| Magazine Feature |

Where Life Comes From

By Yisroel Besser | July 29, 2020

Rav Shmuel Kamenetsky — the address when it comes to the challenges of the yeshivah world — gives words of chizuk during surreal times

Photos: Meir Haltovsky

It wasn’t so long ago, just about seven months to the day.

Nothing from that world makes sense anymore — not the crowds or dancing huddles or carefree atmosphere — but the words endure. The outer trappings of the event have fallen away, but the core has become more relevant than ever.

On January 1 the world celebrated; by April 1, the world had near imploded. And the promises invoked on that cold winter day were put to the test.

In his hadran at the Siyum HaShas in Metlife Stadium, Rav Shmuel Kamenetsky paused for a moment when reciting the names of the ten sons of Rav Pappa, part of the hadran text. “They all became gedolei Torah,” the Philadelphia Rosh Yeshivah said. “We learn from here that you have to keep going on and going on, again and again.”

He teared up — out of character, for those who know him — when pleading that the Torah not diminish or wane, that it live on in our mouths and the mouths of our children.

Shelo yamush haTorah mipicha.

Now, on a summer morning more than half a year later, he sits across from me at the dining room table at the home of his son, Rav Sholom, and picks up where he left off in the winter.

That the Torah not diminish or wane.

Keep the Priorities Straight

Recent months have left the energetic 95-year-old rosh yeshivah a bit weary. The phone in his home — active in regular time — has been unyielding, and the questions, always important, were suddenly questions of pikuach nefesh.

Five months after Covid-19 slid into reality and parked there like a massive truck blocking traffic in every direction, Rav Shmuel Kamenetsky is able to take a step back and analyze, to discuss what happened and what is happening, how we reacted and how we might have reacted.

In history, says the Rosh Yeshivah, we never faced a situation like this, virtually every beis medrash on earth closed, the sound of talmud Torah b’rabbim stilled.

Still, there is much to be proud of: the on-the-fly reaction of parents and teachers, the willingness and resilience of children, the communities’ respect for the law and guidelines.

“But,” says the Rosh Yeshivah, “we need to remind ourselves what the priority is, what it always was.”

His face doesn’t give many clues. The trademark smile is there, but now it’s shaded by what appears to be a shadow of pain.

“The beis medrash is the best place to be. We have to live with this in mind and then make decisions.”

Rav Sholom Kamenetsky, the Rosh Yeshivah’s son, himself a rosh yeshivah in Philadelphia and respected talmid chacham in his own right, qualifies his father’s approach.

“There are halachos of pikuach nefesh and there are halachos of safek pikuach nefesh. There are nafka minos — differences between older people and younger people. Everything is in Shulchan Aruch, and once poskim get the relevant facts from doctors, they can work through the fog. The reason that didn’t happen here was because the information kept changing, the doctors themselves weren’t really certain.”

And it’s in this area that Rav Shmuel wishes to give chizuk. Breathing is life, and Torah is life.

Excerpted from Mishpacha Magazine. To view full version, SUBSCRIBE FOR FREE or LOG IN.

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Comments (3)

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R.Y.M.
5 years ago
Reply

It is heartening to hear from gedolei Yisroel. They have no press office and need no press secretary, so the opportunity Mishpacha gives us to listen is a gift for which we are grateful.
After hearing the clear, refreshing words of Maran Rav Shmuel, I felt uplifted and blessed to have such a leader. It’s no wonder that the rosh yeshivah chose Mishpacha, a magazine that clearly has no agenda and no need to twist facts or sneak in under false pretenses, to serve as the podium for his views.
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Rivka T.
5 years ago
Reply

I was moved by Yisroel’s Besser incredible interview with Rav Shmuel Kamenetsky and the daas Torah apparent in all of his decisions. There is no hysteria, no “corona-is-here-let’s-all-stay-locked-up-forever,” nor is there the cavalier “I-can-do-what-I-want-if-you-want-to-stay-home-that’s-on-you,” just a measured, thoughtful wisdom born of his daas Torah.
I was moved, but not surprised. I’d had experience with Rav Shmuel’s guidance before.
When I was dating, after our fifth date my husband told me that as a teen, he had been involved in many at-risk behaviors. As per the guidance he’d received, he shared a bit more of his background, both what he’d done and how he’d grown.
I was left reeling — this wasn’t anything I’d expected coming from my very standard background with a very solid Bais Yaakov education. My parents, unsure of what we should do, suggested we ask a sh’eilah of Rav Shmuel Kamenetsky. But I was dubious —I knew that my husband had extensively discussed his shidduchim with Rav Shmuel, and in my mind’s eye, I pictured the scene: A bochur standing in Rav Shmuel’s study, asking Rav Shmuel for success in shidduchim despite his background, and receiving his heartfelt brachah. Then the bochur left, to be replaced by a girl, timidly asking if she should pursue a shidduch with a boy with a weak background. In my imagination (so much for the values imbued by that solid Bais Yaakov education!), Rav Shmuel would smile and say, “Have I got a shidduch for you…”
But of course, that’s not what happened. I knew that Rav Shmuel had encouraged my husband to date me, but when my father called him to ask for a psak, he wouldn’t give us one. “It’s a very individual matter,” he told us. “I can’t tell you what to do. But if your daughter wants to come down to Philadelphia to talk it through with me, I’m happy to give her as much time as she needs.”
Years later, I told the story to two good friends as we sat together at a Melaveh Malkah. “That’s funny,” said one, who’d been an older single from Boro Park when she got engaged. “My shidduch would never have gone through without Rav Shmuel.”
“Mine neither,” said my other friend, an out-of-towner who’d gotten engaged at 18.
And for a minute, we paused, awed by the gadol who was literally carrying the weight of the frum world’s thorniest issues on his back — yet for whom no problem was too small, no young girl too overwhelmed by shidduchim, to deserve his care and attention.
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F. H.
5 years ago
Reply

The timing of Rabbi Besser’s article on Rav Shmuel Kamenetsky could not have been better.
Rav Kamenetsky did less of taking sides between the Republican and Democratic parties, but more of leading our blessed nation in understanding the matzav we face: We do not have a Democratic party, but rather a socialist party that is promoting anarchy, and when a party stands on G-d being a dirty word, it’s frightening.
It is incumbent on Klal Yisrael to follow the path set by a gadol b’Yisrael who in his lifetime has seen and experienced so much (he should continue to be gezunt and lead us with his Torahdig wisdom to welcome Mashiach). It’s incumbent on each of us to heed the rav’s guidance.
I was brought up with the advice to always follow the gedolim of the dor. How beautiful it was to have been reminded of this priceless message on Shabbos Nachamu.