Jewish Action Fall 2022 by Jewish Action

In Search of Talent: The Future of CommunalJewishWork Fall 5783/2022 Vol. 83, No. 1

HONORING: TOURO UNIVERSITY TOURO UNIVERSITY JOIN US SUNDAY,TOURODECEMBER4,2022AT4:00 PM NEW YORK MARRIOTT MARQUIS NEW YORK CITY 50 years of impact and innovation Dr. Alan Kadish TouroPresident,University Dr. Robert Goldschmidt Executive Dean, Touro’s Lander College of Arts & Sciences and Vice President for Planning and Assessment Dovid Lichtenstein Founder and CEO, The Lightstone Group and Member of the Board of Trustees, Touro University The ShelleyHonorableBerkley Senior Vice President of External Affairs and former CEO and Senior Provost, Touro University, Western Division For more information contact Jennie Goldress at Jennifer.Goldress@touro.edu 50.touro.edu/gala HONORARY DOCTORATE Dr. Albert Bourla Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Pfizer

DEPARTMENTS 02

INSIDE Table of Contents Jewish Action Fall

1Fall 5783/2022 JEWISH ACTION

This magazine contains divrei Torah, and should therefore be disposed of respectfully by either double-wrapping prior to disposal or placing in a recycling bin.

JUST BETWEEN US The State of Jewish Outreach By Rabbi Doron Kornbluth Jewish Outreach on Social Media: A Newish Frontier By Rachel Schwartzberg

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COVER STORY In Search of Talent: The Future of Jewish Communal Work A roundtable discussion between moderator Jeff Cohen and Tal Attia, Rabbi Avraham Edelstein, Josh Gottesman, Rabbi Dr. Josh Joseph, Rabbi Menachem Penner, Shira Werblowsky and Rabbi Mark Wildes In Their Own Words: Why I Work for the Klal OU: Investing in its People By Rachel Schwartzberg

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INSIDE THE OU By Sara Goldberg INSIDE PHILANTHROPY Making a Difference—One Dollar at a Time By Sandy Eller When Giving Is a Family Affair By JA Staff BOOKS What Do You Really Want? Trust and Fear in Decision Making at Life’s Crossroads and in Everyday Living By Shayna Goldberg Reviewed by Judy Gruen 99 Song of Riddles: Deciphering the Song of Songs By Geula Twersky Reviewed by Daniel Renna Reviews in Brief By Rabbi Gil Student LASTING IMPRESSIONS A Different Kind of Simchas Torah By Nechama Carmel

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PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE Are We Aspiring for a More Religious Tomorrow? By Mark (Moishe) Bane FROM THE DESK OF RABBI MOSHE HAUER Orthodox Governmental Advocacy, Circa 5783 FOCUS Rewards of Engaging in Chesed By Avromie Adler CHEF’S TABLE Holiday Cooking Marathon By Naomi Ross LEGAL-EASE What’s the Truth about . . . Walking Four Amot in the Land of Israel? By Rabbi Dr. Ari Z. Zivotofsky FROM THE DESK OF RABBI DR. JOSH JOSEPH Thank . . . Me? The Underrated Value of Feeling Appreciated

Jewish Action seeks to provide a forum for a diversity of legitimate opinions within the spectrum of Orthodox Judaism. Therefore, opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the policy or opinion of the Orthodox Union.

JUST BETWEEN US Dignity in an Oversharing World By Rifka Wein Harris LETTERS

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JEWISH WORLD Rav Soloveitchik and the Lubavitcher Rebbe: An Unlikely Friendship By Rabbi Menacham Genack

Jewish Action is published by the Orthodox Union • 40 Rector Street, 4th Floor, New York, NY 10006, 212.563.4000. Printed Quarterly—Winter, Spring, Sum mer, Fall, plus Special Passover issue. ISSN No. 0447-7049. Subscription: $16.00 per year; Canada, $20.00; Overseas, $60.00. Periodical's postage paid at New York, NY, and additional offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Jewish Action, 40 Rector Street, New York, NY 10006. 2022/5783 Vol. 83, No. 1

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Cover: Andréia Brunstein-Schwartz TRIBUTE Reb Chaim: Remembering the Prince of Torah By Rabbi Yosef Gavriel Bechhofer Chaim shel Torah By Rabbi Aaron Lopiansky Rav Chaim’s Legacy By Rabbi Moshe Hauer

Chief Human Resources Officer Rabbi Lenny Bessler

In Rabbi Simon Taylor’s article “Is Moving Out of Town the Answer?” (summer 2022), he makes a correlation between both parents working outside of the home and parents being less involved in the household, thereby causing a host of problems. However, having two working parents does not necessarily mean the parents are less involved. My wife and I have worked for the past twenty-three-years while raising our four children, and we have remained fully involved in their education and upbringing. What is also worth noting is the immense respect that my children have for my wife, a respect that I share. My wife and I are true partners in the development of our family, and we are proud that we have been able to provide our children with a full Orthodox life. Eliot Hoff New York, New York I’d like to point out that young people preferring to live “in town”—either right after marriage or after a few years in a smaller Jewish community in kollel, kiruv or professional training—is likely due to the social support they receive by living in proximity to parents, in-laws or both.

Elliot (Elly) Lasson, Ph.D. Organizational psychologist Baltimore, Maryland REFUTING GET MISCONCEPTIONS

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Chief Institutional Advancement Officer Arnold Gerson Senior Managing Director Rabbi Steven Weil Executive Vice President, Emeritus Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb

President Mark (Moishe) Bane Chairman of the Board Mitchel Aeder Vice Chairman of the Board Yehuda Neuberger Chairman, Board of Governors Avi Katz Vice Chairman, Board of Governors Emanuel Adler

Chief of Staff Yoni Cohen Interim Chief Information Officer Miriam Greenman Managing Director, Public Affairs Maury Litwack

2 JEWISH ACTION Fall 5783/2022 LETTERS

As with anything in life, there are good things and not-so-goodthings associated with this trend. On the plus side, there is the opportunity for grandchildren to develop close relationships with grandparents. Parents and grandparents can share responsibilities like shopping, carpools and child care while young couples are working. This also comes at a financial savings that might, on a superficial level at least, mitigate the higher costs of living. However, often especially with young women and men marrying earlier, living close to parents might reflect a codependent relationship. The parents are aware that their kids were not prepared for married life and continue to shelter them, sometimes until middle age. This could have adverse effects on the children’s psychosocial development and financial and decision-making independence. The trend often suppresses children from being able to mature into community leaders because they are always appendages of their parents. Most significantly, this trend might also result in shalom bayis challenges when normative boundaries are not established or respected. So moving to a smaller community helps the married children mature organically. It might also afford them the opportunity to assume communal leadership roles, which have likely already been saturated or handed down b’yerushah in the bigger communities and are largely unavailable.

“Shlomo” states that “giving [the get] so soon enabled [his] ex-wife to drag her feet” in the civil divorce. While I am glad Shlomo stands by his decision to issue the get, this statement reinforces a common misconception about get refusal—that cooperating with the get disadvantages the civil divorce process.

Chief Financial Officer/Chief Administrative Officer Shlomo Schwartz General Counsel Rachel Sims, Esq.

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Thank you for raising the important topic of divorce in our community. I want to address something “Shlomo” shared in his piece in “The Single-Parent Family” (summer 2022).

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AnonymousWHEREJEWISH

On the contrary, in our work at ORA, we find that when the get is manipulated or withheld, the resulting fear and anxiety inflame the cycle of animosity in divorce, leading to more conflicts, delays and challenges. The choice to withhold a get generates a divorce that lasts longer, costs more and is deeply corrosive to the co-parenting relationship. More fundamentally, the concept that someone “should have” withheld the get but magnanimously chose not to belies the reality that get refusal is a form of domestic abuse. A get should never be used as a tool of leverage or control, regardless of its impact on the rest of the divorce process.

The Orthodox world experiences an unusual volume of high-conflict divorces, of which get refusal is a powerful contributor. We need to encourage healthy divorce practices and help set couples up for positive post-divorce futures.

While none of us planned to end up divorced, the part that was missed is that many of us have come to this stage from a place of strength and determination. We took a broken situation and decided to do something about it.

Nonetheless, as I read the articles I realized that they tell only part of the story. The articles describe the ills, challenges and struggles of divorce; they don’t tell of how divorce can be beneficial and can present people with hope. Divorce can impel one to uncover latent talents he was not previously aware of. Divorce can be a source of growth, personal improvement and even happiness. The articles in the issue presented a picture that is too dreary, dark and bleak.

SOLDIERS ARE BURIED Robert Trinz (“Letters,” summer 2022) proposes that the reason Jews are underrepresented in America’s foreign military cemeteries is because the American Jewish families of many GIs accepted the US military’s post World War II offer to repatriate their remains for reburial in the United States in greater proportion than other groups. We at Operation Benjamin gave serious consideration to that theory from the very beginning of our work. But after thousands of hours of research, we concluded that there is no data to support it—and there is a mountain of anecdotal evidence to refute it.

Keshet Starr CEO, Organization for the Resolution of Agunot (ORA) ONLY TELLING PART OF THE STORY

We have examined hundreds of the forms used to decide whether a deceased soldier would be repatriated to the US or buried in one of the US military cemeteries overseas. We have read thousands of pages of agonizing correspondence from children, siblings, mothers and fathers to the military about the disposition of the remains of their loved ones. We found no indication that Jews repatriated their sons to the US in numbers different than any other religious or ethnic group. On average, in both World War I and World War II (the only wars in which this option existed), 60 percent were repatriated, and 40 percent remained buried in Europe and Asia.

4 JEWISH ACTION Fall 5783/2022

While we appreciate the magazine’s decision to bring attention to and awareness of some of the struggles we face, there was an overall tone felt by all of us who read it—that we are a sad, broken population that should be pitied and that we need to be taken care of.

I expected the bitterness and difficulties the articles set forth, but baruch Hashem, they did not materialize. I have kept myself busy and learned new skills. I am barely lonely. Prior to my divorce, I cooked little; I certainly never made an entire Shabbos by myself. Now I do. I occasionally have guests over and although it is not a “normal” family, it is still a normal Shabbos meal with divrei Torah and zemiros Divorce, although I wish it on no one, has taught me valuable lessons about myself. I have learned that I can be happy despite, or because of, challenges I face in life, and, with the help of Hashem, have overcome. I have learned to appreciate my children even more on the weeks I have them and how to productively use my time during the weeks when I don’t. There still are moments of pain, anger and loneliness, times when I sit with sadness, thinking about the shattering of my dreams. But on the whole, I am not a pity case. Baruch Hashem, things for me—and, I suspect, for a fair number of divorcees—have not been so bleak. I believe there are many men (and women and families) who have gone through divorce and emerge from the process stronger and happier.

Anonymous As a relatively recently divorced man, I read the articles on divorce with great interest. I was moved by the wonderful chesed organizations that financially and emotionally support divorced women and men and help them navigate their challenges. Without question, many divorced people can and do benefit from the support offered by Sister to Sister and Ish Chayil.

Getting divorced is not the easy way out. We fought for our well-being and for the well-being of our children, took the harder road and made extremely difficult decisions, and we should be viewed as downright heroic.

As a single parent in a frum community, I discussed the articles on divorce in your most recent issue with some other divorced men and women and wanted to share our feedback.

There are so many frum divorced men and women who have created beautiful, healthy, stable and joy-filled homes for their children. While it’s impossible to write an article that fully captures each person’s struggles and perspective, the message could have been more encouraging and empowering, illustrating that despite all the struggles that come with divorce, there are amazing parents out there who are doing an incredible job. And for those still struggling—keep at it, stay strong and never lose hope.

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I would have joined the writer in condemning the behavior of this man if there were a clear halachic violation. However, the son’s intent in asking his father to distribute gifts wasn’t revenge or blackmail. He was seeking reassurance that his father had done genuine teshuvah and changed his values, and that the abuse would end. The son was within his rights, as the Shulchan Aruch (240:10) rules that a child is not required to personally engage with an abusive parent. Furthermore, the halachah is that one is entirely exempt from the mitzvah of honoring an abusive parent if doing so makes a person physically or even just emotionally ill. In a presentation to the Young Israel Council of Rabbis in February 2000, HaRav Dovid Cohen, rav of Congregation Gvul Ya’avetz in Brooklyn and of Nefesh: The International Network of Mental Health Professionals, explained that if one is not required to spend more than a fifth of his assets on a positive commandment, then he is certainly not obligated to make himself sick.1

The story of Dama ben Netina certainly sets the standard we aspire to, but it must be applied accurately. Dama ben Netina’s mother attacked him without warning, and he is praised, after the fact, for not shaming her. This is how the story appears in the Gemara (Kiddushin 31a), Tur (Yoreh De’ah 240) and Shulchan Aruch (ibid., se’if 3). This story says nothing about whether a child must lechatchila subject himself to parental abuse.

Our sages tell us (Devarim Rabbah 6:2) that honoring our parents is the most serious of all the positive commandments. I regret if my essay gave anyone the impression that kibbud av v’em is a debatable proposition. My error may have been not adequately clarifying the details of the case:

Tosafos (ibid, s.v. u’vata emo vekarato) go a step further, suggesting that Dama ben Netina’s mother was obviously

We remain convinced that the underrepresentation of Jews will be mostly explained by incorrect burials under Latin crosses. And we will continue to work to repair these errors and honor these boys for who they were in life.

The Gemara tells us: “Dama ben Netina was once wearing a fine cloak of gold and sitting among the nobles of Rome when his mother came, tore his garment from him, struck him on the head, and spat in his face—but he did not embarrass her.” It is to this kind of behavior that we should all aspire.

Shalom Lamm CEO, Operation Benjamin Rabbi Jacob J. Schacter President, Operation Benjamin HONORING AN ABUSIVE FATHER

I understand the point Rabbi Kelemen was trying to make—that starving a child of love can be painful—but the father’s mistake in no way justifies such cruelty from his son. I fear, though, that the absence of any critique by Rabbi Kelemen of such a gross violation of both “kabbed et avicha v’et imecha—honor your father and mother” and “lo tikom v’lo titor—do not take revenge and do not bear a grudge” will be misinterpreted by readers as implicit approval of the son’s behavior.

Said one Max Shore: “I want my son to rest in peace. Bringing him back to the States will only open up my wound deeper. I know he gave his young life to preserve our democracy and that we shall have a peaceful world. I have enough faith in our government that they will take proper care of my son’s grave. My only wish is that I will save up enough money to go to Manila and see the grave of my son.”

I was surprised by a story in “Rabbi Leib Kelemen on Rabbi Shlomo Wolbe: Advice from a Master Educator” (spring 2022). Rabbi Kelemen describes a son who tried blackmailing his elderly father by refusing to forgive his father for not showering him with love during his youth unless his father parted with his “true love”: his substantial wealth of millions of dollars.

I described a middle-aged gentleman who suffered psychologically and even experienced physical disease throughout his life as a result of parental abuse. It would be a misrepresentation to characterize his father’s error as just “not showering him with love.” His father devoted his life to the pursuit of wealth, entirely ignoring his children from birth. Nevertheless, the middle-aged son still yearned for his father’s love. After decades of psychological agony and stress-related disease, the son learned to keep his physical symptoms at bay by distancing himself from his father. But when his father reached his mid-eighties, he apologized to his son and asked him to re-engage in the relationship. The son agreed to forgive and spend time with his father again on condition that his father would give enormous financial gifts to all his children. The son was independently wealthy and had no interest in his father’s money. However, he explained that he did not feel psychologically safe reengaging until his father demonstrated that he had given up his fixation on wealth in favor of his children.

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From Rudolph Lobel: “It is the desire of his mother and mine that he may rest at the US military cemetery at Margraten where he fought and died with his buddies.” Or how about Alma Fontaine for her son Jerry: “Please bury my son beside Lt. [William] Warren, who was his best friend. They were loyal to each other to the last, and it would be a comfort to know that they lie side by side.” It’s heart-wrenching to read the instructions given to the army by Armin Klein for his twenty-one-year-old son David, an infantryman killed in France in August 1944. He carefully wrote out the Hebrew inscription of the dates of birth and death, and the name of his son, David ben Yitzchok Mordechai. David’s mother was distraught, the descendants tell us, and even though they were Orthodox, they decided to have his remains interred in St. James, France alongside his comrades in arms. His mother could not withstand the strain of a funeral in the United States, and the family feared for her survival.

AnonymousRABBIKELEMEN RESPONDS

This past year, Jewish Action won four Simon Rockower Awards for Excellence in Jewish Journalism for work that appeared in 2021. “Jewish Action has once again distinguished itself as one of the most highly regarded publications serving the Jewish community, winning a total of four prestigious Rockower Awards for 2021,” said Dr. Rosalyn Sherman, chair of Jewish Action. “Con sistently tackling relevant issues impacting the Orthodox Jewish community, its first-rate editorial and writing staff continues its tradition of exception al Thejournalism.”magazine secured first place in the Excel lence in Business Reporting Trends category for Rachel Schwartzberg’s “The Economic Toll of the Pandemic,” a multi-faceted article exploring the economic effects of Covid on Jewish communities across the Longtime US.

Rabbi Howard Finkelstein

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU!

Jewish Action writer and Editorial Board Member David Olivestone won second place in the David Frank Award for Excellence in Personality Profiles with his article “An ‘Author’ in History: Rabbi Berel Wein’s Extraordinary Contributions to Jewish Life and Learning,” which profiled Rabbi Wein. The magazine also won honorable mentions in two categories: in Excellence in Feature Writing for Dr. Rafael Medoff’s “Finally, A Star of David for Jewish Heroes” about the critical work of Operation Benjamin to place Jewish Stars on the graves of Jewish WWII vets overseas; and in Excellence in Writing about Jewish Summer Camps for Steve Lipman’s “A Summer of Change,” which illustrated the important role sum mer camps play in Jewish education. The prestigious Simon Rockower Awards, re ferred to as the “Jewish Pulitzers,” are sponsored by the AJPA, which holds a journalism competition for leading Jewish magazines and newspapers across the country. The entries are judged by a panel of judges with expertise in journalism, writing/report ing, editing, graphic design and cartooning in both Jewish and non-Jewish media.

As a retired pulpit rabbi and educator, I found the article regarding the teacher shortage in day schools in the recent summer issue (“The Great Teacher Shortage,” by Rachel Schwartzberg) informative. However, no attention was paid to a resource that can be utilized to provide a solution to the issue at hand. Retired teachers may be willing to share their expertise with schools lacking adequate teaching personnel by volunteering or by being paid to teach. Unfortunately, we live in an age of ageism, where many think that only young teachers can relate to their students. Successful teachers are not relegated to a certain age group, and productive retired instructors need not be proficient in the latest educational gimmicks and techniques in order to be effective. The love of Torah study and the observance of the mitzvot, the goals of religious Jewish education, are cultivated more by the personality of the instructor and his or her dugma ishit, than by some arbitrary educational method.

A NOVEL SOLUTION TO THE TEACHER SHORTAGE

Editor’s Note: Jewish Action received quite a few letters regarding our article on the teacher shortage. We hope to publish more of them in the winter issue.

7Fall 5783/2022 JEWISH ACTION deranged. The implication is that he therefore suffered minimal embarrassment. Had she appeared sane, he would have suffered more and our sages would have sanctioned giving her even such a vociferous rebuke that it may have shamed her. Rav Shlomo Luria (Yam shel Shlomo, ibid.) explicitly rules this way. I apologize for not clarifying these details originally, and I encourage all those who have suffered parental abuse of any sort to discuss their situation with a posek who is an expert in these matters. Note 1. The transcript of Rav Cohen’s presentation is published in Dr. Benzion Sorotzkin’s essay, “Honoring Parents Who Are Abusive,” published online at drsorotzkin.com.

Rabbi emeritus, Congregation Beit Tikvah, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada Emeritus head of Jewish studies, Ottawa Jewish Community School

Jewish Action Wins Four Rockower Awards

To send a letter to Jewish Action, e-mail ja@ou.org. Letters may be edited for clarity.

Now is the time to honor your past and invest in your future.

DEEPLY ROOTED VALUES THAT FORWARDHISTORYMOVE

Over the next five years we set an unprecedented goal of raising $613 million—the largest campaign for Jewish education in history—for scholarships, facilities and faculty that will further expand YU as the Flagship Jewish University for generations to come.

10 JEWISH ACTION Fall 5783/2022 ARE WE ASPIRING for a MORE RELIGIOUS TOMORROW?

As with individuals, every community experiences swings in its religious growth. There are spurts, declines and brief periods of maintenance. American Orthodoxy has experienced each. But while American Jewry has suffered disastrous rates of assimilation and nonOrthodox denominations have faltered, Orthodoxy’s overall religious trajectory, when viewed collectively, has been extraordinarily positive.

By Mark (Moishe) Bane

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

American Orthodoxy’s religious progress is particularly impressive when we consider the community’s origins and the myriad obstacles it has faced. Often the challenges have been circumstantial, such as economics, dislocation and religious illiteracy. Certain obstacles to observance were imposed by non-Jews, such as blue laws and job, housing and academic admissions discrimination. And certain obstacles to faith were imposed by non-Orthodox Jewish movements seeking to redefine Judaism by denying and distorting Torah, halachah and mesorah. But perhaps the opposite is true. Perhaps American Orthodoxy’s spiritual success is not despite adversity but because of it. Perhaps a community’s religious growth emerges from the energy and passion expended by engaging in battle with formidable opposition. Perhaps the struggle is what definesTanachus.is replete with episodes of major segments of Jewry abandoning Torah. Such catastrophes have been repeated throughout history as Torah Judaism has suffered losses through endless internal and external religious confrontations. Examples include Jewish Hellenism, the Spanish Expulsion, the Enlightenment followed by the crumbling of the ghetto walls, the Iron Curtain and the still bubbling American meltingSimultaneously,pot. however, the valiant resistance of many observant Jews to these and myriad other challenges to our religious commitment may have been essential to the endurance of our faith and commitment through the millennia. We have been a people in constant turmoil, and we lament the struggles as destructive and exhausting. But perhaps we owe our survival to these religious battles.TheAmerican Orthodox experience may be yet another such example. Our community has evolved over the past century by responding to grim challenges with passion, grit and creativity. This journey has cost innumerable individual Jews their religious commitment, but our community, as a collective entity, has been invigorated by the confrontations. The struggles have imbued us with a mission and sense of identity. But what about contemporary American Orthodoxy? We are the beneficiaries of past battles. Do we still view ourselves as struggling—whether religiously, socially, or economically? We each certainly have our personal religious challenges and many individuals continue to abandon observance. But on a communal level, the overall ease of halachic observance has increased significantly. This is facilitated by the availability of high-quality Jewish education and opportunities for childhood socialization as well as by easy access to kosher food and other religious goods and services, particularly in neighborhoods that are even moderately populated by OrthodoxSimilarly,Jews.identifying socially as an Orthodox Jew is far less challenging than it was fifty or sixty years ago. In fact, most of us find it very appealing to be a member of the community. Several years ago, the judge in a case I was handling in a far-off city announced that he intended to conclude the trial that week, even if it continued through Friday. My colleagues asked me what I would do for the Sabbath. I responded that I would find someone to host me. They were astounded when I told them I had no friends or acquaintances in that town, but that as an Orthodox Jew I could more often than not find the welcoming Shabbos hospitality of strangers wherever there are other Orthodox Jews. Economics continues to be a struggle for many Orthodox Jews, but far less than generations ago. Today’s financial challenges are more often related to tuition and mortgage payments, while for earlier generations, they were frequently the utility and grocery bills. Moreover, we enjoy a communal economic ecosystem that extends support to community members in severe financial distress, and a support system of friends and acquaintainces who assist with job placement and investment opportunities. So does American Orthodoxy now enter a golden age of religious nirvana? Can we be confident in the religious commitment of our progeny, concerned only that they maintain the status quo, perpetuating the levels of observance Mark (Moishe) Bane is president of the OU and a senior part ner and chairman of the Business Restructuring Department at the international law firm, Ropes & Gray LLP.

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Nestled among the beauty of the Pocono Mountains, a 2-hour drive from NYC and a 3-hour drive from Baltimore, is the Jewish community of Wilkes-Barre. Jewish day schools and yeshivot Affordable housing and low property taxes Kosher market and restaurants Eruv and mikvah and Torah scholarship that we have achieved? Need we engage in an ongoing struggle for continued religious growth, or can we finally relax? For an Orthodox community, maintaining a religious status quo is neither feasible nor appealing. Nothing ever remains static, and religious commitment either ascends or falters. In addition, the ever-changing social and technological environment continually introduces new challenges to religious life, compelling the continual reassessment and reinvention of strategies and approaches necessary to sustain Torah Judaism. Perhaps most significant, however, is that it is the struggle and not peaceful nirvana that is the core of a Torah-rich life. Our primary religious aspiration is to develop a relationship with the Almighty, but this objective introduces an endless and elusive struggle because His essence transcends our comprehension and our reality. Why then the effort? Because, however arduous, it is the very journey in seeking this connection to G-d that is the holiest of religious experiences.

Religious Status Quo Is Illusory American Orthodoxy has thrived on each generation’s hope that the next generation would attain higher degrees of Torah scholarship and religious piety. A different attitude is emerging, however, among many contemporary Orthodox parents. They no longer aspire for their children to surpass themselves religiously, but rather to be neither less nor more religious than they are. These trends are evidenced in certain circles by the overwhelming majority of students enrolling in secular universities even after spending a gap year in Israel. In other circles it is noticeable by the decline in students planning careers in chinuch and klal work. Even if we put aside the question of whether the parents’ religious achievements are worthy of emulation, the question that must be posed is the following: is perpetuating a religious status quo even an option?

Nothing in the human and physical world is static, and a community’s religiosity is the same. Every business proprietor knows that however impressive last year’s results are, the enterprise must pursue increased sales and profits or it will undoubtedly decline.Bynature, however, we perceive current realities as being likely to continue. Only the wise recognize that this is never the case, even in the most entrenched circumstances. Currencies of success, such as prestige and affluence, ebb and flow. Celebrated businesses, leading communal institutions and even sports franchises may bask in glorious triumph for years but rarely escape eventual decline. Dominant cultures and political philosophies escalate and fade. Even the mightiest of kingdoms and empires have crumbled and lowly nations ascended to dominance. Long ago, a pious and wise client of mine was suffering a dramatic turn of fortune. On a particularly grim day, the gentleman shared with me a thought he

JEwish wilkEs-BarrE, pa Be our guest for a special Shabbat! www.ohavzedek.org jewishwilkesbarre@yahoo.com (570) 825-6619

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An Ever-Changing World Compels an Ongoing Religious Struggle

In any event, we must recognize that the mission of Jewry is an unending struggle to grow religiously, in piety, in scholarship and in faith. Above all else, avoiding the struggle would be a rejection of our mission.

The great Torah thinker and writer Rav Shimshon Pincus, zt”l (1944–2001), emphasized this struggle in the introduction to his iconic sefer, Shearim B’Tefillah (Gates of Prayer, available in English translation). Rav Pincus noted that his sefer is modeled on the study of prayer found in the sefer Sha’ar HaTefillah, written almost two hundred years earlier by the great Chassidic kabbalist Rav Chaim Tirar of Chernovitz, zt”l (1760–1816). Rav Pincus explained that it was necessary to convey the already written thoughts anew and in a different manner since only contemporary leaders and scholars can truly understand how to transmit the Torah experience and values in a manner and with language that will be understood and absorbed in the current time period. For this reason, explained Rav Pincus, students of every generation must be given access to the eternal truth of Torah through a tailored prism identifiable only by the Torah scholars of theAtime.similar thought is conveyed by the Kedushas Levi, the great Chassidic master Rav Levi Yitzchok of Berditchev, zt”l (1740–1809). He explores the term “teiku,” which is used throughout the Talmud when a scholarly debate is left unresolved. Teiku stands for the acronym of the Hebrew words “Tishbi (referencing Eliyahu HaNavi) yetareitz kushiyos v’abayos,” which means that upon the coming of Mashiach, Eliyahu HaNavi will resolve all such questions and problems. The Kedushas Levi notes that Mashiach’s arrival will usher in the era of techiyas hameisim, resurrection of the deceased, and thus Moshe Rabbeinu will be available to resolve all Talmudic conundrums. The reason that Eliyahu HaNavi, rather than Moshe Rabbeinu, will be appropriate to the task is because of the tradition that Eliyahu HaNavi lives on through every generation. He is thus familiar with the experiences, personality and character of the folks of every era. Moshe Rabbeinu, despite his unparalleled greatness, will not enjoy this familiarity and, unlike Eliyahu HaNavi, will therefore be unable to resolve a vexing question in the manner appropriate to those living in the then current time period. I happen to have had a front row seat in the classic business school case study regarding the impact of failing to objectively assess the consequences of change. In the 1990s I was a minor participant in a commercial effort to convince Eastman Kodak Corporation to expand its product line to include digital X-rays for dentists. Kodak, founded in 1892, scoffed at the overture, maintaining that its dental X-ray film business would undoubtedly continue its market supremacy and that newfangled technologies were folly and unnecessary.

12 JEWISH ACTION Fall 5783/2022 had heard from the Satmar Rebbe, Rabbi Yoel Teitelbaum, zt”l. The Satmar Rebbe had noted that in Megillas Koheles, King Solomon observed that there is a time for everything, including a time to weep and a time to laugh (Koheles 3:4). Asked the Satmar Rebbe: do we really need Shlomo HaMelech, the wisest of men, to teach us this lesson? Doesn’t even a simpleton know that sometimes we cry and sometimes we laugh? The Rebbe explained that while experiencing all-encompassing joy, we require wisdom to recognize that there will also come periods of sorrow. And while weeping bitterly, only an astute individual will have the discipline to reflect that the future will eventually include times of Whetherlaughter. as an individual or a community, religious engagement and piety will always be ascending or descending, never standing still. Any attitude regarding religious observance and engagement that is founded on the preservation of the present is inherently flawed. For an Orthodox Jew, an ongoing, uninterrupted battle for religious growth for ourselves and for our children is imperative.

Even if our community’s level of religiosity were worthy of perpetuation, and even if the concept of sustaining a religious status quo were a possibility, the ever-changing experiences and influences affecting us and our children compel a constant struggle to accommodate and adjust to these new realities.

Kodak’s decades of indisputable industry dominance lulled it into ignoring the impending demise of analog photography. Less than twenty years later, my legal practice included representing clients in Kodak’s chapter 11 bankruptcy case.For the Orthodox Jew, the struggle of applying the Torah to contemporary norms and experiences is particularly formidable in light of our recognition that Torah is eternal, and its values and halachic guidelines immutable. Encouraging adherence to Torah without introducing new approaches compelled by contemporary life is untenable, but altering Torah values or halachah to accommodate contemporary sensitivities is indefensible. This struggle will always preclude the option of religious complacency. Perpetuating a religious status quo in a volatile world is itself a struggle. The Struggle’s the Thing As noted earlier, though not true for every family, as a collective community our Orthodox life in America is appealing and comfortable. Hashem has favored us with material blessings and religious freedoms. We take pride in our generation’s Torah study, our adherence to halachah and our success in navigating America’s commercial and professional byways with minimal, if any, religious compromises. We are mindful of the toil and sacrifices of our parents and grandparents to create our current religious circumstance, and we have every intention of realizing what we interpret to have been their hopes and dreams to provide us with an easier life. But perhaps the intent of prior generations was otherwise. Rather than hoping to provide us with an easier life, maybe our forebears aspired to afford us the platform from which to strive for yet greater religious heights. This is similar to a family sacrificing comfort in order to accumulate assets upon which their children can build a financial empire, not a life of financial complacency.

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14 JEWISH ACTION Fall 5783/2022

GOVERNMENTAL ADVOCACY, CIRCA 5783 FROM

The example of Yosef is particularly instructive in that it includes elements beyond the simply self-serving. First, Yosef rose to prominence based on the vital benefits he brought to the Egyp tians. Furthermore, his engagement went beyond the material and trans actional, as according to our Sages he used his position of influence to compel the Egyptians to undergo circumcision.2 Apparently, Yosef was not satisfied with managing Egyptian resources to support the Jewish community, but rather sought to influence Egyptian society and address its characteristic immorality.3 This desire may have been an expression of the Jewish mandate to bring G-d’s light to the world around us, letakein olam b’malchut Shakkai, or it may have been simply in our own interest to improve the moral climate of our host country. In any case, the Yosef paradigm reminds us that our efforts within society must not be limited to what we can extract from that society but must consider what we can contrib ute to it, both materially and spiritually.

From Yosef’s work in the Egyptian royal court through the efforts of the modern-day shtadlanim,1 public advocacy has been a constant feature of Diaspora life. Today, much of this work is being done under the aegis of Jewish organizations, including the significant efforts invested by the OU Advocacy Center—our federal advo cacy program—and the OU’s Teach Advocacy Network, active in many state capitols. Given the charged political and social climate and the significant changes being implemented in both the legislatures and the courts, it is worth considering and defining our current mission in the work of advocacy.

G-d had indeed allowed their societies to thrive to create the ideal host con ditions for a successful Jewish exile. As people of faith who see the success of the Jewish mission as core to the world achieving its purpose, we should have no hesitations about inviting America’s investment in our success.

Rabbi Moshe Hauer is executive vice president of the Orthodox Union.

While we need not be shy about advocating for our community’s needs, we must also be on guard against the limited vision imposed by our own “ulterior motives.” We will be most suc cessful if we do not limit our advocacy to the transactional. We need to think not only of the critically important ROI (Return on Investment) that can be measured in security and education dollars but also in terms of SROI (Social Return on Investment), the extent to which we improve our society for all its inhabitants. Focusing on our rights as well as on our responsibilities allows us to move beyond the parochial while uplifting the advocacy for our own needs too.

Specific Examples: Consider the application of this princi ple to our current core areas of shtad lanut: • The Orthodox community invests significantly in advocating for increased government support for non-public ed ucation. We can make the case for such funding with simple arithmetic, arguing that our private schools are saving the public school system X dollars per child. But there is so much more. We must share the success story of private Jewish education and its contribution to the broader society, demonstrating how our school system is producing a cadre of responsible citizens who are uplifting the surrounding community. And when we advocate for our institutions, we

ORTHODOX THE DESK OF RABBI MOSHE HAUER

The Talmud5 records how at the End of Time, the Persians and the Romans will demand a reward for the Jewish people’s spiritual development while part of their empires, claiming that all the infrastructure they had built was to support the Jews’ engagement with To rah. And while their claim for a reward will be rejected due to their ulterior motives, the Rav of Brisk6 explained that their assertion is factually correct.

This is implicit in the Talmudic tradi tion that it was on Rosh Hashanah that Yosef was freed from prison to assume his position as Egyptian viceroy.4 Rosh Hashanah is the one Jewish holiday that does not commemorate a specifically Jewish event, but rather marks the an niversary of the world’s creation, a uni versal experience. The unique prayers on Rosh Hashanah, pleading for a time when all will join in recognition of G-d and in commitment to His values, are focused on the spiritual well-being of all of mankind. We stand on Rosh Hasha nah as G-d’s Chosen People committed to seeing our recognition of G-d shared by the entire world, in line with His intention in Creation. Yosef was the personification of this goal, as his lead ership in Egypt was driven by his faith, his Divinely inspired wisdom, and his moralUndoubtedly,leadership.we must primarily advocate for our own needs, ensuring that our community has the freedom, security and resources to flourish. As Americans, we must not forgo or con cede our equal rights, and as Jews we should confidently encourage our host country to help our community thrive.

A N D I ' M N O T A F R A I D T O P U T I T I N W R I T I N G . S I G N A H A L A C H I C P R E N U P I T ' S A S I G N O F A H E O N S H I P ד"סב

Notes 1. Shtadlanim is a term for well-connected Jewish figures tasked with influencing public policy on behalf of the larger Jew ish community. See the cover story of the winter 2021 issue of Jewish Action. 2. See Rashi to Bereishit 41:55. 3. The Egyptians were characterized as shtufei zimah, saturated in immorality; see Rashi to Bereishit 12:19. 4. Rosh Hashanah 10b. 5. Avodah Zarah 2b. 6. Chiddushei Maran Riz Halevi al HaTorah, Bereishit 1. 7. Avot 3:2. 8. Yeshayahu 59:15. 9. Sanhedrin 97a. 10. Shabbat 40a. 11. Pesachim 13a. 12. Shabbat 40a.

Focusing on our rights as well as on our responsibilities allows us to move beyond the parochial while uplifting the advocacy for our own needs too.

