In his weekly shiur that he delivers every Monday evening in the Ramat Elchanan neighborhood of Bnei Brak, HaGaon HaRav Yitzchak Zilberstein addressed the murderous Ramaot terror attack that occurred that morning.

“We’re in very great tzara; the pain cries out to Shamayim,” HaRav Zilberstein began. “Six Jews were killed Al Kiddush Hashem in the terror attack, and another four IDF soldiers killed Al Kiddush Hashem in Gaza. Hashem Yikom Damam.”

HaRav Zilberstein then tearfully described the pain of the young wives of the three young avreichim who were brutally murdered. “They bought a new dress to fulfill Simchas Yom Tov on Rosh Hashanah. And now where’s the simcha? Where’s the Chag? She sits alone and will see the dress and will cry… I also want to cry.”

“There are children who came home from school or yeshivah and planned to tell their father the Divrei Torah they heard from their Rebbe…and now they’re sitting shivah…Tisha Ba’av…simcha has been transformed into mourning…the pain is indescribable.”

“And especially that yesterday there was a lunar eclipse. It is known what Chazal say in Masechtas Sukka (דף כט ע”א) that a lunar eclipse is a bad omen for the enemies of Yisrael (בלשון סגי ניהור—the opposite). These are clear signs of tzarah. A lunar eclipse is a sign that we need to do teshuvah.”

“The great pain is if we had known beforehand and prepared, perhaps it could have been prevented. If we had cried out to Hakadosh Baruch Hu and said to Him, ‘Please have mercy on Amcha Yisrael, have mercy on us,’ if we had drawn a little closer, in limmud Torah, in tefillah with kavanah, we probably could have prevented it.”

“Since we didn’t do that, Hakadosh Baruch Hu came and took the choicest of Talmidei Chachamim; all those who were murdered, each one, were the select of the Jewish nation.”

“Everyone asks what we need to be mechazeik in, but Mori HaGaon HaRav Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, z’tl, used to answer this question by saying that everyone knows the struggles of their heart, and each one knows better than anyone else what they need to be mechazeik; let them examine their deeds and correct their ways.”

“But nevertheless, the mitzvah we are required to do now is that we should all work together and be mechazeik more and more in limmud Torah and appease Hakadosh Baruch Hh, who also weeps. Hakadosh Baruch Hu sits and weeps and says: ‘I have such righteous children, and I have to judge them with a cruel measure of Din.’ Hakadosh Baruch Hu also weeps, and the pain of the Shechinah is very great, and we must also weep for that.”

“May Hakadosh Baruch Hu help us that we all be zocheh to Chayim Tovim, to learn Torah and teach it, and be zocheh to magnify His great name. We all need to increase our tefillos and Kiddush Shem Shamayim and strengthen Ahavas Rei’im, and there should be strong Shalom Bayis between husband and wife and children. And b’ezras Hashem, Hakadsoh Baruch Hu will favor us and redeem us and show us wonders, and we’ll be zocheh to the brachos of Hashem and that there will be no more violence and destruction within our borders.”

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)