Rabbi Yitzchak Yosef in Merkaz HaRav

Hakafot Shniyot: MiShebeirach For Rabbi Ovadia Yosef at Rav Kook's House

IMHO this took place at "Beit HaRav", Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak HaKohen Kook's house and the former site of the Merkaz HaRav Yeshiva, and not at the current Merkaz HaRav Yeshiva. The "MiShebeirach" starts at 2:15:

Getting Into the Elul Mood

Here is an excellent lesson from Rabbi Avraham Shapira zt"l called The Power of Preparation. I think that it can help us get into the Elul mood:

Each year, in the month of Elul, I call to mind how the Hafetz Haim used to conduct himself at this time of the year. I used to attend prayer services in Zichron Moshe. Many great rabbanim who had come to Eretz Israel from Russia had made Zichron Moshe their home and place of prayer and study. Among them was the Rav of Radin (Poland), R. Zalman Sender, who was also a relation of HaRav Herzog. He would tell me about the Hafetz Haim who used to live in Radin. The Hafetz Haim was not the Rav of Radin. He served as Rav for a time and then resigned, and lived there as a simple member of the community. And from this too - from the manner in which the Hafetz Haim lived as a simple member of the community - there is much to be learned.

Years later when R. Sender was in Eretz Israel, he would tell me how, each year, on the Shabbath preceding Rosh Hodesh Elul, when the blessing for the new month was said, and the hazan announced: "Rosh Hodesh Elul will be on this and this day..." the Hafetz Haim would begin to tremble and shake! It was not yet Elul, but the mere mention of the month was enough to cause the Hafetz Haim to be filled with trembling.

Read the rest!

Sichat Avot

I am learning a great book now that goes by the name of "Sichat Avot". The author of the book, Rabbi Yitzchak Daddon, is best known for his part in killing the terrorist that infiltrated the Library at the Merkaz HaRav Yeshiva and murdered eight students. However, it would be a shame if this act of heroism, as important as it was, will overshadow the great books that this Torah scholar is putting out.

Sichat Avot is a collection of explanations on the tractate from the Rabbis of Merkaz HaRav: Rabbi Avraham itzchak HaKohen Kook, Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda HaKohen Kook, Rabbi David HaKohen (the nazir), Rabbi Charlap, Rabbi Shapira, etc. Rabbi Daddon also brings enlightening accounts of how these Rabbis fulfilled what is written in the tractate.

But there is more. On the bottom of the page the author adds his own novel interpretations, which he calls "Sichat Avdei Avot". Here Rabbi Daddon emerges as a deep thinker of great erudition. The author has also been blessed with a great writing style which will be appreciated by all those who love the Hebrew language.

Highly recommended!

Happy Jerusalem Day!

I davenned at Merkaz HaRav tonight. The place was packed. Security was tight because Bibi will be visiting the Yeshiva tonight. I am wondering how he will be received after destroying an outpost this morning. The graphic is from the young artist EMLking.

In Thy Blood, Live!!!

Rabbi Yitzchak Dadon, the author and Torah scholar who killed the terrorist in Merkaz HaRav, entered his son Elkannah into the Abrahamic covenant today. The brit took place in the Merkaz HaRav library where the Arab terrorist murdered eight young Torah scholars in cold blood. The mohel was non other than Tzemach Hirshfeld, the father of Yonadav Haim Hirschfeld z"l, one of the students that was murdered.

Arutz 7 has the video. It's in Hebrew and it is a must see!

Update: Now in English.

30 Days Since the Massacre

It has been thirty days since the massacre of the Yeshiva students in the Merkaz HaRav library.

Today a Torah Scroll, in honor of the slain students, was brought from the home of the Indig family in Kiryat Moshe to Mercaz HaRav. I hope to have some pics up tomorrow.

This book was also a victim of the Arab terrorist (photo by Moshe X):



BeSheva has an article about the Rabbi Yitzchak Cohen, the father of Neria, hy"d.

Update: You can see a video of the event here.

I managed to take a pic or two before my camera's batteries died:

Zachor in Merkaz HaRav

I usually do not daven in Merkaz HaRav. However, I have for many years been accustomed to go there for the reading of parshat Zachor. The custom was that the Rosh Yeshiva, Rav Avraham Shapira zt"l, would read "zachor et asher asa lecha Amalek...", remember what Amalek did to you. Rav Shapira would read the parasha in the traditional Ashkenazic pronunciation (Zochoir es asher oso lecho amoleik...). Afterwards the parasha was read a few more times from different students, each one reading with a different pronunciation and/or tune. We would hear modern Israeli version, a Sefardic Yerushalmi version, a Yemenite version, a Morrocan version, and even a Hasidic version (zuchoir asher usu lechu amuleik).

