Rosh HaYeshiva, Yeshivat Har Bracha
I: The Three Holy Jews
The story of Yosef Tzvi Salomon HY”D and his family, his daughter Chaya Esther and his son Elad z”l * As the son of Holocaust survivors, Yosef Tzvi worked diligently to settle the Land of Israel, cleaving to the Torah until the final day of his life.
Yosef Tzvi Salomon, who was murdered along with his daughter Chaya Esther and his son Elad, was one of the first pioneers to settle the heart of our holy Land. He grew up in Transylvania, Romania, in a community of Holocaust survivors in the town of Dej, near Cluj. As children, he and his brothers were beaten and humiliated by their anti-Semitic neighbors. About a year before reaching the age of Bar Mitzvah (13 years old) in the year 1958, the gates of emigration from Romania opened, and his parents immigrated to Israel and settled in Be’er Sheva.
For many years, Yosef Tzvi was the chief sergeant of the medical warehouse of the I.D.F. After early retirement from the army, he worked as a department manager in the Talpiyot College, a post-secondary academic institution dedicated to providing education for Jewish women in an authentic Torah environment. Accordingly, he encouraged his three daughters to study there, and thanks to that, they eventually became teachers in Israel’s educational system.
As the son of Holocaust survivors who endured the camps in Transnistria (his father) and Auschwitz (his mother), the commandment to settle the Land of Israel was extremely important to him. To this end, about thirty-five years ago, he moved with his family from Be’er Sheva to Neve Tzuf (Halamish) in Binyamin. He even tried to enlist his younger brother Ben-Zion who consequently changed his plans to build his home together with his friends in Meitar, and instead, joined the ‘garin‘ (nucleus) that established the community of Elkana in Samaria.
His daughter Racheli married Ron Manzali, a student from our yeshiva, and establishing a beautiful family in the community of Har Bracha. Yosef Tzvi was glad they were continuing to settle the Land on the front lines of Jewish settlement, and every time he visited Har Bracha on Shabbat, he would diligently participate in Torah classes and the Shabbat sermon with his son-in-law. As a result, we were also fortunate to have Elad HY”D study in our yeshiva in his first year before enlisting in the Armored Corps of the I.D.F.
Yosef Tzvi HY”D meticulously attended all the funerals of Judea and Samaria residents who were killed ‘al Kiddush Hashem’ (sanctifying the name of God), in order to pay homage to the holy heroes who, due to their exalted standing of being killed in the sanctification of the Torah, the nation, and the Land, occupy such an exalted position in the next world, that they are unapproachable. After the funerals he would remain silent. Who could have known then that one day, he, his daughter, and his son would reach that exalted level.
After retiring, he made great efforts to travel to the Great Synagogue in Jerusalem every day to attend Torah classes at the ‘Kollel for Pensioners’. In the last year at the age of seventy, after experiencing a fall and losing consciousness, he became very weak, and from that time on, walked slowly and hunched over, due pains in his back. Consequently, he travelled to Jerusalem only three days a week, and the rest of the time, he participated in the pensioner’s kollel he helped establish in Neve Tzuf.
He was a man of action, spoke little, and had a good heart – to the point where his brother testified that it was impossible to argue with him – he personified the verse “surely goodness and unfailing love”. He deeply wanted his family to be happy at all times, and occasionally when they argued about various matters, he would raise his voice and request they change the subject, in order to maintain a pleasant atmosphere.
He would rise early in the morning for the first ‘minyan‘ (prayer quorum) at 5:50 A.M. Even after nights of guard duty, he scrupulously attended his regular, early minyan. For decades, he served as the ‘gabbai’ (sexton) in the Neve Tzuf synagogue, thus following in his father’s footsteps, for he had been the illustrious ‘gabbai’ for thirty years at the ‘Auschwitz Martyrs’ Synagogue’ in Be’er Sheva, many of whose worshipers were Holocaust survivors.
For the last twenty years Yosef Tzvi served as the ‘gabbai‘ in the first ‘minyan‘ on Shabbat in Neve Tzuf, taking care of all needs, including arriving early to the synagogue in order to arrange the tables and prayer books before services. After prayers, he would arrange a ‘kiddush‘ for the members of the congregation at his own expense to bring them joy, and to attract people to the first ‘minyan‘. When there were other congregants who had happy occasions, they would supplement his ‘kiddush‘ with their own food and drinks.
Yosef Tzvi would look forward and count the days before joyous occasions – especially weddings in the family. He would arrive early to each wedding in order to be one of the first guests to greet the hosts. To add joy, he would walk among the guests with a bottle of scotch or whiskey, and pour them all a drink. During the dancing, he made sure to dance in front of the groom, and even at an advanced age, would dance like a young person. Recently, just two weeks ago, at the wedding of the Klingel family from Neve Tzuf, he tried to dance as usual, however, his strength failed him, and he had to withdraw in sorrow.
On the 28th of Tamuz, 5777, on the evening of the holy Shabbat, after the occasion of ‘kiddush‘ when Israel adorns itself with three sanctity’s, evoking God the Creator of the entire Universe who took us out of Egypt, drawing holiness and blessing into the world, while the Salomon family was about to celebrate the ‘shalom zachor’ in honor of their newborn grandson – a bestial terrorist set out in the name of Islam to cancel the sanctity and the blessing.
Our faith, however, is deeper and greater than any evil, and the three murdered family members have risen from their private status, to the status of three sacred Jews conveying the holiness of Israel, adorned with three sanctities.
