“Every Shul Can Be A Yeshiva!”
October, 2020
This is an Elul story.
This is a Rosh Hashanah story.
This is a story of Jewish survival.
It is a story of a beracha from the Frideker Rebbe of Chabad;
The words of Torah from Rav Moshe Feinstein;
And, a promise made a century ago to Rav Aaron Kotler.
It is now 5780-1, and these Berachos and promises are now being fulfilled;
And they can grow still ever more…
- Personal Preamble
Elul always reminds me of Rav Shlomo Singer.
It is no secret that one of the best and sharpest yeshiva shiurim given today is Rav Meir Stern’s brilliant shiur in Yeshiva Gedolah of Passaic.
Aside from the bnei hayeshiva and the yungeleit that attended his daily shiur was one Rav Singer, a retired individual living in Passaic.
For two years –some 20 years ago –I sat mere feet from him, but we never spoke until this summer.
Like the nephews of Rabbi Yochanan Ben Gudgada (see Chagiga 3) who would make sure to sit in front of Rebbe Yehudah Hanassi, Rav Shlomo Singer would sit almost directly in front of the rosh yeshiva with a tape recorder and intently focus on the words being taught.
I was told he was a local retired chazzan, who went by ‘Cantor’ Singer.
I assumed he was a baal teshuva, or someone without a classic yeshiva background who upon retirement asked Rav Stern to attend his shiurim.
Looking back, that (self) explanation made little sense. Young men begged and clawed to get in to this shiur, and even then they had trouble fully understanding it until after a number of reviews.
But Rav Singer did understand the shiur.
How do I know that?
You see, as the zman went on I witnessed this ‘Cantor Singer
do something so different, so revolutionary, that I can honestly say that it has inspired how I act today as a person and as a rav.
When I first saw him do this it blew-my-mind.
Rav Singer was involved in kiruv rechokim, and he has had the privilege of bringing back many to the fold.
But here is what was inimitable: while other kiruv workers give lectures on light topics, or subjects that they think will draw people inside a shul, regardless whether it’s misleading/misinformed or not (‘Kabbala in the 21st Century’, is always popular), he would invite these unaffiliated men inside one of the most prestigious yeshivos in the world and give a class on…Rav Meir Stern’s shiur!
That’s right! He would stand before men who never saw the inside of a chumash – let alone a gemara – and first slowly and carefully explain the gemara under discussion, go-over the points of Rashi or Tosfos or any other rishon that will be needed to understand what was to come.
Then, slowly and painstakingly he would pierce it, drawing their attention to the apparent inconsistencies or chakiros, and finally penetrate the sugya and tie it all together in a bow with the rosh yeshiva’s analysis and explanation of the pertinent achronim.
Rav Chaims; Reb Elchanans; The Ketzos vs. the Nesivos; Rav Barush Ber, etc., nothing real-and-true was off the table.
And, he was successful – he made people frum this way!!!
It was a lesson that while the not-yet-frum may not know a lot of Torah, we err when we treat them as a remedial group.
Years ago, I received a letter from a chashuveh rosh kollel. “I was passing through Buffalo and stopped into your shul for Mincha and Maariv. When you spoke in-between, you talked about deep halachik topics that, while interesting, were likely above the heads of your audience, and not what they needed to hear” he wrote.
Respectfully, and while I understood where he was coming from, he could not have been more wrong. He never saw Rav Singer in action.
Aside for the fact that every member there that night was already frum, even if this rosh kollel assumed they did not have a yeshiva education, they too can understand a ‘Rav Chaim’, they too can see the intellectual marvel of chochmas haTorah. Why should we deprive them of the very thing that gives us the most simchas hachaim – Simchas Torah?!
Why not explain the reason behind the psak? Why not challenge them?
This brings me to Elul. Throughout the year we convince ourselves that we are not at ‘that’ level. We see others, or read about others whose ways are inspiring and the kinas soferim, a healthy jealousy and pining, begins to stir within us.
Elul is when we all attend -metaphorically speaking – Rav Singer’s class. When we all walk into Passaic Yeshiva, don one of those silk-like yarmulkas found in a basket and sit and bask at who we can, one day, become.
- ‘Taylor’ed Beginnings
R’ Shlomo Singer comes from Torah royalty.
His father, Rav Dovid Yehudah Singer, was a rav in Taylor, Pennsylvania where he sought for many years to spread yiddeshkiet in the early part of the 20th century.
