OU TORAH Devarim By Rav Moshe Twersky, HY"D

Contents: Why does the Torah call us Anshei Ha’Milchama? Inyanei Tisha b’Av 1 – Devarim “אנשי המלחמה” (ב:טז), “מבן עשרים שנה היוצאים בצבא” (רש”י שם) Rebbi once told me a story that he heard from Rav Mendel Zaks (son-in-law of the Chafetz Chaim) which took place during the War. Rav Mendel was part of a chaburah that was led by Rav Itzeleh Ponovezher who served as the Rosh Yeshiva. This was no ordinary chaburah, it was comprised of some of the greatest talmidei chachamim of the generation. As a group, they were very particular about teffilah b’tzibur and never missed formind a minyan for any teffilah. One day, there was a gargantuan snowstorm. A gezunteh Russian snowstorm; the snow was so high that many doors and windows were covered by the snow! In those days, there were no doorms and bachurim would sleep in local families’ homes. The family that housed Rav Mendel told him, “You’d have to be insane to go out on a day like today!” But Rav Mendel went anyway. Why? Because he looked out one of the windows that was not completely covered by the snow to see if there was any activity outside. What did he see? The Russian soldiers trudging through the snow to go to the train. “If they can go out to their work even on a day like this, then all the more so that I can go to Yeshiva!” When he got there, he found that everyone else had also come. Each one of them shared with the others their reason for coming. It turned out that they had all made the exact same calculation: if the soldiers can go out for their work, we can definitely go for teffilah b’tzibur! (From Reb Yaakov Cooper)