Message from R’ Schonfeld: R’ Yoel Schonfeld

This Monday morning from Chicago, where I am for a dedication to my parents a”h, I called my doctor’s office in Manhattan to fill a prescription. The message I received was that the doctor’s office is closed for a holiday. For a second, I had to think... What holiday is it? Oh, yes... it’s Juneteenth! It marks the day when the scourge of slavery was formally abolished.

I am currently writing from Israel, where we spent Shavuos and will be remaining for another week as we celebrate our grandson Gavriel Zahler’s bar mitzvah.

I will need to be very brief, as I am on a borrowed computer, facing a busy day ahead. The celebration with family and friends in the Old City was beautiful, as you may imagine. I will add that we walked to the Kosel on Shavuos morning to take part in the “chavayah,” or experience of davening with thousands of other Jews at sunrise. I highly recommend the experience… at least for one time.

King Solomon, in Proverbs (Mishlei 27:2), declares, “Y’halelcha zar v’lo picha,” which means: “Let another praise you, not your own mouth.” Some chasidim, in somewhat cute fashion, understand this pithy saying with a twist: “Let another praise you; but if not, then let it be your own mouth.”

In a few weeks’ time, we will be reading Parshas Korach, which of course relates the story of the rebellion of Korach and his followers against the leadership of Moshe Rabbeinu. Remarkably, Korach opens his salvo of accusations with “For the entire assembly – all of them – are holy and Hashem is among them; why do you exalt yourselves over the congregation of Hashem?” (BaMidbar 16:3)

I have been in Israel for close to two weeks now. It was, baruch Hashem, quiet here – until yesterday. We are now just receiving word that three Israeli soldiers were killed by an Egyptian police officer at the Egyptian border. It has all the hallmarks of a terror attack, but Egypt is trying to put a different spin on it. In either case, the deaths of these Jewish soldiers, two men and a woman, is beyond awful.

I have a truly good friend from the rabbinate, an officer and a former president of a major Modern Orthodox rabbinic organization. This is an organization that years ago accomplished many things for American Orthodoxy.