have never been fond of the term “clergy” for myself or other rabbanim. It is derived from Greek (meaning “inheritance”), and then French (meaning “scholarship,” as historically it was often only the priests who were taught how to read and write), it seems to have a distinctly non-Jewish connotation. In fact, many dictionaries define this term as either “the body of all people ordained for religious duties, especially in the Christian Church” or “a priest or religious leader, especially a Christian or Muslim one.” Although the word “clergy” gave rise to such innocuous terms as “clerk,” there is something about this word—when applied to me—that gives me the willies. Not to mention that it lumps us into a group with whom we have little in common. Nevertheless, there is no way of escaping it. In front of my car I have an official laminated card from the New York City Department of Transportation allowing me to park in certain no-parking zones in the city. The card says: “CLERGY, Rabbi Moshe Taub.” (No, the reader may not borrow it!) When I visit people in the hospital, I get validated for parking quite often, but before they stamp my parking ticket they always demand to see my clergy ID. But the strongest embracing of this term occurs when one seeks the right to officiate at a marriage in New York State. As the reader is likely aware, in order for the state to recognize a couple as married (which has broad implications, including their tax status), they must have an official state marriage license. Who is granted the right to marry a couple? Section 11 of the Domestic Relations Law of the State of New York gives a list of people who are eligible to perform marriage ceremonies in New York State. Among them are leaders of the Society of Ethical Culture; the mayor or former mayor of the City of New York; federal, state, or local judges or justices; and of course, clergy members or ministers of any religion. After I moved to New York City, it came to my attention that my registration was no longer in the system. Perhaps because of my new address or job, I was no longer recognized as clergy. So one free morning, I headed down to the City Clerk’s office on Worth Street on the Lower East Side, where one must go to register. I had a wedding coming up, and I did not wish to have to explain to this family that I was not recognized as a rabbi by the State of New York. It was an odd room. Most of the people there were couples who were getting married on the spot. There was even a group of entrepreneurial people outside selling everything from flowers to veils. I saw two groups of photographers inside offering their services to the happy couples when their papers were signed. I guess this is one idea for how to save money on making a chasunah! I confidently approached the desk when my number was called and presented a letter from my shul indicating that I was the rabbi there. The man looked at me incredulously. “What is this?” he asked. “Well, it’s proof that I serve as a rabbi,” I replied innocently. My heart sank as I realized that this was like the DMV for rabbanim, and no matter what documentation you bring, you will always be missing that one document that you need. He explained that I needed a certificate of ordination or proof that I was listed in an official registry of clergy members in my denomination. A morning wasted, I dejectedly returned home. The next week I cleared my schedule again and returned with my semichah in hand. “What is this now?” the man asked.
Semichah from Lakewood is handwritten and signed by the four roshei yeshivah. I had anticipated that it would look like chicken scratching to him, so I had taken the liberty of translating it. He did not seem all that impressed. He looked at the document as though it had been found along with the Dead Sea Scrolls. “Please wait here while I go get my supervisor.” Ten minutes later he shuffled back with an older gentleman from some secret back office. I imagined that this older supervisor had been sitting in that back room for decades and was called upon once every 25 years or so. In this Byzantine environment, where time was lethargic, it may have been the first time in years he had seen the light of day. He looked impatiently at the document and then looked up at me and said, “I am sorry, but we just can’t accept this.” I was getting frustrated. “You mean to tell me that if I go online and click on one of the million websites that advertise ‘Become a clergy member in minutes’—that you will accept, but an ordination from the largest yeshivah in the country, and a real congregation to boot, is not enough?” He looked me straight in the eye and said, “You are coming to me with logic, but this is government!” After a moment he said, “Look, if you can find someone other than yourself to translate your ordination, we can accept it.” Before I could digest this reasonable request, he continued, “But you have to find an official state translator of this language.” Rabbinic Lashon Kodesh—with its mix of Hebrew and Aramaic—has no state translator; of this I was sure. In truth, I should have just called Lakewood and asked them for an English-language ordination document. It took me months to get my approval from the state. By that time I had already served as a mesader kiddushin. Not sure when the marriage certificate I had signed expired, I made my third, and final, in-person visit to Worth Street. My turn arrived, and I explained the entire story to the (new) man. He told me that there was no issue and that he could accept my marriage license since I was now approved. He also said that it was a good thing I had come down because after a certain amount of time, the couple would have to apply for a new license. Of course, it couldn’t be that simple. He took a look at it and said, “Ooh, there is no date on this certificate.” I started to panic, trying to recall the date of the wedding; I didn’t want to call the chasan unless I had to. But then this young African American man shocked me. “Don’t work so hard to remember the date. You are a rabbi—you can simply look at the kesubah and figure out the secular date!” Indeed, I keep a copy of every kesubah after each wedding, in the same marriage folder I had with me that day. At least he understood that rabbis are not simply clergy.
Rabbi Moshe Taub is the rabbi of Young Israel of Holliswood and rabbinic editor and weekly contributor for Ami Magazine. He is the author of Jews in the World (Mosaica Press) and writes on Jewish law, history, and thought at ShulChronicles.com.
A Special Shabbos, With Special Children, & Their Special Rebbe
June 18, 2018
Writing in the Washington Post six years ago, acclaimed and Pulitzer Prize winning columnist George Will shared the following very personal op-ed, about his own son Jon.
“When Jonathan Frederick Will was born 40 years ago the life expectancy for people with Down syndrome was about 20 years.
“The day after Jon was born, a doctor told Jon’s parents that the first question for them was whether they intended to take Jon home from the hospital. Nonplussed, they said they thought that is what parents do with newborns. Not doing so was, however, still considered an acceptable choice for parents who might prefer to institutionalize or put up for adoption children thought to have necessarily bleak futures. Whether warehoused or just allowed to languish from lack of stimulation and attention, people with Down syndrome, not given early and continuing interventions, were generally thought to be incapable of living well, and hence usually did not live as long as they could have.
“In 1972, people with Down syndrome were still commonly called Mongoloids.
“Now they are called American citizens, about 400,000 of them, and their life expectancy is 60. Much has improved
“Judging by Jon, the world would be improved by more people with Down syndrome, who are quite nice, as humans go. It is said we are all born brave, trusting and greedy, and remain greedy. People with Down syndrome must remain brave in order to navigate society’s complexities. They have no choice but to be trusting because, with limited understanding, and limited abilities to communicate misunderstanding, they always depend on the kindness of strangers. Judging by Jon’s experience, they almost always receive it.
“This year Jon will spend his birthday where every year he spends 81 spring, summer and autumn days and evenings, at Nationals Park, in his seat behind the home team’s dugout. The Phillies will be in town, and Jon will be wishing them ruination, just another man, beer in hand, among equals in the republic of baseball.”
I saved that column when it was published. Beyond chochmas hagoyim, it should galvanize us that if the beauty and complexity of baseball can be shared with such special members of society, then we as am yisroel have an obligation to imbue in them the majesty of Torah to the best of their-and our-abilities.
Which brings me to this past Shabbos.
Mincha, erev Shabbos, began as usual, with seats still waiting to be filled as many were still making their way to the early minyan, or were perhaps waiting to bring in Shabbos later.
But by the time I finished my shemonehesreh I could feel a crowd of people forming behind me. I could sense that something was different about this group, as I would soon discover by their response to the first boruch hu u’boruch shemo, and amein of the chazaras hashatz.
There’s was brash response, almost disquieting, yet powerful nonetheless.
As a reflex, I turned around to see the group that had arrived. I was informed that this group would be joining us, but I just was not prepared for their teffilos.
This year is seeing the completion of the first school year of the Mekor College Experience, run out of the Wilf campus at Yeshiva University.
Rabbi Uri Feintuch, their rebbe and leader of the program lives in Lakewood NJ and had joined us for Shabbos together with his group of seven very special neshamos.
Mekor is a specialized program for those with intellectual disabilities, from Down Syndrome to Autism.
While I usually speak following kabalas Shabbos, it was arranged that one of the boys in the program would speak.
I have heard and read about Rabbi Feintuch and his program, but was still surprised when one of his students, a young 20-ish-year-old man with Down Syndrome, was introduced. I was even more surprised when I witnessed him take out a folded piece of paper and slowly, and deliberately read a dvar Torah that he had prepared himself on the parsha.
Writing to Rav Chaim Pinchas Sheinberg, Rav Shlomo Zalman Aurbach (MinchasShlomo 1:34;4) discusses the importance of and the requirements in the chinuch of such special members of klal yisroel. Rav Moshe Feinstein (see AmHaTorah 5752, p. 10-13) also discusses this issue and obligates us to teach them Torah to their abilities.
Rav Moshe (ibid. p. 12) also beseeches shuls and kehillos to accept such people bsever panim yaffos and to help them answer in the appropriate places.
And, even if they are not able to learn or daven, they will at least “kiss the sefrei Torah” in shul, writes Rav Moshe.
But these students, from this program, were not limited to only kiss the Torah, or simply answer amein yehei shmey rabba, they also asked for quite when those around them began to schmooze.
Even more, this past week they made a siyum on the third perek of gemara Sukkah!
By Shalosh Suedos Rabbi Feintuch introduced another one of the students to speak. Before he did so, he gave a brief background regarding what this program seeks to accomplish.
Aside for davening and learning, the program also teaches them functionality (how to handle money, etc.) and, in their third year, will seek to have a job-placement program. In short, his wish is that each one of these boys should feel, and be, as much as a member of society as the rest of us.
He shared with me how he prepares for his shiur with the boys with his chavrusah in Lakewood, and allows the boys to listen to their chavrusa shaft (that he records) so that they can even experience how a shiur is prepared!
He concluded his public remarks with the following idea. There is a klal -serendipitously we mentioned above from Rav Moshe as it relates to these boys-of greeting every Jew bsever panim yaffos. Now, we can understand what panim yaffos means –a smile, a happy face –but what does ‘bsever’ mean?
