The Toldos Aharon Rebbe on Monday visited the Posek Hador HaGaon HaRav Moshe Shternbuch earlier this week prior to leaving on his annual trip to Austria.
HaRav Shternbuch asked the Rebbe: “Why are you leaving Eretz Yisrael? Every moment that you sit here, you’re fulfilling the mitzvas aseish of yishuv Eretz Yisrael.”
The Rebbe: “וקווי ה’ יחליפו כח. We’re leaving in order to return to Eretz Yisrael with clarity of mind. Hashem Yisbarach should help the Raavad to have renewed kochos, with length of days and years.”
HaRav Shternbuch: There were gedolim who wouldn’t agree to come to Eretz Yisrael because they feared being mezalzel the kedushah of Eretz Yisrael or they feared sinning in Eretz Yisrael – and every sin in Eretz Yisrael is much worse than a sin in Chutz L’Eretz.
HaRav Shternbuch continued: “From Shamayim, Hakadosh Baruch Hu arranged for us to live in this generation which is a difficult generation before the coming of Moshiach.”
“I remember from before the war that HaGaon HaRav Elchonon Wasserman, z’tl, was by us in London. He wanted to travel back to his yeshivah in Baranovich in Poland. We told him that it’s extremely dangerous to travel to Poland and he answered that the captain doesn’t leave his ship during war and he can’t abandon his yeshivah at a difficult time like this…and he needs to support everyone to accept the situation with emunah, that everything is the will of Hashem Yisbarach and in the future, we’ll understand and know that everything is for the good and we only experience pain now because we can’t grasp the concept of the eternal world.”
“But afterward, he added that we have one consolation – that we have a promise from Hakadosh Baruch “כי לא תשכח מפי זרעו” – that Torah will always remain in Am Yisrael. But he added that unfortunately, we didn’t receive a promise of the shiur of ‘לא תשכח’ – that it’s possible that only a little will remain after the war – and from this small amount, the Torah will spread throughout all of Beis Yisrael, that the Torah is like a small ember of fire which can increase into a huge flame of fire.”
The Rebbe: In the sefer hazicharon about the Chasam Sofer, it’s written that he fled from his city and his kehilla in Pressburg during a war and that wasn’t according to the shitah of Rav Elchonon, H’yd, who davka entered the makom sakanah at a time of war in order to be with his students. Apparently, there are two shitos of how to behave during a time of war.
HaRav Shternbuch: Indeed, this is a dispute between the Chasam Sofer and the Nodah B’Yehudah on how to behave at a time of war in this inyan. And in our many sins, we’ve already experienced the two opinions in the years of our Galus…and now Moshiach Tzidkeinu already needs to come…and the eyes of all of Yisrael are on on you – and b’ezras Hakadosh Baruch Hu, it will surely help.
The Rebbe: The eyes of all Yisrael are on the tefillos of the Rav.
HaRav Shternbuch: Chas v’Shalom.
The Rebbe: “In the Gemara in Shabbos, it says about Moshe Rabbeinu that Hakadosh Baruch Hu said about him: ‘Since you make yourself small, the Torah will be called on your name, like it says, ‘Zichru Toras Moshe.’ Therefore when someone makes themselves small, they’re zocheh that the Torah is called on their name.”
The Rebbe continued: “The whole world today needs a yeshuah. The situation in the world today is very difficult.”
HaRav Shternbuch: Hakadosh Baruch Hu should be mevatel all the prosecutors. Hakadosh Baruch Hu loves Yisrael. ‘אהבתי אתכם אמר ה’ He’ll give brachos to all of Am Yisrael. We’ve already endured so much until now and b’ezras Hashem, Hakadosh Baruch Hu will help us in the future as well.”
“I have a memory from my youth, that the British government offered a large sum of money to anyone who would swim across the sea from England to France. There was someone who tried to do it but when he got very close to the shores of France, he gave up and stopped swimming. And they told him he was a fool, you were so close to France, you couldn’t continue? He replied that he felt he no longer had any strength to continue… And when HaGaon HaRav Yechzkel Abramsky, z’tl heard about this, he responded that this is an example and a mashal of the stormy waves that pass over Am Yisrael from the time we were in galus until now, that in all generations we suffered persecution, crises and hardships without limit, and at any moment we are already about to reach the safe shore – for the future redemption, that Moshiach is already standing behind our walls, and what a folly it is to break now and abandon the hope and expectation of yeshuas Hashem, that we only have a short time left and we’ll be zochech to an everlasting yeshuah.”
“Unfortunately, today we no longer have great Gedolei Torah like we used to. Once upon a time, Gedolei Torah were like Urim V’Tumim, but today in our sins, all these are missing. בלע ה’ ולא חמל ביום חרון אפו.”
At the end of the visit, the Rebbe requested to pour a kos of wine for HaRav Shternbuch, saying: “It’s written in the Gemara that one who wants to pour wine on top of the mizbeach should instead pour wine for talmidei chachamim.”
HaRav Shternbuch responded by showing kavod to the Rebbe, pouring wine from his kos into the Rebbe’s kos.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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7 Responses
What were they supposed to talk about? Sports? I learned under Maran Shternbuch over forty years ago. His words were never hefker. Ad meah v’esrim, Maran personifies Torah and yiras shomayim.
No Jew should ever be setting foot neither in Germany nor in Austria, following the horrors of WW2.
No if’s, no but’s, no exceptions
Not sure who decided that he is the posek hador, but let me know when that vote is held.
It’s very strange that R’ Moshe Shternbuch said this. Rav Elchanan went back in March of 1939 when it was not known that there was any danger. Rav Elchanan should be praised for NOT LEAVING in the midst of the war but the story of him going back doesn’t fit with the history. In addition, it’s probably very problematic halachically to put oneself in morbid danger from a safe situation. How is that muttar?!
Givaldig
By March 1939, Kristallnacht had come to pass and Hitler had already seized Czechoslovakia and conquered Austria in 1938. Ominous storm clouds hung over Poland. Six months after Rav Elchonon’s return, Germany invaded Poland, launching the Second World War.
To Rabbi Shimon Schwab (Rav of K’hal Adath Jeshurun)- then Rav in Baltimore- he quoted R’ Meir of Rothenberg”: “When someone makes up his mind to sacrifice his life for the sake of Heaven, then no matter what is done to him- stoning, burning alive, hanging- he feels no pain. There is no one alive who would not cry out if his finger touched fire …. Yet, many commit themselves to the flames or execution for the sake of Hashem, may He be blessed, without uttering a word.” He would not delay his departure by even a day. On March 24, 1939, the Jews of America bid Reb Elchonon a sad farewell. On the return trip home, he stopped off in England; and there, too, he was implored not to leave. To Mrs. Sternbuch of London, he said, ‘These are the birth pangs of Moshiach and it has been decreed upon us to bear them. No one can escape or avoid his assigned portion of the birth pangs of Moshiach.”
It should be noted that Reb Elchonon did attempt to escape to Sweden in June of 1941 after his yeshiva had been forced to disband. His bags were packed and a wagon came to fetch him and his family. As his son Reb Naftali was loading his bag, it fell and broke his leg. The escape was rescheduled for a few days later. Meanwhile the Germans drove the Russians from Lithuania, ending Reb Elchonon’s plans.
On Monday Night, 13 Tammuz, 5701 (July 8, 1941) under the command of SS Commander Karl Jager, thousands of Jews were machine-gunned to death at the Seventh Fort, Rav Elchonon among them.
So today is R’ Elchonon’s yahrzeit?
I’ll BN try to learn something from his seforim today.