The Resolution is Ours.

Based on the address by the late Rabbi Shimshon Pinkus zt'l at the Keynote Session of the Recent National Convention of Agudath Israel of America

In The Jewish Observer of April ’01, we took note of the untimely passing of Rabbi Shimshon Pinkus zt'l, with his late Rebbetzin Chaya Mindel and their daughter, Miriam h”i, in a tragic automobile accident. They had left an indelible impression on tens of thousands, as Rosh Yeshiva and Rav of Ofakim, in Israel’s Negev, and through his profound lectures and writings on broad aspects of halacha and lomdus, machshava and Toras hanistar – analytical discussions of Talmud, as well as on ideology and philosophy; and the Rebbetzin as menaheles of the Beth Jacob Seminary there. Both were also both prominent in outreach efforts to those alienated from Torah and Judaism.

In the article that follows, we present an essay based on Rabbi Pinkus’s address at the Keynote Session of the recent National Convention of Agudath Israel of America, in November 2000. This is followed by reminiscences of Rabbi Pinkus’s personification of “Emes – Truth” in his role as teacher and Rav in Ofakim by a member of the community.

I. Report From the Front Lines

They say it’s a small world, and indeed, everyone is aware of what is happening in other parts of the globe. Nonetheless, it is in place to report: Tova ha’aretz me’od me’od. The spiritual status in Eretz Yisroel is very, very good. Baruch Hashem there is an explosion of Torah in Eretz Yisroel, just as there is in America and other parts of the world: an explosion of yeshivos and Bais Yaakovs; of Chinuch Atzmai schools and chadarim; Daf hayomi is being studied in hundreds upon hundreds of batei midrashim. There is a beis midrash in Bnei Brak that has shiurim on the Daf around the clock, in a variety of languages – more than forty shiurim every single day. And baruch Hashem there is a wonderful hisorerus of yeshivos bein hazmanim in Eretz Yisroel – an awakening of interest in structured study sessions during the holiday intersession.

At the same time, tragically, Jewish blood is flowing like water in Eretz Yisroel. We are going through a terrible, terrible crisis. The situation is such that anybody in Eretz Yisroel who is going anyplace – on a bus, in a car or walking down a street – cannot feel safe from imminent threat, or sheltered from the all-pervasive animosity that surrounds us.

One might imagine, then, that the people would be devastated and frightened. Which brings me to the third piece of news that I would like to convey: People in Eretz Yisroel are tranquil, living happy, productive lives. Although we may wonder how the people in Eretz Yisroel are so tranquil, the only people who are truly anxious are parents who are frantically urging their children over the telephone not to go on that class tiyul (excursion). This should be encouraging, but perhaps we are ignoring a compelling message.

Not a Matter of Eretz Yisroel per se

If we approach the matter rationally, and try to analyze what is happening, we would recognize that the danger that is lurking and the destruction that is erupting in Eretz Yisroel is not exclusively an Eretz Yisroel issue. Eretz Yisroel is the heart of the world, and Chazal say that all pain starts from the heart. What we are undergoing in Eretz Yisroel is symptomatic of a worldwide problem.

This is not a novel insight. We should be able to close our eyes and recite the scenario by heart. After all, Hakadosh Baruch Hu has stated it in such simple language, “Zechor yemos olam, binu shenos dor vador. Look back into history and you will understand….” Indeed, corroborative history is still fresh in our memories. We know that Hakadosh Baruch Hu issues clear warnings in advance of every major explosion or l”r imminent Holocaust. While we may be reluctant to talk openly about the matter, in our hearts we may ask: Are we not revisiting the false security of the 1930’s? Are we not confronting a threatening future that – if we are not going to stop and evaluate where we are heading, and follow through with a spiritual revolution – can lead who knows where?

