Klal Yisrael is mourning the passing of a gadol, Rav Baruch Mordechai Ezrachi, zt”l, the towering rosh yeshivah of Ateres Yisrael in Bayit Vegan in Yerushalayim, at the same time that we are still mourning the brutal massacre of hundreds of our brothers and sisters in the Holy Land. On Shabbos Shemini Atzeres/Simchas Torah, we witnessed cruel savages slaughtering young and old, snatching babies from their mothers’ arms, beheading some and kidnapping others. How could any Jewish heart not be affected forever by these unspeakable tragedies that have befallen our nation?
“My eyes fail from weeping, I am in torment within; my liver is poured out on the ground because my people are destroyed. Young and old lie together in the dust of the streets; my young men and young women have fallen by the sword. All Your enemies open their mouths wide against You; they scoff and gnash their teeth and say, ‘We have swallowed her up. This is the day we have waited for; we have lived to see it’” (selected from Eichah 2).
One cause for mourning, however, doesn’t cancel out the other. On the contrary, our grief is only compounded by the passing of a true Jewish leader.
Inasmuch as we cannot find inner peace and consolation because of the suffering of the Jewish people—a pain that is aggravated by the abhorrent anti-Semitic sentiment being openly demonstrated on Ivy League campuses and paraded through the streets of the most prominent cities in the world—we can certainly find purpose and meaning in our despair.
Anyone who has been following the news of late knows that Israel was on the verge of a civil war before this devastating pogrom. And in our own camp, there is regrettably way too much pointless infighting. Last year, I had the great privilege of speaking to the revered Vizhnitzer Rebbe of London. He pointed out that too few chasidic communities have figured out a way to have a peaceful transfer of leadership upon the passing of a rebbe. With great fervor, the Rebbe called upon other chasidic movements to emulate Vizhnitz and see how he and his brothers harmoniously resolved questions of succession upon the passing of their late father, the Vizhnitzer Rebbe of Monsey, zt”l.
The Belzer Rebbe has expressed his belief that our internecine discord and schisms, in addition to constituting an unspeakable chillul Hashem, causes children from frum homes to leave the fold and go off the derech, R”l. It undoubtedly causes that and more. Chazal proclaimed that the Churban and other Jewish tragedies occurred only on account of sinas chinam, baseless hatred. Perhaps the recent events can serve as a rallying call for achdus.
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