THE innovative UK kiruv organisation Phone and Learn (PaL) held its second annual pre-Rosh Hashonoh lecture on Tuesday evening. The prospect of hearing Dayan Yonasan Abraham of the London Beth Din speak on the subject of "The Heart of Communication"? drew a large crowd to the Menorah Primary School in Golders Green, where the idea for PaL was originally mooted back in December 2004.
Introducing the proceedings, committee member Mr Dov Harris welcomed the audience, making special mention of the many PaL tutors and partners in attendance. To date, PaL has set up some 120 learning partnerships, including three chasanim who have signed up to learn more about their heritage before embarking on building true Jewish homes. Mr Harris was delighted that many PaL partners had experienced their first Shabbos and Purim Seuda at their tutors' homes. Before opening up the floor to Dayan Abrahams, Mr Harris pointed out that the speaker in fact had an extremely heavy schedule in the run up to Rosh Hashonoh, but had chosen to find the time to address the PaL event because it is a "cross- communal outreach organisation that he fully supports".
On taking the podium, Dayan Abraham first commented that he felt like he had "returned to the scene of the crime", having studied at the Menorah Primary as a child! On a more serious note, he reminded those assembled of the origins of PaL: an organisation that was set up in the lasting memory of Mr Sammy Homburger z"l, that truly reflects all that he stood for as an outstanding communicator, chinuch activist and talmid chochom. Dayan Abraham began his shiur by expounding on a Rashi in this week's sedra, on the words "atem nitzovim hayom kulchem". He commented that PaL is surely one of the greatest declarations of this phrase, as it is an organisation that aims to unite individuals from across the whole spectrum of the community.
The main body of the Dayan's lecture was devoted to the concept of the power of speech. He recounted a well-known midrash on Parshas Tazria, where a merchant offered to sell an 'elixir of life' to a group of townspeople that included the great Amora R'Yannai. The merchant refused to sell his dubious product to R'Yannai, showing him the posuk in Tehillim "mi ho'ish hechofetz chaim"?. R'Yannai's response was astounding - "all my life I said this posuk and I never realised what it meant"?. How could it be that the great R'Yannai (who, as Dayan Abraham dryly pointed out, understood Tehillim even before the advent of Artscroll!) did not understand the posuk until a lowly merchant showed it to him? After clarifying his point further with a gemoroh in Sanhedrin, Dayan Abraham concluded that what R’Yannai actually understood afresh was not simply the concept of "who wants the reward of life", but "who wants to live - to use his life and truly fulfil his potential with his faculty of speech". Speech, whether one is talking Torah or talking socially, is invested with the incomparable power to heal, inspire or build, and it is this gift that sets us as human beings apart from the animal kingdom.
Dayan Abraham finished his shiur by commenting that PaL takes away any lingering excuses we may have had not to use our power of speech to draw all of klal Yisroel together in Torah. Perhaps the 'P' and 'L' of Phone and Learn, he quipped, are actually a 'pey' and 'lamed', standing for "pichoh ulevovecho"?, because with their mouths and their hearts Phone and Learn and everyone associated with it are doing tremendous work that will surely help us be zocheh to see a complete geuloh and yeshua in the very near future.
For more information email info@phoneandlearn.org or telephone 08000 J-LEARN (553 276).