The prophet Yeshayahu8 describes a time toward the End of Days when ha’emet ne’ederet, simply translated as “truth is absent.” The Talmud9 suggests a more elaborate meaning, connecting it to the Hebrew word eder (flock), and translates instead that truth “will cluster together as flocks and disappear.” Some have suggested that the meaning behind this is that the Talmudic “flocks” refer to factionalism, where loyalty to the party and opposition to the competing group define and direct policy at the expense of truth.

Rashi11 and the Tosafot12 note that this rule is only true when the third opinion explicitly accepts both sides of the argument, while limiting their applica tion. Clearly it is the one who is ready to acknowledge the merits of both sides of the argument who is most likely to find the truth. The current governmental climate within which we do our work of advocacy is infected by extreme partisanship, an inability to take the other side seriously. As the Orthodox Jewish community, we need to tran scend self-interest and steer clear of polarization. We must strive to repre sent a balanced and nuanced view that acknowledges and addresses the complexity of the issues. We must do so not only because we are in a country where the balance of power shifts every two to four years, making it a strategic imperative to maintain relations on both sides of the aisle but also because a thoughtful and balanced approach is the kind of mature voice that must characterize Klal Yisrael. We must help restore balance, integrity and goodness to the public discourse, bringing a passion for truth and peace that can help elevate and heal our country.

Final Thoughts: Staying above the Fray Pirkei Avot7 teaches us to pray for the well-being of our government, “for without the fear it inspires, people would swallow each other up alive.” Our current experience has demon strated that this is not hyperbole. In the literal sense, violence is epidemic in our society. Government has been ineffec tive at stopping the spiral of human destruction wrought by frequent mass shootings and daily gun violence. Solu tions are elusive because of government dysfunction that is both the cause and the result of a societal polarization that rejects considering both sides of an issue and that too often appears more driven by self-interest than by concern for the common good.

• We have always needed to be guardians of religious freedom, pro tecting our ability to practice our faith without being otherwise limited or co erced by government. At this juncture in American history, our right to wor ship and present ourselves in a uniquely Jewish manner is protected. What is more vulnerable—because of broad and aggressive shifts in society’s value sys tem—is our ability to live free of gov ernmental intrusion upon our religious values. And while we may consider ourselves moderately successful if we maintain the right to live in accordance with our belief system, it is incumbent upon us as standard-bearers of a strong and universal moral tradition to make the case for our most hallowed princi ples, helping society at large appreciate why these values should matter to them. As the world redefines morality, we must share a humble but firm con fidence in deracheha darchei noam, the true goodness and pleasantness of the path defined by the Torah.

• We have advocated successfully for both federal and state security dollars for nonprofits, especially for vulnerable sites within the faith community. These are critical, life-saving accomplish ments. But are these the limits of our advocacy on the issue of antisemitism? Will we satisfy ourselves with building more hospitals at the foot of the rickety bridge? Or should we also be bringing our advocacy to address the issue at its source, helping society move past the mass production of hatred, especially within universities?

The search for truth depends on the recognition and incorporation of the valuable elements of opposing per spectives. This is perfectly illustrated by the Talmudic rule “halachah k’divrei hamachria,” which teaches that when there are two opposing opinions and a third option is presented that bridges the two, we adopt that third opinion.10

16 JEWISH ACTION Fall 5783/2022 can simultaneously be on the forefront of advocacy to strengthen the public schools—not simply to neutralize the traditional opposition of the teachers’ unions, but because of a genuine desire to meet the critical need of improving the education and lives of the broader American public. For example, when we consider the bipartisan legislation initiated in the wake of the Uvalde school shooting that would include increased mental health support in schools, we must concern ourselves with effectively addressing this critical societal issue within the public school system while advocating for the inclu sion of non-public schools.

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In Pirkei Avos, perhaps the most quoted mishnah states, “The world stands upon three things: Torah, avodah [service or prayer] and acts of chesed.” The Gemara (Yevamos 79a) quotes Dovid Hamelech, who said, “There are three distinguishing characteristics of the Jewish people: rachmanim [merciful], bayshanim [shamefaced] and gomlei chasadim [doers of acts of kindness].”

Of course, we all promote chesed in our homes and in our schools, but is there more we could or should do?

My goal is not to challenge these reasons, but to propose that perhaps we as a community need to take a more nuancedVolunteersapproach.areacritical component of the work we do at Yachad, the OU’s program dedicated to enriching the lives of Jewish individuals with THE REWARDS OF ENGAGING IN CHESED IN FOCUS

18 JEWISH ACTION Fall 5783/2022

Avromie Adler is the international director of Yachad.

b. Boys have a halachic obligation of Torah learning, and this might constitute bittul Torah c. Societal/cultural norms and inherent differences between boys and girls predispose girls toward chesed

Though it is more common today for yeshivos to have chesed programs as well, it is certainly not universal. I believe there are three primary reasons they are not as ubiquitous in boys’ schools (this is not to suggest that chesed as a concept isn’t emphasized or encouraged in yeshivos): a. It is not one of the expectations of parents, and adding it would necessitate removing or reducing other offerings.

How do we as parents view chesed?

We are living in what is perhaps the most generous generation. Our schools, shuls and communal institutions, of which there seem to be more now than in any time period in our history, are being supported by continuous acts of tzedakah and chesed. A simple Google search of gemachs in a Jewish community such as Baltimore1 reveals 132 gemachs, from gowns to air conditioners to mezuzos and practically anything else you can think of. Our children see the impressive range of acts of chesed around them and are certainly positively impacted. But they are also impacted by the broader society in which we live. In recent years, there has been a noticeable increase in loneliness. According to a survey published in January 2020 (prior to the pandemic) by the health insurer Cigna,2 more than 60 percent of Americans report feeling lonely, an increase of 7 percent over a similar study done in 2018. The group with the highest percentage of loneliness was the Gen Z group (18-22 years old). There was also a greater increase in loneliness reported among males. Performing chesed can counteract loneliness. Whether you volunteer at a senior living facility, visit the ill or pack food boxes for Tomchei Shabbos, you are engaging with other people and are immersed in a cause greater than yourself, which helps alleviate loneliness. Our schools, by and large, do a fantastic job educating our children. The schools’ offerings often mirror the expectations of the parent body. Athletic programs, extracurricular activities, higher-end meals and state-of-theart facilities are all examples of such offerings, which vary among and within communities.Asagrossgeneralization, there seems to be greater emphasis placed on providing chesed opportunities for young women. Regardless of whether a girls’ school identifies as Modern Orthodox, Centrist Orthodox or Yeshivish, when a parent comes for an interview or orientation, one of the main components of the school’s pitch is the extensive nature of its chesed program. Parents generally receive a list of organizations with which the school partners for its chesed program. Often, there is even a full-time staff member whose role is to oversee the program. One of my daughters, who attends a local Bais Yaakov high school, fulfills her chesed requirements by volunteering on Motzaei Shabbos at a bas mitzvah club, and on Sunday mornings at a Sunday school program geared toward kiruv. The school offers a range of chesed opportunities including helping out at local food pantries and working with senior citizens, individuals with disabilities and children with chronic illness. While the particular program might differ from school to school (i.e., what constitutes chesed, whether chesed hours are mandated, et cetera), it is almost universal that chesed is an expectation and a central component of a frum woman’s education.

By Avromie Adler

While the particular program might differ from school to school, it is almost universal that chesed is an expectation and a central component of a frum woman’s education.

Notes 1. baltimorejewishlife.com/chesed/gemachs.php. 2. report.pdf.reports/combatting-loneliness/cigna-2020-loneliness-ncigna-com/docs/about-us/newsroom/studies-and-

19Fall 5783/2022 JEWISH ACTION disabilities and their families. At any given time, there are over 500 Yachad volunteers, ranging in age from thirteen to twenty-five, as well as a growing adult volunteer base. These volunteers participate in weekly social and recreational programming, as well as in Shabbatonim that take place during the year in Jewish communities throughout North America and Israel. Our younger volunteers act as peers to the younger Yachad members, thereby learning the Torah value of welcoming other Jews into the community. Our collegeaged volunteers (18+), called “advisors,” serve a dual role of counselor and friend. Yachad advisors assist in running social and recreational programs and Shabbatonim, help to model social skills, and provide tremendous ruach (spirit), all while developing close connections and friendships with each other and with our Yachad members. As the international director of Yachad, I have seen the impact chesed has had on our volunteers socially and emotionally, as well as religiously. A few years ago, Baruch (not his real name), who attended a Yeshivish high school in Brooklyn, came to one of our programs almost by chance. Baruch took to volunteering almost immediately; he was a natural. He spent his time playing board games and sports with the Yachad participants, and took on learning one-onone with a Yachad member. When Baruch first joined, he as a Yachad advisor, Baruch felt a deeper connection to Judaism through the acts of chesed he was performing, and his feelings of negativity began to dissipate. After graduating high school, he went to a yeshivah in Israel, where his connection to Torah learning strengthened. He is now on a clear path to being a true ben Torah. Being engaged with chesed can also help one develop in other ways. Morris (not his real name) attended a yeshivah day school on Long Island. A kindhearted and giving young man, Morris struggled socially and was uncomfortable interacting with his peers. Remarkably, at Yachad events, he was always engaged in conversation or in activities with Yachad members. A couple of months into his volunteering, Morris was assigned the responsibility to plan a program with other advisors. At first this was a daunting task for him, but his genuine caring for the participants propelled him to put his heart and soul into it. The program was a success, infusing him with a sense of confidence. Over time, Morris began to come out of his shell and found friends among his fellow advisors. Five years later, Morris is still actively involved with Yachad and with other chesed organizations. He leads programs, speaks publicly and is generally one of the more popular people in the room. There are numerous stories like this. We would do well to rethink the level of our sons’ engagement in chesed and begin formalizing opportunities in ways similar to what is offered to our daughters. The beauty of is that its performance is not solely for the benefit of the recipient. In fact, oftentimes, the doer of chesed benefits more than the recipient. Perhaps it is time to afford that benefit to our sons.

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By Rabbi Yosef Gavriel Bechhofer

Reb Chaim’s greatness in Torah is be yond comprehension. His daily quotas included the study of Tanach, Talmud Bavli, Talmud Yerushalmi, Tosefta, Mechilta, Toras Kohanim, Sifri, Midrash, Zohar, Rambam, Shulchan Aruch, Mish nah Berurah and more—and he would finish many of these works annually!3

22 JEWISH ACTION Fall 5783/2022 TRIBUTE

Many years ago, I had the privilege of sharing a seudah shelishis tête-à-tête with Rabbi Simcha Zissel Broide, zt”l, rosh yeshi vah of the renowned Chevron Yeshiva in Yerushalayim. In the course of our conversation, he said to me (to the best of my recollection and in rough trans lation), “Today, people give the most respect and honor to individuals like Rabbi X or Rabbi Y, about whom they can relate wonders (‘mofsim’). In our day, the person we respected the most was the Alter of Slabodka.1 You could not relate a single wonder the Alter had ever performed, but he was a ‘pikei’ach,’ the wisest person we had ever met.” Rav Simcha Zissel’s message was a classic Litvish perspective:2 We don’t hold rabbis in great esteem on account of the reputed wonders they may have performed—even if we don’t doubt the possibility that they performed such wonders. We hold rabbis in great esteem on account of their greatness in Torah and their righteousness. Thus, to appreciate the greatness of Rabbi Shmaryahu Yosef Chaim Kanievsky, zt”l, affectionately known simply as Reb Chaim, it behooves us not to focus on the wonders attributed to him, but rather on the extraordinary breadth and depth of his Torah knowl edge and wisdom, and on the impact his righteousness had on Am Yisrael.

Perhaps most important for our nation’s growth in talmud Torah, Reb Krohn/Flash90AharonPhoto:

Remembering the Prince of Torah Reb Chaim:

Indeed, it is remarkable that Reb Chaim had the patience to answer this question and hundreds, even thousands, like it. Some questions pertained to topics in Tanach, such as one writer13 who asked Reb Chaim how Mordechai’s inform ing on Bigsan and Seresh was justified, when their plot would have resulted in freeing Esther from Achashverosh. To which Reb Chaim responded, “You think Bigsan and Seresh were complete tzaddikim?!” (Reb Chaim seems to be implying that Mordechai knew very well what he was doing.)

Reb Chaim davening in his home in Bnei Brak, 2019.

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Photo: Aharon Krohn/Flash 90

Chaim’s shiurim on Talmud Yerushalmi, compiled into a commentary called simply Be’ur, helped open a world of learning that was essentially closed to all but the most eminent scholars.4 It is often expedient, even necessary, to emend the text of the Yerushalmi 5 Reb Chaim most often adopts the emenda tions of the Vilna Gaon, but he fre quently cites other variants and will not infrequently suggest his own emenda tions. Throughout the volumes already published, he provides a clear, simple and elegant commentary that unlocks even the most enigmatic discussions.

In one sefer, a questioner wanted to know if the principle of arvus11 applies to Tefillas Haderech (the Prayer for Travelers) so that if one has already said the tefillah, may he say it to exempt someone else? To which Reb Chaim an swered only, “yitachein” (it’s possible).12

Reb Chaim’s short answers do not relate to critical issues, to matters concerning “life and death.” Reb Chaim was well aware of the impropriety of giving one-word answers to major ques tions. Nevertheless, there are myriad examples in which these very short answers have significant ramifications. For example, regarding the halachah of a bosis l’davar ha’assur (a surface upon which a muktzah item was deliberately Rabbi Yosef Gavriel Bechhofer is a rav, rebbi and dayan in Monsey, New York and Passaic, New Jersey. Additionally, he is the mara d’asra of Congregation Anshei Palisades in Pomona, New York, and is currently working on a commentary on Talmud Yerushalmi that owes much to the commentary of Reb Chaim mentioned in this article. Rabbi Bechhofer is a frequent contributor to these pages.

The genius of the Be’ur is in doing for the Yerushalmi what the Kehati does for the Mishnah—granting access to anyone able to read simple Hebrew!6 Reb Chaim’s sefarim cover perhaps the broadest range of topics in Torah ever addressed by a single author. From his magnum opus, the Derech Emunah, a Mishnah Berurah on the laws emerg ing from Seder Zera’im, to his Kuntres Ish Iter on the laws of lefties;7 from commentaries in various styles on Ma sechtos Ketanos8 to his elegant synopsis of the Mishnah Berurah, incorporating the opinion of the Shoneh Halachos by his uncle the Chazon Ish, zt”l; from his musar sefer Orchos Yosher to his Yishuv Hada’as, a work that attempts to explain what the Maharsha9 meant every time he concludes a question with the com ment yeish l’yasheiv (“it [the question] needs to be resolved”); and from the arcane laws of the kashrus of locusts to the equally, if not more, arcane laws of eglah arufah (the calf killed when a murder victim is found and the mur derer’s identity is not known). But despite his vast array of published works, much of Reb Chaim’s “Torah” is not known to us. Reb Chaim shied away from delivering lectures. He lectured twice a year, on the yahrtzeit of his un cle, the Chazon Ish, and on the yahrtz eit of his father, the Steipler, zt”l. These lectures were extraordinarily brief. Yet Reb Chaim was, in a unique way, one of the greatest disseminators of Torah in our time. For years, he would patiently respond—usually in a word, or at most a few words—to any question posed to him by people who encountered him, as well as to anyone who wrote him a letter or postcard. Dozens of sefarim, pamphlets and “parashah sheets” have been published by the individuals who received these “one-worders” (often a simple “yes,” “no” or “maybe”) or, at most, “one-liners.” This was an exalted form of chesed—responding to people whom other rabbis might have found annoying and exasperating. Simply because they asked.10

There was a certain orphan who spent much time in Reb Chaim’s house. When the young boy was there for Shabbos, Reb Chaim would direct the person slicing the challah to give the boy his portion before all the others present. When the Rebbetzin would come in with plates of cholent, the boy would receive a plate toward the end with others his age. When he would notice this, Reb Chaim (who would, of course, be served first) would turn to the orphan and say, “It seems they forgot you.” Reb Chaim would take a bite of his own cholent, and put the rest on the boy’s plate, joking that this was shirayim (the food Chassidim eat at a tisch after the Rebbe has taken a nibble from the platter). At the end of the meal, Reb Chaim would give the boy a sweet yasher koach, as if by accepting the “shirayim” he had done Reb Chaim a greatAnyonefavor.22perusing social media shortly after Reb Chaim’s petirah could see that it wasn’t only the Chareidim among whom Reb Chaim lived who experi enced extraordinary grief, but religious Jews of all stripes and non-religious Jews as well. A fourth-generation sec ular writer, Professor Yuval Elbashan, an Israeli author, community lawyer, ac ademic and social activist, was awed by

Reb Chaim’s sefarim cover perhaps the broadest range of topics in Torah ever addressed by a single author.

24 JEWISH ACTION Fall 5783/2022 placed before Shabbos, which becomes a base for a forbidden item and thus may not be moved on Shabbos), Reb Chaim was asked the following: one deliberately placed a muktzeh item on a table before Shabbos, but it turned out that it was the wrong table; he had intended to place the item on another table. Is the prime consideration the deliberate placement, and therefore the table may not be moved, or, since it was the wrong table, is it as if he forgot the item there and therefore he may move the table on Shabbos? Reb Chaim’s one-word responsum was: “forgot.”14 In another case, quoted in the same sefer, Reb Chaim was asked: if someone has several hours to learn over the course of a day, is it preferable for him to devote the time to Gemara or to halachah? Reb Chaim responded: “k’retzono” [as heRebpleases].15Chaim’s vast knowledge allowed him to write remarkable sefarim, like Kiryas Melech in which he finds sources for the Rambam’s rulings in places and works in which many great scholars would not think to look. In his sefer L’Mechaseh Atik, he follows a simi lar path throughout Tanach, such as finding a source16 substantiating that the Tower of Bavel was seventy amos high, or that Delilah was the mother of Michah who erected a temple to an idol toward the end of Sefer Shoftim.17 But there were some very significant and noteworthy aspects to Reb Chaim, traits which—unlike his extraordinary intellect—we can try to emulate, albeit on a different level.

Reb Chaim was known for being disconnected from this world. When he would finish a meal, he would send one of his grandchildren to ask the Rebbetz in what he had eaten so he would know what berachah acharonah to make. He was once asked what the berachah is on schnitzel, to which he responded that he does not know what schnitzel is. He was unfamiliar with the streets of his hometown of Bnei Brak; he only knew the way to Kollel Chazon Ish.18 At the same time, he was also known for his extraordinary concern for oth ers. In earlier years, Reb Chaim’s house was not always open all day. He used to go to his son-in-law’s house when he wished to learn undisturbed, and he had a key to let himself in. It happened once that Reb Chaim arrived at his son-in-law’s house without the key. Reb Chaim knocked at the door for a long time, but in vain, as the family had left to Yerushalayim for Shabbos. When he next saw his son-in-law, Reb Chaim said that he learned from this episode what people who come to see him must feel when the door is locked. From then on, Reb Chaim’s door was never locked.19Formany years, Reb Chaim and the Rebbetzin would spend a few days ev ery summer in Tzfat. One day, someone came to Reb Chaim and told him that he had asked Rav Shach, zt”l, why he never took a trip to rest up when the yeshivah had a bein hazemanim break. Rav Shach responded that many people come to him with their sorrows. Some, he said, he could help. But in the vast majority of cases, there was no assis tance he could render. Nevertheless, said Rav Shach, the fact that they were able to come and unburden their hearts to him in itself alleviated their pain and consoled them to some extent. Were he to leave home, these people would remain uncomforted and distressed. When Reb Chaim heard the story, he decided that he would no longer take trips to Tzfat.20 Reb Chaim’s humility was also well known. He always sat in an unobtru sive spot in shul, far from the mizrach (eastern) wall, where the prominent shul members normally sit. About ten years ago, when it became difficult for him to walk, a bridge was built for him from his home to the shul and his seat was moved close to the entrance on the mizrach wall. He davened there one time, then turned to his son and asked, “What have you done to me? I have never sat on the mizrach!” He went back to his prior seat, and only at the very end of his life when he was extremely weak did he relent to sit on that seat near the bridge. One of his stu dents once brought a padded chair with armrests for Reb Chaim to use in shul on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. He refused to sit on it.21

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“Berachah v’hatzlachah” (“Blessings and success”) became “buha”—because he wanted to be able to receive everyone. Rabbi Kanievsky did not exploit his stature to acquire property and wealth. . . . To the casual capitalist observer, for going a materialistic life to learn Torah seems like an enigma, something difficult to believe. But Rabbi Kanievsky, beloved by Chareidi society, and a person who was also a symbol to many beyond that society, did precisely that with his modest way of life. An article I saw the week after the petirah29 captured the remarkable diversity of Jews who were awed by Reb Chaim. The author notes the phenom enon of Jews who attend shul once a year; the Chazon Ish would call such a Jew a “Yom Kippur Yid” and would say that a Yom Kippur Yid is also a Jew. The author then notes the range of people who came to Reb Chaim’s levayah. One with a white kippah, another with a green hat and a third whose appear ance clearly differed from those who made up the bulk of the crowd. In the twenty-first century, asserts the author, such Jews can be called Reb Chaim Kanievsky Yidden. He tells of a telephone conversation with a Jew confined in a remote prison far from the center of Israel. That

The fact that Rabbi Kanievsky was a role model for Jews of all stripes is something worth pondering. An other Chiloni, Gil Plotkin, wrote in a similar vein:28

Now, what is kedushah [holiness]?

Doubtless, his primary trait was his extraordinary anavah (humility). As mentioned, he had absolutely no airs and was oblivious to any honor. Reb Chaim wrote: . . . All doubts and confusion in matters of emunah (belief) only exist by haughty individuals (ba’alei ga’avah).

I am a Jew who is not concerned with keeping the mitzvos. But I completely and profoundly believe that the thing that has sustained us is the Torah given to us. I was pleased that the Dan met ropolitan area came to a standstill for Rabbi Kanievsky’s levayah—all for the honor of the Torah 24 Reb Chaim had many traits that elicited this level of love and respect.

One who is truly humble has neither doubt nor confusion. Indeed, any inci dence of strife in a household, a lack of shalom bayis (which is very prevalent in our day), is almost always on account of ga’avah [arrogance, pride and haughti ness]. Were each person to seize the trait of anavah and not care for his honor and ga’avah, most disputes would end peace fully. Check this out and you will find that true anavah is the surefire cure for most of our contemporary problems.25 But it was also his pashtus, the sincere and absolute simplicity that is the hallmark of many gedolei Yisrael. Asaf Lieberman, an Israeli broadcaster (who worked on a film about Reb Chaim that was broadcast on his program Zman Emet last year), wrote right after Reb Chaim’s petirah:26 I am a Chiloni [a secular Jew]. The word kadosh [holy], in all of its var ious permutations, does not speak to me. And yet, many matters concerning Rabbi Kanievsky become clear when one enters his house on Rashbam Street in Bnei Brak . . . . Rabbi Kanievsky’s house is mesmerizing.Thereisnothing in it. Meaning, there is nothing in it from a materialist perspective. In the small bedroom there are two old beds and a cupboard. In the central room, a table and books. There is also a tiny kitchen. And that’sTheit.rabbi’s entire life can be summed up as sleeping, learning Torah, and nutrition. In all my visits there, as a skeptical journalist, I looked for the catch. Where are the rabbi and the members of his household hiding the lavishness? But the thing is, there is no lavishness.

As I mentioned, I am a Chiloni who does not connect with discussions of ho liness. It is much easier for me to use the word naki [clean].27 From a spiritual per spective, the rabbi was completely clean. There was no concern for unimportant matters, there were no pointless thoughts, no gossip, no scheming, no pettiness. And all the masses of people who waited by his door, seeking to get several minutes with the rabbi, they too wanted to receive something of this cleanliness.

Think about it: Who is the person for whom you would wait hours for a few minutes with him? For which person whom you never met would you aban don everything so as to participate in his funeral?

From their perspective, a person of such cleanliness could also cleanse some of the background noise and would have the insight to see on them that which they— people who aren’t clean (which is all of us)—are not capable of seeing. . . . I cannot help but be astonished by the character of this individual—and no less by the masses for whom he was the subject of their admiration.

Rabbi Kanievsky did not conquer space like Elon Musk; he did not achieve record-breaking wealth like Bill Gates or Jeff Bezos; he did not receive thousands of “likes” on sharp tweets, nor did he seek publicity in the media or on a reality show. He learned Torah, received people in his modest house in Bnei Brak, and bestowed blessings on “simple people.” Long lines frequently snaked out his door. People wanted his blessing. They wanted assurance when they faced diffi cult moments in their lives, and he gave it to them. . . . In the later years, he had to save time while giving blessings to those who requested them so as to be able to also fulfill his “quotas” of daily Torah learning. So he abbreviated his blessings.

26 JEWISH ACTION Fall 5783/2022 the simplicity of Reb Chaim’s lifestyle and by his embrace of droves of embit tered and broken people, who emerged from his presence buoyed by the emunah Reb Chaim instilled in them.23 Arnon Itiel, a secular Jewish author, broadcaster and columnist, wrote:

nothingTheremesmerizing.houseKanievsky’sRabbiisisinit.

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12. Siach HaTorah, vol. 1, p. 281. 13. Ibid., 40. 14. Gam Ani Odecha, p. 21. 15. Ibid., 41. 16. Pirkei D’Rabbi Eliezer, chap. 24. 17. Tosefta d’Targum (Reb Chaim notes that this is not in accordance with a midrash cited by Rashi to Sanhedrin 101b). 18. Kovetz, pp. 16 17, 36. 19. Ibid., 33. 20. Ibid., 39. 21. Ibid., 51 52. Reb Chaim said the chair was “too Rebbe-ish.” 22. Ibid., 11. 23. 25./9330700.24.did=1001406073.globes.co.il/news/article.aspx?israelhayom.co.il/opinions/article

6. The next cycle of Daf Yomi Yerushalmi (a four-year-and-three-month cycle) begins Monday, 20 Marcheshvan 5783, November 14, 2022. I would like to suggest that it would be a wonderful ilui neshamah for Reb Chaim for individuals and groups to begin then, within the year of aveilus, to learn Yerushalmi with Reb Chaim’s Be’ur. (If I may be indulged a moment of shameless self-promotion, recordings of my shiurim on the entire Yerushalmi are available to download at yerushalmionline.org.)

28 JEWISH ACTION Fall 5783/2022

Perhaps it was the infinite patience with which Reb Chaim received the masses and gave them chizuk, answered even their silliest and most annoying questions, and bestowed advice and blessings.30 Perhaps it was his concern for orphans, with whom he would spend whatever time was necessary.31

9. The great early-seventeenth-century com mentary of Rabbi Shmuel Eliezer Edeles on Talmud Bavli 10. Reb Chaim himself stated that he responded to these letters as a chesed (Kovetz, p. 8). 11. The obligation of every Jew to ensure that other Jews fulfill mitzvos, which allows one who has already recited most berachos to repeat them to help another Jew fulfill his obligation to say that berachah

5. There are essentially no commentaries by the Rishonim on Talmud Yerushalmi and not by many Acharonim! Hence, unlike the Bavli, in which Rishonim like Rashi and Tosafos initially clarified and corrected the text of the Talmud, culminating in the later revisions of the Bach and the Rashash et al., it is still incumbent on contemporary learners of Yerushalmi to clarify the best variant of the text.

Orchos Yosher, Anavah 26. bit.ly/3QxdstD; also at hidabroot.org/article/1166745. 27. It is unlikely that Mr. Lieberman is aware of the Sha’ar HaNekiyus in the Ramchal’s Mesillas Yesharim. But his attribution of the middah of nekiyus to Reb Chaim very much dovetails with the Ramchal’s definitions. 28. davar1.co.il/369353/. 29. “A Reb Chaim Yid,” by A. Chafetz in Kovetz Gilyonos L’Parashas Shemini, 5782. 30. I think it would be remiss not to mention Reb Chaim’s great-grandfatherin-law, Rabbi Aryeh Levin, who had a similar effect on Jews of all backgrounds. While this is not the place to explore the connection, perhaps no small part of Reb Chaim’s effect was due to the influence of Reb Aryeh’s granddaughter, Rebbetzin Batsheva Kanievsky, a”h. 31. Heard from my chavrusa, Reb Moshe Klein, whose acquaintance was constantly in Reb Chaim’s presence. 32. Michah 6:8.

Perhaps it was simply the radiance of his Torah, which even those who never met him could sense from afar. Reb Chaim created Reb Chaim Yidden. Just as we cannot hope to reach Reb Chaim’s heights in Torah, we can not hope to reach the heights of his character. He personified V’hatznei’a leches im Elokecha, to walk in mod esty before G-d,32 in its fullest sense. But we can strive to incorporate more pashtus, more anavah, more nosei b’ol im chaveiro (sharing the burden of our fellow). As the article concluded: For even we of smaller stature, when we fill our personal cups so that they overflow a bit over their rims, we, too, can influence with our Torah and our emunah on a Reb Yankel Yid, on a Reb Dovid Yid—on our environs, on our friends, on our spouses and our children who surround us. All it requires is penimiyus (internal commitment and devotion). In truth. And in the holiness of the Torah. Notes 1. Rabbi Nosson Zvi Finkel, zt”l, founder of the famous Slabodka musar yeshivah, who later moved with a large part of the student body to found the equally famous Chevron Yeshiva, which until the 1929 massacre was located in Chevron.

7. As a lefty myself, this brief work is close to my heart. In it, Reb Chaim notes that he could find no source taking a position on how a lefty, who does nefilas apayim (putting the head down on the arm while saying Tachanun) during Shacharis on his left arm (the arm that does not have tefillin wrapped around it), should do nefilas apayim during Minchah. Should he do it on his left arm as he does during Shacharis, or should he do it on his right arm (now unencumbered with tefillin) as most of the people around him are do ing? If Reb Chaim stated he could find no source taking a position, it is reasonably certain that no such ruling exists!

8. The minor tractates are normally printed at the end of Seder Nezikin in the Talmud. There are fourteen such tractates. Reb Chaim wrote commentaries on several of them. Some of the commentaries are like the Be’ur on the Yerushalmi, while others are far more in depth.

prisoner related that when it became known on Friday that Reb Chaim had passed away, twenty prisoners told him they would keep Shabbos that week because Reb Chaim would very much want them to do so. Reb Chaim, who never read even a religious newspaper, who never involved himself in any com mercial activity, and who didn’t know a thing about finance or fame was a bea con of light who gave myriad people a sense that we are watched from Heaven and that, as they pronounced loudly at the levayah, Hashem Hu haElokim!

2. Reminiscent of the Rambam’s statement concerning Moshe Rabbeinu (Hilchos Yesodei HaTorah 8:1). 3. Kovetz L’zichro shel Matan Hagrach Kanievsky, p. 7. 4. The mashgiach of Yeshivas Ner Yisroel in Baltimore, Rabbi Dovid Kronglass, zt”l, writes in the introduction to his work, Divrei Dovid, that while in Shanghai with the rest of the Mirrer Ye shiva during World War II, he attempted to master the Yerushalmi on Zera’im. With impressive humility, he acknowledges that he could not conquer the intricacies of Maseches Kilayim. With Reb Chaim’s commentary, accompanied by his simple yet comprehensive drawings, this rare feat has become far more accessible.

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30 JEWISH ACTION Fall 5783/2022

R av Chaim Kanievsky, zt”l, was unique even as gedolim go, and that makes writing an appreciation of his life extremely challenging. The personage that was Rav Chaim simply does not translate into a language the vast majority of us can comprehend.

Photo: Yaakov Nahumi/Flash90

The stories about Rav Chaim—which are the mainstay of any biographical treatise—tend to fall into four broad categories: his incredible diligence, his utter unworldliness, his extraordinary knowledge (even “encyclopedic” doesn’t do it justice), and reams of miracles. I doubt that relating more of these miracle stories here will help us understand who Rav Chaim was. But our obligation to eulogize him, precisely be cause of his sheer greatness, imposes on us a duty we cannot shirk.Let us first state the simple facts of his life. He was born in 1928 in Pinsk to his father Hagaon Harav Yaakov Yisrael Kanievsky, known simply as the Steipler, and his mother Rebbetzin Miriam, a sister of the famed Chazon Ish, zt”l. The Kanievsky family immigrated to Eretz Yisrael in 1934, in the wake of the Chazon Ish settling there. World-renowned as a Torah scholar and tzaddik, the Steipler raised his only son to be completely immersed in Torah study. The Chazon Ish, being childless himself, invested energy into his nephews, with extra dedication to young Chaim, who was extraordi narily diligent and focused, with no other interests but to study more and more. Indeed, by the age of seventeen, he had finished Shas. At some point, Rav Chaim began a rigorous yearly study program that included finishing all of Talmud Bavli, Talmud Yerushalmi, Rambam, Shulchan Aruch, Tosefta, Zohar and major midrashim! Every year on Pesach, he would make a siyum on all of Torah. In a leap year, he would complete his schedule on Purim. He would then use the extra month to write a sefer. His sefarim included the laws of zeraim, orga nized around the Rambam; a peirush on Yerushalmi; and doz ens of other works. His mastery of all of Torah and his love of clarity and simplicity are strikingly evident in all his sefarim. As incredible and breathtaking as was his proficiency in Torah, so was his total lack of interest in anything else. Even simple street names were alien to him. It seemed as if he could shut off his memory and mind at will. He had at his fingertips the complex calculations of the Rambam regarding kiddush hachodesh or kinim, yet he would struggle with simple mathe matical problems. When Rabbi Aharon Feldman was intro duced to him as the rosh yeshivah of Ner Yisroel, it drew a blank stare, as did the added reference to the city of Baltimore. But when told that Rav Aharon had authored a certain Torah work, Rav Chaim immediately stated where that sefer was situated in his bookcase and that he appreciated certain points presented in that sefer. Similarly, if Rav Chaim felt he owed someone an apology or explanation, he would remember it for years, but as soon as the need was gone, he completely forgot the name of the person.

Rav Chaim married Rebbetzin Batsheva, daughter of Harav Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, zt”l, and spent his life studying. He never taught in any yeshivah or other framework, and he never spoke publicly. He was not active in politics or in any leadership role; he merely responded to questions as they were brought before him. And even that only at the behest of Harav Elazar Shach, zt”l, who persuaded him that he must be avail able to respond to questions. Even then, it was almost always a laconic yes or no. 5782 was a leap year. As always, Rav Chaim finished kol haTorah kulah, all of Torah. As he reached out to pen his next work, his quill went silent, and on the fifteenth of Adar, the

By Rabbi Aaron Lopiansky An attempt at understanding the world of Rav Chaim Kanievsky, zt”l

Rabbi Aaron Lopiansky is rosh yeshivah of the Yeshiva of Greater Washington in Silver Spring, Maryland.

Chaim SHEL TORAH

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legendary Rav Chaim passed away. How do we understand who Rav Chaim was? And what meaning does it have for us?

Let us take a closer look at the point being made. If a per son wears tzitzis or tefillin, isn’t the performance of the mitz vah for his own benefit? Why not level criticism at all pious people? Why are the apikorsim specifically targeting talmud Torah and talmidei chachamim? To answer this question, we need to examine our core understanding of Yiddishkeit itself, more specifically our conception of the relationship between Torah and mitzvos. We instinctively reach for the idea that the world was created in order for man to accomplish important things and that Torah is the instruction manual; it teaches us right from wrong and exhorts us to choose accordingly. With that perspective, action is all-important, with study simply being a necessary means to an end. But there is a far deeper understanding of the relationship between the two. The Bach, a famous seventeenth-century halachic authority, portrays it in the reverse. He references a Yerushalmi that states that the Second Temple was destroyed because the people were not reciting a blessing prior to Torah study, and he explains this puzzling gemara as a metaphor depicting their attitude toward Torah study. They viewed Torah as an instruction manual, a means toward performing mitzvos correctly. Just as one does not say a blessing when he saws wood for a sukkah, for it is but a preparation to the actual performance of the mitzvah, so too, they thought, one does not recite a blessing upon the study of Torah for it is but a preparatory phase in the performance of mitzvos. But this is terribly wrong, explains the Bach. Torah is there to imbue our hearts and souls with the spirituality and sanc tity that connects us to the Source of Torah, the Creator Him self. The mitzvos are actually a means to begin to comprehend the Torah. And this understanding is the ultimate refinement of one’s self and one’s connection to Hashem.

