Fifth Yahrzeit of Rav Aharon Walkin: Torah, Chesed, Personal Legacy, and Siyum Beitzah

Transcript

This Torah class is brought to you by TorahAnytime.com. Welcome everyone to the Ratzatzal's fifth yahrzeit already. We covered a lot of ground the first several yahrzeits, his speeches, his style, the themes. Over the years, now on, I start to feel that yahrzeit, the two yahrzeits, each one has an individual theme to it. Giving was a little bit more emotional, longing, sad, if you want to put it that way. But as time goes on, time goes on, I realize that there's tremendous hakaras hatov, a tremendous gratitude for what we have. I remember Rabbi Olbaum, beloved Queens, he said at the rav's levaya, shloshim again, he says that we're not going to realize how much we really had as time goes on. Yes, it's true, the loss was great, of course. But what I also realize as time goes on is what we really not just had, but also have, how much he left over, legacy, the people that were around. There's a certain kind of person that was attracted to the Ratzatzal, you know, here at the shul, the kehillah, the Yeshiva Queens, of course. Really tremendous gratitude, hakaras hatov. We don't know this one of the tenets that the rav stood for. But really, I think the theme is one of hakaras hatov. It's interesting, today I happened to be listening to a shiur. I just, I listened to a shiur from the rav, and he gave a whole shiur on hakaras hatov. Two things that he mentioned I'd like to say over. I think very much defines who he was. I think very much defines the theme of the artzai tonight. He spoke the concept of Adam, that the foundation of Adam was based on hakaras hatov. And he spoke that Adam and Chava, together when in Gan Eden—no, they ate from the eitz hadaas and got sent out. It says, Adam called Chava, Ein kol chai, after, after they were removed from Gan Eden. I would think that's not the right time to compliment a person. A person gets into a big fight with his wife, and that's the time to give the compliment. So the Rav zatzal explained that a person could, you know, be upset. She caused tremendous damage in his life and his future generations, v'yes apecha toich halachan, and yet he found the one ma'alah to remark her to her, one ma'alah, Ein kol chai, even brought from Chazal, many of the Amoraim had difficult wives, yet they always made sure that it was the mother of the children, you have to have hakaras hatov. To the Rav, everyone knew that he saw good and he made people feel good, and everyone speaks about the ahavah. But also that he, the way I looked at it was, he defined the person by his goodness. Everyone has mailos, chesronos. He would define you by your mailah. That's how you were defined by him. And it comes from tremendous tov. Hashem says, Ki so life. The ki tov, it was good. Rav was a light of goodness, that everything was good. Everything was good. He was makir tov, he had an ayin tov, he had a lev tov, it was all good. But the hakaras hatov really is in the community for continuing it. Now people say it was a short life. I mentioned this last year, the short life, but in truth, if you look at life this way, then he left over lifetimes. And if we appreciate what we really had, it wasn't that short. It's a lot to appreciate, and there's a lot of hakaras hatov that we have for everything that people do for the shul and the Rav's legacy, also the family for continuing it, the sefarim and all the projects. It's coming out every year, another sefer. We're going to hear tonight also from, like I said, there was a special group of people that held around the Rav. It wasn't always for everyone. There was certain uniqueness, kavod habriyos, the dignity, that still remains here in the shul today. And we're mezayche to hear from some of the members of the shul, some of the Rav's chaverim from the yeshiva, some of the Rav's rabbeim, maybe coming soon. And I wanted to express this hakaras hatov to everyone. And lastly, speaking of hakaras hatov, it would be impossible, it would be remiss not to mention that everything that the Rav's accomplished in his life.

Znatches supported. Having that Rav accomplished was not just supported emotionally and physically, everything. It was really because of my mother. She not just stood by and supported the values, and with her bare hands she worked for it. She wanted this. We aim to continue the legacy and to make you proud, to bring you nachas, l'dor v'doros. It's a great kavod to begin. One of the ravs, chaver from yeshiva, I called him, and it was the last minute to put together. Said right away, yes, nothing to talk about. But in the kehillah, we were zocheh to not just have members of the shul who took on this legacy, but also, I was speaking to actually the gabbai, and he tells me that we have a certain similarity between Clearstream and Shani. It's a certain type of person, certain yiras Shamayim, certain kavod habriyos that we share between the shuls. It's a great kavod to have with us, Rav Snyder, to say a few words for the Yahrzeit. Just to be moiche one line, I wasn't from a band chaverim. Full said toa talmid in yeshiva. Mine was two shiurim above me and a hundred shiurim above, but he did treat me like a chavrusa. So, try to say a little divrei zikaron. We know that ma'alas ha'adam, the targum of the pasuk in the Torah, Vayehi adam l'nefesh chaya, that the targum: ruach memalela. What makes us special, bnei adam, is the power of speech, the koach hadibur. But then, the sefarim from the Arizal, in Galus Mitzrayim, ma'alas ha'adam was in galus. The shprach is that the dibur, ma'alas ha'dibur was in galus. The remez to it is, who were we in galus under? Paro. The Arizal explains for Parah. One of the main sibos for Galus Mitzrayim was mechiras Yosef, which was started from the lashon hara that Yosef told his father about the shevatim. Moshe Rabbeinu, when he saw he was with Datan and Aviram, lashon hara with Datan and Aviram b'klal Yisroel, he now understood why we had to go through Galus Mitzrayim. Sfas Emes, the Maharal and the Agadah, we say, omes al pi hadibur. Everything was al pi hadibur, and the result of that was that dibur went into galus. So we would think that yetzias Mitzrayim... It means that we learn to be quiet. We learn to be careful enough to speak. Many times that's what we need to do. It's a word from the Kotzker, I think, that the klavim, the dogs, by makas bechoros didn't bark. We're quiet. We're given a gevaldige schar, dori doros, lakelev tashlichun esoi, and a neveilah goes to the dogs. The question that everyone asks is, if you compare the dogs to the frogs of Tzfardea, the frogs jumped into the ovens. They died al kiddush Hashem. Do we find any schar for the frogs? For the klavim, they didn't bark. Nu, nu. They're given all the neveilah, l'dorei doros. I think it was the Kotzker. The Kotzker said, Vaystois, that when a person has something to say, and the dog always has what to say, and you're quiet, that's harder than jumping into a fire. But that's not what...

