A National Mood of Despondence

If an entire country can be said to have a national mood, then one would have to say that the State of Israel is approaching a national state of depression. This is true of the general public, and it is certainly true of the chareidi community.

For the general public—which does not exclude the chareidim—the general solemnity has much to do with the ongoing deaths of soldiers. Whenever a radio broadcast begins with the words “it has been cleared for publication,” which typically introduce the news of a soldier who was killed and whose family has been informed of his death, our hearts tend to skip a beat as we realize that another Jew has been killed al kiddush Hashem; another soldier has been murdered by the enemies of Israel. Lately, the deaths have taken place in Lebanon, at the hands of Hezbollah terrorists. Despite the oft-repeated claims that Israel succeeded in eliminating Hezbollah, the terror group has proven itself still capable of killing—and with primitive drones, no less. Unfortunately, the Israeli army hasn’t yet developed a countermeasure to combat the drone threat, other than placing a net above the soldiers to block the drones from reaching them.

On erev Shabbos last week, we received the painful news that four Israeli soldiers had been killed in a tank in southern Lebanon on Thursday night. One of the fatalities was a 32-year-old battalion commander named Dor Gedaliah Ben-Simchon, who held the rank of lieutenant colonel. A few hours later, five other soldiers in the same area were wounded by a drone strike, including an officer in the reserves who was left in serious condition. The soldiers who were killed in the tank were almost certainly hit by an explosive drone as well. Ben-Simchon entered his current role only two months ago, replacing another lieutenant colonel who had been seriously wounded in southern Lebanon.

The bottom line is that southern Lebanon, with its deadly drones, has turned into a veritable death trap.

Every one of these incidents is met with a response from the IDF. After one such incident, the IDF spokesman reported, “The IDF attacked terrorists and terror infrastructures of Hezbollah in several areas in southern Lebanon overnight, and the attacks are continuing. These attacks were carried out after repeated violations of the ceasefire by the Hezbollah terror group.”

To the residents of the settlements on the front lines in the north, the IDF announced, “We have just been through a very complicated night, during which Hezbollah committed severe violations of the ceasefire. As a result, we were required to respond with great force. The IDF will continue its attacks, and explosions will be heard in the area. At this time, there have been no changes to the Home Front Command instructions.”

As the fighting in Lebanon continued, we received another update from the IDF: “On Friday night, around 1:30 a.m., Hezbollah terrorists launched a mortar shell and an explosive drone at a fortified position of the Commando Brigade’s soldiers. As a result of the attack, one soldier was killed, two additional soldiers were seriously wounded, an IDF officer was moderately wounded, and another soldier sustained light injuries. The fallen soldier was Nir Ben Ari, 21, from Kerem Maharal.” The IDF later reported that Israeli forces responded by attacking additional Hezbollah targets.

Media Malice

Another word about the soldiers who were killed: Yediot Acharonot is the most widely read newspaper in Israel and often manages to shape the public agenda. On Sunday, the newspaper’s front page was dedicated to the soldiers who had been killed in Lebanon, and rightly so. There was a large picture of Ben-Simchon, along with pictures of two other murdered soldiers, followed by two headlines about related stories—Trump’s agreement with Iran and the connection between Iran and Hezbollah. But then, at the bottom of the front page, was a teaser that drew a baseless link between the soldiers’ deaths and a very different phenomenon: “While the news arrived of soldiers’ deaths, celebrations erupted over the release of a draft evader.”

