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24 FEBRUARY 2022 Beis yisroel siyumim in Auschwitz
Members of the Beis Yisroel Shul of Manchester went on a trip to Poland to mekomos hakedoshim and to Auschwitz and Birkenau, together with their Rov, Rabbi Yehoshua Ahron Sofer shlita and with Rabbi Yossi Chazan shlita. Early Sunday morning the group flew out to Rzeszow, Poland, where there was a coach waiting for them upon their arrival. The first stop was to Shinov to the Kever of the Divrei Yechezkel, Rav Yechezkel Shraga Halbershtam zt’’l. On the coach, Rabbi Sofer spoke about the Halachos and the power of davening at kivrei tzaddikim and about the Divrei Yechezkel, followed by Rabbi Chazan giving the historical background of Rav Yechezkel Shraga Halbershtam zt’’l.
From Shinov, they went to Lancut where Rabbi Chazan’s father in law lived before the war. They davened Mincha in an old shul which survived the Nazi invasion. The Lancut shul is beautifully decorated with many parts of davening painted on the wall. From the shul, they went to daven at the kever of Rav Naftoli of Rapshitz zt’’l who is buried in Lancut.
From Lancut they went to Lizhensk to daven at the Kever of the Rebbe, Reb Elimelech zt’’l, where Rabbi Sofer and Rabbi Chazan spoke about the gadlus of the Rebbe, Reb Elimelech saying many stories of his greatness and Avodas Hashem. This was followed with a visit to Tarnow where they saw an old Bima from the ruins of a shul destroyed by the Nazis and visited the area from where Tarnow’s Jewish community were rounded up and sent to the concentration camps.
It was already dark, when the group went to Zbylitowska Gora mass grave in the forest. Rabbi Sofer spoke about the Aveilus for an individual who passed away recently versus an Aveilus of a large group of people, a mass grave, how we must think of them all as individual people who died al pi Kiddush Hashem. Following saying Tehillim and a keil molei rachamim, inspiring songs including Av Harachamim, Ani Maamin and Yizkireim were sung at the mass grave.
The next morning they davened Shacharis in the shul of the Rema. After a quick breakfast, they began travelling to Auschwitz. Along the way, Rabbi Sofer spoke about the sad history of the town of Auschwitz and he encouraged the group to try hear the voices of the past and what messages they would be telling us today. In Bikenau and in Auschwitz the voices are so loud. The harsh yelling of the Gestapo. The roll call. The shots of guns and the barking of dogs. One can hear the desperate voices of the mothers, begging, pleading. You can hear the confused voices of the children, the starving children.
And if you listen carefully, you can hear a beautiful chorus of the voices speaking to us, comforting us. “Don’t look for us here” they say. Poland is just a shell. Go home. Listen to us by the tishen of Ger and Sanz, and Aleksander and Satmar and Bobov and Belz. Listen to the chassidim singing. Listen to the rebbe directing his flock.
We are there.
Listen to us in your Yeshivos – in Ponovezh and Mir and Brisk and Lakewood. Listen to them argue a Tosofos. Listen to them engage in discussion and sevaros. You are hearing us speak.
Go to your Beis Yaakov. Stand by the entrance to the building when the girls come in for a day of Torahdike education. Listen to how they talk to each other about topics big and small. Listen with your heart. Those are our voices.
When we come home and hug our children, we hold them tightly, in the background we hear the voices. The voices of the past are the future generations and the voices of our children are their voices.
In the barracks, Rabbi Chazan spoke about a previous visit to the camps with a lady from Manchester who lost eighty memmbers of her family but she survived. She asked him “Do I need to make the brocha of sheosa li neis bamakom hazeh, as I was here and was saved?” Can you imagine the ahavas Hashem to ask such a question? Then Rabbi Sofer spoke about the mesiras nefesh of so many yidden keeping mitzvos under the threat of death if caught by the Nazis. Rabbi Sofer told the story about Yosef Weiss, a bachur from Slovakia who arrived in Auschwitz who was in the same bunk as Mottel, a Gerer chossid who kept a calendar of all the Yomim Toivim. On Seder night, Mottel gathered everyone in the bunk and they had a seder. They had no matzos but plenty of Maror. They had no four cups of red wine but they had more than four cups of red Yiddishe blood spilled by the Nazis. They had some potatoes and began the Seder. Mottel had a beautiful voice and they sang all the songs of the Haggadah, including Chad gadya till the end, when Hakodesh Baruch Hu comes and kills the maalach hamoves who killed the shochet. They knew too well who the maalach hamoves was and who was the shochet. Yosef Weiss continues that what gave him the most strength on that night was when they sang Vhei Sheomda how in every generation they try to destroy us however Hashem saves us, and with that everyone in the group started singing Vhei sheomda standing in the barracks, as a living proof that Hashem indeed saves us.
