Inside ArtScroll - Season 3 Episode 8: For The Sake of Heaven – Rabbi Meyer Yedid

[Music] Hello everyone and welcome back to inside art scroll where the books you read and the people who write them come to life. Today I am privileged to be joined by Rabbi Mayor Yadid about whose father Kakam Yam Yidd art scroll has just released a fantastic new biography called for the sake of heaven. Thank you Rabbi Yadid for joining us. There's so much to talk about this book because it encompasses so much. It encompasses history. It talks about your father's fascinating life, his strength of character, how he raised a community. So I guess let's start for our viewers who don't know much about your father's biography. If you could give a brief background into who he was and what he accomplished and then we'll get into really some interesting things that I want to ask you about. Thank you. Thank you for having me here. It's a pleasure to be back here. Um, my father was a shalom was a was a great man who had a history probably different than most rabbis today just because of where he was and the situation that he was in. He was a born in in Kalab in Aleppo, Syria. Uh, at the time that he was born, the community was pretty full. a lot of people, thousands and thousands of families. But it was at a time also when people started to move out, leaving to the Western Hemisphere. Um, and he was was raised as a regular Jewish Syrian boy and at a young age he connected to Torah learning and he stayed in the bet midrash and there were different influences in his life that tried to take him out of learning. At that time it wasn't so popular for young men to continue learning but he did so even though his entire family uh definitely did not and eventually they left they went to live in Israel. Uh but he stayed alone actually and he continued his learning under his rabbi. His rebi was very mosh tawil shalom was a was a great man and my father barakashem has a tremendous head and he's a very uh strongminded person and he dedicated himself to Torah learning. Now I'm telling you things that I didn't witness you know and I didn't really know myself until I read the book. Now you were born in I was born in Syria. Syria, but 50 years later, you know, he was born in 1923, right? Um, 19, excuse me, 26. Okay. And I was born, but he became rabbi in 1958 or so, right? Something like that. Somewhere in the 1950s at the age of 32, right? As a young boy, he became the chief rabbi of Aleppo, right? And I and I was born 1973. So, I didn't really see him definitely when he was younger. That's obvious. But uh I didn't see him either in his uh prime time we'll call it. Um and also he wasn't a person of words. So it wasn't like he sat around the table and tell told us about you know where he grew up and what happened. So a lot of this book really opens up history not only in his life but in the life of the entire community that that even for someone like me who was born there. I I never heard about it. I didn't know. Right. So I was so close to it but really so far. I think that's why the book Mrs. D'vorah Glicksman who wrote it and she did an unbelievable job. She did a great job. Phenomenal. She worked five years on it. I I was gonna ask you how long because this is it records not only a documentation of his life but really a piece of history if anyone wants to know about what the Syrian community was like mid 1900s. You open up this book and it gives you the historical context with with Israeli history and how it impacted the community. you really learn so so much. And we we've been saying here at Art Scroll in our meetings that this book really reads like a novel. It's not your typical biography. There's so much intrigue and drama and you go from page to page. You don't want to put it down. One of the things that I noticed and I want you to talk about it is that your father, he was a loving r and he cared about the people, but he was a canoi by by every measure. Did you know him as a son to a father? Did you know him as that tough, strong-minded individual? So, with his family, he wasn't really like that. Okay? You know, he was he definitely was a strong-minded person. And you saw that in his way of life, but he didn't get too involved with our life in that way where he would be strong and fire when it came to Torah and if things weren't happening correctly in the community. When it came to his own family, he was much more um off a little bit, I guess, let to let us be. I I in fact something I always say the musad to to my uh students when they're getting married I said you know my father was was a strong-minded person and he did get involved and even when we were young he did get involved when obviously when he had to but once we got married never never hands off hands off never got involved never never said a word to us was only answering questions if he's asked never told us what to do and you know I guess looking back that was part of hisma that he understood that you know especially rabbis children you have to keep back a little bit and let them find their way. I think that's even more incredible to hear because here you read the book he clearly possessed an unbelievable strength of character to stand up and you described how he was alone. He really was alone in Syria with with really no one to turn to and I'll touch on that in a second. But you're a rabbi today of Sharetsion. Tremendous congregation. Could you ever imagine trying to pull some of the things that he pulled in Syria? It wouldn't fly in in 2023. First of all, it wouldn't fly. So, it may not be the right thing to do, right? You know, when you read this book, some parts of it you'll say, "Whoa, what was he thinking?" That's intense. Yeah. How could he do that? Right. But you have to imagine that it's a different generation. It's a insulated community that had clear boundaries and guidelines which for the most part we don't have today. And it was one man running the show. It was one man who had to take care of the yeshiva of the Talmud Torah of the weddings of the brillas of the of any Shilas that came up. It was only him. So I also try to imagine running what I'm doing without any real today we have so many post we have we have people who do there are people who do mila the people who are doing so many different things and here you have a person who really is responsible for every single thing that goes on in the community religious and even not necessarily the religious things so it's a