He quoted Rav Avigdor Miller who suggested that sever comes the root of sevara-logic. Chazal are teaching us a valuable lesson. It is not enough to smile on the outside, or even show love on the outside. Rather we must have a sevara, a rationality, why each and every yid we meet is special, deserves a smile!
These boys, explained Rabbi Feintuch, are not his chesed-project, rather they can be lifted up to be shown the grandeur of yiddeshkeit and the splender of the Riboneh Shel Olam.
If we had any doubts, the speaker he introduced put them to rest.
Rabbi Moshe Taub is the rabbi of Young Israel of Holliswood and rabbinic editor and weekly contributor for Ami Magazine. He is the author of Jews in the World (Mosaica Press) and writes on Jewish law, history, and thought at ShulChronicles.com.
Just One Speech: From Telshe, To Montreal, To Queens
(See post on her son, the Rosh Yeshiva zt”l, written upon his sudden passing just a few years after this was published)
Rabbi Yisroel Salanter famously taught: It is worth all the preparation and research, the hours of toiling, just for that 13 minute drasha. It is worth it even if the only result is that one person will be inspired to daven just one better shemoneh esreh. And this is all true even if that person is the speaker himself. I try to work by this code, especially if I happen to notice someone dozing off during a shiur or derasha. Yet, there are certain speakers, darshunim and baalei mussar whose impact can be felt many years later, sometimes for the lifespan of the listeners. This is one such speech. A few months ago I mentioned to my mother-in-law that I began doing some work in Yeshiva of Telshe Alumni, better known as the Riverdale Yeshiva. Her response surprised me. To understand what comes next, it is important to know a basic background of the Telshe yeshiva. In the mid-1870’s a yeshiva was founded in the city of Telshe for the local students. Although begun by renowned talmidei chachamim, it served mainly the local younger bachurim. About ten years later, the city of Telshe hired a new rav, Rav Laizer Gordon. Rav Lazer Gordon saw the winds of the enlightenment affecting
people’s attitude toward yeshivos in general, and sought to create an environment of pride. One amazing example of this was his doing away with essen teg, where yeshiva bochurim would go to various homes of local balla battim to be served free meals. He instituted that all bochurim who came from wealthy homes would pay their own way for food. In addition, those who could not afford it would receive a stipend from the yeshiva office with which to pay their hosts for the meals. This not only created a sense of pride in the students-as they no longer saw themselves as beggars-but created a different mindset toward them in the eyes of the local balla battim. Rav Laizer also brought his nephew Rav Shimon Shkop, as well as his son-in-law Rav Yosef Leib Bloch to be rebbeim and leaders in the yeshiva. Among their early student body was Rav Elchanan Wasserman and others who would go on to greatness. Still, the yeshiva often suffered financially. It was in 1910, while on a fundraising trip to London that Rav Laizer Gordon was niftar. At this time Rav Shimon Shkop had already left Telshe to become the rav of Breinsk –a void filled in Telshe by Rav Chaim Rabinowitz – and the rabbanus and the yeshiva was given over to Rav Yosef Leib Bloch. Rav Bloch was a brilliant and fascinating individual, having delved the yam hatalmud, a master in mussar, as well as having learned sodos Hatorah with the holy Leshem (the grandfather of Rav Elyashiv). The yeshiva continued to grow under his guidance, becoming one of the great, select yeshivos in Europe. The city too would continue to grow, soon (1929-1931) seeing the opening of the revolutionary Telshe mechina for boys, and the Yavneh High School for girls.
In 1929 Rav Yosef Leib Bloch was niftar. He left behind three sons, and two sons-in-laws. While many know of his youngest son, Rav Eliyahu Meir Bloch, as well as his son-in-law Rav Chaim Morechai Katz –both of whom who would later found the American Telshe yeshiva –it was his middle son, Rav Avraham Yitzchak Bloch who took over the rabbanus and the yeshiva. Although only in his late 30’s at the time, he was seen as a leader among men, becoming a member of the moetzes gedolei hatorah. But Telshe suffered a bitter, almost unspeakable end. First, the Soviets entered the city and closed the yeshiva down. Many fled and the yeshiva was down to about 100 students. Amazingly, the rebbeim would still meet up with groups of bochurim, at different times, around the city to give shiurim. But soon the Nazis entered the picture. On 20 Tammuz the Nazi paramilitary unit, or the einsatzgruppen, who were responsible for mass killings, murdered the male Jews in town, including the entire yeshiva, the hanhala, and the rosh yeshiva, Rab Avraham Yitzchok Bloch. On 7 Elul the women of Telshe were massacred. Hashem Yinkim Domum! Three of his daughters survived. One, Rebbetzin Chaya Ausband, was married to Rav Eizik Ausband z’l (d. 2012) who himself became the rosh yeshiva in Telshe, Cleveland. The Rebbeitzen herself founded Yavneh of Cleveland. It is Rebbitzen Chaya Ausband’s son, Rav Avraham Ausband, who founded Telshe in Riverdale. My mother-in-law, began to get emotional. “I remember Rebbitzen Ausband’s speech to staff of teachers at Beis Yaakov in Montreal” she began.
My mother had not taught there-or lived there-in close to forty years! “You remember a speech from four decades ago?!” I asked incredulously. “Every single word. I will tell you three things that stuck with me, and that I think about often. “First, she recounted a little of the history of Telshe, and said the following amazing statement: ‘No matter how painful those final days in Telshe were, never once did any of us ever wish we were the rotzchim instead of the nirtzachim.’” That indeed is a powerful and mighty message, exhibiting the strength, beauty and bitachon of klal yisroel. “Two: She said that when ever she was trying to fix a bad midda in her younger children she would try everything, until she realized the simplest trick. If she worked on that midda herself, if she improved her own challenges in that same area, then magically, and without fail, it would disappear in her children.” I don’t know if my mother-in-law was hinting to me something, but I have tested this myself, and not only does it work, but by watching one’s young children develop one can measure and often discover what needs to be fixed in one self. It is a powerful tool for changing one self and bad behavior in children. “Finally, she spoke about the pain of OTD children. This was in the early 1980’s when it was rarely if ever spoken about aloud, or seen as the epidemic it would so sadly become. She warned us not to judge such a family. There is so much influence today from the outside, that if a child leaves Torah it is not in any way to be blamed on the parents.
“How can one forget such wise words heard from the mouth of someone who had seen so much Torah and so much suffering? Not only did she move on with her life after so much loss, but she continued to rebuild Torah in America. Instead just focusing on the past, she contemplated the Jewish future.” When my mother-in-law recounted this I could not help but comment that if such lessons were taught by the few who escaped Telshe, just imagine the Torah and wisdom that were snuffed out and we will never get to hear. Sometimes a speech, and the history behind it, can change many, many lives, and even be published forty years after it was presented.
Rabbi Moshe Taub is the rabbi of Young Israel of Holliswood and rabbinic editor and weekly contributor for Ami Magazine. He is the author of Jews in the World (Mosaica Press) and writes on Jewish law, history, and thought at ShulChronicles.com.
When I was about ten years old, I had a children’s atlas -a book dedicated to the United States; its geography and its people. I loved this book and read it constantly. One Shabbos, my parents’ old friends were by us for Shabbos. It was a seudah where we were regaled with amazing stories from their past. It is always difficult to imagine our parents before we were born, and a delight to a child’s ear to hear about such times.
Suddenly, in a nostalgic moment, my father, Rav Baruch Taub, the Rav of the BAYT in Toronto, asked me to bring my atlas to the table.
“Ok, Moshe” he challenged me “Open up to the map of all fifty states. Now point to any city, large or small, so long as it has 50,000 or more people”
While an odd request, I did so.
As I pointed to each city and town, my father and the guests reminisced about the Shabbos(im) spent in each one. He named the rav there at the time, as well as those who would ultimately go-on to attend yeshiva, Neve Yerushalaim or Stern. Some are today rabbanim, rebbeim, and askanim.
Many of these small towns no longer have Jewish communities of significant sizes and some have faded completely, but there was time when traditional-yet-not-frum Jewswere being raised in great numbers all across the American tundra.
Why was my father ever in these cities? Who were these guests who were able to play along with this ‘game’?
It all comes down to one person, Rav Pinchas Stolper, who was niftar last week at the age of 90.
‘Zechor Yemos Olam, Binu Shnos Dor V’dor, Sho’al Avicha Vayadgeidcha, zikeinecha vyomru luch’– Remember the days of old; reflect upon the years of [other] generations. Ask your father, and he will tell you; your elders, and they will inform you.
(Devarim 32:7)
Rav Hirsch explains this pasuk with the following powerful words:
“…the zekeinim will have the ability to share history with you; they will explain the connection between your origin and your mission to the world, along with the errors and phases of the past”.
One of the great privileges of writing in Ami is the ability to introduce readers to important figures about whom they may be unfamiliar. With Rav Stolper’s passing, klal yisroel lost one of the heroes of galus America.
“While today there are hundreds of dedicated kiruv workers, such a vibrant conscientiousness would not exist without the following four people: The Lubavitcher rebbe, The London brothers, and Rav Pinchas Stolper”, my father recently shared with me.
This is no exaggeration.
Our story begins on May 6, 1950. The Associated Press ran a story that was published in several papers, and that made its way to the desk of Rav Yitzchak Hutner of Yeshivas Rabbeinu Chaim Berlin, then in Brownsville.
‘Tomato Shower Greets German Team In Gotham’ ran the headline.
“A score of youthful demonstrators pelted 16 visiting German soccer players with apples and tomatoes yesterday as the athletes were being officially greeted at city hall. The shower of produce splattered the players as they posed for pictures with city Council President Vincent R. Impelliteri.
“Three of the jeering demonstrators who carried signs protesting what was termed ‘The Nazi invasion of New York’ were arrested… Impelliteri later declared the attack as engineered by a handful of communists.
