When you walk into both Ulpana and Or Chaim, you will see a plaque that honors those graduates who have gone on to national service either in the army or through Sherut Le’Umi in Israel.

Bnei Akiva Schools is the strongest and most overtly Religious Zionist diaspora school that I have ever seen. And I, as your Rosh Yeshiva, will always support and encourage Aliyah.

As a result, my message and charge for this evening might surprise you.

You see, your high school experience has been informed, influenced, impacted, and defined by a post-Oct 7^th reality that is impossible to fully appreciate.

The anti-Semitism that we have seen and endured here in Toronto is real.

And somewhat as a result of that, we have heard a chorus of many within our community calling either for increased Aliyah or, at a minimum, to at least leave Toronto and head south of the border.

I have decided to therefore use this platform to suggest a counter-cultural move to tell our families to stay, and to you – our graduates – please return to Toronto.

Now, before everyone starts throwing things at me – let me explain.

I fervently believe that Medinaat Yisrael is גאלתנו צמיחת ראשית – an expression of the atchalta degeula, and that we are currently living through Hashem’s redemptive period.

I believe that we are witnessing Nessim ve’Niflaot daily, and we are seeing the Yad Hashem dictate world events. And I know that our future and ultimate home – for all of us – will be in Israel.

Anytime I speak about our schools, among the first statistics that I share with pride is that in the fifty-plus years since our founding, we have seen over 30% of our graduates make Aliyah. IYH, that number will continue to grow.

And therefore to those of you who decide to make Aliyah – Kol Hakavod to you.

But to everyone else – please continue to keep Toronto your home and help us to strengthen our Torah community here!

There are three key pieces to this:

Number 1: We must recognize the importance of Jewish life in the Diaspora:

A few months ago, I was privileged to be on a small conference call with Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, the current Chief Rabbi of the UK.

I asked Rabbi Mirvis to give us Canadian rabbis’ insight into dealing with Anti-Semitism.

Rabbi Mirvis shared that we can never despair, never stop working, never give up, and never give in. He shared that there have always been strong Jewish diaspora communities, and we need to invest in them, both globally and locally.

Running away is not the answer.

I actually think that this applies to Rabbi Jonathan Sacks z”tl more than most. Rabbi Sacks was an incredible Religious Zionist who deeply wanted to live in Israel. He famously only spoke in English and, of course, remained a leader within his British Jewish community because he felt that his mother tongue was where he could express himself most clearly, and he recognized the great roles that he filled in his Diaspora community.

Rabbi Sacks wrote:

You can be a minority, living in a country whose religion, culture, and legal system are not your own, and yet sustain your identity, live your faith, and contribute to the common good.

In 1941, the Lubavitcher Rebbe wrote a long letter to a leader in South Africa, in which he said the following:

Many a healthy and thriving Jewish community in the Diaspora has been seriously weakened and in some cases destroyed by being despoiled of its leaders, religious and lay, and people of means and influence who are not only the maintainers of their communities, but pillars of support of Eretz Yisrael.

Similarly, Rav Hershel Schachter once described a meeting he had with Rav Avraham Shapiro in which Rav Shapiro told Rav Schachter that he is not allowed to leave NY because his community needs him there.

There have always been strong diaspora Jewish communities and Ad Biat HaGoel – until Hashem brings Mashiach, these diaspora Jewish communities will always need support.

And this brings us to Number 2: We need leaders here, but we especially need lay and professional leaders who are 100% committed to Torah and Mitzvoth:

This coming Shabbat, we will read Parshat Korach. The Midrash tells us that Korach came to Moshe Rabbeinu with a mocking question. “Does a house that is completely filled with holy Sefarim still require a Mezuzah on its doorway?” If the whole house is already full of holiness, why do you need one small parchment on the door?

The Lubavitcher Rebbe explains that the Mezuzah sits on the threshold, and it connects the inside of the house with the street outside. A house full of Sefarim is a beautiful sanctuary, but the Mezuzah is what reminds you to take that holiness along with you when you step out into the public square.

Graduation is our metaphorical מזוזה. Graduation is the moment you step over the threshold. Do not let go of that Mezuzah and always connect the Torah you have learned inside with the life you will live outside.

