In Jerusalem

Grapevine: Gettysburg address in Yeshivish

02/11/2013 12:08 By GREER FAY CASHMAN

February 12 is the birthday of outgoing Defense Minister Ehud Barak.

Photo by: Marc Israel Sellem/The Jerusalem Post

FOR THOSE Israelis who keep track of the birthdays of public figures, February 12 is the birthday of outgoing Defense Minister Ehud Barak and of MK Binyamin Ben-Eliezer. On a somewhat more elevated scale, it is also the birthday of Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin, who were both born on February 12, 1809 – Lincoln in America and Darwin in England. Rabbi Aaron Adler, the spiritual leader of the Ohel Nechama Congregation who was guest speaker at the annual Friday night dinner of neighboring Hazvi Yisrael Congregation (known as Hovevei Zion), made a point of mentioning both Lincoln and Darwin to explain their different perceptions; in traditional Jewish fashion, he used self-deprecating humor to introduce a very serious subject.

Adler, who is both a protégé of Rabbi Joseph Soleveitchik and a graduate of Yeshiva University in New York, makes a point whenever he’s in America of lecturing YU graduate students to tell them about job opportunities that are available to them in Israel. But he also cautions them before they come that they must learn to speak Hebrew well enough to deliver a lecture and not to rely on whatever Hebrew they have gleaned from biblical and talmudic studies. Once, when discussing this with Rabbi Dr. Norman Lamm, the chancellor and former president of YU, the latter remarked, “I hope you told them that they have to learn English too.” It was not a facetious comment.

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Grapevine: Gettysburg address in Yeshivish

February 12 is the birthday of outgoing Defense Minister Ehud Barak.

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