To be fair, the writer himself didn’t actually draw a connection between the two events. Instead, he wrote, “Dancing, celebrating, and cheering. This is how chareidi protestors were recorded outside Prison 10, the military prison on a base in the Sharon region, at a festive reception held for their friends who were released from detention after being caught by the police and transferred to the military police for draft evasion.” This story concerns the release of Aviel Cohen, a yungerman from Netivot, and Nachman Toledano, a talmid in the Breslov yeshiva. The correspondent went on to describe the protest of Sephardic rabbonim, who were joined by the Knesset members of the Shas party, and a protest held by Gerrer chassidim on the previous night. The article ends by noting that Breslov chassidim fought with police officers and shouted insults at them. I would have written the article in a much more sympathetic tone, although the writer is entitled to his feelings. What is more important, though, is that the article doesn’t mention a single word about the soldiers who were killed—which, indeed, has nothing to do with the chareidi community’s protests over the draft.

It is with the editor of the newspaper that I have a bone to pick. He chose to title the piece, “‘Die, scoundrels!’ shouted chareidi protestors outside the military prison,” as if that was the main issue in the story. The subheading added, “While news of the deaths of soldiers in Lebanon was received last week, chareidi protestors were recorded outside Prison 10 celebrating when their friends were released from prison after being held for draft evasion.” As I mentioned, the teaser on the newspaper’s front page is even more brazen and infuriating. There is no connection between the deaths of the soldiers in Lebanon and the festivities outside the prison, and the body of the article correctly does not draw any link between them. In fact, I am nearly certain that most of the protestors celebrating outside the prison weren’t even aware at the time of the tragedy in Lebanon. It is the newspaper’s editor who chose to draw a connection between the events that doesn’t truly exist.

Any link between these two events is artificially created with the purpose of sowing hatred for chareidim. Think about it: Did the tragedy in Lebanon prompt the cancelation of performances in Tel Aviv? Did the restaurants empty in response to the soldiers’ deaths? What about the massive screens displaying soccer games before a roaring crowd? Did they go dark when the soldiers were killed? If everyone else was able to go about their lives as usual despite the tragedy, how can the chareidim be maligned for celebrating the release of yungeleit from prison? What is the basis of this hypocrisy? While the entertainment industry continues producing its empty drivel and the lowliest events in Tel Aviv go on, the chareidim are somehow faulted for greeting lomdei Torah who are released from prison with song and dance.

In fact, I might have written a very different teaser if I were the editor: “While dozens of yeshiva bochurim languish in military prison, the secular media continues dancing on chareidim’s blood!”

Yeshiva Bochurim’s Plight—No Solution in Sight

But let us move on to the cause of the despondence in the chareidi community. Last Shabbos, 46 lomdei Torah were incarcerated in military prison. Two massive protests took place outside the prison last week, one held by Gerrer chassidim with the participation of the Gerrer Rebbe and the other held by the Sephardic community and attended by Sephardic roshei yeshivos. This week, a huge demonstration is planned with a convoy of cars; it will be interesting to see if it has any effect.

The story of the arrests of yeshiva bochurim is a sad and painful story, and it is also a severe stain on this country. Many people feel that the government’s treatment of Torah learners is the reason that President Trump’s attitude toward Israel changed so dramatically, in a form of midah k’neged midah. We believe that everything that occurs in the world is decreed in Shomayim. As a result, no one can really believe that Trump’s turnabout is a random fluke. It must have been orchestrated from Above.

On that note, I might add that America’s agreement with Iran is yet another reason for the somber national mood.

The plight of bnei Torah in this country has reached the point of being intolerable. The chareidi community has already been through many tribulations since the day the judges called to step up the sanctions against bnei Torah and the attorney general decided to take that directive as far as possible. First, kollel yungeleit lost their right to subsidized day care, which was a severe economic blow; the full cost of day care is 3500 shekels a month per child, and many mothers, especially those with two or three children in day care programs, found that it was no longer worthwhile for them to work at all if it meant footing the full cost of child care. Next, the yeshivos were stripped of government funding, which prompted gedolei Yisroel to set out on fundraising missions overseas. It is now believed that the property tax discount for kollel yungeleit, which can be as much as 90 percent of the tax, is next on the chopping block. The attorney general has already written to the Interior Ministry, demanding that the tax discount be canceled for draft evaders, but the director-general of the ministry, Yisroel Uzan, a Shas party appointee, rejected her demand, using professional considerations to justify his decision.