How do we understand such other-worldly Torah knowl edge? Imagine you are considering buying a home in a particular neighborhood. You would appropriately acquaint yourself with every important and relevant detail, such as the average income of the inhabitants, education options, et cetera. Yet if someone would ask you how many park benches are in that neighborhood, you would be stumped. By contrast, the answer to this question and innumerable similar questions would be at the fingertips of the residents of that neighbor hood. Not because they memorized it, but because they live in it. Day in and day out. This was the essence of Rav Chaim’s bekius This, too, is the best way to describe his incredible has madah. His Torah study was not akin to a subject that one pursues. It wasn’t a strain, or even a challenging endeavor, noble as that might be. It was simply his existence. We do not ask people why they eat, drink, stroll, laugh or perform any one of the other myriad activities called living. They do these things because that is what their lives are about. Rav Chaim’s life was chaim shel Torah Yes, we cannot comprehend it because we live in an illusory world. But at least we were fortunate to have wit nessed a person who, even while cloaked in flesh and blood, was already living in the world of emes

Rav Chaim’s incredible knowledge was a product of his living in the world of Torah. It wasn’t only the volume of facts he knew, but the extraordinary type of facts he noticed in the Torah. Things no one else had noticed before. When asked a question, he would sometimes reference a source that would make your jaw drop in astonishment. It wasn’t necessarily because we didn’t know the source; rather, it was because we had never taken note of that detail.

Let us start with a provocative question. The Mishnah states (Sanhedrin) that an apikores has no share in the World to Come. While in our vernacular apikores is defined as a heretic or non-believer, the Gemara gives it a different mean ing, defining it as one who does not appreciate chachamim, one who says, “What’s the use of the chachamim if their study is only for themselves?” In another version of the gemara, an apikores is someone who states, “What’s the point of the wisdom of chachamim who have neither added nor removed anyTheseprohibitions?”remarks are certainly disrespectful. But are they on par with an apikores who denies the World to Come and who therefore has no share in it?

Rav Chaim was the embodiment of a Torah personage. The world he lived in was the World of Truth, a world where the only reality that exists is the Torah reality. We are different. Very different. We struggle to define the value of a person who may be great in Torah but does not teach, speak or proactively lead or initiate. And it is only natural that we struggle with it. We are creatures of this world, and we have but the dimmest of understandings that there is a world diametrically opposed to ours. And it is that world that is the “real” world.

32 JEWISH ACTION Fall 5783/2022

To help us comprehend the difference between these two approaches, let us use the following analogy: Two scientists are designing a new gadget. The first, an inventor, ponders all of the physics and engineering concepts he has studied and builds upon those laws to come up with a greatly improved product. The second man is a profes sor attempting to explain some abstruse laws of nature. He produces a contraption that exhibits these laws. Both devices make use of the selfsame laws of nature. In the case of the first scientist, however, the device is the end goal and science is merely the means, whereas for the second one, the ultimate purpose is science and the device is the means. This insight into the role of Torah gives us a newfound understanding of the spiritual structure our lives are supposed to embrace. The World to Come is a spiritual world that we construct through the enlightenment we receive from Torah. Torah is not merely the means to the mitzvos; rather, the mitz vos are the means to Torah. We can now understand why the apikores’s derogatory question reveals not just simple disrespect for the chacham himself but a complete negation of one’s spiritual self, a total lack of regard for Torah, seeing it as but a maidservant for the world of mitzvos.

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Rav Chaim’s Legacy

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Rav Chaim’s value system is not reserved for Rechov Rashbam. It is not reserved for those whose community, upbringing and circumstances can have them live in what we would call a hovel. And it isn’t reserved for those who are able to spend multiple hours a day learning Torah and give their remaining time to benefit others. The value system that renders all other values secondary could be ours too. It is not out of Withreach.RavChaim’s passing, we have lost something indescribable. But at the same time, it can be emulated by each and every one of us—that which Rav Chaim valued, but even more important and fundamental, what he didn’t.

R av Chaim Kanievsky, zt”l, left an inestimable im print. Today, while the world may not be filled with the likes of Rav Chaim, there are many who aspire to be like him, Shas Yidden who attain exalted levels in terms of achievement in and dedication to Torah.

“I said to him, ‘Beni, my son, im atah nosein li kol kesef v’zahav va’avanim tovot u’margaliyot sheba’olam, eini dar ela bimkom Torah. Even if you were to give me all the silver, gold, precious stones and gems in the world, I would not dwell anywhere other than a place of Torah. Because when a person departs this world, neither his silver nor his gold, nor his precious stones and gems accompany him. All that goes with him are his Torah and good deeds.’”

By Rabbi Moshe Hauer

Rav Chaim put aside all the silver and gold of the world. Accumulation of wealth was meaningless to him. His was the ultimate freedom, as he lived unencumbered by the distrac tion of material pursuits. Torah, tefillah, chesed. That was his life. Nothing else mattered. This is perhaps one of the most profound legacies of Rav Chaim Kanievsky.

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Rabbi Moshe Hauer is executive vice president of the Orthodox Union. This piece was excerpted from a hesped (eulogy) Rabbi Hauer delivered for Rav Chaim Kanievsky, zt”l, at Congregation Shomrei Emunah in Baltimore, Maryland, in March 2022.

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The sage Rabbi Yosi ben Kisma related (Avot 6:9): “I was once walking along the way and I encountered a man. He greeted me and I returned the greeting. He said to me, ‘Rebbi, where are you from?’ I responded, ‘I am from a great city of scholars and scribes.’ He said to me, ‘Rebbi, would you be willing to dwell among us in our place? I’ll give you a million gold coins and precious stones and gems.’

34 JEWISH ACTION Fall 5783/2022

Rav Chaim raised the bar for an entire generation of Torah students and scholars. Greatness requires both embracing certain things as well as setting other things aside. It is this feature of Rav Chaim that all of us can strive to emulate.

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LUBAVITCHERRAVSOLOVEITCHIKREBBE:andthe JEWISH WORLD

AnUnlikelyFriendship ByRabbiMenachemGenack

Left: Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe

Photo: Hoberman Publishing / Alamy Stock Photo Right: Rabbi Joseph Ber Soloveitchik, the Rav Photo: Joel Orent

A t first glance, one would think that Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, widely known as “the Rav,” and Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, better known as “the Rebbe,” would not have shared much in common. These two great men were representatives of two opposing schools within Judaism. The Rav was a seventh-generation descendant of Rabbi Chaim Volozhiner, the founder of the Volozhin Yeshiva, the template for all Lithuanian yeshivos. Rabbi Chaim Volozhiner was also the outstanding disciple of the Gaon of Vilna, the leader of the opposition to Chassidism. The Rav’s father, grandfather and greatgrandfather were all leading rabbis in the Lithuanian mold, without an ounce of Chassidism between them. Rabbi Chaim Soloveitchik (Reb Chaim Brisker), the Rav’s grandfather, was the innovator of the “Brisker derech,” a method of Talmudic study that seeks to uncover the concepts underlying the halachah, but which never ventures beyond halachah into the realm of mysticism or philosophy. The intellectual and sometimes austere Talmudism of the Rav’s forebears is depicted in his work Halakhic Man: Halakhic man’s approach to reality is, at the outset, devoid of any element of transcendence. . . . To whom may he be compared? To a mathematician who fashions an ideal world and then uses it for the purpose of establishing a relationship between it and the real world. . . . When halakhic man comes across a spring bubbling quietly, he already possesses a fixed, a priori relationship with this real phenomenon: the complex of laws regarding the halakhic construct of a spring. . . . When halakhic man looks to the western horizon and sees the fading rays of the setting sun or to the eastern horizon and sees the first light of dawn and the glowing rays of the rising sun, he knows that this sunset or sunrise imposes upon him anew obligations and commandments.

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By contrast, the Lubavitcher Rebbe was the seventh-generation leader of the Chabad Chassidic dynasty. The dynasty’s founder, Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi, known as the Baal HaTanya, bore the brunt of the opposition to Chassidism by the followers of the Vilna Gaon. While the Soloveitchik dynasty focused on the study of halachah, especially as formulated by the rationalist Maimonides, Chassidim, and particularly Chabad, emphasized the study of mystical texts and the spiritual and emotional dimensions of Judaism. In fact, the Baal HaTanya was a halachist as well—his Shulchan Aruch HaRav to this day remains an important source of halachah for non-Chassidim as well as for Chassidim. But for Brisk, the height of Torah study was delving into the intricacies of the law, explaining a dispute between Maimonides and his chief critic Ravad about the categorization of disqualifications of sacrifices, or the impurity of corpses; for Chabad, the mystical realm was both the pinnacle and sine qua non of Torah study.

The Rebbe warmly greeting the Rav at a farbrengen the latter attended in honor of the Rebbe’s thirtieth anniversary as the Lubavitcher Rebbe, January 28, 1980. Courtesy of JEM Rabbi Menachem Genack is CEO of OU Kosher.

38 JEWISH ACTION Fall 5783/2022

The melamed had studied in the Yeshiva in Lubavitch, and his method of speech uplifted and transformed me. At the time I was too young to truly comprehend many of his teachings. Only later did I understand and appreciate the lessons in their full depth. He taught me how to pray with emotion and ecstasy, and gave me an appreciation for the High Holy Day prayers.

“Fun Chaslavitch biz Lubavitch—From Chaslavitch to Lubavitch,” about the pilgrimage Chassidim would make to see their Rebbe in Lubavitch. The Rav’s father, Rabbi Moshe Soloveichik, was the rabbi of the town. How did a Chabad town come to have a Soloveitchik and descendant of Rabbi Chaim Volozhiner as its rabbi? The Rav told the following story: When Napoleon invaded Russia, the Baal HaTanya sided with the Czar. (He was afraid that Napoleon’s policy of emancipation would lead to assimilation.) The Baal HaTanya received information from Napoleon’s cartographer, Moshe Meizlish, which he passed on to the Russians. Napoleon’s army did a houseto-house search for the Baal HaTanya in Chaslavitch, where he was hiding. When they reached the house of the town’s rabbi, Rabbi Yisrael, who was a student of the Vilna Gaon, Rabbi Yisrael told the French soldiers that were the Baal HaTanya hiding in his house, he would gladly turn him over. The French, apparently aware of the enmity between the two groups, accepted this and did not search the house where the Baal HaTanya was in fact hiding. As a result, the Baal HaTanya declared that Chaslavitch should henceforth always have a Misnaged as itsTherabbi.Rav’s cheder teacher was a Chabad Chassid, who emphasized the study of the Tanya at the expense of the Talmud. Once, after Rav Chaim tested his young grandson Yoshe Ber, he recommended that Rav Moshe tutor his son on his own, which he did from that point forward. Nevertheless, the Rav’s Chabad melamed had a profound impact upon his precocious pupil. The Rav discussed his melamed’s influence on his trajectory in life in a letter he wrote to his friend and colleague Rabbi Moshe Dov-Ber Rivkin, a distinguished Lubavitcher talmid chacham and rosh yeshivah of Torah Vodaath: As I speak, I remember a vision of my youth, wrapped in childlike innocence, clothed in nostalgic splendor. . . . The image of my teacher, Rabbi Baruch Yaakov Reisberg, stands before me. I still see his face, emiting calmness and wisdom, imagination and ingenuity. To this day, I hear his voice in the silence of twilight, suffused with sorrow and longing. His words cross the chasm—words full of passion and wonder about the time in his youth spent in Lubavitch. I still carry deep in my soul the picture of the Alter Rebbe which looked down on us students from the walls of the cheder: that broad forehead and commanding intellect, the large eyes which peered into Divine infinities, eternally captured in wonder. . . . I still see the picture of the Tzemach Tzedek, dressed in white, which, in our childhood fantasy, metamorphosed into the Kohen Gadol, exiting the Holy of Holies. . . . I still dream about the elderly Chassidim dancing rapidly around my father on the night of Shemini Atzeret. These impressions will never be erased from my heart; they are deeply rooted in the recesses of my being.

After Rabbi Rivkin passed away in 1976, the Rav eulogized him for a full hour after one of his regular Gemara shiurim in the Moriah shul:1 What do I know about Habad? I know quite a bit, since as a child I had a melamed who was a Habad hasid. Instead of teaching me Gemara, he taught me hasidut. Even today, I still know sections of the Tanya by heart, especially the Sha’ar ha-Yihud ve-ha-Emunah, dealing with faith and the attributes of the Almighty. It was my father who taught me Gemara and enabled me to master the rabbinic idiom. Nevertheless, if not for my Habad melamed, I would today be lacking in an entire dimension of knowledge. Many of my drashot are based upon the knowledge imparted to me by that melamed. Those who enjoy my drashot owe him a thankyou. His name was Reb Baruch Yaakov Reisberg, and I remember that he told me that he was a descendant of the author of the Tanya, the founder of Habad. I vividly recall how Reb Baruch would teach Tanya. During this period, my father would visit the hadarim in Khaslavichy on either Thursday or Friday. The melamed had lookouts who would inform him when the rabbi was on his way. Immediately, the volumes of Tanya would be hidden. The Tanya was a small book, and it was easy to hide. We would quickly take out the large gemorot and shout as if deeply involved in talmudic study. Somehow we always shouted when we studied Gemara. My father would look around and not notice anything out of the ordinary.

The Rav bore a strong affinity for Chabad, and even referred to himself on one occasion as a ‘clandestine Chabadnik.’

Once, however, when I accompanied my father to a wedding in Brisk, my grandfather Reb Chaim tested me. Instead of reciting portions of Merubah [the seventh chapter of Baba Kama] which we were supposedly studying, I recited sections of the Tanya by heart. My father and grandfather may have been angry, but I am in debt to the melamed. His teachings broadened my horizons in Judaism. The melamed inspired me with his descriptions of the Kingship of G-d and of the sefirot, or emanations, from the Divine Presence.

Yet the Rav bore a strong affinity for Chabad, and even referred to himself on one occasion as a “clandestine Chabadnik.” What explains this affinity for Chabad? The Rav was brought up in Chaslavitch, a town with a strong Chabad presence, as immortalized in the song

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I recall an incident from my childhood. I was seven or eight years old in a small town in White Russia, and like all Jewish boys, I attended the little cheder school. I still remember that dreary winter day in January; it was cloudy and overcast. The Torah portion of the week was Vayigash, and Chanukah had just ended, taking away with it the joyous holiday spirit from our small town. A long, dark winter lay ahead for us cheder boys. We had to rise when it was still dark, and return home holding a lantern, because nightfall was so early. That day, we cheder boys were in a depressed mood, lazy and listless. We chanted mechanically the first verses of Vayigash in a dull monotone, droning the words in Hebrew and translating them into Yiddish. One boy finished reciting Joseph’s question: “Hayesh lachem av, Do you have a father,” and the reply: “Yesh lanu av zaken: Yes, we have an old father.” Then something unusual happened. Our teacher, a Chabadnik, suddenly jumped to his feet and with a gleam in his eyes motioned to the reader to stop. He turned to me and addressed me with the Russian word podrabin, meaning assistant to the rabbi. The teacher asked me: “What kind of question did Joseph ask his brothers— ‘Hayesh lachem av, Do you have a father?’ Of course they had a father, everybody has a father! The only person who had no father was Adam, created by G-d. But everyone else born into this world has a father. What kind of a question was that?” I tried to offer the answer, “Joseph simply wanted to find out whether the father was still alive. ‘Do you have a father?’ actually means, ‘Is he alive, or is he dead?’” “If so,” our teacher thundered back at me, “Joseph should have phrased the question differently: ‘Is your father still alive?’” It was useless to argue with our teacher. He was now no longer addressing only us little boys. He began to speak rhetorically as if some mysterious guest had just entered that cold room. “Joseph,” our teacher pronounced as if from a pulpit, “wanted to know whether his brothers were still attached to their roots and origins. ‘Are you,’ Joseph was asking, ‘rooted in your father? Do you look at him the way the branches or blossoms look on their roots? Do you see your father as the foundation of your existence? Do you see him as your provider and sustainer? Or are you just like rootless shepherds wandering from place to place, from pasture to pasture, who forget their origin?’” Our teacher suddenly stopped addressing the invisible visitor and turned his focus directly to us. Raising his voice, he asked us: “Are you truly humble? Do you look down condescendingly at your old father as representing an archaic tradition? Do you think that your old father is also capable of telling you something new and exciting?

He continued: “Yesterday you said that you studied with Rabbi Soloveitchik.” I remember his next phrase clearly, even though my Yiddish was not the best. “Er iz geven meiner ah talmid” (He was my student). . . . I asked the man: “Do you want me to send a message to the Rav?” He said: “Send him regards from Reb Baruch.” “Reb Baruch whom?” I asked. He said: “Reb Baruch from Khaslavichy. That will be enough.” While I heard the Rav speak about this melamed many times, I never heard his actual name mentioned. Now, for the first time, I learned that his name wasWhenBaruch.Ireturned to New York, I went up to the Rav after his shiur to tell him about this experience. The Rav was very tired after his lecture. I said to the Rav that I have regards for him. “From whom?” the Rav asked. I answered: “He would not tell me his full name. He just said tell the Rav that he has regards from Reb Baruch from Khaslavichy.”Uponhearing this name, there was an electrifying response on the part of the Rav. His entire body came to life as he exclaimed: “It cannot be. It cannot be. Reb Baruch Reisberg cannot be alive. He must be dead!” “But, Rebbe,” I said, “you have never mentioned the name. I could not have told you his name without hearing it from Reb Baruch.”“Allright,” said the Rav. “Then he must be a very old man.” Subsequently, I heard that over the ensuing years when the Rav retold stories about his melamed he would mention that one of his students met the melamed in Russia. Interestingly, the Rav was fond of quoting a teaching from his melamed about Joseph and his brothers when Joseph asked his brothers whether they had a father (as recorded in Chumash Mesoras HaRav, pp. 328-29):

Something challenging? Something you didn’t know before? Or are you so arrogant and vain, that you deny dependence on your father, upon your source?” Our teacher exclaimed, “Hayesh lachem av, Do you have a father?!” pointing at my study-mate Isaac, who was considered the town’s prodigy. The teacher turned to him and said, “Who do you think knows more? Do you know more because you are so well-versed in Talmud, or does your father, Jacob the blacksmith, know more even though he can barely read Hebrew? Are you proud of your father? When we recognize the supremacy of our father, then, ipso facto, we accept the supremacy of our Universal Father in Heaven.”

I will never forget our teacher’s novel interpretation of the Joseph story.

The Rav’s attachment to the teachings of the Baal HaTanya continued throughout his life. One summer when I was learning with the Rav with a small group of students in Boston, the Rav told us, “Min ken nisht farshteyn Elul ohn Likkutei Torah—You cannot understand Elul without studying the Baal HaTanya’s work Likkutei Torah.” He obtained copies of Likkutei Torah for all of us, but he taught it only once. He thought

Kasdan described what took place:2 As we walked in the corridor a man came out of the Beit Medrash and told us that somebody there desires to meet with us. I was amazed. I did not know anyone in Russia. Who wants to meet me? A tall thin man came out and said to us in Yiddish: “I hear that you studied with a student of mine.” I did not have the foggiest notion of what this man was talking about.

JEWISH

I often think of him on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. “Do something simple,” he would say, “but do it with emotion and feeling.” That is the basic message of Habad. Do something mundane and simple, but do it with divine inspiration and meaning! That is the general message of hasidut and certainly the touchstone of Habad. I remember when my friend, Menachem Kasdan, a fellow student of the Rav, visited the Soviet Union in 1968 and met the Rav’s teacher, Rabbi Reisberg. When Kasdan reported his encounter to the Rav, the Rav was flabbergasted to discover that his teacher was still alive.

40 ACTION Fall 5783/2022

The following are some anecdotes about interactions between the Rav and the Rebbe that I know either directly from the Rav or secondhand.

The Rebbe wrote that peoplewithrelationshiphistheRavwas‘muchgreaterthanknew.’

When the Rav’s mother, Rebbetzin Pesia Soloveichik, passed away, it was during a gravedigger’s strike. The Rav called Rabbi Krinsky, who found some Lubavitcher students to dig the grave. Only the Lubavitcher students were allowed in by the strikers because they had beards and therefore looked like rabbis, while the Rav’s own students did not have beards.

Rabbi Yudel Krinsky, who was then a Chabad rabbi in Boston, wrote a letter to the Rebbe to inform him that the Rav was teaching Likkutei Torah to his students. The Rebbe responded that it would be worthwhile to show the Rav—underlining the words “not in my name”—the Tzemach Tzedek’s comments on these passages in Likkutei Torah After Rav Moshe Soloveichik passed away, the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn (known as the Rayatz), wrote a letter in support of the Rav assuming his father’s position at Yeshiva University. After the Rav took the position, the Rayatz wrote a congratulatory letter to the Rav, describing the friendship between his father, the fifth Rebbe (known as Rashab), and Reb Chaim Brisker, including how they once spent Shavuos together in St. Petersburg following the rabbinic conference in the city. When the Rav was in the year of mourning for his father, he visited Chabad, where he acted as the shaliach tzibbur. The Rayatz reminded him that as the shaliach tzibbur he would have to daven Nusach Ari, as is the Chabad custom, even in his silent Amidah. The Rav responded, “Of course. The Pe’as Hashulchan says so”—ironically citing a work by Rabbi Yisrael of Shklov, one of the leading students of the Vilna Gaon.

The Rav once told me that Yaakov Herzog, the Israeli diplomat, told him in the name of a high-ranking State Department official that the only one who knows what is going on in the Soviet Union is “an old rabbi living in Brooklyn”—i.e., the Rebbe. The Rebbe also shared with the Rav a love for the Rambam. He instituted a program for daily study of the Ram bam’s Mishneh Torah for his followers. In the Rebbe’s Sichos, the Rambam is often the focus of his interpretations, in a way which even a non-Chassid can appreciate. In particular, the Rebbe was fond of the Tzofnas Pane’ach by Rabbi Yosef Rosen, the Rogatchover Gaon, from whom the Rebbe also received semichah. According to lore, the Rogatchover and Reb Chaim studied together as youngsters with Reb Chaim’s father, the Beis HaLevi.

While the Rogatchover’s approach is different from that of Brisk, both see the Rambam as the foremost authority with whom to reckon, and both seek to find the conceptual underpinnings beneath the surface of the laws.

42 ACTION Fall 5783/2022 that we students—especially me—were not so interested, but in truth we were completely innocent of his charge. At the time, he told us Y. L. Peretz’s (fictional) story about the Beis HaLevi, who arrived at the beis midrash of a former student who had become a Chassid and was now the Bialer Rebbe. According to the story, as the Bialer Rebbe spoke, the wintry afternoon was transformed, the sun emerged, the snow melted and the trees began to bloom. Then the Beis HaLevi looked at his watch and said, “It is almost sunset. We must daven Minchah,” and the icy cold winter returned. The Rav looked at me and said, “Genack, that’s you!” (though again, I emphasize that I did not actually have any objection to his teaching the Baal AmongHaTanya).hisfellow students of the Maggid of Mezritch, the Baal HaTanya was known as “Der Litvak.” Perhaps the Rav felt a kinship with his fellow Litvak. Even though the Rav did not succeed in transmitting it to us, he thought that the Baal HaTanya was a profound thinker and that his sefarim were essential for understanding the religious experience of Elul and of Yahadus in general.

Rabbi Chaim Ciment, who was the Chabad rabbi in Brookline, Massachusetts, once asked the Rav to tell him about his time in Berlin with the Rebbe. The Rav told Rabbi Ciment that once on Purim in Berlin, the Rebbe was arrested after fulfilling the mitzvah of ad d’lo yada (which the Rebbe achieved through inebriation). The Rav vouched for the Rebbe and got him out of jail. Upon his release, the Rav, alluding to the difficulties the Rebbe’s illustrious predecessors had faced with Czarist authorities, told him: “Now that you have been arrested, you are qualified to become a rebbe.”3

JEWISH

The Rav paid a shivah visit to the Rebbe when the Rebbe’s mother passed away in 1964. During the visit, the Rebbe referred to the Rambam’s view that aninus, the status of mourning immediately following the death of a relative, persists only until burial. The Rav responded that this was not the view of the Rambam. As the Rebbe began getting up from his seat to locate the Rambam, the Rav assured him (respectfully) that he need not bother because there was no such Rambam. In a subsequent letter to the Rav written on erev Sukkos, the Rebbe pointed to the Rambam’s commentary on the Mishnah (Demai 1:2) as the source for this view of the Rambam, but he notes that in Rabbi Kapach’s translation of the commentary, the Rambam’s view is different, in keeping with his view elsewhere. (In fact, even in the standard edition of the commentary, the Rambam does not say that aninus only persists until burial, and it is unclear what the Rebbe saw in the Rambam’s words here.) The Rebbe then wrote to Rabbi Shlomo Yosef Zevin, the founding

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The Rav and the Rebbe had certain profound commonalities that overrode their ancestral differences. Both of these seventh-generation scions of their respective rabbinic dynasties departed from the path of their ancestors by traveling to Berlin to attain a secular education. Subsequently, this Western education enabled both the Rav and the Rebbe to connect to the “New World” Jews of America in a way that others could not. The Rav’s feelings toward the Rebbe were fully reciprocated. The Rebbe wrote that his relationship with the Rav was “much greater than people knew.”

2. Ibid., p. 155 3. A video of Rabbi Ciment telling this story and others about the Rav and the Rebbe in Berlin is available at aid/640817/jewish/Purim-in-Berlin.htm. org/therebbe/livingtorah/player_cdo/chabad.

This does not mean that they were in frequent contact—I do not think they were—but they felt a deep kinship and mutual respect. The Rav famously spoke of the “loneliness” of the man of faith, and the Lubavitcher Rebbe embodied this in his own life. They were both very private individuals, introverts who nevertheless would reveal their inner selves before large crowds. Both devoted their lives to transplanting Judaism in a foreign continent, at a time when Torah was far from flourishing. And both achieved great success in their missions.

Notes 1. A synopsis of this eulogy, given December 14, 1976, is published in Rabbi Aaron Rakeffet−Rothkoff’s The Rav: The World of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, vol. 1, pp. 147-48.

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The Rav and the Rebbe at a dinner for the Lubavitch Yeshiva in 1942. From left: The Rav, who delivered the keynote address that evening; Rabbi Shmaryahu Gurary, brother-in-law of the Rebbe; Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, the Rebbe’s father-in-law and the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe; and the Rebbe. Courtesy of JEM editor of Encyclopedia Talmudit and a Chabad Chassid, asking why the Rambam’s view in his commentary on Demai is not recorded in the Encyclopedia.WhentheRav went to the Rebbe’s farbrengen, on the tenth of Shevat 5740 (January 28, 1980), in honor of the thirtieth anniversary of the Rebbe’s leadership, the Rebbe showed the Rav tremendous respect. When the Rav got up to leave, the Rebbe stood and remained standing until the Rav left the room.4 I asked the Rav the next day if the reason he attended the farbrengen was because the Rebbe had access to lost writings of Reb Chaim. The Rav said this rumor was absolutely false: the reasons he attended were, “He is my friend, I admire him, and they asked me to go.”

4. A video of the encounter is available at solicitedShemtovShevat-Farbrengen.htm.player_cdo/aid/343068/jewish/Yud-chabad.org/therebbe/livingtorah/RabbiAbrahamandRabbiHerschelSchactertheRavtoattendthe farbrengen.

Weekly

A Reading of the Jewish Bible

AVAILABLE NOW I BELIEVE

By Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks and intimate demonstration of how he came to see the world through listening attentively to the Torah and its message for the present and for all times.

zt”l A personal

Courtesy of Aish How is Jewish outreach faring today? Has it changed? Is it working? I recently

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STATE OF OUTREACHJEWISH

By Rabbi Doron Kornbluth BETWEEN US Jewish Action to provide a forum for a diversity of opinions within the spectrum of Orthodox Judaism. Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the policy or opinion of the Orthodox Union. dug deeply into the subject.1 found surprised certainly different than it was in the heyday of the 1990s, but it is very much alive, has had some great successes in some ways, even has advantages over the past. are six points to consider.

47Fall 5783/2022 JEWISH ACTION A rosh yeshivah once suggested to me that the best investment we could make to fight assimilation would be to subsidize the Conservative movement’s Ramah camp network. He was joking, but he had a valid point. Historically, most ba’alei teshuvah grew up with traditional parents or grandparents and attended some kind of Jewish school or camp. While afternoon Hebrew schools were not paradigms of success, they did offer basic Hebrew reading skills and rudimentary Jewish literacy that helped Jews feel comfortable when entering a shul or attending a class later on in life. This phenomenon is less common nowadays. “Few [unaffiliated] Jews these days have memories of a Bubby or Zeidy—or anything Jewish,” explains Slovie Jungreis-Wolff, a noted teacher, author and relationships and parenting instructor for Hineni Heritage Center, a Jewish outreach organization found ed by her late mother, Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis. Even worse, after decades of assimilation and high intermarriage rates, it is getting difficult to sort out halachic Jews from those who aren’t, and increasingly rare to find families in which everyone is halachically Jewish. There are numerous exceptions, though, including many Jews from the former Soviet Union, Israel and South America as well as Sephardim, all of whom tend to have a stronger Jewish identity. Even so, much work with these populations remains to be done.

Of course, the challenge isn’t just about Jewish literacy and knowledge. Judaism emphasizes traditional values and the West has largely moved away from those very values. In the big cities, where most Jews tend to live, atheism, drugs and promiscuity are common. Liberalism is strong among many Jews today and can be a major hindrance to experienced mekareves said, “Before we can begin teaching them Torah, we need to make sure they are happy, stable human beings. Most are. Some aren’t—they need some encouragement andThebuilding.”flipside of this lonely and liberal generation is that many young people today are attracted to the strong sense of meaning and community found in the Orthodox world. “People used to be much more judgmental than they are now,” says Rabbi Mendel Dubov, director of Chabad in Sussex County, New Jersey. “Today, it is expected that people be respectful of all types of lifestyles, including ours. They feel they are supposed to be curious and religious growth. In addition, mental health issues across the country have increased across all demographics, perhaps especially among the young. One recent study points to the severity of the issue. Data was collected from more than 350,000 students on over 300 campuses from 2013 to 2021.2 Re searchers found that “the mental health of college students across the United States has been on a consistent decline for all eight years of data analyzed, with an overall 135 percent increase in depression and 110 percent increase in anxiety; the number of students who met the criteria for one or more mental health problems in 2021 had doubled from 2013.” Indeed, up to 44 percent of college students today suffer from depression and/or anxiety according to a recent article on the Mayo Clin ic website.3 This phenomenon has a definite impact on outreach. As one

Rabbi Doron Kornbluth is the author of the kiruv classics, Why Marry Jewish?, Cremation or Burial? and Why Be Jewish? A popu lar speaker, he is the co-founder of Mosaica Press and works closely with (nearly) all the organizations men tioned here.

As Rivka Muskat, associate director of Emet Outreach, a multifaceted educa tional and outreach organization based in Queens, New York, warns, “The coming generation is American born and bred and is not as traditionally moored.” Despite this, outreach work with these groups remains phenome nally successful. According to the 2020 Pew study, 32 percent of Jewish adults today are first- or second-generation immigrants. Rabbi Micah Green land, international director of NCSY, reports that among public school teens engaging with NCSY most deeply (on Israel summer trips, for example), the percentage from immigrant families often exceeds 50 percent. Noting this trend, NCSY has been strategically focused for the past several years on inspiring the Jewish teen populations of many of these second-generation American families: Persian Jewish teens in Great Neck, New York; South American Jewish teens in Florida; Israeli Americans in Los Angeles, Las Vegas and elsewhere; and many other second-generation immigrant communities. In fact, Emet Outreach—which focuses mostly on these communi ties—has doubled its staff in the last few years. During a recent visit to the organization, I was happy to see sheva berachot held for different students every night of the week.

Assimilation1.

Interestingly, though, the new focus on “happiness” over “truth” has also proven to be enormously helpful to outreach.

Remember all the books and lectures “proving” Torah is true? That was so “1990s”! We are in what Rabbi Gidon Shoshan, deputy regional director of North America and the UK for Olami, calls the “Post-Truth Generation.” In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the scientific revolution changed the way people see the world. No longer would

knowledgeable about different ways of life. This gives us a foot in the door and is a big plus in kiruv right now.” Indeed, in many ways, young men and women today are more open than ever before. Pluralism is “in.” Several educators suggested to me that once a connection is made, outreach today is in some ways easier than it was decades ago. Evidence of this openness and interest in Jewish ideas is everywhere.

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CTeen, Chabad’s international teen network, which was founded in 2008, started small and already has over 600 chapters worldwide. Olami, created in 2007, also started modestly but has been experiencing double-digit growth yearly and currently has over 300 chapters in twenty-eight countries. The number of visitors to aish.com and Chabad.org is in the millions and increases annually.4 This phenomenal growth across the board indicates that the demand for Jewish knowledge is large—and proliferating. NCSY continues to expand, now running over 250 after-school Jewish Student Union (JSU) clubs in public high schools across the US and Canada and taking more public-school teens on monthlong Israel trips in the summer than the non-Orthodox movements—and more than ever before in its own history.

Technology2.3.Truth

With the ongoing distractions of con temporary life, attention spans have gotten shorter. The endless access to information has paradoxically made it more difficult for people to think. Of course, the Internet offers great new tools for outreach. For the first time in history, all levels and types of Torah learning are easily and immediately available to anyone who is interested— anytime, anywhere. And it works. More and more Torah teachers are reporting that students are learning online and seeking them out. “It is remarkable how those totally alienated from Torah knowledge are able to develop a deep connection to Torah online,” says Ruthie Simon of Kesher/The Learning Con nection in the United Kingdom. Rabbi Steven Burg, CEO of Aish, emphasizes that “social media is not just a place for . . . entertaining . . . content, it’s our core educational signature.” It enables out reach organizations to recruit students and easily keep in touch with them; an increasing number of Aish’s students and program participants are coming via social media. It isn’t just about information anymore. (See the sidebar on page 54 for more insights on social media’s impact on outreach.)

Yavneh students light Shabbat candles at a Shabbaton Courtesy of OU-JLIC

(2) On the college campus, aside from the highly successful OU-JLIC program, which focuses on Orthodox students, there are two large umbrella organizations that are increasingly everpresent: Chabad and Olami (each with hundreds of locations and growing).

I once believed we could (and soon would!) put a stop to assimilation and intermarriage. It didn’t happen. After decades of outreach on the part of numerous dedicated and effective Realism5.

JEWISH

Fewer resources are wasted. Successful programs are easily shared and econ omies of scale applied. Concurrent with this consolidation (in most of the groups mentioned above), it seems there is less “in-fighting” now than in the past. Why is that? Suggestions include: (a) the centralization of out reach just mentioned—those who get funding from the same donors are more motivated to get along; (b) experience— we’ve seen the damage in-fighting can do and try harder to avoid it; and (c) increased homogeneity among the groups; while there still are significant differences in approach to outreach (Olami offers more advanced learning programs, for instance, and Chabad more “experience the mitzvah” type of activities), the kiruv scene on the whole is more “unified” than before.

Life and a lecturer on Jewish medical ethics at Binghamton University in New York, notes that “what people want and need more than anything else is to feel understood, loved and accepted for who they are.” Indeed, while the search for truth is rare these days, the search for relationships, meaning and happiness is common—and Judaism is a popular resource for it. Rabbi Greenland elabo rates on this phenomenon: “While teens today may not be specifically searching for meaning or truth, once they experi ence the meaningful connections that our experiences and lifestyle provide, they immediately appreciate it and recognize it as something they want and need in their lives.”

49Fall 5783/2022 ACTION the beginning point of discussion be religious belief as it had been throughout most of history. Science, facts, rationality and objective truth became the barometer of decisionmaking. This “fact-based” view of the world held sway for most of the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries and is largely responsible for the great progress in technology the world experienced during that time. Things, however, have changed. Today, more and more, facts are being sidelined in favor of feelings. The discourse is centered on what a person feels reality should be, not on what it objectively is. It isn’t about issues at all. Indeed, when I asked kiruv professionals what issues were popular today, most responded that there weren’t any: fewer people in 2022 are askingNowadays,questions.it’sabout my feelings. My identity. My mental state. Many people focus on career, and they feel enormous pressure to succeed. All of this leads kiruv professionals to offer more intro ductory “self-help” wisdom in the early stages of an individual’s Jewish growth. Additionally, people feel they have less time to learn. The ba’alei teshuvah of yesteryear often came to yeshivah for a year or two. They were searching and wanted to know. In 2022, six months is considered a long stay—if they come at Interestingly,all. though, the new focus on “happiness” over “truth” has also proven to be enormously helpful to out reach. People are looking for friendship and support. They want to be happy and comfortable. Jackie Glaser, director of leadership development for Olami, explains that the organization “focuses more on meaning, purpose, and provid ing interesting and potentially transfor mative experiences.” Outreach profes sionals today “have a real advantage,” believes Rabbi Shlomo Landau, North American director of Olami mentors. “Young people often do not have many deep relationships,” he says. “They crave such relationships and respond to someone who listens and cares.” Echoing this sentiment, Rivkah Slonim, education director at the Rohr Chabad Center for Jewish Student

Overall, I believe the consolidation of the Jewish outreach world is beneficial.

