Rabbi Yehuda Henkin zt”l: Appreciating what we had

By Michal Roness

When a local rabbi expressed surprise that I called the great rabbi at will, I realized how lucky I’d been, as a yoetzet halacha, to take his accessibility for granted.

With the passing of Rabbi Yehuda Herzl Henkin zt”l, the loss for the yoatzot halacha who merited to learn from Rabbi Henkin, receive his p’sak (halachic decisions), and have an open line to his wisdom, is deep and yet to be felt to its real extent.

In truth, we long took for granted the possibility afforded to us that we could just pick up the phone, at almost any time of day, and pose a question in Halacha to a gadol (scholar of great stature) the likes of Rabbi Henkin. A few years ago, during my shift on the hotline, a caller identified himself as a community rabbi in Israel. He opened with a question, and then explained, “Since this is such a difficult question, I thought to call the hotline in order to ask if you know what Rabbi Henkin would pasken in this case.” I responded by asking if he would like me to call Rabbi Henkin and ask for him. The rabbi responded in shock, “You can call Rabbi Henkin and ask him?!” It took me a few moments to understand his response. Why was he so surprised? After all, as yoatzot halacha, we always felt free to call Rabbi Henkin — or Rabbi Warhaftig — if we had any questions.

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