While this threat is most profound in Eretz Yisroel, it is not limited to Eretz Yisroel, because this is not solely an issue between one government and another. It is the entire Arab nation expressing sinas Yisroel – animosity for the Jewish People, all over the world. It can be in Paris or Frankfurt-am-Main, Johannesburg or Ankara. It can be a traveler in Seattle or a gas station attendant who fills up our cars in Brooklyn, remarking, “I’m from Jordan,” or, “…a Palestinian,” with a solicitous smile. The Moslem presence is spreading and its implications are undeniable.

Through them, Hashem Yisborach is broadcasting to us a very familiar message, a message that has accompanied the Jewish People for the past two thousand years, and has been repeated again and again with such clarity. We have all witnessed it. Perhaps the time has come for the fulfillment of “Sheva yipol tzaddik ve’kam – Seven times the righteous may fall, [but] he will arise” (Mishlei 24,16). We have the capacity to remain upright, as defeat becomes a thing of the past.

This call to awareness is a message addressed to the heart of Am Yisroel, to the community of bnei Torah, with implications for all of Am Yisroel. Perhaps the time is ripe for us to respond to the warnings implicit in the current flow of events, and to take steps to make certain that calamities that appear to be threatening should not take place, and that we succeed in bringing the Geula. This will not be achieved by our becoming just a little better; we need a mahapecha – a full-scale revolution. The daily newspapers are shouting the message so clearly, calling on every one of us to wake up. It is time for us to respond.

II. Time For a Revolution

The first step in that revolution is to galvanize Agudas Yisroel, to reach every Torah Jew, and to inspire them to become involved.

This goes beyond addressing the current situation today in Eretz Yisroel, for as stated, this is not exclusively an Eretz Yisroel problem. Nor are we dealing with a threat to a particular community of people. It is really a threat to individual people – to each one of us, as a person.

Some people may look back and say, “When things were so threatening in the 1930’s, why didn’t the Jews run away from Europe?” We should not think that they were trapped by a lack of imagination or foresight in the 30’s, or by blinding themselves to the facts. Hashem had closed all the avenues of escape, for reasons known to Him. Similarly, there is nowhere to run today. The Moslems are ubiquitous; there is no way out. And we are all targets. In Israel, someone might say, “I’m not a soldier, so I’m safe.” But that isn’t the crucial factor, because it’s not an issue of soldiers versus soldiers. There is no battlefield. Everyone is vulnerable. We may insist on closing our eyes when chas veshalom a number 18 bus blows up, and say, “That’s not a threat to me. I don’t go on the 18 bus. I ride the 15.” Such attempts to narrow the threat are patently silly. Hashem’s message is clear: There is a threat, a personal threat, to every Jew living on this globe. Hashem is talking to His every child on a very personal note. Not as a people, not as a country, not as a tzibbur, but in a personal messages directed to every single Jew in this world. All of this tension is meant as a motivation, to spur us on to attempt to define what is happening in our world, then determine our response, and act on it. That is the message of the current turmoil.

Please allow me to step back for a moment and share my understanding of our problem based on a recent experience:

I grew up in New York City, and I rarely get excited over tall skyscrapers. Recently, however, I was visiting the downtown section of a particular city in the United States, and I was deeply impressed. That city was beautifully built with an array of towering structures of marble, steel, and glass. Even though I’m a jaded American, I was absorbing the scene like a tourist, and I was “mitpa’el” – it was breathtaking. I marveled at what humanity had built!

Then I shifted my gaze and looked at those who had built this amazing panorama. As I faced the people, I was in shock. The gap between humanity and what humanity had built was dramatic: the contrast between what they made and what they are was striking. You pass a newsstand and see the periodicals, the advertisements, the pictures – never mind the filth; what it projects is scarcely above the beast. And then contemplate what they have built – the towering structures, the complex technology.

I would suggest that this message has a counterpart that addresses our olam haTorah. There is a terrible gap between what we baruch Hashem have succeeded in building and what we are. We are still establishing, building and expanding yeshivos and kollelim, and – it is no secret – the vast majority of the world’s yeshivos are being supported by American Jewry. Your monies and your mesiras nefesh are responsible for wonderfully grand achievements.

