It might have been decades ago — how is it that the hallowed months and years in yeshivah, closed off from the mundane pressures of life, are still the engine pushing them forward?
When I arrived at Ner Israel in Baltimore in March of 1995, I had expected to stay for two months, completing my second and final year of yeshivah that had started with a life-changing experience at Yeshivat Hakotel in Jerusalem. In the fall, I would attend a major four-year university in New York.
In Baltimore, I quickly discovered a new level of devotion to limud haTorah and an immense kavod haTorah that was evident in the lives of inspiring peers — and an entire city’s residents. More importantly, I was enveloped by the love of the mashgiach Rabbi Beryl Weisbord, my rebbi Rabbi Yissocher Frand, and the inimitable Rabbi Chaim Dovid Lapidus. As the yeshivah’s liaison with the university programs available for bochurim, Rabbi Lapidus played a crucial role for those of us who had been raised in Modern Orthodox families.
Three and a half years later, Rabbi Lapidus greeted me the morning after my engagement when I arrived in the beis medrash with my future father-in-law, Rabbi Ilan Feldman — himself the son-in-law of our rosh yeshivah, Rav Yaakov Weinberg. His smile spoke volumes about the role of a yeshivah and the relationship with a talmid.
While I originally thought to be there just a few months and “move on,” I was privileged to learn in Ner Israel for seven and a half years.
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