Rav David Stav on Tzohar, Israel and the Issues of the Day

Joining us live from Israel is our wonderful friend Harav David Stav. He's chairman of the Sohar organization. He is chief rabbi of the Sham community in Israel. Harav Stav, a pleasure to welcome you back to JM in the AM. >> Thank you. Shalom. Good morning to you. >> I see that. Um, first of all, I I I don't know if you yourself are responsible for it. Uh I don't know if there's a team of people responsible for it, but there is a publication. I'm going to take this opportunity to tell this audience about it. There is a publication that's now coming out every week called Kittish Times. Yes, that's what it's called, folks. Kittish Times. And this is from what we understand, this was something that started as something locally in Israel. And now there's an effort to actually get this to as many people on a weekly basis around the world as possible. We enjoy it getting it via email. I've been told that some people actually get it in hard copy now in the United States. Harav Stav, could you tell us about the development of this new weekly publication? >> Yes. Uh it's all stand behind this publication. We started in Israel for the Anglo community which is growing rapidly in Israel and uh we are very happy with that and we thought that uh they need to learn from toat Israel in the language they are familiar with even people that made aliyah 10 years ago 20 years ago feel much more comfortable reading English rather than reading Hebrew and I felt that they should be exposed to rabbis and to insights of Torah and what's going on in Israel uh in through rabbis that will talk to them in their language. And has a tremendous success in Israel and once it succeeded there we thought to ourselves that why should we prevent our brothers and sisters in the diaspora from being exposed to this uh beautiful magazine. So we started by in email and later we started to uh distribute it in the states and today I think it's distributed in four or 5,000 copies in in New York, New Jersey and we intend to expand it to other places as well. >> Well, it's fantastic. If I could be of any help with this effort, let me know. I got to remind the audience it's it's literally called Kdish Times, everybody. K I DD us. And um if you have an opportunity, search for it, read it on a weekly basis. you'll be inspired and you'll be up to date on so much what's happening in Israel and of course as Rustav just said you'll benefit of the from the Torah erit Israel. So you wrote this week about the uh essentially what we should be thinking and what our attitude and approach should be since we will not be blowing the chauffeur on the first day of Rosha Shana. It'll only be happening on the second day and the reason of course is the first days on Shabbat. So what is your message? What should people be thinking about? What should the approach be in this unique year? >> If you allow me, I will just summarize the article in two sentences. >> Sure. >> Our rabbis bring a big and interesting dispute between the Babylon Talmud and the Rashali Talmud about the reason why we don't blow chauffeur on that falls in shams. According to the Babli, according to the Babylon Talmud, it's a decree that the rabbis has made in order to avoid the violation of Shabbat. Maybe somebody will take the chauffeur to his rabbi to teach him how to blow and he might carry God forbid it might carry the chauffear uh for 2 meters in the public arena which is prohibited on Shabas and therefore because of the sanctity of Shabbat the rabbis decided not to blow on Shabbat >> right >> that's the reason that is written in our Talmud in the Shi Talmud there is another reason because there is a contradiction between two verses in the Torah. One says which means the memory of the blowing and one speaks directly about a day of blowing to be and since there is a contradiction the rabbis decided that one one verse applies to that falls on Shabbat which means that from the Torah not because of a decree of the rabbis but the Torah doesn't want it to blow on on Shabbat and when it falls on Shabbat And um when falls on the weekly days, then we blow the chauff. That's what the means that actually this Shabbat it's not the decree of the rabbis. It's the it's the original intention of Hashem of God that we should not blow the chauffar on that day. The question is why? What makes Shabbat if there is a mitzvah to blow on the chauffar? what makes it that falls on Shabbat a different day that we are not supposed to um to to observe and to do this mitzvah. So the rabbis come with different answers. One of the ideas is that when rashashana falls on Shabbat, the idea is that we do not we do not blow because the way of worshiping Hashem on Shana that falls on Shabbat is with happiness, with joy and shaf reminds us terrible voices or terrible events that occur to us and that's it's not proper on Shabbat to worship Hashem in such a way. >> That's that's one direction. But I suggested that there are two ways to listen to the chauffeur. The chauffar has a lot of purposes. One of them is to listen to learn to listen to learn to listen to the pain. To learn to listen to the yelling of people that were injured, that are suffering, that are that are disabled, that are that are widows. the the voice of the orphans, the voice of so many people that that suffer from poverty and from health problems etc etc. But there are two ways to raise your voice. There is a time when you raise your voice and you blow sofa and you you scream, you yell because you want to be heard. That many people that um do not have the power to raise their voice either because they lost trust in others that have interest to listen to you either because they lost their voice either because of other reasons. And and I mentioned a few examples. Mhm. >> And one of the examples that I really feel touched by is the tens of thousands of soldiers that are suffering from post trauma after the war and they don't raise their voice. Sometimes you don't recognize them. You don't see them without a