Yeshiva Bochur Drowns Near Modiin Illit

After three days of searching, rescue workers found the body of Moshe Ludmir, a 17-year-old Boyaner chossid who was swept away by the current while immersing in a creek near Modiin Illit. Ludmir had gone to immerse in the creek along with a friend from the yeshiva, and his terrified friend, who barely managed to escape from drowning himself, rushed to summon rescue personnel. The search continued for three days and involved the use of divers, drones, and helicopters. Authorities feared that he had been swept into a large body of water on the other side of a bridge, where he would surely have drowned. On Friday, his body was found near the community of Chashmonaim in Binyomin. The search was made especially difficult by the storm that took place in Israel last week, which also claimed other victims in flooded areas around the country. Fifteen firefighting teams participated in the search, including dozens of firefighters with special training for complex rescue operations. The firefighters worked hand in hand with police officers from the district of Yehuda and Shomron, who utilized many units and technological means to assist in the search. The effort was also joined by ZAKA and other emergency rescue workers. The sad conclusion to the story was reported by the police: “After days of searching, the body of the missing 17-year-old has been located after the victim was swept away by a flood in Modiin Illit. The police share the family’s grief and convey their sincere condolences. May his memory be blessed.”

Moshe Ludmir was buried on Friday at a heartrending funeral. His father, Reb Tzvi Hirsch Ludmir, a prominent Boyaner chossid in Beitar Illit, delivered an emotional hesped. “We are preparing for a wedding [of the niftar’s sister] in just a few days, with Hashem’s help, and when I last spoke to him on the phone, I said, ‘Moishe, soon we will dance at the wedding together and we will rejoice. You will help me prepare for it.’ These were my last words to him. For some reason, we prepared for the wedding early this time. A new hat, shoes, and kapote are already in his closet; we bought them early on Chanukah to avoid interfering with his sedorim in the yeshiva. These things are already waiting for him; why has the Ribbono shel Olam done this? We do not ask questions; this is clearly the way it must be. Moshe, daven for our simcha to be complete and for everyone in the family who is waiting for simchos to receive them. Open the gates for us; you are in a close position now, and you can daven for everyone.”

The bereaved father continued, “May we be zoche to see you soon, at techiyas hameisim, when Moshiach arrives. For now, I ask for mechilah on behalf of myself and the entire family. We didn’t appreciate you enough; while we did appreciate you, it wasn’t sufficient. We made efforts to provide for you when you were in this world, and we will continue to honor your memory now. Please daven for your friends as well, who were so dedicated to you until the final moment. Your friend who tried to help you was truly devoted to you; everyone tried to help you, along with the entire yeshiva and all of Klal Yisroel. Please daven for things to be good for all of them, and may Hashem provide us with a yeshuah.”

During the search as well, Moshe’s father delivered an impassioned speech to the rescue workers, creating a major kiddush Hashem with his words.

Netanyahu’s Maneuver Eichler Becomes a Deputy Minister

The draft law, as usual, is still at the top of the public agenda. It is rumored that the Knesset will approve the law sometime within the next week or two. As far as the chareidi community is concerned, this will be good news for the simple reason that it will put an end to the current situation, in which every yeshiva bochur and kollel yungerman is in constant danger of being arrested. After that, we cannot predict what will happen. If the law passes, the chareidi parties will at least have done their duty for the country’s Torah learners.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Netanyahu carried out a political maneuver last week that will boost the chances of the law passing. Yisroel Eichler of Agudas Yisroel was appointed to the post of deputy minister of communications and will resigned from the Knesset under the Norwegian Law, which permits a sitting member of the Knesset to vacate his seat to accept a ministerial portfolio and thus to make way for the next member of his party. It has since been revealed that Eichler was scheduled to vacate his Knesset seat in any event, due to the rotation agreement between Agudas Yisroel and Degel HaTorah. In fact, a ruling of a bais din to that effect, of which Eichler was already aware, was publicized at the beginning of this week obligating Eichler to honor the rotation agreement signed with Degel HaTorah. However, instead of resigning and simply going home, Eichler will hold a position as a deputy government minister.

