Journey To Jerusalem - The Minchas Eluzar's Moving Departure From Eretz Yisroel

This Torah class is brought to you by torahanytime.com. Okay, good morning everybody. So, uh hopefully this will be the conclusion of our journey. Is actually we were going to um we're going to restart our our previous limud. However, this past Wednesday night uh somebody came to the shear and uh the safer that we've been learning from that uh Reb Gedalia Schwartz got us from Norfolk, Virginia, my sois su shalayim actually was published in English. It was published by ArtScroll called Journey to Jerusalem. And the publisher came to my shear Wednesday night uh Mr. Veg and he says, "Rabbi Sorry, what's his first name? Robert?" Yes. And Mr. Veg came and he said um "Rabbi Jew and a real estate guy. this is the last copy of Journey to Jerusalem. Here, I want you to have it." Oh. So, it's in a it's in English and not only that, it's actually it's a translation of an updated Hebrew edition. And in the book there are actual photographs of his trip in the uh they found from the archives actual photographs of his trip. So, here you have a picture of the Minchas Elazar, the holy rebbe. I'll just show you a few pictures very quickly. Um What does Minchas mean? Why would they give that name? Um this is Gift of This is uh the Minchas Elazar with Reb Bonim Maryan Baden Czechoslovakia. And you'll see, you'll see. When did ArtScroll publish this? A couple years ago. Here you have pictures of the Levaya of the Minchas Elazar. Okay, but what was interesting to hear is a picture of the rebbe learning aleph bais in 1944, the current rebbe. He's he even though he's 3 years old but actually he's wearing a hat, okay? And uh this is a picture of the rebbe as a at a tish as a bachur. But what I to show you is there are a few pictures of the Minchas Elazar on his trip to Eretz Yisrael. So, this is a picture of the SS Vienna which carried the Rebbe and the entourage from Trieste to Alexandria. Okay? That's what we learned about. Um This is a Rebbe on the the Rebbe on the ship. Can you imagine they have pictures? I I I I I was shocked. I don't know how they have these pictures. This is a picture of the entire entourage on the ship. What year did he go? 1930. 1930. 30? Okay. Here are pictures. And they survived? There's a whole group. Every one of them made and the trip did not take long. The did not take long. It took 3 days on by boat to Alexandria and the way back took 5 days. Okay? There's a picture of the entourage in Egypt. Everything we learned about, there are pictures of. And it's 10 hours from America with a good It's longer today by by the by plane, by the way. Today, you're better off going by a camel than by taking these planes. Anyway, um This is the Mekubal Rav Chaim Shalom HaKohen Dweck at a Kabbalas Panim for the Rebbe. Okay. Now, check this out. This is the Yidden at the train station in Israel waiting for the Rebbe to arrive. This is the house of the Saba Kadisha. Okay, I'll let you see after. Let's see what else very quickly. So, they went to the Saba Kadisha. So, is this book still in print? Um it's in print. I don't know if there are any copies left. Breslov first, is that's the first place they went? Everyone's Breslov at heart. What else is over here? Um Okay. Now, this is the Rebbe. This is the Minchas Elazar with Rav Moshe Goldstein. Moshe Goldstein is the one who wrote the sefer Maaseh Yerushalaim. Uh very quickly, there are a few unbelievable ones where you have pictures of Meron in 1930. Let's see if we can find it quickly. Kever Rachel 1930. You know, all the old photographs, that's what you got. Are we there already? The Rebbe in uh in Yerushalayim. They went to Kever Yosef in Shechem. I I I'm shocked that they have to these pictures. Pilgrims ascending the Kever Kever of Shimon bar Yochai. The British governor arrives in Meron to greet the Munkatcher Rebbe. Meron? What do you want to ask the passport? Is it Is that Is that the Jewish High Commissioner? He was Jewish. I don't know. Okay, let's see. It's uh The Rebbe being escorted out of the Kever of Rabbi Meir Baal Haness. Rabbi Yisrael Praying at the grave of Rabbi Yermiyahu in Tiberias. Look at what the Kever of the Rambam looked like in 1930. Now it's a whole edifice. Now you could see it from all places in the city. There's like a dough like um an engraved a flo- but it's made out of metal, right? A metal flame coming out. Okay. This is the doctor going to visit the Saba Kadisha, Dr. Moshe Wallach, one of the founders of Shaare Zedek. Okay. And fin- finally, we're