Untitled

A P U B L I C AT I O N O F T H E R A B B I N I C A L U M N I O F T H E R A B B I I S A A C E L C H A N A N T H E O L O G I C A L S E M I N A RY A N A F F I L I AT E O F Y E S H I VA U N I V E R S I T Y
CHAVRUSA
September 2015 Elul 5775
(: )
Special Supplement:
Remembering Rav Aharon
Lichtenstein 59R, ztl
Page 16
Volume 50 Number 1
An Interview with:
Rabbi Yehoshua Fass 98R
Page 29
In This Issue
Page 3 In Pictures
Rabbi Isaac Elchanan

Theological Seminary
Rabbis Yarchei Kallah

Yom Haatzmaut 5775
June Zman Siyum
RIETS Kennes Petichah
Richard M. Joel
P R E S I D E N T, R I E T S
Rabbi Dr. Norman Lamm
R O S H H AY E S H I VA E M E R I T U S , R I E T S
Page 4 News
Joel M. Schrieber
Rabbi Kenneth Brander
Yeshiva Mourns the Loss of Rav Aharon Lichtenstein 59R, ztl

Murray and Basheva Goldberg Dedicate Pastoral Psychology
Program at RIETS
Online Course for Communal Rabbis
YUTorah Surpasses Major Milestone
Winter Bein HaSemesterim Program Draws 72 Students
Blending Torah and Psychology
Rabbi Zevulun Charlop
Page 10 Chomer LiDrush
CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES, RIETS
Rabbi Menachem Penner
MAX AND MARION GRILL DEAN

R I E T S A N D U N D E R G R A D U AT E T O R A H S T U D I E S
VICE PRESIDENT FOR UNIVERSIT Y AND COMMUNIT Y LIFE
Rosh Hashana Chomer LiDrush

Max and Marion Grill RIETS Dean Rabbi Menachem
Penner 95R
Yamim Noraim Chomer LiDrush
Rabbi Allen Schwartz 86R
Sukkot Chomer LiDrush
RIETS Rosh Yeshiva Rabbi Menachem Genack 73R
DEAN EMERITUS, RIETS

S P E C I A L A D V I S O R TO T H E P R E S I D E N T O N Y E S H I VA A F FA I R S
Rabbi Yaakov Glasser
D AV I D M I T Z N E R D E A N , C E N T E R F O R T H E J E W I S H F U T U R E
AND UNIVERSIT Y LIFE
Rabbi Chaim Bronstein

A D M I N I S T R ATO R , R I E T S
Rabbi Adam Berner Rabbi Binyamin Blau

Rabbi Kenneth Hain Rabbi Elazar Muskin
Rabbi Moshe Neiss Rabbi Dr. Shlomo Rybak
Rabbi Shmuel Silber Rabbi Perry Tirschwell
Rabbi Elchanan Weinbach Rabbi Howard Zack
Rabbi Eliezer Zwickler
Page 16 Special Supplement: Remembering

Rav Aharon Lichtenstein 59R, ztl
Divrei Hesped
RIETS Roshei Yeshiva Rabbi Aharon Kahn 69R
and Rabbi Michael Rosensweig 80R
On Raising Children
Based on a sicha by HaRav Aharon Lichtenstein ztl
Y E S H I VA U N I V E R S I T Y R A B B I N I C A L U M N I
ADVISORY COMMITTEE
CHAVRUSA
A P U B L I C AT I O N O F R I E T S R A B B I N I C A L U M N I
Rabbi Aryeh Czarka
Page 30
Musmakhim in the Limelight
Page 32
Book Review
Page 33
Publications and Lifecycle Events
E D I T O R - I N - C H I E F, C H AV R U S A
Mrs. Keren Simon Moskowitz

A S S I S TA N T E D I T O R , C H AV R U S A
Beautiful Days, Holy Days: The Majesty and Profundity of

the Jewish Holidays by Rabbi Cary Friedman 96R
Reviewed by Rabbi Avrohom Gordimer 94R
Rabbi Robert Shur
G R A P H I C S A N D L AYO U T, C H AV R U S A
CHAVRUSA is published by the Rabbinic Alumni of the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan
Theological Seminary, through the office of Yeshiva Universitys Center for the
Jewish Future. Yeshiva Universitys Center for the Jewish Future serves as the
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organizations for the Jewish community.
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C H AV R U S A N I S S A N 57 7 5
In Pictures
Rabbis Yarchei Kallah

March 16-18, 2015
Yom Haatzmaut 5775 in Yeshiva

April 23, 2015
June Zman Siyum

June 10, 2015
RIETS Kennes Petichah

August 24, 2015
C H AV R U S A E L U L 57 7 5
News
Yeshiva Mourns the Loss of

Rav Aharon Lichtenstein 59R, ztl
A renowned author and scholar, Rabbi
Lichtenstein 53YC, 59R was the senior
Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivat Har Etzion. At
Yeshiva University, he served as the Rabbi
Henoch and Sarah D. Berman Professor
of Talmud and was the inaugural Rosh
Kollel and director of the RIETS
Caroline and Joseph S. Gruss Institute in
Jerusalem.
Rabbi Lichtenstein was born in
France in 1933 and, along with his family,
fled to the United States in 1940. He
studied in Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin
under Rabbi Yitzchok Hutner before
earning a bachelors degree at Yeshiva
College and semicha at RIETS, followed
by a PhD in English literature at Harvard
University.
In l971, after serving as RIETS Rosh
Yeshiva for several years, he immigrated
to Israel, joining Rabbi Yehuda Amital as
co-Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivat Har Etzion
in Alon Shevut. In 2014, he was awarded
the Israel Prize in Jewish religious
literature for his contributions to rabbinic
scholarship.
Rav Lichteinstein served as Rosh

Kollel, Rosh Yeshiva and professor of
Talmud at RIETS, but that doesnt begin
to capture his essence or his influence,
said President Richard M. Joel. He was
one in a generation and his unique Torah
perspective and worldview has shaped us
all, but his towering goodness stands first
and foremost.
Rabbi Michael Rosensweig 80R,
RIETS Rosh Yeshiva and a student of
Rabbi Lichtenstein, called him a giant
in Torah scholarship, one of the first-tier
Torah scholars of our generation.
He added: Rav Lichtenstein
represented the best of the products of
RIETS and identified with its mission
all his life. He was a loyal student of
Rav Soloveitchik, his father-in-law, and
identified fully with his approach and
furthered its applications by applying his
knowledge and scope. Rav Lichtenstein
expanded Brisker scholarship in a range
of topics in halacha and hashkafa, leaving
a legacy for the broader Torah and yeshiva
world.
Beyond Rav Aharons sophistication

and intellectual prowess, what stands out
is his humility and modesty, said Rabbi
Kenneth Brander 86R, vice president for
university and community life. He was
always there to help the community rabbi
and educator, assisting us in coming to
conclusions on community policy with
halachic integrity, masterful sensitivity,
and great clarity of vision.
Rabbi Lichtenstein is survived by his
wife, Dr. Tovah Lichtenstein, his children
Yitzchak, Moshe, Meir, Shai, Esti and
Tonya, by two sisters Hadassah Kleiman
and Shoshana Lichtenstein, and thousands
of talmidim across the Jewish world. n
Murray and Basheva Goldberg Dedicate Pastoral

Psychology Program at RIETS
For Murray and Basheva Goldberg of
Teaneck, NJ, a gift to support Yeshiva was
an opportunity to make a lasting impact
on as many people as possible. When
the Goldbergs learned of the pastoral
psychology program at RIETS, where
students studying for the rabbinate learn
how to best guide their congregants
and community members through both
celebratory and challenging times, they
knew they had found their philanthropic
match.
By supporting the pastoral

psychology program, were not only
affecting the men sitting in the classrooms
at a specific time, but were also positively
impacting everyone those students will
go on to serve as rabbis, said Basheva
Goldberg 65YUHS, 69S, who remembers
her time at YU fondly. We also feel
confident that these young men will take
the message of YU its hashkafa of Torah
Umadda and successfully give that
message over to so many.
4
For many in the Jewish community,

their rabbi is the first person they turn
to when seeking guidance on meeting
personal challenges or addressing
questions concerning faith, family
and friends. The pastoral psychology
program at RIETS explores some of the
basic concepts, principles and requisite
skills for rabbis who seek to be effective
counselors and educators. Topics include
mental health issues, domestic violence
and substance abuse. Training is also
News
offered on how to develop listening and
communication skills and how to apply
the basic types of psychotherapeutic
approaches in a pastoral setting. Even
students who are obtaining semicha but
are not planning to enter the rabbinate
are required to take courses in pastoral
psychology, since the fundamentals
gained from these classes are beneficial to
many other professions.
The program is overseen by
Dr. David Pelcovitz, who holds the
Gwendolyn and Joseph Straus Chair
in Psychology and Jewish Education at
the Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish
Education and Administration.
The pastoral psychology program
prepares rabbis for what is increasingly
becoming a crucial part of their jobs:
counseling community members through
marital conflict, psychological difficulties,
abuse and other challenges with wisdom
and compassion, noted Dr. Pelcovitz. I
think its only fitting that the Goldbergs,
respected members of the Jewish

community, decided to support this
particular program of YU especially
since their two sons are both rabbinic
leaders who exemplify the best in pastoral
excellence, he said. The Goldbergs
sensitivity, care and empathy to those
in their Jewish communities are what
we hope to instill in the students of the
pastoral psychology program.
The Goldbergs are proud to support
YU, as they firmly believe in its mandate
to educate students in the best of Jewish
tradition and secular studies, and to
inspire them to lead meaningful, valuesbased lives as Jews and professionals.
Were passionate about YU, as its Torah
Umadda philosophy is how we live our
lives, said Basheva Goldberg. Were
happy to help transmit that message to as
many people as possible.
They chose to dedicate the program
in memory of both their parents Ruth
and Sam Aboff zl and Rosa and Leo
Murray and Basheva Goldberg
Goldberg zl and gave it the name Lev

Ledaat, a discerning heart. This name,
based on a biblical phrase, resonates with
the Goldbergs; theyve seen in their own
childrens professional lives as rabbis and
doctors how important it is to help people
with empathy and compassion. n
Online Course for Communal Rabbis Explores Effective

Techniques in Raising Funds, Cultivating Relationships
Yeshiva Universitys Center for the
Jewish Future and Rabbi Isaac Elchanan
Theological Seminary successfully
launched a continuing education
mini-course, Rabbinic Fundamentals
of Fundraising. The four-week online
lecture series, which began in April,
helped develop communal rabbis skills
and techniques in fundraising and
cultivating lasting relationships with
congregants, beyond their requisite
pastoral interactions.
The series explored the motivations
behind philanthropic giving and
examined best practices and the ethics
of fundraising. Boasting 43 participants
from around the world, including rabbis
in North America, Australia and Israel,
the course included with an in-depth
look at the rabbis role in several

fundraising scenarios.
We have been supporting our
rabbis in numerous ways for years,
and there has been consistent interest
in nuanced instruction from trained
professionals, specifically in the area
of fundraising, said Rabbi Naphtali
Lavenda 09R, director of online
rabbinic programming at the CJF. The
webinar provided a platform for the
rabbis to discuss and learn about the
basics of setting up and running building
campaigns, capital funds, endowments
and other major gifts in real-time from
the top experts in the respective fields,
he added.
While communal rabbis are
interested in attending conferences
5
to enhance and inform their rabbinic

education, their unpredictable schedules
present a real obstacle, Rabbi Lavenda
said. This new model of shorter modules
and flexible
learning allowed
rabbis to
maximize their
participation
in the course,
and gain the
information
and skills
they require
to serve their
communities
and institutions
better.
News
Throughout the training,
participants received a thorough
selection of reference materials and
related articles. In between classes,
participants interacted with one another
via the courses dedicated online forum,
and scheduled offline conversations with
the instructors, communal professionals
and master fundraisers.
Rabbinic Fundamentals of
Fundraising was created by Rabbi
Lavenda, with the guidance of Dr. Saul
Andron, director of the Certificate in
Jewish Philanthropy at YUs Wurzweiler
School of Social Work, and Dan Forman,
senior philanthropic adviser and
former vice president of Institutional
Advancement at YU. The course was
the fourth virtual continuing rabbinic

education course organized and run by
the CJF in coordination with RIETS. In
previous years, CJF ran online courses
on the issues surrounding infertility, the
different stages of Jewish relationships,
and addressing child abuse.
For more information, contact
rabbinicprogramming@yu.edu. n
YUTorah Surpasses Major Milestone

Begun as an ad-hoc gathering of shiur
recordings, YUTorah has become a
formidable force in the spread of Torah
learning worldwide, reaching a major
milestone upon passing the 100,000 shiur
mark this January.
The growth of YUTorah has been
exponential, said Rabbi Robert Shur
05R, director of YUTorah since 2007.
What started in 2005 with a little over
1,000 shiurim grew to 10,000 about two
and a half years later. It took another five
years to get to 50,000, with the second
50,000 taking less than three years.
The list of contributors and lecturers
is extensive, from across Yeshiva
University and around the world. While
some contributors have just a handful
of recordings, there are 20 rabbis or
lecturers with more than 1,000 uploaded
to the site. Rabbi Hershel Schachter 67R,
Nathan and Vivian Fink Distinguished
Professorial Chair in Talmud, and Rabbi
Aryeh Lebowitz, a daf yomi contributor
and host of the Ten Minute Halacha
series on the site, each have more than
4,000 shiurim. The recent addition of
some 3,500 shiurim of Mashpia Rabbi
Moshe Weinberger 83R, now available
free to the public for the first time, helped
YUTorah break the 100,000 mark.
The open audio Torah library was
launched when Rabbi Marc Spivak 98R,
then a student at Yeshiva and anticipating
a career in the rabbinate outside the New
York area, taped and collected shiurim

at YU that he could later listen to at any
time. When he ran out of space in his
apartment, he burned them to CDs and
then later, with the help of student Chaim
Jaskoll and others, uploaded the lectures
onto a website that could be accessed
worldwide.
The YUTorah site has become a
conduit for yeshivot in Israel, allowing
their alumni to continue listening to
shiurim from their rabbis. Shuls and
individuals worldwide turn to YUTorah
to stay linked to a wide variety of learning
opportunities on many topics, geared to
a diverse audience. The sites popularity
is reflected in its more than four million
annual visits from 185 countries, as well
as thousands of downloads of its mobile
apps for Android and iPhone.
Users can dedicate and sponsor

days, weeks or months of learning.
Long-time YU Benefactors Marcos and
Adina Katz gave a generous gift to endow
YUTorah in 2006. They are visionaries
who appreciated the potential of online
platforms for the revolution of Torah
study around the world, said Rabbi
Yaakov Glasser 01R, David Mitzner Dean
at YUs Center for the Jewish Future.
The growth of YUTorah in
surpassing 100,000 shiurim is a testament
to the community of scholars and
students who turn to YUTorah as their
virtual spiritual home, added Rabbi
Glasser. YUTorah is a nexus of multiple
Torah communities, revolving around the
vibrancy and Torah leadership of Yeshiva
University. n
News
Winter Bein HaSemesterim

