Rebbi for Life

He’s a scion of Yerushalmi Torah greatness and an heir to the legacy of Brisk. Rav Yonason Sacks taps his family legacy for the challenges of a new generation

Photos: Jeff Zorabedian, Kalinin photography

I’ve been in many a rabbi’s study, but the one in Rav Yonason Sacks’s Passaic home is an experience apart. It’s not a large room — there’s space for a desk and a couple chairs and bookcases — but that only magnifies its most striking feature: Mounted along its walls are a dozen or so poster-style reproductions of rulings issued by Rav Sack’s illustrious great-grandfather, Rav Tzvi Pesach Frank, who served as the chief rabbi of Jerusalem for nearly four decades until his passing in 1960.

These kol korei signs, of the very same type that still festoon the Holy City’s walls, give the study a pronounced Yerushalmi flavor, wordlessly conveying precious continuity, a generational chain unbroken. This is clearly a room with a view.

There’s also a large placard announcing with deep sorrow the passing of the Chazon Ish — and when I ask why it’s there, Rav Sacks’s reply opens a small window into his inner world. “These were really incredibly inspirational figures, not just for their overall greatness, but in particular because of their ameilus b’Torah, the ceaseless toil in learning. When you’re learning late at night, it’s good to have those models in front of you.” For Rav Sacks — rosh yeshivah, kehillah rav, and author of 38 seforim and counting — there have undoubtedly been many such late nights in this room.

Rav Sacks currently heads Beis Medrash L’Talmud in the Kew Gardens Hills neighborhood of Queens, the yeshivah component of Touro College’s Lander College for Men. Before assuming that post, he was a rosh yeshivah at Yeshiva University’s affiliated Yeshivas Rabbeinu Yitzchak Elchanan (REITS) for 18 years, and for close to three decades, he’s served as rav of Agudath Israel of Passaic Park. As he speaks, he exudes a strong, quiet warmth, but at the mention of Rav Tzvi Pesach Frank, the stories tumble forth.