This article was inspired by a March 25 article in the YU Observer by Yiskah Lundell entitled, “Grateful to Call him Rebbe: After 48 years at YU, Rabbi Blau to Make Aliyah.”
It was with mixed emotions that Yeshiva University (YU) sent off its senior mashgiach, Rabbi Yosef Blau, to Eretz Yisrael.
On the afternoon of Tuesday, March 25, the Glueck Beit Midrash held what YUTorah.org entitled “A Tribute to Rav Yosef Blau: Celebrating a Legacy of Nearly 50 Years of Torah and Leadership as He Makes Aliyah.” Speeches from Undergraduate Torah Studies Dean Rabbi Dr. Yosef Kalinsky and YU President Rabbi Dr. Ari Berman preceded and followed that of Rabbi Blau, all of them speaking to a full room of talmidim listening from the ground and balcony levels.
Rabbi Kalinsky opened, speaking from “where Rabbi Blau spoke from, from the middle of the beit midrash,” about what the senior mashgiach accomplished in just that place: “When I spoke to [Rosh Yeshiva] Rabbi [Hershel] Schachter last week, he said [that] if somebody has the drashos that Rabbi Blau gave on a weekly basis, the innovation that one saw week-in and week-out, you would note that they were never the same. You would have volumes of drashos on each parsha with different insights each time, with different perspectives, with a different way of reading pesukim that you maybe didn’t think about before.” Rabbi Kalinsky concluded by gifting Rabbi Blau a small token [saying,] “Lev chacham yaskil pihu, v’al sefatav yosif lekach” (Mishlei 16:23; Sefaria.org), translated on the plaque as “the mind of a wise man makes his speech effective and increases the wisdom on his lips.” “For close to 50 years,” the plaque continues, “Rabbi Yosef Blau has served as a steady presence and pillar of our beit midrash, a reliable, sagacious advisor to generations of students and rebbeim. Rabbi Blau’s impact on our Yeshiva cannot be overstated. Many things change over the course of half a century, but the guidance Rabbi Blau has provided to thousands who have entered the halls of our Yeshiva has remained timeless.” In fact, a March 25 article by Yiskah Lundell in the YU Observer quoted Rabbi Blau reflecting on “the last 48 years I have been a mashgiach in YU…innately…impact[ing], more or less, thousands of students.”
Rabbi Blau spoke, delving into last week’s parsha, Pekudei, and the Mishkan, as Rabbi Kalinsky did elsewhere in his speech. “In the description of the building of the Mishkan, aside from the term ‘nediv lev,’ there’s a phrase ‘chacham lev [wise of heart],’ and we don’t normally associate wisdom with the heart; wisdom is associated with the head, with the moach. Yeshiva is an intellectual place; no matter how you try to explain it and justify it and modify it, the bottom line is that it’s a place where people sit and learn Torah. And they go to college, another intellectual pursuit. The goal is to succeed intellectually, to master the Gemara, to do well in your classes; that is “chacham,” but it doesn’t mean “chacham lev.” From what I understood, my job was to promote the ‘chacham lev.’”
Rabbi Berman emphasized in his speech, also based on the parsha, that “this is not a goodbye to Rabbi Blau. This is a celebration of Rabbi Blau. We fully expect [to see] Rabbi Blau both in this beit midrash and in our very growing, vital and vibrant beit midrash in Yerushalayim Ir Hakodesh…Rabbi Blau’s presence will continue.” Indeed, Rabbi Blau is set to return to New York next semester. “I’m not even going to fully say goodbye,” Rabbi Blau pointed out, “because our plan, my wife and I, is to come back in the fall.”
The beit midrash sent off Rabbi Blau with song and dance, and by singing “veshavu banim ligvulam” (Yirmiyahu 31:17; Sefaria.org) “and sons shall return to their borders,” a verse used as a reference to the modern return of the Jewish people to the land of Israel.
Rabbi Berman said, “I give[Rabbi Blau] a bracha, based on the final words of Pekudei, “in all of [his] journeys. And we close, as we’ll close this Shabbat, with ‘chazak chazak v’nitzchazeik.’”
Daniel Brauner is a contributor and former summer intern for The Jewish Link. He attends Yeshiva University and lives in Teaneck. Contact him at dbrauner2@gmail.com.