He would soon move his family to Scranton and open a sefarim printing company.
He was a known talmud chacham raising frum children in America (not so common in those days, sadly), and so one day he received a plea from Rav Meir Greenberg.
Rav Meir Greenberg was an emissary of the friedeker rebbe of Chabad. Rav Meir was a massive talmud chacham, and had spent years learning under Rav Shlomo Heiman, and received semicha from Rav Moshe Feinstein.
Rav Meir would later become the rosh yeshiva of the central Chabad yeshiva of Paterson, now in Morristown.
I had the zechus to have met Rav Meir Greenberg on many occasions before his passing. He was a chavrusah with both Rav Shustel and Rav Shisgal zecher tzadikim l’breacha (their nickname in yeshiva was ‘the three musketeers’).
Rav Meir’s son, Rav Heshel Greenberg, a gaon in his own right, has been a rav in Buffalo for many decades, and his father Rav Meir lived with him until his passing. I had the zechus to talk to Rav Meir in learning, and even see his notes on the Chidushei Rav Akiva Eiger, and ask his about the time he received a psak from Rav Menachem Zembah hy’d (alas, I will have to share more about him in another article, iy’H)
In any event, Rav Meir called Rav Singer to plead with him to bring his family and children to New York. Spreading Torah is vital, but now he must make sure his children themselves would become bnei Torah. Before we re-build Torah, we first need bnei Torah!
And so, Rav Singer senior sprung into action, and with no money brought his family to the Lower East Side.
Young Shlomo Zalman was sent to Crown Heights to learn –after all it was the rebbe who had reached out to save them and have them raised as bnei Torah.
Rav Singer recently related to me, “I can still remember bringing the rebbe milk in his study. When I walked in their it was like walking into gan eden! Not just because of the kedusha in the air, but in the rebbe’s smile”
Little Shlomo Zalman’s brother had one of the first Bar Mitzvah’s to ever take place in 770.
“I can still remember being brought with my brother to the rebbe for a beracha. ‘Be a yorei shomyaim and grow in gadlus b’Torah!’ the rebbe said”
It was only a matter of time that young Shlomo Zalman would take advantage of his living location. After spending some time in RJJ, he went to Mesivta Tifferes Yerushalaim, led by Rav Moshe Feinstein, mere blocks from his house.
And so, together with a young Jackie Mason (“Jackie’s father was one of gedolim of the last generation” Rav Singer shared with me) enrolled to learn under Rav Moshe.
“Rav Moshe would always ask Yaakov Moshe (Jackie) to emceeMC events. Rav Moshe loved to see the talmidim happy and laughing”, he shared.
During his time by Rav Moshe Fenstein, he learnt the power of middos tovos and hasmada. When Rav Singer contracted pneumonia, Rav Moshe traveled aline to his house to visit in person! And as for Rav Moshe’s legendary hasmada, Rav Singer –being close friends with Rav Reuvein, would from time-to-time sleep over in the Feinstein’s apartment. To get to the bathroom in the middle of the night, one had to pass by Rav Moshe’s room where he learnt. Once, in the middle of the night he looked in and saw Rav Moshe learning, in a chair without a back, and with his feet in a bucket of ice so he would be able to stay up!
While continually growing in his own learning, and becoming close to (and even sleeping from time-to-time at the home of) Rav Moshe Feinstein, he also kept hearing about this ‘Ari Shel Torah –Lion of Torah’, by the name of Rav Aaron Kotler.
Rav Aaron was a legend of Torah even while still in Europe, and his arrival to America was a watershed moment in Jewish history.
“I wanted to meet him, to see him”.
And one day he got his chance.
Rav Moshe and the entire yeshiva were heading to Boro Park to celebrate in the siyum of another yeshiva.
As Rav Shlomo Zalman was leaving, his friend tugged at his sleeve. “Shlomo! You wanted to meet the Ari Shel Torah? Well, he is right over there waiting for a taxi!”
They ran toward Rav Aaron, grabbed his suitcase, hailed a cab for him, and escorted him into the taxi.
The destination of Rav Aaron mattered little to these two yeshiva bachurim; Wherever Rav Aaron was heading, they would follow.
