In the Aftermath…

Insights from the
September 11th Tragedies
An Agenda for Achieving an Inner Transformation

Based on a presentation by Rabbi Ephraim Wachsman shlita

Rabbi Wachsman serves as Rosh Hayeshiva of Yeshivas Meor Yitzchok in Monsey, NY

Experiencing Changes

Before the advent of Moshiach, writes the Maharal in Sefer Netzach Yisroel, there will be a period of time when everything will be reduced to rubble and dust, because the havaya chadasha, the creation of a new type of existence, must be built upon bittul, a nullification of the old one. Indeed, such external changes would call for just such an inner transformation, as well.

Rabbeinu Yona in Yesod Hateshuva quotes a pasuk in Yechezkel: "Shuva Yisroel mikol pisheichem. Throw aside all of your transgressions, ve'asu lachem lev chadash - and create within yourselves a new heart, ve'ruach chadasha - and a new spirit, ve'lama samusu - why should you perish?" Rabbeinu Yona explains this to be a directive for a person to make himself over ki hayom nolad - as if he were born on that day. This is a level of teshuva expressed in becoming a truly new person, not even recognizable to those who knew him before.

A Transforming Event

David Hamelech also described a powerfully transforming event: "Kol Hashem b'hodor, kol Hashem b'koach, kol Hashem shover arozim - The voice of Hashem is in power! The voice of Hashem is in majesty! The voice of Hashem breaks cedars!" (Tehillim 29,4-5). We are living through a period of unprecedented change, an experience that we never could have fathomed before. The world in general is saying that this country as we knew it will never be the same again. We must respond by making internal life changes, as well. Just as we will never see the same Manhattan skyline, so too must we never be the same.

We experienced a small taste of yiras haromemus - awe over G-d's might. At that moment of massive destruction, everything became battel - null and void. Money was not important. Machlokes (dispute) was not important. Kavod (recognition and honor) was not important. The stock market was not important. Sports was not important. Everything was hevel havolim b'mlo muvan hamila - folly, in the full sense of the word. In the wake of such fear, everything becomes battel.

Anything we had invested with importance, anything that we had thought had meaning crumbled to nothing.

Of Assets and Liabilities

What is truly of value? What are our true assets and liabilities? Let us take a page from historical precedent.

When the Bolsheviks took over Russia in 1919, their first target was the intelligentsia, and members of the upper classes. They searched out the doctors, and the people who had accumulated wealth. People who fell into these categories quickly tore up their diplomas, they hid their money - "Nobody should know that I'm wealthy! Nobody should know I'm a person of achievement! Nobody should realize that I'm academically accomplished!" They were terrified.

By the same token, a business has its apparent assets and liabilities. Ultimately, every asset can become a liability, for when the Yom Hadin (Final Day of Judgment) comes, everything Hashem has given us will be potential cause for indictment: "I bestowed gifts on you to bring out My honor, to fulfill My agenda. How did you use them?"

The Chofetz Chaim gives the mashal (parable) of two people who were dispatched by a businessman to buy merchandise. He gave a one of them a thousand rubles, while he gave the other two hundred rubles. One spent eight hundred rubles on expenses; he had two hundred left. The other one spent one hundred, and had a hundred left. The one who had the two hundred left turned to the other fellow, and said, ìWhat are you going to say to the boss? You only have one hundred rubles left to purchase stock!î

The other fellow replied, "What are you going to say? You were given a thousand, and you spent eight hundred on yourself!"

If the Ribbono Shel Olam gives someone wealth, intelligence, talent, yichus (pedigree), or kavod - these will be the basis for claims against the person. The moment his neshama leaves his body, he will wish to go into hiding. I didn't have wealth. I wasn't smart. I wasn't a meyuchas. Don't look at me! I wasn't famous. All of his achievements will be turned on their head for his not having used them for furthering Hashem's plan. How little we understand!

A few days ago, what would your average businessman have given to be able to say he has the status of an office in the Twin Towers? "I'm not in a hole in the wall in Boro Park. Look at my business card, look at the prestige of my address!" Today we know that it could have been a death sentence. What do we understand? What do we believe in? Those who feel secure in their hearts, and rely on the government, or on this or that agency, to straighten out our current confusion, and are sure that all will be well, have not learned a thing. The true message is: There is nothing else but the Ribbono Shel Olam. What was secure yesterday is meaningless today.

The Dubno Maggid tells about an informer whom the citizens ran out of town. He approached the governor, and said, "I need a place to live. They don't want me in town anymore."

He replied, "Fine, no problem. Go buy yourself a plot of land in some other town and build yourself a beautiful house."

He went from one city to the next, but no one wanted to take him in: "We heard you're an informer." So the governor sent him to a distant town: "All the land there belongs to me. Choose a nice lot and build yourself a house on my account."

