Kol Yaakov

Rabbi Jerome H. Blass

A pulpit rabbi wears many hats: preacher, teacher, counselor, and civic leader, to name a few. These roles speak to what a person does. Often, but not always, they also reflect who a person is.

The Bible describes Jacob (Yaakov) as an “ish tam”—rendered by Onkelos in Aramaic as “g’var sh’lim,” a wholesome man. Sheleimus, wholeness, in classic rabbinic philosophy, encompasses all of one’s personal qualities—intellectual, psychological, moral, and practical—to achieve spiritual growth. This ideal could justifiably be said to apply to Rabbi Jerome H. (Yaakov Tzvi) Blass, z”l.

A native of Mount Vernon, New York, Jerome Blass absorbed from his parents, both modest Eastern European immigrants, timeless religious traditions and values. He learned Torah from his father, his chavrusa throughout his youth.

While a rabbinic career thus seemed inevitable, Rabbi Blass was, throughout his life, also intellectually drawn to many fields: science, technology, history, literature, philosophy, and especially psychology. His broad interests and intellectual curiosity served him well in his many rabbinic roles over the course of his fifty years in the pulpit, almost entirely in Bergenfield-Dumont, New Jersey, most prominently in his weekly Sabbath and holiday derashos and homilies. In Sabbath sermons, he applied Midrashic interpretation of the weekly Torah reading to current events or contemporary culture. Over the High Holidays, he reflected thematically on man’s relationship to G-d, Jewish identity, the human condition, and the Divine spark within every Jew. During holidays, he used the theme of the day to connect contemporary Jewish life to Jewish experience throughout history.

This book compiles selected holiday sermons composed and delivered by Rabbi Blass over his fifty-plus years in the rabbinate. The terms “composed” and “delivered” are used here to emphasize Rabbi Blass’s devotion to homiletics as an art form. But in both substance and presentation, these sermons also reflect his personal character. He and his wife, Rita (née Diller) Blass, a”h, exemplified in practice the same wholesome values he preached to his congregation.