Divrei Hesped and Tributes for Rabbi Moshe Hauer, zt"l

As we are gathering today, usually when we're standing here or sitting here, I'm sitting next to Rabbi Hower and I sort of keep thinking in my eye looking to the corner, he's going to come running In before we begin, we we are aware that there are some potential Amazon Web Services issues and Zoom services. If if anybody loses connectivity, we're recording the entire program here. So, if you're joining us via Zoom uh and you get disconnected, please know we'll send out the recording soon. We we've been sending out a number of things via email, Shiva information, signing up to learn Mishnayas, uh an email address to share your memories, slots to record your memories on video today, recordings of the Levia, various housepad and so on so forth. Please keep an eye out for emails. One of the reasons we're asking you to share is as you know I spent a lot of time with him and he didn't really we didn't hold anything back from each other and yet over the last few days just smooing with people I'm finding out oh he was involved in that oh he helps you over here and the more we are able to share the stories the more we are able to share with each other how incredible Rabbi Mosha Israel of binyaminhau was and how important his legacy is. So please we'll find other venues. Please do continue to share. I um we have a bit of a program today and uh we will we'll try to get through it try to get through everything. To begin I want to ask our president Mitch Ader for a few words. This really is just coffee despite my inclinations otherwise. So two years ago, almost exactly two years ago, on the first day back in the office after Simas Torah, we gathered in this room stunned to grieve, to cry, to share. It's hard to believe. Here we are again two years later and the shock feels even greater and the loss even more personal. I want to begin with a word of thanks. On Wednesday night after you got the news and we're all reeling in shock, a number of you, many of you sitting in this room, some of you in in this room did not have the liberty to try to process the news because you were working round the clock as Josh mentioned, sending drafting, sending out messages, announcements to the staff, to the board, to the broader community, all while having to to suppress your own grief. You know who you are. I know who you are. We're all indebted to you. Each one of us knew Rabbi Hower as kind, articulate, warm, witty. I think the wits have gotten lost a little bit in some of the some of the eulogies, how funny he was. Um, and and the puns that he used to use. Um, unfortunately, I don't remember them. We should have written them down. Um, Ariadai is a scholarly principled principled principal principal. We knew him as a rebby, an adviser, a confidant, a teacher, a leader, and most as a friend. In all of these capacities, he somehow managed to be a towering figure, but softspoken and humbled at the same time. One time I scolded him for giving an assignment to some some person here in the OU who didn't report to him. He looked at me like shocked. He said, "I didn't give him an assignment. I made a suggestion." As Rabbi Hower, when Moshain speaks, there's no such thing as as a suggestion. Among his many roles, Rabbi Hower was our representative, the OU representative, the Orthodox community representative on various broad communal organizations. As I often got to tag along with him to meetings and conferences, I got a firsthand view of how Rabbi Hower was both respected, incredibly respected, and effective. These are not orthodox forums to put them. But Rabbi Hower befriended people from the far right to the far left politically from and from the far right to the far left religiously. He was universally respected as a man of supreme integrity, honesty and principle, including by people whose outlooks and values were contrary to his. Just one example. Um, a week after 107, October 7th, two years ago, the Conference of Presidents had a mission to to Israel. I think we was October 18th, so literally a week or two afterwards. And I don't remember, there were 40 or 50 of us for for 48 hours together in Israel and meeting with, you know, all kinds of fancy people as well as um some survivors of the attacks. Um, and at each of the various places we stopped, one of the one of the Jewish leaders who was on the trip got to say a few words. Um, the last night of the trip sitting in a room um with um a whole bunch of people who had been displaced from one of the Kubam near near Aza, Robbie Howard was asked to give the final address. He was the last speaker. They asked him because they knew he could better than anyone else. He could make sense of it all and communicate to everyone. Right? In fact, someone um someone who was there just just sent me the uh recording of it which I haven't had a chance to relisten to, but I remember remember distinctly. I remember I'll just mention a a name that I thought about this this morning. So, one of the uh people who was on that trip, a woman named Sheila Katz, who's the CEO of the uh National Council of Jewish Women, um who describes herself as a reformed Jewish progressive woman. Um um she wrote, and over the past week, I was going to quote her. She wrote, "To me, Rabbi Howard's larger than any biblical figure. Together, we were an unlikely duo that came together to advocate against anti-semitism, to pro to promote safety in Israel, and for the return of the hostages. We learned Torah together. We debated each other just often. What began as a simple coalition work being true a true partnership and a profound friendship. It's unbelievable. It's unbelievable. And he was not only respected, but he was effective. His goal in every meeting, in every context, in every interaction was to defend the Torah, to to defend the Torah in halaka and to instill Torah values in ways large and small. I'm going tell a small example, not all that exciting, but from last week, from last Sunday. So the conference of presidents has this group that's a sort of an umbrella organization made up of 50 or a million Jewish organizations across the spectrum and they wanted to put out a consensus statement on the release of the hostages that we signed by every single of the organizations. Now