Because we need tzaddikim in our midst and when they pass away it is exceedingly difficult for the generation Hashem extends their life for our sake. But what then does it mean when they are finally taken from us – are we no longer worthy of the spiritual benefits?

The Torah world the entire Jewish world — and to extrapolate further the entire world at large — has suffered a devastating blow in the course of the past month. Three of Klal Yisrael’s great sages three marbitzei Torah who were each in the area of 100 years old departed from this world in the course of a two-week period.

Amazingly the threefold tragedy spanned three continents. Eretz Yisrael mourned the loss of Rav Michel Yehuda Lefkowitz ztz”l the educator of generations of students. Europe was struck by the passing of Yitzchak Dovid Koppelman ztz”l one of the world’s most renowned disseminators of Torah while the United States suffered the loss of the renowned Rav Chaim Stein ztz”l. In some yeshivos in Eretz Yisrael students began to comment on the disturbing pasuk in Zechariah (11:5) “I shall destroy the three shepherds in one month.” What is the meaning of this occurrence?

This is not the first time such a phenomenon has occurred; in fact the deaths of three gedolei hador within a very short period has happened several times in the last generation. Immediately before Lithuania was conquered by the Nazis three gedolei Torah passed away in rapid succession: Rav Chaim Ozer Grodzensky the rav of Vilna and one of the leaders of the generation; Rav Shimon Shkop the renowned rosh yeshiva of Grodno and mentor of the late Rabbi Koppelman who was his last talmid; and Rav Boruch Ber Leibowitz of Kamenitz zichronam l’vrachah. It is clear that the forces of darkness represented by Hitler were unable to vanquish Vilna Grodno or Kamenitz while these three distinguished personalities were still alive.

This very sentiment was voiced by the Chazon Ish ztz”l who remarked that the Torah of each of these three gedolim had the ability to shield his city from the Nazis. Once the Divine edict had been decreed they had to be removed from the world so that their spiritual protection would no longer be potent in shielding their towns.

Shouldn’t this thought then be a source of worry to us in these days as we have just been suddenly orphaned by the passing of three distinguished marbitzei Torah?

And in fact this very same phenomenon to which the Chazon Ish attached providential importance was also repeated with his own passing. At that time in the course of a mere few weeks two of the other talmidei chachamim of the generation also left the world: the venerated mashgiach Rav Eliyahu Eliezer Dessler author of Michtav Me’Eliyahu and Rosh Yeshivah Rav Isser Zalman Meltzer ztz”l. Rav Dessler the gaon of mussar and Rav Isser Zalman the gaon of halachah were snatched away and left behind an orphaned generation.

I find myself recalling the day on which the Chazon Ish passed away. It is impossible to describe in words the effect that the awful news had on all of Eretz Yisrael not just on the shomrei Torah and bnei yeshivos. I remember that the entire country was in shock.

For the first biography that was written about the Chazon Ish I had the privilege of interviewing hundreds of people who had met him from Communists to Neturei Karta. That is how I came to understand just how potent is the power of the Torah. The shock of his passing was palpable in the many stories people relayed to me of their reactions to the moment when they heard the dreadful news.

One person told me that he was in the middle of being treated by a secular dentist when he heard the shocking news. The dentist actually interrupted the treatment to sit down and calm himself. “What hope is there for the world if even people like that are dying?” he asked. I heard another story from someone who traveled from Haifa to Tel Aviv several months after the Chazon Ish passed away. On the bus he found himself sitting beside a secular Jew who asked to be informed when the bus passed Bnei Brak. An hour later when the man told him that they were about to pass Bnei Brak his irreligious seatmate withdrew a kippah from his pocket and placed it atop his head leaving it there until they had passed the city. When the religious man questioned him about his behavior the secular Jew responded “The Chazon Ish lived in this city and in his honor I cover my head every time I pass Bnei Brak.” In fact on the day of the Chazon Ish’s funeral when all commercial activity ceased in the city even the Histadrut school — the only left-wing secular school in the city — cancelled its classes and the principal addressed the students to let them know who the Chazon Ish was.

At the time it made us take stock of how great the power of Torah is; when those who uphold it leave the world everyone feels their absence.

Nevertheless we were mere youths at the time youths who watched the departure of the generation’s elders with the sense that that’s how life went. One generation comes to an end and another begins and despite the pain and the devastating feeling of loss we felt that it was the way of the world and we must simply continue onward.

The mashgiach of Yeshivas Kol Torah HaRav Gedaliah Eisman shlita delivered a talk at the time to address those feelings hidden in our hearts. Rav Eisman an outstanding educator   had a keen sense of the inner workings of a bochur’s makeup. The message of that lecture remains engraved upon our hearts until this day. This is what he said.

“Even if a person is deeply pained by the passing of a tzaddik a gaon and a kadosh such as the Chazon Ish if he still thinks that this is the way of the world that elderly people must die after they have competed their allotted time on this world it is a clear indication that he is very far from ruchniyus. It means that he does not truly understand the difference between a world in which the Chazon Ish is alive and a world without the Chazon Ish another year or two with the Chazon Ish and a year or two without him. Anyone who can entertain these thoughts does not grasp what he has lost what has been taken from him and will never return. He has not come to the realization that from now on he will be living in a completely different world.”

We can internalize these thoughts in a week in which we have escorted three of the greatest marbitzei Torah in recent generations to their final rest.

Perhaps in order to concretize even slightly the introspection in which we must engage it would be appropriate to excerpt a few lines of the eulogy that Rav Aharon Kotler ztz”l delivered for the Chazon Ish after the latter’s passing. His words are equally relevant to the sorrow that has beset us today.

“It is possible for a tzaddik to have perfected himself and completed the task for which he was sent to this world but since many people need him and the generation is worthy of benefiting from his influence — and after tzaddikim pass away it is extremely difficult for the generation — HaKadosh Baruch Hu extends his life for the sake of the many. . . . But if the generation is not deserving and does not learn from him — from his Torah from his middos from his kedushah and his purity—then their merits do not prevent the decree from taking effect. On the contrary they are no longer worthy of benefiting from him. The same applies to the leaders of Klal Yisrael; if they do not listen then their leaders are taken from them.”

How great must be our sense of deprivation now that three of our greatest sages have fallen now that Hashem has taken them away and they no longer live here on earth to guide us in the Torah’s ways and enlighten us with its wisdom?

Woe to us for we have lost.

Food for Thought: A clock is a great segulah for humility. It announces “Another hour has passed and what have you accomplished in the world?” (Rabbi Noach of Lechovitz)ect that the awful news had on all of Eretz Yisrael not just on the shomrei Torah and bnei yeshivos. I remember that the entire country was in shock