The Thursday night plenary session at Agudath Israel of America's 87th national convention, the first session of the four-day gathering at the East Brunswick Hilton — a new location for the convention — was attended by an impressive crowd that filled the large hall. And it heard an important message: Honesty in business and in personal life is the overarching mandate of every Jew.
Rabbi Yaakov Perlow, the Novominsker Rebbe and Rosh Agudas Yisroel, was the first of the evening's speakers to address the session, which was entitled, "Yisroel Asher Becho Espo'or: Promoting Kvod Shomayim in Our Business and Interpersonal Dealings."
The Rebbe focused on a number of issues and ideas pertinent to that theme which, in light of events both past and present, he called a "painful subject." Noting the increased number of tragedies in the community over recent years and months, the Rebbe exhorted his listeners to embrace introspection in light of the yissurim around them. We must not, he said, attribute sad circumstances to chance or nature but rather must recognize that they demand change of us — and that a "cloud" of chilul Hashem, the "most grave of all transgressions, hangs over us."
The Rebbe went on to suggest that the teshuva for chilul Hashem is kiddush Hashem — that the latter is what alone can "fill up" the void — the "cholol" that defines "chilul" both etymologically and in reality, caused by actions in Klal Yisroel that bring defamation to Sheim Hashem. And so he told his listeners to seek — "every day and every person" — opportunities to be marbeh kvod Shomayim and cause the name of Hashem to become beloved through our actions.
Moreover, Rabbi Perlow stressed, "emess in itself" is vital. We must "do right because it is right."
After Rabbi Perlow's address, an audio-visual presentation brought the words of two Gedolim in the Olam Ho'emes to the gathering: Rav Shimon Schwab and Rav Avrohom Pam zt"l.
Rav Schwab, who served as rav of Khal Adath Jeshurun and the Washington Heights community for nearly four decades, addressed an Agudath Israel "Halacha Conference for Accountants" on 18 Shevat, 5749 (January 24, 1989). Excerpts of that address, in which Rav Schwab minced no words about the wrongness of "cutting corners" when it came to honesty in business, were projected on large screens for the gathering.
The presentation then continued with the words of Rav Pam, Rosh Hayeshiva of Yeshiva Torah Vodaas and a Chaver of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah. The Rosh HaYeshiva's message was initially delivered on 24 Cheshvan, 5761 (November 22, 2000), when he recorded a speech addressing the issue of honesty, which was shown the next day at that year's Agudath Israel convention. The anguish in Rav Pam's face and words were clearly the product of the pain he felt at having to address the issue of honesty, one that, he said, is so essential a part of what it means to be a good Jew.
After the video presentation, Rabbi Matisyahu Salomon, Mashgiach, Bais Medrash Govoha, spoke about the fact that each day, whether we sufficiently realize it or not, we ask Hashem for chances to be mekadesh Sheim Shomayim. That, the Mashgiach explained, is the meaning of the Kedusha, which is a prayer, not a praise — a prayer that we be granted the ability to be mekadesh es Shimcho bo'olam.
Kvod Shomayim, Rabbi Salomon averred, is the purpose of Creation, and the purpose of our lives. And, quoting the Novi Yeshayohu, the Mashgiach explained how the "she'eiris Yisroel" that will merit the arrival of Moshiach is described as being comprised of Jews who, in the Novi's words, "do not engage in dishonest behavior, do not speak falsely and whose mouths contain no language of misleading." That, said the Mashgiach, is because Moshiach's arrival is to usher into the world unprecedented Kiddush Hashem, to bring the nations of the world to recognize the specialness of Klal Yisroel. Were he to come, though, at a time when Jews are spoken of as behaving badly in the marketplace, the reaction would be "What? He has come for those swindlers!" That would be a chillul — not kiddush — Hashem, said the Mashgiach.
"Hashem will only bring Moshiach," Rabbi Salomon exclaimed, "when it will be a kiddush Hashem! Let us make that a reality.!"
The evening session's chairman was Chaim Leshkowitz, member, Agudath Israel Board of Trustees. He was introduced by the convention chairman, Rabbi Ariel Sadwin, director of Agudath Israel's Maryland office.
Earlier in the Thursday night program, an audio-visual presentation entitled "Agudath Israel: Responding to the Needs of Klal Yisroel and Reb Yisroel," was screened. It included a sampling of the work Agudath Israel's divisions do, and featured a number of individuals who spoke about how they were personally helped by the organization.
The convention opened several hours before the plenary session commenced, with concurrent sessions over the course of the afternoon. Among the issues addressed were the persistent and ever-growing dangers posed by the Internet and other electronic media (in a session entitled "Tangled Up in the Web: Real Problems, Real Solutions"); the search for new and innovative ways to help singles find their mates ("Thinking Outside the Shidduch Box: New Approaches to an Old Problem"); and the imperative to preserve the memories — and the lessons — of the Holocaust for our children ("Seventy Years Later: The Need to Keep Churban Europe Before the Eyes of Our Young").
