What do we consider and reflect on when thinking of this extraordinary week?  What should we consider and reflect on when thinking of this extraordinary week?

Like so many other periods on NCSY Kollel, the past seven days were a nonstop whirlwind of activity and world class programming.  So much stands out, so much will serve memory for years to come.

For many of the boys, Wednesday’s night farewell to Rav Schachter was like nothing they’d ever experienced before.  Rav Schachter’s stay was astonishing on many levels. Some refer to his departure as “bittersweet” as the joyous appreciation of our connection to him is balanced by our disappointment in seeing him leave.  But we prefer to view it with a more pure optimism and positivity.  The dancing and outpouring of respect is the first step in a lifelong journey towards tradition.  In that sense Wednesday was just the start and carried with it promise as well as one of the summer’s most precious gifts and takeaways.   Similarly, this week was marked by visits from communal leaders of the highest magnitude.  Our campus was elevated by the time we spent with OU leadership including Rabbi Dr. Josh Joseph, Mitch Aeder, Rabbi Micah Greenland, and Rabbi Jacob Bernstein.  We were inspired by Rabbi Dov Zinger, Rabbi Reuven Taragin, Rabbi Yehuda Chanales, and Rabbi Jonah Steinmetz.  These daily highlights foster a strong sense of belonging in the Torah community and will remain with us for time to come.

There were other significant events too.  Wednesday’s tiyul day was another homerun from our in-house tour team.  Each and every minute is designed with full understanding of our NCSYers, their needs and their interests.  The tiyulim are also calibrated with our educational goals and the rest of our learning schedule.  This week’s trip ranged from the desert mountains and the Wadi Kelt oasis to the Dead Sea and nearby springs.  We also presented two entirely unique experiences, patented by NCSY Kollel.  Our Culinary Tour of Connection is like nothing else out there.  The cheese making, goat milking, pickle brining, focaccia baking and live shechita finale all combine to end with full stomachs and an even fuller appreciation for Israel’s bounty and halacha’s wisdom.   Perhaps the greatest feedback was reserved for our other unique offering.  The tiyul day in the Shomron follows the classic NCSY Kollel formula.  It’s great wholesome fun- the sheep herding, and volunteering were special opportunities. The BBQ with Tzahal reservists was eye opening.    Each bus ride through the ancient land and each interaction with the holy residents was thought provoking and stirring.    These were great examples of what our tiyulim are all about.

There was  a Thursday night mishmar that was definitional for NCSY Kollel summer as well.  When Rav Schachter delivered his parting remarks to the NCSYers he chose to split his focus between those proudly in the room and those who were not.  He articulated the outreach mission of NCSY and exhorted our group to spread the Torah’s goodness far and wide.  Fortuitously, one day later we had our annual hosting of a contingent of NCSYers from our TJJ busses.  These boys are NCSYers through the year and are not in the Yeshiva system.  Their energy and curiosity took an already electric Thursday late night environment and raised it even higher.  The siyum (2), dancing, chavrusa learning, optional shiurim, and beautiful social interactions were powerful examples of what NCSY and our community can be.

But the extraordinary is sometimes no match for the basic and regular. The most special moments were the familiar ones. Blossoming relationships with morning seder Rabbeim, thrilling basketball and hockey games, great mini tiyulim, late night chill on the great lawn. Mopball all star games and frisbee Olympics.  Chavrusas with the Roshei Yeshiva, Erev Shabbos cholent and kugel and the songs of Shabbos. Clinics with Zevi Samet, shooting around with friends.  Chaburas.  This is the heart and soul of NCSY Kollel and no highlights can possibly be brighter or more vital to healthy growth and development.

And yet…

All of the above is accurate and sincere.  All of the above happened and all of the above matters.  But as we have experienced together these past 9 and a half months, there are moments that appropriately overshadow and color everything else.  There is a background and foreground to our lives.  The foreground is more prominent, but never more foundational.  The background at times recedes and loses definition.  But can never be forgotten.

The calendrical and emotional center of our week was the fast of 17 Tammuz.  This solemn day introduces brokenness and loss to our lives.  The shattered luchos, breached walls, and echoes of despair are the day’s theme.  Most often, we are blessed to view 17 Tammuz as a history lesson, and we try to relate.  This year it is all around us and current events.  Our Tuesday experience began with a deeply moving video presentation from Yeshivat Har Etzion on the war and so many of the fallen.  The video was introduced by Rav Moshe Taragin, a leading rebbe at the yeshiva and longtime teacher at NCSY Kollel.  At the end of the fast the entire NCSY Kollel family traveled to the site of the Nova music festival.  We heard from survivors and soldiers and bereaved family members.  We took part in a powerful sefer torah writing campaign on site.  Mostly, we wandered the haunted forest and were mesmerized by memorial after memorial, witness after witness.    We concluded with an NCSY Kollel kumsitz like no other.

