First Yahrzeit of Rav Aharon Walkin (Hour 4): Talmidim Remember His Ahavas Yisrael, Guidance, and Hakaras Hatov

Transcript

This Torah class is brought to you by TorahAnytime.com. We've all gathered together to pay tribute to our dear Rebbe, Rosh Yeshiva, Harav HaGaon, Morenu v'Rabbeinu Harav Aharon Walkin, zecher tzaddik v'kadosh livrachah. I'm getting the chills as I speak and just mention the names and see the pictures and see the family and see the avreichim in the community all gathered together. Morai v'rabotai, as we all know, we're in Chodesh Nissan. Nissan is a month of hope, and during the month of Nissan there are no hespedim. But why are we all gathered here together, Morai v'rabotai? Because we're going to learn from the life of the Rav zatzal, from the Rosh Yeshiva. We're going to learn how we should live our lives. We should learn about the chashivut, the importance of learning Torah, the importance of taking our community to the next level, which was his main mission, Baruch Hashem, had the zechut to be close, very close to the Rav zatzal, probably 15, 16 years. It was amazing to ask she'eilot and advice backwards and forwards, to learn together, to grow together, to build this community together. And this past year has been very, very difficult for us all. But one thing he would always tell us is, we need to continue strong. You have to always be happy. You have to build. You have to do. And I'm so proud that the family is here today, the children, sheyichyu, are continuing the legacy of the Rav zatzal, of the Rosh Yeshiva zatzal. And Baruch Hashem, thanks to so many members of the community, we were able to do a siyum haShas. We're going to, be'ezras Hashem, tonight start off the evening by finishing Talmud Bavli, and we're going to ask the children, Pinchas, Yitzchak, Shloime, Naftali, Baruch, Barry, Yisroel Meir, to come up, and we're going to, be'ezras Hashem, start off with the siyum haShas. We're going to also ask from our dear friends of the community that also finished Masechet, the talmidim of the Rosh Yeshiva zatzal. We're going to ask from Rav Yehuda Yisanov, and we have Shemsiv, Michal Shemsiv, and Aniya Barry as well, Adam Sionov as well, a few others, including myself, Aniya Katan, baruch Hashem, I was able to do Daf Yomi thanks to the Rosh Yeshiva zatzal. We did Masechet Brachot, for all of you that remember, the siyum was huge. It was the last public event, more or less, before the pandemic. The place was packed. There was no room to move. And I took it upon myself, together with the Rosh Yeshiva zatzal, to continue Daf Yomi even during the pandemic. I was mesayem Shabbat, Eruvin; we were basically finishing Pesachim, but I didn't do a siyum because I couldn't. It was too difficult. But, tonight, I'll also, be'ezras Hashem, be mishtatef in the siyum on the side. We'll say the Hadran together. Pinchas, please. The last few lines of Masechet Megillah speak about the halachos of Sefer Torah. The Gemara says, Amar Rabbi Yannai brei d'Rabbi Yannai Sava mishmei d'Rabbi Yannai Rabbah: Mutav tigalal hamatpachas, v'al yigalal Sefer Torah. It's proper that the cloth wrapping of the Sefer Torah be rolled around it, but the Torah scroll should not be rolled upon the cloth in order to wrap the scroll in it. The Mishnah says, Vayedaber Moshe es mo'adei Hashem el Bnei Yisrael. Moshe declared the mo'adim, Hashem, to the children of— to the Bnei Yisrael. Mitzvasan sheyihu korin osan kol echad v'echad bizmano. This indicates that there is a field to read each and every Yom Tov portion at its appropriate time. Rashi says that we need to learn the halachos before the Yom Tov in order for the Yom Tov. Tanu Rabbanan: Moshe tiken lahem לישראל שיהיו שואלין ודורשין בענינו של יום, that they should inquire upon and expound upon the matters of the day. They should learn the halachos before the Yom Tov. Hilchos Pesach b'Pesach, they should learn the halachos of Pesach before Pesach. Hilchos Atzeres b'Atzeres, they should learn the halachos of Shavuos before Shavuos. Hilchos Chag b'Chag, and halachos of Sukkos before Sukkos. Hadran alach Bnei Ha'ir, mislikan masachtas Megillah. Hadran alach masachtas Megillah v'Talmud Bavli. Hadran alan. Da'atan alach masachtas Megillah v'Talmud Bavli v'da'atan alan. Lo nisnashei minach masachtas Megillah v'Talmud Bavli v'lo sishtakach minan, lo b'alma hadin v'lo b'alma dasi. Yehi ratzon milfanecha Adonai Eloheinu v'Elohei avoseinu, shetehei Torasecha umlaseinu b'olam hazeh, v'tehei עמנו לעולם הבא. Chanina bar Papa, Rami bar Papa, Nachman bar Papa, Achai bar Papa, Abba Mari.

Bar Pappa, Rafram bar Pappa, Rachish bar Pappa, Sorchal bar Pappa, Ada bar Pappa, Daru bar Pappa. HaRev na Adonai Eloheinu es divrei shirascha, befinu uvfi amcha Beis Yisrael, v'nihyeh kulanu anachnu v'tza'atzeinu, v'tza'atzei tza'atzeinu, v'tza'atzei amcha Beis Yisrael, kulanu yodei shmecha v'lomdei Torasecha lishmah. Me'ahavascha sfacheinu, ki l'olam hi li, yehi li bita'amim chukecha, l'maan lo eivosh l'olam, lo eshkach pikudecha, ki vam chisani. Baruch Atah Adonai, lamdeni chukecha. Amen v'amen, selah va'ed. Modim anachnu Lach, Adonai Eloheinu v'Elohei avoseinu, shesamta chelkeinu miyoshvei beis hamedrash, v'lo samta chelkeinu miyoshvei kranos, she'anu mashkimin v'heim mashkimin; anu mashkimin lidivrei Torah, v'heim mashkimin lidvarim beteilim. Anu ameilim v'heim ameilim; anu ameilim umekablim sachar, v'heim ameilim v'einam mekablim sachar. Anu ratzim v'heim ratzim; anu ratzim l'chayei ha'olam haba, v'heim ratzim l'bor shachas, shene'emar, V'Atah Elohim, oridem l'bor shachas; anshei damim umirmah lo yechtzu yemeihem, va'ani evtach Bach. V'hi ratzon milfanecha, Adonai Elohai, k'sheim shazakhitaeni v'yashivu b'yeshivas talmud Bavli, ken tazkeini v'haskil masechtos u'sefarim acherim u'lesaimam, lilmod ul'lamed, lishmor v'la'asos, u'lekayeim es kol divrei Talmud Torasecha b'ahavah, u'schus kol haTannaim vhaAmoraim vtalmidei chachamim ya'amod li ulzari shelo, shaTorah mipi zari vzera zari ad olam. Vhiskayem bi, blecha tancha otah, vshachbecha tishmar, alecha ki tishicha, ki vi yirbu yamecha vyosifu lcha shnos chayim, orech yamim biminah, usmaola osher vkavod. Adonai oz lamo yitein, Adonai yevarech es amo bashalom. Say Kaddish. Yisgadal v'yiskadash shmei rabba. בעלמא די ברא כרעותה, וימליך מלכותה בחייכון וביומיכון ובחיי דכל בית ישראל, בעגלא ובזמן קריב, ואמרו אמן. יהא שמה רבא מברך לעלם ולעלמי עלמיא. יתברך וישתבח ויתפאר ויתרומם ויתנשא ויתהדר ויתעלה ויתהלל שמה דקודשא בריך הוא, לעילא מן כל ברכתא ושירתא, תושבחתא ונחמתא, דאמירן בעלמא, ואמרו אמן. על ישראל ועל רבנן ועל תלמידיהון ועל כל תלמידי תלמידיהון, ועל כל מאן דעסקין באורייתא, די באתר הדין ובכל אתר ואתר, יהא להון ולכון שלמא רבא, חינא וחסדא ורחמים, חיי אריכי, מזוני רויחי, פרנסה טבא, וישועה ונחמה, דמן שמיא, ואמרו אמן. עושה שלום במרומיו, הוא יעשה שלום עלינו ועל כל ישראל, ואמרו אמן. Okay. Morai v'rabotai, as we all know, the Rav zatzal has been teaching in Queens over here for many decades, for many years. But unfortunately... There was a little bit, a small period of time where the Rav stopped coming to Queens, and the community definitely felt it. Baruch Hashem, five years ago, more or less, chasdei Hashem, Chazak had the zechut to partner together with the Rosh Yeshiva zatzal to restart the Beit Midrash and the kollel that started by Rabbi Chaimov many, many years ago. And Baruch Hashem, chasdei Hashem, we see the fruits of Baruch Hashem, the labor. We see Baruch Hashem the baalei batim, we see the bachurim, we see the avreichim, many of which are already rabbanim of kehillot. Baruch Hashem, chasdei Hashem. But there was one man that really, really took this project to heart, and the moment he met the Rebbe zatzal, we could say they were best friends, in a sense. But it was almost a talmid-rebbe relationship, par excellence. They're in touch. I can attest to this almost on a daily basis. Many of us, of the baalei batim that are here today, are thanks to this individual. I'd like to start the evening by asking my dear brother-in-law, Moshe Staib, to say a few words. Moshe, bechavod.

