Remembering Rav Aharon Walkin zt”l, Part 2: His Torah, Simchas HaMitzvos, Ahavas Yisrael, and Chesed

Transcript

This Torah class is brought to you by TorahAnytime.com. We're here to talk about Hagaon HaTzadik, Reb Aharon Walkin, zatzal. I apologize, there will probably be some repetition because I'm not privy to all the other speakers, but that's what happens when you're talking about a great mensch. People see a lot of the same things, but everybody has his perspective, his signon. Reb Aharon was a big man. He was big. And everything about him was big. He was a human being. He was a yid to the tenth power. Everything he did was with gadlus. Sai his Torah, his avodah, his chesed, everything was done bigly, with greatness. He was a huge baal kishron. Everyone knows when he was a teenager, he wrote a sefer, a ganze chibur on Masechta Kiddushin, which was praised by gedolei olam. He had a brayte yediyos b'chol miktzo'os haTorah, sai the yeshiva she'reid, in learning, in Shas. Wherever you spoke to him, he was there. You started a Gemara, he finished it. He was at home with sifrei Chassidus. He was at home with the sifrei mussar, all the schools of mussar, Slabodka, Novardok, Kelm. He was at home. He just, he knew everything. I once asked him a kasha in something. He right away pulled out a Chiddushei Sefer, showed me yene rebbe gefekt a kasha, all over. We saw the tremendous ha'aracha that his rabbeim had for him. Rav Shlomo Feivel Schustal, zatzal, would come and speak sometimes, and he always spoke about the gadlus of Reb Aharon. Rabbi Aaron Lerner. Always extolled his Reb Aaron's greatness in learning. And we see in all the pictures, pictures with Rav Dovid Feinstein zatzal, Rav Belsky zatzal, Rav Chatzkel Roth selangi, you see in the pictures the satisfaction that each one had to be mishtashea with him in learning. And who can forget those summer afternoons, the Shabbos afternoon shiurim in the summer, on the long afternoons, he would give the shiurim in halacha, in contemporary halacha. He would start with the sugya, the sugya of the Gemara, and take it all the way down to halacha l'maaseh, ad piskei zmaneinu. And you saw the clarity he had in all these inyanim. He fielded questions from everyone. Right away, b'li gimgum, he would have the answers. He had a clarity in contemporary halacha as well. Let's talk about his huge heart.

Reb Aaron was the epitome of Ivdu es Hashem b'simcha. When he was in shul, he had that perpetual smile on his face while davening, while learning. You saw avodah b'simcha. And I always had the feeling during Lcha Dodi that by Yiboyv Shalom, he would just love to break out and dance. But he knew, al t'kabel atzibur, the olam, you know, the olam's not holding by that madreigah, so they wouldn't stand for it. But he, if it were up to him, he would dance every Lcha Dodi, every Yiboyv Shalom. And when the situation allowed itself for a little dancing, a Yom Tovdike Shabbos or a Shabbos Parshas Zachor before Purim, he was the first one to start the dancing. It just burst out of him. It was as if it was welled up in him, and he finally found the excuse to let it burst out. But he always had that simchah and that great ga'aguim for avodas Hashem. He had tremendous chiyus in all parts of davening. He would clap, he would say every word out loud, and his davening was always with his whole guf, and he would clap and kol atzmosai tomarna. Who can forget the bitter tears he would shed. When he spoke about Eretz Yisrael, this was real. This was his gefeel. It was big. Everything he did was with the gadlus. His avodah Yomim Noraim, his simcha on Simchas Torah. Although I wasn't zocheh to see these things, I had to be elsewhere, but I heard about it. And I saw the mizeg of these two avodos, the avodah b'simcha and the avodah b'yirah, on Hoshana Rabbah. I davened here Hoshana Rabbah, and you saw the yiras hadin on his face when he blew the shofar, and you saw the simcha when he did the hakafos on Hoshana Rabbah. Reb Aaron was very charismatic. He was beloved by all. Wherever he was, whether in Brooklyn, in Queens, in Westgate, here, he always had a following. He had chassidim. He was a real ohev es habriyos u'mekarvan laTorah. I remember Rabbi Bregman used to bring the college students, and he showed so much love to each one, and each one of them was so impressed with what a person could become, what a talmid chacham could achieve, could look like when they met him. And as great as he was, there were no airs about him. It was never about himself. It was always about the Eibishter. He always wanted to hear a good vort from someone else. Reb Ela, what do you have for me? He would always say that. Reb Ela, what do you have for me? He just wanted to hear from me. He wanted to make me feel good. That was