Our days and weeks naturally turn on an axis.  They pivot around poles that anchor and motivate all our movements and actions.  Most often, that axis is Shabbos.  All days lead to Shabbos, all days emerge from it.  This year, it is not sacrilegious to suggest that Shabbos of October 7 became the focal point of an entire year, of an entire generation. We cannot and dare not escape the horrors that impacted so many and so much.  It’s always there, and we are obligated to remain aware.

“Zachor”, remembrance, has an outsized presence in our religious existence.  It is our commandment in dealing with enemies, an imperative on all those events that are meant to be on our mind.  It is a centerpiece of the High Holidays and contemporary observance of both Israel’s Memorial Day and Yom HaShoah.   Strikingly, it is also the language used to describe our relationship with Shabbos.  What are the implications of this form of memory?

Rav Hirsch posits that the very instruction to remember implies the potential or even likelihood of forgetting.   Based on this observation, we can suggest that the remembering in Torah can refer to a form of ordered consciousness.   There’s a great deal that we know but that knowledge is buried to somewhere deep in our psyche.  It is not part of active thought processes nor particularly relevant or impactful on our actions.  The Torah’s insistence that we remember Shabbos or Amalek, our communal commitment to remember brave chayalim or pain in Am Yisrael are both intended to retrieve these understandings and apply them to the activities of our mind and body. 

There is a fascinating contrast between the beginning of the three weeks and the end, between 17 Tammuz and 9 Av.   We often note how there is a rising intensity of mourning between these two days, and of course there is.  But in one respect, at least, 17 Tammuz has an even more solemn tone.   When Tisha B’Av ends, there is a bit of relief and a release.  We very quickly move from the floor to our upright stance.  We very soon resume regular activities and remove vestiges of mourning.  In a sense, and in a manner that is almost unavoidably inappropriate, we rush to forget.  When Shiva Asar B’Tammuz comes to a close, especially in the fields of the Gaza belt, there is no such reprieve.  Yes, we may be able to drink and have a meal, but the restrictions are just beginning.  We are still working to remember.  We remain acutely aware. 

Full disclosure:  this has been our greatest challenge throughout this summer.  We plan and produce so much content, a representative sample is described in the opening paragraphs above.  There are lists and assignments, details and itineraries.  We form shiurim and order buses, book attractions and try to create wow moments.  We have hockey and spike ball and cholent on Thursday night and look now- there’s one more day to Shabbos.    Our Roshei Yeshiva arrive and what’s for lunch and can I have another pancake?  Occasionally there is a war plane overhead.  We take note of the interruption and then, when it quiets down, we get back to free throws or daf yomi.  We say tehilim, lots of tehilim, but they too wind down and we are able to resume.  Unaware.  The difficulty lies in the reality that it almost needs to be this way.  We will go to water parks and 36 league teams will compete for a championship and this is what the soldiers would want and this is what North American boys can handle and we don’t want to the enemy to win and Israel is about building and life and that’s what we must show the world.  But the war doesn’t stop and the pain is everywhere and this is real and it is happening here and now and those soldiers are our brothers and those captives are our family and it’s 263 days and we cannot forget and we must be aware.

On Sunday evening of this extraordinary and painful week, our dearest friend and alumnus, IDF Staff Sgt. Major Shlomo Rayman visited Kollel.  Shlomo was a proud member of NCSY Kollel for many years and now is raising his family in Beit Shemesh and working with NCSY Israel.  He’s also been serving for months in Gaza.  After connecting with many staff and NCSYers Shlomo led us in Tehilim that were more than the norm.  He then gathered a small group for an optional post maariv talk.  Many of the rabbeim hurried to have a good seat.  Rav Twersky interrupted the conversation he was leading and rushed to listen.  The small group grew, and we sensed the change.  We were truly aware.

This was our goal last week in Sderot, and this week at Nova.  We will not spend the rest of our lives in these locations, but we also will not forget.  When the staff posed the question to Rav Twersky, he responded by asking us to maintain a “routine, that is not routine.”  This is our goal.  We will play ball, but not forget.  We will celebrate Shabbos, not as a distraction but as another way to be aware.

The process varies from teen to teen.  And it is not the enticing bliss that ignorance offers.  But it is real, and it is NCSY Kollel 5784.  We strive to be aware. 

We prepare for a Shabbos of feeling and understanding.  From the hills of Beit Meir and the glow of Jerusalem, we wish you only blessing and good.

Moshe Benovitz

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