Good evening, everybody. I'm not sure why I'm speaking first, but this is the way they set it up. I read this week something interesting. It talks about, in Parshas Shemos, in the Sefer Shemos, the pasuk, it says, Elokei masecha lo ta'aseh, right? You shouldn't make an idol. And the next pasuk is, right, to keep Pesach. So I read this week, and it was, you know, it was an interesting question. It makes a lot of sense. The Torah juxtaposes two very random psukim. One is telling you not to have an avodah zarah, and then right the next pasuk tells you to keep Pesach. What does one have to do with another? So I saw, interesting, it says, we all know that a person who gets angry is like he served avodah zarah. And he wrote over there, I guess, Pesach is very synonymous with people, they need to clean, they need to, you know, make sure there's no chametz in the house. I guess it's a moment of a lot of anxiety, and sometimes a person may lose his cool a little bit. And therefore, the Torah juxtaposes these two psukim to tell you, in this time of high anxiety, you've got to make sure the house is ready to go, clean for Pesach, make sure don't get angry. Why? Because it's like you're serving avodah zarah. There are two things, right, that it says that you cannot bring into the mizbeach: ki chol se'or v'chol devash lo taktiru mimenu isheh laHashem, the pasuk says. So or is sourdough. Sourdough, right, rises. It's exactly the opposite of matzah. That's compared to gaavah, right? There are two middot that we should never also serve Hashem with. One is gaavah and one is kaas, one is anger. Gaavah and anger. So ki chol s'or v'chol devash. How does devash compare to anger? So I read over there, it said the bee has a stinger, and that stinger is called achas, ayin, chaf, samech. If you scramble the letters around, it comes to kaas. So these two middot are two middot that we're not supposed to serve Hashem with. There's no room for those middot. Why is all this and how am I going to connect it? Baruch Hashem, I don't know why, I had the zechut to be very, very close to Rebbe, to Rabbi Wolkin, and these are the two middot I never saw in the Rav. These are exactly the two middot I never saw. And when you're around a person as much as I was, you see a person an hour a day, he can get away with it. But Rebbe, gaavah, I don't know what that word means when it comes to Rebbe, and kaas I've never seen. Rebbe was the epitome of chesed, of caring about every single individual. You know, he, I attribute a lot of my growth, and I didn't, like I heard in the shloshim a lot of people were speaking, I attribute a lot of my growth to him. I didn't even realize when I was around him what he was doing to me. I'm the kind of guy, I thought nobody in the world could change me. They've tried in yeshiva. When I was in elementary school they failed, in high school they failed. Walking is also going to fail, but let me try. And slowly but surely, Baruch Hashem, he's made a huge impact in my life. You know, I attribute the way I used to think to myself, if I'm not learning 24 hours a day, maybe something's wrong with me. I try, I open up, I'm trying to learn, I'm only doing an hour a day. It's also the Satan. Rabbi Walkin used to take my kochos and he used to tell me, Moshe, go to work, make a kiddush Hashem at work. This is what HaKadosh Baruch Hu wants from you. Go make a kiddush Hashem. You're working, you're in business, go show people the way a religious Jew is supposed to act. And through these, you know, tidbits, I guess, every single day, Baruch Hashem, you know, I was able to find myself, to find simcha in what I was doing, and find value in myself, even though I'm not like, you know, the ideal what I'd like to be. But he showed me that this is what HaKadosh Baruch Hu wants from you. This is why you're here. I don't want to hold for too long, but I do have a lot of hakaras hatov to the family, to the Rebbetzin, to the children. You know, I asked in the levaya, you know, I wanted to say something, and somehow I felt right.

Between all the children. And I know why it's not stam, nothing happens stam. It's because Rebbe be'emet. You know, people saying he feels like a center of attention. I know he's a center of attention. I know that he meant so much to me, and I meant so much to him. And it was a big bracha in my life. I davened for him one Yom Kippur, and Kadosh Baruch Hu answered me. And I know that Rebbe is watching over me, and now watching over all of us. And he should continue being a melitz yosher to all of us. And bezrat Hashem, we should be able to reunite, bezrat Hashem, in techiyat hameitim and see his smile once again. Thank you all for coming tonight. Thank you. Shkoyach, Rabbi Naweis, for joining us. Thank you. Morai v'rabotai, we have a lot of chashuv rabbanim. I like to categorize it as follows: there is a senior avreichim, which are rabbanim, and former or the current junior... And baruch Hashem, many of them are still on their way. I know that they are, and baruch Hashem, are busy with their kehilot, with their avodat hakodesh. But one man that I know for a fact that the Rebbe zatzal was very, very close with, and in a sense I believe that the Rebbe zatzal has the zechut to take credit for who he is today, is one that needs no introduction to this crowd. He's the rav of many in this community over here. He's the rav of Congregation Or HaTorah. Let's answer over a few words to be safe here. Good evening, everyone. Before we know it, the year already passed. And now it's time for us to look back, to recollect, to reflect on what we lost. The truth is, I didn't prepare anything organized to speak about, but I had the seichel to call and ask, will there be speakers? And they said, yes, you might be called on. I understood that's going to be for sure speaking. So with a few minutes in the car, I was just trying to think of how I would characterize my Rebbe, Iron. This year, when the guys were pushing very hard that everyone should take Daf Yomi, they said that the Rebbe can push them very much. He wanted everyone to be involved in learning. So I discussed it with a certain friend of mine in kollel, told him the daf. He says he doesn't have time for it. It's very, very time-consuming. He's busy, he has family, he has obligations, etc. So he tells me that he has a good friend who has a large family, larger than his, seven, eight kids, and he also asked him one time, why don't you do the daf? He learned in yeshiva, yeshiva chacham. When are you going to finish Shas? So the person told him, You see my kids? He pointed at his kids, seven, eight kids, says, This is my Shas. I'm thinking now that if רבי Wolkin would be standing here, he would be saying, This is my Shas. And the truth is, outside of this restaurant, five miles this way, five miles that way, in Lakewood, and there are people that have moved down to Eretz Yisroel and other places as well, that's all his Shas. What do I mean by that? Learning the daf requires dedication. It requires energy, and if you're teaching the daf, you have to be clear, you have to be composed, you have to make sure that people don't knock you off with their questions. It takes a lot, a lot of energy. And dealing with people is way harder than learning Shas, especially when you have to deal with people that each one comes with his own unique problems, with his way of teaching him, his way of speaking to him. Some people like jokes, some people like serious things, there are people that like deep thoughts, there are people that like just stories and mashalim. And somehow, when you came to Rabbi Wolkin's shiur, everybody walked away happy. Everyone walked away satisfied. And it wasn't just because he spoke about a different array of subjects, it's because he spoke to every person, literally. You have asked his sons and the earlier tapes, there was speaking back and forth.

Back and forth. In fact, Rabbi was very, very kind in those days. He let people talk and talk and talk until it got to a point where he would say, Listen, it's my shiur. As he'll tell you, I'm sitting here and you're sitting there, so you have to listen to what I'm saying. But because of this loving interaction, people just came, and that's why I came. Because every person found something in Rabbi Walkin that he could connect to. And even though it started as a Sunday shiur for me, then it became a couple of times a week, and then it became daily, and then I started to come to prayer as well, and all of a sudden the person became attached. And Baruch Hashem, I had the zechus, I stayed around for a little while, not as long as I should have. But there were people that came for a few months, there were people that came for a year or two, and they left. They left to other places. But every time you would meet those people, they would ask, How's the Walkin doing? I miss those days. I miss those days. Rabbi Yaniv mentioned there was a few years that Rabbi Walkin wasn't able to come. He moved to Lakewood. It wasn't the same. He wasn't able to drive back and forth. I remember somebody came over to me saying, Is there a shiur in Queens for Chumash? I said, There's a shiur here. No, no, no. You remember like a Walkin shiur, like that type. It was something that you had to see to experience to be able to understand what he was talking about. Very, very special type of a shiur, because the person who was giving it, of course, was very, very special. He treated us like a father treated his children. I remember shortly before, about a year and a half, in the summer, the Agudah came to August of Chai to try to encourage people to participate in the siyum, and Rabbi Walkin spoke before one of the lay leaders of Agudah spoke, and— If I'm not mistaken, it was the gissinger that was niftar that day, Luz, and Rav Wolkin got up and he said, We lost somebody today, a very, very good person. That's how he started off the thing. I believe it was Rav Gissinger, Rav Shlomo Gissinger. And he said these words, and I think it applies very, very much to Rav Wolkin. So he said, Who was Rabbi Gissinger? Those that don't know, he was a rav, a very chashuv posek, an av beis din, and what he was well known for, Rav Gissinger, was the fact that he was very devoted to his kehillah. So Rav Wolkin said these words. He says, There was no Rav Gissinger. Whatever you needed, that's what he was. You needed a doctor, he became a doctor. You needed somebody of shalom bayis, shalom bayis. You needed somebody to pasken a shailah in Choshen Mishpat, that. There was no one personality that you could call Rav Gissinger. And that, the truth is, that's what Rav Wolkin was. We came to him when we were young, way, way back. This one had problems with his parents. The next one had problems because he didn't know which yeshiva to go to, if he should stay, if he should go. Can we learn this way? Can we learn that way? And for every single person, he had an ear. For every single person, he devoted time. And it wasn't just time there. He would come back to you the next day and say, You know, I called some people. I looked into it for you. Maybe speak to this one and speak to that one. And we all thought, Oh, it's just doing me a favor. And we found out afterwards that no, for every single person in that shiur, that's how dedicated this person was. Unfortunately, I didn't pick up those qualities. I don't think I'm able to become like this type of a person that serves everyone on their frequency, the way that they want, with the time that they give, and on top of all that also maintain a schedule in learning. He was able to do that. I was not able to pick it up. But I can tell you with certainty, my growth, like Rav Moshe said, my growth pretty much is the Wolkin family, and that's—I'm referring to the Rebbetzin, I'm referring to those kids over there, the troublemakers that used to break stuff in yeshiva. The driving back and forth in the various cars with their various glitches, and watching how the family functioned at home, and how some kids—we're not going to say what they did, Baruch Hashem—all those things had an effect on those people that were זוכה to have these type of interactions. They built us, because we didn't come from such homes. We had no idea what it meant to be a ben Torah. We had very, very warped, weird ideas. Maybe it just means learning, maybe it means a long davening. And here was a person who sat down with you, and he kept saying, Just be normal, just be normal. I didn't even understand what he meant. What do you mean, normal? Everybody's normal. And then he told us, No. Normal is not a common thing to find. It's something that a person has to develop. And with these type of stories and mashalim, slowly, slowly, shiur after shiur, we developed personalities. And when we went to other places, people would ask me, Where did you learn? I said, I learned in a kiruv yeshiva. Someone told me, No way, there's no way. It's impossible. You have too much background. I thought about it. I said, I don't know what I went through. Apparently there was somebody there that was pumping us with hashkafa, pumping us with mussar, and basically built us up, that now, Baruch Hashem, you have people—I could name them, they would be embarrassed—there are people here that run...

