Rabbi Dr. Chaim Joshua Meskin was born in 1904 in Shadove, Lithuania, into an illustrious rabbinical family headed by my Zaide, Harav Yaakov Hacohen Meskin. Rav Chaim studied in Ponevezh while living in the home of his maternal Zaide. He eventually joined his family in America, where he pursued his studies at the New Haven Yeshiva, from which he received a “Yoreh-Yoreh, Yoreh-Yadin” s’michah from two noted rabbonim of the time—Harav Sheftel Kramer and Harav Yitzchak Ruderman.
After serving in several rabbinical positions in the Bronx, Rabbi Meskin moved our family to Sunnyside, Queens, then an outpost of Torah Judaism. Over the course of the next 31 years, he spiritually shepherded the Young Israel of Sunnyside with gentleness, yet with unrelenting strength of conviction. His weekly Shabbos drashos combined his Torah erudition with his linguistic and academic scholarship. He prided himself on incorporating “$50” vocabulary words into the divrei halachah and musar that he preached to his congregants.
Yet scholarly achievements, such as his Ph.D. from Columbia University, never prevented him from working “within the community.” He cultivated ba’alei t’shuvah before the kiruv movement was in vogue. He established a Yeshiva Day School at the Young Israel of Sunnyside, which flourished initially. But when he saw the need for growth and expansion, he put his full support behind the fledgling yeshivos that were being created in Queens and sent his talmidim to them, always negotiating vigorously for financial assistance. Hundreds of prominent ba’alei batim who are active today in communities throughout the U.S. and Israel attribute their beginnings to Rabbi Meskin’s input and encouragement.
Through his family and his flock, Rabbi Meskin had the great z’chus of promulgating genuine Torah life and commitment in America. His always-dignified demeanor, charm, and wit endeared him to all who were privileged to know him. We, his children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and, B”H, ever-increasing great-great-grandchildren, are infinitely proud to claim Rabbi Dr. Chaim Joshua Meskin as our beloved progenitor and Moreh Derech!
On his 29th yahrzeit, Yehi Zichro Baruch!
In marking this yahrzeit, we bring you the Rabbi’s Message from the Bulletin of the Young Israel of Sunnyside, published in April of 1960.
The message still rings as clear and true as when it was written 65 years ago.
“The Egyptian Exodus laid the foundation for the concept of freedom. Its author’s intention was that humanity continue to build upon it a pyramid of even loftier ideas. But it seems that, just as humanity failed in many other respects, so did it fail in regard to freedom.
When we analyze history from the days of the Egyptian episode down to our own day, we see that education and culture, whose object it was to strengthen freedom, have not succeeded. We have seen that freedom did not flourish at all, even in the lands with the highest level of culture.
Need we go back to old archives to prove it? Not at all! Contemporary humanity was witness to a daylight violation of freedom. A nation that contributed so much to philosophy, science, and music turned into a pack of beasts!
Where lies the fault? How can we explain the failure of education and culture? How can we justify the beastly acts of human beings seemingly brought up in an enlightened world?
It all stems, in my humble opinion, from the denial that freedom is a “divine” precept. From a Torah point of view, there can be no true freedom without the basic belief that, “To the L-rd is the earth and the fullness thereof.”
The moment one denies this premise, he denies freedom. The moment a human being looks at the bounties of life as being solely arrogated to him, he violates freedom. This has nothing to do with capitalism or rugged individualism. It goes much deeper; it goes to the very origin of the creation of man.
In Jewish neo-mysticism, based on ancient Kabbalah, there is a thought to the effect that there is a mutual “search” on the part of G-d and man. G-d is seeking man, even as man should seek G-d. In more understandable terms, it means that G-d wishes to share His world with man. He doesn’t want the world to Himself. He wants man to possess it, but to also share this possession with other men.
Therein lies the difference between G-d and man. G-d, the supreme possessor, is ready to take on a partner. In contrast, man wants to possess even at the expense of others. This is exactly the antithesis of ‘freedom.’
It remains for us, therefore, to deduce that the stagnation of freedom in our day is the result of man’s denial of freedom’s divine origin. Unless all cultures come to this realization, freedom’s lot will be as miserable as the lot of those who are denied freedom.
Pesach, the Festival of Freedom, when observed properly and traditionally, brings this message to us. Traditional Judaism turns the focus of the world towards true freedom by proclaiming the inseparability of the concept of G-d and the concept of freedom.”
By Pearl Meskin Markovitz