Pesach is about. The yetzias Mitzrayim, says the Arizal, is peh sach, פה סח. The peh that sach. The question is, what is it sach? Hakol Yaakov v'hayadayim yedei Esav. There's a dibur that afterwards Klal Yisroel, the Eibishter says, Atem kruyim adam. That's Klal Yisroel. That's the kol of Torah, the kol of tefillah. But before that, there's another kind of kol. I think this is something that the Rav, Chacham Tzvi, Rav Aaron lived with. The Zohar HaKadosh, it says on the pasuk that Maves v'Chaim is b'yad halashon. We're very busy that maves is b'yad halashon, but chaim is also b'yad halashon. And the Zohar HaKadosh says that if a person has the ability to give someone chaim with his lashon and he doesn't, it's just as chamur as giving misa, than bringing maves with the lashon. If someone's drowning and you can save him and you don't, you're a rotzeach. And a person has the ability to lift someone up with his mouth. It was never a time where you would meet Rav Aaron, zichrono livrachah, and he didn't know exactly what to say to you: a compliment, uplifting, a deher, with a smile, with such warmth. He gave you life. Not just what he said, it's how he said it. The ganze heart came out. That's the koach of Yaakov. That's the dibbur that left Mitzrayim, and that's atan kruyim adam. And then there's the koach of Torah. A Yid in der lomdanus, a Yid in der baal halacha, a Yid in der baal darshanim. There was a Yid, lomdus, halacha, in derush, a peter magoliyus. There was never a time that you spoke to him about inyan that he didn't have ten things to say back, on every single inyan. At a young age, it was clear he knew a velt that באמת wouldn't understand it. A mol, a person doesn't follow a mesivta yeshiva; he does it his own way. First say, the second say, that was regular. But at the same time, somehow, I don't know when it was, I guess nights, but him weren't nights. He was able to learn Zohar, Ginyanim, Pesachtas, Shulchan Aruch. And then there's the koach of tefillah, the dveikus, the vamkeit, the connection to HaKadosh Baruch Hu. The Shechinah was there. The Shechinah was imoi. We felt it. Just ... with tuergeshen. Again, I didn't— It was a short time that I was with Reb Aharon in yeshiva, but we'd meet. But it wasn't like we were on a daily basis. Bichlal, there's something called shichcha. Every time his name is mentioned, it goes through my heart, the same feeling: I can't believe it. I cannot believe it. How is that? It's almost I don't believe that it's true. And maybe to a certain sense it's not. Tzadikim b'misasan kruyin chayim, like the Medrash תנחומא. Vasfa tzaddik are we talking, and what does it mean, resha'im b'chayeihem kruyin meisim? Vasfa haman are we talking about? Very scary Medrash. Resha'im b'chayeihem kruyin meisim is the rasha that walks outside and he sees the sun rise and the sun set, and he doesn't make the bracha, ... and yotzer or ... choshech, and he hears a lightning and a thunder, and he doesn't make ..., and he doesn't make .... And he eats his food and he has a gantz seudah, there's no bracha rishona, there's no bracha acharona. The Medrash in Shir HaShirim says that's מגויים. That's the inyan of שלוחי חמותכן.

By the Agudas of the Meiri, right after Birchas Hamazon. Shvoich hamolchah... but look at us. We eat a seudah and we bench and we thank. And the tzaddik, b'misasan kruyin chaim, is the one that k'seidos ma'arbik kvod Shamayim, finds Hashem, makir tovas HaKadosh Baruch Hu, and is megaleh kavod. That was Aharon's life. And a chai isn't forgotten. That chiyus is still kayam. I think the greatest way to describe, in one word, it's with one vort. I heard in a sefer from the Rosh Yeshiva in Gateshead, Reb Wolowitz, shlita, a wonderful... He says there's a game that people play. It's called association, where I say a word to you, and you say back the word that comes to your mind first. I say the word table, so probably in your mind you're thinking chair. You say pen, pencil or paper. You say one, you're thinking two. Dr. Wolowitz, and you better go back to the seudah. You didn't finish the seudah yet. You know when you finish the seudah? When you hear the word one, the only thing that comes to mind is the Eibishter. Higiaz makir es... That's what talmidim told their rebbeim. The seudah's over. He came up to Hashem Echad. This was Reb Aharon. Eved Hashem, sheim Shamayim shagur b'piv, a life of Hashem Echad. There was nothing else in his life except the Eibishter, to be megaleh kvodoi, his middos, his yiras Shamayim, his ahavas Hashem, his ahavas haTorah, his ahavas habriyos. To say the binesboinen hisdrochen, you learn from it, grow from it, and ... alter ... . Smilov, the ... doeso, to have you with us tonight. Rav Zatzal Rebbe, even as little boys, Rav Zatzal would take us every upsherin, every bar mitzvah, for every simcha, we would always go to the Rosh Yeshiva's ... house in Flatbush. There was no such thing of celebrating anything in our family without going to the Rosh Yeshiva first. And honestly say, since the Rav Zatzal passed away, the Rosh Yeshiva has been there closer than a father to us. Every step of the way, I called at difficult times, and there was other obligations, but the answer was always yes, and she was coming. I spoke to the Rosh Yeshiva, I think last night or this morning. She told me he's coming tonight. It's a tremendous zechus and kavod to have you with us, the Rosh Yeshiva. A few words. They're together. He 40 years, 50 years. This is unforgettable what you did. It hurt. ... the body, heartache. I want to talk about a posuk we say yesterday in the haftorah. The Meridei Chazal, ... the pshat ... The oisi karosa Yankoi, you got to be Yisroel. No, because it's barely a word from the ... it's not גוטע night. Barely a word. That's in this posuk. But the Chazal have another ... in this posuk, and I want to bring out, it's the Chofetz Chaim, what he accomplished. He wasn't healthy, he was a cholosh in the years.

We accomplished in the avodas haTorah. It was not meshalsel kayches, it wasn't gufnisdige koiches. It was koiches milma'alah, with the fire of Yerushamayim, pnachayis, in avodas haTorah. We go to Queens, what he accomplished over there, shiurim, in this inyan, inyan, inyan, Shulchan Aruch, from all the zeit, is bloyz in veloireh. And it's not to understand, not to understand, I was able to accomplish it being a gufniyus, a cholosh, with a weak, weak guf, wasn't well many years, and he accomplished what gezunte Yidden can't accomplish. The meyredike Chazal here in this pasuk: Shetatfiye, koim troyn kol yoyma. Somebody is in the shuk all day, being oisek in his asakim, his mischa. Veloi loi, there's no fatigue, tiredness, not yawning. He's frisch, lechiyus, with a geshmakes, veloi loi. Tslui komoi at loi, he gets שטארטל davenen, mincha, he's tired. He has to finish mincha first, kein davenen, he's dafka zayn. But the yashnus, dyoni. Another loshon: koim troyn kol yoyma, veloi loi. Somebody is calling from Minyan. ... Listen, I'm not ... Same idea. ... Chazal. HaKadosh Baruch Hu, the Eibishter says, Lo yosi karosi Yaakov ki yigadti b'Yisroel. It says a few words in the Chazal here, the ... halevai lo ikaticha Yaakov. Halavai I wouldn't recognize the Yankev in you. A bissel petiblem, as a maamar, this ... medrash. It says a mashal. Somebody walks in the street, ... he passes by a Yidel laying on the street, shikur, betuluf, pashmit. Yeah, shikur zogt oys, mitn yo, nish porn, mitn yo. He passes by, he knows his shoresh, he knows who his father was. His father was a ish chassid, dorcheb l'mentsh, teferes haYid. Halavai I wouldn't know who you are. That's the hergesh. Halavai lo ikaticha, halavai I wouldn't know who you are. Halavai, es tut vei a Yid a shikur. You, a ben of this, son of this, this ish chashuv, teferes diYid, halavai I wouldn't know who you are. The Eibishter says, ... halavai lo ikaticha Yaakov. The Eibishter sees in every Yid, in every Yid he sees the ovis, the pnimiyus of the ovis. He has a shaychus to madreigas the ovis. And from this, ki yagata bi, lashon yegia, siyashrus, daled avos, hamatat, nochesh. Oisi kolasa, you're davening to me, oisi kolasa. You're oisi kolasa, I see a Yankiv davening. Beloi, halavai, I wouldn't see the Yankiv. That's a chanafah, it's impossible. A little better. Beloi oisi kolasa Yankiv, kolasa Yankiv. You're calling the Eibishter, oisi kolasa. Who's calling the Eibishter? I see a Yankiv. Halavai I wouldn't see the Yankiv. Ki yagata bi Yisroel. The Mesilas Yesharim explains what's the yesod of the ovis hakedoshim. There's no yegia, there's no loi, there's no avdus, there's no cheshik, no siyashrus. And what does it mean? What's the oimek of...

