With the opening of 'Zman Elul', the team of teachers and educators at Talmud Torah 'Beit David' in Holon entered the study room of the Gaon Rabbi Yitzhak Zilberstein, where hundreds of children study under his presidency, along with the director of the Talmud Torah, Rabbi Avraham Ovadia, to hear words of encouragement and guidance at the beginning of the new school year.
Rabbi Silberstein continued with heartfelt words, and spoke about several practical and specific points concerning the general situation in which the Haredi public finds itself.
The full transcript:
First, he began by addressing the sensitive and unstable security situation: "Look, my dears, do you know what the prime ministers here are afraid of today? An atomic bomb. It's clear to him that Iran has an atomic bomb, because the leader of the liars in the world is Iran, they are the biggest liars in the world. He says that from what they are talking about with passion and conviction, it seems to him that they have the atom. The atom is the greatest fear in the world today, and I heard that the government here is afraid of the atom.
""Do you know who is the greatest force against the atom? You! How? - There are children who have no sin, these are the babies of the Rabban family who are here. Their prayer is prayer, their study is study, there is no censure. When Haman came to Mordechai and heard that he was studying the laws of Kamitza with them, then he said, 'I am lost,' he also knew that the people of Israel have weapons, and the weapons we have are not in drums or dances, our weapons are the children!
""You, my dears, are the weapons of the Jewish people. You are the teachers of sinless babies, who are our weapons. The children need to learn well, it is only in our hands. We, children who learn well, are the protectors of the Jewish people.".
Rabbi Silberstein then addressed the need to behave in a civilized manner, in order not to arouse and add further anger to the public of Torah and mitzvot observance: "There are children I see on the street, running around a bit like this, walking like this, and it is very bad... We need to be very careful with children on the street, if people see them outside like this, walking around freely... The anger against Torah students is truly terrible.
""They say: 'We are all at war here, and look at the way they walk down the street like this, looking here, looking there, some even smoke a few cigarettes, your brothers went to war and you sit here,' it's devastation!
""You, my dears, are in charge of the Israel Defense Forces today. What is the army we have? The army - this is our army. Children who walk the streets in a civilized manner and behave in a civilized manner and seriously, this is the greatest weapon in the world, and it is in your hands.".
Rabbi Zilberstein addressed the practical part, how the work of the Holy Spirit falls on the team of educators and teachers: "To instill in them and tell them that there is an atom, I don't know if that's exactly the right way. But look at this picture, it's the testimony of Maran HaGri"sh Elyashiv zt"l, let me tell you what happened with him:
""In Jerusalem, a hot air balloon (zeppelin) arrived for the first time. And Rabbi Elyashiv heard that a hot air balloon had arrived, so he left the house to see it. After one step, he immediately said to himself: 'Shame on you, the people of Israel need salvation and you are going to see a hot air balloon? Are you crazy? Is this what you were born into the world for? To see a hot air balloon?' And he immediately turned back, even though he really wanted to see this wonder, he restrained himself and locked himself in, there is no balloon, no zeppelin, there is only one thing, the Holy Torah!
""Stories of the righteous can be very helpful, stories of the righteous are very, very important, stories of the righteous of awakening and fear of God.".
The posak told two stories of grandeur with an ancient Jerusalem flavor, which he saw and absorbed as a child in Jerusalem: "I will give you another example of stories of fear of God. I studied at the Etz Chaim Ta'al in Jerusalem, I was a small child, and our Rebbe was Maran Gaon Rabbi Isser Zalman Meltzer zt"l (author of 'Even Hazel'), and we spied on him and saw that in the summer he did not take the short route from Etz Chaim to his house, but made a detour. We wanted to know why he made a detour. Who do we ask? Only the relatives of the family. They went and approached the Rebbetzin and said to her: We want to know, Rebbetzin, why does Rabbi Isser Zalman make a detour that way? And she replied: There are very beautiful watermelons there, he is afraid that he will give the evil eye!
""If someone else had told me that, I would have told him you were telling a joke, or that you don't know Rabbi Isser Zalman, maybe you're impersonating someone else, why would he even look at the watermelons?"
""But since it is written in the Gemara (Bava Batra 2b), as Rabbi Abba said, Rav Huna said, Rav said, a person is forbidden to stand in his friend's field while it is standing in its fields, and as Rashi interpreted there, 'so that they may not harm him with an evil eye.' What kind of grain do we have in Jerusalem? When there are good fruits like red watermelon, it is like what the Gemara spoke of, and therefore he, in his best interests, feared and feared this, it is truly unbelievable.
""Another small story, these things are small, but they are really big, and we need to tell children stories of the righteous. I studied with Rabbi Isser Zalman in Haidar. A poor man came knocking and asked for charity. Then Rabbi Isser Zalman said to him: I don't have any money right now. So he left. And then a moment later, Rebbetzin Bayla Hinda (may God have mercy on her) came in and told him that all the milk from the pot had spilled on the fire, and said that she didn't know why this happened. Then Rabbi Isser Zalman said: I do know why this is... because he didn't bring charity to the poor man.
""He went out into the street and chased the poor man, Rabbi Yankel! Then Rabbi Yankel the poor man says to Rabbi Isser Zalman: 'Oh, something has already spilled on you'... Jerusalem is a city of truth, but Rabbi Isser Zalman saw this and did not respond, he only apologized for not having any money.
""It's called stories of the righteous, and that's what we need to do. It is a mitzvah for each of our beloved loved ones to watch a story of the righteous, to tell things of quality, like this act that was for me a great moral.".
The rabbi strengthened the teaching staff: "These are the things that should be said to the scholars who deal with the Israel Defense Forces. Who is the Israel Defense Forces? You! You who study with the children, this is the real Israel Defense Forces, they stole our name, it's not their name, the Israel Defense Forces is us.".
At this point, he turned his gaze from his study room, straight to the kollel hall filled with dozens of avrechim, scholars of Torah, who are sitting and studying their Talmud: "Come and see what is going on here, avrechim are sitting here and never take their heads off the Gemara for a moment, look, it is a mitzvah to look, come and look here, they are almost all ordained to teach, and there is not a single person here who talks idle talk, there is not a single person who dreams of idle talk, this is called the Israel Defense Forces. Look here, look here, they are sitting here day and night, no one will hear a single word here"...
Rabbi Zilberstein addressed the teaching team from Umka Deliva: "My dear friends, may God help us and we succeed in carrying out our mission. The Iranians only want to prepare one thing, an atomic bomb, and that is everyone's fear, but this is the answer: not to be afraid, but to be here (in the kollel), or to be here (in Talmud Torah) more accurately. All the best to you, with God's help.".