tremendous it's really amazing the book describes how he didn't have many rabbis to turn to at certain stages when he was young. Surely not. Were very limited. And yet you also I've seen a video that uh uh about your father where you describe that after his patira you found writings from him on virtually every segment of Tyra with remarkable scholarship. So he was a go a a a worldclass and yet when you read the book you see that he didn't have exposure to many so somehow he pulled off the impossible. What what's the answer? So they had they had obviously they had the basic they had you know Talmud and they had and they had the tour and they had the basic they had this far but yes they they there wasn't a coal of a hundred people learning certainly not on his level of learning which is something amazing like like you mentioned I try to imagine how a person by himself more or less is able to have the kawak the energy and the ability to learn your mom valila especially with the community and all of its responsibilities on your head I mean I found you know we found books and books and books on every subject and you know the books weren't written to be printed that was never his kavana you know my father had a tremendous amount of clarity that was his biggest that when you learn something you see all his notebooks all review and clarity, give over with clarity. And that's that's how he learned. You know, it's Yeah, it is hard to imagine how someone could do that. And and he clearly didn't care about popular opinion. I mean, he did things that were went against the grain. He wasn't looking to win friends. Um there are countless stories like that. One story I I was I was reading today uh was about how there was a group of students I believe and you tell me if I have it right group of students who were going to be taking a metric metriculation exam. He wanted to make sure that they wouldn't take it on Shabas, right? And he basically made them swear, which was which was the only option. Only option is a very big Nissan. They were preparing years for that. It was their whole future, right? The whole future. Their whole parnosa would come based on how they would do on the exam. He wanted to make sure they wouldn't take it. And he made them swear that they wouldn't take it. And there were, I think, three students who didn't show up to to actually commit that they wouldn't take the test on Shabbat. and he kind of pushed them out. He said, "If you're not swearing, then then you can't be part of this group." And he obviously knew with that he had to do that in order to protect the community. If he had allowed their influence to trickle in, it might have compromised the quality of yushes of the other students. Nowadays in our contemporary probably the approach would be to mar those boys and I'm just pointing out you see how different worlds different worlds and different approaches and you'll learn a lot that yeah there was a time and place for that type of and today you know we we do have a different type of approach well you know you have to we have to we live in a world of the melting pot of of of Jews in the world you know there's the religious Jew there's the non-religious Jew he's also a type, you know, there's the Zionist Jew and then there's the the Karedi Jew and then there's but we have to remember that in in in Kalab which was really you know this book is great because it describes a community very recent that I believe for thousands of years every community was like that they they were living in their city they had their rv they had their things they didn't have any communication really with other cities it wasn't and it was insulated and there were expectations as a member of the community of how you behave as a Jew. So you have to imagine in all of Aleppo there was nobody who was Shabbat in the open. No one would do that. That would be called leaving the community. Everybody came to shul to pray. Now not everybody was at sadik but there was no such intermarriage. you'll they'll tell you maybe they'll remember one in a hundred years. So it was a community that was really shamur it was kept pure through the generations as many communities have been through the years. What we seeing recently really is the recently we're seeing the Jewish world really all over the place and we have to kind of find how to bring everybody closer. But in those in those types of communities where you had such a purity to the community sometimes you had to do things which were painful to keep that purity there and the surin community among its many attributes is their respect for Rabanim and you see that in the book if the rabbi says it you know you don't mess with the rabbi it's a one of the many lessons that I learned from the book and I I'm I'm curious from your standpoint as a son and we spoke Previously, I know when you were younger, you probably didn't imagine that you'd be where you are today, carrying such responsibility and really carrying on your father's legacy. Which part of this book, things that maybe you didn't know before Mrs. Glicksman wrote it, do you take from as you're leading your own flack and and say, you know what, my father did that. I could really apply it in my position today. So, I didn't think about that. Uh but as you're asking the question, one of the things clearly that stand out in my mind is that my father, no matter what he was doing in his life, was learning Torah no matter what. When he was younger, that's all he did. When he was chief rabbi of thousands and thousands of people and he had so many responsibilities, he was learning Torah. So there was used to get up 3:00 in the morning to have a a seder before shahid late at night riding. There was no benhaz manim you know in in Aleppo they went from rash shana to rash shana there was no benaz darim there was no such vacation time and he was learning no matter what and then when later on in his life where his duties were different because he moved to America it was a whole new chapter in his life he didn't want to be involved in American rabinet which as when you read the book you understand why he didn't want to because it just wasn't his style and it wasn't the way he understood things needed to be done. He knew things had to be done differently here, but he couldn't do it. And he dedicated his entire day and night, seven days a week, every single week, every single month for 30 years, just learning. Just learning. And and he did a list, like the book is called