The tense situation is compounded by the unfathomable police brutality against chareidi protestors. Last week, the talmidim of Rav Tzvi Friedman (a subgroup within the Peleg Yerushalmi) held a protest, and the police response was so horrifying that even the secular community was outraged. One police officer was seen kicking a boy in the face after he had already been dragged onto the sidewalk (and beaten and kicked in the process). What could possibly have been the reason to kick him in the face when he was already out of the way of traffic? The police were also seen viciously beating a young man with clubs while he lay on the sight of the road and tearing the pants of adult protestors. The scenes of police brutality at this protest were disturbing. I believe that there will be a vigorous effort to ensure that the offending police officers are punished this time. At this point, however, the community is still in shock. And this is yet another reason for the general mood of despair.

To make matters even worse, there isn’t even a sign of a light at the end of the proverbial tunnel. Even if Netanyahu truly wants to pass the draft law, he may not be capable of doing anything at this time. And even if the chareidim manage to receive the full support of the coalition, it will be difficult to overcome the hurdles presented by the judges and the attorney general. For now, the community is voicing its outrage and visiting the bnei Torah held in military prison, but there seems to be little else that they can do.

For Those Who Said “We Told You So”

There are some who have been saying, “We told you so.” In other words, the religious community was ostensibly warned that this would happen, that the day would come when the government would persecute bnei yeshivos and wage a relentless battle to draft them into the army. These voices subtly imply that the chareidim were somehow mistaken for cooperating with the authorities in the past. However, I find these complaints difficult to understand. The Chazon Ish told us seventy years ago that we should grab the apples as long as they were rolling in the streets, to borrow the imagery from a famous moshol. In other words, even if we anticipated the day when we would no longer be able to avail ourselves of draft exemptions sanctioned by the government, we should still take advantage of the opportunity as long as it existed. This ruling was echoed by the Brisker Rov, Rav Shach, and other gedolei Yisroel who followed them. Do the critics of the chareidi community claim to be wiser than the leading Torah giants of the past few generations?

Indeed, it certainly seems that the dire predictions have come true. Perhaps our generation is experiencing the end of an era. But what do they think? That the community shouldn’t have taken advantage of the exemptions while they lasted? Should they have brought the crisis upon us even earlier than it took place? Should lomdei Torah have been hunted in the streets already in 5774 or 5778? Do they have some sort of solution to the impasse in which the entire Torah world finds itself? Besides, why are they gloating over this situation? What satisfaction can they possibly derive from it? Aren’t we all in the same boat—a boat, I might add, that is thoroughly riddled with holes?

The mainstream chareidi position is the following: We are opposed to protests in the streets, and violence is a foreign growth in our camp. At the same time, we support the protestors who have been persecuted and beaten. The videos of police beating innocent protestors have an impact more than anything else leading to closing ranks within the community and prompting all of us to turn our backs on those responsible for the beatings. The attorney general and the police commissioner are healing the rifts within the chareidi community. But internally, we must admit that we haven’t seen the demonstrations prevent further arrests, although the fact that we have not seen it is not evidence of anything.

A distinguished person once approached Rav Shimshon Dovid Pincus, the master of all solutions, to discuss a serious personal issue. In the course of their conversation, he exclaimed at one point, “So what is the solution?”

Rav Pincus replied simply, “Sometimes there is no solution.” Sometimes, the only thing a person can do is hand his burden to Hashem and pray to Him to resolve the problem.

In a similar vein, Rav Moshe Hillel Hirsch recently declared, “We can win this war [against the enemies of the Torah world] only through Hashem. There is no other way…. We have no pathway out of this situation without special siyata d’shmaya from Hashem.” Therefore, we must simply daven with fervor and recite the words “let all wickedness be destroyed in a moment” with exceptional kavanah. In a conversation with mashgichim, Rav Moshe Hillel added that we are living in a period of challenges and mesirus nefesh, and it will be necessary to suffer for Hashem.

