Haazinu: 5784 - Rabbi Shimon Zonnenfeld: When the Rav of Jerusalem, Rabbi Yosef Chaim Zonnenfeld, and the head of the Zionist movement in Jerusalem met. Reb Betzalel Mizrachi responded with a story about…

00:00 Speaker 1 Please. This happened in Jerusalem. There was an Orthodox Jew who had left the path, abandoned religious observance, stopped keeping mitzvos, and become one of the leaders of Zionism at the time. He was then chairman of the National Council. Before there was a Knesset, there was the National Council, and he was its chairman. Once, as he was walking through one of the alleyways of the Old City, he came face-to-face with the rabbi of Jerusalem, Rabbi Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld. He turned to him and said insolently, “Reb Chaim, what do you think? Do you think the younger generation will follow your path? It won’t be long. Young people today are different. They see the world. The world is changing. In another twenty or thirty years, they won’t keep Torah or study it, or hold on to all these traditions and things.” The rabbi of Jerusalem answered him, “And are you sure your descendants will follow your path? I promise you they won’t. They’ll do exactly the opposite of what you taught them.” He asked, “What makes you so sure?” The rabbi said, “It’s an explicit verse in the weekly parsha. The weekly parsha. There’s a verse: ‘And Hashem saw and spurned, out of anger at His sons and His daughters. And He said:’

01:43 Speaker 2 ‘I will hide My face from them.’

01:44 Speaker 1 ‘I will hide My face from them; I will see what becomes of them.’

01:47 Speaker 2 ‘For they are a generation that turns things around.’

01:49 Speaker 1 ‘They are a generation that turns things around, children in whom there is no faith.’ Then he explained the verse. Usually, this verse is understood as describing punishment. Hashem hiding His face is the punishment. The greatest troubles come when Hashem hides His face. But he interpreted it differently. He said, “At first glance, there’s a question. This is speaking about punishment, so it should use a Divine name associated with judgment. But it says, ‘And Hashem saw’—that is the attribute of mercy. Why does it use the attribute of mercy, Hashem? Because this is the mercy of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. True, ‘He spurned them out of anger at His sons and His daughters.’ They worship idols; they commit sins. But ‘I will hide My face from them’—as if to say, pretend You don’t see.” That was how he explained “I will hide My face from them”: pretend You don’t see. Why? Because they are a generation that turns things around. The children of this generation will do exactly the opposite of what their parents told them. “Children in whom there is no faith”—the children won’t believe what their fathers taught them and told them, all kinds of theories and new doctrines. They won’t believe any of it. They’ll turn the other way. So, “I will hide My face from them”—pretend You don’t see. When the man heard this interpretation of the verse, he immediately left. His grandson, who had been walking with him, asked him, “Grandfather, are you so sure that’s what will happen?” He told him, “You’ll live to see it. With Hashem’s help, you’ll live to see it.” That grandson is my uncle. He says that when he saw the movement of Jews returning to Torah growing and developing, he remembered what he had heard his grandfather say then: “You’ll live to see it.” And we see it today. Today, thank G-d, we see an entire generation of young people returning to their roots, returning to the tradition of their fathers, and it keeps growing and spreading. And it may be that this is

03:52 Speaker 1 the reason for all the demonstrations and everything else today. Precisely because it keeps growing stronger and gaining momentum, it stirs up the other side. But that is the best sign. Some people fall into despair: Master of the Universe, what’s going to happen here? What will become of us? This is the best sign that we are now truly approaching the days of Moshiach. So, with Hashem’s help, may we all have a good final sealing, and may we soon merit the true and complete Geulah.

04:16 Speaker 3 Amen.

04:17 Speaker 4 [unclear] Rabbi Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld: in his central shul, the main chazzan for Musaf on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur passed away two weeks before Rosh Hashanah. So they asked the rabbi, “What will we do? Who will be the chazzan for Musaf?” He said, “I’ll arrange it.” Rosh Hashanah arrived. They asked him, “Rabbi, who will be the chazzan for Musaf?” He said, “I’ll arrange it, don’t worry.” Rosh Hashanah came, and they asked him, “Rabbi, who will be the chazzan?” He said, “I’ll arrange it, don’t worry.” They had already finished reading the passage of the Akeidah and reached the shofar blowing. Now it was time to blow the shofar. Rabbi Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld went over to the chazzan’s son, the young orphan, and said to him, “You go up to the amud.” He was a young man. The rabbi told him, “You go up to the amud.” He said, “But I don’t know how. I haven’t prepared.” The rabbi said, “You do know. You’ve accompanied your father since you were little, helping him with the melodies all these years. You know it all. Go up to the amud.” So he accepted what the rabbi told him, went up to the amud, and led Musaf. After the prayers, the gabbaim and members of the congregation came up to the rabbi. “Rabbi, how could you do that? It isn’t allowed. He’s a mourner, and a mourner doesn’t go up to lead the prayers as chazzan. How could you let him?” He told them, “Listen. A young woman, newly widowed and brokenhearted, is sitting in the women’s section. The one thing that could comfort her and bring her joy is for her son to take his father’s place at the amud. That’s what I wanted to do. But since a mourner normally doesn’t lead the prayers, the law is that if there is no other chazzan, a mourner may do so. So I arranged for there to be no other chazzan, and in that way I brought the widow a little comfort and help.” That was Rabbi Yosef Chaim’s way: he was generous and giving, perceptive and wise. He knew how to lead and knew [unclear]. May we all have a good final sealing. May we have a good final sealing.