The three arrested youths were held in $100 bail for a hearing May 11. They were booked as Phineas Stolpher, 18, and Martin Kreiner, 21, both of Brooklyn, and Joseph Adler, 18, Manhattan. Adler told Magistrate Vincent J. Kowalski he born in Germany and remembers Nazi youth organizations there. ‘We have to have some way of expressing ourselves’”
Gedolei yisroel, having recently arrived in America to rebuild Torah, were always on the lookout for untapped youthful energy. Rav Hutner saw a certain holy chutzpah that could be harnessed for the greater good. Turning to Rav Chaim Feuerman – who had shown him this story -Rav Hutner demanded the Stolper boy be recruited to the yeshiva.
What pikchus on the part of Rav Hutner! With that one reaction the course of Jewish history was now altered.
Now, with a young Pinchas Stolper learning under the tutelage of Rav Hutner, Hashem’s plan was in motion. At the 1954 OU Convention, an idea was birthed to join all localized youth movements around the country under one auspice. They would call this venture National Conference of Synagogue Youth, or NCSY for short. These four initials, to some in the litvish world, may, at best, bring up feelings of indifference. The reader, however, should note that not by chance did Lakewood go from a few hundred students in the 1960’s to close to ten thousand today, bl’a. Many children of the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s had only a cursory relationship with yiddishkeit, perhaps best described in Moshe Yess’s classic song‘My Zaidy’; they may have had kiddush Friday night, few may have even have been exposed to some level of religiousity. But almost all went to public schools. The writing was on the wall. This generation pf youth was about to be lost. How can we bypass all barriers and talk directly to them?
As Rav Zev Leff expressed at Rav Stolper’s levaya, Rav Leff would not be here today if not for NCSY.
In 1959 this new organization was treading water and fledgling (this fact comes directly from the OU – https://60.ncsy.org/about/ncsy-history/). That is when they felt the need to hire their first ‘National Director’. They chose Rabbi Stolper, who at that time was working for the Ponivizh Yeshiva.
Aside from seeking advisement with the gedolei hador (specifically Rav Yaakov Kamenetzky, Rav Hutner, Rav Gifter and Rav Ruderman) on all matters of halacha and hashkafa, what Rabbi Stolper created was nothing short of brilliant. There would be ‘Regions’ and ‘Chapters’. The youth will take their own leadership roles in this organization. This will give it its chiyus. Advisers will come from yeshivas Ner Yisreol, Chofetz Chaim and YU. Each year they would hold elections and a National Convention. There would be an honor society and publications, Awards will be given out. Regions would have their own songs, activities, and verve. Not only will this give the youth ownership in this mission, but each Chapter’s advisors would now be trained to become leaders and askanim of tomorrow.
“On the outside, it was framed to appear similar to the Heterodox youth movements. But it was all an illusion. It was a house of cards; a trick to galvanize kids. All the pomp and all the circumstance were created as a heicheh timtza, a pretext, for one thing and one thing only: to get these young boys into a yeshiva and girls to go to a seminary, or, at the very least to introduce concepts of Shabbos, tznius and Torah to the American Jewish youth” said my father.
Did his plan work?
Like gangbusters!
It is not my place to name the many rabbanim and askanim who either became attached to Torah through NCSY or who learned how to lead through serving as advisors. Yet, these are names every reader certainly knows.
But a few a can quote.
Mr. Gary Torgow, of Detroit, is renown askan who, among other things, serves on the Board of Directors at Artscroll. He shared with me, “I had the immense honor and privilege to work for Rabbi Stolper as the Regional Director of Central East NCSY. Rabbi Stolper was one of Hashem’s most impactful and courageous Angels of good. His love and compassion for every Jew became the mission statement for every person who toiled in the fields of NCSY. His impact on the Jewish world can only be measured by counting the children, grandchildren and Great Grandchildren of thousands of NCSY’ers that he inspired and encouraged”
Rebbitzen Hochberg, now of Lakewood, but previously of Jamaica Estates, Queens, where her husband, Rav Shlomo Hochberg served as rav for twenty-five years. She was raised in Peoria, IL.
She shared with me the following:
“Rabbi Stolper played a big part in my becoming frum. For all four of my high school years, he was at every national convention, every Midwest regional winter convention and every spring Conclave that I attended, and I spent a great deal of time asking him a plethora of theological questions at each event. He was always patient and kind and wise. “There’s no doubt that without Rabbi Stolper and Harry Ostreicher who headed NCSY in Peoria, my life would have taken a totally different and much less meaningful track. I have such a tremendous amount of hakaras hatov to him.”
Indeed, Rabbi Stolper would travel to each region and each chapter. Shabbos after Shabbos, week after week. He, and his ezer k’negdo, lhb’clc, Rebbitzen Elaine Stolper, would spend Shabbos in virtually any town with a shul, with Jewish youth. From Boise to Baton Rouge, De Moines to Duluth – he brought so many to Torah.
In the early years of Neve Yerushalim and Ohr Sameach, it was NCSY that supplied them with a constant stream of students. This is not to mention Stern, Ner Yisroel, YU, and even Telshe.
Once, while reading a journal from the Association of Orthodox Jewish Scientists Rabbi Stolper came across an article written by a one Leonard Kaplan. Just as Rav Hutner had seen something special within him, Rabbi Stolper too recognized that this man was more than he let on. He had a simple brilliance about him, backed up by a hard drive of Torah; he was unlike anyone he had ever seen. That man was, in fact, Rav Aryeh Kaplan. Rabbi Stolper was the one to then tap him to write books for and speak to NCSY. Most of the Rav Aryeh Kaplan books that we have today are only due to Rabbi Stolper and NCSY.
My father would soon serve under Rabbi Stolper as Associate National Director, and then, in the late 1970’s when Rabbi Stolper became Executive Vice President of the OU, my father became National Director.
This is why my father visited all those cities in the story with which we opened. And, those guests at my table? They were advisors in his day -today leading rabbanim and askanim.
My father recently shared with me, “There are four words that are like nails on a chalkboard, at least for me. Four words that should never be said, in my humble opinion. These four words are, ‘I made him frum’. Rabbi Pinchas Stolper -my father shared-never used those four words. This, even though he could have, and maybe is one of the few who should have.”
Another known askan, Dr. Loise Malcmacher of Cleveland -who served as head of NCYS’s Central Region in 1970’s – shared with me how Rabbi Stolper never talked down to the teenagers. He would give over Rav Hutner’s Torah to them as if they learnt in yehsiva. He would bring them up to his level, and not the other way around. He spoke how Mr. Irving Stone and other community leaders loved Rabbi Stolper. These were men who can smell the inauthentic from a mile away.
Speaking of how he spoke to teenagers, in 1967 Rabbi Stolper wrote a book titled Responsible Jewish Adulthood. This is when the hippie movement was in full swing, and the competition for the minds and hearts of our youth was at its peak. He opens this book by laying out the foundations of tznius, kedusha and tahara, and how each NCSY chapter must enforce these goals in their actions and in the hearts and minds of the youth.
He would bring in gedolei roshei yeshiva to speak to the teenagers -they should get a taste of the goal and not just the journey!
Dr. Malcmacher shared a poignant personal anecdote. For the last few decades he and his wife Chani (who served as my father’s secretary in NCSY) would travel the globe for his popular academic courses on dentistry. Often, they have to be away for Shabbos. Like most, they have many bechers from which to choose to take on these Shabbos trips. But they always choose one among the many. It is the kos that the Stolpers gave them upon their marriage.
He explained, “Rabbi Stolper and his rebbitzen were also always away Shabbos. And, they had so much hatzlacha. If I wished to have hatzlacha on my trips, I could think of no better talisman.”
A kos shel beracha indeed!
Rabbi Stolper is survived by his wife Elaine, his son R’ Akiva and daughter Rebbitzen Michal Cohen, the wife of Rav Zev Cohen of Chicago. He is also reunited with his daughter Malky, a’h.
May Rabbi Stolper fight for us in the olam haemes as he had in this world below.
Rabbi Moshe Taub is the rabbi of Young Israel of Holliswood and rabbinic editor and weekly contributor for Ami Magazine. He is the author of Jews in the World (Mosaica Press) and writes on Jewish law, history, and thought at ShulChronicles.com.
Published in Ami Magazine the week of Rav Ausband’s petira, Elul 5784//Sep. 2024
Rabbi Moshe Taub
“…Binu Shenos Dor V’Dor…” (Devarim 32:7)
Writing in the June 1974 issue of the Jewish Observer, the rosh yeshiva of Telshe in Cleveland, Rav Mordechai Gifter zt”l, shared the heart-wrenching events of July 15th 1941 (20th of tammuz). Unbelievably, just thirty-three years prior:
“…When the Nazi’s beat the Telsher Rav upon the head with hammer blows and taunted him: ‘Where is your Gd, Herr Rabbiner?’, the Telsher Rav replied, ‘He is not only my Gd, He is your Gd; and the world will yet see this’…At the time when the Nazis took the Telshe community to their intended slaughter at a lake nearby, The Telsher Rav said a derasha…When he could no longer stand on his feet, not having enough strength to carry even a gemara, he directed his young daughter (his sons were gone, [hy’d!] to take out the gemara Sanhedrin, to open to the topic of Kiddush Hashem [daf 74], and to begin reading…”
The ‘Telsher Rav’ to whom Rav Gifter was referring was Rav Avraham Yitzchok Bloch.
A mere six years after his murder, across an ocean and a world away, his grandson, Rav Avraham Ausband was born. Rav Bloch was yet another zaideh in our long galus who never held his einikle, just as Rav Ausband was yet another einikle in our long galus who was never warmed by the sweet embrace of his zaideh.
