“Lo mekomo shel adam mechabdo, elah adam mechabed es mekomo.”
The Olam HaTorah and the thousands of women who were students of Rav Yehuda Cooperman zt”l, the founder of Michlalah, feel a profound sense of loss upon his petira. The world has lost an extraordinary talmid chacham, mechaber seforim and an educator and innovator whose vision and fortitude in the face of great challenges was unparalleled. Rav Cooperman’s influence, as founder of Michlalah/Machal (the overseas program), however, extends way beyond those who attended Michlalah. I’d like to suggest that anyone who ever has or will attend a post high school year of study in any seminary owes Rav Cooperman a debt of gratitude.
The landscape for serious, academic, yiras Shamayim-infused limud haTorah for women has not always been what it is today. It was amidst what was essentially a barren landscape that Rav Cooperman’s uncompromising integrity, yiras Shamayim and prescience regarding the role that women’s Torah learning plays in building Klal Yisroel and ahavas Yisrael all came together. He created Michlalah and, shortly afterward, Machal. In doing so, a path was paved where previously there was none and subsequent seminaries, however they may differ in hashkafa or style, walk down that path. That path and all who walked, currently walk and will walk on it are the zchusim that accompany Rav Cooperman to the Olam Ha’nitzchios. While I count myself among those walkers, I also find myself experiencing an additional sense of personal loss that further testifies to Rav Cooperman’s gadlus.
Rav Cooperman’s hashpa’ah on my family started with me, continued with my sister, and culminated with my daughter. As a limudei kodesh teacher at both the high school and college level, I have personally been enriched by and transmitted Rav Cooperman’s Torah, but I speak now as a mother and hope that I can convey the depth of hakaras hatov that I have toward Michlalah as an institution and Rav Cooperman personally.
The fact that Machal students come from diverse backgrounds and from families whose relationship to Torah and Hashem is varied and that that heterogeneity produces a huge spectrum of growth is something that Rav Cooperman would mention frequently when we met over the years. It was something he took great pride in. Students enter Machal at various stages of avodas Hashem and consequently, for some, growth manifests in visible changes in tznius, shmiras mitzvos and other aspects of lifestyle. For others, like my daughter, who come from Torah-imbued homes and enter their year of seminary already outwardly manifesting the nuanced Torah standards, the changes may not be as visible but are, nonetheless, exceptionally transformative.
Rav Cooperman played a singular role in my daughter’s process of building her own relationship with Hakadosh Baruch Hu, on top of what she had acquired while growing up in a Torah home. He inspired and contributed to the inner growth that occurred; to the development of subtle, powerfully deep layers of ruchnius muscle and to the exhilaration, intellectual stimulation and deep gratification that came from encountering the emes of Torah in a Meshech Chochmah or Ramban. Rav Cooperman gave to her from his head and his heart. Whether it was in Rav Cooperman’s chug, Breishis class, in a talk to the girls about inyonei d’yoma or while meeting with her to discuss personal matters, Rav Cooperman captured and expressed so articulately and joyously the pure, nekudas ha’emes of whatever the topic was. As a mother, I can think of no greater gift that anyone could give to my daughter.
Although my connection to Rav Cooperman began years ago, through my daughter it was revived. It included pre-Yamim Noraim calls and visits to Rav Cooperman’s house almost every time we were in Eretz Yisroel. My regret is that I did not see him on my last trip this past Sukkos. Always greeted with extraordinary graciousness and warmth, we were enriched with Torah insights delivered in Rav Cooperman’s signature way and imbued with his unique, refreshing perspective and, at times, gifted with an inscribed sefer. In my mind’s eye, I see Rav Cooperman walking us out, in his unassuming manner and with that twinkle in his eye. Once outside, I felt uplifted and suffused with a feeling that I had just been in the presence of a great man. I had.
Yehi zichro baruch.