Chazaq Siyum HaShas: Torah, Unity, and Mesiras Nefesh Across Generations

Transcript

This Torah class is brought to you by TorahAnytime.com. Bishus moiri v'rabi, hagaon, hagadol, Rav Noach Chaizikol, bamshlita. Rebbe, I thank you, and my talmidim know that I thank you for since I was a little boy. You were my role model. You were my role model, goyen in Torah, what it means to be a goyen in leadership, a talmid chacham with middos, which I fell in love with. Rebbe, I fell in love with you, if I could say that. And this love I give over to my talmidim. I sit here with Rav Ilan Shlita. Rav Ilan, I love you. The community loves you. And what we love about you is your mesirus nefesh. You spoke about my mesirus nefesh. I think yours is a little more. Talmid chacham, I remember how you started. I remember the mesirus nefesh. You had to fight milchemta shel Torah. You should keep on fighting with middos and erlichkeit, and HaKadosh Baruch Hu should give you siyata dishmaya, Rav Ilan, and you should have harbeh hatzlacha. I'm not going to be long. I feel the Rav spoke, so I'll just say b'kitzur. A thought I had sitting at the siyum haShas. I looked around, and something came to me, something very profound. There's a vort in this week's parsha that we just read, in Parshas Vayigash, which I think highlights the siyum haShas. V'es Yehudah shalach lefanav el Yosef. He sends Yehudah to go first before he comes down to Mitzrayim. Yehudah has a mission. And Rashi says, what is the mission? L'saken lo beis Talmud, to create. L'saken, interesting lashon, l'saken, to fix, almost a lashon of fixing, a beis Talmud. There's a few questions, rabosai. Why Yehudah? Why Yehudah? Yissachar is the Rosh Yeshiva, the talmid chacham, the lamdan. The Rambam actually says that Yaakov Avinu designated Levi to be rosh hayeshiva. So either Yissachar or Levi. Why Yehudah? Why was it Yehudah's job, his mission, to create l'saken lo beis Talmud, a yeshiva, before Yaakov comes? And what's wrong if we create the yeshiva once he comes? Why does it have to be before he goes down to Mitzrayim? And the lashon hapasuk, rabosai, says El Yosef. Where did Chazal see that it means to fix, to establish a yeshiva if it says he sent him to Yosef? Many gave different terutzim why Yehuda. Yehuda's malchus, Yehuda's gevurah, Yehuda's leadership. Bekitzur, it's late. Yehuda's mission was to fix the achdus. Vayigash eilav Yehuda. Midrash and the Chazal are full that here the mesiras nefesh over the achvah was the tikkun. And therefore Yosef said, now it's time to reveal myself. Yaakov sends Yehuda with a mission, a mission of achvah, to fix the achdus, and the only way to do that is l'saken loi beis talmud.

Achdus, achdus, achdus. Unity in Klal Yisroel. Unity of a community is Torah, Torah, Torah. The siyum haShas unified Klal Yisroel in a beautiful way. All types of Yidden coming together, united in a daf. From what I understand, that was R' Meir Shapiro. That's why he created the Daf Yomi, that Yidden should unite, and they should all be learning the same daf. And through that, we become a nation. And this is all we have in galus, rabosai. There's nothing that could unite Klal Yisroel. There's nothing that can unite a community more than Torah and Torah. I'd like to just take one more minute of your time. There's another lesson that needs to be learned in the Daf Yomi. The siyum haShas, we had two generations. Forgive me if I speak from the heart a minute. We had the generation that went through the Holocaust, and the generation of today sitting at a siyum haShas. You know, rabosai, there's different nisyonos for Klal Yisroel throughout the generations. Sometimes the nisayon is beguf, that they want to kill Klal Yisroel, and it takes tremendous mesiras nefesh. We got to give up. As korbanos are guf, maybe just as difficult as the mesiras nefesh of our generation, to learn even though outside is nisyonos, difficulties, all the different things that pull us away. That's also a mesiras nefesh. You know, Yaakov Avinu was makriv a korban on the Har Habayis, in the makom Hamikdash. The Rambam actually tells us, Adam was, Noach was, and Yitzchak and Avram was makriv Yitzchak. But we don't find Yaakov was makriv a korban. There's an interesting Tzror HaMor. The Tzror HaMor says that when he got the dream, he got the dream, Yaakov Avinu, he puts an even, he puts a stone, vayitzok shemen al rosho. He puts oil. Where did he get that oil from? Says the Tzror HaMor, shem kadmonim, that he had it in his stick, he carried it. And this was the oil that he used to learn through the nights. He needed light. Ki imakli avarti es haYarden hazeh. Yaakov Avinu says, what gave me the strength through the galus was makli, my stick. What is the stick? Avarti es haYarden hazeh, makli is the oil. And Yaakov takes this oil. And he puts it on the mizbeach that he built, because that's Yaakov Avinu's korban. There's different type of korbanos. Sometimes it's akeidah, it's Holocaust, where we're taken and we're put into an oven, into crematorium. And sometimes the hakravah is Torah, when it's difficult. Torah at night. Night, Moshe Chachma says, is galus. Yaakov gets all his nevuah in galus, at night, because Ribono Shel Olam is saying, I'm with you at night. I'm with you in the galus. I want to end with a story, and I think the oilam will take away this story something very, very big chizuk. The last letter that my grandfather, Reb Shmuel David Walkin, received from his father during the Holocaust—it's printed in the hakdamah of all the beis arins. It's somewhat of a long letter. I'll just take out the last part of the letter. He says that in today, the time that we're experiencing bothers me that we can't learn and daven. Klal Yisrael is in a situation...

