Baruch Dayan HaEmes

[Am Yisrael, we are all suffering in this last days before we greet Mashiach, such terrible tragedies everywhere one looks. Let us do something privately to show Hashem that we are sorry, that this has to be]

A(nother) terrible tragedy struck the Boro Park community on Tuesday … 

the drowning of a young child.

Tzvi (Hersh) Elimelech Yechiel Michel Grossman Z”L 

(son of R’ Moshe and Mrs Shaindel)

Shamayim is recalling the guarantors 

[the poor little neshoma]

When the recipients of the Torah said: “Our children are our guarantors” (for we will educate them in the path of the Torah), the Holy One, blessed be He, said: “They are certainly good guarantors. Because of them, I will give it to you.”

Our Children, Our Guarantors
The Midrash [Midrash Rabbah, Song of Songs 1:3,1] relates that before G-d gave the Torah to the Jewish people, he requested guarantors who would ensure that the people would indeed study Torah and fulfill the mitzvot.

Why did G-d demand guarantors before giving the Torah? Weren’t the Jewish people the Chosen Nation? Yet G-d knew that a time would come when the people would become preoccupied with work, with worldly cares and burdens. For various reasons the Jewish people would eventually lose their sense of the importance of Torah and the preciousness of mitzvot. In that state, G-d forbid, it is possible that the Torah would be abandoned.

Therefore G-d asked the people for guarantors. He wanted to be assured that His precious gift, the Torah, would be treated with the respect and dignity it deserved, and would never be forsaken.

At first the people offered their elders. “Our forefathers will be our guarantors.” The elderly are no longer employed, do not have the burden of earning a livelihood. They have plenty of free time. They can be the guarantors.

However, G-d did not accept this suggestion.

Next the Jewish people offered their rabbis, their spiritual leaders. “The prophets will be our guarantors.” Take the rabbis, they study Torah all the time! Who could be a better guarantor than that?

But G-d did not agree to this either. He wanted an assurance that ALL Jews would study Torah, not just those with an abundance of free time, or those whose exclusive occupation was to study Torah. Everyone, even those who were occupied with other matters, even those who find it difficult to study. It’s not enough that your grandfather or your rabbi is learned and fulfills mitzvot. G-d wanted this from every single Jew.

Therefore He asked for other guarantors. Finally, the Jewish people offered their own children. They promised that the children would study Torah and safeguard it for generations. And to this G-d agreed. The children are the ideal guarantors.

When a child is taught Torah from an early age, he acquires a taste for it, a love of study that accompanies him throughout his life. He will study Torah in adulthood, and in turn pass it on to his own children.

Furthermore, when a child studies Torah he repeats what he learned to his family members, and so creates an environment of Torah in the home.

(based on an address of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Likutei Sichot vo. 2, p. 572-573)


Source about the tragedy YWN