“As soon as I closed the door, and the taxi drove off, I thought to myself, ‘What have I done?! What have I gotten myself into?! He will talk to me in learning! He will see I am nobody in Torah! But he never did, You know why? Because he didn’t want to embarrass or hurt me. Instead, Rav Aaron only asked me personal and sweet questions about my life. And, when he arrived at his destination, he gave a tip to the can driver like you would not believe!”
“So when did you go learn by him?” I asked.
“The next day”!
- The Lion Roars
Rav Singer was trying to explain to me who Rav Aaron was.
“Rav Aaron would clean your house, he would polish your shoes, if it meant you would come learn in yeshiva. He was fighting for the very survival of Torah!”
I’ve spoken to Rav Singer many times in preparation for this article, and each time he shares a different event to capture Rav Aaron’s milchama for Torah in America.
“Once, I was in his home when a cousin was mentioned. ‘Where does he go to yeshiva?’ asked Rav Aaron. ‘He doesn’t. He is going to law school in the fall’, I answered. Rav Aaron then asked me to dial his number, and as soon as he came on the phone Rav Aaron quickly grabbed the phone from me. ‘You are coming to yeshiva!’ Rav Aaron ordered into the phone!”!
Each time, another story to illustrate Rav Ahron’s passion for American Torah growth.
In fact, just last month, the OU’s Jewish Action published an interview with Rabbi Berel Wein. He quoted Rav Soloveitchick who told Rabbi Wein that the students he had in the later years were much more proficient in learning than the early days of YU. Rav Soloveitchick said this was all due to Rav Aaron Kotler’s long fight for classic limud Torah in America! (Jewish Action, Fall 5781, p. 58)
Rabbi Singer continued:
“I saw with my own eyes the assimilation at that time. When I first came to Passaic there were ten frum families I saw growing up men with longa burds (long beards) whose kids intermarried, Rachamana l’tzlan!
“Rav Aaron had to ‘kidnap’ people to come to his yeshiva. But he was fighting for our survival. He killed himself! And for what? Look around! Find me a major city without a kollel today!”
- Mishnas Rav Singer
While learning in BMG –which at the times had about one-hunded students, everyone would struggle to understand the breadth and depth of Rav Aaron’s shiurim.
Together with Rav Shneur Kotler, Rav Shlomo Singer got a hold of a reel-to-reel recorder, created a surreptitious hole in the ceiling and lowered a microphone.
For some time he recorded the rosh yeshiva’s shiurim, allowing bachurim and yungeleit the amazing opportunity to hear it again and again, until they ‘got it’.
There was one problem. How will they break this news to the rosh yeshiva? Perhaps he didn’t want these shiurim recorded.
So, a plan was set. When Purim came around, one of the bachurim went up to a shtender during the yeshiva’s seudah. With Rav Aaron in attendance, this bochur was to give over a drasha or shiur imitating the style and speech patterns of Rav Aaron, all in good humor. What Rav Aaron –and most others- didn’t know, however, is that instead of speaking, they would simply play a recording of one of the secretly taped shiurim with this bachur simply mimicking the gestures of Rav Aaron.
The bachor stood by the shtender and began to ‘speak’. Rav Aaron sat and listened and… was enjoying the Torah! This was not Purim Torah, this was deep stuff! Keep in mind, such recordings were not common in those days, and coming from Kletzk, this technology was not on Rav Aaron’s mind.
Rav Aaron was nodding in agreement and enjoying the Torah, when suddenly it dawned on him that he was listening to himself deliver a shiur!
Rav Aaron put everything together, and did not get upset that his most precious Torah was being recordered. Rather, he made them promise to keep these tapes safe. Today, it is these reel-to-reel tapes that are still utilized by BMG in their production of Rav Aaron’s writings in Mishnas Rav Aaron!
- A Promise To Rav Aaron
When Rav Singer was preparing to leave Lakewood, Rav Aaron asked him, “Will you open a yeshiva?”
“No” said Rav Singer.
“Maybe you will enter the rabbinate”
“That too is not for me”, he honestly responded
“Well, what will you do?”
“I will be a chazzan”
“A Chazzan! You can sing! And you never sang for me and the yeshiva!?”
Then Rav Aaron commanded the following: “Wherever you go, whatever shul you work for, you must work to turn that shul into a yeshiva! No balla buss is below learning deeply, with chaburos, in depth b’iyun rabba. It is not enough to make them shomer Shabbos. They must know how to delve into the amkus shel Torah (the truest de;th and brilliance of Torah)!”