(3) The young professional de mographic is also being serviced by Chabad and Olami, both of which have dozens of centers.

(4) The kiruv scene for parents with kids and for “older folks” is less homo geneous. Chabad, a loose network of Aish branches, community kollelim and countless independent “mekarvim” are some of the options. Empty nesters in particular seem to constitute a growing category. Rabbi Yitzchok Preis, director of outreach for Cincinnati’s Community Kollel, points out that the values of this population are more traditional and that seniors, generally speaking, have more time to explore, which explains their outsized presence in the kiruv world.

For many years, an annual convention called AJOP (Association for Jew ish Outreach Programs) was held in Baltimore, led by the venerable Rabbi Yitzchok (“Itchie”) Lowenbraun, z”l, who brought together hundreds of Jew ish outreach professionals from dozens of independent kiruv organizations around the world. Today, AJOP is no more. However, there seems to be less of a need to bring together disconnected organizations as considerable consol idation of the varied outreach organi zations has occurred over the years. Outside of Israel, there are only a few big players today. The vast majority—in some places, the near-totality—of local outreach organizations are affiliated with one of the main international um brella organizations:

Consolidation4.

(1) The teen space is led by the leg endary NCSY and the growing Chabad equivalent, CTeen, each of which has hundreds of chapters in the US alone.

Young women studying Torah on their college campus.

Participants on a MoMENtum Men’s Trip.

50 JEWISH ACTION Fall 5783/2022 organizations, we have yet to see a massive numerical return to Torah. For the time being, al pi derech hateva, it seems that most secular Jews are simply unlikely to become fully Orthodox. Due to this recognition, the goals and modalities of kiruv are more “realistic” today. While more serious students are guided along a path leading to yeshivah or seminary, lighter frontline programs have also developed. Rabbi Avraham Edelstein, education director of Neve Yerushalayim College for Women, calls this approach “pre-outreach,” where we focus on having unaffiliated Jews de velop Jewish feelings and connections. Examples of this approach include Birthright programs (free ten-day introductory trips to Israel); Momen tum trips (formerly JWRP, affection ately called “Birthright for Moms” and, recently, Dads); NCSY’s Relief Missions (short chesed trips to rebuild commu nities damaged in a hurricane, for in stance); and Justifi’s (socially conscious chesed) trips to a host of locales.

ested in right now in your life, as long as they are authentic. This “more realistic” model has also shifted the focus to different demo graphic groups Years ago, outreach was targeted almost uniquely toward college students. With lots of time on their hands and few responsibilities, college students were seen as those with the most potential to change and grow. No longer. Why is that? For many reasons (including but not limited to social pressure), experience has shown that it is hard for college students living on campus to stick with Jewish growth over the long term. Furthermore, as is often noted, “the college student today is the high school student of yesterday; the young professional today is the college student of yesterday.” In other words, maturity levels have, on the whole, decreased, and the time it takes to change has increased. Cognizant of this reality, Olami now funds two to three trips to Israel per student instead of the single-trip maximum it used to have, and both Olami and Chabad are investing more and more in the young professionals space. Over the past six years, OU-JLIC has spearheaded the development of Yavneh, a successful network of student leaders and activists. These student leaders are now graduating and looking for ways to utilize their organizational

Courtesy of Momentum

The kiruv movement is larger, more unified, more professional and more effective than ever before.

“Free entertainment is everywhere,” says Ruchi Koval, co-founder and associate director of the Jewish Family Experience, a family education center and Sunday school located in Cleveland, Ohio. “In order to attract the attention of our potential clients, we sometimes have to engage in ‘edutainment’ before we can teach pure Torah.” Rabbi Dave Felsenthal, a nonprofit consultant, explains that today it is harder to recruit from the frontlines directly into “seri ous” Torah programs, so we focus more on introductory programs. While some criticize this trend and yearn for the days of “real” kiruv programs (“Torah is true! Accept it and change your life!”), the current model of varied programs and levels (gently encouraging growth without imposing it) appears to me to be more attuned to the reality of the generation. It also seems more honest: We hope you’ll go far with your Jewish growth and are here to help you along the way, but we will try to provide whatever type of Jewish experiences you are inter

Courtesy of Yavneh/ Rabbi Jonathan Shulman

Courtesy of MomentumCourtesy of Olami skills within their new community settings. Building on the Yavneh model, OU-JLIC is creating Yavneh Bayit, a grassroots peer-to-peer engagement and leadership development network that will galvanize this passion and commitment toward the aim of better supporting the Jewish and Torah needs of young professionals and their communities. Itisalsoimportant to note that while the kiruv movement was once focused on putting out the fire of assimilation and intermarriage—there simply wasn’t time (or money) to focus on those formerly secular Jews who had already become religious—today there is greater recognition that the decision to keep Shabbat (or even becoming frum) is only one step in a journey. One Chabad campus shaliach in Canada told me he devotes Sunday afternoons to calling former students—and not just for fundraising. “I’ve invested years in these neshamot. How can I just ‘move on’? They need me.” Emet Outreach in Brooklyn has hired several educators who are fully dedicated to helping former students who are already religious; many are married, with children in frum schools. NCSY now runs a robust NCSY alumni division, providing Jewish resources to their graduates to maintain and further and Israel is full of distractions, explains Rabbi Chaim Willis, executive director of Aish South Africa. Sometimes, a trip to Poland, South Africa or Peru offers a better opportunity for students to dis connect and think. Also, learning Torah in Israel often occurs later in the pro cess than it used to, and even students who do end up learning there generally come for shorter periods of time. As most students today are spending less time in Israel, what other options are available to them? The list is long. The following are just some highlights: (a) Online outreach abounds, from aish.com and Chabad.org to regular learning programs such as Olami’s Souled (online beginners’ community and classes for women), Shteig (weekly learning chavrutot) and numerous other programs. In addition, there are more Jewish podcasts and classes available online today than one could ever listen to in a lifetime! (b) There are countless introductory programs in North America run by Chabad, Olami, NCSY and various local organizations. (c) Ba’al teshuvah yeshivot in the US are very popular. Chabad’s Morris town is packed. Olami’s Shaar program (housed at Sh’or Yoshuv in Far Rocka way, New York) has revolutionized ye shivah options in the US; one can learn

advance the growth their students experienced during high school. This type of activity from a frontline kiruv organization was rare twenty years ago but is quietly becoming the norm. While perhaps less exciting than the “messianic” view of kiruv that once existed, this new realistic view is prov ing more effective in responding to the actual needs of the Jewish people and gives me lots of hope for the future.

When I first got involved in outreach in the 1990s, Israel was “the place to be.” Indeed, when a secular Jew anywhere showed some interest (and often even when he didn’t!), the goal was to get him to Israel as quickly as possible and have him stay as long as possible. As far as I can see, this is no longer the case and no longer the attitude in most outreach circles. While Israel is, of course, still an important part of the process, some Israel trips have become less effective. Students are constantly on their phones Israel6.

Courtesy of OU-JLIC

(e) Sinai Retreats, Heritage Retreats and other “outdoor” programs (think “Outward Bound” with a Torah/ outreach feel) have grown in popu larity and impact, getting students out of their routines and into a growth environment.

“The methods to meet students change. The core does not. Call students. Care about students. Drink coffee with students. . . . The only way to success is to develop relationships,” says Rabbi Yonason Quinn, co-found er of Olami West. Rabbi Eli Silber stein, founder and director of the Roit man Chabad Center at Cornell, claims that nothing has really changed. “I teach the same Torah, wrap the same tefillin on my fellow Jews, and try to be an example in my daily conduct. Even if the world changes, I’m a constant. In this lies the real impact. It reflects a Judaism that transcends time and space. . . . It’s what people are truly looking for.”

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(d) Yeshiva University offers an introductory Mechina Pathways Pro gram on both its men’s and women’s campuses designed for those students looking to grow religiously while pur suing a university course of study.

Courtesy of EMET full time or work in Manhattan (and learn part time) while living in and benefiting from a yeshivah environ ment. Similarly, Olami West’s LA Sem offers wonderful options for young women in a growth mode.

(f) Finally, there is community life. Many mekarvim prefer to integrate beginners into the observant com munity rather than send them off to Israel. Rabbi Shimon Feder, director of the Jewish Education Center (JEC) of South Florida, reports that the results so far seem better than the old (Israel-based) model. Rather than a short immersive experience in Israel, followed by culture shock and starting again from scratch upon their return to the US, this new model has students visiting and eventually moving into observant communities much earlier on in their Torah journey. The learn ing curve is much slower, but arguably healthier and more solid. So is kiruv dead, as some haveNo.claimed?Thekiruv movement is larger, more unified, more professional and more effective than ever before. What is dead is the overly optimistic view that we would quickly bring all Jews back to full Torah observance. Until Mashiach comes—hopefully soon!—it is hard to see that hap pening. We are more sober now, and that is good. It allows us to be moreWhateffective.elsehas changed? As we said above: there is less Jewish knowledge, truth-seeking and Israel focus; more technology, realism, unity and open ness. It’s complicated but good. What hasn’t changed?

One more thing hasn’t changed: our potential for impact. While the global picture of assimilation is certainly sobering, nearly all of the educators I spoke with mentioned how busy they are with the many Jews who are inter ested, and how happy they are with their career choice—their involvement with outreach has had a huge impact on students and helped their own families stay inspired. In truth, anyone who gets involved in outreach today can be busy 24/7. There is a great thirst. Dozens of positions are avail able, and the field is growing. Does it work? Yes. True, it doesn’t always work. Some people will not move Jewishly at all no matter what you say or do. However, at the other

3. Mayo Clinic Health System, “What parents need to know about college students and depression,” 7 September 021. -health/speaking-of-health/college-students-and-depression.https://www.mayoclinichealthsystem.org/hometown

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One recent great success: in May, over 600 secular students attended the Olami Summit and were incredi bly inspired by a week of networking, growing, fun and learning. Why “only” 600? Because there was no room left in the hotel! Indeed, most outreach organizations were very resourceful throughout the pandemic—and grew stronger.

2. Sarah Ketchen Lipson, et al., “Trends in college student mental health and help-seeking by race/ethnicity: Findings from the national healthy minds study, 2013–2021,” Journal of Affective Disorders, vol. 306 (June 2022): 138-47. doi.org/10.1016/j. jad.2022.03.038. Dr. Lipson is assistant professor of health law, policy and management at Boston University School of Public Health, and conducted the study with her colleagues at the Healthy Mind Network.

4. Private correspondence with aish.com and Chabad.org editors.

5. While there is no official, reliable figure, based on the internal numbers shared with me by NCSY, Chabad and Olami—as well as Nefesh Yehudi and other organizations in Israel—it appears that 2,000 is a minimum number; it could be far higher.

end of the spectrum, some teens, students and young pro fessionals will become fully Orthodox, as we see happening day in and day out, whether through NCSY, Olami, Chabad or a local organization. Try and find a Jewish community today without ba’alei teshuvah, including young ba’alei teshuvah! Many Jews touched by kiruv remain somewhere in the middle. While they may not “go the whole way,” they are open to strengthening their observance, knowledge andIndicationsconnections.ofthe power and potential of outreach are everywhere. Conservative estimates count at least 2,000 new ba’alei teshuvah worldwide per year, and possibly more.5 Tens of thousands are attending Israel-based and other inspirational trips and programs. Hundreds of thou sands are connecting through Torah online. Rabbi Avra ham Edelstein once (correctly) wrote in these pages that building communities deserves more attention than it gets: “The teshuvah movement has been remarkably successful in this arena, building Houston, Dallas, Atlanta . . . and many other thriving Torah communities that started out virtually from scratch. Around the globe, there are tens and tens of such cities, comprising tens of thousands of Jews.” Indeed, including the children of ba’alei teshuvah, it is inarguable that hundreds of thousands of Jews have come back.

Today, it is realistic for a kiruv professional to signifi cantly affect hundreds or even thousands of lives. It is also realistic for an average ba’al habayit—with a minimum of effort and no particular knowledge required—to mentor a Jewish student, bringing the student closer and inspiring the mentor’s family along the way. Kiruv has changed, but it is alive and well—and growing.

Notes 1. Educators consulted include: Rabbi Yisrael Abisror (YEHUDI Orlando), Rabbi Shlomo Abrams (DATA of Dallas), Rabbi David Begoun (L’Chaim Center of Chicago), Rabbi Glenn Black (NCSY Canada), Rabbi Steven Burg (Aish), Rabbi Avi Cassel (Olami), Rabbi Jack Cohen (Hebrew Academy of Miami), Rabbi Yaakov Cohen (TORCH of Houston), Rabbi Avraham Edelstein (Neve Yerushalayim), Steve Eisenberg (Miami), Rabbi Shimon Feder (JEC of South Florida), Rabbi Jonathan Feldman (Tribe Tel Aviv), Rabbi Dave Felsenthal (Consultant), Rabbi Yerachmiel Fried (DATA of Dallas), Liat Garelick (Olami’s Seriously Souled), Jackie Glaser (Olami), Rabbi Micah Greenland (NCSY), Rebbetzin Esti Hamilton (London), Rebbetzin Slovie Jungreis-Wolff (Hineni), Rabbi Shlomo Landau (Olami), Rabbi Raphael Leban (The Jewish Experience of Denver), Robin Davina Meyerson (Project Inspire Arizona), D’vorah Miller (Ikaron, an Orange County–based Hebrew school), Rivka Muskat (Emet Outreach, Queens), Rabbi Avraham and Rebbetzin Goldie Plotkin (Chabad of Markham, Ontario), Rabbi Menachem Posner (Chabad.org), Rabbi Yitzchok Preis (Cincinnati Kollel), Rabbi Yonason Quinn (Olami West), Rabbi Shimon Rivkin (Chabad CTeen), Gila Ross (Seed UK), Rabbi Gidon Shoshan (Olami), Rabbi Eli Silberstein (Roitman Chabad Center at Cornell), Rebbetzin Ruthie Simon (Kesher UK), Rivkah Slonim (Rohr Chabad Center at Binghamton), Meira Spivak (NCSY Oregon), Rabbi Moshe Trepp (Olami Texas), and Rabbi Chananel Weiner (Aish Boston). My apologies if I left anyone out.

Jewish Outreach on Social Media: A Newish Frontier

“We’re helping Jews engage with and share timeless Jewish wisdom.”

Long before social media, Aish encouraged people to learn and share what they knew with other Jews, says Jamie Geller, chief media and marketing officer at Aish Global. “Our presence on social media is a direct extension of that,” she says.

“As a Jewish community, we’re losing people because they don’t know anything about what it means to be Jewish,” she notes.

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In the early years of social media, Geller notes, many established kiruv organizations struggled to get on board with the concept, simply trying to leverage the platforms to get more people to attend traditional programs like classes, Shabbat tables and trips to Israel. That approach, however, has shifted.

Josephs made her first YouTube video in 2005 and felt she had “stumbled across an idea that had potential to change the Jewish world,” she recalls.

By Rachel Schwartzberg Allison

The many challenges of social media are well documented, but in the world of Jewish outreach it’s being embraced as an unprecedented opportunity. From Twitter to Facebook and Instagram, social media claims billions of users globally, across most demographic groups. And researchers estimate the average person’s daily use is now about two and a half hours.

“Having personal, one-on-one conversations takes a long time,” she says. “But posting something and having 50,000 people see it is powerful. You can influence people and slowly shift their thinking. It’s a model that works.”

“If that’s where people are listening and learning, that’s where we should be,” says Susanne Goldstone Rosenhouse, social media coordinator at NJOP (formerly the National Jewish Outreach Program). The person behind @JewishTweets, Rosenhouse was instrumental in helping NJOP become one of the first Jewish organizations on Twitter. “In the very early days of social media, a consultant suggested we could be a voice for Judaism online,” she recalls. “Fourteen years later, that is still what we’re doing. We are raising the level of Jewish conversation.” A fundamental aspect of outreach, according to Rosenhouse, is “meeting people where they are at. Once people were spending more time on social media, it became a no-brainer for us to be there too. We’re letting positive Jewish content be part of the social media experience.”

Ideally, she says, Aish’s online efforts will bolster people’s understanding

To that end, Aish maintains a presence on seven social media platforms in three languages. According to Geller, reaching as many Jews as possible and helping them strengthen their Jewish knowledge is the main purpose of Aish’s social media presence.

Rachel Schwartzberg is a writer and editor, who lives with her family in Memphis, Tennessee.

MEASURING SUCCESS

“Demographic studies show that 72 percent of the Jewish population in North America doesn’t particularly care about Israel or Judaism,” says Geller. “They’re not going to come to a program. That’s who we’re talking to online. These are Jews who are largely unreachable by the Jewish establishment. We’re giving them what they want, where they want it.”

She had been working for Jewish outreach organizations and noticed she spent a lot of her time correcting misunderstandings about Orthodox Judaism. Her response was to create Jew in the City, an organization dedicated to “portraying the Orthodox community in a more nuanced, authentic way” than what was seen in the general media.

“I wanted to break down the perceived wall that stood between the greater Jewish community and Orthodox Jews,” she says. As it turns out, social media has been the perfect platform for her mission.

UNIONGIFTSOFTHROUGHOFANDTOACREATELASTINGLEGACYMEETYOURPHILANTHROPICGOALSASSURETHECONTINUEDVITALITYKLALYISRAEL.ABEQUESTMADEYOURWILLORTRUSTISONETHESIMPLESTANDMOSTFLEXIBLETOSUPPORTTHEORTHODOXANDITSESSENTIALPROGRAMS.PLEASECONTACTARISTEINBERGTODAYAT212-613-8258ORARISTEINBERG@OU.ORG OU PLANNED GIVING

Additionally, some of the aspects of social media that sound alarm bells for some—such as anonymity and disinhibition—have a potent flip side, Rabbi Lightstone notes.

“People have told me they’re religious today because of Jew in the City,” she says. “I have heard from people that they realized there’s a way to be Jewish that they never knew.”

“Kiruv has always been about building relationships,” he says. “Now people are reaching out to me because they follow me on social media—but we’re having the same conversations we would have had even without it. Social media has effectively transplanted an older system to a new platform.”

After all these years devoted to outreach, Josephs says it’s still powerful when she comes across someone she has never met in real life who tells her, “You changed my life.”

It’s truly all about being social. For example, in real life, people connect through storytelling or sharing a laugh. That’s what inspires us. And those experiences translate very well online.”

When she travels for speaking engagements in communities around the country, Josephs often gets to meet her social media followers.

“There’s a seductive power to social media,” he says. “It removes our inhibitions, allowing for fast and surprisingly personal conversation. As Jewish educators, this means that people who otherwise might be uncomfortable approaching a rabbi or rebbetzin may open up to real heartfelt conversations on social media.”

“What works about social media is the personal touch to it,” she says. “It’s the feeling that you’re making a friend.

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Once people were spending more time on social media, it became a no-brainer for us to be there, too . . . . We’re helping Jews engage with and share timeless Jewish wisdom. of Judaism—which in turn will help “fill the seats for the many worthwhile local kiruv organizations out there.” Rosenhouse admits that a significant goal of her organization’s social media presence has been to “funnel people to our in-person programs. It’s been extremely positive for NJOP,” she says. “Just the other day, someone messaged us on Facebook, ‘I’ve always wanted to learn Hebrew. Do you have classes?’ I answered, ‘Yes, we do!’” However, getting people in the door isn’t the primary focus. “People are interested in exploring, and they’re comfortable online even if they wouldn’t go to a program in person,” says Rosenhouse. “That’s their first step in learning more about Judaism. The fact is, fewer people are going to synagogues. They’re finding online communities instead, and they’re having positive Jewish experiences that way.” Geller agrees that especially for many young Jews, Jewish engagement on social media “can be the beginning and the end.” “People want digital experiences.” What’s remarkable, she adds, is that substantive content consistently gets the most engagement online. “It’s clearly not just about entertainment,” she says. “Using social media platforms absolutely can have an impact. And what’s more—it can be scaled. We can make a sea change in Jewish identity.” Rabbi Mordechai Lightstone, social media editor for Chabad. org, points out that the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, encouraged the use of radio and satellite broadcasts and the nascent world wide web as platforms to teach Torah and promote acts of goodness and kindness in the world. “Chabad’s presence on social media is part of that continuum,” he says. “These platforms are there for us to share Torah and mitzvos and encourage people to grow as Jews.” Any skepticism about the effectiveness of social media as a tool for kiruv is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the purpose, says Rabbi Lightstone. “There is a conception among some that Jewish outreach is about total life changes,” he explains. “Rare is the person who alters the course of his or her worldview based on Twitter or Facebook—at least not in any healthy way. But if the goal is to connect to people, answer questions, break down stereotypes and inspire even a single extra mitzvah—it is incredibly powerful. These moments of Jewish connection are not merely one-off events. They’re empowering people to connect to Hashem and Yiddishkeit in really profound ways.”

Josephs agrees that the inherent nature of social media is what makes it such a valuable tool—not only because it’s a helpful way to reach more people.

While the success of Jewish outreach online can’t necessarily be quantified, those working in the field have no doubt that they are, in fact, inspiring other Jews.

Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin, director of education for NCSY and host of the popular 18Forty podcast, agrees that individual voices are what people relate to most on social platforms. He maintains an active social media presence and is a well-known personality in the Jewish Twitterverse.

“In this business, you don’t always know your impact,” says Rosenhouse. “We get success stories, for sure, but we assume there are many more we’re just not hearing.” She recalls a person she encountered in her early days of @JewishTweets. “He’d ask questions, and we’d answer them,” she says. “I’ve been following him on Twitter now for years—he’s become a frum guy. I’ve been watching him grow.”

“V’chol mi she’oskim b’tzarchei tzibbur be’emunah, HaKadosh Baruch Hu y’shaleim s’charam, v’yasir meihem kol machalah—Those who are involved faithfully in the needs of the community, Hashem will pay their reward and remove from them every Devotingaffliction.”oneself to working on behalf of Klal Yisrael, whether as a rabbi, outreach worker or Jewish communal professional, is appropriately referred to as avodat hakodesh, sacred work. Doing “Hashem’s work” is “not for everyone,” admits Rabbi Menachem Penner, dean of RIETS and one of the roundtable discussion participants, in the pages ahead. “But how lucky one is to find such a career.”

COVER STORY

Photos: Daled Studio

Pursuing a career in klal work was the focus of a recent roundtable discussion convened by Jewish Action and held at the OU headquarters in downtown Manhattan. Cognizant that the dynamics are not the same for different segments of our community, we focused the discussion—which featured experts in Jewish communal work—on the specific challenges and opportunities within the Modern Orthodox community. Other segments of our community face different realities, challenges, and solutions. We are hopeful that this discussion will be a meaningful contribution to the communal consideration of this issue.

TALENT:of In Search The Future of Jewish Communal Work–A Roundtable Discussion

Josh Gottesman is assistant director of human resources and director of talent development at the OU. He plays an integral role in all global recruitment and professional de velopment activities for the organization. With experience in formal education, informal education and business, he has been doing klal work for seventeen years.

Cohen: So is “crisis” the right word?

Tal Attia is OU-JLIC’s national director of recruitment and leadership development, and senior educator for Yavneh on Campus, a project of OU-JLIC. Tal is passion ate about Jewish and experiential education, student mentorship and community building.

Rabbi Menachem Penner: I don’t think Covid created the problem, but Covid has brought it to crisis level. I’m not sure any of us in this room fully understand why Covid affected the job market to the extent that it did. The pandemic changed so much in our world and our communi ty, and we are just seeing the beginning. Besides, if any group of Jews needs and wants a leader—a mechanech, a shul rav, a rebbetzin, et cetera—and can’t find one, I would call that a spiritual crisis. The stakes are much higher in Jewish com munal work than in most other fields. Even though many companies can’t find employees, when shuls, schools and Jew ish organizations can’t find employees, it’s a crisis.

While I don’t have actual data on the lack of young people entering the field, I do get phone calls, emails, text messages and WhatsApps every week regarding open positions in the Jewish communal field—a school is looking for a teacher or head of school; a shul needs a new rabbi or assistant rabbi; an organization needs a fundraiser, et cetera.

Rabbi Dr. Josh Joseph: It feels like this has been an issue for a long time—Rab bi Menachem Penner and I worked on a program called “Star Search” almost twenty years ago—and it certainly con tinues to be one. For example, we have about eighty-five open positions at the OU right now—at all levels—on college campuses, in local program chapters and at the headquarters in New York.

Jeff Cohen (Moderator) is a leadership development con sultant and an executive coach as well as a public speaker and published author. He formerly held senior marketing and human resources positions at American Express, is on the OU’s Community Projects and Partnerships Commission, and hosts an OU podcast called Saturday to Shabbos that inspires Jewish journeys.

Shira Werblowsky: I don’t believe it’s a crisis for organizations the size of the OU or YU. True, you have positions you can’t fill, but the organization is not going to fall apart because there are openThepositions.lackofqualified applicants is a crisis, however, for the smaller insti tutions. When a head of school leaves a small community, if the community school cannot find a replacement to move to town, the school will fall apart, and seventy kids will not have a school to attend. If that day school can’t find a director of development, the school will have great difficulty raising funds, won’t be fiscally sound, and may ultimately have to shut down.

Rabbi Avraham Edelstein is educational director of Neve Yerushalayim College for Women and executive mentor of Olami.

Cohen: I’d like to explore some of the underlying reasons this might be hap pening. What would you say are the obstacles to filling talent in the Jewish communal sector?

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Tal Attia: I’ve only been in the recruit ment business for about a year now, but I definitely see that it’s a struggle. The problem is especially prevalent in the States, but even in Israel, many people are choosing to go into high-tech and other lucrative fields.

Rabbi Mark Wildes: I’ve always had a challenging time finding the right people, but I would say the last ten years have been exceptionally hard. And it got much worse during Covid. I’m in the kiruv space, so perhaps my experience is unique to outreach, but I’ve been looking for two years to fill two or three rabbinic slots, and it’s been very challenging to find the right people.

Josh Gottesman: Compensation will always be a factor when someone is de ciding where to work, but there are other factors that play a role as well. But the unique benefits that a Jewish communal role can offer should be a selling point for recruitment. What are some of the benefits? One is a flexible work life. You don’t feel stressed leaving early on Friday or taking off on yom tov because the schedules are built around that.

Jeff Cohen: Let’s start this conversation with a basic, fundamental question: Do you believe the Jewish communal world is suffering from a dwindling pool of po tential employees—and, if so, does that actually pose a significant problem?

Shira Werblowsky is a seasoned executive recruiter with a practice focused exclusively on Jewish non-profits. She has filled senior positions at the OU, Yachad, RCCS, Chai Lifeline, Friends of the IDF, Olami and more.

Werblowsky: Kavod is a big piece. In the Modern Orthodox community, generally speaking, the people who get the most respect are not those who decide to go into communal work. That’s also part of the reason people leave the field. Maybe you’re the fund raiser for your kid’s day school and despite all of your hard work and talent, the board members come down hard on you and you’re not given respect for the job you do. Perhaps every time you go to shul, you sit next to people who are very successful financially, and you think to yourself: “I spend all day raising money and working in less-than-ideal condi tions. I’m talented. Why don’t I do this in a business environment where I can earn much more money and be respected for it too?”

Rabbi Dr. Josh Joseph is executive vice president and chief operating officer of the OU, where he is respon sible for all aspects of OU programs and operations, other than OU Kosher. Josh joined the OU from Yeshiva University where he served in a variety of roles over sixteen years, ultimately rising to senior vice president. He previously worked at a hedge fund, as a community rabbi, and as the executive director of The Orthodox Caucus.

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Cohen: Indeed, in a recent issue of this magazine, Rabbi Wildes wrote: “It’s simply not considered prestigious in the Modern Orthodox community to go into kiruv.” This raises the question: does that only apply to kiruv, or to klal work more broadly, as Shira said?

Rabbi Avraham Edelstein: Another factor that needs to be mentioned is the wealth in the Orthodox community. When young Anglo couples in the Chareidi world started their married lives in Yerushalayim in the “olden days,” the husband would learn in a kollel for a few years and when they ran out of money, they would start looking for jobs. Very often, the easiest model was to go into outreach—move into an out-of-town community with a low cost of living and

Rabbi Wildes: It definitely applies to kiruv. In the Modern Orthodox world, there is no rabbi [I know of] who puts kiruv on a pedestal. When I post a new job, I generally have five Chabad guys calling me. A few Olami types might call as well, but very few candidates from the YU world apply. My son is a senior at YU and he’s interning for Amazon this summer in computer science. His roommate is interning for me at MJE. The difference between what I’m paying his roommate for the summer and what my son is getting paid at Amazon is ridiculous. We need to make up for that gap with kavod. I don’t know if the same phenom enon occurs in chinuch. My sense is that in the Modern Orthodox world, being a rebbi for young children lacks the prestige that one finds in the more Yeshivish community. My kids attended Yeshiva Ketana of Manhattan on the Upper West Side, and the rebbeim were absolute superstars, one after the next. This is because even though it’s not a big-budget school, it takes the rebbeim positions seriously. A fourth-grade rebbi is like a king. I don’t know if a fourth-grade rebbi has that kind of prestige in the Modern Ortho dox day school system. While pulpit rabbis in the Modern Or thodox world do get more kavod [than rebbeim], it is clear that we must have some sort of campaign to restore the kavod of Jewish communal work.

Another important factor that needs to be mentioned is the sense of mission and purpose that drives people to enter the field. Those involved in klal work have a deep sense of satisfaction. Have you ever asked yourself: do I feel good about the type of work I do? Entering the field of Jewish communal work will let you answer that question with a resounding yes!

Rabbi Menachem Penner is the Max and Marion Grill dean of Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary at Yeshiva University, where he inspires and trains the rabbis of tomorrow. He teaches Tanach, tefillah and machshavah in communities worldwide, and is a valued resource to many in the Jewish community who are navigating personal and family challenges.

Rabbi Mark Wildes is the founder and director of the Manhattan Jewish Experience (MJE), a highly successful outreach organization that engages unaffiliated/less af filiated Jews in their twenties and thirties in Jewish life.

60 JEWISH ACTION Fall 5783/2022 join the newly established kollel. There was a good synergy between the supply line and the job availability. Today, fewer kollelim are being estab lished. More importantly, there’s little, if any, pressure felt among many of today’s young Anglo couples in Yerushalayim to start supporting themselves; their par ents often support them for years. Once they are ready to start becoming finan cially independent, klal work may not be the direction they turn to anymore. If you want to attract people to klal work, you have to get them when they’re young and idealistic. Once they have four or five children, they are reluctant to live in places where they fear they won’t be able to provide the desired chinuch for theirThischildren.bringsme to my second point, which is that this generation is more coddled. While we do see many young couples in the Chareidi community interested in doing outreach work, they are not interested in sacrificing to live in a community where the Orthodox Jewish infrastructure is not developed. In the past, we saw a whole generation of pioneers who brought up children in truly small Jewish communities with little infrastructure, and their children became talmidei chachamim, rabbis and rebbetzins; in fact, their kids were better off having had the small-town experi ence. Nowadays, when couples go “out of town,” very often it’s really a full-service city with regard to frum life. Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, and even Portland are all more or less full-service communities. There are school options, several shuls, a kollel, a mikvah and kosher food. As ded icated as you are to kiruv or chinuch or the rabbanus mission, you have what you need to live a comprehensive frum life. But in places like Champagne, Illinois; Madison, Wisconsin; Duke University in North Carolina; or UC Santa Barbara in California, where you’ve got large Jewish populations, we have almost no takers. So yes, there’s a lack of messaging regarding the importance of klal work. Rabbi Wildes mentioned the lack of sufficient messaging in YU circles, and I could testify that the problem exists in Chareidi circles as well.

Rabbi Penner: Rabbi Wildes and Rabbi Edelstein are correct in saying that kiruv work is not prioritized. But it’s more than that. If you look at the entire group of people entering the YU pipeline of teaching and Jewish leadership, there are simply not enough people in the system. From each graduating class at RIETS, there are about thirty students who enter avodas hakodesh. The reason they are not working at MJE is less about their feelings regarding outreach than because they got starting jobs as assistant rabbis in shuls in Teaneck and the Towns.FiveThe rea son they’re not teaching fifth or I’ve been looking for two years to fill two or three rabbinic slots, and it’s been very challenging to find the right people.

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61Fall 5783/2022 ACTION seventh-graders is because they got jobs teaching tenth-graders. Our community continues to expand, baruch Hashem, and so do its needs. If we had more young people entering the field, we’d have enough rabbis to spill over to many of the other openings, such as schools outside of New York that are really in crisis.We need to double the amount of young people who say, “I want to spend my life in klal work.” But the number of students who, by the middle of college, have already decided “this is not for me,” or “this is not something I can afford to do,” is very high. As hard as it is for someone to go into avodas hakodesh, it’s harder to explain it on a shidduch resume, and it most certainly affects the pool of people who are willing to go out withOnyou.aseparate note, I find that today’s teens and collegiates are not being chal lenged with real leadership positions. Too much is being done for them instead of by them. I observe the amazing efforts of the YU staff who coordinate student events and Shabbos programming for college students, but I remind myself that when I was a student, I was coordinating huge Shabbatons for kids in NCSY! In high schools, the programming is done by professionals; the students aren’t as needed to run Shabbatons anymore.

Attia: Just last year, we at OU-JLIC started to weave professional develop ment into our recruitment strategy. We launched the Fellowship for Campus Professionals, which is both a pipeline to our campus positions and a training system to prepare couples for their roles. This has been a really effective tool for filling some of our positions, as well as creating advocates for OU-JLIC out there in the field. Last year, six out of six of our new positions were filled by the fellowship.Overall, we find it to be a very suc cessful model. When we recruit staff into OU-JLIC, we think about how to incorporate professional development so that the candidates understand that OU-JLIC—and klal work in general—is not supposed to be a stagnant role. It shouldn’t be that whatever skills you come with are the only skills you’re go ing to be running off of for the next five years; rather, we’re going to continue to train you and you’re going to continue to grow with us. One of the most common questions I get from potential candidates concerns work-life boundaries. Is there going to be a balance? Am I going to be burnt out by the end of this? Maybe it’s more prevalent because I recruit couples, so it’s a whole family that’s now part of this sys tem of doing klal work. They’re worried that no matter their professional growth and no matter how much we invest in them, we’re going to ask them to give their full selves to the job to the point that they will run on empty.

Rabbi Edelstein: Regarding professional development, the problem is that in gen eral there is no clear career path in klal work. If you become a community rabbi, your next ambition is to find another community that is going to be a little bit better. But if you’re a mekarev for a kiruv organization, that’s probably where you’re going to be for the next twenty or thirty years.

It’s not just that young people are being coddled, as Rabbi Edelstein men tioned. They are also not being given opportunities where they can experience the thrill of accomplishment and the sense of being needed.

While pulpit rabbis in the Modern Orthodox world do get more kavod [than rebbeim], it is clear that we must have some sort of campaign to restore the kavod of Jewish communal work.

Rabbi Dr. Joseph: Every year there are about 200 students who are directly involved with Yavneh, the leadership arm of OU-JLIC. In addition, we have approximately 800 NCSY advisors (including staff on our summer pro grams) and about 500 Yachad advisors. Combined, you’re talking about 1,500 young people whom we have access to in any given year. Shouldn’t we be sharing the longing of our rebbi, Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein, zt”l, who said that when the world is on fire you need firefighters? If we have 1,500 people in that pipeline, just here at the OU, we have an opportu nity to encourage them to become lead

Cohen: Even once we do make a hire, we sometimes forget that it’s only the first step. What is your perspective on retaining employees? How can we get them to stay?

