We Need Clarity, Courage & Conviction | 30th Yahrzeit of Rav Mordechai Pinchas Teitz

I'm truly humbled to be standing up here. If you describe how unimaginable it was in your youth when I was a boy visiting this shul on a frequent basis, Shabas and Yantiff sitting right over there with my grandfather looking up to my grandmother right over there. I can still see them at this moment. I never would have dreamt that I'd be in a position that I'd be standing up here that I'd be receiving what is the ultimate compliment from my dear friend, colleague, mentor Ravini Blau. To put me in the same sentence to compare me at all is a gross and egregious exaggeration, but a compliment nonetheless. And I'm so glad that my father was here. To hear it, he may even believe it. But I know that I don't. I I feel terribly inadequate in the presence first of tits family who are here to speak about the RV to speak at Rabbi Rab Tites to offer any reflections on this 30th year to extract or extrapolate any lessons for today who am I and what am I in your presence and so I ask you for forgiveness in advance if I don't capture adequately or precisely or do justice but these are my impressions and they are how I am inspired nonetheless and so I appreciate Rabbin Blau actually took my introduction I was going to say why am I here I'm not a historian certainly not a contemporary of the great Ravit Zatal didn't grow up in Elizabeth who am I and why am I here to present to you this evening but as he captured about my family connection to this place and my great-grandfather The in Kishn came to Elizabeth before Rabbi Tites to be the sh of Rabbi Pra and stayed under Rabbi Tites in that capacity. My grandparents who were here and so close with the Tits family. My mother should be well was a miracle baby after several miscarriages of my grandmother and she related to me and has the picture to prove it that when she was born and her parents were so overjoyed by the miracle of her existence and when she came home from the hospital this little bundle of joy so fragile and new before she actually went home on the way home from the hospital my grandfather stopped at the tits home for tits to meet their new braha to give a braha that she'd be healthy and well and that was the closeness that was the connection that was the yaw and that was the admiration in which my parents my grandparents held and hold thereof my mother's a product of this sh this community over of tights as we said my father who I'm so honored came with me and it's not easy with the weather conditions and the travel but he insisted Ed and he said to me such hakar satov that we our family he feels even in particular himself as a graduate such a sense of a debt of gratitude to the rav to tites to this community and to this institution it's really an honor that he is here tits was their ms kaducian and so my parents by extension my siblings and I our whole family are products of this community of revit zatsal and so this is an enormous enormous honor. There's so much to say about Raet Tit's biography, about his background, about his history, about his illustrious past, about his and about his family, about where he comes from, the lavush, the marshal, the connection to the aderas, his relationship with the ruggover and the mesh, his learning in Panovich and Slabudka in connection with Tels. There's so much to say and so much to tell. Many most all of you are familiar with it. And if you're not, certainly you should read and memorize Dr. Blau's incredible book, Learn Torah and Love Torah and live Torah to see it. I'm not here and I'm not the person the authority to give you a comprehensive biography to mark this meaningful milestone this 30th year type. So I'm not here to give you a retrospective. I'm here to not here to talk about the past but rather what we can glean and what we can learn prospectively. Harabit tithe should be the standard the torchbearer by which we measure the success of every roof. Our mission, our obligation, our responsibility, our I think Rabbi Tit says life and legacy should be taught in every sm program and every rov should be handed a copy of that biography to understand the possibility to understand our power to understand the influence and the impact to understand the responsibility that we have because what may be obvious unfortunately sadly as I'll describe is not to weigh too many but to of tights was a pioneer was a breakthrough was not happening at that time. And so in my experience, while there are extraordinary abomin who fail to embrace that role most fully, to fulfill that mission most nobly, to make their impact and influence with the possibility. And so I want to spend our time tonight and I was not given an end time which is very dangerous to a rabbi whose flight is not till the next morning. [laughter] I have nowhere to be but I'll try to do it in not too long a fashion to articulate what I think was most outstanding about the rov zerv as a communal leader what informs and inspires me personally myra bonus every day I'm not exaggerating I was tempted to bring it here to prove it to you but on my wall immediately next to my desk is a picture I have a lot of gdoleum I'm privileged someone in the community who has a hobby of collecting kisvyad And he has pictures of Gdole Israel with their authentic original kisad, some of the greatest gdollum, not only of the last generation, but going back and others. But next to my desk, looking over me and I look every day for inspiration is a picture I have of my grandfather and my grandmother, Sam and Ruth Abof, Alam Shalom, Mayor Dun, and Rabbi Tites. It was when a school here in Elizabeth, a public school was named in memory of my grandfather. And it was at the event commemorating and marking it. And it's a portrait of the four of them on that stage. And that's what sits that's what I look at. It informs