Rabbi Pesach Oratz Z"TL
I came home last night and opened my computer to tragic news. A giant of a man has passed away on Friday, Erev Rosh HaShanah. Rabbi Pesach Oratz was a rare gem of a person. For four summers we worked together and as best as I could I followed in the dust of his feet.
I was awed by his brilliance. Practically not a day went by that I didn't think of calling him. The day that I dreaded has come.
About a year and a half ago I called Rabbi Oratz for guidance. I was going through a major life decision. I can't imagine have received more caring and wise advice from a rabbi/yoeitz.
One of his sons emailed me because he found that I quoted his father on my blog. The family wants to collect memories and Torah of Rabbi Oratz. If like me you're one of the thousands who was influenced by this great man you should let his family know.
I've mentioned Rabbi Oratz in the blog here, here, and here. Hopefully I will share more Torah and memories ASAP. He will teach us from beyond the grave.
posted by rabbi neil fleischmann @ 11:51 AM
7 Comments:
Thank you Rabbi Flieschmann. When I saw my father mentioned on your blog I mentioned it to him and he spoke highly of you.
If any of his thousands of students have divrei Torah, memories, or thoughts on how my father had an effect on their lives please send an email to RPOmemories@gmail.com
Or mail to 23 Cypress Lane, Marlboro NJ 07746.
You can obviously post thoughts here as well.
Thank you.
Yitzi Oratz
It means a lot to me that Rabbi Oratz spoke highly of me, that alone gives me chizuk. As I wrote to your brother last night, words can not express how dear your father was to me.
Since I heard the news I have been thinking of him.
Here are a few more memories, I will post and send as they come to me:
Several students who your father and I taught in Morasha, and who were later my students in Frisch high school, swear that it was once pouring and they witnessed the rain falling everywhere but on your father (who was dressed normally, with no rain coat or umbrella)!
When one of the Chinuch people - whom your father respected as a talmid chacham - in camp switched to Sports, your father commented that it reminded him of the old comment about even the ba'alei agalah being talmidei chachamim. (I'm not sure, but he may have referenced the joke of the ba'al agalah and the talmid chacham who switch places).
As much as he was broad in his knowledge and thinking, he once told me that in regard to raising children and living your family life he believed that one needs to be extreme because if you push to the extreme then you'll achieve part.
I introduced your father (as far as I recall) to the story books of Chaim Walder. He liked the stories and used them in his Morasha classes, particularly (or maybe only) with the youngest kids.
One of the books had a great story in it, but that particular book had not yet been translated to English. Your father painstakingly went through the story and translated it with me/for me word for word. (That was the one about Bomba Glickman.)
Once I was telling another story by Chaim Walder about Motele The Gonef. There's a scene in that story in which the hero leads Jewish prisoners out of the camp and protects them, running with a gun between them and the enemy. I told the story to a class who I didn't know had already heard it from your father. When I got to this part, one of them said, "The way that Rabbi Oratz told it was that every time he turned while running and shot the enemy he hit someone!" From then on I told it with that embeleshment. Besides everything else your father was a great story teller.
On another occasion I was preparing a Dvar Torah for the camp for Friday night davening. I wanted to speak about "Mah Hashem Elokeichechem sho'el..." and to focus on the fact that it's not a lot to ask because it's "letov lach" (Ramban). I ran my ideas by Rabbi Oratz and said that I was looking for a story. He said he had the perfect moshol, but he had ambivellance about my using it.
The story was from the movie The Karate Kid (which he saw and remembered). There's a sequence in the film in which the karate teacher, Mr. Miagi has his student waxing his cars and painting his fences. Finally the kid gets frustrated that he's doing all this work for the guy and not being taught self defense. Then Miagi comes at him and screams, "Wax on!" and shows him how all the "work" he was doing was really a way of learning martial arts moves.
Your father said he had mixed feelings about using it because even though it fit so well, the Chazon Ish said to use mosholim about Torah only from within Torah.
Rabbi Flieschman thank you so much for these posts- amazing
Yitzi
I had the privilege of being a talmid of your father a”h while I was at YU back in the early 70s. Candidly, it was a challenging period in my life and I had 1 foot off the derech and the other waiting to follow. Rabbi Oratz a’h was an oasis of chesed in an otherwise hostile sea of gevuradik litvish learning. He had a sweetness about him, a “neimus” and a pleasant gentle way. Where others criticized me, he offered only encouragement. I recall him commenting on some of my writings “chiddushim moshale mipi Hagevura!”
My years at yeshiva led to a long downward spiral which took me nearly 20 years to reverse. Happily, I finished my semicha, went back to writing, publishing and learning and now travel worldwide as a scholar and artist in residence. In retrospect, my teshuvah and subsequent return are in no small part due to the sweet seeds sown by Rabbi Oratz during those trying years. I'm only sorry that I did not get to thank him while he was alive. His legacy very much continues through his family and children. May he intercede upon high for all of us.
Hamakom yinachem eschem b’soch shar aveilei tziyon v’yerushslayim
shmuel simenowitz
This is a beautiful, articulate tribute shmuel, thank you for sharing it here.
I really liked this spot on line: Rabbi Oratz a’h was an oasis of chesed in an otherwise hostile sea of gevuradik litvish learning. He had a sweetness about him, a “neimus” and a pleasant gentle way.
Rabbi Pesach Oratz was the Chumash Rebbe in YU's JSS program at the time I was a student in the early 1970's. What I enjoyed most was his laid back approach. He encouraged the students to advanced their original interpretations and insights of the text. If the student's opinion was even remotely plausible, he would shrug and gesture with his hand saying, "It could be. It could be." I do not remember any suggestion being rejected.
Occasionally, he would inject humor into the lesson, an example being his explanation of the Parsha Kedoshim. "What would be," he would ask, "if someone wanted to give a Yom Kippur party? There would be a smorgasbord of tasty hors d'oeuvres, each piece less than the shiur. There would be music piped in, somber music appropriate for the occasion. It would all be within the parameters of Halacha." The lesson he was teaching was that while maintaining the letter of the law one would still be violating the spirit of the law.
My last encounter with Rabbi Oratz was at a resort in the Summer of 1979 as an alumnus. I asked him about a personal matter. He addressed my concerns as if I was a member of his family. I was particularly impressed by how he cited verses from Tanach as if he was reading it from a text.
He was a pleasant man who left a pleasant Taam.
Stanley Hartstein
Thank you very much. I could hear his voice and see him as I read these beautiful memories. Please send this to his family at the email address in the comment above. Thank you for making my day.
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