Community women gathered at Congregation Ahavas Yisroel for a beautiful and meaningful shiur delivered by Rebbetzin Nechama Karlinsky, seminary teacher in Israel and well-known speaker, on the topic of what we can do for our brothers and sisters in Eretz Yisrael.
Rebbetzin Karlinsky taught that we are in Galus Edom and Galus Yishmael now. Galus Yishmael is harder. How do you fight someone who wants to kill himself when he kills you? It defies nature. She noted how Yishmael also believes in Hashem, but they believe Hashem should agree to their murderous plans. Jews believe in Hashem without any agenda.
Pirkei D’Rabbi Eliezer has an interesting explanation of why they are called Yishmael, which means “Hashem will hear.” In the End of Days, when they are persecuting the Jews so much, Hashem will listen to the call of Yisrael. They are called Yishmael because they push us to daven.
How can we bear the yoke of our brothers and sisters who are suffocating in tunnels? We learn in the Chumash that Moshe put his eyes and heart to feel their tears. One of Hashem’s 13 attributes that we need to emulate is to empathize with another Jew in trouble. G’dolim feel even the slightest tzaros of their fellow Jews.
Nosei b’ol chaveiro includes being happy for a fellow Jew. She noted how everyone is envious of others unless they are their children or their students. So, we have to work on not being envious of others.
She spoke about the tzaros going on in Eretz Yisrael now. She shared that a big way to feel for them is through t’filah from the heart. It says in the Chumash that when Yaakov goes to get the blessing from Yitzchak, his father says, the hands are the hands of Eisav, but the voice is the voice of Yaakov.
This means that Eisav lives by the sword. T’filah is a sword and is sharp in and of itself. The t’filah composed by the Anshei K’neses HaG’dolah has k’dushah even if it is recited without kavanah.
Yishmael lived by using a bow and arrow. Our defense against them is t’filah aimed like a bow and arrow, straight and direct and, talking to Hashem in our own language as well, and putting strength into our t’filos.
She shared a famous story about a cinnamon bun. After Mordechai Rubashkin was freed from prison, a man went out and bought a cinnamon bun. This was significant, because this man liked to eat cinnamon buns and so he gave up eating them as long as Rubashkin was in jail.
The G’dolim say to daven very hard and to minimize physical pursuits or pleasures at this time when Eretz Yisrael is in so much danger. She shared an example. One woman gave up listening to very leibedik music.
She spoke about a woman who has two sons who were taken hostage. She spoke about another hostage, Agam Berger, whose friends were kept with her in an Arab home. They were released and they shared that when the Arab man told Agam to cook on Shabbos, she said a Jew doesn’t cook on Shabbos. She could have been killed for refusing, but nothing happened to her when she said that.
Rebbetzin Karlinsky shared that the key is t’filah and T’hilim with tears. We need more tears than T’hilim. She pointed out that the biggest koach is the koach of Torah study.
She shared a letter that a commander in Gaza wrote to a rosh yeshivah. In the letter, he thanked the rosh yeshivah and told him that he sees hashgachah pratis happening for each soldier in his unit. From all the face-to-face combat it doesn’t make sense; our soldiers aren’t all dying. Hashem is guarding them. T’filah and limud Torah are helping the soldiers. It’s what shields them. He thanked the rosh yeshivah with his whole heart. He ended by saying how what they are doing in yeshivah is so important and that he loves the rosh yeshivah.
Rav Yitzchak Yosef, Chief Sephardic Rabbi and son of Rav Ovadia Yosef, said that all the nisim we’ve witnessed with this war are in the z’chus of the bachurim and people in kollel who are learning Torah. When there is the voice of Yaakov learning Torah in the beis midrash, then the hand of Yishmael doesn’t work.
She urged everyone to daven for the yeshivos to stay intact and that no one should bother the yeshivos. She pointed out that there is a wave of t’shuvah going on in Israel. This fact means that Hashem wants us to improve something.
She shared many miraculous stories where people promised to take on Shabbos if they were saved – and they were saved and are now observant. One story was an Israeli man on one of the kibbutzim in Gaza who saw the terrorists and made a promise to keep Shabbos if he was saved. He hid in a wheat field, and he was saved.
She noted that over 2,000 women called Arachim, a kiruv organization in Eretz Yisrael, asking for chavrusos to learn hilchos Shabbos with them.
We saw, she said, places that kept Shabbos in the South, which were saved. In the moshav Tifrach, there are over 1,000 bachurim learning seriously. A resident from there said that the terrorists came to the gate and left. They were asked later why they left, and they said they saw someone had already set fire to the area. He pointed to the beis midrash where he saw the fire coming from. She said, there was a fire coming from there and it was the fire of Torah.
Rav Shimshon Pinchas said we should learn hilchos Shabbos as a big z’chus for the hostages and Israel.
Rav Moshe Sternbuch shlita said that Yishmael has z’chus of living in Israel because Muslims circumcise the boys. The word “bris” is used only with the Jewish people. There is only a covenant with the Jewish people and Hashem. The way to diminish the z’chus of Yishmael is to raise our level of k’dushah. We must be careful about what we see and hear.
Rebbetzin Karlinsky said we must also strengthen ourselves in emunah. She shared the miracle of the Motza’ei Shabbos when 350 Iranian missiles rained down in Israel with, baruch Hashem, no one killed. Another 400 landed in Iran causing damage there.
She ended by summing up six things we can do to help.
Feel their tzaar and daven for them. Carry their burden. When you partner with a group saying the whole Sefer T’hilim, it’s as if you recited the whole sefer.
Diminish gashmiyus a little bit.
Strengthen Torah study. This is the biggest protection.
Strengthen emunah.
Learn hilchos Shabbos to apply them meticulously.
Strengthen k’dushah.
She concluded that every thought, every action, and every word of a Jew travels to the upper olamos and causes Hashem to send brachah to this world. May we merit that Tish’ah B’Av will be a joyous holiday this year.
By Susie Garber
