Knowing that I am always on the lookout for a good story, my eldest son Shimon grabbed my attention in a dramatic way: “Ma,” he began on that fateful day, four years ago, “I have an amazing hashgacha pratis (Divine providence) story to tell you. This will make a really good article!” He then broke the to-me-earthshaking news of his intent to move to Eretz Yisrael. He was right about the article, though it was not the one he was thinking of. I called it “Sweet or Bittersweet? – When Children Make Aliya,” and appeared in the January, 2011 issue of the Where What When, (See www.wherewhatwhen.com/authors/view/margie-pensak/page:4.)
What was the hashgacha pratis? One day, while learning at the Beth Medrash Gevoha in Lakewood, Shimon noticed a shiny new sefer, Rimzai Rashi, on the wrong shelf. Picking it up, he soon happily discovered that the author’s unique approach to Rashi fit his own way of learning. After conferring with his rebbeim, Shimon decided to attend the kollel of the sefer’s author, Rav Dovid Siegel. Formerly in Skokie, Illinois, Kollel Toras Chaim was now located in Kiryat Sefer, a religious town in Israel.
Not ones to be discouraged by this radical change in plans, my children went to work. Finally, in January, 2011, after many phone calls, meetings, planning, and paperwork – not to mention delays in their newborn son’s birth certificate due to blizzard-related office closures, as well as delays in getting their visas due to an Israeli government strike – Shimon and Tziporah and family moved to Israel with the help of the Nefesh B’Nefesh organization. Their daughter was almost two, and their son was just a few weeks old. Another son, a true sabra (native), was born in Eretz Yisrael.
They have never once regretted their move, despite the commonplace post-move challenges of adjusting to a new language, community, and masses of red tape, in addition to earning a livelihood, finding the best way to communicate with us at home, and not knowing many – if any – people in Israel.
“We like living in Kiryat Sefer, because it is an insulated Torah community that has high level of spirituality, great role models, and good schools,” says Shimon. “On Shabbos you can really feel kedushas (holiness of) Shabbos. The entrance into the city is blocked off, and there are no cars, no traffic, and no open stores or businesses – just Shabbos.”
Kiryat Sefer is a neighborhood in Modiin Ilit, a city in central Israel, and closely resembles Ner Yisrael’s Yeshiva Lane on a much grander scale. You can walk the length of the city in half an hour in every direction. Its residents live mainly in apartment buildings, although some occupy duplexes, penthouses, and “villas,” the Israeli term for a detached house. The original city plan was to build additional villas, but no one was buying them, so more hi-rise apartment buildings were built instead. My children live in one of them.
Both Kiryat Sefer and its neighboring community, Brachfeld, are comprised of Ashkenazim, Sefardim, chasidim, and Teimanim (Yemenites), although Kiryat Sefer is primarily Litvish and Brachfeld is primarily chasidishe. The non-Jews in Kiryat Sefer are an anomaly – some bus drivers, workers, and a Shabbos goy or two. There are over 50 grade schools, a few big high schools, and batei medrash, including Mir-Brachfeld (a branch of the Mir). Almost every shul doubles as a kollel.
Kiryat Sefer is an hour’s bus ride, allowing for traffic, from both Jerusalem and Bnei Brak. Conveniently, a bus stop to these cities, among others, is located in front of a beautiful, large, sandy playground, right outside my son’s apartment building. Public transportation is essential, since most people in Kiryat Sefer don’t own a car.
“Kiryat Sefer was designed to be self-sufficient,” says my daughter-in-law Tziporah, who freelances as a graphic designer and an internationally certified doula in order to be a stay-at-home mom. (She had been outsourced by an American medical billing company, along with a number of other frum women who all lost their telecommuting jobs when the company stopped outsourcing.) “People in both white- and blue-collar professions live here. They make Torah learning their priority and try to only work at night or during the afternoon break, in order to earn what they need. If that is not possible, they at least maintain one full seder or a night seder. They raise their children to value and learn Torah.”
Tziporah describes a town with two post offices and a number of centrally-located shopping areas, and more cropping up as the city grows. With no real need to leave Kiryat Sefer for consumer goods, she tries to travel to Yerushalayim once a month by bus to visit the Kosel Hama’aravi, and she sometimes leaves town to take care of business matters.
“The best ‘car’ is the all-in-one baby carriage that can transport your kids and packages at the same time,” Tziporah quips, referring to how she and other Kiryat Sefer residents manage to do errands and get their children to school without cars. “They make for a free means of transportation. The buses here are very good. They service the main areas, and buses come often enough that people can get places. For hard-to-reach places, taxis seem to be the way to travel.”
