Faith, Tragedy & the Creation of Israel - Jeremy Gimpel: The Land of Israel Fellowship

and so I want to tell you this story that I heard from a rabbi who was in Jerusalem his name is Rabbi YY Jacobson and it's a man who grew up extremely close to the laborator rabbit and he heard the story directly from him and it's a story about RAV savesa Frank the chief Rabbi of Jerusalem in 1935. after Rabbi cook the first Chief Rabbi of Israel passed away Rabbi Frank took the position so there to the left his Rabbi cook and to the right that's V Frank and he was the the next chief Rabbi of Jerusalem so he was the chief Rabbi for many decades and rev Jaco Frank his grandson told this story to the lababi now his grandson was born on 1929 and you see in 1929 that time in Israel was a very tumultuous time there were Arab riots and pogroms all across Israel hundreds of Jews were murdered by the Arabs in those years under the British mandate and in 1929 the situation is or was getting worse and there was a Yeshiva student in yeshivat Hebron and his parents sent a telegram to the roshiva saying listen it's 1929 there's no Yeshiva in America right now we sent our child to Chevron but right now we want him to come home it's just too dangerous right now and so in 1929 you know some people might say ah but the Arab Israeli conflict it only started in 1967 when Israel won the Six-Day War and it's like no the Arab Muslim Jewish conflict the when the Jews were minorities it didn't start in 1967 just in 1967 the minority of Jews defeated the Arab world for the first time in 2000 years we were finally able to struck fear and awe into the enemies of Israel but the conflict obviously was well before 1948 in 1929 we were just helpless and hopeless and relied on the British to protect us and of course the Nations didn't protect us and in 1929 there was a massacre so the parents of this Yeshiva they wanted their boy back and so the rosha Shiva of Yeshiva everyone asked I think to intervene and they said well maybe you know the rabbi of the show in Philadelphia where this boy is from he says yes I do know that Rabbi so please we cannot lose this student he's a budding Taurus scholar he's righteous the Jewish people need leaders like this please tell him to tell the parents that everyone is different everyone is safe it's not like the rest of Israel he'll be safe here one of the leaders of Hebron his name was elazar slonim and he spoke Arabic and he was a banker a wealthy man very close with the Arabs and people in German felt protected because of his diplomatic relations with the Arabs when the pogroms started all the Jews ran to his house or many of the Jews ran to his house and all the people in his home his wife his children and everyone were murdered but Rose to Pace I think with the chief Rabbi of Jerusalem you know he was supposed to be in February that should have a Brotherhood he was supposed to be there on that Shabbat but because his grandson was born he stayed in Jerusalem because he was the sanduk the grandfather of his grandson's circumcision and that's Shabbat the Chevron Massacre happened 69 Jews were axed to death and 24 of them were the students of the yeshivan Chevron and so the rabbi they never could forgive himself he felt indirectly guilty the parents were worried they wanted him to come home and he convinced his parents not to take him home like why did he get involved and now he felt like he had blood on his hands it was like indirectly involved why did he do that and it was like a heaviness that never left him and that massacre in Hebron I mean if you look at the synagogue if there's a picture of the Abraham synagogue avram avinu they just ransacked the synagogue and with axes and knives they murdered the people of Israel it wasn't like a clean death it was a Savage barbaric Massacre and his grandson's bris is what saved the rabbi of Jerusalem and so in 1960 this is 20th so 31 years later the grandson is in milwim he's in the IDF reserve duty and he's in a trench it's raining and some other soldier in the unit comes and gets into the same trench with him and it's pouring on both of them and you know just you're in just a reserve did he say you meet the guy next to you he's like okay who are you who mine he's like oh you know I'm Rabbi I think he's like really thank that connected to the chief Rabbi I'm seriously yeah I'm his grandson he's like well who are you he's like well listen I'm actually a historian of the Jewish settlement in the land of Israel before the establishment of the state of Israel and of course he tells him the story you know like you know what happened in Hebron you know I I actually inadvertently saved my grandfather because of my circumcision my grandfather was supposed to be there and you know he never forgave himself just heartbroken that he'd never why did he get involved why did he tell that like that American boy was killed indirectly because of him and then the historian says well do you know the end of that story and he said what do you mean the end of the story The Boy died he says no but there was a continuation of that story the father of that boy was a very important Diplomat in the United States very close with many people in the state department he made such a Ruckus for years every day going to DC and convincing the state department that the British are at fault it was the British fault the British were accomplices to the murder of this American civilian to his son they could have stopped it they had guns the Arabs didn't have guns they could have protected the Jews and they chose not to and they were constantly choosing the Arabs over the Jews and now look at what's happened and because of the pressure of this father the British changed the head of the British mandate in the land of Israel and they replaced him with a man who's named Arthur walkoff and Arthur walkoff who arrived in the land of Israel was the one in charge from 1931 to 1937. he was the commander of Palestine of the land of Israel in those years and Arthur walkoff when he traveled around the land of Israel he literally fell in love he fell in love with Israel he fell in love with the Jewish people and in his tenure he opened up the gates to any Jew that wanted to immigrate to Israel at that time 400 000 Jews escaped Europe escaped Arab countries and moved to Israel and when Hitler Rose to power he quadrupled the land purchase in the land of Israel and he quadrupled the number of Jews that were in the land of Israel at that time when he arrived there's only 150 000 Jews in Israel but by 1948 there were already 600 000 Jews he says do you understand what what Arthur walkoff allowed in 1948 that was the Independence Day War 6 000 Jews died in that war had Arthur walkoff not opened the gates to hundreds of thousands of Jews coming to the land of Israel Israel would have never naturally won the war in 1948 the state of Israel as we know it today exists because of Arthur walkoff and he never would have taken office without what happened in Hebron and what happened to that boy from Philadelphia he finished that story and they finished their meeting because it was pouring rain the grandson of Rabbi Fink said I need to go to my grandfather's house and tell him this and so Thursday night he finished his army service put on his civilian clothes and charged off to his grandfather's house he called his wife and said listen I'm coming home late because I'm going to my grandfather's house and then the wife said but you go to the grandfather's house every Shabbat why do you have to go Thursday night he's like I know what I know and I know that he needs to know this as soon as possible Thursday night he went to his grandfather's house told him the story and the father Rabbi Fink said you know I can't believe it you've taken a stone off of my chest I will never forgive myself but at least now I realize that there are things that I just don't know and what does Mordechai say um who knows if you've come to the kingship at this time you're supposed to drink until you don't know Shabbat morning the grandson went to go visit his grandfather they said no you don't you don't need to come Shabbat morning he passed away and he was able to tell his grandfather that final message just a day before he passed away and you see sometimes we just don't know there is a large master plan that's unfolding in our lives that's unfolding in the world and what Purim comes to teach us all the hardships that we go through all of the challenges all of the obstacles we had to climb and all the battles that we had to win the scars that we still carry like Jacob struggling with an angel limps away from this with scars God sends you to the depths because there were Sparks of light that you had to find in the darkness that you needed to retrieve like the Jews had light the sinkha and joy the car and then in the chaos of they were able to find God's plan