One of the most powerful moments of the trip was standing at the end of the train tracks in Bikenau opposite the gas chambers where members of the Shul made Siyumim on three different Meschates followed by a Kaddish. After the Kaddish, Rabbi Sofer said over the story of the Ponovezh Rov who went to the arch of Titus and called out “Titus Titus, where are you? You are gone and we are still here” and Rabbi Sofer called out “Hitler Hitler, where are you? You wanted to destroy all the Talmud Leherers, you tried to kill all the Yidden. Hitler, you didn’t learn from Titus. You are gone and we are here opposite the crematoria and we have made Siyumim on Gemora! Hitler Hitler, you are gone and Klal Yisroel is here, dedicated to learning Torah”. This was followed with saying the Kinnoh on the holocaust written by the late Bobver Rebbe zt’’l.
That evening, the group went to daven at the various kevorim in the different cemeteries in Cracow. Rabbi Chazan spoke by various Kevorim about the greatness of the niftorim buried there. They then went to visit the factory of Oscar Schindler who saved many yidden during the Holocaust. Supper was served the building of Sora Schnierer’s Beis Yaakov, where Rabbi Sofer spoke about the difference before the Beis Yaakov movement was established and after it was established.
The trip was meticulously arranged, down to the last detail, by shul member Mr Yehuda Fagelman. Everyone on the trip came back spiritually inspired and thoroughly enjoyed the fantastic trip.
Yehuda Fagelman being Mesayeim Meseches Moed Kotom on the train tracks of Berkenau
Rabbi Sofer speaking inside one of the Barracks
group picture outside Shindler’s factory Rabbi Yehoshua Ahron Sofer speaking at the Crematorium in Berkenau
Group photo in the old Shul of Lancut
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Trouble looming at home and abroad. Better keep the lights on!
BY JACQUELINE CURZON
A diabetic pensioner died on the roof of a London hospital after staff ejected him in his confused state, saying he was fit to go home. Stephen McManus (60), a type-one diabetic patient died after going to Charing Cross Hospital, west London, whilst suffering from a hypoglycaemic episode. Despite having been admitted by ambulance and medical consultants having determined he was not fit for discharge, due to his slurred speech and odd behaviour, a junior doctor decided shortly afterwards that he had the mental capacity to go home. He was wheeled out of the building in his slippers without his family even being notified. Sometime later he managed to return to the hospital and gained access to a construction area up on the roof where he was found dead the following morning. An inquest will try to establish why the father of two was allowed to leave Charing Cross Hospital in the first place and secondly, how he was able to access a potentially dangerous zone. Mr McManus, originally from Ireland, had lived with diabetes for more than 40 years. In the year prior to his death (2018) he suffered recurrent hypoglycaemic episodes, where his blood sugar level became dangerously low.
The NHS is playing its own waiting game, having made a decision to ignore newly introduced covid guidelines. If, like me, you've suffered from an inability to rustle up a visitor during your hospital stay, you can look forward to pretty much more of the same restrictions. All 125 hospital trusts are maintaining some form of restriction, aside from general leniency for those deemed end-of-life or dementia. Some hospitals opt for one named visitor for the entirety of one’s stay, but for only one hour each day, and at least 34 trusts have suspended visiting entirely. I did notice at the Royal Free, when visiting was strictly one person/ one patient/ one hour, the more crafty patients somehow managed to secrete 2 or 3 visitors behind their curtains for most of the day. This was quite annoying, more so when they finally brought in the extra guest of covid, and had the entire ward closed for weeks. Johnson has to announced a ‘live with covid’ policy in the coming days, but NHS staff have made it clear they regard this a gung-ho approach and said removal of all restrictions would be ‘damaging to the health of millions.’ The consultant who saw me last week with my surprise 3rd covid positive flag, said, 'it's no longer an illness which will make you ill,' and we must all learn to live with it.' Let's hope for no more mutations then!
A university academic given only three months to live, decided to end his life by stealing an aeroplane and crashing it into a field. Dr Christopher Woodward (64) drove to Rochester airport in Kent for a flying lesson in September 2021. His instructor had given him the keys to conduct preflight checks, which was a normal part of training, Maidstone Coroners Court heard, but after doing this he boarded the Cessna 172 Skyhawk, taxied down the runway, radioing air traffic control and asked to speak to the instructor. He then accelerated and took off without any warning. Whilst airborne he told those listening he had been diagnosed with stomach cancer and had just a few months to live, but he said he would find an unpopulated area to crash, then gave his instructors access to bank accounts to pay for the wrecked plane. The trainee pilot - who had only four hours solo flying experience - then shut down the radio and turned the plane's tracking system off. It is absolutely tragic and deplorable how cancer can wreck people's lives, leaving them without hope or feel able to move forward. And the cancer numbers are going up daily, where only the very fortunate will receive a diagnosis with a curative or remission prognosis. Sadly, I’m not one of them either.