There are people that had run shuls. There are people that became experts in kashrus, in other areas of halacha, and all of these people passed through Rav Wolfson's hands. And it wasn't they just passed and they went through; he molded these people. Afterwards, when they went on to other places, they already had a haschalah, they already had a beginning. They were able to function as independent in Torah. And that's what he did for this community. That's why it's such a terrible loss for all of us here, because there's so much more work that needs to be done, so much more growth that needs to be accomplished by so many other people that are missing this type of a connection. It's a loss that's very sorely felt. Hopefully, all of us, all of us, talmidim and all the people that attended the shiur that saw him, can take something away from that personality and carry it on further, so that this will be our—we will be his living, his living shas. The books that he wrote, the work that he put into us, that we'll be walking away with that and giving him a tremendous sense of nachas. I was looking now, we were saying the Hadran. I can imagine how he would feel sitting over here. He'd probably be smiling from ear to ear. You have no idea, that kind of smile he had. That picture over there doesn't do it justice. When he saw his talmidim making a siyum, his talmidim making a proper kosher—I remember used to go to chasanas where there was separate—for him this was like his own son's bar mitzvah, his own son's chasana. He had tremendous, tremendous nachas from watching this event. And those of us that can increase it by giving it over to others, you have no idea how much nachas you're giving to him. The fact that he showed him that he left a stamp in this world that's not going to be erased for a long, long time. You should be zocheh to see Rebbe with Mashiach tzidkeinu bimheirah, bamehirah, amen. We're going to mix and match the different speakers for tonight. At this time, I'd like to call upon an individual that I had the zechut to meet at my father's shul, Shehebari, at the Young Israel of Forest Hills. And I remember giving shiurim over there. He was sitting in the front row. He looked like, I don't know how to say this right, in a way not to offend him, chas v'shalom, but, you know, a colorful kippah, a small kippah on the front. He was very interested in learning, and he asked me, Is there a yeshiva somewhere I can learn more Torah? I told him I have the perfect yeshiva, the perfect rabbi for you, and Morah Ruti, the rest is history, השתבח שמו לעד, and we're talking about Rav David Kalman Shlita, b'chavod. You know, I was up last night, and I had a daf. I had a daf left to finish my third masechet this year since Rabbi passed. And I said on Rabbi's yahrzeit, I didn't even plan it like this, I have one daf left, and I was so tired. I was like, I got to finish this. And for me, you know, to say one word in Aramaic can take an hour, but the Rebbe gave me ratzon that you should push and you push and you should push, and it's the main thing. And I finished last night. I had a light lit up for him, and I actually, when the book came out of the Rebbe after he passed away, I actually couldn't look inside of it. It's called Rebbe Rebbe. I was in too much pain from what happened, and he was my second father. Real sense of the word. And I for the first time looked back at it last night after I finished, after I finished Masechet Chagigah, and I was reading about him speaking about his grandfather. I was crying like a baby, and I guess you're not supposed to do that on Nissan, but I was up all night last night. So if I'm not speaking clearly, I'm sorry. It's a long night. But I want to tell you that the Rebbe was very, very special. I remember the first time that I met him. He used to tell people this proudly all the time. Anybody new who came in, he said, You see this guy? And they said, Yeah. He said, David, tell him how it started. I said, What? He goes, Tell him how it started. Tell him how we started. I was like, Again? He said, Yeah, yeah, tell him. So, okay, fine. So I came in. I told the Rebbe, Hi, my name is David. I had the small little kippah. You could barely see it on the side of my head. It was multicolored. I was working out a lot back then. I lost all of that, thank God. Filled it up with Torah instead. Hopefully my wife is happy. And I told him, Listen, Rebbe, I've never been in a yeshiva before.

I've never learned Chumash before. I've never seen a Gemara before. I don't know Hebrew. I don't know Aramaic. I don't know Mishnah. I became baal teshuva five seconds ago. Can I become a rabbi? The rabbi looked at me with all sincerity, and I didn't realize at the time that there is a million books, and I didn't realize that the learning never ends. I thought it was like college, you know, you go to school for a few years, you pass a test, you're this. And I sat down. I remember the first two years I was in yeshiva, I didn't even learn anything because I was so overwhelmed. I just kept looking at all the books, and I said, How am I ever going to start? And he looked at me, held my hand, and he said, David. I said, Yes. He said, Do you want? I said, Yeah. He says, Okay, let's do it. And right before he passed away, he made me a rabbi. There's no words. He actually saved my life. Actually saved my life. I remember I was, you know, I spoke a little bit about it. People who know me know better, but I went through a lot of mental health issues. I had tremendous depressive episodes, even and especially most intensely after I joined the yeshiva. You know, it's not easy to grow up secular and white and Ashkenazi and then be surrounded by... No, I'm just kidding. And then come here, and all of a sudden you're religious. But there's a big bridge in between that whole thing, that you can look the part and you can dress the part. But there's a very, very narrow bridge in between those two places, and it was a very painful transition for me. Even though I was enthralled, you know, Hashem exists and I have meaning in my life now, thank God, but it's very hard. And I remember I stopped going to yeshiva for a few months. The Rebbe called me every day, every day, and he was calling everybody else here every day. And he would try to give me chizuk, whatever he could give me, whatever he could muster. I remember one time, it was months and months and months, he didn't see me, and he called me and he said, David, you know, my grandmother, I think it was a grandmother, they botched her surgery as she was giving birth, and she was paralyzed for the rest of her life after that. And every day I saw her, she had a big smile on her face. And I asked her, Grandma, how are you always happy? You should have been walking your whole life, and you're never going to walk again. You haven't left your bed. How can you be happy? And she said to him, Because tomorrow is going to be a better day. And I remember he told me this on the phone, and I just started crying, how he was trying so hard to help me, to give me any type of chizuk at all. And this was the Rebbe, that he fought for every one of us. I remember the first time that I heard him teach. And I realized there was a pattern. He gave what was called the divrei Torah, and he would start crying at the end. And I was very confused. After I saw it the first time, I thought maybe he was emotional about whatever he was speaking about. But I was concerned after a few times of this, thinking maybe this was like part of some type of rabbi shtick. And I came over to the rabbi, and I didn't know then that you have to have kavod for the rabbi, and you have to speak to them in a certain way. And I spoke to him like I spoke to anybody else, and I said, Rabbi, I have a real question for you. He said, Yeah, sure. I said, You know how you were just crying? Rabbi said, Yeah. I said, Why do you do that? He said, What do you mean? I said, Why at the end of every shiur you start crying? And the reason why I was asking was because I really loved him, and I really felt that this could be my rabbi, and I really thought that this could be the answer to my prayers, and that I could have a very, very long time connecting to Hashem b'schut this person. And I was concerned about something that I thought might not be genuine. And I asked him, and I saw from the seriousness of his response, No, I just—I didn't even realize I was doing it. I just got emotional as I was speaking. And when I realized that that was

Real. And he does that every day, all the time. I was it. That was it. This was my Rebbe. And I just want to say thank you to the Rebbe's wife and to the Rebbe's children, who he loved so much. And I just want to give everybody the message that the Rebbe gave us, that we should live with this forever and every day. There's a lot to live for. There is much that we have to do. And by the Rebbe, that didn't mean that we have to plan for years and years to do something crazy. The Rebbe said, Just do it. You came up to him, I have an idea. Okay, go ahead, do it. Yeah, but what about all the planning? What planning? Just start. And then tomorrow you'll do it again. That the koach of the Rebbe was that he did the best that he could at every moment. And all of those moments piled up, and it became the birth of the spiritual, emotional, psychological, physical life of countless, countless Jewish people that the Rebbe loved with an infinite love. I remember somebody asked me, How do I know Hashem loves me? And I didn't answer him this because Rav Wolkin wasn't his Rebbe. But thinking back now, when you saw how much the Rebbe loved, and you know that he was his son, so if he loves me that much, and he loves all of us that much. That it must be that Hashem also loves us, and also with an infinite love, and an infinite amount of compassion, and will do whatever it takes for any person at any given moment, and that He thinks about you constantly, all the time. And it wasn't real for me until I met the Rebbe. There's no words that are going to do it justice. There's nothing that we can do or say that can speak to the power of the Rebbe, the koach of the Rebbe in each of our lives, and the fruit will continue to bear for all of us, not just in our time, but for our children and our grandchildren and our great-grandchildren. And I just want to say thank you to everybody here, that the Rebbe brought us all together. And I'll end with this: many people think holiness means you learn a lot of Torah. Many people think holiness means you grow out a big beard and you wear black and white. Holiness is when you can unite Jews together. Holiness is when you can take different types of people from all around the world, all different backgrounds, all different cuisines, all different emotional capabilities and intellectual understandings, and put them all together in one place, and that we all feel connected to Hashem. We all want to grow. We all feel one. We all feel loved. And that goes to show the true, genuine holiness of the Rebbe, that there was no limits to it, because here we are all now together, completely different people as one. And this was the koach of the tzaddik that was Rav Aaron. Thank you everybody for listening to me, and thank you to the family of the Rebbe and to his children. You guys are with me in my heart every day, and I hope I make you guys proud. Thank you so much. One of the Rebbe's atzal's excitement was to see children. When you see children, he would have this aura, this special light. He always had a special light, but even more so. And I'll never forget the video that went viral of the Rebbe's atzal visiting Yeshiva Shaarei Tzion with hundreds of kids, and he starts giving them brachot, and they're all like a magnet, connected to the Rebbe. And today we have the zechut of having his talmid, Rabbi Ephraim Ben Mordechai Shlita, the rav at Ad Yosef Chai as well, that I remember for many, many years when I was a bachur, when I was a student in yeshivah, I would go there special for Sunday mornings for the parshah shiur, and Rabbi Ephraim Ben Mordechai, you know, behind the scenes, was able to put it together. So without further ado, Rabbi Ephraim Ben Mordechai. Did you ever experience a moment in life when you have so much to say that you don't even know what to say? This is exactly what I'm feeling right now, trying to think, and not prepared at all, and not think that I'm going to be speaking. But there's so much that I want to say that I don't even know what to start from.

