So this past Sunday night was a very powerful and important event in America. It was an event called Adirei HaTorah. What is Adirei HaTorah? Lakewood Yeshiva puts on an event at the Xfinity Center, the stadium where the Philadelphia NBA and NHL teams—the hockey and basketball teams—play. It’s an event to celebrate the Torah, put on by BMG of Lakewood Yeshiva. There are 25,000 people there. In fact, this year they even needed another arena, with another 10,000 people there. It’s a big event, so I went with my kids, and we went and sat there at the event.
First of all, as it starts, you watch the Rosh Yeshivas come in and see the excitement for Torah. I literally—I’m embarrassed to say this—was hoping no one was looking at me. I started crying. I really couldn’t stop the tears. I kept trying to hit the table to try to get myself to stop. I couldn’t stop the tears for like 20 minutes. Because there’s nothing more beautiful in the entire world. They’re watching people committed to Torah. When you see it, the whole stadium is just here for Torah in its purest form. I don’t know, I’m serious. For 20 minutes I was crying; I just kept tapping. I’m like, “Okay, okay,” but there’s just something so beautiful. Because, you know, you get to see so many different people, but there’s nothing more beautiful in the world than a Ben Torah—I’m sorry, just someone who’s living for Torah and not spending that much time on the garbage and the nonsense and the obsessions and the things, all the little things that people get busy with. But that’s not my story.
The story is that every year at this event, they bring in a Gadol (great Torah scholar) from Israel. So this year, they brought in Rabbi Yitzchak Soloveitchik. He’s from the Soloveitchik family, which pretty much almost redefined Torah for the Jewish world in the last century. And he has a yeshiva in Israel. This is going to be the first time in his life that he’s doing something on this scale. Everyone knows that Rabbi Yitzchak Soloveitchik sits and learns Torah. In fact, someone came to him, one of his donors, and said, “I want you to come to America for a wedding, and I’ll give you a quarter-million-dollar donation to your yeshiva.” The rabbi said, “I feel bad, but I’m learning Masechet (tractate) Temurah for the first time, so I can’t come.” I think—I’m not sure if I heard the story right—someone came back to him and said, “Rabbi, no, no, we’ll give you a half a million dollars.” “I’m sorry, I’m learning Masechet Temurah for the first time. I can’t come. I can’t leave the Gemara.” So one of his students said to him, “Rabbi, the Rabbi is learning Temurah for the first time? Like, it’s a masechet, especially in Brisk. I feel like the Rabbi learned this a lot of times.” He said, “It’s true, I learned it a lot of times. But every time I learn it, it’s as if it’s the first time. So I can’t go in.”
Now, a few weeks ago, he gets called to join this Adirei HaTorah event. Someone says, “What is it? It’s like about money and whatever.” They say, “No, no, no, it’s about strengthening people who are learning Torah.” The rabbi says, “I’m there.” They know Rabbi Malkiel Kotler, the Rosh Yeshiva, is going to call you. “He doesn’t have to call me. To strengthen people who are learning Torah, I’m there. I’m coming.”
Now it happens to be that last week, literally last week, my brother, the rabbi in this shul (synagogue), Rabbi Moshe, was in Israel. So he went to visit Rabbi Yosef Soloveitchik. So he goes in to see the rabbi. The rabbi is learning, and my brother wants to make conversation. The rabbi’s about to come to America: 25,000 people, really 35,000 people. It’s a ton of hype and hoopla and excitement. And he thinks he can talk to the rabbi about it. The rabbi is for sure going to be excited to hear what it’s like: What’s the event like? What’s there? How long? He goes to the rabbi and says, “I heard the rabbi’s coming to Adirei HaTorah.” The rabbi says, “Da, let me note some stuff. Here we only talk about what’s relevant. Let’s start talking about the Gemara.” My brother said, “See, I’ll be there. Here we’re just talking about what’s relevant.” That’s so gorgeous. If I was speaking there, oh, you’d hear about it in 12 classes before, after, during. You, my... Everyone here, we just talk about what’s relevant. We’re not having that conversation. Let’s talk about the Gemara, let’s talk about the Halakhah (Jewish law), let’s talk about the Rambam. Let’s talk about something that matters.