Being טרוד כל יומא, ולאי, being busy, meetings, not a hefsek, hour after hour, early hours of the day to late hours at night, ולאי. קומט שליעף, he has no koach, less and less. He has no koach. This is a amazing thing. He says in human nature, un forget a burger, that something what a person has to do, what is muchrach, that not everybody's parnassah that he brings is fit for his tchunos b'etzem. Instead, his tchunos, instead his nature, it's matim, fits, fits his nature, not dafke. Sometimes, hashgachah fits. A person brings his parnassah, his parnassah comes from a ... it's not his, not his ... not his. We know he has to do it. He has to put bread on the table. He has to pay his chaliment. He has to pay his mortgage. There's no two ways about it. He must do it. Not I'll try. He must do it. I must go to work. I must bring parnassah. Human nature is what you must do, and it's clear. It's not that I'll try, אפשר יהיה, ... I must do it. Human nature is that you get a hiskashrus to it. After a while you get to like it. You enjoy it, and you're comfortable with it. That's the ... The ... is because you must do it. You must do it. Tzluyei, I'm going to try. I'm going to try and be a yetzer tov, try to be mezarez. Gein nachsoret v'vainishnei matoah. You don't have to be. You don't have to do it. You don't get the connection and the dehimus, the hishmakenit, the namus pekushet to what you're doing without a kabbalah. This is what the Rebbe explains. Na'amoel gevelt, when the medinah had a melech, a moshel, in a certain bechinah, a certain level, everybody that lived in the medinah was an eved of the melech. If he didn't, he wasn't mekayem the gezeiras hamelech, achas doso, v'hamus, achas doso. He's an eved. Nevertheless, klal Yisroel, day in and day out, he's a ben chorin. He does what he wants. He goes where he wants. He's mispallel the way he wants. He's a free person in that qual. You are chukim, chukei hamelech, and he must be mekayem, and he's careful. He knows that the al tis batel. He's oiver the dvar hamelech. But a soldier in the army, different avdus. A soldier in the army, when he gets up in the morning and he gets dressed, he's getting dressed in avdus. He's working for the melech. The melech wants him to wear this uniform. He takes care of his sochei haguf. His feeling is, I have reshus from the melech to do it. I'm a shubed. I'm a shubed yom valayla, shubed yom valayla. There's no regesh that I'm a shubed. Hisrochim, he has reshus for. Certain things is avdus, in contrast to avdus. He needs the... It doesn't look at it that way. He's so wrapped up with his avdus, everything is avdus. It's a petter burg. Avdus in Mitzrayim was pure avdus. There's no time to ..., neither ..., tichbad ha'avodah. Paroh, that was in the mahalach was full, full avdus of every rega. The Eibishter was geulahs from the avdus of Paroh to be avdei Hashem, which is, in the ..., it's the biggest cheirus to be an eved Hashem, the biggest cheirus. But it's bechinah, bechinah of tzva Hashem. We're soldiers, chayolim in the tzva Hashem, and it's a .... ... HaKadosh Baruch Hu zogt Yisroel, ... Torah u'mitzvos.

Says the umos ha'olam, l'havdil, have zayin mitzvos, they're like the bnei medinah of a melech. They מוסיף the Ribono Shel Olam is their melech too, melech olam. But there, b'chinah, the bnei medinah of a melech. They have to listen to the zayin mitzvos. So if they are chayav, az also zu misasan, noch chaf-mem, also zu misasan. But it's a different kind of eved, basically he's a ben chorin. Hashem ... him in mitzvos, there's no rega, they're under the ol of the mitzvos, ol of Shulchan Aruch, ol of the ratzon Hashem. And the kabolas malchus Shamayim, kabolas malchus of a chayal, of a soldier in the army, is different than a ben medinah. Has to be total avdus, full kabalah, nisht a yeh, amol yeh, amol nisht. Yesterday I said over this ... Some ... ... he came to America, and he passed by a mitzvah, a moled yeh, was a kosher sign, and was blinking. That was the sign, was blinking. He said, Amol yeh, amol nisht, was not on and off, amol yeh, amol nisht. A Yid's kabolas malchus Shamayim has to be — there's a similar ... from ... Different nekudah, different approach. The Ri also says this nekudah, kavod malchus Shamayim has to be ... This idea, this idea that through avdus ... Mr. Pedagog explains that that koach of kavod malchus Shamayim is discussions, הרבה discussions, and it's easier. Mr. Pedagog is chapter Chazal, in Medrash Bereishis. ... אינו יודע באיזה חפץ יותר. It's not clear, the Chazal hakdoshim in Medrash, not clear which one the Eibishter is more chofetz. Is more pleased with the maaseh resha'im, or more pleased with maaseh tzaddikim. ... The Eibishter, ki tov, ... the maaseh tzaddikim is more chofetz. Chofetz. So Mr. Pedagog, the heavenly reward. I'm talking about the ... ... HaTzadik has a ... kavod malchus Shamayim. He has discussions, attracts Him. He enjoys it, He loves it. He's געדישמירט. Not hard for him to daven, not hard for him to do the mitzvahs. He's waiting to do the mitzvah. The baditshever said in the morning, first morning Yom Tov Sukkos, he went to get the esrog from the breakfront, and he broke the window, and the slabes. He was so mislabed, mislayen, to do the mitzvah. From tzaar ha... a mitzvah beseis nefesh, not from beseis nefesh, not from beseis nefesh. He's enjoying it. I learned from there. A good maaseh, enjoying the nefesh more chafetz. Tomazei shebitza shveres, hard, difficult. He has nisyonos. He's farshmiert mit chet. He has nisyonos. His prikas ol makes it a hafchan. His chabos ol makes it easy for him. Any day, beis hachofetz. What's the maskana? Based on the ... that you do and that ... says that a few times, very sharp. From tzaar ha'agra is the shverekeiten that HaKadosh Baruch Hu brings a person nisyonos. The nisyonos that he brings on himself, because with prikas ol, that's not from tzaar ha'agra. He does a mitzvah and is very hard for him. Of course, he's mevatel himself with chet.

It doesn't get schar because it was hard for him. You made it hard. ... He didn't paked. Why? A person, chas v'shalom, is oved the Torah, and it was hard for him. So it makes the avodah is easier. He had ... it was hard for him. But he didn't have aveirah; it was hard for him because he's ... l'pechet. With the ... like an aveirah, the ... is easy ... So it's not ... there's no chibus, no chofetz, the maaseh was shav. That's the biur. And now he did ... ... Torah, Torah, he did. ... So hard was to me. ... his ... ... Ken an anders. The avodah, a person's avodah, his tefillah, ... nefesh, ... Torah, ... and he proved it. There's ... many, many talmidim, many, many talmidim. The area where he was ... Torah means. Oder genen, broimim dem. Hakol bachashamayim. That gives the cheshek and the koiches, and that's how he learns life. Ze chayis for others, for chaveirim, his talmidim, demispallim, whoever you have a connection with, a chayis. As you saw, Reb ... having middos. I want to finish with one more vort. Ze shitah in Tanoim, l'choireh, when we want to ... derech hadvarim. The ... had basically chamishah dvarim on one לוח, the dibros, another chamishah dibros on the other לוח, two luchos. Aban, others ... some a chiluk, a heter between love chaveiro and lamakom. There's one shitah in Tanoim, Yerushalmi Shekalim, that are going for mefaresh it, that each לוח, true, each לוח had chamishah dibros l'chaveiro, lamakom, but besides the chamishah on each side, each לוח had separately a eser hadibros separately. And don't even make kashya how to fit them into the luchos. The luchos was k'vayachol, torah kulah, Chazal say, kol mah shetalmid vasik atid l'hischadesh, was in the luchos. It was b'nes, the luchos was b'nes. Not sure to be mefakel, when you see that. But the ish luach imdo, basically, was mechuben, ... bin hamakim, ... bechaveiro. But they needed to say divus. Each one needed to say divus. I want to say maybe the ... was ... What do we have to take out of that? Chayei HaTal says, Shaar HaKedusha, ... as you do, but not with the omek hadavar. We do it. Middos don't say l'Torah; צריך קודם לתורה. More important than the Torah, more chomer than the Torah. ... middos than a bittul of the Torah. He explains, Chayei HaTal, that when we do mitzvahs, even though physically we do the mitzvah with our eivarim, ... but the neshama is also being oisek in the mitzvah. That's what it is. It's supposed to be.