you can't get all these organizations to agree that it's Monday, right? I mean there's just nothing, right? Okay. So they wanted to do and they put out they they sent around a statement. So I was ner's role and I I got um you know I got a a copy of the draft uh to sign off on um and normally I don't read these sort of things because Rabbi Howard does but it was still nighttime in in in America. So I figured take a look at it right um before finding out if he had actually read it. Right. So I I was reading it along and then um I stopped when I came across the following sentence and the sentence reads, "We express a profound gratitude to the Almighty for bringing us to this day of relief and renewal." I knew that right that moment Rabbi Hower had had a hand in the drafting. He insisted that God be mentioned in every context and and he insisted, right? He was he was softspoken, but he was principled and he did not bend. And in fact, when I spoke with him later that day, he said, "Pretty cool. I got God in there, huh?" Yeah. If we had a game and we had to describe Rabbi Howard in five words or less, my offering would be Rabbi Howard cared. Whoa. How we cared? He cared deeply about the war, the hostages. He cared deeply about Jews on college campuses. He cared deeply about the Karedi draft and about lack of commitment to Torah. They care about every individual, friend, family, colleague, stranger, single mothers, especially his children. He cared about singles and pushed relentlessly to our CCR to publish his studies. He hated Zoom meetings, right? Because they allowed people not to be present. He was always present. I worried that he cared too much, that he internalized his concerns. He always pushed me off and said, "I have a great support system." I urged him to slow down, to take more vacation, he said, "But there's so much to do." He just cared all the time. Now, vacation was not the only thing that he and I disagreed about. Rabbi Hower and I had a complicated relationship. I was his boss and he was my rebby. It's complicated. We were lying most of the time, right? But we also argued and we debated. We're both stubborn. We frustrated each other. We had some hard conversations. But here's the thing. Every conversation ended with a hug and sometimes a kiss. Every single time. Speaking of hugs, it's been noted that the U um is a hugging culture and um that's both wonderful and complicated. Haka dictates that I cannot hug half of you and that's challenging in a time like this. that I can offer each one of you a warm, empathetic, virtual hug from the tips of my fingers to the bottom of my heart. Dozens of you have contacted me since Wednesday via phone, text, email to offer condolences and support. I cannot tell you how much I appreciate each and every message, the love and concern. is a testament to the humanity and goodness of the people of the OU, our people. Within the next hour, we're all going to go back to serving Cloud Israel. That's what we do. And we're going to do it without our rebby. That's be very hard for a very long time. But thanks to him, we'll also do it with a renewed sense of family and holiness and brotherhood and sister brotherhood and sister sisterhood that make this organization so great. Thank you. Thank you, Mitch. Dozens and dozens and dozens of emails and virtual hugs and actual hugs have been given by each one of you, whether to Mitch or to me or to each other, because the only way we will all get through this is if we get through it together. And that's the way Rebah would have wanted it to be. One of the amazing opportunities we have had to witness together is the coming together of the whole organization from CLA to Kash. Let me ask Rabbi Mosha Elephant to share a few words. So we in Cashris who are having a hard time ourselves accepting what happened here absorbing had a very different relationship with Rabbi Hower than most of you because most of you worked for him. We didn't work for him. We worked with him. And it gives us a very very different perspective. There's a garra, the garra says shabas, the rav, one of the great Amoroyam who was about to pass away and he was planning his own funeral and he told his student Rashm Bash, I am asking you to be the one to give the eulogy at my funeral. And he says to him, Inspire the people. Get the people aroused when you speak the homna cuz I'm going to be there and I'm watching you. What a complicated statement. Rav is giving him direction. Make sure that you say something right about me. And moreover, if Rav did not feel that he was competent to say a proper hespid, so then why did Rav ask him to say it that he had to give him instruction? So I think the explanation is very different. Rav was telling him, I don't want you to spend the time at the eulogy to speak about me. It doesn't make a difference anymore. Everybody there knew who I am. I want you to know. I want you to speak. If I were here, what would I be saying? And we've heard and there's so many people who will be speaking I'm sure here and in other places who knew Rabbi Hower much better than I knew him and could speak about him and defined the man much better than I could ever. But what I would like to speak about is Kimna. What would Rabbi Harris say? What do I think Rabbi Harold would be saying ham if he was standing here? The Gomorrah says, and I think it's what every person in this room is feeling, if we have a group of people that are joined together as we are particularly now, one of them passes away. The entire group has to be concerned. And the Garra questions, who is that individual? And one opinion is the galabura the greatest person in the group and the other opinion is the kotabur the least significant person and many explain it's really one and the same who is the goabura who is the most important person in the group the one who is caught in shabura the one is considers himself the smallest my first interaction with Rabbi Hower was after he joined the OU. It was a complicated time. It was right as co was affecting all of us and we had just not long before launched our program of all daf all Toro and Rabbi Hower was very excited was very very excited about that project and we spoke many times about his vision for that project how we could expand the project