Sholom Wasser had been doing this long enough to recognize the look of a bochur who wants to talk, but doesn’t have the confidence or courage

On November 1st, Avi Korman missed a payment. It was the first time.

It wasn’t a big deal, and by the third of the month he’d figured it out — the money came through and he assured Shuey Portman that it had just been a technical problem, his secretary was away, and it was all a big misunderstanding — but in his voice, Shuey heard something else.

Shuey himself been on line in crowded grocery stores when the cashier looked up and frowned, indicating the credit card and shrugging, and he’d also done the “so strange, makes no sense, probably a fraud detection thingie, you know” more than once. He remembered waiting in the pizza shop for half hour to get his order, and when he paid, the cashier said, “Insufficient funds, brother,” like he was announcing the starting lineup. Shuey knew panic and he knew, as he heard Avi Korman speak, that he couldn’t count on the steady, monthly cash injection anymore.

Yeshivah Gedolah of Modena would figure this out, and he sent his first email to the entire parent body, not asking anyone for help with the style, and not stopping for a break until he’d finished typing it and hit send.

It was pretty good, he thought.

Dear Parents,

Baruch Hashem, you might have heard that the yeshivah has grown this zeman, with interest growing throughout the olam hayeshivos. The Rosh Yeshivah aims to keep the yeshivah small, so that he can invest himself in each individual bochur, and he only accepted a few of the many applicants.

This line had made Shuey pause for a moment, because there hadn’t been many applicants. There had been four, and two of the boys had been accepted.

Shuey hit backspace and changed it to “several” applicants.

Baruch Hashem, we’ve expanding in every way at the yeshivah, having renovated dormitory rooms, upgraded the facilities, and purchased many new seforim. While we appreciate all you’re doing and have worked out tuition agreements, we can use a bit of extra help.

Because the Yeshivah Gedolah of Modena is all about “extra.”

Then came the paragraph that Shuey was proudest of.

Late at night, when the Rosh Yeshivah sits down with a bochur to review shiur just one more time, he’s doing a little bit more. When we make sure that along with the regular Shabbos meals from the caterer, there is cholent and kugel for an oneg Shabbos on Friday night, we are doing a bit more. And friends, I wasn’t going to share this, but between us, last week, one of the bochurim wasn’t feeling that great. The doctor in town was closed and the yeshivah driver was away for the night. So we drove him to Monsey, to an Urgent Care, and didn’t wait until morning even though it wasn’t at all serious. The rosh yeshivah said that every bochur is a child, and he means it. It’s all about extra.

Can we ask you to consider doing a little bit extra too?

Thank you for reading this and thank you for being part of the Modena family.

Shuey smiled at this last line too. The Modena family. It sounded nice.