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I’m in Jerusalem, the city every Jew should be in love with. The world has become a very small place; in the blink of an eye we can cross continents. We belong to the generation that can visit so many cities, so many villages, so many vacation sites. After a while we become immune to them all. But Jerusalem is different. If you are a Jew, Jerusalem is in your blood. It’s a city engraved upon your heart. Centuries ago Yehuda HaLevi wrote, “My heart is in the East while I am in the West.” No matter where life has taken us, our hearts have forever remained in the East, in Jerusalem. When I was a little girl in Hungary I may not have known where Paris or Rome was but I did know the location of Jerusalem. My parents of blessed memory, HaRav HaGoan Avraham HaLevi Jungreis, zt”l, and Rebbetzin Miriam Jungreis, a”h, nurtured us with the milk and honey of Yerushalayim. Nowadays, few still thirst for that sweetness. And yet, with all the distractions of modern life, Yerushalayim tugs at our hearts. I just saw with my own eyes and heard with my own ears the veracity of this connection between the Jew and this Holy City. I was speaking at the Great Synagogue. There was no spare seat to be had and despite the lateness of the night people kept coming. Many lingered after I finished my speech. Some sought advice and guidance. Others just wanted to talk. Above all they asked for berachos – for shidduchim, for health, for sustenance. And then a tall, lovely, blond-haired girl stood before me. She was crying. Something prompted me to ask, “Are you Jewish?” Her voice cracking with tears, she whispered, “I’m a convert. I came to Yerushalayim to become part of the Jewish people.” She explained that she came from a country where Jews had been beaten and tortured and maimed and killed during the Holocaust. But her soul whispered the message, “Go, join the people who stood at Sinai; go to Jerusalem!” I naturally assumed she sought a blessing for a good shidduch. “No, no,” she protested, “that’s not why I’m here. You just related a story that entered my soul. Please bless me with the ability of not forgetting.” And then she repeated one of the stories I had told in my address. The story was about a mother who lost her husband and eleven of her children in Auschwitz. She made aliyah but still had no peace. She couldn’t sleep. She couldn’t work. She couldn’t come to terms with her fate. She sought out a rebbe – perhaps he would offer her some consolation. She spilled out her heart and described each and every one of her children. The rebbe listened and wept with her. And then he said something amazing. “I think I saw someone among the newly arrived children now settled in a kibbutz who fits the description of your Dovidl.” The rebbe told her he would try to trace the lineage of that child. A few days later the rebbe called. “I may have some good news for you,” he said. Heart pounding, she returned to the rebbe’s home – and there was her little boy. “Dovidl, Dovidl,” she shouted. “Mama, mama,” he sobbed as he ran into her arms. When the little boy caught his breath he asked a painful question. “Where is my father? Where are Moishele and Rochele?” As Dovidl enumerated the names of all his brothers and sisters, he and his mother cried uncontrollably. They continued to weep long into the night. As I told that story, I remarked to the audience that it occurred to me that Dovidl’s children and grandchildren have no memory of those who preceded them. Similarly, we come to Israel, rush off the plane, pick up our luggage and make our way to Jerusalem. And what do we think about? We’re busy asking ourselves and each other, “Where is a good place to eat?” “Any new restaurants around?” “Did you try out that new hotel?” “Is it worth it the price?” But do any of us ask, “Where is the Beis HaMikdash?” Does anyone really miss the Beis HaMikdash? Does anyone search for it? Does anyone even think about it? Does anyone even want to remember? The girl who stood before me begged with tears, “Please, Rebbetzin, give me a berachah that I should never forget to cry for the Beis HaMikdash. I’m so afraid I will forget and become oblivious to its loss. I do not want to be like Dovidl’s children.” I could only look at her. She had taken my breath away. I couldn’t recall anyone ever asking me for such a berachah – to be able to remain constantly aware of the Beis HaMikdash and, yes, to weep for it. For thousands of years we prayed, wept and hoped for Yerushalayim. To see Yerushalayim again, to behold the rebuilt Beis HaMikdash, has always been the center of all our prayers. At our weddings, in the midst of our joy, we break a glass to remember our Temple that is no more. When painting our homes we would leave a small spot empty to remind us that no home can be complete if the Beis HaMikdash has not been rebuilt. We have a thousand and one reminders in our prayers, in our traditions, in our observance, that constantly recall to us Jerusalem and the Holy Temple. And yet, now that we have Jerusalem again we have somehow forgotten our dream – our Beis HaMikdash that we prayed for and continue to pray for. Sadly, our prayers for the Temple have become just words recited by rote. And here comes a young woman new to our faith and she seeks a blessing not for shidduch, not for parnassah, not for good health, nor for personal happiness – but for the ability to shed tears and yearn to see the Beis HaMikdash rebuilt. Should that not give us all pause? Should that not make us think and consider? Should we not ask again and again and still again, “Where is the Beis HaMikdash?” I miss it so. I’m in Jerusalem but the shinning crown of the Holy City is absent and my joy cannot be complete until I see its glory restored.Read more at: http://www.jewishpress.com/judaism/rebbetzins-viewpointrebbetzin-jungreis/weeping-for-jerusalem/2013/08/22/
I saw an incredible message by Rebbetzin Esther Jungreiss of Hineni, one of the true leaders of Klal Yisroel and a mesmerizing speaker.