up to departing Yerushalayim. So, let's do one last segment. I don't know how We'll try to squeeze in two if that's possible. The boat that they took to leave uh Eretz Yisrael was a little different than when they came. They came via Egypt through Alexandria. However, they're leaving the port of Yafo. Yafo port, the ship could not come to the dock. There were boulders there. It was too rocky. So, what they had to do is they had to take a little boat out into the water and they with like some kind of ladder going down. Now, if you want to There's a picture of the Rebbe on basically on a rowboat. It says over here, the rowboat would be like a woo woo woo. And the They had a little ladder down and here you have a picture of like a bunch of Arabs lifting the Rebbe up onto the ladder to get onto the ship. They have a picture of it over here. Anyway. Come on, catch up, Rebbe. Yada Um There's a picture of the Rebbe learning on the ship. Now, let's take a look at this a little bit and on the ship? I don't know what kind of first class they had back then. Um I would get a refund. Okay. Take a look at page race mem zayin. You have the first booklet. Fine. Um so, but you know, this is really the end of the voyage and to me I'm learning this as I went there. So, I'm like reliving it. I was there. I'm reliving it vicariously. So, let's see what he says. Baba Kamma Bava Metzia Bava Batra I want to tell you one more thing. The Rebbe said the Rebbe was only there basically 13 days. He said the 13 days corresponded to the 13 years of Shimon bar Yochai was in the cave. That's what he wrote. And he said he does not want to be there for Shavuos. He can't be there for Yom Tov. Why? In deference to one of his predece- one of his antecedents that one of his forebears, the Sha'arei Teshuvah Sofer, who holds that a visitor from chutz la'aretz that goes to Eretz Yisrael only keeps one day. Chasam Sofer, that's right. And we don't pasken that way. And you're not allowed to follow it. You're not allowed to follow it. The Lubavitcher Rebbe keeps one day. But the halacha is not that way. But Rav Elyashiv paskened because And all the rabbis you could quote that you want to say this rabbi, that rabbi, they're all very nice. They all have nice beards, they have it's not normative halacha. Thank you. Relax. Relax. Who decides who's a posek? That's a big question. That's all these are all great questions, but what I'm telling you, I can only tell you my opinion, right? That's all I can tell you. Normative halacha is we don't follow that way, including Munkatcher Rebbe, but in deference to the Chasam Sofer, the Munkatcher would not stay in Eretz Yisrael for Yom Tov, lest he be required to follow the Chasam Sofer, we don't pasken like him, therefore he wanted to be out of there for Shavuos. Be that as it may, you see, I could talk about controversial topics, I could wiggle out, you know, it's okay, fine. So, so, um uh so, let's see page 247. He says over here that on the fourth on the on the Wednesday in Chodesh Iyar, the 23rd day of Iyar, and the 14th day of our coming to Eretz Yisrael, so, the Rebbe visited Munkatch, and they had a seudas preida, and basically they got to get on the boat, the last boat that's departing that's uh leaving from Yafo to Trieste before Shavuos Shavuos to be able to get home in enough time. So, basically the Rebbe, the Admor 10 Sefiros HaKabalh Im Sefer HaMerkavah, the Rebbe, before he step put his feet on the train, and he has one foot on the bridge, and he's about to say goodbye, he couldn't hold himself in. And um he said, "You who have gathered today to be like the wall of the Haraydim Hasidim the Kanoi'm who stand in the breach to fight the wars of Hashem. I want to tell you I want to depart from from it with the halacha l'maaseh. And he said like this, he says don't be afraid. Let your heart not be worried. Even after the great conflagration that Hashem burnt down and that is the petirah of the Saba Kadisha. Even though our hearts are broken who can heal it? But by tzaddikim there's no meisa. His his moisture and his koach is the kayam in oilam haba and he could help us by being mispallel for us in the oilam ha'emes. And the Rebbe wishes them chizuk and courage and he sort of fares them goodbye. So look in the next paragraph with warm k'eilu with these holy words hayesedim in alef tav maran shlita he was poresh shivcha he cried they cried. And we escorted him out of Yerushalayim with great pain. And says Rebbe Moshe Goldstein over here kasha alai preidasam. Look in ois beis. Ben Se'ah v'aino de'ach