Rav Mordechai Gifter at the Kosel: Knowing What the Churban Is

Rabbi Liff recalls Rav Mordechai Gifter, the Rosh Yeshiva of Telz, who told him that he felt the loss of the Churban more at the Kosel than at Kever Rachel. Having learned in Telz before the war — where his father sold his life insurance policy to send him, and where most of his rebbeim and friends were later killed by the Nazis — he knew firsthand what the loss of Kedusha and Torah truly means. We mourn the Churban most deeply when we grasp the greatness of what was destroyed.