Page 3 - HaMizrachi Tisha bAv 5783 USA
P. 3

FROM THE
                                                        Editor









        A Time to Weep, or a Time to Act?

            mmortalized in history as the   crying out “Eicha,” “How could it be?” We   After two millennia of helplessness, the
            founder of Mizrachi, Rabbi Yitzchak   asked and asked again; we asked ourselves,   Jewish people are no longer powerless.
            Yaakov Reines’ defining quality was   we asked each other and we turned our   We are no longer barred from settling our
        Ihis love for the people of Israel – and   eyes upwards and asked Hashem: “How   Land or from bearing arms to defend our-
        the tangible pain he felt when other Jews   can it be? How can our people suffer this   selves. No law forbids the Jews of the Dias-
        were suffering. When Jews suffered at the   way? How can our Land, our holy city, lie   pora from protesting the corrupt United
        hands of gentiles, Rav Reines felt physical   abandoned and alone?” Living in fear and   Nations in the streets of New York City or
        pain; his face became flushed, his body   powerless to stop the pogroms and mas-  from marching with pride and strength
        shook, and he would repeat, over and over   sacres that cast a constant shadow over   in support of the Dee family through the
        again: “we must do something!” At times   our people, all we could do was lament   streets of London.
        he would gather his family together and   and sigh, “How could it be?”
        say in bitterness: “We must act, we can’t sit                           The only obstacle, and it is not a small
        on our hands! The “gedolim” sin by remain-  Though we will continue reading Eicha   one, is our own passivity – of which I too
        ing passive and not crying out!” Though   until  the  final  redemption  comes,  I   am guilty. We’re busy with our jobs, our
        Rav Reines frequently didn’t know what   wonder if this response to Jewish suffer-  children and our local communities. Who
        to do, he felt passionately that we must   ing is out of date, heretical as that may   has time to protest antisemitism?
        do something (Rabbi Meir Bar Ilan, From   sound. Writing 100 years ago in the pages   But in the words of Rabbi Aharon Kahn,
        Volozhin to Jerusalem, 367).        of HaMizrachi, Rabbi Yitzchak Nissenbaum
                                            challenged his readers to change their   Rosh Yeshiva at Yeshiva University, “How
        As we approach the heavy day of the 9th of   attitude towards Tisha B’Av and Jewish   can we eat ketchup and ice cream while
        Av, we remember the suffering of so many   suffering: “The call of ‘Hashiveinu’ at the   our brothers’ blood is running through
        Jews throughout the world. While the rest   end of Eicha, of ‘bring us back to You and   the streets?” So long as Jews are suffering,
        of us move on with our lives, the families   renew our days of old,’ has burst forth   so long as terrorists murder innocents in
        of terror victims live with indescribable   throughout the Diaspora. Our Land no   Israel and hoodlums beat up Chassidim in
        pain, pain that never goes away. Think   longer sits alone and abandoned. And so   the streets of Brooklyn, how can we justify
        also of the family of Aryeh Wolf hy”d, the   now we must call this megilla by a different   remaining silent? As Rav Reines would
        kind hearted Camp Simcha counselor   name: not Eicha, ‘How could it be?’ but   say, the time has come to do something.
        murdered by an antisemite in Baltimore   rather Ayeka, ‘Where are you?’ Every Jew   The question is, how long will it take for
        this past August while installing solar   must hear the voice of G-d calling out to   us to act?
        panels (suspiciously, the police have iden-  us: ‘Where are you? Where are you, son
        tified the killer but haven’t arrested him).   of Israel? It is no longer time to hide! The
        And remember, too, the soldiers and terror   time has come to leave your hiding places,
        victims who survived attacks, but suffer   to go out to battle, united in strength to  Elie Mischel
        in silence from the injuries that have left   build up our Land… Ayeka?” (HaMizrachi, 7
        them forever maimed or disabled.
                                            Menachem Av, 1921).                 Rabbi Elie Mischel
                 For close to two thousand years,   Like Rav Reines before him, Rav Nissen-  Editor
                         we responded to this   baum believed it was not enough to wring
                                   pain by
                                            our hands and sigh in sadness when we
                                            hear tragic news. “There are hundreds of
                                                thousands of Jews who are absorbed
                                                    in their own personal affairs…
                                                     Our great struggle, even
                                                      greater than the struggle
                                                      against our external ene-
                                                      mies, is our struggle against
                                                      our own people’s passivity          Rabbi Elie Mischel
                                                      concerning our national life”   is the Editor of HaMizrachi magazine.
                                                      (HaMizrachi, 19 Elul, 1921).


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