And the neshama has a connection to the guf, the eiver. He said a tnai in that, at the moment. And if the neshama is left out of the mitzvah, as that pulmos. Bemishav. If the neshama is left in the back, behalten, tzugedekt, choshech, hitinuf, ta'abeiros, and he is left out of the mitzvahs, so nisht gebonen. The neshama is the shoresh of the mitzvah, the shoresh, the assiyah of the mitzvah. The only way the neshama has a connection with the eivarim is the midas ha... There's a hefsek and a chatzitza, a cloud. The neshama can't reach the eivarim, and there's no connection. He explains why different part of the... I don't want to be ma'arich here in Tikkunei Zohar, Mishnah... I don't want to take the time. The idea is that the midos are not hisdafkus zayin. The mitzvahs are not hisdafkus zayin. ... All the mitzvahs of l'mechaveiroi, the kavonah is to reach the midah beinonis, to reach the halachta bidrachav, to reach the midos HaKadosh Baruch Hu. So gam l'chaveiroi in the luchos and the side of bein adam laMakom, to be b'Ramazos, and we need the bein adam l'chaveiroi to be able to be kind to call to everyone. Let me say it the other way, the same thing. The Maggid says. שם סאָל לערנען מישפט, די לומדה פון מסכת דינים, משפטים, למחברו. משפטים ... שם סאָל לערנען מישפט. ... א דעת תחופה, א מוחא, פון מתן תורה, די משפטים, ... משפטים, מוז חוק. מי קען נישט פארשטיין די משפטים, without the קבלת תורה כולה, without מתן תורה. מי קען נישט פארשטיין די משפטים, ... even though it makes sense, the משפטים, that's with קבלת תורה כולה, ... משפטים, we need the ... תורה. ... משפטים was חוק. So that's important. ... ... ... קבלת תורה כולה. ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... I mentioned, sorry, that we have a certain kind of membership, tehillah, and a certain kind of friendship that the Rav and our family attracted. Every single Shabbos, we would get a knock on the door during the meal. We knew exactly, Rav Hovner's knock. Rav Hovner's knock. After Rav passed away, we obviously still picked up, but we don't have the Shabbos afternoon knock at the door. We are zoche to have Rav Hovner here tonight, to speak divrei haskarah. Thank you.

I had a unique relationship with the Rav, Rav Aharon Zatzal. But then again, I think that that's a statement that probably almost all of us could make. That was one of his secret powers, that he had the ability to have a unique relationship with all of the individuals that he crossed paths with and that he had a kesher with. And I think that if all of us would be misbonein and analyze what our unique relationship was and what was special about how he related to us, I think we could all find something that would give us a window into the Rav Zatzal's ma'alos and his koiches and what made him so special. And by doing that, we could all learn lessons, and we could hopefully, be'ezras Hashem, we could come away from that. With lessons that we could grow from and that we could gain from. So my unique relationship was what was just mentioned, that I would very often stop on Shabbos morning on the way home from shul, and I would share with the Rav some divrei Torah. But the divrei Torah that I would share with him was not my own divrei Torah. It was divrei Torah that I learned from my father's Torahs, zichrono livracha. For those of you who don't know, I'm the son of Rav Zev Oberman, zichrono livracha, mechaber of the sefarim Zev Yitrof. And his area of Torah that he, I'll say, specialized in—I'm not sure if that's the right way of describing it—but the Torah that he was mechadesh in was the Torah al pi derech ha-maharal, what's known, what's called machshava. And what is special about this Torah, and what makes this Torah special, is it's a type of Torah that would be described as dehoybiner Torah, elevated Torah. It's a little hard for me to describe what that means. I'll try to give you a little bit of an example, a little bit of an example of something that I was just actually, just something that I was looking at recently, some Torah about the mon. The mon, the mon that Klal Yisrael ate in the midbar. Now, when we, when there's many aspects to the mon. One of the most common, commonly known, commonly discussed aspects of the mon is the fact that the mon was something that was very much linked to the Yidden's bitachon and in their emunah, that the mon that they found was, depending on their madreigah, if it was close, they found it easily, they found it close by, they had to go searching for it. That's one of the most, the very common, very popular aspects of insight into the mon. So you're thinking about mon, if you're looking at mon.

We could discuss also what bracha do you make on mon. The mon could taste like different things. What kind of bracha do you make on mon? Also, Torah about the mon. There's also a Chazal that explains that the mon was the physical manifestation of what sustained the malachei hashares. Malachei hashares are ruchniyisdike brios. They are entities that are kulei ruchni, and they are sustained, obviously, strictly through ruchniyus and through ruchniyusdike mechanisms of some sort. And Chazal tell us that the mon was a physical manifestation of that same sustenance. And Klal Yisrael in the midbar was nourished by that ruchniyus that was niskasheh. That's a whole different type of concept. It's a whole different level and a whole different way. You know, in the Iyun Panim LaTorah, there's Iyun Panim LaTorah; it's all Torah. But that's what I mean by something that's dahoyven and elevated. It gives you an insight. It gives you a way to look, a perspective. That's just a very dehoyben and very elevated perspective. And the Rebbe, zatzal, Reb Baruch, zatzal, had tremendous hanaah when I would share with him the divrei Torah that I had learned or that I saw in my father's sefarim. So what does that tell you about him? Well, to me, it's pretty obvious. He was a dehoyben, an elevated person. And that's why this type of Torah resonated with him so much, and why he appreciated it so much. So to me, this was my relationship that I had with him. And it was an opportunity for me to spend some time and to have a kesher with a dehoybener mentch. So I think that for all of us, if we can each think about what our own unique relationship with Reb Baruch zatzal was, and if we can be mispaynen a little bit in that, and let that be a way for us to get a window into his ma'alos and his koiches. And what made him so special, I think that that's something that we can all gain a lot from. It was the halfen that we should all be zoche to keep with us our memories and our lessons that we had from Rabbi ... and that it should be a zechus for us and a source of growth and steiging for all of us. One of the kind of very beautiful words, we'll get the Shabbos table again, Shabbos morning. One of the core tenets, as we mentioned, of the shul and the legacy of the Rav is midas tovos, kavod habriyos in the shul, no mitzvah shvacher l'fanav. But I heard this from the Rav himself. He used to say that, Rabbi Hammer, that we had to learn from his middos. This is a language of middos and kavod habriyos that we had here in the shul. We choose that all the members have it, but it was a special relationship Rabbi Hammer had with the Rav. It's a great kavod to have Rabbi Hammer serve the words tonight. I feel very humbled after all the chashuvim speakers that spoke.