A wise person remarked to me this week, “This isn’t the first time that lomdei Torah have been subject to persecution. It has happened in many of our exiles, and even in the places where we weren’t oppressed and no one barred us from learning Torah, those who did learn Torah suffered from starvation and lived under unbearable conditions. They suffered from heat in the summer and cold in the winter, they relied on local baalebatim to support them and sometimes went hungry on various days of the week, and in some cases they had no food at all. Rav Shach always used to describe how he washed his only shirt in the river from time to time. All we can do is daven to Hashem to hear our voices, to have mercy on us, and not to leave us in the hands of our enemies. We have been through so many ordeals, yet we have survived and carried on, and the Torah has never been forgotten. The greatest kitrug is the fact that our oppressors in this generation are members of our own nation, but that, too, has occurred in the past. A thousand like them will disappear, but no student of the Torah will forgo even a single letter of his studies.”

Will Netanyahu Decide to Dissolve the Knesset?

Meanwhile, there is plenty of drama in the Knesset.

Until now, the chareidim were the ones threatening Netanyahu that they would dissolve the Knesset if he failed to stand with them. There are a few issues that must be resolved. First, there is the Basic Law: Torah Study, which has already passed its preliminary reading; the chareidi parties want it to go through all the readings and to be passed into law. As for how it will benefit anyone, for one thing, it will be a clear statement on the part of the Knesset that the State of Israel considers the value of Torah study to be a basic value on a par with the other Basic Laws (such as the Basic Law: Equality and the Basic Law: Human Dignity). In addition, it might indirectly support the passage of some sort of draft exemption law that will prevent further arrests of bnei Torah. The chareidi parties are also pressuring Netanyahu to pass a law eliminating the arrests. There is also the day care law, which is intended to restore subsidies for day care for children whose fathers have chosen to learn in kollel. This law, too, passed its preliminary reading already, and the chareidim would like to see it pass completely (even though they have already been warned that there will be immediate appeals to the Supreme Court, and the judges will certainly strike it down).

For the time being, Netanyahu has had a hard time putting together a majority in the Likud party to support these bills. The party includes some insubordinate members who are bucking his authority and refuse to go along with his directives. (That is one reason that Netanyahu wants to cancel the primaries in the Likud party, which have turned out to introduce all sorts of rogue elements into the party slate over whom he has no control.) Last week, the chareidim decided to flex their muscles and announced that they will not support the coalition’s bills. Consequently, the Knesset agenda for this past week was dramatically shortened, as dozens of bills were pulled from the docket.

For Netanyahu, one would imagine that the most intimidating prospect is the possibility of moving up the election. The Likud has several important laws that the party wants to pass—including a bill splitting the position of attorney general in two and several other laws curbing the judges’ authority—and if the Knesset goes on recess, it will not be possible to enact any laws. This motzoei Shabbos, however, Netanyahu hinted that he has already decided to dissolve the Knesset, and on Wednesday the Likud party itself will introduce the bill for its dissolution. The move took the chareidim by surprise, and the religious parties are currently weighing their response.

The Merger Between Bennett and Lapid

I should really tell you a bit about the political moves taking place as the election approaches. Every week, fascinating new polls are released, but what is even more fascinating is the stark differences between the polls. One must wonder if the results of a poll are determined by who orders it. And that may give rise to the conclusion that one should never believe a poll. At this point, one poll indicates that Netanyahu is still winning and the right-wing bloc is still poised to overpower the left, whereas other polls show Netanyahu and the right-wing bloc in severe decline. Given these contradictions, I have decided that there is no way to believe any polls.