One very tremendous thing that I have learned: when you're growing up in a yeshiva as a Bucharian Sephardi boy, it's not so pashut. Especially when you're going to an Ashkenazi yeshiva, you're singled out. You feel different. So you always have to try to either be like them or isolate yourself from them. And I was always thinking when I was growing up as a bachur in the yeshiva, perhaps maybe this is not the place for me. I want to go to a place where everybody is accepted, a famous yeshiva, where you can walk around and say, I went to this yeshiva, that yeshiva, Lakewood, Mir, Staten Island. Baruch Hashem, I had chaverim that actually went there, a lot of these yeshivas, yeshivot. And as I got older, I said to myself, Baruch Hashem, I did not end up there. And I'm not sure if I would have been to the level that I have today if I would have got, if I would have been in these places. Why? Because when a talmid feels isolated and not connected to the crowd, he feels disconnected. Mimela he feels like there's nothing that he can do, or there's nothing special that can come out of him. We had a rebbe like Rav Aaron Walkin, the ma'alah... One of them I love that I'll tell you. He hated when someone would single out or make a difference between a Sefardi or Ashkenazi. He would always say, What difference does it make? I still remember him saying it. The voice resonates: What difference does it make? You're Sefardi, Ashkenazi, Bukharian, Moroccan, Persian. You're a Jew. And I believe that the only reason—interesting, Baruch Hashem, over here we have Sefardim, Ashkenazim sitting together—when I hear individuals singling out, and he was always, Sefardi, he's Sefardi, he's Ashkenazi, I never understood that. What difference does it make? And I think the only reason why I was able to do zocheh, not only myself and all the other talmidim, to become what I've become is only because the Rebbe himself, he did not differentiate between Sefardi, Ashkenazi, Bukharian. He loved everyone like his son. I had the privilege to give my son as the sandak for the walking, walking was the sandak to my son. And it's interesting, I was thinking, in the order of sandakut, I had a Rebbe that I grew from also before the walking, and technically he was supposed to be the one to be next in line to get the sandakut. I always said to myself as a bachur, when I have my sons, I want to be able to be the zakeh, all my people that I felt like I grew from. Hashem answered my prayers, Baruch Hashem. Not when he was supposed to give sandakut. At that moment, for some reason, I had some type of feeling I should give it to Rabbi Walkin instead. After he was niftar, now I understand why Kadosh Baruch Hu made it that way, that he should come first, because I have another son five months, six months ago, and if he would have been the one to take the sandakut, unfortunately he would not be here. So HaKadosh Baruch Hu made it that way, when a son that really other one was supposed to take his sandak, Rabbi Walkin was the one to take it, and I'm very, very happy for that. Just to tell you the experience of that, Rabbi Walkin used to have a minhag: he would not sleep at night. Besides the fact that he wouldn't sleep at night every night, as is, I remember coming to his house, I would see his chair where he would sleep there. I would always wonder, Rabbi, how do you sleep here? Don't ask questions. But the night of sandakut, the night that he knows that he has to be a sandak the next day, he does not sleep at night. The night before, this is exactly what happened. I was mezakeh him to be the sandak for my son, so he didn't sleep at night.

Because in the morning, that experience I will never forget. The people that were there will never forget. I'm sure you've experienced it yourself. He sits down there, he takes the baby, and he cries and cries and cries and cries, the inspiration that he gave. And he... we witnessed something that will, and I'm sure has, left a big impression on people. So much so, my brother calls me and he says, What do you think? I saw that Rabbi Walkin was a sandak for your son. I want to give him the sandak also. I said to myself, I don't know. Maybe, why not? Ask him. He's not your rabbi. He's my rabbi. So I want to give him the sandak, just to show you the greatness of Rabbi Walkin. I said, Okay, try. He calls the rabbi and he says, I want to give Zachy to be the sandak. This famous story happened with my brother, a famous story that you heard. And the rabbi called me. I'm standing in the classroom before I'm about to teach. I see Rabbi Walkin calling me at 7:45 in the morning. It's not like him to just call me randomly. I would pick up the phone, he says, What do you think about this? I just got a phone call from your brother. He wants me to be the sandak. However, I don't know. He told me he feels that perhaps not. To make a long story short, he agreed to be the sandak. Then on the day of the sandakut... He calls me in the morning again at 7:45 in the morning. I pick up the phone, ... Shalom aleichem, shalom aleichem. I made a decision. This is already when he came to Queens, driving after not sleeping the entire night, driving to Queens. He made a decision: I'm not going to take this ... I'm going to give it to the rav, since the rav is the rav of your brother, I'm going to give it to him. I said, No, I don't think my brother is going to be happy with this. Don't worry about it, I'll convince him. He came to Queens, he stopped my brother, he called him up, he took his phone number — that's why he called me — took his phone number down. He called my brother, he comes and he started begging him, Please, I want you to do the right thing. I don't want to be hurting this other rav who you grew from. I'm going to hurt him. That's the last thing I want to do. And trust me, he says, with the zechut of this, your son will be a big tzaddik. My mother agreed. The rav's soul was shocked, and the rest is history. I don't think any one of us sitting here, at least myself not, will give up this zechut after staying up the whole night, learning the entire night, thinking you're going to be the sandak, driving two and a half hours from Lakewood and giving the sandakut to somebody else. This is Rav ... walking. There's another point that I would like to share. Rabbi, you should not have given me the microphone. There are certain things that we think are pashut that are not so pashut. I called Rav ... Very serious question that I thought in my mind for sure Rabbi Walkin will say, get rid of this person. We have an individual in yeshiva who happened to have some shaychut to children. And there's something that this person did, which I'm not going to tell you, but something that I'm sure, if I'll ask everyone over here, what do you think? Should this person be in yeshiva and be someone that's close to Yaldei Yisrael? For sure each and every one of you will say, get rid of him. I said, I want to call Rabbi Walkin. I called Rabbi Walkin, I said, Rabbi, this is this and this is the situation. When I told him the story, and I wish I could relate to you really all the details, when I told him the story, he told me, I said, of course, I was thinking he's going to say, yeah, for sure, he can't be in yeshiva. He stopped for a second. He said, this she'eilah, I'm not the one that is going to answer. You have to call Rabbi Olbaum. I said, why? Why? The person is a rasha. In my mind, you have to get rid of him. That's what we all think. He said, this is a prayut. You're dealing with a person that has a wife.

that has children. I'm not ready to simply say he's fired and you remove his parnassah. This individual, he took achrayut. He understood what responsibility is. It's not so simple just to get rid of a person. He took tremendous achrayut. When I was in Yeshivat Shaarei Tzion, as soon as I opened the door to the first grade class, he opened, he saw the boy, he started crying. Tremendous love he had for every Jew, no matter who he was. Now and then, he connected with every single boy on every level. He was speaking to first graders. I was thinking in my mind, my rebbe is so big in Torah. How is he going to connect to first graders? My jaw dropped when I saw he connected with the first graders. Then we took him upstairs to speak to the third graders, sixth graders, seventh graders. He spoke to them for two hours. He didn't want to leave. They didn't want him to stop. It was going on and on and on. When I'm leaving off with this message, something that is still living in my ears, my rebbe always used to tell me, Remember two names, and these two names are going to save you from trouble: Abaye v'Rava. Abaye v'Rava. Don't get into machloket. Just stick to Abaye v'Rava and you'll see you'll be matzliach. And there's not a day in my mind that I don't think about these words, Abaye v'Rava. Anyone that knows him, he would always stay away from machloket. Even in the kollel, when we would get into arguments with chaverim and we would try to come to the rebbe to take my side. He would never take sides. Never to take sides. And it would bother me when I was younger. Why not take sides? I'm right. He never takes sides because, again, we're two brothers from different mothers and fathers, but he loved us as though we were his children. May it be zoche to be inspired from all these stories that we hear, to become better people, to take upon ourselves more and more yirat Shamayim and Torah, and may this be a merit yosher for Rebbe. Baruch ... amen, amen. Zeh hagemara for our very friend, b'morechai. From Morag Rabbi Dayi, as I mentioned, we mix the rav, the former avreichim, the current avreichim. We have with us Rabbi Tomer Zino. Rabbi Zino, I remember joining the yeshiva Rabbi Wolkman had a very special love to all the avreichim, so it would definitely be Rabbi Zino, please. I remember as if yesterday, I was speaking to Rabbi Yaniv. I was about to get married, and I was wondering, where am I going to have a sefaradi halacha kolel? I just recently moved to Queens. I was thinking, I'm going to go all the way to Brooklyn, all the way to Israel. I want to learn halacha. I want to learn from somebody who can give me according to my tradition. I just came back from yeshiva gedolah Pesaik, and Rabbi Yaniv tells me, You're not going to believe it. You're gonna have a yeshiva five minutes away from your house. There's gonna be a rabbi coming all the way from Lakewood, and he's gonna come teach you. He's Ashkenazi, but he knows everything for Sefardim. And he's gonna teach you, and he's gonna have a kollel, and it was like a miracle. It came from Shamayim. And a lot of times, being very honest, when you come from yeshiva and you come from a big place like I was coming from, a lot of times people fall through the cracks. A lot of times people are very judgmental. A lot of times you have to fit the part, you have to fit the mold. You have to play at the level everyone's playing at. And it rubs off on you. And you're around this kind of place, around these kind of people, it rubs off on you. And you could also sometimes be judgmental. You could also sometimes expect better from people all the time or most of the time. But when I met Rebbe, just from speaking to him after a few minutes, I never met such a person in my life. And I think, like people have been mentioning it in the speeches, you only realize after what he did to you after you learned with him for a while. It was so good, the teaching was so good.

