Rabbi Amichai Gordin - Shabbat Bi-shabato
We
went to the funeral on foot. The huge number of vehicles that came to
Reb Yaacov's funeral almost completely blocked the road leading to
the cemetery. On the way back, when the thoughts and memories choked
me up completely, I stopped for a few seconds in the middle of the
road and I thought of Edward Robinson.
Robinson
(famous for the "Robinson Arch" near the Western Wall in
Jerusalem) was an American scholar who was rightly considered the
father of historical-geographic study in Eretz Yisrael. About a
hundred and fifty years ago, he described in his book a trek that he
took from Chevron to Jerusalem. On the way, he passed through the
valley which today separates Kefar Etzion from the nearby army camp.
In his book, Robinson describes how he encountered a tree at the end
of the valley – the "Lone Oak."
The
place where I paused on my way back from the funeral was on the
shoulder of the road between Kefar Etzion and Alon Shevut. I was
standing at exactly the same place where Robinson stood a hundred and
fifty years ago. I tried to find the tree which he had seen at the
time. It was very hard to find a single oak tree. The Lone Oak is now
surrounded by many other trees. The desolate land which Robinson saw
no longer exists.
I
thought about the Arab nation, which left the area of Gush Etzion
desolate and in ruins for hundreds of years. In the nineteenth
century, a British zoologist described the area of Gush Etzion by
saying, "No human residence has brought any life to the
desolation of the area." After him, another traveler wrote, "You
may get the idea that the curse of G-d engulfs the entire area, where
not even a single tree can be seen."
I
thought about the first pioneers of Gush Etzion who came to this area
and brought plants back into the wilderness. I thought of the late
Chanan Porat, who led the return to Gush Etzion after the Six Day
War. They all found empty and desolate rocky hills (we have pictures
of the scene at the time).
I
thought about how in the face of the Arabic destruction a tremendous
and blooming settlement bloc had grown up. Look how these forces of
evil were opposed ever so quietly by simple Jews, who built a human
Garden of Eden in the area. Perhaps this is what upsets the Arabs so
much. For hundreds of years they destroyed, uprooted, and killed
everything that they could in the area of Gush Etzion. It really can
be very upsetting to see somebody else come to the same place and
succeed in building up something beautiful and blooming, in the same
desolate land.
And then I
thought again about Reb Yaacov – the late Reb Yaacov Don, let his
blood be avenged.
* * * * *
*
I
was just a young boy. Next to me on the bench in the yeshiva there
was an older student. We were separated by a gap of seven whole
years. He had a never-ending smile – Yaacov Don. Usually such a
great difference in age might be expected to lead to great distance
and estrangement.
But
for Reb Yaacov this was not true. In our every contact, the man with
the mustache showed us nothing other than warmth and happiness. It
was always a pleasure to be with Reb Yaacov. In spite of his
impressive height and his thick and authoritative voice, I was never
afraid that I would hear from him any comment that was negative or
sarcastic, or any kind of bad remark. For his entire life, Reb Yaacov
showed an example of thinking that was positive, calm, and normal.
* * * * *
*
Like
our mentor, Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein, Reb Yaacov had a routine of
traveling every week to study Torah with his sons. On that Thursday,
when the cursed and impure bullets pierced his good and pure heart
Reb Yaacov was on his way to study Torah with his two sons in the
Hesder Yeshiva at Maaleh Adumim. "They run to do evil, we run to
study Torah."
* * * * *
*
Heavenly
angels cried out bitterly:
Is
this Torah and is this its reward?
You
who are wrapped in light as a cloak,
An
enemy insults Your great and exalted name
And
curses and abuses the words of Torah!
And a
Bat Kol replied from heaven:
If I
hear another sound – I will transform the world into water,
I
will return the earth into a remarkable null and void.
This
is a decree of mine – accept it, you who delight in the law of two
thousand years.
["Eilah
Ezkarah" – a
liturgical poem about the deaths of the Ten Martyred Rabbis recited
on Yom Kippur].
* * * * *
*
Pure
and righteous people do not complain about evil,
Rather
they enhance justice.
They do
not complain about apostasy,
Rather
they enhance the level of faith.
They do
not complain about ignorance,
Rather
they enhance wisdom.
[Rav
Avraham Yitzchak Kook, "Arfilei
Tohar"]
