As a political reporter, I had the opportunity to meet Shimon Peres on various occasions. When he visited Haredi Jews, when he came to comfort fallen soldiers in their homes, and just like that at the President's residence - at festive events.
But the only time I saw him tremble was in the Kaluga Forests in Tallinn, the capital of Estonia.
The days were the days of the Kadima government, somewhere in the early summer of 2007, nine years ago. Shimon Peres then served as deputy to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and a minister in the government.
Even then, there were whispers about the possibility of him running for president, but an official announcement has not yet been made.
We stood there, in the forest, exactly where Jews were buried while still alive. In front of us stood the monument erected in memory of the martyrs. Shimon Peres stood there, a blue kippah on his head. It was hard for me not to notice the tremor in his body.
""In this place, the pure image of my grandparents and my family rises and floats before my eyes. They were saints, they ascended the pyre with a Torah scroll in their hands and tallitot on their shoulders," he said, his voice trembling.
A few weeks later, in June, the presidential elections were held. Only about two weeks before Election Day did Peres finally decide that he was joining the race - and he won.
Years later, his competitor, Reuven Rivlin, the current president, still carried the pain in his heart.
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These elections were a watershed in the relationship between then-Shas chairman Eli Yishai and the party's number two, Ariel Atias. Since Atias defeated Yishai in the presidential election, there has been a lot of bad blood between the two, who have tried to hide it from the media, not always successfully.
Eli Yishai believed that Rabbi Ovadia Yosef zt"l should support Reuven Rivlin. Publicly, everyone believed that this would indeed be the case, and Rivlin was somewhat complacent and complacent about his chances of being elected.
But then Atias appeared in the rabbi's room, reminded him of the duty of gratitude the Haredi world has towards Shimon Peres, who supported the yeshiva students throughout the years - and turned the tables.
From that time until the day Yishai was removed from the Shas leadership trio in favor of the sole leadership of current chairman Aryeh Deri, relations between him and Attias were quite murky. Attias also played a significant role in the rabbi's decision to dismantle the trio model.
On the eve of the last presidential election, I revealed to Haredim 10 the rabbi's letter, a letter in which he announced who he decided to support.
And so the late Rabbi wrote: "We gathered today to decide who will be the president of the state.
""We would like to announce in advance that our dear and noble friend, Mr. Reuven Rivlin, is also worthy of this high position. And he is a true friend of ours. However, out of gratitude to Mr. Shimon Peres, who did much for Judaism, especially as Minister of Defense, we have decided to support Mr. Shimon Peres to be President of the State.".
""However, we wish Mr. Reuven Rivlin potions in which 'they will call you by your name and seat you in your place.' And may he continue to rise higher and higher throughout the days and years of his life.".
""Yes, we wish our dear friend Mr. Shimon Peres long life and many more years, and that he may continue to work for the benefit of the State of Israel, and for the Torah of Israel, and that in whatever he turns, he may be wise and successful. May he magnify Torah and glorify it.".
In the days leading up to election day, the two candidates made desperate efforts to gain the support and blessings of ultra-Orthodox leaders, including the Lithuanians. Among other things, they tried to meet with the Rosh Yeshiva, the Grail Shteinman, then 94 years old, who was second in command of Degel HaTorah, after the Grail Shteinman. Even then, Rabbi Shteinman relied on Rabbi Shteinman's decisions on many important political issues, including this one.
But Rabbi Steinman decided that he was not willing to meet with either candidate. Until the last moment, he did not announce his decision as to who he would support.
But then Peres was unexpectedly invited to the circumcision of Yossi Arblich, a Bnei Baraki activist. Rabbi Steinman was also invited to this event. Peres quickly seized the opportunity and spoke with the rabbi, although the conversation did not concern the elections.
The topic of their conversation later became famous. Peres told of another meeting he had, 80 years earlier, with Maran the Chofetz Chaim. Rabbi Steinman showed interest, Peres told how his grandfather had taken him by the arm to the elderly rabbi to receive his blessing. No, he did not remember the details of the meeting, as he was a small child, but he remembered that it had taken place.
Then, he asked for a blessing. "If you received a blessing from the Chafetz Chaim, why do you need a blessing from me?" – Rabbi Steinman smiled.
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Peres, born in the town of Wisznewa, Poland, was greatly influenced by his maternal grandfather, Rabbi Zvi Meltzer, a graduate of the Volozhin Yeshiva. His grandfather was among the last Jews to be led to the wooden synagogue and burned alive, their tallitts on their shoulders. This is probably the reason for the tremor that shook him in the Estonian forests.
