Levaya and Hespedim for Rav Aharon Walkin zt’l: Torah, Chesed, and His Legacy

Transcript

This Torah class is brought to you by TorahAnytime.com. So where is the problem? The outside? Yeah, the outside.

מחתם לדוד, שמרני אל כי חסיתי בך. אמרת לה׳, אדני אתה, טובתי בל עליך. לקדושים אשר בארץ המה, ואדירי כל חפצי בם. ירבו עצבותם אחר מהרו, בל אסיך נסכיהם מדם, ובל אשא שמותם על שפתי. ה׳ מנת חלקי וכוסי, אתה...

Toimeich goyroli. Chavolim naflu li banim, mefnachlos shafrah alai. Avorech es Adonai asher ya'atzani, af leylos yisruni chilyosai. Shivisi Adonai lenegdi tamid, ki miymini bal emot. Lachein samach libi vayagel kevodi, af b'sari yishkon lavetach. Ki lo ta'azov nafshi l'Sheol, lo siten chasidecha lirot shachat. Todi'eni orach chayim, sova simchot es panecha, ne'imot biminecha netzach. Rashi, arbaim u'kium.

Reb Nach Yitzchok Oberman, ... Yitzchok of Queens. Okay. ... Tal ishol was sitting very shver, all of a sudden, ... What happened over here is mamish a matzav of an hapochu. Chazal says in Taanis daf tes, ... Machi says it goes on Chodesh Nissan as well. Chodesh Nissan is supposed to be a zman of simcha, ein shuvusch sam sofer. Later, ... was nichnas, was nischaber, ... of ... Family lost a husband, a father, but then as he was a father not only to his family, he was a father to all of the talmidim. Talishol lost a rav, a rosh yeshiva, a marbitz Torah. Not just a rosh yeshiva, but mesiras nefesh. He lived in Lakewood, but he was not in Lakewood. He slept in Queens, away from his family, mesiras nefesh for his talmidim. Every talmid was b'bechinas a ben yochid, yet he took pride in it, the pride in their hatzlacha like a father takes pride in the hatzlacha of his son.

Kol hameleinu, lemnoya maskis, ... kolamo beis Yisrael, l'bias ... ... Yes. I have this phone to talk to you. Leiv shovel u'votzes, as I did, didn't. For so many, so many years, azoy gedraye, gedraye you did, but lev vnefesh, to me and to everybody, to chaveirim, to all of our yedidim, to his mishpacha, his parents, his children, and the talmidim, like we heard before from Avrohom Shlita. He was a marbitz Torah in many ways, but lev vnefesh. He was a true gadol baTorah. His yediyos, his yediyos all over, his ha'amakah, his gishmak in learning, and his yiras Shamayim, and his middos tovos. I spoke to somebody that gave me over a message from Yedid of his, Langer Yoren, one of the young talmidei chachamim, Rabbonim, with Rabbi Yosef Frand Shlita. I was very, very close to him for the last 12 or 15 years. He let me know that he himself wasn't well last week, and the only one that called him every single day—he didn't know how with Rabbanan, zichrono livrachah, found out—he wasn't a serious choleh, he wasn't feeling well. He called him every single day to find out how he was feeling. He gave over the unbelievable chiyus that he took from doing chesed, l'heitiv la'acheirim. He felt somebody else's hargashah; he pushed, he took it from him. I want to shout to avod from Shem Shmuel, the Meorot Shem Shmuel. He had a dikduk in the trop, in ... b'chayim ... b'chayim ... I want to do chesed, and that goes through all the mitzvahs that want to say in the pasuk, k'sheim shenafshi tzmeiah lecha, kacha, v'machei vorai, yesh bi tzmeiah lecha. It's not only the neshama of the person is davuk, but the person has avodas Hashem for many years. When has the gantzen batel to avodas Hashem, he changes over his guf. His guf becomes a tzkadish, and kacha vorai, imorim tzmeiah lecha. That was his matzav. And he also said over, I remember this maamar when he was a young bochur, and this went on to the rest of his last days, ad yom acharon. Layda layda, it came so, so, such a short life.