Last Shabbat I went to Merkaz HaRav for the first time since the massacre to hear parshat Zachor. I imagine that after the cowardly massacre of yeshiva students by a lowly Arab terrorist, an act that was so similar to that of biblical Amalek, hearing parshat zachor was a little bit different this year for the rabbis and the students. I know that it was for me. Rav Yaakov Shapira shlita was called up to read the parasha as his father had before him. A few students read the parasha after him more or less as I described above. Even after such a tragedy the Jewish people continue to stride forward. Torah, mitzvot and tefilah, and more torah, mitzvot and tefilah. Temidim kesidram umusafim kehilchatam.

After the tefilah everybody ( a couple of hundred worshippers) lines up to wish Rav Yaakov Shabbat Shalom.

Afterwards, at my son's request, we went down to see the site of the massacre, the yeshiva's library. This was an eery feeling, to see this place, full of holy books, which had become a killing field. The bullet holes were all over the place. There were bullet holes in the floor, caused by point blank shots fired by anti-Jew to make sure that those lying wounded would never get up again. Here, between the shelves laden with sacred tomes, absolute evil came to confront holiness and purity with the purpose of wiping it out. I sat down with my son at one of the tables in the yeshiva library to learn Mishnah, joining others that were already learning. The wicked one succedeed in cutting down the lives of eight pure and holy souls, but he failed in his task. Merkaz HaRav carries on with more resolve than ever.

The Hamans, Hadrians and Hitlers of the world make a lot of noise, cause a lot of destruction and misery, but they eventually die an eternal death. Our Arab neighbors are following the same path, which led them in the past to a Nakba. I have a feeling that another Nakba is on the way for them.

Getting Up From Shiva

I wasn't at Merkaz HaRav tonight. However I heard some of the eulogies on Radio Qol Hai. Once again, Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef came to Merkaz HaRav. I was very moved by the way he strengthened and encouraged the students and the families. You can read a summary of the eulogies here.

Update: INN now has an English article up.

Shiva Calls

Photo Feature: Two Families Mourn in Strength

Menahem Avellim

שבר בת עמי

A Couple Of More Pics From The Funeral

The funeral for the eight Yeshiva students took place on an unusually hot day. Someone had chessed on his mind. He filled empty soft drink bottles with water and put them in a wheelbarrow along with some plastic cups. The sign says "Water, feel free to take a bottle."



This is one of the entrances to the Merkaz High Yeshiva High School. The sign mentions the Talmudic statement (Shabbat 88A) that the Jews re-accepted the Torah on Purim:

דרכי ציון אבלות

I just came back from the funeral at Merkaz HaRav. This article from INN describes the scene:

The eight Jewish martyr students who were slaughtered Thursday night in a terror attack on the Merkaz HaRav Kook Yeshiva are:

Doron Mehereta, 26, of Ashdod
Ro'i Rote, 18, of Elkanah in Samaria (Shomron)
Yonadav Haim Hirschfeld, 19, of Kokhav HaShachar (Shomron)
Yochai Lipshitz, 18, of the Old City of Jerusalem
Yonatan Yitzchak Eldar, 16, of Shilo (Shomron)
Neriah Cohen, 15, of Jerusalem
Segev Pniel Avichayil, 15, of N'vei Daniel in Gush Etzion
Avraham David Moses, 16, of Efrat, Gush Etzion

Doron, Yonadav and Ro'i were students in Merkaz HaRav; the others were students in the LeTze'irim Yeshiva High School of Merkaz HaRav in the adjacent building.

Seven of the ten wounded students remain hospitalized. The public is asked to pray for the recovery of: Naftali ben [son of] Gila from Sderot, Yonatan ben Avital, Shimon ben Tirza, Nadav ben Hadas, Reuven ben Naomi and Elchanan ben Zehava.

The funerals began at near the main entrance to the capital, at Merkaz HaRav Kook Yeshiva, considered to be the heart of the national religious movement. The ambulances carrying the victims arrived around 10:30, making their way with difficulty through the large crowd of mourners and arousing new waves of sobbing and wailing with each arrival. Rabbi Benny Eisner, a veteran Merkaz HaRav student and teacher in the high school, led the mourners in the recital of Psalms.

