/עלון שבת בשבתו - אנגלית
08/12/2008 ,
Little Stories about a Great Man
During a lesson, some students in my class started to doze. When our subject saw this, he didn't become angry. Instead, he suggested that if we were tired we should all put our heads down on the desks for a few minutes to rest (including the teacher). Then, a few minutes later, he woke us up. To our great surprise, we then remained wide awake for the rest of the lesson.

A common practice of the Chassidim is to eat "shirayim" – leftovers from food that their rabbi started to eat. But the opposite can also happen. Every morning after breakfast, there were usually half-finished containers of cottage cheese and pieces of bread left on the tables. Our subject collected these leftovers, moved to a table on the side of the room, and made himself a meal out of what the students had left behind.

In order to prevent the older students from razing the youngsters (which was especially common in the Purim season), he asked the seniors to study with the younger students, discussing the inner significance of the month of Adar and of Purim in particular. One time on Shabbat Zachor, right before Purim, our subject heard about a senior who abused a freshman. He immediately ran to look for the offender, a very big boy, who approached the rabbi with a smug look on his face. Our subject, who was quite short, rose up and lifted his hand high, giving the student a resounding slap on his cheek. For a moment everything was completely silent, almost as if the entire universe stood perfectly still. And then the rabbi burst out in tears together with the student, and they both embraced warmly.

Our subject was elected a member of the seventh Knesset. I once asked him if a rabbi should really be involved in politics. He replied, "Absolutely not. In politics, it is sometimes necessary to compromise on principles in order to accomplish important goals, and this is not a proper thing for a rabbi to do. For example, I voted to dissolve the military government in order to gain support for the opening of a military prep school in Givat Shmuel."

There was a suspicion that a pair of sunglasses that "disappeared" from one of the students had in fact been stolen. Our subject asked everybody to join him in the Beit Midrash. He tried to speak, but in the end he could not say anything, and he just started to cry. After a few minutes he left the room. We sat there for a long time in silence and then we all slowly left. But after this there was no more stealing.

The rabbi served as the chazzan in the Mussaf prayers of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. He would incorporate tunes having to do with the establishment of the State of Israel into the prayers – "He who raises up kings, and who has the real authority" to the tune of Hatikva, and "Let all your slaves" to the tune of the hymn of the Palmach.

Who is Our Subject?

These incidents all happened to Rabbi Moshe Tzvi Neria. The "small" stories above show how great a man he was. He was born in Poland, and when he was seventeen he came to the land in order to study with Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Kook in Yeshivat Merkaz Harav. He was among the founders of the Bnei Akiva movement, and he wrote the words and tune of the movement's anthem, "Yad Achim." About ten years later he established the Bnei Akiva yeshiva in Kefar Haroeh. At first he wanted to combine Torah study with manual labor, but because of popular demand the agricultural labor was replaced by secular studies. During the early years of the country, he printed a prayer book for Yom Haatzmaut, with sources that showed that it should be celebrated as a holy day like other holidays.

He died on the nineteenth of Kislev 5756 (1995), at the age of 82, and his last words were, "Give me holiness of Eretz Yisrael, give me holiness of the love for Yisrael." These words were an expression of the concepts which were most important to him.

Words of Torah by our Subject:

"And he was afraid – he feared that he might kill others" [Bereishit 32:8, Rashi]. But these others were coming to kill Yaacov, isn't a person allowed to kill his attacker, in self defense? The answer is that this is true about Eisav, who wanted to kill Yaacov, but perhaps the four hundred men who accompanied him were coerced by Eisav and did not really want to kill him. However, the law is that one who is being forced to kill another person under a threat of death is not permitted to do so, since he can be asked, "Why do you think your blood is any thicker than your brother's blood?" But perhaps this law is only relevant for Jews, who were also commanded not to worship idols or commit illicit sexual acts even if threatened with death, while Bnei Noach are not required to allow themselves to be killed for any mitzva." [Invei Petachia].