The tragic petirah of a father of ten this week is only one of many tragedies in this week alone, the first week of Bein Hazemanim. Sadly, in recent years, every Bein Hazemanim seems to be marked by a rise in terrible tragedies.

Last year, HaGaon HaRav Gershon Edelstein, z’tl addressed the issue by saying that “the Torah is humiliated during Bein Hazemanim.”

“There were several tragedies, rachmana litzlan after Tisha B’Av, during Bein Hazemanim,” HaRav Edelstein, z’tl said last Bein Hazemanim. “[The tragedies] were in a strange way, not usual tragedies. It’s incomprehensible. Many people lost their lives.”

“What is this that Hashem Elokeinu is doing to us? Why this? Apparently, during Bein Hazemanin, the zechus of Torah is lacking. There’s a mishnah that every day a bas kol goes out from Har Chorev and says: ‘Oiy to the briyos from the humiliation of the Torah.’ The Torah is humiliated, there’s no kavod haTorah, we’re not being oisek b’Torah.”

HaRav Edelstein, z’tl, said similar statements in 2020.

Last year, HaMashgiach HaRav Don Segal also addressed the issue of Bein Hazemanim tragedies, emphasizing that according to sources in Chazal, we must davka increase our Torah learning during Bein HaZemanim.

HaRav Segal also recounted how the Steipler, z’tl, once asked him to go to HaRav Shach, zt’l, and ask him to cancel Bein HaZemanim. HaRav Shach agreed but said that it will work only if it’s canceled in all yeshivos – not just Ponevezh. He asked HaRav Segal to go to HaGaon HaRav Abramsky, z’tl to pass a resolution for a kinus of the Vaad HaYeshivos to make a decision on the matter.

HaRav Abramsky agreed with the idea but was too weak to address the issue and instead asked HaRav Segal to return to the Steipler and ask him to daven for him.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)