What is most interesting now is that the combined party of Naftoli Bennett and Yair Lapid, which has taken on the ironic name of B’Yachad, has been sinking further and further with each successive poll. While it started out as an ostensible alternative to the Likud and Netanyahu, it now seems to have become much less of a serious contender. This merged party is galloping in the direction of a single-digit showing, while it received 23 mandates in the polls at its peak. Of course, this is not happening in a vacuum; it seems that the mandates that Bennett and Lapid would have received have been transferred to Gadi Eizenkot and his party, Yashar. Netanyahu isn’t particularly worried about that, since Eizenkot, for some reason, is viewed as a potential full partner in a future government led by Netanyahu. But as could be expected, this situation has led to a rift between the two leaders of B’Yachad themselves, Bennett and Lapid. According to leaked reports from Bennett’s inner circle, he has already decided that the alliance with Lapid can only be damaging to him. Lapid drives away right-wing voters, while Bennett is banking on the support of right-wing voters who are tired of Netanyahu. In short, I would not be surprised if Bennett decides to break his alliance with Lapid.

Beyond that, not much is happening. Benny Gantz, as usual, is failing to cross the electoral threshold. The Arabs are gaining strength, and if they decide to run jointly, they appear poised to receive a record number of mandates. There are several members of the Likud who know that they will not make it into the next Knesset (such as Dan Illouz, who voted against the Basic Law: Torah Study) and are searching for a different party to take them in, such as Yoaz Hendel’s party, the Reservists. (For the time being, Hendel does not seem likely to pass the electoral threshold.) Moshe Solomon of Religious Zionism, who voted against his party’s position, likewise knows that he will not be on their slate in the next Knesset and is seeking an alternative placement. All in all, however, the general situation hasn’t changed very much, and everyone is simply waiting to see what will happen in the coming days. It’s also logical to assume that the relations between Trump and Netanyahu are likely to have an impact on the Israeli election as well. I would not be surprised if Trump makes a dramatic move at some critical moment to help his friend Netanyahu (if they are indeed still friends) win the election.

“Is This a Police State?”

Netanyahu’s trial has reached a decisive stage. The cross-examination in Case 2000 (the charges that Netanyahu received positive coverage from Yediot Acharonot in exchange for making an effort to close down Yisrael Hayom) has drawn to a close, and another cross-examination took place in the process that included some final questions regarding Case 4000 (in which Netanyahu was accused of receiving positive coverage from the Walla web site, under the control of Shaul Elovitch, in exchange for benefits for the Bezeq telecommunications company). Netanyahu took advantage of the last hearing during the cross-examination to respond to the prosecution’s questions with accusations against them. “The investigator leaked the recordings of the questioning to the press,” Netanyahu asserted.

“That is the defendant’s belief,” the prosecutor, Tadmor, replied.

Netanyahu responded, “There is no other possibility, unless I took the recordings and worked against my own interests. It is the obvious logical conclusion.”

Netanyahu also asserted, “This has been an effort to convict an innocent person.” He added, “The decision to file the indictment while I was standing on the White House lawn cannot have been a coincidence…. It could have waited…. There were criminal leaks, each of which would be punishable by three years in prison. And they generally added details such as the claims that I was always perspiring or always losing my wits.”

“You claimed that everyone associated with you was summoned for questioning,” the prosecutor said. “Some of the people you named weren’t interrogated as suspects.”

“You questioned almost everyone in my surroundings, whether as a suspect or otherwise,” Netanyahu replied. “You used a spyware program on a huge circle of people surrounding me. The rights of Israeli citizens were violated in the course of this campaign to incriminate the prime minister.”

“Sir, the suspicions were investigated,” the prosecutor said.

“You exploited the entire system and broke all the laws,” Netanyahu said. “I am permitted to say something: You pretended that you weren’t questioning everyone who was close to me, but you trapped them all in a net of terror and intimidation.”

“Mr. Netanyahu,” the prosecutor said, “some of the people you have mentioned were also brought to justice, such as Ari Harow, Mrs. Netanyahu, who was convicted, and Natan Eshel, who was convicted in a disciplinary hearing.”

