Once Yankel Cohen started to learn, he became a bochur obsessed, falling under the Torah’s magic spell. Yet Reb Yankel didn’t travel alone on this lifelong adventure — he took us all along for the ride
When he first came to Telshe yeshivah in 1951, he’d sneak out to the baseball stadium, but once Yankel Cohen started to learn, he became a bochur obsessed, falling under the Torah’s magic spell. Yet Reb Yankel didn’t travel alone on this lifelong adventure – he took us all along for the ride, and for the next 70 years, let us know that the treasure belonged to all of us
“Dovid Hamelech, alav hashalom, said, ‘Lulei Sorascha sha’ashuai az avaditi b’anyi.’ And I too, announce in a loud voice, the words of hakaras hatov filling my heart toward Hakadosh Baruch Hu that He gave us His holy Torah, in which I found what my neshamah has loved, from my youth until this day.”
(From the introduction to the sefer Sha’ashuei Yaakov, by Rav Yisroel Yaakov Cohen, 2020.)
Devorim! Nifloim! Ad! Meod!
Bursting forth from random corners of the beis medrash, the words emerged from the man in the graying beard and the short-sleeved shirt, his vintage glasses perched upright on his nose. In those corners he built towering edifices, tore them down, and rebuilt them again. And we watched from the sidelines as he waged wars, climbed mountains, and swam the deepest seas. For 70 years, Rav Yankel Cohen ztz”l was the ultimate adventurer, engaged in the definitive adventure.
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