When a Channel 12 News reporter spotted a “secular” man among the hundreds of thousands of participants at the levaya of the Gadol HaDor, z’tl, on Sunday, he approached him and asked him his reason for being there.
“Why did you feel the need to come and depart from HaRav Chaim Kanievsky, z’tl?” he asked.
“First of all, I live relatively close to here,” the man said. “I was zochech to be by HaRav Kanievsky, ztl, about 20 years ago in the middle of the night. It was an experience that’s impossible to explain.”
“My wife didn’t understand why I was taking a small child to the levaya. I told her: ‘It’s the Gadol HaDor, the Sar HaTorah. I view all the avreichim hatziddikim here around us as indispensable. Toras Yisrael is what holds up the world, what enables it to exist.”
At this point, the Chareidim surrounding the man and listening to the interview broke out in applause.
The interviewer didn’t seem to fully understand the “secular” man’s answer. Instead, he turned around and speaking to the camera, said” “All types of people from all spectrums of society are here – not just Chareidim.”
The “secular” man then spoke up and speaking to the Chareidim surrounding him, said: “Chizku V’Amtzu. Continue in your path. I served in the IDF for 25 years. I’m still friends with IDF Chief Aviv Kochavi. And I’m telling you that without you, Am Yisrael wouldn’t continue to exist. Without the light that you spread, Am Yisrael couldn’t exist.”
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
6 Responses
Wow wow wow what an amazing person,I wish all the chiloinim would say that
The only thing more positive than the eloquent words of the “secular” guy being interviewed was the appreciation for those words shown by the Chareidi guys standing around and listening to the interview. Sadly, as the article points out, the TV reporter (not surprisingly) was totally clueless to this inspiring moment of achdus he was facilitating live on camera.
why do we need “secular” people to tell us this?
Nivuchadnetzar, Haman, the cossacks……hitler and all the rest knew this also. why cant we see this?
This man is really special. What a Kiddush Hashem.
Amazing. Look at the anchorman trying to shut this man up. Beautifully said.
What is the point of this article? If we are now interested in the opinions of Secular/Chiloni society, clearly that one man is not representative of the society as a whole, and I believe that most would disagree with him. Does YWN think that we need our beliefs validated by Secular/Chiloni society? I hope not, because then we’d be in deep trouble.