hand or without a leg. You just pass near them and you don't realize, you don't pay attention that the guy in front of you has so much pain inside. What made me sharing that uh idea was that last last week, two weeks ago actually, I officiated a wedding and my son tells me he sat in the the table, you know, sch smoozing with one of his friends from the army and he it took two cups of wine and it took him not less than not more than five minutes to start crying. and describing what he has gone through. And my son tells me, well, I had to listen to him for almost 45 minutes and I couldn't stop him. And I said to myself, wow, there's so much pain in this world, so much pain in our society and so much voices that are not heard. And this this time when we are going to say the poet They called mama there is a voice of silence and this rashashana when it falls on Shabbat we should pay attention to the voice that actually is not heard is not blowed it's just a silent voice that we have to pay attention >> brilliant absolutely brilliant chauffar wow David with us from Israel I'm glad you started with this because I I'm glad we started with the pain because hopefully we'll end with hope and and the um the positive wishes for the new year. But on the subject of the pain, you spoke about the soldiers and I think to anybody who observes or hears about someone who's seriously injured, as much as sometimes we pass them by as you describe, nonetheless, we have a perspective of what they might be going through, how difficult life is, but for those around them, the wives, the mothers, the children, you're you're a lead. You're a leader in Israel. I don't like making separations in terms of communities, but the reality is you're a leader in Israel, but you're really a leader as well in the religious Zionist space where so many families have been affected. I mean, I I can only imagine how many you've heard from over the last 3 years. Can you describe the pain that these families are going through as this year is coming to an end? >> Yes. uh in the article I mentioned not only the voice of the post trauma but also the voice of tens of thousands of wives and men that after three four and 500 days of serving in the reserves they receiving their husbands and in many times they could not talk to each other. >> Yeah. I know about tens of couples that got divorced as a result as a direct result of the war because when the husband came back, he lost interest in issues that he was interested before. And and couples have to recover. they have to go to different uh seminars or networks or different uh workshops in order to u to recover their pain to recover the injures and um it's also one of the unheard pains of the Israeli society. tens of thousands of reservists that come back from the from the front lines and have to start their lives again. And sometimes they get up in the morning or wake up in the middle of the night yelling, screaming because they are reminding themselves fears or reminding themselves what they've seen in the battlefield. Um it's not easy for many of them. They're not defined as post trauma, but they the self-defin is people that are not recovered because all of the sudden they have to come back to the real life. And the real life is, you know, getting um um getting up in the morning to go to work to to take the kids to the school to to prepare sandwiches and they remind yourself what they were busy with a week ago and maybe in two months in Lebanon or in Syria and Gaza. It's very very difficult. >> The the the enemy did a lot more damage than they think they did. >> That's true. And then of course Sunday chauffar on the second day of the kag and there'll be boys and girls in shul without their father. There'll be those who uh aren't lucky like so many others who are standing next to their father in that classic scene that we all crave for that our children and grandchildren gather around us as the chauffeur is being blown. And I think that's another group we really have to think about this time of year. >> That's no no doubt about that comment. It's it's so true. Primarily the kids that were used to come to sh with the parents and they will have to come alone. We're talking about hundreds of kids like this >> and we're talking about Rosha Shana. We're talking about with an adult next to you. We're talking about Hosana Rabba Lula Vanrog obviously Sim Torra which has its own significance even further. Harav David Stav is with us live via telephone. He leads the Sohar organization. He is the chief rabbi of Sham. We are highly recommending the publication that he is behind as you heard and that is Kdush Times Ki Dd Times. You could search it online. And now, of course, we're in a we're in a we're in a special season, but when it comes to Israel, we're in an unusual season because I don't know of any election campaign season that goes on in Israel and probably anywhere in the world. But it's more painful when it's our own brothers and sisters. That doesn't include the terrible fighting, infighting, outside fighting, arguing, accusing, uh, campaign ads and campaign accusations that are anywhere from the ridiculous to the outrageous. And even those that are somewhat accurate also don't don't always belong in the public space. How how how is society in Israel adjusting to a robust holiday season which is coming up against what I consider to be a terrible campaign season. Look, I think that um our hope is that um after October 27th, the society will start to recover because if what's going on today will continue after and God forbid if we have to face another election campaign and as we see today in the polls, we are not sure that this story is going to end with one uh election, >> right? >> Um it's um it's not good for for many mis that we will have to confess on on your >> do you do you take an active role in this election? Are you an observer? Are you somebody who makes suggestions? Do you get involved? Do are are you endorsing anybody? Like where on the scale of involvement are you? I'm I'm not involved at all