Speech of HaRav Shmuel Berenbaum shlit"a at a Toldos Yeshurun Event
We must help with money, with learning Torah, but with money we must also do all that we can!
We all remember well the story of the Pilegesh Begiva’ah. There is a complaint against the tribe of Binyomin, as they had committed a great sin. All
The Jews cried and made a fast since they had lost a tribe from Klal Yisroel. Six hundred men were left over, but there were no women for them to marry, as the Jews had made an oath not to give them their women to marry. There were 600 people left over who had lost their families – but this is not the reason that they cried, they cried because a tribe was lost.
What is so terrible about this? If 26,000 Jews died, then this is the way it was decreed and the way it was meant to be! What is so terrible? The explanation is that every tribe had a special maalah, different traits, different ways, everyone has his own maalos. Every tribe has its maalos, and this is important for Klal Yisroel. To lose a tribe means they lost a maalah that they should have. This is what Klal Yisroel lost, they were lacking the maalah.
As you know, this is what happened with the tribe of the Russian Jews. There were 3.5 million Jews in
This means, it is like a tribe from Yisroel was lost. You will ask: The Russian Jews, are they a tribe?
It was a tribe in
During the time of the war, all the yeshivos came to Vilna, and as you know, the Jews were very poor there. There was a war in
In
From one yeshiva came five bochurim, then another few from another yeshiva – almost all of the yeshivos from
As we say, you cannot see all the yeshivos, but you must see the advantage of every yeshivah. We need the contribution of every yeshivah.
Chas ve’shalom that the maalah of the Russian Jews should get lost! We have to grab those who were left over, because a Jew from
They lost the inheritance of the Russian Jews. Their special characteristics, the midos that they have as a tribe. We have many tribes. We have a congregation of Jews who came from
Chas veshalom that the tribe from
Someone gives an amazing explanation. You know, in
Said the Mashgiach Reb Yerucham, this was min hashamayim – when Jews do not want to be shomer mitzvos, when we say that it is too hard, then Hashem says, fine, I will take the mitzvah away from you! With this decree, the mitzvah of Kashrus became impossible, it was taken away from us!
Before that, until this decree of shechitoh, in the whole country there were those who were mechallel Shabbos, but in kashrus they were firm! One could eat in the house of every Jew, even those who were mechallel Shabbos! It was in that time that they began breaking kashrus also, and this is when the decree came out. If you say a mitzvah is too hard, Hashem takes it away!
What happened on Chanukah? The sinners came from the Misyavnim. There were Jews who said, the Torah is not enough. We must take the culture of the goyim also! We have to go to college, we have to become doctors, lawyers, and professors. Who were the most brutal killers? Doctors, lawyers, with multiple degrees!
The Jews said, Torah is an old-fashioned thing. We need the culture as well. At this point, since the Torah was not enough, the Torah was taken away.
There was a decree of “veyashkichem Torasecho”. This decree did not come about because of a sin. Torah is difficult? It’s difficult to learn? Torah is not enough? You need to have other cultures? Then Hashem says, fine, I will take away Torah!
What do we do to learn Torah? There are some fools who do not know any Torah, and so they say, we do not want Torah – but we must show that we are ready to give our lives for Torah! Against what did Matisyahu fight? He fought to learn! If Torah is being taken away from us, we have to fight!
To take away Torah because of them? But they are fools! What do they know about the life of Jews? They think with culture it will be better. But this is wrong – you can see that on the example of
On Purim, they already had Torah, there was not even a question about assimilation. The decree of Purim came upon us because of a sin, the gemara says. If you committed a sin, so come do teshuvah! There is no need to make a war because of it. If you did a sin, do teshuvah! But it is avodah zarah when you take things in addition to the Torah, because maybe the Torah is not enough! They took things in addition, and this is why the Torah was taken away and the decree came about.
The Chofetz Chaim said, still in
This is the pshat that the Chofetz Chaim said then. The Chofetz Chaim meant, why did such a decree come upon us?
There was such a sheker. We know that usually in a lie, there must be a little bit of truth. But here, there was pure sheker, and the murderer Stalin said that he was the father of the workers! Father of the workers! He was their biggest enemy! To him a person was nothing, mamesh! Nothing! He threw them into prison for nothing! For nothing with nothing! In
Because there was the haskoloh in
But we did nothing, and the Communists succeeded. This is a taina against us, what happened to the Russian Jews was because we were not moser nefesh! The Chofetz Chaim said, we have to fight like Matisyahu and his sons! This means, we need to be moser nefesh for Torah! And only with mesirus nefesh we will have Torah! True, we would have lost some neshamos along the way, but the strength of the Satan would have been weakened, and Torah would not have been taken away from us. We did not go to fight for this! This is a taina against us – we did not fight.
A shevet in Yisroel, 3 million Jews, precious Jews that we lost! There was Volozhin, there was
Rav Yaakov Yavinsky told the following story. He was sent to
A short time later, they took everything from them, and sent them to
What we have lost is a taina against us. We were not moser nefesh to prove what Torah means to us! That is a big taina! Now we have heard all the droshos about money, and it is up to us to decide how to use our money, how to use it best.
A tribe from Yisroel dies out! A tribe! Millions of Jews become nothing! Seventy years ago, they still did everything, to do a mitzvah, they went to
A tribe from Yisroel should die out?! This will fall back on the whole Klal Yisroel! How can we let that happen? It is a taina against us, as the Chofetz Chaim said, we should have been moser nefesh.
I remember, in Baranovich, there was a fellow who told a story about his grandfather, it was at the time that the Communists took over
We should have been moser nefesh for Torah, but we missed out on it! And lost. But now we must make up for it. We missed out on this, we lost a tribe in Yisroel!
It is such an obligation, what a loss there was! It is not just one Jew whom we need to help. It is a whole tribe from Yisroel! We should feel a fear that a tribe is lost! It’s a tribe from Yisroel. Here we have to think what we must do.
We must help with money, with learning Torah, but with money we must also do all that we can!
I am not just saying a drosha, I am writing out a check right here and now! You see? I am writing out a check!
Hatzlacha!