Before I was asked to speak, so I do my best, you know. Mishnah says in Pirkei Avos, Perek Aleph, Mishnah Beis, Shimon HaTzadik hayah mishiyarei Knesses HaGedolah. Hu hayah omer, said three things: Al shlosha devarim ha'olam omed: al haTorah, v'al ha'avodah, v'al gemilus chasadim. You know, the world stands on three things. I wanted to speak about each one and connect each one to the rav that I was zocheh to see by him all these three. First of all, the first one is Torah. We all know the rav, even as a young boy, he had a tremendous ahavas haTorah, tremendous limud haTorah. When the rav was 17 years old, he was zocheh to put out a sefer on Maseches Kiddushin. See, that's one dagah, but the rav didn't stop. You know, it sounded he kept going, and he was zocheh not only to his own personal limud, he was zocheh to the highest level, and he wanted to be marbitz Torah, and it was mesiras nefesh for him to be marbitz Torah. He well lived here, but yet during the week he was in Queens, and he stayed over in Queens, and it was, I could say, it was very special that I was here many times on Thursday night. We had a night kollel here in the shul. The rav would come back from shiur, you know, knowing the rav and how little he slept and how many hours he learned, usually a person would be, you know, exhausted. He'd come back Thursday night, and he would give a shiur to the kollel with such excitement, with such a bren, you'd think like he just woke up. It was with such love and such tremendous... that just, I keep, when I think about it, I'm just totally spoiled. And he once mentioned this to me, that on Shabbos, usually we know that most people, they have a job during the week, and then come Shabbos, bo Shabbos, bo menucha. The Rav told me by him, it's no bo Shabbos, bo menucha. Baruch Hashem, he's preparing, he's giving shiurim. He doesn't sleep that much Friday night. And so we see that he was constant avodah, constant, constant giving over, giving over Torah. But that was his chiyus, that despite, and we think seven days a week a person can manage, but what kept him going? What kept him going is the tremendous ahavas haTorah, the tremendous love of the Torah, tremendous to give over the Torah. He had the same excitement that when a young boy would come with his father after davening, and the young boy would say over a vort that his rebbe said on the parsha, the Rav was just as excited as if he was speaking with another rav, another Rosh Yeshiva about a complicated sugya, a shvere sugya. It was the same excitement, the same breath. To continue, avodah. Anyone that was zoche to daven with the Rav, whether regular davening, Yom Tov, Yamim Noraim, about—he was about Keter, Rosh Hashanah. And that's why it's called avodah, is to see the way he davened, mamash b'chol atzmosai tomar, he did it with everything that he had, with all his koiches. And it's just not the same after you see such an avodah. Finally, the last one, gemilus chasadim. There are many stories, but just a few that I could point out that I personally witnessed. The Rav said one time, he was giving us a shiur, and he said he was giving pshat in something, and then he said, I want to share a maaseh with you. He says that it must have been he was learning and to study late at night, must have been around one o'clock in the morning, and he hears a knock, knock on his door. And he knows he hears another knock. Comes, he answers the door. Who's there? He sees a young man. Never saw him before, doesn't recognize him. The young man said, I was told to come, to come here. Okay, so he told him, Please come in. Invites him in. The young man tells him, I just want to tell you, I just got a diagnosis for a serious machla, and I don't know how to go home. I don't know how to tell my wife. I don't know how to tell my parents. I don't know how to tell this. The rav invited him in, gave him tremendous chizuk. And it happened to be, you know, the rav didn't say a man, I didn't know who it was, but like a few weeks later I asked the rav, so what's doing with the person that came? He said, Baruch Hashem, he's in remission now. But the rav took on the situation as if it was his. I remember one Sunday morning, it was early in the morning, I was pulling out of my driveway, and I see the rav walking up the block crying. I quickly pull over and I run out of the car. I say, Is everything okay? Why is the rav crying? I didn't hear, but then I heard later there was a tzara in Brooklyn. There was a fire, and some people were injured, some were killed, and the rav was crying as if his own mishpacha.

Like it happened to him. The tremendous mesiras nefesh, im chaveiro, the mida that what takes to have the leadership. You know, Klal Yisrael says when Moshe Rabbeinu was zoche to be a leader because he felt for Klal, he felt for other people. And we all know that it says that tzaddikim, meisasan nikra chayim, that even though the rav is niftar and it's already five years, but l'maaseh, it's still going. We're zoche to go in his ways, in each of these ways, Torah, avodah, gemilus chasadim, and we follow in his ways is considered his. We all know that we're in Chodesh Nissan now, and it says in Nissan nigalu, and Nissan asidin liga'el, and we should be zoche to geulah shleimah. Shout out for a little hammer. I asked ... a little bit of that plus. I just want to actually follow up with what you said, the story with the fire in Brooklyn. So the sefer Torah that we actually use for Mincha, the red sefer Torah, the rav wrote it for the ... family dream to write it, and the father came down and wrote the last ... We still use it every Shabbos. It has all the names of the children that were born on Chanukah. It came down to Queens. He couldn't understand how another community who never knew him, never met him, to take on his tzar. The ... was given by the Mincha. That's the red sefer Torah that we use. As we progress through the night, we see the diversity and the intricacies of the rav's life. It's not just about Torah and chasadim, fine details. We'd like to have somebody on the block who's involved in kiruv, does it. Chochma vechol nachashel, for wisdom. And I know he had a close relationship with the Rav, but also in this area, he told me discussed many times sensitive topics, different things with the Rav. And not only, he was able to share when the Rav was alive, some political and different, you know, things had to be, decisions had to be made. But I asked him to speak, and he said, Okay, tonight he's willing to share some of it. I don't know, some. Okay, it was zoche to have the Marmarstein share a few words. He said, I feel really inadequate for the short time. It was, I moved out here about 10, 11 years ago, and the Rav welcomed our family with open arms, together with the entire kehillah, all the shechimim, tremendous. And as I got to know the Rav, and he got to know me, he got to see a little bit what I'm involved with, both kiruv rechokim, kiruv kerovim, and I just realized here's a Rav one could ask any and every shaila to. It's true, we have Gedolim, we have talmidei chachamim, know kol haTorah kulah, but then it takes it not only, first one has to have the shimush, but also one has to have the tremendous ankus to know to take all that yedios and drashos and apply them to the most sensitive shailos that come up today. And bli bushma, I was zoche to see firsthand. I could ask the— I've spoken to many rabbanim, many people over the years through here in Eretz Yisrael, and also to, unfortunately, great mental health is a big crisis, and when it comes to what's klal nefesh, what's not. And we go to the Rav with very serious shailas for people, and such clarity and such sensitivity. This is what Rabbi Hammer, everyone who spoke, all the chashuvim tonight spoke about. A real man is in touch with—not just every—he's in touch with every type of Yid, from all different backgrounds, all different situations, kehillas, but he has his finger on the pulse in every area that's needed in halacha, not just specifically for his kehillah, his yeshiva, but the klal at large. And on a personal level also, it wasn't only that I can devote to the Rav's shailas, and you go sometimes a sensitive shaila for a person, you're comfortable to discuss with the Rav because it was such Torah with emes, Torah with simcha. So there was no uncomfortability. We have to analyze, we have to discuss, we have to clarify, but because it's all to do with the point of Torah being to be misdabek in HaKadosh Baruch Hu, there was no uncomfortability. There was kol kula ahava, simcha. And on a very personal level, I don't know how much of this neighborhood knows, so a lot of...

