor Works Lange Kievitstr. 29 BOOKS IN REVIEW Mount Pleasant Hill 2018 Antwerp London ES 9NE, ENGL.ANO BELGIUM 42 Chasson and Kalla During Their Engagement, FRENCH REPRESENTATIVE SWISS REPRESENTATIVE Rabbi Bamberger Mr. S. Feldinger by Rabbi Pesach Eliyahu Falk/reviewed by Rabbi Mordechai Biser 21 Boulevard Paixhans Leimanstrasse 36 57000 Metz 4051 Basel 4 3 Nesivos Shalom - Nesivei Chinuch: Essential FRANCE SWITZERLAND Perspectives on Education, reviewed by THE JEWISH OBSERVER does not assume responsibility for the Kashrus Rabbi Shimon Finkelman of any product, publication, or service advertised in its pages 4S Letters to the Editor ©Copyright 2002 ·"'· February 2002 VOLUME XXXV/NO. 2 Rabbi Mordechai Kamenetzky Rabbi Elazar Menathem Man Shath '"st he lifetime of an individual scient signs of greatness, as his birth-date Tehillim, or just tears. whose every fiber proclaimed coincided with the yahrzeit of the Gadol Tthe supremacy of Torah should HaDor and manhig of World Jewry from SEEDS OF GREATNESS merit volumes of reminiscences. And so his home in Yerushalayim, Rabbi we attempt to remember Rabbi Shach Yehoshua Leib Diskin 7··~1, a point that er haps the seeds of his sense of - knowing that we are trying to recall Rabbi Shach's mother made to him on responsibility were sown when he a century, each hour of it worthy of a several occasions. It is unclear whether Pwas but four years old, and his volume - in a mere few pages. Several Rabbi Sha ch was actually born the year yarmulke fell off. He picked it up a bit thousand words surely cannot pretend of Rabbi Yehoshua Leib Diskin's pass­ too slowly for his mother's expectations, to capture and convey the slightest ing, in 1898, representing a true phe­ and sure enough, he soon saw her cry­ glimpse of more than a half million nomenon of "v'zorach hashemesh uva ing. "Lazer, how could you fail to jump hours of avodas hakodesh. hashemesh, the sun rises as the sun sets;' quickly to get your yarmulke? What will Snippets of his greatness recounted or whether Rabbi Shach was born four be with your Yiras Shamayim (fear of here, then, must be presented for wh~t years earlier, as is indicated on some offi­ Heaven)?" they are: morsels of an enduring life cial government documents, never His mother's tears made such an whose every moment encompassed known as the standard-bearers of pre­ impression upon him, that for the rest K'vod Shamayim, conveyed by the kind cision in a tumultuous and bureau­ of his life, if his yarmulke would slip of astonishing stories we have seen and cratically-inaccurate Europe. while he was putting on tefillin, or while read and heard in the few months since What we do know is that Rabbi he was asleep, he would rush to straight­ his petira (passing). Shach's life left an impact on the lives en it. Even as a zakein muflag- well past of friends, acquaintances and thousands 90 years of age - his talmidim relate, if BEGINNINGS of talmidim. Eventually, an entire nation his yarmulke slipped off his head in the was touched by his vision, leadership, middle of his sleep, he'd awake in a n 29 Teves, in the small village amkus (depth) and humility; and his sweat, referring on occasion to his ofVaboilnick, Lithuania, Elazar foresight altered the course of history mother's words ringing in his ears! 0 Menachem Man was born to through his influence on the most As a youngster, Lazer begged his par­ Rav Azriel and Bas Sheva (nee Levitan) scrutinized country in modern history. ents to permit him to fulfill his dream Shach. There may have been some pre- As powerful a force as he was, Rabbi - to which eventually they agreed, per­ Shach respected the insights, sensitivi­ mitting him leave home, and "exile him­ Rabbi Kamenetzky is the Associate Dean of Yeshi­ va of South Shore in Hewlett NY. He is a week­ ties and counsel of others. He under­ self to a place of Torah" - specifically, ly contributor to Yated Ne'en1an and the author stood the ramifications of every word to Ponevezh, a larger town some 38 kilo­ of Parsha Parables, a three-book series on Par­ spoken, be it by a loyal Torah Jew or oth­ meters away. shas flashavua. This article was adapted and erwise. He would respond felicitously to On the very next morning after he annotated based on the author's extensive research for the article on Rabbi Shach that any critical situation, whether it called obtained their permission, the seven­ appeared in Yated Ne' eman immediately after the for a visit, a mecha'a (protest), a kol korei year-old boy began a lifelong journey petira. (public proclamation), a kapitel that ultimately came full-circle, as the 6 The Jewish Observer, February 2002 young Lazer would eventually be known by his first stop - the Rosh Yeshiva of Ponevezh. While there, Rabbi Shach was influ­ enced by Reb Itzele Ponevezher. He often described watching the great tzaddik daven with tre1nendous kavana and his­ lahavus (concentration and enthusi­ asn1), emotions that would leave a life­ long impact on his own tefilla.