r-=---=~-- ~----- -- -----~-- ---~~ ----=-i 1 THE ewish I I ,ftSEitVER Noted in I THE JEWISH OBSERVER (ISSN) 0021-6615 IS PUBLISHED IN THIS ISSUE MONTHLY. EXCEPT JULY & AUGUST Sorrow I ANO A COMBINED ISSUE FOR TRAGEDY (LOSE TO HOME, RABBI ELI JANUARYlfEBRUARY, BY THE 6 A AGUOATH IS RAEL 01' AMERICA, YoNosoN RosENBLUM TEITELBAUM I 42 BROADWAY. NEW YORK. NY !0004. PERIODICALS POSTAGE PAID IN NEW YORK, NY. SUBSCRIPTION Sll5.00/YEAR; ZECH OR YEMOS OLAM ... 2 YEARS, 548.00; 3 YEARS. 569.00. At the levaya of Rabbi Eli Teitelbaum ?"!, a well­ REMEMBER THE DAYS OF YORE OUTSIDE OF THE UNITED STATES (US known rosh kollel remarked, "All of the Tanna'im FUNDS DRAWN ON A US BANK ONLY) S1s.oo SURC~IARGE PER YEAR. SINGLE 12 A "FoRGOTIEN" EvENT W1TH H1sToR1c and Amora'im are coming to welcome him, because COPY SJ.so: OUTSIDE NY AREA $3.95; I FOREIGN 54.50. CONSEQUENCES, JOSEPH fRIEDENSON there is probably no individual in the world who brought Torah to so many people." POSTMASTER: 18 IN THE AURA OF THE KOPYCZNITZER SEND ADDRESS CHANGl'::S TO: It is true_ Rabbi Teitelbaum - Eli to everyone I TEL 212-797-9000, FAX 646-254-1600 REBBE, RABBI SHLOMO LORINCZ I PRINTED IN THE USA who knew him - was richly endowed with talent, MIRRER IMAGE: PEOPLE, PLACES AND imagination, and stamina, and he devoted it all to RABBI N!SSON WOLP!N, Editor 26 OF I POWERFUL IMPRINTS, YAACOV POLSKIN others. Over forty years ago, he began a weekly radio Editorial Board program to teach Mishnah. He invented and per­ RABBI JOSEPH EUAS. Chairman 28 OF PUBLIC RECORD I RABBI ABBA 8RUONY fected Dial-a-Daf, Dial-a-Mishnah, and Dial-a-Shiur. I JOSEPH f'RIEOf:NSON RABBI YISROEL MEIR K!RZNER PESA CH: Every week, many hundreds of shiurim RABBI NossoN SCH EHMAN I PROF. AARON TWERSKI THE FESTIVAL OF REDEMPTION were available over the phone. The nerve center of his Torah Communication Fo1mden 32 THE FOURTH REDEMPTION, DR. ERNST I.. Born:NHEIMF.R Z.,L SrMCHA LEtB GRosssARD Network was alive twenty-four hours RABBI MOSHE SHEHErt Z"L a day, the central panel aglow with Management Board 34 WHEN Do WE BAKE THE MATZAH hundreds oflittle red lights signifying NAFTOl.I HIRSCH. ISAAC KIRZNE!~. RABBI SHI.OMO LESIN, THIS YEAR? ARI z. ZIVOTOFSKY callers and listeners. In the fifteen-plus DAVID SINGER, NACHLTM STEIN AND ARI Y GREENSPAN years of Dial-a-Daf, there was an MRS. LE'°'H ZAGELBAliM, amazing total of 1.6 million calls, and .·kh·ertisi119 Monoqe1 MUSINGS the number grows by the day. PUBLISHED BY 47 HEARING WITH YOUR BRAIN, AGUDATH IS!~AEL OF AMERICA Eli could have made a com­ RABBI SHMUEL BLOOM fortable living from the Torah U.S. TRADE DISTRllHITOR fELDHEIM PUBLISHERS Communications Network, but he 208 Airport fxrcutive H1rh Nam1et. NY to.'