meisa. So they're basically they're traveling to Yafo they go through the city of Motza. What's Motza? So the Gemara says in Sukkah daf mem hei that's where they got the arovos from in the time of the Beis Hamikdash the city of Motza. And then the city of Motza was takah Motza tov. However by Rebbe Nachman it's it's a devastated city and now you could apply the pasuk Motza mi'maves it's it's fully run down especially because of the pogroms that the Arabs perpetrated there. Now if I'm not mistaken I don't think the Munkatcher Rebbe went to Chevron. And probably the simple reason is this is 1930. A year earlier You had the massacre Well, the Chevron massacre, I you know, probably you he wasn't able to go. Because look, he went to Shechem, you know, he went to Kever Yosef. So, presumably that was the reason. I I don't see every single word of the safer, but I'm I'm guessing that's why. Um then he says they went to the city of Tel Aviv. Now, this is Tel Aviv 1930. Let's see how he describes it. We saw a beautiful city. It was a city Eer Altila Benuyah in its physical structure, buildings, metropolitan. However, spiritually it was the Gehenna. It was the abyss. Most of the Toshavim he uh labels you know, for for Munkatch, this is the worst epithet, and that is they are Tziyonim, Mizrachim, Ikarei Ha'aretz. Anyway, that means uh people he doesn't like. But why? Because they're Mechallelei Shabbos. Not only Beseser, but also Begaluy. And they eat Naveilos u'Treifos, and they're not Zoy'ein Taharas Mishpacha. In fact, it's brought over here that one of them told the Munkatcher Rebbe that in this city they don't even have a Mikvah. Not only are they not Zoy'er in Taharas Mishpacha, but they don't even bother. Okay, Baruch Hashem, things starting to change. But anyway, look in the next ice. They come to Yafo. It's at the head of the sea. About 4 to 5 hours, and they come close to the port. And we got onto a little boat that uh the sailors took until the big boat that was called Carnara. Carnara. The Carnara. Which is middle of the sea that you can't get there until uh because of all the um it's not even the depth, it's because of the boulders. Um and they had a go through a small rowboat. And uh as as we have the picture over here, as they say a picture is worth a thousand words. Instead of reading this account, cuz we're short on time, just take a look at this picture. They had to, um, They had They went on this little small boat. They climbed up the ladder, and, uh, with some the help of Arabs who shoved the Rebbe up, and, uh, they were able to get him on board. Arabim Shchorim, what a combination, right? So, that's that's some winning combination. Okay. So, it says the Rebbe Zakhrono Livrakha I saw him in Yerushalayim tell Livrakha to always remember the, uh, Kedusha of Yerushalayim. Actually, they called out to us, "Remember us. Keep Yerushalayim in your heart, and, um, don't forget about Eretz Yisrael." Fine. So, now we have a a short account of the boat ride, and I want to share with you something interesting. We're on page Reshon Aleph, Eretz Aleph. So, basically, half of the day passed. Everybody got onto his cabin on the boat, and the boat is, you know, shaking back and forth, um, to what he's called Avir Eretz Yisrael Amin. Now, the trip there was a little difficult. They were not used to the, you know, the bumpy ride, but now by now they they already were accustomed to that. And, um, this ride was only On the way there, it was only three days. Now it's going to take five days. Where is Trieste? What country? Italy. North Italy. Okay. Fine. So, they, um, they they went on the boat confident that the same way God got them there safe, he would get them back safe. Uh, interesting. Um, he now when we return from Zion we're like dreaming and we can't believe that we stood in Jerusalem and Safed and Tiberias and Meron and Sham and all these holy places in just the course of 13 days. Okay. Look on the bottom, there's a letter that's quoted over here that the Munkaczer wrote and it's brought in the safer of Divrei Torah Hilchos Aveilus Chof Hey that the Munkaczer wrote to the people in Jerusalem as he's returning from Eretz Yisrael to Munkacs. He says, "V'ta'aminu li b'emes Where? Look on the bottom of his Reshon Nun Beis. Please believe me. Ki ahavti kol kach es Eretz Hakodesh v'es Bnei Yisrael k'mo chavrusa yaminu. I really love Eretz Yisrael. Especially you, my Chassidim." He says, "V'hayu Yud Gimmel Yamim she'hayisi b'Eretz Hakodesh the 13 days that I was in Eretz Yisrael are connected to the 13 years