This was a win for Netanyahu, since Eichler will be replaced in the Knesset by Yitzchok Pindrus. As a member of Degel HaTorah, which has committed to voting for the draft law, Pindrus will add another vote in its favor. Eichler, on the other hand, was presumably bound by the decision of Agudas Yisroel’s Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah that the party should vote against the bill; however, now that he has resigned, he will no longer be voting. That makes it a double win for Netanyahu, with one more vote in favor of the bill and one dissenting vote removed from the picture. With this move, Netanyahu effectively limited the influence of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of Agudas Yisroel. Until now, Agudas Yisroel’s rabbonim had control of four members of the Knesset—Yitzchok Goldknopf of Ger, Yaakov Tessler of Vizhnitz, Meir Porush of Shomrei Emunim, and Yisroel Eichler of Belz. With Eichler no longer in the Knesset, these rabbonim have only three Knesset members under their authority. And at this point, it is also distinctly possible that Porush will consider taking a different path from the Moetzes as well.

Let me backtrack for a moment to fill you in on all the details: Recently, the chassidish Moetzes which oversees the Agudas Yisroel party, convened for a meeting. It was understood to be inevitable that the council would issue a ruling against supporting the draft law; however, at Netanyahu’s request, they did not release a ruling to the public. After Eichler was appointed to his position, the council published its decision, which opposes any law that includes sanctions for the failure to comply with the draft. Now, I am certainly not qualified to argue with these illustrious rabbonim, but I will simply comment that a law that contains no sanctions will never pass, and if there is no draft law on the books, the situation will be dismal. At this point, Netanyahu feels that he is making progress toward assembling a majority in favor of the draft law, and he is exuding optimism. He will still have to convince Tessler and Porush to go along with him, and he will also have to overcome internal opposition within his party. At this time, there are primarily three members of the coalition who oppose the law: Sharren Haskel, who actually belongs to the party headed by Gideon Saar, who returned to the Likud; Ophir Sofer, who is part of the Religious Zionism party; and Yuli Edelstein, who is rumored to have already reached an agreement to join Naftoli Bennett’s party in the next election campaign.

Revelation in the Cabinet: Most Draft Dodgers Are Not Chareidi

Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, in her endless efforts to hamstring the government in every possible way, informed Netanyahu last week that the government is in violation of the law. On November 19, the Supreme Court ordered the government to discuss imposing stiffer sanctions on chareidi draft evaders within 45 days, and the government failed to hold that discussion within the time frame required by the court. The attorney general therefore announced that a “constitutional crisis” had been created, or, in other words, that the government was violating the law by ignoring a ruling of the court. Last week, the cabinet held a brief discussion on the subject at the end of its weekly meeting, but the attorney general dismissed it as a sham. “This conduct,” she wrote, “poses a genuine threat to the existence of the democratic regime in the State of Israel. Violating judicial orders, along with the indications that the government has no true intent to obey them, means that the ability of the judiciary to engage in effective judicial review over the government’s activities has been emptied of its meaning.”

Of course, the government did not want to be viewed as violating the law, and Sunday’s cabinet meeting therefore included a discussion on a topic defined in the protocols as “effective economic enforcement against individuals subject to the draft who do not report for conscription, in a manner that will be equal for every sector of the populace, in accordance with the Supreme Court’s ruling and the discussion held by the cabinet earlier this month.” In the course of this discussion, the cabinet reviewed the overall statistics pertaining to draft evasion among the general populace. (Of course, this refers to chareidim and chilonim, but perhaps to Arabs as well; as you may recall, I wrote a couple of weeks ago about the attention focused on the lack of conscription in the Arab sector.) The government revealed that about 90,000 individuals who are subject to the draft and are currently between the ages of 18 and 29 (the exemption age for every Israeli citizen) have not reported for service. This figure pertains to the entire age bracket and not merely to the current year’s cohort. Out of the tens of thousands of individuals subject to the draft, about 45 percent are from the chareidi sector—meaning that while the government has been focusing exclusively on the chareidi community, the number of draft evaders is higher in the general populace.

