Author: Moshe Taub

  • Rav Pinchos Stolper, z”l

    Rav Pinchos Stolper, z”l

    A Kiruv Founder & Legend

    May, 2022

    A Kiruv Legend

          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.

        Yehi zichro baruch.

       

  • Rav Avraham Ausband, zt”l

    Rav Avraham Ausband, zt”l

    A Gadol of Destiny

    History & Personal Reflections

    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 elul zeman. I could not have been older than ten-years-old, and while I can’t explain now why, that brief moment left an indelible imprint on me…perhaps the hope I would one day reach my two older brothers’ level of hasmada so as to attend such an illustrious yeshiva myslef.

       Several weeks after dropping him off, he returned home for bein hazemanim. As we sat in the sukkah, he 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 simchadikah shmeichel, 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 talmud chacham 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.

  • Too Much Change: Halacha & Sensitivity

    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 choshen misphat, its monetary laws, especially when dealing with non-Jews, as the Torah prohibition against stealing applies to both Jew and Gentile (See Beis Yosef on siman 259, Rif and Rosh on Bava Kama 113a, Rambam, Shulchan Aruch Choshen Mishpat 348 with Gra, Shach and Be’er Hagolah in the name of Sefer Chasidim. Cf. Rashi on Sanhedrin 57a, s.v. Yisrael, that it is d’Rabbanan. Almost all disagree with Rashi; see Nesivus siman 348)

    .

    Now, some may wish to point out that there is also a halachah called ta’us akum. 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—chillul Hashem.

    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 hashavas aveida 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!”

  • Old Shul/New Shul

    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 gedolei hador 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 chol homead?” 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 talmud chacham 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.

  • The Elderly Members

    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 arichas shanim (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 Moadim Uzmanim 3:285).

    The halachos of honoring the elderly even extends to non-Jews as well (see Shulchan Aruch YD 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.

  • Secrets of a Pesach Hotel Kitchen

    Secrets of a Pesach Hotel Kitchen

    May, 2019

    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 yom tov) 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 yartzeit licht 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’!

  • A Surprising Siyum

    While I always have a post-yom tov column ready to go before the yom tov 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 yomi yom 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 siyum erev 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 mishnayos Bava Metzia, right?”

    “No, the gemara”.

    I was nonplussed, mystified and therefore silent. Before I could speak, he continued.

    “And I am also about to complete meseches Sota. 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 simcha talmud 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 Bava Metzia. 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 yom tov, 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 (Imrei Pinchos #298; Ohev Yisroel, 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.

  • Rules and Advice For A Shiva Visit

    November, 2019

    This was one of the oddest news corrections I have ever seen.

    “Associated Press: FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — In a story Feb. 22 about the Florida school shooting, The Associated Press misquoted Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel in some versions of the story when he spoke about the families of the victims. He said, “I’ve been to their homes where they’re sitting shiva,” not “where they sit and shiver.”

    Well, ‘six by one and have dozen by the other’- as the latter (sit and shiver) often describes the inner turmoil of the former (he who sits shiva).

    Last week we shared some shiva stories, and expressed the gain each visitor can receive from any beis aveil.

    We ended with these words: “It is hard to pay a shiva call, but if done right one will not just comfort the mourner, but will become inspired and indeed learn the beauty found in every life. We just have to make sure to be careful how we pay a shiva call –the important do’s and don’t’s -something we will discuss next week”

    Several months ago a member of my shul lost a parent. Like always, our shul galvanized the troops and chesed committees to bring in aveilus chairs, visitor chairs, an arohn and sefer Torah– as well as plan and arrange meals for all the aveilim for the entire week and for the seudas haavrah.

    When shiva was over, this mourner called me. While he certainly wanted to express his hakaras hatov to the community for all their help, his main purpose was something else entirely.

    “Rabbi, you have to give a shiur, or something, on the halachos and etiquette of making a shiva call. A letter to the community, perhaps.”

    He went on to share horror stories from his week of shiva; from the insensitive comments to the foolish ones.

    I, as well as surely many readers, have witnessed such errors in a shiva home, no matter how good the intentions behind them were.

    As we get closer to Pesach, one example comes to mind from a dark and cold Pesach several years ago. As I have mentioned before in these pages, my wife’s younger brother, Nesanel a’h, was killed erev Pesach on his way to learn bein hazmanim.

    The levaya was arranged, and the entire shiva was brief-a few hours-and its seemed the entire city of Toronto streamed to my in laws that erev Shabbos/Pesach, and through some ness all managed to fit inside.

    Before the levaya I worked with one of my brother-in-laws on his hesped for his beloved brother.

    I shared with him a Ramban and his comments on a midrash that were apropos.

