Avraham Yaakov Pam

Rabbi
Avraham Yaakov Hakohen Pam
Rabbi Pam, left, conversing with Rabbi Benjamin Yudin
Born 1913
Died August 16, 2001
Occupation Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva Torah Vodaas

Rabbi Avraham Yaakov Hakohen Pam (1913 – August 16, 2001) was the rosh yeshiva of Yeshiva Torah Vodaas in Brooklyn, New York.

Biography

Rav Pam began his career at Yeshiva Torah Vodaas in 1938, when was appointed maggid shiur (Talmudic lecturer) there, at a time when secularism was on the rise in the United States, even amongst Orthodox Jews. In 1943 he married Sarah Balmuth.[1]

During Rav Pam's sixty-plus years at Torah Vodaas he held many positions. He even taught mathematics in the Yeshiva, utilizing his degree from City College. For many years in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s he delivered the semicha class to students studying toward rabbinic ordination.

Rav Pam's dress was unassuming; he preferred modern short jackets and Fedora hats to the more traditional long frock coat and Homburg hat generally worn by heads of Yeshivas.[1] While Pam was respected as a great talmudic scholar within Yeshiva circles, he was widely admired for his humility and soft-spoken style.

Rav Pam was a vocal supporter of yeshiva education for non-religious Russian immigrants to Israel through the work of his organization called Shuvu. At the keynote session of the annual 1990 Agudath Israel convention Rav Pam spoke impassionedly about the flood of new Jewish emigrants from the Soviet Union, and his concern that their children were growing up oblivious to their religious heritage. He argued that a network of schools should be set up in Israel for those emigrants, and organized a meeting of wealthy and influential participants at the convention to facilitate that vision, appointing Avraham Biderman as the chair of Shuvu, the organization founded at that meeting.[1] After Rabbi Pam's death, the organization was renamed Shuvu: Chazon Avraham, in his memory.

For those privileged to have known Rav Avrohom Yaakov Pam zt'l - and particularly for those who merited to have been his students during the more than six decades that he taught at Mesifta Torah Vodaath - the memory of this quiet, unassuming and yet towering gadol b'Torah remains ever fresh, and his example still serves as a beacon of inspiration. But even those who never met the man Rav Yaakov Kamenetzky zt'l called "the Chofetz Chaim of our time" can share his Torah thoughts and his perceptive insights into human nature, through his teachings, which have been lovingly adapted by Rabbi Sholom Smith, a devoted student of Rav Pam. A "vort" is a much beloved tradition in Jewish tradition. Brief and yet full of substance, short and ultra-focused, it is the perfect vehicle to give over a Torah insight, an ethical idea or moral teaching. In this collection of "vorts," based on Rav Pam's shiurim, and arranged according to the parashah, we can almost hear the voice of this master educator and Torah scholar: perceptive and sensible, humane and wise. A book to treasure and read over and over again, A Vort from Rav Pam gives us a chance to share the insights and wisdom of one of the generation's greatest teachers.[2]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Kamenetsky, Rabbi Mordechai. The majesty of man, Jewish World Review, August 16, 2002.
  2. ↑ http://www.artscroll.com/Books/9781422609514.html

www.artscroll.com/Books/9781422609514.html

Further reading

  • Finkelman, Rabbi Shimon (2003). Rav Pam: The life and ideals of Rabbi Avrohom Yaakov Hakohen Pam. Brooklyn, N.Y.: Mesorah Publications. ISBN 1-57819-384-2
  • RAV PAM BOOKS BY SHOLOM SMITH http://www.artscroll.com/Authors/Rabbi_Sholom_Smith.html
  • Messages from Rav Pam: Short thoughts on the weekly Torah reading by Rabbi Sholom Smith {https://www.amazon.com/Messages-Rav-Pam-thoughts-reading/dp/1422619443/ref=sr_1_8?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1529843487&sr=1-8&keywords=rav+pam}
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