Rabbi Dr. Joseph: Retention is the key to recruitment. If you treat people well, onboard them and grow them, then they continue to rise and take on more responsibility, thereby filling greater and greater needs. When I was in the YU ad ministration, we started the Presidential Fellowship, which was very successful in growing students to become leaders. The program placed top graduating seniors in departments around the university. Weekly sessions were conducted with the fellows, not only to discuss klal work with them but also to work on team building and management skills. This gave the participants honor and prestige, along with a special certificate from the School of Social Work, and so much more. When you can give people skills, training, coaching and mentoring, you give them experience and the chance to build their resume. They feel “I can do that for a year or two.” Ultimately, the program began molding future leaders as well as developing a farm team for orga nizational leadership. We would get calls from different departments at YU and from NCSY, MJE and others asking— can we reach out to your candidates?

ers in klal work. We have a momentous opportunity right here. Do we utilize the opportunity to share the message?

Gottesman: I don’t think so. Rabbi Edelstein mentioned the need to recruit people to communal work while they are

It’s not just that young people are being coddled . . . They’re also not being given opportunities where they can experience the thrill of accomplishment and the sense of being needed. At the roundtable discussion, a few of the participants attended via Zoom.

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Though we can’t incentivize the field with a clear career path, what we can do is tell a prospective employee that through this job, we will help you devel op yourself, not only within your specific role but also in preparation for other horizons, whatever those horizons might be. We will encourage you to use this job as a springboard. We will sponsor pro fessional development courses. You will be given the opportunity to acquire an MBA or another degree of your choice. We will be involved with your search for another job when you feel you’ve outgrown this job. We will walk with you through your next phase of life, and perhaps further on. This idea of mentoring is really a lifelong necessity. At every phase of a person’s professional career, mentoring is going to make a big difference, especially if people know at the outset that that’s what’s going to happen. This could be

Cohen: If professional development is the key to retention, are Jewish non-profits doing enough?

systematized and advertised so that people would know that going into klal work means, “I’m going to be developing myself; I’m not going to be stuck in one role for the rest of my days.”

Werblowsky: I work with a certain foundation in Chicago that supports Jewish education, among other causes. The foundation created a fellowship to

Werblowsky: By far there are two main reasons people call me in search of a new job. The first is their boss. If you don’t get along with your boss, your boss micromanages you, your boss makes it hard for you to grow in your role, your boss takes credit for whatever you do or your boss calls you at eleven o’clock at night and expects you to answer no matter what, you will call me and ask for another job.

Rabbi Dr. Joseph: How do we onboard people mid-career? You’re not going to become an NCSY regional director after serving ten years in the corporate world. But if you come in as a lay leader first—a chair of a committee or on a commis sion—and during that process you get exposure, experience and maybe even some training, there’s a possible pathway. Additionally, I believe working for the klal can be challenging. You can have a lot of mesirut nefesh, and then burn out. It’s important to get chizuk and be rein spired. We don’t do enough of that for the people who are in. It’s not just about professional development and training, it’s also about bolstering the people who are in it.

Cohen: A few solutions were mentioned, such as the need for professional growth and the need to clear up the myths about the field. One myth, in particular, we need to clarify is what the compensa tion actually is so people realize you can make a living. Let’s see if we can get into some other solutions.

Rabbi Penner: We’ve done some studies recently regarding salaries in the world of Modern Orthodox education—what the salaries are and what the salaries need to be. But if you ask a typical col lege student what those salaries are, he tends to assume it’s about half of what it actually is. Many people also assume that those who are in klal work are unable to make it financially. This is not the case.

Werblowsky: If we could figure out how to pull people in mid-career, it would help alleviate the shortage we’re seeing in the non-profit field. But here’s why that’s difficult. The earning power of mid-ca reer employees is higher than with start ing-level job applicants, and the respon sibility and leadership they’ve attained is higher as well. But to place someone who doesn’t have non-profit experience in a leadership role requires too steep of a learning curve for what actually needs to happen within the first six months in an organization. Despite being super-talent ed and having all the soft skills and real training, a person making a transition from Wall Street or from another field is not ready to run a team of ten NCSY city directors. He simply doesn’t have enough industry knowledge about kiruv. On the other hand, he wouldn’t be willing to earn $50,000 or begin on the lowest rung within the organization because it just won’t suit where he’s at personally and professionally. So in theory it’s a great idea, but it’s difficult to implement.

At the fundraising event, who gets all the honor? The fundraiser. Not the admin istrative assistant who put in so many extra hours. So it’s not surprising that she will want to leave. She feels: Where am I going? You’re not training me to be a fundraiser. You’re just asking me to help out to get the job done.

One of the things we’d like to do is work together with other organizations to just get out the facts.

The second reason is money, that is, the baseline salary. Can you pay your bills at the end of the month? I do not find people who are very passionate about klal work leaving because they won’t be rich or because they can’t afford a luxury kosher vacation. It’s when people cannot afford their basic neces sities and they’re scraping by at the end of the month that they either look for a different job that will pay better within the non-profit world, or they make the decision to leave.

Gottesman: The biggest myth I encounter is: Oh, you work for a non-profit because you couldn’t get a job anywhere else? This notion is prevalent among many college students. It wouldn’t cross their minds to think, while I’m waiting to get my credits for the CPA exam, I can work in the accounting department of a Jewish non-profit to get some experience until I go to work in the corporate world. Instead, non-profit work is viewed as a lastLookingresort. around the room, I see people who hold MBAs and MAs, certificates and semichah and a PhD. We all ob tained high-level education and have the same degrees as those in the corporate sector. The difference is that we all chose to work in a job that impacts Klal Yisrael, and we love it and are honored to have the opportunity.

Rabbi Wildes: I bet if we asked every person who’s devoted his life to Jewish communal service, he could point to at least one or two mentors who brought him into the game and kept him going. Young people need a rebbi who will say, “I think you have tremendous potential for klal work,” and the two of them will sit down and explore that. We need to target young frum men and women . . . I don’t think people know there’s a fire: communal work is truly in crisis. I know. I’ve been expe riencing difficulty in hiring for many years. We need to let the rest of the Jewish world know.

Gottesman: What Shira said is true: people leave companies because of boss es and managers. The big question is: why did they not want to work for that manager? Was it how the work was given over? Was it delegated or dumped? That is just one example of why it’s critical to train staff to be good managers. Talented individuals who are good at their jobs are often promoted but don’t have proper managerial skills. Managing people is a learned skill. The non-profit world should focus on training managers and training in general. We should imbue in our staff the notion that we will grow their skills and advance their careers.

63Fall 5783/2022 JEWISH ACTION young and passionate, but the problem is they eventually burn out. In Jewish non-profits, it’s common to find an administrative assistant running a fundraising event, which is not really part of the job. Since many Jewish orga nizations are small, everyone is asked to pitch in. So what’s the problem with that?

Cohen: Are there any other factors that can enhance employee retention in the field of klal work?

Cohen: What do you think are prevail ing misconceptions about klal work?

Attia: It’s longer, but we put a lot of effort into retention. In fact, when our most talented couples make aliyah, we try to move them to our new cam puses in Israel for exactly the reasons we discussed—to provide them with long-termAnotheropportunities.aspectweneed to address is that, in my experience, some women considering going into klal work sense that there is a glass ceiling. They’ve im plicitly or explicitly been passed over for professional opportunities, or seen this happen to other women, so they don’t even want to get on the boat, so to speak.

64 JEWISH ACTION Fall 5783/2022 retrain mathematicians and scientists as teachers. The fellows are provided with a salary, benefits and the best adjunct professors in teaching methodologies in the Chicago area. What happens when a person wants to make a mid-career shift? Suppose someone wants to go into rabbanus, for example. Take an accountant who has semichah, who, after five years working in his field, is unfulfilled. He can’t take an intern-level position in the Jewish communal field and live for six months without a salary. But if we could pay him or bring him into some sort of fellowship that allows him to learn the skills he needs to ramp up into a leadership role that is appropriate for his stage of life, it would help him make the transition in a way that’s a win-win for him and for the organization.

Werblowsky: In my experience speaking to CEOs and hiring managers, I have actually found that across the board there is an openness to giving significant leadership roles to women. In the Cha reidi sector, three organizations come to mind that are founded and led by wom en: BINA, by Chavie Glustein; Links, by Sarah Rivkah Kohn; and Penimi, by Faigie Zelcer. They are all well respected, and they do their own fundraising. Even within national organizations, there is a growing willingness to bring women into leadership roles, and I think Josh J. has been instrumental in that and in giving these women the feeling that they can grow at the OU. I know that three or four department heads at the OU are women who were recently promoted into those positions. So Tal, tell everyone that the tides are turning, that they can stay in the States and find theseWithroles.regard to the idealism angle, I’m not sure it’s true that our youth isn’t idealistic. It seems to me that we’re trading idealisms. Some may be trading klal work for long-term learning. Others are trading, say, kiruv opportunities for jobs in high-tech that will allow them to make aliyah and live out their Zionistic dreams. It’s not that we’re not raising ide alistic kids; it’s just that our ideals have changed over the years. So how does this awareness translate into solutions? We need to think about which ideals we are transmitting to the next generation. Love of Eretz Yisrael is critical. Long-term learning is critical.

Werblowsky: That is true. Many are leaving and moving to Israel. The best and brightest people call me asking, “Can you find me a job [in klal work] in Israel?” I’ll say, “No, you’ll never find it; the field is oversaturated there. Stay in America.” But the best and brightest are leaving nonetheless. I can name three heads of school who left in recent years to make aliyah. They’re not going to have professional opportunities in Israel—you can’t be an English-speaking head of school who doesn’t understand Misrad Hachinuch—but they’re still leaving because they’re ultra-Zionistic.

When a head of school leaves a small community, if the community school cannot find a replacement to move to town, the school will fall apart, and seventy kids will not have a school to attend.

Rabbi Wildes: We’re not going to change the aliyah phenomenon. Aliyah is, ob viously, a good thing. So what solutions could we generate to combat this talent drain?

I’ll give you an example. I have a couple on staff at MJE. Both the hus band and wife are very talented, natural mekarvim, and they host two Shabbatot a month for us. I’d love more of their time, but they have full-time jobs. They told us very clearly that they’re making aliyah next summer. But I got three years out of We’rethem.not going to change the brain drain from chutz la’Aretz to Israel, but if we can capture those couples for, say, three years, that would do something for the field. For example, Tal, what’s the “shelf life” of OU-JLIC couples? Three years, four?

Attia: One idea not mentioned in this discussion so far is that there is a huge “brain drain” of talented, passionate people moving to Israel. I personally feel conflicted about nearly every minute of my life doing klal work in chutz la’Aretz; I feel that I should be in Israel. It’s a real tension, and one that I don’t know if we have the wherewithal to address, but it’s something that can’t go unsaid in a conversation like this: people who are idealistic and care about their Judaism and Torah values are more likely to be found in Israel or drawn to move there.

As a community we need to really think about what’s next for potential recruits who are idealistic and wish to make aliyah—will they continue their klal work in Israel? And for women who choose to go into klal work—will they be able to level up, or will they be stuck in lower-level positions?

Werblowsky: Exactly. There’s this idea that “I can have it all”—the professional career and the fulfillment of helping the klal

Rabbi Penner: I also find that people feel their primary mesirus nefesh, their sacrifice, lies in raising and supporting a family in today’s world. Bringing up a family today is so challenging and expensive. When that’s the focus of one’s sacrifice, there isn’t a lot of mesirus nefesh left over to invest elsewhere.

While the many things we need to do to make the Jewish communal world better are daunting, it’s exciting for me to make the decision every day, every year that this is really what I want to do.

If we have about 1,500 people in that pipeline, just here at the OU, we have an opportunity to encourage them to become leaders in klal work . . . Do we utilize shareopportunitiesthesetothemessage?

Rabbi Wildes: Or perhaps you don’t have time for klal work because of your profession, but you still want to help the klal, so you write a check as your form of support.

Cohen: As a product of a completely secular public school system, and having not discovered religious observance until later on, it wasn’t even on my radar when I was graduating college that I would ever pursue Jewish communal work. The viewpoint was that you go to school to get a good job to make money. As I got older, my perspective shifted. I asked myself: Is that all there is to my life? To just keep trying to get promoted, make more money and accumulate ma terial things? There had to be a spiritual element to Everyonelife.participating in this round table is a real-life example of someone who made the commitment to klal work. What inspired you to make that commitment?

Werblowsky: We’ve also perfected a certain model: 5:30 am wake-up, learn Daf Yomi, then be a real professional and make lots of money—and be on the board of your kid’s school.

Rabbi Penner: My sense of idealism and leadership came from Rabbi Benjamin and Rebbetzin Shevi Yudin of Fair Lawn, New Jersey, where I grew up, as well as from my high school and yeshivah years in New Jersey NCSY. As an aside, at the time, the NCSY region was comprised of mainstream yeshivah kids; an enormous number of today’s leaders, rabbis and school principals across the country are products of that movement. When I was in high school, I was trying to decide 68

But communal work, including kiruv, is critical as well and must be on the agenda from the top down—from mentors, from rabbanim and from parents.

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Rabbi Wildes: I don’t think we have successfully communicated the fusion of the Torah ideals of harbatzas Torah (spreading of Torah learning) and being involved in tzorchei tzibbur (the needs of the community). Nor have we commu nicated that if you have the personality for klal work, it’s not just that you’d gain a level of meaning from it but that there’s a responsibility to take up the mantle. For some reason I don’t hear that mes sage from our leaders. We’re a little timid in expressing this concept of responsibil ity to people who could be going into klal work and become future leaders.

Rabbi Dr. Joseph: I used to work on Wall Street, and I got caught up in it. I had big ambitions. But for a number of reasons, including the turbulence of working in the stock market and, more importantly, an illness in the family—I shifted into non-profit work. I remember walking home from the train one day, think ing—where’s the meaning? Where is the stability coming from in my life?

Continued on page

Non-profit work is particularly meaningful. It makes you feel alive; you feel that you are chang ing lives.

Dena Mayerfeld special education teacher Passaic, New Jersey STORY

WHY I WORK FOR THE KLAL IN OWNTHEIRWORDS:

COVER

Rabbi Shlomo Mandel, director of JSU and Toronto chapter of NCSY Toronto, Ontario

in a yeshivah setting. There is no greater joy than knowing that on a daily basis, I am making a difference in their lives. I reach deep within myself to create lessons that build passion, responsibility, grit and self-confidence. I see students who stand up taller and reach deeper within themselves. I feel that I touch eternity.

I teach withtary-ageelemenstudentsspecialneeds

Tehilla Friedland COO, Partners in Torah Passaic, New Jersey As told to Steve Lipman

The Jewish Education Project helped change that by supporting and promot ing special ed programs in Jewish schools. Over the years, I have advanced Jewish education by running the first Jewish master’s degree programs for special education, educational technology, and school leadership. I’ve helped yeshivot and day schools implement a wide range of government-funded, professional-development programs for all educators; access technology and other school resources; and receive free kosher food and reimbursement for the national school breakfast, lunch and snack programs. My team and I are not lobbyists. We ensure that we know about all the government-funded resources that our schools are eligible for and how to access them. We share that knowledge and know-how with schools. For example, over the past two years alone, we facili tated recovering over $172 million in government aid for New York City Jewish day schools. I stay because I truly love the work I do—helping Jewish schools and their students. When I look in the mirror, that’s what keeps me going.

At Partners in Torah, I over see all operations and assist in grant writing, HR and marketing. I learned the ins and outs of product development, and wrote curricula. I am constantly learning and developing new skills.

I’ve been working in the non-profit sector since I entered the work force eleven years ago. I began in outreach and found my way into operations and fundraising. I did not grow up observant; that experience fuels my passion for educating Jews who have not had access to a Jewish education.

My parents were one of the founding families of Aish HaTorah Toronto; my father was a close student of Rabbi Noach Weinberg, zt”l, founder of Aish HaTorah. As a kid, I saw how many people viewed my parents as mentors and a lifeline—which made me feel that my parents were heroes. I feel very fortunate to have grown up in such a home. It’s no surprise that I decided to spend my life in the world of kiruv.

Sara Seligson, director of day schools and yeshivot The Jewish Education Project New York, New York As told to Steve Lipman

Non-profit work is a fantastic opportunity to meet like-minded professionals. I love the people I work with. It’s like a close-knit fam ily and very people-centric. The work is really flexible; they trust me, a single mom with three kids, to get the work done.

Back in 1989, as a college student majoring in special education, I started working at the thenBoard of Jewish Education in New York (now The Jewish Education Project). By the time I finished my undergraduate degree, I enjoyed the work so much I didn’t want to leave.

In the 80s and early 90s, there were very few opportunities for children with learning disabilities to stay and thrive in a yeshivah environment.

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Rabbi Nathaniel Helfgot, rabbi of Congregation Netivot Shalom, Teaneck, New Jersey, and chair of the Department of Torah SheBaal Peh at SAR High School, Riverdale, New York

Rabbi Chaim Neiditch, regional director of the Greater Atlanta Region of NCSY, national field manager for national NCSY and executive director of JSU of Atlanta In my role at Ohel, I supervise a group home, creating a supportive environ ment for a group of men to thrive. In addition, through our respite program, we provide recreational programs in which we take children, teens and young adults for holiday weekends, as well as offering gap-camps at the end of the summer when most camp programs are over and schools have yet to resume.

Over the years, I have helped families place their child in a group home; assisted families through the death of a loved one; created educational tools; provided support through illness; aided parents in finding appropriate schools and fought for children to receive the proper services. I have been given the opportunity to change other people’s lives. It’s a job that makes a difference.

For thirty-five years I have been a mechanech. I love teaching Torah to students of various ages in various contexts. I also appreciate the opportunity to help individuals and families in challenging situations, and en hance and shape their positive life-cycle events in a meaningful fashion. Teaching Torah has been enriching for me and my family spiritually and emotion ally, and has made me a better human being and a better Jew.

Parents call me after our Challah Bake, in awe and wonderment, telling me that their child came home, explained challah to the family, and asked if they can now integrate challah into their lives. And that’s usually just a starting point for these kids. “Rabbi Neiditch,” they’ll say, “my child had zero interest in anything Jewish and now—it’s amazing. We just baked challah. We are going to eat it Friday night. My husband will say the blessing over the wine. They’re encouraging the entire family to connect with Judaism!”

Stephen Krausz, assistant director Jewish Children’s Adoption Network Baltimore, Maryland

Seeing the impact we have on the families we service motivates me.

I am driven to help Jewish teenagers become excited about Judaism and being Jewish. It’s an incredible thing to wake up to every day. The underlying premise of NCSY’s JSU (Jewish Student Union) programs is that kids feel great about being connected to something larger and greater than them selves. (JSU clubs are aimed at educating Jewish youth in public schools about Jewish culture, heritage and religion.)

Hillary Zimmern, area coordinator Ohel Children’s Home and Family Services Brooklyn, New York As told to Steve Lipman I was a senior director at IBM. I left a high-level, intellectually stimulating job in the corporate world, where I was making triple my current salary, with much better benefits, to go into out reach and community work. Nowadays, I work hard. But I’m no longer working hundredhour work weeks or into the “eighteen minutes” on Friday afternoon. More importantly, working with neshamos is so much more stimulating than what I was doing before. Kiruv work forces you to be more intentional about your own Yiddishkeit. I’m doing what I love—I want to prevent intermarriage. I want to prevent what hap pened to my family. Rivkie Kahn Brooklyn outreach educator NCSY Thirty-two years ago, my wife and I adopted a Jewish baby and discovered that many Jewish children, espe cially those with special needs, were being placed in non-Jewish homes or abandoned in institutions. We tried to encourage Jewish organizations to help find Jewish adoptive homes for such kids, but none felt they could do it. So we founded the Jewish Children’s Adoption Network, ran it out of our home, and helped find Jewish families for over 2,000 Jewish children. Every time we help a Jewish child find a Jewish home, we know we have helped save a Jewish neshamah.

I have been in klal work ever since I was a student activist. My organizational history includes many stops—and all have been very important parts of my journey. But my ongoing engagement with the Jewish people didn’t happen after one conversation, or one year of messaging, or anything else. It was a lifelong osmotic process. It takes multiple years of absorbing that message and believing in that message and feeling that this is who you are. You are a servant, an eved of Klal Yisrael.

68 JEWISH ACTION Fall 5783/2022 between going into the rabbinate and go ing into medicine, and I was very focused on my SAT scores so I could get into the right Ivy League school. Someone wrote a lengthy note on a sefer he gave me as a gift, which said: “It’s not how you score on the SAT, but on the OHEE—the Olam Haba Entrance Exam.” I looked at the Yu dins, and what they did for the commu nity and I said to myself—they’re going to Olam Haba. It was as simple as that. I always tell my students in the beis mi drash that what you do for a living takes up most of your day, your week and your year. Most of your life is spent on your profession, not on your davening in the morning or your chavrusa at night. Yet many people spend more time picking out an esrog than they spend figuring out what to do with the rest of their life. Careers in avodas hakodesh aren’t for everyone, but how lucky one is if he can find such a career.

When my family would sit around the dinner table, I’d tell my kids, “We are rich; we don’t lack anything.” If the only problem is money, that’s always the easiest problem to solve. All the other issues—finding meaning and living your life to the fullest—those are much more challenging. If you get those right, you’ll find a way of solving the financial angle. That message, when said to a young per son, is very impactful. It shakes people up and gets them to think.

Have you ever asked yourself: do I feel good about the type of work I do? Jewish commu nal work will let you answer that with a resounding yes!

Continued from page 65

Rabbi Edelstein: There is nothing I would rather do with my life than serve the Jewish people. It’s not that I haven’t been offered significant business opportuni ties. I turned them down on the spot. I never wanted to sleep overnight on such an offer, because I never felt there would be any trade-off.

Rabbi Wildes: I was also a product of NCSY. I was trained as an attorney. I always tell people who ask me why I went into the field of kiruv that I thought the world could do without one more Jewish lawyer. But the real reason I went into outreach work was because I realized we were losing so many of our Jewish brothers and sisters to intermarriage and assimilation. I wanted to make a differ ence. My work at MJE gives me tremen dous satisfaction on the klal level and on the individual level as well. The people you get to meet and the lives you have the opportunity to impact—nothing com pares to it; I don’t care how much money you make on Wall Street. I share this all the time with people, and it’s the emes. It’s what keeps me in the game.

“We are well aware the consultant may report back that the primary issues are salaries and benefits, and that growth and career development are merely ‘extras,’” Rabbi Joseph says. “But our sense is that more people are looking for purpose in their work, for an aspirational mission.

For the most part, Rabbi Joseph suspects, the Jewish non-profit world hasn’t been quick to adopt the latest management practices or consider new approaches to attract talented individu als. “Smaller organizations don’t tend to have the time or energy to focus on this,” he says. “There’s a ‘get-it-done’ mindset, because there are budgets to meet and jobs to do.” However, the OU’s lay leaders felt that as a large organization, the OU is “in a position to be thoughtful about this and take a leadership role in this area,” he“Weadds. are advancing best practices to develop leaders who will serve the klal,” Rabbi Joseph says. “Ultimately, we be lieve our efforts will result in an elevation of the Jewish non-profit field overall. It’s time to invest more in our most precious resource—our people.”

By Rachel Schwartzberg

Rachel Schwartzberg is a frequent contributor to Jewish Action.

The OU, like all non-profits, recognizes that in order to grow its programs and services, a pipeline of professionals and leadership is critical. To better under stand the recruitment and retention chal lenges facing communal organizations, the OU has engaged a consultant to study the landscape and the underlying issues.

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The OU: Investing in its People

Regardless, if we learn that all our efforts won’t improve retention or recruitment— well then, we invested in our people, and that can only be a good thing.”

With more than 3,000 full-time and part-time staff members worldwide, the OU is taking significant steps to make sure its current and potential employees see a future for themselves within the organization. “Our professionals are the lifeblood of our organization,” explains Rabbi Dr. Josh Joseph, executive vice presi dent and chief operating officer of the OU. Addressing staffing challenges is therefore vital to the organization’s overall health—and to the wellbeing of its many“Theprograms.centralquestion is: how do we make sure our team members are having positive experiences and want to grow with the OU?” Rabbi Joseph asks. “It begins with a talent management strategy and framework.” Rabbi Joseph believes that no one wants to feel “stuck” at work, and he is committed to ensuring that the OU becomes known for “growing itsTopeople.”reach this goal, the OU recently switched from once-a-year performance appraisals to a more frequent cadence focused on goal setting and achievement, “so people are getting more consistent feedback,” he says. The organization now offers professional development training across diverse levels as well as executive coaching for senior leaders. Such oppor tunities, he notes, are fairly standard in the for-profit world, but are not the norm in the Jewish non-profit sector. The next step of the plan, Rabbi Joseph says, is to provide team members with more clarity as to where they can hone their skills to grow their careers. Work ing to “upskill” staff members, Josh Gottesman, the OU’s associate director of human resources and director of talent development, initiated a talent assessment program. “We engaged talent management professionals, who inter viewed more than forty-five OU senior leaders to identify the knowledge, skills and abilities that are necessary for success at the OU,” he says. Once the assessment is complete, the data will be used to create a talent man agement strategy focusing on developing employee careers. “The dream is to have a personal professional development plan for everyone at the OU that details the skills needed for them to excel in their current role as well as the skills needed to advance their careers. The idea is to move people along a continuum from leading themselves to leading others to leading teams to leading departments to leading organizations,” says Gottesman. “In an ideal, transparent world, we would have a talent map across the organiza tion,” Rabbi Joseph explains. “This would allow individuals to know where they are and how to advance.” Well-defined levels and titles would provide employees with an understanding of what skills they might need to work on to be ready for a promotion.“We’llknow this is working when a supervisor can look around and say, ‘I have a level-7 position open; who is knocking it out of the park at level 6 and is ready to step into this role?’” Instead of spending time and money recruiting candidates, Rabbi Joseph says, “we’ll be hiring from within.” In order for this approach to be suc cessful, Rabbi Joseph underscores the need to break down internal silos. “At the OU, we’re blessed with a wide array of distinct and distinctive programs as well as geographically diverse opportunities,” he says. “We need to be better about showing people the opportunities across the greater organization.” For example, someone may start out as an NCSY advisor, but then move into a marketing role, and ultimately lead a team in devel opment. “We need to embrace that and help them along a pathway that works for their skills and talents.” Ultimately, these efforts will achieve dual purposes. “If we can do a better job of retention, we’ll have an easier time with recruitment,” Rabbi Joseph says. “This strategy isn’t original—it’s well documented in corporate America. If our employees have good experiences working here, others will hear that and the OU will become known as a great place to work.” The added benefit to this approach is “to build a leadership pipe line from within the organization.”

Jewish Action seeks to provide a forum for a diversity of legitimate opinions within the spectrum of Orthodox Judaism. Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the policy or opinion of the Orthodox Union. By Rifka Wein Harris

JUST BETWEEN US

Dignity in an Oversharing World

Fashion designer Alber Elbaz

Long ago, it became clear to me that tzenius was so loaded with challenge and external pressure that it had become a minefield to traverse with teenagers. Our schools often struggle to address modesty, and sometimes, however well-intentioned, some of them will approach the topic in a way that highlights and reinforces particular dysfunctions of shallowness deeply rooted in this generation. In some girls’ schools, tzenius is typically taught by recourse to two concepts: first, the unforgiving demands of a measuring tape, and second, the effects of female attractiveness. The former is shallow and reductive—it does not begin to capture anything substantive about the concept of modesty. The latter produces insecurity and even body dysmorphia in many frum teenage girls. Explaining tzenius in terms of the potential to lead a man to be nichshal—whether this message is conveyed directly, or even indirectly through a ban on pictures of women in the press undermines the development of a teen’s own agency and autonomy, warping and complicating her necessary actualization. Given both the open and hidden hazards of this minefield, my radical proposal is to teach tzenius by not teaching tzenius; I say this while absolutely affirming the halachic bright lines of tzenius. Only once our children are armored with certain sensibilities and sensitivities do the halachos of tzenius even begin to make sense to them. And therefore I suggest we defer teaching those halachos until the prerequisite groundwork is first laid in them.

A girl’s sense of tzenius reflects how deeply she has developed her internal self. Tzenius should be taught not by shining a spotlight on the way teens present themselves to the outer world, but by building up their inner sense of self until their feeling of intrinsic worth is so bulletproof that they do not need to constantly broadcast status updates to the world, whether on their devices or through their fashion choices. In our home, my husband and I talk a great deal (my girls say endlessly) about three things that undergird the idea of tzenius: privacy, humility and feinkeit. We explain that the onus falls on each of us— and the people around us—to model how those three middos translate into matters of comportment and self-expression. We point out that these three middos actually apply equally to men; indeed, hatznei’a leches* is addressed to everyone. It is in no way about hemming in female identity and actualization. Instead, it creates a system through which both genders can define their boundary between public persona and private neshamah Privacy It is only in a child’s interior world where his or her relationship with Hakadosh Baruch Hu can germinate and grow. Seeded with conversations about our own recognition of His gifts to us and our bottomless gratitude for this abundance, a child can begin to appreciate the meaning behind berachos and the impetus toward tefillah. To develop and deepen this relationship with Hakadosh Baruch “And now . . . we have to become image makers, creating a buzz, making sure it looks good in pictures. The screen has to scream . . . . But I prefer to whisper.”

Iam abundantly blessed to be the mother of four teenage daughters. As someone who came to parenting later in life, there is more than a full generation between my children and myself. That creates a chasm for us to cross when we discuss tzenius. I also happen to be a person with a baroque aesthetic sense and an outsize passion for adornment, decoration and beautiful things, especially in clothes. So much so that in midlife, I left my job as a corporate lawyer and went back to school to study garment construction and am today a designer and fabricator of fine jewelry. My avocations and my aesthetic leaning bring much joy to my life. When it comes to modeling and teaching the practice of tzenius, however, they make this particular topic a bit more fraught, especially with similarly artistic daughters, some of whom share my creative affinities and strong opinions on matters of taste.

71Fall 5783/2022 JEWISH ACTION

Rifka Wein Harris is a graduate of Bais Yaakov D’Rav Meir and Bais Yaakov Academy in Brooklyn, New York. She earned her undergraduate degree in history from Brooklyn College and her JD and LLM from New York University School of Law. She is a writer who is involved in advocacy in the frum world. She lives with her family in Queens, New York. This essay is an adaptation of an article from a forthcoming book, Dignity Reclaimed: A Guide to Tzniut for Men and Women, edited by Bracha Poliakoff, halachic analysis by Rabbi Anthony Manning. This article is l’ilui nishmas Chaya Sara bas Avraham Simcha.

Any type of vanity or arrogance is anathema to everything she stands for. Emphasizing the middah of anivus in teens will inevitably cause friction with their growing sense of individualism and valid need for self-expression. They are navigating a virtual world where external focus, competitive materialism and obsessive self-promotion are the coins of the realm. The more “connected” the world becomes, the harder it is to resist these destructive forces.

72 JEWISH ACTION Fall 5783/2022 Hu, all children require a robust sense of privacy. A private sphere where it is just them and Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Tehillim notes that the kevudah of a bas melech (glory of a king’s daughter) is penimah (internal). Teaching our children to view their essence as internal—their thoughts rather than their friends or clothes; their ideas and their tefillos over their fashion cool—helps them self-define as a neshamah first. Our generation of constant connectedness and frenetic oversharing, where intimate truths are broadcast to the world and internal thoughts are regularly on display, erases this liminal space. Today, it is uniquely daunting for a teen to preserve a platform that is entirely internal. And therefore, the process of actualization often proceeds two steps forward and one step back. From the outside, it may barely resemble progress. It becomes a constant push and pull (one to which I myself am not immune) over how much sharing is appropriate and what kinds of sharing erode that sense of a private self. Cultivating a sense of privacy starts with the mundane. My youngest daughter, when she was barely four years old, took a discarded shoebox and labeled it “my secrit box and speshul.” Every child needs her own secret and special box. A private drawer that is not subject to search. A private notebook with her journal, drawings and poems. It is okay if children do not want to talk about something that is bothering them. Respecting their boundaries will validate a child’s need to separate and individuate. The idea of privacy deepens in a child’s mind in those times when kids are left free range, on their own, bored and unscheduled. Privacy is encouraged by children creating without parents looking over their shoulders. So, too, do children innately require privacy when they are davening. There should be no commenting about when (or even if) they are davening on a given day, since it is precisely in a space that lies beyond others’ external expectations—one that they need to inhabit fully—that the mental space in which to daven grows. Privacy is the axis within which our own relationship with Hakadosh Baruch Hu is most present, and it is the natural domain in which to grow it. Humility Humility is a prerequisite for kedushah and for emunah. Indeed, to me, it is the hallmark of greatness. I am fortunate to have interacted with a number of gedolim during my life, and what they all had in common was an utter lack of pretense, arrogance or self-promotion.

How does one model humility in speech and in life? We are taught some of the tools. We must always remember that kol Yisrael areivim zeh lazeh, we are responsible for one another and part of something much larger than ourselves. We must remember that bucking convention is not an end in itself—al tifrosh min hatzibbur. By contracting our own egos in this way, something greater is created, both in the cooperation between individuals and in the sense of community and identity when we subsume ourselves into a bigger whole. Unpacking this social contract leads us directly to the necessity for consideration and empathy toward others.

Mindfulness about what to share and how much to share makes a teen aware that not everything gets shared. This

The Rambam cautions that when it comes to the middah of ga’avah, there is no golden mean. Any amount is toxic. And the Gemara is clear that haughty souls will not be resurrected at the time of techiyas hameisim

Communal considerations matter. Indeed, the famous, aforementioned pasuk referring to a princess’s glory as internal to her goes on to say that the princess’s virtue manifests in two ways: her regal dress is not for her own sake but in deference to her position, and her attendants are her friends. The first lesson is: she knows that her choice of clothing does not define her identity, but only the role she inhabits. The second is: she is humble enough to value those of lesser rank. In effect, her glory is her humility, her anivus.

Teens must see themselves as unique individuals. At the same time, they must learn to navigate the very fine line between the need to express oneself genuinely and the contours of communal convention. They must, on their own, cultivate a consciousness that exhibitionism and attention seeking are out of bounds.

Only once our children are armored with certain sensibilities do the halachos of even begin to make sense to them.

Anivus must never be confused with self-abnegation or blind conformity.

tzenius

around, teen girls find themselves and carve out their own place in the world around them. Our task as parents is to steadfastly project and reflect feinkeit in the hope that once they exit the long, fraught tunnel of teendom, they will intuit and reflect these boundaries on their own. * * *

Tzenius should be taught not by shining a spotlight on the way teens present themselves to the outer world, but by building up their inner sense of self . . . .

73Fall 5783/2022 JEWISH ACTION encourages healthy actualization with a strong sense of worth and an informed recognition of social boundaries. It also makes a teen’s sartorial choices, however creative, more about self-expression and less about competitive consumerism. Feinkeit The closest I come to discussing actual clothing with my children is my known preoccupation with “ feinkeit,” a concept only partially defined as refinement. To me, the word conveys a certain attitude of propriety and proper deportment. I use feinkeit very deliberately. It is not to be confused with eidelkeit, a word that too often today conveys a shrinking of the self, particularly for girls and almost never boys. Feinkeit is an attitude of formality and dignity. We are Hakadosh Baruch Hu’s people, and we wear that identity proudly. We project respect, and engender respect, in the way we act and conduct ourselves. Cultivating this attitude is much easier in a community where it is modeled by others. As a child, I absorbed it in the air of my Hungarian shul. Without anyone telling me, I knew exactly where the borders lay—in speech, in action, in posture, and yes, in clothing, just by living among the adults in my orbit. These days, the world is far less understanding of feinkeit. People speak more coarsely. Patrons are loud and pushy. Clothing is often garish, too casual, deconstructed and provocative. And tzenius is misdefined as a calculus of inches and buttons without any thought to the overall impression the clothing creates. So much has been lost by defining tzenius this way. It is well within bounds now for a frum “influencer” to wear a brightly sequined bustier over a skin-colored shell to a red-carpet event (I actually witnessed this). Yes, she covered every halachic inch, but she entirely missed the point. An extreme example, perhaps, but a reminder of what happens when considerations of feinkeit are removed from the equation. When presented with shopping links messaged to me by my daughters, I often find myself ruling “pahst nisht ” (Yiddish for “it is inappropriate”). And yes, in the absence of a cohesive community that respects the contours of feinkeit, our children will not understand it—until they do. Teen actualization means they will push back to varying degrees. Wise parenting requires a certain amount of looking the other way at things that are halachically fine but at the edge of tonally dubious. In this thrashing

The development of these three middos—privacy, humility and feinkeit—is not a linear progression, but a dance that moves forward and backward and side to side. In an effort to ground this mindset within herself, a teen will cross boundaries, then reconsider them. This is how a neshamah develops and deepens. In encouraging this progression and cultivating this growth, parents can help their daughters understand what tzenius really is: a self where the internal and the external are truly aligned.*Michah tells us (6:8): “Hatznei’a leches, walk modestly with G-d.”

