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Yeshiva invites alumni to help open new Beis Medrash
$7 million project at Torah institute is complete
By DanTheCan
of the DanTheCan editorial staffLast Updated: May 19, 2002
The WITS Chanukas Ha'bayis was on the March 12 weekend. It started Thursday night with the arrival of alumni from all over the country, but mostly from Forest Hills. Friday night R' Michel Twerski davened Kabolas Shabbos with an inspiring speech before Borchu by R' Abba Zelka Gewirtz. Later that night after the meal R' Michel gave a tish. It was a beautiful sight. Two hundred people crowded into the old Beis Medrash, which served as the alumni dining room, singing niggunim and listening to divrei chisuk. R' Twerski said a d'vaar torah as follows:
When Moshe was setting up all the keilim in the Mishkan, the Torah uses just one verb for each Keilli. However, when Moshe put the luchos into the Ark the Torah uses two verbs: he took, and he placed. The Rambam answers simply that Moshe took the Luchos out of a temporary ark which was being used during the construction of the Mishkan, and placed them into the new ark.
However, our seforim ha-kodoshim offer a more novel approach. Learning Torah is different than all other subjects. In order to learn Torah properly and to thoroughly be able to enjoy it, you have to learn for yourself on condition to teach to others.
An example: The Kineret flows into the Yam HaMelech. The Kineret has an abundance of life, while the Yam HaMelech on the other hand is as dead as a doorknob. The reason for this is because the Kineret takes water and gives it to the Yam HaMelech. The Yam HaMelech on the other hand just takes water from the Kineret, but doesn't give it to anything else. Therefore there is no life in the Yam HaMelech.
So too is learning Torah. It must be done lilmod ulilomaide. To learn for yourself and to teach others. Otherwise it will stagnate, and the excitement of learning Torah will be lost. R' Michel then paused and added "and you should know, there is no other yeshiva in North America that learns with the condition to teach to others like Chofetz Chaim.
Motzei Shabbos continued with a fabulous Melava Malka, with live music played by Benjy Israel on drums, Eli Riesel on keyboard, and Shimon Lobel playing guitar. Sunday was the grand finale, with over four hundred people traveling from across the U.S. to participate in the bringing of the Sifrei Torahs into the new Beis Medrash and to hear speeches by the Rosh HaYeshiva, R'A.H.Leibowitz, R' Shmuel Kaminetzky, Rosh HaYeshiva of Philidelphia, and R' Malkiel Kotler, Rosh HaYeshiva of Lakewood.
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