Also, leave yeshivas, leave Yiddishkeit, and I was very, very involved in getting them, still involved, bringing them back. And I would talk to the rav. This was back in the day, Shabbos, kids were hanging out all over, doing all types of things. And when I first moved out here, I had this dream, like, we'll have like a Jackson Shabbos environment. And I was talking to the rav. It was a question. He practically, things came up with, he didn't get it, but practically he wanted to oversee every aspect that it should work. There should be places of menuchah, nachas, people who are struggling, people with other types of tzaar. I don't know what it was that I was zocheh to see certain very unusual things. I'll just share one short story. I'm sure many of you have such stories. I don't remember this, but one Shabbos teshuva, the rav said to me, We're going to see you Sukkos the first days. My plan was not to be here. My parents were hoping I would come to the city with them. And I didn't know what—the rav said, He's going to see me the first days. I said to the rav, I didn't know what to say. It so happens, Erev Sukkos, something came up, a shaila for a person. It was the first time they were making a sukkah. They lived near Minneapolis, and for whatever reason, I happened to have gotten very involved at the time. And sure enough, Erev Yom Tov came. By the time things got carried away, by the time we finished taking care of whatever needed taking care of, it was too late to leave. And with nisim, we had a sukkah, food, everything. I showed up the next day in shul, and the rav said, I told you, you'll be here with me. I didn't know what to make of it, but just that my family and I, we were zocheh just to be within the rav's presence and his family and the whole kehillah here. That alone, as you talked about a first tov for you and your family to be able to be welcomed here. Pachas Kankei HaShechina. We should all be zoche to nachas, simchas, yeshuos, and take with us all the lessons and the middos and the outlook of the Rav, ad bias Goel Tzedek. Our next speaker is really worthy on two counts of having been tonight. This is a good evening, but a tremendous talmid chacham in his own right, harbatzas Torah, baal middos, but also not just a family member, but a very close family member. Someone who's always there, lives far in his mishpacha, and he has obligations, and the shiur and the different things. I spoke to him at the very last minute, and he's helped me to ... I had to come. I think I sent a text a few hours ago. I was planning on coming. I told him for the ... but he ... told me that it's not even your ... Now it's really the ... So I said to have my uncle, Reb Chiya Aryeh, say a few words. I'm going to say a few words. I know that it's already ... night is long. ... goodly the zechus to speak over here. ... says, I don't feel ראוי to speak, especially Reb ... the Gemara says, I hesped ... is there, but ... says we were very close. It was really very close. Reb Aharon always had something. We spoke about so many, so many things, and he was very open about things. He's a tremendous, tremendous ... and ... just not just the Torah we spoke, Torah vadah was great. His understanding ... was so amazing. It was above the normal what you saw. It was out of the box. Rebbe says, I just remind myself how when I came into the mishpachah, I was so apprehensive, meaning I didn't know, you know, I didn't know my wife was from France, what's gonna be my shaychus over here, I didn't know. But the minute I met Reb Aharon and everything, it was just like, it was great, it was ... So I have experiences, ... in the beginning years, how just to meet him when I came from Eretz Yisrael, he met me in the Kewl store in the Borough Park. I was shopping just for the basics. He came out there just to get me used to the ... He was so, so warm about that, but that everybody knows. What I want to tell you is that how, number one, I remember when Reb Aharon was different, very besurah, so my brother-in-law, Reb Yeideson from ...

Reb says, he says, this is how we were talking about him. So one of the things he said really was oylet about Reb Aaron was he was always thinking. You never saw him. His mind, you know, people are dull sometimes. This Yid was always, he was always thinking big. He wasn't thinking small. He thought big. And you saw his mind, say the chiddushim, he's always being mechadesh. So that was something that I think we could take to learn, because, you know, life is short. His life zechus wasn't that, but what he packed into those fifty whatever years was really, really tremendous. That was one thing that I felt is something worth to say over. You know, we want to learn from what Reb Aaron ... but what we could take out. Second, another thing, his achdus. He loved achdus b'klal Yisroel. It bothered him when there was machlokes. Really, you should speak to him about it, it bothered him. Things when there was sinah among people, it bothered him so much. I remember when we came the first Shabbos, when we came to the shul, so I was here the first Shabbos, and he was so happy. He was Litvish, he grew up Litvish, but he talked Sefardim. He loved the Chassidishe certain things, the nigunim, the achdus, the ... the simcha. So by Lecha Dodi he was so tzufrieden. If I sang Lecha Dodi b'negin, oh, you should have seen him. He was so ... about it. He was a tremendous baal menagen. He had songs. I remember one year he told me, come over. Who was there? Shmuel Grizel was there, and they sang for the entire night. Aaron was losing him about his nigunim, telling him it was ... I told Shloime, yesterday, yesterday there's one niggun that you hear Shabbos, murdered. I hold every Yid should sing that at house. It's such a ... you see the geshmakness of a Yid that enjoyed Shabbos. Everyone should sing it. But the al kaponim, ... will do a mefaresim finish. Don't. It's a bad ... But ... they should sing it, ... from Shabbos. Why not? Kaponim, that was another thing, that his ... for ... And I want to say also, he was a ... Ah, how he loved his kids. He used to speak about them. You know, with me, with shvoger, so, you know, he would tell me this one, this ... this ... Yitzchok, Shloime. I heard all the, you know, probably everyone ... Yisrael Meir, I remember Yisrael Meir was two years old. He said, Yisrael Meir, look at this, this ... Everyone, each one. ... How much he loved ... Wow. ... you saw the real ... how much he cared for his kids. It was so, so special. ... Baruch. After ... beginning, the end has to resemble a certain theme. And I was actually very pleased to see tonight a lot of the members of the Westgate chevra, for us some people call the good old days. But the truth is that the ... itself's legacy in Lakewood really started in Westgate, not the house. The house was completely broken down from all the doors that we ... He broke, but the shul, the little shul, Leiv, Leib Kletz, 32 Kletz. Not a coincidence that that happens to be the residence that we fell into, 32 Kletz, Leib. And also, it's impossible to speak about the Rav's legacy in Lakewood without speaking about the Raitzik family. Last year, we were zoche to hear from Shapsi, one of the close talmidim of the Rav zatzal. But to represent the Westgate kehillah, really the foundation of the Rav's legacy in Lakewood, it all really started in Westgate, the talmidim, the davening for the amud. The Rav didn't have his own shul till Westgate. It's really where it started. And the Raitzik family was been there every step, really. And Meir is the leader of the shul in Westgate and the kehillah in Westgate. It's really a great kavod and honor to have the Meishal represent the legacy on behalf of the Artzei. Thank you.