and bring more Torah to everyone in Claus But every conversation, every conversation that we had that I had with Rabbi Hower ended the same way. He says, "I want it to be done quietly. I want it to be done without much fanfare. I want it to be done shame shayim but I don't want a lot of noise around it because as has been said and I'm sure will be said many time many people sitting in this room certainly I the last time I heard Rabbi Harris speak publicly was when we had the executive retreat in September. He spoke beautifully but he said something which I think really is the husam kaimna is what he was. He said at that event that his wife's grandfather, Rabbi Alexander Rosenberg, the first rabbitic administrator of U Kosher, when he came to our when Rabbi Howard came here, I still remember when in all of our offices, there was a picture of Rabbi Rosenberg and it used to wander from office to office and he said it ended up in his office, I guess, because it was his wife's grandfather. And he said, "Everybody knew that the way Rabbi Rosenberg lived and conducted himself and conducted his affairs was with three words. Vos vilgot, what does God want?" And that's how he acted. And I think in every interaction Jab Hower had, whether as we just heard from Mitch, his public persona, whether running this organization together with Josh, I think every decision was motivated by Vilgat, what does God want? And he knew that God wants he wants us to be modest. But the only time that I saw that majesty, that humble behavior sort of crack is when he came in contact with children. I remember that the individual who dedicated and started ALDAF, Steve Neworth, another great individual who unfortunately passed away very young, 60 years old. And we had a hespid and a sudismah by his first yard site in New Relle in the shoe where he davened and his children were there. He left number of children none of them married and he had one son who had just a young boy barely by mitzvah and Rabbi Howard didn't know that family I remember the first time Rabbi Hower I introduced Rabbi Howard to Steve Neworth on a phone call and he certainly didn't know Steve personally he didn't know his family personally but at that see him Rabbi Hower went over to Steve's son and hugged him and cried with him. And then we traveled once to Manchester and London for a see him. And there was a see him and we made the see him and there was dancing and there were a number of parents who had brought their children in Manchester to attend the Rabbi Howard pulled those children to the side and sang and danced and cried with them. And lastly, we got an email when we started this program. There was a boy, his name is Charlie, I don't even know his last name, who lives in Tene, who started listening to the dafomi. And every night he would gather a bunch of his friends and teach them the dafomi. And we even made a short video about Charlie. And the following sukus after we publicized that video, Rabbi Hower was inlay for yontiff and he was in the mirha and he was there for the sima and Charlie was there as well and how went over to him and hugged him and kissed him and said you're the hero because you're the one that learns Torah caring for every Jew, every young Jew. But there's one more facet of Rabbi Howard that I would like to speak about. And maybe, as I said, this is what he would want us to be thinking about. And maybe that's what he would want us to continue. Rabbi Har, as we heard from Mitch, was a very, very busy person. Maybe too busy. We're hearing. But what Har also taught me is that he didn't forget about the individuals and he we recently a granddaughter of mine got married a few weeks ago and the is from Baltimore and we were in Baltimore for the Shabas of and it was Friday afternoon and Rabbi Howard calls and he says to me you're in Baltimore. I said yes. She says where are you? I told him where I was. He says, "I'm coming over to visit." Says, "Rabbi Elephant came to Baltimore. I'm not going to come visit him." And then, this was on Friday. And then Monday, which was Labor Day, and we were all off that day. It was the day of the wedding in Lakewood. And Rabbi Howard traveled for over three hours from Baltimore to Lakewood and then back to Baltimore to attend the wedding. his relationship with us, with every one of us. I'm not speaking about myself. I'm not speaking about Rabbi Schuade. I'm speaking about all of us. Was he was our friend. It wasn't just that we were colleagues. It wasn't just that he was the big boss. He was a friend of ours. We were family. And he attended our simas like you attend the sim of a family. And maybe the lesson that we should learn from Rabbi Howard is we're all going to think about his legacy and we're going to think about his ashkaf and his philosophy and his approach to all the problems that are facing Clausal Rol. But one of the things that we should be thinking about is what a mench he was. And he treated everybody else like a mench. And maybe the biggest that we could do for him is treat each other like a mench. Maybe tomorrow morning when we come to work, we'll remember, and I'm speaking to myself, we'll remember to say good morning to everyone and give everyone a smile and ask everyone, "How are you doing?" At that mid at my grandson's bitzvah a few months ago, he came and it was most interesting. He said, "We know that every year tishab Hower did a program. One year before he was here, he did a program on and tishabove about the clothesba, the separate story, a survivor of the holocaust. And my grandson's grandfather was a tal of the closena lived in Baltimore. Before he gave that presentation, he asked to meet my grand my grand my son-in-law's grandfather to talk to them about who the closen reb was that he would have what to say and he came and he brought him to that the Reb wrote. He made the he spoke he made the presentation and after tishab he wanted to return the swarum and this man said no hold on to them 14 years later he never wanted to take back the swarum 14 years later this man's greatgrandson's bitzvah rabbi hower comes to the bitzvah and says I owe this family those two swarm back and he gave my grandson those swarm as a and he wrote and I there's it's not the time and place to read the last