and inspires my feeling and my sense of responsibility every day. And I hope and I think it should be the standard for my colleagues as well. A Rabonus based on courage on activism on aas a raonum that projects malus a raonus that's trying to build community and kahila a responsibility for the next generations of ando a raonus that reflects never having arrived and never being finished never being done and never being complacent but rather always looking for the next growth opportunity. A Rabonas that's built on dreams and vision and challenges. A Rabonas that communicates and transmits the timeliness and the timelessness of Torah for every generation, but for that one in particular. Those are the themes. Those are the ideas. Those are the lessons I think that come from the RV. And that's what I want, if you'll allow me to elaborate on a little bit this evening. So number one, the capacity, the capacity to blend and to find a balance between oldw world Torah and the modern world in which we live. Certainly in 1935, the year in which the Titans got married, Torah in America was anemic. The institutions, the infrastructures, infrastructure wasn't there. Few institutions, little support, few role models. And if you were a betting man or woman in 1935, you would have bet against the future of orthodoxy, you would have not have seen a bright light, a bright future that was coming. Because even those who had transplanted from Europe, who had come to these shores, who had come from the old world, for those who were here, who were trying to redefine and rebuild and restart lives, that old world, they were out of touch. They had a different literal and figurative vocabulary. They couldn't communicate. They couldn't connect with what was happening in that time. They struggled to replant or transplant the vibrant Yiddish of their youth to bring the old world to the new world. It was lost. Unless you think that was a challenge in the 1930s or 40s or 50s. And today we're comfortable and we're vibrant and we're expanding and look how strong and it's true we are. Torah jury is strong. It's vibrant, dynamic. It's powerful and it's growing but at the same time it's far from secure. Aside from the challenge of assimilation of intermarriage which you'll excuse me it's not our topic but I take every opportunity to remind all of us as I think Rabbi Tites would feel the obligation of the day that as threatening as looming as anti-semitism is as much as is rising and posing an enormous danger to us all at the forefront of all of our minds the challenge and the danger the threat pales in comparison to what we're doing to ourselves. through assimilation and intermarriage. The greatest anti-semites of our day couldn't dream of making the Jewish people disappear as quickly as we are to ourselves. that responsibility of outreach and caring about the unaffiliated around us, but also the responsibility to retention to ensuring that those who are growing up in our yeshiva systems and in our homes and in our shooles do not take what is an open invitation today to leave it all behind, to walk away the challenge of blending a Torah that is thousands of years old and formulating it and [snorts] transmitting it and packaging it and giving living in a language and a vocabulary that is resonant and that is compelling for today is just as real and as important now as it was in the time of tites told Rashid tells us the famous that the cynics of the generation always cynics in every generation try to manufacture controversy they manufacture scandal and they suggest gested that Yitzk in fact was not the son of Abraham and therefore Hashem made a miracle that Yitzk was the spitting image the exact appearance as his father Abraham but does make miracles to offset the cynics the scoffers the silliness of the late son had for that he makes what the Torah communicates as a revealed miracle and dr suggests that the sonor the cynics of the generation didn't doubt Aram's physical ability to sp to father a child. Rather, they were doubtful that this old man Aram, how could he successfully communicate his old ideas and his old ancient outdated lifestyle to a young person in a new generation? How could it be that this young man living in the here and now? How could he possibly come from that old man with his old and stale and outdated ideas? The late son adored the cynics and skeptics saw a philosophy, his ideology as a passing fad, a short-lived trend. How could an old man with extreme ideas inspire a son who would embrace his legacy, who would perpetuate his lifestyle? So they whispered, "Yets must be the son of Avi, the offspring and follower of a modern society and culture and popular trends. Yet must surely be carrying the legacy of Avi rather than the outdated ideas of his biological father. I'll share with you the words of the RV himself. People laughed at the event. They didn't believe that ye would inherit a he, a young lad of the new generation, would continue to carry Ara's vision and laws. He would engage in building altars and calling in the name of Hashem. They laughed at Aram's dreams that his son would give his life for Torah and fight for the sanctity of Aram's house. The scoffers said, "Sorah conceived from Avi." Others complain. Others claimed they brought themselves a fountain from the marketplace. It's impossible to pass Aram's outlook. the mitzvah of Ara, his statutes and laws to the modern generation. When Aram dies, people said his entire philosophy will perish. His altars will be dismantled. His shar will be eaten by moths. All traces of his life will vanish just as the grass will grow over his grave. And Salvich sees this also when the Torah communicates that Yitzk redigs the wells of his father. He gave them the exact same names that he's continuing that legacy of his father. As the rough put it, Yitzk dug again. He called their