Now from skies to mountains. A group of 13 year 10 pupils from Gateshead Cheder were on a trip to Helvellyn in the Lake District when they became stranded in freezing conditions after being led to the summit by a teacher wholly inexperienced. Some of the children were only wearing school shoes and regular trousers and all had to be rescued by Keswick Mountain Rescue Team in cold and icy conditions. Newcastle magistrates heard one person was injured after slipping on ice and at least two members of the public wanted the group to turn back. The two adults leading the expedition, a teacher and a teaching assistant, had no mountain experience and were relying on a smartphone app as a compass. The school was fined £30,000 and ordered to pay £4,500 in costs after pleading guilty to 2 counts of breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. HSE inspector Stephen Garner said the incident was ‘entirely avoidable.’ He urged schools to take ‘sensible and proportionate measures’ for trips involving trekking. Excursions into mountains, particularly in winter, need to be led by people with skills, knowledge and experience. Now, I’ve been up mountains in Scotland in winter, dressed with appropriate gear, proper walking boots, ice axe, backpack and supplies and still you can be caught out by hypothermia and treacherous conditions. I always undertook these walks with people far more mountain savvy and experienced than myself, but it nonetheless was very scary when things began to get out of hand, as can happen in a matter of minutes.
In a contrasting event a British hiker and his family who died of heat exhaustion in California sent a last text message asking for help. Jonathan Gerrish (45), his wife Ellen (31), their one-year-old daughter Aurelia and the family dog were found dead last August near Hite’s Cove in the Sierra Nevada forest. Mariposa County Sheriff's Office have released information from Gerrish's phone after months of work with FBI forensics, showing a text written at noon on August 15 to a person whose name wasn’t released. In this he asked, ‘can you help us? On Savage Lundy Trail heading back to Hite’s Cove Trail. Got no water and overheating with Baby.’ The area had bad phone service and the text did not go through, neither did 5 attempts at phone calls. Their deaths baffled police who had investigated and ruled out murder, lightning, poisoning and in the autumn they concluded the family died of extreme heat stroke as temperatures had reached over 43° celsius in the steep mountain terrain, and the family had indeed run out of water. Unbelievably they had hiked over 6 miles with their baby,
and were only 1.5 miles away from the car. A 2.5 litre water container they had with him was totally empty. A truly, truly, truly devastating story. Cold and hot climates can make for interesting and appealing treks, but both carry very serious risks if circumstances should catch you out. Now, if you remember the Mayfair Boodles jewellery heist of 2016, where diamonds worth £4.2 million were stolen by swapping them for useless pebbles, you’ll doubtless be impressed to hear that the gemologist has been ordered to pay back less than £250. Lulu Lakatos (60) is now serving a 5 1/2 year sentence after being found guilty last week on conspiracy to steal. Southwark Crown Court heard she posed as a gem expert to swipe seven stones from the luxury Mayfair branch after being sent to value them on behalf of supposedly wealthy Russian buyers. Footage showed her exchanging the pebbles by sleight of hand into a purse, and as she left the shop she then switched them to the handbag of an unknown woman who fled the UK for France. When Boodles' safe was opened and the purse examined, Jacqueline Curzon it revealed seven small garden pebbles PHOTO: LARA MINSKY PHOTOGRAPHY whilst the real diamonds have never been recovered. The court heard the only money available for her to pay was the €293.57 found on her person when she was arrested. Judge Alexander Milne QC said as far as the figures are concerned, ‘there is a striking contrast between the benefit figure of £4,299,671 and the available assets.’ In this case crime most definitely pays… Russia: 4 million ~ Boodles : 0 To snatch a bit of humour from it, Google could put a logo up mistitled Boodle, with 7 brilliant diamonds which revert to pebbles before your very eyes. Elsewhere in the world matters are decidedly heating up, with now a very perceptible threat manifesting in the East. Putin's armed forces have been instructed to step big-toed into Eastern Ukraine, claiming … It's part of Russia already. Hmm. Putin has been provoking us in the west for months - cat and mouse style - with threats, if we were to permit Ukrainian membership of Nato, then laughing at our timid expressions of retaliatory political and economic sanctions. Each time Nato sat back and said, 'please don't be a bully, we can be friends.' I think we're way past that now, Vladimir. President Joe Biden is making a lot of countering diplomatic threats and noise, but no crystal ball is necessary to see this is not going to end well. Let's see if we are all so relaxed one week from now, but in the meantime we've got storms on our own home front to contend with!!
