Page 14 - HaMizrachi Yom Yerushalayim - Shavuot 5782 USA

Ya’akov Shimshon of Shepetovka. But he lived and breathed, all the days of his
while these great men moved to Israel life. When his Chassidim came to ask him
as individuals, Rav Menachem Mendel of about Mashiach, they meant to say: “Has
Vitebsk led a large group of three hundred Mashiach been revealed in the world outside
Chassidim, a move that carried national of your home? Has the time come for the
implications. entire world to be redeemed?” To answer
this, Rav Menachem Mendel had to open
On his way to Israel, Rav Menachem his window, to breathe in the air from the
Mendel received the blessing of many world outside.
great rabbis of the generation, though
there were some who opposed the venture, In one of his letters, Rav Menachem
fearing the dangers of travel and the Mendel wrote about the struggles and
unknown challenges awaiting the group in suffering that one must endure to gain a
Eretz Yisrael. Unfortunately, many of their foothold in the Holy Land:
fears soon became reality, when 30 Jews This is my response, with all my heart, to
died when one of the group’s chartered all those who inquire about and wish to live
ships sank at sea.
in the Holy Land: It is critically important to
Upon reaching the port of Akko, the understand this Land… that every Jew who A women’s Tefillah group from Efrat visit the Kever of
group first went to live in Tzfat, where comes to the Land will experience many Rav Menachem Mendel, led by Shoshana Judelman
they received a cold welcome from the reversals and complications until he finds his in the name of my Rebbe: ‘Menachem
local Ashkenazi community. They soon proper place and finds delight in its stones and Mendel needs fish for Shabbat!’, and
moved to the northern town of Peki’in, cherishes its dust and loves the ruins of Eretz large fish would immediately jump out
where they hoped to build a farming Yisrael more than the palaces of exile. This will of the river, straight into the open basket
community. Ultimately, Rav Menachem not happen quickly; not in a day or two days or I had brought with me. When we moved
Mendel decided to move with his Chassidim a month or a year, but only after several years to Israel, I planned to do the same thing.
to Teveria (Tiberias), where he and his will he be fully absorbed by the Land and dwell I walked to the banks of the Kinneret and
Chassidim developed a warm relationship permanently in the presence of G-d. “Indeed, called out ‘Menachem Mendel needs fish
with the local Sephardic community and it shall be said of Tzion, ‘Every man was born for Shabbat!’, but there was no answer. I
where Rav Menachem Mendel lived until there’” (Tehillim 87:5). This means that all who repeated my call several times, until in the
his death in 1788. The three-story home come to [a new level of] holiness must begin end, two small fish jumped into my basket.
he bought in Teveria stands until this again, must be reborn and experience once When I told Rav Menachem Mendel about
day on a promenade on the shores of the again the tribulations of childhood, until he what had happened, he explained: ‘Eretz
Kinneret. finally sees the Land face to face and his soul is Yisrael is not built through miracles.’”
bound up with its soul. (Pri HaAretz, Letters)
One time, the Chassidim heard what they Rav Menachem Mendel of Vitebsk taught
believed was a shofar blast in the distant In moving to Israel, Rav Menachem Mendel
hills. They came to ask Rav Menachem gave up the royal clothing and external us that the Land of Israel, then and now,
Mendel: “Is it possible that the Mashiach trappings of majesty that he had taken is only acquired through struggles and
has arrived?” He stood up, opened the up in Europe, embracing the sufferings suffering (Berachot 5a). If we forget his
window, took a deep breath and answered: and difficulties of a pioneering life in the character and his deeds, it is not Rav
“He has not yet come…” Land of Israel. He and his Chassidim lived Menachem Mendel who will lose out, but
with constant hope for the redemption rather we who squander the opportunity
This story is fascinating. It’s one thing and perceived all of their tribulations and to learn from him. Let us attach ourselves
to smell the air to see if the Mashiach to the path of great and holy Jews like Rav
has arrived. But why did Rav Menachem difficulties as ַחי ִ ׁש ָמ י ֵל ְב ֶח, “birth pangs of Menachem Mendel and his students who
the redemption.”
Mendel stick his head out of the window? yearned for the rocks and soil of Eretz
He could have smelled the air inside his One of the students of Rav Menachem Yisrael and whose souls were bound up
home! I once heard a sweet explanation of Mendel recounted that when they still with the soul of the land.
this story from Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburg, lived in White Russia, it was his job to bring
who explained that in the home of Rav fish to the home of Rav Menachem Mendel Rabbi Dudi Dudkevitz is the Rabbi of Yitzhar
Menachem Mendel there was always the in honor of Shabbat. The Chassid said: “I and the Rosh Yeshivah of Yeshivat Roeh Yisrael
scent of Mashiach. This was the air that would go to the bank of the river and say, in Yitzhar.

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