The following is something the Brisker Rov said. As you know, he spoke sharp like a knife. When the State of Israel was established, everyone had something to say. The Brisker Rov uttered one short remark: “Now there are seventy-one nations.” This was how he saw the State of Israel – a nation like other nations.
The essential nature of a Jew is that he has no connection to non-Jews, he has no connection to the world. We don’t live in this world, we live in Heaven, with Hashem Yisborach.
I think you know this better than me; when we talk about the Brisker Rov, we are talking about generations. We had R. Akiva Eiger, the Shach, the Ramban, the Rambam, Amora’im, Tanna’im. The Brisker Rov was an Acharon, and he said, “I never took my mind off learning.” Even when he spoke to people, he was thinking in learning. That is how a talmid chacham was in all generations.
And we have begun a new generation. We learn very well, but we live in the world.
R. Shimon bar Yochai sat himself down inside the cave, and he gave us divrei Torah. The divrei Torah themselves, everyone will learn them when he is fitting to do so, but the message contained in them is that we need to connect to the kind of divrei Torah that once were, with the fire that once was and the separation from extraneous matters that once was. Because this is the only way to get out of Galus.
I say that there never was a generation that this was so hard for, because the media and means of communication and all these devices are closing us off on every side, and we must resort to exaggerated means in order to live as Jews.