The hour is late, so I'll try not to be marich. But tremendous kavod to be able to speak about the Rav zatzal. As was said many times, the hergesh, each person had a personal connection on every level, and you could see how the Rav would then turn to the next person and have that personal connection with each person. So it wasn't something that it was exclusive, but you knew that he was still there. He turned around and, you know, I'm still watching you. You know, he always had that shaychus even when he's moving on to the next thing. His mind, as we said, was constantly working, was thinking. The Rav had a lev tov with which he was able to hone in the ma'alos of each yochid, as we spoke a little bit, and build that person up by telling them who they are and how great they could be. He didn't see the chesronos. The person was defined by their ma'alos. The Rav would sit with lists of cholim he'd get cut out from the newspapers and printed off from the different Jewish news sites, list of names, people he had no idea who they were, and would sit crying, saying Tehillim for them. And I asked him one time, Why are you so connected? He said, If someone took the time to put the names out that people should see them, he said, obviously it's a big tzarah. They want someone to daven for them. That's what they're being mevakeish. Other people, you see the name, you give a shray. You have the koach, but who's going to daven for him? So I took on myself, I'm going to daven for these people. And I don't know the times that he did it, but it was many times that I'd see him with lists and just looking them over and literally crying for people who he had no idea who they were. His caring for others extended beyond himself. We used to come, Shabbos Shuddos, once he moved over here, he asked that the oilam come to be mechazek, and he would give a shiur in halacha before Mincha. We'd daven Mincha, we'd stay with the Rav for Shalosh Seudos. It was beautiful. I'd bring my children, they would run around a little bit. The Rav would say how nice it is that they come to shul, you know, it's okay that they're running around. But the divrei Torah that he gave, he prepared special for the Shalosh Seudos to give over divrei Torah, a certain nekudah in the parsha. One week, one of the last weeks that we had come before the petirah, there was a person, while we were singing the zemiros before the drasha, the person had a haarah in one of the niggunim, a certain kneitch, and as we spoke about, the Rav was a big baal menagen, and he gets into the whole history of the niggun, the yesodos of it, the whole thing behind it, and they're going on and on, and this one has this one to say, and this one, and this one. So this niggun, we practiced it a few times together. By the time we were done, it was time for Maariv, come on. The Rav had his whole paper he prepared to say his divrei Torah. He didn't say a word from it. I said, maybe a little something? He says, No, it's time for Maariv. We're not going to make the oilam wait. And he didn't even make this person feel bad that he was trying to cut, that he missed out a whole divrei Torah. And, and this is the limud that we got from him. I was at first, I was like, I came here for the Torah. But the limud was, you'd be mechabed yenim, so whatever his thing that he's interested in, it didn't make a difference in Torah. The Torah is secondary to darchei eretz. It was so important for this person to feel the chashivus, that the Rav was being mechabed him and appreciating what he had to offer, that the Torah—it's here, it's on the paper, I'm sure they have it someplace, whatever the Torah was—but the kavod that you could give for yenim, that's a one-time thing. You can't put someone and say, This is not shayach, this is not important. He built the person up, al yedei what the person was machshiv, and he'll always carry with him that chashivus that the Rav had given him. I had an interesting maaseh with the Rav. I had my children in yeshiva called Torah, and they look for an honoree every year. And we thought for maybe the habatzas Torah award, who should be more deserving than the Rav? So I was part of this contingency that we went to the Rav to ask him if he would be willing to be the honoree for the dinner. And he was adamant that it's not nogea.

Who knows him? How is he going to help, you know, with anything? It's not, you know, how is he going to be an honoree? For what? So we said, maiseh, that we have people in the shul that learn in the yeshiva, and the rav is their rav, and if the yeshiva is machshiv their rav, it gives a chashivus to these boys that say, This is the yeshiva. This is someone that we want to be like. There would be mechazek. He says, Okay, al yedei, if they're machshiv, being a rav, I could take their word, but on one condition. What's the condition? He says, You have to honor my wife as well, the Rebbetzin. Why? Because whatever I'm able to do, whatever I could promise a rav, is only al yedei the Rebbetzin. And you see the picture they have by the steps when you come down here of Rav Chaim. I think why he put it there is to be makir that it's for the Rebbetzin. It says, Harav and Dr. Walkin. And he said, if her name is not on it, and he said in the tzetel that they put in the ad book, he said to ask to mention it, that she's the whole reason that I'm able to be able to be marbitz Torah, to be able to learn, to be able to give over. He says, Otherwise I'm not a rav. It's not for the Rebbetzin. And he was shocked by it, and he checked it over. He said, And when I followed up after, the rav's available this night. This is the night of the dinner. Did they put it in? Did they write in azoi for the Rebbetzin? Very makpid. It was a tremendous yesoid. I went around for other rabbanim. I never heard that by anybody else. You know, obviously they wrote for the Rebbetzin also, but he was so makpid that I will not take the honor if you don't mention the Rebbetzin. He was also a baal eitzah. He was always practical in his advice. He would, you know, even when the children were very small, the kleinikeit, nothing was too small, nothing was too big. I saw, we didn't, I didn't feel that the children should have earrings at a young age. He says, How many kids in the class? You know, I said, so my wife felt maybe they should have. So I went to the rav, and whatever the rav says, yeah. The rav says, How many kids in the class? It's a class of whatever it was, 20 kids, and 12 of them have. He says, Rav have the earrings? You know, this is what you do. If you're in the class, the children shouldn't feel different. It's important that they, you know, fit in and don't feel different as much as possible. He said, You got the earrings, that's it. You put them in the school, that's what you do. I said, Okay. My family, they would do it till bar mitzvah, but the rav said, This is what we're doing, and it was so practical, and the child felt good about it because they had a chashivus, even though they're very young. But the rav was able to see from the perspective of a young child, I feel, what was important to them and to build them up and to build up their things that were important to them, to show chashivus to it, not just, Eh, it's a kleinezak, put it on, no. Even very young children, he knew how to build up and be mechazek. I mentioned about Kol Torah before. There were pictures that they put up afterward. They kept the kesher with the rav. He came afterwards for the aleph beis siyum for the little kids, and he was dancing with the kids, and they gave out a booklet to the kids of the year, and they did the picture of the rav together with all these kids together, ביחד, to say that the kids should always remember dos iz may ershte time with the aleph beis or with the siddur or whatever it was that they're giving out, that you have a choshuv talmid chacham that comes to you to be mechazek you. You never lose that simcha when you remember, as I was shmayachel, that the rav had in this giving over of Torah. That's mamash, that's kimu v'kiblu. That's the simchas haTorah like no other. We used to come over, when we had the kids for the upsherin, we used to come to the rabbi. He'd be in the house, not in his jacket and hat. And so I said to the rabbi, you know, give a little sniff. He says, Wait. Got to put on my vest, button it up, put on the hat. A guy come, come to my office, he said, Why is the rabbi? I don't want to give my shiur. He said, They're coming to me al tzurah. I have to be dressed like a rabbi. That's the whole shtel of the rabbi. Now, it's me. Who am I? You know, you always... the eibishter, you know, aim towards the eibishter, not nothing else. Not about me. It's not, you know. That was his whole chiyus. That was his whole nehus. You know, biladai. Nothing that I'm doing, it's nor the eibishter. Even for our oldest son, when he said for putting on the tefillin, he said, You know, I have to be the one to do it. It's mine. This one's mine, he says. You know, so when he came here, it was a purim, and he took the time to, you know, our nachas tefillin, sit down for l'chaim afterward and give over his stories, and the maalotov, it was like his own simcha, like he was the zeide there. And he did it.

