This week's Haftorah comes from Sefer Yeshayahu perakim מ"ג and מ"ד. (the Book of Isaiah chapters 43 and 44). Follow along here.
🐏Parsha Summary: Beginning-3:52
🗣Haftorah Summary: 3:53-10:09
📚D’var to Follow
Today, the 29th of Adar is the yahrzeit of Reb Yaakov Kamenetzky z”l. This week's shiur is dedicated in his memory.
Reb Yaakov was born in Lithuania in the late nineteenth century and learned under the Alter z”l with whom he was exceptionally close. This relationship and learning environment were foundational to Reb Yaakov’s greatness in mussar and his breadth of Torah knowledge.
Reb Yaakov came to America to work after an unsuccessful job search throughout Eastern Europe. After serving as the Rav of a small community in Seattle, he moved to Toronto where he secured a more permanent position. As the devastation of war swept through his former home, Reb Yaakov was hard at work davening and preparing to rebuild religous life for the Jews remaining in America. In 1945, he began to teach at Yeshivas Torah v’Da’as in Brooklyn, where he trained talmidim who would go on to educate generations of American Torah Jews.
He lent his brilliant mind to service of organizations including Agudas Yisroel of America and Torah U’Mesorah, which at the time were focused on rebuilding a religious home for American Jews after World War II. Reb Yaakov invested countless hours in building memorable educational experiences for young Americans to get them excited about and invested in his Yiddishkeit. At one such program, a summer camp, Reb Yaakov is said to have remembered with word-for-word accuracy a lesser-known commentary on the Gemara that he had not seen since learning in Slobadka (over sixty years prior). This anecdote provides the smallest glimpse into the greatness of his Torah knowledge. His influence is still felt today in too many places to count.
In his retirement especially, Reb Yaakov touched the individual lives of countless Jews who would come to see him for advice and guidance. I have been fortunate to to hear many stories about Reb Yaakov's life and personality from his grandson (my Rav) Rabbi Yitzchak Shurin. Since he was so foundational in the life of my own rav and mentor, I consider Reb Yaakov a sort of “grand Rebbe”. Perhaps my favorite stories Rabbi Shurin have told me center around Reb Yaakov’s home in Monsey, where he met with many people seeking his advice and guidance on matters halachic, hashkafic, and personal. Reb Yaakov would never meet anyone who came to see him without first offering them a meal and time to rest; he believed that if someone had taken such trouble to travel and see him that, of course, their matter was too serious to be discussed tired or on an empty stomach. Those who met with Reb Yaakov always said that, during their conversation, they felt like the only thing in the universe that mattered to him. It didn’t matter what else Reb Yaakov had scheduled for that day or which other matters pressed for his attention- he was always fully preset with those who sought him. With full attention, Reb Yaakov asked questions that facilitated each person arriving at their own solution, never pressuring them to take one action or another. Always patient and focused, Reb Yaakov invested in the individual greatness within every Jew. Middos like these, from a man so great in Torah, are ones we should all strive to emulate.
We, as American Jews, have much to be thankful to Reb Yaakov for; his work, life, and Torah likely contributed to many of us coming back to Yiddishkeit and living lives centered around Hashem's Torah and mitzvos. The neshama of Rav Yaakov Ben Rav Binyamin should have an aliya.
