Parshas Toldos 5787
ויתן לך האלקים מטל השמים ומשמני הארץ ורב דגן ותירש ... (כז-כח)
The pressure of the Zeirei Agudath Israel work during the Second World War, was overwhelming. The organization labored under constant debts. Salaries were small and usually paid late. Despite the rapid growth of the Zeiri Youth Council office during the war years, most of the growth in staff was at the secretarial level. The Youth Council had little money to spend on professional employees. With Mike Tress bearing almost the entire load of fund-raising, it was left to Rabbi Moshe Sherer zt”l to oversee virtually all of the office work. The preponderance of routine administrative tasks was hard on the idealistic young man in a hurry to change the world and after three years, the financial pressures of a growing family persuaded Rabbi Sherer to resign and go into the lighting fixture and electric supply business under the name Genuine Electric. His presence in the Youth Council was missed greatly, especially by Mike Tress. Over the next year, the Youth Council and Agudath Israel of America finally merged into one organization, with Mike Tress assuming leadership of the combined organization.
A few months in business convinced Rabbi Sherer that his family’s financial future looked bright. Business began to boom and a lucrative career in the lighting business seemed to be a given. However, approximately a year after he went into business, he was invited to a meeting at which a number of gedolei Torah were present. They were so grateful that he came and they informed him that Klal Yisrael needed him too much - much more than Genuine Electric - and that he must leave his business. He requested a year to recoup his initial investment and to sell off his inventory, but they told him that his presence was too urgently needed. When he returned from the meeting, he told his wife, “Deb, it’s back to bread and water.”
There was at least one tangible result from Rabbi Sherer’s year in business. His secretary in Genuine Electric was a young woman named Mollie Bienstock from a shomer Shabbos home in the Bronx. Rabbi Sherer continually urged her to marry a ben Torah. Nothing in her public school background (which was the norm in those days) had prepared her for the idea of a husband devoted to studying Torah, but she was so impressed with the way Rabbi Sherer conducted himself in every sphere of his life that she decided that she wanted to marry a “ben Torah like Rabbi Sherer.”
Four years after his brief time in business, Rabbi Sherer received the offer of the rabbinic position that he had hoped for when he first returned to New York from Baltimore, where he had been learning in Yeshivas Ner Israel. His father-in-law, Rabbi Fortman, had suffered a debilitating stroke and Rabbi Sherer assumed his duties for close to six months. But Rabbi Fortman never recovered and passed away in February 1951, at age 55. Congregation Kenesseth Israel, known as the White Shul, and one of the most prestigious shuls in the New York area, offered Rabbi Sherer the position of rabbi at the same salary his father-in-law had received. At a time when his salary from Agudath Israel barely covered fish on Shabbos, Rabbi Sherer was greatly tempted by the offer. Rebbetzin Fortman was eager to see her son-in-law in the position that her husband had held. But Rabbi Sherer told her that he would have to first consult R’ Aharon Kotler zt”l, and that he would do whatever R’ Aharon instructed him.
R’ Aharon Kotler responded succinctly, “Bishum oifen nisht - not under any circumstances. No White Shul and no single shul. I have much bigger plans for you.” And so he did. Rabbi Moshe Sherer went on to become president and chairman of Agudath Israel of America, and transformed Orthodox Judaism’s standing in the world through his wisdom and advocacy.
Rebbetzin Fortman, however, was sorely disappointed when her esteemed son-in-law turned down the White Shul’s offer. Not until ten years later, when his picture appeared on the front page of the March 30, 1961 New York Times’ metropolitan section, with a long story about his congressional testimony the previous day, did Rebbetzin Fortman admit, “I saw what a Kiddush Hashem you made. It seems that Reb Aharon was right.”
When retelling the story of his mother-in-law’s change of heart after the appearance of the New York Times’ article, Rabbi Sherer would always add wryly, “Never underestimate the power of the press. What R’ Aharon Kotler could not convince my mother-in-law of in 1951, the mighty New York Times succeeded in doing in 1961.” (Adapted from “Rabbi Sherer” by Yonason Rosenblum)