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311 (s5764-02
/ 5 Tishrei)SHOFAR OF FREEDOM"We
were forbidden to pray out loud, to read from the Torah, or to sound the shofar."
SHOFAR
OF FREEDOMRabbi Moshe SegalIn
the years that Jerusalem was under British rule, the area in front of the Western
Wall did not look as it does today. Only a narrow alley separated the Kotel
and the Arab houses on its other side. The British forbade us to place an ark
for the Torah scroll, tables or benches in the alley; not even a single chair
or stool could be brought to the Kotel. We were also forbidden to pray
out loud, to read from the Torah, or to sound the shofar on Rosh Hashana and Yom
Kippur. Policemen were stationed at the Kotel to enforce these decrees.
While praying at the Kotel on Yom Kippur of that year (1930), I
overheard people whispering to each other: "Where will we go to hear the
shofar? It'll be impossible to blow it here. There are as many policemen
as people praying!" The Chief of Police himself was there to make sure that
the Jews would not, G-d forbid, sound the single blast that traditionally closes
the fast.
I listened to the whisperings and thought to myself: Can we
possibly forgo the sounding of the shofar that accompanies our proclamation
of the sovereignty of G-d? Can we possibly forgo the sounding of the shofar,
which symbolizes the redemption of Israel? True, the sounding of the shofar
at the close of Yom Kippur is only a custom, but "a Jewish custom is Torah"!
I approached Rabbi Yitzchak Horenstein, who served as the rabbi of our
"congregation," and asked him for a shofar. The rabbi abruptly
turned away from me, but not before he cast a glance at the prayer stand at the
left end of the alley. I understood: the shofar was in the stand. When
the hour of blowing approached, I walked over to the stand and leaned against
it.
I opened the door and slipped the shofar into my shirt. I had
the shofar, but what if they saw me before I had a chance to blow it? I
was still unmarried at the time, and following the Ashkenazi custom, did
not wear a tallit. I turned to the person praying at my side and asked
him for his tallit.
I wrapped myself in the tallit. At that
moment, I felt that I had created my own private domain. Outside my tallit
a foreign government prevailed, ruling over the people of Israel even on their
holiest day and at their holiest place, and we are not free to serve our G-d.
But under the tallit is another domain. Here I am under no dominion other
than that of my Father in Heaven; here I shall do as He commands me, and no force
on earth will stop me.
When the closing verses of the Neilah prayer
were proclaimed, I took the shofar and blew a long, resounding blast. Everything
happened very quickly. Many hands grabbed me. I removed the tallit from
over my head, and before me stood the Chief of Police, who ordered my arrest.
I was taken to the Kishle, the prison in the Old City, and an Arab
policeman was stationed there to watch over me. Many hours passed; I was given
no food or water to break my fast. At midnight the policeman received an order
to release me, and he let me out without a word.
I then learned that when
the Chief rabbi of the Holy Land, Rabbi Avraham-Yitzchak Kook, heard of my arrest,
he immediately contacted the secretary of the High Commissioner of Palestine and
asked that I be released. When his request was refused, he stated that he would
not break his fast until I was freed. The High Commissioner resisted for many
hours, but finally, out of respect for the rabbi, he had no choice but to set
me free.
For the next eighteen years, the shofar was sounded at
the Kotel every Yom Kippur. The British well understood the significance
of this blast - they knew it would ultimately demolish their reign over our land
as the walls of Jericho crumbled before the shofar of Joshua, and they
did everything in their power to prevent it. But every Yom Kippur, the shofar
was sounded by men who knew they would be arrested for their part in staking our
claim to the holiest of our possessions. [Excerpted and translated
from the memoirs of Rabbi Moshe Segal by Yanki Tauber and first printed in Week
in Review (www.meaningfullife.com).] Biographical note:
Rabbi Moshe-Tzvi HaLevi Segal (1904- 10 Tishrei 1985) was a Lubavitcher
chasid who was active in the struggle to free the Holy Land from British rule.
He was one of the first Jews to move into the Old City of Jerusalem upon its return
to Jewish authority in 1967, while it was still extremely dangerous. Two of his
sons-in-law are Rabbi Uri Kaploun and Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh, names well known
to visitors of this site. Fittingly, he merited to pass away on Yom Kipur. Editor's
note: I was privileged to eat at the home of R. Moshe Segal on Rosh Hashana
twice during the last years of his life. He told me that when he went into the
Old City immediately after the Six Day War, he found that "Tsemech Tsedek,"
the Chabad shul, was the only synagogue not destroyed by the Jordanians from 1948-1967.
He dedicated himself to restoring it - frustrated by their inability to knock
it down, the Arabs had turned it into a stable - and slept there at night with
a gun and a knife under his pillow. -Yrachmiel Tilles May you and yours
be inscribed and sealed for a good and sweet 5764.
Yrachmiel
Tilles is co-founder and associate director of Ascent-of-Safed, and editor of
Ascent Quarterly and the AscentOfSafed.com and KabbalaOnline.org websites. He
has hundreds of published stories to his credit. |