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By: Chaya Sora Jungreis-Gertzulin
The weeks pass, the war continues. The hostages – men, women, children, babies – still have not come home. Our hearts ache just thinking of them in the Gehinnom of Gaza.
So many lives lost, so many injured, so many in pain. Parents who lost children, widows and orphans. We need a yeshuah.
During the 2015 Intifada, Rav Moshe Shternbuch gave a message that is relevant to us today. He relayed that when our nation goes through a crisis, HaShem looks down upon us, to see how we, His children, react. Are we an Am Echad, a strong united people, there for our brothers and sisters? Do we feel another’s pain? What are we doing to ease their hardship in times of need.
“Al shlosha devarim ha’olam omeid, The world exists on three things. Torah, avodah and gemilus chassodim.” (Pirkei Avos 1:2)
In this week’s parsha we find Yitzchak and Rivka davening for a child. “Va’yetar Yitzchok l’HaShem, l’nochach ishto.” (Bereishis 25:21) Rashi comments that Yitzchak stood in one corner, Rivka in another, each one crying out to HaShem for the blessing for a baby. Each one crying on the other’s behalf.
Davening. Avodas Halev. Labor of the heart. To daven for someone with all your heart and soul. To put your entire being into the prayer. When we daven for someone, we become connected to that person. We are saying I care about you. You are important to me, I am making time to daven for you.
To describe Yitzchok’s tefillos, the Torah uses the term “va’yetar”, instead of the more common “va’yispallel”. Rashi teaches that va’yetar connotes praying in abundance. Praying with urgency. Powerful prayers.
The Talmud (Yevamos 64:a) explains that the term “va’yetar” has the same root as the term “eser”, a winnowing shovel or pitchfork. Just as a pitchfork turns over the grain, moving it from place to place, so too, sincere prayer, prayer from the heart, has the power to overturn a Heavenly decree from one of judgment to one of mercy.
We just began the month of Kislev. Each of the months has a mazel, a sign. Kislev’s is a bow and arrow. The bow and arrow symbolize the power of tefilla. The more one pulls on the bow, the tighter it becomes, propelling the arrow to travel a farther distance and with greater force. Similarly, the more intense our prayers, the greater the kavannah, our heartfelt sincerity, the further it travels to reach the Heavens.
Kislev is a month of prayer, a month of miracles. It is the month of Chanukah, when we recite V’al Hanissim, And for the miracles. Let’s take a lesson from Yitzchak and Rivka, the message of the month of Chanukah, to daven with all our might. To ask for a miracle, for nothing is beyond HaShem’s reach.
The nation of Yishmael understands the power of prayer. Five times a day, they turn to prayer. They have no inhibitions about pulling out prayer rugs on a crowded street, or in any other public space. We have to counter their prayers by intensifying our tefilla, particularly during these difficult days. As we have witnessed, it is not only the Jews in Eretz Yisroel who are in peril, but Jews throughout the world feel threatened and insecure as a result of an unprecedented wave of anti-Semitism and Jew hatred. We must call out from the depths of our heart, add additional tefillos to what we usually recite, and turn to the words of Tehillim.
A campaign was started to daven for Chayalei Yisroel, the brave soldiers of the IDF. The name of individual soldiers are given out, and one can daven for the safety and well-being of “their” soldier.
It is said that the prayers of children, who have holy and pure neshamos, are extra powerful, and many yeshivos gave out the names of specific soldiers to their students.
A woman in Eretz Yisroel tells of going to her local grocery where she spotted a young boy wearing a badge. Always curious, she asked him what it was.
With a big, sweet smile, the boy answered, “That’s my soldier”.
“Your soldier, what do you mean?”
The boy explained. “This is the soldier I daven for. That he return safely to his mother at the end of the war. I daven for him. I study for him. And at night, I say Shema for him. He guards me from near Gaza, I guard him from Yerushalayim.”
A post-script to this story. The woman was so impressed, that she asked the boy what school he attends. She then contacted the boy’s rebbe, and told him “Shame, I didn’t get to educate my child in such a special way”.
I shared this story with some of my grandchildren. A grandson who attends Darchei Torah got all excited and said, “Rebbe gave me a soldier too. He told the class that every mitzvah we do, every bracha we make, and every line of Torah we learn is for ‘our’ soldier.”
Mi k’amecha Yisroel. Be it in Eretz Yisroel or thousands of miles away, our hearts are one.
The war broke out on Simchas Torah. The Yom Tov of celebrating Torah study. The concluding of one book, and simultaneously beginning another. For one never graduates from Torah learning. The message is clear. We must continue learning. Whatever one’s level of Torah learning is, there are so many opportunities to avail oneself. Be it classes, books, clips, etc. So much to learn. So much to gain. Do it for yourself. Do it for Am Yisroel.
And the third leg on which the world stands – gemilus chassodim. So many individuals, communities, organizations having done – and continue to do – so much. For the soldiers and their families, for the victims, and the evacuees.
My mother would speak about the Six-Day War. A miraculous victory in six days. The next day, the seventh day, could have been “Shabbos”. Unfortunately, we were blinded by our astounding success on the battlefield. HaShem gave us a second chance, the Yom Kippur War. Yom Kippur, referred to in the Torah as Shabbos Shabbosson. Once again, we failed to see the hand of HaShem and call out to Him. We are now in midst of a difficult war. A war than began with terrible atrocities, with barbarism on a level that the world has never seen. The Abarbanel teaches that in the final war before Moshiach, our enemy will be “achzorim me’od, exceedingly cruel”. Did we not witness this today – in a war that broke out on Shabbos? HaShem is giving us another chance.
This time, our nation answered the call. HaShem, You can look down upon us. Thousands upon thousands have taken upon themselves to keep Shabbos, put on tefillin and tzitzis, do more mitzvos, learn more Torah, do more chesed.
HaShem, it’s time for all the pain and suffering to end. It’s time for the ultimate geulah to arrive. Let us hope it will be soon.
Shabbat Shalom!
Chaya Sora
Chaya Sora can reached at [email protected]
This article was written L’zecher Nishmas/In Memory Of HaRav Meshulem ben HaRav Osher Anshil HaLevi, zt”l and Rebbetzin Esther bas HaRav Avraham HaLevi, zt”l
