At a tribute evening marking Rabbi David Bigman’s 80th birthday and his appointment as president of the yeshiva, he delivered a personal address thanking his family and the staff. He said his household carried much of the burden of yeshiva life, adding, “All the children, all the yeshiva meals followed me and supported all the moves. Unbelievable.”
Bigman also thanked the entire yeshiva team and explained that the leadership change was part of a broader shift. “The real reason I am becoming president is because the formal side of Rabbi Yossi Gamliel will also be part of the work,” he said. “He is in the spirit of the yeshiva, in a different way, and that is how it should be. It cannot be exactly the same. He has a lot of strengths.”
He then recalled a long-ago conversation with Rabbi Shagar at a wedding, when Shagar noticed the wide range of influences in the institution and asked how so many voices could be contained in one framework. Bigman said Shagar compared it to “the religious kibbutz, bland,” and he replied that everything was done “in moderation.” Later, he worried that too many strong voices might turn into noise.
Over time, he said, he came to the opposite conclusion. Thanks to the staff and the culture that developed there, the yeshiva’s diversity became shared creation, not chaos. “What we have here is a kind of multidimensional celebration,” he said. “It is not noise at all. There are many voices, but they create something alive, fertile and enriching.” He added that the yeshiva has moved from a small number of main voices to a much wider range, calling it not quite a concert or a symphony, but a lively ferment that will only improve. He closed by praising the students as both intellectually strong and kind, saying, “Our students are smart and nice.”