The first eulogy was delivered by Rabbi Yaakov Shapira, who succeeded his late father, Rabbi Avraham Elkanah Kahana Shapira, at the helm of the yeshiva when the latter passed away just a few months ago. Rabbi Shapira spoke sobbingly of the "eight sons that we have lost in one day," and called for a "better and more believing leadership... This slaughter is a continuation of the slaughterous pogrom of 1929 in Hevron [when Arabs murdered with axes 67 Jews in their homes and synagogues]... The Land of Israel, which these eight loved so much and were so devoted for - we have to stop playing with it! We have to stop dividing it!.. Please pray for us, and for the yeshiva, that it should continue to grow and have influence..."

Rabbi Yerachmiel Weiss, head of the Merkaz high school, spoke next, in a voice breaking with emotion and tears: "G-d is just, and His ways are just... We have questions; but the questions are so difficult, so difficult... How is it possible to eulogize one Torah scholar on Rosh Chodesh Adar? But two? and three, and four, and five...?? Your ways are so hidden, Master of the Universe! ... In Adar, we increase joy - look how much joy You gathered to Heaven! They were in the midst of studying Torah, such joy, such purity... We have been left with such a hole... I just want to tell You, Master of the Universe, what great people You took: Yehonadav - he gave [nadav, in Hebrew] so much; what purity and simplicity... You took Yochai from us - he lives [chai] in G-d, what Torah study he did; even while they were setting up for the Purim party, he came to learn Torah... You took Segev Pniel of the Avichayil family - what a family, and what valour [chayil] in Torah! ... You took Yehonatan [meaning "G-d gave"] - what prayer, what Torah, what beauty... You took our dear Avraham David - just two days ago I had a long talk with him in his room - what knowledge he had, what integrity, what music he gave us with his Torah reading... and the youngest, Neriah - the candle of G-d, his light will be missing from us..."

Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu, a former Chief Rabbi of Israel and one who has been very close to the Yeshiva and its students for decades, was unable to attend because of ill health, but his assistant Rabbi Shmuel Zaafrani read aloud his message of eulogy.

Chief Sephardic Rabbi Shlomo Amar, the Rishon LeTzion, quoted verses speaking of enemies defiling G-d's holies, and asked, "How much longer, O G-d?... Whoever could have thought that the evil would have come to the gates of the yeshiva, with such cruelty... This is a tragedy of all of Am [Nation] Yisrael; we are all crying, we are all mourning... Let us arouse to distance ourselves from all hatred and disunity, and let us increase love, brotherhood and Torah study..."

Following the concluding eulogy by Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupoliansky, the eight families of mourners tore their shirts and recited aloud the Kaddish prayer.

At the conclusion of the eulogies and prayers, eight separate funeral processions set out for the various communities where the boys are to be buried. Yochai and Neriah will be buried in the Mt. of Olives cemetery in Jerusalem. Announcements were made regarding each funeral - where the ambulance carrying the body would be stationed and from where the bus setting out for the burial was leaving.

National Union MK Effie Eitam noted Friday morning that “whoever chose the Merkaz HaRav Yeshiva as a terrorist target knew it was the heart of national Zionism.” Virtually every religious-Zionist yeshiva in the country was founded and/or staffed by former students of the yeshiva.

Eitam, who learned at the yeshiva 30 years ago after living in the secular Ein Gev kibbutz, called the institution “the mother of all Zionist yeshivas” whose graduates serve in the IDF and have been at the forefront of development in Judea and Samaria. “The victims were murdered,” he declared, “but their hope and faith cannot be killed.”

Among the thousands of mourners at the funeral could be seen rabbis from around the country, as well as Minister Meshulam Nahari of Shas, MKs Nissan Slomiansky, Nissim Ze'ev, Ruby Rivlin, and Zevulun Orlev, and former MK Ehud Yatom. Benches were set up at the entrance to the yeshiva for the families of the victims, surrounded by the large crowd of mourners.

Here are some pics that I took. A mourning notice with the names of the victims:

The bodies were placed in the plaza in front of the Yeshiva on benches that came from the lecture hall. The name of each victim was placed on a shtender in front of his body:



The mourners:

Arab Terrorists Attack Jerusalem's Merkaz HaRav Yeshiva: 8 Dead

From IsraelNN.com:

Two Arab terrorists infiltrated Jerusalem's Merkaz HaRav Yeshiva at around 8:30 Thursday night and murdered eight Jews. At least 10 people have been wounded; three are in critical condition, a fourth victim was wounded moderately and six others, lightly.

The attackers entered from two separate entrances to the yeshiva and opened fire on the students before one of them was gunned down himself by an armed civilian. Witnesses say that the attack began in the seminary's library with the terrorists spraying bullets in every direction.

