On His 25th Yahrtzeit, Remembering Hagaon Harav Avraham Yaakov Pam zt”l
Tonight marks 25 years since the petirah of Hagaon Harav Avraham Yaakov Hakohen Pam zt”l, the revered Rosh Yeshivah of Yeshiva Torah Vodaas and a member of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of Agudath Israel of America, whose yahrtzeit falls on 28 Av.
For more than six decades, Rav Pam served as a mechanech to thousands of talmidim, shaping generations of American bnei Torah with a rare combination of iron discipline in limud haTorah and boundless warmth toward every individual who crossed his path.
He was renowned above all for his extraordinary kavod habriyos and passion for, as a sefer containing his Torah is aptly called, the “pleasant way” — a sensitivity to the dignity of every person, from the greatest talmid chacham to the simplest Yid, that became a hallmark of his Torah personality.
He would refuse to articulate language that was unbecoming of a Ben Torah; for example, he would refer to “shut up” as “the S-H-U-T word.”
As an example of his constant dedication to making peace between Jews, when a talmid asked what the Rosh Yeshiva’s minhag is regarding who walks the chosson and kallah down to the chuppah, his response was “my minhag is to do what the other side does.”
As a Cohen, Rav Pam was unable to visit people in hospitals, but on one occasion that a talmid needed to be hospitalized, Rav Pam traveled to the hospital and stood waving in view of the patient’s window.
Before Hagaon Harav Nosson Tzvi Finkel zt”l took the mantle of leadership in Mir Yeshiva, he was worried that he lacked the ability; he went to Rav Pam, who told him “with the achrayus comes the ability.”
Rav Pam, in his older years, was also the founder of Shuvu, the network of schools that has brought Torah chinuch to tens of thousands of children of Russian immigrants in Eretz Yisrael, a project close to his heart until his last days.
A quarter-century after his petirah, his talmidim and their talmidim continue to gather at his kever in Mount Judah Cemetery in Queens, and his divrei Torah and mussar continue to be studied in yeshivos and homes throughout Klal Yisrael — testimony to a life whose influence has only continued to grow.
Yehi zichro baruch.