“You are using your authority in a manner that terrorizes others,” Netanyahu said. “You haven’t seen anyone who stood up to you and didn’t give in. You aren’t collecting evidence; you are colleting targets. Nothing like this has happened in the past. What other public figure received this treatment? It is embarrassing. Legal experts around the world are demanding, ‘Is this a police state?’ You are extorting people close to me. That is what you have done! It is a blatant injustice. This is nothing but political persecution, just like in a police state.”

Indeed, Netanyahu is quite convincing.

Instead of Pursuing Justice, the Attorney General Pursues People

Last week, the Knesset approved a new law placing the Department of Internal Police Investigations (DIPI) under the aegis of the minister of justice rather than the state prosecution. The law was presented by MK Moshe Saada, while the opposition spoke strongly against it. The bill was passed by a vote of 43 to 39 and was incorporated into the book of law.

MK Moshe Saada is a former deputy director of the DIPI. He is a member of the political right and claims that he was persecuted by his colleagues for that reason. He also claimed that he has evidence that the DIPI partnered in a conspiracy to use its power to incriminate Netanyahu and that there were orders from above to refrain from investigating the investigators in the Netanyahu cases who were guilty of misconduct. Saada was picked for the Likud slate by Prime Minister Netanyahu and has been fighting against the DIPI ever since he was elected to the Knesset. This law was part of his efforts and received the support of the chareidim as well.

Saada’s speech to the Knesset presenting the bill makes the case very clear: “The DIPI today is a militia belonging to Gali [Baharav-Miara, the attorney general]. She doesn’t pursue justice; she hounds people. She persecutes Force 100, she persecutes Prison Service commissioner Kobi Yaakobi, she persecutes Avishai Muallem [the police superintendent who refused to comply with illegal orders from the Shin Bet to act against settlers], and she persecutes Kahlon, Zini, Gofman, and Tally Gotliv. Anything that is reminiscent of the right is hounded, trampled, and obstructed by this establishment, and any means to that end are deemed acceptable. This law will make a change. No longer will there be criminals in law enforcement. All those criminals, including Gali, Amit Aisman [the state prosecutor], Altman, and her deputy, Gil Limon, will be investigated under the new DIPI. There will be no more groundless investigations of right-wing people. This law will prevent crimes of the police or prosecution. We understand that if this law had existed in the past, there would have been no spyware cases [he was referring to the unlawful wiretapping used against hundreds of people, a subject that hasn’t yet been investigated at all]. Today brings good news for the people of Israel, who know that the DIPI does not function, that it covers up misconduct and persecutes the people of the right.”

But do not make the mistake of thinking that Moshe Saada stands with the chareidi victims of the DIPI’s corruption. When he held his position in the agency, he often seemed to be covering up the misconduct of police officers who had shown cruelty to chareidim or had actually abused them. Complaints submitted to the DIPI by chareidim never bore fruit, even when Saada was there.

State Comptroller Election Triggers Clash Between the Judges and the Knesset

I mentioned previously that the Knesset has elected the next state comptroller. The election was a race between two candidates: former Supreme Court justice Yosef Elron, who was the opposition candidate, and attorney Michael Rabello, who was supported by Netanyahu and the coalition. It was a great drama. In the first round of voting, Elron received 60 votes while Rabello received 57. However, in order to win the first round, one of the candidates would have had to receive a majority vote of at least 61 members of the Knesset. Elron fell short of that threshold by a single vote, and the Knesset was forced to hold a second round. This time, the results were surprising: Rabello received 61 votes, while Elron got 57. What led to this turnaround? There are many theories, but that is not our topic now. Yesh Atid suspects, for instance, that one of its members voted for Rabello as revenge for the fact that he was going to be removed from the party slate for the following Knesset. Others suggested that the chareidim cut a deal with the Arabs. In short, rumors and speculation abound, but no one can actually prove any of these theories.