And all the holy Jews of the Holocaust murdered on foreign soil were there to greet and honor the holy Jews who ealize the dangers but nevertheless choose to settle the Land, and are even willing to sacrifice their lives in the sanctification of God, fulfilling the words of the Torah and Prophets regarding the redemption of the Land of Israel.
II: The Problems in the defense and political upper echelons
For years, we have felt that the moral state of affairs in the highest echelons of the army and the Shin Bet security service and most of the political leadership, is appalling. Their policies are void of meaning, they fail to understand the significance of the People of Israel and our vision, and consequently, fail to understand the Arabs and Islam. They accept the positions of the liberal left as if they were ‘Torah from Sinai’, and just as Obama and Kerry led the Middle East to chaos and bloodshed with such beliefs, so too, they walk blindly without understanding the profound processes that drive people, religions, and nations.
They think that it is possible to achieve peace with the Arabs, and as a result, at every important juncture choose the road of humiliating concession, which supposedly advances towards peace. They supported the Oslo Accords, and withdrawal from Lebanon and Gaza. If it were up to them, we would have withdrawn long ago from the Golan Heights, Judea and Samaria, and given into all the Bedouins’ demands in the Negev, failing to understand that any withdrawal or concession besides weakening us, also increases the motivation of our enemies to initiate additional wars.
Today’s ‘Sin of the Spies’
This is today’s ‘Sin of the Spies’ – when leadership weakens the nation, and conversely, the nation weeps and weakens the leadership, thus creating a circle of impotence, submission, and humiliation. Who asked Moshe Dayan to concede the Temple Mount? The leadership weakened the people with false claims, and now declare that the people are unwilling to fight valiantly for their sacred ideals and values, and those who are willing to fight for the sanctity of the nation and the Land, are accused by senior officers of nationalism reminiscent of the Nazis!
By the grace of God, thanks to the loyalty of ordinary citizens and of the army to their normal feelings towards national honor and sacred values, and the evil and wickedness of our enemies, in spite of our weak and tired leadership, we are able to endure, and even advance in the settlement of the Land.
III: The Temple: The Focal Point of ‘Tikkun‘
The immense test facing us is strengthening our sovereignty over the Temple Mount, and placing our aspiration of establishing the Temple, speedily in our days, at the top of the national agenda. For many generations, our forefathers and mothers suffered the terrible agonies of exile in order to preserve the embers of faith in the redemption of Israel and the building of the Temple, so we could fulfill the words of the prophet: “In the last days, the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow to it. Many people shall go and say, ‘Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths’. For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem” (Isaiah 2:2-3).
The immense test facing us is strengthening our sovereignty over the Temple Mount, and placing our aspiration of establishing the Temple, speedily in our days, at the top of the national agenda. For many generations, our forefathers and mothers suffered the terrible agonies of exile in order to preserve the embers of faith in the redemption of Israel and the building of the Temple, so we could fulfill the words of the prophet: “In the last days, the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow to it. Many people shall go and say, ‘Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths’. For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem” (Isaiah 2:2-3).
The Struggle over the Temple Mount
Our weak political and defense leadership does not understand why the Arabs accuse us of wanting to change the disgraceful situation on the Temple Mount. They forgot our oath to Jerusalem and the Temple, but the Jewish people’s entire existence expresses this oath. Our enemies understand this, and as a result, they fight against any trace of Jewish sovereignty on the Temple Mount.
The Arabs and Muslims don’t care about the sanctity of the Temple Mount. For hundreds of years, when Jews did not attempt to ascend the Temple Mount, they neglected the mountain. They built their grand and magnificent mosques in other places. Even during the 19 years of Jordanian rule on the Temple Mount, the masses did not come to pray there.
Because they know that the Temple Mount is the site of Israel’s Temple, they have begun in recent years to take control of the Temple Mount, and turn it into a hotbed of hostility towards the people of Israel.
The Sanctity of the ‘Clal‘ and the Holy Temple
The Holy Temple reveals the sanctity of the ‘clal‘ (the entire physical and spiritual community of Israel, past, present, and future), the vision of connecting Heaven and Earth, and the revelation of Divine values in all spheres of life. Adjacent to the Temple sat the Sanhedrin, which established Torah law in Israel, and sanctified the times and the festivals.
It is forbidden to think of the Temple as a building designed to uplift the lives of private individuals. Consequently, it is forbidden for private individuals to initiate its’ construction with their own money, and even a public ‘korban‘ (sacrifice) is forbidden to be purchased with the money of a private individual.
The Holy Temple is the place of revelation of the Divine Presence, and the holiness of ‘Clal Yisrael’. Without the clear aspiration for the establishment of the Temple, all the virtues of the Torah and mitzvot are annulled, since the Torah and mitzvot were given to ‘Clal Yisrael’ in order to perfect the entire world, and not to righteous individuals. Therefore, all of Israel’s prayers are directed towards the building of the Temple. Even the ‘melakhot’ of Shabbat (productive work of the type prohibited on Shabbat) were deduced from the work of the ‘Mishkan‘ (Tabernacle) and the ‘Mikdash’ (Temple), because the source of the revelation of ‘kodesh‘ (holiness) emanates from the Holy Temple.
Therefore, the preparations for the building of the Holy Temple are preparations for the building of the holiness of ‘Clal Yisrael’: spiritually – through the study of Torah, in order to illuminate and perfect the nation and the world in all spheres of life, and to assign a respectable place in Israeli society for the values of the ‘kodesh‘ (holiness) and ‘mussar’ (morality). And in practical terms – the strengthening of our sovereignty over the Temple Mount, and placing the challenge of building the Temple speedily in our days at the top of the national agenda.
This is what one should contemplate during these days, when we mourn and fast for the destruction of the Temple.
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