What can we do? This is the question asked by fathers and mothers who care passionately about their children’s chinuch. They lose sleep worrying about their children. They are pained at the sight of bachurim and young girls who have fallen into spiritual captivity and have left the true path. Who can express the depth of the anguish of devoted parents who raised their beloved children with sweat and tears, only to watch as their souls wallow helplessly in the mud?
Do you think that children going off the derech is a new phenomenon? Seventy years ago, the situation was not much better. Those were difficult, bitter days after the destruction of European Jewry. The survivors gathered the shards of their lives, buried their horrendous memories deeply, and established a new generation. Perhaps they hoped that peaceful days had come, but then they faced a terrible new tzarah. The winds of Zionism struck a fatal blow to the youth. So many young girls and boys left the derech that people of the past generation testify that of entire classes of Talmudei Torah and girls’ schools, only two or three students remained frum.
The parents stood by helplessly. How do you prevent this kind of tzarah? How can you immunize children so that they will not be lured away?
Rav Dovid Kletzkin shlit”a (shiur 226) relates that at that time the gaon Rav Moshe Yehoshua Landau zt”l, who was among those who were closest to the Chazon Ish, lived in Yerushalayim. He would travel to Bnei Brak once every two weeks and present to the Chazon Ish all the questions that had accumulated over time.
As Rav Kletzkin heard from the gaon Rav Meir Greineman shlit”a: “I was in the room of the gadol hador, the Chazon Ish, when Reb Moshe Yehoshua zt”l brought with him the tears of the people of Yerushalayim, who were pleading for an answer regarding how to safeguard the souls of their children. How could they ensure that they would follow the proper path? What did they need to strengthen? The Chazon Ish was silent for some time.”
Reb Dovid adds: We would think the Chazon Ish would respond that they should learn more sifrei mussar, be more careful with halachos, spend more time learning Torah, and so on, but this was not his approach.
“Finally,” Reb Meir shlit”a continued, “the Chazon Ish answered: Reflect on and strengthen emunah in hashgachah pratis. This will hold up the generation; this will hold on to the children.”
Every parent wants this insurance.
Baruch Hashem, in our generation Hakadosh Baruch Hu brought the best possible immunity to the world: the Hashgachah Pratis initiative. Thousands of Yidden all over the world are strengthened in their merit.
And in His great compassion, Hashem has given us another gift, another powerful form of spiritual immunity: The Hashgachah Pratis Magazine for the entire family, whose goal is to bring the light of emunah into the home.
For every parent who wants insurance, as the Chazon Ish says, this is the best form of insurance.
Don’t wait to insure your family! Call (02) 624-6845, and you’ll be zocheh to the best “life insurance.”
Good Shabbos, Pinchas Shefer
Parshs Ki Tavo 5783 ■ Issue 121
