When the Senior Class was preparing the plans for this evening, and the question of dedication presented itself, we found that there was only one logical choice as to the man whom we were going to honor this evening. Since the choice of a professor in either the natural or social sciences would have resulted in a rabid free-for-all among the students, we had to choose a man who was neither a strictly natural scientist nor exclusively devoted to the social sciences – a sort of happy compromise which automatically eliminated most of the faculty. Furthermore, democratic procedure required that, since most members of the class are unfortunately of Lithuanian extraction, the candidate had to be a chemically pure Litvak. Two more facts were crucial in influencing our decision. One, the fact that all members of the class are Jewish and, hence, have some interest in the Bible; and second, the astounding fact that we all are men. The four corresponding prerequisites, we found to our satisfaction, could be fulfilled by only one man. This man is not a natural scientist and also not exclusively a social scientist. He is an unadulterated Litvak, with the added distinction of having been a student at the Telsher Yeshiva. He is a Professor of Bible and, happily, a Dean of Men at Yeshiva University. In short, he is Mr. Samuel L. Sar.I must admit, however, that the decision to honor Mr. Sar was attended with some difficulty. And the crux of the problem was the very touchy fact I mentioned – Mr. Sar’s being a Litvak. Anyone who has attended any of his Thursday afternoon Bible classes this past year knows of the constant clashes and exchange of words between Mr. Sar and his few chassidishe students, of which I am one. And we Hasidim, though a minority, were seriously considering attaching one condition to the election of Mr. Sar. The condition was one which dared Mr. Sar to pronounce the sentence as a Jew would pronounce it: “ונשמרתם מאד לנפשותיכם.” To which one of my Litvak classma…

We pray for Thy blessing upon this assembly, gathered to do honor to one of our number by the practice of righteousness, charity and Ahavat Yisrael. Do Thou bestow the blessings of long life, happiness and continued creativity upon our esteemed guest of honor, Mr. Jakob Michael, and his beloved wife and family. His long record of brilliant achievements in commerce is matched by his many distinguished accomplishments as a philanthropist, builder of religious and educational institutions, a patron of culture and the arts and, above all, a child of G-d who has remained loyal to Torah, Israel, and the Holy Land.To us who are here assembled to pledge our continued assistance to our brethren through the U.J.A., do Thou give Bigness, greatness, and Depth: The Bigness to give without resentment; the Greatness to be grateful that we are those who give, not those who must wait to receive; and the Depth of mind and spirit to know how and why to give.Teach us to give because G-d commanded a Mitzvah, not because man declared an emergency; to give in order to avoid a crisis of the soul, rather than to alleviate a crisis in the community; to respond to the genuine inspiration of virtue, rather than to the artificial stimulus of a campaign.Grant, O Lord, that we be the agents of Thy redemption; that there no longer be in Thy land an outstretched hand, a pleading look, a broken heart; that love and plenty and happiness replace hunger and suffering and want in the world.Oseh Shalom Bimromav – Hu Yaaseh Shalom Aleinu v’al Kol Yisrael, v’imru Amen. May He who creates peace in the heavens create peace for us and all Israel and all the world, Amen.

Senators Lehman and Javits, my revered teacher Dr. Belkin, honored colleagues, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen: It is my privilege to present to you a dear and cherished friend, Mr. Max Stern, the Orthodox candidate for the first Synagogue Statesman Award of the Synagogue Council of America. In Jewish as well as in general life, there are politicians, diplomats, and statesmen. The politician uses direct methods to get for the people what they want. The diplomat uses indirect, more refined ways of reaching the same goal. The statesman, however, is different in his very purpose. His aim is not primarily to satisfy the people’s wants, but to obtain for them what they need. He must be an educator – not a functionary; a leader – not an executive. Throughout his career of public service, Max Stern has been a statesman who has taken it upon himself to help provide for the spiritual needs of his fellow Jews. So notable is the reputation he has achieved, that people often associate his name with a college rather than a man. Indeed, more than a significant individual, he has well-nigh become an institution. In a manner that combines dignity with magnanimity, orderliness with compassion, high leadership with an amusing attention to detail, he has achieved the reputation of one of the most distinguished lay leaders of Orthodox Judaism in America and throughout the world.As President of New York's Jewish Center for five years, his ability and his devotion to the synagogue have won for him the admiration and respect of his rabbis and his colleagues. As a synagogue statesman, he has understood what our people truly need: education, learning. The ideal of our Tradition, VE-TALMUD TORAH K'NEGED KULAM, that study of Torah takes precedence over all other virtues, has mobilized all his many creative talents. He has become a builder and sustainer of Jewish schools on all levels. In the realm of higher education, he is, of course, the founder of the first and only Jewish wom…

