a tribute to rav meir on his 16th yortzeit...

[nikmatdam]

i have a chaver... a rav here in l.a. who was very close to rav meir hy"d... from him i heard the following two or three maesim...

when he and his brother rev nachman were kids... one day rav meir came home to find his brother sitting on the front steps crying... he found out the reason was that a goyish kid from the neighborhood had forcibly taken his bike away... rav meir said: "you let a goy do that to you...? what a chillul Hashem!!!" and he proceeded to pummel rav nachman for allowing that to happen to him...

another time... rav nachman who was a few years younger asked his older brother..." wait... so one day you are going to be prime minister of israel... but what do i get to do...? rav meir answered him: "listen... i have a very important job for you to do for me while i'm prime minister... you'll be in charge of running the copy machine to turn out all of our speeches, d'vrei torah, news and other pronouncements..."

on a more serious note... one day his 5th grade teacher returned with all of his or her pupils from recess to find rav meir at the chalkboard... he had drawn an elaborate map of rail lines leading into aushwitcz or one of the other camps... rav meir told his teacher matter of factly: "all they have to do is bomb the train tracks and they can save thousands of jewish lives..."

for you see... the year was 1942 and at the still tender age of ten rav meir was already like moshe rebenu before him... "going out" to view his people's suffering and worry over and concern himself with their plight... even though a mere lad he was endeavoring to come up with a way to help... while the rest of his classmates were outside running around and having a good time he was already then exhibiting an awesome level of ahavat yisroel... and in the process of doing so he was even then teaching us all that it is virtually an isur (something forbidden) for us to be so dense and abdurate to the pain and agony and suffering of our people... that there is something horribly wrong and not quite decent... bordering on the obscene even for children... let alone full-grown adults... to mindlessly go about enjoying their lives while our fellow jews... men, women and children no different than ourselves are in dire straits or worse... are being put to death... to rav meir this was anathema from the age of ten...

and when he grew into the man we all knew... his entire life was thoroughly consumed with and his every waking moment was completely dedicated to fighting for am yisroel and eretz yisroel... as a child and as a young man he used to love baseball especially the brooklyn dodgers... but he said to my friend once... that now he has no time for these simpler pleasures of life... not while the lives of any of his people were endangered anywhere in the world and not while our homeland and our people there stood in mortal danger from the bloodthirsty hordes of our enemies... and this was so much so that his parting words to his rebeiim... when he got up over their objections from his 13 years of learning in yeshiva to go out and try to find a way to rescue soviet jewry from enslavement, humiliation, torture and murder...  were words of rebuke to them... "in all my years here... not once did i ever see or hear any of you reciting even one kapitel tehilim on behalf of endangered soviet jews..." and with that reproof registered... off he went... and the rest as they say... is history...

and so rav meir fought tirelessly, relentlessly and ceaselessly for the values and causes he believed in... for torah... for am yisroel... for eretz yisroel... and for kiddush Hashem throughout the world...

and he did so in his unique way without so much as a care or a concern for what anyone else thought of his methods or about the justness of the means he employed in attempting to achieve his desired ends... his fire and drive to save us was done with "righteous indignation"... and this is the single, best phrase to describe in what frame of mind rav meir was when he foresaw the trouble we were heading into as an am... and to define how and why he reacted the way he did in the pursuit of his goals... and he couldn't have cared less if he was labeled a madman for his vision, conviction and courage... he knew he was right and he left it for Hashem to vindicate or not his derech and his teachings... which today are all universally recognized as near-prophetic portents... and now even if for some it is only begrudgingly so... everyone these days knows that rav kahane was right... "kahane tzadak!!!"

