<p>Dear Rabbi Rakeffet,&nbsp;</p> <p>I just finished reading your book and have been a devoted 'student' listening to your shiurim on the Rav as well as the current series and many of the older shiurim both in responsa and history.&nbsp;</p> <p>At the end of this shiur &nbsp;you mentioned the picture of Rabbi Stern in Israel and asked about the shul in Richmond Hill. I grew up in Richmond Hill in the 50's and early 60's. My father's family lived in Richmond Hill from the 20's. I remember Rabbi Stern as he was the first Rabbi I ever met. Richmond Hill (before I remember it) had several Orthodox shuls (although not so many Orthodox members, as you so eloquently described in your book) and the one on 117th Street and 103rd Avenue was, as I remember it. It had stained glass windows and the women's section was two high balconies facing each other joined at the back by a large room with big glass windows where, I am told, a choir used to stand and sing on the high holidays when the shul was full. It also had three huge chrystal chandeliers. The shul was built in the mid 1920's but by the time I remember it was full only on Yom Kippur. There were very few children left by 1962 when my family moved to Hillcrest. We did return now and then but by 1966 the only women left in the community could no longer climb the two flights of stairs and a portion of the men's section had been cordoned off for their use. There were NO children left by then and Rabbi Stern had left for Israel (I believe that was 1957 but certainly not later than 1959). By the 1970's there was almost no Jewish community left at all and I'm not sure when (I moved to Israel in 1967) the building was finally sold, I am told to a bank. Apparently, before the bank could do anything the building burnt down. Last summer I visited the area which is now a<a href="http://isramom.blogspot.com/2011/08/revisiting-my-childhood-streets.html" target="_blank"> colorful Indian neighborhood.&nbsp;</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>Thank you, and the YU Tora website for the very interesting lectures and my the קדוש ברוך הוא grant you many more years of fruitful teaching and learning.&nbsp;</p> <p>Best regards,&nbsp;</p> <p>Risa Tzohar ([email protected])</p>

<p>Would be a more appropriate title for this shiur. Though Rav Amital agreeing with the Rav that he never heard of "Daat Torah" growing up in Europe is also mentioned in the shiur, the heart of this shiur is Rav Rakeffet discussing and disagreeing with some of Rav Ovadia's concepts related to "Daat Torah", including issues relating to Rav Amsalem and a teshuva of Rav Ovadia in "Yechave Daat" on the amount of respect that can be shown a talmid chacham that Rav Rakeffet disagrees with as possibly bordering on borderline idolatrous.</p>