    Briefly, After the demise of Nadav and Avihu, their father, Aaron, had a reaction that has perplexed meforshim for centuries: ‘…vayidom aahron’ ‘…and Aaron was silent…’.

    Rashi (s.v. vayidom) points out that there was something unique, nay, exemplarily, about this silence of Aaron that merited reward. However, what was unique about his silence however, seems mysterious.

    Ramban, in a brief comment on this verse, gives two possible interpretations, both of which change entirely how this episode may have transpired. “For {Aaron} cried out loudly after which he was silent, or, {Vayidom} has the same meaning as in Eichah 2:18, to be still.”

    Aaron’s silence was not representative of his have nothing to say; on the contrary, it represented his holding back. Indeed, in a fascinating, if not spectacular midrash chazal teach us what Aaron’s grief could have brought him to say as well as the “questions” he could have, or may have, been tempted to ask the HaKadosh Baruch Hu (see Shallal Rav pg. 104 where this midrash is discussed at length).

    Instead, in a remarkable expression of faith, Aaron became still, passive, inanimate –Domeim.

    Keep the above in mind, as it plays vital in the next part of the story.

    Soon came the seder Pesach night-with one of the arbaah banim literally missing from the yom tov table. It was a painful mah nishtana, not to mention that we already knew the differencebetween this night-this seder-and all others.

    My father-in-law the next morning awoke for vasikin –as he had done for decades and was not about to change now.

    Someone walked over to him after davening and gave him a hug, and then said, “Your son, in his hesped, I think what he said was apikorsis. How could we say that Arron had questions?”

    Can you imagine this?! Leaving aside that this is a midrash, and even if we would like to assume that his reaction was the correct one, who goes over to a father who just buried his son hours ago to inform him that one of his well-meaning bnei torah surviving sons preached apikorsis?!

    We quoted last week from chazal who teach us that we must wait for the mourner to speak before we do. The Levush explains that this is because until they speak we do not know where emotionally they may be holding, and are therefore oblivious to what type of custom-made nichum aveilim that is needed just for them.

    However, some things we will just have to assume on our own.

    Like the words of Rav Moshe Chaim Lutzatto in his hakdama to the Mesillas Yesharim, we come here not to pave new ground but to remind everyone of the obvious.

    First of all, you are there to offer nechama, most crucially by talking about the nifter. Of course, if the aveil does not speak at all one can start to stay some simple words of nechama, like “I am so sorry for your loss”.

    I myself always ask, “Are you up to sharing with me about the life of your father/mother?”

    However, a shiva call is not the time to assume a rebbe’ish stance-offering reasons why this or that happened, why suffering is a zechus, or how this too will be seen for the best. Indeed, the baalei mussar stress that gam zu l’tova is to be used internally (for one self) and not externally (to tell others).

    By all means, you may, and should, offer any help that they may need.

    Do not ask about missing family members or siblings who may be sitting shiva elsewhere. While usually a harmless question, there are times, sadly, that a family is or has become split.

    You do not need to know about the illness that preceded a death. You are not there to satisfy your own curiosity.

    Your presence alone is a nechama, if you are able to talk about the niftar and help focus the conversations toward that is a bonus.

    Let the aveil know you are there for anything they need.

    And remember the immortal words of Abraham Lincoln, “Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and to remove all doubt”

  • Styrofoam, Tallow, & Your Hot Cup of Joe

    Styrofoam, Tallow, & Your Hot Cup of Joe

    Is My Cup Treif?!

    March, 2019

    Several weeks ago I dedicated this space to discussing the kashrus world in general and the life of Rav Blech in particular. He was the kashrus expert’s kashrus export, and was niftar suddenly at a relatively young age.

    I concluded the column with one of the last discussions I had with him, where we tried to come up with a list of some of the more startling facts about the food industry that would shock the kosher consumer.

    We arrived at the following list:

    A) Confectionary Sugar Glaze (e.g. shine on chocolate covered almonds) coming from the lac bug

     B) Beaver glands used in artificial vanilla and maple flavor 

    C) Zinc Stearate used as a release agent in the tiny beads that make up Styrofoam cups, which comes from animals (stearate)

     D) The consistent color of white in granulated sugar is created by passing them over charcoaled animal bones

    E) Black ink may have squid ink in it

    The goal here was not to bring the reader alarm, rather to open his eyes to all that goes in to all that he consumes.

    Nevertheless, I received a steady stream of feedback after its publication regarding but one item on that list: C) Styrofoam Cups.

    I believe most kosher consumers were aware, albeit vaguely, that there is some issue or-another with these cups, and for some my quick reference only awakened their already sleeping curiosity.

