Yeshiva
Beit Midrash
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- The Life of Tzaddikim
- Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu
When he was involved with his work in the immigrant camps, the young Mordechai joined an underground group of youthful, idealistic religious activists who sought to stem the growing tide of secularism in the country.
The newspapers made a big ruckus about the young "fanatics," describing them like quasi-terrorists. The articles "exposed" the group's plans to make all kinds of trouble, insinuating that they wanted to go so far as to blow up the Knesset. Before long, the group was arrested and its members thrown in prison, including the young Mordechai, who was sentenced to nine months in jail.
Rabbi Yehudah Tzadkah, Rabbi Mordechai's uncle, later recalled that the prison's leadership even posted special guards to be on duty when the young "terrorists" arrived. These burly, truncheon-bearing policemen surrounded the prison gates, awaiting the arrival of the young "terrorists." But when the prisoners were brought in, the authorities saw a group of scrawny yeshivah boys with friendly-looking faces. These were the radical activists making headlines? These were the thugs bringing the country to its knees?
The prison warden made it his business to get to know the boys, who certainly didn't look like hardened criminals. He wanted to hear their stories and find out where they were coming from and what made them do what they did. Over the course of their imprisonment, the boys explained to the warden — and whoever else would listen — that their actions just came from a love of the Jewish people and out of a desire to preserve the holiness of the Land.
The boys truly inspired the warden. He learned about the responsibility of one Jew for another, about the beauty of caring for one another, and about the importance of performing acts of loving-kindness. Through them, the warden discovered the meaning of the mitzvot and, by the time the group was released, the warden was so inspired that he had decided to do teshuvah, to return and repent. The warden eventually became fully Torah-observant.
Years later, when discussing his imprisonment, Hacham Mordechai said, "If we went to prison just to help the warden do teshuvah, it was worth it!"
Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu Controlling Flights, Directing Journeys
stories from 'Father of Israel' in English
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Hosha'ana Rabba FLYDUBAI & HOSHANA RABBA- ANI VAHU HOSHIA NA- I & HIM SAVE US
"Ani vaHu Hoshia Na", "I and Him, Save Us". We don't just pray to Him, but we also pray to and for ourselves that we should emulate and educate our children to have that instinctive altruism with which He created the world. President Trump seemed amused about Yaniv Hayon, our PLUMBER who confidently worked with G-d like Superman (he learned from a pilot on a TV show!) to save 174 lives on the Dubai hijacking, but we in Israel are totally accustomed already 78 years to our plumbers, teachers, garbage-men, rabbis, farmers & doctors being Hashem's shlichim! This is what Zionism is about.
Moreshet Shaul Hashem Is your Shadow – part I
Based on Siach Shaul, Pirkei Machshava V’Hadracha p. 420 – an address from 1941
P'ninat Mishpat A Non-Contractor in Changing Times – part I
(based on ruling 85128 of the Eretz Hemdah-Gazit Rabbinical Courts)
Moreshet Shaul Our King on Rosh Hashana, Our Father on Yom Kippur.
Based on Aroch Siach, p. 221 (Rav Shaul Yisraeli)
