Words From Rabbi White

Dear mitpallelim

Mazal tov to Shulamit and Simcha Foxman. With all of the stressful news we hear coming from Israel, we rejoice to learn of the wedding this past week in Israel of Simcha’s granddaughter Kaila to Yehoshua Werblowsky, grandson of the well known teacher and author Hanoch Teller - Mazal tov

Charles Stein observes yahrzeit for his father Abram on Tuesday 22 kislev Mr Stein and his wife a”h came regularly with Charles on Shabbat in the old building.

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I have mentioned before, that many years ago, the week of parashat vayishlah, when I was a student at Yeshiva University, I was sitting up front in the audience in Lamport Auditorium when my teacher Rabbi Soloveitchik zt”l gave his lecture that eventually was published in the periodical Tradition as “confrontation.”

He pointed out that the Jew has many ways in which he can/should contribute to society, as he confronts the world. However, as the Jew confronts and contributes to the world, the Jew must never forget the words of Yaakov at the beginning of this week’s Torah reading: ״ve’amarta le’avdekha le-Yaakov” You are a descendent of Jacob, you belong to the Jewish people!

We have seen, since Simchat Torah, the outpouring of Jewish identity. We all were inspired by the 300,000 who assembled in Washington. (Here in Teaneck thousands assembled last night in the cold in a park to protest Teaneck’s public High school’s plan to cancel afternoon classes to allow the students to attend a pro-hamas rally!)

Yet this past Sunday in the Tri-state area, we saw how pride in Jewish identity can be perverted. Keep in mind that as the Sunday after thanksgiving, it had been predicted that it would be the busiest travel day of the year. So… the group calling itself Jewish Voices for Peace (sic) organized to block the Manhattan Bridge in order to show their support for “peace.”  This naturally led to great discomfort and possible danger for commuters, as well as the potential for “Hillul HaShem.”

Unfortunately, their vision of peace means support for Hamas which, Gd forbid, means destruction of israel.

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When I first came to Montreal and taught at herzliah, my classroom was on the third floor, the office was at the end of the second floor. There was no thought of security. In retrospect, if a terrorist had entered, he could have shot up the entire school  before the office would know what was happening.

Sadly, security had had to become the major concern of schools everywhere.  So when the new building was opened a few years ago, we were told that it had the best security of any high school in North America.

We pray for genuine peace for Montreal, for  Israel and for the world.

Shabbat shalom,

Rabbi Menahem White