Askanim making final preparations for the massive kinus to take place this Sunday at Citi Field.

Take a Stand for Gadlus

By Rabbi Yosef Sonnenschein

Parashas Emor opens with the halachos pertaining to the purity of Kohanim: Emor el hakohanim bnei Aharon v’amarta aleihem - “Say to the Kohanim, the children of Aharon, and you should say to them …” Rashi explains the apparent redundancy here (“say…and you should say…”) with the words of Chazal: L’hazhir hagedolim al haketanim - “to warn the older ones about the young ones.” This means that the adults are enjoined (“say to the Kohanim…), not only to keep these halachos themselves, but to teach the children (“…and you should say to them…”) the relevant laws.

While on a simple level “gedolim” and “ketanim” refer to different people within Klal Yisrael; on a deeper level they refer to different aspects of personality within each person. We all have a “gadol,” a great person, and a “katan,” an immature person, fighting for supremacy within us. The “gadol” within us is the part of our personality that can be giving and idealistic, selfless and pure. The “katan” is the part of us that can be petty and childish, uncaring and unmoved. The Torah is teaching us that in order to reach purity in the service of Hashem, one must use his “gadlus,” his greatness, to influence his “katnus,” the less mature aspects of his personality.

Who among us hasn’t been surprised at our capacity to quickly slip from greatness to pettiness and back? Soon after we have been inspired and uplifted, we can sometimes be guilty of small-mindedness and immaturity. With foresight, however, one can learn to predict where his “katnus” will strike and when, and by understanding himself and working hard to grow, he can “educate” his “katnus” and ease it into a more mature and healthier mindset.

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Misaskim Discusses Security At Citi Field

Tens of thousands are expected to gather at Citi Field on May 20 to attend the internet asifah organized by Ichud Hakahillos. Misaskim, along with hundreds of security personnel, will have all their resources available to ensure the safety and security of all attendees.

Misaskim was tasked with coordinating the security detail for this event because of its extensive ties with members in the law-enforcement community. Days and weeks of planning have gone into this operation; Misaskim has played a key role in communicating with and updating law-enforcement personnel.

Citi Field is under the jurisdiction of Patrol Borough Queens North, and Chief Diana Pizzuti of Patrol Borough Queens North has given her utmost in ensuring that all that is needed will indeed be available. In addition, numerous other agencies from the NYPD participated in coordinating this security detail.

The following agencies participated during a final coordination meeting on Wednesday, May 9: the Police Commissioner’s Office, the Chief of Departments, the Chief of Patrol, the Chief of Transportation, the Counterterrorism Unit (in charge of securing the perimeters around the stadium), the Transit Bureau (maintaining order on the subway and bus system), the Highway Patrol (in charge of managing the large volume of traffic before and during the event, and to accommodate all vehicular special needs), Special Operations Divisions (in charge of all emergency services during the event), Task Force Unit, the Intelligence Division (in charge of monitoring intelligence before, during and after the event), Community Affairs, the Bomb Squad Unit, the Technical Assistance Response Unit (TARU), the Mounted Unit, the Aviation Unit, Disorder Control and Traffic Control.

In addition to the NYPD, other city agencies involved are the Mayor’s Office, the Parks Department, the Department of Transportation, FDNY, EMS/Hatzolah, the Office of Emergency Management, MTA, NYPD Legal, the Sanitation Department, TBTA, and the Department of Environmental Protection, which will assist in monitoring the air quality throughout the event.

Back-up plans have also been put in place should the need arise. Special consideration is being given to the fact that many attendees are not familiar with Citi Field - or any stadium. More than 400 buses are expected to arrive at the arena on Sunday, transporting participants from across the tri-state region. Special parking arrangements have been made, as the number of buses expected is an unusual occurrence at the arena.

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Women Inspired By Teleconference

A worldwide women’s telephonic event took place Monday night, a project of Bnos Melachim, the organization that is on the forefront of spreading kedushah for Klal Yisrael. It was a powerful prelude to the revolutionary asifah that will, iy”H, take place at Citi Field this Sunday, May 20.

In her opening remarks, the moderator, Mrs. Shaindy Kleinman, described the asifah as a mighty preparation for kabbalas HaTorah. And just as before Kabbalas HaTorah at Har Sinai Hashem told Moshe ko s’amar l’beis Yaakov l’saged l’bnei Yisrael, speak to the women first, this teleconference is addressed to “the builders, the loving nurturers, the fundamental backbone, the guardians of everything that is holy in this world.”

Words of guidance and brachah were delivered in the name of the Skulener Rebbe, shlita, there is a message from Harav Mattisyahu Salomon, shlita, and words of inspiration from Rebbetzin Yitty Neustadt and Rebbetzin Rina Tarshish.

