Transforming
Ramat Aviv
PART
2
(Click
here for Part 1.)
By Menachem Ziegelboim
The
media recently reported about a Lubavitcher yeshiva student
who was struck by an anti-religious Shinui activist following a
demonstration against the growth of the Chabad movement in the
Ramat Aviv neighborhood * We went to Ramat Aviv and found the
youngest Chabad community in Eretz Yisroel growing and blossoming
under the direction of Rabbi Yosef Ginsberg, along with senior
shaliach Rabbi Dovid Oshaki
It
was fascinating walking around the zal and watching the bachurim
sitting and learning. I saw them with their black hats, their
beards, and the look of a Tamim on their faces, studying nigleh
and pnimiyus ha’Torah. It’s hard to believe that
just three years ago, this was an unfamiliar venue for them.
Every
bachur is a story unto himself. There is Yovel Lazovsky,
the national champion in water skiing for eight years. There are bachurim
who used to be officers, members of elite units, policemen,
members of Shin-Bet, and many others.
One
talmid, Yechezkel Noama, was born in Kiryat Ono and served
thirteen years in an elite commando unit, participating in
momentous and daring actions for the sake of his country, most of
which cannot be disclosed even today. The only thing he could
share is that he took part in the kidnapping of Sheik Oveid, in a
bold and dangerous journey behind enemy lines. The kidnapping was
orchestrated to obtain a holding card in negotiations with
terrorists to free pilot Ron Arad. “We carried him on our backs
to the helicopter and from there to Eretz Yisroel,” he recalls.
The
activities inspired him with an inner awareness of hashgacha
pratis. “Everything is planned down to the last detail, yet
at the same time you see what a thin line there is between success
and failure. This sharpened my awareness that the Creator of the
world is the one who truly supervises everything.”
After
his release from the army, he lived in a yishuv in the
north, called Margalit, and he and his wife adopted a natural
lifestyle. Since he was raised in a traditional home, every so
often he davened and put on tefillin, “But I
didn’t get into it. I only kept a few mitzvos, mainly
those I understood intellectually and which I felt good about.”
One
day he went to Tzfas on errands. He met an observant Jew there and
asked him where he could study Torah. “It suddenly occurred to
me that just as a father has a connection with his son, Hashem has
a connection with us and wants us to have a connection with Him. I
suddenly wanted to connect with Hashem.
“The
man I met was a Lubavitcher Chassid who encouraged me to increase
my connection to the Rebbe and to Hashem. I wrote to the Rebbe
through the Igros Kodesh and received an answer in a
letter that the Rebbe wrote to someone that the time had come for
him to stop running his own life and to begin keeping Torah and mitzvos.
The Rebbe said he should distance himself from the approach of the
Reform, who do everything based on what they understand.
“I
saw this as a direct answer. Everything I had been doing up until
then were only those things I could accept rationally.”
Yechezkel’s
wife accepted his new resolution, and that day he began keeping
Torah and mitzvos and began wearing a kipa. The
couple moved to the yishuv Itamar in Shomron and Yechezkel
began learning in Rabbi Yitzchok Ginsberg’s kollel in
Sh’chem. When he saw that the level of learning was too high for
him, he discovered that Rabbi Ginsberg’s son, Yossi, had started
a yeshiva in Ramat Aviv. “Since then, I’ve been
traveling every day from Itamar to Ramat Aviv.”
It
pays to travel so far?
“There
are benefits to traveling because I can do mivtzaim on the
way, and it’s also a good time to think.”
You
see people demonstrating against you. Could you once have been one
of them?
“I’ll
answer with a story. A few years ago I toured the jungles of South
America. When you prepare for the trip, people tell you that there
are wild, dangerous animals and it doesn’t pay to go. Then when
I entered the jungle, I saw mountains and valleys, beautiful
birds, tall trees and rivers, and wild animals too.
“The
same is true for religious Jews. Before I became religious, my
attitude was that the religious Jews were some sort of wild animal
or bloodsucker. Then when you get to know them and the world of
Judaism, you see it’s not like that. Looking from afar doesn’t
enable you to focus properly. You can easily be frightened by
shouting, but not by the truth. That’s the situation here in the
neighborhood.”
Today,
he and his wife and little daughter live in Itamar. They enlarge
pictures and posters for a living, including pictures of the
Rebbe. “That helps you focus your gaze in the right place,”
says Yechezkel with a smile, as he goes back to his Gemara.
The
yeshiva’s administration takes care of the bachurim with
as much concern as parents take care of their children. And not
only in spiritual matters, but materially as well. “First of
all, we make sure we have excellent meals,” says menahel
Amir Kahane. “It’s one of the things we emphasize.”
When
bachurim are ready to marry, the hanhala helps them
find suitable shidduchim and helps them prepare for
marriage.
