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Divrei Torah for Purim Remember to Forget Rabbi Norman Lamm 8 YESHIVA UNIVERSITY • PURIM TO-GO • ADAR 5771 Richard M Joel, President, Yeshiva University Rabbi Kenneth Brander, The David Mitzner Dean, Center for the Jewish Future Rabbi Robert Shur, General Editor Rabbi Michael Dubitsky, Editor Copyright © 2011 All rights reserved by Yeshiva University Yeshiva University Center for the Jewish Future 500 West 185th Street, Suite 413, New York, NY 10033 [email protected] • 212.960.5400 x 5313 This publication contains words of Torah. Please treat it with appropriate respect. For sponsorship opportunities, please contact Sarah Emerson Helfand, director of the West Coast Region of Yeshiva University, at 646.246.5332or [email protected]. 9 YESHIVA UNIVERSITY • PURIM TO-GO • ADAR 5771 Message from President Richard M. Joel It is with great pleasure that Yeshiva University partners with the Los Angeles community to bring you this remarkable Shabbat. Throughout the weekend, in every corner of the community, you will have the opportunity to hear exceptional Torah from some of the leading roshei yeshiva and scholars at Yeshiva University. For me, what is even more significant than the impact of this weekend, is the ongoing synergy between Los Angeles and Yeshiva. I delight in knowing that our rabbis and educators fill the ranks of your shuls and schools; that so many of your children emerge from Yeshiva as serious Jews and leaders; that our Center for the Jewish Future delivers to your community meaningful learning and programming that advance our shared values; that our Institute for University-School Partnership sustains your day schools and yeshivas and improves student outcomes in measurable ways – the list goes on and on. Together we champion an integrated life through which we can impact the Jewish community and humanity in ways wondrous. At Yeshiva University, we nurture the leaders of tomorrow. The dual curriculum, our exceptional roshei yeshiva and faculty, the myriad leadership opportunities and the Torah environment in which our students live coalesce to create a whole student. Our undergraduate campuses hum with the constant energy of a student body taking the reins of the Jewish future. I invite all our friends in Los Angeles to participate in any and all of our programming in the community and to experience firsthand the dynamism that is Yeshiva University. On a personal note, I am grateful for the collaboration and dedication of our esteemed host committee - Rabbi Moshe Benzaquen, Rabbi Asher Brander, Rabbi Alan Kalinsky, Rabbi Yosef Kanefsky Rabbi Daniel Korobkin Rabbi Yaakov Krause, Rabbi Elazar Muskin, Rabbi Dovid Revah, Rabbi Jonathan Rosenberg, and Rabbi Kalman Topp - a group whom individually and collectively represent the best of our people. I am also delighted to introduce Sarah Emerson Helfand, who will serve as YU’s inaugural West Coast Regional Director. Sarah represents our significant commitment to deepening the connections between Los Angeles and Yeshiva. It is our hope that as you come to know us more intimately, you will become owners and sacred partners in advancing all that we do – all that we must do – to shape the Jewish future we want for our children. Warmest regards, Richard M. Joel President, Yeshiva University 10 YESHIVA UNIVERSITY • PURIM TO-GO • ADAR 5771 Table of Contents Purim 2011/5771 News from Yeshiva University CJF Missions Take Students to Israel, Ukraine, North and South America . Page 5 Don’t Write Off the Next Generation Rabbi Kenneth Brander . Page 7 YUConnects Celebrates 50th Engagement . Page 8 Einstein-Montefiore Doctors Give Life-Changing Heart Surgery to Haitian Teen . Page 9 Showing Their Appreciation, RIETS Alumni Sponsor Day of Learning . Page 10 Women’s Leadership Fellowship . Page 11 Divrei Torah for Purim Remember to Forget Rabbi Norman Lamm . Page 12 When is a Bar Mitzvah in a Leap Year? Rabbi Mordechai Willig. Page 15 A Life of Giving Rabbi Reuven Brand . Page 18 Why Don't We Recite Hallel on Purim? Rabbi Joshua Flug . Page 22 Making Scents of Purim Rabbi Yoni Levin . Page 27 Purim and Pesach: Two Holidays, One Theme Mrs. Shira Schechter. Page 31 Purim: The Other Day of Rest Rabbi Tzvi Sinensky. Page 37 11 YESHIVA UNIVERSITY • PURIM TO-GO • ADAR 5771 Yeshiva University Los Angeles Shabbaton Speakers Richard M. Joel Rabbi Hershel Schachter Rabbi Kenneth Brander President, Rosh Yeshiva, The David Mitzner Dean, Yeshiva University Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Yeshiva University Center Theological Seminary for the Jewish Future Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff Mrs. Yael Leibowitz Dr. Rona Novick Judaic Studies Faculty, Judaic Studies Faculty, Director, Doctoral Stern College for Women Stern College for Women Program, Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education Rabbi Eli Baruch Rabbi Zvi Sobolofsky Dr. Efrat Sobolofsky Schulman Rosh Yeshiva, Director, YUConnects, Rosh Yeshiva, Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Center for the Jewish Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary Future Theological Seminary For more information on YU Speakers, visit www.yu.edu/speakers