always the beginning of our conversations when I walked in. Reb El, what do you have for me? And it became a mantra in my home, because my children saw that that was my hanhaga, so they used to always, Reb El, what do you have for me? It became a thing in the house. But not only with adults did he do this. He did this with young bachrim. He encouraged bachrim to say divrei Torah at Shalosh Seudos, and this was a great chizuk for them, and it was a great hashpaah on them to see how the Rav listened intently to their divrei Torah and was mechazek them. He would always look for ways to help the less fortunate, always worrying about them, asking, he used to ask me eitzes if I have ways of helping, how he could help. He was a rodef shalom. I remember one Yom Tov night, he asked me to come over to speak with him, a dochered an inyan after the seudah. Most people are tired after a Yom Tov seudah. He kept me for two hours trying to figure out all kinds of eitzes to...

The Chief Shalom. I was falling asleep, but he was going on with all his kayches. He loved sefarim. When he was in a sefarim store, he was like a child in a candy store. He just couldn't get enough. And I remember I once walked into shul, and he says to me, Reb Ela, I have something for you. And he gave me a sefer. It was Reb Meir Soloveitchik al haTorah, and he says, I knew you would like this. And he gave it to me, and it was inscribed with a beautiful inscription. And this story repeated itself with different sefarim a few times, at least two more times. I knew you would like it. He bought me sefarim. And in spite of his love for sefarim, whenever I would ask him, Rebbe, can I borrow this sefer? There was a sefer on one of the shelves. Can I borrow this sefer? He would say, Keep it. Keep it. Now, he had that sefer because he wanted it. But if I want a sefer, if I want to borrow a sefer, keep it. He'll replace it somehow. That was his attitude, always, always giving. I remember my wife telling me, my wife once took a ride back from Brooklyn to Lakewood with the Rebbetzin. It seems they had to get two cars back to Lakewood, so the Rav drove one car and the Rebbetzin drove another car, and my wife was in the car with the Rebbetzin. Every 15 minutes, Reb Baruch called to make sure she's okay. My wife came home, she couldn't believe the care, the daagah for his wife. Every 15 minutes was another call. Even though he's no longer with us, but because he was such a big presence, a powerful presence, it's a tzaas nechama. We still feel his hashpaah. That's the tzaas nechama that we have. Yehi zichro baruch. It was a tremendous zechus to get to know Reb Aaron Zatzal during the approximately 10 years we were neighbors and I was a mispallel in his beis medrash. Reb Aaron, at a very young age, was known as a giant in Torah. I remember the first time that I met him. It was back in high school, and someone pointed him out and said, You see that person over there, that boy over there? His name is Aaron Walkin. He's an ilui. He's a genius. And you can ask him anywhere in Shas, and he has a yad and he's very well versed. And he was only approximately 16 years old then. That was his gaonus. And over the years, through tremendous hasmada and the great mind that he had, he acquired great knowledge in Torah. There wasn't a sugya in Shas that he wasn't familiar with, and more than that, almost every sugya in Shas he had chidushim and shiurim on. But his gaonus in Torah is not something I really need to elaborate on. Most people know about that already. I would just like to touch upon a few points that Other people might not know so well about Reb Aharon zatzal. Pasuk says in Parshas Ki Savo, by the tochachah, it says that the klolos will come upon Klal Yisrael, tachas asher lo avadת את ה' אלוקיך בשמחה ובטוב לבב, because you didn't serve Hashem with happiness, with simcha. And the mefarshim explain that we're not dealing with somebody who did not do the mitzvahs. We're dealing with somebody who did the mitzvahs, but he didn't do it b'simcha. Not doing a mitzvah b'simcha can bring upon the klolos of Parshas Ki Savo in the tochachah. So we see the power of doing mitzvahs b'simcha. Reb Aharon had such simcha when he did mitzvahs. He had simchas hachayim and simcha in doing mitzvahs. I vividly recall him coming down those stairs one morning, and he was clapping and dancing and singing. And I asked him, Reb Aharon, what's the simcha about? Why are you so excited? And he said, What do you mean? Sukkos is coming. I'm going to sit in my sukkah. I have my lulav, my esrog. He was excited about mitzvahs. That's what brought him simcha. Mitzvahs brought him simcha, not steaks, not vacations, not gashmiyus. His simcha came through the simcha of doing mitzvahs, of serving HaKadosh Baruch Hu.