Program Draws 72 Students
Come January, it may be cold
outside, but inside Yeshiva
Universitys Glueck Beit Midrash
the warmth of Torah learning
continues during winter break.
Rather than traveling to warmer
climates, 72 undergraduate
students opted to stay in yeshiva
for the popular Bein HaSemesterim
program that ran January 619.
That so many talmidim stay is
a real testament to the strength and
vibrancy of the Torah environment
and energy the Yeshiva has to
offer and a real testament to the
talmidim, said Rabbi Elisha
Bacon 01R, assistant dean of
undergraduate Torah studies.
The Bein HaSemesterim
program originally began seven years
ago after two students presented the
need for such an effort to President
Richard M. Joel, Rabbi Bacon
explained. President Joel agreed, and
sponsored the first years program.
This years group of students,

ranging from freshmen to seniors, is
the largest yet.
The days schedule is packed,
with first seder beginning at 9 a.m.,
followed by shiurim with different
rebbeim from 12 to 1 p.m., second
seder at 3 p.m., night seder at 8 p.m.
and mussar seder at 9:45 p.m. Meals
are provided and the Max Stern
Athletic Center is open from 6 to 10
p.m.
Chayim Gerson, a Yeshiva
College junior from Denver, is
participating in the program to
recharge from the past few intense
weeks of finals and prepare for
the upcoming semester by being
in the beis midrash with no other
distractions, he said. The ability
to learn at my own pace and relax
with friends in our great Yeshiva is
an opportunity that we seldom have
during the semester. n
RIETS Rosh Yeshiva Rabbi Baruch Simon 89R delivers a

shiur to the Bein HaSemesterim program
Blending Torah and Psychology

Rabbi Dr. Eliezer Schnall 03R Brings Torah
Umadda Approach to His Classroom
It was a classic setup: The woman in the
video is walking, unaware; a man races by,
snatching her purse off her shoulder; the
screen goes blank.
Rabbi Dr. Eliezer Schnall turned to
his Introduction to Psychology class and
asked them to write down a description of
the thief. What did you see?
In a class that covered various forms
of memory, in this case eyewitness
memory, Rabbi Dr. Schnall kept the
students engaged. Many students

raised their hands to answer, all offering
different versions of what they saw. He
was pleased with the result noting the
dozens of eyewitnesses and ten different
versions of the events.
He then quoted the tanna and head
of the Sanhedrin Shimon ben Shatach
from Pirkei Avot, who exhorted the need
to examine witnesses and be careful with
your words lest the witnesses learn to lie
7
News
with them. Rabbi Dr. Schnall pointed out
that studies show that when witnesses are
interviewed with leading questions, their
memories are distorted and they often
adopt misinformation.
Rabbi Dr. Schnall, clinical associate
professor of psychology, lives and
breathes the Torah Umadda philosophy
of Yeshiva University blending the
disciplines of psychology and Torah,
using one to illustrate and enhance the
other.
My psychology courses are
interdisciplinary, weaving together
rigorous psychological science with
classic Jewish religious texts and
perspectives, Rabbi Dr. Schnall said.
The field of psychology is initially
something new to most of my students,
yet many of them have been immersed
in religious texts throughout their lives.
Presenting the psychological together
with the religious helps students to
understand and remember what they
are learning, as their coursework is then
connected to something that is already so
much a part of them.
During his class, Rabbi Dr. Schnall
shares personal anecdotes, discusses
studies, screens brief videos, and regularly
quotes Talmud, Chumash, Mishna and
Midrash, weaving together the Jewish and
the secular on every topic.
I like the Torah Umadda aspect of
the course, said Yosef Penner, one of
Rabbi Dr. Schnalls students. He takes
the YU slogan and actually puts it into
action.
The way he speaks makes the
material relatable; its more compelling
than just a lecture, said Eli Berger,
another student.
Rabbi Dr. Schnalls research,
published in scientific journals and
covered in popular media, including The
New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and
Jerusalem Post, highlights the Torah and
psychology connection. He ties positive
psychology, social psychology, and statedependent memory to Jewish subjects.

One of his studies examined marriage
satisfaction among Orthodox Jews.
Another study demonstrated the reduced
risk of mortality and positive mental
health in those who attend religious
services.
A 2012 paper, coauthored with
one of his YU students, analyzed the
ancient Sanhedrin through the lens of
modern social psychology. Rabbi Dr.
Schnall noted that in certain cases, junior
members of the Sanhedrin would be
called upon first to voice their opinions,
with senior members of the court
presenting their view last. This process
helped avoid groupthink, a phenomenon
in which group decision-making
frequently ignores alternatives in the
quest for unanimity, often with a negative
outcome.
Rabbi Dr. Schnall himself is a
product of Yeshiva University, having
graduated The Marsha Stern Talmudical
Academy/Yeshiva University High
School for Boys, Yeshiva College,
Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology
and Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological

Seminary. He credits Dr. Stephen Bacon,
adjunct professor of psychology, for
serving as an early role model when I
began to think about viewing psychology
through the prism of Torah, and noted
that Bacon and his brother Dr. Joshua
Bacon, associate professor of psychology,
continue to have an influence on him.
Dr. Schnall is a particular asset
to our department, with a very special
niche that our unique student body really
responds to, said Dr. Anna-Lisa Cohen,
department chair and associate professor
of psychology. His students, both those
he teaches and those who conduct
research with him, gain much from his
approach to psychology that incorporates
religious sources and viewpoints.
Connecting Torah and Madda
together allows for greater appreciation
and understanding of each, Rabbi
Dr. Schnall said. My students express
excitement and interest in this unique
approach to their studies. Nowhere but
here could we explore psychology in quite
this way. n
Rabbi Dr. Eliezer Schnalls 03R psychology class at Yeshiva College
News
New Advanced Program Melds Semicha and

Undergraduate Education
The Yeshiva is proud to announce a
new advanced track, six-year intensive
joint program. The program will enable
aspiring rabbis who have completed
two years of full-time post high school
learning to earn a bachelors degree and
semicha, while remaining fully immersed
in Torah scholarship that will lay the
foundations for their future.
This rigorous six-year curriculum
is the result of a full year of discussions
among our roshei yeshiva on how to bring
our semicha standards to ever-higher
levels, said Rabbi Menachem Penner, the
Max and Marion Grill Dean of RIETS.
Its designed for our strongest talmidim;
those who are interested in completing
their Yeshiva College bachelors degree
while maximizing their learning time,
The program is highly selective,

with admittance based on demonstrated
commitment to learning, skill level and
the recommendations from applicants
rebbeim. Participants take just one or
two Yeshiva College courses in their first
semester to allow themselves to remain
immersed in full-time yeshiva learning
as they begin their college studies. This
enables them to experience the full range
of Yeshivas Torah offerings under the
guidance of its world-class roshei yeshiva.
By spreading coursework for their
bachelors degree over eight semesters,
participants ensure their education is
firmly centered on learning throughout
their undergraduate experience.
Various academic departments
throughout the University collaborated to
create this unique and rigorous program
for our Talmidim stated Rabbi Kenneth

Brander, Vice President for University
and Community Life. Participants will
learn three daily sedarim in a vibrant
beit midrash. Combining in-depth
study of many halachic disciplines with
professional rabbinic coursework that
includes training in oratory skills, pastoral
counseling and more, the program
prepares students for their future careers
at the communal helm through leadership
seminars and teaching internships.
In addition, students interested in
Jewish education can earn a simultaneous
masters degree at YUs Azrieli Graduate
School of Jewish Education and
Administration a cutting-edge degree
from the leading institution in the field.
Scholarships are available. For more
information email kalinsky@yu.edu. n
6
01 !
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15 s n
20 nt
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yo g e
an in
Pl eak
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Bring world-renowned scholars from

our campus to your community!
For more information please email
speakersbureau@yu.edu or visit
www.yu.edu/speakers
Chomer LiDrush
Drasha Ideas for Rosh Hashana

Rabbi Menachem Penner 95R
Max and Marion Grill Dean, RIETS
Authors Note
Thank you to all who responded so positively to and especially to

those who used the Chomer LiDrush materials for Sukkot that we
included in Chavrusa Tishrei 5771. The following is a list of ten drasha
ideas for Rosh Hashana presented in a similar straight and concise style.
They are hardly full drashot; rather they are ideas that can be developed.
Please feel free to reach out to me at penner@yu.edu if you would
like a pdf of any of the sources or whole drashot quoted in this article.
Behatzlacha with all of your drashot over the Chagim!
1. Mesirat Nefesh
Avraham tells Yishmael to stay behind for
the Akeidah. We generally assume that
Yishmael somehow wasnt at the requisite
level to understand what was commanded
of Avraham and Yitzchak, and what was
about to happen. However, Rabbi Ben
Zion Firer (Eileh Heim Moadai Vol.
1 pp. 39-42) suggests the opposite:
Avraham was afraid that Yishmael would
understand and thus learn the secret of
meisirat nefesh that would become such
a central value and a crucial source of
merit for the Jewish people. Ironically,
it has been the Jews willingness to die al
Kiddush Hashem that has ensured our
survival. Rav Firer writes: For would the
nations of the world have this precious
possession called mesirat nefesh, there
would be no hope for [the enemies of]
the Jewish People. This is a chilling
thought in 5776 and clearly a charge for
us to find ways to be moser nefesh in
our avodat Hashem. (Also a question
to consider: How is our mesirat nefesh
different from the mesirat nefesh of some
of the bnei Yishmael?)
2. When I get the chance

There is a great story in Rebbetzin
Tzipporah Hellers book, This Way
Up (Feldheim 2005, pp. 19-20), of a
young, unaffiliated man who makes a
commitment at a moment of crisis
to deepen his Jewish knowledge. But
at the last moment he adds the phrase:
as soon as I can. Do we capitalize on
moments of inspiration, or place them in
a file in our minds to act on them as soon
as we can? This idea can be connected to
Avot 2:6 Al tomar lechsheepaneh eshneh
and commentaries.
3. Extra Baggage
Rabbi Dov Aryeh Berzon in Doveiv
Meisharim (pp. 114-117 Available on
Otzar HaChochmah) speaks of the things
we should and shouldnt carry with
us as we travel into a New Year. Certain
things grudges, cynicism, bad habits,
and memories of our failures need to
be left behind. What do we truly want
to take with us into our New Year? That
is part of the cheshbon of the Yomim
Noraim. (See also Rabbi David Stavsky in
10
I Submit [Artscroll, 1997, pp. 247-258],

where he discusses this image as well).
This drasha can be opened with a cute
dramatization of going through security
before a flight.
4. The Spotlight
A comparison of the Yishmael/Hagar
story read on the first day and the
Akeidah story read on the second day
leads to a fascinating observation:
both stories involve a journey into the
wilderness with a parent and a child, a
crisis leading to the near death of a child,
and a Divine revelation with a last-minute
reprieve. And yet, one is the near-tragic
story of someone who feels abandoned,
and the other of two people on their way
to making history. Whats the difference?
Avraham feels that his journey has
meaning. He understands that G-d is
watching him closely. Hagar, on the other
hand, feels as if G-ds spotlight is still
shining on Avrahams family. Little does
she know that it is HER story that is being
related in the Torah. In Unetaneh Tokef
we remind ourselves of how we pass one-
Chomer LiDrush
by-one before the Ribbono shel Olam.
But its not just on Rosh Hashana that we
stand before G-d. Wherever we are, and
whatever we are doing no matter how
insignificant we may feel we may very
well be standing in the spotlight. (This
can be connected to the Midrash about
Reuven and saving Yosef as well).
5. Filling the Void
Why was Avraham asked to sacrifice his
child? Avraham argued so vociferously
against the type of idol worship that
led to such acts of depravity. Perhaps
the answer relates to the true nature of
Chilul Hashem and Kiddush Hashem.
Yes, we are all G-ds ambassadors and

our actions either create a positive or
negative impression of Him in the eyes
of others. But there may be something
much more fundamental about the test
Avraham is given. Chilul Hashem refers
to creating, at least on some level, a
chalal a space without the apparent
presence of Hashem. Kiddush Hashem
is to inject G-d back into those spaces.
(One can relate to idea of tzimtzum here
as well). Rav Kook, in a famous letter,
suggested that Avraham was asked to
(nearly) engage in child sacrifice in order
to infuse the passion of ovdei Avoda Zara
into monotheism. Going further, one
might suggest that the Akeidah actually

infused kedusha into one of the most
G-dless areas of human activity. This is
obviously a difficult concept and should
be dealt with carefully. (See Rabbi Ezriel
Tauber, As In Heaven, So on Earth, who
emphasizes that a Kiddush Hashem is
made every time we are almost driven to
look at or participate in things we should
avoid. We are placing Hashem into a place
where He is absent. See also Michtav
MeEliyahu, vol. 1, pg. 22 and vol. 2,
pg. 255, who discusses the importance
of every individual making a Kiddush
Hashem in their everyday lives).
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E L U LStaiman,
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Chomer LiDrush
6. Worry
The Midrash (Pirkei DeRebbe Eliezer 32)
tells us that when the angel Samael could
not discourage Avraham from proceeding
with the Akeidah, he turned his attention
to Sarah. He gave her a picture of Yitzchak
crying, stretched out on a mizbeach
on har HaMoriah. Sarah panicked and
passed away. True that her death could
have simply been from shock. But how
sad for her to die at that moment! This
story did not end in tragedy. Instead, it
would prove to be the crowning moment
for Avraham and Yitzchak. Message: We
spend so much emotional energy on
things that MIGHT happen. We worry
about scenarios that MIGHT unfold.
Perhaps we can serve ourselves better by
trying to cope with the challenges that
we actually face rather than exhausting
ourselves with anxiety over the future. It
seems difficult to stop the worrying, yet
should we consider some of our anxieties
like those of Sarah to be the work
of the Satan? In this context one can
quote Yevamot 63b from the wisdom of
Ben Sira: Do not worry the worries of
tomorrow for one knows not what the
day will bring. One can further connect
this idea to an idea developed by the Rav
in Al HaTeshuva (pp. 140-141) that only
fear of Hashem can help us transcend our
anxieties and worries.
7. Hayom
There is a famous Teshuva of the Radbaz
(1:87) involving a Jewish prisoner given
the gift of one day of freedom per year.
On that one day each year he would
be free to perform mitzvot. But which
day to choose? Rosh Hashana? Yom
Kippur? Pesach? The Radbazs answer
was simple and powerful: Choose the
first day available. The most important
Jewish day is today every day. And the
most important place in the world is the
place I am standing. (See Rabbi Benjamin
Blech, Understanding Judaism (Aronson
Press, 1991) pp. 5-13, who dramatizes
and expands upon this idea.) Note: the

prisoners question is discussed at length
in the seforim and may be a good idea for
a shiur as well.
8. Teshuva and Free Will
The Zohar (Acharei Mot) tells us that
teshuva was created before the world.
Why would that need to be? The Ramchal
in Daat Tevunot explains that the world
was created for G-d to shower goodness
upon His creations. The ultimate good
is one that is earned. And good can
only be earned by free individuals who
use their power of free choice to make
difficult, noble decisions. Teshuva is
actually necessary for that free choice.
Although teshuva is something that one
does AFTER a poor choice, it is also
necessary to MAINTAIN free choice.
In the language of the Gemara, once an
individual has sinned a number of times,
naaseh li ke-heter. Teshuva and the
Yomim Noraim process in general
may seem like a burden. For almost two
months, the responsibility of teshuva
limits ones ability to function as they
once did. But understood correctly,
teshuva is what maintains our freedom
going forward. I am not a slave to the
bad habits I have developed. I am not
chained as some strict behaviorists
would claim by the choices I have
made. I am free! The power of teshuva
is the freedom from past failures the
ability to remake myself each year. (See
Rabbi Pesach Krohn, Around the Maggids
Table [Artscroll, 1989], pp. 112-114, for
a beautiful story of someone who, at the
last moment, made a heroic decision to
break from his past).
9. Job Security A Thought
Each year we petition the Ribbbono shel
Olam not so much for another year of life,
but for a new contract. Each of us is here
to accomplish something. We are judged
on Rosh Hashana not just based on a
calculation of mitzvot and aveirot but
12
in relation to how we have fulfilled our

unique mission. When one calls to G-d,
Ascribe me in the Book of Life, one is,
in effect saying, Give me another chance
to fulfill my role down here. Some might
need more time. Some might need an
extension of his or her contract. In this
sense, teshuva is not simply a process of
correcting bad habits and taking on new
hanhagot; it is a frank look at the talents
that one has been endowed with and the
situation into which one has been placed.
10. In Gantzen Bankrot (A
Complete Failure)
The Gemara (Rosh Hashana 33a and
Tosofat there) connects the customs
of tekiyat shofar to Aim Sisera. Why
connect the two? Rav Schachter, shlita
(Nefesh HaRav, pg, 9) explains that that
this woman wanted nothing more than
to see her son, Sisera, as a conquering
general. She expected Sisera to come back
as war hero, laden with spoils. It didnt
occur to her that he wouldnt come back
at all. That stark realization comes with
tremendous shock. Everything that she
had worked for was just an illusion. It is
with that same sense of shock that we
look back at our past years performance.
One might have thought he or she was on
the right track. One might have thought
he or she was accomplishing their goals.
The shofar serves as an alarm to wake
the people up to reality. Our lives are In
Gantzen Bakrot. n
Thank you to RIETS Rosh Yeshiva Rabbi
Daniel Z. Feldman 98R for his contributions
to this article.
Chomer LiDrush
Drasha Ideas for

Yamim Noraim
Rabbi Allen Schwartz 86R
Raymond J. Greenwald Chair in Jewish Studies,

Yeshiva University
Transcribed and adapted from a Pre-Yamim Noraim Chomer LiDrush Conference Call 5773
1. The Motif of Motherhood

Motherhood is a running theme of the
liturgies of Rosh HaShana: Hagar and
Yishmael, Chana crying for a child, Sarah
crying for Yitzchak and
in haftarah of the second day. The sound
of the shofar is meant to sound like a
woman crying. The teruah is based on
the crying of Siseras mother. Mothers are
here for us from the day we are born
she knows us best. In order to do teshuva,
the Rambam tells us to become a new
person and to take on a new identity. He
does not mean to literally become a new
person, rather he means to become the
person that we really are, the way we were
when we were born. The way that our
mothers know us best. The mothers in
our liturgy help us discover who we are
and return us to ourselves. On the verse
, Rashi writes:

.
G-d is ready to reciprocate. Just as
Rachel had pity on her sister and was
willing to take a tzarah, or co-wife, into
her house, G-d is ready to forgive Bnei
Yisrael. The same relationship between
co-wives is found in the haftarah of

the first day: Penina had children and
Chana did not. What motivates Chana
to daven? Chanah becomes motivated
by the apparent lack of hope that Elkana
conveys. Elkana seems to give up on
the thought of her becoming a mother
and tells her that she is more important
than the children she might bear. Elkana
should have given her the message of
hope just as Yirmiyahu says,
.
On Rosh HaShana, we are judged by
whether we have hope right now. Even
though we went through the motions last
year and the year before and didnt live up
to our promises, we are judged based on
where we are now, and where are now, is
where we hope to be.
After a long days work returning
to the Lutsk Ghetto with boots hung
over his shoulder and tomatoes pressed
inside of his boots toe, my father was
frisked upon his return. As they found
nothing on him, he proceeded through
the checkpoint. All of a sudden, one of
the Nazi guards stopped him and yelled,
Check those boots! Flashing before his
eyes was his own life, just as minutes ago,
his friend who stood next to him in line
was shot for carrying small scraps of wood
in his pocket. My father said to himself:
If you run, they shoot you. He thought
it was all over and said Shema Yisrael.
Dejectedly, he put the boots down on
the desk waiting for them to kill him. The
Nazi guard came close to putting his hand
13
in it, but the stench of the boots repelled

his grasp. Uch! Despicable, disgusting!
said the guard. Take these boots back.
They stink! With the tomatoes hidden
inside, the guard threw the boots back at
my father.
Baruch Hashem, as he cried Shema
Yisrael he didnt give up hope. This is the
kind of hope that we talk about when we
read .
2. , ,
The word appears in Tanach many
times and translates as forgiveness. The
word has numerous connotations in
Tanach and the commonality is that it
refers to a covering. It is the conclusion
of the atonement process, to cover
everything that someone does as if it
never happened. What does mean?
We dont find this word in Tanach.
can refer to , a circle. The Yerushlami
at the end of Moed Katan states:

Chomer LiDrush
[
. ]
[ ]
.
.
is about entering into G-ds
circle. G-d is in the center and every Jew is
on the circumference. Were all the same
distance; it is a matter of how we utilize
our free will and choice to bring ourselves
closer to G-d.
3. Our Spoken Words
Why do we begin Yom Kippur with
Hataras Nedarim? One idea is to
emphasize the importance of the spoken
word. Additionally, the Gemara, Kesubos
74b, quotes a Beraisa that states that there
is a difference between a marriage on
condition that the woman doesnt have
outstanding nedarim and a marriage on
condition that she doesnt have mumin:
, :
;
, ?
.
Hataras Nedarim gives us the ability

to completely wipe out everything we did,
which is a model for teshuva. However,
there is a deeper message. In the haftarah
of Yom Kippur morning, Yeshayahu
decries the fact that people are fasting but
missing the point. We dont fast for the
purpose of self-flagellation. We fast so that
we can understand what it is like to be
hungry and have more compassion for the
needy. Yom Kippur is not a day of active
affliction but passive. We afflict ourselves
by refraining from certain things, not by
actively seeking out affliction.
The Rambam in his Peirush
HaMishna to Kerisus states that is
not on the list of positive commandments
that one would be for violating,
because is passive. This was the
difference between the Perushim and the
Tzedukim. Based on our oral tradition,
we know that Inui does not involve active
affliction, rather it is passive.

). (
The Mishna implies that there is

no biblical source for Hataras Nedarim.
When we open with Kol Nidrei on Yom
Kippur night, we are reminded that
Yom Kippur depends on its intrinsic
connection to Torah Shebaal Peh and its
significance.

):(
Whats so special about Yom Kippur?
The Gemara reasons that Torah Shebaal
Peh was transmitted to Bnei Yisrael on
Yom Kippur. Torah Shebaal Peh is the
epitome of Yom Kippur and we celebrate
its impact on this day.

):(
Whats so special about Yom Kippur?
The Gemara reasons that Torah Shebaal
Peh was transmitted to Bnei Yisrael on
Yom Kippur. Torah Shebaal Peh is the
epitome of Yom Kippur and we celebrate
its impact on this day.
Drasha Ideas
for Sukkot
Rabbi Menachem Genack 73R

Rosh Yeshiva, RIETS
Transcribed and Adapted from a Chomer LiDrush Conference Call for Sukkot 5774
1. Avos Represent Klal Yisrael

Why isnt Eliyahu HaNavi one of the
Ushpizin? After all, hes the universal
guest who appears at so many different
lifecycle events throughout Jewish life!
The seven Ushpizin represent being
an Av to Klal Yisrael. It goes without
saying that Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov
have the status of Av. Yosef, however, is
considered an Av because his children

are shevatim, Dovid is the Av lmalchus,
Moshe is the Av lnevua, and Aharon is
the Av lkehunah.
2. Commitment
Sukkos marks the end of the Yamim
Noraim. According to one opinion, the
Etz Hadaas was an esrog. The Ramban
14
notes that as a tikkun for the original sin,

we take an esrog as a means of teshuva.
Perhaps the other minim represent
the trees of Gan Eden and this is our
opportunity to return to the pristine state
that we experienced originally in the
Gan. Rashi in Bereishis comments that
the other trees rebelled against creation
and didnt allow their bark to taste like
Chomer LiDrush
the fruit. However, the esrog did listen to
the command of Hashem, and therefore
personifies a sense of commitment and
deference to Dvar Hashem.
3. The Mitzva of Simcha
Sefer HaChinuch notes that the four
minim provide us with simcha. He
then proceeds to discuss the reason we
dont have a mandate to take the four
minim on Shemini Atzeres or Pesach.
This question, which at the outset seems
counterintuitive, in fact accentuates the
universal connection of the Arbah Minim
with simcha. Moreover, the four minim
are associated with Hallel because Hallel
is a deep expression of the mitzva of
simcha. The Rav noted that one should

specifically make the beracha immediately
before Hallel because the of Hallel
are core to the mitzva. Additionally, we
encounter in Sefer Chashmonaim that the
Maccabees brought lulavim as a way of
celebrating their victory.
The mitzva of yeshiva bsukkah also
embodies the notion of simcha, in that we
leave our homes and experience the inner
joy of relying entirely on Hashem. Finally,
the centrality of simcha also accounts
for the custom of reading Koheles, to
proclaim that despite the vanities of the
world, the ultimate simcha is relying upon
Hashem.
CHOMER LIDRUSH ON SUKKOT

CONFERENCE CALL EXCLUSIVELY FOR RABBIS
Thursday, September17, 2015 12:00 Noon EDT ' "
RABBI ASSAF BEDNARSH
RABBI KENNETH BRANDER
RABBI LARRY ROTHWACHS
Rosh Yeshiva, YU-RIETS Gruss Kollel

Israel
Vice President for University & Community Life,

Yeshiva University
Rabbi, Congregation Beth Aaron

Teaneck, NJ
15
Space is limited. Register
now at www.Rabbanan.org
Email RabbinicProgramming@yu.edu with any questions
Special Supplement
Remembering
Rav Aharon Lichtenstein ztl

1933-2015
Divrei Hesped
Rabbi Aharon Kahn 69R
Rosh Yeshiva and Joel Jablonski Professor of Talmud and Codes, RIETS
Rav, Knesseth Bais Avigdor, Brooklyn, NY
Transcribed and adapted from a Hesped

delivered on
:
): (
The clusters of grapes were lost.
Michah laments:

.
The pasuk bemoans the fact
that there are no great ones left.

. It describes
a person who passes through a vineyard
and all has been gathered and collected
and there is nothing left.

I want so badly to be
nourished from one more eshkol, but
. What does eshkolos mean?
. They possess everything.
They encompass everything. But what
does everything include? Shir Hashirim
Rabbah Parsha Aleph, states: ?

. Every facet of the Torah.
Rav Lichtenstein ztl possessed
incredible kochos and matanos that
HaKadosh Baruch Hu gave him, and
which he used every moment of every
day, myom amdo al daato, until the very
end. A baki bshas who could say a shiur
biyun at the drop of a hat. Someone who
gave shiurim as easily in Taharos and
Kadshim as he did in Bava Kama and
Bava Metzia. A person who was a master
of aggada and could convey its message to
the entire world. A person who used his
incredible knowledge not only to teach
and to train, but to heal and to comfort.

The Meiri writes:

(
): ,
The Meiris emphasis must be on
something else, because Torah was
not mentioned here. For someone to
be a , there needs to be a
shleimus haadam, which goes beyond
yedias haTorah even as it is informed by
yedias haTorah. What does this include?
Shleimus hamiddos. His nature was such
that he never claimed the authority that
was obviously invested in him by his vast
hasmada, his incredible knowledge, and
the huge throng of talmidim that he had
throughout the years. He was a shayif ayil
vshayif nafik. He was a person who in the
end, after speaking so much and so often,
revealed to you
. His incredible sense of yashrus
entitled him to the title .
. This part reflects
the peirush haMishna of the Rambam on
that very Mishna:
,
,

The for Rav
Aharon represented two yesodos in his
worldview: that what is created by the
human being can be noble, great. But this
was also informed by an extraordinary
16
sense of the other person, and by a need

to allow the other person some measure
of greatness, of chashivus. He was such an
ohev yisrael that he could not abide the
possibility that the gulf between him and
his own Avodas Hashem and being an ish
hayareh Elokim should be so far removed
from the person of the street, from the
tinok shenishba, from the person who
has only absorbed the secular world. He
had a tremendous ahava for people, and
a need to see shleimus in the variety of
Hakadosh Baruch Hus world.
Theres a very remarkable description
of Aharon HaKohen:

Chazal feel compelled to contrast the
misah of Aharon with the misah of Moshe
Rabbeinu. Moshe Rabbeinu led the Jews
through everything. He fought for them.
He was responsible for their survival
after the Chet HaEgel. He provided for
them and he gave his entire life for them.
Nevertheless the people were not able
to understand or love Moshe Rabbeinu
enough to cry for him. Aharon on the
other hand, Moshes brother, was beloved
by all: man, woman, child, gadol vkatan.
Why? Chazal tell us in Avos DRebbi
Noson.
, ,

Note the sequence of these words.
There are many who are interested in kiruv
perhaps because they love the Rebbono
Special Supplement
Shel Olam, but they dont yet have the
until after . But
Aharon and Talmidav shel Aharon are first
, which itself is the impetus
. Rav Lichtenstein maintained
a certain confidence that people are good
and therefore its important to teach
everyone. He had a global vision of avodas
Hashem that could penetrate Jews from all
backgrounds.
Avos DRebbe Noson continues:
:
. - ?
. ,
.
,
.
I remember when I was a young Rav, I
decided that I would apply this method to
the first shalom bayis problem that I had.
A couple came to me, swords unsheathed,
and I said Id like to speak to each one
of you individually. I continued, You
know what your husband said about you?
He really loves you. He really cares about
you. I happened to do the same thing in
reverse and I was expecting this incredible
moment of shalom, of tranquility and of
ahava. Each one in their own way came
back to me and said Rabbi, who are you
trying to kid? You think youre Aharon
HaKohen? Where did I go wrong? The
answer is that Aharons tochaha was
unique:
. ,
.
,
.
We need to understand, that if he
never gave anyone tochacha and thats
why they loved him, how can we consider
him a leader? A Moreh Derech would
certainly give tochacha. What is the praise
of Aharon:
?Perhaps this is not praise, rather
the opposite!
Of course Aharon gave tochacha,
however, it was indirect. Aharons
mere presence caused the passerby to
instinctively refrain from sin.

. .
, :
.
The incredible stira of encountering
Aharon yet desiring to do an aveira
actually prevented the person from doing
that aveira.
. How was it that
people turned from sin? Because
. After experiencing
Aharons metzius, and that shalom and
ahavas yisrael a person felt, How can
I possibly be in the same beis medrash
with him, in the same dalet amos with
him that I should do this aveira? That
was the tochacha of Aharon. Of course
he was mochiach, but he was mochiach
by demanding of himself, and by
incredible hasmada. He taught not to
waste a second. That is why he produced
so many thousands of erlicheh yiddin,
talmidim muvhakim who are tremendous
bnei torah and who love to learn.
. This was
Aharons Tochacha. Without a tochacha
geluya, you have to be an adam gadol
meod without stiros, because the first
thing a young person picks up is stiros.
What happens when you get closer and
closer? Does he become smaller and
smaller or does he become a greater giant
than before?
17
Rav Lichtenstein
maintained a certain
confidence that people
are good and therefore
its important to teach
everyone. He had a
global vision of avodas
Hashem that could
penetrate Jews from
all backgrounds.
Thats what you saw with Rav
Lichtenstein. You feel that you are in
the presence of this incredible amount
of gadlus, a true chasna dbei nesiya, a
person who grew up in the shadow of
Rav Hutner, and became the son-in-law
of the gadol hador, Rabbeinu, a person
who grew into the gadol himself that he
was, this is all a person of such shleimus,
of such incredible integration, that every
single moment of every day was not just
avodas Hashem and ahavas yisrael and
middos trumios, but it became in its
totality the .

Special Supplement
Remembering
Rav Aharon Lichtenstein ztl

1933-2015
Divrei Hesped
Rabbi Michael Rosensweig 80R
Rosh Yeshiva and Nathan and Perel Schupf Chair in Talmud, RIETS
Rosh Kollel, Beren Kollel Elyon, RIETS
Transcribed and adapted from a Hesped

delivered on
Its been a very difficult and painful day
in Yerushalayim and in Alon Shvut,
especially for talmidim of Moreinu
Vrabbeinu HaRav Aharon Lichtenstein
zecher tzaddik lvracha. The petirah of a
talmid chacham, especially somebody of
the magnitude of Moreinu Vrabbeinu
Harav Lichtenstein ztl, is something that
really shakes, even destabilizes the Jewish
world. On the one hand, it engenders
a short- term crisis; on the other, it
reflects positively on the impact that this
Gadol, who has humanly, at least, left the
scene, has had on us. We wouldnt be
disoriented and uneasy unless the impact
was enormous.
In a famous passage in Masechet
Temurah, the gemara says ()
that when Moshe Rabbeinu passed on:
:

3,000 halachos that Moshe Rabbeinu
taught were forgotten when he died. The
Gemara describes the various efforts
made to retrieve these valuable halachos,
but initially, the effort to recover them
was a failure. Therefore, the rabbis
turned to the talmidim muvhakim of
Moshe Rabbeinu, to Yehoshua and to
Shmuel, and suggested they employ
Divine intervention. They told Yehoshua,
ask the Ribbono Shel Olam,

invoke the power of Nevuah. Yehoshua
replied: . The system of
halacha was given to human beings, its
a magnificent system that addresses all
aspects of life, and it doesnt require
Divine Intervention, even for retrieval,
nevermind for any kind of creative
authority.
When we look at this gemara,
initially were puzzled by this collective
amnesia, even shocked. After all, how
does a petirah, even of Moshe Rabbeinu,
trigger this kind of response? However,
if we understand the halachic concepts
of zachor and al tishkach, which
appears throughout and across the
range of halacha, we comprehend and
appreciate that zechirah and shichichah
Hashocheach davar echad mitalmudo
harey zeh mischayev ba nafsho (Avot )
is not foremost or primarily a problem of
preserving details and information, but it
is an approach to Torah and halachic life.
The problem of shichicha and
the ambition of zachor is one of
understanding principles, appreciating
interconnections, of developing an
instinct, and internalizing an approach to
the world of Torah and halacha. When
it comes to understanding the intricate
interconnections of halacha and the
significance of those principles to our
spiritual and hashkafic life, one requires
18
guidance and depth and understanding

of the totality of the system. When the
master of that mesorah is no longer on
the scene, then the sense that the subtle
and even more basic underpinnings and
connections have been lost or at least
are elusive, and the ability to apply and
to practice and especially to integrate
halacha into our lives has been lost,
we feel a sense of bewilderment and
even disorientation. When people are
disoriented, the first thing that is affected
is their memory. It becomes cloudy,
it becomes vague, sufficient to really
endanger the entire system, and to trigger
a sense of yeush. When a great man
passes off the scene, there is a sense that
the past and the future are jeopardized
and that the present is uncertain.
How can we contend with and
confront new challenges and new
realities based on the principles of Torah,
the applications of its norms, and the
internalization of its values, when we have
no one to turn to who has that instinct,
that experience, the integrity and the
authority to provide sophisticated and
authentic direction? How can we expect
that well be accurately conveying the
past, with its consequent impact upon
the future, when the links to the past,
the Chachmei Hamesorah shebechol dor
vador, what the Rav used to call playtas
sofrayhem, are taken from us?
Special Supplement
When Moshe Rabbeinu was
niftar, past, present, and future were
jeopardized, and there was a sense,
conveyed so strikingly in the gemara
Temurah, of crisis. This concept really
describes what I felt all day, and what
I picked up from thousands of people
who were at the levaya and at the
hespedim. HaRav Lichtenstein ztl
was a singular Chachmei Hamesorah
in our dor. But I would say part of his
singular contribution was the precisely
the fact that he taught exactly this lesson.
He taught directly and he taught by
example, by the very essence of who he
was; he reflected the fact that Torah is
multifaceted, wide-ranging, complex,
subtle, nuanced, and that it is the source
of grandeur and tiferes in our lives.
Therefore, when someone like that is
Anybody who
ever watched Rav
Lichtenstein or was
in the same room
davening with him,
or even saw how he
danced, could see
that yiraso kodemes
lchachmaso, and that
all the chachma and
all of the lamdus was
totally and seamlessly
integrated and
channeled into being a
mivakshay panecha.
removed from our midst, the sense of

crisis, the sense of being shorn from our
moorings is a natural outcome.
Rav Lichtenstein ztl was truly an
Ish Eshkolot. His expertise and mastery
ranged across the disciplines of Torah,
halacha, and hahkafah; he was a master
of kol haTorah kulah with incredible
range of both lamdus and bekius. His
range was not limited to the classical
rishonim al ha-daf, but, remarkably,
extended as well to the more specialty or
exotic rishonimIttur, Raavyah, Raavan
etc.as well; he had complete mastery
of hashkafas hahalacha and of medieval
and modern Jewish philosophy, and of
course, also of Western thought. The wide
range and the scope of Rav Lichtensteins
expertise is truly astounding. But what
really made him unique and a role model
was his incredible ability to balance
and especially to integrate all of these
different themes and ideas and to do so
seamlessly. He had incredible qualities
of leadership, an ability to focus on the
needs of individuals, and especially a
sensitivity for the requirements of the
klal. If I had to pick a single word that
captures Rav Lichtensteins singular
character, it would be integrity. Integrity
means wholeness. It means authenticity.
It means a sense of being principled
and it also means integration, which
is more than the sum of its parts. He
was a living sefer Torah, integrating his
experiences and personality, sensitivities
and empathies, all channeled through
the prism of his commitment and of his
knowledge of Torah.
I came to Yeshivat Har Etzion as
a very young student, and I can say
without exaggeration that from the very
first day that I was there, I understood
immediately and instinctively that to
be a student of Rav Lichtenstein ztl
was something that was a tremendous
opportunity and privilege, but at the
same time a responsibility. It was clear
that this was going to be a transformative
19
experience. Rav Lichtenstein served

as a role-model as somebody to aspire
to, to be inspired by, to take advice
and direction from, and to study and
scrutinize in a way that was both reverent
but also impactful. Rav Lichtensteins
lamdus and scope of knowledge, the
depth of his shiur, and his methodological
focus speaks not only to a style of
teaching and a style of learning, but
also to a way of thinking and especially
an approach to halakhic life suffused
with tremendous ambition layda kol
haTorah kulah the idea that all of
Talmud Torah is connected.
The methodological focus of
his shiur was undoubtedly part of an
educational philosophy of haamidu
talmidim harbay, in the sense of giving
talmidim independence, looking to
the future, to their own capacity to
further the mesorah itself. He provided
them with tools, lifelong passion,
commitment and dedication to Torah
study. But that that was only a part of
the package. The integrity, the empathy,
the humanity, the consistency, the
middos flowed from the Talmud Torah
but also, in a way, drove the Talmud
Torah. Mori VRabi Rav Lichtenstein
ztl wasnt just an intellectual Rebbe
to his talmidim; despite that fact that
sometimes he seemed to be and was a
very formidable person, he maintained
lifelong connections with his talmidim.
Im happy to have the opportunity to
express a little bit of hakaras hatov for the
encouragement, empathy and advice that
he always gave me.
Rav Lichtenstein understood that the
rebbe-talmid relationship is a father-son
relationship. He understood that it was
a lifelong one, and one that evolved over
many decades; the appreciation I and his
other talmidim had for him only grew and
deepened, as did our sense of marvel at
his ability, integrity and authenticity.
All of this flowed from yiraso, which
was kodemes lchachmaso. In recent
Special Supplement
years, Rav Lichtenstein put out seforim,
and the titles themselves are telling and
fascinating: Bor Panecha Yahalechun,
Mivakshay Panecha. Rav Lichtenstein
could be perceived by people who didnt
know him as a very cerebral persona. But
at the end of the day that vast intellect was
merely a tool for Mivakshay Panecha, for
his Avodas Hashem, for his yirah. Anybody
who heard his shiurim understood right
away that he was somebody who was a
master of kol haTorah kulah and in an
incredibly analytical and structural way
at that. You could really almost see the
amal and the yegiah in every shiur and
sichah. But anybody who ever watched
Rav Lichtenstein or was in the same room
davening with him, or even saw how he
danced, could see that yiraso kodemes
lchachmaso, and that all the chachma and
all of the lamdus was totally and seamlessly
integrated and channeled into being a
mivakshay panecha. He provided us with
the model of learning ambition, both in
scope and depth. At the same time he was
the role model and exemplar of how that
really integrates into a very rich, varied, but
consistent religious life; a life of the spirit,
as well as communal involvement and
involvement with individuals.
Rav Lichtenstein had a very unique
relationship with our yeshiva. In one
respect, he was very much the ultimate
product of our Beis Medrash and he was

very proud of that. He continues to be
an inspiration for every talmid in our
Beis Medrash, whether he had direct and
personal contact with him or not. But
what always struck me was the degree of
intense identification that he had with the
yeshiva. Mostly, after he left 185th Street
and Amsterdam Avenue, he was the Rosh
HaYeshiva of Yeshivat Har Etzion and
he built something magnificent there as
we all know. He spent once a week in
the Gruss Center teaching. But if you
spoke to him, you couldnt but be struck
by the intense interest he continued to
express and demonstrate with respect to
our yeshiva. Even during his illness, he
got very excited when we started talking
about the yeshiva and its future and
current developments. He conveyed his
concerns and also the pride for what the
yeshivah has accomplished and for what
it continues to produce. He constantly
shared his sense of identification and
the fact that he was both proud to be a
product and continued to see himself as
very much part of our Beis Medrash.
Physical contact is something
unfortunately that has come to an end.
But in the end of the gemara in Temurah,
the gemara tells us that while Shmuel and
Yehoshua didnt know how to solve their
20
problem they knew what solutions

were unacceptable, but they couldnt
constructively provide an alternative
somebody by the name of Osniel ben
Kenaz came up with the right strategy,
and he retrieved of all the lost halachos
by means of methodologically sound
halachic analysis.
Certainly, the profound lesson is
that while great Chachmay HaMesorah
may no longer be with us in one
respect, sifsosayhem dovros bkever. The
methodology that they impart, the
inspiration that is their legacy, the role
model that they were, the powerful
demus dyukno is not something that
lessens even an iota in their physical
absence. Vkach hi darko shel Torah,
thats the greatness of Torah and thats
the greatness of learning. Somebody
as special as Moreinu VRabbeinu Rav
Lichtenstein ztl, somebody about
whom you could say that kol makom
sheatah motzay gedulaso, atah motzay
anvasanuso, somebody who was an anav
and a gadol, and maybe didnt perceive
himself this way, but was seen accurately
by all his talmidim as somebody who was
singular in our generation, will continue
to have tremendous impact upon us.

Special Supplement
On Raising Children
Based on a sicha by Harav Aharon
Lichtenstein ztl
First appeared in Yeshivat Har Etzions Israel Koschitzky
Virtual Beit Midrash (VBM). Reprinted with permission.
t should be a truism that raising

children is one of the most
important things in a persons life.
Unfortunately, this is not obvious to
everyone. There are people, even great
people, who assign a higher priority to
other matters.
There is, of course, a mitzva of
chinukh, educating ones children. Yet,
the term chinukh can be understood in
two very distinct ways. In the narrower
sense, the term chinukh refers to
chinukh for mitzvot, preparing a child
for a lifetime of religious observance.
The Gemara (Sukka 42a) explains that
when a child knows how to shake a lulav,
his father should buy him one; when
he knows how to properly care for his
tefillin, the father buys him tefillin; when
he knows how to speak, his father should
teach him Torah and Shema.1 For each
respective mitzva, when the child reaches
the appropriate age, you are obligated to
train him to perform that mitzva.
The Rishonim and Acharonim
discuss several aspects of this mitzva.
First, upon whom does this duty devolve?
Is it an obligation upon the parent, or part
of the childs own obligation in mitzvot?
Second, is it a parallel obligation of
the given mitzva, imposed rabbinically
upon a Biblically exempt individual, or

is chinukh entirely preparatory for the
obligations that will be triggered when he
is an adult?2
In a broader sense, though, chinukh
has to do with the molding of the identity
and personality of the child. That itself
breaks into two aspects. One aspect
is the development of certain spiritual
strengths, certain powers, skills, abilities,
inclinations, and sensitivities. In trying
to make a respectable person out of the
boy or girl, the parents ask themselves:
To what extent can and should we mold
the child, and in which direction? Once
the parents understand what the aims are,
they can try to answer these questions.
There is a second, more relational
aspect of the broad sense of chinukh.
This entails developing what the
Greeks called paideia, eliciting from
the personality of the child that which
is already there; moreover, this means
developing not powers, but rather
attitudes, relationships, commitments,
involvement, and engagement. For
example, part of chinukh is teaching the
child the ability to relate to others. If
you look around you, you see that some
people have the skill of relating to others,
while others cannot relate to a colleague,
a child, or a spouse. Teaching a child to

relate does not just mean giving him
or her a certain skill set in the realm of
personal relationships; it also means
teaching one how to relate to God, to
ones immediate environs, to ones
collective and national identity, to the
past and future, and to the world at large.
All this is part of chinukh.
Some of the aspects of chinukh that
I have mentioned have a clear normative
thrust; come Sukkot time, you buy the
child a lulav. Others are harder to pin
down, almost by definition. You can
discuss what kind of powers to develop in
the child, how to develop them, at what
level, etc. There is room for a great range
of opinion, both in the degree of priority
you assign to the whole enterprise,
and also to each component within it.
Does this obligation, which is less easily
definable, have a halakhic address? Here
an inevitable split will emerge: with
regard to certain aspects certainly yes;
with others, possibly no.
One possible address is Rambams
Hilkhot Talmud Torah. He opens the
topic in a strange way. He does not begin
with the obligation to study Torah; that
arises only in halakha 8. Rather, the first
halakhot deal with a persons obligation
This sicha was delivered to second-year overseas students at Yeshivat Har Etzion on July 1, 2007.
It was adapted by Reuven Ziegler and Naftali Balanson from a transcript by Marc Herman and Dov Karoll.
21
Special Supplement
to teach namely, to teach his children.
The Torah uses the expression, And you
shall teach [the words of Torah] to your
children (Devarim 6:7). Chazal explain
that at one level, this refers to students,
but on another level, your children
means just what it says, your sons and
daughters. This involves inculcating
certain values, developing certain
attitudes, seeing to it that the world of
serving God is their world.
Clearly, this does not have as sharply
defined lines or contours as does the
world of chinukh le-mitzvot; it is a much
broader enterprise, which has to do with
what kind of commitments, what kind
of values, you want the child to have.
Now, part of this aspect of education is
vague because the exact values are not so
clear. As opposed to the aforementioned
concrete mitzvot, where a lulav is a lulav
is a lulav, sensitivity (to name one value)
can be variable: sensitivity to what, to
whom, what you tolerate, what you
refuse to tolerate, etc. When dealing
with defined halakhic duties, people who
are halakhically committed will roll up
their sleeves and get to work. However,
when we speak to them in general
terms of raising a child, giving the child
values and commitments, a plethora
of possibilities emerge: they can take a
low-key approach, they can act intensely
and intensively, they can give it a high
level of priority or a low level of priority.
Unfortunately, where the matters clash
with other priorities, the desire to
downplay chinukh may overwhelm some.
The historical evidence in this regard
is mixed. I come, indirectly, from Brisk
and from Volozhin. In Brisk, a very high
value was attached to raising children,
and particularly to raising them with the
paramount values that epitomize this
community, specifically, the analytic
approach to study. In Brisk, Reb Chaim
did not have a yeshiva. He started
learning with his children, and people
heard about it, so other people joined
the group. Today, Yeshivas Brisk in
Yerushalayim is an empire! Rav Avraham

Yehoshua Soloveitchik has 800 students
in his yeshiva, and hundreds others
waiting, knocking at the door. Contrast
that with his fathers whole yeshiva, which
fit into a living room, fifty or so seats,
while his grandfather, Reb Velvel, had to
do without getting a minyan in his home.
He learned with his children. Rav Moshe
Soloveitchik built the Rav into who he
was, and not just a little bit here and
there. During the most formative years
of the Ravs life, his father Rav Moshe
learned with him for ten to twelve hours a
day. When I say learned, I mean learned!
If the Rav hesitated, or Rav Moshe
thought he was goofing off a little bit, he
let him have it.
Not everybody did that. Many of the
Torah giants in Eastern Europe, and not
one or two, devoted themselves to their
own studies, to writing their chiddushim,
and let their children grow up as they
might within their society. Some even
grew up to be irreligious Jews; and I am
not referring here to some local, isolated,
unknown rav.
This is not a simple matter. Chazal
say this about Moshe Rabbeinu
himself. In Parashat Chukkat we read
that Aharons sons succeed him in the
priesthood, and in Parashat Pinchas, the
daughters of Tzelofchad successfully
inherited their father. Moshe, upon
seeing all this, assumed that his sons
would inherit his position of leadership.
Therefore, he came to plead with God
regarding his own successor: May
God, Lord of the spirits of all flesh,
appoint a man over the community
(Bamidbar 27:16). But this was not to
be. In a somewhat audacious midrash
(Bamidbar Rabba 21:14), God responds
harshly: No; your sons sat idly and did
not occupy themselves with Torah.
Yehoshua devoted himself to you and
honored you; he would come early to the
study hall and leave late; he arranged the
benches and spread a canopy for shade.
Since he served you with all his strength,
22
he is worthy of serving the people of

Israel. Your sons did not take care of the
business of the Jewish people, and they
will not succeed you.
The Gemara (Bava Batra 109b)
goes even further: it states that Moshe
Rabbeinus grandson and the latters
children were idolatrous priests. Moshe
Rabbeinus grandson! Far be it from me,
God forbid, to judge Moshe Rabbeinus
priorities; he clearly felt the whole weight
of the Jewish people, the future of Jewish
history, on his shoulders; but was it at the
expense of Gershom and Eliezer?
I feel very strongly about the need
for personal attention in child-raising,
and have tried to put it into practice. I,
too, was raised that way. A number of my
rebbeim also used to speak of the value
of learning with ones children. The Rav
once said that when one gets to Olam
Ha-ba, he is going to be asked, Based
on what do you deserve entry to Olam
Ha-ba? Personally, he mentioned three
things, one of which was that he learned
with his children.
I remember a derasha that Rav
Yitzchak Hutner zl gave around
Shavuot one year when I attended
Yeshivat Rabbeinu Chaim Berlin. He
discussed the gemara in Bava Batra
(21a) that Yehoshua ben Gamla is to be
remembered for the good, because he
founded a network of Jewish education.
Before his time, everybody had studied
with his own child or hired a private tutor,
but he founded schools. The rosh yeshiva
said that historians, secular historians in
particular, think of this as a great event,
resolving the chaos of home education
with something systematic: schools,
buildings, educational infrastructure. To
the contrary, Rav Hutner said, it was a
sad day; the ideal is to follow the literal
meaning of the verse, You shall teach
them to your children (Devarim 11:19).
The rosh yeshiva would frequently discuss
with us the need to study with ones son
or ones daughter, just as verse states.
According to the Rav, talmud
Special Supplement
Torah is an important aspect of the
interpersonal, emotional, and existential
bond between a parent and a child.
When the love for Torah embraces an
intergenerational link, that enhances
the learning. When our first son was
born in the early 1960s, I was strongly
involved with Yavneh (the national
campus organization of American and
Canadian religious university students) as
a member of its National Advisory Board.
The Rav thought that my considerable
involvement might divert my energies
from other, more important things. At
the bris we spoke, and he quoted the
verse, For Yitzchak shall be your true
offspring (Bereishit 21:12). God tells
Avraham: Do not worry too much about
Yishmael, for Yitzchak will be your
successor. What the Rav was telling me
was: Remember, raising your son is the
priority.
One pays a price for this attitude
to child-raising. I am not telling you
that were it not for my children I would
be a gaon olam, but you pay a price.
However, that is a price that you should
be very well ready and willing to pay, and
thank God every morning for the ability
to pay it. It is a source of joy beyond
words.
Let me digress momentarily for a
personal anecdote. My eldest child is
Rav Mosheh. We made aliyah when
he was ten, and when he attended high
school at Netiv Meir, I spent a lot of time
learning with him and with our second
son, Rav Yitzchak. When Rav Mosheh
finished high school, we sent him to the
States to study with the Rav. I drove him
to the airport, and when he was about
to leave I was going one way, he was
going the other we embraced and did
not exchange one word. My wife was
then visiting her father in the States, and
I wrote to her, It was worth spending
seventeen years of learning, of chinukh
in Torah and mitzvot, for a one-minute
embrace. And my son came away with
the same feeling.
Raising children is a lot of work, and

it is one of the greatest joys in the world
one of the greatest responsibilities and
greatest privileges. There are very few
people about whom it can be genuinely
be said that there is something objectively
more important in their life than raising
children. Every child is a world unto
himself, and should be treated with
sensitivity, understanding, warmth, and
love.
These things are not in textbooks;
you will not find instructions about
what kind of mixture to have between
the assertion of authority, on the one
hand, and warmth and love, on the other.
People often presume that Halakha has
the answer to everything. Press the right
key, push the right button, open up to the
right page, look it up, and it is there. And
if it is not there, it is only because we have
not gotten around to it yet; you have the
misfortune of being born twenty years
before somebody will write the answer
to your question. But if you wait twenty
years, the answer will be there. This
attitude is absolutely incorrect!
We do not do any favors to God, or
to the world of Halakha, by pretending
that it has what it does not have, and what
from my point of view it does not
need to have and does not want to have.
Though the world of Torah is rich and
demanding, though it encompasses so
many areas of human life, it does not have
the precise answer to everything and
this is true in some of the most significant
areas of human life. For example, I wrote
an article in Tradition about an area
which I am not going to discuss now,
marital relationships.3 There are certain
elements of marriage which are halakhot,
and so many elements that are not
Halakha. What kind of relationship do
you have with your spouse? How intense,
how superficial, how cordial? Halakha
does not tell you.
To return to the issue at hand,
what kind of parent are you? Do you
intend the relationship to be formal or
23
chummy? The Gemara (Kiddushin 32a)

teaches that a father who foregoes the
honor due him may do so; does it say
anywhere whether a parent should do so?
There are differences between cultures
and families. When we are at home, my
children can poke fun at my wife and at
me. It is part of the scene, and we take it
in stride and with joy. One would never
have spoken in that way in my parents
home, and it would never even have
occurred to anyone to speak that way in
the Ravs family. It is not that the degree
or quality of the love is different, but the
manifestation is different.
To be sure, a parent must have the
ability to be assertive and to radiate and
communicate authority. A parent is not
just a playmate, an older sibling. The
parent represents values, represents
the world of Judaism; a parent is to the
young child, and subsequently to the
adolescent child, Gods plenipotentiary.
He represents the Ribbono shel Olam
in his home! Parents represent moral,
spiritual, and religious values. As such, to
some extent, one must speak with a voice
of authority. Still, Teddy Roosevelts
aphorism, Speak softly and carry a big
stick, requires modification: I would
say that a parent must learn to speak
softly without carrying a stick, and yet
with a clear voice of authority. A parent
should not just be a schoolteacher; it is
a relationship of Ve-nafesho keshura benafesho, And his soul is bound up with
his soul (Bereishit 44:30).
In this vein, there are certain issues
that need to be dealt with, to which
I do not think one can give a single
answer; every person must provide his
own answer. I mentioned that I come
from the Brisker tradition. Brisk was
very, very authoritarian, and this in two
respects. First, although in learning one
could challenge a parents authority,
one could not challenge it in practice.
Second, they set a very high standard. It
was very demanding, and the result was
like swinging for the fences in baseball:
Special Supplement
more home runs and more strikeouts.
In almost every generation there were
people who paid a price, a price in simple
mental health, because they cracked and
could not advance. But, at the same time,
this environment produced Torah giants.
Parents must ask themselves to
what extent they want to swing for the
fences. The night before one of my
children married, he raised this issue with
me. I described to him how I saw other
contexts where a steep price had been
paid for swinging for the fences, and I said
that a double is also enough. But it is a
personalized, individual decision.
One of the most fascinating
autobiographies of the nineteenth
century was written by John Stuart
Mill. His father did not just swing for
the fences, he wanted to hit it out of
the ballpark. In his autobiography, Mill
describes the education he received.
When he was a toddler, the father would
let him play with Aristotle. If he went
for a walk with his father, he was to
discuss Aristotle and logic, or Plato and
metaphysics. There were no playmates:
he never even realized that there were
playmates in the world; he simply was
raised in a separate environment, and he
was a marvel. But at the age of twenty he
had a nervous breakdown. What pulled
him out of the nervous breakdown was
not Plato, not Aristotle, not Aquinas; it
was Wordsworths poetry.
That is an extreme example. I am not
suggesting that everybody who is strict
with his children or demanding is running
the risk of inducing a nervous breakdown.
But at some point, and this is true of the
mitzva of chinukh generally as well, you
have to decide upon the proper mix
particularly in the home, where it is so
critical, even more than in the classroom.
In a classroom, too, you have to decide:
you can be strict and get results, but at
what cost? The result may be that the
student knows the material very well, but
will develop no love for it and also no
love for you, and no love for God, whom

you are representing. Alternatively, you
can be gentle and pleasant: he may love
you, but he may not know much.
This is a tug which I have always felt
as an educator, and I never know whether
or not I provide the proper mix. Every
so often I read about people who are not
as concerned as I am with values, but are
concerned with getting results. When
I was running the RIETS Kollel in the
States in the 1960s, Vince Lombardi
coached the Green Bay Packers.
Lombardis results from his players were
unparalleled, astounding! But they
hated him. Perhaps if you are a football
coach and you are hated, it is one thing.
However, if you are a parent and you are
hated, it is something else. And if you are
an educator who is hated, it is something
else entirely.
In particular, if you are concerned
with raising children religiously in todays
environment, there are risks that one
could have taken at one time, but are
now much more problematic. I sense
this regarding chinukh in general, and
regarding the primary educator the
parent as well. At one time, if you
were very hard on students, and they
didnt like you, they left your school, and
went from one educational framework
to another. Today, a child drops out
of school, he drops out of Shabbat, he
drops out of God. Teachers, and even
more so parents, must find the proper
combination of communicating values
and making demands but radiating
love; this is the mix that defines raising
children.
A comparison with the appropriate
role of grandparents will help sharpen the
complexity of the parental relationship.
Chazal expound the verse, So shall you
say (tomar) to the house of Yaakov and
tell (tagged) to the children of Israel
(Shemot 19:3): tagged means those
things that are harsh, and those should be
told to the men, who are more assertive,
24
more authoritarian; tomar indicates

softer language, which is directed at the
house of Yaakov, that is, the women.
There is an analogous verse, Ask
your father and he will tell you (veyaggedekha); your elders and they shall
say (ve-yomeru) to you (Devarim 32:7):
the father is authoritarian, assertive; the
grandparent is softer. I have occasionally
quoted C.S. Lewiss statement that
many people want, in fact, not so much
a Father in Heaven as a grandfather
in Heaven.4 I think that grandfathers
represent and inculcate values, but the
nature of the relationship is such that they
cannot be as stern.
This approach should occasionally
influence the parents as well. In
translating the verse, We have an elderly
father, and a small youngest child
(Bereishit 44:20), Onkelos translates the
phrase elderly father as Abba sabba,
literally, a father who is a grandfather.
Sometimes the father has to learn to be a
grandfather, too.5
Recently, a student quoted me as
saying that a father should be ready both
to learn with his children and play ball
with them. He said I then added that if
you want the child to want to learn with
you, you have to play ball with him. I
am not sure you have to; but despite
not remembering making this particular
statement, it is the sort of thing I would
have said. Still, there is one clarification
I want to make. I did not play ball with
my children as a trick, as a tactic. I did
not think, Today Ill play basketball
with him, and in a year we will learn
Minchat Chinukh. I dont think one
should approach it that way. There is
joy, there is wonder, in the ability to play
with ones children; it is not simply a
tool, not just instrumental. It is a joy in
its own right, and one of the joys which I
think God fully permits us and wants us
to participate in. I dont harbor any guilt
about playing ball with my children, nor
do I regard it as a wasted day. It is part of
Special Supplement
what being a family is all about.
Raising children is part of an
educational endeavor, both in terms of
Torah learning and in terms of ethical,
religious, and spiritual growth. What kind
of person is this child going to be? That is
very often a direct educational endeavor.
But no less important is the indirect
educational endeavor. How you behave
towards the child, what climate you create
in the home, impacts him definitively.
Children are very smart. If you bluff, they
will see straight through you. You cannot
expect a child to study Torah if you do
not learn yourself. But I dont want to
focus too sharply, too exclusively, on the
cognitive development: communicating
knowledge, love of Torah, love of
knowledge. Developing character is more
important than knowledge. That is true
in a yeshiva, and it is true in a home. This
is what we mean by yirato kodemet lechokhmato, ones fear of Heaven must
precede his wisdom.
A home is a total environment that
encompasses many dimensions not
only the cognitive and the moral, but the
joys, the labors, and the tensions; all of
these arise, and you have to know how to
handle them. There are indeed tensions;
to see that, you need merely open
Sefer Bereishit. You have to be ready
to meet the challenges. Some issues
are very deeply ingrained and cannot
be altogether eliminated. But you can
channel, you can soften; you can try to
have quiet conversations.
The Gemara in Shabbat (10b) says
that a person should not discriminate
between his children, to privilege one
over the others, and the proof is from the
book of Bereishit: Yaakov did it, and look
what happened to Yosef! Rambam goes
even further than Chazal, adding a small
phrase: One should not discriminate
between his children even in the slightest
way (Hilkhot Nachalot 6:13). I am
not sure that one can live up to such a
high standard. Usually, however, even
if in certain areas you favor one child

over another, you can compensate: one
goes to camp, the other takes piano
lessons. As I said at the beginning, it is
an awesome responsibility; but it is a
marvelous joy.
Unfortunately, not everyone
experiences this joy and privilege.
Nechama Leibowitz, one of the most
prolific and influential educators of her
generation, once said she would give
up everything all her studies, all her
books, all her teaching to have had a
child. The tragedy of childlessness is one
which is mentioned in Tanakh, Chazal
are sensitive to it, and one should be
cognizant of it.
Many years ago, on Rosh Hashana night, I spoke, inter alia, about
the question of childlessness, with
reference the Torah reading and the
haftara for the first day of Rosh Ha-shana
(regarding Sara and Chana, respectively).
Afterwards I felt badly, because I saw
among those assembled one of our
alumni who had been married for five or
seven years and still did not have a child.
When he later stood in line to wish me a
good year, and to be wished a good year, I
asked him if I had gone too deep. He said
that he had no words to thank me for my
understanding of his plight.
Chazal ask why the matriarchs Sara,
Rivka, and Rachel were childless, and
conversely, why Leah did not experience
this problem. Regarding Leah, the Torah
answers: God saw that Leah was hated,
and He opened her womb (Bereishit
29:31). She was rewarded, compensated
for being hated. Regarding the others,
one remarkable opinion in the midrash
states that their childlessness stemmed
from Gods desire for the prayers of the
righteous. Whatever this difficult passage
means, God yearns, thirsts, longs for
the prayers of the righteous. And what
can be a better impetus to prayer than
childlessness?
So, those of us who are fortunate
25
to have children have been blessed, and

should be appreciative. As such, we
should construct our lives in accordance
with the aforementioned principles.
As I mentioned, when my sons were
in high school, I used to devote several
nights a week to learning with them.
Once I met one of the ramim at their
high school, and he remarked, What a
wonderful thing! As busy as you are, you
find time to come learn with your sons. I
looked at him, and could not understand:
If I cant find time to learn with my sons,
for what will I find time? What is my time
for? But he did not seem to understand
a word of what I had told him, so I let it
be.
There is a selfish aspect to this as well.
We look at our children as a continuation
of ourselves, and rightly so. Yet one
has to be very careful not to overdo the
selfish element. There are parents who
destroy their children because they want
their children to do what they themselves
could not do. I know a woman who
wanted to go Barnard College but was
not accepted; she made her daughter go
there, even though the daughter really
wanted to go to Stern College. You
have to be able to see things from the
perspective of the child, without losing
your own perspective. It is not simple.
Again, it comes back to the question
of authority and the love: to see things
from the vantage point of the child
while maintaining your vantage point,
representing values and representing a
certain world order.
Overall, parenting is a tall order, but
it generates some of the most beautiful
days in your life. In a sense, it is the
small things, the really small things, that
can matter most. When my youngest
son, Shai, was ten, we had occasion to
visit my sister in Kiryat Shmuel, which
is on the northern outskirts of Haifa.
One summer day, the rest of the family
went away, and he and I were left home
alone. Since Kiryat Shmuel is about
Special Supplement
ten kilometers from Akko, I suggested
bicycling to Akko. We rode up to Akko
and came back by train. One may ask:
what is the value of riding a bicycle or
taking the train? Yet it was, for him and
for me without exchanging words at the
time a formative, bonding experience,
trivial as it may seem. Sometimes, within
the context of a relationship, it is the
trivial things that are most profoundly
meaningful. Without being bombastic
about it, without blowing anything out
of proportion, that is where bonds are
forged and relationships are developed.
And you have to start when they are
young.
In the family of Rav Ahron
Soloveichik zl, the first three children
were boys, born relatively close together.
At the bar mitzva of one of his sons,
Rav Ahron quoted his mother an idea
he later found in Chizkuni about the
reason for Levis name: This time my
husband will accompany me (Bereishit
29:34). Why did Leah think that
specifically this time her husband would
accompany her? He quoted the midrash
that the children were born to Leah
in very short order, after seven-month
pregnancies. When the first child was
born, Leah figured she would take care of
him; Yaakov was busy with other things.
When the second child was born, she
could still carry them both on her own,
one child in each arm. But then, soon
after, Levi arrived, and she said, This
time my husband will accompany me:
now Yaakov has no choice, for she only
has two arms. Rav Ahron mentioned
this because he had very much liked the
midrash on the verse, For from the top
of rocks I see him, and from the hills I
behold him (Bamidbar 23:9): Rosh
tzurim these are the fathers; gevaot
these are the mothers (Bamidbar Rabba
20:19), which expresses the concept of
differing roles in parenting for the mother
and the father (an idea less popular
nowadays). When his children were

born, he figured his wife would take care
of them as infants, and when they were
ready to learn Gemara, he would enter
the picture. But he soon came to see how
wrong he was. When I was in his shiur
in Yeshivat Rabbeinu Chaim Berlin, his
first child was born, and he used to come
to yeshiva with diaper pins still in his
shirt pocket. You cannot start being an
involved parent too early.
But you do not play the professional
parent; you play the human parent, who
works at parenting out of the depth of
his love and commitment: the love of the
child, the love of the family, and the love
of God.
Let me close with a brief anecdote.
On Yom Ha-atzmaut 1973, just prior to
Yom Kippur War, there was a big military
parade up Keren Ha-yesod Street in
Jerusalem. We were new olim, having
just come in 1971, and we took our
children to see the parade. We went to
the home of someone who lived on Keren
Ha-yesod, up to their porch, and watched
the parade with a number of other people.
On this porch we met a Mr. Cohen from
Cardiff, Wales. Cardiff is not Bnei Brak,
yet all of Mr. Cohens children were
religious and all of his grandchildren were
religious. He himself was not a rav but a
simple layman; many Torah giants did
not merit what Mr. Cohen did. My wife
and I asked him, Mr. Cohen, how did
you raise such a family? He responded
in Yiddish, To raise children properly,
you need two things: good judgment,
seikhel, and divine assistance, siyata dishemaya; and to have seikhel, you also
need siyata di-shemaya.
However, even if you have seikhel
and siyata di-shemaya, your heart has
to be in the right place. You have to be
willing to give, and willing to receive.
Family life is all about giving and
receiving reciprocally, to children, to
parents, to a spouse, in all areas of life.
26
Superficially regarded, raising children

is massive giving. But I tell you that it is
massive receiving, but massive! The joy
and nachas are beyond words. n
Notes
1. Although the Gemara later limits Torah

to teaching the young child Torah tziva lanu
Moshe and keriat Shema to the first verse only,
the Rambam naturally expands the thrust of the
Gemara to correspond to the growth of the child:
Afterwards he should teach [the child] little by
little all according to his development (Hilkhot
Talmud Torah 1:6).
2. In this context, the discourse usually relates to
the Gemara in Chagiga 6a. Someone who limps is
exempt from the pilgrimage to the Temple on the
three holidays. What happens if you have a minor
who, at this point, limps? On the one hand, were
he an adult now, he would be expressly exempt.
However, if we determine that by the time he
reaches halakhic maturity, he will be able to walk
properly, do we say that the obligation of chinukh
for pilgrimage is present now? In other words, do
we train him for later, or do we relate to the present
reality? Of course, it is possible that you do both.
The novelty of that Gemara, according to one view,
is that whether or not the present obligation exists,
the Gemara asks whether there is an additional
obligation for the future on top of that. There are
many rich discussions relating to the obligation of
training children in mitzvot, but that is a subject for
another forum.
3. Of Marriage: Relationship and Relations,
Tradition 39:2 (2005), pp. 7-35; reprinted in
Gender Relationships in Marriage and Out, ed.
Rivkah Blau (New York, 2007), pp. 1-34, and in
Rav Lichtensteins Varieties of Jewish Experience
(Jersey City, 2011), pp. 1-37.
4. The Problem of Pain (New York, 1944), p. 28.
5. Grandparents are an important piece of the
equation. I come from a generation in which,
unfortunately, many people did not get to know
their grandparents. Because of the war, I saw
only one of my four grandparents; when I was
three or four, I went in the summer to Milan and
met my fathers father. That was it. But, thank
God, today grandparents can play a role in their
grandchildrens lives.
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Rabbi Yaakov G. Krakower Rabbi Dr. Moses N. Kranzler Rabbi Daniel M. Kroll Rabbi Jonah C. Kupietzky
Rabbi Moshe Kwalbrun Rabbi Daniel L. Lehmann Rabbi Barnet Liberman Rabbi Arieh E. Listowsky
Rabbi David E. Miller Rabbi Jeffrey L. Muehlgay Rabbi Dr. Israel Rivkin Rabbi Daniel Rosenfeld
Rabbi Bernard E. Rothman Rabbi Benjamin J. Samuels Mr. Joel M. Schreiber Rabbi Simeon Schreiber
Rabbi Dr. Jonathan Schwartz Psy.D. Rabbi Charles H. Sheer Rabbi Eli Shulman Rabbi Yeshaya D. Siff
Rabbi Bertram Simon Rabbi Carl Steinhart Rabbi Elihu Turkel Psy.D. Rabbi Mark Eric Urkowitz
Rabbi Sam Vogel Rabbi Ira H. Wallach Rabbi Marvin Waltuch Rabbi Isaac Weinberger Rabbi Elie Weinstock
Rabbi Zvi Israel Weiss Rabbi Stanley Wexler Rabbi Naftali Michael Wolfe Rabbi Lawrence Zierler
We recognize the following Rabbinic Alumni for their annual dues gift of $100:
Rabbi David B. Aberbach Rabbi Mitchell S. Ackerson Rabbi Elchanan A. Adler Rabbi Ranan Elliott Amster Rabbi Aharon Angstreich
Rabbi Shlomo Appel Rabbi David Arzouane Rabbi Richard Auman Dr. Charles Bahn Rabbi Yosef Bart Rabbi Pinchas J. Becker
Rabbi David H. Berezin Dean David Berger, Ph.D Rabbi Hillel M. Bick Rabbi Jack F. Bieler Rabbi Meir Bilitzky Rabbi Gideon Black
Rabbi Yaakov M. Blau Rabbi Akiva Y. Block Rabbi Reuven Brand Rabbi Dr. Kenneth Chelst Rabbi Azaryah Moshe Cohen
Rabbi Herbert J. Cohen PhD Rabbi Aryeh D. Czarka Rabbi Asher Gabriel Dordek Rabbi Michael Harry East Rabbi Amichai Joshua Erdfarb
Rabbi Menachem Feinsod Rabbi Kalman Neal Feldman Rabbi Adam Felsenthal Rabbi Michael B. Fine Rabbi Michael J. Frankel Ph.D.
Rabbi Mervyn Frankel Rabbi Ezra H. Frazer Rabbi Allan Solomon Friedman Rabbi Cary A. Friedman Rabbi Howard Gershon Rabbi Herzl Ginsburg
Rabbi Jay A. Goldmintz Rabbi Norman Gorlyn Rabbi Joshua E. Grajower Rabbi Dr. Seth N. Grauer Rabbi Harris Guedalia
Rabbi Dr. Joel Hecker Rabbi William Herskowitz Rabbi David R. Hertzberg Rabbi Samuel N. Hoenig Rabbi Sidney Hook
Rabbi Henry Hoschander Rabbi David Jacobowitz Rabbi Dr. Daniel B. Jacobson Psy.D. Rabbi Harry Menachem Kagan Rabbi Peter A. Kahn
Rabbi Yisroel Kaminetsky Rabbi Joseph Kanefsky Rabbi Eliot R. Kaplan Rabbi Daniel Katsman Rabbi Raphael Katsman
Rabbi Jerome Katz Rabbi Michael M. Kinderman Rabbi Bryan Denis Kinzbrunner Rabbi David Klavan Rabbi Gary M. Klavan
Rabbi Tzvi Klugerman Rabbi Yaakov Gerald Krakower Rabbi Jonathan Isaac Krimsky Rabbi Lowell S. Kronick Rabbi David Lapp
Rabbi Yirmiyahu D. Lebowitz Rabbi Bertram Leff Rabbi Aaron David Leibtag Rabbi Yosie Levine Rabbi Marc Liebman Rabbi Menachem Linzer
Rabbi Norman Linzer, Ph.D Rabbi Elchanan D. Lipshitz Rabbi Chanan Liss Rabbi Daniel J. Loew Dr. David E. Luchins
Rabbi Joseph Benjamin Mandel Rabbi Marc H. Messing Rabbi William Millen Rabbi Michael S. Miller Rabbi Morton Minchenberg
Rabbi Eduard Mittelman Rabbi Joel L. Morris Rabbi Dr. David I. Mostofsky Rabbi Yaakov Neuburger Rabbi Joseph Novick
Rabbi Barry S. Nussbaum Rabbi Joseph Oratz Rabbi Etan Orlian Rabbi Joseph A. Ozarowski Dr. Paul Peyser Rabbi Ari Pollak
Rabbi Jonathan Daniel Price Rabbi David J. Radinsky Rabbi Aaron I. Reichel Rabbi Hyam I. Reichel Dr. Jacob Reiner Rabbi Dr. Neal Z. Ringel
Rabbi Dr. Bernhard H. Rosenberg Rabbi Stanley Rosenberg Rabbi Moshe Ariel Rosensweig Rabbi Dr. Howard J. Rosman
Rabbi Elie S. Rothberger Rabbi Joseph M. Rothberger Rabbi Dr. Eli A. Rybak MPH Rabbi Nachum U. Rybak Rabbi Melvin S. Sachs M.S.R.E.
Rabbi Herschel Schacter, zl Rabbi Chaim Schnur Rabbi David H. Schwartz Rabbi Shmuel Segal Rabbi M. Mitchell Serels Dr. Joshua Shuchatowitz
Rabbi Nisson E. Shulman Rabbi Eliyahu Shuman Rabbi E. Yechiel Simon Rabbi Moshe M. Stavsky Rabbi Kenneth Stein
Rabbi Robert H. Stein Rabbi Avi Judah Strauss Rabbi H. Norman Strickman Rabbi Marvin J. Sugarman Joseph Sungolowsky
Rabbi Yitzhak A.L. Szyf Rabbi Isadore M. Tennenberg Rabbi Leonard Tribuch Rabbi Elie Tuchman, Ed.D. Dr. Ronald Warburg

Rabbi Joel Lawrence Waxman Rabbi Zishy Waxman Rabbi Mark S. Weiner Rabbi Uziel Weingarten
Rabbi Steven Michael Weisberg Rabbi Jacob Weitman Rabbi Stanley Wexler Rabbi Emanuel White Rabbi Simcha Willig
Rabbi Daniel Martin Wolfe Rabbi David M. Winter Rabbi Michael Jonathan Wolff Rabbi Yosef B. Wolicki Cantor Richard Wolpoe
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As of 8/20/2015
Join us in supporting our Yeshiva and its vital activities, please visit: yu.edu/riets/alumni
A Message
from the Holy
Land
An interview with
Founder and Executive Director, Nefesh BNefesh
CHAVRUSA: What motivated you

to establish Nefesh BNefesh and
move to Israel?
My wife and I had always intended to
make Aliyah, but our plans never seemed
to concretize. The catalyst came in 2002,
when a family member was tragically
killed in a suicide bombing. His death,
and our attempt to come to terms with
the loss, was the tipping point for our
decision to finally move.
When sharing my feelings with
friends, I began to hear echoes of similar
ambitions, but many people feared that
the practical and economic challenges
of making Aliyah were too much to
overcome.
People had legitimate concerns, and
I began to wonder what would happen if
they could be alleviated? Together with
Tony Gelbart, a successful businessman
and philanthropist in my community, we
sketched a plan for an organization that
would address the specific challenges of
North American Jews. We believed that
with the proper resources and guidance,
these obstacles could be overcome. This
was the beginning of Nefesh BNefesh.
CHAVRUSA: As founder and

executive director of Nefesh
BNefesh, what are some of the
challenges that you face, both
personally and organizationally?
On a personal level, the main challenge
has been to develop the requisite skills to
manage a much bigger organization than
anticipated one that quickly grew from
a small operation of just six people to an
established organization with over 85
employees.
Professionally, Ive had to learn to
balance the specific needs of the olim
on a micro level, while simultaneously
managing the organizations day-to-day
operations on a macro level. I have found
that cultivating and maintaining critical
partnerships, advocating for the rights
of the general oleh population, planning
overseas programing that both inspires
and informs, being an address for olim
with urgent needs, while striving to be a
Ben Torah, Eved Hashem, father, husband
and son is enormously challenging.
30
CHAVRUSA: How has the training

at RIETS and your previous role as
a pulpit rabbi in the United States
impacted your work in Israel?
I was privileged to have had many
remarkable rebbeim at RIETS, including
Rav Hershel Shachter 67R, Rav Y.M.
Katz ztl, Rav Joseph Weiss 40R, Rav
Yaakov Neuburger 79R and Rav Aharon
Kahn 69R, and impressive professors
throughout my time in YU, who inspired
me not only as teachers, but also as role
models. Their ability to juggle their
responsibilities as educators with their
dedication and sense of responsibility to
their communities is something I have
tried to emulate throughout my life.
My years in the pulpit opened my
eyes and heart to the diversity of our
Jewish Nation, sensitizing me to a host
of nuances of which I was previously
unaware. This sensitivity has been
critical to my current work at NBN.
The multifaceted roles of a pulpit rabbi
and the diverse needs of a growing
community (be it personal sheilot,
pastoral care, shiurim, drashot, kashrut
etc.) not only provided me with personal
I believe that it is incumbent upon every Jew to perform frequent Aliyah

check-ups a cheshbon hanefesh exercise that requires an individual to
contemplate, struggle and explore the option of Aliyah.
and professional meaning, but was also
optimal training ground for the juggling
skills of my current position.
CHAVRUSA: How can the
American rabbinate prepare their
communities for Aliyah?
A Ravs decision to dedicate his life to
building strong Torah centers across
North America should not deter his
encouragement, advancement and
celebration of Aliyah.
Rabbanim need to unabashedly share
their love, passion and support for Eretz
Yisrael and express pride and joy when a
congregant decides to move to Israel.
Each rabbi should take inspiration
from his paradigmatic progenitor, Moshe
Rabeinu: preparing, encouraging and
nurturing his flock/congregants to
achieve heights that they themselves
cannot. The greatest pride of a parent,
teacher, rabbi is to see those who youve
helped and loved achieve and surpass
your own accomplishments.
CHAVRUSA: Do you believe that

Aliyah is for everyone?
I believe that it is incumbent upon every
Jew to perform frequent Aliyah checkups a cheshbon hanefesh exercise that
requires an individual to contemplate,
struggle and explore the option of
Aliyah. The result of this analysis might
be that Aliyah is not yet right for them

and their families, but this process and
introspection demonstrates to oneself and
to their family the importance of Israel
as a homeland, a priority, and a Divine
miraculous gift bestowed upon our
generation with the unique opportunity
to come Home. n
Announcing the launch of the
Arbaim L'Binah Aliyah Initiative
This joint project of the RCA and Nefesh B'Nefesh

has been established by a group of generous
philanthropists to honor the memory of the Rabbanim
murdered in the Kehilat Yaakov Synagogue-Har Nof
massacre.
This initiative will provide Aliyah leadership grants to
40 Rabbis whose commitment to Torat Eretz Yisrael
and to the Klal Yisrael will serve as a living memorial
for these Kedoshei Yisrael: Rabbi Moshe Twersky zt"l,
Rabbi Aryeh Kupinsky zt"l, Rabbi Kalman Levine zt"l
and Rabbi Avraham Shmuel Goldberg zt"l.
Rabbi Avraham
Goldberg HYD
Rabbi Aryeh
Kupinsky HYD
Rabbi Kalman Zeev

Levine HYD
For more information please contact Nefesh B'Nefesh Aliyah

Advisor, Marc Rosenberg, at Marc@nbn.org.il.
The Arbaim LBinah initiative is grateful to Jon Medved,
OurCrowd Founder and CEO, for his leadership and partnership.
31
Rabbi Moshe
Twersky HYD
Book Review
Beautiful Days, Holy Days:

The Majesty and Profundity of
the Jewish Holidays
By Rabbi Cary Friedman 96R
Reviewed by Rabbi Avrohom Gordimer 94R
It seems like every day (OK, maybe every
week or month), another hashkafa sefer
in English hits the Judaica stores. After
a while, we may come not to expect too
much newness; maybe a few fresh stories,
novel insights, interesting interpretations
or applications, but nothing that sweeps
us off of our feet.
In honor of his fathers first yartzeit,
our chaver, Rabbi Avraham Peretz
(Cary as he is affectionately known
to us) Friedman, just authored and
published a new sefer, Beautiful Days,
Holy Days, in which he boldly breaks
forth from this usual mold and offers
something totally fresh and exhilarating.
True to its subtitle, The Majesty and
Profundity of the Jewish Holidays,
Beautiful Days, Holy Days provides
incredible insight into dozens of general
and specific themes, mitzvos, minhagim
and texts of the Moadim.
For example, the section titled Why
Do We Eat Honey on Rosh Hashanah?
delves into the unique halachic status of
honey and the transformative message
that emerges from there, bolstering the
Everything here is
new, fresh, original,
elevating and detailed
nothing recycled or
in any way typical.
concept with a compelling parallel case

from the spice mor dror used in Shemen
Ha-Mishchah, which is examined in
light of the words of the Rambam and
the Chasam Sofer. The Pesach section
examines the difficult opinion of the Gra
that there is a kiyum mitzva of matza on
every day of Pesach; Rabbi Friedman
poses a question as to the lack of a
beracha on this kiyum, and he develops
a magnificent explanation that brings to
the table incredible insights into matza
and sukkah, and that generates a genuine
understanding and appreciation of the
unusual opinion of the Gra.
Halachic and theological perplexities
such as why we include the sins of our
ancestors in Vidui; what the deeper
significance is of the Egyptian bondage
being 400 years that was condensed to
210 years; what Ahavas Yisrael really is;
what the true nature of Mitzvos Aseh
She-hazman Grama is; why we declare
at the seder that the Ben Rashas teeth
should be blunted, and so much more,
are addressed with amazing clarity,
profundity, and insight. Everything here
is new, fresh, original, elevating and
detailed nothing recycled or in any
way typical.
Phrases in the yom tov liturgy
that are mysterious, minhagim whose
meaning is elusive, halachos that are
woven into a beautiful matrix, yet the
matrix is not visible to the untrained eye,
are all featured, resolved and demystified
in this terrific sefer.
32
Rabbi Friedman brings to the fore a

treasure of halachic, aggadic, hashkafic,
historical and secular sources, used to
elucidate and draw out striking themes
and patterns. The presentation is crisp,
lively, easy to read (and hard to put
down), colorful, friendly, even fun, and
above all, extremely enriching for both
the seasoned talmid chacham and the
uninitiated layman. Some parts of the
sefer focus on specific, detailed issues,
while others address general topics; all
parts are brewing with depth and clarity.
Rabbi Friedman is a true talmid
of Rav Parnes, shlita, and, as such,
Beautiful Days, Holy Days is the pristine
application of lomdus really deep
abstract logical and categorical thinking
to issues that traditionally have not
popularly been viewed through that lens,
thereby producing a lush, rich yield of
stunning new insights.
Beautiful Days, Holy Days is a
gorgeous and captivating sefer, flowing
with wisdom and passion, and is a mustread if there ever was one. n
Book
Review and Lifecycle Events
Publications
Publications
Judaism Alive by Rabbi Shlomo

Einhorn 04R (Gefen Publishing
House, September 2015)
Mazal Tov
The Sephardic Family Haggadah

by Rabbi Yamin Levy 90R
(Kodesh Press, February 2015)
Rabbi Moshe 70R and Cheryl

Abramowitz on the Bat Mitzva
of their granddaughter, Meira.
Rabbi Daniel 14R and Chaya

Fridman on the birth of a
daughter, Eliana Bayla.
Rabbi Aharon 73R and Sara

Angstreich on the marriages of
their children: Yehudit to Yaacov
Travits, and Netanel to Shira
Meirovitch.
Rabbi David 86R and

Shulamit Ginsburg on the birth
of a granddaughter, Devorah
Yehudis, to Menachem and
Avigayil Rapp.
Rabbi Elie 14R and Ilana

Bercuson on the birth of a
daughter, Batya Penina.
Rabbi Zev 10R and Michal

Goldberg on the birth of a son,
Elisha Chaim.
Rabbi Akiva 10R and Debbie

Block on the birth of a daughter,
Leah Rivka, and to grandparents,
Rabbi Robert 76R and Beile
Block.
Rabbi Josh 14R and Sara

Gutenberg on the birth of a
daughter.
Rabbi Avraham 09R and Dani

Bronstein on the birth of a
son, and to grandparents, RIETS
Administrator Rabbi Chaim
72R and Brenda Bronstein.
Rabbi Meier 70R and Helen
Brueckheimer on the birth of a
grandson born to Aryeh and Orit
Brueckheimer.
Beautiful Days, Holy Days: The

Majesty and Profundity of the
Jewish Holidays by Rabbi Cary
Friedman 96R (Compass
Books, May 2015)
Dean Emeritus of RIETS and

Special Advisor to the President
on Yeshiva Affairs, Rabbi
Zevulun Charlop 54R, on
the birth of a grandson, Yaakov
Dovid, born to Rabbi Alexander
Ziskind and Esther Charlop.
Redeeming Relevance in the

Book of Numbers: Explorations
in Text and Meaning by Rabbi
Francis Nataf 88R (Urim
Publications, July 2014)
Rabbi Joshua 58R and Adele

Cheifetz on the birth of a
great-grandson, Nosson, born to
Zippora and Chaim Y. Isaac.
Rabbi Noah 11R and Sarah
Cheses on the birth of a
daughter.
Rabbi Dr. Eytan 11R and
Sarah Cowen on the birth of a
daughter.
Rabbi Aryeh 12R and Brooke
Czarka on the birth of a son,
Yeshaya Simcha.
Rabbi Eddie 70R and
Meira Davis on the birth of
a granddaughter, Lia, born to
Batsheva and Gilad Adamit.
Rabbi Avi 01R and Karen
Dzik on the birth of a daughter.
A River Flowed from Eden: Torah

for the Shabbat Table by Rabbi
Ari D. Kahn 86R (Kodesh
Press, May 2015)
Rabbi Josh 01R and Penina

Flug on the Bar Mitzva of their
son, Eli.
33
Rabbi Avi 08R and Sarah

Fried on the birth of a son.
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Rabbi Netanel Javasky 10R

on receiving the inaugural
Alumnus of the Year honor at the
Yeshiva University Torah MiTzion
Beit Midrash Zichron Dov of
Toronto Dinner on June 29th.
Rabbi Avery 06R and
Aliza Joel on the birth of a
daughter, Atira Zahava, and
to grandparents, President
Richard and Dr. Esther Joel.
Rabbi Shimon 84R and Dena
Kerner on the marriage of their
son Dov to Adeena Traube.
Rabbi Jonathan 02R and
Chaya Krimsky on the birth of a
daughter, Shoshana Reizel.
Rabbi Naphtali 09R and
Elana Lavenda on the birth of
a son, Yaakov Aharon, and to
grandparents, Rabbi Stuart
80R and Karen Lavenda.
Rabbi Elchanan 76R and
Ruth Lipshitz on the birth of a
granddaughter, Ziv Ann, to Leora
and Yossi Barnett.
Dr. David 71R and Vivian
Luchins on the Bar Mitzva of
their grandson, Aharon Chayim.
Rabbi Meyer 78R and
Shulamith May on the Bar
Mitzva of their grandson, Yehuda
Aryeh Leib.
Rabbi Steven 14R and Nava
Mermelstein on the birth of
twins.
Rabbi Yoni 80R and Navah
Mozeson on the birth of a
granddaughter, born to LeeOr
Tsvi Leib and Avigayal Mozeson.
Book
Review and Lifecycle Events
Publications
RIETS Rosh Yeshiva Rabbi
Yaakov 79R and Peshi
Neuburger on being honored by
their congregation, Congregation
Beth Abraham on June 3rd,
celebrating the shuls 25th
anniversary.
Rabbi Chaim 98R and
Shira Packer on the birth of a
grandson.
Rabbi Adir 06R and Hindi
Posy on the birth of a son, Yair
Binyamin.
Hazzan Rabbi Ira L. Rohde
88R on receiving tribute for
25 years of devoted service as
Hazzan at Congregation Shearith
Israel in New York.
Rabbi Avi 97R and Esther
Rosenfeld on the Bar Mitzva
of their son, Shelomoh, and to
grandparents Rabbi Martin
75R and Karen Rosenfeld
and Rabbi Alan (AA) and Linda
Yuter.
Rabbi Daniel 08R and Shira
Rosenfeld on the birth of a
daughter, Hallel Miriam, and to
grandparents Rabbi Martin
75R and Karen Rosenfeld.
Michael 80R and Professor
Smadar Rosensweig on the
marriage of their son, Avigdor
to Devora Schreiber, and to
grandfather, Rabbi Dr. Bernard
Rosensweig 50R.
Michael 80R and Smadar
Rosensweig on the birth of a
granddaughter born to David
and Moriah Weiss, and to greatgrandfather Rabbi Dr. Bernard
Rosensweig 50R.
Rabbi Alan 76R and Ruth
Schwartz and Rabbi Brian
Thau 90R on the birth of a
grandson, Moshe Ezra, born to
Chassia and Yori Thau.
Rabbi Dr. Elihu 57R and
Freida Schatz on the birth of a
great-grandson, Benaya, born to
Rachel and Amit Ozeri.
Rabbi Tsvi and Tali Selengut
12R on the birth of a son,
Gavriel Pinchas.
Condolences
RIETS Rosh Yeshiva Rabbi Eli

Baruch and Esti Shulman on
the birth of a grandson, born to
Yossi and Hadas Stern.
Gilda (and Rabbi Marc D.

Angel 70R) on the passing of
her mother, Dorothy Schuchalter,
zl.
Rabbi Yechiel 11R and

Aliza Shaffer on the birth of a
daughter, Shaina Amalya.
RIETS Vice Chairman, Rabbi Hy

Arbesfeld 56R on the passing
of his sister, Shirley Arbesfeld,
Ph.D, CPA, zl.
Rabbi Matisyahu 14R and

Chaya Shochet on the birth of
a son.
RIETS Rosh Yeshiva Rabbi Zvi
91R and Efrat Sobolofsky
on being honored at their
congregation, Ohr HaTorahs
inaugural dinner on June 9th,
celebrating the shuls tenth
anniversary.
Rabbi Mordechai Besser 70R

on the passing of his mother,
Mrs. Zila Besser, zl.
Rabbi Dr. Meir 03R and

Layaliza Soloveichik on
the birth of a son, Naftali Tzvi
Yehuda.
BRGS Professor of Bible

and Associate Dean Rabbi
Mordechai Z. Cohen 90R on
the passing of his father, Josef B.
Cohen, zl.
YU Professor of Talmud Rabbi

Benjamin Blech 56R on the
passing of his brother, Samuel
Blech, zl.
Rabbi Jeremy 10R and Aviva

Stern on the birth of a son, Eliav
Aharon Naftali.
Rabbi Ron Yitzchok Eisenman

84R on the passing of his
mother, Lorraine Eisenman, zl.
Rabbi Chaim Strauchler

06R on being honored as a
Distinguished Alumni at The JEC
Annual Dinner on June 17th.
Family of Mrs. Maria Finkle,

zl, wife of Joel Finkle, zl, YU
benefactors who established the
Joel and Maria Finkle Visiting
Israeli Rosh Yeshiva Chair at
RIETS, a position currently held
by Rosh Yeshiva Rabbi Meir
Goldwicht.
Rabbi Dr. Joseph 58R and

Honey Sungolowsky on the Bar
Mitzva of their grandson, Yaakov.
Rabbi Michael 10R and Ayala
Teitcher on the birth of a son.
Rabbi Shlomo Friedman 85R

Devora Friedman, zl.
Rabbi Mordechai Torczyner

97R on being honored at the
Yeshiva University Torah MiTzion
Beit Midrash Zichron Dov of
Toronto Dinner on June 29th.
The family of Rabbi Mordecai

Goldzweig 57R zl
Rabbi Mark 80R and Esther

Weiner on the birth of a
grandson.
Rabbi Uri Gordon 86R on

the passing of his sister, Etana
Friedman, zl.
Rabbi Eliyahu 10R and

Adina Wolf on the Bar Mitzva
of their son, Yisrael, and to
grandparents, RIETS Rosh
Yeshiva Rabbi Mordechai 71R
and Feigi Willig.
Family of Rabbi Sander Hirth

69R, zl.
Rabbi Shlomo Huttler 90R on
the passing of his brother, Rabbi
Yossi Huttler, zl.
Rabbi Lloyd Keilson 70R on
the passing of his wife, Harriet
Keilson, zl.
Rabbi Leib 10R and Yona

Zalesch on the birth of a
daughter.
Rabbi Barry J. Konovitch 67R

Rebbetzin Sarah Konovitch, zl.
Rabbi Robert 81R and

Marilyn Zeiger on the marriage
of their daughter Devorah Rivka
to Yaakov Mordechai Verdiger.
34
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Rabbi Doniel Z. Kramer 73R

on the passing of his father,
Rabbi Meyer Kramer 41R, zl.
Family of Rabbi Chaim (Marvin)
Luban 48R, zl.
Rabbi Robert Muhlbauer 05R
on the passing of his father, Dr.
Sheldon Muhlbauer, zl.
Family of Rabbi Nachum
Muschel (AA), zl.
Rabbi Chaim Ben Zion Pearl
75R and Sharon (and Rabbi
Richard Auman 71R) on the
passing of their father, Rabbi
Leonard Pearl, zl.
Family of Cantor Rabbi
Seymour Rockoff 68R, zl.
Bracha (and Rabbi Nachum
81R Schnitzer) on the passing
of her mother, Anne Osofsky, zl.
Rabbi Max N. Schreier 52R
on the passing of his sister, Mrs.
Betty Freedman, zl.
Rabbi Charles Spirn 51R and
Rabbi Nahum Spirn 90R on
the passing of their wife and
mother respectively, Dr. Regina
Spirn, zl.
Rabbi Avi Weiss 68R and
Rabbi Mordechai Weiss 71R
on the passing of their father,
Rabbi Dr. Moshe Weiss 51R,
zl.
Rabbi Jacob Weitman 47R
on the passing of his wife, Mrs.
Pearl Weitman, zl.
Toby (and Rabbi Dr. Jeffrey
82R Woolf) on the passing of
her mother, Mrs. Dora Bergstein,
zl.
Rabbi Dr. Moshe 78R and
Esty Yeres on the passing of
their daughter, Batsheva Yeres,
zl.
Rabbi Michael Zauderer 09R
on the passing of his father, Dr.
Burt Zauderer zl.
Rabbi Robert Zeiger 81R on
the passing of his mother, Mrs.
Selma Zeiger, zl.
Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary and Student Organization of Yeshiva present
Tishrei Torahthon
SEPTEMBER 21, 2015 TISHREI 8-9, 5776 9 a.m. - 1:30 a.m.

Join RIETS in Yeshiva or
online for a full day of
intensive Torah Learning.
The numerous shiurim delivered throughout the

day will be available at yutorah.org/torahthon.
8:15 p.m.
Annual HausmanStern Kinnus Teshuva
Lecture
Rabbi Moshe Weinberger
Mashpia, Yeshiva University
Speakers throughout the day include:

Rabbi Eliyahu Ben Haim, Rabbi Yaakov Glasser,
Rabbi Dovid Hirsch, Rabbi Aharon Kahn,
Rabbi Eliakim Koenigsberg,
Rabbi Aryeh Lebowitz, Rabbi Chaim Marcus,
Dr. David Pelcovitz, Rabbi Daniel Rapp,
Rabbi Zvi Romm, Rabbi Michael Rosensweig,
Rabbi Baruch Simon, Rabbi Zvi Sobolofsky,
Rabbi Moshe Tzvi Weinberg,
Rabbi Jeremy Wieder, Rabbi Mordechai Willig
9:15 p.m.
Maariv
9:30 p.m.
Kumzitz
Rabbi Moshe Weinberger
Mashpia, Yeshiva University

Max and Marion Grill Dean,
RIETS
10:30 p.m.
Shiur
Rabbi Hershel Schachter
Rosh Yeshiva, RIETS
11:30 p.m.
Shiur
Max and Marion Grill Dean,
RIETS
12:30 a.m.
Sichas Mussar
Rabbi Yitzchak Cohen
Rosh Yeshiva, RIETS
12:48 a.m.
Selichos
Yeshiva University Wilf Campus Glueck Beit Midrash

515 West 185th Street, New York, NY
The night program will be open to all in the Glueck Beit Midrash
There will be seating available for women
For more information, please contact yaakov.trump@yu.edu
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A P U B L I C AT I O N O F T H E R A B B I N I C A L U M N I O F T H E R A B B I I S A A C E L C H A N A N T H E O L O G I C A L S E M I N A RY A N A F F I L I AT E O F Y E S H I VA U N I V E R S I T Y

Rabbi Isaac Elchanan

Rabbis Yarchei Kallah

Rabbi Dr. Norman Lamm

Rabbi Kenneth Brander

Yeshiva Mourns the Loss of Rav Aharon Lichtenstein 59R, ztl

Rabbi Zevulun Charlop

Page 10 Chomer LiDrush

CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES, RIETS

Rabbi Menachem Penner

MAX AND MARION GRILL DEAN

VICE PRESIDENT FOR UNIVERSIT Y AND COMMUNIT Y LIFE

Rosh Hashana Chomer LiDrush

DEAN EMERITUS, RIETS

Rabbi Yaakov Glasser

Rabbi Chaim Bronstein

Rabbi Adam Berner Rabbi Binyamin Blau

Page 16 Special Supplement: Remembering

Rabbi Aryeh Czarka

Musmakhim in the Limelight

Publications and Lifecycle Events

Mrs. Keren Simon Moskowitz

Rabbi Yehoshua Fass 98R

Beautiful Days, Holy Days: The Majesty and Profundity of

Rabbi Robert Shur

CHAVRUSA will consider articles and letters for publication.

Rabbis Yarchei Kallah

Yom Haatzmaut 5775 in Yeshiva

June Zman Siyum

RIETS Kennes Petichah

Yeshiva Mourns the Loss of

Rav Lichteinstein served as Rosh

Beyond Rav Aharons sophistication

Murray and Basheva Goldberg Dedicate Pastoral

By supporting the pastoral

For many in the Jewish community,

respected members of the Jewish

Murray and Basheva Goldberg

Goldberg zl and gave it the name Lev

Online Course for Communal Rabbis Explores Effective

look at the rabbis role in several

to enhance and inform their rabbinic

the fourth virtual continuing rabbinic

YUTorah Surpasses Major Milestone

York area, taped and collected shiurim

Users can dedicate and sponsor

Winter Bein HaSemesterim

This years group of students,

RIETS Rosh Yeshiva Rabbi Baruch Simon 89R delivers a

Blending Torah and Psychology

students engaged. Many students

psychology, social psychology, and statedependent memory to Jewish subjects.

and Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological

Rabbi Dr. Eliezer Schnalls 03R psychology class at Yeshiva College

New Advanced Program Melds Semicha and

The program is highly selective,

for our Talmidim stated Rabbi Kenneth

Bring world-renowned scholars from

Drasha Ideas for Rosh Hashana

Thank you to all who responded so positively to and especially to

2. When I get the chance

I Submit [Artscroll, 1997, pp. 247-258],

Yes, we are all G-ds ambassadors and

might suggest that the Akeidah actually