According to a report from the cabinet meeting, “Prime Minister Binyomin Netanyahu gave instructions for a ministerial task force to be assembled, including professionals from the Personnel Directorate and the relevant ministries, to examine how to address the issue. The conclusions are to be presented to him within 30 days.” Meanwhile, Cabinet Secretary Yossi Fuchs issued a scathing attack against Baharav-Miara, insisting that her response to the petition filed with the court by the Movement for Quality Government, especially her demand to obligate the government to set a timetable for approving a new draft law, was carried out on her own initiative, disregarding the prime minister’s position and without a duly adopted government decision. Fuchs wrote, “The attorney general does not speak on behalf of the government. This is not an authorized position and presenting it as such misleads the court.” He called on the court to reject Baharav-Miara’s position.

Why Will Netanyahu Win the Next Election?

According to the polls, Naftoli Bennett is the one person who poses a threat to the Netanyahu government. All the polls indicate that the Likud will be the largest party in the Knesset after the next election once again, but Bennett’s party will come in second. If Bennett doesn’t ally with Netanyahu, then a complicated situation will arise. While most of the polls predict that the current coalition will have a majority even without Bennett, some polls have yielded different results. The election is currently scheduled to take place in about a year, but as the weeks go by, Netanyahu may decide that it is more politically advantageous for him to move it up.

This week, an Israeli academic published an analysis in which he concluded that Netanyahu will win the next election and remain in office as prime minister. His explanations are very interesting. “Before the 2022 election, I projected that the right would receive 63 or 64 mandates, and I even told Netanyahu as much on the day before the election,” he wrote. “I am now predicting that the right will reach about 70 mandates and that Netanyahu will remain the prime minister. The polls that are trying to manipulate public opinion will remain just that—attempts at manipulation. Furthermore, if the Iranian regime is brought down by military action and the Abraham Accords are broadened, it will be a knockout victory.”

He went on to outline his thought process in greater detail: “A Channel 12 poll showing the Shas party receiving at least eight mandates is part of an ongoing sin of the polling institutes, which make an error in sampling chareidi voters, who are not present on the internet panels of the polling institutes and are weighted in a distorted fashion. This may even be deliberate. The truth is that Shas will not drop below eleven mandates, and it may even grow stronger. United Torah Judaism will reach nine mandates, especially with the record high voter turnout among chareidim in light of the threat posed by the left to the Torah world and the yeshivos. Voter turnout among chareidim is higher than average in any event, and they will win 20 or 21 mandates. Otzma Yehudit and Religious Zionism—meaning Ben-Gvir and Smotrich—received 14 mandates in the 2022 election. The strong rightward trend among the public, as well as the strengthening of religious and traditional leanings following the October 7 massacre and the war, do not align, to put it mildly, with the manipulative polls that give them only nine mandates, predicting that Smotrich will practically disappear. Where will their other four or five mandates go? To Bennett? To Yair Golan? In addition, the very notion that nine mandates will leave the Likud and transfer to Bennett is an absurd fantasy, or a deliberate attempt at manipulation.”

The bottom line, according to this academic, is that since the war began with the October 7 massacre, the Israeli public has been leaning heavily toward the right and developing strong leanings toward tradition and religion. The polls that show the right-wing and chareidi parties losing mandates are distorting the reality. Even demographic trends favor the right: The birth rate among right-wing voters (chareidim, national-religious voters, and Mizrachi voters leaning to the right) is significantly higher than the left-wing birth rate, and the right-wing population has therefore grown significantly. If not for the Arabs, there would be a dramatic difference between the two camps. At this point, over 350,000 new voters have come of age since the 2022 election. These young voters are barely represented at all in internet polls, and their political leanings are not indicated by the polls conducted by Channel 12, Channel 13, and Maariv. Out of those new voters, 65 percent lean toward the right and will strengthen the right-wing bloc. The media polls also disingenuously calculate the Arab vote as somewhere between 20 to 25 percent of the total vote in the country, while Arabs actually make up only about 10 percent of the voters. Moreover, the Likud, unlike the left, hasn’t even begun its election campaign yet. Their campaign will portray Netanyahu as the dominant political brand in the country, as well as emphasizing his groundbreaking achievements. The author of this analysis also believes that Netanyahu’s criminal trial will help him score even more mandates, and I agree with him completely. I haven’t written about it for a while, but every passing day brings more revelations about the outrageous conduct of the police and the prosecution in this bizarre and absurd case.