We live in very challenging times. Dark clouds are once again gathering around the world. It’s 1938, and Iran is Germany. We are falling in to the same trap of complacency as Jews of America in 1938. we are living at the most dangerous time since the Holocaust: The apparent impotency of the Israel military, the lack of will in the Israeli populace so necessary to fight and win wars… Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s vow to wipe Israel off the map, his nuclear ambitions, and his holocaust denial… Islamic fundamentalists that are willing to give up their lives in the cause of killing Jews, making them more dangerous than Nazis… former President Carter’s new book bashing Israel… universities as hotbeds of anti-Israel ideologies (read: Anti Jewish) The appeasement attitudes of the newly elected Democratic congress… and many more such indicators.
Ahhhh, you might protest, “let’s not get carried away.” There is no need to worry. Ahmadinejad is a madman surrounded by other madmen, and that Holocaust denial conference in Teheran proved it. No one can possibly take them seriously. But that is precisely the problem - madmen cannot be dismissed, because they are sufficiently mad to carry out what they say.
You might now ask, what possible logic could there be for Ahmadinejad convening this conference? Even as Hitler gathered lawyers and judges in Nuremberg to enact laws that would render Jews subhuman, fodder for extermination, so Ahmadinejad wants to prove that the Holocaust never took place and thereby justify his plan to liquidate Israel.
There was nothing original about Hitler’s or Ahmadinejad’s modus operandi. Pharaoh of Egypt was the first to gather his “wise men” to enact laws against Jews, and the hate mongers of every generation followed suit - Ahmadinejad being the latest.
Yes, the winds of Holocaust are once again blowing, and this despite the fact that Holocaust survivors are still in our midst, despite the fact that gas chambers still stand, these madmen in Iran have the audacity to spew forth their lies and the world remains asleep.
We are indeed living in challenging times.
There is nothing to thwart Teheran. The draft resolution of sanctions against Iran that is before the Security Council has been stripped of all meat. Former Ambassador now White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolton will no longer be at the U.N, and while the U.S., England and Germany have expressed their condemnation, none are prepared to actually stop Ahmadinejad from carrying out his sinister plot. Add to that the Baker recommendation to appoint Iran and Syria, (authors of this proposed Holocaust) the power brokers of the Middle East and you have a recipe for tragedy.
Make no mistake about it, the nightmare doesn’t end with Israel. It may begin with the Jews (as it always does), but that which starts with the Jews ultimately engulfs the entire world.
Who will stop these killers? We asked that question in 1938 and we are once again compelled to ask it today. The silence then was deafening - as it is today. What is the solution? What we must do to protect ourselves is the test for our Jewish people that we all must pass.
So what are we to do? Whenever we, the Jewish people, find ourselves in a dilemma, we must search our past, for our entire history is replay. Our ancestors experienced it all and we need only follow the path that they carved out for us.
This is not the first time that evil has spewed forth from Iran. There was another madman there who wanted to exterminate our people…Haman of old was no different than his modern day heir. He too enacted laws to legitimize his evil, but our people arose like lions and made a “N’hapachu” - overturned the decree. They turned night into day, darkness into light, curse into blessing, and catastrophe into joy. In the end, it was Haman and his sons who hung from the gallows (like Saddam Hussein was one week ago), while we, the Jewish people, inaugurated the happiest holiday of all - Purim.
Is this some legend from the Megillah? Is this some Purimshpeil - play? No, it is the reality of our lives. Even as there is a law of gravity in nature, there is a law of gravity for Jewish survival, and that is our Torah, the covenant that we sealed at Har Sinai. When we are loyal to it, there is no force on earth that can prevail against us, but when we abandon it, we are at the mercy of all the satanic forces on earth. Our ancestors in Persia - modern day Iran, annulled the evil decree with two little words, “Kiymu V’kiblu” – they reaccepted the Torah and recommitted to the observance of Mitzvos and with those two little words,, everything became N’hapachu - everything was overturned and nullified. It is as simple as that.
It is for the sake of the Torah that Hashem launched us into history. “Atem Aydai - “You are my witnesses,” Hashem proclaimed. Our mission is to testify to His One-ness, to be a living, breathing example of His Torah.
We are a nation that can be likened to passengers on a boat. Should one individual drill a hole under his seat, in vain would he protest that that is his right, and is no one’s business but his own – for once the hole is drilled, the water will gush in and the boat will sink.
At Har Sinai, our nation stood Ish Echad BeLev Echad “as one man with one heart” and in unison, we proclaimed “Na’aseh V’Nishma” - we shall do and we shall hear,” rather than I shall do and I shall hear. At Sinai, “all of Israel became responsible for one another.”
The covenant that G-d sealed with us is eternal. It is our destiny to be His witnesses – should we attempt to escape our mission, however, there will be those who remind us of our calling.
There is an incredible Yalkut Shimoni in Sefer Yeshayau which eerily foretells the events of today. As a matter of fact, the Klausenberger Rebbe, Ztl, in reference to this Yalkut Shimoni, said “Remember these words. Now, perhaps, they are not understood, but in time, they will be, and they will be a source of chizuk - strength, to Am Yisroel."
“Rabbi Yizchok said: ‘The year that Melech HaMoshiach will be revealed, all the nations of the world will be provoking each other. The King of Persia (Iran) will provoke the King of Arabia, and the King of Arabia will go to Edom (the West) to take counsel, but the King of Persia will in turn, destroy the entire world. The nations of the world will be outraged and panicked. They will fall on their faces, and they will experience pains like birth pangs. Israel too will be outraged and in a state of panic and ask, where do we go? But say unto them, “My children, do not fear, everything was done for you: “Higiyah Zeman Geulaschem” the time of your redemption has come... And in the last redemption will be different from the first which was followed by further bondage and pain. After this last redemption, you will not again experience any further pain or subjugation.”
