Rischa D'Araisa Season 2 Episode 21: REVEL-ling in Past Possibilities: How America would have been different had Rav Shimon Shkop accepted the post of Rosh Yeshiva at RIETS in 1929

Rischa D'Araisa Season 2 Episode 21: REVEL-ling in Past Possibilities: How America would have been different had Rav Shimon Shkop accepted the post of Rosh Yeshiva at RIETS in 1929

Rischa's second foray into speculative what-if scenarios begins with an elaborate set-up of the Lithuanian Yeshiva-American Money connection of the 1920's and the major role played by visionaries like Rabbi Dov Revel.

Rabbi Kivelevitz provides the salient specifics of the founding and flourishing of Yeshivas Shaar HaTorah in Grodno.

Rabbi Bechhofer confirms Kivelevitz's assessment of the unique skillset and persona that combined within Rav Shimon Yehuda Shkop Zt'l that made him the perfect catalyst for growth and quantitative advancement for the motivated Ben Torah of the early 20th Century and why the administration of Yeshivas Rabbeinu Yitzchak Elchanan made him their prime candidate in succeeding the tragically departed Rav Shlomo Polacheck, the Meitscheter Illui.

While in the real world, Rav Shimon heeded the calls of the Chofetz Chaim and Rav Chaim Ozer to return to Europe, the Rischa duo sketches the arc of probabilities had he remained.

Kivelevitz and Bechhofer disagree over whether, sans Rav Moshe Soloveichick's influential role, his son, Rav Yoseph Dov, would have become the towering influential teacher and philosopher for American generations to come.

Bechhofer asks Kivelevitz to complete the fantasy with an alternate landing role for the under appreciated Gaon and Scholar, Rav Zelik Epstein, who as Rav Shimon's disciple and granddaughter's husband, might have wielded a role in Yeshiva University commensurate with his predilections and vision.