Ludicrous Criticism Directed at Eichler

Let’s return to the subject of Yisroel Eichler for a moment. As soon as it became known that Eichler was appointed to the post of deputy minister of communications, which would certainly help stabilize Netanyahu’s government, a barrage of attacks on Eichler emerged from the anti-Bibi camp. A famous Israeli public relations expert dubbed him “Eichler, the enemy of Israel” and voiced objections to the allocation of 3.5 million shekels for his office. Nevertheless, one must wonder why he found the budget for this particular deputy minister’s office more objectionable than the government funding for all the other ministers and deputy ministers.

The description of Eicher as an “enemy of Israel” elicited a number of responses. One person wrote, “Full disclosure: I am not an admirer of MK Eichler, to put it mildly, for my own reasons. But a simple Google search for the words ‘Eichler benefiting the needy’ will give you at least a general idea of his socioeconomic agenda. The results do not indicate that he has aided the enemies of Israel, and he even supports the draft law. I believe that the Belz chassidus even studies the Liba core curriculum. So what led you to label him an ‘enemy of Israel’?  Is this your concept of an enemy of Israel?”

Incidentally, the Public Petitions Committee, which fields complaints from the public, was Eichler’s brainchild, and during his time as the committee chairman, he made good use of it as a tool to protect the chareidi community.

Some of the responses, on the other hand, echoed the criticism for Eichler, including one that I found ludicrous. “Stay with me for a moment as I go through this,” the unnamed writer begins. “Yesterday, thousands of people marched to prevent the draft exemption law from passing. At the same time, Binyomin Netanyahu appointed a 70-year-old chareidi man without a television as the deputy minister of communications. We now have a deputy minister of communications with absolutely no connection to the media. This appointment was essentially made to legitimize a law that distinguishes between one person’s blood and another’s, all for the sake of keeping the prime minister in office a bit longer.”

Personally, I am indeed a fan of Yisroel Eichler and certainly of his Rebbe. Eichler is one of the most hardworking members of the Knesset, and his age, in my view, is an advantage rather than a disadvantage. But what I find most laughable about this response is the argument that Eichler has no familiarity with the media. While it’s true that he does not own a television, he is probably the greatest expert on the media in chareidi society. Not only did he work as a journalist and editor (for Hamachaneh Hachareidi) for decades, but Eichler also spent many years on a highly popular program known as Popolitica, which dominated the media in its day, along with Tommy Lapid and Amnon Dankner. Only a foreigner who is completely detached from the realities of Israeli society could accuse Eichler have having no connection to the media.

A Judge Delivers a Stern Rebuke to the Police

Having mentioned Netanyahu’s criminal trial, let me broach a topic that is indirectly related to it. While the prime minister is being tried in court, another scandal is unfolding concurrently. This affair, known as Qatar-gate, involves a number of close associates of Netanyahu who were paid by an American citizen to work to improve Qatar’s public image in Israel. The investigation of this affair led to the arrests of Eli Feldstein, Ari Rosenfeld, and even Netanyahu’s spokesman Yonasan Urich. The main allegation is that these individuals were involved in leaking a confidential military document to the German newspaper Bild, which supposedly would have enhanced Qatar’s image and directed blame at Egypt for the failure to free the hostages in Gaza. I won’t get into all the details at this time; however, I will note that Feldstein was recently interviewed by the media and claimed that Tzachi Braverman, Netanyahu’s chief of staff, met with him secretly and led him to understand that Braverman had information about the investigation that he should not have known. The police reacted by summoning Braverman for questioning. He was released under restrictive conditions, including a ban on approaching Netanyahu’s office. Of course, this was a painful blow to Braverman and probably unjust as well, and it also seems likely to delay his departure for London; Braverman was recently tapped to take over the position of Israeli ambassador to the United Kingdom.

