Reb Elchonon Wasserman Zatza'l on His Yahrtzeit. His last Shmooze.

R' Efraim Oshry was an eyewitness to R' Elchonon Wasserman Zatzal's last shmooze before he was taken away by the cursed Lithuanians and shot Al Kiddush Hashem H'yd. It was the 11th of Tamuz 1941. As the reshoim were going door to door rounding up the Jews of the Kovno ghetto, R' Elchonon closed the gemora he was giving a shiur from. R' Oshry (printed in the introduction to Kovetz Shuirim) recounts; "R' Elchonon spoke calmly and slow, just as usual, even his voice did not falter. His face displayed the same seriousness as usual. He didn't use a special tone of voice nor did he take leave of his son Naftuli - lying in bed with a broken leg. He spoke to all - to the entire Klal Yirsoel. "In heaven they must think of us as a righteous people, for they want us to atone for klal Yisroel with our bodies. We must do teshuva right here and now. Time is short, the ninth fort - the place the kedoshai Kovno-Slabodka were taken to be killed - is close by. We have to bear in mind that we will be the ultimate Korban. If we do teshuva we will be able to save our brothers and sisters in America. None of us should have a bad intention that can void our korban. We are about to fufill the greatest mitzva. The fire that will consume our bodies is the very fire that will be used to rebuild Klal Yisroel." It was with these words that the leader of Klal Yisroel was taken away to be brutally killed. May Hashem avenge their blood.
Living in a time that Klal Yisroel was being brutally uprooted from the continent that they were living in for hundreds of years, R' Flchonon was able to look past it and past the nightmare going on around him and see America as the next home for Klal Yisroel. Klal Yisroel is eternal and is not tied down to a land. Even the land of Eretz Yisroel is only ours to be able to fufill the special mitzvos of the land, but once we stop doing Hashem's will there is no need for us to have our own country.
Billam said of Klal Yisroel 'They are a nation that dwells alone and among nations they aren't counted'. הֶן-עָם לְבָדָד יִשְׁכֹּן, וּבַגּוֹיִם לֹא יִתְחַשָּׁב. R' Elchonon is quoted to say a pshat. הֶן-עָם לְבָדָד יִשְׁכֹּן, as a nation we have no one to rely on except for Hashem. No nation in the world can be relied upon to come to our asisstance. Just look through our long history, where repeatedly the nations of the world turned a blind eye to the pains and needs of Yisroel. It is only Hashem that we can turn to and he in turn will never forsake us. The definition of גּוֹיִם is a nation that shares a land, that has a country that unites them and not just a set of ideals. וּבַגּוֹיִם לֹא יִתְחַשָּׁב unlike the nations of the world Yisroel does not need a land in order to be called a nation. We have survived and grown for two thousand years away from our homeland. R' S. R. Hirsch says that the reason why when we went out of Mitzraim and we didn't go directly into Eretz Yisroel is to teach us that what unites us is not the land but rather the Torah. We become a nation- not just a religon, when we are united in hearing the call of the Torah and doing the will of Hashem.
Zichuso Yagen Aleinu.