Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach on how to visit the graves of the righteous
A well-known story involving Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach (1910-95) zt"l (May the Memory of the Righteous be a Blessing), which bears repeating and which is relevant to the day.
A student in the Kol Torah Yeshiva in Jerusalem, approached his Rosh
Yeshiva, Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach zt”l and asked him the question:
May I leave my Torah studies in the yeshiva to go and pray at the graves
of tzadikim in the Galil, the north?
Rav Auerbach answered, “It is better to say in yeshiva, and study Torah”
The student replied, “Isn’t there a time I could go to visit the graves
of tzadikim? Doesn’t Rav Auerbach go and pray at the graves of
tzadikim?
Rav Auerbach answered, “In order to pray at the graves
of tzadikim, one doesn’t have to travel up to the Galil. Whenever I feel
the need to pray at the graves of tzadikim, I go to Mount Herzl, [the
national cemetery for fallen IDF soldiers in Jerusalem], to the graves
of the soldiers…who fell “Al Kiddush Hashem” for the sanctification of
God.
Shared by R' Yisrael Meir Lau.
For those who don't know Jerusalem, the Mount Herzl military cemetery is about a ten-minute walk from the Kol Torah yeshiva.
Labels: Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, Yom HaZikaron
Why there's an IDF
On this Memorial Day for Israel's fallen soldiers and terror victims, it's important to remember why an Israeli Defense Force remains necessary.
It's not your imagination when they really are out to get you.
Labels: 9/11, anti-Semitism, conspiracy theories, IDF, Yom HaZikaron
The difference between us and them: Mohammed Abu Khadr designated a terror victim
The screen cap is from a web site that is dedicated to terror victims, who are to be honored as part of Wednesday's Memorial Day activities. It is the page
honoring Mohammed Abu Khadr (link in Hebrew) who was dragged into the Jerusalem Forest and set on fire last summer,
apparently by Jews.
It would be nice if his parents showed up to the ceremony honoring the terror victims. But I'm not holding my breath. It would be nice if his parents felt that they
could show up at the ceremony without being ostracized by their neighbors. But I'm not sure they care about that.
Compare that with how the '
Palestinian Authority' relates to terrorists and their victims.
'Nuff said.
Labels: terror victims, Yom HaZikaron
Heart rending and beautiful: One Family's Remembrance Day ceremony
Several years ago, the government of Israel decided that Remembrance Day would also honor terror victims and not just IDF soldiers who had been killed (not necessarily) in action. It was a decision that was long overdue in my opinion and it ended the anomaly of soldiers who were killed in a terror attack being honored on Remembrance Day while civilians who were killed in the same attack were not.
One Family is probably the premier organization in Israel helping terror victims. Started by our friends Marc and Chantal Belzberg when their daughter decided in the middle of the intifada that she would rather that her parents spend money on a good cause than on her bat mitzva, One Family helps the survivors of terror attacks - both the wounded and the families of the dead and wounded. Unfortunately, those people usually need help for the rest of their lives.
Here's a highlight video from One Family's Remembrance Day ceremony. If after seeing the video you wish to donate to One Family, you will be doing a big mitzva and helping a lot of people.
Let's go to the videotape.
OneFamily - Yom Hazikaron 2014 from
OneFamily on
Vimeo.
Labels: One Family, terror victims, Yom HaZikaron
An amazing story for Remembrance Day
Sharing a story I just saw on Dosim, a Hebrew site I follow on Facebook.
There was a boy in Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach's yeshiva who said he wanted to travel abroad to visit the graves of the righteous.
Rav Shlomo Zalman asked him why abroad? Had he visited all the graves of the righteous in Israel.
The boy said that he wanted to visit the graves of the righteous because it inspired him to excel in his studies.
Rav Shlomo Zalman invited the boy to go for a walk and took him to Har Herzl, the military cemetery just a few minutes from the yeshiva. The boy did not understand why Rav Shlomo Zalman was taking him there.
"Here." said Rav Shlolmo Zalman, "are the righteous."
Labels: IDF, Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, Yom HaZikaron
A touching image of Israel's Remembrance Day
A child remembers his father.
Everyone knows someone.
Labels: Yom HaZikaron
While we cannot return our murdered children, we can restore our discarded justice
On this Memorial Day for those killed in Israel's wars and for its terror victims, Frimet Roth writes that we should
remember the children.
I suggest we focus this Remembrance Day on the 129 Israeli children
killed by Palestinian terrorists during the past thirteen years. The
world is preoccupied with mourning Palestinian children and has
forgotten the atrocities committed against Jewish children. We must remind them.
Malki left us only her writings and her art. They offer a glimpse
into the soul of a sensitive, religious, idealistic, artistic and
talented Israeli teen.
She kept a diary between September 2000 and June 2001. There,
interspersed with long, involved accounts of school, Ezra (a youth
organization in which she was a young leader) and family activities are
the details of each terror attack perpetrated during those 10 months.
