This Dvar Torah from Rav Yonatan Paches is dedicated as a merit l'ilui nishmas Elimelech Dovid ben Dov Berel HaKohein and for the refuah shleimah of Tzvi Avraham ben Gittle, Adina bas Chana, Sara Nechama bas Shalhevet Leora, and Yehudis Chaya bas Shalhevet Leora, b’soch sh’ar cholei Yisrael , as well as in the merit of those defending Israel and the Jewish people. As a young man, Rav Yaakov Kamenetsky became the rabbi of the small village of Tzitevian, in Lithuania. The townsfolk could barely pay his meager salary, and with six children, his debts began to escalate. Years later, he would tell family members that he was embarrassed to walk past the owner of the grocery store because of all the money he owed him. Rav Yaakov had to find a new rabbinical position elsewhere. Rav Yaakov applied for a position as a rav in three different towns – Anikst, Plungyan, and Wilkomir – and waited for their replies. He and Rebbetzin Ettel were thrilled to hear that Wilkomir, a town of 8,000 Jews, would offer him the position. Rav Yaakov had applied during the summer, and before Rosh Hashanah the leaders of Wilkomir told him that he would receive his official Ksav Harabbanus , letter of rabbinical acceptance, immediately after Sukkos. A few days after Sukkos, however, his wife read in the Yiddish newspaper that a different rabbi was congratulated on becoming the new rabbi of Wilkomir. She was so devastated that she sat on the floor and cried. To her, it felt like Tishah B’Av. The sal
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