Last weekend, Judge Menachem Mizrachi of the Magistrates’ Court rejected a request from the police to extend the restrictions imposed on Tzachi Braverman and Yonasan Urich. The judge ruled that there was no reason to bar them from returning to Netanyahu’s office and spoke harshly about the material provided by the police to support their request. He indicated that the police were attempting to deceive everyone. “In fact, who made the decision to investigate Braverman solely because Feldstein made a comment about him in an interview with the news?” the judge asked. “What sort of conduct is this?”

This isn’t the first time that Judge Mizrachi has come out with a harsh ruling against the police. In the past, the police have almost always filed an appeal with the District Court against his rulings, and the judge who heard the appeal—which was almost always the same individual, a judge named Michlis—sided with the police and overturned Mizrachi’s verdict. In this case as well, the police filed an appeal, and Michlis delayed the implementation of Mizrachi’s ruling and set a date this week for a hearing in the District Court.

Nevertheless, Judge Mizrachi’s ruling bears quoting. “There is no evidentiary, substantive, proportionate or practical justification for accepting the requests,” he wrote, dismissing the police’s requests to impose restrictions on both suspects. Mizrachi listed a series of lapses and improprieties in the investigation and asserted that Eli Feldstein’s testimony—which the police accepted without hesitation as a reason to summon Braverman for questioning, without even looking into the matter further—was inconsistent and unreliable. At the core of his criticism was the question of why Netanyahu himself hadn’t been questioned. The judge wondered how it was possible that Feldstein claimed that he had reported to the prime minister in person that he intended to leak the classified document, but the police did not see any reason to question Netanyahu to determine whether he was truly aware of it. Judge Mizrachi went one step further and hinted that he suspected the police of deliberately impairing the purity of the investigation. He explained that if the police had questioned Netanyahu, they would probably have been forced to reject Feldstein’s version of the story out of hand, which would have left them with no justification for asking for restrictions on Braverman and Urich. When the appeal comes before the District Court, the police will have to present new material or more convincing arguments to justify the continued restrictions.

Regardless of how the District Court rules, however, the general public has already become convinced that this is a witch hunt with no real basis—and with no end in sight.

A Peek into the Past

There are many more things I could write about, but as usual, I must bow to space constraints. Bli neder, I will write at greater length next week about the appearance of disabled IDF veteran Saidian in the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. In a nutshell, Saidian called on the government to draft chareidim but to leave Torah learners alone.

I would also have liked to write at greater length about MK Avi Maoz’s proposed law, which would have limited official recognition of conversions to those that are halachically valid. The Knesset managed to drum up a massive majority against the bill, which was voted down by a majority of 60 to 15. I commented to Maoz that we had once been told that a law of this nature would not yield any benefit, since the wicked judges would simply claim that Reform conversions are considered “halachic” conversions as well. He told me that he had found a way around that problem: His bill stipulates that a conversion will be recognized by the law only if it is accepted by the Chief Rabbinate.

Another topic I would have liked to bring up is the subject of Wing of Zion, the official state plane. Last week, the plane disappeared, and everyone was certain that it had flown out of the country due to concerns of an imminent attack from Iran (in response to the expected American attack on Iran). It was later revealed that the plane had been on a training flight that was scheduled long ago.

Much of the country was angered last week when a judge decided to reject the police’s request to extend the house arrest of the bus driver who ran over Yosef Eisenthal, causing his death.

