New York—With trumpets and song, and more than 230 strong, the largest class of rabbis to ever graduate from the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS) entered Lamport Auditorium at Zysman Hall, on Yeshiva University’s Wilf Campus in Washington Heights. While the stage was a sea of familiar faces of the elder statesmen of Contemporary Orthodoxy, it took nearly ten minutes for the crush of new musmachim (rabbinic graduates) to file into their seats of honor at the front, with bright eyes wide with expectation. The musmachim were flanked on all sides by family members and close friends, taking pictures and clapping to the music.
The Chag HaSmicha Convocation, held on March 23, honored the 230 musmachim who completed their smicha training between 2011 and 2014. Fifty of these graduates hail from the greater Teaneck community. They joined the 3,180 men who have graduated from RIETS since its first Chag HaSmicha in 1906.
To introduce the historical and social context of the convocation event, a video was shown highlighting the rich history of RIETS, and in particular the contributions of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, known as the Rav, who ordained 2,000 of RIETS’s graduates.
In his remarks, RIETS Dean Rabbi Menachem Penner recognized the presence of Rabbi Dr. Norman Lamm, former president and chancellor of YU, who has been present at every Chag HaSmicha for the past 40 years. “The majority of the Orthodox American rabbinate has passed in front of you,” said Penner.
Penner added a special mazal tov to those roshei yeshiva who have children in this class of musmachim, “including the Schachter, Rosenzweig and Charlop/Neuburger families, who are celebrating today three generations of RIETS rabbanim,” he said.
“You are the contemporary builders of our living and breathing mesorah (tradition),” said Richard Joel, YU’s president, in his address to the musmachim. “Students of Torah build and preserve the Jewish people through their learning. You are our builders, but you build upon, you do not build anew. And as builders, you must use all of the intellectual training you have acquired,” he said. “The openness of modern society challenges our process and our precedents but that commitment [to the mesorah] is what is at our core,” Joel said. “Along with this accomplishment comes a serious responsibility.”
Rabbi Hershel Schachter, Rosh Yeshiva of RIETS, was asked to present a charge to the new musmachim. Schachter’s charge was a warning to take seriously the responsibilities of the rabbinate, with equal measures of humility and respect. He explained that now that the musmachim have smicha, things will be different. The ballei batim (congregants) look up to the rabbanim, and expect the rabbanim to be holy people. “But, it shouldn’t go to your heads,” Rabbi Schachter said.
“While rabbeim must remain humble, must continue to learn and must above all, continue to have fear of heaven,” Schachter reminded the musmachim that all the actions of a rabbi are watched closely by the congregants. “You’re the rabbi now. The ballei battim are looking up to you. So make sure you come to shul on time,” he said.
At the Chag HaSmicha, RIETS also honored philanthropist Jay Schottenstein with the Eitz Chaim Award, and Rabbi Gedalia Dov Schwartz ‘46 YC, ‘49 R, Av Beit Din of the Beth Din of America and of the Chicago Rabbinical Council Beit Din, with the Harav Yosef Dov Soloveitchik, zt”l, Aluf Torah Award. Special recognition was also given to those who received smicha 50 years ago, members of the RIETS classes of 1960 to 1963.
The event is also presented as a recorded webcast available to the public at www.yu.edu/chag.
By Elizabeth Kratz