names after the names by which his father called them. The same gamar, the same, the same shabas, the same laws of divorce. Who could have foreseen that the young moderniz would also say that a divorce is forbidden to a coin, that he would demand a kosher kitchen and fight for religious education? Who could have guessed that he would speak with the same language the old a spoke as the author of the go of a was successful and tit was unusually maybe uniquely successful of taking that Torah and never ever allowing it to become stale or outdated or inaccessible to become a relic of the past but he communicated it and he transmitted it in modern language and to a modern world and giving it modern relevance. As you know, he was a tom of Slabodka through and through steeped in classic European Torah and Muser just like his peers of Yakov Kamitki of Rudman of Yakov Weinberger Cutler. Slabk instilled in him and them the godless. He was regal. He was royal. But he also bore a sense of a responsibility to not be complacent or happy with his own avodashem but to be able to adapt it and adopt it to a modern world. He was a talmet of the old world and at the same time American in mindset he was able to successfully adapt but without compromise or corruption. When Tit came to America, he knew Yiddish, Hebrew, Aramaic, German, Latvian, Lithuanian, and Russian. As if that's not enough languages. But now it was time to learn English. And towards that end, he would read the New York Times with his Rebbitson. They studied Shakespeare and Milton because, quote, "If I'm going to learn a language, I want to read the masterpieces in it." He realized quickly that Yiddish sermons, they didn't resonate. They didn't land to the audience that he was now speaking to. So he worked with his rebbiten to transliterate his drushes from the Yiddish to English. He would write them phonetically in the Hebrew language and deliver them until he picked up a masterful English himself. His slogan, be modern, be orthodox, not modern orthodox. Be modern, be orthodox. Fully rooted in Torah and fully engaged in the best, extracting the best of and contributing meaningfully to the modern world. That fusion, that capacity to blend and incre and integrate uncompromising misora with communication and the language and idiom of his time that was central to his effectiveness. It was central to his legacy and it is critical to our time. He showed that you can be traditional in dress. My mother said that growing up all the years in his home, she never saw him not wearing his frack, not looking regal and royal. She never saw him in a casual way, slabka through and through, traditional in dress and hala and hashkafa and outlook and yet forward thinking and contemporary. He promoted highle education. He promoted being a person who's not complacent or satisfied with mediocre, but striving for excellence, embracing technology and the best of modernity. And why do I say that's a critical lesson for today? It didn't end 30 years ago with his passing. Because we're seeing in our time, sadly, I believe that it's so easy to fail in one direction or the other. To live in the extremes is easy, but is a gross gross failure. It's easy. It's easy to embrace modernity and to compromise on our misora. It's easy to adopt the ideologies of the day, what's popular, what seems progressive or woke, what seems the world is trending and the direction it's going. It's easy to be attracted. It's easy to speak a Yiddishkite that will be received by the modern world if you're willing to compromise into modern values. And it's easy to be extreme and holding on to the past and being rigid in being firm in being inflexible and not willing to change even in just the way that we communicate. To live in the extremes to a certain extent is easy. It's hard. It's hard to find that balance. It's fragile and a person has to be willing to be vulnerable. It's delicate and it's complicated and it's who tits was and it is our responsibility to look at the world to look at the students and our yeshivas and to look at the balabatum in our communities to look at those who go to shul and to look at those who've never been in ash and to find a way without compromise and without corrupting our Torah hakadosha our misora but to be able to couch it and communicate it in the language and words of today describes as a tree planted by streams of water that brings forth its fruit in season. And it's interesting does not use sort of the more classic word that you would for planting. He doesn't say nia. He says it's shassul. What's the difference between nitia nitila nia and chrisila? Shila means to transplant because the true saddak is not planted and rooted only in one location. They don't know only how to be a yid in slabka in the old world but they know how to be shas. A sadic knows how to replant to transplant without compromise to adapt to a new world without corrupting where they come from. And I think that's the first lesson and legacy that is as relevant and important today as it was. It's a responsibility and a challenge. It's not easy. And there are forces and elements that will oppose that will challenge. There are the late son had of our generation who will say you're not from enough or you're too from your balance is off and therefore you're no good. But of tits courageously wasn't worried because he understood the responsibility to a future to find that delicate balance and so must we. towards that end. Number two, as my dear colleague and friend Rabbini Blau pointed out, the use of technology for Torah in finding those platforms, that language, that vocabulary, those tools, the instruments and vehicles to take the Torah's and to reach people where they are. January 17th, 1953, the first broadcast of the Dafa Shabu Radio Shir on Wevd weekly in Yiddish. Controversial at the time. Looking back, you'd say, "What could be controversial about teaching Torah to as many people as possible?" But who knows who's listening and maybe you're compromising? And that was exactly this delicate balance that we were just referring to. But Rabbi Tites, he wasn't worried. He didn't look over his shoulder and he wasn't he wasn't concerned what others would say. He had the huskama of major gdole of mosher of Aronaut believe the she was syndicated in many cities around the country. Boston, Chicago, Detroit, LA, Miami, Montreal, Philadelphia and beyond. And Mama, you know the story. The first they held not knowing how many people would come, how many were really listening. 