In another case, in the tastevis, in the Rambam, ... he pushed it, he lit up. He threw it physically on his face. He lit up all the ... all the ... I'm going to say over, at the ... in Yisurim, the Rosh Yeshiva mentioned before, the ... Yisurim, Yisurei haguf, Yisurei hanefesh, many, many ... over many years, many, many ... And the Chofetz Chaim brings b'shem oylam that he heard from the Yid, Mezhokin, that heard from the heiligeh ... Reb Yaakov, Reb Yaakov, the heiligeh ... that the ... said, it always ... what it looks like when the neshama comes up lifnei Beis Din shel Maalah, and they're going to be dan his life, his mitzvahs, his zechuyos, and chas v'shalom his aveiros. He comes up and he sees the scale in front of him with two sides, and then he hears an announcement that the mitzvahs of Ploni ben Ploni should come to the scale on the right side, and the malachim levonim of the mitzvahs come on the right side. Then there's another announcement that the aveiros of Ploni ben Ploni should come to the scale and go on the left side of the scale, and the malachim shechorim, chamonos lahem, from the aveiros come on the left side of the scale. And the neshama sees what's going on, ... because there's a lot more malachim shechorim than levonim, and not only that, the malachim shechorim are more ... malachim, ... ... because chas v'shalom the aveiros a person was done b'shogeg, b'shogeg, b'shleimus, so the malachim are full, full, full-fledged malachim. The malachim, the nisles and hadon, bisafnezein, hadon, bislavus with a cheshik, the don with moded to akiretzein, they're very, very, very weak malachim. So zechem shasta doregen, how the malachim shoyrim are weighing down the scale. Then there's a third announcement: the yesurim of ploni ben ploni should come forth to the right side of the scale. Then all these yesurim come and they go on the right side. The sfas lichtik vadoregen, the neshama sees what happened here, that the yesurim weighed down the zechuyos. When sfas lichtik vadoregen is going, said, when he said over this mashal, That saying for a simple person, that mitzvos are not done bishleimus, the avonos are not done bishleimus. When we talk about our yid, our niftar, our yid, he did nefesh, ... levrochah. When he did mitzvos, the way he was meitiv with others, the way he learned with the ... was zachaishik. He's zachaius, zachaius for the tzibbur, zachaius for talmidim, zachaius for his children. The priority took in his children, like we heard from the rav before. And with ..., ... Slavus, ... he doesn't need ... but without the yesurim, the ... emes lichtik, emes lichtik. But he had so many yesurim, so many yesurim, ... yesurim. Parents should know and feel that he's in a gevaldige, gevaldige situation. We have to bracha to Klal. He's gonna have a luchtig and ... but he couldn't do over here. He was a choleh, cholosh. His hands were tied; he couldn't do much. Over there ... Over there, since she never ... so our life ... is never be ... I just want to briefly say, mamish ... The Rambam says that there was an eis tzarah. If people feel that it's mikreh, and it's not the yad Hashem, and they don't necessarily do teshuvah, it's achzarius. It's cruelty. And the world doesn't understand what the Rambam means. Why is it cruelty?

Where's the cruelty that's involved in being tovea tzaros Yisroel? And my dor, people older than me don't remember azai tzarah in Klal Yisroel. Yeder kreiz, yeder mishpachte, yeder kreiz is ongeveitik. ... Now's the time. If people feel the virus going on, the virus in the gantze velt, they גיין to the whole world, and they don't feel that it's the yad Hashem. It's so clear that it's the yad Hashem. You don't feel it's yad Hashem. It's cruelty. Where's the cruelty? I want to say a short ... that if there would be a maaseh that a gang of chotfim broke into a home, chas v'shalom, and they murdered one of the children, chas v'shalom, I want to say ... they murdered one of the children. Who, an outsider, would have a havah amina sheb'havah amina sheb'havah amina that the parents knew this might happen? They knew there's a gang of chotfim trying to reach this mishpachah, and they felt, they said, Listen, let's leave it the way it is. They could have got police, they could have got shmira. Believe it, believe it to the ... whatever the ... would bring it. Datka mamash. Only an ... only an ... could have such a feeling, such a shasha, havah amina sheb'havah amina. The ... is the av harachamim. The greatest av harachamim more than the ... The greatest av harachamim ... We have no musag. The Eibishter's rachmanus. We don't understand it. Everybody understands the Eibishter's ... The Eibishter says, Mikra means the Eibishter is leaving it, letting mikra do its work. Only an achzer, a gevaldige achzer, achzorius. If you don't get to treifel, if we're not willing to make a change in our life, then we're achzorim, we're cruel, and that's why we could have such a, such a gefil. And it's not my place to give mussar, but I felt it would be, as I said, it would be a schus for my Yid. What would I do to give my Yid? It's another... something should be easy for him, a tefillah. I took an extra minute or two to say this. I want to say a few words, this Choshev Rebbetzin. She was a medesly emunah all these years. ... and she has a gevaldige chayis to mechazek the children and the mishpacha. Gevaldige chayis. The children are going to be ... fifteen times a day to see how she's doing, and that's how they're going to go on. And she's a gevaldige chayis, and a chayis, she's ... gedoylah, and a chayis gives koach. You see that all the time. The Rebbe gives her koach, and the children are ... the tatte didn't forget them. Other rabbe now is a bigger koach than he ever had, and he's going to be ... for all of them. I want to say also, ... I don't know what to say to them. ... should become a ... פרם שם קמקען ביי רביצן, דער ייחס יומען, צו זיין נאָן נחת און שמחהס. און די כוחות צו קענען מחתן די אייניקלעך, די שנור און די אייניקלעך, צו קענען מחתן זיי.

