Terror victim Rabbi Leo Dee to prominent US rabbis: You are holding up Redemption
Terror victim Rabbi Leo Dee, whose wife Lucy and daughters Maia and Rina were killed in a terror attack on April 7th, called on US rabbis to make Aliyah with their congregation, as an important step to usher in redemption.
On Tuesday, Rabbi Dee sat for the final day of the traditional seven-day mourning period which was also, coincidentally, Holocaust Remembrance Day. Many have come to the Dee house to express condolences and Rabbi Dee responded by passing on some powerful and perhaps uncomfortable messages.
On April 7th, during the Passover holiday, Lucy (48), Maia (20) and Rina (15) were gunned down by Palestinian terrorists, murdered on the Jordan Valley road on their way to a family hike. The daughters were declared dead at the scene, while Lucy was rushed to a hospital in critical condition but died three days later. Thousands attended the funerals.
Left behind was Rabbi Dee, the grieving husband and father, and his three children.
On Tuesday, Rabbi Dee was visited by two prominent US rabbis: Rabbi Efrem Goldberg from Boca Raton, Florida and Rabbi Shay Schachter from Woodmere, New York. Rabbi Dee was asked to address the visitors and he noted the presence of the rabbis, adding that he actively followed their teaching online.
“For the last year or two, they both have had a similar message coming out,” Rabbi Dee said. “They’ve started to say to their kehillot (communities), that they have to come on aliyah (immigrate to Israel).”
Rabbi Dee said that both rabbis had taught that as rabbis and leaders of communities, they are permitted to remain living outside of Israel.
“Only because you are inspiring millions of Jews, but if that were not the case, you would have to be on the first plane to Israel,” Rabbi Dee said. “But a baal ha’bayit (householder) has to make aliyah.”
Rabbi Dee offered up a “challenge” to his esteemed guests. He related that forty years ago, Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, the Chief Rabbi of Efrat, left his position as the rabbi of Lincoln Square Synagogue on the Upper West Side of New York City, which he founded and led for 20 years.
“I always thought he brought the entire Lincoln Square Synagogue with him,” Rabbi Dee said. “But he didn’t. He came with eight families. If you think you can find eight families in Boca Raton and Woodmere and a place in Israel like Efrat…next year, come here.”
“Because if you were here, they wouldn’t be there,” Rabbi Dee said. “And the time is now. My feeling is that you are holding back geula (redemption) because you are so inspirational and people are staying there because of you.”
Efrat is now a thriving community in Gush Etzion with a population of almost 12,000, many of the English-speaking immigrants.
Rabbi Dee’s candid and direct comments generated powerful emotions. Rabbi Shlomo Katz, a close personal friend and former learning partner of Rabbi Dee, was at the event and listened to him as he addressed the American rabbis.
“I have no idea what will bring the geula or prevent it from coming, other than my own personal mission to take on more to serve Hashem and love all of Israel,” Rabbi Katz told Israel365 News. “I know the two rabbis from the US and they are full of love for all of Israel. They are a positive influence on so many and their message is more crucial now than ever.”
Rabbi Dov Lipman, the Founder and CEO of Yad L’Olim, an organization that assists Jews in making Aliyah, felt that the directive must be picked up by American Jewish professionals.
“I am not going to get into the personal decisions of individual rabbis,” Rabbi Lipman said. “But I have long said that the aim of shul rabbis and day schools must be to proactively teach about Aliyah. It cannot be that children go through day school as I did without anyone ever mentioning the Torah-level mitzvah to live in Israel. It cannot be that congregants sit in shul, week after week, without hearing about the centrality of living in Israel in Jewish tradition and thought. What each rabbi does is their personal decision. But they need to be educating about Aliyah and encouraging Jews around the world to at least explore Aliyah. And even if adults make this exploration and determine that they cannot make Aliyah, they should be inspired to raise their children with Aliyah as a goal.”
In a separate event, Rabbi Mordechai Sholom Yosef ‘Meshi’ Friedman, the spiritual leader of the Saidgura Hassidic sect in Jerusalem, paid a visit to Rabbi Dee with several of his followers. After the rabbi said a few words of comfort, Rabbi Dee confronted him.
“Do you wave the Israeli flag?” Rabbi Dee said. “Do you say Hallel (Psalms of thanksgiving) on Yom Haatzmaut (Israel’s Independence Day)? I’m in a situation that I have the right to ask people to do things that are really hard for them.”
The Saidigura Rabbi responded with an anecdote about his great uncle, the previous spiritual leader of his community.
Most Hassidic Jews do not acknowledge the modern state of Israel.
“When the Nazis rose to power, they took him to clean the streets of Vienna,” The Saidgura rabbi related. “He then made a neder (vow) that if God is with him and saves him, when he comes to Israel, he will clean the streets of Israel.”
“And he used to get up early every morning in Tel Aviv and clean the streets,” the rabbi said. “His followers always wondered but he never revealed the reason. This tradition of love of Israel is in our blood. We have to love every Jew, no matter who or what his style.
“If we do this, Hallel will come by itself,” the rabbi concluded.
Rabbi Dee was not satisfied with the answer.
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