"I, Who Couldn't Study Gemara in My Youth, Completed the Entire Shas"

Pleased to Meet You

Yedidya Meir, age 46, married to Sivan Rahav-Meir, father of five, residing in Jerusalem, media professional. Grew up in Moshav Gimzo, son of Rabbi Eliav Meir, rabbi in the Regional Council Hevel Modi'in, and to Ziva Meir, a parent counselor. One of 11 siblings.

A Childhood Memory I Won't Forget

"I was blessed to grow up in a family of rabbis and Torah scholars, and Rabbi Simcha Kook, the chief rabbi of Rehovot, was my grandfather's brother. This meant growing up with greatness around me. They were figures who really stood above the ordinary. Rabbi Simcha always exuded royalty, respect, concern, and splendor; as a child, this made a huge impression on me. I was fortunate to follow him around and never keep up. Even at age 80, he ran ahead of everyone, from synagogue to synagogue, from community to community. I remember Seder nights with him, Sukkot, Passover, and many other sacred flashbacks. He passed away this year, and my wife and I are now collecting stories about him to write a book, with the help of Hashem."

An Important Principle in My Life I Never Forget

"To pay attention to the weaker students as well. I wasn't a good student. I remember once they wanted a representative from the class for the school newspaper, and, of course, they chose the best, top-performing student. His name was Chanokh. Today he is a professor. I remember thinking to myself: what about me? True, I'm not good at studies and homework, but I know how to write, I think I'm creative, why not choose me as the class representative in the school newspaper? Since then, I've tried to give attention to those on the sidelines, not just the successful ones. I believe there are hidden treasures there that are worth noticing. The system doesn't always know how to identify and handle everyone."

An Unforgettable Meeting

"Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach. I was in Safed with my friend Yohanan Slater at the Klezmer Festival. Suddenly, someone shouted to us from a car: Do you have a guitar? Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach is here in town and needs a guitar. We told him: We have a guitar, but we're coming with it... And so we found him in a tiny performance at a nursing home in Safed, playing on Yohanan's guitar and singing songs of faith and hope to the elderly. He told them not to feel broken, that they have immense value. The world needs them. And why? Because any moment now the Messiah is coming and will need to fulfill the prophecies, including Zechariah's prophecy "Again will sit elderly men and women in the streets of Jerusalem," and how can we fulfill the prophecy without elderly men and women? So they should hold on, the generation needs them, awaits them for the prophecy. It was, in retrospect, one of his last performances. Carlebach did not live to the age of those elders and passed away. I learned from this meeting about the power of a simple tune and of a few kind words – to revive souls."

A Moment of Happiness I Won't Forget

"Births. The births of children fill with an inexplicable joy that words cannot describe and cannot compare to anything else. There's nothing like it. Yehudit, our fifth daughter, was born on Shabbat Kodesh. I then experienced something amazing: walking on foot to deliver good news. Nobody knows, nobody got a picture or update, and I walk on foot from Sha'arei Tzedek to our home in Jerusalem, about a forty-minute distance, where my parents were watching over our children. And with every step, I come closer to delivering the happy news verbally, face-to-face. No emoji and no exclamation marks, just a Mazel Tov of Shabbat. There was a special magic in those moments."

Unforgettable Torah Study

"The Daf Yomi. For years, I couldn't study Gemara as I wanted. I had not-so-pleasant memories from learning experiences in yeshiva, where I was not a good student. There weren't accessible, explained Gemaras like today. Today there are no excuses. There's Oz VeHadar and Schottenstein, and more. I am an admirer of these accessible Gemaras, which simply put everything in order in my head. Suddenly it's not cramped and messy small print anymore, but there's logic and order: here the Gemara asks a question, here it answers, now we're giving three answers to the question we asked, etc.... I started studying about a decade ago with my study partner, Rabbi Moti Rothenberg, and we advance day by day. We merited to complete the Shas. It's an extraordinary sentence for me, so I'll say it again: I, who couldn't study Gemara in my youth, completed the Shas. I have no words to thank Rabbi Meir Shapiro, the founder of the Daf Yomi method, and also my parents and wife, because surely their prayers brought me here."

A Song That Influenced Me and I Won't Forget

"All the songs of Rabbi Hillel Paley. I met him in my youth and started selling his tunes to singers. That's how "Shiru Lamelech," "Torah HaKedosha," "Ochila" and more were born. And of course, the songs of Rabbi Yosef Karduner and Bini Landau. There's no 'one song' for me. I live music, and it is part of my service to Hashem. Every period has its playlist."

A Book That Influenced Me

"'Growing Up,' by Sivan Rahav-Meir. I'm not joking, and this is not an ad. I mean, it is an ad, but an ideological one. My wife Sivan started collecting stories for children, and as we worked, we discovered that adults are also looking for inspiring stories. That's how the new series "Growing Up" was born. Recently, it reached the first place in Steimatzky's book chart, which shows that all audiences are looking for stories from our sources that can improve lives and connect us to our roots. We work together, so I read all the drafts and know the book almost by heart. Personally, it strengthened me."

A Difficult Period I Won't Forget

"Oslo and the Disengagement. Everything happening today reminds me of that period. Most of the people feel unrepresented. A public that goes to the polls and feels that their vote is not counted like others. You see before your eyes a misguided policy that will cost dearly and cannot stop it. The media is fully recruited to one side. It's frustrating because I thought things have changed, but the discourse remains "You are extreme and wrong," while we on the left think. It's completely opposite."

An Unforgettable Holiday

"Of course, the Pesach Seder of Corona. It seems that many people realized something that year. We are not dependent on the surroundings, the preparations, the holiday shopping, clothes, gifts. It's just us and Hashem and the mitzvahs of this night. Just us and the nuclear family. A global pandemic raging outside, and we are telling the story of the Exodus with what we managed to do in the strange situation at that time. We returned in the middle of an assignment in the United States and found ourselves in isolation, cleaning a rented house that wasn't ours, borrowing disposable cups and potatoes and grape juice bottles from my sisters. There was an Exodus from Egypt, plain and simple, without all the extras. Very special."

An Unforgettable Prayer

"First and foremost, holiday prayers with the rabbi of our family, Rabbi Yaakov Katz. Since I came of age and until today, I have been fortunate to hear him lead the prayers during the High Holidays in the Old City. Even as a child, my parents took me to pray with him, and now I have the privilege of bringing our children there. In recent years I have had the privilege to attend the first musical Selichot that Yehuda Green conducts in Manhattan. It's a prayer that not only makes the High Holidays meaningful but the entire year. Of course, the real challenge is the Mincha and Arvit prayers at the neighborhood synagogue, which I will attend after finishing this questionnaire."