Leash Shmayim. There were no accolades. No one was praising him for it. It wasn't like he was impressing anyone because the people around him didn't necessarily exemplify that type of approach. Right. Right. They weren't coming to hear and yeah they weren't here right now which is what makes it even more amazing unbelievable it's unbelievable and I read in the book also how he he was not going to sim he went to even a family maybe 10 minutes and then he was back home learning right that was could you imagine such a thing today it's an unbelievable thing that's an unbelievable thing so when I take when I when I when I think of myself as you know I feel I'm pretty busy in my life as well but if you don't learn if you're not learning learning. So you're losing all your whatever he accomplished and whatever he's you know the the message of this book to me is that you just learn when you can whether it's three hours six hours whether you're the biggest r whether you're doing nothing in your life you just learn and you just see how Hashem gives to everything that's happening when you're there and even after you're there so many things today are happening in our family in our community not only in New you know, he has students all over the world from the Aleppo community that you see such bara in their life. And to me, one of the I can't give all the credit to my father, but one of the key ingredients is that there was a man who sat and learned Torah. He taught it when he could, but his chief and most important job was to learn. And to me, that's the power of this book to show how learning can just add up to things you never you never thought about, you never dreamt of. When he came over to America, do you remember what what kind of nas did he have watching the growth of Lima? must have been for him someone who personified limitra under all circumstances to be able to witness the growth of the community for someone like him who cared about nothing but making Hashem proud it must have been a tremendous source of nimm so you know when he came to this country he really took a a an active step of not getting involved in anything uh but clearly you see from his conversations that uh he was just amazed by the mere yeshiva you that was down the block from where he learned every day. uh he would say statements like you know you know the are here are the source of our the source of our strength and he definitely appreciated you know when they came from Israel they would talk in learning they would ask him questions so he had a tremendous appre appreciation for Torah learning I just don't I don't even know if he knew the scope of it like he never went to Lakewood He never he knew about like he supported you know uh people learning and all that but he he was so insulated that I don't know if he knew the scope of it but whatever he knew clearly was a you know a a new a new taste for him. The book itself also talks about your candidness about your own growth. It's very interesting towards the end of the book as you describe how you yourself grew and were inspired. Talk about that for a second because I think people will will appreciate how you know you were open about your own aliyah and tyran who influenced you. Right. So you know I I came into this country I was nine years old and my I came actually before my father. He came a year after in Syria. It wasn't you know wasn't so simple. Yeah. I mean, the book will tell you how, you know, we're an example of one family, but there were many, many thousands of families like us where we're nine and at one point we were all over the all over the world. And you never knew if you would be united. Yeah. I never I never met my brothers, two of them, till I was 10 years old. Never even knew never knew them because they they had left. So the we were all over the place. We were not together at all. Um, so I came into this country and it was a totally different world than the country I came from. The values were different, the heroes were different and uh it was just hard to fit in. Just the language I didn't know how to speak. But more than that, it was just a different world. And and I I came with my parents and my parents were like these people from the stone age, you know, the old world. The old world. They knew nothing about what was going on. So you kind of in your mind as a little boy kind of shove them and say, you know, these people are not really so relevant. They don't really understand what life's about. They don't really know what happiness is. They don't really know what success is. I mean, what does my father know? You know, he sits and learns all day. You know, what does my mother know? And and you grow up thinking that. and and you know you have the heroes of the American society where you know whether it's the guy singing or the guy shooting basketballs or the and and and and that you know that trickles down to the community as well where people so all of a sudden yeah you you want to fit in and and you want to be that and you want to be that person that everyone is looking up to and that's the way I grew up you know I was I was I was I had a good head I knew how to learn um you know in that time there wasn't that many yeshivas anyway in our community. But um yeah, I would say was it was light. It was always keeping the Torah mitzvah, but it wasn't uh So what was the turning point for you? the turning point I would say and I always tell you know the boys that I I'm pretty open about it that uh I think at a certain age maybe at age of 20 I started to see I don't know how Hashem maybe because of the my father uh just put me in situations that the very people I looked up to whether they were friends that I thought were the you know people that the spits or whether it was families At least you know I didn't grow up with money. I didn't you know we simple people and these people had a lot of money. Those were the people I looked up to. And there were in in in short period of time I started to open my eyes and realize that the guy I was looking up to he's not really doing much in his life. He's not so happy. The family I thought was the spitz of the families you know they don't really get they're yelling at each other. They they don't get along with their children. and and all of a sudden I'm looking at my parents. They raised nine beautiful children that all love each other. And you know there's no screaming in our home. There's no fighting in our home. And then I started realizing my