With two of their children enrolled in school, Tziporah participates in a walking “carpool.” My granddaughter, CR (as I fondly call her), attends a Yiddish-speaking school at the top of the hill, close to the entrance of Kiryat Sefer. I perked up my ears at this news. Although I had heard that sending children to Yiddish-speaking schools is the “in” thing among chareidim in Israel, my children chose this school for other reasons. “Of course, people consult their own da’as Torah,” says Tziporah, “however, CR’s school was chosen because it teaches Torah hashkafos (outlook), excellent middos (character), tznius (modesty), and love of Torah, and has excellent role models of pure yiras Shamayim, which suffuse every aspect of the school. Additionally, we thought she would gain from the small classes, individual attention, and warm atmosphere. It just so happens that the school is a Yiddish-speaking one. All the many schools in Kiryat Sefer are excellent, with very chashuv people who send to all of them, and they all have over-capacity enrollment, b”H. Bezras Hashem, our boys’ schools will also be chosen based on what is best for each one.”
No doubt, the Pensaks’ adjustment was made easier thanks to Rav Siegal’s kollel and Kiryat Sefer’s close English-speaking community, including English-speaking Israelis. At the tender age of five, CR can speak three languages: English (the primary language spoken at home), Hebrew, and Yiddish.
“Kids usually assimilate well, due to learning the language at an early age,” says Tziporah. “English speakers come from Britain, Switzerland, France, Israel, South Africa, Canada, America, and Australia. When we moved here there were over a thousand English speaking families. Many households change their language to Ivrit after their kids’ vocabulary is richer in Ivrit and they no longer express themselves well in English – unlike Yerushalayim, Ramat Beit Shemesh, Moshav Mattityahu, and other mainly English-speaking communities, whose residents are able to maintain English as their household language. But if they stay here – for sure by 12 years, I have been told – the English speakers can communicate well with their Hebrew-speaking neighbors. The Israeli and immigrant communities have a very good rapport, and everybody gets along very well. There are purposely no separate immigrant schools or shuls, etc. Rather, the city tried to establish integration from the start, to foster achdus.”
“Living with the kedusha (holiness) of Eretz Yisrael wherever one is – and, ideally, actually being in Eretz Yisrael – is the dream that lies in every Jewish heart,” explains Shimon. “Historically, many talmidei chachamim from Eretz Yisrael would travel to Bavel to learn, and vice versa, depending on where they would learn better. We have both always considered moving here.”
Although several of his kollel contemporaries have not become Israeli citizens, Shimon explains their decision to become citizens: “We found it less problematic with regard to getting help with paperwork, obtaining financial aliya grants, schlepping back and forth to the government offices, constantly paying to renew our passports and visas, and being able to obtain an Israeli ID number, which is used for everything all the time, like a last name. In addition, until recent government cuts (in half, to be more precise) to families with kids, as well as the cuts made in subsidies to those studying in kollel, one could have functioned normally through aid given to citizens.
“We were brought up and taught to always shteig (progress in Torah learning), and for us this means learning in Eretz Yisrael,” continues Shimon, who prior to his move learned at Beth Medrash Govoha in Lakewood for eight years and, before that, attended Beth Moshe in Scranton.
After receiving encouragement from his rebbeim, Shimon has plans to share his learning, in America, through contributing research to the recently announced endeavor, Torah Writing and Projects, ilui nishmas (in memory of) father, Asher Zelig ben Tzvi (Stewart) Pensak, z”l.
“Torah Writing and Projects was founded as a non-profit, tax-deductible way of furthering Yiddishkeit, mainly by bringing to light and simplifying various Torah topics for a wide spectrum audience,” explains Shimon. “The Nedarim project will allow Toras Eretz Yisrael to reach American shores. It was launched after Harav Chaim Kanievsky, shlit”a, and HaRav Yisroel Neuman, shlit”a, Rosh Hayeshiva of Beth Medrash Govoha, approved the idea of gathering and putting together, with comments, scattered statements of Rashi on Nedarim as brought down in Rishonim, manuscripts, and his commentary on other mesechtas. Pamphlets culled from this yet-to-be-completed sefer were printed and distributed gratis. In addition to being distributed in yeshivos, they will also be made available to the general public in central locations. In Sivan, iy”H, when Daf Yomi is up to learning Nedarim, they will be distributed in shuls as well. They have been distributed in the Mir, both in Yerushalyaim and in its Brachfeld branch, when they were learning Nedarim, and will soon become available in Baltimore at Yeshivas Ner Yisroel.
“We hope to further Yiddishkeit through bolstering Torah in many cities with this initiative,” concludes Shimon. “Planned projects include all levels of learning by bringing to light and simplifying various Talmudic, halachic, and hashkafic topics.”
As it says in this week’s Torah portion of Lech Lecha, “And I will give you and your seed after you the land of your sojournings, the entire land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession….” Although my initial reaction to the Shimon Pensaks’ move to Israel was bittersweet, my attitude has shifted over the years. I am proud to have a son shteiging in Eretz Yisrael, following in the footsteps of our Avos (forefathers), as well as some of his more immediate paternal descendents who settled there. I am even prouder that he is embarking on a path to prolifically share his years of Torah learning with others, as I know his father is, in shamayim (heaven).
If you would like a share in the mitzva of spreading Torah, make your tax-deductible donation of any size to “Torah Writing & Projects” and mail to Margie Pensak, 6008 Baywood Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21209. For more information, including various dedication opportunities, email margie711@gmail.com.