Chef’s Note: The larger or thicker the squash, the longer the cook time.

Quick-Pickled Cucumber Salad

After all, Tishrei is about the journey, rather than getting to the finish line.

Yields 4 servings This is a perfect do-ahead salad. Prepare the other ingredients and the dressing while the cucumbers are curing. Can be made a day ahead. Serve by itself or as an accompaniment to fish.

The fresh recipes chosen are no-fuss, to ensure I get my time in shul as well. Consider advanced preparations an investment into your holiday experience, one which will allow for more time focused on the holiday itself and less stress in the kitchen.

THE CHEF’S TABLE

All of the following recipes have some “do ahead” component to make your yom tov prep easier. Wishing you a stress-free shanah tovah u’metukah—a sweet and happy New Year! Maple-Glazed Mini Squash Yields 8 servings Mini squash are perfect for individual portions and for stuffing. Any mini winter squash can be used with this simple method, but I favor sweet dumpling. While I like to serve these freshly made, the squash prep is very easy to do 1–2 days ahead, and then it is 5 minutes to assemble and get into the oven! 4 mini winter squash (e.g., sweet dumpling, baby acorn, gold nugget, et cetera) Kosher salt, to taste Freshly ground black pepper ½-¾ teaspoon cinnamon ¼ cup pure maple syrup ¼ cup olive oil 1 cup fresh cranberries Preheat oven to 375°F. Line 2 baking sheets with foil. Cut squash in half; scoop out seeds and any fibrous strings. Trim bottoms if needed so the squash halves sit flat on the baking sheet. Place squash halves on lined baking sheets. Sprinkle each half with salt, pepper and cinnamon. Drizzle maple syrup and oil over halves, brushing the liquid to coat the whole cut area. Fill each half with approximately 8–10 cranberries (or as many as fit comfortably). Roast for 25–35 minutes, or until squash is tender when pierced with a fork and cranberries are bubbling.

Place cucumbers, scallions, dill and parsley in a large bowl. In a separate small container, combine vinegar, sugar, pepper and ½ teaspoon salt (or more to taste). Cover tightly and shake until dissolved. Add oil; cover and shake vigorously until well combined. Pour over cucumbers and toss to coat.

HOLIDAY COOKING MARATHON

74 JEWISH ACTION Fall 5783/2022 THE

By Naomi Ross Naomi Ross is a cooking instructor and food writer based in Woodmere, New York. She teaches classes throughout the country and writes articles connecting good cooking and Jewish inspiration. She is excited to be writing her first cookbook, which will be released soon.

1 large English cucumber (or 2 large cucumbers) ½ teaspoon Kosher salt, plus more to taste 4 scallions, thinly sliced ¼ cup fresh dill, chopped ¼ cup fresh parsley, chopped 1 ⁄ 3 cup white vinegar 1 tablespoon sugar ¼ teaspoon black pepper ½ cup vegetable oil Peel four strips from cucumber, leaving space in between peels to create a striped pattern. Slice cucumber into ¼-inch-thick slices on the bias; place slices in a large colander or sieve. Sprinkle liberally with kosher salt and set aside for 20–30 minutes. Rinse and drain well.

September: back to school, back to work, and back to all things routine . . . that is, until the holidays come just a few weeks later. Rosh Hashanah kicks off the holiday season in the month of Tishrei, a period that can seem like an endless marathon of cooking festive meals. Much like an accountant during tax season, I often think of September as “crunch time”—time to regroup from summer, reorganize for the coming year and physically and spiritually prepare for the upcoming holidays.

Maple-Glazed Mini Squash

Photos: Baila Gluck

76 JEWISH ACTION Fall 5783/2022

Fresh Salmon Sliders

Yields 10 12 medium salmon burgers or 15 18 mini sliders

Chef’s Note: A meat thermometer is an invaluable tool in determining perfectly cooked meat. Be sure to use one for perfectly moist veal. This recipe can also be made with a large turkey roast—cook until it reaches 158°F internally.

Canola or vegetable oil for frying

Veal Roast Moscato-FigwithSauce Yields 6 servings

1½ pounds salmon fillet, skin removed, cut into chunks 3 tablespoons mayonnaise or 1 egg Juice of ½ large lemon (about 1 tablespoon)

1 medium onion, chopped (about 1 cup)

To serve: Slice veal crosswise into thin slices. Transfer to platter and pour sauce over veal (or serve on the side in a gravy boat). Garnish with reserved cooked figs.

1 scallion (white and green parts) or ½ shallot, cut into chunks ¾ teaspoon Kosher salt, or more to taste ¼-½ teaspoon black pepper or more to taste 1 ⁄ 3 cup coarse bread crumbs or panko crumbs

• Sauce can be made 3 days ahead. Recipe yields about 1½ cups. Keep refrigerated.

Freshly ground black pepper Line a baking sheet with waxed paper or parchment; set aside. Place salmon, mayonnaise (or egg), lemon juice, relish, herbs, scallion, salt and pepper in a food processor fitted with an “s” blade. Pulse processor until contents are coarsely chopped do not puree into paste. Transfer to a medium bowl. Add bread crumbs, mixing until well blended. Using moistened hands, form mixture into round patties (not more than ½-inch thick). Arrange on prepared baking sheet. Refrigerate for an hour (or place in freezer for 15 minutes) to set. While burgers are setting, mix all sauce ingredients except water in a small bowl. Add water gradually as needed if sauce is too thick. Season to taste with salt, pepper and more lemon juice if needed. Cover and refrigerate. Heat enough oil to cover the bottom of a large skillet over mediumhigh heat. Working in batches, fry cakes until nicely browned on each side and opaque in center, about 3 minutes per side (flipping once during cooking). Transfer to a rack or plate lined with paper towels to drain. Serve warm or at room temperature on a bun topped with cucumberdill sauce, lettuce and tomato.

Cucumber-Dill Sauce

1½ teaspoons sweet pickle relish ¼ cup fresh dill (stems removed) ¼ cup fresh parsley (stems removed)

1 shallot, minced Juice of ½ lemon (about 1 tablespoon), or more to taste 3-4 tablespoons water, or more as needed Kosher salt to taste

Salmon Burgers

• Burger patties can be made 1 day ahead and refrigerated. Raw patties can be prepared up to 2 days ahead and refrigerated, or frozen up to 2 months (wrap well in parchment paper and plastic wrap in a single layer).

Chef’s Notes:

A tender holiday roast with the festive sweetness of dessert wine and figs. Can be made ahead and frozen. Slice before serving.

½ small fennel bulb, trimmed and chopped (a scant cup) 1 shallot, chopped 4 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped 1 teaspoon Kosher salt, divided Freshly ground black pepper, to taste 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided 1 (3½-pound) veal shoulder roast ¼ cup honey 10 fresh or dried black mission figs, halved 1 cup Moscato (sweet white wine) ¼ cup chicken stock 2 teaspoons cornstarch Preheat oven to 450°F. Place chopped onion, fennel, garlic and shallot in the bottom of a medium roasting pan (large enough to fit a rack). Season with ½ teaspoon salt and pepper to taste; toss with 1 tablespoon olive oil. Place a roasting rack over vegetables. Rub remaining 1 tablespoon oil all over the veal roast and season liberally with remaining ½ teaspoon salt and pepper to taste. Place roast on the rack. Roast for 10 minutes, until browned. Turn roast over and repeat for an additional 10 minutes. Remove pan from the oven and reduce oven to 325°F. Drizzle honey over roast and add figs and wine to the bottom of the pan. Cover with tented foil and return to oven. Bake for 1½ hours or until meat thermometer reaches 155°F internally. Remove from oven and transfer roast to a platter or cutting board. While veal rests, pour the contents of the bottom of the pan through a sieve set over a small saucepan. Reserve the figs and set aside. Press the vegetables against the sieve to release any additional liquid into the saucepan. Discard vegetables. Add stock and cornstarch to saucepan; whisk to blend until completely dissolved. Place over medium heat and bring to a simmer. Simmer, whisking often, until mixture thickens to a syrupy consistency (can coat the back of a spoon).

Versatile and family friendly, these fresh salmon burgers make a wonderful fish appetizer as a mini slider. A great do-ahead item, I prepare the burger patties and freeze raw in a single layer on a sheet pan until I need them. Patties can be pan-fried or grilled, and they reheat well too.

1 large cucumber, peeled, seeded and diced ½ cup sour cream or mayonnaise 3-4 tablespoons chopped fresh dill (or 3-4 teaspoons dried dill)

Quick-Pickled Cucumber Salad

“WALKING FOUR AMOT IN THE LAND OF ISRAEL”?

WHAT’S THE TRUTH ABOUT. . .

Background: As a means of motivating tired tourists on long hikes in Israel, tour guides are fond of reminding their charges: “every four amot that one walks in the Holy Land is a mitzvah.” But is it really a mitzvah?

FACT: In the context of its litany of praises for the Land of Israel, the Gemara says that “one who walks four amot in the Land of Israel merits Olam Haba.” But it does not say that every four amot or every “new” four amot is a mitzvah.

Rabbi Dr. Ari Z. Zivotofsky is a professor of neuroscience at Bar-Ilan University in Israel.

The Gemara (Ketubot 110b–111a) includes a long discussion about the attributes of the Land of Israel. It begins with the statement that one should live in the Land of Israel, even in a majority non-Jewish city, rather than live outside of Eretz Yisrael in a city that is majority Jewish. It states that one who lives in the Land of Israel has his sins forgiven;1 it then quotes Rabbi Yirmiyah bar Abba, who said in the name of Rabbi Yochanan (who lived in Tiberias) that, based on Yeshayahu 42:5, whoever walks four amot in the Land of Israel is guaranteed that he is a “ben Olam Haba” (a person destined for the World to Come).2 Clearly, living in and walking in the Land of Israel is a positive value. But is it every four amot or just a one-time reward for the first time one walks the Land? The first one to be instructed to “walk in the Land” was Avraham Avinu when G-d said (Bereishit 13:17): “Arise, walk through the Land, its length and breadth, for to you will I give it.” The Gemara (Bava Batra 100a) records a dispute as to the meaning of G-d’s instruction.

By Rabbi Dr. Ari Z. Zivotofsky

Lest one thus conclude that Rabbi Yochanan’s statement was mere hyperbole, the Rambam (Hilchot Melachim 5:11) quotes it in his halachic work.5 Indeed, Rabbi Yochanan’s statement is viewed as having halachic ramifications. In the context of discussing

MISCONCEPTION: Every four cubits or amot (approximately six feet) one walks in the Land of Israel is a mitzvah.

Rabbi Eliezer posits that walking the length and breadth of the Land was meant as a means of acquisition (kinyan); Avraham was thereby taking possession of the Land for himself and all future generations. Other sages disagree and say that walking the Land does not transfer possession;3 rather, out of G-d’s affection for Avraham, He told him to see the Land and become acquainted with it. As opposed to Rabbi Eliezer, who interprets the pasuk as a command, the sages, as explained by Ramban (Bereishit 13:174), understood G-d’s instruction as an assurance—because the Land was given to Avraham, it was safe for him to walk in it if he so desired and G-d would be with him. Neither Rabbi Eliezer nor the rabbis of the Gemara, nor the classic commentators, suggest that G-d was ruling like Rabbi Yochanan and telling Avraham to perform the “mitzvah” of walking in the Land.

LEGAL-EASE

78 JEWISH ACTION Fall 5783/2022

In discussing what type of neder (vow) is classified as a neder mitzvah and thus has different rules regarding annulment, Rabbi Chaim Benveniste (d. 1673; Shiurei Knesset Hagedolah, YD 203:B”Y:6) quotes the Shiltei Giborim7 that a neder to visit Eretz Yisrael is in the category of a neder mitzvah because there is a mitzvah to walk four amot there. This is opposed to the Rosh (Teshuvot HaRosh, end of klal 12), who says that there is no mitzvah to visit but only to live in Israel, and thus a neder to visit would not be a neder mitzvah. It is told8 that when Rabbi Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld (d. 1932; co-founder of the Edah Chareidis) went with Rav Avraham Yitzchak HaKohen Kook in 1914 on the famous expedition to visit the Jewish villages in the Shomron and Galilee, he would periodically dismount from the wagon and walk because walking on the holy soil was precious to him. As part of his justification for hiking in the Land of Israel during Chol Hamoed Sukkot, Rabbi Yehudah Shaviv (d. 2018; Techumin 23, p. 318) distinguishes between the case discussed by Rabbi Moshe Feinstein (Iggerot Moshe, OC 3:93) of touring in the US and that of touring in Israel, based on the statement that walking four amot in the Land of Israel has special merit.9 There is much debate whether the benefits of walking in the Land are accorded to a visitor or only to a resident. Rabbi Amihud Levine, in a commentary to the Rabbi Sonnenfeld story (in Eleh Masa’ei, based on Pe’at Hashulchan by the Gra’s student Rabbi Yisrael of Shklov), notes that the Rambam first describes the importance of living in Eretz Yisrael and then says that “even” one who just walks in the Land—i.e., even one who does not live there—has the merit of merely walking. Rabbi Amihud notes that the Land should be no different than any other item used for a mitzvah. Just as, for example, the residents of Jerusalem in the Temple period

Rabbi Eliezer Yehuda Waldenberg (d. 2006; Tzitz Eliezer 4:5:2:1, in a response to Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook) cites both opinions from the Magen Avraham without choosing sides.

On the other hand, Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak HaKohen Kook (Ezrat Kohen, notes to sec. 37 on p. 411 [1985 ed.]) says that the Gra and Mishnah Berurah both rule like the latter opinion—even visiting Israel is deemed a mitzvah.

Gaucher Symptoms include:

If you suspect you or a loved one has Gaucher disease, ask your doctor about testing for Gaucher disease by requesting a simple blood test called a beta-glucosidase leukocyte (BGL) test. To learn more, gaucherdisease.org/mysymptomsvisit:

79Fall 5783/2022 ACTION when one may set off on a desert caravan before Shabbat, the Shulchan Aruch (OC 248:4) grants greater leeway to one heading to the Land of Israel as it is a mitzvah to go there. Magen Avraham (248:15) cites two opinions regarding the precise criteria that render going to the Land a mitzvah. Some opine that a mitzvah is gained only if the person is settling there, thereby fulfilling the mitzvah of yishuv ha’Aretz; others suggest that the leniency in the Shulchan Aruch for traveling on erev Shabbat applies even to one who is just visiting, because even walking four amot in the Land of Israel is a mitzvah. Aruch Hashulchan (OC 248:14) says that the journey to the Land itself is a mitzvah, even if one is not making aliyah, and thus he states this leniency as well. He does not, however, mention the idea of walking four amot, but rather asserts that there is a mitzvah to live in Eretz Yisrael, even temporarily.6

As we listen to the blasts of the shofar, we are stirred to recall both our individual responsibilities as well as the impact with which our actions have for the collective Klal. At the National Gaucher Foundation, we are reminded of our responsibility to raise awareness that Type 1 Gaucher disease is the most common Jewish genetic disease for Ashkenazi Jews as well as the significant impact fulfilling our mission has for the Klal. We are also immensely grateful to HaKadosh Baruch Hu that Type 1 Gaucher disease is treatable and to be privileged to support so many. From our families to yours, we wish you a Shana Tova Umetukah.

הביתכ המיתחו הבוט

Enlarged Liver and/or Spleen Bone & Joint Pain BleedsNoseBruisingEasy

JEWISH

In discussing the mitzvah of yishuv Eretz Yisrael, Rabbi Elazar ben Moshe Azikri (d. 1600; Sefer Chareidim, ch. 59) makes no mention of the merit of walking four amot in the Land of Israel but does quote the Ramban as saying that every moment that a person is in the Land he fulfills a mitzvah, and thus residents of the country should rejoice in this ever-present mitzvah.

2. Chatam Sofer (Shu”t OC 194) sees two levels in these statements. The higher level is living in the Land and having one’s sins forgiven; the lower level is being considered a ben Olam Haba by merely walking four amot. To gain the higher level, one must actually live in the Land of Israel. Similarly, Teshuvot Maharit (2:YD:28) says that the ideal is to live in the Land, and the consolation prize for walking in the Land is only gained if one goes with the intention to live there and then does not succeed because he died and is then buried in the

80 JEWISH ACTION Fall 5783/2022 would hold their lulav and etrog all day out of a love of the mitzvah (Sukkah 41b), one can express love for G-d’s gift of a land in which one fulfills a mitzvah by walking in or sitting on it. Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach (d. 1995; Halichot Shlomo, Tefillah, ch. 23, n. 16 [pp. 276-7]) derives from the Talmudic saying about walking in the Land that even a visit is worthwhile. Thus, despite being against flying during the Nine Days, he ruled that one may fly even on Tishah B’Av if it is to go to Israel. Nonetheless, in his opinion, visiting did not compare to living in Israel, and he was therefore against leaving the Land. He was wont to quote the Chatam Sofer (Gittin 44a), who explained that a person living in chutz la’Aretz cannot be described as fulfilling all of the mitzvot except yishuv ha’Aretz; rather, all of his mitzvot are deficient. And Rabbi Shlomo Zalman added that reciting Shema in chutz la’Aretz is not the same as reciting it in the Land of Israel. Finally, when Rabbi Shlomo Zalman was once asked for his advice by someone making calculations whether to move to Israel, he said half in jest that in the conquest of the Land, the Israelites killed “the king of Cheshbon” (Yehoshua 12:1–2)—that is, one does not make calculations (cheshbonot) about moving to Israel; one just moves. Harav Peretz Cohen10 cites a convincing proof that even riding in a car in Eretz Yisrael counts for this mitzvah. The halachah is that men may not walk four amot bareheaded. Based on the Shulchan Aruch ruling (YD 242:16) that one must stand if his teacher passes by while riding because that is considered like walking, the Taz (YD 242:11) takes to task those who think that while riding in a wagon they can go bareheaded because they are not walking four amot. He says that sitting in a wagon is similar to riding a donkey, which is like walking. Thus, says Rabbi Cohen, riding in a wagon, car or bus in Israel is also meritorious.11

Rabbi Menashe Klein (d. 2011; Mishneh Halachot 3:189) proves from Moshe Rabbeinu’s requests (Devarim 3:25) and the Gemara’s analysis of the subject (Sotah 14a) that even merely seeing the Land of Israel is also a mitzvah.

Rabbi Yitzchak Chai Buchbaza (d. 1930; Sefer Lechem le-Fi Hataf, Ma’arechet alef, ot 45) quotes from Rabbi Yaakov Pitusi (who moved to Eretz Yisrael in 1800 and died in 1812; Yerech Yaakov, Parashat Masei, end of ot 1) that he heard from people living in Eretz Yisrael that they have a tradition that the adage “whoever walks four amot in the Land of Israel has all his sins forgiven” refers to walking a “new” four amot. That is, one who walks four amot that he had previously not walked has his sins forgiven. While Rabbi Pitusi was unsure about this tradition, Rabbi Buchbaza was sure it was erroneous. He saw it as a conflation of two statements that was subsequently distorted. He declared that there is no source for the idea that walking in Israel causes sins to be forgiven; rather, there is the Talmudic statement that one who lives in Israel lives without iniquity. And then there is the statement that one who walks four amot is destined for Olam Haba. Regarding the second, he observes that another four amot cannot make a difference after one is guaranteed Olam Haba following the initial four amot, and thus there is no additional reward promised for every “new” four amot. Rabbi Yaakov Reischer (d. 1733; Iyun Yaakov, Ketubot 110) understands the gemara in Ketubot as metaphorically referring to the “four amot of halachah” (cf. Berachot 8a), meaning that one who studies halachah in the Land of Israel, wherein the “air increases wisdom” (Bava Batra 158b), will earn Olam Haba. This is based on the saying that one who studies halachah daily merits Olam Haba (Niddah 73a; said in Shabbat davening).12

One could perhaps understand that he interpreted this gemara as encouraging those in the Land to learn halachah during bein hazemanim rather than go hiking. In whatever manner one understands the saying about walking four amot in Israel, it is clear that Chazal placed great emphasis and value on the physical Land of Israel and creating a personal connection with it. This attachment to the physical Land is further seen in the description of the Rambam (Hilchot Melachim 5:10; based on Ketubot 112a) that the greatest of the sages would kiss the ground at the border of the Land of Israel and kiss its rocks and roll in its dirt. This is based on the pasuk in a chapter in Tehillim described as an “exile’s plaint” (102:14–15) that of late has become a popular song in Israel (“Atah Takum”): “You will arise and have compassion upon Zion, for it is time to be gracious to her, for the appointed time has come. For Your servants take delight in her stones, and cherish her dust.”

For 1,900 years, Jews could only dream of visiting and moving to the Land of Israel; circumstances today are such that it is within the grasp of the majority of Jews. Walking the Land and touching its stones and dust is no longer an impossible dream of Jews living distant from their homeland. The promise of Chazal that one can have his sins forgiven and be a “ben Olam Haba,”13 however those statements are understood, is quite enticing. Notes 1. Pnei Yehoshua says this only refers to one who lives in Eretz Yisrael for the sake of the mitzvah and because of its holiness. If such a person sins, he will realize he is in a holy place, regret the sin and repent. He notes that obviously, living in the Land of Israel cannot be a carte blanche wiping of the slate, because it can’t be more effective than Yom Kippur. As Yoma 85b states: “If a person says, ‘I will sin and Yom Kippur will atone,’ Yom Kippur does not atone.”

11. Note that based on the story above, Rabbi Sonnenfeld may have disagreed. Or perhaps he simply saw it as even more meritorious to actually walk.

12. This is an interesting way to link Torah, Eretz Yisrael and Olam Haba, the three precious gifts G-d gave to the Jews, which according to the Gemara (Berachot 5a) are all acquired with affliction.

8. Related by Rabbi Benzion Yadler (d. 1962), a maggid in Yerushalayim and a member of the expedition, in his posthumously published memoir Bituv Yerushalayim (1967; p. 394) and reprinted in an appendix to the new edition of Eleh Masa’ei, 2001, p. 236.

5. Note the subtle switch in language—the Gemara says the walker is “ben Olam Haba,” while the Rambam says he is “zocheh l’chayei Olam Haba” (merits life in the World to Come).

6. This would seem to be the position of the fourteenth-century Rabbi Isaac ben Sheshet Perfet (Rivash, 101) and against the opinion of early-seventeenthcentury Rabbi Yoseph Trani (Teshuvot Maharit, 2:YD:28) who says that there is no mitzvah to visit the Land, only to move there. The Talmudic adage about walking four amot features in all of these discussions.

81Fall 5783/2022 JEWISH ACTION Land of Israel. Cf. Yerushalmi (Shabbat 1:3), which states that one who lives permanently in the Land of Israel is a ben Olam Haba.

9. It should be noted that Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein famously exhorted youth groups and others that despite all the religious and educational value inherent in hiking in the Land of Israel, the primary message on Sukkot must be the observance of the mitzvah of living in a sukkah and that should be incorporated in the tiyulim (Alon Shvut:90; available in English at https://etzion.org.il/

10. In Mi’tzohar L’tzohar: Ner Zikaron l’Oron Bergman, edited by Rabbi Shlomo min haHar (Jerusalem, 5744) pp. 127–35.

4. See the Kli Yakar for a comparison of Avraham in Bereishit 13:14–17 and Moshe in Devarim 3:25.

travelling-and-mitzva-sukka).en/halakha/orach-chaim/holidays/

13. The promise discussed until now was one of earning Olam Haba by living in/ visiting Israel. Ibn Ezra (Bereishit 33:19) suggests that owning a piece of Eretz Yisrael is actually like having a piece of Olam Haba

7. Note that it does not appear in our versions of the Shiltei Giborim Rabbi Chaim Yosef David Azulai (d. 1806; the Chida; Yosef Ometz, 52) and Rabbi Chaim Palagi (d. 1868; Nishmat Kol Chai, 50) point out that the Shiltei Giborim seems to say otherwise elsewhere.

3. This is how the halachah is ruled (Shulchan Aruch, CM 192:7; Aruch Hashulchan, CM 192:10). Nonetheless, Targum pseudo-Yonatan translates the pasuk as saying that Avraham was taking possession. Ritva (Bava Batra 100a) explains that if the halachah is in accordance with the sages’ view, how indeed did Avraham acquire the Land and bequeath it to his descendants? He explains that a verbal promise from G-d is sufficient to transfer ownership, and in addition, Avraham did other acts of acquisition, such as pitching his tent.

Just as a person needs to believe in Hashem, so too, afterward, he needs to believe in himself.

INSIDE OUthePROGRAMS OF THE ORTHODOX UNION 82 JEWISH ACTION Fall 5783/2022

Dr. Matt Baldwin, psychology professor at the University of Florida, who conducted the experiment mentioned above, found that self-gratitude “reminds people that they’re part of a bigger story and that they have the power to grow,” and may actually “promote a pay-it-forward

—Rav Tzadok HaCohen (Tzidkas Hatzaddik, no. 154 )

By Rabbi Dr. Josh Joseph

Thank . . . Me? The AppreciatedValueUnderratedofFeeling

The night before the race, a friend suggested I tape my name on my shirt so people in attendance could share their encouragement and recognition. Did I need to do this? I had trained. A lot. Shouldn’t that be enough? And yet, as I ran in memory of my father, the words “JJ running 4 Dad” became increasingly significant as members of the crowd cheered me on, encouraging me to keep going. While it was awkward to be actively seeking attention and feedback, I did truly benefit from it!

Feedback is critical for all of us. Indeed, research shows that employees appreciate greater and more frequent direct feedback. But it’s not always readily available. In those moments, perhaps we can turn to selfgratitude—within a context of humility and self-awareness—to provide the recognition we seek. In a recent study conducted at the University of Florida, 1 researchers set out to survey self-gratitude through a letter-writing experiment. Participants were divided into groups, with each group asked to write short gratitude letters. Group one thanked someone else, group two thanked themselves, and group three, the control group, wrote about a positive experience they'd had. The participants were then surveyed about their selfperception after writing their letters, leading the researchers to discover that the participants who thanked themselves scored highest in feeling like "morally good people," as well as feeling "a sense of redemption." Most striking was that this group seemed to have also experienced “an increase in selfawareness and measures of clarity, authenticity and connectedness,” which the other two groups had not.

Focusing so much on yourself may seem self-centered; however, being aware of one’s own worth can actually be a catalyst for growth and change. As the late Sir Ken Robinson pointed out, people often concentrate on improving their weaknesses rather than celebrating their strengths. But since no one knows you better than yourself, who can better give good feedback?

Being aware of one’s own worth can be a helpful catalyst for growth and change. . . . Self-gratitude “reminds people that they’re part of a bigger story and that they have the power to grow.” 83Fall 5783/2022

JEWISH ACTION

From left: OU Executive Vice President Rabbi Moshe Hauer, OU Executive Vice President/Chief Operating Officer Rabbi Dr. Josh Joseph, OU Kosher CEO Rabbi Menachem Genack and OU Kosher COO Rabbi Moshe Elefant address staff in June.

type of mentality.” Moreover, it is a form of self-compassion— treating yourself when you’re struggling like you would treat a good friend who is struggling. The number one stumbling block, I find, to being successful in the workplace is insecurity. If we can show others appreciation, we can begin to help each other succeed. In “Building a Better Workplace Starts with Saying ‘Thanks,’” 2 the Harvard Business Review shared research that creating a culture of gratitude in your team lifts people up and boosts morale. The authors suggest creating time and space (physical or virtual) for gratitude. With that in mind, at our new headquarters at 40 Rector Street, we placed a “Wall of Thank You” on each floor, where employees can “catch” someone doing good, and share their appreciation for each other publicly. This notion of public recognition has also influenced us to share stories of jobs well done and people going the extra mile, news of promotions, and more at our town hall meetings. These are from every level across the organization, whether in the office or in the field. For every berachah in chazarat hashatz, it suffices to just say Amen. However, when it comes to the berachah of Modim, we recite an entire parallel paragraph: Modim Derabbanan. Why is that? When it comes to saying thank you, says the Eliyahu Rabbah in Orach Chaim 127:1, we cannot delegate it to someone else to do on our behalf. Thanks has to come directly from us! In fact, “Jewish prayer is an ongoing seminar in gratitude,” wrote Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, zt”l , in Essays on Ethics (p. 289). “Part of the essence of gratitude is that it recognizes that we are not the sole authors of what is good in our lives” (p. 290). We begin each day with Modeh Ani. We don’t start with the ‘I’ of An i, but rather with the modeh , the thanks. And yet the Ani is still there and should not be taken for granted.

Notes 1. news.ufl.edu/2021/11/self-gratitude/. 2. workplace-starts-with-saying-thanks/.hbr.org/2020/11/building-a-betterRabbi Dr. Josh Joseph is OU Executive Vice President/ Chief Operating Officer.

• Implementing a distribution system, spearheaded by Zevy Wolman, Director-at-Large on the OU Board of Directors and Chair of Community Projects and Partnerships, and Rabbi Simon Taylor, OU National Director of Community Projects and Partnerships, of food donations (including 5,900 ready-to-eat kosher meals) and medical supplies. Food and supplies were funded mostly by donations with a portion sponsored by OU Kosher’s network of manufacturers. Logistics teams in the United States, United Kingdom, Israel and Europe— totaling thirty people—were established to coordinate food transport, medicine procurement, air freight, and customs documentation and clearance. During the Pesach season, Maos Chittim donations enabled this supply chain to deliver more than 200 tons of food and holiday essentials to over 30,000 people.

Above, left: Volunteers organize materials in a distribution warehouse in Ukraine.

Key efforts included:

• Raising over $5 million in emergency donations to directly save and sustain lives. This included the most recent campaign to combat food insecurity through donations of just $75 a month, as well as the Shuls for Ukrainian Jewry campaign, where more than 100 shuls across North America raised funds to help evacuate those in war zones and provide food and shelter.

Center: Two young Jewish Ukrainian refugees with a box of food provided by the OU's Pesach distribution campaign.

SUPPORT FOR 84 JEWISH ACTION Fall 5783/2022

HAPPENINGS AROUND THE OU

By Sara Goldberg

Currently, while the war unfortunately continues, some semblance of normalcy is returning to many parts of Ukraine. The OU has assessed the situation together with its partners on the ground, Chabad and the Shema Yisrael Foundation, and decided together that the time is right for the OU to turn over to those partners direct responsibility for the food project, along with all the relationships and assets that we have developed to support that effort. As such, the OU is winding down its direct involvement in the project, though we will continue to monitor the situation. We wish Chabad and the Shema Yisrael Foundation every success in their continued efforts on behalf of Ukrainian Jewry.

WHAT YOUR DOLLARS HAVE ACHIEVED

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine instigated the largest humanitarian crisis Europe has experienced in decades and continues to threaten the existence of Ukraine’s Jewish community. In the months since the war’s inception, the OU, in collaboration with the RCA, the National Council of Young Israel, Vaad Hatzalah and Agudath Israel, continued to work diligently with organizations on the ground to provide relief to refugees.

—OU Executive Vice President Rabbi Moshe Hauer

Funded by a grant from the Samis Foundation, the trip was the first of several consecutive, week-long relief missions of NCSY teens to the Tikva Children’s Home, originally from Odessa, Ukraine, which houses 300 orphaned, abused or abandoned Jewish children. After fleeing Odessa, Tikva relocated to Neptun, a coastal city on the Black Sea east of Bucharest.

Top right: An NCSY teen playing with an orphaned Jewish Ukrainian girl at Tikva Children’s Home in Romania.

“The principle of ‘ kol Yisrael areivim zeh la’zeh’ (all Jews are responsible for each other) has been on vivid display in Klal Yisrael’s response to the Ukraine crisis. This has been true not only of the sense of responsibility for each other, but also—equally significant—in the organizational collaboration and partnerships.”

UKRAINIAN JEWRY

Carrying suitcases filled with teddy bears, games, sports equipment, craft supplies and candy, about twenty high school seniors from Seattle, along with their NCSY advisors, departed in May on NCSY Relief Missions’ first trip to Romania to provide much-needed play, activities, tutoring and moral support to Ukrainian Jewish orphans displaced by the war.

Teens Bring Cheer to Orphans

“Tikva is in dire need of volunteers who can hit the ground running,” said Rabbi Ethan Katz, director of NCSY Relief Missions. “Our goal is to bring some joy into these children’s lives and show them they’re not alone, that there are people who care about them and want to help them.”

85Fall 5783/2022 JEWISH ACTION

The Foundations Curriculum develops passionate Jewish identity rooted in Torah and shmirat hamitzvot through an interactive curriculum framework. By understanding their unique and indispensable roles in Klal Yisrael, participants recognize their spiritual potential and are receptive to further growth.

The OU Impact Accelerator identifies and advances promising Jewish nonprofits. Through education, mentorship, collaboration, and early-stage funding, the Impact Accelerator empowers great leaders committed to strengthening our communal landscape in new ways.

Lech-Lecha facilitates empowering outdoor adventures and wilderness journeys that catalyze personal development and spiritual growth deeply rooted in Torah, through a holistic approach to Jewish life and practice.

In July, celebrating the completion of Masechet Yevamot, All Daf hosted three consecutive siyumim in Manchester, England; Golders Green, London; and Baltimore, Maryland, attended by hundreds of talmidim who utilize the OU's All Daf app for their daily Gemara Alllearning.Dafis the OU's innovative Daf Yomi app, presenting shiurim on the daf by world-renowned maggidei shiur. All Daf also provides participants of all backgrounds with the opportunity to enhance their learning with a host of related topics including Jewish history, lomdut and Tanach.

Hundreds of Learners Unite at All Daf Siyumim

86 JEWISH ACTION Fall

In June, the OU Impact Accelerator announced the five innovative ventures that will be part of Cohort IV. The organizations were chosen from among seventy-one applicants; each will receive a $10,000 grant to facilitate further growth.

OU Executive Vice President Rabbi Moshe Hauer (left) and OU Kosher COO and All Daf maggid shiur Rabbi Moshe Elefant (third from left), dancing with talmidim at the All Daf Siyum in Manchester, England. 5783/2022

Kochvei HaShamayim champions the values of family, community, and education by supporting young Jewish couples, allowing them to minimize difficult compromises and to excel in both their family life and their early career or continued education.

The Jewish Orthodox Women's Medical Association (JOWMA) provides free health education to the Orthodox Jewish community and supports a network of current and future Jewish female physician leaders.

After The School Bell empowers elementary school students with accessible, online tutoring that improves academic success and builds confidence while providing an opportunity for volunteer highschool tutors to gain experience and gratification through helping others.

Meet the Impact Accelerator’s Fourth Cohort

Launched in 2022, the Summer Camp Network presents a united front to advocate for state security funding to protect campers, and enables its members to exchange ideas and best practices and to share new funding opportunities.

In June, the OU applauded the US Supreme Court’s ruling in the case of Carson v. Makin, which equivocally ruled that the State of Maine’s exclusionary state tuition assistance policy was discriminatory against religion and therefore unconstitutional.

Maine provides tuition assistance payments for all families with school-age children who live in locales that do not operate their own high schools. Under the program, parents may choose the accredited (or otherwise approved) school their child attends, and the state will pay the tuition. Since 1980, Maine has prohibited parents from choosing to enroll their children in “sectarian” high schools under the program. This discriminatory policy was challenged in court twice (1999 and 2004) and the US Court of Appeals upheld the policy. The new recent lawsuit was brought in the wake of the US Supreme Court’s rulings in Trinity Lutheran v. Columbia (2017) and Espinoza v. Montana (2020). In both of those rulings, the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional those state aid programs that excluded the participation of religious institutions because of their “status” as religious entities.

“Thanks to the Summer Camp Network, Teach is looking out for you and your children in the summer too, not just from September to June,” says Arielle Frankston-Morris, Executive Director of Teach PA. To donate to the Teach Summer Camp Network, go to teachcoalition.org/donate/camps/. For more information, contact Arielle Frankston-Morris at Right:ariellefm@teachcoalition.org.CampersatCampMoshava,a member camp of the Teach Coalition Summer Camp Network. The Network encompasses some 4,000 campers during the summer season.