!54 accepted not a penny for his work. He belonged STATEMENT OF POLICY to Kial Yisroel. BRITISH REPRESENTATlVf; THE JEWISH OBSERVER HAS DEVOTED A GREAT DEAl M.T Bl BELMAN OF SPACE TO THE PERILS Of'TllE INTERNET AND TO THE He was a phenomenal rebbi of third and fourth Grosvenor 11/orhs 1\.fou11t Pleawmt Ifill ."IEED FOR EVERYONE TO 6E EXTltEMELY V!Gll.ANT IN graders, and his talmidim remembered and treasured l.ondo11 l:S 9NE. ENG/AND !TS USE. WE HAVE ECHOED THE PLEAS OF Oll!t GED- him for a lifetime. Before "Children at Risk" became I OUM Tl!AT IT SHOULD NOT BE IN USE. UNLESS IT IS AN FRENCU REPRESENTAT!Vf: RABBI 8AMBf:RGER UNAVOIDABLE NEf.;ESSITY. ANO THEN ONLY WITH AU 21 Boulo·ard !l1ixhans SUITABLE SAFEGUARDS. WHILE ITS DANGERS MUST 8E 57000 ,li,lett. f'RANCF RECOGNIZED AND CONTROLLED TO EVERY POSSIBLE ISRAEl.I REPRESf:NTATIVE DEGREE. OUR GEOOUM RECOGNIZE TUAT MANY PEOPLE I fNTNL Mf:DIA PLACEMENT AND BUSINESSES REQUIRE ITS USE. ANO THEREFORE /'OB 7195 I .97 JqffG Road Jerusalem g4540. ISRAEL IT il_'°'S NOT BEEN BANNED. THIS IS WHY WE ACCEPT A,DVERTISf:MENTS !.!STING WEBSITE ADDRESSES. BUT I BELGIAN Hf:PRESENTATIVE IN NO W;\Y DOES THIS IMPLY THAT THE GEDOl.IM OR MR. E. APTER Lanqe Kio'itstr. 2,9 THE JEWISH OBSERVER CO!'<DONE CASUAL USE OF 2018 Anti-erp. BELGIUM THE INTERNf:T. He was an original. Up to his last breath, he was ' SOUTH AFRICAN REPRESENTAT!Vf: THE JE\to'ISH OBSERVER DOES NOT ASSUME involved in Torah projects, and his always fertile I MR. V. TABACK 1u:srONSl8lUTY FOR TUE K.AStlRUS OF ANY PRODUCT. PO Box 51552, imagination was brimming with new ones - all for .r· Roer:lme, fohonnesburg PtlBUCAT!ON. OR SERVICE ADVERTISED IN ITS PAGES kevod Shamayim and for Kial Yisrod 2124 SOUTflAFRIC"'A © CoPYRIGflT 2008 Eli was only 67 when the shocking end came, sud- 1· AUSTRAUAN REPRFSENTATIV~: DR. A. IJ1NNf:N denly and unexpectedly_ Who can take his place? 11 !Jirriqa Rood APRIL 2008 I VOLUME XLI I NO. 3 &·lfeme Hil!, NS\V eo2J. AUSTRALIA .11i:i ,-or '11' COVER PHOTOS; -Rabbi Nosson Schermanj NA TI SHOHAT / FLASH90: KO Ill G !DEON/ FLASH90 RECORDED WITH SHOCK AND PAIN he terrorist's massacre in Yeshivas Mercaz Harav in Yerushalayim at 8:40. on Thursday evening, March 6/ Rosh Chodesh Adar II, which killed eight bachurim and wounded at least six others who .had been immersed Tin Torah study in the yeshiva library, sent shock waves throughout the Jewish world. The description of the brutal atrocity with photographs of the mut.ilated bodies and the. blood splattered sefarim scattered across the floor added to the horro.r of the incident, and to the profound sense ofloss suffered through the sacrifice of these students of Torah. Which Jew does not feelwounded and diminished! Rabbi Yaakov Shapira, Rosh Ye'.hiva of Mercaz Harav, declared in his hespeid at the levayathat the gunman had apparently realized that Torah study was the wellspring of strength from which we draw our life essence, and thus attacked our youth when they were so involved in their learning. Rabbi Shapira describe<l the attack "a continuation of the 1929 massacres" in Chevron, and that. the gunman had targeted "everyone living in the holy city of Yerushalayim:' In that attack in 1929, Arab terrorists also entered a yeshiva and killed talmidim as they were learning. "We lost eight in one day- eight who were unique in their Torah, avoda and .gemillas chassadim .... Even tlie worst of our enemies realize that Torah is the heart of the nation ... :'The entire Torah world is thus one in mourning