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Teves 5762 •December 2001 U.S.A.$3.50/Foreign $4.50 ·VOL XXXIV/NO. 10 THE JEWISH OBSERVER (ISSN) 0021-6615 is published monthly except July and August by the Agudath Israel of America, 42 Broadway, New York, NY10004. Periodicals postage pajd in New York, NY. Subscr'lption $24.00 per year; two years, $44.00; three years, $60.00. Outside of the United States (US funds drawn on a US bank only) $12.00 sur­ charge per year. Single copy $3.50; for­ eign $4.50. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: The Jewish Observer, 42 Broadway, NY.. NY. 10004. Tel: 212-797-9000, Fax: 646-254-1600. Printed in the U.S.A. RABBI AVROHOM YAAKOV HAKOHEIN PAM '>"Oil, A TRIBUTE RABBI NISSON WOLPIN, EDITOR The Unassuming Giant, EOITORIAL BOARD RABBI JOSEPH ELIAS Rabbi Nosson Scherman Ch1.1lrman 14 A Rebbe For Our Generation, RABBI ABBA BRUDNY JOSEPH FRIEDENSON Rabbi Yisroel Reisman RABBI YISROEL MEIR KIRZNER RABBI NOSSON SCHERMAN SIDEBARS: Rabbi Yakov Horowitz, Rabbi Dov Mach/is, PROF. AARON TWERSKI Rabbi Yosef C. Golding, Nachum Gold OR. ERNST L. BODENHEIMER Z"L Founding Chairman THE WORLD OF BA'ALEI TESHUVA MANAGEMENT BOARD AVI FISHOF ll Trials and Triumphs: Scenes from the NAFTOLI HIRSCH ISAAC KIRZNER Journey Home, Debbie Maimom RABBI SHLOMO LESIN NACHUM STEIN Ba'a/ Teshuva RABBI YOSEF C. GOLDING 32 Lifecycle Support for the Mam1glng Editor Family, Rabbi Yakov Horowitz Published by Agudath Israel of America Integration: Helping Ba'alei Teshuva Be Themselves, U.S. TRADE OISTRIBllTOH ISRAELI REPRESENTATIVE Fehlhelm Publisben lnlnl. Media Placement Rabbi Ben Tzion Kokis 200 Airport Executive Park POB 719515 Even Israel Nanuet, NY 10954 Jerusalem, ISRAEL BRITISH REPflESENTATIVE BELGIAN REPRESENTATIVE 38 The Jewish Art of Faith, Pnuel Peri M.T. Blbelman Mr. E. Apter Grosvenor Works Lange Kievitstr. 29 Mount Pleasant Hill 2018 Antwerp London E5 9NE, ENGLAND BELGIUM 42 Tefil/a and Emuna, Rabbi Pinchos Jung FRENCH REPRESENTATIVE SWISS REPRESENTATIVE Rabbi Bamberger Mr. S. Feldinger 21 Boulevard Paixhans Leimanstrasse 36 44 Kiddush Hashem? That's Easy!, Debby Friedman 57000 Metz 4051 Basel FRANCE SWITZERLAND THE JEWISH OBSERVER does not assume responsibility for the Kashrus of any product, publication, or service advertised in its pages ©Copyright 2001 About the cover: The oil painting of Rabbi Pam ?"n gracing our cciver this month December 2001 is an original work commissioned by the Golding family. VOLUME XXXIV/NO. 10 Rabbi Nasson Scherman RABBI AVROHOM PAM 7"~r The Unassuming Giant f Rabbi Pam had been able to fitting for a man whose fondest wish had lows is an appreciation by someone who schedule his own levaya (funeral), he always been to remain inconspicuous, was his talmid over fifty years ago, and I surely would have said that it should so that he could devote his life to learn­ who, like all of his talmidim, never take place during bein haz'manim ing and teaching. ceased to regard him as a role model par (yeshiva intersession), so that yeshivas Try though he did - mightily - to excellence. would not lose time from learning; on hide his greatness, he failed. Rabbi He insisted that there be no eulogies a Friday, so that fewer people would be Shaul Alter, the Rosh Yeshiva of Gur in at his levaya, except for a "farewell" from able to attend and there would be less Israel, said that when Rabbi Pam left us, his oldest son, Rabbi Aaron, because, as temptation to deliver eulogies; and «America lost its Divine protection." he put it, "I don't want to go to the during the summer, when many people Rabbi Alter may have met Rabbi Pam, World of Truth with a false passport." are away. Which is exactly what hap­ but certainly could not have known him It is undeniable that most eulogies, pened. This great and humble man, well. Yet he knew. And countless others understandably, tend to incorporate revered and cherished by so many, vir­ knew that behind his normal business some exaggerated praise. It is also tually slipped away. Several thousand suit, turned-down brim, and seat undeniable that any praise of Rabbi Pam people crowded the beis midrash of his among his talmidim in the middle of the would have