and over his deeds or any of his many public discourses or for any of his tremendously written and copious works which virtually flowed from his truly prolific pen like a "mayan hamitgaver..." a proverbial "overflowing fountain..." he did not give heed nor pay any attention... not one bit... to the cruel and unwarranted vile slurs of derision and hatred which spewed forth from his detractors and those afraid of his growing power... he was subjected to vicious, unfounded, scurrilous innuendo and smears of the most loathsome variety of dirt and filth and the very ugliest of noxious and pernicious attacks... mostly from members from his own (jewish) people... the very ones he was killing himself to save and awaken... and he just took it when they called him a racist or a fascist or a hate and war-monger... or labeled him a terrorist or a thug or a bully or even a mobster... to him all of this mattered not one iota... he was vilified, pilloried... excomunicated... and with a shrug of his shoulders he labored on... he was deemed a pariah... an outcast... a leper... he was unjustly accused of scandal and embezzlment... fraud, mayhem and even outright murder... undaunted he strove on... blamed for the innocent deaths of the unintended consequences of his actions... he bore this burden humbly and contritely... willing to face and receive whatever ramifications his deeds would engender and bring in their wake... but he would not and did not ever back down... not once... all the while with the full knowledge that should he be... if he was wrong... it would come out of his own hide and that it might very well cost him his eternity... but to save jews he was called and to save jews he resolutely continued to respond and to react and to save jews and our homeland he would "go down with the ship" if necessary... and on all this virtually no one had the guts to debate him on the subject... no one could be found to stand in challenge to his halachic mastery... the few who tried failed miserably though at least they had the respect and kavod to agree that rav meir had a right to say what he felt must be said... and to do what he thought must be done... at least these few had that... the rest were utter gutter-swipes and refuse taking pot-shots at a man who was only living for them... who was maymit atzmo, literally, killing himself everyday... all day long on their behalf... but they... the ignorant cowards that they truly were... ingrates of the first order... they instead chose to call him a nazi both here in north america and over in israel... and so they banned him and shunned him just so they wouldn't have to deal with him straight-up... so that they wouldn't have to take him on and look ridiculous in doing so as he picked apart by the seams their foolish and childish, thimble-full of real torah knowledge... and they used the very arrogant, self-righteous and mendacious ruse of dismissing him out of hand as an excuse for not sharing a podium with him... that they didn't want to dignify him with a position of respect and honor... that they didn't want to help advance his cause by the exposure a speech or debate of his with them would bring his so-called "sick ideas and positions... the truth is that they would not condone or tolerate his views because they and he made these slime look bad and petty... and insensitive and uncaring... unloving... and it is so... and he would expose them for the shams that they were... he could prove that they were truly heartless toward the common, average, everyday, run-of-the-mill jew... and he often called them on these very sore weak spots in their character... and embarrased the hell out of them and shamed them as they so fully and so richly had earned by their true ignorance of the plight of downtrodden and poverty-stricken jews even in israel but world-wide as well... and so he would make them subject to the very same scorn and ridicule that they heaped upon him... he could put them in their places with ease any time he so desired... and they knew this and ran from him as from the plague... THIS is why they dared not face him... and not because he was anathema... rav meir could make their blood boil with the level of rage exhibited only by the truly guilty and the truly evil... and he could do this with the simple drop of a single line... with a mere stroke of his pen... but none of this was loshon hora... for all of this was long over due... and had been something that they well deserved and had coming to them for decades due to their overweening arrogance of power ... and all of this being something of crucial and vital importance that we know and learn about as to the true nature of and the real soul of our so-called... "jewish (sic) leadership..." 

rav meir was totally involved in pikuach nefashot (rescuing lives) and so it mattered not to him if he was misunderstood, hated or even reviled... he was thoroughly absorbed in his life-saving work for k'lal yisroel and nothing anyone thought, said, wrote or did neged him (against him) was ever going to matter or even cause him a moment's pause to reconsider or to throw him off course or make him falter in his avodat Hashem (service of G-d)... none of the cries and shouts of anger were true which were cast up against him over his use of others especially young people whom he inspired and rallied to his cause... for he assumed the same risks... he didn't make anyone do anything that he wasn't himself prepared to do... he also was in fights and got hit... he too sat in prison... had to face judges and juries... and he put others before himself when it came time to raise money for the defense of those who had committed "crimes" in the name of salvation for our people and our land...  so none of these diatribes hurled against him would be allowed by him to be of any consequence to derail him or deter him from his relentless perseverance upon his lonely trek to win sanction and gain security for the preservation of k'lal yisroel and eretz hakodesh... he wasn't using anyone or abandoning them after they were arrested or hurt... he was rather teaching a generation of yidden to stand up for what really matters to us in this world... the survival of our people and our land and our torah way of life... and in this he was like david hamelech... constantly on vigil, standing watch for Hashem as a shepherd of His flock and as the warrior-scholar and king on alert in constant vigilence for the protection of our people and land... 

and because he was that certain of the rectitude of his ideas... of the clarity of his vision... of the veracity of his understanding of torah and of the truth of his mission that many of us today feel was the role of moshiach ben yosef... so therefore no amount of animosity or insult was going to disuade him from his single-minded quest to rescue the jewish people and eretz yisroel from the clutches of our many, many, ruthless and savage  enemies... and this was so because he was not in it for himself... for his own glory, riches or honor... no... he was in it... l'shma...  purely l'shaim shemayim... for Hashem and due to his great love of his people and for his land... and needless to say therefore... he was willing to lay down his life for his beliefs... and when that day arrived... this day 16 years ago... he did so without the slightest hesitation... i heard from people who were eye-witnesses there that he didn't even try to duck or dodge the bullet.. for he was that fearless.... and he was consecrated to his path with complete selflessness and with ultimate mesirat nefesh (self-sacrifice)...

