Yom Kippur 5784
- Torah Tavlin
- Oct 11, 2024
- 3 min read
Updated: Apr 7
אבינו מלכנו שמע קולנו חוס ורחם עלינו ... קבל ברחמים וברצון את תפילתנו (סדר אבינו מלכנו)
In “Avinu Malkeinu” we say the words: "אבינו מלכנו שמע קולנו חוס ורחם עלינו" - “Our Father, our King, hear our voices, take pity and have mercy on us.” These words are immediately followed by: "אבינו מלכנו קבל ברחמים וברצון את תפילתנו" - “Our Father, our King, accept our prayers with compassion and favor.” Chacham Rav Elazar Abuchatzeira zt”l explains that these two prayers are not the same. There is a fundamental difference in the manner in which a person davens. When one davens, his simple tefillos require "רחמים ורצון" - “compassion and favor” in the eyes of Heaven before they can be accepted. If he is worthy, then his requests will indeed be granted. On the other hand, when one raises his voice (קולנו) to the Almighty, crying out to Him from the depths of one’s heart, those cries are “heard” immediately, and do not require any further compassion in order to be accepted. When Rochel Imeinu cried for her children in exile, this did more than all the tefillos of the righteous, including the Avos. As the Zohar writes (אחרי נו:): “Anyone who cries as the Torah is being read on Yom Kippur (which discusses the death of Nadav and Avihu), is guaranteed that his sins will be forgiven and that he will never lose a child in his lifetime.” Is this not a guarantee worth acting upon, to ensure the safety of one’s family for the coming year?
A terrible event occurred on Yom Kippur of 1973. Reb Ben Tzion Fellman left his house early in the morning to go to yeshivah, so he could learn before davening. On the way, he saw R’ Aharon Leib Steinman zt”l coming from Rashbam Street on his way to Kollel Chazon Ish, where he davened Shacharis K’vasikin. Reb Ben Tzion wondered why he was coming from Rashbam Street when he lived in a totally different direction, on Chazon Ish Street. He asked the Rav.
R’ Aharon Leib told him that he had an unusual dream the night before in which he saw the words of the piyut “Ana B’koach.” The words in the second line, whose initial letters spell “KRA SATAN” (tear the Satan), appeared before him, but the letter reish had detached from the rest of the word and was floating above it. It was an amazing dream, especially since he had dreamed it on the night of Yom Kippur. Who knew what it meant? He surely didn’t. So he hurried, first thing in the morning, to the home of the Steipler Gaon, R’ Yaakov Yisrael Kanievsky zt”l. Surely the Steipler, with his ruach hakodesh, would know what it meant. When the Steipler heard the dream, he was dumbfounded. Without a word, he handed a Sefer Tehillim to R’ Aharon Leib and they both said Tehillim together for a long time to annul whatever decree the dream was warning them about. That’s why R’ Aharon Leib wasn’t coming from his own apartment on the morning of Yom Kippur.
The explanation of his dream wasn’t long in coming. That afternoon, sirens broke the awesome silence of the holy day. The Yom Kippur War had begun. A war unlike any other. Arab legions used a surprise attack against the Defense Forces of Israel, which suffered between 2,521 and 2,800 killed in action. An additional 7,250 to 8,800 soldiers were wounded.
When davening in the Vasikin minyan had finished - even before the sirens sounded - Reb Moshe Borenstein saw how white-faced and worried R’ Aharon Leib looked. He asked if he felt all right. The Rav replied that he was worried about his dream. Reb Moshe was also concerned about the dream. With heavy hearts, they wished each other “Gmar Chasima Tova.”
Reb Moshe then went and told Reb Naftali Nebenzahl about the dream, and the story went around to all the talmidei chachamim in the yeshivah, who knew that they had to expend extra effort in their davening to have the decree annulled.
Once the sirens began to sound, everyone understood the dream’s message. Later, when R’ Aharon Leib met Reb Moshe before Mincha at the Ponevezh Kollel, he said, “Nu, maybe this is the explanation of my dream...”
When the war was over, Reb Ben Tzion visited the Steipler, who was talking about the great miracles that had occurred during the war. When the topic of the dream came up, the Steipler said, “Who knows what might have happened had we not said Tehillim together early that morning?” He went on to say that tefillos that are davened with intense concentration and effort before a tragedy strikes are much more effective than tefillos that are davened during the tragedy. (Adapted from “A Treasury of Stories” Part I)