that the Rashbi and his son Reb Elazar ben Reb Shimon spent in the cave. Did he eat carob? And the challenges of this last generation, let it be one day per year. And these experiences are engraved in in my mind and my heart. Even at night I can't help but think about the wondrous experience we had. Okay. Look in Ois Space. He says that the the Munkaczer could not be consoled mourning and moaning over the loss of the Saba Kadisha like a son who lost his father. He said, "Ani malei halachti v'reikam shivani. I left full, but I'm I'm returning empty-handed." But he says, "Look in Shamayim, the Saba Kadisha could go to Rubashkin and the uh speed up the case. Okay. At that point of time Okay, so um on this subject he says, "I want to pour out that on Motzoei Shabbos, Parshas Behar the Kook side or Chazon Ish side and here the the Munkatcher did not leave the bottom of the ship the whole Shabbos. The first time he's coming up for air. And we surrounded him and he comes up to the deck and with tears in his eyes he says "The certainly the Sabbath Kadisha is now in what is called Heichal Dekansipar, the Heichal of Mashiach. And all of those who attached themselves to him the Chiyuv, he is uh being uh interceding on their behalf. Okay. Then he points out something very interesting. And you see one of the reasons for the relationship between the Sabbath Kadisha and the Munkatcher, you have to know historically they were not the only two Tzaddikim in the time. There were many many Tzaddikim, but they did have something in common. What they shared in common was they were both what you call Kanno'im. And they both did not tolerate Jews living in Israel who are not Shomer Torah Mitzvos. To them that was considered like a very fundamental threat to the Jewish people. And they did not were not Soivel them and they did not look at them favorably. You know, there are different approaches. Other Gedolim maybe saw a potential redeeming quality and they saw them as as intentionally trying to undermine the the future of the Jewish people. And that's one of their common bonds. But anyway, you see over here it's reported that on the way to Eretz Yisrael on the boat, it was only the Munkaczer Chevre. On the way back, there he goes it was the the boat was malea mayim has a doinem chalutzim v'chalutzos m'chevre tzionim hamaslisim al daas yehudas. People who on the last three lines page 48 in Gemara. People who mocked the Yiddishkeit. What were they do Look how they referred to him. Kimat chora is cherev b'lashonam. They had swords in their tongue. Why? Because they were speaking Ivrit. And what is Ivrit? Shebodu milibam. They invented the language. Asher sonei Hashem umatu avene Yisrael. You know, historically, one of the reasons why uh Chassidim are not makpid on dikduk and the correct pronunciation of lashon hakodesh. Every single word is incorrect. Not only are the nikudot wrong, but the melal melal is wrong. There's no word bigvura. A complete am ha'aretz. I don't say that about them, but a regular Jew says bigvura, bigvura, right? Ozer, ozer, Yisrael bigvura. It's melal. Every Hebrew word is melal unless there's a reason to say otherwise. Um but the Chassidim to sort of counteract the emphasis on Hebrew language, they like went the other way as in Aisascha Hashem. Hard to understand why bizman hazeh when the threat is not the same, why why one would continue still consider still do that. But be it as it may, one should be makpid when they say Krias Shema, when they daven, to pronounce the words correctly. Not baruch. There is no word in lashon hakodesh baruch. It's baruch. Ata Hashem Elokeinu is a melal. Melech is a melal because of two segol. But what? Right. But um You see the disgust that they have for people who speak Hebrew and are not sure what to do with this. And just be aware of the historical context of where it comes from. He says over here, okay, you know, here they are on the boat and let's see what page are we on? Ration gamma. Going to base from dollar talks about these people who spoke Hebrew and sort of mocked the old traditions. What? They're leaving. They're leaving. He said He says that one of the men go on to the dock and there's a woman there who's uh who is speaking Hebrew and writing on Shabbos and he says one of the men say it's Shabbos. You know, so this is where it stems from. Anyway, but it's not a political share but just the historical kind. Look in the salad. Gamma talking about who do shoot him. And by the way, was not was not a were not connected to that good or either. They were not even