You dear openhanded brothers in chutz l’Aretz have been endowed with a super-human power of giving a massive generosity of spirit. You’ve always stepped up to the plate when the Torah world was in trouble. Surely you’ll continue to reject today’s incitement
I’ve been thinking of you a lot lately and I want to salute you the generous Jews of the United States of America for your generosity and your steadfast recognition that Torah is the lifeline of the Jewish Nation and the secret of our endurance — and that there is no Torah like the Torah of Eretz Yisrael. Over the past 66 years since the founding of the State of Israel you have been the ones who built up the Torah world here. Certainly Jews of many other countries have participated as well: the UK Belgium Canada Brazil Chile Mexico Argentina and Australia to name but a few and I apologize to all those I haven’t mentioned all the Jews whose support has revived the yeshivos from the ashes of the Diaspora.
Perhaps we’ve gotten used to seeing the names of big donors emblazoned on the buildings and campuses of hundreds of Torah institutions in Israel but if we stop a moment to think sincerely about this amazing quality of giving we realize that it’s no ordinary deed to take millions of dollars amassed through many years of hard work out of one’s pocket and give them to build batei medrash. It requires an almost superhuman generosity to do such a thing.
No doubt you’re wondering why I chose this time to award you this virtual prize but before I explain allow me to share a story I heard years ago when I was a yeshivah bochur from Rav Yosef Kahaneman ztz”l the legendary founder of Yeshivas Ponevezh and one of the leaders of the chareidi world in the 1950s and ’60s. As many of you know in addition to being one of the great Torah personalities of his time Rav Kahaneman was also one of the greatest schnorrers for the Torah world dedicating himself with mesirus nefesh to rebuilding what was nearly lost. As one of his talmidim then I well remember the heartwarming stories he would tell upon returning from those long fundraising trips to chutz l’Aretz mainly to America. He told astounding stories of Hashgachah highlighting Hashem’s great kindness in giving the Jewish Nation the American community that donated with such generosity and warmth the funds that enabled him to create that glorious monument of Torah Yeshivas Ponevezh.
The Rav as we called him told the following story on the occasion of welcoming one of our major contributors on a visit to the yeshivah: “Everyone gets excited about me and describes my accomplishments in glowing terms ” the Rav said “but it simply isn’t true. I don’t do anything. Things happen by themselves. I’ll give you an example. I was lying awake one night in New York unable to fall asleep because of a troubling thought. A generous American donor had given me funding for a beis medrash and it was already standing alongside the yeshivah’s old age home. But I couldn’t fill the beis medrash because I had no dormitory or dining hall for the future talmidim. So there I was tossing and turning searching my mind for ideas. Where would I find a donor for these additional facilities? Around dawn I made up my mind to go to the donor who funded the yeshivah building and this is what I would tell him: I’m full of gratitude to you for your large donation. You’ve given us a new beis medrash. But I wonder perhaps you would make your endowment complete by giving me funding for a dormitory and dining hall as well?
“So I make my way to the donor’s house. When I get there his wife comes to the door and before I even say my piece she says to me ‘The Ponevezher Rav! I’m so glad you came! My husband and I couldn’t sleep all night. We were thinking about the yeshivah building we funded and we were thinking where is the Rav going to get money for a dormitory and a dining hall? Early in the morning we made up our minds. We gave a beis medrash; now let’s make our gift complete by adding a dormitory and dining hall too. You came at just the right time!’
“Now I ask you ” said the Rav with his hypnotic and captivating smile “did I do anything? It all happened by itself through siyata d’Shmaya.”
When the Rav told us this story he was highlighting the Hashgachah pratis in it. But I was most impressed by the couple’s deep sense of giving.
This is the spirit of American Jewry. This is the miracle behind the rebirth of the Torah world after the destruction wrought by Hitler yemach shemo. Sociologists have tried to explain this giving spirit which is not necessarily found among or confined to those with the biggest fortunes. Everyone who has traveled to America on behalf of an institution in Eretz Yisrael has seen it. (And again I say this without excluding the equally generous donors in other countries.)
But what makes me choose this as my topic today? You all know that the Torah world in Israel finds itself in huge financial straits now as the present government of Israel has decided to reduce the expanse of Torah learning with whatever leverage it has. The burgeoning of the Torah world and the rapid growth of the chareidi community are a thorn in its side. In every possible way the government is cutting off support to Torah scholars through drastic cuts in child allowances stopping funding of yeshivos and kollelim and preventing municipal authorities from giving various types of aid to Talmud Torah schools. It is all intended for one clear purpose — to make the yungeleit who devote their time to Torah abandon the shtender and go out to work. And the irony is that thousands of avreichim who have indeed left kollel in the past several years in order to support their families have encountered great difficulty finding employment as many secular employers are not interested in hiring them. The chareidim it seems are being starved out.
So how is the Torah world in Eretz Yisrael faring? I was shocked to read in the Hebrew Mishpacha last week of a young teacher married to a ben Torah who works in an after-school day-care center. Every day this lady takes home the leftovers from the lunch served at work so that her children will have something to eat. I can’t gauge how others react to this but I for one see it as a flagrant degradation of the Torah and a dreadful disgrace to those who brought about this state of affairs.
Despite the official statements the government’s thinly veiled goal is to secularize the religious population as much as possible. This is not a divination through ruach hakodesh; the secular leaders have let their true intentions slip out. They’ve spoken unguardedly about closing yeshivos calling the phenomenon “emptying the pool.” They’ve said explicitly that if yeshivah bochurim will come and study in academic institutions they will “see the light” and abandon their way of life. Once they join secular society they’ll no longer be under the “control” of the rabbis and they’ll even vote for other non-chareidi parties.
I’ve looked on with a certain dread at the attempts by these emissaries of evil to persuade communities in the US to stop their support of kollelim in Israel. They’ve tried to spin you a tale that they want to get yungeleit out of the beis medrash for their own good to save them from poverty and anyway the Israeli economy needs more people working not parasites who sit in yeshivah doing nothing.
I’ve looked on and I’ve grown concerned. I’ve feared that you might be won over by these words of incitement that conceal the destructive intentions behind them. But I see that you have stood up to the test. Your concern for Torah life in Eretz Yisrael the nation’s true defense is as strong as ever. There were some who were swayed by the false propaganda but the vast majority of you understand that your task now is to foil the government’s plans. Surely you rejected the attempt of the inciters to depict the life of Torah as a pastime for ne’er-do-wells. “What good do the rabbis do? What do bnei Torah contribute to society? Are they studying only for their own enjoyment?” the Gemara asks in Sanhedrin 99 attributing the questions to an apikorus. No baruch Hashem you were not won over by that specious claim; it is clear to you what your duty is now that the Torah in Eretz Yisrael is endangered.
I can only bentsh you with the Torah’s own blessing: “Zevulun you rejoice in your going out and you Yissachar in your tent.” When does Zevulun rejoice? When he goes out and sees satisfaction in the use of his wealth as Yissachar toils steadfastly over the Torah in his tent. —