Protecting The Head
By: Yochanan Gordon
Last year I merited the following chiddush: The word Elul is a conjunction of the letter aleph, which is a reference to Alufo Shel Olam, Master of the World, G-d, and the word lul, which means a crib or a bassinet. If Rosh Hashanah is described in Shir Hashirim in the verse: “His left arm under my head while being hugged by His right arm,” which is a description of a parent’s loving embrace of their child, then Elul represents the crib of the world where Hashem gingerly and lovingly swaddles us in the month of Tishrei.
If you watch any parent swaddling their newborn child, you’ll see extra caution in the way they protect the child’s head. We recite in our Rosh Hashanah liturgy: “Today is the birthday of the world,” but not only is the world renewed on Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish people themselves are like newborns who require extra protection and safety measures to protect the head.
The Mitteler Rebbe has an entire sefer dedicated to explaining the essence of Rosh Hashanah called “Ateres Rosh,” the crown of the head. In it, he points out that the holiday is called the “head of the year” rather than the “beginning of the year.” The reason being that everything that exists within the human body originates in the head. It’s for this reason that many people have the custom to spend the holiday of Rosh Hashanah in the presence of a tzaddik who is also termed the Rosh Bnei Yisrael, roshei teivos of “rebbi.”
However, if there is an emphasis on the head in these months and a drive for people to tether themselves to an aspect of the head of the Jewish people, what follows is the inevitable prosecution against personalities who clearly fit the mold of manhig, leader or head of the Jewish people both in Eretz Yisrael and across the world.
I am referring to the Yanuka, Rabbi Shlomo Yehuda Be’eri of Rishon LeZion and Jerusalem who—through multimedia, daily transcriptions, and seforim based on his prodigious shiurim—has been a constant source of wisdom, encouragement, and a true guidepost of what humility and ahavas Yisrael looks like. Recently, a piece authored by Nachman Seltzer and published by Mishpacha Magazine really described in great detail what an experience with the Yanuka feels like. In the immediate aftermath of that op-ed, CBN released a negative post about the tzaddik and other Torah personalities in Eretz Yisrael and a podcast conversation expressed suspicion about the tzaddik and urged people to distance themselves from him.
Since then, I have received messages from family members and friends, some of whom don’t even know the personalities calling on the opposition and who almost reactively forward a WhatsApp message from a news service just trying to get clicks and seemingly have no line they won’t cross to get it.
The Mishnah in Avos states: “Warm yourselves by the light of talmidei chachamim.” However, the Mishnah then continues: “Beware not to become singed by their coals.” Tzaddikim are by and large extremely humble and are the first ones to forgo their honor. But the Torah tells us that Hashem demands the honor of tzaddikim and even if the tzaddik is mevater, Hashem stands up for them.
I saw a story of the late Tosher Rebbe of Montreal, who was present when someone expressed irreverence towards the late Satmar Rebbe, Reb Yoel Teitelbaum. The Rebbe became serious and expressed that as much as he wanted to come to the aid of this Yid, there’s nothing he can do, citing the aforementioned Mishnah. If one tampers with the fiery coals, he will get burned and there’s nothing anyone can do to circumvent it.
To me a tzaddik is a bechina of Gan Eden. When Yaakov entered into Yitzchak Avinu, the verse says: “Re’eh rei’ach b’ni k’reiach hasadeh asher beircho Hashem.” After Adam HaRishon sinned with the sin of the tree of knowledge of good and evil G-d placed the lahat hacherev hamis’hapachas to guard the entranceway back into Gan Eden.
Drawing close to tzaddikim requires courage. In the creation of Adam, the Torah quotes Hashem who said: “Na’aseh adam b’Tzalmeinu k’Demuseinu.” Rashi asks on the plural, “Let us make man” and answers that this provides an opening or an opportunity for those wish to be mistaken. Years ago, one of the many controversies stirred up against the Lubavitcher Rebbe was a rumor that he was drinking yayin nesech in the form of Benedictine, which was featured on his table during the farbrengens. As it turned out, those suspicions were debunked. But when asked why, despite the public outcry, the Rebbe allowed the bottle to remain in its place, he answered, “To give space to those who wish to be mistaken.”
These eyes saw the tzaddik—the Yanuka. I saw him choked up in tears, unable to express his thoughts as he davened for the endless stream of sick and brokenhearted individuals who had nowhere else to turn and arrived on his doorstep seeking salvation. My rebbe says repeatedly that the only two factors that one needs to measure in determining the veracity of a tzaddik is humility and ahavas Yisrael. Anyone who has seen the Yanuka has seen what it means to be humble and what ahavas Yisrael truly looks like.
There is plenty of precedent in Jewish history for charismatic individuals to exploit the vulnerabilities ofYidden. However, anyone who has met the Yanuka or has seen his encounters with those who petition in his presence are witness to his simplicity and unpretentiousness. He’s always turning attention from himself to others. When he’s not teaching Torah from literally all across the ocean of Torah, he is empowering Jews who have contracted an illness or have been suffering from issues with mental health, infertility, shalom bayis, parnassah—literally an endless litany of issues.
The Baal Shem Tov once saw a Jew desecrate Shabbos. It was a sight that stopped him in his tracks and caused him great angst, wondering why Hashem would allow him to witness such a sacrilegious act. The rest of that day, he sat alone in a room, taking stock of his life to see if he had ever expressed any laxity in the laws of Shabbos, but to no avail. Then it hit him. He once saw a Jew desecrate the honor of a Torah scholar and he did not stand up for his honor. The Besht said that a Torah scholar is euphemistically referred to as “Shabbos,” so he did, on some level, desecrate the holy Shabbos.
It’s not enough to hear the desecration of the honor of a tzaddik and simply look the other way. If someone acts with irreverence towards a tzaddik and a gaon like the Yanuka, it demands outrage and protest in the honor of the tzaddik. Particularly now, on the threshold of Rosh Hashanah, it is vital to make sure that the head remains healthy and by extension, the entire body. We need to protect the honor of the heads of our people.
Yochanan Gordon can be reached at [email protected]. Read more of Yochanan’s articles at 5TJT.com.