Three years have passed since he was elected president and until he was invited to visit the ultra-Orthodox city of Bnei Brak. As is tradition, he was also brought to the hill, to the Ponovizh Yeshiva, when he entered the hall in the middle of the morning Seder A, in the midst of Ritcha of Torah.
Photo: Shuki Lehrer
You had to see Shimon Peres' face to understand how a Jew of the past relates to Torah study. Despite being secular, the occasion moved him. He looked at the gemara the boys were leaning over, saw that they were holding tractate Baba Batra, and recalled with excitement how his father had taught him this very gemara when he was 6 years old.
The president of the yeshiva, Rabbi Eliezer Kahneman, recalled memories from his childhood and told how his grandfather, the late Rabbi of Ponivez, sent a messenger to Rabbi Abramsky, asking him to send the late writer Moshe Prager, who was his good friend, to Peres, the then Minister of Defense. The issue of conscription of yeshiva students was already on the agenda at that time.
And the rest is history.
Peres never disappointed on this issue, and the rabbis, led by Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, zt"l, recognized him as a great favor for this until his last day.
""We are in exile," Peres then spoke at the yeshiva, "but what keeps us going is the Torah. All these years I have stood by the yeshiva students to prevent their conscription," he continued, mentioning how the late Grammar Master Shach came to him especially to thank him for his work.
That day, too, he came especially to visit the Rabbi Steinman, where he told the rabbi about his immense excitement over the hundreds of young men he had just seen studying their Talmud.
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It was the man.
Shimon Peres was never, for the Haredi public, 'just another politician,' not even 'just another president.' He was different. He was a sweet remnant from a generation that is no longer with us, for the most part.
To see him in front of a great man in Israel is not to see the politician in him who tries to extract the best benefits from the encounter, but one who appreciates and respects sincerely and seriously. To observe him visiting a yeshiva and listening to the sound of Torah study is an unforgettable experience. The man suddenly returns to his childhood days, the excitement surging and rising, and the vibration that gripped his body then passes like electricity through the air.
A year has passed since that visit, and he was also invited to the city of Elad. I was there. I remember how the mayor, Yitzhak Idan, traveled with him in the car, taking advantage of the time for a short conversation. When I asked him afterwards what they talked about, he said that Peres talked and talked about his grandfather, a student of the Volozhin Yeshiva, as well as about the 'Saba Kadisha', the late Chafetz Chaim.
""Peres touched a generation that we did not know," Idan defined it at the time. "I believe that after more than 60 years of the 'Torah is his art' arrangement, it is important to praise those who preserved it even when it was difficult and when we were not with him in the coalition. Peres felt this as a will imposed on him, and preserved the Torah for us.".
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By the way, behind the scenes of that visit, an interesting saga took place.
This was shortly after the invitations were sent out for the visit, which was defined as a "premiere visit," a visit during which the awardee would be awarded an honorary citizenship certificate. This was not even done in Bnei Brak.
Shortly after the invitations were distributed, the city's Ashkenazi rabbi, Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Grossman, came out in public opposition. Some said that he was opposed to the entire visit, but he himself, in an interview with the local newspaper Yedioth, quipped: "I am not aware that I am supposed to participate in an event with the president. When we get to the moment of action, we will see what happens." He later confirmed his participation in the event.
Many wondered at the time about the sudden change. It turns out that at first, he did indeed oppose the visit itself, but when he realized that the mayor had agreed to hold the visit as planned, the rabbi moved on to the second issue that weighed heavily on his heart: granting honorary citizenship. He explained this by saying that in the past, the city had received visits from important rabbis and rebbes, and they had never been granted honorary citizenship. "It is not appropriate for an ultra-Orthodox city like Elad to grant this type of award," he said.
The rabbi even cited as a reason a statement made by Peres from the Knesset podium, according to which, "Not everything that King David did on the roofs seems Jewish to me, or that I like.".
Following this statement, a motion of no confidence in the government was submitted by the ultra-Orthodox factions.
I spoke with him in those days and heard his opinion. "When you give a certain person honorary citizenship, it means that he did something specific. There are many ultra-Orthodox Jews who have done above and beyond and still haven't received the honor that the municipality wanted to give the president," he explained in a telephone conversation.
And how did he change his mind anyway?
Well, it turns out that one of the Haredi representatives went to ask the Grand Rabbi Steinman, who instructed him to personally vote in favor of granting the title, when the matter came up for discussion in the council. "There's no honor in that," he said, apparently weighing the man's rights against the arguments against - and against them, the benefit that would accrue to the city from such a visit.
Shimon Peres was not a Torah and mitzvot keeper. Nevertheless, the Haredi public remembers his youthful kindness and credits him with the exemption granted to yeshiva students whose Torah is their art from conscription into the IDF.
May his memory be blessed.
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