1500 showed up. The government in the McCarthy area was carefully monitoring all programming that was in any language other than English and they reported that there were 250,000 listeners. You tell me anyone who has a podcast, anyone who's broadcasting or streaming a shear what they would give to have those numbers today with all the marketing and advertising tools with all the optimization and tagging and whatevertick people are using. Right? None of it. What he sold was authenticity and truth. The truth of Torah. And boy did it sell quarter of a million weekly listeners. That she had a mastery of Gamarra and Mafaram woven seamlessly. But it also always contained a lesson. The sugas were tied to current events and to contemporary issues. They showed that the Torah is not a relic of the past. The Torah is the lens through which we see and perceive and understand and it empowers us to navigate the world today. He understood that and he embraced that and he did it to reach people bashir. I only knew this in preparing this. I read that his motivation was the Yiddishists who were towards the end of their life who had abandoned the life of Torah and mitzvos but who had dug their heels so deep that it would probably be difficult to reach them to get them to admit the error of their way to be willing to come back and begin to observe. So betites realized you know where I can get them not in the public square where it would be humiliating and shameful but in the privacy of their home where no one was watching but the pint inside them might be drawn to listen to a blat to that authentic Torah to reach people right tits understood that if you want to secure the future of Israel you don't talk to people where you wish they were or where you want them to be you speak to them where they are and you raise them. You paint a picture for them. You charge them with the power and the energy of Torah. Torah tells us when it comes to the had loops in which the poles were placed and they remained there. Manu and Rashi says leasuruam those poles were placed in the and they were used to transport and to carry it and unlike other kum of the Mishkan they were never removed what's the meaning what's the significance that the poles of the auron were there in perpetuity lem never removed listen to what says because the auron carries the l the auron represents tora and tora must always be ready to be transported. Torah travels with us. Lest you say, "Where is real Torah?" That's in that city, that's in that community, that's in that decade or that era, that's in the past of the old world. Where is Torah? Only in Schul or only in the Bush says, "The Torah had the poles. The Torah was ready to travel. The Torah was portable because it came and comes with us wherever we go. It informs and inspires our lives wherever we are. Rafites understood that and he used the tools to transport Torah into the living rooms and into the homes of anyone who would listen. He was a brilliant visionary. He wasn't ahead of his time. He brought it to his time and in our time we're seeing just how right he was the use of technology to reach people. It's interesting because I was I don't know if you get it. Arts scroll puts out each week a newsletter detra on the para based on different arts scroll books and the back page of it this week I don't know if anyone saw it it came from uh art scroll book about history and it was recalling corona the corona virus how we lived and the gdole that we lost and earlier pandemics and times of earlier gdolumar and others and it talked about it didn't really reference it it couldn't it hinted it alluded how we we adjusted to figure out that even though we were shut down and locked down and isolated from one another, that we can continue to learn Torah. That was technology. And without it, how much Torah would have been lost, wouldn't have been learned. Time that would have been wasted. How many pivotal and critical years of our children and youth, they wouldn't have been connected. The Aron had poles. It's transported to wherever we go, wherever we are. It's portable. And by tites understood that Torah tells us in parane that when we cross the to put up these great stones. What do you write on them? By the time this command is given, not all Torah yet was given to us. Certainly it wasn't written. So what does it mean? It was written in 70 languages. The Torah was communicated captured on those stones. The image I always have is those stones represent the muza going into Israel. Before there was a Benguian airport, people crossed at the same point and they passed these stones that captured and communicated the great billboard of Torah. And it was the muza as they made their way into Israel. And what was Torah? It was written lashes only Hebrew say was written lash in the 70 languages. And the mabam writes why 70 languages because it's telling us that Torah is not singularly in one language for one time for one place in one hasha. But we have to adapt Torah without compromise to the times in which we live to reach people wherever they are. Retites understood it then and we have to understand it now. And when I was an early adopter of some of the technology to spread Torah, the Leon