Erev Shabbos saw four main concurrent round table sessions dealing with the following topics: identifying and addressing "pre-risk" distress in our children ("Denying `At-Risk' a Foothold: The Importance of Prevention and Early Intervention" ); finding ways to insulate ourselves from the moral darkness of the world while striving to be a light unto the nations ("Standing Up to the `New Normal': Contemporary Culture's Assault on Torah Values" ); maintaining a strong and enduring connection to Torah study growth even after we leave the walls of the yeshiva ("Beyond the Beis Medrash: Ensuring That When the Yeshiva is Left, It's Not Left Behind"); and exercising our communal responsibility to ease the physical and emotional pain of those still suffering from the economic downturn ("Arvus in Action: Our Communal Responsibility to Victims of the Economic Collapse").
A legal seminar dedicated to issues pertaining to shuls was also held on Friday morning and was attended by more than 70 rabbonim, shul officers and members of shul administrations. A special session was held as well that addressed new opportunities for government funding of yeshivos in New Jersey.
And, of course, there were shiurim — Daf Yomi, parsha and a Yarchei Kallah series of sugya shiurim — every day throughout the convention.
Words of Remembrance, Words of Encouragement
Motzei Shabbos Keynote Session at Agudah Convention
After a Shabbos filled with extraordinary ruach, convention guests staying at the Hilton-East Brunswick for Agudath Israel of America's 87th National Convention were joined by hundreds of others who arrived for the convention's Motzei Shabbos keynote session.
The large crowd was there for several reasons: to receive guidance from einei ho'eido, to be brought up to date about Agudas Yisroel and its work - and, this year, to pay tribute to the memory of an illustrious Godol B'Yisroel, the Philadelphia Rosh Hayeshiva and Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah member Rav Elya Svei, zt"l, whose petiroh several months ago was a terrible blow to the Torah world.
The first address of the evening, though, was delivered by a special guest from Eretz Yisroel, Rabbi Doniel Alter, the son of the Pnei Menachem, zt"l and one of the most sought after speakers on the international scene. Rabbi Alter delivered good wishes to the convention from the Gerrer Rebbe. He then proceeded to weave from an assortment of divrei Chazal an intricate and insightful tapestry that came to display, among much else, the importance of not living for oneself but rather proclaiming the teachings of Torah to others far and wide, a mission that, he averred, is exemplified by Agudas Yisroel. Rabbi Alter also spoke movingly about the deep connection of Gerrer Chassidus and Agudas Yisroel, and noted how his father, zt"l, had written of Agudas Yisroel in an essay and began it with words starting with the Shem Havaya, as is traditionally done in sifrei kodesh. He also told how the Imrei Emes stood up to defend the honor of Agudas Yisroel.
Rabbi Alter's address was followed by that of the second of the evening's keynote speakers, Rabbi Moshe Tuvia Lieff, Rov, Agudas Yisroel Bais Binyomin, who delivered a rousing speech about the importance of Agudas Yisroel, and the need to realize the true specialness and beauty of Klal Yisroel. He exhorted his listeners to reject the cynicism and sarcasm that are common in some circles and not to be ashamed to affirm the rightful respect due to our Gedolim and rabbonim. He himself rejected, eloquently and strongly, the generalizations that are made about Jews, and frum Jews in particular, based on the actions of some individuals.
But, in truth, Rabbi Lieff quoted from Yeshayohu, "Ve'amech kulom tzaddikim" - "And Your nation is all righteous people" - and continued with memorable stories of Jewish righteousness in our times. Quoting the first Rashi in Chumash, Rabbi Lieff asked what does it help that the Torah testifies that Eretz Yisroel is ours and that we are not "thieves"? That doesn't stop the world from saying so all the same! However, he explained, the lesson is not for them but for us - we have to recognize that, however many problems Klal Yisroel might have and whatever the media might like to insinuate, our essence is pure.
The program then focused on the evening's tribute to Rabbi Svei, zt"l. A video of Maran Rav Aharon Leib Shteinman, shlita, began that tribute. Rav Shteinman spoke warmly yet reverently of Rabbi Svei and offered his divrei brocho to the gathering.
Offering divrei his'orerus in memory of Rabbi Svei were the Philadelphia Rosh Hayeshiva and Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah member Rabbi Shmuel Kamenetsky, shlita, who was Rabbi Svei's partner for approximately half a century in the Philadelphia Yeshiva; and Rabbi Svei's eldest son, Rabbi Yehuda Svei, shlita, Rosh Yeshiva at the Philadelphia Yeshiva.