Rabbi
Ben-Tziyon Schwartz: “We
have married off more than ten bachurim. Each wedding is
like marrying off one of our own children. It is a family simcha
for the talmidim of the yeshiva. We clearly see how
the wedding of one of the boys gives a chayus to the yeshiva
that lasts for weeks.”
The
yeshiva recently married off an orphan. He too has a
fascinating story to tell. He had gone on a lengthy tour in the
Far East where he befriended an Israeli girl, but did not keep up
the acquaintance. He became involved in Yiddishkeit through
the shluchim in Bangkok, and decided to drop everything and
return to Eretz Yisroel to learn in the yeshiva in Ramat
Aviv. When he wanted to get married, a baalas teshuva from
Machon Alte in Tzfas was suggested to him. He met her and was
shocked – she was the girl he had befriended in the Far East,
who had also come back to Eretz Yisroel to learn!
The
joy at their wedding was indescribable. The boy’s friends, talmidim
of the yeshiva, danced and rejoiced with the chasan as
though they were brothers.
Much
can be told about the staff’s concern for the boys, but during
my visit, which lasted a full day, I realized that one could even
learn from the av bayit (house father) of the yeshiva,
Yaakov Baruchman. He constantly yells at the boys to keep the
place clean, but he loves them dearly. He is a man in his fifties,
with an interesting life story.
“I
am originally from Tel Aviv,” he says with his constant smile.
“When I was in the army, I volunteered for border guard duty. I
was in the War of Attrition, and I fought in the armored corps in
the Yom Kippur War. When I was released from the army, I worked as
a miner in the copper mines of Timna, in the south.
“Eventually
I became a yuppie and things went downhill from there.
Unfortunately, I was in jail for a few years, at first in Sweden
and then in Eretz Yisroel. I knew a little about Judaism through
Rabbi Mutti Gal, the shliach in Ramat Gan. We had mutual
friends.”
At
some point in his rehabilitation, he met Rabbi Yossi Ginsberg, who
suggested that he work in the yeshiva as a janitor in
exchange for room and board. He performed his work devotedly and
became av bayit. He is the general manager who takes care
of the maintenance of the yeshiva. He also cooks for the
boys and takes care of all their needs.
*
* *
Despite
many difficulties, the yeshiva continues to flourish. It
produces Chassidishe young men who are yerei Shamayim,
lamdanim, and baalei
midos tovos.
Rabbi
Amir Kahane explains that this directly results from the fact that
the yeshiva operates as a shlichus of the Rebbe. “Are
you familiar with the concept that you merely have to touch a tree
in order for it to sprout on its own?” he asks me. I told him I
knew this idea from legend, and he immediately said, “Over here,
those legends come to life.”
He
explained, “We see hashgacha pratis every step of the
way: in miraculously finding a place for the yeshiva, in
the incredible development of the community, in the seriousness of
the bachurim who sit and learn constantly.”
Rabbi
Ben-Tziyon Schwartz is the man in charge of the nigleh program.
He talks about the level of studies:
“About
thirty bachurim sit here from morning to night, learning
Chassidus and nigleh. Boruch Hashem the level of
learning continues to improve. At first we had lectures, but today
the boys can learn on their own. We have three classes in nigleh
and two classes in halacha. One of the halacha classes
deals with daily halachos, and the other class is learning hilchos
Shabbos as part of the s’micha cycle. The level of
the Chassidus studies is high, too.”
How
do you handle the differing levels among the bachurim?
“We
have three levels in Gemara. I must point out that the level of
learning here is high relative to other top yeshivos. These
are boys who have been through a lot already, and who take their
studies very seriously.
“The
talmidim-shluchim who come here out of a sense of personal
sacrifice and devotion to shlichus, contribute a great deal
in mivtzaim, learning Chassidus and nigleh, and by
tutoring and giving shiurim. Also, these talmidim-shluchim
bring the spirit of 770 here with classes on inyanei
Moshiach and Geula.
“Farbrengens
are an important part of yeshiva life. The well-known mashpia,
Rabbi Reuven Dunin, gives a Chassidus class twice a week, and farbrengs
with the boys on a weekly basis. His influence on the boys is
immense. The boys open up at farbrengens and much progress
is made.
“In
general, ever since Rabbi Dunin joined the staff, the progress has
been tremendous. Lately Rabbi Dunin has been having one-on-one
discussions with individuals. The tremendous progress the yeshiva
has made can be attributed largely to him and to the talmidim-shluchim.”
It
has been just three years and you have seen such great success.
What is the secret?
“R’
Amir Kahane said it before. This is a yeshiva in which
Chassidus and nigleh is studied all day, so you can’t
compare it to the activities of a regular Chabad House. Secondly,
the yeshiva’s success can be attributed to the shlichus
atmosphere. We are not building a mosad on our own, but as shluchim
of the Rebbe.”
