First, you who are this day being invested in the rabbinate dare not be discouraged! The Sefer Chasidim of R. Yehuda Ha-Hasid teaches us that one who composes chiddushei Torah (Torah writings) and does not publish them is guilty of being mo’el behekdesh, of illicit use of sacred property, because our intellectual achievements in Torah are the gift of the Almighty and we dare not keep them to ourselves and deny them to our fellow Jews. And if this is true of Torah novellae, which another talmid chakham may well be able to disprove, how much more so is it true of creating Torah personalities, of making Jews who will live and support Torah! You have no moral right to be frightened, no right to abandon your fellow Jews, no right to hoard Torah for yourselves and deny it to others – even though you are reluctant and they are unreceptive! Some of you who are blessed with the gift of leadership may soon rise to be the agents of great, perhaps dramatic, improvements in the relationship between Torah and Israel. But each of you can, if you will it, make at least a dent here and a change there, so that together you will have achieved mighty contributions, together with other musmakhim of our Yeshiva and other yeshivot and benei Torah from all over the country. The second “negative commandment” is: do not allow yourselves to be sucked into any of the fashionable extremisms that are tearing our people apart. They are tempting, even seductive. Supporting them can make us feel good emotionally without burdening our intellects. Extremism threatens to rip off the thin membrane of civilization that covers the inner volcano of violence. Violence from the mouth of a gun is a cancer that grows from the verbal violence from the mouth of a careless speaker or the pen of an irresponsible writer. And the oncogene – the cancer's seed – is extremism in dehumanizing your adversary. There is a special obligation that lies upon all who have influence over the public – especially younger peopl…