“I promised my rebbe” said Rav Singer, now crying. “I promised me rebbe! And forty years ago is when the yeshiva I have today began.”
Rav Singer continued sharing, “I want you to know, this was not my rebbe’s message unique just to me. Rather he told this to everyone who went into rabbanus: ‘A Shul must be a yeshiva! A rav must be a a rosh yeshiva!’”
Rav Singer accomplished a lot in Adas Israel as cantor. This includes serving as the menahel and opening of a Hebrew Day School, under the guidance of Rav Moshe. There he taught many.
“I didn’t care to teach them ‘Bar Mitzvah’ laining and a speech –and I am a chazzan and could have taught them this! Rather I focused on amkus shel torah!Now, so many of these studnetsstudents are in eretz yisoel. Many of these boys came from deeply conservative homes.”
It was over forty years ago is when Rav Singer invited a balla buss Bruce Goldberg to his house on Shabbos for some kugel, cholent and in-depth Gemara.
Soon, the entire dining table was filled with men learning the depth of the yam hatalmud. Then it stretched into the kitchen.
Soon, there were so many attendees; they had to move to his garage.
Eventually, Rav Meir Stern urged Rav Singer to use the yeshiva.
This was close to 25 years ago, when I first saw Rav Singer.
Soon, he realized that he needed his own building.
He told his late wife, “We need a place where people from all backgrounds could attend shiurim and give real chaburos, say chiddushim in Torah, experience the beauty of real learning, each on their own level. In-depth learning for balla battim”.
She got nervous. “How will we pay for the mortgage?”
“But we both understood they that Hashem had a lot of money”
Rebbetzin Ita Singer, was niftar just a few years ago. She was the emotional and financial support for tis yeshiva throughout its early and challenging phases. She also urged a focus on women who need classes and shiurim in depth.
“The address of our new, and first home, was street number 441 Passaic Avenue”, exclaimed Rav Singer.
I started to quickly think what the significance of this number was.
Rav Singer explained, “441 is gematria emes! How amazing is that!”
- He Just Needs a Gemara
Rav Singer has the secret to kiruv: He truly loves every Jew. It drips off of him.
One of his children shared an amazing story. Growing up, their Shabbos table was always graced by Jews of all paths. “A yid is always special” Rav Singer would say.
Once, the Sukkos after 9/11, a young man, maybe twenty years old, arrived for the seudah in their sukkah.
The world was still on edge, and this young man was a committed Leftist. He blamed democracy, Israel, America, etc. for these horrific events, focusing on their ‘treatment’ of Arabs as the cause for their own chosen actions.
“I had enough” one daughter told me. “There has to be limits to can come to our home. It was so soon after 9/11, I simply could not bare taking any more of this man’s childlike view of the world”.
“My father told me, ‘You are wrong. His values may be corrupt but they come from good middos. It is his pinteleh yid for rachmanus that is behind his Leftism.
“You see”, explained Rav Singer, “All he needs is a gemara, to be trained in learning, and he will be an amazing Jew!”
That young man is now married and living in Bnei Brak!!
This love for all Jews, and for their potential, is seen in the shul/yeshiva still today.
VII. Ner Boaruuch/PTI (Passaic Torah Institute)
Today, Rav Singer has a new beautiful building on the way (still at ‘441’), with over 200 balla battim from all backgrounds attending shiurim and learning b’chavrusah per week.
Sure, there is davening, and shalosh seudos on Shabbos, but this shul is the fulfillment of a dream – it is also a yeshiva!
In-depth shiurim Shiurim in-depth are given for different all levels of backgrounds. The attendees prepare chaburos, give over their own chiddushim.
The only difference between their learning style and a yeshiva is that of age.
Rav Baruch Bodenheim –one of Rav Singer’s son-in-laws –is the accsosiate rosh yeshiva at PTI, along with a group of talented maggidei shiurim.
“I want you to know” says Rav Singer, “This is not created just for those new to Torah. What will be of the kollel yungerman who leaves the walls of the beis midrash to go to work? What? He will learn the daf? That’s great, but what of the amkus of Torah, its true depth and simcha?!”
He continued, “When I would speak to Rav Yaakov Kamanetzky about my idea, he too would scream ‘Lomdus! Its all about lomdus!’”