had went after me and they gave me pause. And Barashem I always consult my rebum and the people around me that I trust. But the late sun Adore and every generation will push back and will challenge either their old outdated ideas. They're ancient. They're relics of the past. They're no longer relevant. Or you're too modern. You're compromising too much. This is no longer authentic to what we have. But the courage to push through and persevere. To embrace the challenge of reaching people by aeram to employ appropriately and moderately and judiciously and with boundaries and filters the technology of our time to reach people where they are was a gift. R Tites gave me and all others who use it to know as the early precedent for all of us that this is a model that we have to follow and continue to embrace and follow and reach people where they are. Tit started the Basll teaching Torah on records. It was shortlived. It didn't take off. But it was the spiritual antecedent to Torah tapes and to what we have today Torah anytime and Wu Torah and all the websites and all of the incredible mechanisms and platforms from apps and WhatsApp groups and Torah's communicated so broadly over so many different ways. My tits understood that long before anyone else and to embrace his legacy is to pick up that baton and continue to recognize and realize our responsibility of Shila not just na not just to plant but to replant to take from the past and to be the bridge towards that future reaching people with the technology and the platforms that we have at our disposal. Number three, founding and building or expanding and building on the community of his father-in-law Zatsal. But he didn't just succeed his father-in-law. He didn't just continue what was being done. He transformed Elizabeth from a small Shashabas outpost into this full integrated Torah community outside of New York City. At a time when such communities were rare at best, maybe didn't exist at all. But my tits wasn't complacent and he wasn't apathetic. Too many see their job as I give my paras. I answer whatever shadow has come my way. I give my drussa and I live to see another day. That's all I do. I play defense. I put out fires. I do the bare minimum. I keep within the dollar amos of my shul. And that's my entire purview. But from his very beginning, Rabbit Tites understood with tremendous shifos, with great drive and great vision, with big big goals and big big dreams that a true Jewish community has to have yeshivas in schools for boys and girls and young men and young women. And it has to have satellites in our community. We have satellites to our shul. Where do we learn that from? And where did they see that? that you could have satellites that cooperate and work together, that integrate and that create tremendous benefit by being together, but also recognize not only geographical distance, but also different populations to build a mikvah, famously threatening to leave in 1935 if the mikvah wasn't built. The money was raised that night, otherwise he would have walked away. Imagine, imagine had they called that bluff, that threat, he created one unified Kahila with multiple minyanam under one leadership recognizing the power of community. And this I feel very strongly about is increasingly being lost in our time because we're suffering from something called the tyranny of convenience. So nobody wants to walk further than the that's two houses down from them. Nobody is willing to live inconveniently or experience some discomfort whether it's in the snow in Elizabeth in the winter or the heat in bokeh in the summer. But all of our communities are being threatened to no longer be communities because everyone's making shabas for themselves and everyone wants what's most convenient. Everyone wants to live life on demand and to order. Everyone wants exactly what is good for them. but sacrificing in the process the concept and the power the potency of kahila of a unified community of what that means and the difference it can make. But it tites understood the need and the importance, the staying power and the possibility, the impression, the keshm that we could create and the power of influence we have over a community, the influence on policy to elected officials when we function not indulging in convenience, but when we're willing to live with the discomfort sometimes the sacrifice of davening at that minion a little bit further, a little bit longer, a little bit different, a little bit Because kahila community it means something. It matters. It's important. And he implanted that vision to want more. To not be satisfied or complacent to not feel arrived. Yehuda. The name Yehuda comes from gratitude. And Yehuda teaches us a capacity for gratitude for what is to see what we have. The mid of his. And we are called says because we're a people of gratitude. And as much as we long and aspire, we can be grateful for what we have and what is. But Yoseph, Yoseph is wanting more. Ysepher, that's where his very name comes from. Yoseph to be Mos to add on, to grow, to progress, to achieve. Lublin says that corresponds with Ysephic because we pass like Bilah. We've never arrived. We're never done. We're never finished. It's the next idea, the next dream, the next vision, the next program, the next minion, the next satellite. It's the next person whose life we can change to always add on. Yseph was the great dreamer. And you know, having dreams, it's risky. Can be filled with disappointment if the dreams don't come to fruition. To have dreams makes you vulnerable to articulate them when people will oppose them or challenge you or tell you why they'll never happen. It takes much more work to be a dreamer to just show up, do what you have to, and go home. That's easy. Just deliver, stay out of everyone's way, don't have anyone pay attention, to have dreams, to be a builder, to have