Pure Gold

Rav Sholom Gold, ztz"l

I was very shaken to hear of the passing of Rav Sholom Gold, ztz”l. Aside from the devastating loss for his family and for Klal Yisrael, it came as a personal shock because I was speaking with him just a few days ago and he was not particularly unwell. After having suffered a work injury (from which I am fortunately making a full recovery), I was in the emergency room of Shaarei Tzedek. Amidst my gloom about my injury, I was suddenly thrilled to see Rav Gold. Although he was on a gurney in the ER with cellulitis, he was lively and happy to see me and immediately started cracking jokes, as was his style.

Last year the Jerusalem Post published a fascinating, entertaining and inspirational article about Rav Gold, which you can read at this link. I'll never forget the time he shared with me his memories of receiving semichah from none other than Rav Herzog, with Rav Elyashiv conducting the exam. As a tribute to Rav Gold, giving insight into his pure values and strength of character, I would like to share extracts from a letter that he sent to HaModia a decade ago and which they did not publish, and which at the time he sent to me to publicize:

To the Editor, Hamodia       

There is what seems to be "a statement of authentic Torah-true hashkafah" that appears occasionally in Hamodia (the most recent on the 4th of Adar II) and in other publications, that I believe must be examined very closely and dispassionately. The pronouncement raises extremely serious problems of a religious nature.       

The Hamodia article quoted a rav who said, "The most difficult golus to endure is a golus suffered from other Jews and therefore we plead for a final redemption from this terrible golus." I experienced a great deal of personal anguish just writing that sentence. First of all, it's absolutely false. We are not in Czarist Russia, Inquisitionist Spain, Crusader-ravished Rhineland, Cossack-scorched Poland, nor fascist Nazi Germany, nor assimilation-ridden America. Klal Yisrael in Eretz Yisrael is experiencing the most magnificent era in 2,000 years.       

Rav Avraham Pam movingly put the present period in time in its proper Jewish-Torah perspective. He said that a rule in Jewish history is that following every period of suffering comes an era of Hashem embracing His people, comforting them, and pouring out His goodness, just as a father whose son has suffered will embrace him and console him. Rav Pam highlights four such historic episodes. The fourth one, Rav Pam said, was, that following the worst horror of all, the Shoah, Hashem embraced us with "hakomas Medinas Yisroel" (precisely his words).       

Hashem does not embrace His people by casting them into the worst golus of all. To say that, is a denial of Hashem's goodness, an ugly rejection of His benevolence, and shameful ingratitude.       

Three months after the establishment of Medinat Yisrael, Rav Dessler wrote that he who does not see the dramatic change and the complete reversal of the fate of the Jewish people, "min hakatzeh al Hakatzeh, "from one extreme of six million slaughtered to the other extreme of the settling of our people in their own medina in our Holy Land" is blind. "Woe to one who will come to the Day of Judgment still blind and not having been able to see something so real." (Michtav M'Eliyahu, Volume 3, page 352)       

Rav Dessler wrote this at a time that the infant state was locked in a struggle for its very existence. No one then could predict the outcome, yet he rejoiced. He did not predict that the State wouldn't last for ten years.       

The plain facts are that the greatest growth of Klal Yisroel in Eretz Yisroel in just about every conceivable area has been mind-boggling. Little Israel whose air force ranks after the United States, Russia and China. Way up there with the biggest. An army whose might is so clearly the result of the efforts of "He who gives you the strength to be mighty." Agricultural accomplishments of global proportions. Israel is a world agricultural power. It staggers the imagination. (Google Israel – Agriculture and read Wikipedia.) It would help if you have a TaNach handy to see the prophecies fulfilled before your very eyes. Focus on Yechezkel chapters 36, 37 and 38.       

For me, every visit to my local fruit and vegetable store is a powerful religions experience. In the middle 50s I learned in Ponovitz and subsisted on tomatoes, cucumbers and watermelon. Today, in my local store I am overwhelmed by the dazzling amounts of produce. If this is golus then I can't begin to imagine what geulah is. I once said that every rabbi is zocheh to one good line in his career. Mine is, "If you want to speak to G-d, go to the Kotel, but if you want to see Him, go to Shuk Machaneh Yehudah."       

Little Israel is a world leader in medicine, science, technology, and so much more.      

And – the greatest explosion of Torah learning in Jewish history has taken place here with the generous help of the secular Zionists, and the religious Zionists (the Mizrochnikim).       

And this you call "golus by Jews." We have never had it better.       

…An absolute rejection of this ugly hashkafah will hopefully signal the beginning of a new era of love and friendship between Jew and fellow Jew. When you truly see the hand of Hashem in action for the past sixty-six years, you will want to say with great kavanah the prayer for the State and for the soldiers who risk their lives day and night so that we can all live safely in G-d's land.

Sholom Gold

16/9 Agassi St., Jerusalem 98377

(You can read the full letter on Rabbi Gold’s website at this link.)

Rav Gold was a towering hero, a rabbinic scholar and leader with the integrity and strength to say what others with such backgrounds are afraid to say. What a loss to our nation. Baruch Dayan Emes.