![]() Rav Tabory drove us home afterwards living two blocks from each other as we did, this was one of the many lifts I got from him. Somehow, I had the sense that she did not quite share his enthusiasm for the game. But I did not expect to see Rav Tabory and his wife, Naomi, sitting five rows behind us. When the Yankees made their first visit to Toronto I, not surprisingly, went to Exhibition Stadium to cheer on the Blue Jays (who won that game). Our Rosh Yeshiva was a great baseball fan, and had tremendous bekiut in all things baseball. It was during my high school years that the Toronto Blue Jays began play. He would have been just as happy with a bunch of German-speaking Jews in Uganda. It is we who can (and must) see both sides and to a certain degree agree with both, who must learn to live with the tension. For others, he was an assimilated Jew who wanted to create a new Jew, one far removed from observant life. For the “secular Israeli”, he is a hero whose herculean efforts led to the creation of the State of Israel it’s hard to imagine a greater hero than that. I recall Rav Tabory’s comment that it is “our world” that struggles with the legacy of Theodore Herzl. I would estimate that some 30% of the people I went to high school with now live in Israel. All of our Jewish Studies teachers were shlichim, some of whom barely spoke English. Or Chaim was, and I believe still is, the only Bnei Akiva yeshiva outside of Israel. And of course, he gave over much of the Torah of his Rebbe, Rav Soloveitchik, z”l. It was in his shiur that we first heard of the kuntresei shiurim of Rav Gustman, z”l and were told of the accomplishments of Rabbi Shlomo Riskin. We were introduced to the three great Aarons: Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein, z”l, Rabbi Aharon Kotler, z”l, and Rabbi Ahron Soloveichik, z”l. Through his many stories, he introduced us to some of the great leaders of the day, many of whom spoke at the Yeshiva. But being a person of integrity-that is what matters. I recall him once asking, Does it really matter if you know one blatt less or more? It will make little difference years from now. Yet as central as learning may have been, he stressed that being a mensch was vastly more important. At the time, I thought that was crazy but BH, today I fully understand. I remember him telling us that he could not survive learning only two hours a day. Rav Tabory’s commitment to, and love of, learning was immense. I found this synthesis of Torah U'mada quite powerful, as it showed me the connection between Torah to the broader world. math student from the University of Toronto to offer his insights in understanding the Gemara’s use of pi. A few dapim later, when the Gemara discusses round sukkot and the like, Rav Tabory brought in a Ph.D. The (printed squarish) samech represents a sukkah of four walls, the three-sided kaf represents a sukkah of three walls, and the heh represents the sukkah that can be built with only two-and-a-half walls. I recall his opening shiur on masechet Sukkah when he told us-I believe he mentioned the Vilna Gaon had said this as a child-that the letters of the word “sukkah” reflect the three types of sukkah one can build. We immediately recognized that this teacher was different. Rav Tabory soon took over our Gemara shiur. We gave our rebbeim, shall we say, a run for their money. We covered a great deal of material in his 10-minute devar halacha that he gave, in Hebrew, every morning after davening. It is amazing what one can accomplish in just 10 minutes a day. Coupled with his sharp wit, his sense of humour, his breadth and depth of knowledge, and his encouragement of excellence, his influence was profound. Even as young, immature high school students, we recognized his phenomenal knowledge-he was still only in his early 30s-and great teaching ability. There have been many shlichim over the years who have come to teach in Toronto, yet I think it’s fair to say that very few, if any, reached his level of learning. Rav Tabory made aliyah in the early 1970s, and his four years of shlichut to Toronto corresponded to my four years of high school. In his honour, I share a few personal and incomplete reflections. Much of the credit for my growth in learning must go to our Rosh Yeshiva, Rav Binyamin Tabory, z”l, whose sheloshim we commemorate next week. Yet by the time I graduated from high school, I had begun to take my learning very seriously, and had no problem with the 15-hour days of yeshiva in Israel. We, and I speak first and foremost about myself, were a rowdy bunch, more interested in sports than in Gemara. My school day was some two-and-a-half hours longer, added to that was another five hours of school on Sunday, not to mention that we started school- limudei kodesh only-a week before Labour Day. The transition from elementary to high school was quite a jarring one. ![]()
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