    One reader wrote to me how a famous posek (whose name I will not mention due to my inability to check the veracity of this story) refused a cup of hot tea from his son on his death bed when it was served in a Styrofoam cup!

    I promised those that contacted me that I will revisit the issue in a column in the near future.

    In order to understand the potential kashrus concerns, a quick review of what ‘Styrofoam’ is would be apt.

    ‘Styrofoam’ is actually a trademarked name, like ‘Kleenex’ for tissues, or Coca-Cola for cola.

    In fact, ‘Styrofoam’ itself was never used for beverages or food. According to the Washington Post (December 18, 2003), Dow Chemical-who owns the name ‘Styrofoam’-is not pleased at this confusion.

    “We’re doing everything we can to make sure that it’s used properly,” says Tim Lacey, Dow’s business director for building solutions in the Americas. “We don’t really know why everyone wants to land on the name Styrofoam, and why it serves as something people want to misuse.”

    The more accurate name for the foamed cups we use is polystyrene, or EXP cups.

     These names stem from both the makeup and process behind these cups.

    The actual ‘stuff’ out of which these cups are made are created from a synthetic polymer made from styrene, hence the portmanteau ‘polystyrene’.

    As for the term EXP, it refers to either extruded or expanded polystyrene.

    Now that we understand its name we can better follow its fascinating production.

    The polystyrene comes to the factory in tiny granules-maybe the size of course salt.

    In the late 1940’s companies learnt that if one applies steam to these tiny pellets they will expand to over forty times their size. In addition, they become somewhat fused in their growth to each other.

    There are a host of services this discovery could-and does! -provide. From insulation to packing material that protects the product during shipment.

    EXP cups are produced with the same method, however, before these beads are fully formed they are placed in a cup molder where they are steamed some more.

    This forces them to form and shape into the hardened cup we all know so well.

    In fact, if you look closely enough at your Styrofoam cup – I mean EXP cup! – you may notice that it is made up by beads.

    Among its most beneficial features is that an EXP cup does not get hot to the touch from the outside, allowing one to serve piping hot coffee with a risk of lawsuits.

    So far this process seems innocuous enough. However, when it comes to production of any kind we have to factor in other issues.

    Once completed in the mold, these EXP cups need a way to be removed, simply and without breakage.

    In order to facilitate this, a release agent is added to the beads to aid its release from the mold upon completion.

    This release agent that is used is known as ‘zinc soap’, or Zinc Stearate.

    It is made up by Zinc Oxide and Stearic Acid.

    Stearic acid is often, and cheaply, derived from beef tallow which is made up of fourteen percent stearic acid.

    So now we understand the halachic concern. Although it can’t be seen, or tasted, and although it serves no further purpose, there is no doubt that a hot beverage served in such a cup or bowl will have some tarfus in it!

    And even if one wishes to point out that whatever one places in the cup will overwhelm the treif thereby being mevatel it (nullifying it), we have a rule that one can not nullify on purpose!

    Many have written on this topic (see Rav Gavriel Tzinner, Ohr Yisroel, Teves, 5765, pages 119-129), and almost all major poskim rule that these cups are still fine for use.

    Each of the many reasons behind its lichatchila allowance are complex, but we will touch on some of them briefly and with extreme brevity:

    • The Zinc Stearate is not nikkar (visible)
    • The above is especially true when no one is now desirous of this tasteless –and by now pointless-treif additive.
    • This treif ingredient itself is a davar pagum (putrid thing)

    For these, and other reasons not mentioned, one is at worst allowed to nullify this ingredient on purpose and at best the ingredient itself is not a concern to begin with.

    Of course, and as we also stress, each reader should speak to their own posek. But the rule of puk chazi mah d’ama devar (see what the nation does) would indicate a general acceptance of these cups’ allowance.

    I hope, as with the initial column that started this discussion, this brings the reader renewed recognition to all the great mashgichim and poskim behind all that we eat…and what we eat it with!

  • Megillas Esther -How This Book Got Its Name

    Much can be gleaned from the titles of our sifrei kodesh, and this is certainly true of megillas esther.

     However, when investigating the names of our sifrei kodesh, our first obligation is to be sure that we know if the title used is the correct one.

    When I was in 7th grade I first visited eretz yisroel. I remember very little of the trip –or of the many tours our family took. I do, however, remember a joke one of the tour-guides made. As we were driving up a hill he said, “If you look out your window to your right will see the kever of Shmuel aleph, and to your left that of Shmuel beis.”

    As a 7th grader I though this was the funniest thing I have ever heard. However, as I got older I realized how deep this silly joke is. This is due to the fact that there is really no such thing as two books of Shmuel!

    Rather the Christians invented the separation of this single sefer into two, as we discussed in great length in a Shavous feature several years ago.