words the words that he wrote in there but I want to say two things about that mitzvah the morning of that bait mitzvah he called Rabbi Schuade he says you know I'm going to come to the mitzvah you've asked me to speak at that mitzvah I know your your father-in-law Rabbi elephant I have what to say about him I know you I have what to say about him but it's your your son's by mitzvah I want to have something to say about him. Let him feel special. Tell me about your son. Tell me about your son. And he told him, and then he wrote this beautiful note. He told me he wrote it in the car driving from here to Lakewood. And the last words that he wrote to my grandson are the words that we've heard so much about Rabbi Hower. He blesses him. You should grow up to be anem which the gar says that what do people say about a good person of shalom his parents are fortunate ashray rabbi shalom ashray clas unfortunately Rabbi Harold was taken away way way too young and we don't understand but we don't have questions but how taught us all how to live and how taught us that we should all aspire to be a that we should be a hashem that every one of us should constantly in whatever we do create a kdeshm and if we will continue creating a kdeshm in all of our activities Humna Rabbi Howell will be with us forever. Thank you. Rabbi Elephant Harris started at the OU a few months before me. So I would often go to events and say could just if you know somebody there's somebody you could introduce me to. And I I was referring to the staff. So one of my one of the memories is the first half year that I was here. It was January and there was a nakyomi at congregation Beth Shalom in my community in Lawrence. And of course he didn't tell me he was speaking. But I I wanted to go see it. And I walk in and I see him. He's like, "Oh, I want to introduce you to somebody." And he takes me over to a 12-year-old girl who was doing being Messiah, who's finishing all of Nak. And he introduced me to her and he told me about her. And then he took me over to a group of women who had come in from. I I don't even remember their names now. He knew every single person. He had met every single person. He had remembered who they were. He talked about them to be able to introduce me. That was, as Rabbi Alfam pointed out, his ability to care about the individual, remember their stories, and speak to them. The author of that event of course is Rabbitson Dr. Adina Schmidman who's going to speak share a few words with usim leadership and my dear colleagues. Thank you for the opportunity to share words of hespid for Rabbi Mosha Yusra Benbin Yammenhauer Zatal. I offer my thoughts as part of the U family, one of the many who was impacted and inspired by Rabbi Howard the person and Rabbi Hower the leader. It is a tall order to deliver these words and so please forgive me if I fall short. I had the unique privilege to work for and with Rabbi Mosha Hower for the past five and a half years. And when I looked through my files this week, I found hundreds of files with his name. Meeting notes, agendas, reflections, drafts. Each one is a record of a conversation, an idea, a question that captured his signature blend of clarity, humility, and care. His reflective listening and insights, pointed questions, and unfailing support. Emma Katz, a member of the women's initiative team, asked me on Friday, "When Rabbi Howard joined the OU, what was his vision for the department? and had a hard time answering because while he certainly had vision, expansive, insightful, Torah driven, it was never imposed from above. His leadership was never about asserting control, but about creating space. He led by listening, by integrating, by elevating others. His vision wasn't about driving his own agenda. It was cultivated together. And while I genuinely felt that space, looking back at all of these files, it is so clear how much voice and impact Rabbi Hower had on the department. Our first team meeting was at the Asella Lounge at 30th Street Station in Philadelphia. As COVID was just beginning, it was a time of uncertainty and fear. But even then, his calm presence gave direction. That moment set the tone for the years that followed. Years marked by challenge and resilience. COVID, war, tragedy. Yet under his guidance, we found purpose. We found meaning. He reminded us that the Torah does not pause for crisis. that our aris, our responsibility to one another only deepens in moments of pain. And that is how we learned from him, not through instruction alone, but through example. For me, the moment that comes to mind most easily, a defining moment that embodies who Rabbi Hower was as a leader and as a person is the Torah Halaka initiative. Rabbi Hower wanted to see women learning hala. As simple as that. I raised a myriad of complexities, issues that were very concerning and that needed to be resolved. and he would offer solutions, direction, back and forth for two years. I would put it last on our agenda week after week, hoping that we wouldn't get to it because the issues seemed insurmountable. But he kept after it. He told me, "Don't let perfection be the enemy of the good." No was not an option because Rabbi Hower wouldn't accept that there was no solution until finally with Hashem's intervention a direction was found. And after we rolled out this program, I loved sharing the feedback, the impact. Even a few weeks ago, I shared a message with Rabbi Hower from a woman who wrote, "Thank you for the daily halaka during Aser Tshua, reminding me about the insertions in Shimona. I'm not sure why it went out of my head, but thank you for these emails so at least I could fix it today. There are several takeaways from this experience for me and I hope for all of us. You can champion a value and advanced ideas relentlessly without telling people what to do. And even with all of the back and forth, and it was not a simple program roll out, two years of pushing is not easy. Yet, I never hesitated to share the program's impact with Rabbi Hower because I knew that it would bring him nahas and he would never say, "I told you so." or "You shouldn't have waited so long." There was no ego in the exchange, just an understanding of what women need and a respect for their desire to learn and grow. He was a