Thank you, Rebbe.
Were it not for you, I would not have found my way in servin G-d, Avodas Hashem.
Were it not for you, I would not have a way, a derech, in study of Torah, Limmud HaTorah.
Were it not for you, I would not have been vouchsafed the vision you once described to me of 'Torah in the widest sense of the term.'
Were it not for you, I would not have had the intellectual, spiritual and emotional tools to negotiate a life in multiple worlds while remaining anchored in the world of Torah and mitzvos.
Were it not for you, I would not have internalized the belief and the pride that the Torah has nothing to fear in its encounter and clash with other cultures.
Were it not for you, I would not have understood that a religious Jew is bound to all Jews, irrespective of their observance.
Were it not for you, I would not have a Zionist vision and commitment that is not contingent upon the future, but upon the State of Israel as a gift from God in the here and now.
Were it not for you, I would have been bereft of the authority of the greatest Rosh Yeshiva of our age to rely upon in my support of Women's Torah education, cooperation with the broad Jewish community, and in engaging in the struggle against contemporary paganism.
Were it not for our personal discussions, if I had not felt the warmth of your paternal solicitude and support for me, I would not have become whatever I managed to become.
Your presence, your teachings, your voice, and your example accompany me every day of my life. And yet, I miss you terribly. I miss your insight, your wisdom, your prescience, and the powerful way in which you linked all of us with the chain of Masorah.
Thank you, Rebbe.
With all my heart.
חבל על דאבדין ולא משתכחין How we regret those we have lost and cannot replace.
Prof. Jeffrey R. Woolf is a Yeshiva University alumnus who teaches at Bar Ilan University. He has published dozens of studies on the History of Jewish Law, and the Intellectual History of the Medieval Ashkenazic and Renaissance Italian Jewish communities.