Rav Moshe Wolfson
Rabbi Tal Zwecker
thanx to the the Hamodia
'WHY ARE WE SILENT?' HARAV MOSHE WOLFSON ASKS By Yochonon Donn
BROOKLYN - Harav Moshe Wolfson, shlita, spoke Tuesday night in a rare
mid-week assembly for his kehillah, Emunas Yisroel in Boro Park,
asking bluntly why there is no greater uproar within the community
over the potential for war over Iran's nuclear ambitions. "Why are we
quiet? Where is the awakening? Why is everyone so apathetic?" asked
Rav Wolfson, who is also mashgiach of Yeshivah Torah Vodaath.
"Everyone is busy with narishkeiten, we don't hear the alarm? We don't
know that we have to pierce the heavens for rachamim from the Ribbono
Shel Olam?" Rav Wolfson told the packed beis medrash of nearly 1,000
people that the potential for a war encompassing Iran, Israel, Europe
and the United States over the next few weeks is a real one, and Klal
Yisrael must prepare itself spiritually. "Everyone knows that there is
currently a growing danger from Iran - and it is a great error for
whoever does not know this," Rav Wolfson said. "Why should a Yid not
know what is happening to [other] Yidden? Everyone must know what is
happening in regard to other Yidden. Everyone must know what is
happening in Eretz Yisrael." Rav Wolfson began talking this past
Shabbos about the dangers from the Iran crisis, when he stopped and
said that it was not a subject to discuss on Shabbos. He said he would
continue the topic during the week. The last time he called for a
special asifah during the week to discuss current events was in 1991,
prior to the Gulf War. Rav Wolfson started his address, which was
carried live by Kol Halashon, with the famous Rambam, who writes that
it is a mitzvah to daven during troubled times. "If you don't daven,"
the Rambam says, "then it is a cruelty, since it will get worse." "The
leader in Iran says clearly - he repeated it this week - that he wants
to kill, Rachmana litzlan, every Yid in the world, just like Haman,"
Rav Wolfson said. "If he will be successful, chas v'shalom, in getting
the nuclear bomb - and experts says he will have it by the summer - it
will be a great danger for Klal Yisrael." "A good part of the world's
Jews live in Israel, and the government there says that they will
attack Iran first, before they could get the nuclear bomb. If that
happens, everyone knows that that will cause a world war." Rav Wolfson
said that he heard that Harav Yosef Rosenblum, Rosh Yeshivah of
Yeshivah Shaarei Yosher, spoke recently about the crisis with Iran -
he said that during this eis tzarah, "Hashem is judging us on every
klal and on every prat." Rav Wolfson quoted the Pesikta, who says that
the year when Moshiach will come all nations will battle each other..
The spark that will set it off, according to the Medrash, will be when
the king of Paras - which is modern-day Iran - will threaten "Arabia,"
presumably Saudi Arabia, such as is happening today. Arabia will go
for an alliance with Edom - the culture of Edom is today's Western
world, Europe and United States. Paras will then destroy the world and
the Yidden will be thrown into turmoil. Hashem will then say: "Do not
fear, the time for your Geulah has come." Rav Wolfson noted how eerily
similar this Medrash is to what is occurring today. "We don't have to
be in a panic," Rav Wolfson said, "Hashem will perform miracles for
us. But efsher takeh. Maybe the time for the Geulah has arrived. We
must prepare for the Geulah." Rav Wolfson said that since the
Holocaust, Hashem has performed great miracles for the Yidden. Eretz
Yisrael, which today hosts most of the world's Yidden and most of the
Torah world, merited supernatural siyatta diShmaya during its wars.
When the Palestinians shoot missiles from Gaza, they land mostly in
empty areas and cause little damage. When then-Iraqi dictator Saddam
Hussein shot 39 Scud missiles during the Gulf War, only one Yid was
killed - that man had previously received a klalah from the Chazon
Ish. "This a hashgachah niflaah that is reserved only for Yidden who
learn Torah, who keep the mitzvos and who will ultimately do
teshuvah," Rav Wolfson said. "Hashem wants to do nissim for us. Israel
is surrounded by 300 million Arabs and we are still there; that means
Hashem wants to do yeshuos. We must prepare for yeshuos." But just
like Eliyahu had to daven on Har Hacarmel even though Hashem had
already promised to bring rain, Hashem still wants the tefillos of
Klal Yisrael today, even though He had promised to bring yeshuos. In
order to qualify for these miracles, Rav Wolfson said, we must
strengthen in Torah, tefillah and chessed. He specifically suggested
saying Tehillim 46 every day, adding that he is asking his own
kehillah to have the kapitel printed out and stuck to the back of
every siddur. During the Suez campaign in 1956, the Belzer Rebbe asked
that people say that particular kapitel, since it is a segulah to
prevent warfare. "Everyone has to be mispallel that Klal Yisrael
should be saved from chevlei Moshiach, that he and his family should
be saved," he said. Rav Wolfson also spoke about kevias ittim for
Torah, not interrupting even "if the cell phone rings." "I heard from
the Lubavitcher Rebbe, zt"l, that when a Yid sits down to learn it
should be like Shabbos," Rav Wolfson said. "That is the only time that
one is pattur from work." "In a beis medrash it is Shabbos. ... If
someone interrupts his learning and he picks up the phone, he brings
the marketplace, he brings the office into Shabbos. He is mechallel
the Shabbos." But above all, Rav Wolfson said, Yidden should keep in
mind that we live in momentous times, and we should prepare for the
upcoming era with emunah and bitachon. "In the next couple of weeks
there will be news," Rav Wolfson said, "and with the help of Hashem,
it will be good news for Yidden."