The Kosher Bookworm: Torah from the heart

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A cardiologist’s commentary collection

Reviewed by Alan Jay Gerber

Issue of August 21, 2009 / 1 Elul 5769

This week’s review will focus on a very interesting anthology of rabbinic insights and practical advice for daily living. It was compiled by a Woodmere native, born and bred on the South Shore. With doctors and medical issues making front page news daily, I thought that it would be most appropriate to bring to your attention this excellent “likkut” of both classic and contemporary commentators on the Chumash, organized in the order of the parshiot and compiled by a medical doctor; a cardiologist, to boot.

Titled “Joyous Torah Treasures” (Devora Publishing, 2008) and compiled by Dr. Samuel Friedman, this is a “heartfelt” anthology, written in a most attractive and attention gathering manner. The book brings to the average layperson a vast range of comments and insights into the deeper meaning of the weekly Torah readings. Each parsha commentary consists of two essays, one dealing with numerous writings by the rabbis, and the second focusing on making the parsha more meaningful in terms of practical application and mussar.

The great rabbinic luminaries whose insights grace the two volumes, which total 488 pages, span from legendary rabbanim like Rashi and the Vilna Gaon to present day luminaries like Rav Hershel Schachter and Rav Yaakov Neuberger, altogether representing the entire range of Orthodox Jewish thought.

Dr. Friedman was educated at the Yeshiva of South Shore under the leadership of Rav Binyamin Kamenetzky. After graduating Yeshiva University High School and Yeshiva University, Dr. Friedman learned under Rav Joseph Soloveitchik, zt”l, and Rav Herschel Schachter.

Today, Dr. Friedman is an internist/cardiologist living in Teaneck, NJ, and a member of Congregation Beth Abraham in Bergenfield, under the spiritual guidance of Rav Yaakov Neuberger.

Dr. Friedman still maintains his Five Towns connections, especially with Rav Binyamin Kamenetzky and with former classmate Rav Mordechai Kamenetzky, who originally brought this learned work to my attention.

Among the commentators cited by Dr. Friedman in this work is one very distinguished communal rabbi whom I have enjoyed a particularly warm relationship with for over forty years, Rabbi Herbert W. Bomzer of Yeshiva University. The following is an example of Rav Bomzer’s Torah scholarship.

In last week’s parsha, Eikev, (my bar mitzvah parsha) Rav Bomzer is quoted extensively by Dr. Friedman concerning what defines and constitutes “the fear of G-d,” and its application to today’s world, especially as it applies to the education and the proper parental role in the rearing of our children.

Drawing his teachings from the example of Moshe’s learning  fear of the Almighty from his mother, Yocheved, and sister, Miriam, Rav Bomzer notes that Moshe learned by example. Rav Bomzer infers that any child who grows up surrounded by the fear of G-d will be sustained in his beliefs for the rest of his life. Rav Bomzer writes:

“The lesson to be derived is obvious. Fear of Heaven, reverence for the word of G-d; emulation of G-d’s attributes of graciousness, kindness, love, mercy, patience, and tolerance are character traits that must be learned at home... The important thing is to give our children the opportunity to absorb ‘yirat Hashem’ [fear of Heaven] so that the call of G-d will be easily answerable by them as it was by Moshe.”

This clear message is one that is most opportune on the cusp of the new school year and should be taken to heart by every parent in our community, for without a spiritually stable home environment, almost no amount of intensive yeshiva education will have the immediate desired affect upon our children.

Rabbi Bomzer’s many years as a Young Israel rabbi and educator in Brooklyn is indeed reflected in these remarks. He continues his teachings to this day at Yeshiva University, and in his frequent Divrei Torah in his Shabbos visits to his children in Cedarhurst at Rav Dovid Spiegel’s famed Beis Medrash of Cedarhurst.

This South Shore connection, taken together with Dr. Friedman’s selection of the many other Divrei Torah make these two volumes an excellent addition to anyone’s Torah library. This reviewer particularly appreciated Dr. Friedman’s inclusion of Rav Bomzer’s learning.

In conclusion, I would like to make special note of the role played by Devora Publishing and Five Towns native Yaakov Peterseil in making this particular work available  to the Jewish reading public in so attractive a format. This effort is a true literary hiddur mitzvah. Hopefully, this effort will encourage other baaleh batim to compile similar works of literate Torah scholarship to be shared by all of us.