Stay firmly rooted and steeped in Torah and Mitzvot to best influence the world around you.

So #2: work on yourself and make sure you are solid in your commitment. Only then can you truly be a leader in our Dati-Leumi Modern-Orthodox community.

And therefore #3: If you find yourself choosing a Diaspora Jewish community, we need you right here in Toronto!

If you think about it, every one of us enters life already indebted to people we have never met.

Long before we were born, people were building our Jewish community right here in Toronto.

Someone raised money and built our shuls, our mikvaot, our schools, our summer camps, and all our institutions.

Leaders in our communities sat through meetings, pored over budgets, gave huge sums of money they could have spent on themselves, leaders fought the city, cultivated relationships with political leaders, and, more recently as we have seen established security networks.

Jewish leaders have built institutions that were already old by the time we arrived. And because of their labor, we have inherited a thriving Jewish community.

However, our Jewish community will not sustain itself based on the work that they did.

Many of you will become doctors, lawyers, educators, rabbis, and business leaders.

That is wonderful. 

But I want you to think not just about “What will I become?” But: “How can I help Toronto? What can I do for our Jewish community?” Said Rabbi Sacks in one of his most famous lines: “Where what you can do meets what needs to be done – that is where Hashem wants you to be.”

The Jewish ideal is not the detached philosopher sitting alone on a mountain.

The Jewish ideal is the person who descends the mountain carrying instructions for building a society. And then goes ahead and acts, does, works, builds, grows and improves. 

Looking locally, we need to remain positive, we need to be optimistic – we need to focus on what we can do.

I find it fascinating and somewhat perhaps contradictory that despite all the calls within our Jewish community to run from Toronto and the dire predictions and the dark narratives that we often hear, there are around 200 million dollars of Jewish building projects that I know of going on around us in our city.

Schools, shuls, Jewish organizational centers, kolelim, summer camps – and more.

All here within the GTA. And all being done to support our growing Jewish community – yes, growing Jewish community.

When you look downstream at the number of students in our Jewish day schools, many of them are bursting at the seams.

Ulpana and Or Chaim have seen incredible growth in the last decade, and we are absolutely filled to capacity.

Just last week, over 60,000 supporters participated in the Walk for Israel. Truly remarkable and incredible based on any metric one could imagine!

We here in Toronto have our work cut out for us. We do need to remain politically active, we need to ensure that our voices are heard, we need to hold our politicians accountable, and we need to demand our rights, freedoms, and security.

I do not accept Bret Stephens’ presumption that we should simply be building our own tables. We also need to fight to maintain our own seat at the table.

We have lots to do. But we need you – our graduates – we cannot do it alone.

Last week, I read Rachel Goldberg-Polin’s book: When We See You Again. It is a remarkable work that I highly recommend.

In it, she quotes a Chassidic tale about a king who wanted to see if his son was fit to inherit the crown. He brought his son to the bottom of the castle’s beautiful staircase. There was a massive boulder almost completely blocking the wide steps in front of it. The king told his son, “I am giving you three days to get this giant rock up to the second floor of the castle. If you succeed, then I know you can become king.” The prince spent the following days pushing, shoving, thinking, trying, and could not get the boulder to budge even an inch. At the end of the three days, when his father returned, he said, “Father, I did everything I could, but I failed. This was an impossible challenge you gave me.” The king replied, “You could have gone to all the townspeople, all the royal staff, and you could have come to me. I would have helped. I never said you had to complete the challenge alone.”

ֹלא ָעֶליָך הְמָּלאָכה לְגֹמר, ְוֹלא אָתּה בן חוִֹרין לָבֵּטל מֶמָּנּה

:Allow me to close with a brief summary

Bnei Akiva Schools believes fervently in Aliyah, we have always celebrated it and we always will.

But that will still leave the majority who have not and will not yet make aliyah.

The return of our people to our land remains one of the greatest miracles of Jewish history.

Today, Jewish sovereignty has returned. That miracle should fill all of us with great gratitude and pride. And make no mistake about it – Jews in Canada and around the world are safer and far better because of that.

Those who build their futures in Israel deserve admiration. But Jewish history has never consisted solely of Jews living in Israel, and the Torah never described such a reality.