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Rabbi Yehuda {Leonard} Blank MS, BCC
Vice President of Professional Development and External Affairs
Chair of the Chaplaincy Commission
Rabbinical Alliance of America/Igud HaRabbonim
917-446-2126  rablenblank@gmail.com
**** April 18th, 2024, Nisan 10, 5784****
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On Sunday April 14th, 2024, I attended and addressed the members of the Shomrim Society and attendees at the  annual Passover distribution which was held on the Lower East Side. Both retirees and active members of the New York Police Department who are Jewish belong to the Jewish fraternal society of the NYPD. The attendees were those who received Passover packages filled with all kinds of Kosher for Passover food items and live on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, a tradition that dates back over fifty years. On Wednesday April 17th, 2004, I attended the Pre Passover Security Briefing at One Police Headquarters in New York City which was addressed by the Police Commissioner Edward Caban and other high ranking members of the NYPD. Thank goodness, there are no known threats to New York City or surrounding areas. Nevertheless, with antisemitism in the air, precautions are important and significant to take. It is unfortunate in the “land of the free”, many protests have become violent with hateful chants of threats to our Country, the United States of America and of course, Israel.  Yet, despite such negative feelings shared by some, there are wonderful citizens who truly despise such negativity and do wish to live in peace. Most of all are the multitudes of Jewish people who are wonderful ambassadors of H and our Jewish nation who not only live peaceful lives, but are wonderful role models of how a citizen should behave and truly make a Kiddush H. The thousands of students throughout the USA who attend our yeshivos, our Bais Yaakovs, our Day Schools and Talmud Torahs have wonderful midos tovos not just in their homes, or synagogues, but in their everyday activities. Our credo which we learn in our Ethics of Our Fathers, Pirkei Avos, Torah, Avoda and Gemilus Chasadim is our blueprint of how we are to be in our everyday lives. We all have a higher standard in our lives. Our beliefs, our love and our awareness of H is not just in the synagogues, nor just on the Shabbat or Chagim/Yom Tovim, or as we say the High Holidays, it is all the time. For all those in the public eye, how we behave in life is how others judge the way our people are.

Regarding Jewish chaplains, I have heard many times through the years from patients, family members and staff that the chaplain represents G. That chaplains have a direct line to G. That the prayers said by a chaplain goes directly to G. In fact, the same can be said about chaplains in many different settings. The essence of compassion, of being sincere, of caring for our fellow human beings is so important. We are all created in the image of H. Therefore, we follow all the possibilities of walking in His ways to be as compassionate and caring as possible. It is interesting to note how important it is to also be empathetic and in a sense feel the pain or the anguish a person who a chaplain or rabbi is ministering to is going through. At the Seder, we eat various foods, we dip the bitter herbs in charoses, the karpas in salt water, and of course the matzah, so that we can feel and taste what the Israelites went through. It is not suffice just to speak about what happened, but to feel what it was like. To be compassionate, we must truly have in one’s heart to be sincere and not just to say I feel for you or care about you. The same with a husband and wife. It is not suffice to say I love you, or I care about you, or you mean so much to me, but to be sincere in one’s heart and to truly mean it. 

From Reb Dovid, The Life and Legacy of Rabbi Dovid Feinstein by Rabbi Yisroel Besser Artscroll Series, Mesorah Publications, Ltd  Pages 77-80 and also in the Flatbush Jewish Journal, April 11, 2024 Page 135 “To Be Pleasant and Humble” “In an interview for the video that would be shown at the MTJ dinner, the videographer asked Reb Dovid what he considered to be the imprint of an MTJ talmid.

Reb Dovid, usually so brief, allowed himself to expound a bit more than was usual.

We try, he said, to create talmidim who do not just learn Torah, but understand the obligation that comes with learning Torah. We want that anyone with whom they come into contact, even those who are unlearned, will be left with a pleasant feeling for Torah and for those who learn it.

“Today,” Reb Dovid continued, “even though my  father is no longer alive, the yeshiva is associated with him, and the rebbeim are chosen based on the ability to imbue talmidim with a sense of responsibility to those around them, to be pleasant and humble.”

There was a comment that Reb Dovid would often make, a few words that synopsized his worldview, and they were reflected in his every interaction.

The pasuk refers to the ways of Torah as “darchei noam,” ways of pleasantness.

“If it is not noam, if the behavior of one who learns Torah is not sweet, then what he is learning is not Torah. He should sit down and learn the sugua again.”

When a person closes the Gemara after learning, the Rosh Yeshiva would say, then he should be a bit kinder, a bit more compassionate, and a bit more selfess than when he sat down to learn.

That ne’imus , that sweetness, radiated from the Rosh Yeshivah, who spent so many hours by the Gemara.