    The strangest example of this phenomenon is the ‘books’ of Ezra and Nechemia. Not only is sefer Nechemia not mentioned in the listing of all the sifrei tanach found in chazal (bava basra 14-15), in another gemara (Sukka 37a) a pasuk in Nechemia is mentioned as being from sefer Ezra (Nechamia 8:15).

    This is because both Ezra and Nechemia are really contained in one sefer called, simply, ‘Ezra’!

    In fact, the gemara (Sanhedrin 93b) outright asks why Nechemia was not zoche to have the book named after him. The gemara explains that this is a punishment for the fact that Nechemia took too much credit for all that he accomplished.

    As to why we allowed another group’s title to eclipse our mesorah, Rav Reuvien Margilios (Margolios Hayam) quotes the Chida as explaining that chazal did not mean that Nechemia’s punishment was indefinite, and certainly at a certain point in history he would become absolved. This is why Hashem, at a certain point in our history, allowed the division of ‘Ezra’ into two books and for the latter to be called ‘Nechemia’.

    In addition to reminding us to make sure we are aware of the true names of our sifrei tanach, what we see from the above is that the titles of our sifrei kodesh are of great importance and come from much thought and kedusha.

    With this is mind, let us investigate the name ‘megillas esther’.

    If we stop to think about it for a minute, megillas esther is a strange name. None of the other four megillos were named after their author, and even koheles was a nom de plume, a nickname for its author, Shlomo hamalech. In fact, while taken from his words, Shlomo did not even write this sefer, rather it was written by Chizkiya and his assistants (bava basra 15a).

    Megilas rus is another sefer about which we often use ‘megilla’ in the title and that is named after its main protagonist. However, as many sefarim point out, Rus indeed was indeed the main person in the events told, indeed the events would seem monotonous if not also being the story of the great grandmother of Dovid Hamelech. It is the story, or megilla, of Rus. Megillas esther on the hand is not the story of Esther per se, rather the story of an existential crises to the Jewish people. Why not call it megillas yeshua?

    The Shevet Mussar (in B’einei HaEidah) even wonders why not call it Megillas Haman.

    As to the last question, he explains that because we are charged with destroying and erasing Amalek, naming a sefer after one if its members would defeat that purpose.

    Rather, he explains, it is called megillas esther because of the events recorded in the gemara (Megilla 7a). It was initially Esther’s idea to include this megilla in the canon of tanach. While the chachamim initially rejected her idea, they sent a letter back to her that they had soon in fact found a proof from the Torah to include it.

    In other words, it is only because of Esther’s initial request that we even have this sefer. So the name ‘megillas esther’ is a description of whom is responsible for its inclusion in tanach.

    (This being the case, some wonder if it is not inappropriate to so publicly take credit as to name the book after one self. See shu’t Divrei Malkeil, hakdama where he explains why so many gedolim including their own names in the titles of their sefarim, and how how this is a lofty and important thing to do)

    Many more ask questions on the title of this sefer, including why, if for whatever reason it is named after Esther, did she or we not use her real, Hebrew name, Hadassa (see Megilla 13a)?

    Rav Yonsan Eibishitz (Yaaros Devash 2:17) explains that one of the mains themes of the megilla is the hester panim (‘hiding’ the face) of Hashem. For this reason, explain many, is Hashem’s name not mentioned in the megilla. 

    Indeed, chazal famously teach (Chullin 139a), “Where do we find an allusion to Esther in the Torah? From (Devarim 31:18) ‘hester aster panai’ (I shall surely hide My face)”.

    Being that this is the main feature of the events of Purim, the megilla is titled ‘Esther’ to allude to this, and, for this reason we use the name Esther and not Hadassa.

    Many other explanations are offered as to why this megilla is given this particular name.

    However, the one that struck me the most is brought in the sefer Tenufah Chaim and others. They explain, as did Rav Eibishitz, that ‘Esther’ alludes to the hidden nature of the Riboneh Shel Olam.

    But this only explains the second word in its title. Megillas esther would then simply mean, “The Story (megilla) of (Hashem’s) Hiddenness”.

    However, the word megilla itself holds dual meanings.

    The root of this word is ‘giluy’, to reveal.

    In other words, megillas esther means “The revelation of the hidden”! This is both a perfect description of the events of Purim, and also a teffila to have once again such a giluy, as the navi teaches, a day when ‘umuchah Hashem Elokim es dimah ma’al kol panim’ (yeshayahu 25:8).

    This may also serve to explain why the yom tov of Purim will be the one yom tov still to be observed in the days of moshiach. For like our days in Persia, we will once again have a ‘megillas esther’, a revelation of the hidden.

    May it come soon!