Torah Umesorah - The National Society for Hebrew Day Schools
Dear Mr. Trump,
We hope this letter finds you in good health and high spirits. Torah Umesorah – The National Society for Hebrew Day Schools, is dedicated to the advancement and support of Jewish education across the United States. For many years, our organization has worked tirelessly to ensure that Jewish children receive a high-quality education rooted in Jewish values and traditions.
It is with great pleasure and respect that we extend an invitation to you to be the Guest of Honor at our Annual Torah Umesorah Dinner, to be held on Rikers Island. This event is one of our most significant gatherings of the year, bringing together leaders, educators, and supporters of Jewish education from across the country.
Your presence as Guest of Honor would be an exceptional highlight of the evening. We recognize your longstanding support for educational initiatives and your contributions to the Jewish community. It would be an honor to have you join us and share your insights and experiences with our attendees.
The evening will commence with a reception at Block 45 (there are no coincidences), followed by dinner and a formal program. We would be deeply honored if you could deliver a keynote address, reflecting on the importance of education, respectful dating advice for our teenagers, and community support. We will have red hats to be distributed at the dinner for the mega donors, with the logo - "GRAB 'EM BY THE TORAH"!
Please find enclosed additional details about the event and our organization. We would be delighted to discuss any specific arrangements or accommodations you might require. Kindly let us know your availability at your earliest convenience.
We are eagerly looking forward to the possibility of welcoming you and would be grateful for your consideration of our invitation. Your participation would significantly contribute to the success of our event and further our mission to enhance Jewish education.
Thank you for your time and consideration. We hope to hear from you soon.
Warm regards,
Vaad Roshei Yeshiva - Torah Umesorah - The National Society for Hebrew Day Schools
VAAD ROSHEI YESHIVA
HaRav Hillel David
HaRav Shmuel Kamenetsky
HaRav Aryeh Malkiel Kotler
Every
period on the Jewish calendar holds some special significance, and
Sefirah is no different. No weddings, no haircuts, and — sorry, no
music. It seems that people find it particularly difficult to come to
terms with the ban on music during this time.
When I was a child,
my father owned an orchestra, and I grew up around singers and concerts,
so I totally get it. This was always a difficult challenge for me. And
clearly, I was not alone. Today we have an entire industry of a cappella
music CDs, designed specifically for the Sefirah period.
The
kinds of questions rabbanim receive during these weeks clearly indicates
an intense thirst to circumvent this restriction against music. Can I
just practice my instrument? Can I listen to music while I work out at
the gym? While traveling in the car to keep from falling asleep? What
about slow, emotional music? What if I make a siyum? And the list goes on and on. To keep away from music for just a few weeks proves to be quite the feat.
But
I want to reflect, if I may, on a message that we can all learn from
this ban against music during Sefirah. What is the practical takeaway
here?
Music’s Connection to Torah
To arrive at our point, we must first appreciate, on a more general level, music’s special place in Yiddishkeit.
The author of Pe’as Hashulchan
(in his introduction) quotes the following incredibly bold statement
made by his rebbi, the Vilna Gaon: Most secrets of the Torah can best be
understood and appreciated only through the art of music. Only music
has the unique power that enables a person to fully delve into the
profound and esoteric ideas of the Torah and properly understand them.
But how does this work? What is this profound connection between music and Torah?
Rav
Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz explained this connection. Music is more
abstract than any other art. It affects us not on an intellectual,
rational level but on a deep spiritual level. It washes over us and
affects us in ways that are impossible to explain. Think about the times
a beat has got you tapping your feet before you even realized it. Or
the way background music is used in plays, shows, or videos to heighten
every kind of emotion you can name. Why does music possess that unique
power?
Music is the most direct route to the soul. That’s its
power. That’s how it affects us. It touches us in ways we can’t find
words to express — because it enables us to connect to our neshamah. The transcendent job of a song’s melody is to open up one’s neshamah to the deeper message that is at the heart of that song.
Yaakov
Shwekey, the world-renowned singer, recalls a moving story about the
power of music he heard from the chief rabbi of Tiberias. The rabbi’s
wife was diagnosed with a rare brain tumor, and the doctors decided to
perform a very complex and dangerous surgery to try to save her. They
told her husband that if she didn’t regain consciousness by seven days
post-surgery, her chances of recovery would become extremely minuscule.
The
surgery was done and the days started to pass, and the rebbetzin was
not waking up. The rabbi and his family understandably were feeling
anxious and fearful, but there was little they could do besides pour out
their hearts in prayer. On the seventh day post-surgery, with feelings
of desperation creeping in, the rabbi passed by a marketplace on the
street where he overheard the beautiful song “Rachem” piercing the air —
the heartful, penetrating melody of a Yid pleading with Hashem to send
forth salvation.
In a spontaneous reaction, he ran into the store,
bought the CD, and made a quick dash to the hospital. With time running
out, he sprinted into his wife’s hospital room, put the headphones over
her ears, and started to play the song. His wife suddenly and
miraculously woke up at the very moment the song ended. She later told
her husband that somehow the song “Rachem” had aroused her soul,
prompting her to immediately wake up. Genuine Jewish music is truly the
song of the soul.
That, according to the Vilna Gaon, is why music is intrinsically connected to Torah understanding. Music can open a person’s neshamah, and certain profound concepts of Torah can only be appreciated and absorbed when the neshamah
has been activated in its full glory. Music can thus be used as a
medium of enabling the Torah to penetrate the soul. In other words,
music is the window to the soul, and the soul is the window to the
Torah.
Rav Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz explained that each of the instruments used to praise Hashem mentioned inTehillim 150 —
shofar, harp, and flute, among others — elicits a different emotional
response; one arouses happiness, another evokes tears, and another
encourages deep reflection. The general message here is that one must
serve Hashem with every emotion in his system.
The Radak (Tehillim 4)
explains that each chapter of Tehillim was intended to be sung with
musical accompaniment, each with its own designated instruments and
melody. The reason for this is that Dovid Hamelech composed each chapter
with the intent to arouse very specific thoughts, understandings, and
emotions.
Refreshing Our Relationship with Music
To sum up, music is the window to the soul, and through tapping into the soul, one is able to better acquire the Torah.
Now
we can return to the message of Sefirah. As an expression of mourning
over the deaths of 24,000 holy students of Rabi Akiva, we don’t listen
to music during this period of the year. But perhaps we can also take
with us a deeper message about our general relationship with music.
We
are now approaching the day of Matan Torah, that special day on which
we recommit to accepting, fulfilling, and learning the Torah. Perhaps
during the weeks leading up to Kabbalas HaTorah, we are meant to
re-invent our relationship with music as well, which will enhance our
ability to succeed in acquiring the Torah.
To renew our
relationship with music, we need a few weeks to totally disengage from
it. We need a complete reboot of our system, total abstention from all
music, to think about what real music is and isn’t. Which music is
actually soul-penetrating, which music is just noise?
Is the song
being played in my home something that helps me get more in touch with
my soul, or is it something that pulls me away? Is the deeper message of
this melody something that I want to integrate into my soul? During
this period we stop listening to all music cold-turkey in order to
reflect and perhaps refresh our relationship with it — before applying
ourselves to the ultimate soul-service, Hashem’s Torah.
Let’s all
take stock at this moment to ensure that we are utilizing the tremendous
gift of genuine soul-stirring melody, rather than being infiltrated by
the “music” loaded with impurities stemming from the outside world. Now
is the perfect time, while we prepare for Kabbalas HaTorah, to ensure
that our neshamos are properly fine-tuned, in top form, at full
strength, and ready to delight in the most sublime and exalted
existence, the holy Torah.
