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December 11, 1977

Speech at Chanukkah Banquet (1977)

Chanukah Yeshiva University The University
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Speech

Address at Yeshiva University Centennial Hanukkah Dinner (1986)

I know of no better way to express our collective gratitude at reaching the venerable age of 100, or my individual thanksgiving for ten years in office, than by reciting with you the traditional blessing, “She’hecheyanu ve’kiymanu ve’higianu la-zeman ha-zeh.” Blessed is God who has granted us life, let us exist, and enabled us to reach this season. The three critical verbs in this ancient blessing form a meaningful framework for our most cherished sentiments this day. Let us look at them, one by one, in reverse order. Ve’higianu: “He has enabled us to reach this day.” There were several years during this past decade when we never thought we would reach this day, when our future was in doubt. There were those who counseled us to close our doors and go out of business. Others advised us to declare insolvency even though we would live under a cloud forever after. But those of stouter hearts and greater vision and courage prevailed – and we persevered and fought and labored with unfaltering spirit as virtually every member of our boards rallied around our magnificent lay leadership. And so – we have “reached this day” – with dignity and honor. In thanking the Almighty, I thank too the instruments of His salvation: the distinguished leaders of our boards whose names I refrain from mentioning both out of respect for their humility and out of fear of inadvertently omitting other worthies; our many friends who gave sacrificially of both their time and their substance; my colleagues, whose loyalty and hard work bordered on the unbelievable; all of you who are with us to celebrate and who so richly deserve to join us in our joy because you were with us in our times of woe and worry. Ve’kiymanu. God let us exist to this day. This verb has always bothered me. Surely, if she’hecheyanu and ve’higianu – if He granted us life and enabled us to reach this day – then certainly He granted us existence! I am reminded of the Woody Allen character who wrote a scholarly paper, entitled, …
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Speech

Address by Dr. Lamm at the Occasion of the 77th Annual Hanukkah Dinner (2001)

I am overwhelmed by the extravagant introduction by the officers of our University Board of Trustees. The praise has been so extravagant, the encomia so dazzling, the presentation so persuasive, that I thank you for enabling me to draw inspiration – from myself... But, don’t worry about my getting a swelled head as a result, because I always recall something that happened just about 25 years ago. I was elected in August 1976 and in September, after school started I decided to mingle with the students. So, I proceeded to have lunch in the cafeteria. Now, in the cafeteria in those days there were three price levels, the lowest for students, then faculty, then outsiders. I took my tray, placed my lunch on it, and presented myself to the cashier. She looked at me and said, “You’re not a student, are you?” I said, “No.” “Are you member of the faculty?” I said, “No.” “Oh, then you’re an outsider.” I said, “No.” At which she loudly exclaimed, “So you’re a nobody.” It would be both foolish and arrogant of me to accept all the credit for these achievements. The support of countless individuals, working together, deserves credit for our improved status: cooperative governing boards, understanding faculties, hard working administrators, sophisticated and successful Investment Committee people, diligent fundraisers and many, many others. As for my own role, I am – to use a Twelfth Century metaphor – a dwarf standing on the shoulders of giants, namely, my distinguished predecessors, Dr. Bernard Revel and Dr. Samuel Belkin zikhronam liverakha, whose immense contributions to Yeshiva University, to Jewish education, to general higher education, to the scientific and medical communities, to the law community and especially to the Torah community – indeed, to all of society – should never be forgotten. In thanking them and all of you for your many expressions of kindness, I welcome you to this happy Annual Hanukkah Dinner. In so doing, permit me to mention that Yeshiva placed an ad …
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Speech

Yeshiva University 70th Annual Hanukkah Dinner (1994)

I have often wondered: Why is there such an elaborate festival of Hanukkah to commemorate the re-dedication Temple in Jerusalem, yet nothing to celebrate its original construction? Why eight full days for rebuilding and not a single day for the original building by King Solomon? I suggest that the answer is this: re-doing is far more arduous than doing; it elicits less inspiration, there is no drama, almost no thrill, and a painful absence of applauding audiences and cheering crowds. The Rabbis of the Talmud put it succinctly: קשה עתיקא מחדתא — the old is more difficult than the new.But it is precisely because it is so much more thankless, because it appears so much less rewarding, that it is considered as or more important, and hence more praiseworthy, than the original doing. Because the Macabbean effort at rededicating the Temple was less dramatic and impressive than Solomon's initial construction that we remember Hanukkah annually to the accompaniment of candles and song, prayer and pomp.That is, at core, the message of renewal, although it is also called by a variety of other names, all of which essentially boil down to the same thing —reinventing, recreating, remaking, restoring, reprioritizing, rebuilding.Voltaire (in his Philosophical Dictionary) partially recognized the truth of this idea when he wrote:Men who are occupied with the restoration of health to other men, by the joint exercise of skill and humanity, are above all the great of the earth. They even partake of divinity, since to preserve and renew is almost as noble as to create.Although I thank Monsieur Voltaire on behalf of our Albert Einstein College of Medicine for his accolade for physicians, I say that he was only "partially right" because it holds true not only for medicine but, as well, for a host of other disciplines which help mankind in its quest for renewal. Moreover, it is not only "almost as noble as to create" but, I submit, more noble.That is what Hanukkah teaches us: to recognize …
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