Dear Friends,
I hope this note finds you well in these challenging times.
The following was written honoring the 50th Anniversary Celebration of ArtScroll/Mesorah, an invaluable partner of the OU and all who promote Torah.
Jews are learning Torah. You can observe the tsunami of engagement in Torah study everywhere, amongst young and old, professionals and retirees, men and women, from every religious and geographic background. It is breathtaking.
How did it happen? Our people have always had a sincere thirst for engagement in Torah study, but it has flourished due to visionaries who found the ways to meet that thirst and grow it further using a simple and consistent formula: Enable more people to learn Torah.
Rav Dosa saw Rav Elazar ben Azarya and said, “I recognize him as being the tenth generation since Ezra the Scribe and their eyes are similar.” (Yerushalmi Yevamos ch 1)
What made their eyes similar was their shared vision of a nation of learners. Ezra made the Torah available in a new script that could be read by the masses, while Rav Elazar ben Azarya lowered the barrier to entry to the beis hamedrash that had existed under his predecessor (Meshech Chochma, Vayeilech). In their own times, each had enabled more people to learn Torah. The resulting explosion in Torah study amongst the masses meaningfully elevated even the greatest talmidei chachamim (scholars) (Brachos 28a).
This was the vision that Yisro gave to Moshe. When he saw the entire nation waiting in line to receive Torah guidance from Moshe, he told Moshe v’ata techezeh, you must envision a nation of learners, empowering others to learn and teach and ultimately creating a structure enabling almost 80,000 of the 600,000 men present at Sinai to provide Torah guidance to others (Shemos 18:21).
It had been well more than ten generations since Rav Elazar ben Azarya threw open the doors to the beis hamedrash, but the eyes of Rav Meir Zlotowitz z”l and yblc”t Rav Nosson Scherman were similar to Rav Elazar ben Azarya’s when they began the ArtScroll revolution, their epic project of enabling more Jews to learn Torah, 50 years ago. Their success is evident in the ubiquitous presence of their chumashim, gemaros, mishnayos, and Kitzur Shulchan Aruchs on shelves and tables, tucked under arms, and bulging from talis bags everywhere.
They were the ultimate partners of Rav Meir Shapiro, zt”l, who recognized the power of creating a community of learning through consistent and shared daily learning. Daf Yomi in America can be measured as either pre- or post-Schottenstein Talmud, when it grew from a club of a heroic few into a mass movement. Their work is the basis of the blessed success of the OU’s efforts to advance that movement through the All Daf platform, and it has not stopped there. Rav Gedalya Zlotowitz, president of ArtScroll/Mesorah, is a treasured partner whose eyes – like his father’s and Rav Elazar ben Azarya’s – envision more and more Jews learning, and who is constantly expanding Rav Meir Shapiro’s yomi concept to create more communities of learners in concert with our efforts to refine and expand the All Torah platform.
All these visionaries throughout the generations shared the confidence that Jews are a nation of learners who crave access to Torah. Even before we received the Torah, when Hashem’s original proposal of the Sinai experience was for the people to observe Hashem speaking to Moshe, our nation of learners replied with dissatisfaction, saying that they all wanted to learn directly from God. It was their desire for unmediated access to God’s word that led Hashem to respond to their thirst and remake Sinai into the moment when every Jew heard directly from God (Rashi Shemos 19:9).
Look around and you will see that the Jews are thirsty for more, and that voice of Sinai is therefore growing louder and louder, kol gadol v’lo yasaf (Devarim 5:18). It is breathtaking, and it will continue to grow as all of us do our part to enable more and more Jews to hear that voice.
Have a wonderful Shabbos and may we be blessed with besorot tovot, very good news.
Moshe Hauer