To this, Rav Ausband himself once expressed, writing in a separate article in the Jewish Observer:
“My family was completely decimated. I was never privileged to meet either of my grandfathers”
‘The View of a Child of Survivors’
J.O., July, 1995
Yet, in lieu of a fleeting physical embrace, Rav Ausband became spiritually and eternally fused with his revered zaideh, becoming the embodiment of both the life and the mission of his holy namesake.
A Lithuanian Massacre
Before the clouds of World War Two darkened Europe , Telshe was fast becoming one of the great fortresses of Torah in Europe, with the city celebrating the opening of their revolutionary Telshe mechina for boys, and its Yavneh High School for girls.
In 1929 Rav Yosef Leib Bloch, Rav Avraham Yitzchok’s father, passed away, leaving behind three sons (and two sons-in-laws – Rav Eliyahu Meir Bloch and Rav Chaim Mordechai Katz – who would later together establish the American Telshe yeshiva).
Ultimately, it was his middle son, Rav Avraham Yitzchak Bloch, who would took the mantle from his revered father, taking charge of both the rabbanus of the city and the leadership of its famed yeshiva.
Although only in his late 30’s at the time, he was already recognized – in Telshe and around the Torah world – as a leader-among-men. This became even more apparent to all when he soon was asked to join the esteemed moetzes gedolei hatorah.
But then…
…Alas…
…First, the Soviets entered the city and closed the yeshiva down.
This first invasion was enough to cause many to flee, leaving the yeshiva with only one-hundred remaining students. Yet, even during this precarious time, the dedicated rebbeim somehow found a way meet and give shiurim with groups of bochurim at secret times and locations around the city.
But then…
…Alas…
…In time, the Nazi’s paramilitary unit, the Einsatzgruppen, ym”sh, entered town. They chose the 20th of tammuz as the date they would murder all the town’s Jewish males, including the entire yeshiva, its hanhala, and their rosh yeshiva, Rav Avraham Yitzchok Bloch. On the 7th of elul the women of Telshe were massacred. Hashem Yinkim Domum!
Lita, Ohio//Lita, Illinois//Lita, New York
Three of the young rav’s daughters survived (Rav Avraham Yitzchak Bloch’s daughters).
One of those daughters, Rebbetzin Chaya Ausband, would soon marry Rav Eizik Ausband z’l and settle in Cleveland.
Both Rav Eizik and his Rebbetzin had ‘rebuilding’ in their heart and spirit -she would open and lead the famed Yavne School for Girls, while Rav Eizik would go on to become the rosh yeshiva in Telshe, Cleveland. Rav Eizik was niftar twelve years ago, and rebbitzen Chaya Ausband was nifterah just four years ago, at the age of ninety-six years (for more on her life and lessons, click to see this post)
It was to this Telsher yichus that Rav Avraham Ausband was born. It was in such a home where he was raised, and, it was toward this pedigree of sacrifice for the continence and legacy of Torah for which he lived.
Soon, Telshe in Cleveland, and then in Chicago, would become citadels of Torah in America. It was then when a young Rav Avraham Ausband led the founding of a new branch of Telshe, ultimately settling in Riverdale, New York.
His new yeshiva officially commenced on the first day of elul zeman, 1984.
As Rav Willig pointed out, Rav Ausband led the yeshiva until, exactly forty years later -to the day.
His life’s mission -and that of his holy zeidah – completed as one unit.
Personal Reflections
Long before I had the opportunity to work for him, Rav Ausband had a profound presence in my life.
My first memory of Telshe-Riverdale is of sitting in the car as my older brother, Rav Shmuel Taub, was being dropped off for elulzeman. I could not have been older than ten-years-old, and while I can’t explain now why, but that brief moment left an indelible imprint on me. Perhaps it was the envy from knowing I would never reach my two older brothers’ level of hasmada nor be able to attend such an illustrious yeshiva.
Several weeks after dropping him off, he returned home for bein hazemanim. As we sat in the sukkah, my brother regaled us with tales of his rosh yeshiva, Rav Ausband. He would share his brilliant insights, unique wit, and profound clarity.
Five years later, my sister Naomi married Efraim Halpert, who was also from the early talmidim of Telshe-Riverdale. The newly married couple would spend their first Rosh Hashanah with Rav Ausband, a yom tov my sister till recounts years later.
Moving ahead in time to ten years after dropping my brother off for that elul: I was now twenty-years old and felt the common anxiety that often comes with the onset of adulthood; the new intensity of emotions, the comparing oneself to others, and the uncertainty of one’s future, which path to choose – the usual chalishas hadaas young adults face from time-to-time.
When I shared these strong feelings with this same brother, he quickly pulled out an Alei Shor (Rav Wolbe) and learned a specific section with me. I was blown away by how poetically it encapsulated what I was feeling and how brilliantly it aided me in refocusing my energies.
“Wow, this really hits the spot! How did you know exactly what to learn with me?!” I exclaimed.
My brother shared his secret: “I just did what Rav Ausband did”. He explained that when he was my age – and also struggling with the same common youthful anxieties-he turned to Rav Ausband who immediately directed him to this same sefer and page.
Fast forward through my own marriage, my time in Lakewood, then Buffalo.
I had recently moved to Queens when I received a call from Rav Uri Fox, the afternoon menahel in Telshe-Riverdale. I remembered Rav Fox fondly from my days in Yeshiva Gedolah of Passaic.
“To what do I owe this honor?” I asked.
Rav Ausband, he explained, was in the midst of re-working his secular studies program for the younger high school boys, where in addition to the standard Regent classes, he wished to, when applicable, attach chochmas haboreh, life preparedness, and yedios Hatorah to this program. Rav Tennebaum from Queens was already teaching a masterful class on the medieval period through the lens of the early rishonim, and after seeing my summer history series, Rav Fox wondered if I would come in once or twice a week to teach American history through the prism of the yidden of early America.
I readably agreed, proudly sharing with my wife, “It took twenty years, but I finally got accepted in Telshe-Riverdale!”.
Soon, I had the honor of assuming Rav Fox’s position, as he took another job closer to his home.
I would now be working directly with the rosh yeshiva.
Rav Ausband was a true shepherd, never allowing a hire unless he met the teacher himself. If the teacher was a rav, he wisely needed to be confident that he would know his place in the yeshiva, if he was young, he needed to know if could control the classroom, etc.
Once, Rav Ausband called me into his office. He was very excited, as Artscroll would send the yeshiva their new sefarim, he had an advance copy of ‘Introduction to the Talmud’. In it, they explicate the history of the tannaim and amoriam as well as their yeshivos and the way of life in their times. “I want you to look at this, maybe you can find material that could aid these young bachurim in their future learning”.
When I found a gentle talmud chacham to lead just such a class, I brought him to meet with the rosh yeshiva. Something seemed off to me, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. I was always so nervous in front of the rosh yeshiva that I was unable to properly focus, trying instead -and in vain -to think what he may be thinking. When the prospective teacher walked out, the rosh yeshiva turned to me and said, “R’ Moshe, did you notice?” I was not sure to what he was referring. “His shoelaces were untied, his socks didn’t match and his shirt was filthy.” Oh well, I thought, this is a bad sign for this job prospect’. But the rosh yeshiva had another thought in mind. After a pause he said, “Such a good reputation, such a fine resume, something else must be going on. I wonder if everything is ok in his personal life to come to a job interview like that…”.
Meeting with all new hires meant he had to initially meet with me as well.
Being interviewed for a menahel job is one thing, but to interviewed for it by a senior rosh yeshiva was nothing short of frightening -especially a gadol who was my older brother’s rebbe. The rosh yeshiva opened the door to his office with his known simchadikahshmeichel, that he must have known put everyone at ease.
It was a profound and lengthy conversation -penetrating questions one minute, and light humor the next. He asked me about my shul, who I speak to with serios shailos, about my family, and of course about my father shlit”a, brother, and brother-in-law. Although by that time he had three generations of talmidim, he knew not just the names of each, but those of their children, what they were doing, etc.
While his advice and thoughts shared are private, there is one part of our exchange that I frequently share.
Near the end of that interview, he asked, “When is the last time you spoke to your rosh yeshiva?” I stammered a bit. “Well, Rav Dovid Soloveitchik is in eretz yisroel, and Rav Meir Stern is so busy, I never want to bother him”.
For the first time I saw a look of severe displeasure come across his face.
I quickly interjected his thinking by trying to list the chashuvim I am in touch with due to my rabbanus, but he wasn’t having it.
“So, you are saying that you’re a yid without a rosh yeshiva? Is that what you’re telling me?”
Another long pause, and then, as if to himself, he said, “How can someone think they are a ben Torah and not have a rosh yeshiva in his life, for every major decision?”
To this day, if I wish to explain or if I am asked “What is a ben Torah?”, I respond, “The first step is to be a yid with a rosh yeshiva”.
His Perfect Words
He always had the perfect words for every moment. His derashos were tailer made for whichever audience he was speaking.
I would tell people from the more modern veldt who happen to work near the yeshiva to stop in for a mincha. “You will be surprised at the welcome the rosh yeshiva would give you”. And, if they ever met the rosh yeshiva, they were never disappointed.
Here is such an example.
I shared in Ami a few months ago how, how at the start of this current war, my amazing neighbor, Yakir Wachstock, started Boots for Israel, and has since raised millions of dollars buying and shipping boots to the millium – down to shoe sizes and unit orders. Together with my shul, volunteers pack and ship almost daily through El Al, and then someone meets the duffle bags in Ben Gurion Airport to arrange their deliveries to various bases.
Yakir is away almost every Shabbos fundraising for this cause, and a few months ago he was in Riverdale for Shabbos.
Rav Mordechai Willig, the rav of the Young Israel and rosh yeshiva at Yeshiva University, invited Yakir for lunch. Yakir explained that after his appeal at the Young Israel, he has to then stop at the Chabad and other shuls, and that Rav Willig should start the seudah without him.
Rav Willig explained that his apartment building requires someone to let him in, so instead Yakir should go around through the back, and enter his apartment from the porch area.