On April 29, she wrote:
“I woke at 10. Levona and I went first to R.L. [a teacher]
whose mother passed away last week (it is very sad because she is an
only child, unmarried and has no father. She sat shiva alone!) She was
in a very good state. Spoke a lot, told about her mother. Then we went
to the Gerard Behar Center Library. We spent 6 hours there without food
or drink!!! We finished biology. In the evening I went to a lecture
given by Rav Elon with Shulamit, Leah, Efrat Shafir and Chen [her friends]. I didn’t exactly understand the lecture but it was fun. I met Zvi [her brother] there and we stayed for Arvit. “Sunday is now completed…”
Then, apparently later and in a different colored pen, she added:
“Aryeh Hershkowitz, may his death be avenged was shot
dead a month ago. Now his son was shot dead near Ofra!!! Only the
little brother can say Kaddish.”
On the first page of her diary is a printed list of personal details:
Read the whole thing.
There is no pain like the pain of a parent who has God forbid lost a child. And that pain can only be worse when God forbid it hits like a thunderclap on a sunny day.
May God comfort the Roth's and all of the families who are mourning loved ones today among all the mourners for Zion and Jerusalem, and may they know of no more sorrow.
Labels: terror victims, Yom HaZikaron
Tired of being heros?
For years we've been told about how easy it is to make the transition from Memorial Day to Independence Day here in Israel (the two are on consecutive days which begin and end at sundown). Now, many of the bereaved families are understandably tired of sucking it up and pretending they can make that sharp switch. But they're still thinking within the box. They're calling for Memorial Day to be
moved up by one day.
Tamir-Shurki and attorney Yossef Tamir posted a
petition online calling on the State of Israel to mark Remembrance Day a
day earlier, on Sunday, April 14, and thus create a gap between the day
of mourning and the day of celebration. Nearly 5,000 people had signed the petition by Saturday.
"Remembrance Day may be the hardest
day of the year for tens of thousands of families in Israel. This is a
day in which the entire country joins in mourning and remembrance of the
people closest to them [the bereaved families]," Tamir-Shurki said.
"The bereaved families go through an upheaval and enormous pain. Beyond
the enormous mental pain, there is a physical effort, of running around
from cemeteries to monuments and to different remembrance events. When
the day is over, each bereaved person wants to lay their head down and
rest. Instead, on their way home from the cemetery, they encounter roads
blocked for Independence Day celebrations," he added.
"A minute
after their terrible day of mourning ends, everyone except for them moves
to Independence celebrations all over the country, which is unbearable,
and a continuous injustice to thousands of families in Israel," he
bemoaned.
Tamir-Shurki added that the proximity of the end of
Remembrance Day to Independence Day shows disrespect to the bereaved
families and their fallen loved ones.
"The very people who paid
the ultimate price (except for the fallen soldiers), are the ones who
can't participate and find themselves on the outside of the national
celebration," he said.
I agree with them. But I would go further. I would move Memorial Day to a date on which a significant number of soldiers were lost in battle or a significant number of victims of terror were lost. One day that comes to mind is the day of the battle of Sultan Yakub in the 1982 Operation Peace for Galilee. I'm sure others can think of others.
There is no intrinsic connection between the 4th day of the Jewish month of Iyar and the deaths of soldiers and terror victims. Surely a more appropriate day can be found.
And after that, maybe we can talk about finding a more appropriate day for
Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom HaShoah).
Labels: Holocaust Memorial Day, Yom HaAtzmaut, Yom HaZikaron
Did you know an IDF soldier or terror victim who was killed?
Almost every Israeli knew a soldier or a terror victim whose memory is being honored today. Did you know an IDF soldier or terror victim who is being remembered today? If you did, I'd like you to talk about them.
If you're a blogger, please write a post about them, and send me a link and I will link to you in this post below.
If you're not a blogger, please send me an email with the story, and I will post it on my blog.
Labels: IDF, terror victims, Yom HaZikaron
Whose Memorial Day
As Israel's Memorial Day ends, and Independence Day begins, my latest post at Newsreal Blog, which talks about who is part of Memorial Day, who is not, and why, may be found
here.
Labels: fallen soldiers, firefighters, IDF, police, prison guards, terror victims, Yom HaZikaron
Yom HaZikaron (Memorial Day)
Today is Yom HaZikaron, Memorial Day, the day on which we remember those who fell in defense of the State of Israel and those who fell in terror attacks. I've been in the US on Memorial Day and I've been in London on Armistice Day, and there is nothing anyplace in the World like it is here. No barbecues, no hot dogs, not even a full day off from work except for those who - God forbid - have lost an immediate relative (which unfortunately is all too many of us).
Even for those who have not lost immediate family members, Memorial Day is difficult to handle. For a description of why, I urge you to read
this (Hat Tip:
Mrs. Carl).
Labels: Yom HaZikaron
