On Wednesday evening, October 11, Rabbi Fischel Schachter, well-known speaker, storyteller, and author, shared divrei chizuk at Yeshiva Ohr Yitzchok in Brooklyn. He shared a quote of what President George W. Bush said after 9/11. “The sun has set on a different America.” Rav Schachter said, “This Simchas Torah, the sun set on a different klal Yisrael.” He said that today it’s a different world. It’s out of the range of what we can absorb.
Rabbi Schachter taught that we can’t keep making the same mistakes. We have to go back to the source and reaffirm who we are, and why we are, and when we are, and where we are. We all have the common denominator that we are all alive. Hashem gave us our life and He sustains our life.
When we pass a place where a miracle occurred for a personal miracle or a miracle for klal Yisrael, we recite a brachah. If a miracle happened for your parents or grandparents, you have to make a brachah when you pass that point. There were many places where miracles happened to our parents and grandparents. We don’t know how many miracles take place in our lives on a continuous basis.
Hashem removed the sh’mirah on Simchas Torah. Every second that we are protected, and bad things don’t happen, it is a miracle from Hashem. He shared his thoughts of how this trouble possibly could have started. “I think it started with a comment by someone who was head of the Israeli government when they were debating about going to Chevron. This person said that G-d never protected us and He won’t do it now.” Rabbi Schachter said, “I think this was a prewarning from Shamayim.” Hashem wanted us to see what happens when He is not protecting us.
There was an interview with a top Israeli general about the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War. The journalist asked him if he thought a terrible security lapse like that could ever happen again. The general laughed and stated that it could never happen again. He said that Israel has the most sophisticated surveillance equipment in the world. They have cutting edge security.
Rabbi Schachter said that it started with saying that G-d never protected us and this led to an unexplained lapse of security.
When we feel a lack of bitachon and ask Hashem to help us with our emunah, that creates sh’mirah from Hashem. A person needs peace of mind even when he is surrounded by worries. Eretz Yisrael is under a rein of missiles, coupled with the sheer horror of what happened, and concerns about attacks from the North, etc. Still, in your mind you can create an island of bitachon.
He shared an incredible story. An 81-year-old woman, living in a moshav in the South, heard a siren and she went into her safe room. Then, there was a pounding at the iron door. An Arab terrorist broke down the door and pointed a rifle at her. She was all alone. She said, Sh’ma and then she said, “Hashem, please don’t do this to me.”
Amazingly, the Arab grabbed her phone and left. A few minutes later, a rein of stones broke through the sealed window of the safe room and two Arab boys jumped inside. They demanded money. She told them she didn’t have any. They climbed back out the window. She could hear more terrorists inside her apartment. She somehow climbed up the now open window and made it down to the first floor. There was a security guard lying dead in front of her apartment. She took his phone and called the front of the moshav for help. They told her it was too dangerous to come in. She should try to make it to the front.
She ran approximately two miles to the front gate of the moshav and made it to safety. Rabbi Schachter pointed out that she didn’t beg for mercy from the Arab terrorist who was pointing a gun at her. Rather, she asked Hashem for mercy. She had the presence of mind to know it was only Hashem who could help her. She was convinced this was from Hashem and her only issue was with Him. This generated a sh’mirah. “When you put yourself into the hands of Hashem, then things change.”
Rabbi Schachter related that we have to have unity among ourselves. We are all one klal Yisrael. Daven with kavanah. We are all connected to Eretz Yisrael. Work on sh’miras ha’lashon. He pointed out that there were 24 moshavim that the terrorists planned to attack and two of them escaped an attack. These were the two that were completely shomer Shabbos. Their gates were locked, and the terrorists couldn’t enter. There were shomer Shabbos people on the other moshavim, but the terrorists were still able to infiltrate. The ones they couldn’t get into were the two moshavim where the Jews were shomer Shabbos together.
“Mashiach has to be around the corner, because it doesn’t make sense that there was no security for so many hours. The more we understand that there is a sh’miras Elyon, the more protected we are.”
This shiur can be viewed on www.TorahAnytime.com.
By Susie Garber