parents probably know a lot more than I thought. And all of a sudden you start seeing the and then you start looking and you say, "Wow, I messed up. They know a lot more than I thought they did." Oh, so you know in in in in I guess in short that would be the the basic story of it and then I got to appreciate more who who my father was and who my family is. Now the people hopefully will buy the book and they're going to read it. What what's your hope as far as what inspiration that they could take? Maybe we won't become the that your father was. we probably won't become a rub of a community at age 32 and things like that. But what overriding lesson or two and maybe a story a particular story that you think will inspire people? I think that first of all a person must learn how to adjust in life and I should say obviously the lesson of limit which you mentioned before right which you said inspired you right but in addition to that what practical lesson I think adjustments in life are an important lesson here you know when you you go from being the chief rabbi where nothing happens in the city without your signature nothing happens in that city without you and now you come to a new world And now that's not relevant anymore. And maybe you don't become so relevant as that type of authority. Quite humbling. Yeah. So what happens to you? I think for most of us, we will be thrown back and and and he says, "Okay, now I got to adjust now. Now I could learn more. Now I can do something else. This is a new chapter in my life." You know, sometimes we get stuck in who we were and who we want to be. But I think one of the lessons here is that you should just be where Hashem puts you and wherever he puts you doesn't matter what you were doesn't matter what you wanted right now. This is where you should be and maximize it. So I think that's a you know a very big lesson in that. I think um let's see what what what else could I tell you that that would stand out? What would I want someone to walk away with? I I mean I I I'll humbly offer that and this is obvious that he had the courage of his convictions even when it was unpopular. And I wonder if that's a message that would resonate with the youth of today. They're surrounded by a culture that tells them one thing and we try to teach them a different thing and sometimes it's hard when you're the minority and everything around you looks exciting. what Kakamyt taught us in in an amazing way that we'll never really understand because his challenges were so far beyond anything we will ever have to encounter hopefully. Um was just to stand strong in your beliefs. Absolutely. You said it you said it beautifully. I can't believe I missed that. that that that was that's really one of the most powerful things that you're right that we're not going to stand up and and and say things in public and in in certain ways that again they just don't fit today but we have our own situations where we also need courage that you know some sometimes we have to just stand up and do the right thing. We may not have to be vocal about it, but very often we get scared of doing the right thing because what will that person say or what will that person oh they have money so they may not give me money now if I say this or if I do that. Exactly. I'll just mention in the book your father says at least once where he said when he wanted to make an example he said I'm not going to pick on the poor guy of the community because people won't care. He was going to make an example out of the prominent person, the rich person, because then people would realize that he meant business, you know, he he wasn't trying to impress the prominent people. He was going to do what was right. And Right. So, I think you're right. I mean, for each individual, how many decisions do we make on a daily basis where we're thinking what's who's looking over our shoulder and what's their take going to be and what's their comment? And of course, we have to be sensitive to people's opinions and their feelings, but that should never hold us back from doing God's will and doing the right thing. And even if we're not going to be vocal about it, but we need to do it. We need to be strong and not to be afraid. I have no doubt that your father is looking down and she tremendous nas from what you've done. your impact on on your yeshiva on your kahila it's really un I'm inspired by what you do and we hear about how your malam talk about your influence you're you're clearly carrying on his legacy in your own way with your own derk there's no doubt that she and people are going to read this book and they'll be inspired in their own way as I'm you know I have been reading the book and others who have read it so we thank you for enabling the publication of this book it's clearly going to enhance people's amuna their bet and their their strength and belief in what we believe in. So thank you Rabbi Yudid for whatever you've done to make this book happen and thank you for coming in for a few minutes to talk about. Great. I'd like to add one more thing. Sure. Maybe you could include it as well. Um, and that I think one of the big lessons from my father Allah is that he took every student into his mind and every decision that he made. He wanted to make sure that no student would fall. He worked countless hours in the yeshiva to make sure every boy knew how to read. Every boy knew the basics at least will always have tell me that rise but he wanted to ensure that every boy and every girl would have a chance to live a Jewish life and he went all out for that. So I think it's another I think it's a very important lesson especially with the growth of our community and the growth of our meistas we might start taking for granted you know there are so many kids so if a couple fall through the cracks not such a big deal as you mentioned your father never lost track of the y even as he was focused on the clal and and I' I've mentioned it in conversations in this room the great kimman leaders never ever lose sight of the individual right he personified would test, believe it or not, every year, every kid in the entire school personally. And we read how he would he would hold the Mim accountable. That's right. If a kid wasn't doing well, he went over to the Rebi and said, "What's going on? How come last year he did well?" Right? So, we we see that quite a bit in the book and it's really fascinating. Thank you. Thank you for having me. Thank you. I appreciate it. Likewise. [Music]