A rare lens into the weight that a gadol ascribes to the decisions he makes
Rav Moshe Hillel Hirsch the Slabodka Rosh Yeshivah and one of the generation’s preeminent gedolim, has been dedicating voluminous amounts of time and energy this past year raising funds to keep the Olam HaTorah in Eretz Yisrael afloat after the Israeli government cut funding for yeshivos. On a recent trip to America, he attended a fundraiser in the Flatbush home of Reb Menachem Braunstein, a supporter of the yeshivah. At the event, Reb Menachem and Reb Shmuel Grunberger, a devoted Slabodka talmid, presented the Rosh Yeshivah with a new initiative that they wanted to kickstart.
In broad outlines, the plan entailed encouraging Torah Jews from around the world to donate one dollar a day to avreichim in kollelim across Eretz Yisrael. The funds would be a financial lifeline for hundreds of avreichim and give tremendous relief to the roshei kollel, while also allowing even lower-level donors to significantly impact the Torah landscape. But the Slabodka Rosh Yeshivah didn’t just offer his warm support. Instead, he asked for a pen and paper, diligently detailing the calculations.
How many people could they reasonably expect to sign up, he wanted to know. How many avreichim could be supported? How would the funds be distributed? Would this take away from other donations? How would overhead be kept to a minimum to ensure maximum impact of each dollar? Like an investor reviewing a potential deal, the Rosh Yeshiva probed and asked, going through the minutiae of the proposal. Reb Avromi Schonfeld then suggested the two partner with Reb Chaim Posen who initiated a similar concept called “TorahGiving” back in 2021, a move that the Rosh Yeshivah encouraged.
The scene afforded the participants a rare lens into the weight that a gadol ascribes to the decisions he makes for a concept as dear to his heart as support for Torah learning.
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