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Rabbi Yerachmiel Gershon Edelstein, one of the first students at the Ponovezh yeshiva established by the Ponovezher Rav in 1944, served as a Ram (Torah teacher) almost from its inception, ultimately becoming Rosh Yeshiva and giving shiurim for over 75 years there. Rabbi Edelstein was considered the preeminent Gadol Hador in the Lithuanian community as well as serving as president of the Vaad Hayeshivos and head of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah.
Rabbi Edelstein was born in the town of Shumyatch near Smolensk in the Soviet Union in Iyar 5683 (1923) to Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Edelstein and Miriam Mobshovich. Zvi Esdelstein was rabbi of Shumyatch; his father Rabbi Yerachmiel Gershon Edelstein, was the author of Ben Aryeh on Shas. Miriam’s father, Rabbi Mordechai Shlomo Mobshovich, was rabbi of Malstovka.
Rav Gershon’s mother obtained fake birth certificates with the wrong date of birth for her sons so that they would be registered as three years younger than their real age and would not attend a school under the supervision of the Yevsektzia, the extremely anti-religious Jewish branch of the Communist Party. The young Rabbi Gershon learned Torah from Rabbi Zalman Leib Estolin in exchange for his father Rabbi Zvi Yehuda teaching Torah to Rav Zalman Leib. Following his mother’s illness with typhus, he was sent with his younger brother Yaakov to his aunt, Rebbitzin Rivka Tzvia Paz, in the city of Klimovich (Klimavichy), where they studied Torah secretly with Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu Shneur, one of the senior Rabbi Edelstein’s students. There they also received the news of their mother’s death in 1932.
In the month of Nisan 5694, his father succeeded in obtaining a permit to leave for Palestine, and asked his sons to return to their home in Shumyatch. At that time, his grandmother Rebbetzin Reizel ran the household and raised the brothers, so that their father could study Torah. In Iyar (April–May) Rabbi Zvi and his family traveled on the liner Novorossiysk from Odessa to Palestine, arriving on Lag Ba’omer. The family traveled to Jerusalem, where they visited Rabbi Isser Zalman Meltzer and Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, who had studied with their grandfather Rabbi Yerachmiel at the Volozhin Yeshiva.
In Elul 5794 (1934), after several months of wandering between relatives, their father settled in Ramat Hasharon. The brothers Yaakov and Gershon slept on the floor. Since there was no religious school in Ramat Hasharon, the father studied with his sons at home, sitting on orange crates due to lack of furniture. They studied Gemara with the commentaries of Rosh and Rif, and, in some masechtos, also the Arba’ah Turim and the Beit Yosef. On Shabbat, they studied the topics of the tractate in the Mishneh Torah. The brothers also learned grammar, arithmetic, and English, which was the official language at the time, and for that a special teacher was brought to their home.
In 5795 (1935), their father was elected to be the rabbi of Ramat Hasharon.
In Elul 5784 (1935), the sons were sent to the Lomzha yeshiva, following 12-year-old Gershon’s pleas. They arrived at the yeshiva on the 1st of Elul, having traveled on foot from their home to Petach Tikva (where the Yeshiva was), and did not know that the zman (semester) had started the day before. The Mashgiach, Rabbi Avraham Abba Grosbard, said he no longer had room for them. The secretary of the yeshiva, Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Mozes (father of Menachem Eliezer Mozes) met/encountered them and invited them to sleep in his house until beds were found for them in the Yeshiva in the beginning of Cheshvan. At the behest of their father, they joined Rabbi Shmuel Rozovsky’s group.
A year later, their father married again to a woman named Rachel. He asked them to come home, as the Rebbetzin now took care of the house, and they could study Torah full-time. The brothers returned to their study schedule with their father. In the winter of 5704 (1943–1944), when the Ponevezh Yeshiva was established, Rabbi Shmuel Rozovsky, who was appointed head of the yeshiva, came to ask their father that they should join the group of the yeshiva’s founders. Gershon and Yaakov were among the first six students in the yeshiva, which was then located in the Ligman Synagogue in Bnei Brak. The yeshiva bochurim would sleep in rooms rented for them in the city; the two young brothers lived in the house of Rabbi Michel Yehuda Lefkowitz, who rented the only bedroom in the house to Rabbi Rozovsky.