Now, Rav Willig and Rav Ausband lived in the same apartment building, on the same floor. They had a deep, forty-year close relationship, and also worked together to build the frum Riverdale community.
So, at about 2pm, Yakir went around the back and walked toward the sound of beautiful zemiros.
“This must be the apartment”, he thought, and stepped inside.
What he didn’t realize is that he had not entered Rav Willig’s apartment, but the rosh yeshva’s!
Yakir was greeted by one of the rosh yeshiva’s sons. The ‘out-to-lunch-out-for-lunch’ Yakir, looked at him, thinking he was another guest, and said, “I’m so sorry I’m late! I’m just coming back from Chabad and, between them and the Young Israel, baruch Hashem, we got the IDF lots of boots!”.
Now if this happened to me, I would kindly have told him, “Sir, that sounds very nice, but I don’t have the slightest idea what you are talking about or why you are here”.
Instead, the rosh yeshiva’s son responded by saying, “We are just happy you made it”. Seating the oblivious Yakir down by the meal, the son explained to the rosh yeshiva, “Our guest finally arrived”.
The rosh yeshiva welcomed him, as if he was expected.
Yakir later shared with me, “They made it so natural that I didn’t have an inkling that I was in the wrong place”.
Soon, Yakir asked, “Where is Rav Willig?”.
Now the rosh yeshiva chapped what had happened, and happily brought Yakir next door.
Rav Willig commented to Yakir, “What a gadol the rosh yeshiva is”. Yakir was perplexed, “What rosh yeshiva?”
Rav Willig explained, “That was Rav Ausband who brought you over here. Have you heard of him? He is the rosh yeshiva of Telshe Riverdale”.
Now Yakir was embarrassed. “Of course I’ve heard of him! My rav speaks about him all the time!”
Rav Willig then said, “Come, let me take you back to get a proper shalom”.
And so, Yakir returned to the rosh yeshiva’s apartment. He asked about the Boots program and about our community -getting more unfiltered answers than he got from me in our first meeting!- and he could not have been sweeter.
The rosh yeshiva wasn’t being affectatious, rather he felt this way for every neshama, and they would feel it in return.
I once heard that the word ‘sever’ in in ‘sever panim yafos’ comes from the root of sevara-logic. When the rosh yeshiva smiled at people it had an impact because it wasn’t a show, it was real, he had a sevarah behind it!
This skill was not just in private, he was also a legendary public orator.
Once, after one of his celebrated yeshiva dinner speeches, I quipped to him, “Rosh Yeshiva, I have to ‘steal’ some of that amazing sechorah for my own derashos”. He laughed and responded, “Steal?! Chas v’shalom! Take it, it is all yours!”
I did, but in his name.
At the start of Covid, right before all the yeshivos closed, I called the rosh yeshiva to let him know that I was very sick with the virus and would be unable to attend to my job. Through the haze of my raging fever, I concluded the phone call by saying, “In the blink of an eye Hashem flipped the world on its head! What is His message?!”
He responded, “THAT is the message! He is charge. End. Of. Story!”!
A talmud once came upon very hard times, when the phone rang. It was the rosh yeshiva.
“I was not in the mood for divrei chizuk” this talmid shared with me at the levaya.
“But the rosh yeshiva didn’t offer that, nor did he even ask me how I was doing – as he likely knew the answer.
“He didn’t tell me a vort, as he likely sensed it wasn’t the time.
“Instead, he asked one thing, ‘Tell me right now how much money you need to pay your bills this month and I will be sending it out tomorrow’. That was his call!”
That is love.
That is a rosh yeshiva.
When I was leaving the levaya, I saw my brother, who drove in from Lakewood.
He shared the following memory:
He once drove the rosh yeshiva home from a very painful levaya of a young and close friend of my brother, and talmid of the rosh yeshiva. Seeing the forlorn on my brother’s face, the rosh yeshiva said, “You can’t return to your home -to your family – like this. A yid doesn’t leave a levaya and head straight back to his family. No! A yid gets a coffee and a cheese danish first! Once you pull over to get yourself some geshmake nash, then we can schmooze about the amkus of what we just took part in”.
Another friend shared how he when in high school in Telshe Cleveland, he bumped into the rosh yeshiva who was there visiting his parents.
“I was walking down the path toward the beis midrash and Rav Ausband asked if he could walk with me. Looking back, he probably understood all the infighting that happens when boys live together in a dorm. He asked me a question. “In this week’s parsha we are told how the brothers despised Yosef due to his perceived special treatment from Yaakov. The very next pasuk tells us how Yosef told his brothers that he had a dream, and this caused the brothers to hate him even more’.
Asked the rosh yeshiva to this fifteen-year-old he never met: “But Yosef didn’t yet tell them his dream yet! How could they already hate him more? Maybe it was a positive dream. It is only the next pasuk where Yosef shares the details of the dream, ‘And he told them the dream…’. So, nu, how do we explain this?”
My friend shared the rosh yeshiva’s amazing answer:
“When one decides to hate someone, the object of that hate could do no right. ‘Oh he had dream! What a horrible person!’ It didn’t matter what the dream was about anymore. ‘He likes vanilla and not chocolate? Figures!’ This is the poison of fighting. However, it works the other way as well: when one loves someone, the object of that love could do no wrong!”
A grandson in the 9th grade in Riverdale shared with me how he was once on vacation in a rented home, and swimming in a pool with a cousin.
They were having a race:
“I lost the first race from the start, seeing my cousin pull away by mid-pool. When I finally got to the other side -long after my cousin – my grandfather noted my frustration, and shared, ‘I’m going to tell you something; a lesson for life: If you are always checking in on yennem (the other guy), you will almost always then come-up second. Only when you focus on yourself – your own strengths and efforts – will you have a chance to meet success. Now, go and challenge him to race you again and have what I told you in mind.’
“And so, I did. This time I didn’t look up during the race, nor did I even think about my competitor. I won…by a wide margin!
“I will never forget the proud smile on my zaidy’s face, shepping nachas that his lesson was utilized”
One final story of his perfect words:
Rav Willig shared in his hesped how he was there when the rosh yeshiva buried his daughter after her horrible and painful passing. What words could anyone say in that moment in the cemetery?
Here is what Rav Willig shared that the rosh yeshiva said:
There is a halacha that one must have kavana during ashrei when saying the pasuk ‘poseach es yadecha u’masbia l’chol chai ratzon’ (Shulchan Aruch, siman 51). But from now on we [the family and he] must have kavana by the next pasuk as well, “tzadik hashem b’chol derachauv v’chosid b’chol maasuv – Hashem is righteous in all of His ways and pious in all of His deeds”.
Wow!
His son, Rav Eliyahu Ausband, is a pikeach and a brilliant talmudchacham who, as the new rosh yeshiva, will continue to lead his father’s and his talmidim together with all the rebbeim and the mashgiach, shlit”a. I must mention as well Rav Nosson Joseph -a pillar of Telshe Riverdale- who loyally carried-out the shlichus of the rosh yeshiva zt”l, and now, lhbch”lch, will do this same avodas hakodesh for the rosh yeshiva, Rav Eliyahu, shlit”a.
May the rebbitzen, the children, and the entire mishpacha find true nechama.
May Hashem give Rav Eliyahu Ausband the Heavenly koach needed so as to continue the legacy of his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather, ad bias goel.
Rabbi Moshe Taub is the rabbi of Young Israel of Holliswood and rabbinic editor and weekly contributor for Ami Magazine. He is the author of Jews in the World (Mosaica Press) and writes on Jewish law, history, and thought at ShulChronicles.com.
What do you do when you receive too much change from a store?
In 2005, the periodical ‘The Journal of Business Ethics’ published a study titled, “Relationship Commitment and Ethical Consumer Behavior in a Retail Setting: The Case of Receiving Too Much Change at Checkout”
As one can infer from the title, their study indicated that a person returning mistaken change that they received depended on their prior relationship with the store in question. Should they have an affiliation with the shop then guilty feelings will likely cause them to return the change.
The Guardian newspaper-in their financial advice section- also wondered about the ethics of keeping extra change.
There the writer ends with an interesting caveat:
“Irrespective of the law, staff are often forced to make up shortages in the till at the end of the day from their own pockets. Hand it back.”
A few weeks ago, for the shavuos issue, we wrote about the importance of showing our fidelity to the Torah in its entirety, and the need to recommit ourselves to choshenmisphat, its monetary laws, especially when dealing with non-Jews, as the Torah prohibition against stealing applies to both Jew and Gentile (See BeisYosef on siman 259, Rif and Rosh on Bava Kama 113a, Rambam, ShulchanAruchChoshen Mishpat 348 with Gra, Shach and Be’erHagolah in the name of SeferChasidim. Cf. Rashi on Sanhedrin 57a, s.v. Yisrael, that it is d’Rabbanan. Almost all disagree with Rashi; see Nesivussiman 348)
.
Now, some may wish to point out that there is also a halachah called ta’usakum. This law states that in regard to certain errors that could occur in a business transaction, we are not responsible to return what was mistakenly given to us.
This is a very complex issue, one that arises much less frequently than most assume—and even then, according to many, we must often communicate to the akum in person, via phone or email, that we are relying on their calculations. (See Shach siman 348:2 and Yam shel Shlomo, Bava Kama 10:20)
Even in cases when it would be activated, there is one other hurdle to overcome—chillulHashem.
The poskim (see Rama ad loc.)rule that a chillul Hashem often overrides any heter (should there be one).
However, assuming that we are dealing with a Jewish-owned store, there would be an absolute obligation in all cases to return the mistaken change due to hashavus avieda.
The other week I received a related shailah that turned into an amazing lesson of sensitivity.
It was late at night when my phone rang, and I was concerned that this was a question of life and death.
To my relief, it was a question of money.
Someone had just retuned from a restaurant where they had ordered take-out.
