All the Rabbonim were quick to give a reason of why the Har Nof tragedy occurred. Some "Gedoilim" have remarked that this all happened because a couple guys went up to daven at the Har Habayis...
At the Agudah Convention, the keynote speaker actually said that....
But none of these so called "gedoilim" would G-D Forbid look into themselves and see what havoc and Sinas Chinom, they themselves have caused!
We really have no answers, even Moshe Rabbeinu didn't have the answers....
but finally a real lady, the Almana of Harav Hakodesh Moshe Twersky z"l, says that it may be a good idea, to look into our own affairs before we blame others!
See UPDATED DIN comments after the post!
Bashi Twersky the widow Rabbi Mosheh Twersky – who was killed in the Har Nof terrorist attack last week – said the internal divisions within the ultra-Orthodox community that have developed over the last two years were the reason why her husband and three other members of the community died in the brutal incident.
Speaking at the mass prayer rally and ceremony held in the Jerusalem neighborhood on Tuesday night for the end of the shiva mourning period for the victims, Twersky said the dispute had become increasingly acrimonious over the last year in particular.
She was alluding to the establishment of a new political movement and party that is in competition with the traditional Degel Hatorah non-hassidic haredi party.
She said that the attack had been particularly brutal, and asked how such a death could befall those praying in synagogue, “how did the sanctity of the synagogue and prayer not defend us,” she asked.
“The fire of dispute has been burning among us for a year now, and this dispute became terrible, and every day it gets worse.”
“Someone who listens to a great rabbi different from the one I listen to, someone who belongs to a different camp from me is commanded to be cruel to them, is commanded to humiliate and disgrace them, to harass them with terrible brutality.
“When we behave with cruelty to our brothers, God sends a punishment with cruelty, measure for measure.
“In synagogues and study halls they persecuted, disgraced and humiliated those who think differently from me, and therefore we were struck by the attribute of strict justice in a synagogue at the time of prayer,” the rabbi’s wife said.
She added that strengthening religious observance, as has been advised by many rabbis, was not a good enough reaction, and that rather a “drastic change” was required.
Addressing the hundreds of women who had gathered to listen to the bereaved women speak, Twersky pleaded tearfully for such change.
“Beloved daughters, I implore you from a broken and tearful heart and from the depths of my soul: Let us accept upon ourselves to live with love and fraternity with all Jews who tremble before God.... Maybe then these sacrifices will not be for nothing and if we act with love to each other, God will reply to us with love,” she said.
Since the late Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv died in July 2012, the non-hassidic haredi world has been riven by an internal dispute over who should inherit the mantle of leadership.
It was the elderly and frail Rabbi Aharon Leib Shteinman who was acknowledged as the new leader by the majority of the community, but supporters and loyalists of the more hard line Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach refused to accept Shteinman as the spiritual leader.
The Bnei Torah party, established by Auerbach loyalists, contested local municipal elections in October 2013 and won several seats on municipal councils in the ultra-Orthodox strongholds of Jerusalem, Modi’in Illit and Bnei Brak.
The resultant factional strife has been extremely rancorous with mutual recriminations from either side.
It is this division that Bashi Twersky was referring to in her emotional and heartfelt speech Tuesday night.
DIN:
What she is saying is absolutely correct, that the Litvishe community has engulfed itself in a huge machlokes. But when one analyzes it further, it becomes apparent that this machlokes stems from anti-zionism. The Litvishe were taught by their leadership to hate their fellow Jews who built the land.
The sinas chinam techniques that they so brilliantly developed are now being used against each other, midah kneged midah.
The proof is that the entire machlokes between these two Litvishe camps is on, how anti-zionist we are supposed to be. For example, do we sign up but refuse to serve in army, or not sign up at all. This is a very important issue to spend one's days on, and create new movements and warring newspapers and deligitimize each other's yeshivas just based on this single lomdishe point. How great klal yisrael is to be medakdek on such fine details. Yasher Koach. The nekuda of the machlokes is are we supposed to be very antizionist, or extremely antizionist.
Another proof is that one of the flagship anti-zionist yeshivas is now torn by such infighting that the police need to be called constantly. They destroyed their library, threw yogurt on rabbonim in middle of davening, etc. Much to be proud of. And the same for the Chassidishe anti-zionist movement, which has been fighting in courts for years. When you teach hatred, don't be surprised if your students use it on you, too, and each other.
Meanwhile, rabbonim from the Litvishe camp, which in the past has been known to stir up their crowd by saying that the Zionists are out to kill all Rabbonim, have now paskened that one can carry a cell phone on shabbos to call police, in case of emergency, chas vshalom. Hmmm, and guess who might answer the phone if they call? A zionist policeman who would put his life on line to save these Litvishe who bad-mouthed him and his beloved Medinas Yisrael all these years.
Rachmana Litzlan from this hatred and stupidity for so many years. It is time to grow up and show some hakaras hatov to our fellow nonfrum Jews who are moser nefesh for all of us, and then this asinine internecine machlokes will cease.