cheerleader for projects, listening to every detail, offering feedback with patience and precision. Whether supporting mental health for women in communal positions, investing in lay leadership, sharing insights with mikvah professionals, he was there speaking at our conferences, inspiring staff and participants alike. He met with the women who came from across the country to these events, listening to their stories, understanding their communities, encouraging their leadership. In the last few days, so many have reached out to share that when they approached Rabbi Hower with a personal challenge. His sensitivity and care were healing, and his willingness to help was transformative. In those private interactions, as in every public setting, he led with compassion first. His empathy was never theoretical. It was deeply felt, reflected in how he treated each person with dignity and patience. Whenever I asked, he joined to Hillm rallies, sharing words that were simultaneously grounding and at the same time uplifting, recording video segments for Le Kenos and Tishabove programs, sharing the values and connection he so deeply believed resided within Claius. in the days following his pass saying a woman wrote to me. I really benefited from the many times he addressed the women on Zoom Aifas over the past two years. He constructed meaning and purpose out of challenge and despair. And now we must somehow do the same. Her words capture what so many of us feel. that Rabbi Hower had the rare ability to take hardship and transform it into direction to help us find amuna in moments of uncertainty. And at the Tori Mecca Museum that Josh referenced, his dire braha elevated the event. His recognition and pride of women's learning accomplishments elevated the kaduca of the moment. His words always had a transcendent quality, uplifting, insightful, and exactly what was needed at that moment. He knew what to say and how to say it. My husband has shared that after 120 years, each of us will need to face a din a judgment and accounting. But if you pause to think about this phrase, perhaps it should be reversed. First and then din. First there should be an accounting and then a judgment. So why this order of din? And additionally, Hashem is all knowing. Does he really need to make a he knows where everybody's account stands? All of our deeds and misdeeds. Perhaps because after a person's time in this world, the continues every act of kindness they inspired, every word of Torah that spreads because of them, every good deed that traces back to their influence, it keeps adding, it keeps growing. And so it is with Rabbi Hower. Hisbon continues. Every project he encouraged, every idea he blessed, every person he guided, they all carry his imprint. His legacy will not fade. It will increase exponentially with every person and community impacted just as he increased the light of Torah and compassion wherever he went. The loss is immeasurable, but so are the deep feelings of gratitude for having had the opportunity to learn from him, from having witnessed a life of humility, strength, and MS. The loss is profound, not only because of who he was, but because of all that was yet to come. He was just getting started. There was still so much to build and so much to do. The loss is beyond words. But in his own way, he prepared us for this too. His messages will live on. His values, his insights, his direction. His leadership was a lesson in strength that is quiet and vision that is humble. One of the gifts of working at the OU is being part of the OU family. The OU is such a joyous space. The energy, passion, the excitement of contributing to Clius together. It is going to be an enormous task to recapture that joy without Rabbi Hower. We will need to be there for each other to support each other and to hold each other's pain. As a family, we have this capacity. I keep telling myself it is painful but possible because of the legacy and leadership of Rabbi Mosha Hower. One of the things the Rabbi Hower would often chide me about is my tendency to exaggerate. So, it's it's nice to have 4,000 people in the room here today. But I so I wanted to get this data point uh exactly right. So I I I studied and I looked up how many hours how many minutes and hours a day on average we would spend with each other in terms of meeting times in terms of emails and text messages and Hisha voice notes as he used to refer to them as. And I did a very exact accounting and specifically and I found out that we averaged 27 hours a day together aside from Mitch and me. I think the other person who he may have spent even more time with in meetings and smoozing with was Rabbi Yakov Glasser. I'm very used to the spaces where I would speak with Rabbi Hower and I'd have to lower the microphone after him. I recall very vividly where I was parked as Rabbi Hower and I began our next conversation in anticipation of my coming to the OU. It was a long conversation for Rabbi Hower. A baseline meeting was 90 minutes. Anything less was a check-in or a conversation. can't really get anything done in less than 90 minutes. And we had known each other before through a shared rabbitic group that we would gather annually and connect and discuss communal issues in an informal and non-organizational setting. And now we were exploring how my new potential role at the OU would manifest in the context of our partnership in representing the OU throughout the Jewish community. And he said to me, "Rabbiakov," he asked in a very soft and earthy voice of warmth that I would eventually purchase an external speaker for my laptop to be able to hear. Rubyakov, in traveling on behalf of the U for Shabas, which communities would you prioritize? So coming off of seven years traveling for WAU and with a general sense of the Jewish communal landscape and the desired relevance and impact that I imagined an international organization would seek to have, I responded probably the five towns, Bergen County, South Florida, Los Angeles, Chicago. And on the other end was silence, a pensive pause that I would come to fear and to love, to appreciate and to dread all at the same time. And then he responded, "Rabbiakov, that sounds like a fundraising list. What we should really be thinking about, Rabbi Howard clarified, is