Every summer, the family used to go to Vermont for a few weeks. And whenever I would ask him after he came back, I would ask him, So, Rabbarin, tell me, how was your vacation? He said, Vacation? I sat in my room and I learned the whole day. There was no difference between Vermont and Lakewood. I was indoors 98% of the time. My family schlepped me on a mountain here and a mountain there, so I went with them, but he only did it for his family a little bit. His simcha was sitting with a Gemara, sitting with a shtender and learning, and his simcha came from doing the mitzvahs of HaKadosh Baruch Hu. That's what brought him simcha. He was a vadatos Hashem Elokecha b'simcha uv'tuv levav. The pasuk says in Tehillim, Hasom gevuleich shalom, chelev chitim yasbi'ech, which means, Hasom gevuleich shalom, He places peace on your borders. Chelev chitim yasbi'ech, He satisfies you with fat wheat kernels. And this seems like two random brachos. One is Hasom gevuleich shalom, Hashem will give you peace, and the second is Chelev chitim yasbi'ech, He will satisfy you with great gashmiyus, with chelev chitim. However, the Chasam Sofer says that these two clauses are connected, and Hasom gevuleich shalom is not referring to HaKadosh Baruch Hu; it's referring to each and every individual. And the pasuk is saying, Hasom gevuleich shalom, one who places his borders as shalom, which means he draws the line of where he will go and where he will not go, what line he will not pass. What will that line be? Shalom, peace. If passing this line will cause machlokes, I will not do it. Hasom gevuleich shalom, if his borders are shalom, chelev chitim yasbi'ech, he'll be zoche to the great bracha of chelev chitim yasbi'ech. Rabbi Aaron was somebody like that. Rabbi Aaron was like Aharon HaKohen, ohev shalom v'rodef shalom. All he cared about was to make peace, and he would literally belittle himself for the sake of shalom. I've seen that many, many times, where he would do something that is not becoming of somebody of his stature, only for the sake of making peace between two people. He was a person who was some gevulei shalom. His line that he drew was not to pass the line of machlokes. Pasuk says, V'ahavta l'reacha kamocha ani Hashem. Love your friend like yourself, I am Hashem. So I once heard a taytch that translates the pasuk kamocha using the word kamocha twice. V'ahavta l'reacha kamocha. If you love your friend like yourself, kamocha ani Hashem, like you did, ani Hashem, I Hashem will do back to you. If you love your friend like yourself, kamocha ani Hashem, I'm going to do, I Hashem will do back to you what you just did, and I'll increase in loving you. Rabbi Aaron had this tremendous midah of v'ahavta l'reacha kamocha to an unbelievable level. Imoi anochi b'tzarah was colossal by him, something that you don't see by almost anybody. Anyone who ever davened in this shul on an ordinary Shabbos, not Rosh Hashanah, not Yom Kippur, a regular Shabbos, witnessed something that I'm sure he has never seen before, and that is the Mishaberach l'cholim that Rabbi Aaron would make every Shabbos. He was literally drenched in tears for the cholim, cholim that he did not know. That's what it means, v'ahavta l'reacha kamocha. Imoi anochi b'tzarah. Yenem's tzaar was his tzaar. I clearly remember when a member of the shul whose child was not well came in before Shacharis one Shabbos morning, and he walked in from that door. He walked over to Reb Aharon, who was sitting over there, and they exchanged two or three words, and then they embraced each other and sat and cried for five minutes. And then this person got up and walked out. That was Reb Aharon. Yosef bocha al tzavarei Binyamin, u'Binyamin bocha al tzavaro. No need for words, just tears. Shaarei dema'os lo ne'alu. The gates of tears are never closed, and Reb Aharon knew how to access these shaarei dema'os. These are just a few thoughts about my great neighbor and friend, Reb Aharon's atzal. Each middah that we just mentioned could be expounded upon for hours and hours, with many, many stories. We're just touching on a few points of memories about Reb Aharon. He should be a meilitz yosher for his wife and his family, and they should keep strong. Beis Aharon bitchuva Hashem. The Beis Aharon should have bitachon in Hashem, because Reb Aharon is always looking after you from Shamayim, and therefore he should be a meilitz yosher not only for his family.