and thus when you examine some of the brave and bold things he attempted and put into motion for which he was considered to be crazy or a psychopath... (again without his slightest care)... and when you grasp the true level of abuse and hardship that he was willing to absorb and undergo... for his violent upheaval and riotous protest against a jewishly insensitive and uncaring society here in the u.s. and in the face of a thoroughly jew-hating world-civilization which in his youth had perpetrated a holocaust upon 6 million of his people... of our people... you begin to sense and to see the true depth of passion and empathy of the man for his people... and to know the deep wound and pain he felt at our continuous historical genocide at the hands of the nations even after we were finally repatriated back to our ancient biblical homeland... sadly, from the time of his aliyah to israel in 1971... all too often you heard him decrying in agony the continued murder of jews... which this time was taking place upon their (our) own soil... which to rav meir was the cruelest of all possible blows to his heart... after all we had been through as a people during  nearly 2000 years of an extremely bitter and excruciatingly torturous exile... which had ended with an even more ghastly and devastatingly  grievous suffering during his youth... in light of which to finally come back home to eretz yisroel and finally get away from all of the pogroms and inquisitions and crusades and holocausts "big and small" as he was so often want to say... to finally return home after all of this and for the slaughter of jews to continue as if nothing had changed or been altered... was just too much to bear... even for someone with the internal fortitude of rav meir... and so for the last twenty years of his life we saw and heard him crying out in pain over this like a wounded lion... and thus you come to get an understanding as to why he alone did the things that most of us agreed needed to be done but which we were and still are too afraid to even speak about not to mention actually contemplating carrying them out... and furthermore... because he was truly animated by ahavat yisroel he was willing to risk life and limb... liberty and reputation... to do the kinds of things which he knew just had to be done if anything was going to be accomplished to redeem his people and land out from the jaws of the evil lions on the verge of ravishing and consuming us whole... he saw the need for the only things which would work and which he alone, with so very few by his side, who were willing to join him when the moment of ultimate truth arrived ... and yet he was not afraid to perform them... like pinchus of old... "kanoim pogim bo..." he rushed to the fore (lance in hand) to act when everyone else was too timid or lacked the requisite courage to fight for our people and land and to really stand up against those who would destroy both... while all others at best only paid lip service to the cause... and while at worst most of the rest were too busy denying that there even was a cause or a danger at all... rav meir summoned the courage and with valor stood up... he alone within our camp... and strode out to confront head-on the goliath facing our nation...

and he did all of this with little regard for his own safety or even for his very own future... as he risked even his own nitzchiut... his own chelek in olam haba to do these things we speak of when he knew unintended consequences and untoward outcomes to the actions he ordered and undertook were possible and sorrowfully did indeed occur on several occassions... things for which he knew he would face judgement in shemayim for... but he went through with these strategies anyway because he loved his people and his land so deeply and because he saw so clearly that all other efforts to preserve us both were too feeble and were being implemented much too slowly and much too late... of the violence he would constantly say it was truly regrettable... an action of desperation and one of absolute last resort... but one which sadly had become by his day an overriding imperative due to our far too many years of self-delusion and denial which were spent by us in frustratingly meek passivity, wishful thinking and inaction... all of which had made the need for violent upheaval completely unavoidable if we and eretz yisroel were to survive... because we had waited much too long and the world hated us much too severely... and thus he had the courage to rise to the challenge of his times and say: "violence is a terrible thing... but sometimes it is terribly necessary..."

he often quoted shlomo hamelech in kohelet perek gimmel... (chapter 3)... as proof that there was a time and a place for everything... even for the unthinkable... "domestic violence and terrorism" as his acts came to be termed... and thus he knew that may'ace Hashem... from G-d... his time was a time for violence because absolutely nothing else had up until then worked nor henceforth would anything else work... and thus he understood his destiny and thus he accepted his role... and his fate... and like the true macabee... the chashmanoic kohen which he surely was he rose to the summons and to the challenge of his dor... of his generation and he answered that call with every fiber in his body and with every drop of kedusha in his soul...

and now as we look back and reflect upon his life and times and try to take ahold of and grasp his and its true meaning and legacy... his message to us comes shining through and the lesson of his life is clear and undeniable... and it is this... that we are his legacy and in order for us to take the full-measure of rav meir both as a man and as a jew... we must be ready as he was to declare inviolate the sanctity of torah and G-d... and that we must be willing to go to the mat for our people and stop at nothing short of climbing atop an akeda if we must to rescue them... and finally that eretz yisroel is not an issue but a torah value... and for her we must be willing to go the distance and pronounce openly... unafraid and proudly... loudly and clearly to the entire world... that the land of israel... every single inch of it... all of it... that which we now hold and that which G-d swore to avraham and thus to us to one day give to us in total... all of this belongs to the entire jewish people and solely to us for all-time... for eternity... and when we say this... on this we must be prepared to turn to each other and declare in sacred vow that for this mitzvah which we are commanded by Hashem... the one and only true G-d, creator of the universe... master, king and father over humanity... the G-d of israel...  for this we will give our lives... we will consider them forfeit before we will relinquish even one square centimeter... "yehareg v'al yavor!!!!" (we will die if we must but we shall not ever transgress)...

if we can do this we will know the true rav meir hy"d... and then he shall not have lived and died in vain... amen... nik. out...