Rabbi
Ginsberg: “We
sense the Rebbe here, and I think that is the secret. Many people
who have visited have said that you can really feel the Rebbe
here. I cannot explain it, but there is no question that the
Rebbe’s kochos are revealed here and that is why things
go well.”
Rabbi
Schwartz tells about the difficult times the yeshiva has
had, and how because of the sense of mission, they made it
through. “Quite a few boys who learned here and transferred
elsewhere said that the atmosphere of shlichus and mesirus
nefesh here at the yeshiva is missing in the other
places.”
*
* *
Rabbi
Ben-Tziyon Schwartz is a pleasant young man who is originally from
England. After he married, he lived in Nachalat Har Chabad. Three
years ago, in the yeshiva’s early stages, he was offered
the position of rosh mesivta in nigleh. In addition
to teaching the boys, he also works with the members of the
developing Lubavitcher community in Ramat Aviv. He gives shiurim
for men and women and accomplishes a great deal.
How
does a cool Englishman acclimatize to a such a hot-blooded
neighborhood?
“You
can say I have already acclimated, but we are still lacking a
relationship with the neighbors, although I have not been
personally attacked.”
R’
Ben-Tziyon remembers how when he and Rabbi Peretz Friedman came to
Ramat Aviv, a flyer was circulated in the neighborhood: “Beware:
two more families have arrived.” Four stages were described in
which the “chareidim were going to change the secular
neighborhood into a religious one.”
Were
you influenced at all by this?
The
neighbors were influenced, and they began acting coldly
towards us. They were told that the value of their apartments
would go down, and this frightened them. Lately, I think the
situation has gotten somewhat better. We just distributed mishloach
manos and they accepted it graciously.
What
other Torah programs take place in Ramat Aviv?
“There
are classes for men and women in halacha, Agada, and
Chassidus. Quite a few women come, residents of the neighborhood.
One of them is a senior attorney in the police department. Until
recently, we couldn’t publicize our classes thoroughly since we
didn’t have an official building, and we didn’t want chaos.
Now that we’ve moved to our new location, it will be much easier
to handle larger classes.”
No
doubt these classes are making an impact. Recently, a Purim party
was held for residents of the neighborhood and nearly 200 people
participated, which for Ramat Aviv is huge!
“The
yeshiva is part of the community, the hub of the
community,” says R’ Ben-Tziyon. “The community will always
be connected to the yeshiva, and boruch Hashem the yeshiva
is growing, as is the community.”
The
center of the Lubavitch community is the Chabad shul in
Ramat Aviv Gimmel. The yeshiva is in Ramat Aviv Beis, and
the apartment which the yeshiva used to be in, which is
presently used as the dining hall, is in Ramat Aviv Alef. “We
are represented throughout Ramat Aviv.”
Rabbi
Yossi Ginsberg keeps in touch with hundreds of residents of the
neighborhood who are connected with the yeshiva. Dozens of
them are very involved with the yeshiva.
As
if to illustrate this point, a Jew enters the yeshiva and
shakes hands with the bachurim. He is a resident of Ramat
Aviv who simply came to daven Mincha. After davening,
he stayed to learn a little bit. “Whenever he has the
opportunity, he comes to grab another sugya in Gemara or
another sicha of the Rebbe,” says Rabbi Schwartz. “He
is one of many residents here who are being mekurav to Yiddishkeit.
As I told you earlier, the yeshiva is the heart of the
Chabad community here.”
What
are the plans for the future?
Rabbi
Amir Kahane: “We have many plans. We must quickly carry out the
Rebbe’s directive concerning obtaining permission for a beis
midrash, mikva, as well as private residences.
The Rebbe wants a mikva here. Ramat Aviv is a neighborhood
with tens of thousands of residents, yet it doesn’t have even
one mikva. Lately, every time we open a volume of the Igros
Kodesh, we see the Rebbe asking, “What’s with the beis
ha’tevilla?”
“So
we decided to build a beautiful mikva. We have many other
plans but we can’t get into it now. We also want to expand the yeshiva.
We call upon Chabad Houses in Eretz Yisroel and around the world
to send us good, serious, top-quality bachurim, Hebrew
speaking only. Although we do not want to grow too big, so as to
maintain a connection with each bachur, we will try to
accept any serious talmid who wants to progress in his Yiddishkeit.”
Concluding
the interview, I asked Rabbi Ginsberg to characterize the
community and yeshiva he established in Ramat Aviv these
past five years. “Our community is notable,” he said, “in
that everybody operates with the belief that the Rebbe is Melech
HaMoshiach. When we approach people in the neighborhood and talk
with them about emuna, we are not embarrassed to tell them
about the hisgalus of Melech HaMoshiach.”
How
do you explain it?
“Today
people are not especially bothered by ideology. We just have to
present things as oros d’Tohu b’keilim d’Tikkun. When
we present things confidently and without compromise, it’s
accepted by everyone. This is what is unique about the Chabad
community of Ramat Aviv –emuna, period.