The founder of the yeshiva, Rabbi Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman, appointed Gershon to teach Holocaust refugee students who had come to the orphanage “Batei Avos” during the course of the Second World War, and in 5706 (1945–1946) he was appointed to give lessons to the young students at the yeshiva. In 5708 (1947–1948) he married Henya Rachel (d. Oct. 1, 2001), daughter of Rabbi Yehoshua Zelig Diskin, rabbi of Pardes Channa, and in the same year he was appointed by Rabbi Kahaneman to the Reish Mesivta of the yeshiva.
In Bnei Brak Rabbi Edelstein became close to Rabbi Avraham Yeshayahu Karelitz, the Chazon Ish. After the death of his father on the 20th of Cheshvan, 5711 (1950), he hesitated whether to take over the role of the rabbi of Ramat Hasharon; however, since he already held a position in the yeshiva and in light of his wife’s refusal to uproot from Bnei Brak, the role was assigned to his brother Rabbi Yaakov instead.
In the mid-1990s, succession struggles emerged in the Ponevezh yeshiva. In accordance with the Beis Din’s ruling on the matter, Rabbi Edelstein began giving the shiur klali (general lecture given regularly to the entire Yeshiva) in Iyar 5760 (2000) – thus effectively becoming the head of the yeshiva together with Rabbi Baruch Dov Povarsky. After that, Rabbi Shmuel Markowitz joined them as well in the position.
Due to the dispute, Rabbi Edelstein led the yeshiva to split into two, and today there are actually two yeshivas in the Ponevezh Yeshiva complex – one headed by him and Rabbi Povarsky, and the other headed by Rabbi Markowitz. His yeshiva’s Shabbat and holiday prayers are held in the Beis Midrash , and not in the yeshiva hall.
In 5763 (2003), he was added to the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah (Council of Great Torah [Sages]) of the Degel HaTorah political party.
In the year 5761 (2001), in the middle of a shiur being given by Rabbi Edelstein, some of his opponents caused a riot in the place, with the aim of stopping the lesson. Rabbi Aharon Yehuda Leib Shteinman sent him a letter with a request that he forgive them. In 5768 (2008), his opponents threw items at him from a building window. Following this, a rally was held in support of Rabbi Edelstein, with the participation of Rabbis Chaim Kanievsky, Michel Yehuda Lefkovitz, and Nissim Karelitz. Rabbi Aharon Leib Steinman sent a letter to the assembly.
Rabbi Edelstein served as Ba’al Tokei’ah at the Ponivezh yeshiva from 5706 (1945) until the year of his passing.
After Rabbi Aharon Leib Shteinman, the spiritual leader of the Degel HaTorah political party, died in 2017, Rabbi Edelstein became the joint new leader alongside Chaim Kanievsky. After Kanievsky’s death in 2022, Edelstein became the sole leader until his passing. He was also a member of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah in Israel.
During the course of coronavirus, Rabbi Edelstein advocated maintaining extreme measures to protect against the virus, and segregated himself from students during the entire period.
Rabbi Edelstein rarely wrote sefarim, but his disciples have published numerous volumes of his Torah lessons, including his Shiurim on various masechtos, as well as on other facets of Torah. A weekly sermon which he delivered was written up and distributed in shuls around Israel.
Rabbi Edelstein died at age 100 in Bnei Brak Israel on May 30 2023. May his memory be blessed.
https://vinnews.com/2023/05/30/rabbi-gershon-edelstein-biography-of-a-gadol/
FROM BOROPARK24: "Rav Yerachmiel Gershon Edelstein was born in 1923 in the town of Sumyach, Russia, where his father, Rav Tzvi Yehuda was the town’s rov. In 1934 his father obtained visas to enter Palestine and they settled in Ramat Hasharon. In 1944, the founding of Yeshivas Ponovezh, Rav Gershon and his brother were among the first six talmidim. For eighty years he would be synonymous with the Yeshiva, first as a talmid, then as a longtime maggis shiur, and later as a Rosh Yeshiva and leader of the bnei hayeshivos. He served as the ba’al tokei’ah in Ponovezh from 1946 until the last year of his life.” TO READ MORE AND SEE THE AMAZING PHOTOS https://www.boropark24.com/news/bde-muron-rosh-hayeshiva-rav-gershon-edelstein-zt-l
SOME MIGHT SAY THAT ISRAEL IS A CIRCUS
AND ISRAELIS ARE THE TARGET
AND THE TERRORISTS ARE SHOOTING AT SITTING DUCKS
An Israeli man was shot and killed in a shooting attack near the settlement of Hermesh in the northern West Bank on Tuesday, the military and medics said.