But there is a different issue. What are we?… Not What do we do? – But What are we? As an example, if we were to attempt to fashion a definition of a specific person, we would not examine what he builds or what he does, but what he is. For example, his essence would be determined by the way he davens Shmoneh Esrei, focusing on that moment of privacy, which includes only the individual and his Creator, examining how real that connection is, how genuine that dialogue is.

Such an inspection could be very unpleasant – even painful – for many of us. For, in essence, we are defined by what we are in private life – what we see, what we read – not by what we build or what we do.

III. Historic Flashback

In the era between the First and Second World Wars, beginning some 80 years ago, a phenomenon took place in the New World – in the United States, in South America, in South Africa. Among the hundreds of thousands of Jews who came from Europe, there were gedolim, tzaddikim, and beki’im b’Shas – great scholars and righteous Jews. They settled in the New World, and sat and learnt; many of them were moser nefesh to maintain their high standard of Yiddishkeit. Yet the second generation disappeared. This poses a mystery that few can explain – for sure, not I – but it is a phenomenon of which we all are aware: Thousands of the most wonderful tzaddikim for some reason overlooked their children and ignored their spiritual needs.

May I suggest that today, we are witnessing a complete reversal of that experience. Today, the focus of the Torah world, the chareidi world, is on the children. Every one of us will be moser nefesh to ascertain that our children be pure, be holy, be tzaddikim. There is so much concern about shielding our children from harmful influences, about teaching the children and guiding the children. In that earlier generation, the stress was on the adults, and the children were simply forgotten. And today the emphasis is exclusively on the children….

But what about the adults? What about the father in the average “Torah home”? He’ll bring a newspaper into the house, and recalling an offensive advertisement that he had noticed, he’ll cut it out so Yankele should not be exposed to anything indecent. But shouldn’t the father think: “I’m also a Yankele. I’m Hakadosh Baruch Hu’s Yankele!”

We expend so much effort to make certain that our children should be untainted, should be pure, should daven a heartfelt Shmoneh Esrei, should maintain the original, beautiful Yiddishkeit – and indeed, the whole Jewish world is exploding with this beauty. At the same time, however, we members of the older generation are so weak; we constantly make allowances for ourselves. After all, we’re in the business world, we are expected to read all sorts of publications, to function as part of the world at large.

But in the final analysis, what are we? I do not wish to belittle what we do. We must continue to do, to build, and whatever we build is not nearly enough. After all, if you are not involved in doing – and accomplishing – then you cannot be. But it is nonetheless possible for you to be involved in doing… and still not be. This, I believe, is the personal message that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is teaching us.

I am addressing these thoughts to you as a person – not as part of Agudas Yisroel, not as one of builders of Torah, not even as part of the Jewish people. I’m talking to you – the person who lives in number 947 Main Street – about you and your children, with this personal message.

It is certainly incongruent when people with serious flaws produce monumental achievements. There is also another problem, beyond the imbalance. If the source of some ambitious undertaking is a person or a community with grievous shortcomings, the resulting edifice will likely suffer drawbacks, as well. To illustrate this, permit me to share with you a poignant story about the Chofetz Chaim.

She told us that when she was eighteen years old, she had left home and went to study in a university. (I must add parenthetically that we cannot imagine the upheavals that were taking place in those tumultuous times.) She told us, “I went to my Zaide and told him [this is an eighteen-year-old, non-religious girl talking to the epitome of kedusha, moreinu verabbeinu ad sof kal hadoros – teacher and guide for all future generations – the Chofetz Chaim, who was then in his nineties], ‘Zaide, why are you sitting in the dark? Come out into the world of light, and feast your eyes on the beginnings of the revolution of technology! It’s a beautiful world out there!’

