“We don’t have huge buildings, but we have life! And this is what I want to be a part of!

Living Higher

PHOTO: ORLANDO TORAH ACADEMY/ ROMERO PHOTOWORKS

While Orlando, Florida is best known for its world-famous theme parks and sprawling developments packed with vacation homes, this past Elul zeman, the city welcomed a different kind of institution — the Orlando Community Kollel. Several yungeleit, led by Rav Yomtov Goldberger, the rosh kollel, relocated from Lakewood to Orlando, and the fledgling community welcomed the kollel with open arms.

This winter, Beth Medrash Govoha Rosh Yeshivah Rav Dovid Schustal shlita visited the community together with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky, the yeshivah’s national director for community development, along with several askanim, spending an entire weekend in Orlando. The Rosh Yeshivah visited the Orlando Torah Academy, presided over a public oneg Shabbos after the Friday night seudah, and gave a derashah Shabbos morning in the local shul.

The celebratory weekend left an indelible impression on the entire community and culminated in a community-wide Melaveh Malkah on Motzaei Shabbos at the Orlando JCC. The Rosh Yeshivah spoke, as did Rabbi Aron Kotler, president emeritus of Beth Medrash Govoha, who invested herculean efforts to develop community kollelim around America, thus furthering the vision of his father, Rav Shneur Kotler ztz”l.

During his speech, Rabbi Kotler noted that the burgeoning community’s lack of infrastructure can be viewed upon advantageously. “I view your lack of resources not as a weakness, but as a strength, because you rely on human devotion,” Rabbi Kotler told those assembled. On Sunday morning, Rabbi Goldberger, the rosh kollel, learned just how prescient those words had been.

A fellow whom he had seen around Orlando but hadn’t yet gotten acquainted with approached the rosh kollel and told him he wanted to get involved in the kollel.

The man went on to explain that he had grown up in an affluent Jewish community in South America, one that boasted breathtaking, modern edifices and well-endowed schools. But, he told Rabbi Goldberger, for all of his erstwhile community’s institutional strength, there was no spirit. The grand beis knesses stood largely empty Shabbos morning, and some of the few attendees who bothered to show up had parked their luxury vehicles in the synagogue’s expansive parking lot.

“Here,” he told Rabbi Goldberger, “we don’t have huge buildings, but we have life! And this is what I want to be a part of!”

Happening in Cincinnati

PAINTING: RABBI HILLEL SHEPARD

When Yosef Zoimen entered Congregation Zichron Eliezer in Cincinnati, Ohio, this past Thursday night, he was surprised to see his sister-in-law’s cousin, Chaim Love, who lives in Louisville, Kentucky — over an hour and a half from Cincinnati.

“Shalom Aleichem,” Yosef greeted him. “How long are you in town?”

“Just another ten minutes,” Chaim responded, “I’m heading back to Louisville shortly.”

On a whim, Yosef said to Chaim, “You know, tonight is Reb Leizer Silver’s yahrtzeit, and a group is going to the kever. We’re bringing cholent and yapchik, and we’ll have a kumzitz — do you want to join?”

“Sure!” Chaim agreed enthusiastically. He joined the group of 18 men as they gathered by the kever of the great tzaddik of Cincinnati, followed by heartfelt singing and warm cholent served in the graveyard’s parking lot.

At one point, Chaim turned to Yosef. “You know,” he said, “I can’t explain this, but today, after work, I got this urge to just ‘get out.’ I didn’t know where I wanted to go, I just had to go somewhere. I started to drive and decided to continue on to Cincinnati. And then I met you and you invited me to Reb Leizer’s kever.”

No one can know for certain, but it isn’t hard to imagine the smiling face of Reb Leizer Silver, peeking from beneath his handsome top hat, whispering into the ears of a Yid in Louisville, Kentucky. “Tonight is my yahrtzeit. I’d be delighted if you’d come visit me.”

The Lens

PHOTO: MKY

IN what has become a widely relished minhag in the court of Rav Aharon Teitelbaum of Satmar, before leaving for his annual winter visit to Palm Springs in California, the Rebbe poses a long, complex question on a sugya. He challenges his chassidim to come up with an answer and send it to him by fax, and the Rebbe spends much of his vacation reviewing the hundreds of answers that come in.

And the much-anticipated challenge isn’t restricted to Satmar chassidim — or to chassidim at all, for that matter. In this photo, the Rebbe’s lengthy sh’eilah is hanging on a bulletin board in Yeshiva University, the flagship institution of Modern Orthodoxy.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 996)