As anyone could have predicted, the Supreme Court was petitioned against the outcome of the election. The petitioners claimed that the Likud party had required its members to take pictures of their ballots and had thus contaminated the election process, which is supposed to remain secret. The judges had a problem, since the petitions concerned an election in which one of the candidates was one of their own, a man who, until recently, had sat on the bench alongside them. They became even more entangled in potential bias when Elron announced that he would join the petitioners. In case you thought that the judges would recuse themselves due to their bias, however, I must disabuse you of that notion; they did no such thing.

After a court session in which Justice Sohlberg claimed that there was a cloud of suspicion over the election, the judges decided last Thursday that they would offer a “compromise”: They recommended holding a repeat election in the Knesset. Why this is considered a compromise remains a mystery. In any event, the judges asked for the Knesset’s response before issuing their final decision. They could have ruled outright that the election was disqualified and the Knesset was required to repeat it; however, at this stage, they decided only to make a recommendation rather than forcing the matter.

The Knesset legal advisor announced her position even before the court released its recommendation. She claimed that it was proven that no one had forced the Knesset members to take pictures of their ballots, that anyone who had documented himself with a ballot did so of his own accord, and that there is no legal impediment to showing one’s vote to others even in a secret election. Moreover, following a dispute that erupted in the Knesset at the time, a recess was called and then an agreement was reached that the voting would resume, while the Knesset speaker announced that the members had no obligation to document their ballots. Nevertheless, the judges rejected the legal advisor’s position and recommended repeating the vote. Netanyahu, however, is far from eager to see the vote repeated, since he fears that some members of the Knesset, including the chareidim, will make new demands in exchange for voting for his candidate of choice.

The response to the judges’ recommendation came from Knesset speaker Amir Ochana, who rejected the compromise. “The Knesset has had its say,” Ochana wrote, directing the judges’ attention to the response of the Knesset’s legal advisor. At this point, the judges will have to make a decision. If they choose to invalidate the vote and its result despite Ochana’s stance, it will mean that the power struggle between the two branches of government will reach yet another peak. We will have to wait and see what they decide.

The Torah’s Revitalizing Effect

In my article about my brief visit to America, I mention a paragraph in a sefer by my rebbi, Rav Elya Ber Wachtfogel. Let me take this opportunity to quote another passage from that same sefer: “The resurrection of the dead will take place only due to the power of the Torah, as the Gemara states (Kesuvos 111b) that amei haaretz who do not learn Torah will not be resurrected…. If the Torah brings life to the dead, it certainly gives life to the living. Therefore, people who are spiritually ‘dead’ and are considered dead even while they are alive can surely be resuscitated by the Torah…. A baal teshuvah once described to me how he became religious. He told me that he had initially been one of the lowly people who behave like animals, and he had an urge to leave his place of residence in New York. He roamed the country, going from place to place until he arrived in Denver, where he happened to pass a shul one day and went inside to rest. The rov of the shul was delivering a shiur on daf yomi, on the sugya of slaughtering or selling a stolen cow in Perek Merubah, and after about ten minutes had passed, the visitor felt that a new soul had entered him and he began to feel a sublime feeling. He approached the rov and said, ‘I will not leave this place until you learn with me.’ He sat with him for several weeks and learned Torah until he became a true baal teshuvah. This is certainly something that has no natural explanation; the shiur dealt with a halachic concept rather than matters of emunah. But the Torah has the power to revitalize even people who are spiritually ‘dead.’”

The Gemara asks, “Techiyas hameisim min haTorah minayin—What is the source in the Torah for the resurrection of the dead?” But with this introduction, perhaps we can make a slight change to the text and read it as follows: “Techiyas hameisim minayin? Min haTorah—Where does the resurrection of the dead come from? From the Torah!” The Torah brings life to those who seem to be beyond hope.