There's a recent book about Rabbi Matityahu Solomon that was written and came out from ArtScroll. Rabbi Matityahu Solomon was the Mashgiach, the spiritual guide or leader, in Gateshead Yeshiva, and then he came to Lakewood Yeshiva BMG, and he was world-renowned. He was involved in so many cases in Lakewood and across the Jewish world, and so they recently wrote a book. Rabbi Avraham Berenbaum wrote it. It's a phenomenal book. It has phenomenal stories in it. Someone—my daughter—got the book for me, and I'm going to share with you one story that I think makes this point.
Rabbi Solomon calls someone, I guess in Lakewood, a Rabbi Munk. He says, “Rabbi Munk, do you know Senator Joe Lieberman?” He says, “Do I know?” I said, “I need Senator Joe Lieberman.” Rabbi Munk was involved in politics. He says, “I'm involved in politics, but I don't know Senator Joe Lieberman.” He says, “I'll tell you why. There's a boy who's in yeshiva here. He's in one of the schools here in Lakewood. He's in 10th grade. His name is David, and he's an orphan. David wants to drop out of yeshiva, and I asked him, ‘What would it take to get you to stay in yeshiva?’ The kid loves politics. The kid said, ‘If Senator Joe Lieberman will tell me to stay in yeshiva, I'll stay in yeshiva.’” It was probably at the time when Joe Lieberman was a big deal, and he's an Orthodox senator.
So Rabbi Munk tells Rabbi Solomon, “Rabbi, I hear you, but it happens to be, I really don't know the senator.” So listen to Rabbi Solomon's answer: “Get to know him. Figure it out.” So now Rabbi Munk is saying, “What's that? I'm a man. I live in Lakewood, probably. I have to figure out how to know the senator from Connecticut?” He says, “Okay, Rabbi Solomon gave me orders. I don't know.”
Two days later, he's in some restaurant in the city, I think—a kosher restaurant. And in, of course, he's in a restaurant called Mark's. Senator Joe Lieberman is there with his whole entourage. He says, “Wow, I can't believe this. Obviously Hashem sent this man here.” He goes up and tries to make his way through the entourage, and tells the senator, “I need to talk to you about something very important.” The senator says, “Okay. So give me a few minutes.” After a few minutes, the senator steps away. He says, “Okay, what is it you need?” He says, “There was an orphan boy. His name is David. He lives in Lakewood. He's in school, and he's about to drop out of yeshiva. The only way he's going to stay in yeshiva is if he has a meeting, a personal meeting. That's the only way he would stay: a personal meeting with you, and you tell him to stay.”
So Senator Lieberman says, “I hear you. The problem is that my aides control my schedule, so it's not so simple for me to just meet with this boy. I don't think I could really do it.” Rabbi Munk says, “But he's an orphan, and his whole future, if he drops out of yeshiva as an orphan kid, very likely he's going to be in tremendous trouble. His whole future is dependent on you.” So Senator Lieberman here says, “I hear you.” Must have been some event. Someone was walking by, and they had a birkon (bencher) in their hand, however you want to say it. You know what the papers that you do, we got them as on it. Okay, what are we supposed to call it? I'm Syrian; what are we supposed to call it? We call it benches. Anyhow, let's go with it. Okay, don't hold it against me.
Anyhow, Senator Lieberman tells the man walking by, “Can I have that bencher?” He takes it; the back of it was empty, and he writes in the bencher: “Dear David, thank you so much for all the Torah you learned and all the limudim (studies) that you do. Good luck with everything you do. Sign, Senator Joe Lieberman, U.S. Senator from Connecticut, state of Connecticut.” The boy got the letter, and the boy stayed in yeshiva and built himself a beautiful family and beautiful life.
Here's what Rabbi Solomon is saying. If I was about to tell Solomon—he was probably in his 70s at the time—I always said, “Senator Joe Lieberman, like, I don't know how I'm with Senator Joe Lieberman. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, kid. I think I'm impressive enough, and Rabbi Matityahu Solomon, listen to me.” But no, no, it's not good enough to have a good heart. You have a responsibility to own it enough to figure out how to be smart and to figure out how to be effective. And again, I re-quote Rabbi—I have a copy of Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetsky's words here. You see from here that a lack of wisdom, a lack of knowledge, a lack of skill—it's a lack of righteousness. Now, it doesn't mean you're always going to get results, but you have to figure out how to be effective, and you have to figure out how to reach and how to do and how to accomplish, because you realize your life, you own...