Divrei hisororos
in light of the tragedy
It’s not my place to be maspid
the choshever niftar, but I would like to share some of my hergeshim that I
have been having these past couple of days.
The truth is this is a tragedy
almost beyond comprehension. Here in yeshiva we are feeling the loss of an
unbelievable person our rebbi and colleague Harav Hagoan Reb Moshe Twersky
zatzal zichron tsaddik v’kodosh livrochoh, not everyone deserves the title of
Kodosh, but as it has been said he was a kodosh already m’chayim.
In har nof we are experiencing a
multiple tragedy, besides Reb Moshe there are three others, Reb Kalmen Levine who
is actually a former talmid of the yeshiva, who the Rosh Hayeshiva told me that
when he was in L.A. he was instrumental in taking him from Kansas city with a
traditional background, into becoming a true ben Torah in the fullest sense of
the word, a baal yiras shamayim, his tefilos on a regular day where like those
we experience during the yomim noraim, his hasmada and bakoshas hoemes where
almost unparalleled, and he was always happy. Reb Aryeh Kopinsky was a
tremendous baal chesed, we just made a ouf-ruf he offered to put out all the
yerushalmi kugel and stam help out with all the serving, which he did
graciously, he had a freezer gemach and did all the schlepping by himself. Reb
avrohom Goldberg was a baal habos but a Toradike baal habos, who was makdish
most of his time to learning, he had a seder every afternoon in our shul learning
meseches menachos.
The question is how do we deal
with a tragedy of this magnitude, how do we come to terms with it. The idea has
been expressed that apparently there was a need for korbonos tzibbur and we all
know that a korbon cannot have a “mum”, a blemish. So therefore Hashem took
those without “mumim”. But what does it mean that they were “korbonos tzibbur”,
one idea might be that their p’tirah is a kaporoh for the tzibbur, and who
knows what terrible gezeirah might have been averted. When I was sitting shiva
for my daughter Sara a.h. someone mentioned a story from the Chafetz Chaim, his
beloved son-in- law Reb Hirsh Levenson was niftar at a very young age, the
Chafetz Chaim’s daughter was inconsolable, ”why my husband”? she asked, the
Chafetz Chaim told her “If I would say that because of your husband’s death a
third of klal yisroel was saved would that console you? She was consoled. We
don’t know Hashem’s cheshbonos, but who knows how many lives were saved.
There is perhaps another nekudah,
people are nisorer only when something totally out of the ordinary occurs.
Hashem wants us to wake up!!!!!!! Do teshuva!!!!! I once heard b’shem Moron
Hgoan Rav Elyashev z’tzal that there doesn’t have to be just one message,
everyone knows what he has to do. Unfortunately sometimes we are sleeping so
heavily thet we need a very loud alarm clock in order to wake up.
When I was sitting shiva, my sister said over
a story heard from “Doc.” Greenwald from Monsey. When Rav Shneir Kotler zatzal
was sick the family was very disturbed, so they sent Doctor Greenwald to eretz
yisroel to ask the Harav Yisroel Abuchatzera, otherwise known as the “Baba
Sali” what is really going on, why is this happening? He was maskim to reveal
it with one condition, that he repeats it to no one, he protested “they sent me
to find out”, he answered “I guess you
are not maskim, have a nice day”, b’dless breirah he was maskim. He said
afterwards that after what he was told there were absolutely no questions!!!!
And he felt bad that he promised not to reveal what he heard, because it would have
helped so many people that have to deal with a tragedy.
Haran Shmuel Yaakov Burnstain
spoke today in Har Nof, he mentioned the Gaon’s pshat in the medrash by the עשרה הרוגי מלכות
when the malachim cried “זו תורה וזו שכרה” Hashem said that he will return the
world to תוהו ובוהו, the
Gaon explains that Hashem was saying that it was all “oisgecheshbent” from the
time of brias haolom, moshol with the tailor that the only way to prove that he
didn’t steal material was to undo the whole garment.
There are a few nekudos that I
saw in my dear friend Reb Moshe that I would like to share with you. I once
heard a story that Harav Ruderman said about Reb Aron Kotler, that every time
he met him (I think they would meet once a year by the Aguda convention) he saw
that Reb Aron he has shteiged since the last time that they met. That is an
awesome statement, people have a tendacy to plateau, they will work to get to a
certain madreigah and that’s it, for some who reached the dargos of Reb Aron,
to be able to noticeably shteig is unbelievable. I think we can say the same
about Reb Moshe, he never “sat on his laurels” always looking to shteig. I
think his brother-in-law Reb Eliyahu Feldman once told me that every tekufah
Reb Moshe would be working on some other aspect of avodas Hashem.
