As a "start-upist," as we say in Hebrew, a person who starts things, I am used to going against the trend. I am experienced in looking at reality and believing I have the power to change that reality. And thank God, I have had the fortune to be involved in some major shifts in reality over the past few decades.
Yesterday a great light went out in the world -- Rabbi Menachem Froman, the "Rav" of Tekoa, but so much more than that, passed from our world.
Rabbi Froman was the utlimate start-upist -- he did not accept anything as the way it should be, and until his last days fought to change our reality, and our perceptions of reality.
Rabbi Froman's "weapons" were his love for all people, his fierce intellect, his smile, his hugs, his joy in life.
I had the blessing to meet Rabbi Froman a few times over the past twenty years, and have followed his activities with great interest, fascination, respect, admiration, and love.
Rabbi Froman was prepared to go anywhere, and meet anyone, if he felt it would help make our world a better place.
My only critique of Rabbi Froman is that he was so good, that he outshone anyone else around him, so we are left not knowing who his peers are, who will carry on his legacy...in that sense Rabbi Froman left the perception that he was a one-man show, a start-up built around a cult of personality. Not so different than another of my teachers, Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, who only after his death gained the respect he deserved in his lifetime -- and only after he left our world did we stat to understand the depth of his message.
18 years after the passing of Carlebach I feel like it is just yesterday that I spoke to him, heard him sing, passed him on the street. I did not have the same personal relationship with Rav Froman, but thanks to the immediacy of digital media (yes, Rav Froman was on Facebook) felt close to him. I pray that we take sparks of peace that Rav Froman created in his lifetime, and fan them together in flames that light the way to a future of love and joy throughout our region.
I leave you with this relatively recent interview with Rav Froman, worth the time:
http://www.globalonenessproject.org/library/interviews/rabbi-froman-complete-interview