where do communities need us the most? And I've repeated this story hundreds of times because it captures the moment that I became not just an employee, but a Talmid of Rabbi Mosha Howard's. Rabbi Hower woke up in the morning or for what most of us was the middle of the night and began his day with that question. Where are we and where am I needed the most? And sometimes the answer was the white house or the kesset the interorganizational tables of federation and the conference of presidents. And sometimes it was providing guidance and kizuk and love to an individual rv a struggling employee a despondent congregant or someone in pain that he encountered at min. Where do they need us the most? was the source of his unlimited reservoir of compassion and empathy and action in confronting both the greatest challenges of the day and the most personal opportunities to lift individuals up from the abyss of their chaos and their confusion and their pain. Where so many saw insurmountable problems and unsolvable needs, Rabbi Hower saw opportunity for impact, for advancement, and for a word he loved so much for elevation. He was a god in so many things, thoughtful, insightful, creative, and eloquent. But more than anything, he was a god in the Torah of what it meant to look around a room and while at once commanding the intellectual and creative dimensions of the conversation, somehow remain fully attuned to any expression of consternation of pain that betrayed an individual in need. Where do they need us the most? Wasn't only about people in pain. It drove Rabbi Hour to take an attentive and active interest in the lives and the work of thousands of Jews all over the world. How many people have expressed that they shared an extensive conversation with him, gleeing advice and guidance in their life without any formal or institutional connection to his work? Where do they need us the most? so many projects and conversations that we were in the middle of. So many people and ideas and efforts that need him the most. I can't stop thinking about the contrast between the elating moments of Sim that we experienced on Sim Torah and the fateful calls that we all received in the moments following Yum to a towering whose life and work was entirely anchored in Torah and in a hashem. The consukus depicts the image of an orodes on simkas, an ark that is generally full, hosting an array of scrolls that embody the essence of dvar hashem, of who we are and of what we stand for. writes of Utner that it is so striking on Simas Torah to pause and to look up and notice that the Aron stands entirely empty devoid of any Torah presence at all explains Rautner. This image is highly intentional in the context of our final of because it is intended to convey the unparalleled the desire the aspiration that the Jewish people have in these moments not to be spectators to the Torah's grander but to embrace the world of Torah amongst themselves unwilling to leave even a single scroll in the cushioned and dignified space of the orin kodesh cl Israel hugs and dances and connects with the entirety of our Torah. And in these few words, the reorients for us what presents as an image of emptiness into a manifestation of the unbridled passion to grasp and to internalize the totality of our precious Torah into the hearts and the souls of the Jewish people. Rabbi Howard left nothing in his personal aren kodesh. Every scroll, every moment, every thought, every idea was handed to another Jew to animate Torah values within their life. And he ensured that everyone in that circle, no matter what their life's circumstance or capacity, had a chance to hold and to ultimately dance with a safer Taurus, Hashem. He found the right Torah for every person. He found the right Torah for every circumstance. And even if he had to support the bottom himself, so their particular weakness didn't prevent them from joining the everlasting dance of the Jewish people. That's what he would do. Where do they need us the most? We're going to walk these halls and we're going to see an empty Aron. our precious safer Torah l no longer nestled in the embracing space of his office suite. No longer dabbing mka with usually in the back. No longer exuding that reassuring and loving smile. But we have to know that what appears to us and what is experienced by us as an emptiness and as a void is actually the painful displacement of Rabbi Howard's Torah into the arms of his family, his congregants, his colleagues, his students, and his friends. A Torah that he would want us to learn and he would want us to teach. A Torah that he would want us to rejoice and want us to revere. a Torah with which he would want us to transverse the communities of the Jewish people, striving to discover how he could place it in the arms of every Jew in the world, no matter who they are and no matter what they've been through, and to help them dance. This is the question that I will be asking myself the rest of my life. The first question that Rabbi Hower ever asked me, where do they need us the most bor? We drew straws as to who would have to speak after Rabbi Glasser. I lost. There are no words because he is not here to write them. There are no words because he is not here to speak them. There are no words because he is not here in his Yizkar Russia for Yom Kipper 8 years ago before he was at the U before I I met him. It was entitled Never Stop Speaking. And he said, "Hashem, God gave us the power of speech in our lifetime. When we follow the mandate of nasa Adam, when we live our lives as we should and complete his creation, we grant ourselves the power of speech beyond our lifetime. We continue to speak. Our life's message continues to be heard long after we are gone." Because of those words, I now feel I have an opening to say something. When I first saw Rebbitson, Lindy Rebbitson Hower. She said to me, "I'm sorry that we both lost our partner." It's true. And I also lost a brother. You here know that I I often refer to him as a brother from another mother. Once Shabas Saturday night, uh the president of Israel, President Herzog called and I was speaking to him and as we were trying to there were a lot of people trying to break through to get to get to Rabbi Har's mother. He said, "Tell me a little bit about her. Explain. 