Four full days of intense learning and discussions at the Yarchei Kallah rabbinical summit in Upstate New York’s Catskill Mountains came to a close on Sunday.
Annually hosted by Camp Gan Israel in Parksville, it brings together over 40 Chabad-Lubavitch rabbis and scholars who head communities and yeshivos across the U.S., Europe, Israel and South America.
“It gives me lots of nachas,” the Rebbe once commented about the gathering founded in 5734 in honor of his saintly father Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Schneerson.
The organizer, Rabbi Avrohom Shemtov, who heads Agudas Chassidei Chabad International, recalled the Rebbe’s input and interest in details during the Melave Malka ceremony on Motzoei Shabbos.
“Among the things the Rebbe inquired about one of the years was which rov got which aliya to the Torah on Shabbos,” he noted.
Rabbi Shemtov went on to note how the Yarchei Kallah is probably one of the only conferences that assembles rabbis of such caliber in the areas of Torah, Chassidus and Halacha.
The other three speakers of the event demonstrated his point: Rabbi Yoel Kahn, chief ‘choizer’ of the Rebbe; Rabbi Leibel Schapiro, rov and Rosh Yeshiva of Chabad in Miami and Rabbi Mordechai Shmuel Ashkenazi, rov of Kfar Chabad and author of halachic publications.
They were joined on a packed two-row stage by the fellow participants of the Yarchei Kallah.
The crowd was a mix of Lubavitchers and individuals of other Chassidic groups. Among them were businessmen Yossel Newman of Monsey, Abraham Aaron Rubashkin of Boro Park, and Shlomo Drimmer, Shaya Boymelgreen and Meir Eichler of Crown Heights.
In his speech, Rabbi Ashkenazi related a story he heard from the late R’ Nochum Goldshmid of Tel Aviv:
The Rebbe’s father, chief rabbi of the Ukrainian city of Dnepropetrovsk who was later exiled to Kazachstan, was constantly being threatened by a Jewish collaborator of the communists.
The man, Rabbi Ashkenazi told, was saying he will report Reb Levik’s religious activities and succeeded in worrying the Rebbe’s father until he shared his concern with the city’s schochet.
The schochet, horrified by what he learned, went over to the communist spy and showed him the sharp long knife he uses to slaughter animals and from that day on the harassment stopped.
For Rabbi Ashkenazi the story was not a lesson about the effect of violence. Rather, it showed how far one should go to learn and teach Torah – even when his life is threatened.
The elder and younger rabbis left with the commitment to keep teaching the masses the light of the Torah as it is further illuminated by the philosophy of Chassidus.
In addition to warmly thanking Rabbi Shemtov, the rabbis expressed their appreciation to the camp director Rabbi Yossi Futerfas and his brother Rabbi Shlomo Futerfas.
Thanks were also extended to the coordinator of the Yarchei Kallah Yehuda Ceitlin who was assisted by his brother Mendy Ceitlin, Binyomin Deren, Shmuli Galperin, Mendel Aisenbach and the dedicated staff of the camp.
Photos: Yossi Percia/COLlive
i looks like you got a good brocho
What is your point?
I just heard that story about the shochet, in Stramford hill, London this past shabbos.
i think there are more balebatim in the pictures than buchrim.
Why do you have to write about 2 people that were in the crowd? are they the only ones that are important?
go sruli edelman best N.O.D. head ever
Pardon my ignorance, i have never been to a Yarchei Kallah, are only bochermin allowed? I don’t see too many Bal-Habatim in the audience.
It seems to me that if the Litvisher oilom would do something like this, they would get a massive turn out of ordinary folk.