In the preparation of this book, The Leo Jung Jubilee Volume, which I have the honor to present to Rabbi Jung this evening, we commissioned an artist to prepare a drawing which is used on the binding. It is a somewhat surrealistic picture of a prophet, Elijah, holding a book. Merged into the actual drawing is a Hebrew inscription from the Second Book of Kings, 2:46, which reads ve’yad Hashem haytah el Eliyahu – “and the hand of the Lord was to Elijah.” That is an idiom that means that the prophet Elijah was under divine inspiration.I believe that this verse summarizes the tributes that the previous speakers have so eloquently paid to our own Eliyahu, our beloved Rabbi Leo Jung. We feel that his unequaled record of service to Torah and to world Jewry is a result of a life–long divine inspiration, drawing upon the wells of Torah of both parents and teachers, amongst whom were counted some of the greatest Jews of the past generation.Allow me to draw your attention in particular to the peculiar idiom, “and the hand of the Lord was el Eliyahu – to Elijah.” Normally the biblical expression for divine inspiration is al – “the hand of the Lord was on the prophet,” not el – “to the prophet.” Thus, with the prophet Ezekiel and others, we read va-tehi alav sham yad Hashem – “the hand of the Lord was upon him there.”What is the difference? I believe it is this: when we use the expression al – that God’s hand was on or over the prophet – we mean that God works His design in human affairs through this individual; but the man himself remains passive and insignificant. The prophet, over whom the hand of God has been placed, is only a mouthpiece for God’s message. His own personality cannot be asserted – it has been suffocated. It might just as well have been somebody else whom God chose for this mission. The prophet’s character and personality are submerged in his duty. He is used by God – he never asserts his unique self. He is the fortunate accident of predestined history.But w…

We read in this portion that Miriam took the timbrel in her hand and that the women followed her with timbrels and dances. The author of keli yakar maintains that this song that she sang was the result of the Holy Spirit. However, this Spirit, being an aspect of prophecy, can come to a person only when they rest or dwell in joy and happiness. Therefore, since a woman suffers pangs of birth — and this implies as well the difficultie and hardships of raising children, which task devolves more on the woman than on the man — therefore she required timbrels, which Moses and the men did not, in order to place them in a happier mood and thereby be able to obtain the spirit of song and prophecy Interestingly, R. Bahye b. Asher says that the last word, for dances, meholot, should also be read mehilot, forgiveness. This means, he says, that whoever has a miracle performed to him and responds with shirah, in gratitude to God, is forgiven all his sins. Having arrived at this point, Judy, where you have officiated at this wonderful Bar Mitzvah, the last of three, it is something of a miracle. Your attitude, and the spirit of all of us, is one of shirah — and therefore all your sins are for- given, i.e., you start a new chapter in life, one which we hope will be filled with good news and happiness.

1. Stanley Stern said nice things about me. I'd like to say, publicly, how proud I am of Stanley... not only in person, but symbol – of war + young. Vigorous public-spirited + comm'y-mixed leadership... Parsha... His parents. Please don't suspect חיישינן לגומלין – reciprocity of flattery. ST – Zeide – אין וועל שלווגרן דין טאטע, או דושלאג מיינעם... Not at all... genuine apprec'n – would like thank all you to com'g ....... 2. This evening not a eulogy... inappropriate חנוכה celebration