It got to your heart every time. And you would only walk in the street while you're talking to yourself, thinking to yourself, Wow, I really changed a lot. Wow, going here every day really means something. And a lot of times I used to read. Everyone loves reading the sefarim about the Gedolim and their stories. And I always thought about how we read about the rabbis in the Gemara, how they would learn for days and nights. And you read stories about Gedolim from Europe who would do mesiras nefesh for Torah, and who would not eat and not sleep. And I thought that this is something that you read in the books and they stay in the books, and those publishers will make nice books for people to read. But I never realized that there was such a thing that was really real. And the thing I needed most in my life in that moment was Torah to be real, for a rebbe to be real, for my friends to be real, because that's what everybody wants. Everybody wants something real. We're all working so hard to make our lives better and to make our lives mean something, and a lot of times it could be missing reality. It could be missing the realness to it. And the rebbe gave me that realness to me, how real he was with me every time he would say a Torah to me, every Chumash shiur. He gave his heart on a platter to every single person. I'm a very emotional person, and I didn't even know. I came to Rebbe and I was crying every time, every time. I never heard the Torah like that in my life. It was real. It was really real. Because when you're learning and you're learning and you have a lot of pressure and you have a lot of things distracting you, when you hear something real like that, it gives you so much motivation. And you say, look, this person learned, this person worked. Look what kind of person he is. It's real. Everything I learned in those stories about the Gedolim, they're real. It's not something in heaven. You get it. To be a person who knows so much, I would bother him and bother him and bother him and bother him, and it was never a bother. I would call him about my own personal issues. I would call him about halachic things. I would ask him pshat in Tosfos. He's always there, always. He never missed a beat. I would say, Rebbe, it's already one o'clock in the afternoon, and you're teaching and teaching and teaching. You didn't sleep the night before. You're writing up things in the middle of the night, and you're teaching for four hours in the morning. Like, how are you not falling on your face? And he would tell me, If you love everybody like your children, you wouldn't think about how tired you are. You wouldn't think how sick you feel, because it was so real to him. That's why all these things didn't matter to him. And I see his children today, and I want to thank them and his wife, the Rebbetzin, because to leave your family for so long and to drive all the way and to be moser nefesh so much. So I can have a real life, so I can have a meaningful life. And by extension, it's because of you guys. And I really want to thank you so much for everything, [unclear] you guys did. Because we know that all these things only come out afterwards. You hear these stories, you hear these personal things. And I am who I am today because of my rabbi. It's very simply put, he's the most real rabbi I ever had. And I don't know what zechut, like many people said, I don't know what zechut I had, but it fell from Shamayim. It was a miracle. I want to end off with something that is nogea to this. I remember that speaking about how it's very easy to be judgmental, and especially in Queens, you have very different flavors of people. You have very different people with different backgrounds. And me coming to Queens, it was very difficult for me, and I thought that, you know, you have to leave like everybody else. You have to go to wherever else everyone else is going. And the rabbi said I came specifically here to learn with you guys, to learn with you because you want, and any person would, you walk in, he would sit them next to him, and he would give them love and show them a lechem and get up.

And asked them. I remember for a month I was going through something, and every day he would sit me next to him and ask me, like as if he's my father. So, Nu, what happened today? And what happened today? And, Nu, tell me. Let's go. Are you good? Are you good? Everything's okay? What's bothering you? What's bothering you? And my life changed. The way I viewed people, the way I dealt with people, the way I gave attention to people changed only because of him. I could read Mesilas Yesharim, and I could read about these stories from the Gedolim, but to see something real like that is, I think, is the biggest Kiddush Hashem. I think he's the biggest building of talmidim, and I think it's the biggest, like we mentioned before, someone mentioned before, finishing Shas, and we are his Shas. I think it's one of his greatest accomplishments, if not, that he made so many talmidim who now have all his middos and continued and spread it to more in the world. So it's as if he didn't leave, because we keep saying over what he said, and we keep helping the people like he helped. The last thing I want to mention is, after everything was said and done, and we were all tired and we all worked so hard and this zman was over, he made sure everybody was happy. He made sure everybody was happy. He saw anybody with a complaint in his face, he made sure everybody was happy. And he always instilled in us, learning has to be that you're happy when you're learning. And you show up to Kollel, it had to be you're happy in Kollel. There's no such thing, he would say, if you would show up to yeshiva and you wouldn't be happy, we would happily throw you out. Because learning and connecting to Hashem and avodas Hashem has to be b'simcha, with love. And he was the expert at doing that because he was so real, and he made it real for you. And b'ezrat Hashem, all the talmidim should continue to perpetuate his teachings, perpetuate his love, perpetuate his middot, and we should all be zocheh to make him proud. And I want to thank the family. I want to thank the Rebbetzin. I want to thank everybody who put this together, and thank you so much for listening to me. Shkoyach, my mezino shlita. Beautiful words. Baruch Hashem, one of the zechuyot I have in life is to introduce many gedolim, rabbanim. You know, I think it's safe to say I had the zechut to basically introduce every big rabbi in the world, more or less, baruch Hashem. But one of the hardest introductions for me is introducing my older brother, Rav Ilan. He always gets upset at me for adding too much. And we all know his kesher, how close he was to the Rav zatzal, and we all know that he's the publisher of the sefarim, of the free line which we have in Chod Pesach, ... tonight, dedicated in memory of the Rav. And I'll end it at that, even though there's much more to say about Rav Ilan. Morai v'rabotai, you know, Baruch Hashem, we heard all the young rabbanim speaking till now. Everything they said was mamash 100% emet la'amito. There's no exaggeration about Rabbi Walkin's love, his determination, his mesirut nefesh. I want you to understand, to go from Queens to Lakewood, some of the guys did it today to go to his kever. Rabosai, I couldn't talk already. My back hurts, my this hurts. I know when I do it, almost like you always need physical therapy, be'emet. It's not קל. A two-hour drive there, two-hour drive back. And he used to do it basically every single day. Sunday night, then again Monday, then Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Every day he did it for a few years until Yamiv had a little rachmanut and got him a little dinky apartment here in Main Street. Rabosai, it was real mesirut nefesh. Real mesirut nefesh. We don't realize it until after he passes away, but it was real mesirut nefesh. I want to share with you a very small thought to make you understand why the Rosh Yeshiva's job was very, very difficult. He had a very difficult job. I'll tell you why. You know, we read in Haggadah Shel Pesach, right in the beginning, about five Tanaim that stayed up the whole night to talk about Yetziat Mitzrayim: Maaseh b'Rabbi Eliezer, v'Rabbi Yehoshua, v'Rabbi Elazar ben Azarya, v'Rabbi Akiva, v'Rabbi Tarfon. These are the five rabbis, all night long they stayed up, Yetziat Mitzrayim, talking about the stories of Egypt.

The miracle of Egypt. And then the students came and said, Oh, Raboteinu, rabbis, it's time for Kriat Shema. Shacharit is already time. You lost track of what time it is. No, Rabotai, the question is very simple. I think the only five rabbis that stayed up. I'm sure there were many other Tanaim, many other Amoraim. I'm sure many Rishonim and many Gedolei Israel in our generation. Ochahba, Rav Wolbe, ochahba. I'm sure there's many great tzaddikim from all the generations that stayed up the whole night learning about Yetziat Mitzrayim. What's special about these five rabbis? There's many beautiful answers. I want to share with you one tonight. Who was Rabbi Eliezer? Rabbi Eliezer came from a family of multi-millionaires. His father was a very wealthy man. Rabbi Eliezer did not know Shema Yisrael till what age? Twenty-eight years old. Till twenty-eight years old, he did not know how to say Shema Yisrael. What your four-year-old, your three-year-old does, he didn't know till twenty-eight. That's Rabbi Eliezer. Who was Rabbi Tarfon? Rabbi Tarfon was a self-made multi-millionaire. But his whole life he studied Torah. He had many excuses not to. All the business he had. Studied Torah his whole life. That's Rabbi Tarfon. Who was Rabbi Yehoshua? Rabbi Yehoshua ben Hananiah, the Gemara tells us, you walk into his house, the walls were dark. It was caving in. He was a very poor man. Mamash ani mehud, a very poor person. Who was Rabbi Akiva? Rabbi Akiva, we know, was a ger, a family of gerim. He himself didn't know Aleph Bet till the age of 40 years old. And then we have Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah, who at the age of 18 already became a Rosh Yeshiva, became a nasi. So the Haggadah of Pesach is telling us, look at these five people from all five different backgrounds: very, very rich, but am haaretz; very, very rich but learning Torah; very poor and learning Torah; family of gerim and am haaretz of 40; a Rosh Yeshiva at 18, to tell us that everyone's chayav b'sipur Yetziat Mitzrayim. It doesn't matter where you're standing in life, you got to read the Haggadah and talk about it as long as you can. But I want to ask you a question, rabotai. Imagine those five people didn't sit when they were גדולי ישראל, because when this story happened, they were already, oh, they were the chacham vadian of Chankineski of the generation. They were already renowned גדולי ישראל. But imagine they were sitting down with Rabbi Akiva when he was 39 years old, 40 years old, a total am haaretz. He was on one end of the table, along with Rabbi Yehoshua, who was a tzaddik gadol, but he was very poor, along with Eliezer when he was 28, didn't know Shema Yisrael. You think they would all sit together? And if they would sit together, would the communication be proper? It would be very difficult to communicate, because he had Talmidei Chachamim, he had amei haaretz. How do you communicate? It's such a shiur. It's impossible. So those five sat together when they were already, Baruch Hashem, up there in learning. Why am I saying this, rabotai? Rabbi Walkin's greatness is that his shiur, you know, if you go to any yeshiva, go to the Mir Yeshiva, go to Lakewood, they have shiur Aleph, shiur Bet, shiur Gimmel, this level, this level, this level. So the person giving the shiur knows he's talking to everyone at the same level. That means this shiur was for people that Baruch Hashem can handle this much. This shiur, people that can handle this much. This shiur that Rabbi Walkin gave here, you had people of all different levels. You don't realize, when he came to [unclear], over the years, the 20 years he was here, always different levels. People that came from [unclear], people that came from simple beginnings. When he came to Baalabatim, we had such a mix of Baalabatim. I would fill in sometimes to give a shiur instead of him. I was just praying that Rebbe would come back. It wasn't easy. I love Moshe and Yehuda, all those guys, Barry, Tzadikim, every single one of them. But this was a challenge, because each one had his own style, each one needed his own derech, and I don't understand why he did it. It doesn't make sense to me. And the answer is very simple: mesirut nefesh. Like all the speakers that said till now, all these talmidim, Rebbe loved you. He cared about you, and he was going to give 100...