But for the neighborhood and all of Klal Yisrael. When the Volken boys asked me to say a few words about my yedid nefesh, my rav, Rav Baran, I hesitated because I didn't think that I could capture and encapsulate the gadlus and the accomplishments of Rav Baran in just a few short minutes. But then I remembered a Gemara. The Gemara in Shabbos Kuf Nun Gimel tells us that Rav, probably shortly before his petirah, called over his talmidim and he told them, Achim b'hespeida d'hasam ka'amina. The simple translation of the Gemara would seem to be that Rav was telling his talmidim that we all know that a neshama hovers above the kever for a certain amount of time, and Rav was telling his talmidim, Achim b'hespeida, please give a very warm hesped for me, d'hasam ka'amina, because I'm going to be at the levayah. And obviously the Gemara cannot be understood in its simplistic form, because Rav didn't need a flowery hesped, certainly not after his petirah. And I think that Rav was telling his talmidim something much more profound. Rav was telling his talmidim that as the Baalei Mussar tell us, we know a person was put into this world to be a holeich, to elevate himself continuously, to shteig, and a person can only do that while he's still in this world. When a person goes to the Olam HaEmes, he can no longer elevate himself, but he can still be elevated. And he can be elevated by people that he inspired during his lifetime, whether it's his family, his talmidim, or his mespadim. When people that he inspired follow his example and do maasim tovim and good things because of the inspiration they had from him, then he himself gets higher and higher and has an aliyah in Shamayim. So tonight, I would just like to share with you something about Reb Aaron that has certainly inspired me, and I'm sure many people in our neighborhood, so that if we could internalize that inspiration, and if we could shteig because of that, and we can create an aliyah in our neshama from something we learned from him, that would certainly be the biggest aliyah for his neshama. There's a story told of one of the chassidim of the Baal Shem Tov, a very wealthy chassid, that once walked into the Baal Shem and he said, Rebbe, I feel that if I would see Eliyahu Hanavi, it would be very, very good for me, and I would be able to shteig very much because of it. How can I be zoche to see Eliyahu Hanavi? The Baal Shem Tov thought for a moment and he said, I would like you to go to a certain town far away, spend Shabbos there, and you will see Eliyahu Hanavi. The wealthy chassid packed up his wagon, he went to the town, and he arrived there shortly before Shabbos. And he went straight to shul, he davened there, and after davening he waited for somebody to invite him for the meals. Unfortunately, nobody came over to invite him. And so he walked out of shul and he started walking towards the village, and he sees a little house at the edge of the village. And he figured he'll knock on the door and he'll ask them to host him for Shabbos. He knocks on the door, a young lady answers the door, and he says, I'm here for Shabbos. I have no place to stay and no place to eat. Would I be able to stay by you? The young woman looks at him and she says, I'm sorry, I'm a recent almana, and I really have barely enough food for my own family. I certainly don't have enough to host you. I feel so bad. And the chassid says, Don't worry about it. I'm a very wealthy person. I have a wagon full of stuff, enough for me and your whole family. Don't worry about it. And she said, If that's the case, certainly come in. He comes into the house. They sit down to the Shabbos meal, and he's anxiously awaiting for Eliyahu Hanavi, but the meal comes and goes. No Eliyahu Hanavi. So he figures probably he'll come tomorrow. The meal tomorrow comes and goes. No Eliyahu Hanavi. He figures Shalosh Seudos, the apex, the pinnacle of Shabbos, that's when he's going to see Eliyahu Hanavi. Unfortunately, Shalosh Seudos came and went, and no Eliyahu Hanavi. Motzaei Shabbos, very down and depressed, he heads back to his town, and the next day he goes back into the Baal Shem, and he says, Rebbe, I did exactly what you told me, and I did not see Eliyahu Hanavi. What should I do? Baal Shem looks at him and he says, Go back again another Shabbos. I'm telling you, you'll see Eliyahu Hanavi. Next Shabbos, same story unfolds. He goes back for Shabbos, loads up his wagon, arrives before Shabbos, goes to shul once again, waits for an invitation. No invitation is forthcoming, and so once again he figures he'll go to that house of the almana.

