Connecting Two Worlds

I am giving this review 5 stars with a caveat. Rabbi Charlop was my teacher in yeshiva years ago and I (as well as many of my fellow students) loved him so much and were so inspired by him that it's pretty much impossible for me to give anything but five stars.

Rabbi Charlop's relationship with his sister is a model for people of all walks of life, teaching us how to remain 100% faithful to our own principles, while at the same time treating others with respect and appreciating - in this case cherishing and treasuring - who they are. As Torah Jews we must be 100% faithful to our obligations to G-D in every situation. One of those obligations is loving our family members, while at the same time making sure our love to our family members does not compromise our other obligations to G-D.

In order to explain a story about the author, I first will relate a story about Rabbi Shimon Schwab, a great Rabbi born in Germany who escaped to re-establish the German-Jewish community in Washington Heights, New York. This story I heard from the son of Rabbi Dov Ungarischer. There was a man in his twenties who went to work in Washington D.C. He met many diplomats as well as Congressmen and other leaders. A year or two later he met Rabbi Schwab. After meeting Rav Schwab, he told Rabbi Ungarischer's son the following: "In Washington I met many people who put on a good show in public, speaking with poise and authority, exuding confidence, demonstrating expertise and maturity. However, I also met some of these people in private, and in private many of these same people acted exactly the opposite of the mature, magnanimous people they were in public. I am not saying they were complete fakers, or that they had no good qualities at all, but it was almost as if they were two different people, Mr. X the great diplomat, and Mr. Y the something else. But when I met Rabbi Schwab I felt, rather I knew, that I was in the presence of someone whose greatness as a human being, as an extremely intelligent servant of The A-mighty was genuine, and one could sense his greatness not because he made any effort to show it, but rather in spite of his humility it was discernible from his every act and word." This man told Rabbi Ungarischer that this brief meeting and the few words he heard had a major impact on him.

With that introduction, I also would like to tell the reader one short story about how Rabbi Charlop influenced me and my fellow students in similar fashion. (I must interject first that Rabbi Charlop was incredibly witty. When he wanted to be, he was absolutely hilarious.) We were once studying the section of the Talmud which deals with someone who, deliberately and in a very precise manner, says the opposite of a blessing to the A-mighty. We were such beginners that most of us had just learned the Jewish alphabet, but were learning the Talmud nevertheless. Each Hebrew letter, very word had to be painstakingly spelled and translated. Two lines would take an hour to teach. Rabbi Charlop began teaching: "One who curses..." Then Rabbi Charlop was silent. He started again: "One who curses..." Again the room was silent for maybe 20 seconds. Rabbi Charlop needed next to explain to us that the subject of the sentence in the Talmud was the cursing man, and the Object of the sentence was G-D. He just couldn't bring himself to say this. Finally Rabbi Charlop said with a mixture of sadness and incredulity (I am not quoting exactly): "How could someone say such an awful thing about the Creator of the world, the Creator who loves each of us and cares for us more than a father does for his son." Perhaps this story doesn't read so well, but I can tell the reader that hearing Rabbi Charlop teach the Talmud this way planted something deep and great in my heart just as the man who met Rabbi Schwab felt he was influenced.

So if you can attend a class that Rabbi Charlop gives, go! And buy this book also.