100%, until he drilled the point home. And that is something, avodah, we have to all learn from. I'll tell you one thing I'll never forget. Someone walked in, I'm not sure who he was, but I think from Lakewood, he mentioned this to me, that he heard me say this in the levayah. I want to repeat it here again. I'll never forget, Yoni, 15 years ago—oh, the Tavshin Nun Vav, yeah? Samech Vav, excuse me. Thank you, David. He knows all our dates, my anniversary, my birthday. God bless him, right? David, somebody reminds us every time. Tavshin Samech Vav, right? 2006, when we started Chazak, Yoni was 15 years old. נכון, Yoni? 15 years old, about 15, 16. And he put up his first ever flyer in Yeshiva Ohr Somayach, in Rabbi Chaim of Shul. And that's when we had the kolel of Rabbi Walkin over there. I'll never forget that the flyer was all the way in the women's section, where the shiur used to be given. Rabbi Walkin walks in, and he, you know, he finds his way to the table of the shiur, and he notices the flyer. And he cites—I'm not sure who he called, it could be Nissan Gavriel or someone else—Take it down, take it down, take it down! And I walk over to Rabbi, like, Rabbi, why take it down? He's like, Elon, you spelled Chazak wrong. You spelled it with a Q; it should be with a K. I'm like, Rabbi, no, no, it's intentional. What intentional? What are you doing? Take it down. Put a K over there. So I had to try to explain to Rabbi, it's not a mistake. Yoni, I know he's in high school, but he knows what he's doing. The Q meant Queens. Chazak Q, Queens. And Rabbi Walkin with his wit. Response. But yeah, but Chazak is not just for Queens, it'd be for everywhere. Again, we never did anything yet. That was the first ever shiur. Nothing ever happened yet. It's going to be across the globe. And then he says, but you know what? Keep the queue all in a second, because one day when you become, bezrat Hashem, inspiring people around the world, they should know you started off in Queens. And you should know Rebbe's last shiur, three days before he passed away, I think it was a Monday night, if the Rebbe remembers, it was during the pandemic, right, mamash beginning of the pandemic. Rabbi Elbaum spoke there, Rabbi Yisrael and Rabbi David Yosef, it was all through video. It wasn't in shul, from their houses. And if I'm not mistaken, it was 19,000 people watched Rabbi Walkin's shiur. 19,000. So when we're talking about, it wasn't Queens, it was all around the world. Like the Rebbe really, again, he didn't know what he was saying. He was making a joke at the time, almost chinat diber migono, that the shiurim will go across the world. And Rabbi, we lost him. It was a tremendous loss, a tremendous, tremendous loss. But the mesirut nefesh, I will tell you, every single young rabbi that was sitting here, many that are not here, they all will try to follow his footsteps of giving whatever they could for Am Yisrael, because that's what we saw from him. He never gave up. He never ever said no to anyone. It doesn't matter when you call him, what the problem is, he was always there for you. And I remember when we asked, when Rebbe opened up his beit midrash here in Queens after he had a break of not being here, we asked, what was the point of it? Like, what's the idea? Why do you need a beit midrash in Queens? Okay, beseder, you go to Chavetz Chaim, you go here, or Chaim, you have yeshivot here. What was the idea of this beit midrash? And not only that, we felt bad. I mean, to take him away from the Rebbes and the kids is another דבר פשוט. But they were asking him, and Rabbi Walkin said to us, says, Ilan, there's so much being done for public school kids. So much being done to have lectures. You know, you have a shiur on a Sunday night, Tuesday night, Wednesday night, for men, for women. But where's the real Torah being taught? Where are people sitting down learning Gemara, learning Halacha, not lectures, learning, mamash learning? Because if you're going to have a community where they have, where they have lectures, where they have public school outreach, then where's the leadership? And when he said leadership, he did not just mean rabbis. He really believed that you have to have balabatim that have proper hashkafa. Because if you're going to have rabbanim and no balabatim as warriors, as soldiers to fight, what's it worth? Therefore, he used to give shiurim every morning. And you saw the mesirut nefesh. Moshe died, remember, we were talking at the dinner, was it five years ago, about how old he is when he's 33, he'll be learning all day long. How old are you now, Moshe? Thirty. We have two more years, bezrat Hashem. And he said, I want to learn all day long, bezrat Hashem. And he was telling me at the time that he never found himself. Like he mentioned before, Rabbi Walkin was a magnet. All his friends were there, coming in every single day. Now it's not easy, rabotai. I don't care if you're running your own business, you're working for someone else, to come and learn till 11, 11:30 every day is not easy. It's not easy. It's mesirut.

And that's what they did. They did it because they felt loved by Rabbi Walkin. The yeshiva gave them the love, and Baruch Hashem, he saw every single one of them grow at their own level, doing Daf Yomi, but really learning. We were in Israel right before the pandemic started, right, Moshe? It was a week before the pandemic started, approximately. And I remember we came home late at night, and I would see Rafael Yisupov, not exaggerating, sitting in one corner of his house that we rented out, sitting and doing the Daf Yomi, and Yaniv was hiding in the basement doing Daf Yomi. And why? Because we want to get back to Queens and make sure we're catching up with Rabbi Walkin's shiur or the other shiur that they're going to. That's what Rabbi Walkin did. He engraved Torah in their hearts. And Baruch Hashem, you see the peirot, that the tremendous loss not to have the Rosh Yeshiva with us, but we're going to go weiter, we're going to go weiter, keep going strong, bezrat Hashem. And I want to just thank, be'emet, the rabbanit, the rebbetzin, for your mesirut nefesh to give him away to us. It's a tremendous, tremendous hakarat hatov we have for you and the children, be'emet, for allowing us. Baruch be'er, you're part of the yeshiva. You know, we want you to stop by once in a while as well now also, bezrat Hashem. You're a very important part of the yeshiva, and it means a lot to us, be'emet, chazak baruch, for you guys giving us your father all this time. I want also to thank, be'emet, מכל הלב, Evi Yaakov, be'emet, for giving us the shul. We've broken a few things, destroyed a few things. You got us the sefarim, you're helping support the avreichim, be'emet, chazak baruch on that. Bezrat Hashem, we should be zocheh, every single one of us, to be marbitz Torah, bezrat Hashem, l'shem shamayim, and we should be zocheh to continue Rabbi Walkin's legacy, to keep it going strong, and we should continue be'marbitz Torah, וכן יהי רצון. Shkach. Morevai rabosai. It's not an exaggeration to say that Rav Noach Weinberg, zatzal, was a shutaf, was a partner together with Rav Walkin, zatzal, with Chazak's mission of saving every single Jewish child that's in public school. We have Rav Ephraim over here, director of yeshiva placement. How many meetings have there been with gedolim and rabbanim where the rabbanim together, Rabbi Ovahm, shlita, and Rabbi Walkin, zatzal, came and told them about the importance of this project? Okay, so at this time, I think we're going to have a powerful video. What is the greatest rule of the Torah, the number one rule in the Torah is, V'ahavta l'reacha kamocha. Zeh klal gadol means there's got to be a klal katan. And what is the klal katan? Kedoshim tihyu. Was the fact that he was not only a tremendous, tremendous talmid chacham, and a person with a heart that truly cared for every single person that he came across. Rabbi was a real talmid chacham, a real gaon, a real Yid, always looking to help people, always with a smile, always positive. But his smile, his love for every single Jew is something that I've never seen before in my life. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Rabbi cared about every single Yid as if they...

My Rebbe, Rav Aaron Walkin zatzal, had such a mastery over so much of the Torah. Our Rebbe's yedios baTorah was so vast, there was no topic in kol haTorah kulah that was too big or too small. He knew everything. What a great talmid chacham. Our Rebbe was a tremendous charif, and his charifut would be appreciated in the greatest of yeshivot. My Rebbe, Rav Aaron Walkin zatzal, was not a kohen, but he was definitely an Aharon. He resembled the quality of Aharon HaKohen, who was ohev shalom v'rodef shalom. There's no soldier like the Jewish soldier. I mayed because there's no heart like the Jewish heart. There's nothing like Yisrael, mi k'amcha Yisrael, goy echad, we are one nation ba'aretz. He was always, always positive and happy to teach us. Anything he taught, Chumash, Gemara, Halachot, I just want to hear more of it and more of it and more of it. To stay the whole week in Queens while his family was in Lakewood showed us what real, real mesirut nefesh was. He taught me how to learn, and most importantly, to love learning. ... Torah transforms a person to be an adam hashalem, an adam, and a mensch. He wouldn't stop. He would continue, and he would tell us, You got to continue. You have to be marbitzei Torah. My Rebbe, he had real ahavat Yisrael. In front of the Torah, he used to cry. He used to cry on behalf of Klal Yisrael. He felt for others deeply, so much so that he would literally cry with you. He needs to not only think of himself, but he needs to think of the klal, and even the rest of the world, goyim as well. That's what made Rebbe so unique and so different than the rest. How much we all changed ever since we met the Rav, and that's all thanks to Rabbi Walkin. Thank you, Rebbe. The way he taught me to look at the good of every single person will stay with me forever. And I can say he changed my life for the good. And this is the kind of person that we had the zechus to have in our lives, somebody that just kept on giving to us and giving to us and giving to us. It's sad that he left us too soon. I will definitely miss him. We should keep on carrying his name on and making him proud. He is one that will forever be with me. I love you, Rebbe. We miss you.

He will always be in our hearts and our memories. And we long to see you, bezrat Hashem, soon when Mashiach comes. It's hard, very hard. But we need to continue the legacy of Rabbi ... He was a tzaddik. It's my mission. The Rav would always tell me, let's build a big yeshiva. We want to continue the legacy. The children are doing a great job. I'm very proud of them, I got to tell you. We started the Lakewood Foundation, as you see here, which will continue the Rav's legacy. We're going to be, im yirtzeh Hashem, printing many sefarim, chiddushei Torah on the parsha, on Yom Tovim, on the Gemara. We're going to have a biography. We have a whole library online. More and more people should get involved in this amazing project to continue building the Beit Midrash deKolo. We have to take it to the next level. The Rav would always tell me, and this is not a pitch for fundraising, Chas v'shalom. We don't like to have anyone. This is not what we're here for. But we got to continue the Rav's legacy of building a strong Yiddishkeit in our community. ... Our community has a lot of potential. We can move mountains, we can bring the geulah, I have no question about it. Whatever we've done up until now. It's amazing, but I guarantee you, and I promise you, we'll give you a hundred times more. But like Rabbi used to always tell me, we have to build an army, a massive army. A lot of people to get involved, whether it's learning Torah, whether it's teaching Torah, whether it is Morah Taya doing kiruv. We all know the whole pandemic that we have in our community. I'm reiterating, the pandemic we have in our community, which is 10,000 neshamot in public schools. It's a pandemic. It's a problem. We need to stop it. We're on the right tracks. Rabbi, what's the number? Give us some chizuk. What's the current number? 996 kids in the NLI in the last four years from public school to yeshiva, whatever it may be. But we're only 10%. You know, if your kid comes home to you and he tells you, I got a 10 on my test, 10%, right? I don't think we'll be clapping for him. We could do much more, and we will be doing much more. But it's not a one-man show, and it shouldn't be on one person's shoulders. We need to build an army, and b'ezras Hashem we're going to do that, and we need everyone to get involved. I want to thank AK Studio for putting together the video beautifully, Akiva, the Rav, Avram Amram. We took it upon himself to also do a documentary, an interesting concept I've seen for the FUGA Dome that they did recently, to do a documentary of his life, about an hour long, b'ezras Hashem. It's going to be done—how long, Avram? We're putting in the spot. About six months, b'ezras Hashem. Okay, in six months, b'ezras Hashem, we're going to be publishing that. We're going to ask right now, Rabbi Nissan Gavrielov is a rav in Starrett City. He's involved with Be'er Hagolah, where I know the rav visited a few times, and he... He had so much nachas. I know that Shlomo, your rebbe, is from there, right? One of the rabbeim you learned with, Rabbi Fishman. So Beragola, right? So Beragola is a very special place in the Rosh Yeshiva's heart, zatzal. So Rabbi Nissan, just a few quick words, we would appreciate, please. Okay, thank you very much, Rabbi Yaniv. You're putting me on the spot. Okay, so what can I say? Okay, our rebbe, Rav Wolkin, he was like a father for us. I remember from 1994, when we came to Rav Chaimov's yeshiva, he was rosh kollel in the yeshiva. And then later on, he would give us—he gave us a smicha program. We had a smicha together with him, with the basar v'chalav and everything. Okay, but there was something unique about him. He wasn't just, you know, rebbe. He was everything. He was like a friend.

