Out & About
Photo Credits: Rimonah Taub
by Varda Littman
The Zhviller Rebbe
During the British Mandate
period, Sheikh Bader was an Arab
village on a hilltop in western
Jerusalem and was part of the
Jerusalem Municipality. The village
was deserted by its inhabitants during
the 1948 War of Independence.
A temporary cemetery for Jews who
died during the siege on Jerusalem
was established there. After the
establishment of the state, the area
was renamed Givat Ram. The Israeli
parliament building, the Knesset, was
built in this area.
It is told that the Ponevezher
Rav, Harav Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman,
wanted to build another 18 yeshivas
all over Eretz Yisrael — in addition
to Ponevezh. When he first saw the
magnificent fields where the Knesset
stands today, he decided this was the
perfect place for one of his yeshivas.
But before he could put in his bid for
this land, it was appropriated by the
new state, and the Knesset was built
there.
The Zhviller Rebbe, Harav
Gedalya Moshe Goldman of Zhvill,
zatzal, was buried here in 1950 before
Har Hamenuchos was opened. Here
is just one story about the Zvhiller
Rebbe’s Rebbe’s ahavas Yisrael.
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THE ENGLISH UPDATE
The Rebbe was imprisoned in a
Siberian labor camp during World
War II. It was a horrible, backbreaking experience. One Shabbos,
the commandant summoned to
his office both the Rebbe and
another Jew, a frail, old man. The
commandant told them they were
both free to go. All they would have
to do was sign some documents and
they would be released. Rav Gedalya
Moshe, the Rebbe, decided he could
not desecrate the holy Shabbos and
therefore refused to sign.
The furious commandant screamed
and threatened that this refusal would
mean that Rav Gedalya Moshe would
never be released, but the Rebbe,
was adamant that he would not
sign. Concluding that Rav Gedalya
Moshe was insane, the commandant
then asked the old man to sign. The
old man also refused to sign. Cursing
the two Jews that they would rot in the
camp, the commandant retrieved the
papers.
Before he could take the forms away,
though, Rav Gedalya Moshe said he
would sign the papers for the older
man. He explained that whereas he
himself was relatively strong and could
survive in the camp, the other man was
old and weak and would not survive.
This act of selflessness so impressed
the commandant that he allowed
them both to leave, without having
to sign (heard from Rabbi Yissachar
Frand).
A few years ago, a member of the
Zhviller Rebbe‘s family, who lived
in
London,
had
a
dream.
In
her dream she saw the Zhviller Rebbe
who asked her to publicize that he
would intercede in Heaven for those
who would come to visit and pray at
his tomb on a Monday, the following
Thursday and again on the following
Monday. People should daven that
their tefillos be answered in the merit
of the Zhviller Rebbe and in the merit
of the mitzvah of visiting his grave —
which until that time was not visited
often. Today his grave is visited
regularly by hundreds of people, all
seeking their personal yeshuos.
To reach the gravesite of the
Zhviller Rebbe, travel on Sderot
Yitzchak Rabin and turn in at
the Supreme Court onto Rechov
Rothschild. After 100 or so meters,
to your left, you will see the Zhviller
Rebbe’s burial place. Go down the
stone steps to enter the cemetery.