YU Students Restart Einayim LaTorah in Memory of Zali Arnold zt”l
Zali Arnold zt”l was known by his friends as someone who was incredibly smart, funny and filled with a burning passion to help other people. Following three years of study at Yeshivat Har Etzion, Zali enlisted into the IDF. During this period, Zali still continued his role of being the official “Travel Agent” of his Yeshiva’s year, being the go-to person to help with maximizing points, mileage and credit card reward deals to plan all aspects of his friends’ trips and finances. About a year into his enlistment, Zali received a cancer diagnosis and passed away around nine months later this past summer. Even those who did not know him personally, but learned about him at his levaya, shared that his life left a profound impact upon them. In the wake of his passing, Zali’s friends from Gush, Yosef Chaim Reiss (YC ‘25, RIETS ‘28) and Ruben Prawer (YC ‘25, RIETS ‘28), sought the proper way to honor his legacy.
Following Zali’s passing this past July, Reiss and Prawer began to discuss launching a publication that would spread Torah from YU’s beit midrash in honor of Zali. Although Einayim LaTorah (then referred to as Einyaim L’Torah) was once published on a regular basis, it has not been printed since 2006. By restarting Einayim LaTorah, there would be a vehicle for YU to spread its Torah outward. This would also fill a niche by having YU’s Torah take front and center stage within YU itself. “It bothered me that in Glueck on Shabbos, there were pamphlets with weekly Divrei Torah not from YU, but from other institutions that did not really embody Yeshiva University’s values,” Reiss told The Commentator. With these objectives in mind, Reiss and Prawer decided to restart YU’s Einayim LaTorah newsletter.
When the Einayim LaTorah team was first experimenting with what the contents of the paper should be, Prawer suggested to start off with pieces from students and Roshei Yeshiva on the parsha, ideas from the daily iyun shiurim at YU, halacha lectures, as well as the weekly sichas mussar from the Glueck Beit Midrash and a unique quote from one of YU’s former roshei yeshiva.
One of the larger goals of Einayim LaTorah has been to make YU’s Torah accessible to a wide religious range of students and to the greater community. As Reiss shared with The Commentator, “We wanted to focus on something that’s engaging, exciting and accessible to the broader community.” Reiss also showed the first Einayim LaTorah with a written up version of President Berman’s shiur klali to Berman. Berman expressed excitement at the prospect of sharing YU’s Torah with alumni who wish to be connected to the beit midrash.
The paper was first distributed this past September all over YU’s campus and at the Romimu Shabbaton. With the successful momentum from their first few issues, the Einayim LaTorah team approached Rabbi Kalinsky at the beginning of November, who thought the paper was an incredible initiative, leading to the paper receiving funding from RIETS.
In addition to drawing inspiration from other papers, Einayim LaTorah has a few sections that are specifically tuned toward connecting students to YU’s past and present. Since the beginning, a noteworthy section has been the Min HaMesorah section run weekly by Ori Bach (YC ‘26), which presents quotes and biographies of the roshei yeshiva from throughout YU’s more than 140-year history.
Another significant section geared toward connecting the broader community to YU is the Halacha Corner. Until now, the Halacha Corner has been focused on featuring Rabbi Aryeh Lebowitz’s Ten Minute Halacha shiur, which is generally given after the 2:30 Mincha minyan in Glueck. However, Nathan Shapiro (YC ‘25, RIETS ‘28), one of the chief editors of Einayim LaTorah, highlighted that there are plans to expand the Halacha Corner. Many of the more novel psakim of the YU roshei yeshiva are not always familiar to everybody, such as those of Rav Soloveitchik and Rav Schachter. Therefore, the plan for the Halacha Corner going forward is to popularize these psakim to a wider audience.
Einayim LaTorah has also taken root on the Beren Campus. Much of the Beren edition is similar to the Wilf edition, with the replacement of a Dvar Torah from a student on the Wilf Campus with one from the Beren Campus as one difference between the two. The ability to share Torah between the two campuses has been greatly appreciated by the Beren edition’s staff since this has served to amplify the voice and presence of the roshei yeshiva at Stern.
Selma Spinner (SCW ‘27), one of the coordinators for the Beren edition, told The Commentator that there are also plans for sections unique to the Beren edition such as Divrei Torah from the Stern faculty and an “Ask the Rabbi” section in future editions. “These pieces give the Beren edition its own authentic voice and reflect the incredible Torah learning taking place in our own beit midrash,” said Spinner.
The goals from the beginning for Einayim LaTorah has been to foster Torah-centered conversations, connect a wider audience to the beit midrash and give students a platform to share and refine their Torah thoughts with each other. “It’s incredibly rewarding to be part of this initiative,” said Adina Feldman (SCW ‘26), editor of the student Divrei Torah for the Beren edition. “Helping students who might not have otherwise shared their Torah ideas gain the confidence to write and refine them, and seeing them grow from ‘I’m not sure I have anything to say’ to holding a printed piece they’re proud of is a big zechus.”
With the purpose of Einayim LaTorah being to spread YU’s Torah to as broad of an audience as possible, and to help people refine and express their Torah ideas, it has proven to be an invaluable tribute to the ideals by which Zali aspired to live his life.
Photo Caption: Rabbi Herschel Schachter reading a copy of Einayim LaTorah
Photo Credit: Rabbi Mordechai Djavaheri
