R Eli Stefansky and the Aggrandized Aron

A decent defense for a derided dollar disbursement

R Eli Stefansky is one of my heroes. He is someone who has spread Torah learning with fun, excitement and enjoyment, to all of klal yisroel. He was Machzir Atara Leyoshna, a balebos returning learning to balebatim in a balebatish style - and made it respectable. His daf shiur is a favorite.

Thus, I feel obliged to share with you a defense he made against one of my old articles:

(Also, I was wrong. The Alluring Aron cost 8 million dollars).

While I don’t know if R Eli reads this blog (I doubt it), the controversy over this Awe-inspriring Aron spread far and wide. Here is his defense (it's a video - please click the play button. The text is not a transcript)(from CBN news):¹

When Rav Sholom Ber Sorotzkin built a makom Torah, he built it with kavod.
Now, Reb Eli Stefansky explains why the $8 million Aron Kodesh of Ateres Shlomo wasn’t extravagance—it was hisorerus for the world to honor Torah.

(The emoji is from CBN).

So I definitely hear what R Eli was saying. I do think everyone has the right to sponsor what they want, and that the Aristocratic Aron is indeed beautiful, but I think he misses two key points:

First, the Artisanal Aron is insanely tone-deaf. Right now, the tone is that the Yeshiva world and the Chareidi world is under attack. At any other time period, this Affluent Aron would have been cool. Now though, that there is supposedly a massive threat of tens of thousands of bochrim being drafted and that there is no money flowing to yeshivos so much so that 90 year old gedolim have to fly to the USA to make balebatim feel chashuv collect money, it is very difficult to celebrate an 8 million dollar Aureate Aron and at the same time say “ we are under attack! Give money!”. From Keren Olam Hatorah’s website:

The Torah—under attack

Yeshivos and kollelim began lowering their air condition usage, leaving bochurim and yungerleit to toil in the sweltering heat. Some already limited offering meals as they scrambled to make payments and others were preparing to close their doors completely. With nowhere to turn, these budget cuts would mean a death sentence r”l to the Olam HaYeshivos.

Hard to justify the Avante-garde Aron at such a time. At the very least, it sounds like R Sholom Ber Sorotzkin is “Let them Eat Cake-ing” the other yeshivos.

But second, R Sholom Ber Sorotzkin is the one pushing how the Yeshivos are persecuted!

R Sholom Ber Sorotzkin accompanies R Moshe Hillel Hirsh Shlita and R Don Segal Shlita during the Keren Olam Hatorah campaign. Credit: Ivelt.

To finish off, I’m not going to pull a R Slifkin and say not to donate here. There are many people suffering, so its certainly a good thing to donate to Keren Olam Hatorah to help starving avreichim. Even if you personally feel that they are doing the wrong thing and they should go to work, they were brought up in a system that believes its the right thing and they need to be helped. And you will get schar torah. (But you will also if you support other yeshivos too, so keep that in mind).

But its also perfectly ok to criticize the Aestheticized Aron. It rubs people the wrong way for a reason. Don’t cry “help us we need money” and then say “check out my 8 million dollar Aron”. It might be totally justified that you built the aron. But people are also totally justified in not donating or that it rubs them the wrong way.

I’ll just end off with this: Keren Olam Hatorah’s slogan:

Torah will never go bankrupt. Because of you.

But it might go bankrupt due to another reason!

1. If someone could make a transcript I'd really appreciate it.