This is my ... This is too tight. ... ... it’s too tight. ... ... will be ... ... And the Rebbe said that ... how this ... should take place. ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... What's his number? Do you know, is it a 306 number? 347-306. 714-40. Can you hear me? 714-40, 2391. Hello, is this Rabbi Eli? Rabbi Eli? Okay, hold on. Rabbi Eli. Rabbi. Rabbi Elon ben Yirav, a talmud of Rabbi Aaron.

Before my class, before my.

Inside the New Beach, Madison Queen, be Southenera. It's final goodbye. I speak about you, ... your shamayim, your ... your ... It'll be here for a very long time. I promise we will speak about it. But I have a simple request to ask everyone. There's a famous Gemara that says a person's talmidim is like his own children. No one embodied this more than Tati. He devoted himself to his family, to his talmidim, ... Yesterday, yesterday, a part of everyone's lev and a part of everyone's nefesh passed away. It's up to us to make sure now that he's going to live on, that lev and nefesh that he devoted to is going to live on forever in each of us. The last story he told me yesterday, two days ago.

He told me a story, the last thing I heard from him, about a rebbi. He wrote the Meir Einei Chachamim. And he told me that the rebbi was crying by Shalosh Seudos once. The chassidim asked him, Rebbe, why are you crying? So the rebbi told him, I'm crying over the suffering of Klal Yisrael during the ikvesa d'Meshicha. So the chassidim asked him, Abba Rebbe, you taught us that Hashem doesn't give us more than you can handle. So what are you crying about? So the rebbi answered, Aber du veist nisht vifil Klal Yisrael ken nemen. You don't know how much Klal Yisrael can take. And he turns to me and tells me, Pinchas, so much suffering in Klal Yisrael. He suffered with every Yid's problem as if it was his own. I personally witnessed him stay up overnight learning and davening for people who needed yeshuos, who were complete strangers, people who he never met before they came. They needed yeshuah. I personally saw him stay up overnight. No one knew about it. It wasn't published in newspapers. He stayed up the entire night. I walked into his room at three, four o'clock in the morning. He was learning, davening. Tells me he's learning for somebody. I asked him, Do you know? No. I got a message last night from Shapsi Reitzig. My family would know him. And he wrote, The Rav shed so many tears for Klal Yisrael b'chayim, and he's certainly not stopping now. How should we cry for all of us? You're gonna take care of us. You're gonna be a ... for our family, for talmidim, and all of Klal Yisrael. I know it's customary to ask mechilah, but I promise I gave you everything I had. I was always there for you. The family was always there for you. Mommy was always there for you. And in turn, you always were there for us. You were the best father. So hard to say goodbye. I was zoche to go on a trip to Eretz Yisrael with him recently, and throughout the trip, he kept telling me that the most important thing for a Yid is to learn to know Shas. He kept telling me, I want my children to learn every day. I want my children to know Shas. I want my talmidim to learn. I know he took on the Daf Yomi right after that, started to give the Daf Yomi shiur in Queens. Chaim, we're gonna make you proud. We're gonna make siyumim for you. I know this is what you want from us. We're gonna make you proud. Chaim, we should be zoche to see you soon, the coming of Mashiach, and to reunite. Dad, I want to start off by apologizing for disturbing you for a seder. I know so many people spoke about Tyro, that you were also the best father anyone could ever ask for. I was lucky to have you as my father for 25 years. And I was thinking what to say, and this morning I decided I'm going to try to think about the things that moved and that made us as a family become who we were. And obviously the things from teaching us how to play baseball in Marine Park, we'll remember that, the yellow bat, the wiffle ball.