It was mentioned by the levaya that
he went to Manchester for the yomim noraim to be with the Manchester Rosh
Hayeshiva Harav Segal. I remember that around 27 years ago when I was learning
by Reb Aba’s, there was a tekufah that I learnt with Reb Moshe 2 sedorim a day
(plus daf yomi before or after vasikin), during ellul Rebetzin Twersky called
me begging me to let her husband go to Manchester for the yomim noraim, she
said that when he came back the year before he was on such a madreiga that you “poshut”
couldn’t talk to him “b’mili d’almah”.
When Hashem rebukes Miriam for The
possuk says:
לא כן עבדי משה בכל ביתי נאמן הוא פה אל פה אדבר
בו ומראה ולא בחידת ותמנת ה' יביט ומדוע לא יראתם לדבר בעבדי במשה:
I think that the Ran in Droshos
Haran explains that when it says meaning of “neeman” is what the possuk says
afterwards, במראה ולא בחידה”
the idea that Moshe Rabeinu had nevuah “b’aspaklaryah hameirah” as opposed to
the other Nevi’im that their nevuah had to be interpreted. That’s what it means
“neeman” that there was no misinterpretation of the rotzon Hashem. I think the
same could be said about our Reb Moshe, his avodas Hashem was crystal clear, no
personal negias guiding him or misguiding him, just pure “rotzon Hashem”. The
way to get to that is maybe explained at the end of the possuk, “"בעבדי במשה that Moshe Rabeinu what the quintessential “eved Hashem”, the
definition of an eved is that everything he does is for his master, that’s his
whole existence, one who exists for his master has that quality of
communication. That was Reb Moshe totally dedicated to avodas Hashem לית מגרמי כלום
He was never in a rush, never did
things with “beholoh” “bilbul hadas”, especially when it came to mili d’shmaya,
everything was done deliberately. If he ever came late to the minyan I never
saw him rushing with hanachas tefilin, rushing thru p’sukei d’zimra in order to
make tefilah b’tzibbur, he just davvened like he always did, deliberately. I
used to wonder why he wasn’t makpid to start shemoneh esrei with the tzibbur so
that even if he finished after the “shatz” got to kedushah it wouldn’t be a
problem that he started knowing that he will miss kedushah, than I noticed that
when he davvened downstairs by the first minyan he would come upstairs for
kedushah, so than there is no problem starting late.
Some would say that Reb Moshe was
unemotional, I would say he was in control of his emotions. At my son’s chasuna
last week we danced together in the middle with tremendous hislavus and
simchah, the guys couldn’t believe it, but the truth is that it wasn’t shver at
all, that is what had to be done at that time. The day after the chasuna he
came over and gave me “ah breitah” mazal tov with a huge smile, wishing me all
the good things.
Shlomo Hamelech says in koheles טוב ללכת אל בית אבל מלכת אל בית משתה באשר הוא
סוף כל האדם והחי יתן אל לבו:
we have to realize that we don’t live forever, it could happen to anyone any
time.
The gemara in Maseches Shabbos
says as follows:
תנן התם רבי אליעזר אומר שוב יום אחד לפני מיתתך,
שאלו תלמידיו את רבי אליעזר וכי אדם יודע איזהו יום ימות’ אמר להן וכל
שכן ישוב היום שמא ימות למחר, ונמצא כל ימיו בתשובה. ואף שלמה אמר בחכמתו "בכל
עת יהיו בגדיך לבנים ושמן על ראשך אל יחסר". אמר רבן יוחנן בן זכאי משל למלך שזימן
את עבדיו לסעודה ולא קבע להם זמן, פיקחין שבהן קישטו את עצמן וישבו על פתח בית המלך
אמרו כלום חסר לבית המלך, טיפשין שבהן הלכו למלאכתן אמרו כלום יש סעודה בלא טורח, בפתאום
ביקש המלך את עבדיו פיקחין שבהן נכנסו לפניו כשהן מקושטין והטיפשים נכנסו לפניו כשהן
מלוכלכין, שמח המלך לקראת פיקחים וכעס לקראת טיפשים, אמר הללו שקישטו את עצמן לסעודה
ישבו ויאכלו וישתו הללו שלא קישטו עצמן לסעודה יעמדו ויראו. חתנו של רבי מאיר משום
רבי מאיר אמר אף הן נראין כמשמשין, אלא אלו ואלו יושבין הללו אוכלין והללו רעבין הללו
שותין והללו צמאים, שנאמר כה אמר ה' הנה עבדי יאכלו ואתם תרעבו הנה עבדי ישתו ואתם
תצמאו הנה עבדי ירנו מטוב לב ואתם תצעקו מכאב לב.
I think Reb Moshe embodied this chazal, he wasn’t caught off guard, he
was preparing for this moment every second of his life.
If we try to take on some of these things that
were mentioned here, it will be a tremendous zchus for the niftar, and more
important it will be a zchus for us.
Reb Moshe should be a meilitz
yosher for his wonderful family, for his talmidim, for the yeshiva and for the
whole .עולם התורה