CJF MISSIONS TAKE STUDENTS TO ISRAEL, UKRAINE, NORTH AND SOUTH AMERICA The Nicaraguan village of Boca de la Montana appears remote and desolate in an image captured from space by a satellite; hardly the place for a hard-earned vacation. But more than a dozen Yeshiva University students accompanied by Rabbi Yosef Blau, mashgiach ruchani [spiritual advisor] of YU-affiliated Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS), visited Nicaragua during their winter break to help lay the foundation for a new library there. YU students were introduced to the community two years ago when they worked on the construction of the road and bridge to the school complex. “I think it’s an important part of our student’s education, that they interact with others and take responsibility,” Rabbi Blau said. “The intellectual experience in school, while the essence of what we are, does not automatically translate to life. This is a way of translating the values that we learn into Student and Rabbi Blau, right, shovel dirt to be used in mixing actual experiences and doing so while contributing and not cement for village library. just watching.” Home,” students engaged Israelis on kibbutzim, in develop- ment towns, immigrant villages, towns in Judea and Samaria and religious and secular communities. These compelling experiences forced students to examine their shared existen- tial dilemma of loyalty to both a birthplace and a homeland. The trip also introduced the students to “some of the complex social issues of the State of Israel,” said Rabbi Yaakov Neuberger, rosh yeshiva at RIETS. “Specifically, this group was introduced to the issue of the disengagement from Gaza in a way that they were not aware of before. These programs are very valuable and should be attended by anyone planning to go into rabbanus [the rabbinate] or chin- uch [Jewish education].” Laying bricks for library’s foundation in Nicaragua. Other YU students participated in Jewish Life Coast to Coast—a trip to Richmond, Charleston, Jacksonville and South Florida—during which they explored how individu- als can become active and make a difference in North America’s diverse Jewish communities. “Watching our students engage with the Jewish commu- nity of Richmond was exciting,” said Rabbi Kenneth Brander, the David Mitzner Dean of Yeshiva University’s Center for the Jewish Future (CJF). “They interacted with Jews of all ages and all backgrounds. In the process of inspiring the communities they encountered, our students were transformed.” Coast-to-Coast and the Nicaragua mission were among seven experiential learning trips organized this winter by the YU students design and lead programs for children of the Martin J. CJF. Others included a humanitarian mission to Mexico; Gottlieb School in Jacksonville, FL. Project Kharkov, a two-week program aimed at gaining first- hand understanding of the welfare challenges and identity crises facing Ukrainian Jewry; QUEST II, a leadership pro- The CJF is grateful to the programming and institutional partners gram that helped former Gush Katif residents rebuild their that made these missions possible for hundreds of YU students. lives in the desert community of Halutza; and “A Place They include: American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, Called Home,” during which students traveled across Israel American Jewish World Service, the Eckstein Family, Jim Joseph for a week, discovering what it means to create a national Foundation, Jewish National Fund and Repair the World. home for the Jewish people. Throughout “A Place Called YU in Los Angeles REGIONAL COUNCIL A special thank you to the members of the YU Regional Council — Los Angeles who continue to show support for YU by serving as lay leaders and strengthening YU’s visibility in their hometown. The council, currently in formation, includes: Alex Altberg, Jennifer Altberg, Evan Anziska, Israel Bick, Aryeh Goldberg, Mark Hecht, Ari Hier, Adena Rohatiner, Rafi Rosenkranz, Lou Shapiro, Avi Steinlauf, Shuli Steinlauf, Shimmy Steinmetz, Jonathan Wernick and Alan Willner. For more information about YU in Los Angeles, contact Sarah Emerson Helfand, West Coast Regional Director, at [email protected]. DON’T WRITE OFF THE NEXT GENERATION By Rabbi Kenneth Brander The impact on Jewish continuity as a whole is equally noteworthy. Nearly 10 percent of the student participants It comes as no surprise that in a world where many neglect change their career paths to fields of education, the rab- the importance of community, iPhones, iPods, iMacs and binate and social work, and 95 percent pledge to bring their iPads constantly and consistently appear as the trendiest professional skills to serve the greater community. I am sure gadgets. These devices represent a culture that desires to that American Jewish World Service and the American deconstruct the power and purpose of community, placing Jewish Joint Distribution Committee have realized similar all importance on the needs of the individual. results from the many initiatives in which they engage stu- Despite this societal disposition, I believe the young peo- dents in service-learning opportunities.
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