But Tati never, never was into gashmiyus. He never spent money on clothing. He tried to wear the same clothing as long as he said it was good. Why? He used to save the extra money to where? To go to Beigelizen, the sfarim store. Remember hours we spent in Beigelizen, sfarim store. That was our daily activity after school, trying to drag Tati out of the sfarim store. That was it. Pesach, remember Beigelizen? Every day. It was always one more minute, one more minute. That was Tati, Beigelizen. We didn't give him an easy time going through high school either. We didn't. He told every Rosh Yeshiva that we'd be the best talmid, and he believed it. We were. He believed each one of us had potential. And Tati, I have a kesher with Rabbi Levi. Twelfth grade rebbi, we went in, and you turned to me after you sat in the beis medrash for five minutes and you said, This is a real yeshiva. You feel the kol Torah. And I didn't have such a great year, but I always kept up with Rabbi Levi, because I knew that yeshiva really meant something to you. And Rabbi Levi was a special person and is a special person. Tati didn't. Tati's still working with ... He said he wanted us to learn. And Ma, I know Tati's not here physically, and he wasn't so into the gashmius when I showed it to him. But I know that me being kavea itim Torah 30 minutes every single day, Tati's gonna poke his head out and watch. I know it. It's for you. It's for Tati. It's for everyone. It's for me. Every day. Tati, leave. Goodbye. But not really goodbye. No. It's gonna be like the basement in Brooklyn. Pow, we miss you already. You're still here. Tati's one of Tati's talmidim, a big talmid, asked to say two words, and I told him I was gonna put them on. Yeah, I'm putting Moshe. Moshe, you're on speaker right now. Go ahead. My name is Moshe Stayev. I was a Talmid of Rav Olkin.

Rabbi, you got us was such a great person. You were such a great person, and you knew how to come down to everybody's level. You know, my father was single, so with this, with this... every day the Rebbe would call, How's your father? How's your... How's your... The care, the compassion. I remember ... family, when they passed away, Rebbe called me, Moshe, we have to do something for them. We have to do something for them. We have to keep their memory going. And we did the hachnasas sefer Torah. How much it meant to him, how much he cried, how much he cried, how much... Every single person mentioned him. Every single person. You know, Rebbe, I know you're a tzaddik. I know you're going to be under the Kisei HaKavod. One second. One second. Take off. Mom? Yep. My father taught us that every matzav, ... live for you. Two weeks ago, after Purim, two weeks ago, when everybody started getting nervous, scared about virus, so I was speaking to my father, and he tells me, I'm not nervous. I'm with you, ... He's talking to me, nervous about. It's all good. My father taught that a person has only one koiches, and he demanded from all of us that we have to use those koiches. But I want to say over a vort b'shemoy that he told me once that explained it a little more. My father was once talking to me in his study. He was talking about how if you go through Sefer Tehillim, Dovid HaMelech mamish went through so many tzaros, so many tzaros. And my father explained that the reason why Dovid HaMelech had to go through all those tzaros... It's because Dovid HaMelech had to write for Klal Yisrael to tell them that every single person in every matzav, כי זה... The Arba's voice of Dovid HaMelech is mechayev, that he went through every matzav that Klal Yisrael is going to go through, he went through. Like was mentioned earlier, my father was murdered...

So many, so many different yesurim. But the focus of his yesurim wasn't himself. He didn't get lost in his yesurim. He used his yesurim to be ... Oh, tears ... I don't know. All the ... that he had to be poel for other people, he went out of his way in mesirus nefesh mamash. He wasn't self-mamish. And some ... which we have to learn from, this selflessness of my father. And that's what drew so many people to him. People flocked to him because when you talked to him, you didn't feel that he was talking to you because he wanted to talk to you. He talked to you because he wanted to talk to you, and you were the focus of his talk. And everybody felt like a ben yochid. I want to thank my father's rebbetzin for all the years that she took care of him. She should be a ... for the mishpacha, for my sister and her mishpacha, for ... about ... about ... the whole extended mishpacha, and should zoche to the geulah karov.

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