Vintage Wein

The Jewish World has lost one of our heroes.

Rav Berel Wein died last Shabbat.

You can read many eulogies about his remarkable life and impact on Jewish education.

I was lucky to have had two private conversations with him.

The first was in the late 1990s in Jerusalem when I escorted him to a lecture he gave to a visiting Federation Mission.

Although it was an evening program at the end of a long day, he showed no signs of fatigue and every sign of enthusiasm to connect with Jewish people.

I asked him if he agreed with the premise that intra-Jewish conflict was a greater threat to us than our external enemies.

He said, “Absolutely, it’s obvious, that’s what Chazal (Talmudic Rabbis) say, that’s what Josephus says, that’s what we see when we study Jewish history.”

And that is why Rav Wein’s primary focus was teaching Jewish history. He would often say, “If you don’t know where you come from, then you don’t know where you are. And if you don’t know where you are, then you don’t know where you’re going… it’s the key to faith and belief.”

And therefore, he said, studying and teaching history is the key to solving this endless intra-Jewish conflict that has been our greatest enemy for thousands of years.

If you’d like to raise the bar for your own understanding of Jewish history, you could begin with one of his wonderful books.

Or one of his creative videos.

Or one of his lectures.

Or see what’s happening at his Jewish Destiny Foundation.

My second conversation with him was six years ago while developing Torah Health & Wellness. I asked him if he personally focused on this mitzvah, and how.

He was very matter-of-fact: “Of course – you need to be healthy in order to achieve your full potential in this world.”

He shared that he ate in moderation and exercised several times a week with a personal trainer (this was at age 85).

Question for your Shabbat table – Do you agree or disagree with his view of the urgency of studying Jewish history?