Posek Hador HaGaon HaRav Moshe Shternbuch spoke about the earthquake in Turkey after his shiur klali this week.
At the beginning of his words, HaRav Shternbuch brought the words of the Navi Zecharya who prophesized that the houses in Jerusalem will be destroyed even before milchamas Gog U’Magog. “The Navi Zecharya (14: 2) prophesized on the era before milchamas Gog U’Magog: ‘And I will gather all the nations to Jerusalem to war, and the city shall be captured, and the houses shall be plundered, and the women shall be ravished, and half the city shall go forth into exile – and the rest of the people shall not be cut off from the city.'” And behold that before Milchamas Gog U’Magog, the houses in Yerushalayim will be destroyed, and half of Yerushalayim will go into exile – and these words – although they appear to us as far-fetched, but we’re maaminim bnei maaminim that all the words of the neviim are emes, and it’s clear as the sun in the sky that that’s what will be.”
“Who doesn’t fear this matter? Because no one can guarantee for himself in which half of Yerushalayim he’ll be, in the half that will go into exile or in the other half. And therefore, in this era, we need to snatch more and more mitzvos and even mitzos kalos, and especially the mitzvah of Talmud Torah, that every word of Talmud Torah is a mitzvah in itself…limmud Torah is the way to be saved from chevlei Moshiach.”
“We need to look at the earthquake in Turkey and Syria as the ‘קול ה’ בכח’ that announces and tells us ‘Look what I can do.’ And as it’s written in the Gemara in Yevamos (63, 1), ‘Rabbi Elazar bar Avina said: There’s no calamity that comes to the world except for Yisrael, as it says: ‘I have cut off nations, their towers have become desolate. I have destroyed their streets so that there are no passersby…I said: ‘Surely you will fear Me, you will accept mussar.’”
“This is a warning from HaKadosh Baruch that if chalilah v’chalilah, we’ll destroy the Torah HaKedosha, chas v’shalom, He will destroy the houses. And therefore now is the time to be mechazeik as much as possible and heed the ‘kol Hashem’ calling to us to wake up and snatch more and more mitzvos.”
“And although the Gemara in Brachos explains that an earthquake expresses Hakadosh Baruch Hu’s sorrow on the tza’ar of Yisrael but when the earthquake is so powerful with tens of thousands of dead, it also expresses a warning to Am Yisrael.”
“And I saw in several mekomos that they explained that a terrible calamity of an earthquake with so many dead people is mainly to show ‘Hashem’s love for Yisrael’ Who protected us and didn’t bring an earthquake to Israel but in Turkey. It should be known that this is not the derech. I didn’t see this by Gedolei Yisrael but adaraba, Gedolei Yisrael were awakened to see this as a ‘judgment’ – that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is showing His power through a terrible tragedy by the Umos HaOlam in order to warn us, as is explained in Yevamos 63.”
“And it’s certainly true that Hakadosh Baruch Hu loves us very much to an immeasurable extent but the cause of such a terrible calamity isn’t to awaken us to realize that He loves us, but Hashem is showing us that a time will come that He will take revenge on the reshaim, and all this in order to awaken us to teshuvah and to instill fear in us of punishments from Shamayim.”
“One must look at the events of the time with the lens of Torah and the eyes of Daas Torah and not with the superficial eyes of the people on the street who seek to find only ‘Ahavas Hashem’ in every event and don’t understand that this is a clear call from Hakadosh Baruch Hu to show us His koach and gevurah and awaken us to teshuvah, to toil in the Torah and correct our deeds.”
וה’ יעזור שנזכה במהרה לקיום התפילה ‘ותחזינה עינינו בשובך לציון ברחמים’, ויתקיים במהרה וכל קרני רשעים אגדע “תרוממנה קרנות צדיק, ונזכה לגאולה שלימה במהרה בימינו בקרוב אמן.
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