been only an understated Torah Vodaath and the surrounding beis midrash, there was one of the great part of the truth. streets on 28 Menachem Av, 5761 people of our time, and that his loss (August 17, 2001) to bid a tearful could not be measured in terms of who I. THE INDELIBLE IMPRESSION farewell to perhaps the most beloved fig­ would fill his vacancy in leadership posi­ ure in the American yeshiva world, but tions or with his talmidim. There was s this writer was leaving the lev­ there would have been many times that more to the man than any of us realized. aya, a stranger came over - a number if his passing had come at These lines are not an attempt to A young man in his middle twen­ another time in another month. How evaluate him or portray him definitively. ties. He shared this story: In his teens, Rabbi Scherman, a member of the Editorial So inadequate is this writer and so hid­ he had been expelled by two yeshivas, Board of T11e Jewish Observer, is a General Edi­ den was much or most of what he did, and with good reason. He was angry and tor of Mesorah/ ArtScroll Publications. that such a task is impossible. What fol- rebellious, and his parents were at a loss. 6 The Jewish Observer, December 2001 In desperation, his mother took him to Rabbi Pam, whom neither of them knew. She poured her heart out to the Rosh Yeshiva. What would become ofher son? Would he remain a Jew! Where could he go? What should they do? Rabbi Pam listened, and spoke to the young man. Then he called an out-of-town yeshiva and asked them as a personal favor) on his responsibility, to accept the ta/mid. They agreed. The young man concluded his narra­ tive, "He called regttlar!y to check on how I was doing. I did pretty well. I changed. He saved me. If not for him, I would be out on the streets today." This for son1e­ one he had never previously met. few weeks later, at a wedding, the menahel of one of Brooklyn's AJ eading institutions told the fol­ lowing story to this writer: A parent had fallen on hard times and had not been able to pay his tuition for several Reform rabbi was startled. "Who is that? tnitzvos, in his self-sacrifice at giving up months. It was time to register his chil­ He is a holy man!" he said, almost some of his personal growth in Torah dren for the new school year and he was inaudibly. for the sake of Kial Yisroel, in the sim­ afraid even to go to the school; there was He was right, but how did he know? plicity of his home and his abhorrence no doubt that he would be required to He had never met Rabbi Pam, had not of luxury, in his enduring gratitude for clear his balance - but he had no money. seen photographs of him: How could even the most trivial favor, in the quiet Distraught, he confided his dilemma to one tell that a small man in ordinary passion with which he appealed to par­ Rabbi Pam. garb, who took pains to be inconspic­ ents to allow their sons to stay in the The Rosh Yeshiva intervened per­ uous and recoiled from honor, is holy? yeshiva as long as possible and to feel sonally. He called the administrator of The Chasam Sofer was once riding in what a privilege it was for their daugh­ the school, who told him that if anyone a coach with his rebbe, Rabbi Nasson Adler, ters to marry b'nei Torah. else had called, he would have told him when the horses reared in fright. They were Rabbi Chaim Soloveitchik of Brisk the simple truth: the school had payrolls about to be attacked by a wild bear, and the remarked of the Chafetz Chaim that his to meet and bills to pay. The parent driver could not control them. Rabbi Adler saintliness obscured his greatness in already had a substantial scholarship, looked out the window. The bear saw him, Torah. The same could certainly be said and it was not fair to ask the school to recoiled and ran back into the woods. The of Rabbi Pam. do more. But since the one calling was Chasam Sofer asked for an explanation, Rabbi Chaim Kreiswirth (may he have Rabbi Pam, the school would accept the and Rabbi Adler replied, "Hashem made a refua sheleima), the Rav of Antwerp and children without insisting on any prior man in His image and, as our Sages tell us, a formidable Talmudic prodigy, told an payment.