Rav Eli Mansour of LearnTorah.com, speaks about the intentional murderer and the tragic death of Baba Elazar, zt"l. To listen to the shiur, click here.
The Rav also talks about the death of Zechariah haNavi in the hands of the Jewish nation through stoning, during the time of the First Beis HaMikdash. It occured on the Shabbos Yom Kippur. How could it be that Jews could kill their own, a spiritual leader at their time on such a holy day? A consequence of murdering a tzadik is the murdering of many, many Jews in the hands of a gentile(s). Now, maybe we can understand why many Jews perish in the hands of gentiles throughout history. The Rav then talks about the first rock thrower against Zechariah whose soul had no peace for 2000 years and ended up as a dybuk possessing the body of a Jewish teenager.
According to Rav Mansour, Baba Elazar, zt"l, apparently knew that his death was imminent a year before as he revealed to his relative.
The Rav then talks about the connection of the legalizing of the marriage between homosexuals in NY, an abhomination in Hashem's eyes that happened in the same week of the death of Leiby, zt"l. He then talks about the Israeli gay parade which happened in the same week (last week) as the death of Baba Elazar, zt". Both events are auspicious for terrible calamities among the Jewish people.
He then talks about the review of the death of Aharon HaKohen, zt"l, in last week's parasha. The Rav had the zechus of visiting the grave at Hor HaHar, today located in Petra, Jordan. Hor HaHar is located in the original territory of Edom (see Chumash). Even today, the Arabs identified this mountain of mountains as the grave of Aharon HaKohen. He does not encourage visiting this place today because of the danger in Jordan.
Yesterday, Rosh Chodesh Av, was the yahrzeit of Aharon HaKohen. The Rav tells that the tzadikim have more influence over the world in their deaths, then in their lives. He tells of a true story of a Jewish man who happened to light a yahrzeit candle of Rabbi Yakov Abuchatzeirah, zt"l, and had a dream from him the same night. You must hear the rest of the story from the shiur. The custom of lighting yahrzeit candles for tzadikim is a Sephardi one, and it has a lot of merit.
