In the fall of 1996, Chabad Rabbi Shmully Hecht arrived at Yale University to spread Judaism. He had recently returned from Melbourne, Australia, where he received his rabbinical ordination.
On his first day in the Elm City, Shmully was given a tour of Sterling Library by his cousin, Rabbi Binyomin Katz, o.b.m., a frequent cataloguer of the Judaica Collection at Sterling.
By Divine Providence, Oliver Benjamin Karp, a Ph.D. candidate in the History Department, was simultaneously ambling through the library when Rabbi Katz introduced the two. The conversation that ensued — and many thereafter with then students Noah Feldman, Cory Booker and Michael Alexander — culminated in the formation of Shabtai (originally named the Chai Society), the Jewish society at Yale.
In January 1997, Shabtai held its first meeting in Apartment 5Q of the Taft Building, across the street from Yale’s Old Campus. In the summer of 1997, having outgrown its original space, Mr. Benny Shabtai purchased the townhouse at 279 Crown Street as the initial home of the society.
During his teenage years, Shmully frequently visited Benny at his office in NYC to pray and study Torah. They were initially introduced by an employee of Benny's who Shmully met while soliciting Jews to wrap Tefillin on a Lubavitch Mitzvah Mobile on Fifth avenue.
On November 1, 1998, hundreds of students, faculty, alumni, benefactors, and political leaders gathered at Yale’s Whitney Humanities Center and then at the townhouse for the dedication of the society’s first home.
The following speech was given by Shabtai’s founder, Oliver Benjamin Karp.
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Ben Karp: Saying that giving this invocation I simply must relate one story. This past Friday, towards sundown and Sabbath, in the scramble of our preparations, I was reminded by one of our wise elders of my duty for this occasion. Our mentor, one of these many sturdy pillars whose name may not appear on a wall, and yet without whom there would certainly be no walls, stressed that a proper invocation attaches the name of the creator to the beginning of any legitimate thing. And today, such a beginning. I confess to him only one half of a two fold anxiety. The first is my distinct lack of rabbinical, or for that matter, Judaic training. And he assured me that invocation requires not necessarily those kind of skills, but sincerity. And my second fear, which was a result of that, did that I did not admit that nonetheless endures because it is true that an invocation requires a sincerity. And I remain therefore hindered by a nagging kind of uncertainty. I confess that my uncertainty is that of an agnostic. Nonetheless, I have in my capacity the task of seeking on our collective behalf a God who seems to me at least, and seems to many, to be unapproachable and unknowable. And if there is a very real thing that we can call godliness and identify as godliness, nonetheless, I myself have never found God. But what I have found, and thanks to our benefactors, and thanks to Mr. Benny Shabtai, who has given us intimate rooms, I found, I think, and I think many of us have found at least a place to begin an honest search.
Ben Karp: So I offer this invocation for Chai Society. That the Chai Society, and its efforts will seek divine inspiration and guidance. That we should find foremost in the wisdom of humility, a refuge from our own ambition. On our own, I have no doubt that we can survive any failure. Yet without the humility of knowing before whom we stand I don't think we can hope to survive our successes. In every area that Chai has excelled over the last few years, we have also exposed ourselves to hazard, not just a danger of arrogance or complacency, as with any human endeavor, but that of corruption. And I offer a few examples of how unchecked success will surely result in failure. Chai's been blessed with rare human talent. Our founding members, now alumni, already count among the real achievements, great deeds and are poised for truly great deeds in the future. And they bless us and give us, nachas and pride. And yet, moreover, would be the first to admonish us that Chai must never become a successful network of ambition, and Chai must never excel as a forum for the strong to lend a hand to the strong. Chai has been, thank God, Diverse not just among the varied schools of Jewish thought, but also among the nations.