The yeshiva student who killed the terrorist, 40-year-old Yitzchak Dadon, said that he shot the attacker in the head with his personal weapon, after which another armed civilian "finished him off." Asked by a Channel 2 TV reporter what weapon the terrorist had, Dadon said, "A Kalachnikov," and turning to the camera, he added, "The Kalachnikov that you gave him, President Peres...."

The second terrorist hid in the yeshiva building, with subsequent reports indicating that the attacker was killed by responding security forces. Police are deployed in the surrounding neighborhood, and scoured the yeshiva and connected buildings. Most students in the building were evacuated after taking cover in the yeshiva's bomb shelter, according to police spokesmen.

Fifty ambulances responded to the scene, which emergency responders have called "a major incident." The wounded were evacuated to Hadassah Ein Karem Hospital.

In Gaza City, Arab residents went out into the streets and fired rifles in the air in celebration of the attack against the Jews of Jerusalem.

Police forces are on heightened alert throughout the country.

The Merkaz HaRav Yeshiva is located near the entrance to Jerusalem, in the Kiryat Moshe neighborhood. The yeshiva, founded by Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Kook, is at the heart of the national-religious movement in Israel.

I had just finished davenning Arvit when my cell phone started vibrating. My wife told me about the terror attack at Merkaz HaRav. She then said I should go bring my twelve year old son home. He was at a swimming lesson at an indoor pool that is a two minute walk away from the Yeshiva.

I went to the pool. The swimming lesson was over and and I found my son in the locker room getting dressed. The staff at the swimming pool would not let us leave the building for the police feared that another terrorist was at large. We waited for over half an hour before heading home.

On the way home we passed the Yeshiva. There must have been about twenty ambulances in front of the building. There were also police, journalists, and ZAKA. I told my son that the land of Israel is acquired through affliction. This isn't the first time that I've been close to an Arab terrorist attack.

I thought to myself about the dead. Young men at the prime of their lives, who had been sitting learning Torah, when animals disguised as humans cut their lives short. I thought about the wounded, some of whom may never really heal from this attack. I thought about the mourning notices that will be pasted up all over the city tomorrow, each one with a list of the grieving families. May the sick be healed and may the mourners be comforted with the building of Jerusalem.

I thought of the politicians that gave our enemies guns. May they rot in hell May they repent from their folly.

Update: I just read in the book HaHar HaTov HaZeh how Rabbi Min HaHar rebuked his daughter for cursing a chicken. Therefore I changed the end of this post, which was written at a time when my emotions overwhelmed me.

Another Pic

Rav Simcha HaKohen Kook eulogizes Rav Shapira as Rav Mordechai Eliyahu listens:

Rav Ovadia In Merkaz HaRav

Many important rabbis came to the Merkaz HaRav yeshivah to eulogize Rav Avraham Shapira zt"l. Among them was Rav Ovadiah Yosef, sheyibadel lechayim arukim.




I don't always like the politics of Shas, but it is always a thrill to see this Torah giant. He spoke of Rav Shapira's love for the Torah and his greatness as a rabbinical judge. He encouraged the students to increase their study of Torah in order to fill the void caused by Rav Shapira's passing.

Update: Here's an article in Hebrew about the gathering.

The Joy Of Doing A Mitzvah

Most Jews never perform the Mitzvah of giving Reishit HaGeiz (wool shearings) to a Cohen because most Jews don't own sheep. The same is true with regards to giving the zeroa, lechayayim and keiva (foreleg, cheeks and stomach) to a Cohen.

Rav Zalman Melamed, the Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivat Beit El, decided that he wanted to perform these Mitzvot. Arutz 7 has the story:

The story began several years ago when Rabbi Zalman Baruch Melamed, the rabbi of Beit El and the dean of the town's yeshiva, began to wonder when he might ever have the chance to fulfill the Biblical commandment (mitzvah) of Reishit HaGez - giving to the Cohen (the priest) the first cuttings of the fleece of sheep grown in the Land of Israel.

"After looking for a while," the rabbi told the assembled crowd of hundreds of adults and children at the joyous ceremony, "about 2-3 months ago, I finally found what I was looking for - right under my nose, here in Beit El." It turned out that a local resident with initiative, Chai Harush, had bought 20 sheep several months before.

Be sure to read the rest of the story.

The continuation of the Arutz 7 story took place in Yeshivat Merkaz HaRav in Jerusalem. Cosmic X was there and here are some pics:

Can you see the joy of doing a mitzvah? Seated from left to right: Rav Yaakov Shapira, Rav Avraham Shapira, Rav Zalman Melamed, Rav Eliezer Melamed. In the foreground is a basket with "resihit hageiz" decorated with flowers:



On our left is a plate with the zeroa. The other plate contains the lechayayim and the keiva: