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| The Moment |

The Moment: Issue 1042

“The honor of Torah must precede the learning of Torah”

Last week, Klal Yisrael, and Daf Yomi participants and their families in particular, celebrated the completion of Maseches Bava Basra, the largest masechta in Shas. Siyumim, from fancy to folksy, were held the Jewish world over to mark the momentous accomplishment.

In the Minneapolis Community Kollel, Rav Chaim S. Gibber, the rosh kollel, walked up to the shtender in front of the beis medrash and — with night seder in full swing — did the “unthinkable:” He interrupted a full beis medrash of people learning to publicly wish mazel tov to a dozen or so community members who had just completed the masechta. By way of explanation, Rav Gibber shared a vignette from his days at Yeshivas Ner Yisroel. He recalled that his own rosh yeshivah, Rav Yaakov Yitzchok Ruderman ztz”l, had once halted the yeshivah’s learning seder to honor a group of Iranian refugees who completed a masechta of Gemara, marking their siyum with a celebration in the beis medrash.

Why Rav Ruderman halted a night seder for a siyum begged an explanation, and Rav Gibber offered one: “The honor of Torah must precede the learning of Torah,” he explained. The room erupted in joy and dancing for a brief moment, and then the mesaymim continued the celebration at a local restaurant, while the others returned to their learning, having gained new insight into the honor due Torah and those who study it.

Happening in... Cincinnati

This past week saw a significant milestone achieved in Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, which will offer relief to dozens of Jewish families.

Rabbi Yisroel Kaufman, MSW, is the chaplain at Cincinnati Children’s, which serves as an international destination for families whose children are in need of medical intervention. He also oversees the frum community’s bikur cholim organization, and acts as a medical advocate and liaison, spending sleepless nights working on behalf of frum patients from all over the world.

Over the years, Rabbi Kaufman has made great strides in educating the very accommodating staff at Cincinnati Children’s on the various laws, customs, and cultural nuances inherent in the Orthodox way of life. Now, after many years of cultivating the staff’s trust and understanding, he has finally been able to see a long-standing dream come true. The hospital now features a fully kosher bikur cholim room, stocked with a wide assortment of kosher foods and with all the amenities that an Orthodox family may need.

While we yearn for a time when all illness will fade, it is surely this kind of stalwart commitment to chesed and ahavas Yisrael that will usher in this miraculous era, bimheirah b’yameinu, amen.

Links in the Chain

While gedolim pictures hanging on a school’s walls are a fairly common sight, Rabbi Dovid Morgenstern, the menahel of the fourth and fifth grade division of Far Rockaway’s Yeshiva Darchei Torah, has infused new significance into the concept. The pictures now hanging in his division’s hallways all share one common denominator: They are the rebbeim of the division’s rebbeim.

Rav Avrohom Pam’s picture is there because one of the rebbeim is his talmid from Torah Vodaath; Rav Shmuel Berenbaum’s picture is there because one of the rabbeim is his talmid from the Mirrer Yeshiva of Brooklyn. And the same holds true for Rav Chaim Stein, Rav Moshe Shmuel Shapiro, Rav Chaim Epstein, Rav Elya Meir Sorotzkin, and many other gedolim.

When the fourth and fifth graders look at these pictures, they also glean a cogent message.

Dear talmid, you are a link in a chain. A long, long, chain going all the way back to Moshe Rabbeinu who received the Torah directly from Hashem. We received Torah from our rebbeim, and we then taught your rebbeim, who now teach you.

One day, you too will have talmidim.

Because the chain of Torah will never stop.

 

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 1042)

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