He was not sure if he should get the large dinner or the small, he had initially ordered the large. He quickly changed his mind and asked if it was not too late to change his order to the small.
As he waited for his order to be ready, he paid for his (small) dinner.
He now arrived home and sat down to eat when he realized that they had given the large dinner, when he only paid for the small!
“Well call them back and explain the error” I quickly suggested.
“I can’t, they are now closed”.
We both knew that they were not going to take back a cold dinner tomorrow.
“Well then, you have to pay them back”.
This case, I explained, can be even more severe than a case of receiving too much change.
In the case of a store misplacing the change, it is deemed a lost object for which one must simply notify them (one is not obligated to expend extra money beyond this), and if he does not know which store the extra change came from then he should make a note in his ledger so that Eliyahu Hanavi can reveal to him to whom it belongs when Moshiach comes.
However, when one actually takes an unpaid item from a store, then we are dealing with potential geneiva/theft.
Ironically, precisely because this theft was not on purpose there are added stringencies according to many. So, as opposed to purposeful theft, here one may indeed have to expend their own money to return either what they had stolen or its value. (See Shulchan Aruch 367 with Nesivus 232)
After explaining this to the shoel, I was surprised by his response.
“Let me think about it, Rabbi”
Think about it?! “You have to pay the store back” I gently reprimanded.
But he explained his concerns. The young man behind the counter was a simple man who was struggling to find parnasa. As the Guardian indicated above, often the store-owner will make the cashier pay out of pocket for such errors, or worse, fire them!
“I can’t have this person being fired because of my showing the store and its owner his error”
His concern stopped me in my tracks. “Let me think about how to resolve this. Let’s talk tomorrow.”
The next morning, I was shopping at Wasserman’s, a local supermarket and butcher here in Queens, when R’ Shulem Brach, the store’s manager, ran over to me.
“Rabbi Taub, do I have a maaseh for you! It is perfect for Ami!”
He asked me to follow him into his office, explaining that he needs to show me something.
As we are walking there he begins to share with me the details of the incident.
A few weeks prior, a woman received too much change from the store. She called and tried to explain how the error came to be. It was complex, as it seemed that the store made an error in forgetting to bill her for something (leading to a potential case of geneiva b’shogeg). The manager was impressed with her honesty and told her not to worry about it.
But she persisted, calling again and again that she has a mitzvah of hashavasaveida and a question of geneiva.
Curious as to what made this story so special, I interjected, “Well, I am sure this happens all the time, after all ‘mi k’amcha yisroel’…”
“Ah, but this was different”, Shulem continued, “I have never seen such sensitivity. Today I received a letter in the mail where she not only paid back the mistaken money, but included this…”
The ‘this’ was the receipt of her purchase. What was amazing was not that she kept calling again and again trying to explain how she received too much change back, nor that she actually mailed back the money, not even that she included the receipt.
While all of that was wonderful, she did something else. If the reader looks closely at the image, she took a razor blade and cut out the section of the receipt that states who the cashier was that made the initial error!
While one can argue, perhaps, that this too is a shailah – for perhaps the manager needs to know who is prone to error – R’Shulem could not have been more b’simcha.
“Can you believe the customers we have here?! What honesty! What chesed! What sensitivity! She wished to pay us back but feared doing it in a way that could harm another human being!”
I responded in astonishment. “You are not going to believe this, but just last night I received this very shailah-how to pay back a store without risking loss to the person who made the initial error!
R’ Shulem looked at me with a smile and said, “I told you this would be great for Ami!”
Rabbi Moshe Taub is the rabbi of Young Israel of Holliswood and rabbinic editor and weekly contributor for Ami Magazine. He is the author of Jews in the World (Mosaica Press) and writes on Jewish law, history, and thought at ShulChronicles.com.
Be Careful in Questioning The Minhagim of the Past
Last week we spoke about interesting minhagim regarding lecha dodi, and how they possibly developed.
This week, I wish to take this same topic into a wholly different direction.
In his later years Rav Meir Shapiro declared that it was always his dream in life to serve the klal in all ways; that is as both a rosh yeshiva and a city rav. In 1930 that dream came true. Immediately following finishing his commencement shiur at Yeshivas Chachmei Lublin he was given his appointment contract as the new rav of the Maharshal shul in Lublin.
The city was ecstatic at the new hire. The anticipation in town for his first drasha to the city, to be given on Shabbos in just a few days, was palpable. By that time, already, Rav Shapiro has a well-earned reputation as a fiery baal darshen.
As recorded in Rav Yeshua Baumel’s (hy’d) biography, Shabbos morning began in a somber mood, as the city leaders lead the new rav through town, into the shul and up the podium to the chair of the Maharshal. The Maharshal, Rav Shlomo Luria (d. 1573), was not only a past rav of this shul, but was also among the gedoleihador of his time who served as a bridge between the era of rishonim and achronim.
Now hundreds of years since his passing, sitting in his chair was no small matter, and was something only the new rav would be allowed to do.
It was to this trepidation to which Rav Shapiro wished to address head-on. Rav Shapiro opened his address by reciting a pasuk from Mishlei (25:6) u’bemakom gedolim al taamod-in the place if the great do not stand, intimating that the concern of taking over such a position is not the sitting in the seat of those who came before, but the risk of being idle, of standing and not building even further.
I related greatly to these words when I first read them. I have personally had the zechus of taking over two shuls, both of which had many rabbanim before me. Comparisons to the past are inevitable, and the only task at hand is to move, to not stand idle, and look ahead.
However, as Rav Shapiro knew well, there are limits to looking ahead. A new rav also must contend with the shul’s history. It is always a challenge to do things in a new way when one is unsure or uninformed why it was done the old way. It is dangerous, and often destructive, to think you know better than those that preceded you.
I have encountered minhgaim within shuls in which I have served that, at first blush and if I had my druthers, I would discard, only to soon discover the real reason and the wisdom behind why they were instituted.
Rav Winter, the founding rav of Young Israel of Buffalo, spent hours on the phone with Rav Moshe Feinstien designing the lay-out of that shul, as well its minhagim. In one humorous anecdote, he asked Rav Moshe, “Should we wear teffilin on cholhomead?” After a series of back and forths, Rav Moshe ruled that the minhag should be to wear teffilin.
“But my minhag is not to wear teffilin…” countered the new rav. Rav Moshe responded, “Well it is now!”, meaning the rav would have to change his minhag for the shul!
This all poses a unique challenge to a rav taking over a shul. On the one hand a shul wishes for their rav to create policy, but on the other hand, the new rav understands that what was already put into place has its own reasoning, some of which based on decades of serving the klal and often hard to articulate to balla battim.
I have struggled mightily with this issue.
Several years ago I wished to change a minhag in my shul and contacted all the former rabbanim I could reach. While some were unsure why the minhag was the way it was-and therefore had no concern with my changing it-one of them did recall its reasoning.
In some shuls –especially those that are out-of-town –they have from time to time what is called a ‘Scholar in Residence’. This is when a guest speaker comes for a Shabbos and gives a series of shiurim from Shabbos through Sunday.
Generally, as part of his paid duties, he also gives the drasha that week as well.
But here the minhag was that only the rav speaks from the pulpit. I was a little embarrassed, as the person coming was a known speaker and talmudchacham who often goes away on such speaking shabbosim. He would likely think it was odd that he was not asked to give the drasha.
But there was a story behind this. Once while the rav was on vacation the shul booked a Scholar in Residence thinking that it was an innocent and uncontroversial choice.
Before this ‘rav’ came a few months later, the rav of the shul asked him what topics he would be discussing. He said that his drasha will be on the halachos of chatzitza (questions regarding intermediaries that separate, like rings by negel vasser, etc.) . The rav thought this was a poor choice for a drasha, but did not give it much more thought.
The Shabbos of his arrival came, and indeed he spoke by the drasha about chatzitza…for about thirty seconds. He was just using this topic as a springboard to show how we have the ability to argue with rishonim! (A great line that I once heard –Arguing with a rishon may not make one one a kofer, it just makes them wrong!)
From that point on the rav of the shul at the time suggested that the pulpit should be reserved for the rav only.
One never knows where minhagim come from. For this reason, the Shulchan Aruch rules (siman 228) that a minhag of city rabbanim may never be abolished if it was put in place for the purpose of protecting the klal.
Years ago Henry Kissinger wrote about the contradiction of leadership. A wise leader puts into action rules, regulation and decrees that come only to prevent bad outcomes from ever happening. However –and here’s the rub-should he be successful in preventing it he can’t point to it to show the wisdom of his rule –it never happened! All the remains is the rule, to which many may still question, failing to imagine what would have been without it.
A few years ago on Sukkos the eruv was down and I wanted to cancel the annual Sukkah hop (for halachic concerns, although far-fetched that I will not go into here). “Let’s just have the kids come to shul instead” I suggested. A balla buss pulled me aside and told me the following (I have never been able to verify this, but it makes sense). “You should know that that concept of a sukkah-hop is no small matter. Rav Shraga Feivel instatutued it in the early days of America to help bolster Jewish education, and have the kids bring home from the new chedarim that he was starting around the country. Minhag America is to have a sukka-hop!”
No minhag is too small when founded by gedolim. Indeed, they often had us in mind in their creation, and we must be reticent of seeing what would happen in a world without them.
Rabbi Moshe Taub is the rabbi of Young Israel of Holliswood and rabbinic editor and weekly contributor for Ami Magazine. He is the author of Jews in the World (Mosaica Press) and writes on Jewish law, history, and thought at ShulChronicles.com.
Senator Patrick Moynihan once brilliantly said, “There are some mistakes for which one needs a PhD to make”.
Meaning, due to over-thinking one can become blind to even the most self-evident and intuitive ethics and morals.
Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel is a man of accomplishment. A renown doctor, Harvard professor, bestselling author, he has served as an adviser to many presidents, and was a chief architect of ‘Obama Care’.