He knocks on the door, and again tells her the story that he's here for Shabbos. And again she tells him, I don't really have what to host you with. And he says, No worries. I have my wagon outside. I have enough stuff for me and your family. It's not a problem. He comes in, and he spends Shabbos by their house. Friday night comes and goes. Shabbos morning comes and goes. Shalosh Seudos comes and goes. No Eliyahu Hanavi. This time he's really down, really depressed. He goes back home. The next day again he goes into the Baal Shem, and he tells the Baal Shem, Rebbe, I did exactly as you said, and I didn't see Eliyahu Hanavi. What am I supposed to do? Baal Shem takes for a minute, and he says, Go back again, and I'm telling you that this time you're going to see Eliyahu Hanavi. You'll definitely meet Eliyahu Hanavi. Okay, faithful chassid, he goes back a third time, and this time he stays in shul, and he waits till the last person leaves to see if somebody will invite him, maybe somebody else will invite him. Literally everybody left shul, and nobody invited him, and he figured he has no choice but to go back to that young Almanah's house. He goes back to her house, and he's about to knock on the door when he hears crying. And he listens by the door, and he hears the children crying, Mama, Mama, it's Shabbos. Tati's not here. We have no food. What are we going to do? And he hears the young Almanah tell the children, Don't worry, my tayere kinderlach. HaKadosh Baruch Hu sent Eliyahu Hanavi last Shabbos two Shabbosim ago. He sent Eliyahu Hanavi last Shabbos. He'll definitely send Eliyahu Hanavi this Shabbos again. And it was at that point that the chassid realized what the Baal Shem Tov meant. We all have an Eliyahu Hanavi inside of us. We only need someone to bring him out. In our neighborhood, we were zoche. To have a rav who epitomized and taught us what it means to be an Elio Hanavi. If Avas Yisrael was legendary and was off the charts, and it was that Avas Yisrael that fueled his amazing ability to always be able to put the needs of others before his own, whether it was the needs of his family, whether it was the needs of his talmidim, or it was our needs. I never saw him hesitate to give us all the time that we needed. And I believe it was that amazing ability that he had to always put the needs of others before his own that catapulted Rabban into the arena of greatness. Of course, he could have never done that without the backing of his faithful Rebbetzin, who understood the potential and koiches that Rabban had, and she was so willing and able to share him with us, and for that we will always be grateful. It is my hope that I could learn from Rabban. He has definitely inspired me, and I'm sure he has inspired the neighborhood, how we ourselves could bring out our Elio Hanavi and become so much more of a giving type of people. My hope is that we can learn from him, we can internalize it and integrate it into our lives, become so much better because of him. And if we can create an aliyah for our neshama because of what we were inspired from him, that would be the greatest aliyah for his neshama. Rabban Wolkin, zichrono livracha, was a tzaddik v'kadosh livracha, was an amazing person. He had a mixture, a blend of warmth and chassidishkeit and heimishkeit. For every mispallel, every person who walked into the shul, he would give a shalom aleichem to, a big hello. Whether you were a little child or you were a guest, it didn't make a difference how you looked, how you acted. He had a genuine warmth, and you felt that love to every person who walked in. Especially, he was mechabed rabbanim. Any rav that came in, he would run over, force him to sit up front, give him his shtender, try as hard as he could to be mechabed that person and ask him things and walk him out. He had this just—he exuded warmth. Besides him being a tremendous talmid chacham and knowing all over, whenever you told him a vort or asked him where it said something, if he didn't know right away, during the week he would text you or call you, I found it here, I found it there. He was always very concerned with every mispallel, every person who walked into a shul, to make them feel at home, wanted, loved, and he will be greatly missed. There were—my father-in-law, Rav Shlomo Miller...