Keeping Our Camps Safe

With the goal of bolstering security at Jewish sleepaway camps, the Teach Coalition Summer Camp Network—comprised of a group of Jewish sleepaway camps in Pennsylvania—successfully lobbied the Pennsylvania state legislature for security funding, earning individual security grants totaling $1 million through the state’s Nonprofit Security Grant Fund program. The funds enable the sleepaway camps and other nonprofits to secure their premises with physical improvements including gates, fencing, surveillance equipment, protective lighting and more.

“This ruling is the culmination of decades of determined advocacy by the OU and our partners who advocate for religious liberty and parental choice in education,” said OU Executive Director of Public Policy Nathan Diament. “A state discriminating against religion—as Maine did in its tuition assistance program—is just as unconstitutional as a state promoting one particular religion.”

87Fall 5783/2022 JEWISH ACTION

SCOTUS: Student Aid Programs Must Include Religious Schools

ANSHE SFARD KEHILLAT TORAH (ASKT)

Milwaukee, WI Introducing a monthly women’s forum to foster growth

OHAB ZEDEK

CONGREGATION

Creating a “Women in Network” group to support single women ages thirty-five plus

Cote St. Luc, QC Founding the Montreal Women’s Community Musical to connect women through musical theater and celebrate local talent in the arts

YOUNG ISRAEL OF FAIR LAWN Fair Lawn, NJ

Launching an immersive Shabbaton for young mothers focusing on self-improvement, interpersonal relationships and Learnchinuchmore about the communities and the programs that were chosen at ou.org/women/grant22.

WI Challenge Grant Winners

GREAT NECK SYNAGOGUE Great Neck, NY Establishing “Unite GNS,” a collaborative effort between GNS Bikur Cholim and the shul’s sisterhood and youth committees to strengthen connections between generations KIVUN Houston,HOUSTONTX

DALLAS TORAH INSTITUTE Dallas, TX

Forming “The Jewish Women Business Leaders Networking Group” to strengthen business-related halachic knowledge

New York, NY

Educating women of all ages about the role of mikvah in the community and the family

Initiating an event series to connect women bein adam l’chaveiro MIKVAH EMUNAH SOCIETY

88 JEWISH ACTION Fall 5783/2022

CONGREGATION

Silver Spring, MD

ANDPROMOTIONSACHIEVEMENTS

TZADDIK FOUNDATION

Congratulations to... . . . Simon Feder on his promotion to Junior Systems Administrator, IT. As a Systems Administrator, Simon will support, implement, and integrate all IT platforms in the OU. Prior to this, Simon was a Desktop Support Analyst with the IT help desk, providing end user support to OU employees for close to three years. Simon holds a bachelor’s in management information systems from Touro College.

Mazel tov to the ten communities that received grants of $3,600 from the Women’s Initiative’s Challenge Grant 2022 for innovative women’s programming.

ADAS TORAH Los Angeles, CA Providing mentorship for middle-school girls

Presenting experiential kashrut education for women of all ages

. . . Miriam Greenman on her promotion to Chief Information Officer. In this role, Miriam will establish the overall IT vision to ensure that the information technology initiatives roadmap is aligned with strategic organization objectives. Drawing on her experience in program management, enterprise architecture, business analysis, product development, user experience and data analytics, Miriam will manage delivery of IT solutions that balance critical business with innovation, compliance and security best practices to ultimately benefit the entire organization. She has a bachelor’s in computer science from Queens College, and a master’s of science from Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science. Miriam began her career at AT&T Bell Laboratories, then continued at EMC2, before joining the OU six years ago as Director of the talented IT Kashrut team, where she managed the technology solutions that drive the OU Kosher certification division.

OHR TORAH Edison, NJ

89Fall 5783/2022 JEWISH ACTION

The Akeidah: The Epic Confrontation of Din and Rachamim

The Akeidah plays a central role in Jewish thought in general and is a predominant theme of Rosh Hashanah in particular. This volume explores the relationship of the Akeidah to Rosh Hashanah, with a special focus on the Torah readings of the holiday, as well as the relationship between the mitzvah of shofar and the Akeidah. The book concludes with the text and analysis of a twelfth-century piyut that is the focal point of the Yamim Noraim services in many Sephardic congregations but remains virtually unknown in Ashkenazic circles. The author demonstrates that many themes presented in his work are reflected in this medieval piyut In his foreword to the volume, Rabbi Dr. Jacob J. Schacter writes: “Once again, Reb Michael has presented us with original, brilliant ideas, this time revolving around one story in the Torah—the complex, challenging, powerful and enigmatic story of the Akeidah. And, once again, the breadth of Reb Michael’s sources is astounding—Chazal and Acharonim, Gemara and Midrashim, Ashkenazim and Sephardim, Chasidim and Mitnagdim, Halachah and Aggadah, commentators and codifiers, all presented most cogently, clearly and articulately.”

NEW FROM OU PRESS

For all those interested in delving more deeply into the endless enigma of the Akeidah, this book is not to be missed.

AKEIDAHTheTheEpicConfrontationofDinandRachamimMichaelKaiser

BY MICHAEL KAISER OU Press and KTAV Publishing House

In this work, Michael Kaiser presents an original and creative interpretation of the Akeidah, the haunting saga of faith that has intrigued the world for millennia. Beginning at the beginning, with a thorough examination of the Creation passage in Genesis, the author highlights the divergences between the Torah’s two presentations of the Creation narrative and explains that the two accounts correspond to two models of the world. The first account of Creation is that of the attribute of din, strict justice, which leaves no room for human error and fallibility. The second account introduces the element of chesed, Divine kindness, without which we could not exist in a world of free choice. In the pivotal verse which transitions between these two accounts, the Torah alludes to Avraham, whose Divine mission involves repairing the fissure in Creation. Following this exploration, we are introduced to the major protagonists of the Akeidah and its aftermath— Avraham, Yitzchak, Sarah, Hagar and Yishmael. Notably, the author highlights the essential but often overlooked roles that the female characters, Sarah and Hagar, played in this riveting affair. A close reading of the Biblical text in conjunction with an impressive array of commentators, both ancient and modern, reveals how the drama of the Akeidah lies in the unresolved tension inherent in the Creation of the world, and how the characters in this drama are uniquely suited to fulfill their Divine mission.

The Epic Confrontation of Din and Rachamim

By Michael Kaiser In this work, Michael Kaiser presents an original and creative interpretation of the Akeidah, the haunting saga of faith which has intrigued the world for millennia and which is a central theme and focus of the Yamim Noraim.

The ten derashot contained in this work (including two newly included in this edition) address the meaning of the many aspects to the Yamim Noraim with the Rav’s characteristic insight, depth, and creativity.

Awe-Inspiring Works for the Days of Awe

The Akeidah

Machzor Mesoras HaRav for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur with commentary adapted from the teachings of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik Available oupress.orgat

Books of Jewish Thought that Educate, Inspire, Enrich, and Enlighten Before Hashem You Shall Be Purified Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik on the Days of Awe Expanded Edition; Summarized and Annotated by Dr. Arnold Lustiger

NEW! NEW!

$1,000,000AMBASSADOR+ DAN AND EWA ABRAHAM DRS. FELIX AND MIRIAM GLAUBACH BECKY AND AVI KATZ DR. SHMUEL AND EVELYN KATZ THE MARCUS FOUNDATION INC. IN MEMORY OF ANNE SAMSON A”H $100,000GUARDIAN- $999,999 EMANUEL AND HELEN ADLER IN MEMORY OF AHARON BEN YAAKOV SHALOM AND LEAH BAS YITZHAK MARK (MOISHE) AND JOANNE BANE DAHAN FAMILY PHILANTHROPIES ROBERT AND MICHELLE DIENER MITCHELL AND ANNETTE EICHEN ARIELA AND BENITO ESQUENAZI IN HONOR OF THE MENDEL BALK YACHAD COMMUNITY CENTER MR. AND MRS. JACK FEINTUCH ELLIOT P. AND DEBORAH GIBBER ALAN AND BARBARA GINDI THEDAILYGIVING.ORGGUSTAVEAND CAROL JACOBS CENTER FOR KASHRUT EDUCATION MORDECAI Z”L AND MONIQUE KATZ THE KOHELET FOUNDATION THE JEWISH FEDERATION OF GREATER LOS ANGELES THE JEWISH FEDERATION OF METROPOLITAN MICHAELCHICAGOAND ANDREA LEVEN DAVID AND DEBRA MAGERMAN MAYBERG FOUNDATION RAPHAEL AND RIVKA NISSEL RALLA KLEPAK FOUNDATION FOR EDUCATION IN THE PERFORMING ARTS ERIC AND GALE A”H ROTHNER RUDERMAN FAMILY FOUNDATION MARK AND BARBARA SILBER MORIS AND LILLIAN TABACINIC UJA-FEDERATION OF NEW YORK JOYCE AND JEREMY WERTHEIMER $50,000FOUNDER- $99,999 AARON AND MARIE BLACKMAN FOUNDATION ALLEN AND DEANNA ALEVY HOWARD AND CHAYA BALTER LEWIS AND LAURI BARBANEL DANIEL AND RAZIE BENEDICT JUDI AND JASON BERMAN HILLEL AND CHARLOTTE BRACHFELD THE CAYRE FOUNDATIONEISENREICHROBERTGERSHONGRANTNEILCROSSCRAIN-MALINGFAMILYFOUNDATION:WWW.CRAINMALING.ORGRIVERBANKANDSHERRYCOHENANDJENNIFERDINNERANDAVIVADISTENFELDEISENBERGFAMILYFOUNDATIONFORJEWISHDAYSCHOOLS, GREATER GEORGEPHILADELPHIAANDMARTHA RICH FOUNDATION

LIEBLICH

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RICHARD HIRSCH DR. ALLAN AND SANDY JACOB JEWISH COMMUNITY FEDERATION ENDOWMENT FUND FEDERATION OF NORTHERN NEW JERSEY JEWISH FUTURE PLEDGE DR. EZRA AND LAUREN KEST ETTA BRANDMAN KLARISTENFELD HARRY ESTATEKLARISTENFELDOFETHELYN

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AND

AMIR AND STACEY GOLDMAN EPHRAIM AND RITA GREENFIELD KLEIN, JAFFA, AND HALPERN FAMILIES

OU Benefactor Circle members form the cornerstone of the Orthodox Union. Their partnership and deep commitment to our mission allow us to accomplish so much on behalf of our community. We applaud and thank all those who lead through their philanthropy and whose names appear here, as well as those choosing to remain anonymous. If you are not yet a member, we invite you to join us in making a difference. To learn more about the OU Benefactor Circle or to become a member, please call Alexander Jonas, at 212.613.8379 or email jonasa@ou.org.

MARY JO ROBINSON AND GORDON GLASER MURRAY AND BATSHEVA GOLDBERG JOSEPH AND LAURA GOLDMAN AARON AND MICHAL GORIN PHILIP AND AVIVA GREENLAND RABBI MICAH AND RIVKIE DR.GREENLANDALANAND MIRIAM GREENSPAN ABE AND RONIT GUTNICKI ELAN AND MONICA GUTTMAN DR. BARRY AND SHIRA HAHN SALOMON HARARI HARRY AND JANE FISCHEL RABBIFOUNDATIONMOSHEAND MINDI HAUER THE HERBERT

DAVIDPELCOVITZINAARONTZVINORMANGABRIELAVIJACKJAYSAMUELALEXANDERETANDANIELGILAMR.MICHAELMASASHARIDAVIDELLIOTTJEFFREYJEREMYVIVIANRICHARDJONATHANDANIELKIMJONAHSCOTTLAWRENCEMARTINAVIALICESAMUELRABBIDANIELMORRISDR.RUTHYDR.JEWISHJEWISHTHERABBIISAACHOWARDJAMESFOUNDATIONSMILOWITZANDCAROLHERSCOTHOFFMANANDSONSFOUNDATIONH.TAYLORENDOWMENTFUNDMOSHEANDDEVORAISENBERGJACOBYFAMILYFEDERATIONINTHEHEARTOFNEWJERSEYFEDERATIONOFGREATERHOUSTONJULIEANDRABBIDR.JOSHJOSEPHANDAARONJUNGREISBERNARDANDMELANIEKAMINETSKYANDSONDRAKAPLANJ.ANDCAROLINER.KATZETHANANDDEBORAHKATZANDVICKIKATZANDJACOBKLEINANDRAVITALKORNANDSARAHKORNBLUMANDEVELYNKRAUTANDAVIVAKRIEGERANDFRANKUPIETZKYANDJONATHANKUSHNERANDAMANDANUSSBAUMLAIFERANDSHARILAUERANDLEORALINHARTANDDAVIDLUCHINSANDTAMARLUSTMANANDADRIAMANDELANDCHAVIMANDELBAUMANDMICHELLEMARGULESANDYAAKOVMARKOVITZISRAELJOURNEYANDALIZAMERMELSTEINANDMRS.ASHERDAVIDANDMICHELLEMILSTEINANDADAMMILSTEINANDJESSICAMINKOFFANDVALERIEMIRWISANDFAMILYANDYOCHEVEDMITCHELLANDDEBBIEMOEDANDJOYCEMOSKOWITZA”HANDGITTANAGELANDDEBRANAIDERANDBETHNECHAMKINSHULEVITZFOUNDATIONANDALEXANDRAODZERANDAHUVAORLOFSKYMEMORYOFRABBIRAPHAELPELCOVITZZ”L,FROMTHEFAMILYANDELANAPOLLACK

CHUCK AND ALLEGRA MAMIYE EITAN AND DEBRA MILGRAM MOSAIC UNITED DRS. JAY AND SUSAN PEPOSE JONATHAN AND ANNE RAND SAMIS NATHANFOUNDATIONANDLOUISE SCHWARTZ TZEDAKA FUND RABBI ZECHARIA AND CHANA THESENTERSHAMAH FAMILY GARY AND MALKA TORGOW DAVID AND GILA WEINSTEIN THE WEISS FAMILY, CLEVELAND, OHIO MEREDITH AND KENNY YAGER JOSH AND ALLISON ZEGEN $25,000BUILDER - $49,999 RAANAN AND NICOLE AGUS LIOR AND DRORA ARUSSY SUE AND BILL AUERBACH DAVID AND NATALIE BATALION SABY AND ROSI BEHAR SHAEL AND JOAN BELLOWS HARRY H. BEREN Z”L BRIAN AND DAFNA BERMAN THE CHARLES CRANE FAMILY VIVIANFOUNDATIONANDDANIEL CHILL DRS. BENJAMIN AND ESTHER COMBINEDCHOUAKEJEWISH PHILANTHROPIES THE CONDUIT FOUNDATION SHIMON AND CHAYA ECKSTEIN JEFFREY AND SHIRA EISENBERG JACOB JUDITHFADERANDALLEN I. FAGIN GREATER MIAMI JEWISH FEDERATION FALIC FAMILY FOUNDATION GERALD AND MIRIAM FRIEDKIN HOWARD TZVI AND CHAYA FRIEDMAN THE GEORGE WEINBERGER MUSIC RAYMONDPROGRAMAND ELIZABETH GINDI ARTHUR AND JUDITH GOLDBERG JOSH JERRYGOLDBERGANDANNE RABBI DANIEL AND JUDITH GOODMAN EVE JEWISHJEWISHPAULMICHAELALISSAEDSTEVENTHEJ.ROBERTMARCDR.JACKJAMESESTATEMOSHEROBYNHARVEYGORDON-RAMEKGREENSTEINANDSHUKIEGROSSMANANDTIRAGUBINOFALLENHABELSONANDAMYA”HHABERHADDADELLIOTZ”LANDLILLIANHAHNANDRUKIHALPERTANDDEBRAHARTMANSAMUELHARWITANDMANYAHARWIT-AVIVCHARITABLETRUSTHELENANDIRVINGSPATZFOUNDATIONHELLERANDROBYNHOFFMAN/HOFFMANCATERINGANDSHIMMIEHORNANDBATYAJACOBANDCHAVIJACOBSFEDERATIONOFGREATERATLANTAFEDERATIONOFS.PALMBEACHCOUNTY

GONTOWNIK

IRA AND DR. RIVA COLLINS MITZNER CAL AND JANINE NATHAN ISABELLE AND DAVID NOVAK

$10,000PARTNER- $17,999 ALISA ISAACARNOLDANDRESILANAPAULEZRANATALIOFIRSTRABBIDR.BARIDRS.DAVIDELKONFREDJOHNHAIMTZIPPYCAROLARIVANESSAJOSHUAKEITHKEVINDAVIDMR.HARVEYYEHUDASIONRABBIMR.MRS.DR.YALEIRABALANOFFRACHELERICAARONJACKARTRABBISTEVENISABELLEABECASSISCOHEN-ADLERANDRENEEADELSBERGSHLOMOANDMIRIAMAPPELHARRISFOUNDATIONANDREGINEASHKENAZIEANDTAMMYATTIASANDJOYCEAUSTEINANDAVRUMIBAKFOUNDATIONANDSHERIBALSAMANDANNBARONMOSHEANDBRYNDIEBENARROCHROCHELLEAHBERNSTEINANDMRS.ISAACBERMANJULIUSANDDOROTHYBERMANANDLORRAINEBETESHANDFAIGEBIENSTOCKANDJUDYBLITZLUDWIGBRAVMANNANDCHEDVABREAUBRENNANANDLAURENBRESLAUER&FAMILYANDAMYBUCHSBAYEWANDRAYMONDCHALMEANDERIKACOHENANDJEFFCOHENANDDANIELCOHENANDBARBARADABAHDAVISONANDSUZANEHRMANFAMILYFOUNDATIONANDDEVORAELKOUBYGILATANDYOSSIENGLANOFFANDDANIELERBERRINAANDNAHUMFELMANJOSEPHANDSARAHFELSENHORIZONBANKANDANNEFRIDMANANDRACHELIFRIEDBERGANDDIANEGALLANTANDJEFFGDANSKIANDKARINAGELRUDANDESTHERGERSONGINDI

NATALIE AND DAVIDI JONAS MICHAEL AND JUDY KAISER BENYAMIN AND ESTI KAMINETZKY MICHAEL AND ELISSA KATZ AARON AND TOBI KELLER KARMELA A”H AND JERRY KLASNER LAIZER AND JESSICA KORNWASSER ALBERT LABOZ ESTATE OF PHILLIP LEONIAN DANIEL AND ELANA LOWY M.B. GLASSMAN FOUNDATION LYNN AND JOEL MAEL IRIS AND SHALOM MAIDENBAUM AZI AND RACHEL MANDEL DR. RALPH AND JUDITH MARCUS MRS. FEGI MAUER MARTIN AND ELIZABETH NACHIMSON YEHUDA AND ANNE NEUBERGER HENRY AND MINDY ORLINSKY THE OVED FAMILY RALPH S. GINDI FAMILY FOUNDATION ALEXANDER AND RACHEL RINDNER MALKI AND J. PHILIP ROSEN HENRY AND VIVIAN ROSENBERG JAMES AND LOREN ROSENZWEIG ROBBIE AND HELENE ROTHENBERG GENIE AND STEVE SAVITSKY ROBERT AND TAMAR SCHARF MENACHEM AND RENA SCHNAIDMAN SHANA GLASSMAN FOUNDATION MEYER AND BAILA SILVERBERG BARRY AND JOY SKLAR DAVID AND AMY STRACHMAN MICHAEL AND ARIANNE WEINBERGER THE WEININGER FOUNDATION INC. ESTHER AND JERRY WILLIAMS MR. JERRY AND MRS. SARA WOLASKY DAVID AND BECKY ZWILLINGER ASH EZRA

STEPHENEZRADR.CHAIMJEFFMARCDANAKIDDESIGNS,JACKRABBICHAIMIRAJOANLANCEDAVIDMARCARIEMTLINDAPETERCONTRAJULIEMARCUSANDREADENNISMAXISAACASHKENAZIASHKENAZIANDELANABERLINANDDEBRABERMANBIERZ”LANDDORISBLUMKINANDPAULCANDAUCOSTAJEWISHCOMMUNITYCENTERANDLORIDEUTSCHANDMICHAELELMANACTIONFUNDANDALISONGROSSANDRUKIHALPERTANDCHAYATOVAHARTMANANDRIVKIEHIRTANDPETERHOFFMANWALDBAUMFAMILYFOUNDATIONANDSURIKAHNMARKANDLINDAKARASICKALBERTKASSININC.ANDJEFFREYKORBMANANDRENAKWESTELANDMARCILEFKOVITSANDBARALOEWENTHALLOUISANDCHANIEMALCMACHERANDLAURENMERKINANDEVEMILSTEIN MARC PENN ALLEN AND MIRIAM PFEIFFER IAN AND CAROL RATNER THE REFUGE - A HEALING PLACE YECHIEL AND NOMI ROTBLAT STEPHEN AND JESSICA SAMUEL GEORGE AND IRINA SCHAEFFER LISA AND JONATHAN SCHECHTER JEREMY AND DAHLIA SIMONS BARUCH AND SUSIE SINGER EDDIE MORRISSITTAND RACHEL TABUSH ADAM AND TALI TANTLEFF TRAVEL INSURANCE ISRAEL LIZZY AND JOSH TRUMP UNITED LEGWEAR RABBI STEVEN AND YAEL WEIL JEFFREY AND SHARONA WEINBERG GEORGE AND JONI WHITE

$18,000VISIONARY-$24,999 DANIEL AND LIORA ADLER ISAAC

PHILANTHROPY OF GREATER PHOENIX DANIEL AND DEVORAH CHEFITZ ADAM AND ILANA CHILL SARI AND JASON CIMENT JEREMY AND HILDA COHEN GOBBIE AND SHAYNA COHN CONTRA COSTA JEWISH COMMUNITY PACECENTERAND AILEEN COOPER RABBI ABRAHAM AND ROSALYN ETHANCOOPERAND AMY COREY RICK AND MARCY CORNFELD DAVID AND MARILYN CUTLER STEPHEN AND SUE DARRISON DAVID AND INEZ MYERS FOUNDATION ELI AND CHASI DAVIS STEVE AND CHAVI DORFMAN DR. CARYN BORGER AND MARK DUNEC GARY AND KAREN EISENBERG JEFFREY AND JENNIFER EISENSTEIN RINA AND RABBI DOV EMERSON BINAH AND DANNY ENGLANDER DRS. ROBERT AND KAY FAGUET GLORIA FELDMAN RABBI DAVE AND CHANI FELSENTHAL PAT AND ERROL FINE MARTIN AND LEORA FINEBERG ARYEH AND DORIT FISCHER RON AND LISA ROSENBAUM FISHER JOSEPH AND RACHEL FOX DR. BEN AND CARA FREEDMAN JEREMY AND DANA FRENKEL SURA AND BERT FRIED ALAN ALLENFRIEDMANANDRACHEL FRIEDMAN MARK AND CHERYL FRIEDMAN DR. STAN AND MARLA FROHLINGER JOEY ANDREWGABAYAND

ILANA RAUZMAN BARRY AND HARRIET RAY LAWRENCE REIN DRS. CRAIG AND JACKIE REISS KAREN AND SHAWN ROSENTHAL MARC AND ALISSA ROSSMAN HENRY AND GOLDA REENA ROTHMAN RALPH KENNETHRUBENSTEINANDMINDY

SHEFFEY SHULCHAN RIVKA FUND STEPHANIE AND DAVID SOKOL DR. AND MRS. ETHAN SPIEGLER THE STAENBERG FAMILY FOUNDATION LEWIS AND HELENE STAHL AVI AND DEENA STEIN MARVIN AND DEBRA STERNBERG MARILYN RABHAN SWEDARSKY AND DR. ROBERT SWEDARSKY TALK N SAVE DR. AND MRS. SHIMMY TENNENBAUM DR. CHARLES AND SHARON TRAURING EPHRAIM AND AVIVA VILENSKI STEPHEN AND MIRIAM WALLACH THE JOSEPH LEROY AND ANN C. WARNER FUND ADAM AND JODI WEINSTEIN TOVA AND HOWARD WEISER ARI AND CAROLINE WEISMAN JESSICA AND LENNY WEISS ADAM AND AVA WEISSTUCH MOSHE AND DR. ILANA WERTENTEIL RABBI ARYEH AND YAEL WIELGUS ALAN AND DENISE WILDES SUSANNE AND MICHAEL WIMPFHEIMER SHIMON AND HENNIE WOLF MORRIS AND ARIELLE WOLFSON DRS. YECHIEL AND SURI ZAGELBAUM ALAN AND LORI ZEKELMAN MARK AND JESSICA ZITTER YAIR AND DINA ZUCKERMAN $5,000PATRON- $9,999 JONATHAN AND LEAH ADLER MICHAELARIELMICHAELDR.ADM/ROILISAAIKENAINGORNTOURS,INC.ANDSUSAN BAUM DR. AND MRS. YITZHAK AND ELLEN BENJAMINBERGER AND ELIZABETH BERMAN JOEL AND DINA BESS CAROL LASEK AND HOWARD RABBIBIENENFELDGLENNAND

BRAVERMAN

HELLER CHAIM AND ARIELLA HERMAN CHANI AND DANIEL HERRMANN DOV AND LAURA HERTZ THE HIDARY FAMILY DR. GARY AND CHERYL HOBERMAN YISROEL AND SHIRA HOCHBERG CATHY AND DAVID HOFFMAN NORMA SHLOMOHOLZERANDDORIE HORWITZ DR. SHALOM AND LORI HUBERFELD DR. DAVID AND BARBARA HURWITZ YAACOV AND RAYME ISAACS MOTTY AND HADASSA JACOBOWITZ STANLEY AND PHYLLIS JASPAN THE JOSEPH FAMILY FOUNDATION JEWISH COMMUNITY FEDERATION OF DAVIDRICHMONDANDMICHAL KAHAN LEORA STUARTKAMINERKARONAND DR. JODI WENGER AARON AND JILL KATZ AHRON AND RIVKY KATZ BENJAMIN KELLOGG DOV AND AMY KESSELMAN DAVID AND ROBERTA KIMMEL STEVEN KIMMELMAN ROBIN AND BRAD KLATT MICHAEL AND JULIE KLEIN MR. ROBERT KORDA JOSEPH AND HANA KORNWASSER HARRY DARRENKOTLERANDMARNI KOTTLE JOSH JOSHUAKRAFTAND BRYNA LANDES ARMAND AND ESTHER LASKY PINCHUS AND DEBORAH SCHICK INLAUFERMEMORY OF JUDY LEFKOVITS ANDY AND ISA LEFKOWITZ JOSHUA AND ERICA LEGUM MARSHALL AND DOREEN LERNER SHULLY HYLTONLICHTMANANDLEAH LIGHTMAN MORDECHAI AND PENINA LIPTON MAURY AND ELINOR LITWACK DAVID AND JUDITH LOBEL JOSEF LOEFFLER DR. LAWRENCE AND SHIRLEY IDELLERABBIJOSHUAYITZHOKIRADR.RALPHGAILDR.JASONYARONREGALSGEORGIADR.NORMANRICHARDGAILYITZIEMR.LARRYMORDECHAIDENAALIZAPEOPLE’SPROF.DREWSCOTTTERRYANNASTEVENZACHARYELIJONATHANRABBIDANIELMICHAELSHARONADR.ELLIOTHARRYMARSHALLNOAHDR.STEVEYALEJENNIFERLEONARDADAMRONEETSHMUELBENAYTZACHIDR.DAVIDNOAHEVANLOEWENTHALANDEVIMAKOVSKYANDARINNMAKOVSKYMANDELDAVIDANDSTACIMARGULISANDELISHEVAMEISELANDIRAMEISELSMELAMEDMERKINANDFRANCINEMERMELSTEINANDBEVERLYMEZEIANDDRORMICHAELSONANDGAILMILLERANDMALKAMIRETZKYDANIELANDSTEPHANIEMISHKINANDSUZANNEMISHKINANDJEANMIZRAHIANDROBINMORTKOWITZANDAVAMOSKOWITZMICHAELANDELIZABETHMUSCHELANDIRWINNACHIMSONANDMICHELLENACHMANIANDANNENAGELYAAKOVANDSARANAGELANDMINDYNEISSANDTALIANEUBERGNEUGUTANDMARTINENEWMANBAUMANDBARRYNOVACKANDGAILNOVETSKYANDRONITORLANSKIANDCAREENAPARKERMARTINPATTUNITEDINSURANCEAGENCYANDMICHAELPILEVSKYANDSETHPILEVSKYANDALIZAPOLSTEINANDANDREAPORTALANDMRS.DAVIDPORUSHANDNANCYPRETTERPROPPANDORARABINOVICHANDLINDYRADOWSTEVENANDBELINDARAIKINRAVITZFOUNDATIONANDLISAREICHANDSHANIREITBERGERWESTONANDDENISERICHTERANDBINYAMINRIEDERANDLEAHRIEDERJAYANDMARJORIEROBINOWANDDEBRAROSENBERGANDTAMARROSENTHALANDALYSEROZENBERGDANIELANDELISHEVARUBENSTEINRUDMAN

ZVI AND SHARONNE RUDMAN LARRY AND SHELLY RUSSAK MILTON AND SHIRLEY SABIN MARVIN AND ROZ SAMUELS SAPPHIRE WEALTH ADVISORY GROUP DAVID AND ROSLYN SAVITSKY TAMMI AND BENNETT SCHACHTER TOBY MACY SCHAFFER ROBERT AND ANDREA SCHECHTER DR. MARCEL AND TAMAR SCHEINMAN DR. JOSEF SCHENKER RONNIE AND SANDRA SCHIFF TERRI AND NEIL SCHLOSS JERRY AND BARBARA SCHRECK MALI AND STEVE SCHWARTZ SHLOMO AND GITTY SCHWARTZ SCOTT AND JAMIE SELIGSOHN ALEXANDER SELIGSON ANDREW AND STEPHANI SEROTTA ARI AND SHOSHANA SHABAT RALPH AND SARAH SHAMAH RUTH BENJAMINSHANKERAND MOR SHAPIRO JAYNE MICHAELSHAPIROANDTALI SHAPIRO SHEFA BRACHA FUND YAAKOV AND SARI SHEINFELD NEIL HELENSHOREAND GERALD SILVER DR. MORRIS AND SHARON SILVER DANIEL AND NOMI SILVERMAN TUVIA AND MIRIAM SILVERSTEIN TZVI KERRIMICHAELSIMPSONSMITHANDJEFFREY

YVETTE GARDNER JASON AND JOCELYNE GARDNER LAWRENCE AND JUDITH GARSHOFSKY SHAI AND TOVA GERSON RISA AND ZEV GEWURZ RYAN AND NICOLE GALIA GILBERT ARI AND ABIGAIL GLASS LENNY AND ESTELLE GLASS RUBEN AND SARITA GOBER MR. AND MRS. ERNIE GOLDBERGER EVAN AND REBECCA GOLDENBERG MR. AND MRS. DAN GOLDISH RABBI BEN AND AVIVA GONSHER DR. SUSAN GRAYSEN AND FAMILY JONATHAN GREEN FREDA GREENBAUM DR. EDWIN AND CECILE GROMIS DR. STEVEN AND LISA GRONOWITZ ARYEH AND GOLDIE GROSS ARIEL AND ALETA GRUNBERG DR. ELI AND SORA GRUNSTEIN DR. DANIEL AND TSIPORA GURELL MICHAEL HADDAD JOSH AND MARJORIE HARRIS HC STAFFING AND PAYROLL SETHSOLUTIONSANDELISHEVA

SNOW FAMILY BARRYFOUNDATIONANDJODIE SOBEL JAIME AND MARILYN SOHACHESKI JONATHAN AND DODI SPIELMAN RUTH BRANDT SPITZER GARY AND NAOMI STEIN STEINIG FAMILY: ESTATE OF MELVIN AND MIRELE STEINIG A”H MR. AND MRS. ABRAHAM J. STERN RACHELLE AND ZEV STERN DR. DAVID AND DOROTHY STOLL AARON AND ARIELLA STRASSMAN ABRAHAM SULTAN MICHAEL SWIECA SAM AND NANCY SUTTON MATT JONATHANTEICHMANAND RACHEL TIGER TAL SAMTOURSANDTZIPI TRAMIEL SHLOMO AND RONNI TROODLER DANIEL AND ZAHAVAH URETSKY KIRILL AND MARY VOROBEYCHIK DANIEL AND SARA WALZMAN JOSHUA AND LESLIE WANDERER IN MEMORY OF DOVID BEN REB YOSEF WEINBERG A”H BARBARA AND HOWARD WEINER ESTHER AND BARUCH WEINSTEIN LENNIE AND JESSICA WEISS AMNON AND RONIT WENGER HOWARD AND DEBBIE WENGROW CHAIM AND MIRIAM WIELGUS HOWARD AND BATIA WIESENFELD DAVID JORGEWITTENBERGANDTAMMARA WOLDENBERG DAVID AND NATALIE WOLF RABBI SHABSAI AND DEBBIE WOLFE FRAN AND DAVID WOOLF ARIEL AND BETH ZELL EREZ ZEVULUNOV SETH ZWILLENBERG We apologize for any omissions. If you wish to be acknowledged, please contact Alexander Jonas at jonasa@ou.org List updated as of April 2022

HENNI BLACK YEHUDA AND RONI BLINDER LOIS BLUMENFELD BEN AND TAMAR BLUMENTHAL ENID AND HAROLD H. BOXER LEEENDOWMENTANDALIZA

ISRAEL AND NECHAMA POLAK MOSHE AND YAFFA POPACK DANIEL AND LEYLA POSNER DRS. NATHAN AND RACHEL DR.RABINOVITCHAZRIELAND

SAIBEL ETHEL AND STAN SCHER JAY AND JEANIE SCHOTTENSTEIN TIBERIO AND ELLYSE SCHWARTZ DAVID TAMARLOUISJOSEPHMICHAELSHABSELSSHABSELSSHAMIESHAMIEANDAARON

DRS. DAVID AND NANCY BRENT MICHAEL AND ALLISON BROMBERG YISHAI AND BLUMA BRONER THE BROOKLINE COMMUNITY CENTERCCSFOUNDATIONFUNDRAISINGFORJEWISH

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Being a second-generation member of the Teach Coalition family is a responsibility that Jenna, a resident of New Jersey, takes seriously. Inspired by her mom, Jenna has been actively spreading Teach Coalition’s messages to her peers, explaining that the state funding secured for nonpublic school students translates into significant savings, which can go a long way toward paying for other

Above: Carol Lasek Bienenfeld (bottom row,first from right) and her daughter Jenna (top row,fourth from right) with their extended family at theTeach New Jersey Legislative Dinner,where Jenna and her husband Sam (fifth from right) were recognized for their dedication to the organization. PHILANTHROPY

WHEN GIVING IS A FAMILY AFFAIR

“This is something you are never going to forget,” Carol told her daughter. “It will remain with you forever—because this is for your kids and your grandkids.” This past May, Jenna and her husband, Sam Goldstein, a Yavneh Academy Board Member and Teach NJ Liaison, were recognized by Teach NJ in appreciation of their dedication as volunteers as well as their generosity as donors.Forher part, Carol is thrilled that her daughter is involved in Teach NJ and is very proud of Jenna and Sam’s commitment. The Bienenfelds are but one example of a multigenerational family that is passionate about the work of Teach Coalition. Jenna recalls growing up in a home where charity was of paramount importance and annual family meetings to discuss the value of giving back to others were sacrosanct. As the mother of four children, she appreciates the relevance of Teach Coalition more than ever. “We believe in advocating for our community to voice our needs and fight for the safety and security of our yeshivah day schools,” she says. “Education was one of the most fundamental things we were raised with.” Carol, who lives in Fort Lauderdale, was an early leader in the fight to expand Florida’s tax credit scholarship program. She was one of the first to join the Jewish Leadership Coalition in 2011. Headed by Dr. Allan Jacob, the Coalition was the precursor to Teach Florida, which launched in 2016. A partner at BLS Wealth Management, Carol remembers yearly missions to Tallahassee with JLC and then with Teach Florida, to lobby for school choice while her children were still in day school. “It’s all about activism to make a difference,” she says.

As the founding and ongoing Co-Chair of Teach Florida’s Annual Legislative Breakfast, Carol has helped grow the event from 300 to 600 people a year, with fifty elected officials in attendance. “It’s a golden opportunity to educate our community and elected officials about the vital role of state scholarships for our families and the tremendous impact of the state’s school security funding program.” Indeed, since Teach Florida and its school choice partners teamed up to advocate for the largest expansion in scholarships in 2020, Florida has become the nation’s leader in scholarship programs.

“Carol is more than a smart, charismatic and generous woman,” observed Mimi Jankovits, National Director of Marketing and Strategic Relations for Teach Coalition, who also served as Teach Florida’s first Executive Director. “She is a role model as a community leader and successful businesswoman. Most beautifully, she has passed her values on to her children as well as to the whole community.”