A few years ago he wrote an article for The Atlantic –itself catering to the (often, over) educated, titled “Why I Want to Die at 75”.
A lengthy treatise, here are some brief excerpts. It is important to be aware of this new thinking:
“Living too long…renders many of us, if not disabled, then faltering and declining, a state that may not be worse than death but is nonetheless deprived. It robs us of our creativity and ability to contribute to work, society, the world. It transforms how people experience us, relate to us, and, most important, remember us.
“By the time I reach 75, I will have lived a complete life… [it] will not be a tragedy. Indeed, I plan to have my memorial service before I die. …
“…My father illustrates the situation well. About a decade ago, just shy of his 77th birthday [he had a heart attack]…Today he can swim, read the newspaper, needle his kids on the phone, and still live with my mother in their own house. But everything seems sluggish. Although he didn’t die from the heart attack, no one would say he is living a vibrant life.
“…Over the past 50 years, health care hasn’t slowed the aging process so much as it has slowed the dying process.
“Currently, the average age at which Nobel Prize–winning physicists make their discovery—not get the prize—is 48…the typical composer writes his first major work at age 26, peaks at about age 40 with both his best work and maximum output, and then declines, writing his last significant musical composition at 52.
“ [P]arents also cast a big shadow for most children… [T]hey set expectations, render judgments, impose their opinions, interfere, and are generally a looming presence for even adult children… But it is inescapable as long as the parent is alive.
“Living parents also occupy the role of head of the family. They make it hard for grown children to become the patriarch or matriarch… When parents live to 75, children have had the joys of a rich relationship with their parents, but also have enough time for their own lives, out of their parents’ shadows.
“…Seventy-five years is all I want to live. I want to celebrate my life while I am still in my prime. My daughters and dear friends will continue to try to convince me that I am wrong and can live a valuable life much longer. And I retain the right to change my mind and offer a vigorous and reasoned defense of living as long as possible. That, after all, would mean still being creative after 75.”
All of the above is not an argument being made, but rather a disease laid out in public view, and one that is permeating, or infecting, American culture. As one progressive recently put it, “We just have to wait for the older generation to die so that we can put in place the policies we see as just”
No more does society speak of the ‘sanctity of every human life’ but rather of cogs in a system; a system always in need of new and improved parts. No longer do we see the aged member of society as a precious soul who carries the wisdom of a life lived (see Chinuch 267), the keeper of wisdom of the many generations before him and someone who earned arichasshanim (see Yerushalmi Bikkurim 3:3), but rather as a stumbling block to our own progress. A progress that, using such arguments as laid out above, will soon too be discarded when the next generation comes to replace us.
While it takes time, American culture all too often infiltrates our Torah hashkafa.
This past week my wife’s grandfather was niftar. He was 97. He only stopped driving three years ago, and was as sharp as a whip until about a year-and-a-half ago.
He lived a remarkable life, having raised his younger brother after their mother died in childbirth, and going on to serve in the air force during WWII. After which he built a beautiful family of children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.
He was soon unable to care for himself, and as a veteran had free health care with the VA (this forthcoming is not a comment on the VA in general, whose policies and practices outside of this facility I do not know).
In talking to one of the nurses who was urging the family to sign a DNR (authorization not to resuscitate – a topic beyond the scope of this column), my wife wondered aloud how the nurse would then respond if he starts to choke.
The nurse was getting frustrated. “Do you want us to schlep up the suction to this floor?!”
My wife just calmly looked at her and asked, “So the alternative is to let him choke to death?”
Not being of sound mind anymore, the family stayed with him as much as possible. Every time he was asked if he was thirsty he responded that he was, so the family gave him water to drink.
Before leaving back home my wife implored the nursing staff, “Please, he is so frail and thirsty and lacks the mind to ring a nurse. Please check on him throughout the day to make sure he is not dehydrated.
They didn’t, and it was only a matter of time that he was rushed to the hospital with severe hydration.
I do not know what has become of us as a society. Even a 25 year-old without water will be rushed to the hospital, as this has nothing to do with age or illness.
While we have boruch Hashem been able to fight back against this menace, I do see small unfortunate changes. The mitzvah d’eoraisa of rising for our elders (at the age of seventy, some say sixty) is a rarity to witness, and it is one of the taryag mitzvos!
Based on the majority of poskim our standing must be at full height, and even according to those that rule that we can rely on their assumed mechila and only get up a little, it still must apparent why and to whom we are showing this honor (see MoadimUzmanim 3:285).
The halachos of honoring the elderly even extends to non-Jews as well (see ShulchanAruchYD 244:7 with commentaries for details).
It applies while one is learning and, according to many, even during reciting shema!
The elderly in our shuls all too often become background. They are often the first to arrive but all too often the last with whom we engage in a conversation, or invite for a meal. The irony of course is that they have the most to share with us.
Now more than ever we must be a lighthouse to this rotting philosophy, and demonstrate that we do not only tolerate zekainim, we do not only value every second of their life and comfort, but that we treat them and think of them as the best among us.
Rabeinu Yona (Shaarei Teshuva 2:9) understands that statement in Avos (5:20) “ben tishim l’sichah –a ninety year-old is of bended stature”, as having its root in the word sicha, as in “lasuach basadeh”(Bereishis 26:63), meaning to daven. While perhaps, in most cases, no longer a candidate for a noble prize, and often removed from creative prowess and daily labor, they are able to spend their time saying tehilim and reciting praise for the riboneh shel olam, something that those (sadly!) more occupied with the mundane can not do.
But even the zakeinim amongst us who have lost their mental capabilities, chazal (Berachos 8b) urge us not only to view them as fully alive, but to even view see them as they once were, using the metaphor of the broken luchos that were placed inside the aron. While Dr. Emenuel worried that once passed we will remember the once strong as old and weak, we obligate oursleves to avoid that even while they are alive!
The kadmonim teach us that when the Torah promises us long life for honoring parents it is not based on a miracle alone. Rather, when the younger generations see us care for the zekeinim of our dor they will do the same for theirs.
The Tanchuma (10) teaches us to daven not just for old age, but to have all of our faculties as we get older. Let us hope those teffilos will be answered and, perhaps more importantly, that we will have a world ready to embrace and care for us.
Rabbi Moshe Taub is the rabbi of Young Israel of Holliswood and rabbinic editor and weekly contributor for Ami Magazine. He is the author of Jews in the World (Mosaica Press) and writes on Jewish law, history, and thought at ShulChronicles.com.
As I wrote in the column immediately following pesach, much transpired over the yom tov that I wish to share.
The following is an example of this, and one that also relates to the rest of the year.
Before Pesach this year, two jokes were going around my shul. The first was innocuous take on the news – What does the current president of the United States have in common with us? We both are cleaning out our cabinets for Pesach.
The second joke is far more biting-When someone goes away for Pesach you wish them a chag kosher v’sameach. However, if they are going to a hotel for pesach then you simply wish them a chag sameach.
My shul loses about half its membership to hotels on Pesach, and for many years I would myself lead such programs.
In addition, I have certified a number of hotel pesach programs, as well as have many friends in kashrus who oversee any number of hotels.
I’ve seen it all, and I’ve heard it all; what follows is all true, with only names and places changed.
The Case of the ‘Stolen’ Pizza
Walking downstairs to my office after neilas hachag, maariv and havdala in my shul, I was preparing myself to meet with the goy to whom I had sold chometz.
Waiting for him to arrive, I turned on my cell phone only to be met with dings, beeps, and alarms, indicating a number of texts, emails and voicemails. A friend of mine was leading a pesach program on the other side of the ocean was trying to reach me, he said it was urgent. With pesach already over, I wondered what his issue could be. I could never have guessed. Like virtually every pesach program, his program offered fresh pizza, pasta and bread motzai pesach. It takes time for those items to be prepared, so usually a hotel will begin serving chometz some time after havdala. This rav explained that he walked into one of the barely used extra freezer spaces on the second day of yom tov and saw pizzas rolled out and sauced. Upon further investigation, he discovered that one of the workers on the first day of yom tov decided on his own to roll out the chometz dough, sauce and cheese the pizza and then freeze it so that it would be ready to serve even earlier than the hotel planned!
This rav felt it could still be served, and although now long after the incident (due to the time difference) wanted to bounce his thoughts off me (and several others he had called). The issues involved in this case – of amira l’akum,kdei sheyaasu (especially when there is a second day of yomtov) as well the obvious chometz that this goy ‘stole’ from the goy to whom the hotel sold their chometz to – are well beyond the scope of this article, but it goes to show that even in a most well-managed hotel the unexpected can always happen.
Asking Questions
I often get asked by discerning congregants and friends what they should look for in kashrus when choosing a hotel.
The first piece of advice, and perhaps the most important, is to make sure that the entire hotel –every room-is reserved for the program for that yom tov. To have treif/chometz room service etc. operating over pesach is only adding high risk for errors and even malice.
Second, I urge them to call the mashgiach. There are certain questions that must be asked to ascertain the level of oversight. No matter what hashgacha a hotel is under, the mashgiach is the first-and often last-line of defense.
I recall a wedding when I was in Buffalo. The chassan wanted to utilize a new hotel in Niagara Falls that never dealt (or likely even heard of!) kashrus. My vaad spent weeks prepping the staff, and days kashering and overseeing the entire process.
The day of the wedding arrived and I was acting as rav hamachshir and rav of the chosson. The chassan came over to me and informed me that he decided last minute to fly in his family’s rav from Brooklyn.
“That is beautiful” I responded. “Who is their rav?”
“Oh” he said matter-of-factly, “Rav Yisroel Belsky”.
Rav Belsky was not only a renowned posek, but he was also a chief posek at the OU.
It was too late to throw in extra chumros and I just had to hope he would eat the food.
Moments later Rav Belsky arrived with his rebbetzen and one of his sons.
A brilliant mind, he quickly gauges that this was a new building. “Is this your first kosher event in this hotel?” he wondered.