Quoting the Nefesh HaChaim, Rabbi Kamenetsky explained how truly living — not merely being alive and breathing — means living for others; and how Reb Elya was a shining example of that truth, dedicating all of his formidable energy and mind to both teaching Torah and to shouldering the burden of tzorchei tzibbur. "Every problem," Rabbi Kamenetsky said, "was his problem." His mesiras nefesh was with every bit of "nafsho ume'odo."
What is more, the Philadelphia Rosh Hayeshiva continued, Reb Elya was "a true talmid" of so many illustrious Gedolim of the past.
"He was very close to his rabbeim," Rabbi Kamenetsky noted about Reb Elya, and "he absorbed so much" from so many great people. Once, many decades ago, he recounted, Reb Elya was one of only a small number of talmidim — less than a handful — who managed to trudge through a snowstorm to hear Rav Shlomo Heiman's shiur in Mesivta Torah Vodaas. Rabbi Heiman delivered the shiur with the same dedication and fire as he always did, despite all the empty chairs. When asked how he could be just as animated and determined despite the absence of the great majority of the class, he responded that he had in fact been speaking to a very large audience: the future talmidim of the few young men before him.
That mindset, said Rabbi Kamenetsky, was one that Reb Elya assumed for himself as well, and he was always cognizant of how important attentive dedication, even to an individual or very small group of talmidim, in fact is.
Rabbi Yehuda Svei then took the podium, and spoke movingly in Yiddish about his father. He explained how his father was always makpid, when speaking to large public groups, to speak in Yiddish. It was only appropriate, he said, that he himself should do so at an Agudah convention.
And, after acknowledging the "great kovod" of having been asked to address the convention, he showed himself a true disciple of his father in another way as well, by presenting a rich assortment of divrei Torah and insights to his listeners.
His main theme was mesorah, and its first entrustment, from Moshe Rabbeinu to Yehoshua. The concept of a mesorah — a concept to which the English word "tradition" hardly does justice — lay at the root, he said, of his father's essence. "Everything," he explained, "was through mesorah" to him. Rabbi Svei also spoke of his father's dedication to his own transferal of Torah to others, about how, even when he had to travel in order to help in tzorchei horabbim, he was makpid to not miss the shiur he taught.
Rabbi Yehuda Svei also addressed the concept of how Hashem provides parnassa to every living thing He created, and how that is true not only about physical sustenance but wisdom and strength as well. The more his father gave to the tzibbur, Rabbi Svei averred, the more Hashem gave him strength to do even more for the tzibbur.
The azkara concluded with a video presentation of excerpts from various memorable addresses Reb Elya had delivered over the years at Agudas Yisroel conventions and dinners. The excerpts captured the straightforward mussar and principled stances regarding Agudas Yisroel's ideas and ideals for which the Rosh Hayeshiva was known — and for which he always will remain an inspiration.
The evening's final speaker was Agudas Yisroel of America executive vice president Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zwiebel.
Rabbi Zwiebel's remarks at first echoed those of Rabbi Lieff, as he, too, extolled the greatness of Klal Yisroel in our day — and the need to not allow the "trees," the problems that plague our community, to obscure the "forest" of its specialness and goodness. He praised the "remarkable idealism" of the tzibbur, the "beauty of Klal Yisroel."
At the same time, though, he continued, that doesn't mean we have a right to ignore flaws among us, to not address communal problems as "we have been doing at this convention."
And he went on to list a number of daunting challenges that were in fact topics of convention sessions over Thursday and erev Shabbos, or which would be addressed the following morning. These included such matters as Internet addiction, alcoholism, substance abuse and breaches in basic gidrei tznius. He further mentioned the problems of child abuse, molestation and domestic violence.
Rabbi Zwiebel also noted the fact that the surrounding society seems bent on enshrining as "marriage" what the Torah calls "toeiva," and wondered aloud if perhaps our own lack of proper attention to "perfect and whole weights" - to meticulous honesty in business dealings, whose lack the Torah also characterizes as "toeiva," and which is in our immediate ability to control - might indirectly empower dark societal forces.
The Agudath Israel executive vice president noted how the Torah teaches us that while hidden things are "for Hashem our G-d," the "revealed things are for us and our children" to address. It is incumbent on us, he said, to uproot whatever evil among us we can. "Yes," he said, we as a community "are tzaddikim;" but "yes, we have problems."
They are problems, however, Rabbi Zwiebel insisted, that can be tackled and addressed, "if we come together" as a tzibbur - the animating ideal of Agudas Yisroel.
The chairman of the evening's session was Hashi Herzka, member of Agudas Yisroel's Board of Trustees. He, the convention chairman, Aron Tessler, and Agudas Yisroel's executive vice president for finance and administration, Rabbi Shlomo Gertzulin, extended greetings to the gathering.