94 years old. Kayahara still strong history Hebrew teacher in Montreal. He said, "What's her name?" "Ima." Cuz he would stop. We'd be in the middle of a meeting with government officials and chief rabbis. It was 259 and 37 seconds. And he would say, "I'm sorry. We have to stop or pause or end because every day at 3 p.m. I call my mother. First time I met Rabbi Mosha Hower was technically in the spring of 2020 in the middle beginning of the pandemic off the Jersey Turnpike at Thompson State Park which he found because it was the midpoint between Baltimore and Lawrence. And we drove there with our own chairs and sat 20 feet away from each other with masks on and gloves because we didn't know what we were doing. But almost right away we knew that we were kindred spirits. Now it could be because we actually grew up less than a mile from each other in Montreal. his father's shul, my father's shul, very close to each other. Our parents knew each other. And it's hard to imagine that our paths never crossed. But as his mother shared with me when I went to the Shiva Sunday morning, she said that Montreal was special. It was a place that built Torah leaders who not only were knowledgeable, but who cared about others and each other. The second time we met, Rabbi Hower shared with me two words that were actually on his wall and the thin wall that separated our offices based on the period where God turned to Mosher Rabenu and said, "I want you to lead Ben Israel." Moshe says, "No, send someone else. And in response, Hashem gets angry. He says, "You know what? I I can't talk with you anymore. Your brother's coming. You think he's going to be upset that you're taking this away from him? He's going to see you and he's going to be happy in his heart. And he shared that with me, Rabbi Howard, the second time I saw him saying, "I see you and I'm happy in my heart." We talked about it a lot in front of you and in front of lots of people, although we're brothers and we loved each other. And I know sometimes there were eye rolls and it was good for show, but brotherhood is not perfection. I have two brothers and a sister who I love I love dearly and who are amazing people and I look up to them. We don't always get along. We don't always agree. And that was also the case with Rabbi Hower and me. I didn't know what Mitch was going to say, but it always ended with a hug and sometimes a kiss, even when we disagreed. And so I realized that he was happy and that I was his brother. He was all of our brothers. And so many people felt that way about him. A wise guide, a coach, a mentor, a friend. He had that smile. One more story from Ema. She told me that in the first weeks when he was born in Montreal, she would wheel him around in the carriage and he had such a he had such a smile that people would walk by and said, "Whoa, what a friendly baby from birth." He had that joy. How was the exemplar of a Torah Jew? Torah framed his life and he used Torah to frame ours. We literally spoke about we had board meetings. We'd have retreats. And it wasn't just we're going to say a devar Torah, we're going to say a word of Torah. In order to say, okay, we did some Torah. It was to frame the conversation. He would ask, "What's the board meeting going to focus on?" Oh, budget. Okay, I'm going to frame it with Torah. And in that way, he infused everything that we did, every conversation that we had with Torah. And it literally became known as Torah framings. One of the earliest moments, one of his first frames for me, it was a troubling and difficult time. He shared the notion I I would sometimes get upset with the Jewish people and he said, "Don't talk badly about the Jewish people." Right? Riser actually spoke about it similar. He said it said something similar to him when in his husband his son is I said okay how says who is the person who yearns for life what do we stop saying you stop saying bad things about people so I said okay rebi my brother so how do I Stop. Very nice. I love life. How do you stop? He says, stop skipping the middle part of that. Be an Oyim who yearns for life. Somebody who loves the days and sees the good. When you can put on your love colored glasses, when you put on your Hashemcoled lenses, then you're not going to see the negative because you're going to see love. You're going to see the love of God and the love of people. And in that way, as Rabb Elephant pointed out, he was literally a man of God. He told a bunch of us the story in that amazing amazing speech that took a lot of taxis, a lot of Ubers all over the place. And he would always say, "Thank you." But more recently when he was getting out of the car and I started to do this, he would say, "God bless you." to each of the drivers. and the reactions that he got and now that I see where that wow, thank you for the blessing. Thank you for bringing God into my life. Wherever wherever he went, people saw him as a man of God and his midos's actions, his humility is Mosha. He was more humble. And as Riser quoted and for the Gumar and Yuma which also Rabbi elephant made reference to Shay that whatever you do, God will be loved through you. This wasn't always easy. He had to deal with me. He had to deal with a world that began as foreign to him, but he always responded with an equinimity. People mistook that that he was a calm. People said to me all the time, he's very calm. How is not calm? He had passion. One of the highest compliments he could give anybody was like, "See him? He's got fire in his belly." Rabbi Hower had a fire in his belly. When we put the word drive, when we put the value of drive into the core values of the organization, we all had an image of Rabbi Hower who had drive. He came to me on day 171 of the hostages, 171 of the war, 171 or 172. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. It was 171. and he says, "Do you think we could get 180,000 written letters to the White House on day 180?" I will not tell you what I responded, but there we were carrying I'm not going to exaggerate. They only let us bring in a 100,000 on the first day. There wasn't enough room. We had to bring in 80,000 the second day. But we are literally carrying in a 100,000 letters from CLA Israel into the White House. And the most amazing thing is not only that all of you pulled it off, but that as we walked in, I was standing with I was holding these boxes. They were heavy. We walked a long way. And I looked at the room number that we were walking into. And what room was it? What room number? 