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Thinking
about the Land of Israel
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Rav
Yisroel of Shklov and the Paas Hashulchan
Rabbi Binyomin Adilman
From B'ohalei
Tzaddikim
Thinking
about Eretz Yisroel. . .
R'
Yisroel of Shklov was one of the closest disciples
of the Gaon of Vilna. In 1810 he led a delegation
of students and followers of the Gaon, together
with their families, to Eretz Yisroel.
With the Gaon's blessings in hand, they intended
to make a new home in the Holy Land. Their absorption
into the Land of Israel was by no means easy. It
took more than 50 years before they could firmly
established a viable lifestyle. These years were
fraught with danger, disease, disaster and death.
Nevertheless, they persevered and today the descendants
of that original group are founders of prominent
families in Jerusalem and other cities in Israel.
The original group led by R' Yisroel of Shklov settled
in Tsfas in the Galilee. It took years before they
were able to establish a harmonious community structure
together with the already resident Sephardi
community and with a large contingent of Chassidim
under the leadership of R' Menachem Mendel of
Vitebsk, who arrived around the same
time.
The group lived in dire poverty and life was a constant
struggle for survival as they endeavored to generate
sources of livelihood, and re-establish their Torah
institutions. In 1821 on the day after Shavuos,
in the morning, the Arab population of the Galilee
fell upon the Jewish community of Tsfas. While more
fortunate residents escaped to the neighboring village
of Bira, the Arabs proceeded to satiate their hatred
in a 30 day orgy of destruction, theft, rape, murder,
and desecration of Holy Books and Torah scrolls.
When the population was finally able to return,
there was nothing left. The destruction left only
disease and more intense poverty in its wake.
R' Yisroel decided to seek refuge in Jerusalem with
the remaining members of his family. But the plague
could not be stopped and was soon sweeping through
the Holy City like a wave. It wasn't long before
R' Yisroel was bereft of both wife and children;
all except for Shaindel, his youngest daughter.
Then R' Yisroel, too, contracted the plague.
As he lay racked in pain on an abandoned rooftop,
with his young daughter in his arms, he began, one
final time, to beseech Hashem for his life
and for the merit of establishing a family on the
soil of the Holy Land. Then he made a vow to Hashem.
"If my life is spared", he vowed with the last of
his strength,
"I will dedicate myself to writing a comprehensive
treatise expounding all the laws of the Torah pertaining
to living in the Land of Israel." And as he prayed
and wept, he fell asleep.
In the introduction to his classic work, Pa'as
HaShulchan, on the laws pertaining to the Land
of Israel, R' Yisroel of Shklov presents a heart-rending
account of his struggle to establish a Torah
community in Tsfas some 180 years ago. He writes,
that after collapsing into sleep on that rooftop
in old Jerusalem, "Someone approached and touched
me, arousing me like one awaking from sleep. Then
he said to me, 'Afflicted and tortured one, be healed!'
From that time on, Hashem began to reveal
His (boundless) kindness on me . . ."
R' Yisroel was able to re-establish his family in
Tsfas. He fulfilled his vow and completed his work
Pa'as HaShulchan on the laws of Eretz
Yisroel. He suffered many more tribulations,
including the massive earthquakes in 1827 and 1834
which leveled Tsfas, Tiberias and most of the northern
Galilee. In the resulting fires, all of the manuscripts
for Pa'as HaShulchan went up in flames -
before having been brought to the printing press.
Yet he himself emerged unscathed, ". . .and not
so much as a small rock grazed my head." R' Yisroel
persevered, rewrote the entire book and jubilantly
brought it to publication in 1837.
It is amazing, after considering R' Yisroel's story
of settling in Eretz Yisroel, what he writes
further on in the introduction to Pa'as HaShulchan.
"This book covers the breadth of the laws pertaining
to the Holy Land of Israel, which is beloved to
me exceedingly, since through tremendous suffering
I merited to attach myself to Hashem's inheritance
and to become beautified through its very soil during
these past 27 years."
After his death, one of his students found R' Yisroel's
personal copy of the Pa'as HaShulchan with
this inscription in it: ". . .this book . . .which
is inspired by the holiness of the air of the Holy
Land of Israel, which is connected to, and scented
by, the air of the Holy Garden of Eden."
The words and the example of R' Yisroel of Shklov
certainly give one pause when considering one's
relationship with Eretz Yisroel. Should
it make a difference whether Hashem tests
our spirit and our resolution with an earthquake
or with an obnoxious taxi driver or unsympathetic
clerk? Let R' Yisroel of Shklov serve as an inspiration
to all Klal Yisroel as we make our way back
to the Holy Land. |
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