In a Holocaust, how does the Eibishter, how does he feel? He's not getting the Torah of Klal Yisrael. But I could say about myself, children, don't worry. I've kept every hanhaga that I've kept, have done, I still keep today. I keep it through the Holocaust. I didn't miss even one hanhaga. Davening, learning. And because of that, I'm weak. But I see from myself that when the gashmiyus is weakened, the ruchniyus becomes stronger, and a person can live on ruchniyus alone. That was the last letter that the Zeide sent, and I found out the history of this letter. There's a lot of details to the story, but I don't want to take too much more time. I met Reb Yosef Kohn in Eretz Yisrael. The talmidim know all the details of the story. Reb Yosef Kohn is the son-in-law of Reb Tzvi Pesach Frank. He's the father of Reb David Kohn, Rosh Yeshiva of Chevron. And he told me, Your name is Aaron Walkin. I want you to meet somebody. I come to the shul, Harry Fischel, and he introduces me to somebody, and he says, This is Aaron Walkin. The person's face, his demeanor, became very serious, and he said, Aaron Walkin? My rav. I'm a Pinsker Yid. I was the last person to see your zeide, the Beis Aaron. I was the last person. What was the story? Baisaron was in hiding because the Nazis were coming. And then when they finally came and they started making decrees, no more davening, no more learning, Yezayda came out of hiding. And he hid his beard, and he put on a kasket, and he went from house to house where the Bnei Torah were. And he knocked on their doors by himself, and he says, I opened the door. I was a ben Torah. I got the knock on the door, and I was surprised to see the rov. And he started pleading with me that we'll all come together in a home, in a particular house. He says he himself will be there. He'll learn, and he'll say shiurim, and he'll daven. He wants that the person should sign, the bachurim should sign, even if it means kiddush Hashem, mesiras nefesh, to give up your life. He says, I was ready to do it, and then my mother came, and she started pleading with me. They thought that if we don't antagonize the Nazis, nothing will happen. Of course, it was a silly thought. We know that it's not true. But she said, Don't do it. And then all of a sudden, your grandfather, the Zayda, started to cry. It was deep. How could the Pinsk be without Torah? And the tears went on my lapel, my jacket, and I was so moved that I said, I'm signing and I'm coming. And I was part of the group of Bnei Torah. I was together with you, Zeide, till the last moment when they took him away. Yet I was able to escape, and throughout the Holocaust, what kept me was the Torah that I learned in that house, the Torah that I learned under the duress of giving up my life, the mesiras nefesh. Now I understand the letter, that he didn't miss one הנהגה. His drashes, he says he gave drashes. What's the point I'm trying to bring out, rabosai? Torah is mesiras nefesh. There was generations where the mesiras nefesh was to give up our lives, and our fathers did it. We come from a lineage of Yidden that gave up life for Torah. Today we have to be moser nefesh differently. Every generation has its own nisyonos, and it needs its own mesiras nefesh. Nevertheless, it's mesiras nefesh. You talk about my mesiras nefesh. I thank the Eibishter for giving me the zechus to watch how you... my entire kehillah.

Beautiful bnei Torah, yom mesiras nefesh. It's probably bigger than my mesiras nefesh. I grew in, I grew up with this. I don't have much choice in it, as they say. You're fighting a fight, a struggle, your mesiras nefesh. This is Kiddush Shem Shamayim, sitting right here in front of you, rabosai. This is Kiddush Shem Shamayim. And this is what we asked Eibishter. We're in galus, yet we're still Your children, and we still moser nefesh for Your Torah, b'achdus, as one nation, as one people. My bracha to all you, the mesaymim: take this lesson. Go into the community and be marbitz Torah b'mesiras nefesh, selfless. Be selfless. That's Torah. I wish you all hatzlacha. Thank again the Rav, everything. And im yirtzeh Hashem, yeah, we're going to give out the smiches, and im yirtzeh Hashem, you should all be zocheh to banim uvnei banim oskim baTorah, and b'schus this we should have the geulah shleimah bimheirah b'yameinu, amen. You've just experienced another Torah class, brought to you by TorahAnytime.com.