24 Kislev 5772
Why are the Righteous Being Taken Away?
Yitzchak Izik
12 Cheshvan 5772
Isaiah 57:1 - " The righteous man has perished, but no one takes it to heart, and men of kindness are taken away, with no one understanding that because of the evil the righteous man has been taken away."
A great Tzadik departed from this world on the yahrtzeit of Rachel Imeinu, a"h. [Jeremiah 31 - "Rachel weeping for her children...."] This Jew has made a huge self-sacrifice for the sake of the Torah. And he's only one of the many tzadikim who, in the last months, have disappeared from the world. Sometimes more than two per day; tzadikim, who, some of them are well-known like HaRav HaGaon Rav Natan Tzvi Finkle, ztz"l, and apart from this, very many lesser-known tzadikim in Olam Hazeh, but very distinguished in Heaven. This is the most fearful situation, because what will we do without tzadikim!? And the Tzadikim who are called gedolei hador - the great of the generation - the majority are much older Jews, and we tremble over their health daily. The question is asked: Why!? Why, at this moment in history, are we standing and observing daily how the magnificence of Am Yisrael is simply disappearing. [reference] What is the reason? Very simple. We are really right before the complete redemption, with G-d's help. And Am Yisrael is in a very difficult situation. If we give Am Yisrael too much musar, then Am Yisrael won't want to listen, usually.
[Tehillim 50:17 - "For you hated discipline and threw My words behind you."] And more than this, Am Yisrael is angry at those who tell them the truth, and run away instead of drawing close. Therefore, HKB"H is bringing down upon the Jews hard blows. In the last years, the blows upon Am Yisrael are big and hurt very much. Many Jews who died in a sudden manner, or in traffic accidents, lo aleynu, or in various other ways, lo aleynu, or from many difficult illnesses, lo aleynu. And we bury them and continue onward. We forget and go on, but we do not return in teshuva especially. [Isaiah 42: 25 - "And He poured out upon them the fury of His anger and the strength of battle, and it blazed upon them all around and they did not know, and it burned among them and they did not take heed."]
There are indeed some Jews who have returned in teshuva for real, but the majority continue to move away, and I'm speaking about the chareidim. They continue to move away, continue to drown within the Olam Hazeh and Eigel Hazahav. Indeed, they continue to stick hechshers on it, but it's treif, and it brings only to the end of life, so that a person will lose eternity, chas v'shalom.
But, HKB"H sees that it's not helping - so, He sends the tzadikim from us. Because without the tzadikim, we have no feeling of security at all. And the moment that they disappear from the area - then, everything is the most frightening. It's correct that in Heaven, they will pray for Am Yisrael, and it will help, but every single Jew is obligated alone to make a connection with HKB"H. And this is what will help us. And there won't be for us tzadikim to help, because they almost don't exist here. A little longer and we will really be orphans, Hashem have mercy, and like it is written, that at the end - before Mashiach - it will be a generation of orphans, orphans from rabbis, from tzadikim who direct us and give merit to the generation.
What can I say? Almost twenty years we're speaking, and there are people who are beginning to understand, but they're not the majority. They're continuing to fight Jew-against-Jew about nonsense; Jews doing against other Jews all kinds of evil acts, only from zealotry and hatred and all kinds of negative emotions. 'Machloket' - it's a name for a contest. And the situation is going to get worse. There is violence in the chareidi street and the situation is that whoever wants to raise children to Torah and mitzvot and good works, there is really almost no chance for a child to arrive at true yiddishkeit. Therefore, there must now be an end to the exile. There must be an end to the exile now! This moment! Because there is almost no hope for the future. We feel that the Shechinah is already no longer present all over the world. Many Jews are suffering in the worst way, but we're not waking up. We continue to be happy with ourselves, learning, keeping Shabbat - good Jews, but without heart. For the majority, they are without heart. Also, the yeshivas, also the Beit Yaakovs. Learning and learning, where is HKB"H on the horizon!? Where is HKB"H!? Not in the heart. Not in the heart of the majority of Jews.
Am Yisrael, what I'm saying is not new. Just one thing I want to say: Very dark clouds are on the horizon. [Zephaniah 1: 15 - "That day is a day of wrath; a day of trouble and distress; a day of ruin and desolation; a day of darkness and gloom; a day of clouds and thick darkness;..."] The dark clouds, it's war. The third world war. And this war will be the hardest. Hundreds of thousands and maybe millions will be killed. Two-thirds of the world will be destroyed. [Ezekiel 7:5,6,7 - "So said the Lord God: An evil, a singular evil, behold, it comes. An end has come; the end has come, it has awakened against you; behold, it comes. The dawn has set against you, O dweller of the land; the time has come; the day is near, confusion and not the shout of the mountains."] And Eretz Yisrael will not be destroyed, but the Jews, also in Eretz Yisrael, those who do not return in teshuva, those who continue their loitering in Olam Hazeh, they will not survive. That's not to say that there won't be anything in Eretz Yisrael, there will, but Eretz Yisrael will not be completely destroyed. I can only bless all Am Yisrael that we will return in complete teshuva and that our end will be the complete redemption, and that we will merit to this, because it will be the joy of all joys of the Olam Hazeh. But, I'm very worried that until we arrive to this, the world will be a ruined place. Really destroyed. Hashem will completely destroy all the evil, all the falsehood, and will bring us to the World-of-Truth. Without the yetzer hara. But - only with the truth.
Choose, Am Yisrael, choose. There's not much time. This war is standing before us. It's possible already to see it from afar, that it's advancing quickly toward us. A weapon - we shouldn't know of such - is in all the lands. Evil and falsehood are administering the world. There is no logic at all. The Satan leads them. The yetzer hara, the snake, rules over them. But at the end of the thing, in huge miracles, Hashem will erase them from existence. And to wait, even one minute, it's the most dangerous thing. We're obligated at this moment to change direction to the direction-of-truth, and to take out all the falsehood that you have in your lives.