According to local authorities, the victim, later named as 32-year-old Meir Tamari, came under fire from a passing vehicle on a road near the settlement of Hermesh, west of Jenin. He continued driving until he reached the community, where he was treated by medics.
The Magen David Adom ambulance service said Tamari, a civilian, was treated in serious condition at the entrance to the settlement, after suffering from multiple gunshot wounds to his upper body. A helicopter was dispatched to the scene to take the victim to Hillel Yaffe Hospital in Hadera, where he was later declared dead.
The Israel Defense Forces said troops launched a manhunt for the gunmen, closing off several roads in the area.
In a statement carried by Palestinian media, the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terror group, loosely linked to the Palestinian Authority’s ruling Fatah party, claimed responsibility for the deadly attack.
Terrorists from Jenin fired across the Green Line on Sunday afternoon at the Gan Ner yishuv in the Gilboa Regional Council in northern Israel, the first time the area, which is north of the Green Line, has been targeted by terrorists.
B’Chasdei Hashem, although a bullet penetrated the window and couch of a home on the yishuv, the residents were not home at the time and no one was injured. Several parked cars on the yishuv were also hit by bullets.
The incident comes a month and a half after four homes on Kibbutz Ma’ale Gilboa in northern Israel, also north of the Green Line, were hit by gunfire for the first time.
“This is the first time that a bullet fired from the Palestinian Authority has been found in Gan Ner,” said Oved Nur, the head of the Gilboa Regional Council.
Roni Hayoun, the head of the yishuv administration, said: “We’re apparently the next Gaza Envelope. We need to start thinking and planning how to prevent this. The yishuv was established 35 years ago and this is the first time we had an incident like this.”
Chagit Levin, a neighbor of the family whose home was hit by gunfire, said: “This is very hard for us – we feel a sense of helplessness. I’ve lived here for 31 years and nothing like this has ever happened before. We always felt like our yishuv was safe – although we know we’re close to the PA. The family experienced an unbelievable neis – you come home from work and find a bullet in the tris and on the seat of the couch. If, chalilah, someone had been sitting on the couch, it would have ended in a terrible disaster. We were never scared like we are now.”
The house that was hit by the gunfire is located on the far end of the yishuv but is almost two kilometers from the security fence. However, the assessment in the defense establishment is that the shots were fired from PA territory. The Jenin Brigades, which is affiliated with Islamic Jihad, released a video with alleged footage of the shooting at Gan Ner.
Also on Sunday afternoon, terrorists opened fire on cars at the entrance of the Mevo Dotan yishuv in northern Shomron, hitting a Palestinian car that was parked near the entrance. B’Chasdei Hashem, no one was injured in the incident.
The Islamic Jihad terror organization claimed responsibility for the attack.
Later on Sunday evening, a terror attack was foiled in Binyamin when IDF soldiers identified a suspect placing an explosive device on Alon Road (Route 458). Soldiers opened fire and neutralized the terrorist. Bomb sappers were called to the scene to neutralize the device.
“Another attempted terrorist attack was just thwarted for the third time today,” a statement from the IDF said following the attack on Sunday evening. “IDF soldiers spotted a suspect attempting to place an explosive device on Alon Road. The soldiers responded with gunfire toward the suspect. A hit was identified. IDF soldiers are operating to neutralize the explosive device.
“This follows two attempted shooting attacks in the communities of Mevo Dotan and Gan Ner earlier today.”
https://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/headlines-breaking-stories/2193520/terrorism-spreads-to-northern-israel-were-the-next-gaza-envelope.html
* * * * *
IT DOESN’T STOP THERE
Attorney Avigdor Feldman, who represented Amiram Ben Uliel before the Supreme Court, claims that Ben Uliel’s confession was obtained under torture and should be treated as such. Feldman was hosted on Arutz 7 Hebrew site against a backdrop of calls to allow Amiram to celebrate Shavuot outside his solitary confinement. Although this was agreed to, it did not happen.