He was a father, you know, he was like a father figure. Everything that we had in our hearts, we would tell him. Everything that, you know, he would be open with us. We would, any time, like, he knew every person's problems, you know, and he was there to help us. He was always there to help us. I remember when I heard last year, it's, I don't know, you know, I was like so sad and crying. But it was mamash like losing a father. It was very, very sad. Any time, anything we had, we always, we knew who to call. There was somebody to call, you know, Rabbi Wolkin. He was always there for us to speak to, to talk to. But the best thing, what we can do, rabotai, we could, like Rav Yaniv said, to continue his legacy, to continue. Of course, we could be mechazek the chazak, yeah, the yeshiva, the yeshiva, and Rabbi Wolkin was always involved with that. So I think if we will be mechazek the organization, and also the chazak, and also the yeshiva, of course this will be a great nachat for the rosh yeshiva. Hulshiva, now Rebbe. Okay, thank you. You know, in the film, you can recognize me in the film wearing the polo shirt, and that's how I started coming to yeshiva. Rebbe, he said, This is how you're going to dress when you want to come to yeshiva. He said, Tomorrow you're coming with a suit and tie, dress shirt. That was that. You know, all the speakers say Rebbe was a father. He was a father. He was a father to us. But, you know, he more so me because of similarities between him and my own father. You know, the reason I call Rebbe my father is because of similarities between him and my own father, and that he was a father to me, because without him, I wouldn't be able to write the Chiddushei Torah I write. Rebbe was grooming me to be a real avreich, to give shiurim. Now Rav Ilan is pushing me in that direction. Every morning I would come to yeshiva, and Rabbi Kalmus knows this. He can vouch for this. First I would give Rabbi Kalmus a big hug, then I would give the Rosh Yeshiva a hug. Sometimes it was in reverse. Sometimes I changed it up a little bit. But I would come to yeshiva, and always I would run to give the Rosh Yeshiva a hug. You know, I mean, I think... Rebbe children would be mad at me if I didn't share the davening story, you know. So sometimes Rebbe would see me take a couple of danishes, and he'd see me take one danish, two danish. He said, Two? That's not enough. Have thirty. You know, Rebbe literally changed my life. I've been to yeshiva before, I've been to Torah semeach in Yerushalayim, but being in Rebbe's yeshiva, I don't know what gave me the zechus. I really don't. You know, Rebbe really changed my life. I've had other rabbeim, I've learned from other gedolim, but learning from Rebbe really helped me come out of my own shell. You know, so I just wanted to say thank you, and ... to the Rebbe, and I hope to carry on the legacy of my Rebbe and of my father. L'chaim. L'chaim. Lior, you spoke beautifully. Good job, Lior Klein. Very, very impressive. You know, Baruch Hashem, back in the day, Reb Buzary was always running the go-to guy in the beit midrash. There was a question, I would call Reb Buzary, but today Baruch Hashem he's learning with Rav Yisraeli in Beit...

And the new go-to guy, I guess, today is our dear friend, a member, a board member of the organization, a guy that does so much behind the scenes. He was actually one of the top raisers at one of our campaigns that we just did for the Bet Midrash to continue it strong. I'm going to put him on the spot right now, our dear friend Levi Katanov, to come up just for a minute or two. I was going to do it to Isaac Abram, but he's right, he didn't really have the closest kesher, but I know Levi was there. Yakar. I think everything was said about the Rebbe. I knew him for about a year, and he always say when I'm not there, Call Levi, call the sushi guy, call the sushi guy. We miss him this year. He had a way, he had a way with the students. Like everyone said, he had a way to connect with everybody at the lecture. So he would say one lecture that connected with the highest level and the lowest level at the same time. He was very persistent. He would always say, even if somebody had to go to work, he would say, Stay for five minutes, five minutes. So we miss him. We miss him a lot. And I'm going to say that Rav Mansour took over, but it's not the same, but he's doing a good job as well. So whoever is around at that time in the morning, please stop by and learn with us. And, be'ezrat Hashem, our kollel should grow bigger and bigger, and we should only see good things. All the best. Thank you, Levi. Thank you, Levi. Chazak u'baruch. Continue building the Bet Midrash. That's it. One of his projects, Moshe, you have a partner, be'ezrat Hashem. We need more partners to get involved in building this place. Marorotai, one of the new additions to the Bet Midrash, baruch Hashem. And then we're going to end off, Marorotai, we're going to hear from the family as well. One of the sons are going to be speaking momentarily. But one of the new additions is, Baruch Hashem, it's added a lot of flavor. I can mention this now; I hope it's okay to mention this, but to fill Rav Walken's shoes, we're going to need a lot of manpower. Baruch Hashem, there's quite a few individuals that have started stepping up, but we're going to need a lot more. We're going to have Rabbi Fisher, who's joined the Beit Midrash, to say a few words. Ashrei shezachisi. It's a wonderful, wonderful zechus for me to be part of this. It's more of a beit midrash; it's really more like a movement. I have been a mesivta high school rebbe for many years already, and the name Rabbi Walken has come up—Rabbi Walken shlita, Rabbi Walken zatzal—the name has come up again and again and again. The hashpa'ah, the influence, has affected many of my talmidim. It's gone beyond, above and beyond what I've ever seen any person do, the influence that he's had. I walked into the space midrash this year without ever having formally spoken to Rabbi Walken, but his feeling, his learning, his ahavah, his love, has clearly permeated not just the individuals that come to learn on a daily basis, but the very walls of the beit midrash, of the beit midrash, are oozing with his ahavat Yisrael. I can feel it. Everybody else who's there, they've interacted with him on a daily basis. I have come in afterwards, and I can tell you that I felt that every other word that everybody says—Rabbi Walken said this, Rabbi Walken did that, Rabbi Walken told me this. It's unbelievable what one individual can accomplish. In the years that he did, it's my zechus to work now with Rabbi Mansour, attempting, in a very humble way, I guess, to try and fill in to the best that we can in this legacy of Rabbi Walkin. And I think, as everybody has mentioned on some level already, it's really more than a one-man job. It's more than a two- or three- or four-man job. Every person, every one of us, in our own capacity, in our own ability, should feel an achrayus, should feel a responsibility to do whatever we can, however we can, to come into the Beit Midrash on a daily basis or on a weekly basis, to bring our friends in, to continue what Rabbi Walkin himself so passionately pushed for. So from my perspective, coming in afterwards, the power, the feeling that was there, it's up to all of us to try and continue it. Thank you. Yasher koach, Rabbi Feish Shlita. I know he's been saying no, but Rabbi Zari was a very close talmid. We all know that. Rabbi Zari Pinchasov has done so much for the yeshiva, for the Beit Midrash, for the community, for the Chazak JWave Teens division. He's very much involved in running the show. Rabbi Zari Pinchasov, please.

Everyone really said everything that could have been said. There's no secret to Rabbi Shiva, really. Like everyone said, he played a role not just as our Rebbe, as a father, and everything that we needed him to be. I'll say one of the last conversations I had with him. He wasn't doing well. Over the last two weeks, we had the yeshiva before the yeshiva officially closed down. He wasn't well physically. He just had his own complications, whatever it was, found out what it was, trying to tackle it, sure enough the yeshiva closed down. And during those two weeks was the first time we noticed in four years that our yeshiva was showing any signs. The four years we had, four and a half years we had with him, anytime he walked in, you could never tell anything was wrong. During private conversations we had, whether it was myself, from Nissan, or any other avreichim, he mentioned, you know, I'm not feeling well, haven't slept enough. And again, many rabbanim said it tonight, there was no secret. Rabbi Shiva had many, many sleepless nights, whether it was coming from Lakewood or two days after he had some time to rest. He was mamash moser nefesh for our community. But again, during those, just the last conversation I had with him, it was mamash the last day before he was niftar, I couldn't tell during the conversation that he was not well. I literally had to take it out of him, Rabbi, how's Rabbi feeling? How's Rabbi feeling? He said, not too well. He spoke about some of the boys that were in the hospital or by doctors, whatever it was, and... That the love he felt for them and the concern he had for them, the concern he showed for the Avreichim—I mentioned a couple of Avreichim had the COVID at the time—and he started to cry, like he would any time that he asked me to make personal calls on his behalf. He just had no koach already. But again, there was no way for us to know, obviously, what was going to happen. I know the first person that called me after we saw the message was Rabbi Kalmus. He couldn't believe the message was posted. It was quickly erased. I'm ranting a little. I'm sorry, I was put on the spot. I was texting Yaniv. I said, Please don't put me on the spot, but he did. But again, the maaseh, try to keep things short. It was a quick loss. It wasn't easy to digest. There are times that we wake up and we speak, and it's amongst the Avreichim that are together today in another beit midrash, in another kollel, and it's like, you know, let's ask Rebbe. This has come up once, twice during the year, and it's like, but how? We don't have it. What Rebbe did for us, the unity that he created between the Avreichim, what he built for the community, and what his brother continues to put—I work with his brother now, Rav Avram, with the public school teens—what they've done for the community, there's no way to think this will discontinue. You know, we wanted to say thanks to the Rebbezin and to the brothers. I've spoken to some of you during the year. What you've given to us, there's no way we can ever repay you. Be'emet. I drove today to Lakewood, or like Rav Yehiel said, I can't imagine doing it again, you know, for a year, maybe two, three years. To know that Rosh Yeshiva did it when we started at the kollel part. I don't know what happened the year before when it was just the yeshiva, but I know the kollel. Rosh Yeshiva was coming in twice a week. He came in on Sunday. Stayed till Tuesday, returned to Lakewood. Wednesday morning drove back. We’re talking, was going back 7 p.m., got there whatever time he got there to give the Lakewood kollel a shiur. Drove back in the morning for 8 a.m. Shacharis. The mesirus nefesh, again, that he gave to us, there’s no way we can repay him, nor the family. We just say thanks, thanks so much. Chazak u’baruch, Harav Bazaria. Rabbi, unbelievable to see you all. It’s mamash, it’s been a while. It’s mamash been a while. We should only see each other in simchot. I asked one of the family members to speak, and we did a lottery, and we chose Yitzchok Walkin. So Yitzchok Walkin, please. I know many others wanted to speak. Time is of the essence. We’ll see. I guess I didn’t actually win the lottery; they just told me I’m going to speak. But once I’m up here, first of all, Elon, Chazak, thank you so much for hosting the Yartzeit. You know, Queens was my father’s...