As his rebbetzin urged, Rav Singer also has a slew of classes and shiurim for of all backgrounds, housed in a separate place. This women’s learning program is called Ateres Beracha/Nvei TTI.
I could spend the rest of the article speaking about Ner Baruch/PTI, but this is not what Rav Singer wants.
“I am 86 years old. I have to spread the message that every shul can be a yeshiva! We have to share with the world the sweetness of amkus haTorah! This is what I promised my rebbe, Rav Aaron.”
On this last point, a video spread around after this past year’s Tisha B’Av.
It was the renowned rav Rav Zev Leff speaking to his shul by kinnos.
“A rav in Pasaaic, Rav Shlomo Singer, he has a shul where the balla battim learn, but not just stam learning daf yomi, or learning something peripheral, but learning mammash b’omek. Ad kdei kach, that these balla battim write chaburos! And, they are mechedesh chiddushim!
“And he feels that this is something that is crucial. Torah b’amkus is not just for bnei hayeshiva, but every shul should be like a yeshiva.
“I heard this not just from him, but from Rav Mordechai Schapiro zt’l, that Rav Aaron said every shul should be a yeshiva.
“A shul should be a yeshiva!”
I should here make the obvious point, that all of the above is not, chalilla, to disparage daf hayomi (which I myself do), rather to challenge ourselves if in addition to that general crucial knowledge, if we need to go deeper.
- The Dream
Rav Singer shared with me, “Many years ago, when Torah Umesroah was successful in placing Day Schools all across the country, they held a special event in Lakewood.
“Principals from North Carolina, Tennessee, and all over the country came. While the goal was to give a mazal tov and mach ah shehechiyanu, the principles arriving looked despondent.
“I mean, put yourself in their shoes! They were dealing largely with families not interested in Torah-true Judaism. It was an uphill battle. They would teach the essentials and then see these children go off to public schools or college and forget their yiddeshkiet. It was a painful job to have back then.
[What follows is Rav Singer’s recounting of the speech]
“But Rav Moshe Moshe spoke last, and he stole the show. I still have this recording.
“Rav Moshe asked, why do we bless our children to be like Efraim and Menashe?
“Perhaps you will say that its because they were raised in Torah in the depth of tumas mitzriam…and that is true, but its also a lie! Our children cant reach that level. We can try they becomes a Rebbe Akiva, an Abayay, but Efraim and Menashe?
“Rabbossei, we bless our children this way, even though its impossible, even though it is but a guzmah (an exaggerated desire). Because to succeed in chinuch we have to compare them to the best there ever was. If you wish to succeed in chinuch you can just teach them the essentials, but rather to teach them as if they could become the next Menasheh and Efraim!
“And if you wonder, how indeed was Yosef so successful? It is because he taught them from Yaakov, the personification of pure, unbridled, unfiltered, unwashed-down Torah. This is how we succeed in chinuch! Hold them to the highest potential!”
Rav Singer said that every menahel walked out of that speech with a new mission: they will not shy-away from teaching youngsters amkus haTorah.
“Look at Passaic today. So many mosdos. How did this happen? I remember when it was a midbar! I came for parnasa, and to fulffil the promise to my rebbe. I would never have dreamed Passaic would be what it is today.”
Rav Singer, paused, and then again began to cry.
“Yes, there have a lot of chashuveh and hard working rabbanim, but it all could not have happened if Rav Meir Stern didn’t walk into to town so many years ago with ten talmidim!
“Amkus haTorah is the only future cities have for growth. And now we have baruch Hashem reached the point in American Jewry where it need not be reserved just for yeshivaleit!”
In other words, and as Rav Moshe expressed in that speech, for a school, city, kehilla to thrive they must have the highest, even impossible to reach, goals. They must be able to witness Torah at its deepest levels. Without that ingredient –without a kollel or a yeshiva, and without a rosh yeshiva or a rosh kollel for their children to look up to –it is hard to grow a town.
This brought to mind growing up in Toronto, and the influence of Rav Shlomo Miller and Rav Hirschman’s Kollel Avrechim –founded by Lakewood –and its mark on the city of my youth, as well.
Rav Singer concluded our conversation. “I am just a talmud trying to fulfill the promise to his rosh yeshiva. Help me spread the word, help me share how successful this can be.
“Every shul can become a yeshiva!”
The Ari Shel Torah lives on!
Shul Chronicles 
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