REJOICE IN YOUR FESTIVALS: Penetrating Insights into Pesach, Shavuot and Sukkot by Rabbi Zvi Dov Kanotopsky and edited by David A. Zomick.
Rejoice in Your Festivals is a valuable addition to the libraries of those who enjoy the infinite revelations in Torah study. Containing thirty eight previously unpublished derashot of Rabbi Zvi Dov Kanotopsky, zt”l, this book adds new dimensions to our understanding and enjoyment of Pesach, Shavuot and Sukkot.
At once timeless and timely, many of the derashot were written at historic moments such as the end of World War II and the rescue of Holocaust survivors, the establishment of the State of Israel, and the miraculous Israeli victories against the Arab armies. All of the derashot provide valuable insight and inspiration to help us address the complex challenges we face today as a people and as individuals.
Firmly rooted in the teachings of our Talmudic sages and Biblical commentators, the derashot show the creativity and passion of Rabbi Kanotopsky, a brilliant disciple of Rav Joseph B. Soloveitchik, zt”l, and a dynamic orator and communal leader.
A beloved and dynamic rav, Rabbi Zvi Dov Kanotopsky, zt”l, combined his deep commitment to Torah and mitzvot and his incredibly creative mind to develop derashot and shiurim that his congregants and students remember to this day.
He developed his intellectual acumen and honesty, establishing himself as a talmid muvhak of Rav Soloveitchik in the 1940s. For 28 years, he taught at various schools of Yeshiva University even as he served as the rav in two communities: Young Israel of Eastern Parkway in Crown Heights and Young Israel of West Hempstead on Long Island. In both these communities, he was known for his erudition and for his ability to transmit his ideas to everyone, both learned students and the laity of the synagogues. He was very successful in shaping the minds and hearts of his congregants to love and respect Torah and to love and support Eretz Yisrael.
After making aliyah in 1970 with his wife and two of his children, Rav Kanotopsky served as director of the Institute for Advanced Talmud Study at Bar Ilan University, while also lecturing at Hebrew University and the Michlalah College for Women in Jerusalem.
The holder of a Ph.D. in theoretical physics as well as M.A. and M.B.A. degrees, Dr. David Zomick has had a distinguished career as a leader in aerospace technology. Among the positions he held at Honeywell Aerospace were vice president of engineering and chief scientist. Rabbi Kanotopsky was the rav of the shul in which Dr. Zomick was raised, and was also his rosh yeshiva.
Praise for Rejoice in Your Festivals:
“These derashot are an enormous treasure of Jewish thought and ethical insights, marvelous ideas for the days of our festivals. The ideas are both precious and lucid.”
–HaRav HaGaon Asher Weiss
Rosh Kollel, Av Beit Din, Author of Minchat Asher and Rav in Ramot, Jerusalem
“I consider it a great blessing that I was yet able to know one of the leading students of the Rav’s initial years at the Yeshiva. Rabbi Kanotopsky was unique at the time as he represented all the Yeshiva was striving for during its formative years. It is therefore a great source of satisfaction that his teachings are being edited and published. It will be a true monument to this great individual that decades after his death his Torah insights will become available to an appreciative public.”
–Rabbi Dr. Aaron Rakeffet-Rothkoff
Rosh Yeshiva and Professor of Rabbinic Literature at Yeshiva University’s Gruss Institute in Jerusalem
“I cannot sufficiently communicate in words the spiritual joy I received by reading the sample derashot of Rabbi Zvi Dov Kanotopsky from the forthcoming volume Rejoice in Your Festivals. Rav Kanotopsky was my ninth and tenth grade rebbe at Yeshiva University High School in Brooklyn. He was a magnificent role model who combined Talmudic lamdanut with the active rabbinate, a gifted disciple of Rabbi Soloveitchik and a most intelligent and sensitive rebbe of young minds and souls. He would often share with us his planned sermon for that coming Shabbat. The sermons were always learned as well as inspiring, filled with novel insight to explain a difficult halakhic concept and make it not only meaningful but immediately relevant to life and its challenges. Rabbi Kanotopsky would often tell us that he performed the mitzvah of rejoicing in the festival by creating a novel interpretation of an aspect of that festival each year. These sermons are filled with those riveting hiddushim; his words remain as vital today as they were in his lifetime and you [the Editor] are to be complimented for bringing the thoughts of a great mind which has left this world back to life.”
–Rabbi Dr. Shlomo Riskin
Chief Rabbi of Efrat; Founder and Dean of Ohr Torah Stone Colleges and Graduate Programs; Founding Rabbi of Lincoln Square Synagogue, NY
Hardcover
231 pages
2007
Weight: 1.30 pounds
ISBN 13: 978-965-7108-99-4
ISBN 10: 965-7108-99-3