this loss. * * * When any Yid becomes a korban (sacrifice), all Yidden are moved by the pain and the tragedy, and differences in specific hashkafa or mode of worship that may be viewed as forming bar.riers between one Jew and another are either ignored or overcome by ahavas Yisroel and ahavas Torah. Thus, Rabbi Yoseif Shalom Elyashiv, for example, accompa­ nied the two aronos that were interred on Har Hamenuchos. In addition, the heads of the yeshivos of Chevron, Mir, and Kol Torah, among others, as well as Chassidishe Rebbei'im and leaders were moved to join the mourning masses in paying their last respects to the eight kedoshim of Mercaz Harav. Limud Hatorah is the ultimate unifying force for Kial Yisroel. A tragic loss - especially on that level - is felt by all. And tl1e prayer for nechama (comfort) to the bereaved amongst us all is a universal yearning. In the pages that follow, Rabbi Yonoson Rosenblum, who lives in Yerushalayim, gives us an insight into the tragic loss Kial Yisroel suffered. YONOSON ROSENBLUM ATragedy Close to Home orah is magein un1aztil. It shields and rescues from harm. But not always. T Speaking just after news of the terrible slaughter in Yeshivas Mercaz Harav first began to spread, Rabbi Reuven Leuchter, one of the premier talmi­ dim of the late Mashgiach Rabbi Shlomo Wolbe ';r:;r, urged his listeners not to push away the difficult questions raised by the tragedy with pre-fabricated answers. Through those wrenching questions, Hashen1 speaks to us, he said, and to push the questions aside too quickly is to remove Hashem Himself from the picture. (Rabbi Leuchter pointed to Shaar Daletof Nefesh Hachayim, where Rabbi Chaim ofVolozhin explains Torah's protective power, as a place to start the search.) The eight young men mowed down in the library of Mercaz Harav seemed to have been almost Divinely-picked to make the question as "painful" as possible, in Rabbi Leuchter's perspective. They were in the library because ------ -~---~---·----------------- RABBI ROSENBLIJM, WHO LIVES IN lERlJSALEM, JS A CONTIHB!JTING EDITOR TO TUE )E\VJS/-1 0BSERVEH. HE JS Al.SO DIRECTOR OF THE ISRAEL! 01\/JSJON OF AM ECllAD, THE AGllDATH ]SRAEL-INSPJH:ED ED!i­ CATIONAL 0\JTl~F:ACl-l EFFORT AND MEDIA RESOURCE. APRIL 2008 the beis midrash had been cleared for a the vacation, when two weeks would be haneitz. From then on, he began sleep­ Rosh Chodesh party, and they had each entirely adequate. ing outside on the grass, even though decided to catch a few more minutes he was extremely sensitive to cold, and of Torah learning while their friends even though his roommate protested were preparing for the party. Each one ehonadav Chaim Hirshfeld, that he had only been kidding. of them would have stood out as a hen 19, according to my son-in-law, aliya in any yeshiva in the world. Ywas an extraordinarily talented My son-in-law gives a weekly shiur learner. Every month, he learned all n the week after the massacre, more in the Mercaz Harav high school in of Mishnayos - 18 perakim (chap­ stories began to appear about the the framework of Vedibartem Barn, an ters) a day.