On the outskirts of town, he found a magnificent, open area surrounded by towering trees - covered with snow. His contractors came and started building foundations. Everybody who walked by smiled. Who do they think they are, laughing at me? As he continued building, they started chuckling, laughing in his face. Finally, he saw that people were hysterical whenever they passed by. He asked a fellow, "Will you please tell me what the big joke is? - Am I not building correctly ?"

He replied, "You fool! This piece of land is a frozen lake. You've built your whole palace on a sheet of ice. The summer is going to come, and it's all going to melt. Your whole structure will sink into the water!"

Of Reality and Illusion

"Ein tzur k'Elokeinu - There is no rock like our G-d." Chazal say, "Ein tzayar k'Elokeinu - there is no artist like the Ribbono Shel Olam." Rabbi Shlomo Heiman zt'l commented: An artist can paint a picture and make something look so realistic that youíll think itís the genuine article. The Ribbono shel Olam painted an entire world, and it appears to be real. Twin Towers - they're real, betzuros, gedolos, varamim me'od fortified, immense, towering above the rest. And now we know it was a picture, like on an etch-a-sketch -one shake and it all disappears.

And we saw the face of ra - we saw evil, a cruelty, an azus, a rishus, brazenness, wickedness disdain for Yidden and for human life. On Rosh Hashana, we are mispallel: "Ki saavir memsheles zadon min haaretz - You will remove the brazen ruling powers from earth." The Chofetz Chaim says that it does not mean a particular nation. It refers to ra, the power of evil itself. These perpetrators of evil were without mercy, with no understanding of what humanity is. And yet, sefarim hakedoshim (sacred literature) tell us that Klal Yisroel is endowed with unique kochos, special gifts. When Klal Yisroel does not use these attributes properly, they are appropriated by the forces of evil. If we do not have mesiras nefesh, the requisite dedication in our service to Hashem, then less deserving creatures ñ our adversaries ñ will assume mesiras nefesh and sacrifice their lives for ra. If we are lax in tzenius - basic modesty - then they will become the standard bearers of tzenius l'r. The nation that Chazal call shtufei zima - sunk in depravity and promiscuity - will carry the banner of tzenius for the world. Objectionable reading material that lîr finds its way into Jewish homes will be declared illegal in their countries.

For a period of time we lived in Yerushalayim with my wife's maternal grandfather. A Jew in his 90's, he was not feeling well on a particular afternoon, so he came into the living room in his robe. At that moment, an Arab cleaning woman had come in to 'do sponja.' She indicated that she would not enter the room because he was sitting in his robe. A few moments later I went into the living room and I saw him crying.

I asked him, "Why are you crying?"

He couldní't get the words out of his mouth. "Ashamnu mikol am. We are worse than any other nation. They're going to instruct us about tzenius!"

A few weeks ago, the Rosh Yeshiva of Shaarei Yosher, Rabbi Yosef Rosenblum shlita, spoke specifically about improving the level of kedusha (sanctity) in the businesses and institutional offices maintained by Torah Jews. It constitutes a violation of kedushas Yisroel for a young man to become overly familiar in the way he addresses a married woman - or even a girl just out of seminary - even though it conforms to the normal course of business. A seminary graduate confided in her menahelles in Bais Yaakov, "The first time I came into an office and the men were friendly to me, I felt violated. Today, if they don't talk nicely to me, if they don't call me by my first name, I am insulted and hurt."

The Brisker Rav comments on the listing of objectionable objects of worship in the passage, "Vatiru es shikutzeihem ve'es giluleihem eitz va'even kessef vazahav asher imahem - And you saw [the nations'] abominations and their detestable idols - of wood and stone, of silver and gold that were with them" (Devarim 29,17). The nature of a person is that in his first encounter with the abominations of the other nations he finds them disgusting and nauseating. Then, with passage of time, he comes to view them as detestable, a matter of taste. Then they are merely wood and stone. Ultimately, they are kessef ve'zahav - silver and gold, common features of the business scene. Just the way things are in a normal environment.

Responding to the charge, "We have to change," means that the criteria for what is normal and acceptable must undergo a radical change. Jewish weddings and other celebrations, pursuit of profit, quest for honor and recognition, agendas for fulfillment of desires - all of these components of a 'normal agendaî' must be re-evaluated and in many cases must simply be reduced in scope, modified, or dropped.

The Challenges of Conflict III

When Rabbi Elchonon Wasserman hy'd visited London shortly before World War II, he was urged to remain in England. The people begged him "The situation is unstable in Europe. Stay here and open a yeshiva in London."

He said, "Londoner Yidden, let me tell you what I heard from my Rebbe, the Chofetz Chaim: World War I was the first stage of chevlei Moshiach (the birth pangs of Moshiach), of Milchemes Gog U'Magog. It was terrible, but not every Yid suffered. After 35 years, a second stage will take place, and Yidden are going to suffer terribly, but not all Yidden. Some will be saved. But,' the Chofetz Chaim added, 'there is going to be a third war, in which no Yid will escape chevlei Moshiach. Londoner Yidden, do you think that you're going to be safe here, and I'm risking danger? No one is going to be safe from the third war."