When I answered in the affirmative, he asks for a tour of the kitchen.
It goes without saying that he taught me all the right questions to ask in such a scenario, and, baruch Hashem and to my great relief, he and his family partook of all of the food at the wedding.
What to learn from this is that there is nothing wrong, mean or untoward in asking the rav hamachshir or mashgiach questions or even for a tour of the facilities. So long as the questioner is kind and not accusatory, it is the mashgiach who gest defensive when asked such questions who thereby becomes suspect.
In fact, sometimes guests asking questions can actually be an aid. We once had a guest in one of our hotels call us on chol hamoed. He was concerned that he saw a mashgiach hand a yartzeitlicht to the goy. The goyishe worker was then to light the gas omelet stations with that flame under the mashgiach’s eye.
While an innocent oversight on the mashgiach’s part, we generally do not rely on the opinion of the Rema who (perhaps only bdieved, see Chelkas Binyanim ad loc.) allows a goy lighting a stove by using a flame lit by a Jew in order to circumvent the issues of bishul akum. (How this does or does not differ from a pilot light is beyond the scope of this discussion)
Tea Rooms and Beyond
Many hotels offer all types of delights in their tea room. I was speaking to a chaver of mine over chol hamoed who was overseeing a hotel this year. They wished to serve fresh cotton candy. The problem was, how can such a machine be kashered for pesach. For a number of reasons this is a complex issue, and a direct heat source placed on the metal –he was told-would ruin the machine.
Then there is the issues beyond kashrus –like an eruv. The kashrus in a hotel my be impecaable, but sometimes complex eruv issues exist. Visiting a hotel a week before pesach (I stayed in my shul for yom tov, with competent mashgichim at the hotel), I walked the outside of the hotel with the mashgiach who was to double as the eruv builder.
He wisely discerned an interesting issue. Many hotels have fountains and decorative pools in front of it and around its building.
If he placed some of the eruv strings so that they run in places over water he can build an eruv that is simple, but if he had to go around the water, or not include the water, it would take more time and money.
Now, water can cause many eruv concerns-like karfeif– but here was another concern.
Some poskim (see Rav Gedalia Felder zt’l in Yesodei Yeshurin chelek 5) who question if a string for an eruv can ever hang over water.
The issues in a hotel, you now see, are endless and hard to predict.
All of the above is not to dissuade people from going to hotels for pesach or other events, rather to turn all kosher consumers into discerning kosher consumers.
Rashi (Bereishis 28:17) teaches us based on a gemara (Chullin 91b) that the makom hamikdosh is the ‘milon’ (‘hotel’) of the Riboneh Shel Olam. Based on this we can end with a beracha that we be zocheh next year to all be in the ultimate pesach ‘hotel’!
Rabbi Moshe Taub is the rabbi of Young Israel of Holliswood and rabbinic editor and weekly contributor for Ami Magazine. He is the author of Jews in the World (Mosaica Press) and writes on Jewish law, history, and thought at ShulChronicles.com.
While I always have a post-yom tov column ready to go before the yomtov even begins, I am always loath to send it in to my (very) patient editors, as I know that by the time yom tov is over so much will transpire, some of which worthy of sharing in these pages.
This year was no exception. Indeed, I simply do not have the space to share them all in just one column.
Once in a while something happens in every job-especially rabbanus-that reminds one why they love what they do. In the midst of preparing for this past yom tov, I had one of those moments.
In many ways, this was a daf yomiyom tov. Not only does each day of sefira happen to coincide with that day’s daf –daf vav (6) was learned on vav (the sixth) b’omer, etc. –but we all began a new mesechta together –Horyios-on the first day of chol hamoed, adding to the simchas hachag.
While perhaps a trivial aside to many readers, this small fact can be a boon to a rav. My first year in rabbanus I was so busy learning the ropes –what a shul needs to prepare for (a lot!), making a yom tov davaning and zmanim schedule –and of course fastidiously reviewing all the halachos, that I lost track –or perhaps failed to realize –of one tiny yet important detail that, too, fell on my shoulders.
A siyum for taanis bachoros.
It’s a responsibility that could understandably get lost in the chaos, especially for a youngest child (and a kohein, who some suggest need not fast this taanis even if a bachur) like myself, who never had a concern of fasting on this day. By the time I realized my dropping the ball erev yom tov was less than forty-eight hours away and the daf that year was deep in the middle of one of the bava’s.
I contemplated staying up all night and finishing a small mesechta.
I quietly took upon myself that no matter how busy Pesach preparations in future years may get, I would never make this omission again.
But this year, I would venture, I and most shuls had it easy. With daf yomi starting a new mesechta the third day of yom tov meant that untold members of each shul were completing meseches Avodah Zara, leaving every erev yom tov minyan with enough potential misayemim for everyone.
But my shul did not use this wonderful coincidence as our siyum, rather something even more beautiful.
A couple of years ago a new family moved into our neighborhood. While we did not know their level of observance, their neighbors encouraged them to come to shul.
Soon, the father began not just coming to shul each Shabbos, but is always the first to show up. Within a few months he began taking on certain mitzvos that he used to think were in his past (he went to yeshiva day school, but that was a lifetime ago).
Such is the power of a community shul.
With just a few weeks before Pesach, he texted me requesting a meeting. That night after maariv we went into my office to talk. I sat nervously hoping that this meeting was not to share any unfortunate news.
“Rabbi, I wanted to ask you if it would be alright if I made the siyumerev Pesach”.
‘Oy’, I thought to myself, “Perhaps he finished a small mesechta of mishnoyos. How will I let him down easy if I feel his siyum is not enough for taanis bachurim?’
“Well, Mark, what did you complete?”
“Bava Metzia”
Bava Metzia is one of the longest mesechtos.
“You mean mishnayosBavaMetzia, right?”
“No, the gemara”.
I was nonplussed, mystified and therefore silent. Before I could speak, he continued.
“And I am also about to complete mesechesSota. Also, I don’t know if this counts, but ever since parshas Bereishis I have completed each parsha with every Rashi…and every Ramban (!!) using the Artscroll version of each”.
He brought with him his notes on all of the above, I guess in case I doubted him.
I was beyond words, and told him such.
“Mark, when was the last time –before this year -that you even opened a gemara” I gingerly asked.
“Twenty years ago”
He then shared something that was both wonderful to hear as well as frightening to consider.
“Don’t you remember rabbi your sermon on Simchas Torah? You challenged me to do this!”
On Simchas Torah this past year I gave a very short derasha, if one could even even call it that, which I can only now vaguely remember. The crux of what I said were devarim peshutim –Next year when we dance with sefer Torah let us do so with the feeling of accomplishment. Let us take on to be marbeh sedrah, even if we start with just one aliya a week with Rashi at first. If you do a little learning each day it can add up”.
That was it. No special sermon, no grand idea or vort, no brilliant insight or emotional story. Just a simple challenge that I could now hardly remember making. While a wonderful reminder of how words can make a difference, it also made me consider the weight of caring for every word I may say in a speech. Frightening.
It goes without saying that I take zero responsibility for what Mark had accomplished. I just said a few sentences, while he had been climbing mountains!
He explained that he first tried it for parshas Bereishis, and then Noach, until before he knew it he finished the entire sefer Bereshis with every Rashi and Ramban, using the Artscroll version of each. That is not a simple task even for the learned!
Feeling a great sense of pride, and becoming closer to Hashem, somewhere around parshas Vayeira he recalled that the last gemara he learned as a youngster was Bava Metzia. He was young at the time and thought gemara was uninteresting, but now was willing to give it a second chance.
So he started learning, first in-between patients, and then late into the night.
“I think I am addicted, rabbi” he explained, only half jokingly.
The pasuk from Yeshayahu (29:9) came to mind –“sheichar v’lo yayin” one can be drunk but not from wine, and how my 11th grade rebbe would use this pasuk to express the potential simchatalmud Torah can bring to one who puts in the effort.
When erev Pesach came, several arrived to shachris carrying with them their gemaras Avoda Zara in case they were needed for a siyum.
But to the surprise of many, they watched as Mark arose after davening and carefully explained the end of BavaMetzia. By the time we reached amein yehai shamei rabba of his kaddish many of us who remembered him well from just a few years ago shed a private tear.
We all went into yom tov proud of Mark and urged in our own growth.
I have a few more stories to share from this wonderful yomtov, perhaps next week or some later time.
For now, let me end with the following idea I shared in this space several years ago, that speaks to this theme of tannis bachurim and our ability to grow.
One of the most interesting minhagim, specifically as it relates to this coming shabbos, is the shlisel challa, where the shabbos after Pesach some either shape their challa like a key, or place a key inside the dough before it is baked (ImreiPinchos #298; OhevYisroel, likutim, shabbos achar Pesach, et al.).
Many suggestions have been offered for this peculiar custom, and I would like here to suggest my own:
The yom tov of Pesach, and the word itself, recalls how Hashem passed over our homes when He killed the Egyptian firstborn. He could not enter our homes, for we were on such a low rung of tumah who knows what He would have found inside (see Sephorno)!
However, before yom tov we clean our home from any and all chometz – which is representative of the yetzer hara -in the hope that Hashem will continue to protect us.
It is only now, after Pesach, when we have succeeded in that mission and rid our homes from its negative forces – the proverbial seor shs’bisah – that no more do we seek, simply, that Hashem save us by skipping over our homes so as not to see what is inside, rather we offer Him a key to our homes, inviting, kaviyochel, HKBH inside for we are now confident of being saved based on what we have accomplished inside.
Let us keep our homes clean, continue to be inspired by the growth we see in others, and let it influence our own growth as well.
Rabbi Moshe Taub is the rabbi of Young Israel of Holliswood and rabbinic editor and weekly contributor for Ami Magazine. He is the author of Jews in the World (Mosaica Press) and writes on Jewish law, history, and thought at ShulChronicles.com.