come and he'd bring him in and he'd set him up and he'd ask him shailas, and he wouldn't let him leave till he asked him every shaila he wanted to ask him. And he'd walk him out, and it was just a sight to see, the way he was mechabed every, not just gadol, but that same kibud he gave to every human being, to every child who'd come over, tell me a vort. Friday nights afterwards he would say a little bit Torah to the people, a little shiur, whoever was interested in listening. If you weren't interested in listening, he was fine with that also. He really was a unique individual, and his zichron will live with all of us who were zoche to know him for the rest of our lives. And he should be taka meilitz yosher for not just everybody in this community, and of course his chashuvah family, but for Klal Yisroel. Thank you. We're here tonight to celebrate the life of my rav, my rebbe, my dear friend. It's very, very, very difficult for me to stand here. This was my second home when we lived here. We moved about four and a half years ago, and, well, moving was very difficult. Leaving this neighborhood, leaving the rav was difficult for me and for the rav. And the reason why it was so difficult is because the rav was so different than any other rav that I'd ever been privileged to know. He was a person that was kulo lev, just pure heart, pure heart, with no inhibitions. He was, he was... It took me by surprise. It took me by surprise because we're not used to seeing such people, especially in the frum world. People are a little more inhibited. People are... But with the Rav, he was just—there was nothing to him besides for his heart, his love. Unbelievable, unbelievable person. When I moved away from here, we would keep in touch. We would—he would send me, he would... I can't imagine I'm the only person that was in his life, and yet he would send me texts all the time. I have them in front of me. I'll just read you some things. We would learn every Thursday night together. We learned Nach, we learned Navi. And one week I couldn't come for some reason. He kept bugging me. He kept begging me, Reb Yechiel, can we learn tonight? I don't think I can go another week without seeing you. Things like that, like with such kirva and such amazing... Well, he would just, Stam send me, Ah, Yechiel, kasha alai puridasam, especially when I hum to myself Im kebanim. I'm reading his words that are still alive. Stam in the velt I, March 9th, mitrachtin vegn dir, thinking about you. Such an amazing person. And of course the pinnacle of our year was Yom Noraim, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur. I had the opportunity... to be the shliach tzibbur. And he, first of all, he would daven Shacharis. The rav would daven Shacharis, and I would daven Musaf. After the avodah that he put down, anyone who was here for a shanah, anyone who was here, who was ad klois hanefesh, he mamash, and told, he would collapse in a—I don't know how he did it. It was unbelievable. And after seeing that mesirus nefesh, and I would get up afterwards and I would look over to him, and he always had that same thing. He would just go like, Reb Yechiel, it's just me, you, and the Ribono Shel Olam. And he always used to say, one day it's gonna be just me and you in the Beis Hamikdash. And, you know, we're hoping—you got there before me—we're hoping that one day that that kesher nafshi, which can never be extinguished, you know, you're not here physically, but you'll always be right here in my heart and in the hearts of everyone that you influenced. Ribbono Shel Olam should help that we should see Moshiach b'karov mamash, and we should rejoice together in the Beis Hamikdash like you so desperately dreamed of and talked about. It's almost surreal to be standing here in the same spot that the rav zatzal...