The teleconference lines on Monday night were completely packed, but the teleconference is still accessible by phone.

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What to Expect At Citi Field?

By Lazer Paskes

I must admit to being a skeptic.

When I heard that a venue the size of Citi Field with some 40,000 seats was being rented for the Ichud Hakehillos Asifah, I was skeptical… Who says they will fill it up? If they won’t, it will be a bizayon…

I must also admit that I underestimated my fellow Yidden. I once heard Rabbi Moshe Sherer, zt”l, say that Jews are like teabags:You only see their strength when they are in hot water.

It has come to a point where erhliche Yidden representing the entire cross-section of chareidi Jewry the world over realize that the challenge of technology has gotten us collectively, as a community, into very hot water and we must come together to try to address it.

Klal Yisrael, a Crossroads and 40,000 Tickets…

We all sense that Klal Yisrael is at a crossroads, perhaps we have even passed the crossroads… We realize that we have to come together, acknowledge the “progressing” nature of technology, and try to mitigate it in any and every way possible.

That might be why, in the span of less than two weeks, more than 40,000 tickets have been scooped up.

Now that this milestone has been reached, what should we expect from this remarkably historic gathering? A miracle solution or cure? Should we expect the problem to disappear? The answer, in a word, is no. Had there been an easy solution to the problem it would have been implemented long ago.

What Will Happen at Citi Field?

So what will happen at Citi Field?

First, it will be a historic maamad; A maamad of unprecedented achdus of Klal Yisrael in advance of the Yom Tov of Kabbalas HaTorah, the apex of Klal Yisrael’s unity, more than 3,300 years ago, when we stood at the foot of Har Sinai and accepted the Torah in its entirety. At Citi Field, we will come together and proclaim Shema Yisrael! We will accept upon ourselves ol malchus Shamayim, we will daven together, and we will beseech Hashem to have rachmanus on us in this dor yasom, in the bereft generation where all of the signs of ikvesa d’meshicha as enumerated in the last Mishnah in Masechta Sotah are painfully evident.

Of Tears and Joy

What an inspiration it will be just to be there and daven and cry… As the Skulener Rebbe, shlita, has said repeatedly, the very fact that so many Yidden will gather to daven to Hashem, imploring Him to spare us from this terrible gezeirah, itself has the power to invoke rachmei Shamayim in a way that is l’maalah miderech hateva!

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Technology: Awesome, Powerful, But Dangerous

An Interview With Rabbi Hal Klestzick

Two events on our community’s calendar will take place in stadiums in the coming months. On May 20, the Ichud Hakehillos will hold a massive gathering at Citi Field to address the challenge to our community posed by the internet. Then, on August 1, an estimated 90,000 people will gather at MetLife Stadium for the twelfth Siyum HaShas.

The remarkable endurance and verdant growth of the Daf Yomi program invites reflection on the years that have passed since its inauguration. It was the summer of 5683/1923 when Rav Meir Schapiro, zt”l, addressed the assemblage at the Knessiah Gedolah of the World Agudath Israel, proposing a plan to strengthen Torah learning across the Jewish world that was at once breathtakingly expansive and startlingly simple. Two weeks later, on the first day of Rosh Hashanah 5684, Jews sat down to learn the first daf in Maseches Brachos, beginning a 2,711-page march toward a vaunted achievement in Torah scholarship.

Eighty-eight years have passed since that day. Those eighty-eight years are probably unmatched in Jewish history for upheaval and change. They saw the greatest war in the history of mankind engulf the world in horror, a madman take over a continent and annihilate Jewish communities 1,000 years old, a Holocaust claim millions and spiritual genocide claim millions more, and the unlikely blooming of Torah in a desert on the other side of the world.

That Torah Jewry flourishes today after such turmoil and trauma is a result of two factors, which are embodied in the two upcoming gatherings.

The first is our unwavering commitment to Torah. The Daf Yomi program is a reflection of way our People has clung to the Torah through all that we have endured.

This steadfast adherence enabled us to survive.

The thundering roar of ninety-thousand voices proclaiming Amen yehei Shmei rabbah is Torah Jewry’s triumphant answer to those who did their insane utmost to obliterate us physically and spiritually. 

The second factor in our survival is the way we have traditionally met the challenges that confronted us. The obstacles in the path of our reconstruction over the past seven decades were monumental.

We thrive today because those who came before us had the courage to recognize these obstacles and confront them, realizing that unprecedented challenges called for unprecedented solutions. We are heir to their daring, their courage, and their ingenuity.

