As the Jewish world continues to reel from the shocking murder early this morning of Rav Amos Guetta zt”l, first reported here on Matzav.com, a powerful video of Rav Baruch Rosenblum delivering an emotional message after the 2011 murder of the Baba Elazar, Rav Elazar Abuchatzeira zt”l, has resurfaced, with many saying its message is as relevant today as it was then.
The address, delivered shortly after the Baba Elazar was fatally stabbed by an assailant, has spread widely in the wake of Rav Guetta’s murder, offering what many view as a sobering reflection on the dangers of hatred, divisiveness, and irresponsible speech.
Opening his remarks, Rav Rosenblum recalled the shock of the earlier tragedy.
“At that time, we left the shiur joyful and uplifted,” he said. “Three hours later, a Jew took a knife and plunged it into the heart of Rav Elazar Abuchatzeira zt”l.
“My friends, it is very easy to brush this aside and comfort ourselves with one magic word: ‘crazy.’ The moment you say ‘crazy,’ you tell yourself, ‘Leave me alone. This has nothing to do with me.’ But calling him crazy is not the answer!
“If Chazal tell us that we were exiled to Edom because of the ‘sword of the tongue,’ then there is such a thing as murder committed with the mouth. But physical murder carried out with one’s hands? We never had such a thing among ourselves.
“Don’t say he simply went crazy in one instant. He didn’t suddenly lose his mind. He waited patiently for hours in line until he was the last one admitted into the kodesh. He entered last and drove a blade straight into his heart. This was not a plastic knife. He prepared a special dagger to make sure that once it entered, it would not miss. He knew exactly what he was doing.”
Rav Rosenblum then drew a thought-provoking distinction between mentally ill people of previous generations and those of today.
“I heard an astonishing insight from a wise Jew. Do you know who the crazy people of previous generations were? Who were the crazy people of Vilna, Budapest, Bucharest, or Tafilalt in Morocco? In those days, the town madman imagined he was Eliyahu Hanavi, the angel Gavriel, Moshiach ben Yosef, Moshiach ben Dovid, or at least the donkey of Moshiach. That was considered the height of insanity. A man would run through the streets shouting, ‘I am the Moshiach! Blow the shofar!’ Everyone knew he was a harmless madman.
“That same Jew asked me: Why did the crazy people of the past only talk but never murder? What is the difference between a wise person and a fool or a madman? There is only one difference.
“Every human being has thoughts running through his mind. One person thinks he deserves to be Moshiach. Another thinks he would make an outstanding rosh yeshivah. Every one of us has countless thoughts. But a wise person has a filter with very small holes. Not every thought that enters his mind comes out. He exercises judgment and knows what should and should not be said. Even after deciding to say something, he considers whether it should be written. And if he writes it, he thinks seven times before publishing and distributing it to others.
“The madman has a filter with enormous holes. Whatever enters his mind immediately comes out without any filtering. That is why he walks through the streets shouting, ‘I am Moshiach!’ or ‘I am Eliyahu Hanavi!'”
Rav Rosenblum went on to argue that the atmosphere of a generation shapes even the behavior of those who are mentally unstable.
“In earlier generations, when the entire generation was occupied with emunah, yearning for Moshiach, and awaiting the arrival of Eliyahu Hanavi, even the madmen imagined they were Moshiach. When rabbanim sat on the floor on the night of Tishah B’Av crying like little children over the destruction of the Bais Hamikdash, the madman would think to himself, ‘Everyone is crying and waiting for Moshiach, so I must be Moshiach.’
“But what occupies us today? Does anyone truly mourn the destruction of the Bais Hamikdash with tears of fire? How many batei knesses can you enter and find people crying over the destruction of Yerushalayim? There are people who cry—but they cry over their own personal tragedies, not over the destruction of the Bais Hamikdash. Perhaps you will find two or three people in a shul crying over the Churban, maybe among the mekubalim in Yerushalayim. The general public is asking, ‘Is the air conditioner working?’ or ‘What are we eating after the fast?’ Those are our concerns.
“And if we are not occupied with the Bais Hamikdash, what are we occupied with? Disputes! This one against that one, and that one against someone else. One insulted another, one said something about another, one chassidus against another, roshei yeshivah against each other.
“When an entire generation is consumed with internal battles and creating ‘swords of the tongue,’ what does the true madman of that generation do? Because his filter is completely broken, he no longer stops with words. He sees that the generation is occupied with swords and wars, so he simply takes it one step further. He does not understand that the rest of us are ‘only talking.’ He takes a knife and actually stabs someone.
“That is the chilling lesson we must learn from this terrible tragedy, my friends. We must conduct deep cheshbon hanefesh. We must stop the disputes and hatred, ‘that each of us should see the virtues of our fellow and not his shortcomings.’ The Ribbono Shel Olam wants unity from us because we are all brothers. Let us strengthen ourselves in ahavas chinam and say to one another, ‘Chazak.'”
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Matzav.com}