Well before Reb Dovid stood at the helm of the yeshiva, those middos were apparent.

A talmid recalls a particularly challenging time in MTJ. The Rosh Yeshivah, Rav Moshe, had issued a psak halachah that had created great controversy. Those opposed to the ruling wrote letters and posted signs attacking Rav Moshe, signs that were so nasty that Rav Moshe did not want to see them. He was worried, he said, that he might feel a twinge of pain at what was written, and that would create a “kepeidah,” a grievance against the instigators. Rav Moshe understood that this would ultimately cause them harm and he wanted to spare them.

The talmidim very much wanted to respond to the attacks against their rebbi, either with a formal rally of protest, or through printing a booklet defending his position, and they discussed it with Reb Dovid.

He said he would talk to his father about it, and the next morning, he told the talmidim that it was all taken care of. They assumed that Rav Moshe had given his blessing to some sort of response, and they were ready to fight.

No, Reb Dovid explained. That was not what he had meant. When he said it was all taken care of , he meant that his father had been fully mochel , he had forgiven his antagonists, and so there was no reason to respond. 

It was all behind them.

“It was then,” recalled a close talmid, “that we realized that Reb Dovid was not simply a nice person, but that he was like his father, living on a higher plane. To Reb Dovid too, mechilah was called ‘taking care of the problem,’ and there were no further thoughts of vengeance.”

Rav Moshe had once spoken about the journey out of Russia, the worry that accompanied him as he headed to a new land, one where the people were not known to have the pure ahavas Torah felt by the Jews of Luban.

As he pondered his future on the train to Latvia, Rav Moshe dozed off, and when he awoke, it was with a pasuk on his lips, which the Gemara classifies as a form of prophecy. The words he found himself whispering were from Tehillim, “Veshame’u amarai, kina’eimu, they heard my words, which are pleasant.

Rav Moshe was calmed, seeing this as an indication that his words would be found pleasant at his destination as well. This was born out, for when he alighted from the train in Riga, there was a large crowd on hand to welcome the Rav of Luban and his family.

But aside from the immediate implications of the pasuk, it would be a harbinger not just of how the public would view Rav Moshe’s Torah, but also of the sweet, pleasant nature of his Torah and psak, the way his words and actions were laced with kindness and compassion.

It was not only a kindness that displayed itself in dealing with the public, but one that was evident in every interaction with people.

This was something Rav Moshe would transmit to his children, to teach Torah with ne’imus and to be pleasant and kind to those around them: this is the “noam” of which Reb Dovid would speak.”

The days before Pesach is a time to truly show love, understanding and compassion and appreciation to one’s spouse and children. It is a time for tremendous patience and achdus. It is a time to help others. It is a wonderful time when preparing for Pesach to keep in mind that all the mitzvos should be shining and bright. 

And now some interesting memories.

At the Bialystoker Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Center where I was also the Rabbi in addition to the Director of Pastoral Care and Chaplain, we had a bulletin board in front of the building and I would put all the information about Shabbos and Yom Tovim. There was also a sign about Mechiras Chometz in English. Some of the bystanders and also staff came to see what was being  sold. 

Once, someone mentioned that his car was sparkling clean outside and inside. Two places he forgot to check, one was the seats. When he put his hand in the space between the actual seat and the back of the seat, he found lots of coins, candies and cookies. He also forgot to check his trunk. When he opened it to put in his Pesach groceries, he found several bags of meshloach manos from Purim filled with all kinds of delicious looking real chometz. It was not Pesach as of yet. 

A person who had sold his chametz via this rabbi always before Pesach had moved to another state. He did not belong to any synagogue in his new location. On Chol Hamoed, this rabbi received a frantic call from this person. He did not have a local rabbi and no one to ask. So he remembered to call me to say that he did not sell his chametz and would like to do so over the phone. 

Years ago, it was possible to burn one’s chametz in their apartment building. How and where? Well there was something called an incinerator which is today the garbage chute.  Those years the garbage went down to where garbage would be burnt. Due to tremendous pollution in the sky, laws were passed to prohibit such incinerators.  

Years ago, there were wine stores such as Kedem on Norfolk Street and Schapiro on Rivington Street which had a huge sign on the side of a building “so thick you could slice it with a knife.” That was Shapiro Wines. The original Kedem had huge vats of wine. The weeks before Pesach one could taste many different wines. There were the traditional wine and also honey or mead wine and even egg nog (not made with anything dairy). Mr. Herzog, the owner of Kedem, would spend time there. 

Pesach is truly a special Yom Tov. Enjoy every moment before and during. May everyone have a Chag Kosher Vesameiach . Many say have a zeesin Pesach. 

Sincerely, Rabbi Yehuda Blank 

Please note that the next Moments of Inspiration will be after Pesach.