Letter From Jerusalem #21 by Yehuda ben David
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Overheard in Satmar
Erev Shabbos Parshas Behaaloscha 5761
Rabbi Yoelish Teitelbaum, the Satmarer Rebbe (who was himself incarcerated in
concentration camps) once stated that any Jew who had a concentration camp
prisoner number tattooed on his arm had a ZECHUT that would outweigh any
possible sins he may have committed. No matter how far a Jew may be from
Torah and mitzvos, if he is persecuted purely and solely because of the
fact that he is a Jew, this itself is affirmation of his membership of
Klal Yisrael, the assembly of Jewish souls.
The victims of last Friday night's terror bomb attack
at a Tel Aviv seaside disco were targeted for no other reason than that they
bore the name of Jews. This cruel, bloody attack, which was greeted with
jubilation by many Arabs, shows beyond any shadow of doubt that the
present war is not essentially about Israel's post- 1967 borders or about
the "settlers". It is a war against Jews for being Jews, and
especially those who wish to live in our ancestral land of Israel. The
outlook of the fun-seeking Russian teen immigrants who flocked to the
Dolphin disco could not be further removed from that of the Satmar
Chassidim, the "settlers" or others who wear their Jewish
identity more to the fore. Yet in the eyes of God, they were seen
fit to go up on the altar of Jewish martyrdom.
Shabbos Behaaloscha will be the last day of the Shiva of most of the
victims of the disco bombing. (The opening verses of the parsha, which
speak about the seven lights of the Menorah, kabbalistically allude to the
seven days of the Shiva, during which the soul of the departed rises level
by level to become merged in the Or Panim, "light of the face".)
In honor of the victims of the Dolphin disco bomb, let me quote a brief
interchange I heard in the Satmar Beis Midrash in Jerusalem this week:
"What can they expect?" said a stout young Satmarer AVRECH
(married
student) commenting on the bomb outrage. "They go dancing in a disco
on Shabbos night in Eretz Hakodesh? It's an invitation to the Satan?"
But a bent, white-haired chassid with something of the boyish look of R.
Yoelish gently raised his hand and said: "They grew up in Russia
knowing
nothing about Yiddishkeit. They came here and no- one taught them a thing about
Yiddishkeit. What do they know except to go out dancing on Friday night?
For that the Ribono Shel Olam will forgive them. The question is: Will He
forgive us for the way WE keep the Shabbos? After all, we claim to know
something about Shabbos. If we were to sing, dance and rejoice the way we
should on Shabbos, it would be so powerful that nobody would feel the
slightest desire to go out to the disco!"
Shabbat Shalom!
Yehuda ben David