Finally, there is a small item that I simply cannot resist mentioning here. This week, someone sent me a copy of Kol Yisroel, a popular chareidi publication in its day, from eighty years ago. A small news item at the bottom of the front page, titled “Hagaon Rav Aharon Kotler shlita,” caught my eye, and I read the following report: “Throughout the week, Torah learners, rabbonim, and gedolei Torah have been coming from all over to greet the great gaon Rav Aharon Kotler, who is staying at the home of his revered father-in-law, Rav Isser Zalman Meltzer, in Yerushalayim…. The administration of Yeshivas Eitz Chaim invited Rav Kotler to deliver a shiur in the yeshiva on Tuesday. At the entrance to the yeshiva, Rav Aharon was greeted by the heads and directors of the institution. Rav Yechiel Michel Tukachinsky introduced him with an enthusiastic speech, and in the presence of a large group of listeners from all of Yerushalayim’s greatest yeshivos, he delivered a lengthy pilpul on the halachos of yuchsin and forbidden marriages, which attracted great interest and became the talk of the day in yeshiva circles.” This was a fascinating glimpse into the Torah world of yesteryear.

Rav Kaduri’s Corrections

Time is certainly passing quickly. It has already been twenty years since the passing of the venerable mekubal Rav Yitzchok Kaduri, who passed away on motzoei Shabbos of the week of Parshas Vaeira—the 29th of Teves 5766. I had the privilege of visiting Rav Kaduri’s home—next door to the offices of Chinuch Atzmai on Rechov Adoniyahu Hakohen—many times, and I observed him writing amulets and greeting people who came to him to request his brachos. I also had several opportunities to escort him to Shas party conventions. One of those conventions was held in Eilat, and the rov was originally scheduled to travel there by helicopter. At the last minute, his family members decided that they were afraid to allow him to travel in a helicopter, and the Shas party rented a small plane with about 30 seats to take off from the airport that was located at the time in Atarot, not far from the neighborhood of Ramot. At the very last minute, someone told me that I would be permitted to bring companions on the plane. My father told me that I should not bring my children along, so I invited several friends instead. It was a remarkable experience to sit in a small airplane with a man whose input was sought by so many people on a regular basis. I won’t reveal any secrets from that plane trip.

I cannot share stories about Rav Kaduri’s miracles, although the more famous stories need no evidence. I remember, however, that I was once sent to solicit his signature for a letter that I had composed. The letter was addressed to Judge Aryeh Segalson, who had unjustly convicted Rabbi Yair Levi, a member of the Knesset and director-general of the El Hamaayan school network. Levi had cashed some checks to maintain the recipients’ anonymity, but as far as the state was concerned, that was an act of theft. They could not possibly understand his reasoning. At the time, we solicited letters from public figures in the hope that we could stir some compassion in the judge, who was known to be rigid and somewhat detached from reality. When I brought the letter to Rav Kaduri, I discovered that he wasn’t willing to simply sign a letter blindly; he read every word with great care and made some cogent comments. He explained why he felt it was appropriate to change certain words or sentences, and I was amazed. After he signed the letter, he said to me, “This letter will not help. This judge will not show mercy; he will hand down a stiff sentence.” Indeed, that is exactly what happened.

Another memorable encounter took place when I was working in the interior minister’s office and was responsible for fielding complaints or requests for help from the public. One day, the minister referred a distraught couple to me: They had set a date for their wedding, but the mekubal Rav Kaduri then told them that their names were not compatible and their marriage would not be successful. They were heartbroken and at a lass as to what to do. Aryeh Deri instructed me to visit Rav Ovadiah Yosef and to ask him for instructions. I am not at liberty to repeat his exact response, but the main point he conveyed, with indescribable firmness, was that we must be guided only by halacha. We have no business concerning ourselves with mystical matters, he insisted, or questioning our decisions based on names that are supposedly incompatible. “Tell them that they should marry as they are planning,” Rav Ovadiah instructed me, “and that I give them a brocha that their marriage should be very successful.”

Two Petiros

In conclusion, I would like to share a chilling story involving my neighborhood of Givat Shaul.