that good as it were was not considered in their gafa. So he brings over here there were some good men on the boat. And they were they asked to borrow the safer Torah. And the Rebbe said no. And this safer Torah Yeah, they don't they don't agree with that good or that. They they said look, this safer Torah was never called up to get an earlier from the safer Torah. You could borrow my safer Torah on condition you don't call up a Shabbos. And they said we can't promise. They said you can't use the safer Torah. Anyway, but besides that, the rest of the trip was good. Again, I'm just reading the safer masters. I don't know about Titzchak the Munkatch. I'm a simple Jew. I try to keep a Shulchan Aruch. I don't have any only affiliation. I love all Jews. Yeah, even them. What? that will only call up a Munkatch Shul. Really? No, that's that's Anyway, by the way, the Remasha says Oh, Remasha says Me'ikar Hadin, you're allowed to call up a Munkatch, but it's not uh it's not correct. It's not nice to do so. Anyway, it's a person has to have a certain madregah of respect for the law to be able to have the privilege to be called up. Anyway, um the rest of the trip Uh there I'm sure there's no such thing as from a Yid who is a ganav. I'm sure there's no such thing. You want to know theoretically if there was a Yid from a Yid who is a ganav? It's a theoretical question. I don't believe that there are any from Jews that don't pay their taxes and steal from the government. I can't believe such a thing would exist. What? No, I'm just on the air. That's all. Okay, fine. So, look on uh Oiseh. Rabbi said, let's go. Come on. Oiseh, you got it? Besides this, the rest of the trip was good. Even Shabbos Kodesh, um we had a wonderful seudah. We had tzeis Halachah. We had yayin meshubach from Eretz Yisrael. We had good fish that um that we got fresh, and the the seudah was beautiful. Okay. Now, listen to this. We arrived to the port of Trieste on Monday, Parshas Bamidbar, Chof Ches Iyar. You see, they're getting there pretty close to the Yom Tov of Shavuos and uh we sent a message to the Yavasha that the things are good. By the way, let's see if I can find this. Okay, we'll leave it at that. Fine. Let's continue. Let's see if we can finish up. By the way, um it's interesting he brings over here they they spread false reports about the Munkatcher. Some of these society some of the people in Israel when they saw Well, the fake news, yeah. They spread false reports that the Munkatcher had fallen ill and the the the news had reached back to his Hasidim in Munkacs and they were devastated. Now, it was completely fabricated. When they saw the honor he was receiving throughout Israel, so the some of the secularists were jealous of that and they sent the report that it was his the end of his days. And they finally the Hasidim with the Rebbe found out that there's this false report, so they had to send out like telegrams no the Rebbe's okay, but the people didn't believe. They don't know who to believe, so Baruch Hashem they're able to clear that up. Ah. Now, this is what I wanted to end with and this was something that I thought was something that we could learn from. So, you could imagine I mean you have pictures here and you and you can actually see videos of this of what the wedding the Munkatcher Rebbe's uh daughter uh wedding um looked like. They have actual footage of it. You could just available anywhere. And the the cover that they accorded the Rebbe was no less than a king in England and it's unbelievable the entourage and the carriages and the escorts. So, when they heard that the Rebbe was coming they sent him a message to try to arrive during midday, not during the night cuz they wanted to have a tremendous, you know, welcoming uh ceremony. So, what can I say and Please come back during the day. Lots of cross eyes, it's all of the same car. They're going to have a tremendous Kabbalas Panim. However, the Munkatcher arranged to get home smack in the middle of the night. Why? He didn't want the attention. Also, it's very interesting uh the news of the of the of the of the petira of the Sabba Kadisha had not reached everywhere. And wherever they uh wherever they traveled, the people were asking, "Nu, how's the Sabba Kadisha?" And they were forced to sort of be the bearers of bad news. So, the Munkatcher didn't want to have to do that. If he would come to Munkatch in broad daylight, he would have to bear the news that the Sabba Kadisha passed away, and therefore he chose to come back in the middle of the night and not have to