Ben Karp: And how many Jews have found this place? Have found Chai on the recommendation of a non-Jewish friend. And our style is, if nothing, eclectic. And yet we must never pander to the moment and search for diversity, for diversity's sake, and certainly never diversity, at the expense of a vibrant unity. Thanks to our benefactors, we have had the energy and resources, and probably also the bad manners, to describe ourselves and declare ourselves as a society at Yale, with all the implications thereof. And we must certainly never succeed at making ourselves a society at Yale, except in the long, in the sense of the long past definition as a place to cultivate unusual virtues. God forbid any falsely realized status through secrets and the fostering of secrets or other aspects of obscure membership. So we have been grateful to have the chance to open up the doors that you have given us. And Benny, your original deed has been, I hope, magnified and apportioned liberally. I hope we have done something useful. I think we have. Our living room has seen tremendous efforts, many of which were not even our own. The National Student Partnerships, which is here, which will someday, I believe, be a household synonym for efficient student activism, held some of its initial meetings in our space. And if this stands as our only piece of tikkun olam of repairing the world, and we have validated ourselves. Our doors have, moreover been opened for non-Chai events, for Chai events both profound and for events that were trivial.
Ben Karp: And yet to expand beyond our natural limitations, to erase the barrier between ourselves and the outside world, would be to squander what is truly our precious commodity, and the only one which invites us to useful harmony with the other Jewish communities at Yale. And that quality is our intimacy. We can only be great by remaining small, and I believe only at the center of Yale by remaining at its margins. And finally we have, I hope, and I do believe we built a home, even and especially for Jews who seemingly want no Judaism. And this may indeed be our greatest achievement. I have no doubt that in the community of outreach, this will be remembered as our achievement to provide a home for Jews who want no Jewish home. And yet, were we to strive to perfect a system that is, to find some flawless device, some ideal lure to attract every single Jew into our fold? And were we to invalidate any reservation towards those who do not want necessarily tradition or particular traditions were we deny to deny any merit to supposed heresy? And were we to only count souls and forget individuals, if we were to do that in these moments, we would indeed become proselytizers and not teachers.
Ben Karp: And that would be wrong. So let us succeed. And this is my prayer for Chai. Let us succeed without succeeding to excess. And let us remain ambitious only for the sake of continued improvement. And finally, let us forever channel to a sense of purpose that is always much larger than just our own portion. Let me say, just by way of concluding that hashgacha pratis, the way that is, that human lives are swirled in the whim and the will of fate shows that all human life is interwoven. And this teaches us that therefore there are more people to thank than you can possibly thank. Certainly, everyone in this room at some level has some implication in Chai. And yet this Sunday mainly belongs to Benny and to Benny's family, to our other generous benefactors who will be remembered at our service, at our building, whose names will be called. And we all have people here that individually have sustained us. I would like, and I would certainly be remiss if I didn't mention one particular family that has been so important to me and my involvement with Chai. I found myself on a Shabbos a few years ago in the home of a remarkable family, at a remarkable table. And if you know Josh and Rochel Sandman, then you are as lucky as I am.
Ben Karp: It is at the Sandman's table that I first witnessed an amazing combination of qualities that I had, and I confess that I had in my deep secularism I had never thought were at all compatible. I thought they were quite incompatible. And I saw in the Sandman's and at their table an unflinching, an unflinching and unapologetic Judaism, and yet an equal worldliness and an interest in real and meaningful exchange. And I encountered there an inviting and compassionate faith which I've never forgotten, and which has been my inspiration. And in short, and in conclusion, my every advice and action on behalf of Chai has been no more than an attempt to replicate and to see replicated this very kind of humane, religious and intellectual generosity. I'd like us to conclude this invocation by saying, together one of our short and truly wonderful prayers, a prayer of thanks for having been sustained through trials into this time. And those of you who do know the Shehechianu, I would just ask that you would say it loud enough and clear enough so that those that don't know it, perhaps those that don't, don't even know a word of Hebrew, will be able to enjoy its wonderful and its comforting rhythm, and perhaps even insert a prayer of your own to yourself in and alongside his firm and worthy cadence. Baruch Atah Adonai Elo heinu Melech Haolom Shehecheyanu Vikimanu Vihigiyanu lazman hazeh.