Inside

By JA staff hen Jenna Bienenfeld Goldstein was chosen to be an honoree at last year’s Teach NJ Legislative Dinner, she immediately shared the news with her mother, Carol Lasek Bienenfeld, who has been a leader in Teach Florida for years.

Multi-generational lay leadership is also evident in the Sutton family. Abe Sutton saw firsthand his father’s extraordinary dedication to Teach Coalition over the years. “My father was one of the people who helped found the organization before it was part of the OU, and I was always impressed by what they [the OU together with my father] accomplished.”“WithoutSam Sutton, there would be no Teach Coalition,” says Dan Mitzner, Teach Coalition COO and Director of Government Affairs. “Sam’s early engagement with elected officials in New York City became the model for how Teach Coalition built its advocacy network. Sam is a key part of our lay leadership, and we rely on his advice and expertise.” Teach Coalition’s roots date back to 2005, when Sutton, a resident of Brooklyn and president of the Sephardic Community Federation in New York, and other leaders of the organization recognized that the financial burden of yeshivah tuition was a significant hardship for many of its members. They stepped up to create Teach NYS, a groundbreaking movement to advocate that a share of the state’s taxpayer dollars be invested in the education of its 400,000 nonpublic school students. Teach NYS began lobbying elected officials and was successful in its aim to direct funds to the growing nonpublic school community. In 2013, Teach NYS broadened its focus by affiliating with the Orthodox Union to benefit an even larger number of yeshivah and day school students, impacting Jewish education nationally. As President of Teach NYS from its inception, Sam has played a crucial role in its accomplishments. His tireless advocacy and hours spent cultivating relationships with elected officials were pivotal in the tremendous growth in funding for the state’s nonpublic student population. Over the years, Teach NYS has successfully lobbied for funding toward enhanced school security, kosher meals, classroom technology and UPK (Universal Pre-Kindergarten) programming. Sam is extremely proud of Teach NYS’s achievements in securing STEM funding for nonpublic school students, with an initial $5 million allocation six years ago that has grown to $55 million today.

Abe and Sam Sutton.Having observed his father’s enormous dedication to Teach Coalition over the decades, today Abe is a Teach NJ Ambassador.

Taking the lead from his father, Abe spends significant time educating community members and elected officials about policy goals. “We arranged two virtual missions to Trenton so that hundreds of students could meet with their legislators, as well as with scores of other meetings where we explained who we are and what we are looking for, while developing stronger relationships with the people making policy,” says Abe. “We have also taken a page from my Dad’s playbook by focusing on getting out the vote. Some people don’t realize how important voting is,” explains Abe. “While everyone’s vote is confidential, how different communities voted is public information. Candidates are more likely to pay attention to communities with high turnout. Most people don’t understand this until you explain it to them.”

“When it comes to tzedakah, you give to family first. Teach Coalition, at least to us, is a charity that we feel impacts our own children and future generations.” “

95Fall 5783/2022 JEWISH ACTION essentials. “Jewish education is of paramount importance to my husband and myself. We are both big believers in it because our parents provided us with a Jewish education, and we want that for our children and grandchildren,” she says. “When it comes to tzedakah, you give to family first. Teach Coalition, at least to us, is a charity that we feel impacts our own children and future generations.”

Having observed his father’s enormous dedication to Teach Coalition over the decades, Abe is today a Teach NJ Ambassador, working to build lasting, impactful relationships with key elected officials in the state. Mitzner credits Abe with having impressive leadership qualities— like his father Sam. Abe recalls politicians coming to the house for coffee, and “even for Shabbat meals,” and how his father would spend hours on the phone discussing how Teach Coalition could do even more to help families and students. Today, Abe is doing the same.

To learn more about the work of Teach Coalition, contact Katie Katz at KatzK@teachcoalition.org.

MAKING A DOLLAR AT A TIME By Sandy Eller t was the middle of 2018 when White Plains chiropractor Dr. Jonathan Donath had an epiphany. Having just listened to a shiur discussing the importance of small mitzvot, Donath dropped a dollar in his shul’s tzedakah box like he always did when he went to Maariv, and it occurred to him that no matter how much tzedakah he gave, in total, every donation, small or large, is another mitzvah. He reasoned that there had to be a website somewhere that automated the process of giving tzedakah on a daily basis, but upon scouring the Internet, Donath was amazed to discover that the concept didn’t exist in the Orthodox Jewish community. Deciding to take matters into his own hands, he got together with several of his close friends to create an organization that would bring that vision to life.Daily Giving went live in January 2019 with people signing up to donate a dollar each day, with all monies collected that day going to one of thirty-six beneficiary organizations on a rotating basis. The site operates under the auspices of Rabbi Hershel Schachter, Rabbi Moshe Tuvia Lieff, Rabbi Paysach Krohn and Rabbi Shmuel Greenberg, and has amassed more than 10,000 givers in thirty-four countries over the past three-and-a-half years. Each donor receives a daily email informing him which of the site’s beneficiaries have been the recipient of his largesse and how much money was collected in total.“Wewant people to feel something every day—we feel it is our special sauce,” Donath told Jewish Action. “I have one friend who is a CEO who gets thousands of emails every day and ours is the one he always opens because he loves seeing the numbers going up and who we are giving to.”

While NCSY regions receive significant local support, its national initiatives include multiple summer programs and a five-day winter break Yarchei Kallah. In addition to supporting NCSY’s national program with funding, Daily Giving also offers an additional benefit: exposure. “Many people know us locally, but getting the word out about what we do on the national level is extremely important,” said Yankovich. “Jews from all across the spectrum care about tzedakah, and I hope that as Daily Giving grows, more and more people will becomeThoseinvolved.”thoughts were echoed by Ken Saibel, Associate Director of Yachad. “The funds from Daily Giving have made a critical difference in the lives of our Yachad members throughout the country providing them with vital programming throughout the year,” said Saibel. “We are extremely grateful for the support and proud to encourage all members of the Jewish community to join in this incredible mitzvah of giving tzedakah on a daily basis.”

DIFFERENCE— ONE

“The achdus that we are creating here is my favorite part,” said Donath. “People are often flabbergasted by the idea that we have more than 10,000 Jews doing this together. What could Hashem want more than for his children to come together every single day to give to their brothers and sisters who are less fortunate?”

Sandy Eller is a writer for numerous websites, newspapers, magazines and private clients.

Daily Giving’s beneficiary list has grown by more than 50 percent and now includes fifty-eight charitable organizations. All are national nonprofits that benefit the greater Jewish community, with both NCSY and Yachad on the site’s list of recipient charities from day one. Donath and many members of Daily Giving’s Board of Trustees feel a strong connection to both NCSY and Yachad, each of which has received over $100,000 from Daily Giving over the past four years. Daily Giving was also chosen from among a group of 250 charities to be one of just four applicants that were awarded grants as part of the OU Impact Accelerator’s second cohort in 2020. “The Impact Accelerator looks for up-and-coming nonprofits that have the potential to transform the Jewish landscape. When Daily Giving applied to the Accelerator, it was earning $700 a day in donations. We’ve been so proud to watch that number grow to over $10K daily to important Jewish communal institutions, creating a multiplier effect of tzedakah,” said Jenna Beltser, former Director of the Impact Accelerator.“DailyGiving is a great partner for us,” noted Tiffany Yankovich, National Director of Development for NCSY. “It is really connected to the work we do and is among our biggest supporters and partners.”

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One hundred cents of every dollar donated to Daily Giving goes to its beneficiary organizations, with all overhead covered by fundraising efforts. Daily Giving may be all about providing financial assistance to charitable organizations such as NCSY and Yachad, but Donath finds one particular aspect of the model extremely rewarding.

Yitzy Jordan Photography

Reviewed by Judy Gruen

Though people make better decisions and are happier with the outcomes when they learn to trust themselves, fear can lead to bad decisions by overpowering that inner voice giving us permission to trust. This fear can take many forms. For example, after being set on a law career for years, Brian finds the reality of law school

Judy Gruen is a freelance writer in Los Angeles, California. Her latest book is The Skeptic and the Rabbi: Falling in Love with Faith (2017).

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Trust and Fear in Decision Making at Life’s Crossroads and in Everyday Living

180Jerusalem,Books2021pages

BOOKS

What Do You Really Want?

The five critical steps into confident, informed decision-making begin with research and collecting information regarding options. The second is what she calls extreme honesty about the consequences and fears on both sides of a decision. The third is to focus only on the next best decision that can be made, and not letting the unknowable future cloud our judgment. The fourth is to ensure the decision is not based on fear. Finally, step five is to trust our self-awareness of what we really want.

Shayna Goldberg, a teacher and mashgiach ruchanit in the Stella K. Abraham Beit Midrash for Women in Migdal Oz, Israel, has written a wise, concise and valuable book about how we make decisions and why making them seems so much more angst-producing these days. And yes, she offers a practical recipe for how to make the best possible decisions for ourselves based on trust, not fear. What Do You Really Want? Trust and Fear in Decision Making at Life’s Crossroads and in Everyday Living was inspired by the author’s observation that her students have an increasingly hard time trusting themselves to make decisions. These range from the biggest, such as whom to marry, to choices as insignificant as whether to request the expensive latte that Starbucks offers as a free birthday special versus sticking with your daily favorite. With a strong belief in “personal autonomy and in each individual charting his or her own life course,” Goldberg sets out to analyze and concretize the elements that go into successful decision-making. Why have decisions become so wrenching? Goldberg suggests several reasons, including today’s cultural imperative for tolerance and respect that renders us less willing to make judgments. Modern parenting is also far more permissive, and many “helicopter” parents coddle children to try and shield them from any possible difficulty or failure. Both of these parenting styles disable children from developing the capacity to trust their own judgment and learn from their mistakes. (Reading these points reminded me of Wendy Mogel’s bestseller The Blessing of a Skinned Knee: Raising Self-Reliant Children, which spotlighted this same problem.) Additionally, our seemingly endless choices in life today can become paralyzing when we finally need to choose one option; Goldberg points to a 2004 book by Dr. Barry Schwartz on this topic, The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less. Goldberg has written this book with an Orthodox audience in mind, which is obvious not only through the specific situations she raises (e.g., dating, religious observance and making aliyah) but also by the occasional infusion of hashkafah as it relates to decision-making. However, the path she suggests toward more confident decisionmaking would be useful to anybody.

“When I refer to ‘want’ in this book, I refer to the deeper, more significant desires that we have for ourselves,” she writes. Doing what we want doesn’t mean making an impulsive decision based on a strong, overwhelming feeling of desire. Rather, doing what we want means paying close attention to a deep, intuitive feeling that rises up within us over time and pushes us in a certain direction, despite the fact that it might surprise us or others (p. 21).

By Shayna Goldberg Maggid

The author herself shares a personal anecdote of her own fear of going for therapy to deal with a traumatic event. The prospect of therapy threatened her self-image as a strong, capable woman who is usually the one guiding others during their own difficult life situations; she also feared investing a considerable amount of time and money in therapy that might not be effective.

For example, Jerry, a successful dentist in his mid-seventies who was “terrified” of retirement, was forced to rethink his plans when the pandemic hit. He was high-risk for the virus, and dentistry had suddenly become among the most dangerous of professions. Forced to shelter at home, Jerry unexpectedly found himself happily busy with hobbies, cooking, listening to shiurim, talking to his children and grandchildren and spending time with his wife when she wasn’t working. It took time for Jerry to clarify what he really wanted and to reassess what he had envisioned his future would look like.

Too often, young frum Jews reject our religious heritage because they were taught halachah and observance based on fear as opposed to a feeling of pride and joy in the gifts of a Torah-based life. “Educating out of fear works very well—for the short term,” she writes.

Many of Goldberg’s students have confessed that they feel like “spiritual charlatan[s]” if they reassess an aspect of their commitment, such as hair covering or davening three times a day. They cut themselves no slack when their circumstances change and are quick to question whether their spiritual commitments are still genuine.

98 JEWISH ACTION Fall 5783/2022 boring and immensely stressful. He wants to drop out but fears that he has wasted time and resources, has made a mistake, and must chart a new, undefined course. Asher feels anxious about accepting a job offer as a school administrator after many years as a successful teacher. His fear of failure nearly overcomes his intuition that he is ready for such a promotion and desires it. Ilana, who dithered over the free latte at Starbucks, demonstrates the fear of missing out on a special opportunity, even a trivial one. But if she isn’t excited about getting the latte, accepting the “opportunity” will just lead to regret.

Goldberg often hears the following from those in the dating world: “No matter what I do or how much time passes, I feel like I will never reach clarity.” Her response is that we need “to reinforce our faith in our fundamental ability to make choices. Part of our faith in behira hofshit, free choice, is the belief that G-d empowers us to choose well and consistently grants each of us the necessary tools and insight to do so.” This fear-versus-trust dichotomy is also crucial in education and parenting.

Goldberg emphasizes that people are often afraid to give adequate time to this process, particularly in the realm of frum dating, where pressure to make rapid decisions can cause considerable tension and anxiety. She reiterates the need for people in these situations to resist outside (or internally induced) pressure, and to take the time and thought required for self-knowledge and confident decisionmaking. For example, the research for someone in shidduchim could involve deciding to date longer than initially expected. Allowing this extra time can lead to more honesty, the ability to focus on the next best decision, and greater trust in your intuition. It can also prevent mistakes such as breaking up a promising relationship in a moment of panic. On the other hand, developing trust in your intuition can also help expedite the ending of a relationship that you are dragging on only because you don’t want to hurt the feelings of the other person.

Goldberg concludes by showing how we can build confidence in our decisions, even as we realize that every choice has a cost: Trusting ourselves and our ability to make good decisions means accepting the complexities of life and even of our own character. It means building and maintaining positive narratives about ourselves and believing in our own genuineness and capacity for honesty with ourselves. . . . Ultimately, with trust, we can confront the inherent stress of cognitive dissonance and resolve it in ways that are not so harsh or exacting (p. 153) This slim volume packs great value on every page. It is a wonderful guide for anyone who would like to stop wrestling with decisions and begin to make them with greater clarity and confidence.

“Students should be taught that true and lasting growth is a slow and steady process and that it is not all or nothing. They should learn that small steps are meaningful and valued and that they ultimately lead us steadily and securely in the right direction,” she writes (p. 123).

Our seemingly endless choices in life today can become paralyzing when we finally need to choose one option.

The majority of examples Goldberg offers involve issues relevant to young people, such as dating, engagement and having children. But this is a valuable book for people at any stage of life. There are many scenarios about decisions made at later stages of life, including whether to buy a larger, more expensive home outside of a couple’s current neighborhood; stay in a deeply troubled marriage or get divorced; or retire earlier than planned even when job satisfaction remains high.

“But if we, as parents and educators, are seeking long-term results, then we should want our children and students to develop trust in their own values and confidence in their abilities to make good decisions, even when there is no fear involved” (p. 113). Children and students internalize the values we are teaching them even if it isn’t obvious at the moment. The key is in presenting the messages with positivity.

Song of Riddles: Deciphering the Song of Songs

Following in this tradition, Geula Twersky’s Song of Riddles: Deciphering the Song of Songs makes its own attempt to unravel the mysteries of the book.

224Jerusalem,Publishing2018pages

Using a painstaking, holistic method, Twersky approaches the Song as a sort of literary onion, the layers of which she sees as riddles to be solved to reveal understandings that are startlingly enchanting and profound. Though with its copious footnotes and scholarly references, Songs of Riddles at times reads like an academic dissertation, Twersky’s straightforward writing style engages the reader in elucidating the differences between allegory, metaphor and riddles, and then proceeds to attack each problem individually with thorough and thought-provoking analysis, building upon the ideas and explanations of generations of commentators. What emerges is an ingenious and novel understanding of the text and its panoply of motifs that both highlights the multiple facets of the Song and uncovers a breathtaking

Reviewed by Daniel Renna t has been forty-five years since a then-fledgling and little-known publishing house came out with Shir Hashirim: the Song of Songs Fresh off the success of its landmark The Megillah: The Book of Esther, Shir Hashirim continued ArtScroll’s introductory series of innovative approaches to the five Megillot including “a commentary anthologized from Talmudic, Midrashic, and Rabbinic sources.” What made Shir Hashirim unique—and revolutionary— was what the publisher quite correctly touted as “the first English translation faithful to the allegory that is the Song’s authentic meaning.” Based upon Rashi’s understanding that the emblematic meaning behind the text is a description of the love between G-d and Israel, the atypical “translation” became normative, especially once ArtScroll featured it in the back of its 1993 Stone Chumash, which, with new fonts and an exhaustive modern English commentary, soon became the standard Pentateuch used in most Orthodox Jewish congregations across the English-speaking world. ArtScroll’s innovation in translating the Song of Songs, while making the meaning of the text more accessible and conforming to a religiously conservative worldview, still left those looking for the simple meaning of the text disappointed. Far removed from Biblical prose or even poetry, the Song’s lyrical conversations between two lovers—describing their pursuit of each other through vineyards and fields of blossoming flowers—seem enigmatic and unlike any other book in Tanach. Confusion about its meaning is ancient; it led several Tannaitic sages to question its very canonicity. Indeed, Rashi himself underscored the inherent complexities of understanding the text on the simplest level. Quoting Sanhedrin 34a, he introduces his commentary on the book, noting that though “one text has several meanings, in the end, you cannot have a text removed from its simple and implied meaning.” Great sages and scholars—both Jewish and non-Jewish—have produced over the millennia a rich literature of attempted explanations as they grappled with the conundrums posed by the Song’s beautiful yet puzzling words.

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Daniel Renna is a foreign service officer and currently a political officer at the US embassy in Abuja, Nigeria. He has served in various capacities as a diplomat at US embassies in Slovakia, the Gambia, Armenia, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and at the State Department in Washington, DC.

By Geula Twersky Gefen

100 JEWISH ACTION Fall 5783/2022 pastiche of “ForRabbidescriptions,multidimensionalwhichtogetherratifyAkiva’scommentintheMishnah:thewholeworldisnotasworthyasthedayonwhichthe Song of Songs was given to Israel; for all the writings are holy but the Song of Songs is the holy of holies” (Yadayim 3:5).

Throughout Song of Riddles, the author makes a point of underscoring that her ideas are just hypothetical, yet two excursuses Twersky includes at the end make her thesis even more convincing. In one, the author takes the principles and ideas she has developed throughout her study of the Song and uses them to point to echoes from the Balaam narrative in Numbers 24, and through Balaam’s interaction with a cherub, to the cherubim in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:24), the only other references to such creatures in the Torah. In the other, Twersky demonstrates how the subtext of Moses’ parting blessings in Deuteronomy 33, with their focus on the theme of G-d’s eternal love of Israel, is an allusion to the nation assuming qualities of Whatcherubim.Twersky’s scholarly, erudite and clever analysis accomplishes is to place the Song into a specific historical context, which highlights the highly artistic, spiritual and homiletical genius of Solomon. While his father David was, as the late Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, zt”l put it, “the greatest religious poet in all of history,” Solomon exhibited a lyricism through the Song that illustrates an almost otherworldly complexity and a profound sense of history through a need to eternalize a specific moment, one of extraordinary importance in the evolution of the Jewish people. Perhaps this sense of living through history is one of the many reasons the Song, recalling the Far removed from Biblical prose or even poetry, the Song’s lyrical conversations between two lovers— describing their pursuit of each other through vineyards and fields of blossoming flowers—seem enigmatic and unlike any other book in Tanach.

Twersky’s thesis is quite radical: the lovers who both revel in their courtship and despair at their separation are intricate, parabolic descriptions of the keruvim, cherubim, the enigmatic, unearthly winged beings who directly attend to G-d. Unafraid to tackle a subject as mysterious and elusive as angels (upon which tradition states one is forbidden to contemplate), Twersky reverently understands the Song to be referring to very specific cherubim, the two whose representation adorned the lid of the Ark of the Covenant—between which G-d Himself communicated with Moses in the desert—and the array of images depicting cherubim that Solomon fashioned throughout the Temple, including the much larger twin cherubim that adorned the Holy of Holies. Twersky posits that King Solomon composed the Song to dedicate and commemorate the culmination of Israel’s national birth, begun with the Exodus and completed not only with the completion of the Temple in Jerusalem, but with the resplendent and elaborate ceremony that placed the Ark into its permanent home within it, as described in I Kings 8:6-7: The priests brought the Ark of the L-rd’s Covenant to its place underneath the wings of the cherubim, in the Shrine of the House, in the Holy of Holies; for the cherubim had their wings spread out over the place of the Ark, so that the cherubim shielded the Ark and its poles from above. According to Twersky, the interplay of the lovers in the Song reflects the mystical interaction between the two sets of cherubim in their permanent abode within the Temple. As Twersky methodically proposes solutions to the riddles the text presents, a larger picture of the majesty and dynamism of the cherubim comes into focus. Two examples highlight this approach. Regarding Song 7:5, the author contemplates the bizarre image in the description of the Shulamit, the female lover, whose “nose is like the tower of Lebanon looking towards Damascus,” not exactly a quality attributed to beauty. Through a series of interesting lexicological werecoversunderstandingconnections—including“Damascus”tomeanboththedirectioninwhichthenoseispointedaswellasdamaskfabricthatafootstool—TwerskyarrivesatasolutionthatidentifiestheShulamitasSolomon’smonumentalcherubimthatfacingandtoweringoverG-d’sfootstool—theArk.Twerskylikewisetacklestheincongruityof

Song 4:5, which compares the Shulamit’s bosom to “twin fawns of a gazelle that browse among the lilies,” when in nature, most antelopes are not known to graze among lilies. Drawing on the motion in this descriptor, Twersky refers to the alternating carvings of cherubim, palm trees and open flowers—which, based on the floral decorations of the Temple pillars and laver, she surmises were lilies—that adorned the interior of the Temple as described in I Kings 6. The riddle evokes the wall carvings of the cherubim, overlaid in polished gold, which, like a mirror, reflected the Ark with its own cherubim as it moved past the images of the lilies to its resting place in the Holy of Holies.

culmination of the nation’s covenantal relationship with G-d through the placement of the Ark in the Temple, is read on Passover, the holiday on which the Jewish people effectively dissolve the centuries to internalize the lessons and emotions of their national birth. Interestingly, the Song is perhaps not the only instance of Solomon’s sense of future resonance. Solomon bore witness to another singularly extraordinary event, which he similarly marked with a literary masterpiece. The last commandment in the Torah, Hakhel is the septennial gathering of all Israelites in Jerusalem during the Sukkot holiday following the sabbatical year to hear the king (the gatherer or kohelet) read and expound on parts of Deuteronomy as described in chapter 31 of that book. With the completion of the Temple, Hakhel began to be observed as commanded. Though various sources conflict on the precise dating of the dedication of the Temple within the cycle of sabbatical and jubilee years, at some point over the span of his forty-year reign, Solomon was the first kohelet to preside over the first semi-centennial Jubilee Hakhel. With its striking thematic similarities to Deuteronomy, Ecclesiastes—Solomon’s other attributed Biblical scroll—attests to what was the only Jubilee Hakhel celebrated with all the Tribes of Israel extant, in the land, and united under a single monarch with the Temple standing and the Ark at its core. As the foremost sage of his time, Solomon wrote the Song to commemorate the climax of the dedication of the Temple and likewise composed Ecclesiastes as his homily as kohelet for that uniquely seminal event.* Twersky’s valuable contribution to the overall comprehension of the text is impressive and introduces an innovative approach and satisfying context in which to understand—or at least understand how to understand— its simple meaning. Moreover, seeing past its enigmas gives the Song greater resonance and lends appreciation to how such a beautiful and esoteric book depicting the eternal love story between G-d and Israel became the focus—through its weekly recitation on Friday nights and its yearly recitation on Passover—of Jewish longing throughout centuries of despair and dispersion.

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No oNe Deserves

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* The late rosh yeshivah of Yeshivat Hakotel, Rabbi Yeshayahu Hadari, expounded on this idea in a lengthy discourse on Hoshanah Rabbah, September 26, 1994.

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Rabbi Rothstein tried to collect a relatively random sample of responsa from a broad selection of posekim by choosing responsa based on the day of the year. In a project fittingly called “A Responsum a Day,” he taught the topic of a responsum written on that day of the year (these classes were hosted on my Torah Musings website and on OU Torah). He then classified each respon sum and analyzed the collective data of the set, searching for the main topics, which presumably consist of the most important parts of Judaism. What he found surprised him. In his first sample of 384 responsa, Rabbi Rothstein found that the three main issues discussed were marriage, money, and relationships with gentiles. He then took another random sample and found the same issues emphasized, along with Shabbat and holidays. If these represent the most important parts of Judaism, then we should ask ourselves—individually and as a com munity—how we are doing in following the Torah’s guidance on those issues.

By Rabbi Gil Student

There is now a near-universal practice that all mourners recite Kaddish togeth er. Is this practice inauthentic? Most readers of this magazine are Americans with a certain degree of American sensibilities. We live our lives as Amer icans even while strictly adhering to our religious traditions. If some of our attitudes are distinctly American, is our Orthodox Judaism still authentic?

Reviews in Brief

change also—in small ways and in large.

Rabbi Gil Student writes frequently on Jewish issues and runs Torahmusings.com. He serves as book editor for Jewish Action and is a member of the Jewish Action Editorial Committee.

By Rabbi Dr. Zev Eleff Wayne State University Press Michigan, 2020 326 pages W hat does it tomeanfollow “authentic” Judaism? It cannot mean fol lowing the practices of our change,becauseancestors,astimespractices

102 JEWISH ACTION Fall 5783/2022

ThisGidonRabbidecade,RothsteinhasbeenonaquesttoobjectivelydeterminewhatconstitutesthecoreofJudaism.isnomere theoretical exercise, but an attempt to judge whether the Jewish community today is focused on the right priorities. If we find that the essence of Judaism is something often overlooked or treated as secondary, we can readjust our sights and reallocate our resources.

Rabbi Dr. Zev Eleff explores the meaning of authenticity in Judaism as expressed in the American Orthodox experience. Adherence to halachah is necessary but insufficient. Halachah is a floor, not a determination of the proper path. There exists what Rabbi Dr. Eleff calls “religious sensibilities” that

For a minor but very visible example, in many communities in the past only one person said Kaddish at a time, leading to questions over who has priority.

AUTHENTICALLY ORTHODOX: A TRADITION-BOUND FAITH IN AMERICAN LIFE

JUDAISM OF THE POSKIM: RESPONSA AND THE NATURE OF ORTHODOX JUDAISM By Rabbi Gidon Rothstein Mosaica Press Los Angeles, 2022 248 pages F or over a

In his fascinating investigation, Rabbi Rothstein found the Judaism of the people who care about what posekim have to say, not necessarily the Judaism of the posekim. But that in itself tells us so much about the lives of Torah-ob servant Jews, the challenges they face, and the guidance they need. As people who likewise care about what posekim have to say, perhaps this is our Juda ism. Regardless of any conclusion that can be drawn from the exercise, Rabbi Rothstein offers a delightful view from a mile high of the responsa literature and its broad themes throughout the ages.

Rabbi Rothstein’s first attempt was in his book, We’re Missing the Point: What’s Wrong with the Orthodox Jewish Community and How to Fix It (OU Press, 2012), in which he analyzed the Biblical mitzvot. His latest attempt focuses on the responsa literature, the published letters of leading rabbis answering questions posed to them. On what issues do the posekim (halachic authorities) focus in their responsa?

While I greatly enjoyed Rabbi Roth stein’s exploration, I question whether he really found what he was looking for. He mentions many methodological concerns with his approach—e.g., how to choose authors and responsa, which he handles in a variety of ways. He used responsa from, for example, Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef and Rabbi Moshe Schreiber (the Chat am Sofer), who are obvious candidates, but at some point, he had to make sub jective decisions on whom to include. However, at its very essence, I suspect what we are looking at is not the em phasis of the respondents but of those to whom they are responding. General ly speaking, rabbis write responsa when asked questions. They do not choose their topics; their communities, their correspondents and the times in which they live all influence the choice of the topics. If rabbis write a lot of responsa about divorces, for example, it is not necessarily because they find the subject important, but rather because either there are a lot of people getting di vorced or there are unique circumstanc es that raise complicated questions.

For example, an “authentic” Judaism cannot change too quickly, even if halachah allows it, because the sharp discontinuity would undermine the sense of connection with the past. An “authentic” Judaism must preserve the feel of the Jewish experience. Authentic Orthodoxy not only follows the letter and the spirit of the law, but it balances a variety of competing concerns to ensure that the religious experience retains its same quality. Almost by definition, authenticity will vary by time and context. It may also result in disagreements over specific practices andTakingtrends.readers gently in accessible prose through his exhaustive research, Rabbi Dr. Eleff examines nine twenti eth-century phenomena that he believes reflect this need for authenticity within Orthodox Judaism. Among these chapters is the history of the kosher supervision (or lack thereof) of various would-be kitniyot on Pesach, such as peanut oil and quinoa. He also traces the development of religious children’s games and toys, such as berachot bees and gedolim cards, modeled after spell ing bees and baseball cards. These and other developments reflect the balance between American sensibilities on the one hand and religious sensibilities on theTheseother.are not only nine well-told chapters in the history of Orthodox Judaism in America. They are also ex tended arguments against the simplistic formula that halachah has shifted to the right or to the left, become stricter or more lenient. Rather, Rabbi Dr. Eleff argues, it is an expression of the Ortho rewards for properly reciting blessings, such as how Rabbi Leib Bakst survived the Holocaust because he followed the Chafetz Chaim’s instruction/blessing to him to recite blessings carefully. In a somewhat different vein, Rabbi Elimelech Biderman tells the story of how a struggling child succeeded in school after his father began reciting the blessings on the Torah carefully. Similarly, Rabbi Yisroel Yaakov Fisher tells the story of a man falsely accused of a crime who prevails in court in the merit of a blessing made with kavanah. Because of the nature and focus of the book, these and other such stories are told uncritically, without questioning the implications raised by these stories. However, the upshot seems to be that if you say your blessings well, you will receive ample reward in this world and theOthernext. stories are meant to scare read ers into reciting blessings properly. Rab bi Elchonon Wasserman warns that if, in a time of crisis, you do not improve your religious devotion (here mean ing your recitation of blessings), then you are guilty of standing idly by your neighbor’s blood. The Chayei Adam tells the story of an otherwise righteous man who, after his death, went before the heavenly tribunal and was sentenced to Gehinnom after it became clear how many blessings he had recited without proper intent. Each story on its own is worthwhile, but when compiled together, they risk creating a sense of transactional religion. It seems to imply that we should recite blessings because that is the way to become rich and successful and the way to avoid failure and punishment. Making Your Berachos Meaningful attempts to avoid this mercantile outcome by including many inspirational Torah insights and by guiding readers toward a more pro found understanding of how to recite blessings in a proper way. Most importantly, the author tells readers that improvement is not an all-or-noth ing proposition. The key is to stop and think before you recite a blessing or do any mitzvah. This brief pause will transform your blessings and every thing you do. dox community continually “measuring its religious experiences against various expressions of Americanism.”

MAKE YOUR BERACHOS MEANINGFUL: A UNDERSTANDINGDEEPEROFTHEOPENINGWORDSOFALLOUR

The book also includes a large num ber of inspirational stories about bless ings. Some stories describe the great of our attitudes

103Fall 5783/2022 JEWISH ACTION determine what is and is not authentic.

By Rabbi Mechel Handler ArtScroll Mesorah Publications New York, 2022 366 pages A n vantobserJewrecitesat least a hun dred why?manyeveryblessingsday.Howofusknowwhatwearesayingand Making Your Berachos Meaningful, in its quest to encourage and empower readers to improve their blessings, explains how reciting blessings properly can change our perspectives on life. Every day in which we recite blessings with kavanah (proper intention or attention) is a day in which we see Divine Providence around us, in which we recognize the bounty we have been granted, in which we realize that life itself is a blessing.

authentic?JudaismisdistinctlyareAmerican,ourOrthodoxstill

BERACHOS

Making Your Berachos Meaningful is a well-organized, easy-to-read collection of a broad variety of sources relating to blessings. The book combines com mentary on the meaning of the words of blessings, halachot about the proper way to recite blessings, and stories about the importance of blessings. The book is a broad collection of sources, which as a genre allows for variety and authority but also risks contradiction between different underlying approaches. The book includes lengthy explanation of the meaning of the words of a blessing, including a total of eleven explanations of the meaning of the word “Baruch.” It is hard to know what to intend when some of these explanations are mutually contradictory, even though the author assures us that they are all correct.

If some

A DIFFERENT KIND OF SIMCHAS TORAH

Five years ago, this was the question my siblings and I asked one another. Our mother had passed away only three weeks earlier—we had gotten up from shivah a day before Rosh TraumatizedHashanah.byhersudden death—the brutal illness that claimed her life lasted only a week and a half—my siblings and I decided to spend the entire week of Sukkos togeth er (this was pre-Covid days) with a relative in Brooklyn. Accommodations would be tight, with all of us—spouses and children included—crammed into one five-bedroom house, but we needed one another for comfort and support.

Moments after our large group walked in, a few elderly shul members looked up and smiled, delighted to see so many new faces, an infusion of young people . . . with children! A man with a puff of white hair came over to greet us. “Come dance,” he said to the men while distributing bags of colorful candies to the children as well as to the adults. I glanced at the bags of candy, an integral tradition on Simchas Torah in so many shuls, but I made no move to take one. After a moment or two, the man walked away. Our sorrow hovered about like an unwanted shadow.

By Nechama Carmel

LASTING IMPRESSIONS

Arriving at the shul, we found a large and imposing build ing—but the sanctuary was nearly empty, even on Simchas Torah night. With its high, ornate ceiling and stained-glass windows, it had apparently been magnificent at one time, but now the paint was peeling and the burgundy-colored carpet was faded, torn in places. Membership had dwindled as the neighborhood changed and the community shifted reli giously. Most of the Orthodox Jews living in the immediate vicinity attended minyanim in basements with low ceilings or makeshift shuls on the first floor of a house; they did not care for the grand sanctuaries of the past. That the shul was struggling somehow seemed appropriate, mirroring our emotional state. A sprinkling of elderly men was slowly circling the bimah. A few women were scattered in the women’s section. We huddled in the back of the shul, men on the left side of the mechitzah, women on the right, uncertain where to place ourselves.

H ow would we celebrate Simchas Torah?

But how could we deprive our children, who ranged across all ages, of this special yom tov? The relative at whose home we were staying had an idea: instead of attending the shtieb el her family usually frequented—the frenzied crowds and intense dancing would be too much—she suggested we visit a more low-key shul in the area. We readily agreed.

Nechama Carmel is editor-in-chief of Jewish Action.

The few women in shul gazed at the scene with a mixture of surprise and delight: Simchas Torah had come to this forgotten shul. And with the words of “Sisu V’simchu” ringing in the air, I went to go find the man with the bags of candy.

Except that now Simchas Torah was here, and we were not sure how we were going to celebrate this joyous holiday of song and dance. Our pain was palpable, our grief thick. Death brings a certain solitude. A mourner is alone, isolated, inhabiting his own world as he struggles to grasp his loss, to learn how to live again in this new, painful reality. Halachah is, of course, sensitive to the feelings of the mourn er; according to some halachic authorities, those mourning a parent are forbidden to dance with the Torah on Simchas Torah, reflecting their shattered mental state. Simchas Torah would have to pass us by; we were not emotionally ready for the joy, the songs, the ecstatic dancing.

Suddenly, the singing grew louder. I peered into the men’s section and was surprised to see that a group of developmen tally disabled young adults from a nearby group home had joined the circle. Arms wrapped around their counselors, they circled the bimah energetically, their faces beaming.

In most cases, a fresh widower is halachically permitted to dance with the Torah; my father took a three-year-old grand son and a five-year-old by the hand and joined the feeble circle. Entering the women’s section, my sister and I sat down on the worn wooden pews, our thoughts miles away.

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Just then, a lively group of Sephardic men—members of a “young” minyan renting space in the shul basement—parad ed in, carrying two large Torah scrolls in silver cylindrical cases, in accordance with the Sephardic minhag, on their shoulders.Lifelessonly moments earlier, the sanctuary was suddenly full, alive. A wave of kippahs swirled by—black velvet, suede, white crocheted, and a few royal-blue satin ones. Elderly con gregants, young counselors, developmentally disabled adults, Sephardim and Ashkenazim all danced arm in arm while hoarsely chanting “Sisu V’simchu.”

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