180. And I turned to the White House liaison and I said, "What a coincidence." And he looked at me says, "That's not a coincidence. Message received, Rabbi Hower. this drive. What kind of impact that had, message received and he gave a lot of messages. He was an incredible voice. And if I think of a body part that I feel we are missing today, my metaphor is we've we've lost our voice. When we were first putting together the strategic plan, I wanted to put in there that the Orthodox Union is the voice of the Orthodox Jewish world. And at least two people will know that he crossed that out. He said, "We are a voice. Leave room for other people because there's lots of other voices out there." But even with his humility, he was never afraid to share his mind, to speak to his convict convictions. Even with that soft, still voice you had to lean into sometimes in order to hear. He always knew the right thing to say and how to say it. On those voice notes, those Haimea voice notes, which I was just looking at my the last wasn't our last conversation, but the last WhatsApp was actually written. He wrote to me, "Shabbat shalom, my precious friend." He always knew what to say. And that he was nif that he passed away right as all the living hostages came home, part of his mission. And a number of you pointed out maybe Kajesh Baraku said God said mission accomplished but we're not done. He had a goal to bring all the Jews together. He had goals projects that were all still open. Hauntingly a couple of weeks ago in his message for paras 5786 which he entitled unfinished business he quoted who will live and who will die who will die at a predestined time and who before that time. His words, these words remind us of our vulnerability and of the possibility that one may leave this world with unfinished business. Yet this Shabbasheshua we will read about how Moshe lived 120 years to the day indicating that God completes years of the righteous allowing them to realize their mission. This is striking said Rabbi Howard because if we think about where Mosherenu finishing and completing everything even though he wanted to go into Israel he wanted to be in Israel and he didn't make it. We know said Rabbi Hower how Moshe pleaded with God to be able to bring us there but was all to no avail. Can we really say that Moshe's life that ended before he reached his life's goal was not cut cut short? But Rabbi Howard quoted the Mishna in Aos. It's not up to you to finish the task, nor may you neglect to f to finish it. Moshe may have had an unfulfilled dream for himself and Claw Israel. But he continued to work until his last day towards its fulfillment. Even on that last day, Moshe continued to progress towards that goal. And once he recognized that he would not finish the job himself, he made sure to identify and hand off the Jewish people to Yahushua. When I got to that line, Moshe and Yahosua, his Hebrew name, my Hebrew name, I think of the quote of the Nitsv on that puck. that it was like the light of the moon that gets it its light from the sun and now I feel like a moon beereft of its sun. Rabbi Hower ended by saying, "We should not underestimate our role as individuals and as Claw Israel in setting the forward direction of our nation and the world. While we come and go, we have the chance to build towards the future by investing with love and focus in the next generations. It is not our task to finish the job, just to continue it and never neglect it." Rabbi Hower, my brother, how do we do it without you? We we had a saying that we would often say, I don't remember if he said it first or I said it first. We often had ideas come up together. We would say, "We're just getting started." Rabbi Howard, we were just getting started. We're not ready to move forward without you. We ask you to keep speaking to us and if not to us, speak for us as a meosher for all of the Jewish people and the world. May it be so. Amen. Please give your attention to the screens for a few more words from Reb. [Music] We believed that the United States of America, built as it is on the principles of liberty and freedom and civil rights, would never spit us out. We never imagined that we would be sitting here in this committee room because of the kind of vile and terrible anti-semitism which is being directed at us on campuses. a fundamental Jewish ethic is to be there for those who are otherwise unsupported today. We need their help and we can't find them. The Jewish people are a very persecuted people but they are also longlasting resilient and that's the most fundamental message that we as a community have to take home which is we're committed. We're going to continue. >> Looming anti-semitism is a major issue that has to be dealt with. We are not going to allow it to distract us from the need to engage the community primarily more strongly in Tyrone. By the radiance of your presence, Hashem, you gave us a Torah, a Torah of life, the Torah informs our lives. The Torah shapes it. What could be more meaningful than really resolving that problem you had in the Gomorrah? What could be more fulfilling and uplifting than some deeper understanding into Hashem's world? >> If we want other people not to have hate and express hate for Jews, then we Jews must not have hate and express hate for Jews. Whether those Jews are to our left or to our right or whatever other label we want to put, we have to make sure that in us between us, we are examples and practitioners of AAS Israel. There's so much more to be done and with Hashem's help, we're just getting started. [Music] >> Thank you everybody. Please continue to share your stories and thoughts. We'll send around again emails to share. There's opportunities to share to video uh recordings today. Uh the I know a lot of people will be heading to Baltimore. Uh there people in Israel. There's there's opportunities to go to the Shiva. And um as I mentioned before, the only way we're going to all get through this is if we get through it together. And that's the way Rabah would have wanted.