The gathering to take place in Citi Field on May 20 is a testament that courage still lives in our community. It addresses a topic that we would rather avoid. As was so often the case with the challenges our forebears faced in establishing our communities, it would be only too easy for us to give in to the winds of change that swirl around us, and silently consent to that which the rest of the world has sanctioned.

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Oversold, Asifah Askanim Scramble to Find Satellite Locations 

By Avraham Weissman

BROOKLYN – Organizers of Sunday’s massive asifah at Citi Field spent weeks rejecting the dire predictions of skeptics, insisting that in the end, they would be able to fill all 40,000 or so seats. Six days before the event is scheduled to take place, the asifah is totally sold out, with askanim scrambling to find satellite locations for some 10,000 ticket requests that they are unable to fill.

“The response to the call of the Gedolim of mi laShem alai surpassed anything we could have imagined,” Reb Lazer Paskes, one of the lead Ichud askanim, told Hamodia yesterday.

“Our office is inundated with phone calls and emails each day from people seeking tickets but we, unfortunately, simply don’t have any more,” he added.

Gabbaim at numerous large kehillos told of an acute shortage of tickets.

“People keep on approaching me, pressuring me, hoping that I have something left,” said one gabbai, who asked not to be identified. “But every last one was sold.”

Ichud HaKehillos LeTohar HaMachane, the umbrella organization organizing the event, released a statement expressing their “sincerest apologies for any confusion or disappointment that resulted from the overwhelming demand for tickets.”

“We are working feverishly with a team of askanim and professionals to efficiently process ticket reservations that were placed in a timely manner, and to set up satellite locations to accommodate ... many who don’t have seats yet,” the statement read.

“Any updates on either front will, iy”H, immediately be made public. Please call the Ichud hotline after 4 p.m. on Wednesday.”(See box.)

Askanim are pleading with anyone who may have an extra ticket to either sell it to one of the many individuals still seeking tickets or return it to one of the ticket centers.

“If you have a ticket you don’t need and you live in Boro Park, please bring it to 4205 13th Avenue, or in Lakewood to 121 Madison Avenue,” Paskes said. 

In a related development, sources within the Rachmastrivka community indicated that it appeared likely that the Rachmastrivka Rebbe of Eretz Yisrael, shlita, will be making a special trip to the United States to take part in the event. The Rebbe’s uncle, the Rachmastrivka Rebbe, shlita, who signed the proclamation on behalf of the event, is among the many American Gedolim expected to partake.

It has now been confirmed that Harav Leibush Leizer, shlita, the Pshevorsker Rebbe, who lives in Antwerp, Belgium, will be flying in for the event.

Harav Aharon Schiff, shlita, the Rav of Antwerp, has confirmed that he will be coming, with a delegation from his kehillah.

Live hookups to the event are being arranged in communities throughout North America, including  Silver Spring, Dallas, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, Cleveland, Scranton, Waterbury, Miami, Boca Raton, Toronto, Montreal, and Mexico City. There will also be hookups in international communities, including several in Eretz Yisrael, various European cities, Brazil, and Australia.

It has now been announced that live hookups for women will take place at Beth Jacob of Boro Park, Masores Bais Yaakov in Flatbush, the Imperial Hall in Williamsburg, Bais Faige in Lakewood, and the Atrium in Monsey.

Bus transportation - available by advance registration only - will be available in Boro Park, Flatbush, Williamsburg, Monsey, Lakewood, New Square, and Kiryas Joel. There is ample parking at the arena, at a cost of $5 per vehicle.

With heavy traffic expected in the area of the stadium, askanim urged participants to create a kiddush Hashem by exhibiting patience.

“If approached by a reporter, think before you speak,” another askan pleaded. “Don’t say anything that may be misinterpreted or misunderstood.”

The doors will, iy”H, open at 5:00 p.m. Minchah will be at 6:30 p.m. Due to heavy security and the huge size of the arena, organizers stressed that it will take up to an hour from the time an individual arrives at Citi Field until he reaches his seat.

At the gate, each participant will be given a bag which includes light refreshments and a drink, binoculars, and a large color brochure detailing the event’s goals and a detailed list of resources and information about technology and various filtration options.

The program is scheduled to begin at 7:00 p.m. There will be addresses by Gedolei Yisroel in both Yiddish and English. In order to accommodate participants who do not understand Yiddish, Professor Moshe Reicher will be dictating a live translation to stenographers, the text of which will appear in real time on large screens at the event.

The crowd will also recite Tefillas HaShelah - for success in chinuch - in unison, and the program will conclude with Maariv, at approximately 9:15 p.m.

Portions of this article appeared in Hamodia’s daily.

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