He was a sandik for us. We had the davening was in the trailers in the back. Then we came here for the bris, and nach the bris, there was a little complication. So I called up the rav. I said, I said, daven for us. He said, Everything's going to be fine. Yeah, I said, Yeah, but... I said, Everything's fine. Yeah, and kach avi, baruch Hashem, everything was fine. But his emunah is... the story I didn't even write down, but one time I had a funny chalom, whatever, it was a little scary. I went to the rav. I said, You know, I have pachad from this, whatever. He said, It's going to be good. Everything's good. So I came by here, I said, What about...? So he said, No, no, it's good. It's all good. You know, everything is good. In other words, even if things seem complicated, seem things shver, whatever it is, he says the way you look at something, it was the way it became. It was the way the metzius became, azoi, from looking at it with the ayin tov, and that was how he lived. Just to conclude, and also our youngest son, we named after the rav. We named Aaron. We had the bris here also. Rav Mokil was the sandik for that. Rav Mokil spoke at the yahrzeit, and then he wasn't well, and then he came back. The first time he was back here, it was the shul after, it was for this bris, and it was a tremendous zechus. You know, we were able to name after the rav, and we were moisef the name Yehuda, because we didn't have that name in the family. We were saying, dos is what the rav is, like Mordechai haYehudi, that he lived. Rav, dos is what is a Yid, a tzurah from a Yid, an amasi Yisrael from a Yid. That goes together. That shtims together with the Rav's name, that Azai, Azai. ... that he's the Rebbe for—I hear from many, many people—he was the Rebbe in ahavas Yisrael, that he lived loving Yidden. There's another ma'aseh that he said over, I don't remember who he said it over, but it was also how he prav. He used to say it with tears. He used to say, maybe Reb Chaim Volozhin, I don't know who it was, he said that people say, Oh, this tzara, that tzara, means Moshiach's coming closer. He used to say, better that not one Yid get hurt in any way than Moshiach come. Better Moshiach not come than a Yid have to be hurt in order for Moshiach to come. And that was how he lived. That was his ... To love every Yid, he wanted G-d's goodkeit for everybody. Didn't want—Azai tzara, ... name. ... everyone be shmat, you know, everyone be ... everyone be b'simcha. That was taka how he lived his life. Somebody said to me, just to finish off, that they wanted to know what I was going to say, ... whatever, it ended up the person not speaking. But he said, you know, if I can't say what I'm going to say, I'll say it next year. I said, There's no next year. I said, the Rav lived, you know, Moshiach's oncoming, ba. He's coming, he's coming. ... We should be zoche that by next year, im yirtzeh Hashem, we'll be dancing ... like we always did with the Rav, by every Yom Tov doing hakafos, the tekias shofar, that ... beautifully. I mean, not like the Rav, but Azai, I heard something there, it was something. You know, seeing the Rav standing in the front of the shul with white yarmulke and the kittel, he looked like a malach of Hashem. It was unbelievable. And also, ... to come here for the hakafos, to come here for Simchas Torah, dancing ... It was, you know, the rabbi always said, you know, I wish everyone from Westgate could come here, or make some sort of shtol in Mitten, you know, that we'll bring everyone to ... I don't know, with that ... here is fine, but that was his hargish. Everyone ... together. We're going to finish the program with a siyum. So, who needs to go? I actually posted with ... Chad. I actually posted with ... Chad that I'll be making a siyum ... It's my 13th siyum ... And I said if anybody else wants to respond, respond, and only two took up on the offer: ... and ... for the last couple of weeks. So I'm going to be finishing the ... and then going for the ... We finish ... ...

Gemara, sheilah hada. Ah, finish the Mishnah. Gemara, Tzad shebeyot. Mishnah: Ein mashkin d'shochtin es hanvarios. Mishnah says that we're not allowed to water or shecht wild animals. Aval mashkin v'shochtin es habayisiyos. But we could water and shecht domesticated animals. Eilu hein bayasos. These are considered domesticated animals: halunda b'ir, those that pass in night in the town; barios. What are barios? Halundos baafar. Those are range animals that pass the night in the pasture. Says Gemara, lamah li l'meimar mashkin v'shochtin? Why do we need both? What's the point of saying the watering if the whole idea is to mention the shechita? You already mentioned the watering. Answers the Gemara: milsa agav orchei ka mashma lan. Mishnah is just coming to tell us agav orchei, lashki inish behemtei v'hadar nishchot, d'mishum tzarcha d'mashka. Because the adhesion of the hide sticks to the animal, and if you don't water it, it's going to be hard to skin it. Therefore, the Mishnah is giving practical advice of how to, the best way to skin the animal. But really, yes, it is about shechita. Tanu Rabbanan: eilu hein nivarios, v'eilu hein bayasos. These are considered the range animals; these are considered the domesticated animals. Nivarios, kol sheyotzei b'pesach v'ro'os baafar. Range animals is kol sheyotzei b'Pesach, those that go during the Pesach season, which is the end of winter. Vero'os ba'afar, and they graze in the pasture. V'nichnases b'Revi'ah Rishonah, and then they return during the first months of rain, which is the month of Cheshvan. V'eilu hein bayasos, and these are considered to be domesticated animals. Kol sheyotzei v'ro'os chutz la'tchum, any animal that goes out of a tchum, a settled area, v'chozros l'onev the soch ha'tchum, but they come back at night within the tchum. Rebbe Yoimer, Rebbe says, eilu v'eilu bayasos hein. Both these are domesticated animals. Ella eilu hein midbarios. Rather, what is considered midbarios? Kol sheyotzei v'ro'os ba'afar, animals that go out and graze in the pasture, v'ein nichnasos la'yishuv, and they don't return to a yishuv, lo bimei hachamah v'lo bimei hageshamim. Now the topic of muktzah, because we know that range animals are muktzah, so therefore you can't shecht them. But domesticated animals, you could. They're not muktzah, and you could shecht them on Yom Tov. Says the Gemara, mi yaslei l'Rebbi buktzah? Does Rebbe subscribe to muktzah? Because Rebbe just gave a definition for range animals. It must be that he subscribes to muktzah. He says that range animals are included in muktzah. So says the Gemara, mi yaslei l'Rebbi buktzah? V'ha binan minei Rav Shimon bar Rebbe meiRebbe. We have a quote, Rav Shimon said, Shimon bar Rebbe inquired of Rebbe, which I will quote of Rebbe, Hatzilei tomorah l'Rav Shimon, mahu? What's the halacha regarding hatzilei tomorah, which is a kind of date that does not ripen on the tree, and it needs to be in certain palm leaves, in a basket of palm leaves. That's how it ripens. So the question is, on one hand, it's not ripe yet; it needs the basket to ripen. But on the other hand, it's technically edible, technically edible. So how do we look at this? Is it muktzah or not? So, patzilei tamar l'Rav Shimon, mahu? What's the halacha? Amar lei, Rebbe answered him, Ein muktzah l'Rav Shimon. Rav Shimon does not subscribe to the principle of muktzah; ela roigris v'tzimukin bilvad, except in the case of dried figs and raisins while they are drying. Because dried figs, so grapes and dates, when they're moist, they're obviously edible, but when they're put out to dry, it's like being set aside; they're not edible anymore, so that becomes muktzah. However, here, in the case of the patzilei tamara, they still have a use, because they can still be eaten even in the basket. So since Rebbe sided with Rav Shimon's principle of muktzah, we assume that he agrees with it. So why then does he consider the range animals muktzah? So the Gemara gives three possible answers to this question. איבעית אימא, הני נמי כי גרעי וצימוקין דמו, that really, even though we're—

It was not like the case of dried figs and raisins. Maybe it really is like the dried, because he sent them away, like the animals. Once you send them away, it's like you're setting it aside, so it's muktzah. V'i bais eima, lidvarav d'Rabbi Shimon, d'les lei sfeira lei, which means he was saying only according to them, but he himself doesn't subscribe to this principle. V'i bais eima, and the third answer, with the words of the Rabbanan, ka'amru lei. The Rebbe says definition according to the opinion of the Rabbanan, didi ein muktzah. As for me, he holds that there is no broad application of muktzah ela l'leduchu. But what does it mean? It means that he's saying that even to you, who does subscribe to the broad application of muktzah, it's a definition. It's a definition issue. Aidu li mihas. He's saying you should at least be modeh to me, heicha d'yatzis for animals with Pesach, with nasi b'revii, Rishayna, whichever animals do go out to graze at the time of Pesach, which was our braisa, v'yasus hein are domesticated and therefore should not be muktzah. V'amru lei, the Rabbanan said, no, no, we don't hold of this definition. Onudei Rabbanan, loi midbariyos hein. No, they are considered range animals, and they are therefore booked to hadron alach, mashilin, u'slika lan maseches Beitzah. I'm…

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