be the one to report the uh bad news. Okay, let's see. What page are we on now? Who's helping me out here? Rayshnun. Okay, here's the grand finale, something very frightening, mysterious, and We'll get to it. We we spoke about it. Uh the Sabba Kadisha was the main reason the Munkatcher wanted to go to Israel in the first place. His name is Reb Shloima Eliezer Alfandri, who was well over 100 years old. Some say he was 120 years old at the time the Munkatcher met with him. Okay, he was uh he came from uh Istanbul. Uh he wanted to fast and then ultimately to Jerusalem. So, let's look at this. When did they return home? Thursday, in the middle of the day, base Sivan. But still, the people of Munkacs, they had such a love for the Rebbe, it was smack in the middle of the night, there was still a tremendous uh welcoming, a tremendous kabbalas panim. Man edar haya hamachsah hana'ah, wondrous was the scene the kabbalas pnei melech adir. V'chi davar shalom al amo Amoy. And they started to sing and the Munkaczer said, "Don't sing. Leiv yode'a maras nafsho." We're still and he that those were the words he said. Listen carefully. On base Sivan, what year is this? This is the year um taf resh tzadi, 1930, right? So, on base Sivan, he said, "Don't sing. Leiv yode'a maras nafsho." We're still in the middle of the aveilus of the Saba Kadisha. Fine. Those were very spooky words. Leiv yode'a maras nafsho. When did he return? Base Sivan, taf resh tzadi. So, it's brought over here from the biography of the Munkaczer. Look on the bottom. I'm going to read to you the biography and then I'm going to read to you in the new ArtScroll edition, they have one very frightening hoisafa. Okay? He says over here, "You know what happened on base Sivan? The Rebbe came back on base Sivan, taf resh tzadi. He didn't let them sing cuz he said, "Leiv yode'a maras nafsho." Seven years later to the date, taf resh tzadi zayin, on that date, the Munkaczer Rebbe passed away. On base Sivan. Leiv yode'a maras nafsho. And um v'avoy nadar, it was a day of darkness. He lived from the day he came back from Israel until the day he died, seven more years, one shmita. That's the end of what's reported in the Hebrew edition. And as I said, the publisher, Mr. Robert Veg, came Wednesday night. He brought me the English edition and I'm just looking at it and it's a translation of the Hebrew, but in this footnote, they have one added detail, which is very frightening. Where did they get it from? It wasn't in the Hebrew. I think Mr. Veg told me that there's an updated Hebrew one that he published. I didn't see it yet, so maybe it's from the updated here. I'm not sure. So, again, what day did the Rebbe die? Base Sivan, tough race out of Zion. But we know the Nazis came into Munkacs seven years later. Seven years later to the date, on Base Sivan, Munkacs was taken to Auschwitz. That's also a frightening thing. That's what it says over here. With the passing of the tzaddik, look, I I put it on your sheet. With the passing of the tzaddik, the shield of generation, we saw the fulfillment of the verse, "Because of the impending evil, the righteous one was gathered in." Shortly after the Rebbe's passing, the Nazis began to rescue the Jews of neighboring lands, subjecting men and women. In Adar 1944, the enemy cast his net over Hungary and in Nissan, the Jews of Munkacs were sent to the ghetto. On the 20th of Iyar, the Nazis began to transport people there from Munkacs region to Auschwitz. The final transport loaded onto the cattle cars on the afternoon of the first day of Sivan, and the people on the transfer stayed in the cattle cars overnight. On the second day of Sivan, they traveled to Auschwitz. At that horrific time, our brothers, who called out exactly seven years earlier on that day, the Rebbe had passed away and seven years before that, on that day, the Rebbe had said, "The heart knows its own bitterness." Moreover, my voice I um I think the main reason that we uh read this whole account is first of all, you see this tremendous love that the Monkatcher had for this tzaddik, the tzaddik Kadisha, that, you know, in the back then it wasn't such an easy trip. It was a very arduous trip. But the tremendous ahavah that he had for the tzaddik Kadisha and the tremendous ahavah that he had for Eretz Yisrael, cherishing every footstep and every stone and every moment. And um this was Matos Sisu Simcha. We should all be zocheh to go back to Eretz Yisrael, to share in Maryam Amen. Shkoyach. You've just experienced another Torah class brought to you by torahanytime.com.