Now for some "first hand" stories that were not directed at me personally. This one I call:
The "death" of R Hershel Sh?chter
[note my spelling is intentionally ambiguous.]
RYG was emphasizing to a student that one should be clear as to what he means. Here goes the story as I recall it The first person below is RYG speaking:
«I saw your uncle in Shul this morning. He announced: "Rav Sh?chter iz geshtorben!". [Rav Sh?chter has died].
I was upset And I wondered which one? The elder shul rabbi or the younger YU Teacher? *»
While RYG was "klerring" which one had passed ways; "the uncle" finally blurted out:
«"Rav HESCHEL fun die Schechter Seminaar iz geshtorben"».
[IOW Rabbi AJ Heschel of JTS passed away. He had been "misnamed" R Heschel SCHECHTER - as JTS was known in Yiddish]
Quite a story about confusion and getting the story straight! Thus neither of the YU Rabbis Hershel Sh?chter had actually passed away, but the announcement had been oh so misleading.
And RYG was able to make his point in his own witty way with words.
Shalom
RRW
* Note the YU community circa 1973 had two R Hershel Shachters. A senior rabbi and RIETS alumnus - in the Bronx IIRC.. And then there was of course the more famous R Hershel Shachter, son of R Melech Shachter, who was already a popular Maggid Shiur albeit a young man at that time.]
No comments:
Post a Comment