"In my opinion, Ben Uliel's verdict is an ugly scar on our legal system," says Feldman. "The General Security Service admitted in this case, which it does not do in other cases, that they inflicted incessant physical torture on Amiram for two nights. I am forbidden to provide details of the torture, but it is the type that causes continuous physical pain. The court rejected the confessions made immediately after the torture, but accepted his confessions given 36 hours later.
"The court ignored the fact that Ben Uliel was prevented from meeting with a lawyer during those 36 hours and that he was completely under the authority of the Shin Bet, making the threat of continued torture a constant possibility. In my understanding, the court should have rejected ALL confessions made by Ben Uliel.”
Feldman emphasizes that aside from these confessions, there is no evidence linking Ben Uliel to the crime he is accused of (arson in the Arab village of Duma). As for the claim that there is sufficient evidence of his guilt due to the details that Ben-Uliel gave to his investigators, attorney Feldman states, "Absolutely not. The details in his confessions were public knowledge. Tere are no unique details in them that could have been known only to the person who committed the crime.
"There is absolutely no forensic or biological evidence that ties him to the crime.”
In Feldman's eyes, Ben Uliel should be released immediately. "They had no evidence against him until they started torturing him. There is no evidence from the field that could support his confession made to the Shin Bet operative who was responsible for the torture.”
Ben Uliel was returned to the site of the crime for a re-enactment of the crime with a policeman and a Shin Bet agent who threatened that if he did not confess, they had other means of making him talk, implying that the torture would resume.
Feldman also pointed out that the defense argued that the confession might have been admissible if Ben Uliel had been allowed to consult with a lawyer between the confessions, and if the interrogation would have been conducted by the Israel Police and not by the Shin Bet. “But none of this happened. On the contrary. The Shin Bet was present in a threatening manner during the confessions. When Ben Uliel finally met with his lawyer, Itamar Ben Gvir (now a gov't minister), he retracted the confession. Therefore, his confession is a confession that was extracted under torture and our experience shows that confessions obtained through torture are usually false. They are coerced confessions to satisfy what the torturer and provide him with what he wants to hear. “
Attorney Feldman pointed out that it was clear to the investigators that there was more than one person at the scene of the incident, and for that reason, they interrogated a Jewish minor, trying to implicate him, but he did not confess. "The Shin Bet admits that the torture produced a confession that does not match the facts on the ground. “
"Everyone agrees that torture may be acceptable in the case of a ‘ticking bomb,’ where the suspect is aware of a person who is planning to commit an imminent terrorist act threatening human life. Even the Supreme Court, which ruled out torture as a means of obtaining confessions, ruled that any means can be used to extract information to prevent a terror attack.
“However, no one ever claimed that Ben Uliel knew about anyone intending to carry out a terrorist act against Palestinians or others," says Feldman. ”Therefore, he was tortured without fitting the profile of a ticking bomb.”
As for Ben Uliel's chances of getting acquitted, Feldman says he doesn't know.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/372064
‘We’ll Take Iran in 24 Hours, Don’t Test Us’ – Taliban Threatening War Against Iran over Water
Wind and rain prompted Israelis in the town of Efrat to hurry indoors early Sunday evening.
People living in Arad, however, saw the real action with thunder and lighting marked by a downpour that came together with large chunks of hail crashing and bouncing on to the city’s backyards, sidewalks and streets.
Heavy rain was also reported further south in the Negev city of Mitzpe Ramon and on Highway 90 along the coast of the Dead Sea. Police blocked off part of the highway due to concerns that rain forecast for the area could cause flash flooding.
A similar deluge fed the flowers at around midnight Saturday night as well.
Forecasters had already warned hikers earlier in the day not to explore the Judean Desert, the Dead Sea area, the Jordan Valley and anywhere else in eastern Israel, due to the risk of flash flooding in those areas.
A similar warning has been published for Monday as well.