The late Mashgiach (of Mir and, later, Ponovezh) Rabbi Yechezkel Levenstein zt'l, repeated this exchange in a public forum. Someone asked him later, "Rebbe, how do you say such terrifying things to a tzibbur? Are you telling people that there's going to be another Holocaust challila?"

Reb Chatzkel replied, "Nobody understood what the Chofetz Chaim meant. The Chofetz Chaim meant that the third war will rage in the minds of Klal Yisroel, attacks on the ruchniyus of Klal Yisroel, the likes of which has never happened before. And no one will escape it. We will not be in control of our own thoughts.

'The Chidushei HaRim writes on Parshas Toldos of Milchemes Gog U'Magog - the ultimate, pre-Messianic war - that during Ikvesa d'Meshicha, a Yid will not able to concentrate when he says the six words: "Shema Yisroel Hashem Elokeinu Hashem Echad." His mind will start wandering. If you want to catch a glimpse of the emotional confusion this refers to - and the strongest indication that it is true - just take note: Everybody has just breathed a sigh of relief: "Oh, the Chofetz Chaim didn't mean our bodies; he only meant destruction of our neshamos."

The Chofetz Chaim had predicted that there is going to be Auschwitz on our neshamos. And that's a relief!?

Where are we?

And the Lines of Defense

I asked a chaver in Bnei Brak to please ask Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky shlita what I should say to guide and encourage people. He called me back: "Reb Chaim Kanievsky said, 'This is chevlei Moshiach. And the Gemora says, Harotzeh l'hinotzel mi'chevlei Moshiach ya'asok b'Torah u'b'gemillas chassadim. If one wants to be spared suffering in the days before the advent of Moshiach, become involved in Torah and gemillas chassadim."

What does 'oseik b'Torah' mean? This calls for a different type of involvement in Torah. Everybody has to descend deeper into chachmas Hashem - Torah with a commitment, with a geshmak, with joy. It means supporting Torah study with a feeling of responsibility for its success. It is unthinkable that in a generation of affluence, yeshivos cannot pay the teachers of our children on time. We must see to it that this situation changes forever.

We have to love Toras Hashem, and love every talmid chacham with every fiber of our being.

Rabbi Chaim Shmulevitz zt'l portrayed true involvement in Torah:

Picture the scene if we would be told that there would be Techiyas Hameisim - the rising of the dead - for the duration of one hour. The beis hakevaros (cemetery) will be opening up, and all the meisim (deceased) will come out. In anticipation the whole town will gather outside the cemetery gates in their Shabbos best, waiting to greet their departed ancestors at the appointed hour.

(Says Reb Chaim:) You know what will happen? The meisim will rise in their kittlech (shrouds), and will run right past their children, to spend that one hour in the beis hamidrash, to take out the Gemora and say, "Omar Abaye." They won't be interested in anything else. All that matters is a precious hour of Torah study.

Such is being oseik bíTorah!

Gemillas chassadim. What about nosei b'ol - carrying your friendís burden for him, in the manner of the Ribbono Shel Olam? A Jew needs a favor. He's on your doorstep. It's not just a matter of How do I wind up this session and be rid of him? It's "Let me listen to him, and lighten his burden."

The fellow comes through your door. He has a book of letters from doctors. This procedure was completed, that surgery is required. Read it. Think of what heís going through, for a moment. Nosei bíol. Lend your heart to his pain and anxieties.

We hear l'r of a fellow Jew with an illness. We take his or her name and we mention it in our tefillos. Do we think for a moment of what is going on in his house? He had been a regular, healthy person who had thought: It could never happen to me. And suddenly heís faced with terror: Doctors. Treatments. He looks at his family. His wife, his children. His old world does not exist anymore. Do we think about it for a moment? Are we nosei bíol?

Do we feel for the parents who are going through tzaar gidul banim? who are watching their children abandon Yiddishkeit, and theyíve got a hole in their hearts as big as the hole in the Manhattan skyline? who can't bear it anymore?

I heard of a leading member of her community who davens every Friday night as she lights her candles: "Ribbono Shel Olam, if my son doesn't do teshuva, I beg You, let him die. I can't bear to see him. I can't bear the Gehinnom that heís going to have." Do we feel her anguish? Do we have a concept of what Yidden are going through?

We have to break through the walls of selfishness once and for all, and become an Am Echad. There are millions of Yidden who do not know that they are Yidden. Can you imagine the Ribbono Shel Olam's pain regarding His children? He doesnít have one child who is failing Him; He has millions such children. Where is our heart for the Ribbono Shel Olam?

As the world changes, so must we. The path to change is clearly spelled out in the protections we should seek from the suffering of chevlei Moshiach: Involvement in Torah as though it were our primary enterprise, and gemillas chasssadim ñ beyond reducing the pain of others, to include feeling it with them, and carrying their load.

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