vision. It's work, but it's worth it. Rab Tites taught us. Yseph teaches to never be satisfied with what is, but to always seek and desire to add more. If we want to be subject to the then we have to show him if we want him to give us more then we have to give him more. Then we have to constantly be accepting the challenge. What's next? What's our next mission? What's our next assignment? What's next? The zor says Yseph merited that his dreams became reality because he always spoke about them. He always mentioned them. He was always talking about his dreams. He was recruiting other people to dream with him to build and bring those dreams to reality and fruition with him. Rabbi Tites was a dreamer. In a generation, in a time where people looked around and thought they saw a nightmare, he had dreams, big dreams. When others were pessimistic, he was optimistic. When others were critical and condemned, he complimented and he built up. When others saw there was no path forward or they were happy with what was, he saw what could be and he built not only this community but those who are the spiritual offspring of it and to walk in his footsteps to follow in his legacy for Abon and community leaders alike is to be Yoseph to be Mosh Viscalos to remember and repeat and articulate and shout and celebrate and sing our dreams and our visions to never arrive, to never be done, to never be finished, to never be complacent, but to always be building and always be expanding, always be doing more. Number four, arove not just as a teacher of Torah, a postk, which certainly Rabbit Tites was paral, but a RV as a CEO and a visionary. of we read yesterday that Yakov when he learns that Yseph is still alive and he anticipates he plans for when he and his children are going to make their way to Mitsim he sends Yehuda ahead of them he says go quicker go faster get there first go to Gosha and Rashikot tells us why Ga what's he supposed to do there build a base build a yeshiva build a network of schools build a place of harra of build a place where the Torah will inform and inspire and illuminate life and the lifestyle we're meant to live. I saw the Brooklyn others asked the same question for asked this para Yehuda. If you're going to open a yeshiva and go among Yakov's children, which do you send? Maybe Levy, tribe of Levy, the Kohanam. They are the teachers of Torah. They don't inherit a portion of the land in Israel because they have community column. Their whole job, their mission, their purpose is to teach Torah. Send Ley, they'll be the Rashi Yeshiva. We know Yak. Yak is vulner relationship. Yak stands for being steeped in stiging in Torah and learning. So why didn't Yakov send Ley? Why didn't Yakov send? Why did Yakov when he's headed down to Gulus? when he's going to this place of moral decadence and decay, this place of moral corruption and compromise. When he's going to navigate this diaspora and exile, the darkness of the gullis of Mitim, he doesn't send Ley and he doesn't send he sends Yehuda says that to you know why? Because Yehuda is Malus Yehuda Yehuda is royalty. He's regal. He's dignified. He's class. And if you want to make an impression in the gulas, if you want all those to know that you've arrived and that Torah stands tall and proud, that Torah has something to say, that Torah doesn't demand respect, but it commands respect, then you send Yehuda, you send Malus. If tits was Levy, he was an incredible pose certainly, but he was a visionary who carried himself with Malus. And here I draw from my own childhood memories of sitting right over there and looking up on this beimma and seeing the image and the aura oftal that regalness of Slabadka the royalty of Claus the dignity with which he carried himself always everywhere without compromise without compromise. It's how he carried himself and it's what he not only demanded of but taught and modeled and inspired in us the dignity of orthodox Jews that to be a Torah personality is not to be schlocky and hamish. To be a Torah personality is not to be satisfied with mediocrity or to give a certain impression that lacks dignity. But back then and as relevant and important now to build a Torah that's a model of dignity of Tits earned the respect of others. He didn't demand it. And he taught that living a Torah life commands respect. It doesn't demand it. He wasn't just the Ren Pose. He was a visionary that built institutions in that image and that was the seriousness and striving for excellence. He brought to every detail the architecture and branding and structure of this shul exactly how many steps would lead up to the front door reminiscent of a basikt a shul that won a prize of architecture because every detail mattered and was important because Torah is about excellence not mediocrity. It's about dignity and it's about class if it's going to leave the right impression on the people and on those around us. That was the slabka in him. And that's what he taught us community leaders a clear lesson to push beyond our comfort zone to go beyond just and I don't mean to minimize because of course it's critical and primary teach give the druss critical and our primary role but not to see ourselves as limited to it to have big dreams and big vision and big responsibility and to be big builders who carry ourselves and who represent who appear and who project the dignity of a Torah Jew and inspire and empower that in others. Number five, you're all curious how many numbers there are. So am I. We'll see how many. Number five, activism. Activism. That's a word that's not usually synonymous with Rabana. Activism. Not to suggest that Rabonam are passive, but often and today way too many, want to play it safe, don't want to take a stand, don't want to be at the forefront, don't want to be on the front lines of fighting for the causes and for the people who need it and who deserve it. It's