The Short Vort
Good Morning!
Today is Wednesday the First Day of Elul 5777 and August 23, 2017
“And there is hope for your future, says the Lord, and the children shall return to their homeland.”
(
Yirmiyahu 31:16)
The most beautiful and the crown jewel of the rebuilt Jewish Quarter of the holy city of Yerushalayim is the Churva Shul.
“The synagogue was founded in the early 18th century by followers of Judah heHasid, but it was destroyed by Muslims a few years later in 1721. The plot lay in ruins for over 140 years and became known as the Ruin, or Churva.
In 1864, the Jews rebuilt the synagogue, and although officially named the Beis Yaakov Synagogue, it retained its name as the Churva.
It became Jerusalem's main Ashkenazic synagogue, until it too was deliberately destroyed by the Arab Legion after the withdrawal of Israeli forces during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.”
(Wikipedia)
The single most important person who was instrumental in having the entire area (“Chatzer” in Hebrew) re-acquired and the Shul rebuilt in 1864 was my great, great, great, great grandfather Rabbi Avraham Shlomo Zalman Zoref.
My ancestor, Rabbi Avraham Shlomo Zalman Zoref (1786-1851) obtained permission from the non-Jewish authorities to re-acquire the land, personally raised the necessary funds and succeeded in acquiring the entire “Churva Plaza” (Chatzer).
In January 1837 Rav Zoref succeeded in raising enough money to construct and dedicate the modest and smaller Menachem Zion Synagogue which is still standing and functioning in the northwestern corner of the courtyard.
Rav Zoref never lived to see the actual Churva rebuilt as in 1851 he was attacked by a knife yielding Arab and became “The First Official Victim of Terror” in the modern era.
(
See: “
Rabbi Avraham Shlomo Zalman Tzoref was killed trying to rebuild the Churva Synagogue in 1851
”.
His son Rav Mordechai and grandson Rav Yoel Moshe were privileged to daven in the rebuilt Churva Shul when it was dedicated in 1864.
Indeed, Rav Yoel Moshe’s son Rav Tuvia, my grandmother Chana and even my father Yoel Moshe all merited davening at the Churva until its destruction in 1948.
It was the main Shul in Yerushalayim from 1864 until it was bombed by the Jordanians in 1948.
For 84 years it was the place that Rav Shmuel Salant, Rav Kook, Rav Zonnenfeld, the Gerrer Rebbe and so many others chose to be the focal point of the spiritual life of the Jewish community in Yerushalayim.
And indeed, it served the spiritual needs of six generations of my family.
1921 Abraham Isaac Kook was appointed first Chief Rabbi of Palestine at the Churva Shul.
And in 1923 HaRav Yosef Shalom Eliashiv's bar mitzvah was held at the Churva.
And then in 1948 the voices of learning and Tefillah went quiet.
The sounds of silence were the only echoes which permeated the now destroyed house of learning and prayer for 62 years.
And then it happened.
The Churva rose from the rubble of destruction and ruin and on March 15, 2010, sixty two years after the Jordanian evil-doers silenced the sweet sounds of Torah and Tefillah, the Shul was rededicated.
Once again the sounds of Torah and of Davening filled every nook and cranny of the newly dedicated Shul.
Most importantly, it is now once again the focal point of Torah learning and davening in Yerushalayim and with the exception of the Kosel it is certainly the most frequented destination for anyone coming to the Old City of Yerushalayim.
Today my children and grandchildren have also returned to their ancestor’s Shul, just as the Prophet Yirmiyahu promised they would.
My children now reside just a few feet from where their great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather Rabbi Avraham Shlomo Zalman Zoref lived.
They now daven and learn in exactly the same Shul where the family has davened and learned (with the exception of 1948-2010) for the last 180 years.
Today, on Rosh Chodesh Elul 5777 (2017), in the same building and in the exact same place and using the exact same text as his ancestor Rav Mordechai did in 1864, my grandson Binyamin returned to the Churva Shul to learn Torah
As I look at him learning my
Emunah
(belief) in the truth and integrity of the words of our Neviim (prophets) is fortified and validated in a more meaningful and ‘real’ way than any lecture could do.
Binyamin and his brothers and sisters are living proofs of the truth of the words of Yirmiyahu uttered thousands of years ago: “and the children shall return to their home.”
May I be privileged to join them soon.
“If Not Now, Then When?”- Hillel
Ron Yitzchok Eisenman, Rabbi, Congregation Ahavas Israel, Passaic, NJ