Gave many amazing drasha every Shabbos morning and other times, and it seems like it was just yesterday, but remarkably, it's been nine months, and I can't even imagine where the time went. I think back to the first time that I actually met the Rav. I had just moved into the neighborhood, and I was looking for a place to daven, and I popped in on a Mincha, Shabbos Mincha, and the Rav was giving, I think it was a shiur in Pirkei Avos or halacha. I was sitting on the side, learning, maybe it was Shnayim Mikra. I was listening in. It sounded interesting, you know, maybe inched a little bit closer throughout the shiur, but wasn't really partaking in the shiur. After Mincha, just, I was purely a newcomer, the Rav came over to me. He said, Oh, I noticed you were listening in on the shiur, and, you know, please, you're invited. What's your name? Welcome to the neighborhood. Gave me the warmest welcome that a person could really imagine. For those that know the Rav, you could imagine that warm welcome that he gave. And it wasn't very long after that that we had a full-fledged chavrusa shaf every Sunday, and, you know, the hours that we spent learning and just discussing various topics in hashkafa and life was beyond valuable. It was one vort, and for those that know the way the drasha went, and then after the drasha Shabbos morning, as we were leaving shul, first everybody got a personalized goodbye with maybe a little Chassidishe vort for the Chassidishe guy, a Litvish vort for someone that was walking out that was Litvish. But then the oilam would gather around the table and we'd rehash the drasha, and he'd be meisef on all the things that couldn't necessarily say at that time, just from time constraints and the he'ara that he wanted to put into it. And one vort that he said many times comes to mind that I think the fact that he said it over so many times had a deep meaning. And in my opinion, I think it was almost like a calling. It was a chiddah that he said in regard to the mitzvah of eglah arufah, that the question is asked that the zekeinim come out and they say, Yadeinu lo shafchu es hadam hazeh, and they have to be involved in this whole process. And the Gemara explains the reason is shelo kidmu b'levayah; they didn't walk the person out of the town. That was the big ta'ina on them. So the question is asked, what was the big ta'ina that they didn't walk the person out? So the Rebbe always used to say over from this chiddah that it was isra mazlo of the person. Had he had the proper levayah, he had the proper walking out, he would have been in a better mood. He would have had a little bit of a more chizuk. He would have been in a better place, and then his mazal would have been in a better place. And who knows if he would have bumped into that person that gave him that ed when he was leaving town. That little chizuk would have gone so far for the person that would change the trajectory of his whole life. The Rav lived that metzius. Every encounter with a person was an opportunity for chizuk and an opportunity to change the trajectory of their life. That's the way he approached every single ben adam l'chaveiro, every single relationship. He put his entire entity into it, because it wasn't just a good morning, how are you? When he left the Rav, it was be well, be well, be well. He put so much into that be well because he knew that he can change the trajectory of a person's life with a little bit of chizuk like that. That really epitomized who he was. Every connection he took so seriously and cared for because he understood what it meant to give over to another Yid. It's no coincidence, I think back to my last conversation that I had with the Rav. Amazingly, it was just a few hours before the petirah that I had called to tell him the good news that I had had a baby boy, and nobody at that point knew the seriousness of the situation. But the Rav wished me a mazel tov and benched me so warmly and so deeply, without any care, complete disregard for his own person.

Personal situation. Once again, that was just the essence of who the Rav was, with always caring and going out of his way, putting himself out for the other person. Typically, you would end a speech like this, a haskarah, with, you know, that the niftar or the Rav should be a good better. But when we're talking about our Rav, Rav Dovid, zichrono tzaddik livrachah, he's the ultimate better. He's always looking out for every single one of his talmidim, everyone who's talmidim, and vadai, vadai, he's the greatest better for all of us. You've just experienced another Torah class brought to you by TorahAnytime.com.