easier to play it safe. I don't want to get involved. I don't want to say anything. I don't want to be quoted. I don't want them to cancel me. But Titus wasn't afraid. The activism that went back to his time in Europe working with the free dicker labbe to free a Jewish member of parliament. The activism that he displayed in his youth. So much so that it drew the attention of Zev Jabatinsky who tried to recruit him. an activism that he carried to these shores and to this community and well beyond making 22 trips behind the iron curtain to support Soviet jury to take enormous risks and smuggling and sadum and dalm and matzah producing a special sitter called kasarim zaz Elizabeth New Jersey signaling that mutual responsibility saying everything about what he believed operating under KGB surveillance You know, today a person who came from that country to go back would say that's triggering. That's triggering for them. They're they're absolved. They don't have to. It might trigger them to have to take on the very people that oppress them. Titan didn't know such words or concepts or ideas or trauma. Not to minimize the people who struggle with that today. It's not a criticism of today, but it wasn't in his vocabulary. The activism demanded that the courage and the conviction to rise to the occasion and to do it with some unpopular opinions in a world in which the movement of Soviet jury was gathering for rallies by tits didn't think that that was the right way and it would have been easy to sit on the sidelines not say anything and not face and not confront the many who were attending and who were supporting and who were promoting those rallies. But he wasn't a populist. He was strategic and he was principled and he had a different perspective on what it would take to bring down the Iron Curtain and he stood by it. Fearless, courageous. He didn't play it safe. He didn't take the easy way out. He was an activist. He was an activist not just for Soviet Jews. He was an activist for vulnerable populations. He was an activist for the poor. He was an activist for children who deserved a Jewish day school education and fought to ensure they would have it. He was an activist for cautious at personal risk. He stood up even when it wasn't convenient or politically expedient. And too many lack that courage today. Whether it's to defend an auna and make a statement, whether it's to weigh in on issues of our time, whether it's to stand up for the integrity of Kashras, whether it's politically to be able to confront forces that are challenging our people. But abanas demands courage and convictions and not taking the easy way out, not playing it safe, not living in fear of the right or the left or of being canceled by both, but willing to stand up for our convictions. Not hiding behind Amuna and not the genuine real one that certainly had, but the one that becomes the copout to be passive and a spectator to our own destiny. Because we say the ribbon's in charge. I don't need to interfere. I don't need to weigh in. I don't need to do anything. If tits understood who stood on the banks of the sea and who started to daven and hashem tells Moshe, why are they ding? So there's a time to dav, there's a time to act. Or as I like to say, we dav with our lips, but we also dav with our hands and our feet. We demonstrate and display that with what we do when we're willing to become partners with Hashem even when it's inconvenient even when it's difficult wasn't just the name of a sitter it was his way of life and it should be ours I alluded to education and day schools number six founding this Jewish educational center and his network of schools a time when orthodox day schools were rare my grandfather Ashalam worked with him in Tor Masura to build day schools across the country to personally recruit parents to do something that wasn't popular at the time and take a risk in putting students in them. He built schools because he understood they were necessary for community survival for the future of our people. I'll tell you from Rabbit Tites who wondered Yoseph lived all those years in Mitim. There was no B. There was no yeshiva from Manashim. Why now did Yehuda have to go down in advance before they got there to open a bas to open up a yeshiva center by tights? Because a yak can stay from without a school, without a yeshiva, but a community cannot. An individual can still live, not only survive, even thrive, but a community and Israel can't. And so he took it upon himself. 1968 at the Torah Masora Convention, he introduced, I love this, what he called the Jewish child's bill of rights. A Jewish child's bill of rights in our community. We have an event next week. We run it every year to raise money for our Jewish education scholarship fund. Schools, who I'm not soliciting you right now, don't worry. You can let go of your pocket. Schools in our community like this one do an incredible job, an incredible job giving scholarships well beyond what could be expected of them. And despite that, too many parents who have been given the bare minimum of an obligation and tuition still can't make it. Who's going to step up to ensure they don't have to pull their child out out of a Jewish day school out of yeshiva? Where did I learn? Where did we get an idea? Why do we feel a responsibility as a who says let the schools raise money? Let the schools figure it out because it's a community's responsibility. It's a Rub's responsibility. This is a passing of the torch of the Jewish child's bill of rights. No Jewish child should be turned away because of a lack of money. There are legitimate reasons to not be in a Jewish day school. There are needs that can't be fulfilled there. Money can't and must never be one of them. Rabbi Tites understood that from day one. He introduced the Jewish child's bill of rights. We should publish it, frame it, and hang it on