Hear about Rav Yitzchak Dovid Grossmans trip to Johannesburg in his mission to

Immediately following the holiday of Pesach, with the difficult news about the tremendous suffering that Rav Eliezer Berland shlit"a is going through, Rav Grossman packed his bags and flew to Johannesburg. "I left Eretz Yisroel immediately the day after Passover together with the grandson of the Rav, R' Chaim Reicher. We already did a lot of work before the holiday to bring the Rav matzos. It was a major operation before the holiday." Begins Rav Yitzchak Dovid Grossman, the Chief Rabbi of Migdal Ha'emek, founder and dean of Migdal Ohr educational institutions.

Rav Grossman speaking at the Keter Eliyahu shul in Johannesburg

In a shiur which he gave Tuesday May 3rd at the "Keter Eliyahu" shul in Johannesburg (video above) he says: "It's a crazy thing that such a Tzaddik is in prison. Today they didn't allow him food. Such a holy man, servant of Hashem — it's a spiritual thing, it is our punishment not his punishment, it's something that we have no explanation for. May it be G-d's will that he gets out of there, and b"H we will make him a huge celebration here. Everyone here is going up to Eretz Yisrael and greet Moshiach."

The following day Rav Grossman spoke to the information line of Shuvu Banim and said: "We need to know that the Rav needs a great salvation. For two days he has not eaten — they did not want to give him food until thank G-d I succeeded today. I went to the manager of the prison and I turned over the world until I brought the Rav food. I said I'm not leaving this place until I hand this food to the Rav. It's a daily struggle to bring him food. And the very fact that the Rav is in prison is frightening. It reminds one of Yosef HaTzaddik in the pit, and we need to do whatever we can to help him so that he can continue to enlarge and glorify the Torah."

After hearing the difficult words of Rav Grossman, we worked on arranging an English interview with him. We merited getting a hold of him on Thursday night in the car on the way to the airport back home. Rav Grossman summarized his trip for us, told us about his struggles to help the Rav both within the legal system and within the SA Jewish community, and some shocking news about how the prison guards deny their Jewish prisoners mehadrin Kosher food.

Full English interview with Rav Grossman (audio)