Aderabba

An astonishing flight during the war

Amidst the vastness of the war, the topic of this post may seem insignificant. But aderabba (on the contrary), it’s representative of a much larger problem.

When the war started, this caused all kinds of hardships. A hundred thousand reservists were called up in addition to the fifty thousand already called up. Many were sent to join my son and others in Lebanon, with all the hardship that this causes for them and their families. But there were also other kinds of hardships.

The airport shut down promptly at the beginning of the war, leaving countless Israelis stranded abroad, and countless non-Israelis stranded in Israel. There are a very, very small number of rescue flights, which are in turn only allowed to have a small number of people on them. There are many people desperate to return to their jobs and lives. Here’s a post which is typical of the sort of thing going around social media:

Amidst all these hardships - 150,000 men in reserve duty, people desperate to travel - an astonishing story appeared in the news. A video showed a rosh yeshiva by the name of R. Dovid Schaeffer drinking a l’chaim in the airport, as he escorted ninety of his students to Poland, in order to visit the grave of R. Elimelech of Lizhensk.

How on earth did they manage that?! It’s reported that one of the partners in El Al arranged it as a show of appreciation to Torah students.

People are furious. Media advisor Dvir Luzon, who is serving in the reserves, wrote, “They have called me up to the reserves. I left a woman at home who is still recovering from childbirth and a one-month-old baby, and I have no idea when I will see them again. But Rabbi Dovid Schaeffer flew 90 guys to vacation abroad… It’s spitting in the face of every reservist. Simply disgraceful.” Another person, comedian Matan Tzur, commented: “I don’t know how we will fix this rift, which parts of the charedi sector are literally creating with their own hands.”

But perhaps the most heartbreaking response came from Lalai Deri. She is a religious woman whose son Saadia hy”d was a yeshiva avreich who was called up for reserve duty to Gaza and killed. Lalai has been campaigning for the burden of army service to be shared by charedim. She quoted the famous prayer of the very R. Elimelech of Lizhensk whose grave they flew to visit, known by the extracted word Aderabba that Avraham Fried made into a song (presented in a recording below with a wonderful accompaniment by the Great Synagogue Choir and the Prague Symphony Orchestra). The part that Lalai Deri quoted was, “And let no hatred from one to another arise,” to which she added, “vehamayvin yavin (and the one who understands, understands).” Perhaps she was talking about people not feeling negativity towards the 90 guys who flew, but in light of her tragedy and her activism, I think perhaps she was making a different point - about being concerned for the feelings and well-being of others.

Personally, I would like to call attention to the words of R. Elimelech immediately proceeding the word Aderabba. He writes, “Let jealousy not enter our hearts, and let others not be jealous of us.” I suppose one way to stop people being jealous of you is to ask God to interfere with their emotions. But it’s presumably more basic - and I’m sure R. Elimelech would agree - to not do anything inappropriate that would understandably stir up jealousy and resentment. Such as dismissing all responsibility to share a difficult burden of national defense, and demonstrating a total lack of concern for the suffering of others by taking a much sought-after flight to leave the country for a spiritual vacation.

Meanwhile, while my son is actively involved in defending the country, I have a more modest role. Security regulations do not allow the full opening of the museum, but we have staff in anyway (the animals need care), and we are able to host very small numbers of people. Those who are able to come are deeply appreciative of the opportunity to have respite from the sirens and the craziness (aside from the tragedy in Beit Shemesh last week, yesterday there was another traumatic event next to Beit Shemesh which is still under military censorship).

Of course, keeping a museum alive while only servicing a small number of people is financially challenging. We are losing income from visitors every day that this continues. We need support so that we can continue our mission, ready to provide our unique brand of education, inspiration and connection. If you’d like to help, please donate at this link. Thank you! We look forward to a successful conclusion to the war and returning to full operations, hopefully in time for Pesach.