“My grandfather pointed to an airplane flying by, and told me, ‘You see those airplanes? During World War I, they used to throw a box of dynamite out of the window of a plane to bring destruction on humanity below. Someday they are going to reach the moon. And those bombs? They are going to create bombs that will be able to destroy the whole world. That is what they make. But we make mentschen….’”

While the Chofetz Chaim was obviously talking about the secular world, may I suggest that perhaps the Chofetz Chaim beru’ach kadsho was also talking to us. Baruch Hashem, as we take stock of what the Torah-chareidi world is doing, one can say that we’ve reached the moon and we’re continuing to race onward. And baruch Hashem, one can say that Torah projects are exploding all over the globe. But what about the mentschen? Can we echo the Chofetz Chaim’s claim, “Mir machen mentschen”? Don’t forget; the measure of a mentsch is how he conducts his private life.

They say that scientists of old did most of their explorations of nature with telescopes, to be able to see great distances with clarity. Today, scientists also make use of the microscope. While we are planning far-reaching, grand-scale enterprises with “telescope” in hand, so to speak, we must not forget about the microscope, for introspection and self-improvement.

We are hopeful that Hashem will take us back b’ahava, with love. He will bring us back to Eretz Yisroel, but it will be insufficient for us simply to build beautiful edifices. Hashem has to embrace us, so we may experience that crowning moment of personal connection with Hashem. We must be ready to appreciate that closeness and clarity of mind.

Let us begin with the first word that Hashem had told the Jewish People: “Lech lecha – You shall go – me’artzecha… from your birthplace.” And Avraham Avinu responded, leaving his established homeland for “ha’aretz asher arecka – the land that I will show you.” The final battle that Bnei Yishmael are waging with us today is regarding proprietorship over that designated land, based on their argument over Hashem’s command to Avraham at the Akeida (the Binding of Yitzchak): “Kach na es bincha es yechid’cha asher ahavta… Take your son, your only son, whom you love….” They are claiming that everything as recorded in the Torah is true, except for the next word in that command – it wasn’t “Yitzchak,” they claim; it was Yishmael whom Avraham Avinu bound on the altar. They are thus waging a war with every Jew on this globe over this. It is not a battle only in Eretz Yisroel, but it is focusing on Eretz Yisroel because Eretz Yisroel is the assigned place of Hashem’s love for His People.

How do we demonstrate that the “bincha yechidcha asher ahavta” is indeed Yitzchak? This is something that cannot be accomplished through public declarations; rather, it is dependent on what is transpiring inside every individual person, on his own. Our thoughts, our actions, our aspirations have to declare to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, “It is I, ‘bincha,’ Your son. I’m Your kleine yingele. Whatever pure and holy attainments that I want for my children, I also want for myself, whether I’m fifteen or thirty or fifty or seventy. ‘Yechidcha,’ I really am Your only son… completely Yours, for my mind is dedicated to You, Hashem yisborach. Yes, the world is full of spectacular distractions and engaging entertainment, but it is not a Yiddishe chasuna. It’s not my celebration.”

We can then finally prove that “es yechidcha” refers to us – that we are still Your ben yachid, and You are our Echad asher ahavta – that the love in our hearts is reserved for Your Torah and for Your closeness. As for everything else that is going on – all the entertainment, all the distractions, all the fun – that is not where our love is directed. That will prove “es Yitzchak” – that we, the offspring of Yitzchak, are indeed the chosen people.

Hashem is talking to us in such clear language. Blood is being spilled, and Hashem should see to it that the bloodshed should come to an end. True, the way humanity at large sees the current flow of events, it is only a beginning. They all seem to be certain of this; and as for us, we have no way of knowing where the next incident is going to erupt.

“Sheva yipol tzaddik ve’kam. The Jewish People have fallen seven times.” In the Talmud, the number seven refers to a multitude of times. But the day will come when they will attempt to push us, as they did in the past – “Dichisani linpol.” With sufficient inner resources of strength we will not fall. “Ve’kam. We will remain upright”… because of what we are.

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