1. "ויבא אברהם לספוד שרה ולבכותה". מדוע לא נכתב ההספד בכתוב? אלא – הג"ר חיים שמועל ביץ זצ"ל, ראש ישיבת מיר: אמרתם אכן לא אמר דבר אע"פ שרצה להספידה שכן "אברהם תפל לשרה בנביאות", אין ערך לגדולתה, ורק מי ששוה אליה בנבואה יכול להספידה. כך אין ביכלתי להעריך את גודל שני הגאונים הגדולים, ("הנותר' מדז'דאסא") שאנו מברכים עליהם ואותם היום בבואם לחסות לשנה זו בתוך כותלי בית מדרשנו – אין כחי יפה לתאר את ערכם הרם של "שרה", שני שרי התורה האלה, ומוטב שאגזור על עצמי את השתיקה.

I am honored to have been invited to participate in this dedication of the Max Stern Auditorium at The Jewish Center. It would seem so simple to delineate the virtues of this remarkable personality who walked in our midst and who left so profound an impression upon all of us. Yet I find the challenge of doing so quite daunting. It is difficult to speak about Max Stern, paradoxically, because there is so much to say about him. Where does one begin? Consider how much there was to admire in him: his piety and his perspicuity; his Jewishness and his generosity; his loves and his loyalties; his faith and his philanthropy; and, as well, his handsomeness and his humor. Indeed, while he would undoubtedly have enjoyed this great tribute to him, I doubt if he would have wanted it to take on too somber and funereal a character. He would have preferred a dash of humor, even a funny story about him—because he was a man who was fully alive and he knew how to laugh. But there is one feature of his life that, in the perspective of the last five years without him, stands out most boldly: the element of coherence and cohesiveness, of continuity and consistency. He was not just a bundle of unrelated qualities. All the attributes of his complex personality were ultimately bent to one purpose, one overarching theme that was dominant in his life. Permit me to explain by referring to this morning's Sidra. When Noah, after the tragic incident with Ham, offers a blessing to his son Shem, he says ברוך ה' אלקי שם, "blessed is the Lord the God of Shem." But how does this help and reward Shem? Why not say simply and directly, ברוך שם, "blessed is Shem?" After all, it was Shem who showed profound respect and who demonstrated the proper filial sensitivity? This implicit question lies at the root of a number of varied explanations of this verse, offered by our greatest commentators. The comments of Rashi, Ramban, Ibn Ezra, Bekhor Shor—all are fundamentally answers to this same question. I suggest…

Rabbi Dr. Norman Lamm pays tribute to his teacher, Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik.

In the two minutes so graciously allotted to me, I have the delightful but unenviable task of introducing to you Mrs. Erica Jesselson who is to receive the annual Patron Award of the National Foundation for Jewish Culture. I say "unenviable" because, having known her for more than half a century, it would take me more than two days or even two weeks to enumerate her prodigious virtues which commend her for this honor to this sophisticated audience. I shall opt, therefore, for an introduction that requires far less time and constitutes a much shorter list, namely — her faults, the "Vices of Erica Jesselson!" First, Erica Jesselson is extremely, perhaps overly, generous — and that puts so many of her affluent peers to shame. She not only dispenses great philanthropy on her own behalf and in behalf of her late and much lamented husband Luddy to major institutions of Jewish education, Israeli universities, hospitals, etc., and to The National Foundation for Jewish Culture, but also to countless smaller institutions and to individuals. She cannot resist an outstretched palm, an earnest request. She gives tzedakah far in excess of the limits recommended by Jewish law. So, she is generous to a fault — a vice indeed! Second, she gets personally involved in her causes. She opens not only her purse but also her heart. She gives not only her dollars, but also her time and concern and her personal service and her love and her leadership. She is often so involved that those who are close to her fear that it will prove injurious to her emotional and her physical health — and even a drain on her highly creative talents in public relations, taste, esthetics, and quality in general. Third, Erica Jesselson shuns honors far too often. She, like her late husband, revels in anonymity. The National Foundation for Jewish Culture is lucky that she consented to accept this tribute; other organizations have been less fortunate. She is a hoarder — she hoards mitzvot for their own sake, and h…