Sometimes we do not understand why certain things occur, but we are at least able to recognize that there is some hidden reason that we haven’t grasped. Two consecutive petiros this last week made that concept very clear. Last Wednesday, the community of Bayit Vegan reeled in shock after being informed of the passing of a yungerman named Rav Shneur Zalman Zingrevitz. The next day, on Thursday, tragedy struck in Givat Shaul with the passing of a yungerman named Rav Shimon Pereg. Both men were young; one was 56 years old and the other was 52. Both were also outstanding masmidim and beloved by their communities, and both were survived by outstanding families. Most remarkably, the two men had learned together as chavrusas for thirty years.

On Zos Chanukah this year, Rav Shimon visited his good friend, Rav Shneur Zalman, in Shaare Zedek and left a note at his bedside. “Dear Shneur,” he wrote, “I visited you here, and I was very alarmed at first when I thought that you were intubated, but then I realized that it was merely a CPAP. I derived a lesson from this: Even if something seems frightening at first, there may not truly be a reason for concern.”  He ended his brief note with a tefillah for his friend to have a complete recovery from his illness. Last week, on the night of the 12th of Teves, Rav Shimon escorted his friend to his eternal rest. On Thursday night, Rav Shimon suffered a heart attack after leaving a wedding in Beit Shemesh, and he, in turn, was escorted to his own final resting place on Friday, the 13th of Teves. The automated phone line from their kollel carried the two messages back to back: First Rav Shimon informed the kollel members about Rav Shneur Zalman’s levayah, and then the next message relayed the news about Rav Shimon’s levayah. The two old friends are buried in close proximity to each other, at the recommendation of Rav Shimon’s cousin, Rav Ezriel Auerbach.

On motzoei Shabbos, I joined the crowds in Rav Shimon’s shul in Givat Shaul for hespedim. Rav Shimon regularly davened in this particular shul on Shabbosos, and he set up the benches and aron kodesh every erev Shabbos, transforming the room from a seminary classroom to a proper place for davening. And on that Friday, his funeral was held in the room where he had toiled with great dedication on behalf of the community.

Rav Shimon was a highly respected individual in the neighborhood, known for his kind heart and chessed as well as his brilliant smile and affable nature. The famed mashgiach Rav Yitzchok Yeruchom Borodiansky delivered a mournful hesped for Rav Shimon, who was his cousin. (Rebbetzin Sara Pereg was the youngest daughter of Rav Chaim Leib Auerbach, and Rav Borodiansky was the son-in-law of her brother, Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach.) He related that Rav Shimon’s father, Rav Moshe Meir Pereg, was stabbed at Shaar Shechem on Thursday night, the 12th of Elul 5745/1985, when Rav Shimon was below the age of bar mitzvah. The stabbing left Rav Moshe Pereg disabled and confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life. Shimon tended to his father with great dedication until his passing in the summer of 5763/2003. After his marriage, Rav Shimon kept his tefillin in his parents’ home to make it clear where he considered his primary residence to be. He also honored his mother in a superhuman fashion, and his sensitivity to others was astounding. Rav Borodiansky cried tearfully, “Rav Shimon, you were wonderful to us; you were wonderful to everyone.” As Chazal state, “Anyone who is pleasing to other people is pleasing to Hashem” (Avos 3:10). Rav Shimon Pereg, with his outstanding middos, epitomized this concept.

“Someone once told him that his eyesight had become impaired,” Rav Borodiansky related in his hesped. “Rav Shimon said, ‘We have a tradition that learning the Ohr Hachaim is a segulah for healing from this condition.’

“‘How can I learn it if I am unable to see properly?’ the other man asked.

“In response, Rav Shimon promised to learn with him every Thursday night for half an hour. Even at the wedding in Beit Shemesh on the last night of his life, he left for half an hour to learn with that man. A short time later, when he was on his way home, he suddenly passed away. He left this world with a mitzvah in his hands,” the mashgiach concluded.