in the political campaign at all of no party. I am involved in issues that I want to promote. I mean there are issues that I stand for and um I I stand for speaking about seeing the good side in each one of the parties. I'm standing for not accusing people of being traitor from both sides. I'm standing from a um a spiritual point of view that tries to um to guide what is legitimate um criticism on the other side and what is not legitimate. Um I'm I'm I'm encouraging certain positions that I believe that most of the Israeli society is supportive of but uh I'm not involved at all in any political in any political party or in any political side. >> Um you found it so hard to to make a difference to bring change to certain areas like you just said you have certain policies certain standards that you'd like to see um implemented improved in Israel. um you you came up against some strong I don't want to say opposition but strong entities I mean it's a reality that the Rabanut is a strong entity not a criticism it's a reality it's a reality that there's certain political factions in Israel that are strong entities how do you judge how so has done give us like the last year have you been able to implement or make progress in what areas that you could look back on and say it's been a success over the last year. >> Look, I think that um if I summarize the last year, officially the decided against Soar regarding the Kashoot uh bill, right? >> So officially we failed. Practically it was a tremendous success because a the numbers of restaurants taking the kashoot of sor has um grown in 11 15%. A b I believe that any government uh that will come after the the current government will change the bill and will make our um to kashut official. I believe that's that's one one example. other areas um we um expanded dramatically our services to the Israeli society in so many areas that I don't want to mention all of them because I think I will not finish you'll finish your program before I were able to describe what what achievements I mean numbers of weddings numbers of mitzvot numbers of of questions questions of secular people that are interested in Judaism I could almost in every area we touched we had a tremendous feedback. So now we are preparing ourselves stream. We are going to have um more than 600 locations all over the country. Wow. Where secular people will d with us. The main minion will be will take place in the hostages square. >> Last year there were a few Americans that um arrived specially for keeper services and they described that they had a experience that they will never forget in their lives. So I believe that one of the biggest minyanim in the world will be in the hostages square where we intend to have around 3,000 people >> that will participate there. So I think that we achieved a lot but if the question is is the society recovered did we achieve whatever we wanted no we are far from being satisfied. >> Oh kakavote on the minyanim I mean that's just as amazing. Um, I is part of the recovery that you hope that Israel enjoys? Is part of it going to going to happen only if there's some type of resolution when it comes to army service? Because it does seem like politically this whole issue just continues for 78 years to be postponed and postponed and postponed. Uh, do you take an active role to try to get some resolution to it? We try I don't think that um there will be any solution bank solution from from now to now from today to tomorrow but I believe that the process should begin and what has been done until for until now is not a process it's a joke so the government has to take this courageous decisions I don't see a government that is consistent and is depending on the parties that will be able to make these changes. The there is a rule in the Gimar saying if somebody is in prison he could not redeem himself. The will not be able to solve this by themselves. It it has to be um decided with them but without their being able to put a vet on them. I believe that a change could and should and will happen but it tends to be done by other forces not through the parties. >> Is the sham community still growing? >> We keep on growing and we have more and more shs. Last year we had 17 schools. Today I think we have 21 22. We keep on growing. >> Do you have an Anglo population in Sham? Unfortunately, no, not enough. And there is a community that showed interest in that. And I take advantage of this opportunity that you give me. And I encourage people that want to make aliyah, please see Shawam as one of the potential places for you close to Tel Aviv, close to you. Wonderful community and I think that you will enjoy yourself. >> There was a Spanish community, right? a South American community in show. Am I right about that? >> No, a few people from Venezuela. >> That was it. I thought >> very few. >> Oh, I thought early on there was more. Um, Kakavo to you for everything. Thank you so much. Um, I wish you a happy, healthy, sweet new year. What What's your hope? Your your hope is that toughen pay Zion will be a a year of peace and prosperity for all of us. >> That's for sure. But uh you know people ask themselves what should we be concerned more about the challenges with the Palestinians with Isbalah with Iran or within us and there is no doubt for me that the biggest threat on our existence in Israel is depending on us is depending on the on recovering our society and on making the ways in order to bring people closer one to another and we know that once we will be closer one to another, Hashem will be close to us and will be recovering us. >> Amen. Haravo, thank you so much for everything. >> Shalom. Shalom. >> Great to call him a friend. Harav, amazing. Uh leader of the Tohar organization, leader of the community of Sham in Israel. And those of you who don't get Kdish Times, get it. You'll be able to see what Rustav has to say each and every week throughout the entire year. Just search a kiddish ki dd us times on the web. More coming up. You're listening to a Thursday morning edition of JM in the AM H.