the wall of all communities. Number seven, his rabbitic leadership and the tone that we alluded to, we already spoke about his participation in certain rabbitic groups, but in later years became disillusioned from them when he saw and he felt that their tone became overly negative and focused on criticism and thought their whole purpose was condemnation rather than building. In the 1970s, he built a different mo model with a constructive, optimistic, positive tone that tried to uplift instead of knock down. And that's critical for our time as well. Nobody ever started keeping Shabas because a rock was thrown at their head. Nobody ever made a significant change in their life because they were knocked down, called the name, and put on the margins of the community. So when we lift up, when we build, that's leadership. to inspire and to guide, not just to denounce, to paint a picture and a portrait of who someone could be, not just to tell them what a failure they are. That's leadership. He wasn't afraid of anyone. The Pik tells us nobody can be people shouldn't be afraid of anybody. The only one we fear is the tit lived his life. Even a major donor, an affluent member of the community when one was building a mausoleum or living another another part of lifestyle not consistent with Torah. Betit wasn't afraid to lose that donation, lose that support to stand up for the truth and the authenticity of Torah. He felt the big picture for community but he didn't focus on the community to the extent that he lost sight of the individuals in it. He was a with concern for every individual. He didn't just see the whole and he recognized and respected that he came from panovichodka tells but there's a lot of there's a lot of there's a lot of perspectives to Torah. Yesterday we read I'm winding down. Yesterday we read that when Yseph reveals himself to his brothers and then he allays their fears. I'm not going to get even. I don't want to seek revenge. And Yseph Ysef, Hashem sold me, you fulfilled Hashem's will. He reframed this is all the plan all along. I'm not angry. I'm not going to take revenge. Don't worry. And he gives them provisions. And they're about to leave. And he says, oh yeah, one more thing. One more thing alazoo tazu roguez bes means to be angry rashi quotes it means don't get occupied and preoccupied with detra you're driving in the highway you're going to tell you're going to miss the exit don't you'll get there you'll talk and learning while you're there but not while you're traveling it's dangerous you're vulnerable that's one rashi others say yoseph was worried the moment they take leave of him the moment they walk out they're on their best behavior now that he's revealed himself but the moment they walk out. They're going to start to point fingers. This was your fault. I told you we should I can't believe we followed your idea. I knew we should. They're going to start to blame one another. So he says, "But I want to tell you what the is of mud." The maj says, listen carefully. This is magnificent. He says what Yseph was telling his brothers was don't beg because someone's on a different there are a lot of paths in a hashem. Don't be bragous because someone's chosen a different derak of tits was close with and misnag was close with the satba and the labavb with the religious and the religious Zionist and the not yet religious. He was able to forge a bond and find common cause. He was able to connect and he was able to care about alier gazu bad because rabbitic leadership and responsibility means to take responsibility for the totality of Israel. Not for our niche or our hashkafer the people who wear the same yamaka or send to our particular school or vote for our candidate or align with our party but to be able to connect with and care about the totality and the spectrum of kalisra. And lastly, number eight, the partnership he shared with his bessom. Why do I share that? Because I think it's also critical road map for any RA or communal leader today. 30 years after his passing, it's not as relevant. It's more relevant. We spoke about the Rebbitson's role in translating the drussas, helping him learn English. She shared his misora had her own strong roots and melodies and their home combined those two rich traditions and she Americanb born anchored him in Elizabeth and partnered with him in those trips to the Soviet Union and also helped create that bridge between the old world and the new world communicated in that new language. They were a regal couple, two powerful personalities united in that mission. And he would share that he could only change the world because he had her by his side. And that's our responsibility. We have to recognize and seek that partnership and that support and that shared vision and that window and perspective into all that we do. And so there is so much more to share about Tit's life and biography, his background, about the illustrious family who continue his work and his ways. But to me, this is what I take away, what informs and inspires me in my Rabanas, and I hope is a little window into what I think is so desperately needed today. Rabonam who have courage and conviction, who take a cryas, who have vision and who have big dreams and talk about them. Raanas that uplifts and that builds and that inspires. A robotus that doesn't take the easy way out and doesn't hide and doesn't live in the shadows or in the margins, but proudly and courageously takes responsibility to transmit the timeliness and the timelessness of our Torah to reach people by Husham where they are, not where we wish they were, using the platforms appropriately to help find them and bring our Torah to them. And if we all in this 30th year can take a little bit and follow just somewhat in his ways and the future of Torah and Yiddish will indeed be incredibly incredibly bright. Thank you for this opportunity.