My father loved Queens. It didn't just start with Chazak; it started way back. Our grandparents are from Queens, but, you know, started with Yigal Chaimov. And I remember as a little kid, I remember Queens College. Tati used to take us to Queens College after shiur. So Queens was our heart. But, you know, someone, I know the speech before, touched on being normal. What does it mean being normal? My father said, always be normal, be normal. And, you know, everybody takes being normal differently. You know, you're in finance, there's the three L's. When you're in the world, it's live, love, laugh. My father said, live, love, laugh, but you also have to learn. There's four L's. He made sure we learned, whether growing up, he always had to get us into yeshivas, whether you had to argue with him that it was he got us in, we got ourselves into yeshiva. We all know he got us into every place we got kicked out of. But, you know, that was my father's definition of normal: go enjoy life, just be a good Yid, and learn. The emphasis was on learning. You know, we finished the siyum in Maseches. I can imagine, I remember, I was reading, I was like, Tati would have been so proud, so proud that he knew that, you know, we almost finished Maseches, we paid people to finish Maseches, some of us made siyumim, but we all learned. We all learned this year more than I could say we learned in yeshiva, to a certain extent. And with that, I want to say, you know, what I took, and the number one thing I took is Tati's learning. You know, for me, Tati was a normal person, but he's also learning. Every time he had a question in any sugya, whether it was a Rashi, whether it was a Rashi in Beis Medrash, he always had the answer. He always knew every sugya. And that's, you know, if you're able to go to him, I remember even in college, I told him, like, let's learn. It lasted two weeks, but we learned. We learned once a week for two weeks. But it was, it was anytime you want to learn, he was always there. It was two o'clock in the morning on the way back from investment banking. I used to work late. He used to tell me, Let's learn. Let's learn. We learned Sukkah, three blatt, four sukkahs, once a week. It was two o'clock in the morning on the way back. He would always pick up the phone. He would say, Let's learn. Let's do it. So, you know, that's one thing I want to share. Everyone says being normal. That's one thing I want to take. So with that, I want to say, you know, everyone took a lot from my father. Everyone understood different things. I think the family, we learned to be normal, and he tried to perpetuate on that to be, you know, normal, but also learn. With that, I want to say thank you, everyone. Thank you everyone for coming, and thank you to my brothers for forcing me to speak. And Ma, thank you for everything. You know, you're and the family. At the end of the day, at the end of the day, you know, this year was a very tough year for all of us, I have to say. But the rock, the rock behind everyone getting through it, Ma, was you. It was you. You helped us. Some might take extended vacations. Sometimes you don't like it, but ultimately we come back. But Ma, thank you. And I'm sure, I guess I'm speaking on behalf of the rest of the family. Techeles, can I say thank you to Mommy for you? I'm kidding. You wouldn't even allow that. But Ma, thank you. Yitzchak, good job, Yitzchak. After seeing Yitzchak on stage, Baruch Hashem, we have Shlomo now. Shlomo walking, that's also going to say a few words. I asked him to do a little bit of, to fill us in about the work he does. We're in touch. Shlomo, is it safe to say we're in touch every night, more or less? Is that safe to say? More or less, we're safe to say about projects, to continue the Rav's legacy. I asked him to share with everyone about the work that's being done, the books that are being published, the website that's up and running already, and the vision, bezrat Hashem. Shlomo, walk in without further ado. I'd like to just say something very important to my father, something that was very important to my father was hakaras hatov. Everyone's seen it. There's a lot of stories. There's a lot of stories of hakaras hatov. My father expressed it wherever he went. Someone told me the other night that every time he saw him, he expressed a certain sense of thank you for the one time he did something for him. He said it was very interesting because most times people move on, but every single time he saw him, he expressed the same thank you with real meaning and real—he showed the fact that he cared for him, and he showed, he expressed his hakaras hatov.

He used to give a shiur every Tuesday night, every Tuesday in Rav Gissinger's shul in Lakewood. And when Rav Gissinger passed away, it was six months before he passed away, before my father passed away, it bothered him very much. It bothered him very much that he wanted to show, in a certain sense, hakaras hatov. He gave him the shul. It was a lot that he got from Rav Gissinger. So wherever he went, he carried with him a picture of himself and Rav Gissinger from the time that he passed away till my father passed away. And with this, he walked around. He showed every— it meant a lot to him. He was able to walk around, and he's done this a lot. I know in his study, he's kept a special drawer. Anytime someone gave him something, anytime someone gave him something, he had a special place where he would keep his things next to him. Someone, another talmid once gave him something, and he carried that bag that said his name on it wherever he went. So wherever he went, he was able to see and appreciate what his talmidim has done for him. He lived with that midah of hakaras hatov. I say, we're publishing very soon, we're publishing Sefer Bereishis. In the beginning he starts off how the whole world was created for hakaras hatov to Hashem. And I also would like to add that our father said over a very beautiful pshat, a very beautiful pshat on hakaras hatov. He said, when we bring the bikurim, when we bring the bikurim, we bring one grape. We bring something small. We don't bring— if you want, you can add more, but all you have to bring is one grape. The question is, what's one grape? How is that hakaras hatov? How do you show hakaras hatov with one grape? And also Rashi says that we say that we're not kafui tov. That's how you express your hakaras hatov, when you say, I'm not a kafui tov? The answer is, my father said, when someone has done so much for you, to come and say, I know everything you've done for me, and a hakaras hatov — you're not really makir tov. You have to say, at least I'm not a kafui tov. So you come with one grape and you show Hashem, just a little bit, just a little bit giving, to be makir tov. Baruch Hashem, this past year we've been working very hard, the Levaron Foundation. We're putting out my father's sefarim. We spent a full year to organize his notes, all the shiurim that he's been giving, his tapes, 6,000 tapes. We've been working very hard. We've been working very hard to put out the audio tapes. We've made a website where people can go to, to go listen to the audio tapes, videos, shiurim, all the manuscripts. But the bigger project that we're working on is the sefarim. Baruch Hashem, Sefer Bereishis, we're almost there. There's some sponsorship dedications available. If you want, you can speak to me after about the sponsorship dedications. We're moving on to Sefer Shemos, and hopefully by the next cycle, Sefer Bereishis, Sefer Shemos, we have some of the halachos sefarim coming out. And I think it's a beautiful thing if all the talmidim can get involved, contribute, and be part of this project. It's a project not just for him; it's for Queens, it's for everybody, it's for all the talmidim, it's for Klal Yisrael. With that, I'd like to say, you know, it's a big project for my father, and it means a lot that we have all the help from everybody, and ... Thank you. Thank you. Well said, well said. Back in the day, Shmuel Aulov used to learn with Rabbi Walkin zatzal from the community visit here, and we're going to ask him to say a few words. Naftali Berchi and Pinchas Gerady. My dear family, Erev tov. This is the family that I grew up from since 1994, '95. I remember when they used to live over here, not far from this neighborhood, and they moved to another location in Brooklyn, then across the street from Brooklyn, then Lakewood, all over. I was always with the family. I'll tell you one little detail and I'll finish with it. Rabbi Wolkin always had Mr. Rudnevich like there was a speaker before he said our ... and everybody else that said. I remember those days we learned in Achaim, that they didn't have—it was really cold nights and days—they didn't have heater working, and Rabbi Wolkin was still calm. We all wore our coat, hat. Some of us even wore gloves. He write down in the chatim that Rabbi Wolkin would say, the air, the hot air would come out from our mouth when Rabbi Wolkin would speak, and we would ask questions. That's how much Mr. Rudnevich, she had for learning Torah. All his life he had Mr. Rudnevich, from the beginning until the end. I don't want to go through it. It's too much to go through it. I can go days and days on it, because I knew him very well.

I knew him personally. I used to go with him to different places. He would put on ten tefillin. I said, Why you put ten tefillin? You know why? He said, I want to see how Hashem runs the world. I want to see how Hashem runs the world. That's what he was always concerned. It's a big loss for all of us. Sometimes on a weekly basis, I get from Shlomo the weekly shiurim that come again to my WhatsApp channel, and I thank him for that because I go through it. Sometimes I read his speeches in Rabbi Walkin's shul, the father, and I say from there a few things when Rabbi Walkin is not there. But with it, Sudashlishi, I ran through it. I was running it the way Yaniv is running it now. I was running it also there for our Rebbe. To me, he was like a father and everything. Anytime I would call him, I remember how he came to my wedding with the rebbetzin. She was pregnant and she was still dancing. That's how much they loved our family. And I thank them for all of that that they have done for us. I can go stories, there's millions of stories, but I don't want to take your time. Thank you all for coming. Let's stay together, stay strong, be happy with what you have, and always look forward to become more happy. All the best. Hazak u'baruch, Shmuel John. You've just experienced another Torah class brought to you by TorahAnytime.com.