*****
I’m astonished at the lusciousness of the greenery and blossoms in these photos of Arad. In Jerusalem I heard a fierce wind in the middle of the night, and noise coming from the porch just outside my bedroom. Earlier in the evening I did smell the rain, but didn’t see much rainfall. It seems Eretz Yisrael, the Eastern Corridor, needed more moisture to create more blooming. B”H
Another sign! Hodu Lashem KiTov!
Need dealing with, not with kid–gloves!
Arab terrorists from Jenin shoot (into Jewish) Israeli home in (community of Gan Ner)
Home in Gan Ner, near the Green Line, struck by terrorist gun fire, following attack on Israeli town in Samaria.
IDF operates in Jenin after shooting attack, arresting 2 wanted terrorists
Palestinian Authority reports 8 terrorists wounded, 2 arrested as IDF operates in Jenin following spate of terror attacks. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/372050
Dozens of yeshiva students demonstrated today in front of the Davidson Center near the Western Wall, where, according to the demonstrators, a gathering of several Christian mission(ary) organizations was held.
During the demonstration, the police officers who were there used force against the demonstrators. Eight yeshiva students were arrested. In one case, a policeman was filmed choking one of the students, even though he was not resisting. In another case, the police grabbed a small boy and threw him to the floor. In another case, a student wearing tefilin (sacred adornments traditionally worn during prayer and religious ceremonies) was filmed being pushed hard by police officcers. The demonstrators who were there said that it seemed as if the police had been instructed to be firm and even violent. "It doesn't make sense to us that the police did nothing when extreme left-wing demonstrators blocked the Ayalon Highway in Tel Aviv, but in a protest of a few dozen people in front of Christian mission organizations, they use severe violence against us. This is selective enforcement."
The Noam party commented: "The police are taking selective action - on the one hand they are accepting the anarchists on the Ayalon Highway and in Balfour Square in Jerusalem, and on the other hand they are violently attacking the demonstrators against the missionaries who did not block a road and did not harm anyone. According to Deputy Minister Maoz's conversation with the precinct commander, we demand the immediate release of the detainees and that police not approach them with false accusations of violence against policemen when everyone knows that the truth is the exact opposite." http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/372032
More Shavuos gems to take seriously
Rabbi Avidor Miller ZT”L :
[…] I’m going to tell you something now, a chiddush I heard from one of my rebbeim
in Slabodka and it’s something that I always repeat. Besides the fact that we
transmit to our children the story of the yirah that we gained on that day, we are
also transmitting genes of yirah, the characteristics of being a yorei shomayim.
Lamarckism and Reality
I’ll take the time now to explain that for a few minutes because it’s very
important. You know, for many years there was a question among the scientists if
certain characteristics that are acquired during your lifetime can be transmitted
to your posterity. There was once a theory like this called Lamarckism – it got that
name from the scientist Jeanne-Paul Lamarck who wrote about this idea that a
parent can acquire physical characteristics and then pass on those traits to
children.
Now, although the idea of acquired characteristics being transmitted by
heredity is already dead – it’s been proven to be false - however there is a little bit
of truth in the theory; at least in the idea behind the theory. Because we have a
tradition that up until a certain period of time in the history of the world – when
the world was still somewhat new and the families were separating and becoming
nations – Hakadosh Baruch Hu allowed a certain plasticity in human genes.
In the days of old, as the nations were being established, there were
opportunities available to people that aren’t available anymore. In those days it
was still possible for the progenitors of each nation to create characteristics:
middos and attitudes, for their descendants. Today – I’m not saying that as a
certainty, as a final statement, but it’s probably so that today our chromosomes
and genes are set forever; probably you won’t be able to change your genes by
means of your emunah and bitachon and pass it down to your children. But up to
a certain time, when the world was young, Hakadosh Baruch Hu allowed a certain
amorphous quality in the human genes and so it was possible for people
to accomplish in their character, in their nature, achievements of mind and soul
that would be transmitted to their posterity.
Molding a Nation
And so when the Avos and Imahos chose to walk in the ways of perfection –
in the ways of emunah and character perfection – Hakadosh Baruch Hu allowed
them to mold their nature into a shape that would be passed on in their genes.
They were molding not only their own characters but what they accomplished
became the permanent character genes of their descendants.
That’s what the Gemara says, sheloshah simanim yesh beumah zu, there are
three characteristics of this people, rachmanim beyshanim vegomlei chassadim.
They have pity, compassion. Bayshanim, they are modest; they have shame of
wrong actions. They don't like to do immoral things. And gomlei chassadim, they
have a sincere desire to do kindness to others.
I’ll give you an example. You remember when Rivkah, our great mother, was
asked to give a stranger a drink, so she volunteered to give even his camels water
to drink. And she ran back and forth and drew water for all their camels. It was a
day's work; and she didn't regret her offer. And when she was chosen to be the
mother of the Am Yisroel you can be certain that this quality of compassion and
kindness that had entered into her genes became part of the nature of her
descendants too.
The Goodness of Wicked Liberals
The fact that the Jewish liberals are always leading the way in espousing the
cause of compassion is part of their nature as Jews to feel pity for the downtrodden.
It’s misused of course but it’s coming from the genetic makeup that our Avos and
Imahos created. Karl Marx, that rasha, one of the lowest characters of our nation,
was driven by a certain feeling of compassion for the downtrodden. Now of course
he was misusing it and it was falsely interpreted by him and it became a doctrine
of wickedness. The best ideals can be distorted.
But we have to know that in all of our reshaim, all of our wicked, there is that
gene in their nature of rachmanim beyshanim vegomlei chassadim. Sometimes
they do a lot of work to cover it up, to repress it, but it's there. And if they'll have
children and the children won't be adversely influenced, you'd be surprised that
there crop up in the children of reshaim people who have Jewish qualities.
And so, this Gemara is telling us that the work that our Avos and Imahos put
into transforming themselves entered into the Jewish genes. The ideals and
attitudes that Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov practiced, the character and ideology
that Sarah and Rivka and Rochel and Leah developed in their lifetime became the
permanent inborn inheritance of their children forever. It couldn't happen
afterwards – we ourselves probably can’t accomplish such a thing, to acquire a
good character trait and then pass it down to our children – but at that time it
took place.
Implanting Yirah
Now at Har Sinai this happened once more. Maamad Har Sinai was such a
tremendous event in the history of the world – the entire world history depended
on that great event – that once again something took place in the genes of our
forefathers.
At Har Sinai they weren’t merely mekabel the Torah – they were mekabel
new neshamos. They were actually transformed. They became physically different,
emotionally and mentally different, and their neshamos became intrinsically
different. Like the Gemara says about a person who has certain good middos –
You can see from his character that his forefathers stood
at Har Sinai (see Nedarim 20a). It means that at Har Sinai they acquired certain
good qualities of character that would be passed down forever and ever. Something
happened then to the Jewish gene, to the chromosomal makeup of a Yisroel.
And among the good qualities they acquired the most fundamental one was
[.] … Because they passed that test so successfully, as a result,
yiras Hashem entered into them and became part of their nature. They swallowed
the fright; they absorbed it and became saturated with yiras Hashem so much so
that they passed out. They died from fright. But when they revived, they were no
longer the same. בעֲַּבורּ†means that the fear of Hashem entered into the nature of
the Jewish people. It entered into our blood. It changed our genes and from then
on we are no longer a nation among nations.
A Change in Status
That’s the secret of Maamad Har Sinai. When our nation stood around Har
Sinai, it wasn’t accepting the Torah like l’havdil a people accepting a constitution.
It wasn’t that we remained the same people only we took upon ourselves a new
way of life. No! When they heard the Voice of Hashem and allowed themselves to
be overwhelmed with the understanding of the responsibility that Kabolas
HaTorah means, something happened – their souls shot out of the bodies. Like it
says, […] – My soul went forth when He spoke. And when their souls
were restored to their bodies, they were not the same as previously.
And that's why the Jewish nation was born at that time. We became elevated
to a new status. We’re a different kind of creature now. We went forth from the
status of Bnei Noach – Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov and their descendants were
included in the category of Bnei Noach; they were not Bnei Yisroel – and now they
all became geirim. At Har Sinai, not only were we converted to Torah, but our
natures were converted; we were converted to yiras shomayim. The Jewish nation
left the company of mankind at that time and they became transformed into a
different kind of being. A being capable of achieving yiras shomayim on levels that
would have been impossible before then.
MEANWHILE
